Wishing mom’s everywhere a Happy Mother’s Day!
R. Lynn
Monthly Archives: May 2013
G’s Charismatic Bunch – The Gray Rodent (Series #6)
I thought I would give you an update. I will continue G’s Charismatic Bunch series until the last Friday in May, and then take a break from it for a little bit. As always, please enjoy #6 – The Gray Rodent.
Gessica shuffled into the office loaded down with her lunch bag, florescent pink back sack, and a purse probably huge enough to fit her whole vanity inside. The thing that caught Anna and Bronwyn’s attention was that she entered with a huge smile on her face. It definitely was not her normal persona they observed in the morning.
“Good morning…T.G.I.F.,” she chanted as she greeted Anna and Bronwyn. Both women starred at one another before they answered back.
“Good morning, dear, are you alright today?” Anna asked curious about her co-worker’s morning bliss.
“Good morning, G. Yeah, I’m with Anna, I’m not use to seeing you so, umm, happy in the morning. I know something’s up; you might as well spill it,” Bronwyn exclaimed, her eyes glued to Gessica as she waited for a response.
“Girls,” Gessica vocalized in a high pitched tone, “I’m fine, geez. Can’t a girl be happy every once in a while?”
“Well, yes, but for you that’s unusual,” stated Anna.
Gessica sat her belongings down and dug into her purse for something. “Bronwyn, you and Anna come over here to my desk, please,” she instructed.
The first thing that they saw was a plastic rodent that sat upon her desk. Very realistic it was with its beady black eyes, grayish concrete color and long skinny tail.
“Why do you have that rat on your desk, Gessica?” asked Anna.
“Like you really have to ask, Anna? You’re going to use this on Demi, aren’t you, Gessica?” Bronwyn questioned.
“Ding, ding, ding…I don’t have a gold star to give you, but I will give you an I.O.U.”
“You sure you aren’t suffering from the lingering effects of a hangover or something,” Bronwyn smiled as Anna emitted quiet laughter.
“Go right ahead; tease away, but when I get Demi, I already know that you both will be standing beside me participating in the laughter,” she exclaimed, with no doubt of their partaking.
“So, what’s your plan?” Anna questioned.
“Well, isn’t this the cat calling the kettle black. Little miss goody two shoes isn’t so good after all. Didn’t take you long to jump aboard my train, did it?” Gessica inquired as she stared at Anna with a shocked expression.
Anna laughed. “Okay, maybe I’m guilty. I’m on board just as long as you’re not trying to use it on me.”
“Or me,” Bronwyn spat out, “you know how bad my nerves are, I don’t need them to get worse than they already are, comprende?”
“Don’t comprende me like you know Spanish. You know it’s probably the only word that you do know,” Gessica smirked. “Don’t worry, you two are safe, this baby here is only for Demi,” she clarified as she stroked the tail of her fake rat.
Gessica heard Demi’s heels click clacking down the hallway as she approached her office. Quickly she grabbed the rodent and shoved it into her desk drawer.
“Morning G Honey,” Demi sing-songed as sweet and sappy as a jar of honey.
“Morning D,” Gessica smiled as the girls scurried away.
Good thinking girls, Gessica thought, we don’t want to draw attention that something is about to go down.
With no one around with idle conversation, Demi marched to the kitchen to fix herself a cup of Mandarin Orange tea. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect so Gessica made a mad dash to Demi’s office with the plastic rat in hand to set the scene. It was more than enough time to leave her little plastic friend behind and return to her desk.
When Demi strolled past her office, Gessica put on a huge smile and commented, “You look cute today.”
“Thanks G.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t look nice any other day. The whole purpose of the little scenario was to distract her so she wouldn’t be as observant as she walked back to her office. Not that Gessica looked, but she was sure that Demi snuck a peek of herself at each window she passed. She’s so predictable. Anna, Gessica and Bronwyn sat at their work stations and waited to hear her scream; however, after a minute had passed, Gessica slinked over to Anna’s office which was in direct view of Demi’s.
“Psst…what’s she doing?”
“She’s on her computer working, she didn’t see it.”
