Featured

Publishing News!

I’m so excited to announce that my novella, The Light in the Cave, is now available on Amazon here! It’s been a journey learning all about self-publishing, but I am glad I took the leap and will finally publish this novella!

Here is the description:

Karisa Meyers has just taken a position working in a cave as a government contractor in order to be closer to her boyfriend, Fox Greene, a Staff Sergeant in the Army. She’s a little worried she won’t be able to pass the tests and keep her job. Fortunately, Cole Brooks, her sexy trainer is there to help. However, soon she will uncover the secrets of the cave and need to battle a biobot vampire, a quantum computer, and her own growing feelings for Cole.

The Light in the Cave blends the genres of Paranormal Romance, Science Fiction, and Mystery while touching on metaphysical topics such as frequency, remote viewing, synchronicity, the power of the mind, and the gift of free will.

33% alien 33% vampire 33% quantum computer and 100% entertainment is found within this action-packed story!

This original novella was inspired from Tricia Sankey’s short story, The Reset, which received an Honorable Mention in the prestigious L.Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.

From the Afterword of my novella:

A few people have asked me about the inspiration for the cave setting in my novella. There was a time I did work as a contractor for the government, redacting immigration records inside a cave in Missouri. No, I didn’t encounter any aliens or vampires (that I can speak of) but I did spend plenty of time daydreaming, (during my breaks, of course) and perhaps my frequency increased while I spent so much time underground. I did and still do notice 11:11 and 1:11 quite often, but I just consider it a fun synchronicity.

I also appreciate the synchronicity of my novella releasing for pre-order on 2/22/2022!

Thanks to Ingrid at Experiments in Fiction for her help with cover design and publicity. For more information on how to be an EIF Affiliate Author click here!

Featured

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting! Stick around for some coffee and fun!

My writing has appeared online in  OneSentencePoems Paragraph Planet 50-Word Stories   Red Wolf Journal and MasticadoresUSA.

My micropoetry has been published in the following anthologies:

Poetryin13 Volume 3             Poetryin13 Volume 4: The Loss Sessions

The Anthropocene Hymnal
Read more about this anthology designed to raise awareness about climate change here. All proceeds go to WorldWildLife which aims to reduce the threats against nature and eco-systems around the world.

FromOneLine Vol.2. from Kobayaashi Studios. You can get the anthology here or on the publisher’s site here.

My short story, The Cave, made the ScreenCraft Quarterfinals in 2019 

I received an Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest for my short story, The Reset. Read the complete list of winners here

If you enjoy literary style writing, please check out the first issue of The Lindenwood Review where I worked as an Editorial Assistant while obtaining my MFA in Writing. Credits here.

My flash fiction was recently featured on Christian writer and filmmaker Mitch Teemley’s blog here

Need an editor click here 

Finally, my novella, The Light in the Cave, is now available on Kindle! It made the Amazon best sellers list in the category of Young Adult short reads on its first day released! 🥳

 

copyright © 2022

Unless otherwise noted, all text and photos on this blog are my original work. Feel free to link but please do not use them without my permission. Thanks! 

Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women is available for purchase today!!

I had so much fun tweeting and retweeting about the Wounds I Healed anthology this morning and watching it soar to #1!! Tomorrow morning, I will be participating in the launch party at 9am CST where some of the contributors will be reading poems LIVE! The event will be live streamed via Ingrid Wilson’s YouTube channel here . I am thankful to Gabriela and Ingrid for all their hard word spent in editing and production and thrilled this publication is receiving all the attention and praise it deserves!

Award-winning authors, Pushcart nominees, emerging poets, voices of women and men, come to the fore in this stunning, powerful, and unique anthology. These poems testify both to the challenges that women face in our society, and to their power to overcome them. A memorable collection of over 200 poems by more than 100 authors, this anthology is a must-have for anyone. We all can benefit from the poetry of survival, and of healing. We all can benefit from the experiences so beautifully evoked in this book. We can all come together to emerge triumphant from pain.

Click here to purchase on Amazon

Bewitched

I will die
uninsured

with escrowed spells
the lawyers steal

their tongues slithering
all around

in sad attempts
to roll their
the r’s

the magic slips
onto the floor

where the woman
sweeps bewitched

tasting dust
bejeweled in light

that broom
will fly tomorrow.

#vss365

Harry Potter Halloween GIF

Originally tweeted by Tricia (@triciasankey) on June 13, 2022.

Written for dVerse Quadrille Monday where Sanaa asks us to write a poem in 44 words using the prompt word: spell.

