Tag Archive | Hawleyville

Sexy Women’s Birthday Party – Part Deux

Welcome back! It’s Part Deux of our Birthday Bash!

image source: Google

Still no brave soul ventured a guess as to who our final two mystery guests might be. Sadly the second prize will go unawarded. Oh, you would have loved it–it was a bundle of electronic gadgets–no, not ereaders and tablets and such. Think bedroom gadgets. I suppose I’ll find room for them in my own bedroom.

Help yourself to what’s left of the chocolate cake and let me pour you a cocktail while you read about two more of my favorite sexy, smart and full of heart friends.

My #2 commenter is Pam Hawley of Hawleyville. Pam lives in Maryland but is a huge fan of the Pittsburg Steelers! She lives, not only with the love of her life, but also with a sweet cat and an assortment of comical ferrets who make her laugh and give her lots of pet luv.

Tell us about you, Pam!

What is smart and sexy about me?

The smart part is easy, because to me anyone who is genuinely interested in and chases after new knowledge IS smart. I think one of the reasons I’m so addicted to writing is that it is an excuse to learn new things, to challenge myself to see events from different perspectives when writing in the voice of different characters, and to express myself in a way that speaks to others. You can certainly be smart without writing, but for me telling stories is the best tool I’ve got for stretching my imagination and expanding my mind.

Sexy is a little harder. I spent most of my younger years thinking that sexy equaled “looks like a supermodel.” Now in my forties, I’m finally starting to see things differently. What makes me sexy is being smart, being comfortable in my own skin, living life to the fullest and the ability to find laughter in just about anything and share it with others. As far as the physical definition of sexy goes, I’ve got a long way to go to get to my fitness goals, but a regular gym regimen has made me love my stronger, more toned body, and confidence is one of the sexiest things going.

How do I live from the heart?

By loving my partner Lee, my family (included my four-legged crew), and my friends with all I’ve got and letting them know it. By writing as often as I can, that is my heart’s work. By learning to recognize the same light I get in my eyes when I talk about writing when others speak of their own passions, and doing all I can to encourage them to chase those dreams. By screaming myself hoarse when the Steelers play, because that’s just how I roll (and yes, there was definitely some not-so-happy screaming this past Sunday!).

Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum (Image source: Google)

In addition to mentioning Hawleyville, I’d love to promote The Spirit of Poe Anthology. The anthology will be published on January 19, 2012 (Edgar Allan Poe‘s Birthday), and can be purchased at
http://literarylandmarkpress.blogspot.com. It includes my second piece of published fiction, a short supernatural/psychological horror story called “Peanut Butter and Jelly.”
Of course I’m anxious to promote my own story, but what has me really excited about being a part of this anthology is that it was developed to support the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in my hometown of Baltimore, MD. The Poe House was a part of my childhood as well as a place I visited in college, and it helped inspire me to try my own hand at weaving eerie tales. I was thrilled that one of the first stories I’ve had accepted for publication is appearing in an anthology going to pursue such a great cause – keeping this landmark around to inspire other readers and writers.

