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First Day on the Job
The most experienced of our group is relaxing a few feet to my right, as are the other two worn-out old-timers who should have retired long ago. The other newbie is on my left. The room is packed. Occasionally someone asks a question, and often the class laughs at the instructor’s humorous remarks. I heard he has a friendly demeanor with a quick wit. Seems like forever until the first part of the lesson is over. We’re up next. I’m so excited. It’s my first day on the job and I’m grateful for the opportunity. Not too many jobs out there for someone missing a limb or two. Here they…
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Hidden Letters, One-Star Reviews, and Banana Bread
We have an interesting variety of reviews and recommendations for you this month! Books, tv, music, documentaries, even a favorite recipe. We’ll start with Hidden Letters, and Evelyn’s take on the PBS documentary on how modern women in China are keeping alive the tradition of Nüshu, a secret written language. Evelyn Infante I recently watched PBS’ Hidden Letters documentary: Modern Women in China Keep Alive the Tradition of Nüshu, a secret written language. For thousands of years in China, women were born to obey their fathers, husbands, and sons. The Confucian practice of the Three Obediences kept women confined to the home, their feet bound, and the only roles allowed…
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Where Had That Dog Gone?
Where had that dog gone? I vowed to buy that leash everyone insisted on as I stomped through the woods. Then Max’s desperate whine, intermingled with high-pitched voices, floated on the wind to me. I bolted toward the sound. Three Pixies flew around Max as his muzzle nudged a fourth who lay on the ground. I dropped to my knees to examine the tiny fae, resisting the urge to swat at the others now hovering around me. “Don’t hurt her!” they cried. Ignoring their distrust, I freed the Pixie from a web of discarded plastic. “Our hero!” they sang. A 99-word story featuring Sloan and her dog Max, from the…
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Don’t Go
I said it, and I meant it. Still, I wish I could have taken it back––made it up to her––made her understand. I watched helplessly as she lobbed makeup, brushes, and toiletries into a case at record speed. “You don’t have to do this,” I implored, trembling. I reached for her waist, but she anticipated the move and staggered to the side, almost tripping. “Get out of my way,” she snapped, shoving past me. “I have nothing left to say to you.” I wanted to yell, bang my fist through the wall, and force her to listen while I pled my case. Instead, I slunk onto the unmade bed, cupping…
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Sanctuary
Lucy closed her eyes and shuffled over to the old stuffed chair that he had loved and spent most of his last hours. She stared at it sadly. Funerals could be so depressing. Only a few neighbors attended the graveside service. More out of curiosity than sympathy. No flowers, no words of sympathy. Even the vicar seemed lost for words. A plain wooden coffin buried in what would soon be an unmarked grave. Erik and I kept to ourselves. Nosiness and human nature. An annoying fact of life here. Every bone and muscle in her body ached. She gazed down at her gnarly fingers and sighed. How have I gotten…
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Why I Write About Music
In my book Memories of Jake, I introduce the reader to the elder of two brothers who served in Vietnam. The book is the first in “The Cameron Saga” and is about how the war affected the brothers and the people they love. My character Andrew Cameron is an artist. Yet music is vital to his very existence. Andrew listens to music as he paints; it inspires him. Music provides hope, comfort, and healing throughout his life, whatever challenges he must face. Music is part of the happiness he experiences. Jake, the younger brother and protagonist of Man with No Yesterdays, suffers severe retrograde amnesia in a helicopter accident, and…
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Who Killed Gary?
SDP author, Sahar Abdulaziz, has a new novel out today called Who Killed Gary? As we’ve come to expect from our resident satirist, the story is a blend of mystery, mayhem, humor, and social commentary. Who Killed Gary? Available now through Amazon and Kindle Unlimited! ~ Behind the Book ~ Sometimes book ideas are plentiful and plop into our writer’s laps like pixy stardust. Other times, a character will spam our creative wavelength, and the next thing you know, we’re banging keys (and heads) at our computers. Book ideas sometimes reveal themselves as necessities, the next slice of a different story needing to be told. However, no matter how the…
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Music, History, Mystery, and Ravens
Welcome to the February 2023 edition of the Shaggy Dog View Club! It appears we’ve all been reading a lot over the past few months, and Evelyn Infante has been thinking about pretty things. Sahar Abdulaziz And This Shall Be for Music by Susan Moore Jordan is a stunning novel with complex characters and circumstances. Those like myself, who have read all of Jordan’s work, are reintroduced to the Cameron Family (The Cameron Saga: Memories of Jake, Man with No Yesterdays). The main character, Lindsey, is a talented, young, self-absorbed soprano training for a career in opera—a mind-numbingly competitive musical vocation. Everything in Lindsey’s life is plodding ahead as expected…
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A Random Day in the Life of a SDP Author
Take a moment to catch up with our resident Crime author Evelyn Infante and check out her newest novel Bloodhound Investigations The house is clean, the laundry done, and it’s raining—a perfect day for a writer who’s been procrastinating lately, to get on with the hard but enjoyable work of writing. That’s where my mind was on the day I wrote this: A Rainy Day Doing Research On this rainy day in the Poconos, what else is there to do for a writer than do research on a new story idea? Oh, and bake, but today I want to concentrate on my new book idea. I spent most…
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A New Year Means New Books!
Among plans to nurture our creative souls, the SDP authors have a lot of new books coming your way in 2023! We have mystery, history, historical mystery, music, mayhem, satire, adventure, and romance on the horizon. Whatever your reading tastes, you’ll always find a fresh take from an SDP author! Sahar Abdulaziz My 2023 writing plan is to have no plan—not to be confused with doing nothing. I want to do something. In fact, the likelihood of me doing lots of something is high. However, I’d like not to plan to do anything—more panster than a plotter, if you permit me to use a literary term to describe my future…
