Sand, Surf, and a Side of Love

Patsy Faye

The wheels are a spinnin’! Series Number One – Love in Hidden Springs – is sketched out and ready to start on. Sand, Surf, and a Side of Love is Series Number Two. The ideas are flowing, the story beginnings twisting away in my brain like a cyclone of ideas.

Now…to start writing.

Fortunately, these are short stories and not full length books. So the writing should go fairly quick. Or, at least quicker.

I’m excited, looking forward to October, when these short stories can start coming to life!

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Change of Plans

Patsy Faye

The plans were to come back to my Oak Grove Square series, a small town in Texas, and start working on that story again.

But plans changed.

I decided that I want to write some short stories first. So another new town was born. Hidden Springs. I’m plotting out the series, which will have eight short stories in it. The short stories will be available as ebooks, releasing one book a week beginning in October. Once all eight short stories are released, the a print version will be released that contains all eight short stories.

Before then, I’ll be sharing some story snippets here so you can meet the people of Hidden Springs. Although none are planning on falling in love…they all have surprises in their future!

Here’s to love and happily ever afters!

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Calico Connections #1

Vintage Daze

Welcome to this week’s story snippet for Tuesday Tales. We’re starting with a new story – Calico Connections. After spending a month in a cozy mystery, then two weeks off for a plethora of personal commitments snatching all my time away, I’m back. I planned on returning to Ten O’clock Scholar, the story I was working on before. But looking at the calendar and how fast the year is disappearing, I decided I’d better get to working on the story that I want for my Christmas story this year. So, for the next few weeks – probably next few months – we’re going to go back in time – to Iowa in 1934.

This week we’re writing to the prompt ‘cheese.’

Enjoy the snippet here, then go check out the other delightful tales you’ll find at Tuesday Tales.

Sallisaw, Oklahoma

1934

“Cornbread and beans again, Mama?”…

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Ten O’clock Scholar – fabric

This snippet is written for Tuesday Tales, where a group of authors write to a word or picture prompt each week. This week we’re writing to the prompt ‘fabric.’

Enjoy the snippet here, then go check out the other delightful tales you’ll find at Tuesday Tales.

The text from Peggy’s friend, Sami, was short and sweet as most of hers were. ‘Lunch tomorrow?’

Peggy tapped back. ‘No can do. School tomorrow. Friday?’

An image of a thumbs-up symbol flashed back on the screen in front of her.

And with that little exchange, Peggy knew all the details. It would be at eleven, before the lunch crowd started hitting. And it would be at the kids’ favorite place – the home of Ronald McDonald. A boon to the two mothers because the new, extensive playground kept all the children entertained for hours on end, while they chatted and caught up with life. Even better, the low prices made it an affordable mother’s outing.

Back to the book.

Peggy turned her attention back to the architecture of the ancient Mesopotamians, but the enthusiasm she’d felt earlier had dissipated.

But I only stopped reading for a moment. Stopping to read one text shouldn’t get me out of the zone.

But it had.

Reading the words slowly and intently didn’t help. Peggy turned the pages and kept plodding along, but it felt like the magic had gone out of the moment. Tipping her head back, she checked the clock on the kitchen wall. She cocked an ear towards the back of the house. The silence that answered let her know the boys still slept.

I need to get through this while they’re still sawing logs. Maybe I’ll switch to my Intro to Interior Design book.

Tucking a paper napkin in between the pages where she’d stopped in the architecture book, Peggy closed the cover with a thunk and pushed the book to the far side of the table. She dug in her tote bag and pulled out the volume for the introductory class. Retrieving a paper from inside the front cover, she scanned through the syllabus to see what she needed to read for this class.

Awesome! The first chapter is textiles. Now, fabrics I know something about. This should be easier reading.

Peggy raced through that chapter. Cottons, brocades, tapestries, chiffon, chintz, damask, moire, linen. A state of happiness infused her as she read further.

All those years of Home Ec in high school came in handy after all!

Her pencil flew down the page on the self-quiz for this reading without any hesitation. Answer after answer was checked immediately. Feeling confident, she tucked the pages into the book and dropped it back in the tote bag. Glancing at the previously abandoned book she decided to attack it once again, knowing that she had the fortitude to power through and do what she needed to do for her class.

She was on the last page before she heard a stifled yawn and looked up to see Clifford standing beside her, rubbing his eyes.