Pam, I can just see success in your writing bubbling up around you! You have a great start on a book and wonderful ideas for a few others. Based on the writing I’ve seen, you have what it takes to be a successful writer. Thank you and we wish you a satisfying journey!

~~~

My #3 commenter for the past year is Donna Donabella. Donna blogs at Garden’s Eye View and writes poetry. You may remember her name as one who won my Life List Club Milestone Party prize back in September–one of the characters in my trilogy has been named for her.

Please welcome Donna!

So I came in third. I thought I was first. I’m not. I am disappointed and will have to try harder, Marcia….

That is the old Donna. The competitive Donna. The one who must win, must have the highest grade. That’s her there in her college picture. Naive and ready to burst forth on the world. Boy, was she in for a rude awakening.

Donna is almost 55. Getting ready to make another life changing decision soon. Thinking she is ready. How naive she still is. So, Marcia wanted us tell you all about ourselves. Marcia has no idea how hard this really is for me. I hate my picture. I like to stay in the background and do everything to avoid the limelight (what little there is). Before this year I couldn’t take a compliment without major embarrassment. But since I have burst forth upon the blogging world, I have begun to shape shift a bit; to morph into a person who still dislikes her picture, but is more comfortable in her skin.

And when Marcia asked us to tell everyone what makes us sexy, I thought, “Really? Are you kidding?” So in Donna fashion I asked my husband what he thought made me sexy. You know, I knew I married the right guy from his answer. He said, without hesitation, “Your sense of humor and your eyes.” Wow. OK. The eyes, yes. I have been told my hazel green eyes are definitely sexy. But my sense of humor- I have a very warped sense of humor. I am sarcastic (couldn’t tell, huh?) and love to be a smart ass. I am quiet about my smart assness too. You won’t see me coming. I casually slip in and zing, I hit. Everyone is laughing and I sit there with that innocent look on my face. My mother always knew though. Most people rarely knew the real me. I hid it well behind a very shy façade until I felt comfortable enough to let my hair down. It was all about trust.

Getting the picture? And what makes me sexy also is what makes me smart. I think the thing my husband fell in love with, what has kept the relationship going these 20 years is my sense of humor. I surprise him daily by making him laugh. Whether it is my impression of Maxwell the pig on the Geico commercial, a favorite Seinfeld quote neatly slipped in or a zinger aimed at him, he just keeps laughing. And we love comedy. Warped, crazy, smart humor. If I were to tell you one of my favorite shows is South Park, you would be shocked! But I love it. Nothing is sacred. But then add to that one of my favorite TV characters is Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show of the early 1960s and you would say, WHAT? My sense of humor is definitely inherited from my dad. We watched comedy together and he was very adept at that dry sense of humor-Irish sarcasm.

Smart was never a problem for me. Sometimes I was too smart for my own good. But book smart was easy. Don’t you love this picture of me at my Kindergarten graduation? (I’m in the middle. The one with the toothy grin). It definitely shows the ‘love of learning’ side of me. Of course, I love to learn. My latest obsession is growing things from seed. It is the competition to be successful without making myself crazy that keeps it interesting for me. Keeping the smart, competitive self balanced without losing my mind. But I have graduated to the best smart now, common sense and intuition. Tuning into my inner self these last couple of years, I have realized I was only looking at half of smart. I have become people smart, too. Once I tuned into myself, I was better able to spot the bulls*&t walking toward me. I inherited that from my mother.

So that leaves how I live from the heart. I think Karma and Passion are the words that sum it up for me. My mother and my life taught me about Karma. She drilled it into us that we better be careful what we wish for, and that we do no one harm. That bad feeling or harm will come back tenfold. And it does. I am a walking reminder of it. So I am careful of walking on those cracks in life. I try to look at the good side of people. I trust first. I know, naive but why not. Instead of you having to earn my trust, I give it to you freely until you screw with me…then you lose it. Once it is lost it is virtually impossible to get back.

Passion is so important to our lives. Without it we are lost. We are just walking around as a shell; half a heart looking for our other half. I found my passion in writing, in gardening, in giving back to the land. I have been gardening for years and a huge proponent of doing the right thing to preserve our natural world. Recently my gardening passion turned to native plant gardening. It has brought me closer to nature. Planting native plants brings critters into your garden and the rewards from that are overwhelming. Wildlife gardening has given me solace, peace, joy unimagined and helped me find my soul. And I am lucky to share that passion as part of a team blogging at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. I post every other Thursday. Tomorrow is my latest post. Join me. It is a blast sharing my garden, my critters and I even share an original poem or two.

