Fiction & Poetry

I am currently working on a few books, longer works that take a lot of time. But, I occasionally post poetry and short fiction on my website and also publish on other websites.

I publish poetry at Soft Whispers and serial fiction on The Penny Dreadful.  And, have had a story published on Flashes in the Dark (creepy warning on my story).

Serial Fiction

Frostbite: A Mafia Family Christmas was my first fictional series and the first stories I posted for #FridayFlash on Twitter. It is also on The Penny Dreadful. I love these characters and I am currently re-writing this series (including Twisted Family Bonds – below) to be made into an ebook.

Frostbite: A Mafia Family Christmas (pt.1) I never imagined my first Christmas back home in fifteen years would come to this. Every swear word in my vocabulary started swirling through my head as I grabbed my sixty-two year old mama tightly with both arms and pulled her away from my Great Aunt Urola…

Frostbite: A Mafia Family Christmas (pt.2) Tasha frantically trudged through the knee-deep snow oblivious to her scant clothing of slippers and pajamas.  She dropped to the ground next to Great Aunt Urola’s frozen body trying to free her from the snowbank.   The kids were running around joyfully playing.   They started throwing snowballs at her and Great Aunt Urola…

Frostbite: A Mafia Family Christmas (pt.3) Aunt Urola’s lavish jeweled necklaces were finally removed from my aunts’ necks. Now, they were all wearing hot blisters and bumpy rashes seared by the poison laced in each string. The red flush of their faces matched their flaring tempers…

Twisted Family Bonds is a fictional series that continues where the Frostbite series ends. It is a mixture of light and dark humor written in the soap opera episodic style about the happenings in the Kaszinov family, who live on a family compound in the Hungarian countryside near Budapest. Russian mafia members have family lives, too, they just behave a little differently, or do they?

Twisted Family Bonds (pt.1): New Year, A Second Chance Tasha slowly pulled herself out of her rental car and trudged through the deep snow.  She could see the silhouettes of Mama, Papa, and her aunts and uncles through the curtains in the living room window…

Twisted Family Bonds (pt.2): Inna is in the House Tasha was laying on the cold concrete landing outside the front door. Her hands clenched as she held her face down on the freezing stoop. Her body was covering Inna, protecting her from the gun fire…

Twisted Family Bonds (pt.3): Gratitude “Get movin’ you ingrates!  You want your kids back? Then get this place cleaned up!” Viktor waved his arms furiously as he strutted into the living room…

Twisted Family Bonds (pt.4): Ouch! Let’s have ‘em all, empty those pockets! No one is going in until you have been searched and pass the metal detectors.” Inna was supervising the security checkpoint at the child welfare office building. This was the first meeting of her new Mothers And Fathers Impaired Attachment (MAFIA) rehab support group…

Twisted Family Bonds (pt.5): Two Bosses in Bed Viktor looked at Rudolf in the next hospital bed laying vulnerably asleep. His leg was in a cast up to the hip and one arm was in a cast.  Viktor wasn’t doing much better with a cast on one leg and his ribs wrapped.  He envisioned what he could do with this great opportunity to finally “take care of” Rudolf Zabrosky…

The conclusion of this series is forthcoming in 2010 (or will be re-written for ebook)

Flash Fiction

The Great Chocolate Conspiracy: Episode 7 Welcome to The Great Chocolate Conspiracy! Chocolate Digestive biscuits have disappeared from the shelves right across the eastern seaboard of the USA, and now the shortage has spread to London….

Pickle Wars: Create Your Own Adventure The story is about a 14 year old boy, Michael, and his friend, Latoya. They have encountered aliens invading the Earth. This story takes many twists and turns and you get to choose which direction at the end of each post.

The Power of Art Loretta bolted awake at 3:17 a.m.. Her heart raced and head pounded to the beat of sheer panic. She stumbled to her studio wearing the same pajamas and robe she had worn since the night he first appeared…

Iowan Work Ethic is an excerpt from a historical fiction novel I am working on called, Tyler Corner, about the families who lived during the height of success for independent farming in Southern Iowa in the 1920s to the 1960s.

Menage a Trois Avant-garde was published at Flashes in the Dark. This was my first horror flash fiction (creepy warning).

Poetry

Compassion’s Duality was published at Soft Whispers.

Love’s Note was published at Soft Whispers.

Introducing RedFlame DeepWater RedFlame DeepWater, is a pivitol series for me.  The collection is about the, sometimes intense, events on the path to spiritual enlightenment.  It includes a symbolic description of  the experience referred to as “the dark night of the soul.”  The dark night of the soul is a time when everything you thought was “real” in yourself and in your life is disintegrating.  It is a time when Spirit is cleaning your house to make room for new awareness.

Those with knowledge, courage and determination will not turn from the pain and suffering for long. For this pain has been provided to them from a compassionate Spirit. It is actually the portal to deeper awakening. Too many spiritual growth experiences are pathologized by modern psychotherapists as problems needing a diagnosis and quick fix.  My hope is that more people will realize the gift within pain and suffering when they encounter it, will find guidance, and will yearn to evolve.   And, that more people will find the courage to look deep inside to find the secrets hiding in plain view.

RedFlame portion of the series includes:

RedFlame DeepWater (Pt.1): RedFlame Initiates Destruction

RedFlame DeepWater (pt.2): Return to the Scene

RedFlame DeepWater (pt.3): Becoming Invisible

RedFlame DeepWater (pt.4): Dark Places: Retreat

RedFlame DeepWater (pt.5): Me, Pain & Suffering

RedFlame DeepWater (pt.6): Pain, Suffering & Resistance

The DeepWater portion of the series is forthcoming (2010)

Remembering 9/11 Today I watched the 9/11 memorial,
similar to the time I watched 8 years ago,
on Good Morning America.
I sat with my
9 month old babies,
talking on the phone to my husband….

Revealing I hope that my writing will uncover not just the good and true of the world, but also the things that bother us, taunt us, and immobilize our Spirit and our creativity.  Revealing these things brings them out of their hiding places, and they terrorize us no more.

Suspended in Thin Air This poem was also made into a video on YouTube

Other

Memoir: Mother’s Day Blog Tour: The Precious Gift I walked into the hospital with my husband and three-year old twins. We located the cancer ward and pushed open the huge double doors. A wave of nervousness washed over me. It was the Thursday before Mother’s Day. I didn’t want another sad Mother’s Day weekend. But it was inevitable.