Check out the other delightful tales you’ll find at Tuesday Tales.

Trisha’s Website

To Miss Gail Edwards #9

I haven’t been posting much on Trisha Faye lately. Most of my historical fiction snippets have been shared on Vintage Daze. Reposting here for a link to follow if you’re interested.

Happy Thanksgiving

Author Interview: Melissa Face

I met Melissa Face when she contributed a story to one of my anthologies, In Celebration of Sisters. Her writing in her story, A Sibling Thing, touched my heart. Since then I’ve seen many articles she’s written in Prairie Times, and she always elicits giggles and laughs.

Today we’re chatting with Melissa about her new book that just released, I Love You More Than Coffee. In her debut collection she shares emotions that many experience in the day to day life of being a parent: anticipation, joy, fear, guilt, and worry, to name just a few.

Melissa, in your Amazon description you ask – Have you ever been so exhausted that you showed up to a meeting carrying your baby’s diaper bag instead of your briefcase? We want the juicy details. Did this ever happen to you?

It absolutely did! I arrived to work just in time to attend an IEP meeting for a student on my caseload. I was teaching students with special needs at the time. I had missed the first part of the day to take my son to the doctor. He had an ear infection and we had both been up for most of the night. When I walked into the conference room for the meeting, I had my to-go coffee cup and my son’s Winnie the Pooh diaper bag! I had to borrow a pen and paper from a coworker.

I have to share something that was in your article ‘Something Unicorn’, published in the July 2020 Prairie Times. You wrote:

“While the three of us are often on the same page of the dinner menu, there’s one more family member to consider: six-year-old Delaney. She has no true allergies or dietary restrictions, yet she swears off a new food every week.

“Oh no. I don’t eat green beans anymore,” she said the other day.

Delaney has eaten green beans since I spooned them out of Gerber jars. But now, five years later, they don’t suit her.

Then there’s the issue with pasta.

“Remember the old days when I used to eat red sauce on my pasta?” Delaney smiled up at her dad as he prepared a special butter sauce just for her.

“That was last week, Delaney. Last week you ate red sauce on your pasta,” he responded.

Life happens so fast and these little snippets can easily get lost in the small details that can overwhelm busy parents. How do you remember these little tidbits so you can work them into stories later?

Since the pandemic, I have written almost every day. Sometimes it’s just a few lines, but other days it’s the draft of an essay. I have tried hard to take advantage of this point in our lives that seems both endless and fleeting, depending on the day. When I’m working full-time as an English teacher, I often add notes in my phone any time they say or do something cute or funny. I also take a lot of pictures to jog my memory.

Later on in the same article, you wrote about how your husband arranged all of Delaney’s favorite fruits and vegetables in a rainbow display on her plate to tempt her into eating. Unsucessfully. You mentioned watching her gag on food you insisted she try and how as a parent you worry about the juggling act between being not catering to a child’s picky ways, yet not wanting them to go to bed hungry either.

This reminds me of one of my favorite sister stories. When Sue was little, she didn’t like green vegetables. (She still doesn’t, fifty years later.) Dad was demanding that she eat her peas. She fought back with the argument, “I ‘frow up.” Dad, being the young father and disciplinarian that he was in those days, insisted. So she ate them. And then proved that her prediction was correct. All over the table.

Do you think that some of these Delaney stories will be ones repeated over the years of her growing up and will follow her into adulthood?

I do! Delaney has had a strong sense of self from day one. She has always known what she likes and especially, what she doesn’t! She has very particular tastes when it comes to fashion and food. In fact, her first phrase was “no like!”

How about Delaney’s brother, Evan? Does he have his own share of stories repeated and shared in your new book?

Yes! My collection begins with an essay about me realizing I’m pregnant with Evan and all the worry and anxiety that come with the early stages of pregnancy. Then there are essays about him referring to himself as “Baby Evan” and about the joy he brought into our lives after the death of my father-in-law. Actually, the majority of the collection is about Evan, but Delaney has become more of a star in recent years because of the hilarious things she says!

You’re a teacher, aren’t you? How do you juggle the demands of working full time, mothering even more full time, being a wife, and writing too?