Donna hails from central NY State where she has lived for over 40 years. Her family scattered to the wind years ago leaving Donna and the snow belt of NY. Donna is the middle child of 4 children-it’s a long story. Donna has worked as an educator for 29 years. She met her husband, Bob, and finally had the nerve to get married at the age of 40. You can join Donna every Monday at her blog, Gardens Eye View where she writes about life’s lessons and her garden. You’ll even be treated to some of her poetry. Two of Donna’s poems were recently published in the anthology, The Moment I Knew.

Beautiful, Donna! My daughter was right when she referred me to your blog and said you and I would make great friends! Thank you for being here. We wish you much success in your future gardening and poetic journeys.

Thanks to my readers for being here to help me honor two more amazing women.

Please watch for the release of the anthology containing Pam’s story. What a worthwhile cause to support!

I can personally attest to the quality of the lovely book that contains Donna’s poems. The stories and poetry are heartwarming and enjoyable reads.

I hope you readers enjoyed the birthday celebration since it was as much for you as for me. Thank you again for all your support and the laughs we’ve had. I intend to keep offering you fun and informative posts – and, of course, they will always be Sexy, Smart and From The Heart!

Life List Club Friday – Sometimes, You Have to Kiss a Frog

Dec2

Wow! It’s December already! That means The Life List Club is closing in on another milestone. December 30th marks our 6-month anniversary and you’re all invited to party with us as we celebrate a few more accomplishments! We’d love for you to join us in sharing your accomplishments, too.

Three months ago all of us writers gave away some really amazing gifts to our members and guess what? We’re doing it again! Mark your calendar for The Life List Club’s 6-month Milestone Party on December 30th! If you missed our 3-month Milestone Party, you can visit it here to get an idea of how we rock ‘n roll!

In the meantime, I am so happy to have my friend, Pam Hawley, here from Hawleyville to entertain you, while I’m posting over at David Walker’s place. Pam’s going to prove to you why kissing a lot of frogs helps you find more than one prince.

After having your fun with Pam, don’t forget to ‘hop’ over to David’s where I’m telling some secrets that will keep you sane! Have fun!

Take it away, Pam -

Growing up, I loved fairy tales just as much as the next girl. The first movie I saw in the theaters was Snow White. I wanted to be like Cinderella and have a little mouse army who made me glittery dresses and sang songs. I wished I had Rapunzel’s long golden hair.

But even then, something about those fairy tales bugged me. Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel spent a lot of time daydreaming and singing sappy songs about how one day their princes would come. Eventually, those princes did gallop in with their perfect grins and their white steeds.

Where the heck was the gumption in these girls, anyway? Snow White and Sleeping Beauty couldn’t even get out of bed without some guy kissing them. Why didn’t Cinderella just take that pointy slipper of hers, chase down that wicked stepmother, and well … you know?

I always liked the princess who kissed the frog a little better. At least in that story, she did the kissing to get to her happy place rather than just lay back and let the man do all the work. She had to pucker up, look a warty little critter right in the eye, and overcome a fear – even if that fear was just of smooching something ugly.

Maybe my fondness for chicks who take control of their own lives is why I’m so good at kissing frogs.

No, I’m not talking about the guys I dated in high school or my ex-husband, and I’m certainly not talking about my current partner. He’s a prince and he doesn’t have warts. I’m talking about learning to embrace the ugly in my life and see the beauty under the rough surface.

In my writing life, the monster under my bed has always been rejection. If I work hard, do my job to the best of my ability and my boss tells me what I’ve accomplished isn’t good enough, it’ll sting. But I’ll get over it. My job is what I do, not who I am. My writing, on the other hand, IS me. It is my heart’s work, my dream, and the trait I value most in myself – my creativity – brought to life. That means that I’ve always seen someone rejecting it as the ultimate epic fail.

So for years, I wrote and wrote and wrote. Short stories and half-finished novels filled my hard drive and my head. But they never ventured outside my front door. I was Sleeping Beauty snoozing, or Rapunzel pacing about in her tower. Maybe I was Cinderella sweeping floors and humming songs with my furry friends. I was sitting back and daydreaming, waiting for my prince to come. He was an imaginary publisher who would ride in on a white steed, flash me that supermodel smile, and say “Hey, so-and-so told me about your brilliant writing. Come with me, and I’ll make you famous.” I’d climb on the back of his white horse and gallop off into the sunset to a land of publishing deals and fat checks and movie offers.