“Oh for goodness sake; I should have known it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake.”
“Gessica, you’re going to have to go back there and do something,” Bronwyn whispered when she walked over to put in her thoughts.
“Okay, okay, I’m going in girls. Wish me luck.” Gessica picked up a file and walked back to Demi’s office. She had on earphones as she listened to who knows what, and was all absorbed in some chart that was on her screen.
Gessica took a deep breath and tapped Demi lightly on her shoulder. Promptly she removed one ear plug as she turned to see her visitor. “Hey Demi, I’m in dire need of your help. This budget I’m working on is a mess. Do you think you can help me figure it out?”
“Yeah, sure, let me see,” she said as she removed her other earpiece and sat it on her keyboard.
Don’t smile…don’t laugh. Only a few more seconds and you got her, Gessica thought.
Gessica played it cool and looked down toward Demi’s feet with a startled appearance. “Dem..Demi, don’t move,” she said slowly.
Of course, she knew that Demi would look down, and sure enough she did. For Gessica, it felt like immediately everything started to move in slow motion. It took a couple of seconds for Demi’s brain to compute that a rat’s tail was wrapped around the heel of her shoe. And, it was at that moment that she let out a loud squeal as her body went ballistic and thrashed around like she had experienced a seizure. She bounced slightly from her chair right after she used her feet to push hard against the floor.
Hard enough that it allowed her to lift her feet high into the air as the chair skidded halfway across her office. There she sat glued in a runaway chair that abruptly stopped as it slammed into a wall, and caused her to bump her big head.
In reality, the whole thing happened at lightning speed, but as Gessica watched she couldn’t hold back the laughter that let loose. It was like watching a historic slow motion movie. Anna and Bronwyn only got the end view of what happened after they ran down the hall. Even the small bit that they saw was hysterical enough.
“Dang Demi, I’ve never seen you move so fast,” laughed Bronwyn.
Demi blocked everything out for a moment when she saw that Anna, Bronwyn and Gessica laughed at her expense. Then she got a better look at the varmint. She nearly had a heart attack over a stupid plastic rat.
“Get out of my office now! I can’t believe you did that; I hope you know that was pretty low!”
“Aww, it was a joke,” Gessica explained through side-splitting laughter.
“Ha, ha, ha, Gessica get out, and Anna and Bronwyn, do follow her away from my doorway!”
“Oh wow, you’re giving us the boot too?” Anna asked as she and Bronwyn laughed.
“Yes!”
“Demi, you know this was a hoot, right?”
“What’s going to be a hoot is when I get your stupid butt back. Now go!”
“Okay, okay, I’m out of here,” Gessica pouted while she watched as Demi gave her a death stare and double rolled her eyes.
As Gessica, Anna and Bronwyn walked back to their workstations, Anna said, “You two crack me up. You both are always out to get the other. I swear you act like you’re still in high school.”
Gessica smiled. “Maybe so, but at least we keep it interesting for you. Demi’s a little agitated at the moment, but when it wears off, she’s going to love me again. Count on it.”
###
Enjoy your weekend.
R. Lynn
Website: www.rlynnarchie.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EBooksByRLynnArchie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rlynnarchie
An Effective Writing Plan
When I start a story, I always begin by putting my thoughts on paper. I find it to be more beneficial than to sit in front of a computer and start typing. I prefer doing it this way because 1) I’m getting my thoughts down before I forget (I hate to say it, but I get sidetracked a lot). 2) I’m able to set up a starting point and structure where I want my story to go. And, 3) I have a written plan that I can refer to which allows me to put out more work in the time I’ve allotted.
I do have one rule that I created for myself that has worked quite well, and that is never to stop writing mid chapter. When I’m on a roll words come effortlessly, so I always like to continue until I finish a section before I stop. From experience, I found it tedious to come back and try to recreate the flow that I had prior.
Everyone is different, so whatever works for you is what you should stick with to get the best quality use of your time. Do you have a system that you follow? If so, I would love to hear what you do.
R Lynn
Website: https://www.rlynnarchie.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EBooksByRLynnArchie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rlynnarchie
I’ll be back Later!
