Welcome To Danni’s Flash Fiction Blog
Flash fiction is an amazing way to study the craft of writing. Not only does it give me a quick creative break from working on my novel, but it allows me to explore different emotions, settings, and points of view. It only takes a moment to enjoy a quick tale of love, fear, loss, joy, regret, humor, or revenge.
Give me a moment and I’ll give you a story.
(stories are posted on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month)
Never Best
You were on a pedestal I could never reach. A beauty unmatched, with porcelain skin and Marilyn curves. Your smile outshone the sun. When you spoke, people listened. When you sang, they were transformed. Countless nights I cried, begging God for a voice like that. I dreamed of having your strength and courage, of one day standing on my own two feet and facing down the tyrants and the bullies; of someone standing in awe of me the way I did of you.
I knew I could never match your brilliance, or your talent, or your charm, but I could get close. Walking the tightrope of your shadow, I felt just enough warmth to be satisfied. I had just enough love, just enough respect, just enough praise.
It had to be enough.
I’d never be special. I’d never be first.
I’d always be good. Never best.
The Last Rite
Photo Prompt by Icy Sedgwick
Tears glistened in her eyes, obscuring the image before her. She swallowed the pain, trying to see the fractured light as stars instead of the truth rising to greet her.
How many times had she climbed these steps?
A lifetime of rites flashed through her mind.
Saints and sacraments. Confessions and candles.
This would be her final passage through those great doors. One last time for the woman who had taught her about love, about sacrifice, and about strength. The one who had taught her that faith conquers all.
Except this time.
No ancient rituals brought her back from the brink, or saved her from a single day of suffering.
This would be the last time she would taste the blood and the flesh. The last time she would kneel and be blessed. One more time for her.
Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.
Her love.
Her strength.
Her faith.
Danni’s Best Reads 2011
I’ve kept reading lists four of the last five years, but this year was the most detailed. When John posted his call for Best Reads 2011, it was fun to dissect the list and see how my habits changed throughout the year. I read a total of 52 books and I’m pleased with the variety:
27 Urban Fantasy (my favorite)
16 Fiction (mainstream, commercial, literary)
16 Rereads (I love rereading my favorites)
11 Book Club
14 YA
14 Self-Pub or Small Press
13 Ebooks (I received my Kindle mid-year so this ratio may change in 2012)
5 Paranormal Romance (*cough*D.B.*cough*)
3 Collections of Short Stories
3 Novellas
1 Memoir
And the most fun was that 11 of these novels I actually shared with my 12-year-old daughter including four of my favorites. For 2012, she’s going to keep her own list so we can compare next December. My goal for 2012 is 52 again and her’s is 25.
Okay, enough stats, on to the fun. Oh, but don’t forget to check out everyone’s top choices over at John’s official blog hop.
My Best Reads of 2011 (in order read) are:
Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
This is the 9th novel in Harrison’s The Hollows series. She has a great cast of characters and this book brought them all together in an epic cross-country road trip to rival any dysfunctional family. The last few books in the series have been more dark and depressing and it was too much fun to get back to a more adventurous tone. Fistful of Charms had always been my favorite (because Jenks gets big!), but Pale Demon is firmly in first place with this series now.
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
This is Perkins’ debut novel (published in 2010) and the first in a three-book companion series. It’s also the first on the list that The Monster and I shared. Perkins captures the excitement, heartbreak, anxiety, anguish, and exhilaration of first love. Like Pale Demon, there’s a fun cast of characters, a loveable MC with a great voice, and an honest love that grows over time, not over hours. A best read for any romantic. The follow-up novel, Lola and the Boy Next Door is another great read, but there’s just something about Anna’s story that I prefer.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
This was actually published back in 1999 and was adapted for film in 2004. Speak is the story of a girl who struggles going back to high school after being date raped at a party over summer. It has the most realistic view of high school that I think I’ve ever read. It deals realistically with the emotions of a victim and her slow journey to finding herself and her voice. This is another book I shared with my daughter and we talked about in detail afterward. It opened the door for conversations about bullying, rape, parties, drinking and peer pressure. With this being her first year of junior high, it was an open and easy way to discuss topics that would normally be awkward or come off as lectures, but talking about it in the context of a book and characters made the conversation flow free and easy.
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Okay, this is kind of a cheat because it doesn’t come out until February 2012, but I was lucky enough to win an ARC online. This isn’t the kind of book I normally read—taking place in a different world with dragons, sylphs, and utopian-esque society. I usually prefer urban fantasy which takes place in our world with a twist. But Meadows’ writing and mc drew me in from the beginning. She had me rooting for Ana and fighting beside her in every new struggle. It has a touch of fantasy, romance, science fiction, mystery, and adventure. It’s another book my daughter and I shared and we both absolutely loved. I can’t wait for you all to get your hands on this book.
