FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: Lacey's Bridge

 ("Old Bridge, Ilkley (22nd March 2013)" by Mtaylor848)

 

Tears streaming down her face, Lacey raced to the bridge. She was numb to the branches scratching her arms and the winter wind tangling her hair. Her attention was focused on the destination. She had to get to the bridge in time.

Lacey broke through the trees just as the sun slid from behind dark clouds. Ahead of her were moss-covered stone and snow stung her eyes as she stumbled toward the bridge’s edge. Exhausted, she paused a moment to rest her head against the cold post as memories of Tommy washed over her.

“You promised!” He said.

Lacey looked at him with tear filled eyes. “I know, but now I’m not so sure.”

He pulled her to him and kissed her softly, almost apologetically, before saying, “You know she will never stop. This is the only way. If two people believe in something strongly enough then even the impossible becomes possible.”

She hung her head. “Yes, I know.”

Lacey’s thoughts returned to the stone beneath her hands as his voice echoed into the night, “I’ll love you forever.”

Slowly she made her way to the middle of the bridge. Stopping long enough to register the sound of hounds barking in the distance, she reached into her pocket. Trembling fingers closed around cold steel for a moment before Lacey let it slip into the dark waters below.

It was done. Now to get away before the dogs caught up to her…

Looking To The Future

Yesterday was a time of reflection.  It was my birthday and every year at this time I look back at the past 365 days.  I take a moment to say my goodbyes to the not so great moments since my last birthday and remind myself of all the wonderful blessings I've enjoyed over the past twelve months.

Goodbye to...

1. Restful sleep.  For some reason I am not sleeping as well as I have in the past. I have calculated that over the eleven weeks of summer I will have lost over 220 hours of sleep which equates to 27 1/2 DAYS of sleep at summers end which I can't get back.

2. My old mailbox. Things have been exceptionally quiet on the other side of the hedges and I can only pray it stays that way. My new mailbox isn't looking quite so new after the last 4 am party but it's still hanging in there and for that I am grateful.

3. Household clutter. I have been gathering things in preparation of a yard sale next month and my study is starting to pile up. I'm counting down the days and hopefully when it's over my house will be a little more empty and my pockets a little more full.

4. Rejection letters. I'm collecting those like trophies. All are wonderfully positive but in the end I am discovering my voice is too unique for this market. Either I need to uncover an agent who will boldly go where no agent has gone before...or I need to check out new markets.

Hats off to...

1. Publication. My short story "Shortcut To Peace" was picked up by Chicken Soup For The Soul: Angels Among Us and released in January of this year. It was a much needed validation that at least some of my writing has merit.

2. Picture Books. I started off last year with not even a strong idea for a story and now, after PiBoIdMo and 12 X 12, I have 9 solid stories with 5 of them ready for querying and the other four in final revision stages.

3. WIPs. I have 16 other works in progress where I have written the basic outline or even written a very rough draft but need to go further with them.

4. Novels. I worked some on Lacey's Bridge but it has been Lunadar: Homeward Bound which has captured my passion at the moment.  So little time and so much of this story floating around in my head and nowhere to go until I can free up some moments for my writing.

5. Nonfiction. Expanding in an arena I have had an interest in for more than a year.  Working on research is like searching for buried treasure! Can't wait to see what I uncover next.

6. Contests and submissions. I have spent time this year doing a lot of submissions. Agents, Contests. Magazines. I'm testing the waters and narrowing my search for representation.

7. Participating in Julie Hedlund's 12 X 12. Where else are you GUARANTEED an agent specializing in picture books will actually read your story? And in most cases, they are providing valuable feedback on how to improve our writing.

8. Rejection letters. Yeah, you read correctly. Hats go off to these as well because in the whole scheme of things they assure me that I am doing the right thing. I am getting myself familiar with the processes involved in getting my work seen by the right people. Those letters might contain NOs for now, but one day soon there will be a YES and then I will be forever grateful for the ones who taught me perseverance.

Goodbye to my old life when I was a year younger. I better grab some sunglasses. I'm looking to the future and my future is looking pretty bright!!

Racing To Greet 2013

As this month winds down, it's time for me to close the door on 2012.  It was a really hard year for me with quite a bit of changes to be made in my personal life as well as a lovely surprise in my professional one.  But I don't tend to dwell on the negative very much or for very long.  My mind continually races forward, welcoming new challenges, and I think 2013 will be a great year for many milestones overcome on my road to publication.  My vacation is from Dec 22nd until Jan 1st and I have a plan for the new year:

1.  Streamline my writing study.  I know it looks organized but there are a couple of boxes hidden away full of odds and ends I need to go through.  If it doesn't have immediate value to this next year's writing then I'm either going to pack it away as a resource tool or give it away to someone who can benefit from it now.

