Hear Ye!! Hear Ye!!

Announcing the latest publication in paperback version! My book title "Get Up and Go Soul!" is available NOW on Create Space (an amazon company).

It is filled with stories of fun, wisdom, heartbreak, and love inspired by real life events from real women.

The book sells for $4.59 US dollars and is available through Amazon in Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy.

Buy your copy today! Shipping time is approximately 7-10 days from the time you place your print-to-order purchase.

You will love this short story collection...guaranteed!

The purchase link is "http://www.createspace.com/3900527.

This link will take you directly to the sales page where you can place your secure shopping order.

Thank you for your patronage.

The Way We Were...

The 2012 Holiday Season is here, and I'm sure that with its approach many of us are anxious about how we will be celebrating them. For great many of us, the memories of happy and carefree holidays past that were celebrated with our loved ones who for some reason or another are no longer with us. Some of these loved ones have gone from us by passing away; while others have moved on to a new life of some sort. Either way; they are no longer a vital part of our lives and for all intents and purposes have left us behind, and all too often their departure has left a huge void that even with the passing of time; has been hard to fill.

Each Thanksgiving Holiday brings back so many treasured memories of being a child growing up in my parents house. The delicious aromas of cooking filled our house, but what I remember most was not just the food aromas, but the house itself had a certain special smell all through it. This was an indescribable fragrance. It was created not only by pine scented decorations or pumpkin pie; I think it was the pure essence of love coupled with the unmistakable sweetness of my Mother that filled the air and made our house a home.

My Mother was an excellent cook, and she always laid out a sumptuous spread fit for a king, even though the guests at our table usually consisted of my parents, my younger brother, and our grandparents...maybe an aunt and uncle or two. My Daddy loved the holidays. Absolutely loved them! He would start to stake out a Christmas tree for us right after Halloween was over, and from that time on he was as happy as a child anticipating Christmas.

For Thanksgiving, he would help Momma out in the kitchen by chopping the veggies or the "goodies" as she called them to go into the stuffing and the potato salad. He would joke around with her and tease her so much until finally she had to banish him from her domain in order to get her cooking done. I would be watching the parades on television, reading a magazine or maybe listening to records while they were working in the kitchen and I could hear them talking, laughing, and just loving the closeness they shared simply by being together. She would put him in charge of the turkey from the moment she put the big bird in the oven until it was time to set it on the table as the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving Day meal. There was a certain comfort and a feeling of well-being just knowing that my parents were happy and we were together as a family and most of all that soon I would be eating one of the best meals in the world!!

Both of my precious parents have been gone for a long time...twenty seven and twenty five years as of this year. But although time by the grace of God has healed the wound, and has dulled the pain the void they left can never be filled. Sometimes it seems as if it were only yesterday that I sat at my Mother's table in her warm and cheery kitchen. Sometimes it seems as if I never sat there at all. I am not alone in this experience or this feeling. Anyone who has been orphaned or widowed has felt the enormous pain of loss and has looked at the future ahead of them as bleak and lonely at one time or another. Life as we had known it...has ceased to exist.

I remember my Mother not only at holiday times, but when I'm singing a particular song, or looking at old family photos. I believe that I can still smell her essence when I close my eyes and think hard enough.  When I see her in family photos, I can go back in time mentally and recollect the exact thing she was doing in some of those photos. I can see my Daddy laughing, dancing a little jig when he'd had a little sip or two and see him at the kitchen stove frying bacon for breakfast. I remember him coming home from work tired and dirty from working on automobiles all day. Later when he'd had a job promotion, I recall him as a sales person in a local hardware store...charmingly assisting customers with their purchases. And giving me lunch money on my way to work even after I had become all grown up.

Memories...so many memories! They can comfort, they can make me laugh until I cry, and make me cry until I laugh. I dream of them both quite often. In my dreams they are speaking, but although I can see their faces and discern their features distinctly; I can hardly remember the sound of their voices. But that's okay; they echo off of the walls of my soul and they resound deep in my spirit. Here are the two places where their voices will never be without sound.

