The Sparrow's Nest

I love reading writing quotes. They don't just teach, but they also let me know I'm going in the right direction. Here are a few that I love. "If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood." -Peter Handke "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative." -Elmore Leonard "If you tell the reader that Bull Beezely is a brutal-faced, loose-lipped bully, with snake's blood in his veins, the reader's reaction may be, "Oh, yeah!" But if you show the reader Bull Beezely raking the bloodied flanks of his weary, sweat-encrusted pony, flogging the tottering, red-eyed animal with a quirt, or have him booting in the protruding ribs of a starved mongrel and, boy, the reader believes!" -Fred East "I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before d...

Having a hard time keeping on your diet? Does that food smell too good? Have no fear! You will stay on it. This is fail safe! (This isn't me, because if it was, all the nails would be bitten off) One day, there was a boy. He ate everything. He tried everything. He didn't even look at what he was trying until it was too late. There was a group of men using a pop can to spit their tobacco in. They didn't bother throwing it away and left it on the table. This crazy boy went over there after they had left, snatched up the can, and took several gulps before he realized what he was drinking. Now, over here on Apache land, the Apaches were having a giant eat. A woman was mixing a massive potato salad in a metal trashcan--with her arms. She hadn't shaved in about a month, and hadn't bathed all day, so she was the grease queen. The mayonnaise stuck to all her armpit hairs. She then served everybody the potato salad. Many years ago, a boy decided to take his...

Publishing announcement! The Wicked Library has finally released my story "Devil's Hour." Come listen to it  here ! The story behind this is a simple one. A few years ago, I was watching a documentary on feral children. Most of the parents had turned their kids feral. I wondered, "What if the parents could train their child to be like a guard dog?" Of course, who in their right mind would go to such a house? A thief, of course. (This isn't the house, but it's close) One summer, when I was getting ready for girl's camp, we had to drop our stuff off at one of the camp director's houses. The place was enormous! She wasn't a nut, but I did base her house off of the mansion. As for the basement, it's based off a place I stayed in when I was house-sitting with a friend. The place was creepy. Getting lost in the house was based off of a nightmare I had when I was a little girl. So this story was years in the making.

The Hondah Resort and Casino, in Northeast Arizona, is a beautiful place in the pines where high schools hold proms and there's a blue grass festival every year. It's equipped with a hotel and restaurant. But after all the fun goes away and it's only the employees and the dark, other "guests" arrive. A few years back, the security cameras inside the Honda Resort and Casino caught footage of a woman without legs floating through the building. Maybe that's why they keep losing their janitors. Speaking of clean-up crew, a woman working the graveyard shift saw a shadow keeping pace with her as she worked. She quit. At night, in one of the storage rooms, a little boy whistles. Some have heard it, some have not. During the graveyard shift in the variety store, packages of bread and other things have flown off the shelves. Not too long ago, while a restaurant hostess was cleaning up around the cash register, right at closing time, she saw a boy in bla...