It took me a long time to realize that he was too busy sucking face with girls who ate poisoned apples to mess with me. If I wanted my fairy tale, I was going to have to go frog-hunting.

So I puckered up and started smooching. I took a course in marketing my work, and began sending my writing out to various publishers. Web sites, literary journals, e-magazines, anthologies, you name it. I became a frog-kissing fool.

I’m not saying these publishers were warty toad-like critters. I’m sure some of them were quite attractive. But they represented my worst fear, which was putting my work out there to be rejected. I was as scared of this as any princess would be of puckering up for an amphibian.

My first rejection came when I was a thousand miles away from home, attending a conference for my day-job. I had a break between conference sessions, and had gone to the cyber-café to check my email. One of the messages awaiting me was a “no thanks” for a story I had considered a masterpiece. I wanted to cry. I wanted to curl up in my bed surrounded by my partner, my ferret and my cat and stay there sulking all day. I wanted to kick something.

But I could do none of the above. My home was a thousand miles away, my only nearby solace a sterile hotel bed with scratchy blankets. I was surrounded by other conference-goers who would look at me funny if I sat there and bawled until mascara ran down my cheeks. I had a half hour to get myself together and meet my boss and co-workers for dinner.

I had closed my eyes and kissed the frog. When I opened them, there was no prince, just the warty face of all my fears staring back at me.

For me, that was a moment of truth. I had gotten my first rejection under the worst possible circumstances, when I was far away from all my comforts and securities. I could decide this rejection thing hit too hard and hurt too bad, or I could keep going. In other words, I could decide that frog kisses tasted too much like flies and worms, or I could pucker up and go off in search of another amphibian.

I’m glad to say I kept smooching. To be honest, many of those frogs still leave a wormy taste in my mouth. But I’ve also found a few princes. To be a writer who has been submitting work for less than a year but has two publishing credits to her name so far and is looking at a third is nothing to sneeze at. If I’ve had to leave a trail of toads with lipstick on them behind me to get there, so be it.

To reach your goals, you can’t sit back and wait for the prince to ride in and carry you away. You have to pucker up, kiss the frogs, and see what happens.

So what about you – smooched any amphibians lately?

In addition to short fiction, Pam Hawley writes humor pieces and is working on her first novel, which blends the creepy and the funny by bringing a brutally murdered “player” back to life as a naked ghost. Her short story “A Wingding and A Prayer” appeared in the July issue of eFiction Magazine (available at http://www.efictionmag.com). Her short horror fiction, “Peanut Butter and Jelly,” will appear in The Spirit of Poe Anthology available at http://literarylandmarkpress.blogspot.com. When not working, writing or in the gym, Pam can most likely be found curled up on her couch reading, hanging out at her family pub Hawley’s in Baltimore, or cheering the Pittsburgh Steelers. She blogs regularly at http://hawleyville.wordpress.com.

Pam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Pamela_Hawley

Pam on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=584898973

I love this, Pam! I’ve had one rejection and one near-miss with a contest, and I know exactly how you feel. I’m going to keep smooching, though, just like you! Thanks for being here today. Please give Pam some comment luv and then hop on over to all the LLC blogs to see what else is cookin’!

Sexy, Sweet Obsessions – Laughter

Nov7

You’ve heard the expression – “Laughter is the best medicine” -right? It’s true. Laughter reduces stress. Laughter takes the tension out of an uncomfortable situation. And here’s what Laughter Therapist, Enda Junkins has to say about it:

“Chuckling. Giggling. Snickering. Snorting. These are the sounds of soul saving laughter which springs from our emotional core and helps us feel better, see things more clearly, and creatively weigh and use our options. Laughter helps us roll with the punches that inevitably come our way.”

And get this…laughing is thought to be a mini-workout! Let’s say you’ve invited friends over for the evening and it’s one of those times when everything uttered is laced with humor, so you spend long stretches of time laughing hysterically. Well, for every 15 minutes of laughing you’re burning 50 calories! Don’t give up going to the gym, but you did earn yourself an extra piece of chocolate.

But that’s not all. Laughter is seriously important for good health. I mentioned some of these benefits last Friday in my guest post at Hawleyville, but if you missed it, here’s a complete list:

Laughter raises the infection-fighting antibodies and increases the immune cells.
Laughter can cause blood sugar levels to decrease after a meal.
Laughter relaxes muscles and aids in good sleeping.
Laughter causes our pulse rate and blood pressure to go up sending healthy oxygen to our tissues.

