Last chance to donate to the Clarion Write-a-Thon!

This is an update to my previous post. Thanks to all who have donated already. (The link to donate is here. This is the same as one of those walk-a-thons. The money goes straight to Clarion, so that they can continue to help writers reach their full potential.) This is the last chance to donate! Clarion is nearly at their goal of ten thousand and every bit counts!

The prizes for this week:

1. Anyone who donates any amount will get their name mentioned in an upcoming installment of my humor series "The Life and Times of Car Johnson."
2. Anyone who donates any amount before Sunday will be mentioned in a micro-fiction story at my twitter accountStory_Tweets."
   
3. Anyone who donates $10 dollars or more will get a personal poem or a recipe from my stash. You get to choose. Plus get your name in an installment of Car Johnson. Since the last chance, everyone who donates this week will get a personal poem, no matter what you donate. If you donate more that ten, you will get a two.
4. Anyone who donates $20 dollars or more will get a personal flash fiction piece or a personal obituary (why wait until you die?) from me. You get to choose. Plus you get a poem or recipe and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
5. Anyone who donates $50 or more will get their own personal mini choose your own adventure written by me. (About five pages long.) Plus your get a poem/recipe, flash fiction/obituary, and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.

Everything will be emailed out the week after the Write-A-Thon ends, except for the Car Johnson shout outs, since I write one of those a week (and the story_tweets story, since I write two of those every day.

Clarion Write-a-Thon! There's still time to donate!

This is an update to my previous post. Thanks to all who have donated already. (The link to donate is here. This is the same as one of those walk-a-thons. The money goes straight to Clarion, so that they can continue to help writers reach their full potential.)

Last week I had two contributions of ten dollars each!

Thanks Jason Hough and Nancy Etchemendy!

Since you two donated, I've added you as characters to the latest episode of my humor series "The Life and Times of Car Johnson." I will also use your names in one of my story_tweets stories. And since you both donated ten dollars, you each get a personal poem or a recipe.

Thanks again!

There's still time to donate!

The prizes for this week:

1. Anyone who donates any amount will get their name mentioned in an upcoming installment of my humor series "The Life and Times of Car Johnson."
2. Anyone who donates any amount before Sunday will be mentioned in a micro-fiction story at my twitter account Story_Tweets."
   
3. Anyone who donates $10 dollars or more will get a personal poem or a recipe from my stash. You get to choose. Plus get your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
4. Anyone who donates $20 dollars or more will get a personal flash fiction piece or a personal obituary (why wait until you die?) from me. You get to choose. Plus you get a poem or recipe and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
5. Anyone who donates $50 or more will get their own personal mini choose your own adventure written by me. (About five pages long.) Plus your get a poem/recipe, flash fiction/obituary, and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.

Everything will be emailed out the week after the Write-A-Thon ends, except for the Car Johnson shout outs, since I write one of those a week (and the story_tweets story, since I write two of those every day.)

I am Part of Clarion's Write-A-Thon Update

This is an update to my previous post. Thanks to all who have donated already. (The link to donate is here. This is the same as one of those walk-a-thons. Any money I collect goes to Clarion, so that they can continue to help writers reach their full potential.) They haven't told me yet the names of the people who have donated, so if you donated last week, could you please post a comment so I can thank you properly and put your name in my Car Johnson series and put you on the list for the other prizes?



The prizes for this week:

1. Anyone who donates any amount will get their name mentioned in an upcoming installment of my humor series "The Life and Times of Car Johnson."
2. Anyone who donates any amount before Sunday will be mentioned in a micro-fiction story at my twitter account Story_Tweets."
   
3. Anyone who donates $10 dollars or more will get a personal poem or a recipe from my stash. You get to choose. Plus get your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
4. Anyone who donates $20 dollars or more will get a personal flash fiction piece or a personal obituary (why wait until you die?) from me. You get to choose. Plus you get a poem or recipe and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
5. Anyone who donates $50 or more will get their own personal mini choose your own adventure written by me. (About five pages long.) Plus your get a poem/recipe, flash fiction/obituary, and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.

Everything will be emailed out the week after the Write-A-Thon ends, except for the Car Johnson shout outs, since I write one of those a week (and the story_tweets story, since I write two of those every day.)

I am part of Clarion's Write-A-Thon

Clarion's template explains this whole thing better than I could:

-Begin Email Template-

"Some of you may have heard of the Clarion writing workshop, which has been running for 42 years and has turned out many bestselling and award-winning writers. Funding has been cut for the program this year, and so Clarion has responded by running a "Write-a-Thon" to ensure that the workshop can continue. I am one of the participating writers, and I'm looking for people who are willing to sponsor me.

