Tag Archives: Green Spot Blue

Two Articles on Green Spot Blue. Check them out!

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Snoopy Attempting The DreamTwo of my posts are on Green Spot Blue today! If you have not visited Green Spot Blue, you should check it out. It’s a parenting site for readers where you will find everything from fun things to do with your kids to poems (for kids and adults) to fiction to book reviews to fashion to exciting and unique shopping options…. Perfect for the literary, crafty, and fun parent.

What can I say? I am a fan, and I have written for them a few times. I was also fortunate to have my collection of short stories Upon the Gound shared on the site.

The Historical Resonance of Turning Two

In this post I write about the experience of watching the last child I will have as a parent leave infancy behind. You can read the article on GSB here.

Running Shoes

Growing up with a runner for a dad I was overwhelmed by the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. I had to share my thoughts. You can read that article here.

Do you want to read the first chapter of A JANE AUSTEN DAYDREAM? Green Spot Blue is sharing it now.

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A Jane Austen Daydream's Facebook page!I am honored to have Green Spot Blue, a literary and parenting (and very wonderful) web site, sharing the first chapter from A Jane Austen Daydream. You can read it right now by clicking here.

Green Spot Blue was one of the first and strongest supporter of this work and in many ways gave me the confidence not only to seek out a publisher for it but to even do this writing blog. I hope you will visit their site.

If you will like to buy the ebook, you can find it here:

The paperback is coming soon…

My post “Halloween, In Spirit” is up today on Green Spot Blue

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Greetings.

My post “Halloween, In Spirit” is being shared today on Green Spot Blue, a wonderful literary and parenting website (which I highly recommend). I have also had the pleasure of them sharing with their readers my novel A Jane Austen Daydream and my collection of short stories Upon The Ground (more info on their respective pages). You can read the article on their site here:

http://www.greenspotblue.com/world/2012/10/15/halloween-in-spirit.html#entry29834831

Cheers!

“Starting School” post is up on Green Spot Blue (a quick update with the link as well)

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My article on my son starting school and my reaction to him growing up is being shared as well on the parenting/literary Web site Green Spot Blue. You can check it out here.

Please take the time and check it out. Green Spot Blue is really a great site and has a lot to offer for hip and educated parents to read and enjoy. I’m really honored that they ask me to contribute to it from time to time.

As a quick follow-up my son did great that first day, honestly, much better than me. He found his seat and started coloring right away. And while other parents and children were dealing with all of their own unique levels of drama (there actually was a line for the teaching assistant to give each child a hug that needed it after the departure of their parents), he just colored away.

I could have left, but I didn’t right away. The gravity of this moment being strangely hard for me to let go of. Finally, when I realized I was one of the last, felt it was finally time. I gave him a hug, kissed the top of his head and told him how proud I was… and I am.

Now Serving 10,074

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This entry is about time.

The first stop is into the past, to the beginning of this blog. And let me be frightfully honest, I began this blog for purely selfish reasons. There was nothing in my mind really about readers, it was merely to get my writing voice back… and yes, it was something I had lost and in many ways I thought might have been gone for good.

See, a few years ago I lost my literary agent (I wrote extensively about this experience in this editorial as well), and it devastated me since I knew, in losing that agent, I had lost time in my career. Like being forced to go back spaces in a board game; I was near the end of the game, and now I was back at the first square, wondering how I got there and do I really want to play so much of the game again?

No. My initial reaction was to walk away from the board and throw my token back in the box. I was over it. Continue reading →

Upon The Ground: Jake’s Amazing Talent

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The eighth short story from my collection Upon The Ground is available for your reading pleasure at greenspotblue.com (here). You can catch up on the previous short stories via the links on the Upon The Ground page.

Today’s story a surreal black comedy called “Jake’s Amazing Talent.” Here is a bit of the beginning of the work:

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“Jake’s Amazing Talent”

The last thing Jake expected to be when he woke up on Monday was dead.

“Not today,” Jake moaned. Jake Hawkins was an ad consultant for a large grocery store corporation. He was born into the job. His father started the corporation over thirty years ago. Jake was raised with the notion that this great business would be his as soon as his father kicked the bucket. So patiently Jake grew up, waiting. Never did another thought enter his head other than the idea of owning this large moneymaking business.

But now that would never happen because Jake Hawkins, age twenty-eight, was dead. He sat up in his bed, yawned, and thought about this some more. His arm itched so he scratched it. Jake collapsed back down on his bed. “Oh, why today,” he moaned again. “Why did I have to die today?”

