Photo Friday

November 4, 2016November 5, 20162 Comments

I meant to post this yesterday as a Throwback Thursday post…but I forgot.

Oops.

Oh, well! My forgetfulness worked out this time, because now I’m not scrambling for ideas on what to post today! And Photo Friday can make a brief return!

See? It’s all good! 😀

Wow, that’s phrase I haven’t used since the ’90s…

Speaking of that glorious decade of my misspent youth, today’s photo gallery features a collaborative story a friend and I wrote for Spanish class once upon a time. She did the drawing, I did the writing, and we both had a ton of fun in the process. I was actually thinking about this story (and a couple of others) a couple weeks ago as I sat at school conferences. Miss Tadpole now has my high school Spanish teacher, who told her that I used to write stories in Spanish.

Ah, the good ol’ days, when I was slightly more confident in my language skills… 😀

I ran across this the other night as I was digging through a scrapbook and praying I could find my original ACT scores. They never turned up, but this gem did, along with some other hilarious reminders of my high school days (YM covers and Tiger Beat centerfolds and “Got milk?” ads, oh my!).

My photo skills were somewhat lacking with these, so I captioned each lovely character sketch with the story.

: Dos Amores

: Había una vez, había dos muchachas, Razaana y Iula. Ellas eran amigas. El padre de Iula era Thor. Razaana era una criada de Odin. Razaana y Iula tenían diez y seis años.

: El amor de Razaana era el hijo de Loki, y se llamaba Skeld. Skeld era rubio. Odin no estaba contento con Razaana, porque Odin y Loki eran enimigos. El amor de Iula era el hijo de Hygliak, y se llamaba Buliwyf. Buliwyf era rubio, también.

: Vivían en un pueblo pequeño, Silverton. Hacía siempre sol. El año era 917 A.D. Un día, Razaana estaba andando en la selva cuando ella vió Skeld. Ella corrió a Skeld.

: Skeld tomó Razaana en sus brazos, y después de un abrazo rápido, ellos fugaron. Mientras, Iula y Buliwyf iban a Thor a pedir su bendición. Ellos querían casarse. Thor daba su permiso, y Iula besó Thor en la mejilla. El Fin.

Happy Friday, folks!

Silver Waves

November 3, 2016Leave a comment

foggyroad The mist rolled in from the fields in great silvery waves, swallowing everything in its path. Sea, sky, land – nothing was spared. I sat upstairs, watching from my window as the fog consumed the world, and wondered why, if the curse was broken, everything continued to fade away.

The Oaks

November 2, 20164 Comments

And now, a story in four little sentences:

A ring of gnarled oaks encircled an ancient house on a lonely hillside. Their tangled arms clawed the sky in supplication to the night, begging her to stay, to keep them hidden from the blinding brightness of the day. But when at last Dawn broke over the horizon, their leafy robes burst into flames, and they rained droplets of fire as the morning star watched from on high.

Afterward, when the sun had adjourned its heavenly travels and night fell once more, the trees wept in their lover’s cold embrace and wondered why, when the air turned crisp, she always let them burn.

It’s that time again!

October 17, 20164 Comments

Welcome to the cover reveal for S. L. Saboviec’s Warring Angel, the third and final book of her Fallen Redemption series. Warring Angel’s cover is by Regina Wamba of Mae I Design, and it just might be the most gorgeous of all three.

And what’s behind that gorgeous cover is just as intriguing…

Beginnings

October 13, 2016October 13, 2016Leave a comment

brain Excuse me, but I’d like to engage in a bit of a brain dump. Here, then, are some things that have inspired me, made me laugh, or just sort of poured out onto the virtual page in the last week or so.

Please to enjoy.

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” -Lennon-McCartney

“You trace your lineage back centuries, back to the Puritans of ancient New England, but we can trace it further.”
I’ve been feeling the sci-fi vibe lately, and this struck me as perfect for an aliens-invade-America kind of story. Don’t ask me why. 🙂

“It’s easy to quit on a relationship when the going gets tough; it’s much, much harder to react with grace for those who’ve committed such a grievous offense against one who is supposed to love, honor, and cherish you till death do you part. Forgiveness is not always easy.”
This was in reaction to an open letter to Hillary Clinton. I’m not a fan, but aren’t we tired of hearing about her marital problems by now? (For the record, I’m even less of a Trump fan, and no, I don’t know who I’m going to vote for yet. Trolls be warned: I tolerate no mean-spiritedness here and I’ll disable comments if I have to (but I really don’t want to, because this post is not about politics).)

Everyone thought the world would end in a great, fiery bang. My grandmother thought so, my mother thought so, even I thought so. But we were wrong. The end of the world was anything but.
This came to me this afternoon. This has the makings of a funtastic story. This is all you’re getting on it for now. 😉 😀

Also? I don’t know about you, but now I have “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” stuck in my head on an endless loop.

And finally, here’s a bit of cuteness from my not-so-little Cricket:

Someday I’m gonna name my kid Aaron Furzy because that’s a beautiful name. And if my wife wants to make it something else, then she can do that. -Cricket

How about you – what’s inspired you lately?

