To those of you who seek lost objects of history, I wish you the best of luck. They’re out there, and they’re whispering.
Monthly Archives: February 2020
The Phantom Meow & Purr – Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS
Jenny stared at the wand toy and catnip mouse lying on the floor next to the kitty bed in the living room. She still couldn’t believe Mister was gone. She’d had the orange tabby since he was a kitten. Time certainly flies by. Before she knew it, Mister was an “old man” of fifteen and had developed cancer. She’d had to make the difficult decision to have him put to sleep.
He’d been her constant companion and loving lap cat. She didn’t know what she do without him now.
Tears filled her eyes as she looked at his favorite toys. She didn’t have the heart to pick them up at the moment, so she decided to just leave them there for now.
She tried to go about her afternoon like normal, but she kept expecting to see him or hear him. When she sat on the couch, she expected him to jump up and snuggle next to her or curl up in her lap and purr. Or to bring a toy over to her to play with him. When she went to the kitchen, she expected to see him trot along beside her and meow for a treat while she fixed something to eat.
Now she sat alone on the couch and fixed food in the kitchen in silence.
Somehow, she managed to make it through the rest of the day without Mister by her side. As she laid in bed, she thought about him again and how he’d jump up on the bed and curl up beside her to sleep. She felt tears trickle down her cheeks.
She was just about to doze off when she thought she heard a meow from the foot of the bed. Then suddenly, there was a soft bounce on the mattress, as of a cat jumping up on it and what felt like small kitty feet walking across it, followed by the sensation of a cat lying up against her legs. Then she thought she heard low purring.
Somehow, she knew it was Mister, coming to comfort her by curling up beside her again, letting her know everything was all right and that he’d always be with her.
This post is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “animal sounds” – write about the sounds animals make and how you experience them:
The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 22/2020
Peace Talks (Dresden Files #16), by Jim Butcher ~ Coming Soon To A Bookstore And Library Near You!
Okay. That’s a slight exaggeration. But it’s been six years. SIX torturous, frustrating, agonizing, excruciatingly looooong years since the last Harry Dresden book, Skin Game was published. But, who’s counting eh? Well, thankfully, and just in time for this year’s 20th Anniversary of The Dresden Files, the long-awaited 16th entry, Peace Talks is set to be released July 14th, 2020.
Synopsis:
Harry Dresden is back and ready for action in the new entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files series. When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, joins the White Council’s security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed when dark political machinations threaten the very existence of Chicago—and all he holds dear?
Be still my heart! I think I’m going to cry! For those of you who…
View original post 123 more words
Photo Prompt Story: Bored To Death
This is a short story, in 775 words.
It was prompted by the above photo, sent to me by Fraggle.
https://fragglerocking.org/
The Grim Reaper was really bored now. If it carried on like this, he might well end up being made redundant. And he had always thought of it as a job for life.
Not that there hadn’t been good times. He thought of them fondly, recalling the carnage in his mind’s eye. The Black Death had kept him busy, and he had even put in for overtime at the peak of that epidemic. Naturally, it had been declined. But still, he had argued it was justified. He didn’t get a minute off in more than eight years. Then there was the Spanish Flu. He would like to have shaken hands with whoever first spread that contagion, instead of just reaping in his unknown soul. Still his biggest success in…
View original post 678 more words
How to Avoid Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village
We’ve been watching a lot of Midsommer Murders and the likes with Electra over the years. From which we have concluded that few places are as dangerous as quaint English villages. Now, a hilarious article by Maureen Johnson on Crime Reads, explains just how dangerous they really are – and what you can do to avoid meeting a grisly death.
If you enjoy it as much as I did, you may want to check out its writer, Maureen Johnson. Maureen is the author of the Truly Devious mystery series, which culminates with The Hand on the Wall (Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins; January 21, 2020). Visit her online, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Stay away from the village fete, do you understand?
It’s happened. You’ve finally taken that dream trip to England. You have seen Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Hyde Park. You rode in a…
View original post 1,033 more words
More Americans Go to the Library than to the Movies
I recently wrote about Millennial reading habits. It turns out that they do love books.
This is further supported by a new report by Literary Hub, that highlighted a surprising fact: in 2019, more Americans went to the library than to the movies.
As Dan Sheehan reports, a recent Gallup poll (the first such survey since 2001) found that visiting the local library remains by far the most popular cultural activity for Americans.
And Justin McCarthy of Gallup continues:
Visiting the library remains the most common cultural activity Americans engage in, by far. The average 10.5 trips to the library U.S. adults report taking in 2019 exceeds their participation in eight other common leisure activities. Americans attend live music or theatrical events and visit national or historic parks roughly four times a year on average and visit museums and gambling casinos 2.5 times annually. Trips to amusement or…
View original post 262 more words
Why You Should Never Stop Reading Fairytales!
You’re never too old for fairy tales!
Never Stop Reading Fairy tales! by Karen DeMers Dowdall
I thought it would be nice to re-post one of my favorite posts about fairy tales. Considering that I am really into fantasy, paranormal, fairytales, and witches, this new blog title suits me to a T…Once Upon a time…. It is far better than just my name (it is way too long). This new blog title really makes me happy. I love fantasy stories that begin with Once Upon a time…Madeleine L’Engles, A Wrinkle in time, however, does not begin Once upon a time…it begins with, “It was a dark and stormy night”…that works too.
I have collected volumes of fairy tale books, everything from all of Hans Christian Anderson to all of the Grimm’s Fairy tales, Scotland Folk Tales, Irish Myths and Folklore, among many other volumes of Fairy tales. Perhaps, one could say, I live in a fairytale world…
View original post 254 more words
Surrounded By Boxes – Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS
I know I usually use Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompts as means to get my creative juices flowing and come up with a short little story or practice writing poems, but when she gave this week’s prompt of “pack” or “unpack”, all I could think about is all the boxes that are sitting here around me that I have left to unpack from when I moved apartments back at the end of December. I hated having to pack everything up to begin with and move, and I hate having to unpack and find where things got boxed up to begin with and then find where to put everything. Aside from all the work involved, it’s so time-consuming. The one good thing to come from all the packing and unpacking, I suppose, is that I’ve been able to downsize some of my stuff and get rid of some things that I decided I didn’t really need or want anymore. And I’m sure I’ll be finding more stuff that I will decide I don’t really want or need anymore as I get around to unpacking more stuff.
And I hope that after more unpacking gets done I’ll find more free time to be able to get back to writing more and finally get back to working on my WIP. Hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later. I know what I need to do – unpacking; it’s just hard sometimes to find the will and energy to do it, especially when working full-time during the week.
This whiny post is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “pack/unpack”:
The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Feb. 8/2020
5 Things Millennials Look for in a Book
As they grow older, millennials are turning into quite a big market. Who better than Frank Hamilton, a millennial blogger and translator from Manchester, to answer some questions about them? Frank is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing, and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.
5 Things Millennials Look for in a Book
Millennials make up a huge portion of the target audience for many modern authors. This is why it is so important to understand what they are looking for in a book to make it appealing to them. Here are five things millennials are looking for in a book.
#1 Available in Print
While it might seem obvious that younger generations would prefer digital books over print ones, many millennials, in fact, prefer reading physical books. This is just the first one of the many surprising preferences…
View original post 882 more words
R.I.P. Mary Higgins Clark – “Queen of Suspense” ~ December 24, 1927 – January 31, 2019
When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.
Jeanne Owens, author 