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Category Archives: Fiction
30 Children’s Book Publishers Seeking Picture Books
30 Children’s Book Publishers Seeking Picture Books
All the publishers on this list focus primarily on publishing picture books. There are a lot of myths about publishing picture books, and one of them is that you have to supply your own illustrations. This is generally not the case. Most picture book publishers will match your work with an illustrator for you, some won’t even consider written work submitted with illustrations.
The publishers on this list run the gamut from being a few years old and still establishing their reputation, to being over 75 years old. Some are large companies with good distribution and others are still finding their way.
Article by Emily Harstone
#BookReview – Deadly Lies by Chris Patchell
Deadly Lies by Chris Patchell is an unusual crime/thriller novel. It is told in two voices – Jill’s and Alex’s. Jill is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by her stepfather. Alex is a detective in Seattle PD. Although they are a married couple of five years, the two have been living separate lives as their jobs keep them both busy. While Jill has an affair with her boss, Alex works to find the killer of his ex-girlfriend’s sister and who has also threatened everyone Alex loves. Jill’s life begins to spiral out of control when her boss abruptly ends their affair and threatens to end Jill’s career. This leads Jill down a road of unfortunate and deadly events which further threatens her marriage to Alex and her personal freedom. Alex successfully tracks down the killer only to have the killer slip through his fingers a couple of times. Once Alex finally gets the killer in custody, he learns the dangerous, deadly game Jill has been playing. Then the killer is released and everyone’s lives are again in danger. Meanwhile, Alex has to decide what to do about Jill and as the two are in the middle of that confrontation, the killer shows up in an exciting, yet sad conclusion.
Patchell creates intriguing, solid characters. Jill is vulnerable, yet hardened from hatred of her stepfather. Alex is steady, loyal and honorable. Although I was shocked by some of Jill’s actions, I could understand why she did some of the things she did. Jill’s character, while not completely likable, actually became my favorite. Alex’s character seemed a bit naive at times, but Patchell set him up as such a good detective, I wasn’t at all surprised at how easily he discovered what Jill had been up to. The scene building was also well done, as were the characterizations, descriptions and settings. All in all, this was a complete package. If you want a great thriller that gives you some shocking, exciting moments, this is definitely the novel for you.
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Crime Fiction/Thriller
To Purchase: Amazon Kindle | Audible
Happenings in 2016
This is a list of my projected projects for 2016. It will be interesting to see how many of them I accomplish over the year. I may complete them all and I may only complete a few of them, but I definitely need to get back to my writing and get some projects completed.
YEAR-LONG PROJECTS
For the entire year, I will be doing 365 Days of Writing Prompts, a download that I snatched from Word Press that came out in 2013. You can find it happening over at Promptly Written
Also for the entire year, I am going to do small stones over at A Whispered Wind
JANUARY
At As the Fates Would Have It, I will be celebrating Joyful January with Satya and Kaspa over at Writing Our Way Home
FEBRUARY
No project scheduled as of yet
MARCH
No project scheduled as of yet
APRIL
Over at Promptly Written, I will once again be participating in the Blogging from A-to-Z April Challenge
April PoemADay with Poetic Asides to be posted on Promptly Written
MAY
StoryADay in May Challenge with Julie Duffy — This will take place on my Promptly Written blog
JUNE
No project scheduled as of yet
JULY
No project scheduled as of yet
AUGUST
No project scheduled as of yet
SEPTEMBER
No project scheduled as of yet
OCTOBER
No project scheduled as of yet
NOVEMBER
I will be participating in NaNoWriMo, but I am not sure yet if I will post my novel on any of my blogs at this moment. This will be my 3rd attempt in 4 years. Something always seems to come up around that time to prevent me from completing this challenge, but not in 2016! I am sending out to the Universe that I will complete a novel in November 2016!
DECEMBER
No project scheduled as of yet
PROJECTS TO WORK ON
- More Astraeus stories (or another novella) – these will be posted on Promptly Written as I get them completed – I will be adding them here because this is where I began the project last April for the A-to-Z Challenge and I don’t want to confuse my readers by moving them to another blog – they will not be prompted stories.
- Post my Ravyne Ramirez stories and write more of them – these will be posted on A Whispered Wind
- More of the Candy from a Stranger stories – these will be posted on A Whispered Wind
- I began a series of stories earlier this year called Killer Tales and I want to write more of them – these will be posted on A Whispered Wind
- I want to work on some Flash Fiction this year, some time during the summer months
- Poetry – I want to write 100 new poems for publication. These will not be posted on any of my blogs
- I’ve been working on a project with a friend about Bobby Kennedy, so I will continue my research on that – none of that will be posted on any of my blogs.
This seems like a lot of projects, but spaced out over a year, that really isn’t a very big to-do list. As I decide which months to do which projects, I will update this list of Happenings.
Happy Anniversary!
Today marks my 4th anniversary on WordPress. Yay me! And yet, I feel like I’ve contributed very little to the WordPress community. Oh well… still 4 years in the same place is pretty good.
In other news… I am looking forward to November. I will be doing the NaNoWriMo this year. It will be a sequel of sorts to the Sci-Fi Novelette I wrote in April. If you haven’t read it, you can check it out HERE… just be sure to scroll to the bottom and begin with Letter A. I am not sure yet if I will be posting the new work daily on Promptly Written or not. I haven’t quite made up my mind. My novelette did not receive many readers in April, so I don’t really want to waste my time posting if it will not be read. I may just post updates about it here on this blog.
Happy writing everyone!
