The following is a story I wrote in 6^th grade as an assignment using a picture. While the story is the same, I did a lot of editing and embellishing for an online class assignment. Enjoy!

It was Christmas Eve of 1999, two weeks after my tenth birthday. Snow drifted past the bigger than life window while logs crackled in the fireplace. I was engulfed in the parlor’s overstuffed love seat that looked like it had been attacked by the ugliest flowers I’ve ever seen. My parents and my sister were all at Christmas Eve parties. I was invited to go, but I preferred to stay home with “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

My eyes cruised along the pages, “When out of the roof there arose such a clatter—“ CRASH! Glass scattered everywhere as four intruders in black came into the room where the large picture window had been. Their dark clothes speckled with snowflakes, and all I could see were their eyes. Two of them grabbed me and one yelped when I nailed him in the shin with my pointy elf slippers. He held tight to my ankles while the other one tied me up. The other two broke a flower-filled vase and the grandfather clock. They took the million dollars hidden in each one and stuffed it into a green duffle bag. I wanted to scream but the duct tape over my mouth only allowed a soft grunt. Then the skinny one with glasses over his stocking cap opened the safe, with a fancy contraption. Another million dollars and treasure maps were stuffed into the bag. “Grab her,” the large chubby many barked. The short man picked me up and put me into a bag, tied it and carried me out with me trashing about. A mechanical sound of a door opened and I was thrown inside.

I willed my fingers to become pretzels in an attempt to free my hands. The vehicle swerved and tilted until it stopped with screeching tires. A few minutes later, something slammed against me. Then we were moving again. More swerving and tilting and crashing into objects before the vehicle braked. The door slid open, and I heard footsteps on a hard surface. A gruff voice said, “You got the goods?”

“Yeah. They were no problem,” a raspy voice replied. “Here’s the money and maps. The other packages are in the van. The smaller one is a bit feisty, though. She’s been struggling to get free the entire ride.”

The next thing I knew, two arms picked me up. They put me in a room and opened the bag so I could get some air. Everything was dark. I thought I was alone. I closed my eyes tight when a bright light snapped on and blinded me. Once my eyes adjusted, I saw an oversized black bag moving like a captured puppy. I skootched toward the bag and kicked it. A muffled growl with a return kick startled me. I swung around on my bottom, used my thumbs to pierce a hole in the plastic bag, and made it bigger with slow perseverance. My eyes became two moons when I saw my sister, Donna, next to me. I scooted around to put my back against hers. I then grabbed her wrists and felt my way around the knotted rope to untie it. Once her hands were free, she ripped the tape off her mouth with a shriek before untying my hands.

“What happened? Where are we?” Her voice waivered.

“We were kidnapped, stupid. I don’t know where we are, but they took the hidden money in the parlor.” I loosened the rope around my ankles. “How did they snatch you from Betty’s party?”

“While everyone was in the backyard, I went inside to use the restroom. They got me then.” Her hands shook as she freed her ankles from bondage. “And now I have to pee like a big old dog.”

“Shush. Somebody’s coming.” I made my way to the edge of the doorway on my knees so my slippers wouldn’t scuffle on the floor.

The door opened and I clutched his legs as my teeth sank into flesh. He barked and yanked me off. The man was as tall as a tree with a red nose. We were half scared to death. He scowled, “I’m here to help.” His hand rubbed his bit leg. “Hurry. Come with me and I’ll take you home. We’ve retrieved your family’s money and maps.” He took Donna’s hand on one side and mine on the other and dragged us along. “I’m Rudy, by the way.”

“What about the bad guys?” I asked as my short legs took three steps to his one.

“They’ve been apprehended and are in custody.” He rushed us into a red car with those gaudy foam reindeer antlers attached at the top of the front doors. “When your parents got a ransom phone call, they called Nick’s Detective Service. So Nick, my boss, sent me and my eight assistants to track you down. They rounded up your kidnappers and took them to the police.”

When we arrived at our small mansion, I threw my arms around Rudy and said, “Thank you. And thank your boss too.”

A week later, our family spent New Year’s Day searching for the treasures indicated on the maps. There weren’t any real treasures, but we had fun looking together.

The picture prompt for the story. (Yikes! The faded mimeographed paper shows my age!)

