Felicia Denise's Blog, page 59
November 12, 2017
Retta #WritingChallenge
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52-Week Writing Challenge: Week 45
This is another unedited excerpt from my 2017 project, Sacrificial Daughter.
She brushed her long, dark, tresses without thought, mesmerized by own her gaze.
The dark brown eyes, once vibrant and alluring, were now dull and lifeless, witnesses to her lifetime of abuse and excess.
The lines that only appeared around her eyes when she laughed were now permanent fixtures her best makeup couldn’t conceal.
To be seen, her thin lips needed the deep red lipstick tones she favored, or she always appeared cross and sullen.
At fifty-seven-years of age, Margaretta Marie Sellers was still an attractive woman.
But she no longer met her own standard of beauty.
Retta’s looks made her stand out among her contemporaries, which was a point of contention for more than three decades.
But it wasn’t enough for Retta. She wanted to be a standout, regardless of age.
She wanted… needed to be admired and envied by younger women.
Retta wanted to be an icon.
That desire was her downfall.
Blessed with a perfect mezzo-soprano voice, Retta longed to perform in the spotlight like her idols, Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price.
While her parents, Mae and Albert Sellers had the means to finance a music education for their daughter, neither thought it a practical career and pushed Retta towards a business or teaching degree.
Headstrong and determined, seventeen-year-old Retta ran away to find her destiny.
All the sheltered, naive teen found instead were men with little interest in her natural vocal talent and more interest in her shapely, young body and exotic looks.
With promises of fame and lucrative contracts, Retta bounced from party to party on the arm of different men who plied her with alcohol and drugs.
Less than three years after leaving home, Retta returned an alcoholic junkie.
Albert Sellers rushed his baby girl into rehab.
Mae was less welcoming and had little to do with her daughter. During Retta’s absence, her younger brother, sixteen-year-old Joseph, succumbed to rheumatic fever. Mae was devastated. Her gifted and studious son had a bright future ahead of him before illness took him. Yet, her selfish, narcissistic daughter ruined her voice and her life abusing anything she could get her hands on and she still lived… and manipulated her father.
Albert tried to be the cushion between the two women but never got to see them reconcile.
A week before Retta was discharged from the rehab center, Mae dropped dead from a coronary embolism.
Retta came home drug-free and sober but her partying ways were still with her.
Craving the attention of men, Retta put her appearance first and abstained from liquor and drugs.
During a south side party for a local city commission candidate, Retta connected with her first love, Ham Burford.
Now a college graduate working for the city’s finance department, Hamilton Charles Burford fell in love with Retta Sellers when they were fifteen-years-old.
But despite the above average living Albert Sellers made from his co-op farming business, Ham’s parents considered Retta socially unacceptable and forbade Ham from seeing her.
The smitten couple sneak around and get together when they can, but after Retta learned her parents wouldn’t support her music career, she changed, becoming depressed and more withdrawn.
It was bad enough she’d never get a life with Ham, but to also not have a life in music was more than she could bear, and she left on a morning train bound for Chicago.
Now they were both back in Corwin, but any dreams Retta had about being with her first love were snatched away when Ham introduced Retta to Belinda Foley, his fiancé.
Retta Sellers has no time to mourn her broken heart when Albert is injured in a farming accident and dies two days later.
The sole survivor of her family, Retta feels cheated by life and closes off her heart.
She continues to stare at her reflection, her jaws tight and as hard as her heart.
Her hand shakes as she lowers the brush. Her chest burns with anger for the betrayals by those closest to her.
The man she loved.
And the daughter she didn’t.
Retta launched the brush into the mirror, not bothering to shield her face or body from the glass shards.
Satisfied, she stood and left the room.
©Felicia Denise 2017
November 9, 2017
NaNo Diaries: Week 2 #NaNoWriMo2017
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It’s week two of NaNoWriMo2017.
Confidences are a bit shaky,
Doubt creeps in,
And November 30th looks a LONG way away.
I’m not worried about finishing, I’m just curious what the ‘finished’ product will look like.
The outline has already undergone drastic changes, and all I’ve done is write (and make notes).
The plot has not changed, but alliances, truths, and scenes have.
I’m intrigued! 
November 8, 2017
Wordless Wednesday
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Image from Pixabay
2017 Color of Love Blog Hop Sign-up
It’s time to start getting ready for this year’s celebrations and participation has been expanded to include authors, bloggers, and sponsors to sign up. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate diversity in romance novels while drawing potential readers to your blog and books.
Every year, over $200 in prizes of both gift cards and ebooks are given away and this year will be no different. This year the event runs from November 23rd to December 3rd.
We are looking for sponsors for our Grand Prize Giveaway. If you would like to donate you have three options:
Donate $5 and have one social media entry included in the Rafflecopter option.
Donate $10 and have two social media entries included in the Rafflecopter options.
Donate an eBook and have your book featured on the Love Bites and Silk website during the event month.
Please note that since this event is about celebrating interracial and multicultural romance novels, your book needs to feature at least one main character who is a person of color.
For more info and to sign-up, please visit the organizers’ page HERE.
November 7, 2017
NaNo Diaries: Changes #NaNoWriMo
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Changes.
Every MS goes through them, especially in the editing phase.
I chatted with an author a couple of years ago who planned every aspect of her book, right down to the dialogue.
Everything.
Other than spelling and grammar, there were no changes.
I was in awe.
I have no clue what a book’s title will be until I reach midpoint in writing… mostly.
But this ultra-author knew in advance what her characters would do and say, plot twists, and the ending.
That’s an amazing superpower to have.
Yet, I don’t think it’s one I want.
As a character-driven writer, the voices in my head trip me up almost daily when I began a new MS.
Saturday, Day 4 of NaNoWriMo, two in-the-moment-characters stole scenes. And they were good.
Yesterday, Day 6 of NaNoWriMo, the protagonist took a walk into existentialism.
Wait, what?
It wasn’t planned, but it fit.
Will it stay? I doubt it.
But it did give me an idea for another WIP.
So, after six days of NaNo, I have nine scenes and 12K+ words written, FIVE pages of CHANGES, and an outline for a new WIP.
Didn’t see that coming.
Maybe it’s a different superpower.
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NaNoWriMo Day 6 word count – 2037
Total – 12503/50000
Keep writing!
November 5, 2017
Nano Diaries: It Happened Again! #NaNoWriMo2017
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I knew it would happen. It always does, just not quite so early into NaNo.
My prep work included five characters:
The protagonist and her boyfriend,
The protagonist’s mother (the antagonist) and her lover,
The protagonist’s mentor.
There are a handful of tertiary characters necessary to move the story along, but nothing more.
The gruff, veteran chopper pilot was only supposed to give the heroine a ride to the commercial airport, but that was just too easy.
The second she’s in the chopper, I become possessed by a fictional character!
He takes over the scene spouting truths and wisdom which actually helped my heroine. I’m doing the typing, but a character I know nothing about is doing the talking. Weird. But, I let the dialogue stand… for now, and I got her out of that chopper!
She continues on her journey to say goodbye to a friend and confront her past when it all overwhelms her.
Fortunately, there’s a strategically placed tourist stand for her to pull over and collect herself.
The grandmotherly owner, who’s a dead ringer for Betty White, is supposed to ring up the heroine’s purchase…nothing more, when BAM! I’m again possessed by a fictional character!
What the…?
But grandma Betty is good, delivering her own wisdom that actually helps and puts the heroine in the right frame of mind for what’s coming.
It’s times like this I wonder why I bother to plan at all.
I have no idea who will show up next, but why should I? I’m just the writer… the characters are the boss of me.
NaNoWriMo Day 4 word count – 3125
Total – 8669/50000
Keep Writing!
#WritingChallenge #Week44
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52-Week Writing Challenge: Week 44
NaNoWriMo lives! This unedited excerpt is from my 2017 project, Sacrificial Daughter.
Thirty minutes passed before Ana Sellers returned Jeff Russell’s call. Expecting a receptionist or machine, she was surprised when Jeff answered the phone.
“Russell and Peters, may I help you?”
“I’m returning a call to Jeff Russell.”
“Analeigh?”
Pulling the phone away from her ear, Ana stared at it, incredulous. He knew her? Sixteen years had passed since the day she left Corwin without looking back.
“You know me?”
You were a year ahead of me in school.”
The name still didn’t ring any bells so she would have to take his word for it.
“I see. And now you’re an attorney in Corwin.?”
“Yes, my cousin, Adam, and I took over the practice from our dads about seven years ago.”
“And… and why d-do you need to speak to me, Jeff? What is the urgency?”
Silence was his response.
“Jeff? Still there?”
“Yes, I’m here. I’ve been looking for you for over two weeks.”
“Please tell me what this is about and why you’ve been looking for me.”
She heard an exhale escape from him, gruff and harsh.
“Analeigh, Rosie Chastain passed away.”