A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang
This is Pang’s debut novel and she comes out with a bang. It’s hard to find urban fantasy with a truly new twist. Pang doesn’t limit herself to vampires, werewolves and witches. She’s got it all—demons, angels, fairies, pixies, gypsies, hags, a delicious incubus and a smart-ass mini-unicorn with a fetish for thongs. She’s got a loveable mc surrounded by a crazy cast in an amazing new world with a mix of mystery, suspense, romance, and fantasy. I can’t wait for the next book, A Sliver of Shadow, to be released in February.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
This is another first novel that was published in 2007 and one that I shared with my daughter. Part of what makes this book so unique is the format. Hannah tells her to story to Clay through a series of cassette tapes she recorded before committing suicide. Hannah’s narrative is broken up by play/pause/stop symbols and Clay’s reactions are interwoven with her tale. This is the kind of book that kind of hangs with you for days after you finish reading. It’s another one that opened the door to new conversations with my daughter. She told me she realized that sometimes standing by and doing nothing can be as damaging as bullying. It opened her eyes to how something you view as insignificant can be a powerful turning point in another’s life because you never know what else they’re going through at the time.
And a few honorable mentions are:
Lit by Mary Karr
The Paris Wife by Paula McLaine
Rajmund and Duncan by D.B. Reynolds
Don’t Fear The Reaper by Michelle Muto
Working Stiff by Rachel Caine
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
So what are your best reads of 2011?
Breathe
One day I’ll breathe without the scent of your cologne lingering on the back of my tongue.
One day I’ll breathe and my lungs will be full for the first time in years.
One day I’ll breathe without the weight of years of pain and heartache and worry sitting so heavy on my chest my lungs can’t be filled.
One day I’ll breathe and remember the salty ocean air coating my throat as the waves wash away the memories of you.
One day I’ll breathe and the air won’t be thick and bitter with the taste of false promises and broken dreams.
One day I’ll breathe and taste damp pines on my tongue and feel free as the birds singing in the clear blue skies.
One day I’ll breathe and forget every lie, every smirk, every touch I never asked for.
One day I’ll breathe in the scent of newly turned earth and freshly clipped grass and too many roses.
One day I’ll breathe and your memory won’t be sitting like the shadow of death on my shoulder.
One day I’ll breathe and you’ll be gone.
And then I’ll breathe.
Evolution of a Journal
Welcome to the Scribbler’s Blog Hop! A dozen fabulous writers are discussing their writing habits and what role their journals play in the process. Please stop by and check out each blog listed at the end of this post.
Evolution of a Journal
This is my FIRST writing journal. The first entry is dated January 1992. My sister came home from college with a short story from one of her classes and I was amazed that someone could just make that up and decided I had to try it for myself. I carried this little journal everywhere and wrote down every passing thought and too many incredibly awful poems. I even signed the bottom of each page. Why? Because I was thirteen and it seemed like the thing to do.
* * *
After the pocket book, I graduated to full grown spiral notebooks which I filled with dark poetry and even darker short stories. In high school I drew designs on the back covers of the journals. I would draw during class lectures or when I was stumped on a story or poem. I worked slowly, sometimes taking months to fill the entire cover. My daughter discovered these journals a few months ago and has now started drawing similar patterns on her own notebooks. (being a mom is so awesome!)
* * *
And now that I’m all grown up (no short jokes!), I’ve moved on to bound journals. I always loved the look of them, but I’d never purchased one because I loved the ease of my spirals. For Christmas last year my daughter bought me the Wicked Witch journal because Wicked is one of my favorite books (not because I’m a witch or anything). And you know what? I fell in love with it. By April it was almost full so for Mother’s Day she gave me the black journal. I use these only for my flash fiction. Handwriting is time consuming and quite painful considering my tendonitis, but I love to write my flash by hand.
I find writing long hand to be almost therapeutic. I think it has something to do with the slower pace of the writing. You have to concentrate on what you’re writing and the words somehow feel more permanent than the typed words. If I mistype a word or decide to change one in a computer file, the original word is deleted and never seen again. No one knows what the original thought was, not even myself. But the written journal holds every mistake, every change or twist that develops in the story. It’s a complete record of the creative process. In my newest journal I’ve even started writing the inspiration for the story on the facing page. As you can see here with my story, “The Storm”, which was based on a Six Word Sunday prompt from EasilyMused.
I also have several spirals I use to make notes or jot down ideas for my novels. I have over a dozen spirals on my desk. Some I’ve had for years, some only have a few pages of notes. I’m constantly buying new ones, some with crazy designs, some with simple, solid-color covers, some skinny, some multi-subject, it doesn’t really matter. I always have one or more with me and I still carry a small one in my purse because you never know when inspiration will strike. No matter when or where I purchased it, or how full it is or isn’t, I never throw them away. I have almost twenty years worth of journals in my closet. I love to go back through them every few years because it’s not just the evolution of a journal it’s also the evolution of a writer.
* * *
Please stop by the other blogs on the tour and see how and why other writers use their journals:
Anne Michaud - My Fabulous Cohost and Mastermind behind the Blog Hop