Something to put a smile on your face:-)
A day at the Beach. A ‘Storetry’ Collaboration with my Word Press community. Stuff It Tuesdays with the Mrs. Join in!
A collaboration of talented bloggers.
Welcome to our first Stuff it Tuesday Collaboration! It was fun to see all of the writing and poems that people came up with and even more fun trying to make it into a fluid ‘storetry’. Quite the challenge. I had all of the entries laid out on my floor last night along with a glass of wine. There are so many talented people in our Word Press community.
I decided to add each persons blog link underneath their entry. This seemed to be the best way to keep track of each entry, so as you read, read past the links and then you can go back and check out people’s blogs when you have finished the ‘storetry’. I want to give a shout out to Valerie. She missed the deadline but also submitted this image so I included. I apologize for having to refuse some submissions. I had…
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Spring e-book bundle
G’s Charismatic Bunch – The Dishwasher Debacle (Series #5)
Sorry for missing last week’s issue, but I hope you enjoy today’s posting of The Dishwasher Debacle.
Gessica, Tami, Demi, Anna and Bronwyn, had decided to order in lunch since it was raining outside. And, it was during lunch that Gessica heard the story of Bronwyn’s dishwasher incident.
“So you never used a dishwasher before you started working here?” Gessica asked.
“No. I’m the dishwasher at home,” replied Bronwyn.
“G, shut up, let her continue,” Demi stated between bites as she chowed down on her grilled chicken salad.
“I was about to do that, and what did I tell you about telling me to shut up? You shut up,” Gessica barked and twisted up her lips.
“You would never know you two are friends the way you carry on,” said Anna.
“Ah, is it okay to continue girls?” Bronwyn asked as she eyed them back and forth.
“Yup, go ahead,” Gessica said, her attention turned back to Bronwyn.
“Go ahead, Bronwyn, we’re done,” Demi stressed as she shoved another forkful of spinach into her mouth.
Satisfied, Bronwyn continued on, “As I was saying, I never worked a dishwasher before, but I wanted to help out even though it wasn’t my turn yet to do kitchen duty. I told Tami that I would take care of making sure the dishwasher was run and emptied.”
“I was leaving early that day, so I appreciated her offer to help and explained where the tablets were for the dishwasher,” Tami explained. “Huny, I felt partly responsible because I didn’t know it was your first time working one, and I also had forgotten that the container was empty.”
“Well I don’t blame you for that, it was my bright idea to use the dish liquid. Tami had left, and no one was around to help, I should have waited, but you know I don’t have any patience. I didn’t think it would be a big ordeal to swap it with liquid dish detergent, but of course, I was wrong.”
“So what did you do?” Gessica asked.
“Oh, you are going to love this!” Demi chuckled.
“I only put in a little and started it; I mean, it’s for dishes, right? It was supposed to wash, I was going to empty it, and it would have been done. But oh, I can’t get that lucky.”
“Are you serious?! “Oh my gosh; this is too funny,” Gessica stated.
“Unfortunately yes.” By the look on her face, it was apparent that the sordid memory had scratched the surface of her brain.
“Okay, okay, this is starting to get good. Go ahead girl, you have my full attention,” Gessica excitedly exclaimed while her hands rubbed together like two sticks trying to start a fire. “Details girlfriend, I want to hear everything.”
Anna decided to add her two cents into the conversation. “Well, I had to run out at lunch, and when I got back, I went to the kitchen to heat up my lunch. Only, what I found instead was a floor of bubbles. I’m talking bubbles galore, like rub a dub, dub, it’s time to throw my butt in the tub,” she laughed.
“Same here, I also had just walked into the office and heard Anna hollering for help; that’s when I went sprinting towards the kitchen. There were tons of suds spewing out of the dishwasher. It was like it was bleeding bubbles. Do you know how to say massive? Believe me it was that and more, and I’m not exaggerating. Bronwyn ran back when I did, so it’s us and Anna trudging through this white sea of suds,” Demi explained.
“I think we all panicked, but Bronwyn decided to run the rinse cycle, and we had never been through anything like this before, so we stupidly agreed like idiots,” laughed Anna.
