my regrets pierce the heavens like stars my dreams litter the landscape, sparkling shattered glass in the beating sun. each day the vultures of hope peck my bleached bones clean — at this point, life has failed expectation. yet for the gift of fire I would burn…
Tag: writing
Exploring wolf references: “Lone Wolf”
Lone wolf is an American expression that began in the early 1900s. A “lone wolf” is a person who acts alone or enjoys his or her own company—and not being part of the pack. The phrase persists in popular culture today. Lone Wolf is the title of a 1988 horror film, and Lone Wolf McQuade…
Dying Softly
Buying bicycles, my boyfriend and I stood in line. From the next isle over, a white-trash, rotted teeth, camouflage- fishing-hat wearing man says, “Hey, dude, what time’s the game tonight?” Momentarily unaware of his intention, I mutter “I have no idea.” With his laughter, realization and anger at myself for not saying: …
Setting the tone in writing: Weather-related phenomenon
Weather is easy to overlook in fiction unless it pertains purposefully to plot. The elements, however, can convey mood or setting. I think of when I was a child, waiting for the bus in the country. I loved the fog! It was eerie the way it changed my relationship with the world around me. I…
Celebrating the women who scare us silly
Horror is often considered a male-dominated genre. I beg to differ. Plenty of women have written fiction that has made us clutch our (metaphorical) pearls. Of course, you immediately think of Anne Rice today and Mary Shelley for penning Frankenstein — the oft imitated and replicated tale of the horror of reanimation. Even Toni Morrison tipped…
Setting: This Old House
I’ll admit right off that I enjoy setting. I believe that through the place where someone lives and the things that s/he owns, you can learn much about personality. For instance, you probably know the meaning between a designer label and a knock off. If someone has the designer label, that means s/he cares about fashion…
Red Haze — a paranormal murder mystery
Red Haze is a haunting psychological thriller that hovers between the spectral and the natural, blurring the lines between remembrance and regret, dedication and obsession, justice and revenge. Reviews “Fans of Lois Duncan (I Know What You Did Last Summer), as well as those who fondly remember the drama of college life, will find…
Exploring wolf references: “Cry wolf”
Over the last few weeks, I’ve started exploring common phrases that reference wolves. (Links to previous ones are below.) This week I am exploring the phrase “Cry wolf.” The phrase, which means to cause undue alarm, is derived from the Aesop fable, The boy who cried wolf, in which a lonely young herded cries wolf…
Exploring wolf references: “Keep the wolf from the door”
The phrase “keep the wolf from the door” means to avoid poverty or starvation. The phrase may have been inspired by the story the Three Little Pigs (1933 animated version) but is of uncertain origin. The phrase also inspired the title of the first novel in The Runes Trilogy, The Wolf at His Door (now…
Absalom’s Tresses
Your unmatched beauty drives chariots and men, a teeming throng. Yet you garrote your own throat with your barbed tongue. Your fine face betrayed when I told you, “You are the precious last breath of a drowning man. You are rocks in my pockets.” You are my death. In your name, this…
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