This is my author's blog. I share excerpts and updates to the books I've written and I state my opinion about anything that pertains to writing. You can leave comments on my Facebook page or Twitter.
Thursday, December 3, 2020
My Creative Projects
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Ever Dream this Man?
Sunday, August 30, 2020
The Backrooms
"Really? You think every conversation is about you?" said Teresa, with a Latin accent. Teresa loved his cockiness and bravado, but I was never fond of his personality. I often wonder what attracted her to him. After a while, I looked at the time on my phone and I made an excuse to leave early. "Hey guys, I'm gonna head home. I have a class tomorrow morning, and I have work after." Teresa looked at the time on her phone. "It’s only 9:30, I thought you were gonna stay till midnight? This place doesn’t close until one in the morning. Stay," she insisted. I pressed my lips together and smiled, "Um, no. I need my sleep, sorry guys."
"Oh, okay, drive
carefully," said Teresa. She turned her attention back to her boyfriend.
"We'll see you at home," said Mary.
I gathered my belongings.
I could hear Teresa
snoring in the next room. Mary doesn't snore, thank God. I decided to go
downstairs to get a cup of water. The only light in the room was the dimly lit
cabinet lights. I drank some water and placed the cup by the sink on the
counter, then tiptoed upstairs.
As I walked into my room, I suddenly tripped.
A sudden dizziness came over me as well. “Damn it,” I said to myself. I was
afraid that I would wake them up. As I stood up, I found myself not in my room! I
caught my breath and looked around.
“What the Hell,” I said to myself, my mouth dropped.
I took a few steps forward. I was faced with randomly generated rooms
interconnected with one another. The wallpaper, ceiling and carpet were a dull
dirty yellow color. There were fluorescent lights hanging over my head, like
the ones found in many buildings from the 70’s or 80’s. I was flabbergasted, and I stood there
paralyzed. My heart raced.
“Am I
dreaming? Where am I?” I mused.
There was a muggy smell in the air and the sound of the florescent lights buzzing
overhead was annoying. I
realized that this place looked like something from my dream. I was shocked, I
didn’t know what to do and I was barefooted too since I just got out of bed and
didn’t put on my slippers beforehand.
The carpet felt moist and gross. I curiously
walked forward, not knowing how I got there and afraid that I would bump into
something or someone that would harm me. I did not have a weapon, not even my
hand taser that I usually have in my purse and my feet were bare. I cautiously
walked around the maze of endless rooms, and hallways, while all the while the
noise of the fluorescent lights sounded above me like a hoard of bees buzzing
around. The place appeared desolate; no other person was around. After a while
of wandering, which felt like eternity, panic set in and I realized that I would
never find a way out. I had the sunken feeling that I wasn’t going to leave at
all. I was becoming hungry, thirsty, and weary. I sat down with my back against
one of the walls, pondering, reevaluating what happened. I facepalmed, took a
deep breath and stood up.
I decided to continue my journey through the yellow crazy maze and perhaps I will find my way out eventually. My heart pounded in my chest, and I felt like a mouse trapped, trying to find the exit. A part of me wanted to believe that this was a dream, a nightmare but instinct told me that it wasn’t. As I turned a corner, I came across a Nike tee shirt and Nike Air Max shoes. I picked it up and inspected the shoe, I saw some dried blood on it. I gasped and dropped it. I took a step back and looked around, wide eyed. I was worried that whatever killed the person who owned those shoes might still be around. I was dizzy with fear, my heart pounded, and I took a deep breath; continued through the ominous yellow labyrinth.
“There’s a killer in this place, something
killing people. I must be careful, or I will end up like that person.” I stopped and listened. My ears strained as I
could hear a low growl, but it was still far from me, not a cause for alarm.
However, I remained vigilant. I breathed a sigh of relief. The musky smell
lingered in the air; the moist carpet squish at every step my bare feet took.
Lucky that in some areas, the carpet was somewhat dry.
“I will find a way out,” I kept telling myself. I have faith. I would find a way out but as I continued to journey through the maze, I turned a corner and stopped. “What is this?” I said to myself. I found a mini camcorder next to the case. I picked it up and looked at it. It was an older model of a Panasonic mini camcorder. “I wonder where this came from?” I walked to a secluded corner where I felt safe. It had a tape inside, and I played it. I quickly turned down the volume. I held my breath, and looked around, my heart pounding. I waited a few minutes then exhaled. Whatever was out there, did not hear me so I took out the earplugs from the case, placed one into my ear and plugged it into the camera. The video consisted of these teens who were maybe two years younger than me. The date is April 26th 2009, they were ghost hunting at an abandoned old house. As I looked through the video, the footage glitched and became blurry at times. The young men, joked around about meeting a ghoul or ghost or coming across something otherworldly.
“Hey, we might slip into
another dimension or something,” one of them joked.
“Very funny,” said the African/American
boy who was holding the camera. He turned the camera around and introduced
himself and his friends.
“I am Jet this is Mike
and Victor, we are the Truth Seekers, we go to abandoned places and
search for the paranormal,” he said. “They must have a YouTube channel,”
I mused.
“Yeah, so we upload a new video every Friday
on our YouTube Channel, please give us a thumbs up on this video and subscribe to our channel,” said
Mike. They proceeded to go inside the house and look around. Nothing special,
just old furniture and a lot of dust everywhere. The curtains of the house were
half hung by the rods, the rooms looked as if whoever lived there before, left
abruptly many years ago. Jet had the camcorder and the other two had some ghost
hunting gadgets. When Jet entered one of the rooms it was then that the camera
glitched and he found himself in the Backrooms.