“I don’t know what we were thinking, honestly I don’t. It was like throwing a match on gasoline and watching it blow up. The bubbles kept coming, and coming, and oozing out like there was no tomorrow. We probably threw every kitchen towel we had down on the floor, and we followed that with rolls of paper towels trying to absorb those darn suds. All along I was praying that nothing seeped down on the floor below us,” said Demi.
“It was my fault and I was so embarrassed that it happened in the first place. It took us a while, but we finally managed to clear the floor and we could, at last, see our feet again. I was grateful for their help, and told them I would take care of the repair process to get the dishwasher back to normal again,” Bronwyn stated.
“So how did you do that?”
“I had to call the management office to alert them. The building’s engineer explained what I needed to do.”
“Ahh, okay,” Gessica nodded.
“All I could think of was damn, this is going to take up my whole freaking day. I ruined everyone’s shoes, including my own and the dishes were still dirty. Hell, I had to remove them all, so that I could take out the dishwasher racks. Then I had to hand wash and thoroughly dry the entire inside of the dishwasher. I didn’t need anyone to cuss me out because I did an excellent job of that myself. Anyway, the engineer explained that I needed to break down the surfactant of dish soap detergent.”
“And how do you do that?” Gessica asked with raised eyebrows.
“He suggested that I use ½ cup of vinegar poured directly on the bottom of the dishwasher.”
“Umm, okay, sounds logical enough.”
“Why are you asking so many questions?” Demi remarked.
“Because I can, and…!”
“You two are nuts; I’m telling you, nobody would ever guess you’re friends,” Anna said as she shook her head at their bickering.
“I don’t care about the questions because I asked plenty myself. I just wanted the situation fixed,” Bronwyn explained. I even burnt myself on the heating coil forgetting that the bastard was still hot as hell.” ”
“Anyhow, I sprinkled a layer of salt over the vinegar and started the dishwasher. I repeated that process twice before the bubbles were finally gone. Demi was a sweetheart, though. She ran out and bought a container of tablets. I popped one of those babies in with the dishes and things were rocking and rolling again. I tell you, I hope I never go through anything on that level again.”
Gessica playfully bumped into Bronwyn with her shoulder and said, “Bronwyn, you’re so stupee, only you could do something that crazy, but that’s why I love your crazy butt. However, you should be glad it happened before I was hired because I would have given you a hard time for weeks on end,” she laughed.
“Yes G, I’m very thankful for that one,” she smiled.
Lunch was over, and as the women collected their utensils and dishes they teasingly made fun of Bronwyn on her dish liquid debacle, but as always, it was all in fun among friends.
###
Have a great weekend!
R. Lynn
Website: www.rlynnarchie.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EBooksByRLynnArchie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rlynnarchie
Pubit! is now Nook Press
I know I was M.I.A. last week, but I was super busy, so I apologize for not checking in with you. Over the weekend, I took some time to check my book sells. What I discovered when I went to Pubit!, which is Barnes and Nobles site to publish books, is that Pubit! is now Nook Press. I’m sure I must have received something by email, but knowing me, I probably deleted it by mistake. There is, however, a press release available on the site. Below is a short snippet of what pops up when you go to Pubit!
With NOOK Press, you can write, edit, format, and publish your manuscript all in one place, collaborate with friends and editors, and get your questions answered quickly by our live chat support staff—all at no cost. It’s easy and improved and offers the same great terms as PubIt!
I haven’t had the chance to review everything, but at a quick glance I do like how friendly the sales page is in tracking your sales, and it also includes a beneficial book sales graph that display six months of information according to books sold and royalties earned. I also found the switch from Pubit! to Nook Press to be effortless because already having an account, all my information pretty much synced during the sign up process.
In the past, I have had issued with Pubit! so I’m hoping that Nook Press resolves them all. Something I will find out once I get a chance to sit down and thoroughly test out the new site. I will revisit this topic to let you know my thoughts on Nook Press.
R. Lynn
Website: www.rlynnarchie.com
R. Lynn Archie, Romance Author 