Celebrate The Small Things- It's November!

It's Friday and time to Celebrate the Small Things with Viklit.  As always, click on the link to learn more, sign up, hop around, etc.

Well, I have got A LOT to celebrate this week! 

Halloween was a banner day for me  Not only because it was my favorite holiday and I got to celebrate with my favorite activites, and not only because I was chosen as one of the winners for the Spooktoberfest flash fiction contest (Jackie from Bouquet of Books wrote me an awesome congratulatory e-mail praising my story and telling me about all the fantastic goodies she'll be sending me in the mail- yippee!!) but also because I won the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop!  How absurdly lucky am I?

Lara Lacomb is going to be sending me a signed copy of her newly released book, Deadly Contact!  I got to read a little excerpt from this story which she posted on her blog a while back and I absolutely LOVED it!  I am so excited at the prospect of receiving my very own signed copy in the mail, I can't even tell you!

Especially because from now until December 1st Lara is hosting another giveaway on her blog.  If you, like me, are lucky enough to have either a paperback or e-book copy of Deadly Contact and you snap a picture of yourself with it and either tweet it to Lara or post it on her Facebook page you will be entered to win either a $25 Amazon gift card or a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card!  I can't wait for my copy to come in the mail so I can start snapping away!  (Go here to learn more.)

It's NaNoWriMo!  So, I was talking to my parents last night and they asked how I was doing and, of course, I started complaining about my novel and how incredibly, excrutiatingly difficult it has been to write.  I am just a tad (read: way) insane and it's not even week two!  My scenes (if you can call them that) are boring, uneventful and downright annoying.  My plot is nowhere to be found.  I can spend hours trying to get one single, solitary paragraph out and I feel like banging my head against my computer.  "It's pretty damned torturous", I told them.

But then they asked what it was about.  And boy, if you ever want a person to talk forever, just ask them about their novel!  I went on and on about my main character, what happens to her, who's after her, what's gonna happen in the end, how I'm already thinking of book two and so on, and so on, and so on.  And my mom said "Wow- you really love this don't you?"

And I realized- she's right.  Yes, it is nothing short of maddening and yes it can be insanely difficult and horrfically excrutiating and yes I could talk your ears off about what a mess it is and how much I'd really like to just burn the damned thing.  But at the same time, it's the most fun I've ever had while writing.  Seriously.  And thank god my parents reminded me of that.

Thanks for stopping by to celebrate with me!  Now hop along, and celebrate some more!

1. Suzanne Furness The Word is. . .	2. Julie Flanders	3. tara tyler
4. Lara Lacombe - Romance With an Edge	5. Life, yoga and other adventures	6. Ink in the Book
7. My Baffling Brain	8. Tyreans Writing Spot	9. Writing Off the Edge
10. Lexa Cain	11. Michelle @ Writer~In~Transit	12. The Write Game
13. Writers Mark	14. Entertaining Interests	15. Reading, Writing and Everything in Between
16. Effectively Human	17. Mary Pax	18. Diana Wilder - About myself, by myself. . .
19. Pasha, From Animal Shelter to A Sheltered Life	20. S. K. Anthony	21. Agenthood and Submissionville
22. Defending The Pen	23. Queendsheena	24. Bouquet of Books
25. Kidbits	26. Black Coffee and Cigarettes	27. Writers Block
28. melanie schulz	29. Shah Wharton's WordsinSync	30. Intentional Insights by S. Kelley Harrell
31. Simply Sarah	32. M. J. Fifield	33. Constantine
34. Nana Prah's Blog	35. Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne	36. Shayla's TeaGarden
37. The Beveled Edge	38. Rossandra White	39. Meredith's Musings
40. Sarah J. Clift	41. Fiction and Film	42. Scribbling In The Storage Room
43. Mere Joyce	44. Patricia's Place	45. In Between
46. A Place on the Bookshelf	47. Bames Live	48. Life Happens
49. Michie	50. Rhonda @ Laugh-Quotes	51. Shells, Tales and Sails
52. dreaming of publication	53. My path to self publishing multicultural novels	54. The Pedestrian Writer
55. World of books	56. Lovely Creativity	57. Lowfell writers place
58. My Little Avalon	59. Ashley Nixon YA F, S; A LF	60. Writeful Melodies
61. Reviews From A Bookworm	62. Finding Time	63. OnBecomingAWriter
64. Sandy's Musings	65. my Catholic struggles trying to do God’s will	66. Viklit

Spooktoberfest!

Hosted by Dani at Entertaining Interests and Jax at Bouquet of Books!  Click either link to sign up, see the rules, and post your spooky story!

For my story, I picked the super spooky lonely road photo prompt:

Source

And here's the story I came up with to go along with it: clocking it at 495 words, I call it:

10:27pm

It was taking too long- she’d never make it.  The elaborate sequin and lace mask on the passenger’s seat next to her seemed to mock her efforts as she pushed down on the gas pedal.  She cursed the accident she’d passed and all the wretched traffic it had caused, then looked on at the empty road in front of her in confusion- where had everyone gone?

A glance in the rearview mirror did nothing to allay her fears as only darkness was reflected.  It seemed like the whole world had vanished since she’d passed the twisted metal and flashing red and blue lights.

“It’s just a spooky road, Jess- get a hold of yourself!” she chastised her reflection.

Drew had always made fun of her for letting her imagination get the better of her on the last day of October.  He’d teased her for having the same fear reaction as a five year old out for their first night of trick-or-treating.  She’d always pouted at him and pointed out that lots of people believed in supernatural events and the like.  Plus what fun was the holiday without some fear?

Now he was gone, just another skeleton in her closet full of ex-boyfriends and emotional baggage.   

"Good Riddance," she said to the empty air.   

She smoothed the front of her dress and let her mind drift to thoughts of sangria cocktails and handsome faces partially obscured by masks.  She’d spent a fortune on the costume and she was planning on making it worth every single penny.  She would flirt and laugh with the abandon that one can only feel from a secret identity- the mask was her ticket to a night away from herself.  But only if she could get to the damned place.

A glance at the clock in her dashboard made her breath catch in her throat- 10:27pm?  It couldn’t be.  It had said that the last time she’d glanced at it- before she’d passed by the wreck- and she’d been driving for at least… well how long had it been?

She fumbled in her bag for her cell phone hoping to flash the true time.  She couldn’t miss this party- not after so much preparation.  She looked over to try to get a view of the messy interior and then screamed as a set of headlights appeared in front of her.  They had come without warning, blinding her and blocking out the night.  Reflexively she jerked the wheel and the car jolted to the right. There was a flash of light as the head lights filled her sight and the deafening sound of metal scraping as the cars collided.  And then… nothing.

The dark road stretched out in front of her.  The clock shone the time of her death, forever etched in the stone of time.  10:27pm.    

But she didn't know why her clock was stuck on that image, and she didn't have time to wonder.

She had a party to get to.

And now, hop along to read all the other spooky stories!

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1. Entertaining Interests	2. Bouquet of Books
3. My Baffling Brain	4. Jennifer Joyce Writes
5. GirlZombieAuthors	6. Another Clean Slate
7. melanie schulz	8. Author Sue Dents ISBN-less Publishing Blog
9. Writing Off the Edge	10. Pagan Culture - Magaly Guerrero
11. A. J. Locke	12. Tiffany Behind Closed Doors
13. Some Dark Romantic	14. LILICASPLACE
15. Carrie-Anne's Magick Theatre	16. Defending The Pen
17. OnBecomingAWriter	18. The Beveled Edge