Flash fiction-Goodbye Stranger

It was well past 2am and the girls knew they shouldn’t be awake, their parents would only get mad if they found out. The two girls faced each other with matching expressions, both blonds, one thin the other a little chubby. 

“I don’t know why you always have to be so stupid all the time Anna” the thin girl said to her heavier companion.

 Anna, the larger girl, opened her mouth to speak, her eyes held a plea for help. However, she was interrupted by the sound of first girl scoffing as a tear began to form in Anna’s blue eyes. 

“See, this is what I mean, you are weak” the slender girl remarked. She ran a hand through her long hair and backed away towards the bed. 

The second girl began to back up as well. The room they shared was small and held very little personal items.  A few volleyball trophies littered the dresser to the left. The weather outside was cold, causing the heat to turn on and make the girls jump slightly. The jittery girls faced each other again and the bony girl sighed and glared at her fatter partner. 

“I know it’s not always your fault, but I hate you” she said, tugging down her white T-shirt, her hopeless attempt to cover her exposed hip bones.

Anna turned her head down too, as if she was looking at her stomach in shame, but she remained silent. When the girls suddenly heard footsteps walking down the hall, presumable towards the bathroom, both girls froze. They brought a hand up to their lips to shush each other. The second girl’s fingers were significantly more round then the first. 

The thinner girl always called them her “sausage fingers.” Her chubby arms had several rolls and her cheeks puffed out whenever she moved her mouth. The smaller girl felt disgusted, but Anna brought her hand down and looked to her left towards the door.   

Once the toilet flushed and the sound of the footsteps began to disappear, they faced each other again. “You are always there bringing me down, and just looking at you makes me sick” the thin girl began to get angry now as the second girl looked frustrated but still hurt.

            Anna opened her mouth to let out a sob, causing her chins to fold up in an unsightly manner . Except, the sound came from the beautiful, skinnier girl instead. Anna quickly closed her mouth and tried to quiet down her sobs. Her attractive adversary suddenly became angry and raised her fist at the heavier Anna. Feeling defenseless, Anna raised her pudgy fist and tried to seem threatening. The first girl became angrier and angrier until she finally brought her bony fist down onto the face of the second girl.

The sound of the crash was louder then the girl anticipated as she watched the glass crumble onto the floor, covered in splatters of her own blood.

            Nothing was left except the brass frame and the wall on which the mirror was suspended. The emaciated girl looked down at herself, grabbed onto her skin and cried. “Stupid, fat and weak” she mumbled to herself before wrapping her hand with an old ripped T-shirt. She thought she would feel better, but she somehow only felt worse.

The Great Gatsby- Book review #24

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered a "classic novel." If you have ever gone to school, I'm sure you have heard of this book. The main plot of this book is about a man named Nick Caraway who meets a fascinating guy named Jay Gatsby. Nick comes from a world that's much different from Gatsby's. Gatsby has a large house, nice cars and popular parties. Nick has a love hate relationship with Gatsby and is fascinated by his lifestyle. There is a brief love story that takes place throughout the novel. Sadly, it ends tragically.

The book takes place in the 1920's when everyone just wanted to have a good time. Nick, who loves to look at Gatsby's nice things, seems like his feelings towards men in the novel might be questionable.

Overall, the book has both good and bad qualities to it. When I first read it, I didn't really understand the point of the novel, but there are so many places to go with this. The novel seems to be about the death of the American dream, and the fantasy of social mobility. It's deemed more important then it really should be.

The Great Gatsby is a fairly quick read, so if you get the time to read this book or need a "roaring 20's" book to write about for school, I recommend this one. The book covers some of Nicks underlining feelings towards Gatsby himself, it covers the love between Gatsby and Daisy as well as a few unfortunate deaths. While reading this novel, it's important to think about the loss of America and the importance of staying true to who you are.