With the end of the year approaching, I realized it was time to give an update on my writing projects. It’s been a busy year with all aspects of my life, but I’ve picked up the pace of writing. At the start of the year, I posted about three projects that were in process: So Many Projects, So Little Time. All three of those are still in process. The anthology piece, however, has been submitted and is awaiting some editing before publication. Throughout the year, I have entered a few contests and I wanted to share those with you.

NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge
Okay, this is a big one. I entered this contest earlier in the year, but it didn’t start until July. This one has definitely been a challenge. It’s basically a tournament style contest. Each contestant has 48 hours to write and submit a thousand word story (or less) based on the assigned criteria of genre, location, and object. It works like this… There are three rounds with four challenges. The scores from both challenges in Round One are combined and the top five scorers in each group move on to the next round. Rounds Three and Four only have one challenge each. There are 60 groups with 30 people in each. If you’re decent in math, you’ll realize I’m competing against 1799 other people. Talk about pressure.

So what was my first challenge? A horror set in a photography studio with an onion. Now, the onion didn’t have to be a major part in the story; just mentioned. I integrated it with the story. “Layers” is about Gus, a nerd. Gus loved beautiful women, and he couldn’t pass up an extraordinary woman and a photo shoot. He’s surprised, however, when the past meets with the present. I do not read or watch horror, so this one was a true challenge for me. Thanks to my boss and a horror loving friend, they gave me a couple of ideas that helped make it creepy.

In two days I will find out what the piece scored and two days after that, I get the new assignment. I won’t know if I move to the next round until the first week of November when I get the score – two days before the next round. My fingernails have slowly disappeared over the past couple of months.

Meltdown
This piece I submitted to Wow! Women on Writing’s quarterly flash fiction contest earlier this year, but it didn’t place. Using the feedback and critique from the judges, I tweaked it and resubmitted it in August to their fall contest. It’s about a woman who has a difficult time coming to grips with some life changes.

The Murder of Mrs. Jones
Originally posted on my other blog site, I submitted it to Wow!’s quarterly contest back in the Spring after quite a bit of editing. It went on to the final round of judging, but it didn’t place. This time, I took the feedback, polished it, and submitted it this month to Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction contest. Dr. Joe Simon, a therapist, finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation when one of his clients, Mrs. Jones, is assumed dead after a lot of blood is found in her apartment.

A Hiking Disaster
I think I’m in love with this one. It was inspired by one of my own hiking trips when fatigue took over my imagination. Sarah, a humble school teacher, is caught up in a murder investigation when she witnesses a body dumped on the trail she’s hiking. She’s put into protective custody when it’s discovered her life is in danger, and then more disastrous things happen while she’s in custody. “A Hiking Disaster” is almost ready to submit to Writer’s Digest’s Popular Fiction Awards, which has an approaching deadline next month.

A Love Story
That is not the official title to this story. For some reason, figuring out a title for it has been difficult. This is probably the one short story that is closest to my heart and has taken the longest amount of time to finish. It’s inspired by my grandparents whom I didn’t know, so the story is embellished and imagined. I’m doing my best to get it edited and polished so I can finally submit it to Glimmer Train’s New Writers contest. The submission deadline: October 31.

My Own Upcoming Contest
In order to focus on finishing all these short stories that have been in process far too long, I put the editing of my book on hold. But once they are all completed and sent off, it’ll be time to refocus on the book. Which, by the way, still needs a title. That’s where you, my readers and followers, come in. In the upcoming months (maybe after the first of the year), I will announce a book title contest. The winner will receive a $25 gift card to their favorite restaurant. So be on the lookout for that announcement.

In case you lost count, that’s a total of five contests with submissions to keep my fingernails as little stubs. Sometimes I do think I’m crazy to have so many writing projects at once, and it can be overwhelming at times. But I’ve been having a blast tapping into the dark, twisted corners of my imagination. And that’s what matters (the fun part, anyway). The way I figure it, the more pieces I get out there, one of them is bound to get published. These aren’t the only contests I plan to enter, by the way. There are a few with deadlines in November and December, but I don’t have specific stories for them yet.  To keep up with all my madness and the results, keep an eye out here on my website or follow me on social media. I’m still finding my way on the various social media sites, but I will make sure to post contest results.

Have you ever won a contest? If so, what was the prize?

First stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Retreating usually means to withdraw from something. A scene from “The Patriot” comes to mind when the militia retreats from the British in order to lead them into an ambush. I sort of did the same thing. Without the bloodshed, though. I retreated from my everyday life and schedule, and retreated to something. This writing retreat was scheduled months ago, and it turned out to be perfect timing. Last month was Mayhem March with a full schedule that didn’t allow any writing time. April is calmer; however, there is a huge event at the end of the month that requires a lot of preparation on my part. As it turns out, it’s another retreat – a women’s retreat. So I set out with road trip snacks and several goals down on paper, and headed to the mountains of southwest Virginia, not far from the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway.

A spot on the campus to think, write, pray, or just distress.

I chose this particular location, because it holds memories for me. The last two years of my Bible College years were spent there preparing for ministry. The college was closed years ago and is now a conference center among other purposes. As a licensed pastor, I have the benefit of using one of the apartments for up to one week each year at no charge. It makes it a cost effective, and beautiful, place to run away to write.

Since this was the first writing retreat I’ve done, I gathered many tips from friends and online articles which were very helpful. My intent is not to rehash what others have already put out there. I’m sharing my own personal experience, what I learned, and what I might do differently.

Things I Discovered:

1. Outlining a book is essential for me. When I started my book ten or so years ago, I didn’t have any plan at all. Nada. A few years later, I took an online writing course and put together a very basic plan and partial outline. The problem: I was at a place in the book with no plan. It’s hard to knock out thousands of words when I have no idea where I want to take the story. It meant I had to spend some time after I arrived to decide where the book would go.
2. I would probably never make it as a full-time writer. I don’t see this in my future anyway; however, I definitely don’t have the focus or discipline to write for hours straight every day. In my last blog, “Discoveries of the Writing Process,” I talked about how I am my own distraction. And nothing has changed since then.
3. Detailed planning is key. By detailed planning I mean, detailed planning. I sketched out a schedule each day, in 30 minute increments, to help guide me toward my goals. Granted, I didn’t stick to it exactly, but that’s okay. Without it I would’ve been willy-nilly all over the place and not much writing would have happened.

Things I Would Do Again:

1. Pack printer and supplies. I’m old school and prefer to edit off of paper as opposed to the computer screen. Since my printer is small and portable, this was a feasible idea. Turns out I didn’t need to print much, but it still came in handy and I would’ve regretted it if I hadn’t taken it with me.
2. Make goals and break up the tasks. I tend to over plan and had a total of eight goals written out. Then I broke down each one by the four days I had available in order to make them doable. For instance, my goal was to add 10,000 words to the book, which averaged out to 2500 words per day. Because of my short attention span, I broke those 2500 words down to four to five 30-minute segments throughout each day.
3. Sightsee and eat out. This really makes it sound more like a vacation instead of a retreat. I’m not Wonder Woman at writing (or anything else for that matter), so there’s no way I can write 24/7 and not take time out for a bit of fun and relaxation. The reason I would do this again is it helps to break up the time and gets me out of the confines of an apartment. I was strategic, though, and took writing stuff with me which weaved a little bit of productivity into those times.
4. Plot stories in my head and pray while traveling. The six hour road trip provided plenty of opportunity to think ahead about the stories to be started as well as pray for the trip. About halfway into the drive, however, the mountain curves demanded my attention. I think I’ll blame those curves for why I didn’t plot out the cavernous holes in the book’s story.

Things I Would Do Differently:

1. Fewer and healthier snacks. After my last few road trips, I’ve noticed a tendency to go overboard with the snacks.  While it’s essential to have snacks to fuel my brain’s energy, I don’t need five boxes of crackers, two bags of chips (which were never opened), pretzels, etc. Healthier snacks packed with protein are better at helping my brain function well.
2. Limit the number of projects. Like I said, I tend to be an overplanner. Over four days, I had a total of six writing projects in addition to some reading and spiritual activities planned. I think if I were to focus on fewer projects, I wouldn’t have felt so schizophrenic.

There are other, smaller things I would do again, like leaving the laptop on all the time so it’s ready to go in the case of insomnia (it happened). While I think this will become an annual tradition, I don’t always need to “get out of Dodge” in order to have a writing retreat. For example, I’m finishing up this blog at the local beach before I head a few blocks over to the library, and then to my favorite restaurant for a late lunch. Everyone’s experiences and goals are different when it comes to getting away. Whether you retreat to write, get alone with God, or to have some time away from the spouse and kids, plan it well and it will be a success.

Another favorite place on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Where is your favorite or ideal hideaway place?