Posted by: Author | February 12, 2014
Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Tags: wordless Wednesday
Posted by: Author | February 10, 2014
Tuesday Tales- February 11, 2014- Heart
This week’s word prompt for Tuesday Tales is Heart. I’ve started a new story since I submitted the 1950s story last week to a publisher. This one is a contemporary and I am actually setting it in my hometown. Be sure to check out the other tales here. 
Miss Jenkins returned to her chair. “Ten years ago, my sister was found dead at her home lying at the bottom of the stairs. She lived in Reno with her husband and was supposedly happy in her marriage.”
“What was the official cause of death?” Richard was making notes in case the woman decided to report that he wasn’t paying her proper attention.
“The coroner said it was an accident.”
“And you don’t believe it?” Richard glanced up at her. She had an intense look on her face and seemed on the verge of tears. Great. He couldn’t stand it when they cried. That wasn’t completely true. After all, he did enjoy it when his questioning got so intense that he made a suspect confess or get teary but this was different. The lady seemed too fragile all of a sudden.
“I wasn’t entirely sold on the theory when it happened but since I wasn’t there, I didn’t get a chance to question it.”
“Why would you have been in a position to do that?”
“I’m a trained medical examiner. I actually don’t work in that field any longer but I did for a year or two after I got out of medical school.”
“So, how does this Reno ruling of accidental death get you to Pensacola and who was the next to die?”
“I’m getting to that. Would you please allow me to tell this in my own way?”
“Sure, lady, I have all day. Take your time. I mean, after all, there’s no other place I’d rather be than right here listening to you drag out this story for dramatic effect.” Richard knew by the look on her face that he’d probably gone too far with the sarcasm but couldn’t she get to the heart of the matter sooner rather than later? He tilted his chair onto its two back legs and tossed his pen to the table.
“You must be one of the rudest men I’ve ever met.” She stood. “I’m going to get someone else who will take me seriously.”
Posted in Tuesday's Tales | Tags: heart, Tuesday tales
Posted by: Author | February 7, 2014
Friday Facts- February 7, 2014- Happy Birthday Pinocchio
In 1883, Carlo Collodi wrote a children’s book called The Adventures of Pinocchio. Eventually, Walt Disney purchased the rights to make the story into a movie. This was his second animated feature film. His first was Snow White.
The film came out on February 7, 1940 and was the first animated feature film to win an academy award. It won two; one for Best Music- original score and one for Best Music- original song for When You Wish Upon a Star.
How convenient would it be if, in real life, when someone lies that their nose would grow? It’d sure make life easier for lawyers, wouldn’t it?
Posted in Friday Facts | Tags: academy award, animation, birthday, Friday Facts, Jiminy Cricket, movies, Pinocchio, Walt Disney, When you wish upon a star
Posted by: Author | February 5, 2014
Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Wordless Wednesday | Tags: wordless Wednesday
Posted by: Author | February 3, 2014
Tuesday Tales – February 4, 2014- FIELD
This week’s word for Tuesday Tales is FIELD. I’m still in the 1950s era story and it now has a name: Flight Risk. My friend Shay Lacy sent me a list of titles and this one fit exactly.
Check out the other entries here.
Around the time that Vivian decided that she and Mary Lou should return home since they were imposing on Annette and not really learning anything, Rocket came dashing in the door shouting his wife’s name. He skidded to a stop when he saw Vivian.
“What is it, Dwayne?” Annette asked.
“Rick’s been found. They’re transporting him to the hospital now.”
“Hospital?” Vivian stood, her hand over her mouth. Her heart soared. He must be alive or they wouldn’t be taking him to the hospital, would they?
“He’s a hard-headed old farm-boy but they think he’s going to be all right. He passed out from the altitude when he ejected but he was able to pull the cord on his chute before he blacked out. Rick knocked his noggin on the ground pretty hard and was disoriented when he woke. Some lady found him in her field and her husband carried him to their house and called the base after they heard about the crash on the radio. They’d been working the acreage and hadn’t known about the accident.”
Vivian collapsed on to the naugahyde sofa and burst into tears of relief. “Thank God, Thank God.”
“You really like him, huh?” Rocket sat beside Vivian and awkwardly patted her knee.