Today he was supposed to propose a new ad campaign to the board (He was calling it “Eat to Live.”). His father hoped that his presentation would show his strength to the members so they would not worry when he inherited the stores. But that was all too late.

“I’m dead…. I’m dead…. I’m dead….” He kept mumbling it to himself. It felt so weird to say it. The idea of death was just something Jake never pictured happening to him. He was always raised with the notion that he was somewhat greater than normal people. He was the heir to the great business king and his veins flowed with blue blood…. Or better yet, had flowed with green money-like blood.

He was dead.

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You can read the rest of the story here. I hope you like it.

Upon The Ground: Downsized

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A new short story is up at Green Spot Blue from my collection Upon The Ground.  This time it is the story, “Downsized.”

Here are the first few paragraphs from the work.

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“Downsized”

He hated how his mind worked. For some unexplained reason he can remember every bad thing that ever happened to him vividly. It was saved on a video in his head for him to replay over and over again in perfect detail. And yet when he tries to remember the good times all he could remember were little things, glimpses. For example, when he thinks back on his wedding all he can remember are her eyes before he kissed her at the ceremony and the feeling of happiness.

Feelings… Yes, the good moments survived in him more as feelings. Glows. Different hues of times that speckled his heart. His daughter’s birth was more of a bright red. His wedding was more of a clear blue like the color of her eyes.

But when he thought back to the day his dad died it was like turning on the TV or stepping right back into that day. He could see it all around him again. He ran into the white hospital room late. Only his mother was there, holding her husband’s hand. Ted knew what was happening quickly. The room was heavy with death and all the little noises from the outside world were all strangely echoed and empty. He ran over to the bed and stood behind his mother. He laid his hands on her shoulders.

His father looked up at him and he could read it all in his face. The pain. The time. He could see it all there as his father fought something to try and stay. The last struggle of clear desperation. He wanted to stay so badly, so badly… That expression haunted his dreams for many years and sadly became his strongest memory of his father. Only the memory of his father slipping away right before his eyes and there was nothing either of them could do.

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You can read the rest of the story here. I hope you enjoy it.  Previous stories from the collection can be found via the links on the Upon The Ground page.

Upon The Ground: Crash

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Today, Green Spot Blue is sharing the second story from my short story collection, Upon The Ground. It is entitled “Crash” and can be found on their site via this link.

Here is a sample from the beginning of the story.

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“Crash”

I was riding my mountain bike to class & it was Fall & the leaves were all over the lawns & the cars & the roads & while I rode down the hill the leaves would fly up behind me like a shower & I was late for class & I was 21 & I was single & I was wondering what was the point of my life BECAUSE all I did was spend my life reading great people’s work & I did nothing & nothing & nothing & I felt alone & when the leaves flew high behind me & my mind saw the sun peeking from behind a tree & a beam seemed to shine down on me & my empty feeling left me & I rode faster & faster & as I did my depression & my lack of satisfaction & emptiness left & I felt alive as the beam &  the hill carried me away on the leaves & I felt illuminated & I felt free….

Truly free….

I took a sharp right and turned my bike on to Fuller Street. I was a quarter of a mile away and I would have only been thirty minutes late if-

-That was when her car took an illegal turn and sideswiped me.

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You can read the rest of the story here. I hope you like it.

Upon The Ground: The Playground

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Thanks to the reaction to A Jane Austen Daydream, GreenSpotBlue.com, has chosen to publish a collection of my short stories entitled Upon The Ground.

Each Tuesday, for the next fourteen weeks, a new story will appear on their site which I will link to in a post (like this) and on a new page I will be creating for the book.

This collection contains some of my best writing, including today’s first entry, which I think is one of the best things I have every done, and may ever do. It is called “The Playground.”  The story begins with a very flattering preface to the collection by Henry Williams, Executive Editor of GreenSpotBlue.com. After the jump is the first few paragraphs of “The Playground.” Continue reading →

One of My Favorite Finds of Last Year: BabyLit Books by Jennifer Adams

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I have a new review up on GreenSpotBlue.com. It is a children’s book review of BabyLit Books by Jennifer Adams. If you are a reader (or know some readers) with young kids (or expecting some) I recommend you check out my review.  Here is the beginning:

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This doesn’t happen often to me…

When I found these books I immediately had to have them for my daughter for Christmas. Yes, my daughter was only 8-months old at the time so I was being a little too ridiculous in my excitement as I frantically visited book Web site after book Web site trying to find a local store that had copies on their shelves. The idea of these books inspired me to that great an extent that when I finally found copies and had them held it at the front desk, I breathed a sigh of relief. Continue reading →