Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Two Sentence Tuesday

Two Line Tuesday is super busy today. Last night I was blessed to see Maya Angelou speak. When she walked on the stage, I got chills. The venue was packed, and every single person there stood and applauded. Ms. Angelou spoke, sang, laughed, cracked jokes and lit up the arena with her beautiful smile. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will hold dear. I was able to share that with my hubby and my mother, and ran into a few friends while there.

Maya Angelou is a powerful speaker, beautiful woman and true talent. She spoke last night about rainbows in the clouds. Every part of your life is filled with rainbows of people who love you, care for you and want to help you. She ended with advice for all of us to become rainbows for someone else.

I won’t lie to you. Hearing her speak made me tear up. This woman who at 16 was an unmarried, pregnant, six foot tall black woman in the south, never let go of her dreams and look what she’s become…

So, for my last two lines read, I give you en excerpt of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

What sets one Southern town apart from another, or from a Northern town or hamlet, or city high-rise? The answer must be the experience shared between the unknowing majority (it) and the knowing minority (you).

My last two are edits of a piece I am getting ready for submission:

So, he walked and searched and screamed wordlessly at the night, anguish coated the sound. He’d find the murdering bastard, then he’d take care of the source of his torment.

And a quick update. Tonight is our DFPS Home Study. I’m a nervous wreck, but I think we will do okay. Listening to Maya Angelou last night and a lot of Mozart today has helped me relax a little.

I hope everyone has a great day and for more Two Line Tuesdays head on over to the Women of Mystery.

Monday, April 27, 2009

My Town Monday

Ya'll head on over to Travis Erwin's blog, One Word, One Rung, One Day. He has an absolutely fabulous My Town Monday post up about The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

3WW Treachery

The prompts at 3WW today are deceit, indulge and oath. I don't know why every Wednesday I am inspired to write about killing someone, but I am. I really don't think I'm a psychotic serial killer. This writing technique, using the last word of the prior sentence to begin the next sentence, was something that we talked about at a writing conference I went to last year. I haven't done a lot with it, but I wanted to today. For more fiction and some amazing poetry check out 3WW. Here is my submission for the week.

Your deceit – your damn treachery – led me to this. This - because you couldn’t just let her go. Go away - how could she have been more important than the mother of your children? Children you swore to love. Love is your unfulfilled promise. Promise - it makes me want to laugh or cry – I’m not sure. Sure, you swore, but your solemn oath isn’t worth the time it took you to work up a fake tear and pledge to me that you wouldn’t see her again. Again you couldn’t help but indulge yourself, could you? You and her in our bed. The bed we created our precious children in. In that bed, I thought we loved, you and I. I could have handled it if you had just taken her and left. Left me alone to try to piece my life back together. Together, the two of you could have made a new life. Life that didn’t include me, or the hurt you left. Left me to hate you, but I still want you. You made this choice. Choices are all I have left of our life. A life that you shattered. Shattered like the mirror behind you did when I fired the gun. The gun that you bought me to protect myself, the children, our home. Our home is defiled – the floor covered in blood. Blood pouring from you. You made me kill you.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Two Fer Tuesday

It is two line Tuesday time again (cue awesome game show music!). I actually wrote about a page and a half this week. How sad is that? I’m excited over a page and a half. I’ve been so busy with work and adoption classes the last two months, I haven’t written anything, and I’m suffering for it. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I’m not able to do something creative (write, play music) I start having weird dreams that progress into nightmares that progress into ‘Crystal hasn’t slept in two weeks and is exhibiting signs of psychosis.’ But, I digress. Right now, I am reading Lora Leigh’s (I wanna be her when I grow up…) Dangerous Games. Here are two wonderful sentences from the book:

There were no words – there was no need for them. As he consumed her kiss, he was consumed in return.

And (drum roll please!) two lines that although not so great right now, actually came out of my head and onto paper – imagine that – me getting to write.

Kellen the Sadist barked out the order and Mariska punched at his left glove, missed and hit him in the stomach. Her wrapped fist met his abdomen with a satisfying smack, but other than a whoosh of air, he didn’t seem to notice.