“I’m glad he’s going to make it. Thanks for telling us he’s going to be fine.” Vivian brushed off Dwayne’s hand. “We’ve imposed enough and need to go now.”
“Don’t you want to go to the hospital and see your man?” Dwayne asked.
“He’s not my man and it’s not my place to go.” Vivian turned to her sister. “We need to head home.” She looked at Annette. “Thanks for the tea and the company.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Mary Lou asked.
“No. Why would I be joking?”
“I’ve driven you all over the countryside today and now that we can actually see the man and make sure for ourselves that he’s alive, you want to go home? I don’t get you.”
“Like I said, it’s not my place to go to the hospital.”
“I don’t care what you said. I’m taking you.” Mary Lou grabbed Vivian’s upper arm. “Now, someone tell me where the base hospital is.”
“Come on. I’ll take you. He’ll have to be checked out by the flight surgeon.” Annette’s husband held his out his hand.
“I really don’t think I can do this.” Now that she knew Rick was safe, Vivian was ready to walk away. Yes, she cared for the man but she knew now better than ever that she couldn’t be with a man who risked his life every day in the air. Today had been one of the worst days of her life and she couldn’t bear to go through it again.
Posted in Tuesday's Tales | Tags: 1950s, field, Tuesday tales, writers
Posted by: Author | February 3, 2014
My Writing Process- Jillian Chantal
I’m participating in the 2014 writing process blog hop at the invitation of my friend, J Rose Allister. This is a fun, informative group of posts. Her post was last week but you can still see it by clicking here.
I was supposed to find three people to keep this going into next week but it didn’t happen for various reasons.
1) What am I working on?
I’m currently working on getting three stories polished to submit. I finished one last week so I need to get these out on submission before I start a new one.
2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I’m not flowery and long-winded. I move my stories along at a fast pace and leave a lot of the description to the imagination of the reader. I tend to skim a lot of what I call excess prose when I read so I try to leave that out of my own work.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I write what moves me at the moment. I like mysteries so I love to add that to my work but I also am a fan of things ending on a happy note so I write romance a lot. I have a few stories that aren’t romances but they are published under another name.
4) How does my writing process work?
I write non-lineraly most of the time. I like to choose music to go with my stories. I will jot down songs that speak to me at a certain moment and make a playlist for the next story while I’m working on the current story. Once I finish my current work, I immerse myself in the new playlist and ideas for plot and characters come to me. I then start to write and usually get the ending of the book about 5 chapters into it so then I write that and maybe the second to last chapter. I also sometimes think of random scenes I will write and then plug them in where they fit.
Posted in Random thoughts | Tags: J Rose Allister, Jillian, writing process
Posted by: Author | January 31, 2014
Friday Fact- January 31, 2014- Ice in the South
This Friday Fact is for the world at large to know why an ice and snow storm shuts down the south. We are in a tropical zone and therefore we don’t have the equipment readily available to clear roads from ice and snow. I have lived in the Florida panhandle for many, many years and we may have ice storms once every three to four years. Snow much less often. To keep snow plows and those type vehicles here and ready to roll is not economic in the least. Our normal temps for January through the beginning of March are 60s in the daytime and maybe, just maybe, 40s in the nights. We do sometimes get 20s and 30s but since we are also the “sunshine” state, these low temps aren’t accompanied by precipitation and it would be ludicrous for us to spend the funds to have these items as well as for salaries for workers who know how to run them and keep them in good condition.
Our county government called for shut-downs early before this storm hit as they knew that we have no equipment for keeping roads clear nor for buses to run in sleet and ice. Kids needed to be off those buses and workers needed to be off the interstate. In fact, it took til close to noon on Thursday before I-10 was open here in Pensacola to give the sun time to melt the ice.
Birmingham (where I lived in law school) has way more ice and snow days than us and so does Atlanta. I was surprised that those cities didn’t close schools this week sooner than they did. It was always going to be a bad storm and they had plenty of notice about it.
For the folks in the north to make fun of us for shutting down our city over 2 inches of snow, I say, poo on you. Try having your snow without proper equipment and see how it affects you. AND remember, when we have heat waves down here, people survive. Our death toll from heat waves is low because we have the equipment to handle the tropics.
