So I got tagged with a blog meme and it was time I posted again anyway, so here I am. Thanks to Cindy Keen Reynders over at Saucy Lucy Wisdom for the tag. The rules are:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences or paragraphs and post them as they're written. No cheating.

4. Tag 7 authors.

5. Let them know.

Umm... My work in progress is a novella. It doesn't have 77 pages yet. It might never. So I've randomly selected a page and copied 7 (or 8ish) paragraphs. Here you go:

It took me a moment to realize what had awakened me, but then I became conscious that Phoebe was in fact half sitting on me, her body stiff, her finger pointing towards a corner of the room. My eyes followed her finger and came to rest on the figure of a young girl. She was probably six or seven, dressed in the clothes of a bygone era and she was standing in the corner, just staring at us and humming. I could not make out the tune, but it stirred a memory somewhere in the back of my mind. At first, I was not afraid, only bewildered. Where did this child come from? Why was she in my bedchamber in the middle of the night? It only slowly came to my attention that I could see the wallpaper through her figure. I was seeing a ghost. The house was indeed haunted. Phoebe still seemed paralyzed by her fear, but I felt only a crushing sadness at the sight of this child. Her loneliness and longing seemed to reach out from her small form and envelope me like a cloud. The weight of her sorrow was near to crushing me.

I found that I was not afraid of her, far from it. I wanted only to help this poor melancholy soul. I was afraid to move though, lest I spook her. And only now do I comprehend how ironic it is that I was worried about spooking a spook. At that time, it was as though a more fundamental part of me took over and shoved reason firmly to the side.

“Why do you linger?” I asked quietly but firmly. She met my eyes with hers and I could feel her searching for something I only hoped I could give.

“They won’t let me go. They won’t let me go!” she cried, her eyes leaving mine and glancing nervously about the room.

“Shhh….shhh…” I uttered in an attempt to soothe her. “Who won’t let you go, dear child?”

She appeared most frightened then and her eyes widened at something I could not see. She pointed to a far corner of the ceiling.

“THEM!” she screamed. Just then a cold sensation passed through my body as a large dark shadow swooped from the corner she’d been pointing to through me and into her. Both shadow and shade blinked completely out of view. I shuddered and shivered and Phoebe’s paralysis seemed to end.

“My Sweet Lord!” she shrieked. “What was that thing? And why were you talking to it?”

Now I have to answer some questions:

What is the title of your current WIP? Tell us about it.

It doesn't have a set title. I'm kicking around "Olivia's Tale" or maybe "Starkraven." It's a gothic style novella about a group of bored, rich kids who decide to visit an estate that's said to be haunted. It's set in the summer of 1824 and the group is highly influenced by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. They get a lot more than they bargained for and only Olivia is left to tell the tale.

When did you start blogging and why?

I actually started blogging over at What Passes for Sane on a Crazy Day in 2009 to deal with some issues. Surprisingly, I got a good little following going and continued on in a humorous vein with tales of my family. I started this blog in 2011 when I started working as an editor and submitting more stories. This blog was a way for me to reach out to other authors and also to let people know what was going on with me in my professional life.

If you could do anything tomorrow, what would you do?

Hmmm... that's a tough one. I have so much work to do before WHC at the end of the month, but if I had to take a day off, I'd spend it on the couch watching old horror movies on Netflix.

Describe your happy place.

My dinner table. We eat dinner at the table, as a family most nights, and the conversations are sometimes unbloggable. We get so carried away and ridiculous that we spend most of dinner laughing. It's really not a successful dinner unless someone spits their drink out their nose. It's also where we all talk about our day and I will miss that the most when the kids leave home this fall.

What is your first happy memory?

I don't know. My memory is horrible. Lol. But I've had a lot of happy things in my life. Too many to list.

What was the scariest thing you've ever done?

I don't know. I don't really do a lot of scary stuff. I guess you could say a tour of the Mansfield Reformatory, one of the most haunted places in the U.S. Or it could be IM'ing the great Ellen Datlow on FB to tell her I found a flaw in her book. I thought she'd hate me. Quite the opposite. Whew!

What is the funniest thing you've done today?

I said "Pussy Willow." I know right, it's just a tree. But my kids had never heard of it and my daughter wanted to know why I randomly said it to my grandson. I was just throwing out silly words so he'd smile and I could get another bite of his lunch into him. They thought it was hilarious that was the first thing that came to my mind. *shrugs* That's just how I roll.

What is the strangest place you've ever gotten a story idea?

The movie theatre, right before the movie started. I just suddenly started thinking of this political article I read and it totally led into this fantastic story idea. I was so afraid I'd forget it during the movie! But luckily it stayed with me. I also work out a lot of plot problems in the shower. I think it's because it's one of the few times I relax.

Where do you write?

In my bedroom/office. Currently my hubs and I are using the room as a bedroom, but once my daughter's family moves it will be my office again. I have my big desk and all of my creepy framed artwork. It does look a little frightening at night. I'd take a photo, but currently my desk is a mess.

If you'd just won a ticket to anywhere in the world, and you had to take me, where would you take me and why?

England. I lived there for four years in the eighties and I love it there. Plus we could visit Penendon Heath, which is the inspiration for my novella.

And now for passing it on:


1. Lisa McCourt Hollar of Jezri's Nightmares.
2. Marissa Farrar of Something Wicked This Way Comes.
3. Ruth Barrett of Spirited Words.
4. Gordon Bonnet of Tales of Whoa.
5. Jeffrey Hollar of The Latinum Vault.
6. Lisamarie Lamb of The Moonlit Door.
7. Claudia Lefeve of Claudia Lefeve.

Thanks,
♥Stacey