status update

We are excited to almost be finished our sequel to “Betrayal Comes First.” Just having one more chapter and then an epilogue to write is crazy! After brainstorming different genres we could write, we finally settled on a story that grabbed our attention. This story will fall into the sci-fi/super human genre Currently we are in the character development stage and we are pretty excited about this. Although it is a little strange to jump into another character’s head after you’ve been in your previous character’s head for a year and a half.

We are excited to start this new journey and share with you lovely people, characters and snippets are they come.

P.S … For someone reason I just love naming new characters. They have to have the perfect name and sometimes that takes a lot of searching. Other times a name just pops into your head. It’s also hard to make your names unique, as you try to avoid using common names from other books. The struggle. Often times, I’ll look through names lists from the early twentieth century to find some gems, or I’ll use interesting names of people I’ve met or know.

-Turner Collins

spotlight sunday

Turner and I have always had a soft spot for Big Data. The beats are just so catchy and each song is unique. If you like this song here are a few others you might enjoy: “Sick For Me,” “Snowed In” & “Dangerous.”

Enjoy the tunes!

-Collins

my poem titled “Peaches & Apples”

Long nights carved into my memory

With sharp tools dipped in lace

Trace a short story of tumultuous love

As short as a parting embrace

The sweetest moments soured

Like lemon juice on the tongue

Fermented in unending silence

Savage battles not lost but won

And the prize was solidarity

A little clarity

From the haze of the gun smoke

Wafting across the battlefield

Standing over the fallen body

That embodied love

But now rots

Like so many apples under a tree

In summer time

Their cores left bare for scrutiny

But that’s how it is with people sometimes

Soft skin inviting you in

Disguising the decay

Until you take a bite

 -Collins

miracles explained with science

I have always wondered why people are so swift in dismissing a miracle. I understand that a miracle is something that is so unbelievable, it will be hard to believe. But I thought that was where someone’s faith would guide them. It seems that more and more often disbelief outweighs belief.

It bothers me that someone who claims a miracle occurred, or experiences a miracle, is seen as crazy or making it up.  Why are we so quick to jump on their account of what they experienced and turn our backs on them?

A majority of scientists are religious so why does it always seem they try discount miracles? Why does it seem like they make it a hobby of trying to explain away things that are unexplainable. I would think that their beliefs would open them up to the idea that miracles can happen. The problem has to be that we need to try and explain everything and that is where we fail. Some things are not meant to have an answer. And just because we can’t explain it does not make it any less believable.

At this point in human history, if there was a second coming of Jesus, someone claiming they were Jesus, we would lock them up in an asylum. We have become so removed from the wonder of the unexplained and spoiled our minds with science. Science sees someone as dismissible if it cannot be explained, and this is where we fail.

My biggest pet peeve had to be near death experiences. Why do we need science to try and explain that near death experiences are just a series of your brain playing tricks on you. Who cares? If someone says they experienced one and they believe that they did, who are we to say they didn’t? We don’t know, and therefore, how can we discount what they are saying?

Why can we not put our faith in something unknown and just be content with that? I thought that was the foundation of religion.

-Collins

quote of the day

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”

-Ernest Hemingway

Life is no walk in the park. It is a battle that leaves scars and bruises and sometimes it shatters you into pieces. It takes strength to pull all your pieces together and move on. And in that act, is where the strongest people are found. Because you don’t know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have.

-Collins

Quote of the day

“Life isn’t about finding yourself…life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw

Many times in my life I have heard people say, mostly to others, how can you know yourself? You need to search for who you are. Don’t do that, don’t take that risk, don’t love that person until you have found Yourself, til you do whatever is necessary to come to a place of “knowing”. I have never personally believed that one can “find” themselves, in truth life is about learning, growing, changing and adapting. No one stays the same forever, not if they seek knowledge. Not if they experience new things. We create who we are through our lives, loves, journeys and the choices we make. And that to me, is one of the reasons life is so beautiful.

-Turner

my poem titled “Unholy “X””

Crossed legs disguising short hem lines

Avert wandering eyes

With the illusion of false modesty

They are the unholy “X”

A gateway to some alluring nirvana

Shrouded behind some small talk

A few drinks bought at a bar

Some offering deemed worthy enough

To unlock the gates and permit you entry

And as you pass the threshold

You realize those gates are far from pearly

That they were nothing more

Than a shadow dancing behind a partition

A flimsy attempt to keep intruders at bay

But you’re not complaining

-Collins

status update

Let’s talk about communication. About how important it is in joint-written novels. Without constant communication about your plot and characters, your story could turn out like a haphazard stew with odds and ends throw in. You must make the commitment to communicate with your co-author to take on responsibilities fifty fifty.

Talk with each other to figure out where your strengths and weaknesses lay. Much like any relationship, you want your weaknesses to be complimented by their strengths, so if you suck at chapter planning, it just so happens that your partner loves to organize. You must understand each other’s characters and how your characters would interact in each other’s pieces so everything flows together seamlessly.

It can be difficult to find time in your life to talk with your partner, but if you want your novel to succeed, you must try. One last thing, make partners with someone with whom you can confidently share your work with. Writing is a very personal affair and showing someone your inner workings takes guts. Your partner should be supportive and likewise, you should support them as well.

-Turner Collins

my poem titled “Allure”

I watch from a distance

As others draw you into their orbit like small moons

They pull you into with their gravity with enticing things

The surrounding darkness enveloping you

Like clawed hands swathed in lamb skin gloves

And you don’t even fight for yourself

You float in the breeze like a leaf blown from a tree

Landing in a deep polluted pool

Your once bright green cadence

Now dulled and yellowed

From the tempests that lap at your sides

Or perhaps, you are the ladybug

That rode on the leaf

With the promise of some great adventure

And you will soon realize

That this inviting transportation

Doesn’t come with water wings

That the pool you’ve landed in

Is bottomless, or so it appears

But it’s hard to tell, peering down

Through the murky depths of good times

And nights hardly remembered

If there is such a thing as rock bottom

-Collins

my poem titled “No Such Thing as Ghosts”

This was just a funny idea that popped into my head. Not my best, but I like it. Enjoy!

The light from the hallway slips under my door

And bleeds onto my bedroom floor

Illuminating just enough

Like a lone street lamp on a long stretch of highway

For my sleep tinkered eyes to see

Something I had not expected

 

A woman with pearls draped around her neck

And a man in a bolo hat giving her cheek a peck

They stand just outside the reach of the hallway light

But their figures are cast white against the darkness

Glowing with subtlety light a dimming flashlight

 

I pull the covers farther up exposing just one eye

And the couple stops just long enough to heave a grunting sigh

They float over to my bed with curious faces

Like somehow I’m the most interesting thing of three possible in this room

Giving each other a glance they begin to laugh

A floating sound not anchored to a body

 

Two long shadows interrupt the hallway light under my door

And the couple looks down at me and chortles once more

When my mother opens the door and pokes her head in

Asking what all the noise is

I simply say that ghosts are responsible

“There’s no such thing as ghosts” she frowns

When she closes the door I look to my left

And the couple chuckling silently seem to disagree

-Collins