I am. I teach world literature at a school for students who are gifted in the arts. During the school year, I am almost always working at night and on the weekends. I also jot down story ideas throughout the year and I write as much as possible during winter break and throughout the summer. I try to do as much grading at work as possible, and I grade/plan when my kids do their homework. I give my attention to whomever and whatever needs it the most at that particular time then put everything else in order after it. It is undoubtedly a constant juggling act. At home, my husband is a true partner. There is no “his” role or “my” role; we just do whatever needs to be done, and it has always been that way for us.

It seems you’ve been gathering stories for awhile to have enough to put in a book. I’m pretty sure that you have even more stories than are shared in I Love You More Than Coffee. How did you decide what stories to use in your first book?

I do have many more stories, but a lot of them involved other family members. Once I isolated the ones that were just about my children, I sorted them chronologically and eliminated a few that had similar themes. It was a difficult task. And since I put this collection together, I have collected many more!

One thing I haven’t written much about during these last few difficult days is COVID-19. It seems that there’s so much going on about it, that many are almost getting tired of reading about it. As a parent with two young children at home, and the disruption to life and to their school life – at least for the moment – I see your posts on Facebook and admire how you’ve been dealing with this disruption to ‘normal’ life and the positive attitude you’ve embraced throughout this. Can you share some of your coping techniques for some of the other parents that are going through the same stresses of parenting during these times?

I think our attitudes during COVID have been almost the same as our everyday attitudes. As a family, we have endured our share of grief and heartache, so we are truly thankful for every day we have together. I also believe in celebrating the joys and hilarity of parenting. If you stop for a moment in the midst of the chaos and really look at the annoying thing your kid has done, you can probably find the humor in the situation. Of course writing is a huge coping mechanism for me. I write for many reasons: to remember, to feel heard, and most of the time, to process whatever is going on in my life at that time. Usually, it is something related to motherhood. I have to also give my kids the credit they deserve here, too. They are both so good at finding fun things to do, participating in imaginative play, and laughing together. They have been my primary source of companionship and entertainment and have made the time at home bearable.

Do you foresee more books in a similar vein in the future?

I really hope so! I have an idea for a second collection, and I have done a little bit of work with it. I need to give my current project my full attention for now, though. But that’s hard because everyone says you need to have your second book out one year after the first! Yikes!

Thank you for joining us today, Melissa. We appreciate your time and wish you the best of luck with I Love You More Than Coffee. Please leave a few links where our readers can find you and your book and we’ll go follow and friend you.

Thank you, Trisha! Your questions were so much fun and thought-provoking. And I’m going to keep green peas far away from Delaney for a long time! Haha!

You can find I Love You More Than Coffee here:

You can find Melissa here:

Facebook  – https://www.facebook.com/MelissaFaceWrites/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/melissafacewrites/?hl=en

 

BIO: Melissa Face is the author of I Love You More Than Coffee, an essay collection for parents who love coffee a lot and their kids…a little more. Her essays and articles have appeared in Richmond Family Magazine, Tidewater Family Magazine, ScaryMommy, and twenty-one volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Read more at melissaface.com

Five Ways to Support Author Friends

via Five Ways to Support Author Friends

I Got Nothing #IWSG

Writer's Zen Blog

August 5 question – Quote: “Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don’t write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be.”

Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn’t planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance?

The awesome co-hosts for the August 5 posting of the IWSG are Susan Baury Rouchard,Nancy Gideon,Jennifer Lane,Jennifer Hawes,Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!

I Got Nothing

Apparently not even good grammar, according to the first thought that came through my mind as I reflected on what to write about for this month’s Insecure Writers Support Group post.

I usually try to write my post to answer the monthly question. But this month? Not…

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P: Pendulum of Age

Trisha Faye

P: Pendulum of Age

At 8 yrs of age, we can’t wait to be 10; there are two digits.
At 10 yrs of age, we can’t wait to be 13; officially a teenager.
At 13 yrs of age, we can’t wait to be 16; the age which we can drive.
At 16 yrs of age, we can’t wait to be 18; legally an adult, able to vote.
At 18 yrs of age, we can’t wait to be 21;
legally able to purchase and consume alcoholic beverages.
After 21 yrs of age, we forget our age.

There it goes, the pendulum swinging in one direction. Get older, get older, get older. We were never old enough. We always wanted that next birthday – then the next one. Just a little older. Just a few years more. We can’t wait. Hurry and get here. Hurry! Hurry!

And then…without warning…the pendulum swings in…

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