It’s most often in social situations that we find ourselves laughing. The combination of spending time with friends and family and laughing will improve the quality of life. Finding a reason to laugh even when you’re alone is healthful.

Want to know what makes me laugh when i’m alone? Bumper stickers. They make me laugh out loud. Other drivers look at me like I’m loony, but I think being a little loony makes life a whole lot sweeter.

I hope these make you laugh, then you’ll get all those awesome benefits I just listed for you!

For those with road rage:

Keep honking. I’m reloading.
Honk if you want to learn sign language
Honk if you’ve never seen a gun fired from a moving vehicle
If you can read this, I can slam on my brakes and sue you
Don’t like my driving? Then quit watching me!
Some people just don’t know how to drive. I call these people “everybody but me”
Squirrels – nature’s speed bumps
I may be slow, but I’m ahead of you
Your body would look good in my trunk
Watch out for the idiot behind me!

Political sarcasm:

Welcome to America. Now speak English!
I never thought I’d miss Nixon
Keep on working. Millions of illegal immigrant patients are depending on you.
Stop repeat offenders. Don’t re-elect them.
In America anyone can become president. That’s one of the risks you take.

Uncomfortable insulting someone to his face? Put it on a bumper sticker!

What we need is a patch for stupidity
People like you are the reason people like me need medication.
Save your breath…you need it to blow up your date.
Impotence…nature’s way of saying “no hard feelings”
Try not to let your mind wander. It’s too small and fragile to be let out alone.

A few more funnies:

Never knock on Death’s door. Ring the bell and run. He hates that.
If you are what you eat, then I’m fast, cheap and easy.
So many cats; so few recipes.
You say I’m a Bi*ch like that’s a bad thing.
If a man states an opinion and there’s no woman to hear it, is he still wrong?

Many of these are expressions I’ve actually seen on bumpers across America. I discovered the rest at Hubpages.

Do you have a favorite? Have you seen any good ones that aren’t on this list?

I know Natalie Hartford’s posts and my husband’s silliness makes me laugh out loud, what else does it for you?

You know I love hearing from you and it’s your turn to make me laugh!

If you’re enjoying this post, wouldn’t you like to get more like this right in your email inbox? Click on that “Sign me up” button above…go on, you know you want to.

3 Simple Rules in Writing and Life

Nov4

Welcome back to Life List Club Friday! I’m thrilled to host the hilarious Jenny Hansen visiting from her blog More Cowbell. She has some great advice for getting through parenting, a writing career and your daily life a lot happier.

When you’ve enjoyed Jenny’s post, please hop over to Pam Hawley’s Hawleyville, where I’ve got something really important to share with you.

Take it away, Jenny!

Happy Life List Friday! I’m sooo excited to be here at “Marcia’s place” today. It’s so sexy and classy over here, it made me stand up straighter and stick my chest out this morning before I answered comments. I even changed out of my jammies for y’all.

If you haven’t been over to see me at More Cowbell, I hope you’ll come take a peek. Like Marcia, we like to get our belly laugh on and have a great time.

When I’m not writing or teaching computer classes, I spend my time raising Baby Girl who is streaming toward her Terrible Two’s at a rapid clip. My husband and I looked at each other the other day, after a particularly trying moment of babyhood, and agreed that we needed better rules.

Courtesy of lizl.wordpress.com

The exact words we used were, “She’s gonna wipe the floor with us if we don’t define some easy-to-remember rules and get them in place EARLY.” We each ran off and scribbled our ideas and compared them.

His list continued on well past Toddler-hood and contained gems like, “No dating until she’s of legal age.” My list was a little more practical and got his vote because it was “short and easy to generalize.”

In my experience, kids can only keep track of a few rules when adrenaline and mischief get mixed together. With that in mind, I revised until I’d whittled my list down to three things. And my husband is right, they’re easy to generalize.

The second thing my hubby said when he looked at my little list was: this would transfer great to all your writing pals. So here I am, at Marcia’s sassy blog, sharing my 3 Simple Rules For Writing and Life.

Enjoy! Be prepared…I’ll ask you to share some of your “rules” in the comments. J

Rule #1: Be Safe

Hundreds of thousands of writers have thrown themselves into the chaotic pool of NaNoWriMo, myself included. As we push our lives aside, writing like demons and mainlining caffeine, it’s really easy to forget to take care of our bodies and our minds.

Taking walks, getting sleep, and drinking enough water are all important parts of keeping a writer healthy and yes, safe. I’m guilty of forgetting to take care of myself so I put this rule first to help me remember its importance.

The best post I’ve ever seen on the subject titled Tips for Being a Healthy Writer was written by Kristen Lamb and it’s definitely worth a read.

Rule #2: Respect Yourself and Others