Also tweeted for #vss365 prompt word: escrow

Dreaming

“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.” Salvadore Dali

Life is a madhouse
of stilted dreams
and teasing mountains-

The phone’s not real
don’t answer

while on safari
throw back
the baubles you find

in this panoramic play

and learn to embrace
fuzzy shadows
and sky.

I got a little inspired from the video! (it’s creepy but inspiring) 😆
Sharing with dVerse OLN

Also, thrilled to announce we have a date for the Wounds I Healed anthology!!

There will be a launch party at 9am CST on June 18th where contributors will be reading one of their poems. I hope to attend and read a poem that will be livestreamed on YouTube. Read more about it here!








Educate Me

The sixteen-year-old boy got up from his seat and made his way to the classroom window that faced the entrance of the school.

“Take a picture if you want,” his teacher said.

So, he got out his cell phone and snapped away.

“He’s in handcuffs,” his friend says. “They just stuffed him in the back of the car. I heard he punched a policeman.”

The boys aren’t scared, just intrigued. And proud. For their police officers caught the boy before he shot up the school. But they aren’t sure he had a gun. They just imagine.

The boy tells his mother the story of what happened during his graphic design class while she surveys his pictures of red and blue lights. She imagines.

And she questions. Why are children in a nice, suburban school, so disturbed? These are the things they don’t tell us.

***

Unfortunately, this is a true story as I have a sixteen-year-old boy that snapped pictures from his classroom window of a boy being arrested and handcuffed. This was just a few days after the Uvalde shooting. I believe we need some commonsense gun laws, but we also need to address mental health and what is inspiring children and young adults to be driven to such violence.

Written for Prosery Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Today Lisa asks us to include the line “These are the things they don’t tell us,” in a piece of prose (not poetry) that is no more than 144 words in length. The line is from Girl Du Jour, from Notes on Uvalde. It’s a powerful read!!

Browsing

It’s Quadrille Monday at dVerse Poets Pub where Linda asks us to write a 44-word poem using the word (or some form of) “Browse”.

I also incorporated the #vss365 Twitter prompt #unforeseen and tweeted it! If some of the lines sound familiar, I pulled them from two of my former Twitter poems to create this strange quadrille!

The painting hangs crooked on the wall
the sky bellows upside down
I turn my tongue
as I browse
tendrils of time
savoring salt and river rocks
The waves rise up
#Unforeseen
and bold words
rain in oblique lines
with meanings scrambled
just so.

#vss365

Maroon 5 Rain GIF by NOW That’s Music

Originally tweeted by Tricia (@triciasankey) on May 30, 2022.

Publishing News and latest tweets!

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted here as I’ve been super busy on the home front with a funeral (my cousin recently passed from ovarian cancer), celebrating the arrival of my niece’s new baby, and a fun family reunion in Branson, Missouri. I’ve also been working on some freelance projects on the side, with only a small amount of time for my Twitter poetry.

I am excited to announce two of my poems related to #armywife life has been accepted into Wounds I Healed anthology which is due out in early June!! There is an upcoming Live discussion on Twitter Space led by the Editor Gabriela Marie Milton @shortprose and Publisher Ingrid Wilson @Experimentsinfc on the anthology scheduled for June 4 at 10am ET. (Click here to read more!)

Check out my latest tweets including info on my recent submission of my novella, The Light in the Cave, into the Page Turner Awards contest for screenplay adaptation!! 🤞🤞🤞

“The Blue Yellow Tree” for dVerse Poetics

“The Blue Yellow Tree” by Vika Muse
She writes: Escaping into the fantasy world helps to overcome the feeling of permanent anxiety caused by the war.

I make my way
through painted forests
and follow the path

of the rising light,
as it twists and turns
behind tremulous trees,

I fall to my knees

and examine
old ground

still teeming
with life

still rooted
in dreams.

Written for Poetics Tuesday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets around the globe. Mish hosts and introduces us to Ukrainian artist, Vika Muse. Mish writes: “During this unfathomable yet very real situation in her homeland, let us bask in the light of her artistry and be a reflection of light with our words.”

The work of Vika Muse can be found on Instagram at @get.muse and is featured on the website http://www.inprnt.com 







For my cousin

For those who aren’t on twitter and haven’t heard, my cousin, who is just 52, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a short time ago. She is currently in ICU after enduring multiple blood clots and then a rare reaction to her blood thinner.

I am amazed that it took her doctors so long to give her a proper diagnosis as she was having symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, leg and feet pain and loss of appetite for some time. Ovarian cancer is often not caught until it’s in advanced stages so it’s important to know the signs and symptoms. She mistakenly chalked a lot of her symptoms up to a horrible menopause. If you are interested in reading more about the signs and symptoms of this silent killer, you can go here.

%d bloggers like this: