M.S. Edwards's Blog, page 6

#6 – drooling

Ingrid was already a star when the first wave of spontaneous evolution swept the globe.

She’d also had an easy time of it. The being a star, that is. Where most people’s origin stories had humble beginnings, Ingrid’s was nothing short of miraculous.

She had written a ukulele piece, an awkward teen rambling on about lost love when the only loss she’d ever really experienced was the theft of her favorite mechanical pencil. Putting her angst to song then doing the obligatory upload to the variou...

#5 – chicken

Hendrik was trying to look stern and forbidding but it was a futile attempt because no one can look stern and forbidding with an armful of puppy. Update: make that two puppies. Two, adorable, squirmy puppies. A Border Collie and a chocolate Lab. Each vying for his attention, alternately licking his face and swiping at each other for a turn to lick his face as Hendrik tried to both keep from dropping them and keep them from assaulting him.

Priceless, Milo thought, leaning against the counter a...

#4 – spell

When Mrs. Mendoza pulled in the Chromebook cart, Marco knew he was in trouble. Chromebooks meant holo-lessons and holo-lessons meant history. But before he could express his dismay in the most egregiously eighth grade way possible, Amy Liang beat him to it.

“Is it the Dravens again?”

After an exaggerated rolling of eyes and an equally exaggerated exhale, Amy Liang slumped further into her seat in open defiance of the inevitable lesson. Some nervous tittering at such overt sass and then half t...

#3 – roasted

Magnus Draven could not decide between the braised lamb shanks or the roasted pheasant. In the end, he opted for neither and ordered an Angus steak burger with portobello mushroom-infused butter sauce instead. His arteries rolled their eyes in resignation while his taste buds scoffed in scorn and partook of the repast with vicious contentment when it arrived.

“You’re going to keel over from a coronary.”

“Live fast. Die young.”

“Impossible creature!”

“Impossibly charming, I’m sure.”

“Ah, Magnu...

#2 – tranquil

The tranquil notes of the Tibetan singing bowl cut through the alcohol fug better than any alternative jangling alarm.

Ingrid moaned, but softly because she was certainly not one to draw attention to herself. She raised her head an inch above the very plush velvet pillow and dared to squint open one eye. She was rewarded by a light that stabbed its way through her pupil and happily hammered away at her cerebral cortex.

It must be Wednesday.

Ingrid snapped her eyelid closed so she only sensed...

#1 – poisonous

The basil mojito wasn’t the worst of it, but it came close.

This is what I get for tampering with the status quo, Sam thought as he threw Ingrid over his shoulder with grim purpose.

Had it really only been three hours since she’d come walking into his bistro, announced that she’d be opening a tab, then proceeded to challenge anyone stupid enough to fall for her come hither smile to an aggressive game of “I can drink weirder stuff faster and better than you”?

“Three hours, fifteen minutes, thi...

because aly inspires me…

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But instead of art – because I can’t even draw a stick figure to save my life – Aly says I can do Inktober with her by writing a fic a day using the prompts.

I’m gonna do her one better and use each word in the new novel I’m thinking of writing. So…a chapter a day using each word per chapter? That’ll be a good start for NaNoWriMo. Or is that cheating?

called up to the big leagues…

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It’s still too surreal. I can’t believe this is happening.

I don’t know whether to be giddy or terrified.

These are snippets of my desperate messages to Sarah Solar (yes, she’s real!) as she tried to talk me off my ledge last night:

I think it’s the “signing followed by book discussion” that’s throwing me off. Like, I can’t envision that. Is it a mix and mingle scenario? Am I sitting behind a table and waiting for people to come up to me? Does the signing come first and then the discussion?...

how stella got her groove back…

…or me, in this case.

Remember my slump from last post? Well, since then, I have been approached by a former student who currently works as a lead at the local Barnes and Noble. She’d just finished reading No Great Matter and wanted to know if I was interested in doing a book club talk/book signing.

AM I INTERESTED?

After gulping down a highly unprofessional albeit exultant cheer, I accepted her proposal with poise and we got down to business. Essentially, B&N has purchased a modest number of...

I have been going through the doldrums for the past sever...

I have been going through the doldrums for the past several months, as at least one of my posts has evinced. I stopped blogging there for a bit because, frankly, I needed to regroup and I figure no on reads this anyway (at least, my “followers” list doesn’t reflect a significant readership).

I’m back now, primarily because I want to model for my students what SSW looks like. Granted, I make them handwrite their pieces while I have the luxury of typing, but hey! That’s my privilege as the adul...