Month: August 2017

Writing

First Line Short Story

by Carla Swafford

Yesterday, I went to a workshop my writers group sponsored, and it was so much fun. The presenter mainly talked about motivation. As in how a writer can use encouragement or habits to put their butt in a chair and write every day. Otherwise, you will never get done that book, short story, or article you’ve been dreaming about writing.

One exercise I enjoyed the most. In any book a person reads, the first line in the first chapter is important. It should be able to draw a person in to read more. The presenter gave us a choice of several first liners. One was “It’s so huge!” You can imagine that was a favorite. Anyway, I picked the one you’ll see below. Hope you like the itty-bitty short story.

**be aware that I use naughty words**

Sliding down the stripper pole isn’t as easy as you might think. When I took the bet from my friends. I was already down six beers, and really should know better than to take their dare. The asshats.

Everyone claps and hoots, trying to encourage my rhythm as I dance around the pole. Playing the part, I yank off my shirt and twirl it above my head. The servers and dancers laugh and shout their advice.

Kid Rock’s Cowboy blasts through the speakers. Grabbing the steel pole, I jump up and try my best to hold on with my jean-clad legs, but I slide inch by inch down the slippery bastard. And who knew the fucking thing rotates by itself? I tighten my grip and lean back. Lifting my arm as if I won the lottery.

More shouting reminds me I need to move with the beat. So I thrust my hips and swing around the pole. The colors and sounds swirl by and my head feels light. A little cross-eyed, I fall to the stage, and the pounding of the music vibrates through my body. Not letting my friends get the better of me, I jump up, sway, regain my feet, and begin a bump and grind. Dollars rain around my feet.

Fuck the pole. I’ll just dance around and make a few bucks. Then I can buy another beer when the song stops. I do every dance I can remember from what Mom taught me. Two stepping, I trip and my friends catch me, helping me to stand as the song ends.

“You win, Luke. I never thought you would do it.” Rich hands me the fiver he had promised if I show the girls I could do it too.

****

I always love a twist and not just on a stripper pole.  HA!

Odd Observation, Thoughts

The Beast Inside

by Carla Swafford

I’m screaming inside right now.

That’s what happens when you hear news you don’t want. As a reasonable human being with manners, you know you should never scare the people around you. You should grin and bear it. Never let people see you cry or be upset. Otherwise, you’ll have to explain what happened. When you explain, you relive the devastating reality. Then people give you platitudes you can live without. Usually, they say those things because they believe it’s the proper thing to do. So in other words, they say the words to make themselves feel better.

All you can tolerant is someone who will talk about the nice weather. So you keep your mouth shut and manage a faint grin.

Most people do not understand how I feel, so I rather not hear their opinion or receive their sympathy. I keep the screaming inside until I’m numb and can come to terms with the person I am, not the one who I thought I was.

Yet I move on.

Audio, Recommendations

Recommendations

by Carla Swafford

book-signingLately, I’ve realized how much I miss holding and reading a paperback book. Plus I hate how all of my e-books are all jumbled together. No matter how I set up categories in iBooks or Kindle, I still find myself thumbing through several unfinished books to find a new one. Then I’m not sure if they are unread or an unfinished one. While with a paperback, you can place the new book on a certain shelf or leave it in a shopping bag. Simple.  Anyway, I’ve plan to read more paperback books.

Here are some recommendations. You’ll note that I do not recap story lines. So if you want to know more about the book, look it up on Amazon. Easy enough.

Funny how authors will give a title to a book that really does not do justice to the story. One such book is Dirty Daddies by Jade West. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Carla has a kinky side. Well, of course. Have you read what I write? Geez! In this case, the book isn’t like some I’ve read. Behave. Let me look at your e-reader and I’ll see what your kink is. As you can imagine, Dirty Daddies is a hot book, but so much more. It really surprised me by the layers of character development revealed in the story. Yes, it involves two older men (not too old, gross) and a younger woman (offhand, I can’t remember, but I do believe she’s 18. In the US, that’s considered an adult). But the heroes struggle with their desire for someone younger, they recognize the problem she has with low self-esteem, and they don’t want to take advantage, but as the book goes along, the men actually help her. Like I said, it’s hot, but the story is not all sex. There’s character growth for all of them. The book turned out to be a perfect love story. Besides, the romance having two heroes for one heroine (love that), it is an unique story. Just really needs a better title.

I love hockey books. Since I love hockey, that makes sense, right? As I’m all caught up on Sawyer Bennett’s Carolina’s Cold Fury series, I’m always searching for more. Well, I had almost given up as the others out there were not meeting my standards. Then I came across, Alicia Pace Hunter’s Nickolai’s Noel, and they (the author is a writing team) met my need for more. It’s a short story, but packed with romance and hockey. (Presently, you can find it in Fire On Ice: 4 Hockey Romances.) Their latest hockey romance is Face Off: Emile. They write romantic comedy and not the silly kind. More of the sweet and fun kind. Love their sense of humor. In Face Off, it does have a little bit of sex in it, but not hot like Sawyer’s. I love the time the heroine grabbed the hero’s butt. Sexy and funny at the same time. HA! But I like mixing up my reading of romance, from hot to sweet. And I love reading hockey books where the author really knows what they’re talking about. Yes. I’ve tried reading a couple you could tell the author was writing to the market and nothing else.

Now for audio, I have fallen in love with Louise Bay’s three books set mostly in New York. They don’t have a series name. They’re stand-alones, but one character in each book is connected in some way (sister, brother, friend) to another. So same world. The narrators do a wonderful job. The books are hot, but definitely have a romance storyline. They are King of Wall Street, Park Avenue Prince, and Duke of Manhattan. Talk about some sexy, well-rounded men (and women). You really need to listen or read these books. I plan to check out her other books next.

Presently, I’m listening to Radiance: Wraith Kings, Volume 1 by Grace Draven. It’s different enough to keep me interested ,and the writing is good overall. Though I have to mention, I get aggravated with the author writing a scene where the hero or heroine thinks about something that happened earlier in the day and then being jerked back to that scene. Why not write the scenes in order without the yanking around? It wasn’t like the event happened years and years ago. In that case, you would write the event in a scene mostly as backstory. In small doses, backstory is good if it is helping the reader understand why the hero or heroine is the way he or she is. But a current event of only hours earlier being out of sequence is jarring.

Though I’ve listened to and read or tried to read many more, those are the ones worth mentioning here.