It’s all a matter of perspective.
Posted by: Author | January 30, 2014
New Release- “Some Minutes Last a Lifetime”
The third of the weekend reads series, The Minute Series, is out. It came out last weekend but this is the first chance I’ve had to put it up on the old blog. This one is called Some Minutes… Last a Lifetime and takes place in Rome, Italy.
This is the one with the older heroine and hero. 
BUY LIMK
Blurb:
Antoinette Blake traveled to London to visit her daughter and met her favorite actor, Adam Knowles. They’ve fallen hard for each other and, several weeks later, are in Rome, Italy on a vacation. They spend a lovely afternoon strolling around the Colosseum and feasting on gelato in a sidewalk café. Upon returning to their hotel, they run into Adam’s former lover, Cammy Suarez, a sexy American actress who tries to woo Adam back into her arms. Cammy is a much younger woman than Antoinette which causes Antoinette’s insecurities about her own age to rise to the surface, threatening her relationship with Adam.
Adam’s own frustration over Antoinette’s doubts about his love and what he believes to be her irrational behavior as a result of her jealousy of the younger woman make him doubt that he can continue to try to make Antoinette the center of his life.
Posted in Books | Tags: Jillian Chantal, New Release, Secret Cravings Publishing, Some Minutes Last a Lifetime, The Minute Series
Posted by: Author | January 29, 2014
Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Wordless Wednesday
Posted by: Author | January 27, 2014
Tuesday Tales- January 28, 2014- Mirror
Today’s word prompt is mirror. I was concerned about fitting this one in since one of the first “rules” of writing I was told was that I should never, ever have my character look in a mirror and describe her long, flowing hair and crystal blue eyes. So, see if I succeeded in keeping the rule intact.
I’m still in the 1950s at Edwards Air Force base and writing about Rick and Vivian.
Click here for the other tales of the week.
The local news channel’s reporter stood in the foreground of the shot. Behind him was a plume of smoke far out on the horizon. “As you can see, the wreckage is quite a few miles away. We still have no word on the condition of any survivors. We have a man on the way to the site who’ll bring us an update as soon as they arrive at the scene.”
“Come on. I’m locking up. I need to get out there and see what’s going on.” Mr. Jameson snapped off the television.
“I want to come with you.” Vivian stood and scrubbed her face with the heels of her hands.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Mr. Jameson said.
“Why not?”
“You seem quite upset and if there’s a fatality out there, it could affect you much more than it is here at headquarters.”
“Mr. Jameson, I think Vivian is more concerned about checking on Captain Logan than she is for herself.”
“I can understand that, Mary Lou but I think it would be better for you to take your sister home to wait for news there. As the head of the Republican party here, I’ll have to be talking with some of the military brass and seeing what we can do—”
“To what? To make the party look good in this terrible situation?” Mary Lou asked, the horror in her voice palpable.
“Of course not, young lady. What I was trying to convey is that the party will want to be a presence on the scene and brief the president along with the military brass. With President Eisenhower due to arrive in the next week, he’s going to want to be prepared to deal with the fallout of this and I need to be out there gathering information.” He turned to Vivian. “Come. Let’s lock up. I’ll call you when I know more information than the media is giving out.”
“Let me go wash my face first. You go ahead. I’ll lock up and put out the closed sign.” Vivian walked over to the sink. She heard the door close as she looked at her face in the mirror. She didn’t think she’d ever seen herself so pale and bug-eyed. If she wasn’t so upset about what was going on at the base and her stomach wasn’t so tied up in knots that it was cramping, she might have laughed at herself. The way her heart hurt, she wasn’t sure she’d ever laugh again.
“Are you going to be all right?” Mary Lou called over to Vivian.
“I think so. I’m a little nauseous but as soon as I wash my face, I’ll be ready to go.” Vivian turned on the water and splashed some on her cheeks. She patted them dry and turned off the water. “Let’s go.”
On her way out the door, Vivian grabbed her purse and dug out her lipstick to put some on in the car. She may be pale and scared but she always wore lipstick.
Posted in Tuesday's Tales | Tags: Edwards AFB, Eisenhower, Mirror, Tuesday tales
Jillian Chantal 