Upcoming Projects in May
I’ve outlined my upcoming writing projects for May. Have a peek over at As the Fates Would Have It
Just a Reminder…
Hey everyone!
I am currently working on Prompts over at Promptly Written
Come join me for some great poetry via the April PAD Challenge, some Science Fiction via the A-to-Z Challenge, and learn some new things about me via my 30 Day Blog Challenge. I would love to see you there!
~Lori~
Flash Fiction: When Freedom Finally Comes
“Sorry, Bill doesn’t live here anymore… No, I don’t know where he is now… I don’t plan on seeing him again, so it won’t do you any good to leave a message for him… that’s okay… no problem.”
She hangs up the phone and looks around her apartment. Her apartment. Finally hers for the first time in seven years. She inspects her bookshelf. Her books. Her mythology, metaphysics, science fiction. No more thriller novels, how-to books, political non-fiction… all his, all gone. She looks at her CD collection. Her David Sanborn, Enya, Kenny G, Jimi Hendrix, an assortment of Seventies and Eighties rock, blues, and R&B. No more Hank Williams Jr., Alabama, bluegrass and rap… all his… all gone. She walks into the kitchen. Her toaster. Her microwave. Her dishes and pans and crystal. Her herb rack. His wok, blender, juicer, and coffee pot… all gone.
She pours herself a glass of Glenfiddich. Her drink. No more Budweiser cans to clutter the trash. No more Marlboro Reds to clean out of the ash trays. No more… she spots his favorite mug. Still on the cabinet beside the stove. She picks it up, inspects it, turning it around and around in her hands… she remembers the night he brought it home.
Bill wanted to go into a cute little coffee shop down on the Market. They had dressed up to see a play, but she felt over-dressed for the coffee shop, so they stopped home to change first. She took too long, as usual, and Bill left without her. When he returned hours later, she was curled up on the sofa reading and ignored his entrance. He was drunk again. His usual escape when he was mad at her. In his hands was a mug from D’Angelo’s a bar down town, and his name had been etched into it. They had their usual fight, and he went to bed, snoring before his head hit the pillow… the mug tucked tightly under his arm.
He kept that mug close to him ever since. An excuse now to return to the apartment, she surmises. Turning it once more, she drops it into the trash can. No more mug. No more Bill.
She opens the refrigerator and pulls out a jar of salsa… hot. No more mild salsa for her. She grabs some chips and patters down the hall to the living room. No more television. No more wrestling. Serenity at last. She curls up on her sofa, opens the jar of salsa and eats it, dipping the chips right into the jar. No more bowls. She places her scotch on the table, letting it leave a ring if it wants to on the old coffee table. No more owl-shapped coasters. She picks up a copy of Omni and begins reading it. No more interruptions. No loud a-hems from across the room. She can read as long as she wants to.
After a few minutes, she places the jar of salsa on the coffee table, picks up her glass, swallows the rest of her scotch and lays the magazine on the sofa beside her. She glances around the living room, soaking in all the changes she has made in the three days since Bill moved out. A new fern, candles on the mantel piece, a large rocking chair in the corner of the room, a new stereo system. And then she notices the picture of her and Bill on vacation in Nantucket last year. She gets up, moves to the table it is resting upon and picks it up. She looks at it longingly. No more vacations in Nantucket. No more love-making in a hotel while people sleep in the next room. No more roses on her birthdays. No more Saturday morning breakfast-in-bed treats. No more rides on his Harley in the rain. No more Bill.
She drops the photograph on the floor, watches the shattering pieces through teary eyes. She returns to her couch, cradles a pillow in her arms and cries.
© 2013 Lori Carlson
Flash Fiction: The Mirror
Tilly passed the antique store every day on her way to work. She stood for a few moments staring inside at all the furnishings she wished for her own home some day.
On this particular day, there was a new mirror hanging in the display room. She went inside. The mirror was round and heavily embellished in the Baroque style. It wasn’t reflective. She surmised that perhaps it was damaged in some way. Leaning forward, she touched the mirror. Smoke cleared and it suddenly became reflective.
Standing before the mirror, her hands on her cheeks, Tilly gasped. The eyes of an eight year old Tilly stared back at her.
And then she spoke.
“Come play with me.”
Tilly was never seen again.
Case #305 – Flash Fiction
Elsie sat quietly while the professor discussed Case #305 in her Criminal Justice class. She was easily distracted. Thoughts hurriedly ran through her mind. Every now and again she would pick up pieces of information: razor blade, no sign of forced entry, no fingerprints but the victim’s. She was just about to walk out on the class, when something too familiar was said.
“The police found a used condom in the trash, but it wasn’t used on this victim,” her professor said. “It was from another unsolved rape case. This perp was taunting the police.”
Elsie let out a soft cry, but in the near-silence of the classroom, it echoed louder than she thought. All eyes turned to stare at her. She feigned a sneeze and said she was fine, then apologized to the professor. But she was not fine. She didn’t need to be there for the rest of this case; yet she couldn’t leave now.
She tried to drown out details of the case with songs in her head. At first Beethoven and Mozart and when they didn’t work, heavy metal songs played over in her mind. Nothing worked. She was sweating and breathing harder. She couldn’t sit still any longer and rose to leave.
“Miss Johnson, are you okay?” she heard the professor ask.
Elsie turned to look at him and said, barely audible, “Just need some air, sir.” She stumbled out of the room.
She ran outside the building, threw her books down on the stairs and leaned over a ledge, puking. Her mind raced with images, such horrible images.
Three years ago. Her dorm room.
Her rape. Her case.
A Whispered Wind 