Back to school.

Hey guys!,
I know! I haven't written in two weeks and it's about 2 am here in NYC but every time I got a moment, something else came along. I'm so excited. I'm such a geek but I can't wait for my classes to start back up in September. I have five more classes left and I'll have my degree!!!

My nephew went back to Maryland last week and while I'm praising Jesus for the end of endless Disney channel shows, I do miss him a lot. He's such a goofy kid, I can honestly say he made me laugh at least twice every day. But I'll see him on Thanksgiving, I promised him I'd make famous cherry cheesecake or white chocolate peanut butter cups.

I'm up writing tonight. I'm finishing a chapter of my new story. Also, I just put another story on Smashwords.com called Her Protector, it's free so download, download, download!!! And something else awesome, Carlie's on Amazon!!! I was a little upset that I couldn't use my pen name and I had to use my whole name but that's alright. I haven't used my whole name in my writing since high school.

Well it's so late and I'm beat. I need some sleep.

Sleep tight guys!!!

Sorry it's been a few weeks!!!!

Hey,
I know it's been about two weeks since my last post. I'm so not ignoring you. When I don't journal for more than a week I'm usually elbows deep in finishing a story. I just finished writing New start, New love and published it on Smashwords, I'm thinking this one may go to Amazon too. It's about a woman who escapes her abusive relationship.

I'm now back writing my horror story (I had to take a break, I scared myself), but I changed the title. I wasn't really feeling the other one. I also just got an idea for another romance and a mystery series and I'm trying to work out the kinks for those.

Well I'm going to get back to writing but I do want to give a sample of New start, New love (this title is actually a line in the story.). Here is the last part of Chapter 3, where the sample is cut off on Smashwords. I hope you like it!!!!

Continuation of Chapter 3

“Tips given to you personally are yours.” Dolly said walking pass her.

“Oh.” Tessa said. She’d gotten a few and put them into the tip jar but then again maybe that’s why she got a hundred bucks extra in her check last week, maybe Dolly had seen her do it and gave her the tips back.

“He’s really good looking huh?” Tessa said to Joe. He smiled at her and cocked a brow.

“You’re really cute.”

“And you’re married.” Tessa said. Joe looked down at his ring as if he had forgotten it was on his finger. He cracked a smile and shook his head.

“Good eye.” He said. She walked away from him.

“Leave my girls alone Joe, before I tell your old lady.” Morris Washington said. Morris was the cook and partial owner. The man was massive and scary looking but a real sweetheart.

“No problem boss.” Joe said. Tessa gave him his bag.

“Six bucks.” She said smiling. He gave her a ten.

“Keep the change.” He said with a wink. He stood and walked out.

“Steer clear of that one.” Dolly smiled.

“I surely am. He’s a destroyer.”

“Sheriff Giles is really sweet though.” Dolly said. Tessa smiled and nodded.

“Seems it.” Tessa said softly. She tucked her four-dollar tip into her apron. 

By the end of the week, she had made three hundred and fifty in tips alone and three in her pay check. She had a great week and treated Kyle to a movie night. He’d been pointing out one of those animal movies that annoyed her to no end. 

Tessa smiled as Kyle skipped happily. He was just so much brighter since they came here. Tessa loved it. She loved seeing him like this. It made her happy.

The second guy night of the week turned into a movie night. Hunter hadn’t seen an action movie in two years and was ready for a night of hanging with the boys and goofing off.

Joe took one of the trays of soda and handed it back. Hunter passed him two more trays.

“Hey look.” Joe said. All of the guys looked. Tessa opened the door and let Kyle walk in first. It was pretty busy but then again it was Saturday night. Kyle took hold of her hand instantly, looking frightened. Tessa held it tightly smiling at him.

“You’re ok, mommy’s right here.” Tessa said softly. Kyle sighed looking around at all of the people.

“Hi Tessa.” Joe said smiling. Hunter looked at him quickly.

“Hi Joe, hi sheriff.” Tessa said tenderly.

“Hi.” Hunter smiled. Tessa picked up Kyle and carried him through the room of moviegoers.

“She’s cute.” James Howard said taking his frosted Cherry Mountain cola from the holder.

“I’ve seen better.” John Baxter said. Joe and Hunter looked at him. “What?”

“I think she’s pretty.” David Marshall said. “And I don’t even like chicks but I’d do her.”

“Yeah how does that work?” Joe teased. They all laughed.

“I don’t want to know.” Hunter said as he passed back boxes of candy and buckets of popcorn.

“What? I had a girlfriend for two years in high school. I’ve been with women before.” David said smiling.

“Yeah, remember Skylar Holbrooke.” Ethan Forrester said. The men gave a joking chorus of farm animal sounds. Hunter laughed but didn’t join in. Besides being unattractive, she was a really nice girl when you got to know her. He figured that’s what David saw.

“Alright, alright.” David said slightly annoyed. Skylar broke up with him and David was still a little singed around the edges. 

Tessa gave Kyle his box of Skittles and took their popcorn and drinks. They made their way through the crowd of people to their theater. He was so excited he gave her a squeal that made her laugh.

“I know, I can’t wait either.” She smiled. She didn’t see Hunter watching her and Kyle. He wanted more and more to talk to her but his nerves wouldn’t let him. Every time he thought of it, he had visions of her laughing hysterically at him. 

They found a place, settling near the back of the theater. Kyle picked their seats right in the middle of the row. She set him up with his treats and tucked his coat behind him like a cushion. She knew she would be carrying him back home when the movie let out at eleven.

All through the movie, Hunter had her on his mind. She was something unlike anything he had ever seen. Here, in this town, the women were oglers. They looked more than they tried. But Tessa didn’t look and that was new for him. She just was as she was. She didn’t look at him or anyone. She steered clear of having extended conversations with anyone and kept it moving, to quote Joe.

“Holy shit his legs got blown right the fuck off!” James screamed snapping Hunter out of his thoughts. The guys all laughed like goons and continued passing around food.

Tessa watched the talking dog on the screen as it bounced from stone to stone in a little stream and sang happily. Kyle seemed to be enjoying it all.

“Pee-pee mom.” Kyle begged. Tessa strapped on her bag and left their stuff there lifting him and carrying him out. There weren’t many people there anyway so she wasn’t too worried about someone taking their seats. Tessa took him to the women’s room.

He finished using the bathroom and Tessa carried him out of the stall.

“Better?” She smiled. He nodded yawning sleepily. Tessa took him to the sink and washed his hand.

“You’re not supposed to let boys use the women’s room.” A woman said from behind her. Tessa looked back to see a tall woman with black hair. She was dressed in blue slacks and an oxford shirt. She was holding the hand of a little red head kid with a bowl cut. The kid was picking his nose and looking at the “treasures”. Tessa shook her head.

“Excuse me?”

“Your son is supposed to go to the men's room.” She said.

“What am I supposed to do? Send him in there by himself?” Tessa asked. “He’s two. And you bought your son in here.” The woman’s eyes widened.

“This is my daughter.” She said haughtily. Tessa looked at the child. She saw nothing about the kid that would suggest that, especially not while she was picking her nose feverishly.

“Are you sure?” Tessa asked. The woman raised her chin and turned walking out, dragging the kid behind her.

Helena Donovan stormed pass Hunter angrily as he left the men's room. Tessa came out of the women's room holding Kyle’s hand.

“Hey.” Hunter smiled at them.

“Hi.” Tessa said smiling. Kyle waved at him but didn’t speak.

“Enjoying your movie?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah, he needed a pee-pee break.” Tessa said tenderly. She looked in the direction the woman was angrily stomping. She pulled open the door to the theater Tessa and Kyle were in. “Aww shit.” She sighed.

“What?”

“That lady. I offended her.” Tessa said walking slowly toward the theater. Hunter walked with them.

“What happened?”

“She says to me that Kyle isn’t allowed to use the women’s room. I say to her that he’s two. Am I supposed to send him to the men’s room alone? Then I stuck my foot in it and say well you have your son in here.” Hunter knew the kid was a girl. He remembered when she had long pigtails that flopped on her shoulders like bunny ears. But a bad bubblegum accident left her with the short bowl cut.

“Oh no.”

“And she goes this is my daughter.” Tessa said. He started laughing and it made Tessa giggle. “I made it worse and asked her if she was sure.” He laughed harder and so did she. Kyle stared at the laughing adults.

“Yeah, little Maebelle didn’t get her mom’s looks.” He said chuckling.

“It’s shocking because that lady is really pretty.” Tessa said shaking her head and sighing. “I’ve always had a fat mouth.” She pulled open the door to the theater.

“It’s nice to discover it again.” She said. He gave her a smile. “See ya around.”

“Bye.” Hunter said softly. He watched the door close wondering what she meant by that discovering her big mouth thing. He turned and went back to his theater.

Tessa and Kyle walked home through quiet streets. A few people were also out on their ways back from the movies. Couples walked home hand and hand enjoying the cool spring night. It was eleven and Kyle was beat and stuffed. He yawned as Tessa led him back to the motel.