2.  Print a hard copy of all my completed and WIP manuscripts and store them in a folder under categories.  Since I write picture books, chapter books, middle grade, young adult, essays, poetry, etc. I need to make sure I know what type of writing I am doing so I can target the right agent or publisher.

3.  Review my 2011 & 2012 list of PiBoIdMo ideas.  There are 85 story seeds to sort through.  Some will never germinate, some will become seedlings in other stories, and some will blossom into full fledge manuscripts on their own so I need to have a good idea of which will become which.

4.  Streamline my bookcase of writer resources.  I  have 100+ books covering all craft aspects of writing as well as the general topics of interest I like to write about.  There are so many great writers out there that I can learn from but I really need to look at all the variations covering the same material and simplify my resource pool where I can.

5.  Narrow my list of agents and publishing houses I intend to focus on in 2013.  I plan on submitting and entering competitions all year long so I will take my vacation week to help fine tune the target audiences for my work.

6.  Work on basic query letters for the stories ready for submission.  Make sure those letters have all the elements agents and publishers are looking for.  I'm even excited to finally be able to list at least one published credit to my name...a small one but still a start in the right direction.

7.  Try to finalize the guest blogger list for my new writer's series, WRITERLY WISDOM, beginning in January, 2013.  I only have 18 guest blogger spots left to fill so if anyone knows of an author or established writer (2 or more years full time writing experience) who might be interested in doing a guest blog, then just send them my way!

8.  I've blocked out specific times to work on Lacey's Bridge, The Warriors Three, Lunadar, and many of my picture books.  My best friend is going out of town and I've asked my family to give me these two weeks to focus on my writing without distractions.

There you have it.  I've got an action plan for the new year and the ability to create my own personal writer's retreat at home.  What about you?  Have you mapped out a course for tackling the new year?  Have you prepared for the uphill climb to publication?  Does anyone have any areas I might have left out in preparing for the new year?  Come on 2013, I'm ready for you!  Now all I have to do is to actually sit down and get started...

Rolling Out The Red Carpet

I wanted to hop on the blog this morning and talk about all the lovely things I am working on in the upcoming year for my faithful readers.  I was eager to roll out the red carpet and run through the streets shouting "I'm back...I'm back...uhhhh...anyone still out there?  I'm BAAAACCCCKKK!!!"

I've missed my blogging friends.  I've missed working on my posts but I was forced to take an unexpected break from blogging during the month of November.  Fortunately the issues I was dealing with have been addressed with a new lifestyle initiated and thankfully I'm back to something I love doing.  My goal was to spend this first year in the blogosphere posting at least one message per day for a total of 365 blog posts.  My one year blog anniversary is coming up on Dec 6th and my Wednesday post will be shining a spotlight on how my first year ended up.  Some goals were met, others almost, and still more yet to be determined but all in all a wonderful start to my new writing career as you will see when hopefully you come back later this week to read all the juicy details.

Now for a teaser about what the new year has in store for my blog.  2013 will bring with it a new posting schedule, a new writers series, and a new invitation for my readers to join in the fun. 

In order to best  serve both this blog and my commitment to creating the best stories I can, I will settle into a Monday, Wednesday, Friday blogging schedule which will leave me time to also focus on polishing stories I have begun this past year.   I need time to complete my YA mystery, Lacey's Bridge, and my YA fantasy, Lunadar: Homeward Bound, while finishing the revisions to my chapter book, The Warriors Three, and a host of other picture book stories in various stages.

On Mondays my readers will find the types of motivational posts I have always tried to provide.  Wednesdays, starting in January, will showcase a new series called WRITERLY WISDOM where guest authors and established writers will address a number of topics covering the many different areas of the writing process.  My wish for this series is for it to become a type of "how-to" resource for newer writers, as well as readers who want to have a better understanding of the hard work and effort going into those wonderful stories we find on the bookshelves every day.  Fridays will be FLASH FICTION with a twist.   I will put up a picture prompt and begin a flash fiction story, but I'm hoping readers will join in the fun and add to the story...whether just a sentence or another paragraph.  I think it will be exciting to see just what we can create together!

There you have it...a look into the future of this blog and I hope you are as excited about the new year as I am!  I will be talking more about my WRITERLY WISDOM series in the coming weeks and will let you know the names of the guest bloggers as well as some of the topics that will be covered.  

Thank you to all my faithful followers who chose to stick around while I got my life back on track.  You will never know how much your love and support means to me.  I can only hope and pray that one day I will be able to somehow return the favor.  Until then, let's raise a glass and toast to another great blogging year...