Ana froze. Rosie? Gone? No. No way. She spoke to her dear friend… three weeks ago. Damn it. Rosie said she was coming down with a cold but was looking forward to flying to Georgia in July to see her good friend and surrogate daughter.
Ana pulled at her chest, trying to ease the pain gnawing at her heart.
“W-What happened?”
“Heart failure. She told everyone she had a cold, but it was pneumonia. Her heart wasn’t strong enough to handle it. Rosie had a heart attack and slipped into a coma. Three days later, she coded. There was nothing the doctors could do.”
Her dear friend was gone. Ana’s skin prickled with anxiety as she fought to keep grief from overwhelming her.
“Jeff, how did you find me? What made you even look for me?”
“Like I said, it took some time, Analeigh. Rosie didn’t get out much the last few years. The few people she did talk to said she was disgusted with the changes and direction of Corwin.”
Ana knew that was true.
She tried to avoid the subject of Corwin when she and Rosie talked. Ana didn’t need memories of the place flashing through her mind, and Rosie said it decayed into nothing more than a political cesspool. The town’s first families — the Burfords, Foleys, and Lakes held all the offices of power. They treated Corwin like it was their personal kingdom and speaking out against them killed social standing and sometimes worse.
“Rosie had no family, and at the beginning, we thought she had no will. After wading through the legalities, we were able to enter her home. We found her will, drawn up by an attorney over in Spradlin. We also found your name and number, but the number was disconnected.”
Damn it! After a mini-battle with her cell provider over dropped calls and shoddy service, Ana switched carriers… and got a new number… four days after she and Rosie last spoke.
Analeigh didn’t bother to wipe away her tears when she realized by the time she activated her new number… Rosie was already gone.
“Analeigh?”
“I’m here, Jeff. Just trying to take all this in.”
“I’m sorry to have to tell you like this, Analeigh.”
“It’s alright. I do appreciate the call, Jeff… and thank you.”
“Wait, Analeigh. I didn’t hunt you done just to tell you Rosie was gone. In her will, she left everything to you. Her home and the store.”
The buzzing in Ana’s ears roared over Jeff’s voice. Analeigh Sellers sat there overwhelmed and in shock with a sense of dread taking over.
Image from ThinkStock
©Felicia Denise 2017
November 4, 2017
NaNo Diaries: Distractions #NaNoWriMo
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On any given day, you’re sure to find a post or comment by someone saying they can never find the time to write.
Yes, if you work a fulltime job, have a spouse and children, friends and family, a hobby…any semblance of a LIFE, most days, your time is not your own.
But. Think about it. How many times have you sat down with your device of choice with a task in mind—paying bills, checking test scores, researching a future major purchase, book travel plans, etc.—and found yourself opening your email, checking any or ALL of your social network accounts, watching a video of a sloth eating a grape or taking a quiz to find out which Avenger you’re most like?
Distractions.
You’re not alone. We all have the pretty, shiny object that so easily pulls our attention away from the task at hand.
Pinterest is my downfall.
I can pull up the app in search of a photo of a land mass or mountain range to match a location I’ve written about, and two hours later, I have no photo of my location… but I do have three recipes for Pad Thai, a new pattern for an afghan, fifteen more coffee memes, and a detailed infogram on how to turn empty toilet paper rolls into a decorative Christmas centerpiece.
I am weak and in need of help… and probably intense counseling.
In my last NaNo Diaries post, I mentioned I’d jumped on the AlphaSmart bandwagon. No Internet connection, no wifi—just me and a sturdy little word processor that I purposely use away from all my other devices, including my phone. My adult children hate that.
But there are still times when I need to be online and around all my favorite distractions, and that’s when I use an Internet blocker. I have the paid version of Freedom.to. I can set it for any amount of time I chose, from minutes to hours, and the Internet is gone. Can’t open a browser or app. (Yes, I’ve tried.)
There are quite a few other Internet blocking apps available, but not all have free versions.
Anti-Social (In the process of merging with Freedom.to but love the name!)
Cold Turkey (Free Version Available)
Rescue Time (Free Version Available)
These are great little tools to have to help you block online distractions, but the writing part is still up to you. Sorry.
I started coming down with a head cold yesterday and had to struggle for word count… but I got it! For NaNoWriMo Day 3, I’m at 5544/50000.
Today is NaNoWriMo Double-Up Donation Day. Check it out. Make a donation and double your word count for the day.
I’m going to give it a shot… even though I can’t stop sneezing and my head feels bigger than Wyoming.
Keep Writing!
