Trick or treat! A Halloween Story...

Whether you treated yourself to candy or not this Halloween, I'm hoping you'll treat yourself to this free short story! I wrote THE ORANGE DRESS for a contest on Wattpad and won second place. Yay!

Just click on this link and start reading.

Chelsea wasn't hanging around by the river early on Halloween morning. But her best friend insists she saw her there-and others say the same. So who is this Chelsea impostor, and will she ruin Halloween or save it?

And if you're in the mood for more free Halloween short stories, you can find a few more under my Wattpad profile. Yeah, I went a bit Halloween crazy this year. But living in Paris means you kind of have to create your own Halloween excitement because it isn't such a big thing here.

We did attend a neighborhood trick or treat last Saturday and my daughter was thrilled to come home with this:

I was excited to see one of my childhood favorites -- Nerds -- and a few other American favorites like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! Now Nerds seem kind of gross to me, but Reese's are still a classic that I would love to import by the ton.

Happy Halloween!

Some Writing News!

I finally have some fresh writing news for you... Lots of it! First, I've finished a new project and have been (unsuccessfully -- sigh) shopping it around to agents. We'll see what it happens with that, but it definitely isn't stopping me from moving ahead with more writing.

So the other news is I've signed up to Wattpad. If you're not too familiar with it, here's a quick description. It's an online platform where readers can read writers' works for free. And as writers, it offers us the opportunity to connect directly with readers, write short stories for fun contests etc. Not bad, huh?

I wrote The Orange Dress for a Halloween contest, as well as another short story that you can find on my Wattpad page here. It's free to join and free to read most stories on the website. I like seeing the mix of writers there, from newbies developing their craft to greats like Margaret Atwood.

As for my new, so-far rejected project, I'm in the process of considering its future. It just might end up on Wattpad...

Nine Years Already...

I'm not about to say anything original in this next sentence, just echoing the words of parents probably since the dawn of time, but I still have to say it: How is it possible that nine years have passed since my tiny baby was born? Where has the time gone? (And strangely, why does time seem to stand still when I'm waiting at the post office, the DMV or at the airport? But that's a subject for another post.)

Getting back to today's subject, which is actually about yesterday: Yes, on Sept. 23, my daughter turned nine. We celebrated with chocolate cake and sparklers, and a week earlier when the weather was still warm, had an outdoor party with her friends (I ran the show, and yes, I am still alive, though still recovering.) So, time flies when you're having fun, and I guess that's why these past nine years have gone by quickly. Plenty of laughs and silliness which definitely outweigh the more tiring moments of parenting.

I always say I wish I could keep a copy of my kids at each age, and at that, my husband looks at me like I've lost my mind. True, it would get pretty crowded in our apartment... but I do miss the early days, and at the same time enjoy the now and look forward to the future. Sigh.

Well, right now my own future is getting back to writing. I've finished editing a project and plan on submitting it to a mentoring program called Pitch Wars, am trying out the Wattpad platform, and am gearing up to write something new. It's all about diversification. Or at least that's what I tell myself!

A bientot...