What this entails is making a small PayPal donation via my profile page, which can be found at the following link: http://www.theclarionfoundation.org/writeathon/wrtn-writerpage.php?writerID=5016 Even a $5 donation helps Clarion tremendously and qualifies me for all kinds of prizes. Sponsors like you also have the option of joining the Write-a-Thon forums, tracking my progress, and cheering me on during this six-week event."

-End Email Template-



My goal in the Write-A-Thon is to get at least six sections of my current project done. (It's a horror choose your own adventure for adults.) My previous mini-foray into making a horror choose your own adventure for adults can be found here.

We all need to make 19 dollars the first week so that everyone has the chance for a prize drawing. I don't want to be the person who ruins it for everyone else, so I'm going to give you all some incentives to donate:

1. Anyone who donates any amount will get their name mentioned in an upcoming installment of my humor series "The Life and Times of Car Johnson."
2. Anyone who donates any amount before Sunday will be made into a character in a upcoming installment of "The Life and Times of Car Johnson."
   
3. Anyone who donates $10 dollars or more will get a personal poem or a recipe from my stash. You get to choose. Plus get your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
4. Anyone who donates $20 dollars or more will get a personal flash fiction piece or a personal obituary (why wait until you die?) from me. You get to choose. Plus you get a poem or recipe and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.
   
5. Anyone who donates $50 or more will get their own personal mini choose your own adventure written by me. (About five pages long.) Plus your get a poem/recipe, flash fiction/obituary, and your name in an installment of Car Johnson.

Everything will be emailed out the week after the Write-A-Thon ends, except for the Car Johnson shout outs, since I write one of those a week.

So, there you have it. I'm pimping my skillz for charity.

Dusting off an old article

I decided to post an old article I wrote. It needs more zombies and missing pants, but what are ya gonna do?

How will you ever get by? Tomorrow is rushing at you like a tidal wave, ready to engulf you, mind and soul, until you drown in a sea of uncertainty. Everybody feels this way at some point in their lives, when it seems as if nothing is certain and the floor has been removed from the bottom of your life. We strain and pull and clamber about, trying to see past our circumstances to what lies ahead. We feel that if only we could see every stone before we tripped, then we would never have to worry about anything ever again. Still, even if we could see every stone that laid in out path, we would still worry about all the twigs that we were sure we had missed.

Worry is not the same as caution. When people are cautious, they are aware of what is about them, and respond accordingly. When people worry, they stare at things that only exist in their minds, and stumble into the things that they missed. They spend all their energy trying to forestall what might not happen, that they forget to focus on what is happening. What is happening now is real, what might happen is not. If you convince yourself that all your worries and ideas of the future are true, then you will not be able to do anything with the events that are happening to you ar this very moment. The future is not some impending wall that you cannot avoid. The future is just the present that hasn't happened yet. Your life has been, and always will be, in the present.

Life is a grand experience. There are always wonderful things to see, and if you have your eyes open, you will see them all. The future will unfold, just like it always has, and all the triumphs and struggles of today will wash away into all the present that had become the past. If you don't pay attention, then you will miss it, and your life will only be a series of memories, moments you can no longer touch, events that you wished you had touched when you had the chance. Life should not be lived through a photo album, it should be lived as it comes. If you make an effort to remove worry from your life, you will do just that. So please, let the future go. Your life is waiting.

Humor with no Handholds and My Life as a Mental Attic

Since I shared my adventure in Hell with you all, I thought it was time to share my series of humor pieces I write for my friend Tyler's blog Overidon.com. They are wild and out there and as funny as Hell.

Here's the first in the series:
The Life and Times of Car Johnson

So far there are twelve segments, with more coming each week. Car Johnson is one crazy dude and it's kind of fun having him stuck in the back of my brain. I'm a petite brunette female who's shy and soft spoken and he's a crazy redheaded man with a loud and twisted view on life.

Yeah, I write horror, have a twisted sense of humor, while writing emotional and inspiring poetry and children's stories. My mind is like some sort of over stuffed attic, the kind that has all sorts of mismatched and interesting odds and ends. That's why I write, so I can play around with my thoughts and give them to other people to have fun with.

Can you survive Hell?

Can you survive Hell?

I found a great way to corrupt those old choose your path stories that you used to love as a kid. Remember the sense of wonder and thrill you got from reading those and how they were a hallmark of your childhood? This story isn't one of those.

It's a horror story with demons, murder and torment. Why should kids have all the fun? It's time for a grown up choose your path adventure.

Be warned, this is a very scary horror story and might not be suitable for all people.

Demons and Deadlines - An adventure in Hell

Go ahead and check it out and tell me what you think. (Even if what you think is "OMG you're evil!!!! :P)