Gatsby wanted to be someone who was worth knowing, so he thought if he had money and threw fun parties, people would like him. Unfortunately, Gatsby was living in a world where people only cared about the social class, not the individual people. This book definitely has its moments and as I said, I would recommend it to someone who is looking to read a good classic.

Update on what has been happening

Since my last book review was all the way in May, I assumed it was the right time to explain where I have been. Since my last review, my fiance and I have moved into a new apartment, iv'e begun my senior year at Cedar Crest College and I have my wedding to plan. I didn't get to renew my domain for this website because of a cost issue and the fact that I have bills to pay. Hopefully soon I will be able to buy it once again.

So with school and wedding stuff going on, I haven't read anything other then text books or required reading. I did think about perhaps doing a review on The Great Gatsby since it is a classic. Also, back in February my grandfather passed away and I didn't feel like doing much reading after that.

I was also recently involved in a pretty bad car accident where I was left with some injuries and it's been tough to get over. I have been focusing on my school work for now and occasionally do some wedding planning.

I will try to post another book review soon, but I can't promise it wont be a book I had to read for my Modern American Literature class.

Deep and Dark and Dangerous-Book review #23

Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn was such an amazing book! Hahn is a fantastic writer who uses strong imagery and similes that bring her story to life!

Thirteen-year-old Allison has been invited by her artist Aunt Dulcie to the families old cottage in Maine to babysit her five-year-old cousin Emma. Aly's mother doesn't want her to go because she believes Aly will hate it and the water is dangerous. Before her aunt comes to visit, Aly is digging through her grandmothers things and found an old picture of her mother and aunt at the lake with another girl who has been torn out of the photo. All she knows is the girls name starts with a T. When she asked her mother about it she claims to have no memory of any girl from the lake and shuts down completely. When Aly asks her aunt, she also claims they never met anyone up there with a name that began with a T.

Aly is able to convince her mother to let her go to the cottage, it is here she finds out about Teresa, a girl who drowned in the lake when her mother was young, her body was never found. Telling her these stories about Teresa is a 13-year-old girl they meet named Sissy. Ever since Emma met Sissy, she started acting mean, disrespectful, and angry. Sissy is also an angry little girl who seems to be one big mystery to Aly. Who is Sissy and what happened to Teresa? Find out by reading Mary Downing Hahn's, Deep and Dark and Dangerous. I promise you won't be disappointed!

She has many other books that are also fantastic,  I have read three of them so far and I am currently reading her Closed for the Season. If you like books that are easy to read, full of mystery, suspense, and ghosts, pick this book up NOW!

Interested in Self-Publishing?

Getting a book published can be hard work! Writing query letters, manuscripts, book proposals and trying to find an agent can get time consuming. There are a few companies that will, for a large sum of money, handle all of these things for you, but giving someone money to do your work, doesn't make your book any good. It just means you were able to write something down and have someone do your self publishing for you. Larger publishing companies can be hard to reach out to and most of them don't accept unsolicited work, yet you finished this novel and you just know people will love it, so what do you do? Consider self-publishing. It can also get fairly difficult, but there is such a satisfaction in doing with work yourself, it's worth it.

Because of how technology is today, there are several websites that can help you get your book in print. For my first two books I went though a company called CreateSpace LLC and they are now partnered with Amazon. Using CreateSpace is fairly simple and it allows you to do all the work yourself, OR you can pay for a few other options. CreateSpace has their own editors, a professional cover designer, and a team that will promote your book! If you are short on cash, you can always design your own cover using their pre-made designs, or you can completely make your own cover and uploading this as a PDF. Because I am non-artistic and do not have Photoshop, I found this to be quite difficult! However, it was nice to see my hard work paid off and I loved holding my design in my hands when it was done.

Amazon also has options for self-publishers. You can use this to help you upload your eBook, or a hard copy.

If you have a book, novella, short stories or even a play finished, consider using either CreateSpace or Amazon KDP to upload your file. The file will go through approval and if there are any issues, you have plenty of time to fix them. CreateSpace lets you preview your book before submitting it for approval. If your manuscript was approved, congratulations! Now that your book is on the market, you can either promote your book by yourself, or use the CreateSpace and Amazon provided options. Facebook and family are the best ways to get your book out there. Good luck!