I would love to recreate those kind of holidays, but even though I have tried with my own family it just doesn't feel the same. Maybe its because I'm not then same. I'm too different now and too much time has passed with me being on my own. I'm not sure if I'd know how to relate to anyone else at this point in my life. I lose myself in the past sometimes. When I'm anxious, lonesome or feeling blue I go there...back to the little frame house where I spent most of my growing years and I'm safe and taken care of.

I can hear the television with the sound of "Gunsmoke" or "Rawhide" westerns playing and my Daddy is sitting in his easy chair in front of the set, totally immersed in his favorite shows. My Momma is in the kitchen washing dishes and there's cake leftover from dinner sitting on the sideboard. My younger brother is playing with his trains in his room, and I'm sprawled across my bed in my room leafing through an "Archie" comic book. And I remain here until I feel as if its safe to come back to reality, and when I do I feel stronger and more able to accept and to cope. Until its time to go back again.

Memories...of the way we were.

An Official Update

Hello There and Welcome Back!

Here's an official update on my work in progress. "Jamaican Jive" is progressing quite nicely! Ten chapters have been completed, and now I will begin the revision process. I will re-examine each chapter for errors, character assimilation, character revision, editing information and so forth.

This will give me a fresh perspective on what I have written, but have not read in several weeks. Possibly I may develop anew slant on the premise and the chararcters. I can check my word count again after I am done.

Currently, I am on Chapter 3 of my workbook "Anatomy of Nonfiction". What interesting things I have learned and a brand new concept is being considered at the back of my mind...Children's Writing; article and book.

I would never have considered this possibility before I began my Creative Writing study! But I am definitely interested in following up. Who knows? This could be my niche!

I have started a new page here on this blog site. Currently its under construction because I have to assemble and upload my finished articles  as part of my online portfolio. With a few extra hours of work, I can have this up and running very soon.

Stay tuned for more exciting details coming soon, and as always there will be official updates on this site.

All My Best.

New Book Preview

Hello Readers,

I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks, but I am still here and still writing! What I have included in this post is a preview chapter from my new book that I am currently working on with the title "Jamaican Jive".

Its the story of four friends who visit Kingston Jamaica on a vacation, and while on the island they get involved in intrigue, and the mystery of a sudden death of a night club owner. What was intended to be a fun and relaxing excursion to paradise, turns into something...entirely different.

Attached are two files for my readers to preview. The anticipated completion date is late November when I hope to have located an agent and have the manuscript ready to hand over. Read on to sample my new book...

Wish me luck!

Chapter Three

Santana's Nightclub was the funkiest club in Kingston and the most popular one on the Hip Strip. The exterior was quite nondescript, but once you crossed the threshold to the entrance, it was another world. Inside was cool and the lighting was dim but allowed for plenty of illumination to see what the customers needed to see, and there was no danger of feeling in the dark. There was a huge indoor waterfall in the center of the room, and small bistro type tables surrounded its perimeter. Located around the outer part of the room were several leather banquettes in a deep orange color.

Each one had its own wall lamp that was lit with small opaque light bulbs. There was a raised dais at the rear of the room where a band played some pretty groovy Calypso music, and right now, the patrons sitting in the banquettes and at the tables was just enjoying the upbeat sounds. Warm, rich colors were the dominant theme of the interior, where the walls were painted in scenic murals, depicting singers and dancers, in various stages of performing, and musical notes and instruments were blended in to complete the scenes.

The images had been painted with such precision and with such expertise and likeness to the people they represented, that they seemed to flicker in the subdued lighting and come alive from the walls, in a three dimensional parody of the real thing. The shiny dance floor did not yet hold any dancers, but the night was young. One could enter this club and immediately feel a sense of excitement and the promise of a good time.

 Dante had accompanied them to the entrance of the club, and he had summoned the club manager Robaire Wendell as Mr. DeJohn had instructed him to do. When the ladies had been greeted by Robaire, and shown to the VIP Lounge, only then did he feel free to take his leave.

