Well, yes. In fact, it’s volume 2 of Love in the Time of Corona.
And, who doesn’t need a little escape from all the confusing, polarizing and gloomy news?
Seven authors have virtually come together to release an anthology of novelettes in different genres (and heat levels) that show how love, like life, finds a way.
My story is called “Tipsy” and if you love wines, you’ll love this story about two restaurant employees navigating their furlough.
Barbera Piedmont works in one of Manhattan’s top restaurants alongside a hot sommelier named Cavan Mills. One fateful night furloughs them both and there seems to be no end in sight. To Barbera’s surprise, Cavan contacts her for help keeping his career on track. Through a virtual connection, they share wines along with their fears and dreams. Barbera can’t help wondering what will happen to their digital relationship when life returns to normal. Will her services no longer be needed, or will these strange and dangerous times end in love?
My fellow anthology contributors–Kristi Avalon, Chloe Flowers, Sheridan Jeane, Becky Lower, Judy McDonough and L.A. McGinnis–share my excitement in letting you know Love in the Time of Corona, Vol. II, will be released on April 22.
Read, leave a review, stay safe. Muah, from me (6-feet away) to you.
Eavesdropping on strangers’ conversations is immense fun. How else can you pass the time when you are waiting for something. Aren’t we always waiting for something? To pay for our food, for our Ubers to arrive, or for venti iced coffees with our names misspelled on the cup?
Who in the world is named Janiver??
But eavesdropping is rude.
A better way to wile away the minutes is by literature. Of course, carrying around a book or another device is not always practical. But you would ever leave the house without your phone? Like some kind of animal?
No.
So, how can we combine our passions for eavesdropping, good stories and our phones?
Well, there’s an app for that and it’s called Peek’d. It’s free and fun and it delivers you short stories in all genres a little text box at a time. It’s like going through your friend’s phone. Which we would never do.
Download it and read something. Write your own story and submit. Get published. Live the writer dream. (haha)
Thinking of writing a book? The first line is important. The first line sets the mood, theme, style, world and should introduce the main conflict. “Amazing Bonus,” if it foreshadows the end. Above all, the first line should hook an agent, a publisher or two and thousands millions of readers.
Sounds easy.
Image courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons by Reuben Ingber, Some Rights Reserved.
To get you started, here are some plagiarized borrowed lines from people that are already famous. I think these would make perfect openings. The famous won’t mind. Probably (<~Not legal advice). Just think of the possibilities…
Kevin Hart
I used to think guns were loud until I dropped the damn shampoo in the shower.
Laura Kightlinger
I have a rule, and that is to never look at somebody’s face while we’re having sex; because, number one, what if I know the guy?
Image via Flickr Creative Commons by Veronica Belmont, Some Rights Reserved.
Louis CK
I know it’s not popular to say, but I hate balloons.
Betty White
Get at least eight hours of beauty sleep. Nine, if you’re ugly.
Redd Fox
I feel sorry for people who don’t drink or do drugs. Because someday they’re going to be in a hospital bed, dying, and they won’t know why.
via Flickr Creative Commons by Carla de Souza Campos, Some Rights Reserved.
More Laura Kightlinger
I can’t think of anything worse after a night of drinking than waking up next to someone and not being able to remember their name, or how you met, or why they’re dead.
Dane Cook
When I said I wanted to be a comedian, they all laughed at me. Well, no one’s laughing now.
My friend told me she never cries. She simply didn’t feel sadness much and never had any real reason to cry.
Either she is lying or she is painfully un-self-aware. You can’t say, “boo,” to her without making her break-down. I’ve never seen someone cry so much as she does.
Except for me.
I cry all the time. Ten things that made me cry last week:
Simone Biles
Ruth 1:16
A new book on home decorating
Joe Strummer’s rendition of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song
My husband and I got into an argument one morning and he came home from work early to be the first to apologize.