Story of Thieves- Book Review #22

I know it has been a while, but since my grandfather passed away on the 21st of February, I have been busy with family stuff. Also, now that I am on spring break, I have a little free time from school to read and write. I am currently in the middle of reading a book that reminded me a little of my own book Lost Prince of Waydale because the main characters are able to jump into books!

 Story of Thieves by James Riley is targeted for younger readers (ages 10-14) and it is the first book in a four book series. Story of Thieves follows Owen, who has discovered a fellow classmate, Bethany, jumping out of a storybook! Owen is thrilled and can't wait to visit his favorite hero Kiel Gnomenfoot. Owen finds out that Bethany has been jumping from book to book in hopes of finding her father, who is a fictional character that got lost in a book and hasn't come out. Owen agreed to help Bethany if she took him into his favorite series. Little does Bethany know, Owen has a plan to save one of his favorite characters from being killed! Bethany insists Owen does not interact with any main characters or else it could mess up the whole story. When the two friends enter the novel and Owen saves the his favorite character, the consequences are severe! Will Bethany and Owen be able to fix what they have done? Will Bethany ever find her father?


I don't want to give anything away, but I am about half way though this book and I think it is fantastic so far. The style and tone is sophisticated enough for older readers not to get bored, but it's simple enough to appeal to the younger readers. The subject of this series is what had me fascinated because (as everyone knows) I love the thoughts of going into a story. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a book that will "take them away" to another world.  Whether you are an older adult, a teenager or a middle school student, this book is the perfect fit for anyone who has an imagination and a love of adventure.

The time is now

After almost 7 months of hard work, my novel Lost Prince of Waydale is finally available to purchase on the kindle! I have the physical copy being reviewed right now and it will be available soon. I was having issues with the formatting for the kindle version but not matter what, they kept happening. I decided that it was just something I, and anyone else buying the book, will have to deal with. Here is the link.

Update on Lost Prince of Waydale

Just so everyone is aware my novel Lost Prince of Waydale is in the hands of the editor (finally) and will be released soon. With school coming up so soon and my engagement party right around the corner I barely had time to get in touch with them. I can't wait for the book to finally come out, I am setting up a pre-order for it on Amazon tomorrow. I look forward to hearing my feedback and seeing my book on the shelf. It has been a while since I first release my other two books What Happens After and Nothing to Hide so I am super excited. Also, I have a preliminary book review coming out soon so you can look forward to that too! To serve as a reminder, here is the link to my Amazon page for my previous books. Click here

Existence- Book review 21

Existence by Abbie Glines is a fantastic novel that I have read and re-read twice over. There are 3 more books in the series but I am only review the first one for now. What I like about this book is the fact that it's different. Existance involves a love story between the main character Pagan and Dank. Pagan has the ability to see the souls of the dead and Dank is death himself. After Pagan gets chosen for death, Dank goes to her and gets ready to take her but when he accidentally falls in love with her he tries to fight for her soul.
           Abbie Glines sets the stage for a unique love story that defies the norm and sets itself aside from other paranormal romance. I liked this book because the thought of death being not only personified but made into an actual person, is fascinating. There are a few other people in the story who try to stop Dank from saving Pagan and Pagans boyfriend Lief has a few secrets of his own.
          I recommend this book to those of any age who enjoy reading paranormal romance with a twist. Also, I would highly suggest reading all the books in the series including the side book written in the point of view of Lief.


Disclaimer- Sorry this review is so late, I started it about a week ago and planned on finishing it by last Friday but things got away from me. My grandmother is dealing with health issues and my grandfather who has had cancer for almost 13 years has made a turn for the worst. I have spent the past week and a half taking care of them, going to the hospital and doing what I can. I will try to have another review out soon.