Welcome to my writing world

Random Thought: I crave solitude—the kind I’ll feel after the midterms, when the texts and emails stop blowing up my phone.

In the much more entertaining world of writing, prompts for my lil’ stories can come from a variety of people and places. This time, the inspiration came from a cool group of people I’ve been hanging with in Morgan Hill. They run a monthly program called Book Karaoke, where they provide the prompt or theme, and you show up with writing inspired by that theme. I’ve popped into the open-mic style event a couple of times recently, and I’ll be back again on Wednesday, Oct. 28th at 6 p.m. Their new location is Luxe Flower Bar, 17485 Monterey Rd, Ste 102, Morgan Hill. The place looks like a cool wine-bar hangout. If you’re in the area (and why wouldn’t you be?), please do stop by, say hi, and hear a lot of fun short reads inspired by this month’s theme: Spooked.

Below you’ll find the story I wrote specifically for the event. I’ll also be reading a few other stories from my books that fit into the spooked them. Quick shout-out to my two great beta readers, Edward and Rob, for helping me tweak this week’s story.

Don’t Tell My Mummy

“Rules for a Halloween costume party?” Tyler asked.

“In student government,” Christopher replied sternly, “we protect others.”

Inside the Halloween Superstore, Christopher grabbed a vampire costume. “This is offensive. It mocks the dentally challenged.”

Tyler snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Christopher shook a werewolf costume. “Hypertrichosis isn’t funny.”

“Huh?”

“Excessive hair—it’s a medical condition.”

“You kidding?”

“Hardly. And this skeleton? Total body shaming!”

“Body shaming? There is no body!”

Christopher tapped a pirate costume. “But this one…”

Tyler sighed. “I know. Mocking the disabled.”

“No,” Christopher smiled. “He’s got a hook for a hand and a pogo stick leg. He’s fucking hilarious.

Prompt: Spooked

NOVEL NEWS & NOTES…

Before I get to my latest actual writing adventures, I want to share a few other upcoming events you might be interested in.

This Saturday (10/17), our very own Central Coast Writers club will host “Booktoberfest,” where members will read a few pages from work they’ve published over the past year. The annual event is free and open to the public. Club members will also be selling their books. Doors open at 9:30 a.m., and the big day kicks off at 10. Location: Center for Spiritual Awakening, 522 Central Ave., Pacific Grove.

The following Saturday (10/24), our club will have one of our Writers Roundup events, where several of our members will discuss the craft of writing fiction. This is another free event that will run from 9:45 am-noon at Hilltop Park Center, 871 Jessie St., Monterey.

Finally, if the Saturday morning event isn’t enough for you, feel free to spend your afternoon at the Capitola Library, 2005 Wharf Rd, where I’ll moderate a panel of mystery writers, as part of the Mystery Writers of America’s annual salute to the craft of spinning crime-related tales. Five talented mystery masters will talk about what they do and the inspiration behind it all. This (also free) event will be from 2-4 p.m.

I apologize for the big commercial break, but with so much going on from Monterey to Morgan Hill (and various points in between), I thought it was worth sharing. In terms of my own novel writing, yeah, I’m still finding time to sandwich some of that in as well. I finally hit the page with the opening chapters of my second novel (even before the first one is out into the world), and it’s been a lot of fun. Next week I’ll be sharing my early pages with my new writing group. We’ll see how it goes. I’m looking forward to the feedback—especially since it’s all very fresh material that absolutely needs polish, but at least I’ll get an objective look from outside eyes.

Stay tuned.

Scotty out

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