“Good, it is recording,” he said, breathing a
sigh of relief. He moved ahead at a slow pace, similar to how I did when I first
got here. He just kept walking, but eventually, he broke into a run down the
hallways, glancing around and breathing hard with each step. I can tell he was
afraid and frustrated because I heard it in his breathing, but he kept filming
and pushing onward.
“Wow, I can’t believe this place, it’s
endless,” he said to himself. He called out to his friends but there was no
response. He began to panic. He stopped for a moment as though he had heard
something.
He slowly turned
around. He heard scratching on the walls but couldn’t see anything. He started
to run.
“God, help me find the way out,” I shouted. As I continued, the creature was gaining on me, then I turned a corner and saw it, the wall. I ran right at it, hoping to make it through or that I would knock myself out, so I wouldn’t feel a thing when the creature’s teeth sink into me. I was thinking that death will be swift. I went right through the wall, but the creature managed to rip a piece of the hem from my bottom pajamas. I screamed as I flowed through emptiness, a void, then suddenly I was thrust into a small room. I hit hard against the door. I thought I was still in the Backrooms, but I looked around and it was a storage room under some stairs in a house. I breathed heavily, catching my breath. I slowly opened the door and crawled out, limping. I quickly looked at my ankle where the creature tore my pajamas, it scratched me, blood ran down my foot. I was trembling uncontrollably. I still had the camera with me and as I looked around the room, I noticed there was no furniture, it was an empty house but clean.
“It looks like no one lives here but it is well kept so someone comes to clean this place,” I pondered. By the way it was early evening. I found myself in an unknown house. Tears ran down my cheeks. “Hello,” I called out. Then I saw a camera erected on the corner of the wall. “Yes,” I said, hoping that someone was watching the camera, I waved at it, saying, “Help me, please.” I passed out and it wasn’t until the next day when the housekeeper and two men dressed in security uniforms came in and found me. I escaped the Backrooms by a hair but others have not, and i pray for them everyday.
(Thank you for reading this short story. I will be using fragments from it for a book I'm contemplating on writing in the near future. Please do visit the link below to my website.)
NEW! I made a video relating this short story. Please visit link and comment. TY
UPDATE: I recently published a book based on the Backrooms. Please visit link to download the eBook or purchase the paperback.
Lost in the Backrooms: The Phoenix Files vol. 1
Please consider a small donation to support Indie authors like me. TY
Thursday, August 27, 2020
First, Second or Third Person Narrative
Let’s talk about First person, second person and third person narrative.
First person narrative is a
point of view (who is telling a story) where the story is narrated
by one character at a time. This character may be speaking about him or herself
or sharing events that he or she is experiencing—the use of
first-person pronouns. Many stories and novels are written I the first-person
point of view. In this kind of narrative, you are writing the character’s story
by their perspective. You are writing their story through their eyes.
Example: “I left my keys on the kitchen counter but now I can’t find them.”
Second Person Narrative:
The biggest indicator of the second person use is pronouns
like: you, your, yours, yourself or yourselves.
Example: “If you eat these fruits you will find that your health is much better to combat illnesses.”
A
self-help book is written in a second person narrative. There are a lot of
self-help books out there and when you buy one, you’ll see the narration and
how it’s written. These books are a dime in dozen and the writer is addressing
the reader when they write.
Third Person Narrative:
The third-person point of
view/narrative belongs to the person (or people) being talked
about. The third-person pronouns include he, him, his,
himself, she, her, hers, herself, it, its, itself, they, them, their, theirs,
and themselves.
It is easy to write a book using first-person narrative/point
of view. Take a look at Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey, all of those books
were written as first-person narrative.
Easy? Yes, the author publishes his/her book quicker, and are
capable of producing several books within 6 months. Most of my books are
written as a third person narrative, only The Secret Diary of a Gypsy Heart and
Saints and Sinners: Affairs of the Heart are written as first-person narrative.
My book Chandra’s Quest Book 1, the 2002 version, was written as a first-person
narrative but when I decided to re-write the book, I chose third person
narrative instead.
Author’s that write as
a first-person narrative, usually use what they know about the subject they are
writing. Sometimes they will use personal experiences in their life and will
use fractions of those experiences in their books.
Again, I want to state that names are not copyrighted. You
cannot sue an author for using your name in his/her book. It would be
considered frivolous and will not hold up in court, not even small claims. Food
for thought.
The link below will give more info.
My books:
Saints and Sinners: Affairs of the Heart
Please consider donating a small portion for struggling indie authors. TY
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Rate and Review
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Where You Can Leave Reviews for my Books
Tuesday, August 4, 2020
Secret Diary of a Gypsy Heart
I am working on a new book called Secret Diary of a Gypsy Heart. This book was actually written back in the early 2000's as a novelette. The original title was Clarissa. I restored it and started writing more chapters in the book. I have old CD Rom disc where I saved various short stories before I went through my writer's block. There were only a few stories I was able to fish out that are workable. Secret Diary of a Gypsy Heart is adult fiction/drama and written as a first person narrative for the first few chapters. Categorized as contemporary, romantic fiction. The story revolves around Serena, a woman whose past relationships come back to haunt her family after her death.
NOTE: I will post a link to the book when it is published. Similarities to people, places and things are purely coincidental. This book is not based on true accounts but written to seem like true accounts.
Author's Website
Author's Channel
Author's Facebook page
Secret Diary of a Gypsy Heart
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
What Changed When I Revised Three of my Books?
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Chandra's Quest: The Birth of a Trilogy
Chandra's Quest was one of my first full length novels that I wrote back in the mid to late 90's and self-published it in the early 2000's. It is part of a trilogy.