“Is my baby sleepy?” Tessa asked.

“Yes mommy.” Kyle yawned.

“Mom’s gonna get you home right away.” Tessa said as they turned the corner to their room. She picked him up, taking out her key and unlocking the door. They went in to their little sanctuary and locked out the world.

Friday!!!

I love Friday!!!! I get to veg all night long. I'll go out tomorrow night but tonight I am so turning off my brain. I don't even know if I'm going to do any editing. I may just save that for tomorrow. Also I may spend the night on the internet. I'm looking for research sites that have historical things on it. I need to know what kind of lace women wore in the eighteen hundreds and what the hell is a petticoat!! My sister was trying to explain it to me but I couldn't visualize it. So I need to see one.

Speaking of my sister, since she read Carlie she's been so on top of everything I write. It's almost like she's my biggest fan. I love it. She keeps asking me, what's next and what is my next hero going to look like. She fell in love with my hero Devlin, she thought he was sexy! I love it. I can't believe she even likes my romances, she's more of a Dragonlance/Lord of the Rings lover. She likes fantastical novels much more than romance novels. In other words she's a geek. But she's really embracing my stories and my characters.

My mom's been asking when I'll publish my next story too. She also liked Carlie and has been bragging to her friends about it. It flattering but I'm not a writer, writer yet. Some day I will be but right now I'm just enjoying it. Well maybe I'll only turn off my brain for a few hours tonight. Maybe I'll toss in a few hours of editing and writing before I head to bed tonight.

It is so nice outside today. I left for work at four this morning and just got home at about two thirty today. I'm tired but I may head back out before it gets dark and those freaking mosquitoes come out. Enjoy this beautiful New York day!!!!

NYC is SIZZLING!!!

It is so hot!!!! Come on autumn!!!

I don't know what is wrong with me but I choose today, the hottest day of the heatwave, to go out. I took my nephew out thinking we would hang out at the mall but the mall was packed and everybody seemed so freaking cranky. We left the mall and had lunch, then went home but he was so bored laying around watching cartoons. It was literally like an oven out there. I couldn't take it going back out but I gave in, we grabbed a beach umbrella and a cooler packed with goodies and headed to Rockaway beach. He had fun, we found seashells and he conked out after dinner and a banana split. Auntie is absolutely awesome. Off to write!!

Stay cool and hydrated if you're heading out tonight!!!!!!!

Memory lane!

Hey guys!,
So I'm doing reedits on my newest story in hopes that I'll get it out by the end of next week and my mom asks me to go with her to her storage unit, she wants to clean it out. I toss on a old pair of sweats and my walking sneakers and head out with her to Long Island. My mom has two units, one with garden stuff and one with family stuff. We started on the garden stuff first since there wasn't a whole lot in there. We gave some of her garden decorations to the people who worked there and put some in the car to take back home  then we started on the family box.

When she packed up the unit I was living in Maryland so I wasn't able to help her out but I knew she put almost all of my stuff in there and some of it she tossed. So she unlocks this unit and inside are all of these giant storage containers, you know those really big ones you store blankets in during the summer. So there are nine of them, stacked in twos, and I asked her what was in them, before she could answer I looked down and see my sister's name. All of the crates had the name of one of my siblings on it and the two farther back were hers and my dad's.

My dad passed when I was ten and a lot of his old clothes I haven't seen since then. I loved my dad to death but he had to be the only Black man who looked like he could have been Bob Ross's twin. He wore the jeans, the plaid shirts and he had the beard and Afro just like Bob Ross. The worst thing about it was he wasn't actually trying to look like Bob Ross. That was his style back in the seventies and he kept it in the eighties and early nineties. But seeing his old stuff again was like wow, it's been twenty years since dad passed.  That's really a long time to not see someone you loved so dearly. Its almost like when a parent dies and you're young, you think of it as like them being away or a divorce in a way. When you get older you realize that you're never going to see that person again. Not in this life anyway.

We opened my box next and I was so thrown back. It was stacked with my old stuff. My Alf puppet in his Hawaiian shirt, an old Jem doll with the hair cut off, my old raggedy Paddington bear, and an old Winnie the Pooh bear(Hint: that's what my mom still calls me, Poohbear). The clincher was, in the corner of my box was a stack of books tied together with twine. They were all Babysitter's Club books!! All of my old BSC books with my official BSC book light were there! And yes, I was a member of the BSC fan club!!! On top of that she even had all of my old Fear Street books. I swear I read every single book in the series, some I borrowed from my neighborhood library and a ton of them I bought. I loved those stories so much I took some of them back home with me.