It’s blitz time!

October 3, 2016September 23, 2016Leave a comment

It’s release day for The Impending Possession of Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé!

tiposwr Welcome to the blitz for S. L. Saboviec’s latest release! Just in time for Halloween, pick up this tale of a supernatural menace, strained family ties, and unavoidable destiny:

Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé, busy executive and less-than-stellar mother and wife, has a problem that only an exorcist can solve. Except she’s not precisely a devout Catholic parishioner any longer, and to gain assistance from the Church means telling a whopping lie of omission.

Fortunately, she discovers Father Angelo Ambrosio, whose commitment to helping the afflicted means he’s willing to overlook the things Scarlet prefers to keep hidden. Unfortunately, his sordid past keeps him under a microscope with the bishop, who’s not so liberal in his views.

But the demon harassing Scarlet is relentless. It makes its motives clear: in a previous life, she struck a bargain, promising it her body on her fiftieth birthday. Now, she and Angelo must unravel the mystery surrounding her forgotten past in order to stop the possession by next week or risk losing her to the depths of Hell forever.

This stand-alone novel set in the Fallen Redemption universe extends the series to modern day. Enter a world where humans reincarnate, demons interfere in daily life, and the currents of fate carry us all to our destinies.

99 cent Sale!

Until the end of release week, The Impending Possession of Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé is 99 cents through Kindle and free through Kindle Unlimited! Don’t wait – the price goes up to next Monday.

About the Author

Samantha grew up in a small town in Iowa but became an expat for her Canadian husband, whom she met in the Massive Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game Star Wars: Galaxies (before the NGE, of course). She holds a B.S. in Physics, which qualifies her to B.S. about physics and occasionally do some math for the sci-fi stories she concocts. Her dark, thought-provoking science fiction & fantasy contains flawed, relatable characters and themes that challenge the status quo.

Her short fiction has appeared in AE and Grievous Angel, and her debut novel received an honorable mention in the 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

Writing

September 27, 2016119 Comments

I haven’t been writing, and I miss it.

I’ve watched TV. I’ve read blogs. I’ve come up with a thousand brilliant ideas that quickly vanished into the ether. I’ve played a lot of Pokémon Go (Go Team Mystic!).

But I haven’t been writing, and it’s left a void.

Getting back in the habit is…

An impending review!

September 24, 2016September 23, 2016Leave a comment

tiposwr Ah, books. Glorious books! Wonderful books! How I love thee! 🙂

Yep, I’ve been reading again. This time, my literary obsession is The Impending Possession of Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé by S.L. Saboviec. It’s a stand-alone novel from the same universe as Guarding Angel and Reaping Angel, and it was the perfect way to whet my appetite for the next book in the Fallen Redemption series.

Wow, so that’s a lot of titles right there. A person could be confused by all that, I suppose, so allow me to tell you what this book is all about …behind the cut!

Back when

September 17, 2016September 13, 2016Leave a comment

Identity is a tricky thing, always changing. Identity can shift at a moment’s notice, or over a span of years. I think back on all the things I am and all the things I’ve been. I wonder about all the things I’ll someday be, or if I’ll be able to reclaim the girl I was back when.

I’m a mother, I’m a lover,
A chef, a referee,
I’m a doctor and a chauffeur seven days a week.

Back when I knew it all, I was going to be a famous writer before I turned thirty. I’d be critically acclaimed and make a fortune and not need a day job. I’d work as a medical transcriptionist for a few years, until I hit it big, and then I’d quit the day job to write for a living.

It’s the hardest gig I’ve known,
I work my fingers to the bone.
Yeah, the dishes and the diapers never stop.
Lousy pay,
There ain’t no 401(k).
I know this may come as a shock,
But this here’s a full-time job.

Back when I knew it all, I was going to…

The wheel behind the squeak

September 16, 2016September 13, 20164 Comments

It’s always the quiet ones.

You know, the ones you have to watch out for. The quiet ones blend into the background. They do a good job of it, too – they’re quiet, after all, and it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, not the silent one.

Not the timid girl in the corner desk.

Maybe you don’t even notice. Maybe you never heard her heart screaming her frustration, or begging for a kind word. Maybe you did, but you don’t care.

Maybe she didn’t want you to, but maybe she did. What if she did?

Maybe she wears neutral colors because she’s afraid of loud noises. Maybe she’s afraid to be loud, to draw attention to herself because attention means she’d have to open up to others. Maybe the last time she came out of her shell, it was crushed by the person she trusted most in the world, and she had to find a new shell, a harder shell, to protect her fragile self.

Sometimes the squeaky wheel doesn’t need the grease – sometimes it just needs someone to listen. Grease will silence the squeak, but maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the point is for someone to notice the wheel behind the squeak.

Maybe the squeak isn’t something wrong, but something right.

Maybe it means that that timid girl is trying out her voice, trying it on for size. Maybe that little, tiny squeak is really incredibly loud, and she’s trying to figure out how to modulate her volume. Wouldn’t you feel terrible for silencing that squeak?

Because that’s what the grease does. It quiets the squeak.

It’s always the quiet ones.