For more Two Line Tuesday head over and check out the amazing Women of Mystery.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

3WW on Thursday - More Content Warning

It is time for another 3WW. The words this week are allure, perch and vivid. Head on over to 3WW for more posts. I know I'm a day late, but I was busy. Please forgive me. Here is the final post for my dark little ditty that I have been working on. And today's is REALLY dark, and has a twist of irony at the end. Isn't that how life always is though, a little irony right at the end?

He followed the murderer and the prostitute a few blocks to a part of town that looked abandoned. He could see the allure in the busted out windows and darkened street lights. No witnesses. He pulled over and stroked the gleaming 9mm resting on the passenger seat, and watched the girl get dragged into the closest building.
Quietly he slunk around the side of the gutted warehouse and risked a quick look in the broken pane of glass. Neither noticed him so he resumed his perch and waited for his heartbeat to slow. His hands shook, and a cold sweat covered his entire body. The grip on his gun was slippery so he wiped his hand off on his trousers and prayed for all he was worth. Was it worth it? Was avenging his sister worth the rest of his life? Risking eternity in Hell?

He blew out a long breath, extended his arm, and let his sight narrow in on the man forcing his cock between the crying girl’s lips. Mascara streaked down her face and he could tell she was struggling to breath. The man jerked her hair and forced her farther down, just as the gun went off.

The bullet ripped through the back of the man’s head, exploding out of his face. Vivid blood coated the whore’s hair, and thicker chunks slid down her cheeks. The man fell and his penis slid from her mouth with a pop, and as soon as she drew a full breath, a scream peireced the night.

He hissed at her to be quiet, but she couldn’t hear over her own panic. She struggled to her feet, leaving a purse filled with condoms behind and ran toward the door they’d entered through. He tried to stop her, he really did, but she wouldn’t listen to him.

What happened next couldn’t have been avoided. She’d ruin everything. Go to the cops, shit, she knew who he was. He didn’t want to do it, but when she wouldn’t listen to him, wouldn’t stop screaming, he leveled the gun and fired.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Two For Tuesday

We finished! We’re done! Class is over. One last hurdle to jump (the state’s home visit) and we will have a child. I am so giddy I can hardly sit in my chair. I know it isn’t important to anyone else in the world, but I want to shout it out and throw a party and I wish everyone understood how important it is to hubby and I. (Don’t tell him, but I’m still terrified!)

So, on with the Twofers. Super busy week again, but here is something that I wrote, recently:

A badge, clipped at the waist of well worn jeans, shone in the dim light of the lab. The gun on his hip made him look even more dangerous.
And right now I’m reading the absolutely fabulous Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches’ Guide to Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. By the time I read the first page I was laughing out loud. These two are great, and if you haven’t visited their website, head on over. Here are a couple of lines from early on in the book that made me laugh, and even made hubby laugh, and yes, I know it is more than two lines, but I couldn’t help myself:

And then we get to the landscape of paranormals:” Vampires! Werewolves! Vampire werewolves! Mummies! Psychics! The undead! The reanimated! The demonic and the celestial! The slayers, the fey, the wee fold, the fairies, trolls, and selkies. They all fall under “paranormal,” which has its roots in an ancient Greek word meaning “overcrowded genre.”

For way more Two Sentence Tuesday, make the short trek over to visit the Women of Mystery!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

3WW - Content Warning

It's time for another 3 Word Wednesday. The prompts this week were: Flirt, Ploy and Stunning.

I'm still trying to let my "hero" finish his story and get revenge. I think this is going to have to be the next to last installment for him. He's very dark, and way too obsessed. This weeks clip is a little more explicit, but he's very close to the killer. Don't read this if you are offended easily, please. Otherwise, enjoy at your own risk.


He watched the working girl flirt for over an hour before the one he was looking for showed up. Not a stunning girl by any means, life on the streets sucked all the pretty out of her a long time ago.

The longer he watched, though, the more attractive she got. He knew his obsession was going to kill him, but what did he have to live for anyway?

His precious little wife had moved on and was screwing her divorce lawyer, and his two kids couldn’t wait to leave when he had them on his bi-weekly visits. They hid in their rooms playing video games and on the phone, and at 6:00 on Sunday would be waiting by the door, crap packed in their suitcases, ready to go back to grandma’s house.

