December 2nd, 2011 by Theresa

Freddie watched his captive struggle. Muffled screams barely escaped the thin man’s duct taped mouth.  Unrolling the canvas revealed Freddie’s current tools – very familiar tools. He just smiled as his victim’s eyes went wide.

“I don’t know why you’re so upset,” Freddie said stiffly as he put on his latex gloves. “I know for a fact that you know these instruments very well. After all, you killed four people with them.”

Freddie picked up the closest pair of rusted pincers and grinned. “Those four people were my only family. Let’s start with the pincers, shall we?  Right hand or left?”

As appeared on Jen DeSantis’ Blog in the  “Friday Picture Show“

100 words, Flash Fiction, writing

October 31st, 2011 by Theresa

As a native of Louisiana – and of legal drinking age, there are two things that are  a way of life: Saint’s football and Abita beer.  On that note, meet my new friend Tiffany. 

Now the question begs. Why the Saints? Why Abita? Easy. I always root for the underdog, the little guy, the longshot.  Why? Well that’s easy too.

The longshot and underdog types are everyday folks like you and me.   To know that there is a hope, how ever slim, that we can reach greatness is enough not only to stir the die hard fan in all of us  but to keep us little guys going on to greatness. But that may not satisfy most of you. Here’s an example.

The football team  New Orleans Saints won the Superbowl. This was a first – IN FRANCHISE HISTORY.  Insert joke about hell freeezing over here. For years they were known as the “Aints”  – all potential, no performace. For years, die hard fans stuck by the team. We travelled to away games, tailgated when we couldn’t afford tickets and partied hard even when we lost.  We fans stuck by the team. Our reward for 43 years of loyalty? A season played like no other, record breaking views of that NFL game of over 100 million people and the look on the Colts team’s faces as they got hit hard. < sigh > I still dream  about it…

And for Abita Brewery? They are the little brewery that could! They are the oldest and largest craft brewer in the Southeast.  Seriously, they had no idea that the beer was that good.  They had a dream to make the best and they did. How can you fault them for that? They do what they do best and damn the critics.  What’s more? They make really good beer!

So go ahead, take the longshot, root for that little guy!  Cheer on the independent artists and buskers! Like you and me they need someone who believes in them to keep them going though those dark years.  

Who are your long shots? Please leave me a comment!

cheer, football, saints, underdog, writing

October 5th, 2011 by Theresa

So we all know that I’m from New Orleans – a great southern city. As you may have guessed sometimes “I talk funny,” as they say up here in Canada. While telling a story to a group of people, I dropped a “Bless her heart” once or twice. This apparently cracked my friends up – and got me thinking. There was a pattern there, not just what I said but how I said it.

With a spark of an idea I turned to social media. I asked my Google streamers, Twitter followers and Facebook compatriots, what their favourite Southern sayings are. Boy was I in for a treat! I got some great responses from “Fixin ‘to,” “Well I’ll be,” “gag a maggot,” and of course the ever present terms “ya’ll” (singular) and “all ya’ll (plural). In the course of discussing these terms with my old New Orleans friends, I realized the pattern was there. Read the rest of this entry »

Know the Code, New Orleans, research, writing

September 2nd, 2011 by Theresa

This is it. This is the big blog post where I quote one of the greatest writers in the world. The one! The Only!

No.. Hmmm that’s not it. Let’s try that again.

This is it. This is the big blog post where I quote one of the greatest writers in the world. The one! The Only!

This is it. This is where I vowed not to sully name of  the super fantastic writer and best selling author….

Nah. The flow is off there. Hmm… Let me take another stab at it…

This is it. This is where I vowed not to sully name of  the super fantastic writer and best selling author….

Christina Dodd, one of the many authors I look up to, said something interesting on her Facebook account back in April.

As a budding author, I’m sure most of you can see why this one stuck with me. I know that I’m in Ira Glass’s Gap right now.  I’ve got great ideas… but right now I’m not doing so well in getting them on the page. Add in the great words of Christina and I’ve got the winning combination: Strip my ideas, synopsis, outlines, and horrible horrible first drafts down to the basics. Write it again, ahem, correctly. Above all? Keep going.

It’s gonna get better folks.

Critique, Edits, Rewrites, Rewrites From Hell, WIP, writing