Now that my first short story of 2024 is complete, it’s time for another. My goal this year is to bring you one complete short story every month, via Kindle Vella. The first story of 2024, The Normal Day, followed the continuing and strange activity surrounding the Spirit Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. In this month’s story, The Next Keeper, we follow the family responsible for managing the portal found in the Spirit Hotel.
You’ll meet the family of Keepers, including young David who will receive the Power and learn the Way of the Keepers and how to manage the power and the portals found around the Phoenix area. There will be new episodes dropping every week, so you can follow the story throughout the month.
Make sure to follow my Facebook page for updates about when the next episode will drop. Currently, the first two episodes are available on Kindle Vella to read for free right now!
My mother calls it “an adventure in eating.” Last Tuesday was my son’s Boy Scout troop’s International Dinner. The Scouts each prepared a dish from a country around the world, including Italy, Japan, Greece, and others. He and his small group have been studying food, culture, history, and more of Greece. He’ll be preparing a dish called pastitsio, a Greek lasagna.
Sadly, my son was sick the day of the event. We didn’t make the meal and we didn’t attend the event to try the other dishes presented. The next day, I decided to try to make the dish on my own. It’s complicated! From making fresh meat sauce with a number of ingredients and making bechamel sauce (which I’d never made before) to the sheer time it took to put it together, I was tired by mealtime. But I had decided I wasn’t going to waste all the fresh herbs and veggies I’d bought specifically to make this dish.
That’s when it happened. I absently took the dish – which I’d made in one of my favorite 9″ x 13″ glass baking pans – and set it on a burner that had been warming up for a side dish. First I heard what sounded like boiling water and sizzling food. Then a high-pitched squeal like a tea kettle coming to a boil. Then a loud pop as the glass exploded all over the kitchen!
I ricocheted in every direction imaginable. I was walking back into the kitchen so I was nowhere near it when it exploded, but I jumped back with how far the larger shards of glass flew. There was glass on the floor, there was glass on the counters, there was glass in the crock pot and on the dishes next to the stove. It was a mess. My husband even got a nasty cut on the top of one of his fingers trying to pick up some of it. About two hours and a run to the store for liquid bandage and regular bandages, there was no adventure in eating.
Tell me about a time when you first tried a new dish. What was it? Did you make it yourself – if you did, did it turn out better than this? Is it a part of your regular diet now?
Part of preparing for college is exploring what you want to do and how you plan to get there. Currently, my son has a very specific career goal in mind. At the same time, we’re trying to encourage him to explore other avenues and just ‘see what’s out there.’
We had a ‘see what’s out there’ experience this past Saturday. One of the colleges in our area was having a computer science and engineering day where they specifically showcased the opportunities in that department. My son’s specific career goal may benefit from these programs. The only problem was he didn’t think so.
We went anyway. He learned more, got to talk to professors and other students, and even experience some of their technology. We took a full campus tour. He walked away feeling much more excited about the prospects in these fields. It may not change his mind, but he’s considering how these STEM-type fields will influence that specific career goal he has in mind.
He was even impressed with the dorms. This visit flipped a switch in his mind and has helped him open up to other possibilities.
When I first decided to try to write a book, my mind was set in a specific genre. It was one I loved, had several favorite authors in, and felt like I knew backwards and forwards. Until I sat down to write. Nothing. If I did come up with something, it never seemed to flow in a way that seemed natural. I submitted to a couple writing contests, hoping the encouragement of a hard deadline would help get the wheels turning. Nope.
What happened instead? I calmed myself enough to think about what I wanted to do and how I planned to get there. I sat down and wrote, only to have something completely different spill out on the paper. I enjoyed writing it. The ideas were flowing in the same way the ink was flowing out of my pen as I wrote in my notebook.
That work is a mystery. I’m also currently writing the paranormal stories you’re enjoying on Kindle Vella. These are both a bit of a far cry from what I set out to do originally: write romance.
Is there a time in your life when you thought it was going to go one way but went a totally different direction instead? Let’s talk about it in the comments or on Facebook!
I have a picture on my computer’s background right now of my son at just five-years-old. He’s walking down a Maui beach with messy feet and waterlogged shorts. His hair is blowing in the wind, and he has a silly grin. He’s by himself, but he’s walking toward what he wants – I’m pretty sure my husband and I are standing behind the camera, encouraging him to walk forward like the photographer wants.
Fast forward to today, or rather, last Wednesday. My husband and I sat in a room at his high school, listening to the college counselor talk about how they’re going to start prepping for college applications. As we listen, I still think it’s too early for this, because he’ll always be the little boy walking down the beach in Maui. But he’s not. He’s still looking forward to the fun and adventure ahead, but that fun and adventure has changed.
Instead, it’s fun and adventure on his own. Where? That’s yet to be determined. At school, he and his classmates will start to get familiar with the application process, they’ll start prepping for things like the ACT, and officially creating their “resume.” With us, he’ll be starting to tour more college campuses and learn about programs and figure out what he wants to do. He currently has his eye – and possibly his heart – set on a certain school, and this first choice may take him miles away. We’re encouraging him to look into schools closer to home, but we also understand he needs to investigate what’s best for where he wants to direct his future.
He also needs to know the road isn’t as smooth and straight as some people may lead you to believe. His dad and I are shining examples. If you’ve read my bio, you know I’ve had a very long road leading to where I want to be as a published author. Your support is helping me get there.
All the support my son is about to receive will help him get there, too.
Where do you find the most valuable support for what you do? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook!
The Normal Day will be fully-published by the end of the month! Episodes 1 & 2 are currently LIVE on Kindle Vella. Episode 3 will be up soon, followed quickly by episode 4.
Yesterday marked the first day of the New Year that life was “normal”: my son went back to school. His day, however, was anything but normal. His schedule changed quite drastically, and now he ping-pongs back and forth across the school seemingly for every class. He has new teachers to get used to, and scheduling like his first period class being moved to the very end of the day. He knows he’ll get used to it, but new routines are always difficult.
Another new routine that’s to become normal is this blog. As I said before, look for posts every Tuesday! Other new routines I hope to become normal include a writing schedule that gives you all a complete Kindle Vella story every month. It’s actually all scheduled out on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis.
What are some of your normal routines? What do you hope to make a normal routine in 2024 – is it merely writing “2024” instead of “2023”? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook.