He was quite a bit younger than his former charges, but he held an admiration for each of them and he had not missed out on a single thing about how they looked. Extremely well dressed, smelling good enough to eat, and wonderful personalities to boot. So many Americans thought themselves better than Jamaicans, and they came over here with their demands and their condescension, thinking that the measly tips they left gave them the right to look down their noses at him. But not Ms. Alexis and her friends...they were classy ladies if he ever saw one.

 No sooner had the ladies been seated on a long, white leather couch in the VIP Lounge, did a man approach them. Claudette turned as she heard a man's voice speaking close by to see Robaire; their host give a nod in the direction where they were seated. The man that was speaking reached down and took her hand, kissed it in a way reminiscent of old world gallantry and when he spoke, his voice sounded like liquid silk...if there were such a thing. He introduced himself as Sebastian Jarvis, Club Owner Extraordinaire.  He looked absolutely delicious as he stood there in his white linen slacks and shirt opened nearly halfway down the front, and whatever the fragrance was he was wearing, she had never smelt before and would never forget. He wore a white beret with a gold insignia on it and the touch of his hand was smooth and dry.

 Helena watched them all unobtrusively. She noted the suave way this new player Sebastian carried himself, she noticed the high blush on Claudette's face, and she noticed something else; and she was sure that she was the only one who did. There was a shrewdness about the way he carried himself, that was both passive and luring at the same time. While Mr. Jarvis was making his preliminary move on her friend, someone else was watching from a distance. It was more of a feeling at first; you know how your skin prickles and a flush comes over your body at the same

time your sensory perception goes off the radar in a way that alerts you to danger. She automatically knew that somehow they were in jeopardy.

 For a few moments, Helena simply sat nursing her drink trying to remain calm while she gathered her nerve to turn around and look. She wasn't sure where she would look, or what she would find, but she knew that all she had to do was turn her head slightly, and whatever it was that was actively causing this nervous sensation would manifest it.

 She turned her head just a bit to her left because Sebastian and Claudette were on her right. Her pretense was to smile at the patrons seated nearest her left side. She did, and then she let her gaze slowly roam over the area near the entrance and she noticed two very tall and imposing women looking directly at where they were seated. They were both exquisitely dressed and quite attractive and had an authoritative air about them. Their ages were hard to tell because of the lighting in the VIP Room, and because of the dim lighting here also.

 Nevertheless, Helena met their steady gaze with one of her own. She did not smile, nor did they. After the space of a few heartbeats, Helena turned away very casually and again picked up her drink. Claudette was laughing coyly at whatever it was Sebastian was saying to her, and Alexis was ordering some light appetizers from the Hostess/ Waitress. Bonnie had excused herself to go in search of the powder room. The two women did not move from their place by the door as Bonnie got up, so Helena was pretty sure she wouldn't be followed. Still, she remained on alert just in case.

 It wasn't until Bonnie had returned to her seat, and Sebastian and Claudette had taken to the dance floor that Helena started to relax a bit. Well, it was too soon because just as she tossed her head laughing at something Bonnie had said that she again felt the strange sensation. Before she could turn her head and look this time, the two women had approached their seating area, drinks in hand and without waiting for an invitation, they both sat down; each one on a separate end of the long couch.

 “Good evening ladies, allow us please to introduce ourselves. With a sweeping hand gesture she said “This is my friend Almoy. And I (she paused for dramatic effect as she seemed to stand up even straighter) am Druscilla. I am Sebastian's wife.” No one said a word or even breathed it seemed. This was the exact reaction Druscilla had known she would receive. She knew she had the upper hand and would use it to her advantage…as she always did.

 Not a muscle moved on anyone sitting at the table. The other patrons in the club who had watched Druscilla and Almoy approach the American party were not surprised to see this. Most of them here were regulars, so they had seen this melodrama played out before. They could count on Sebastian making a move on female tourists, and they could depend on his wife showing up to spoil it by bringing along just a hint of fear with her. Helena had only a split second to take note of their cultured way of speaking and carrying themselves before her next thought; “Oops. Kingston we have a problem.”