Sunday, June 20, 2021

Zoom, Boom, Ow!

Anyone who knows me can attest to my lack of grace, my tendency to dash around, and the many delicate things I've broken, including bones. I don't want to brag but my orthopedist welcomes me like I'm his favorite cousin at the family reunion.  

Once, when I was sweeping up the glass from a shattered peanut jar that had leaped out of my hands, my husband remarked: If I had done that I'd be so annoyed. I shrugged. If you did it as often as I do you'd be used to it. 

And, as you know, broken glass is the gift that keeps on giving. I can find slivers of glass for months, in the weirdest places. Just don't walk barefoot in my house. 

As for bones, I've broken my big toes, my pinky toes, my nose, and various fingers, but nothing that required a cast or surgery, or that garnered much sympathy. Klutzy people do klutzy things. That sliding glass door I walked into was ridiculously clean. I mean come on, would it kill you to put a sticker on it? If you can't do it for me, think of the poor birds... 

But this time wasn't my fault. I wasn't running around, I wasn't careless, I was just sitting in a desk chair on a Zoom call. When I saw my phone on the bed where it might ring and disrupt the call, I leaned to my right, over the plastic chair arm, reaching, reaching, all my weight on the chair arm and boom! A piercing pain in my side. My astute reaction: this can't be good. I nursed my injury the rest of the day. Was it a ruptured gallbladder, a bruised kidney? Who can say. 

The pain subsided but came roaring back five days later. A trip to the bone doc who lit me up with x-rays again and said "you broke a rib". 

That's right, I broke my rib on a Zoom call. It turns out klutzy people do klutzy things. Even when they're sitting in a chair. All I can say is Ow! Ow! Ow! 

 


Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Fun podcast! The Empowered Women of Bewitched. :-D

BEWITCHED Season 2.  Episodes 1 – 4. 

Samantha finds out she is pregnant. Darren starts to neglect Samantha. Darren’s old army buddy is a victim of a 300 year old curse. Mistaking the Tate’s son to be his grandson, Maurice whisks the boy off to a Warlock Convention.  Special Guest Stars include:  William Redfield

We are joined by Barbara Venkataraman, author of the Jamie Quinn series.  You can find her work at the following links: 

A Year of Shorts: Flash Fiction (Shorts Flash Fiction)

Jamie Quinn Mysteries Books 1-6 (Jamie Quinn Cozy Mystery)

Opening Credits; Introduction (.36.21); Bewitching Going On/Season 2:  Episode 1:  Alias Darrin Stephens (7.02);  Episode 2:  A Very Special Delivery (26.43); Episode 3:  We’re In For A Bad Spell (43.07); Episode 4:  My Grandson, The Warlock  (57.34); Witch or Mortal (1:23.21); The Bewitching Hour (1:35.56); The End Credits (1:44.56); Closing Credits (1:47.10)

  




Thursday, June 10, 2021

A Year of Shorts: Flash Fiction is free 6/10-6/14. Grab yours today! :-D

Looking for a light, summer read? Well, look no further--A Year of Shorts: Flash Fiction delivers 140 stories of exactly 100 words each to start your summer right. 

Description: A Year of Flash Fiction, what a blast! The challenge: capture a mood, a memory, or an experience, using exactly 100 words. Whether it's Halloween, the Holiday Season, Valentine's Day or the Dog Days of Summer, stories like Ice Cream Hero, Lemonade Stand, and The Prank take you back to your childhood, while others like Fever Pitch, The Panty Liner Incident, and Lemonade Stand evoke summer heat and the search for relief. Other stories like What's the Buzz?, Lazy Lake, and Change of Season leave you with a smile.

Reviews:

Scary Shorts: Halloween Flash Fiction A fun, quick read but I'm not sure I'd want to sit around a campfire hearing ghost stories from Barbara and her friends! 

Holiday Shorts: Flash Fiction These little snippets will make you smile and bring you a little holiday happiness.

Valentine Shorts: Flash Fiction Such lovely homages to the many ways love can happen.

Dog Days of Summer Shorts: Flash Fiction The stories run the gamut – nostalgic, whimsy, sweet, touching, thoughtful and laugh out loud funny!

Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096Y7WBH6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p2_i8