So right now I'm reediting my story in between reread The Truth About Stacy. Enjoy your day, I know I'm going to be enjoying mine!!!

Stay cool!! It's so damn stuffy in NYC!!
Peace!

Been a while.

Hey guys!,
It's been about three weeks since I've posted but I've been a little busy editing Runaway. This is my third reread and every time I reread it I find something I don't like so I end up rewriting a chapter or two. I love it though. I always think up something new to put in that adds to the story or gives it a little pop.

I also have been rewriting The Bloody Lady. I'm not feeling that title too much either but it's how one of my characters describe her. I think I may have to think up a different title for it.

This week I was searching through one of my boxes of notebooks for a story I wrote back in high school, and I found an old removable drive that had about six stories on it. I've also been editing some of those stories, including a ghost story that my mom experienced as a teen in the south. So I have a lot of work to do and I'm loving all of it.

I swear there are very few things in this world that give me more pleasure than writing! Its like I constantly get to create new worlds and new situations and new love stories. I get to escape within myself for three or four hours every night and just be somewhere else. It's so much fun!

My mom and sister are begging me for a continuation of Carlie. My mom loved it so much and she was so proud when I told her I wrote it. My sister was a little skeptical about my writing. She didn't think I could and now she's like, Keep going! What happens? Does she meet his parents? Does he meet hers? Is she going to marry him? Does the biker guy come back for revenge? 

I was going to leave it as is. I loved the ending and how they were just like a family unit and I didn't want them to get married at the end, that's so cliche. But now I'm thinking I should continue the story. Maybe pick up the story somewhere down the road. I kind of wanted them to go their separate ways and maybe come back together some how years later.

What do you guys think? Should I make up a second part to Carlie?

Well let me get back to work. Today is so gorgeous out I think I'm going to go chill in the park. Maybe I'll walk to town when I'm finished editing. I think that comic book store is still there. I haven't read X-Men in about ten years but I'm really in the mood to read a comic today.

Stay cool!!

Home!!

Hey guys,
I am finally back in New York. I did enjoy Baltimore a lot. Luckily I took off for the semester to rest so I was free to head down there. (After almost four years of going to school and work full time my brain was starting to fry.) Even though I didn't get to Fells Point and the Harbor, I did get to hang out with my niece and nephew. I went to help out one of my big sisters. She's moving to South Carolina and needed me to keep an eye on my niece and nephew, who are both teenagers now, thirteen and fifteen.

I so wasn't feeling it the first day I got there. My niece, who was grounded, tried her darnedest to sneak out and when I busted her I was suddenly the enemy. She tried to get my nephew to conspire with her, once I started baking his favorite cookies he was easily on my side. But after a week, when she realized auntie wasn't playing, she fell in line.

That was really hard for me though and it took a lot out of me. I'm always the cool auntie who has a funny story or is cracking jokes, it was so hard to go into mommy mode. My oldest niece is only ten years younger than me so we basically grew up together and even she had to realize, when she was a teenager, that I'm auntie and not just a best friend.

It was the first time I was in charge of teenagers for an extended period of time and I appreciated my sister being a hard working single mom even more. It was so tiring to get up, make breakfast, get them up and clean and dressed, feed them and get them out to school on time. Then go back and clean, do laundry, make dinner and make sure they were doing their homework and not just watching television.

But we had fun. I was there for their birthdays so I made their dinners and their cakes. They didn't have parties but I did invite their friends in to eat and have cake. We had movie night on Saturday which was usually movies that were so scary they kept me up at night. They showed me their little neighborhood hang outs and I met their friends. I'd say got the full mommy experience. I even got an I hate you. I gotta say I'm not rushing to motherhood no matter how much my mom drops hints for more grand kids.

I showed my niece my book and my blog and she was so excited. She told all her friends her auntie was a writer which I thought was absolutely cute. But she wasn't happy with my blog she wanted me to add pictures and all kinds of quotes. I'm like, it's basically a journal but I leave it open for people to comment if they want and I really just enjoy the fact that people read it. But I guess that's how teenagers still are. They always like to be the center of attention, good or bad, and be a little over the top. I know I did.

So I'm home and I can finally shut myself away and write for a few hours. I have to start picking my classes for the summer term which I'm kind of dreading because I really enjoyed resting. But it's back to business.

Enjoy your day!!! It's hot and sticky in NYC!!