It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the solitary confinement of your manuscript and forget about all the people who help you make it happen. Your co-workers who pull their weight, your family, your friends…all these people contribute to your dream. And don’t forget your writing posse, which often consists of your critique group or members of your writing chapter. All these people are an integral part of your success.

Note: If you aren’t sure how to build a writing team, click here.

A writer under deadline is often a snarly jagged beast (or at least we feel that way inside). Even though it’s hard, remember to take a breath each day and consciously relax. Don’t forget to treat your support team with care.

It’s easy to rage when you want them to hurry through the draft they promised to read, or babysit on your writing day or cook dinner that night. But life happens and you need to chill. The best post I’ve found on this was written by our own Marcia Richards during the last Life List Club blog hop, called Change Your Mind.

Rule #3: Do Your Best

I had the best mom in the world. Truly. If I do half as good a job as she did, my daughter will be blessed. My mom had a way of listening with her heart even while she drew a strict line in the sand.

Courtesy of ehow.com

Case in point:

As a kid, there were some subjects I sucked at no matter how hard I tried. The way she kept me from jumping off a cliff when a big nasty “C” marked up my report card was to ask me, “Did you do your best?” If the answer was an honest “Yes!” her response was always, “Your best is good enough for me.”

Why am I talking about old report cards in a writing post? Don’t we all try to do our best?

Yes and no. Most writers continue to do their best if they feel assured that their best is pretty dang good. But what about the sucky days? I read a post earlier this week by a wonderful mystery writer, K.B. Owen, that really resonated with me. Here’s what she said about those days of “sucky writing”:

Consider it time well spent: you are merely flushing the suck-y-ness out of your writing system. Ever prime a well-water pump? Are you going to drink what comes out first? Heck no – it’s brown and yucky. But you can’t get the clear, drinkable stuff until you’ve flushed out the yuck. (Click here for the full post.)

There are so many writers that stop writing because they compare their developing prose to the writing of experienced novelists. I listened to the sage advice of a New York Times bestselling author last month who said:

The only way to give up your dream of being a published author is to stop writing. The reality is that only one manuscript in a thousand is picked up by the publishing houses and less than 50% of those authors will sell another book.

So what? Getting published isn’t magic. It’s about showing up and doing the work.

No matter what you do, don’t give up. It’s all about the willingness to sit down and do the work and to reach out to help other writing friends along the way.

In other words, it’s all about doing your best. Though your best might be different from day to day, you still have to bring it to the page.

What life rules do you live by, both as a writer and a parent? What would you tell the “young you” if you could go back and give them some “sage writing advice?”

About Jenny Hansen

Jenny fills her nights with humor: writing memoir, women’s fiction, chick lit, short stories (and chasing after the newly walking Baby Girl). By day, she provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. After 15 years as a corporate software trainer, she’s digging this sit down and write thing. When she’s not at her blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter at jhansenwrites and at her group blog, Writers In The Storm.

Thanks, Jenny!

You know I love hearing from you! Please chime in and give Jenny some comment luv! Then come visit me over at Hawleyville!

Rocking and Waiting

Oct12

Last week I posted a series of inspiring photos of old, abandoned buildings and invited my readers to choose one that sparked an idea. They were then to write a short story of 200-1,000 words based on that image. I offered to post their creation here today.

Pam Hawley, author of the blog, Hawleyville, rose to the challenge! This is her short story based on one of the photos I presented. Read the story, then click on the link to the photos, so you can decide which one inspired Pam.

Rocking and Waiting by Pam Hawley

It would be another day like all the rest, Laura thought as the morning sun crept from the horizon and climbed over the long stalks of golden wheat that grew rampant just outside the cabin door.

She crept soundlessly to the window, dust whirling behind her and dancing in the first rays of sunlight. The windows were nothing but holes. Even the shards of glass that had remained when the angry townsmen shattered them in their search for Father were long gone.

How long ago was that – a day, a month, a year? Laura was no longer sure. All she knew was that they had ransacked the cabin and the barn, had traipsed through the wheatfields with torches held high. She did not understand why they wanted Father, but they had never found him.

He had been long gone when the vigilantes arrived, leaving them behind. Mother said he would return for them one day.

So they waited, sitting day after day, watching through the windows as the sun crept higher and then melted behind the clouds, returning them to darkness. They were oblivious to the biting cold that stole through the open windows.

Yes, today would be like all the rest. Laura settled into the rocker by one of the broken windows. Mother joined her, seating herself in the other.

They began to rock, the creaking of their chairs the only sound in the cabin. They rocked, and waited for Father to return and take them away.

“Wow, it’s so overgrown,” Brenda cried, reaching for Tom’s hand as they traipsed across the wheat field towards the cabin. The stalks swayed in the breeze, creating a rustling that drowned out the chatter of the other hikers.

Up ahead, the ranger who was acting as tour guide stopped in front of the cabin. He had brought them off the trail, promising the detour would be worth the walk through tangled wheat. Now, he told them to gather around and take a break. Their fellow hikers pulled out water bottles and trail mix, settling in around their guide. But Brenda had no appetite.

The ranger cleared his throat and began.

“A hundred years ago,” he said, “The Josephson family lived there. William Josephson had a young wife, Linda, and a 12-year-old daughter, Laura. They were a religious family, but didn’t go to church. Linda schooled Laura at home, and only William was seen about town. They lived off the land and kept to themselves. That’s how William wanted it.

William was fond of drink, and he befriended the owner of the local tavern. He’d sit and drink for hours, and over time he began to trust the barman with his secrets. He said he’d been having visions, and was being told that in order to save his family from sin he needed to end their lives and ‘take them home.’

The barman got concerned, and told some of the other townsmen. They agreed William was a danger to his family. So one night, the barman and several other men came in the night carrying torches, in search of William.

When no one answered the door, they forced their way into the cabin, and only then did they realize that they were too late. Linda and Laura Josephson were dead in their beds. They searched the cabin and every other building on the property. They scoured the fields and the surrounding woods for days. But no sign was ever found of William Josephson.”

A chill stole over Brenda as the ranger paused. A rock had settled in her stomach.

“It is said,” the ranger continued, “that Linda and Laura are still here. Local teens hike up here, and they swear they catch glimpses of two women when they peer into the windows. I’ve looked a hundred times myself, and have never seen a thing. But who knows?”

The ranger finished and gave them a charming grin. The hikers gathered up their litter as he motioned them onward and began traipsing back through the wheat field.

Tom hoisted up his backpack and began to follow the group. Brenda grabbed his arm.

“One second,” she said. She pulled him towards one of the open windows, and peered inside.

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness inside. A few rays of sunlight crisscrossed the cabin like party streamers, and in them Laura could see dust swirling in the musty air. As her vision cleared, she could make out two rockers in the shadows, each positioned near the windows. They were old wooden chairs, worn by time and lack of care.

But they were moving softly, rocking back and forth in a slow, synchronized rhythm.

Brenda drew her breath in sharply and stepped away from the window.

“Do you see that, Tom!” she gasped, as he took her place at the window. He was silent for a moment, squinting into the darkness. Brenda could hear the rockers creaking gently even though Tom now blocked her view.

“It must be the breeze coming in through these windows,” he said finally. He stepped back and gave her a lopsided grin when he saw that she was wide-eyed and pale. He draped an arm around her shoulders.

“C’mon,” he said, “Before we lose the others.” He led her into the rustling wheat stalks, following the chatter of the other hikers that drifted in the breeze.

Brenda’s legs trembled, and she looked over her shoulder. The cabin windows were bleak and desperate eyes meeting her gaze. She turned away and let Tom lead her to where the others waited on the trail. Soon they were surrounded by bustling life, and Brenda turned her face up to the sun and felt her unease slipping away.

That night, as they huddled around a campfire roasting marshmallows and drinking beer, Brenda and Tom told the rest of the group about the chairs. They shared a shudder and a chuckle, and moved on to other stories.

A few miles away, Laura and her mother rocked and waited as a full moon climbed the sky.

Now you can go check out the photos and find the one that matches Pam Hawley’s story…click here.

What do you think of Pam’s creation? Which building sparks your interest?

You know I love hearing from you and anxiously await your comments!

Marcia Richards

Sexy. Smart. Strong. With Heart.

Tag Archive | Hawleyville

Sexy Women’s Birthday Party – Part Deux

Life List Club Friday – Sometimes, You Have to Kiss a Frog

Sexy, Sweet Obsessions – Laughter

3 Simple Rules in Writing and Life

Rocking and Waiting

Follow “Marcia Richards”

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Follow “Marcia Richards”