







Too Many Projects Not Enough Time

Did you ever wonder where all the time goes in a day?  It seems as though I have just started on my to do list and it’s almost time to start dinner.

I have to make up my mind to tell people in my house that when I say that I will be busy writing…do not bother me unless you are bleeding!  I just get that good flow going and WHAM! I hear, “Honey, do you think you can come in here for just a minute?” And as always, I stop and go to where ever Honey is, thinking that maybe something is wrong.  HA! “Do you know where the remote is?”   It’s at this point that I want to kill something, because now when I go back to my computer and look at the screen, all of my thoughts have gone out the window. I sit back in my office chair, close my eyes and just breathe. Try as I might, the flow is gone. Maybe if I do something else for an hour or two. I decide to work on my novel another day.

I switch tactics and start writing for spookfest! birds in a tree  It starts on October 1st and I am so excited. Remember this web site Sisters in the Shadows. If you like weird, spooky, and Halloween, then you will love Spookfest! Which reminds me, I need to catch up. I only have a few things written and October is getting very close.

Thank you all for sticking with me. I am trying very hard not to write so sporadically.  I hope all of you are well and that neither Hurricane has caused any of you or your families any harm. Love you all.

Echoes (An Excerpt From My Novel)

                                         This is a novel that I started a few years ago  and set aside.

writing_4I wasn’t losing interest, I just had other things come up and now it is time to pick this up again. So far, I like this very much. Let me know what you think about it. I am not afraid of criticism, so if you don’t like it, just say so. I’m hoping that you do. Give me a little push to get things going again.

A few quotes about writing:

– Stephen King

Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.
– Ayn Rand

—Leslie Gordon Barnard, WD

And now, a few opening paragraphs of:

Echoes  (The echoes of my screams lasted longer than that of my last breath)

Everything we do and say, whether good or bad, comes back to haunt us sooner or later like an echo. It repeats itself over and over and over.

We are going to examine the lives of three very different people. All of them are hiding something. None of them know each other, but little do they know just how much they have in common. Their lives are going to collide.

Character list:

First is Sarah. Sarah is a first grade school teacher. Everyone thinks of Sarah as a shy little thing, but Sarah has a lot of sexual secrets.

Second is Tom. Tom is a high level executive in a well known firm. Tom does nothing without expecting something big in return. Tom is a real ass.

Third is Veronica. Veronica is the daughter of a very rich man. She is giving away her father’s money without his knowledge. Everyone loves her because of her generosity. Veronica has a heart of ice.

All three people were born and raised in the town of Cool Springs. Two of them still live here. One moved to New York, but still visits his parents on occasion.

All three of them would get an invitation in the mail. They are to attend a special showing at a local dinner theater and they are to come alone.

The story begins:


He was watching them. You know who I mean, Satan, Lucifer. His friends call him Luke. He had picked his next three victims. It was such a game to him, but he was getting bored.


Luke was standing on his deck looking out across the water. He was thinking about his next three victims. He was getting tired of the same old routine. He had been doing this for so long that it no longer excited him the way that it used to. It wasn’t that he was feeling sorry for them. No. They knew exactly what they were getting into when they made the deal. Why did they all act so surprised when it came time to pay up? Did they really think that he, Lucifer, had forgotten?

Usually, Luke met each of his victims individually and gave them an ultimatum. They would have to pay up now, or they could stick around here on earth and gather more potential victims for him. This was the part that was getting boring. They all decided to stick around except for a few that decided to get it over with. The ones that wanted to stick around hoped that Luke would let them live a full life and let them die of natural causes, and he did let them live. Their lives usually became such a whirlwind that they sometimes wished that they had gotten it over with and gone with him at once.

Their deaths were usually horrid. They died in a lot of pain, they did not die quickly. If they had only just gone with him, they would have had it easy. Honestly, what did they think he was going to do? Luke laughed at the thought. He didn’t know what all the panic was about. Did they really think there was fire? And why did they automatically think they went underground? Where did all these stories come from? Come to think about it, he would have enjoyed having that pitchfork that everyone portrayed him as having. This job was getting too easy. He needed to spice things up a bit. But before he did that, he needed to make a plan.

Up until now, the ones that came right away were surprised that they got to stay on earth. They couldn’t believe that when they awoke from their deaths that what they saw was a stark white room filled with pillows. There were gauzy white curtains billowing around the room that were suspended from the ceiling and the room was amazingly cool. So…this was hell? How could it be? This was a joke right? Luke was always there in a flash to set them straight. This was no joke. They soon came to realize that this might be just as bad as the fiery hell they thought they were going to. The missions that Luke sent them on were no picnic.

Luke realized however that this world was changing fast and that the things that used to lure people to him were sometimes no longer relevant. He needed to amp things up. He needed to send his minions to people that needed a little push. People that needed a little whisper in their ear to send them in his direction. They always knew when they went a little too far with their demands.