Life sucked at this point. But watching the prostitute flash her saggy breasts and offer dates to anonymous men for a few bucks, and finding it a turn on, made him realize just how low he’d sunk. Her ploy wasn’t even that great. Flash them some T & A and expect them to cough up the money, but by the sheer number of trips around the block to the alley she made, he knew she must be doing pretty good. He wondered what she considered a good night. Twenty tricks? Fifty?

He’d been talking to the girl for a few weeks now. She’d been in the park. She’d seen the sick son of a bitch rape and kill his sister and had been too scared to do anything about it. He’d wanted to kill her, but couldn’t bring himself to wring her scrawny little neck. So, they worked out a deal. He’d watch her at night and if the guy showed back up she’d give him a signal – drop her purse and let all of the condoms fall on the ground. He thought it was stupid, but couldn’t come up with a better idea. She’d seen it on an episode of Cops.

As soon as the dark sedan pulled up, her purse hit the ground. Gold wrapped Trojans and flavored Lifestyles littered the sidewalk, and her eyes were wide with panic. Still, he waited until she picked up all her party favors and got in the car with the psycho bastard. He was probably letting her screw her way to a death sentence but he didn’t care at this point.

The engine in his twenty year old Toyota coughed and sputtered to life before he pulled into traffic and followed the dark sedan. What the hell was he doing? He had a degree in accounting for Christ’s sake. He wasn’t a cop. He wasn’t a P.I., but here he was following the man who had probably killed his sister and the prostitute that had given him a blow job to save her own life.

Visit 3WW for more pieces featuring today's prompts!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Two Line Tuesday

Happy Tuesday! This week has been a little better, so far, than last week. I’ve had a little breathing room, but the stress is already snowballing. Hubby and I have to attend a psychotropic drug class tonight and the health inspector is coming to our house on Thursday and on Friday, hubby goes to have his FBI fingerprinting done. We went through the cabinets this weekend to check expiration dates and to see if we had any dented cans. Things like hamburger helper and Vienna sausages, you know, the things that you think should outlive a nuclear blast, well, not so much. Our cabinets are empty. The refrigerator won’t take too long, we are eating leftovers like there is no tomorrow to get rid of them (I hate leftovers, by the way, so this is some kind of torture.) After that, we have one last class on Monday night, then a full day of classes on Saturday the 18th. Following that, we should have our big home study and be ready to rock and roll. I’m excited, scared, nervous, stressed, euphoric, you name an extreme emotion, I’m pretty sure I have been there in the last six weeks.

So, the last two lines I read are from Chelsea Cain’s Heart Sick. I really like this book, it is interesting.

Henry looked at Archie, holding his gaze for a moment, then turned his shaved head back toward Gretchen. He still had his meaty fist around her slender wrist, and for a moment Susan thought he might just snap it in two.
And the last two lines I wrote this week were for an article that will be published at the end of this month about an AQHA Hall of Fame member.

On his 14 Ranch, Walter Merrick produced some of the top running American Quarter Horses of all time. Merrick has been quoted as saying, “We raise the horses we run and run the horses we raise.”

For more Two Line Tuesday, head over to the Women of Mystery. Hope you have a great day!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Sunday Scribblings on Monday

I'm a little slow at this, but on Sundays, I don't ever really look at the computer. Anyways, the prompt over at Sunday Scribblings is: What have you got to celebrate. I have a lot.

I need to remember to celebrate more often. The list of things to celebrate in my life is endless. I have an amazing family, who loves and cares for me no matter what. I have a husband who takes care of me when I’m sick, lifts me up when I’m down and loves me when I feel unlovable. I have a good, stable job in the midst of an economic crisis. I have an old house that I love, even if the paint on almost every wall is a boring cream color. I have pets that shower me with affection. I have friends… friends that are the most amazing people in the world. I have my health, even when my back hurts and my sinuses are backed up into my brain. I have a car that will make it to and from work everyday, and keep me warm or cool. I have enough money in the bank to pay my bills on time every month with a little left over to play. I have the amazing opportunity to adopt a child that needs all the love that my husband and I can give him. I am able to see my friends’ children and share in the joy they have in them. I am able to spend time with the ones I love. I am warm, I am fed, I am clothed, and I am loved. I should celebrate every minute I’m able to draw a breath.