A dear friend sent me a very sweet text
A scene I wrote
A Facebook Memory of a video of my son at a swim lesson when he was three
A video about overcoming feelings of insignificance
I felt lonely
Those are very specific examples that I can remember. There are also some general stuff that turns on the waterworks for me anytime, all the time. A note: to me crying is a spectrum, ranging from tearing up to total meltdown. Not everything reduces me to a shaking, leaking shell of a woman, but the following can be a challenge…
The Star Spangled Banner
I can’t sing it. When the world gasped and pointed at Gabby Douglas during her team’s medal ceremony because she didn’t belt out the words or place her hand over her heart, I almost cried for her. It would take everything I had not to ugly-cry while receiving an Olympic medal. I don’t know if I could even stand. Would it be un-patriotic for me to collapse in a snotty puddle while the national anthem played and men and women in military service saluted?
I always have to pretend the sun is in my eyes at the start of baseball games. I know, pathetic.
Whenever Anyone Else Cries
Please don’t cry in my presence. If you cry, I have to cry. I carry little packets of tissues wherever I go. If you start to cry, I’ll hand you a Kleenex and we will have a good cry together. I have cried with friends and strangers. Once, with a WWII POW when he told me how many of his buddies have passed during and since that war and how hard they fought and how proud they were to do it.
This is a weird thing for even me to handle. Music makes me cry. It tickles my brain. Any kind of music will do it. I have to try not to cry. This can make me look a little looney in public. If I’m at home and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s Fever To Tell makes me cry, then I’ll let it all out. Maybe my eyeballs need washing.
YouTube
So there’re a lot of social experiments where people are filmed doing the right thing. Like this one of an African man who receives a racist message on social media and asks strangers if they would interpret it for him. Or this one, where young people are asked to interview for a thankless job (the one their moms do). CRYING.
Yoga
I don’t know why. Maybe it’s all the breathing. I just pretend I put too much downward in my dog.
Movies
Of course. What am I? A monster?
Now, to be sure, all this boo-hoo-ing takes place between my normal emotions, like crying at normal things, general well-being and happiness, feelings of gratitude (when I remember I’m not homeless and, dear God, what they must cry about), love for my family and friends and laughing at funny things.
Humans are the only animals that can cry from feelings. Crying makes us feel better and it may help us to connect with others. I think that’s good, don’t you? Tears make us human.
Courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons, Machiel van Zanten
With summer almost upon us, I must prepare for the season by compiling my TBR list. I like to keep books in every room of my house, in each bag or purse, in the cars and next to most of my appliances. This way, if I ever have a moment where my eyes are not supposed to be on something else, like children or the stove, I can scan the immediate area for a book and squeeze off a scene or chapter before something else needs my attention. I get quite a lot of reading done this way.
Of course, nothing beats a long, leisurely read, but I only get those on birthdays and anniversaries. Any other day and I’m too laden with guilt to enjoy what I’m reading. If I wait until night, I’m lucky to get one cheek under the sheet before I’m dead to the world.
Shhh, I’m trying to sleep.
I asked my friends for suggestions for the TBR pile. Boy, there are some good ones:
One of my friends asked me what was my favorite summer read. That’s easy.
Look at the cover! A beach, waves, straw hats. Adirondack chairs! That’s how you know you have a summer read winner. Can’t go wrong with a cover of Adirondack chairs.
I have to read this book every summer. It’s about two friends who grow up together. One is from a wealthy family and one is from a working class family. IT’S SO GOOD. And chock full of WTF moments like when the girls discover their “power,” buzzing from between their legs or how Caitlin doesn’t bathe for an entire summer. Crazy. But it’s so good that you don’t even skip a beat to think about how weird that is until the end when your endorphins are pumping and you look up to focus on the wall across the room and then you think, “did Caitlin really just make out with the movie star renting down the street from her after he paid her for babysitting his kids while he took his movie star wife out to dinner?”
Yes. Yes, she did. Caitlin’s the rich one.
Judy Blume is my favorite all-time writer. From Super-Fudge to Wifey, I’ve read ’em all. I’ve learned a lot about life and, ahem, other things from reading her books. Forever immediately comes to mind.
Did you know that maxi pads used to come with little belts that you wore around your waist? That was way before my time. But, weird, right? Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was all about it.
Sadly, Ms. Blume (my favorite all-time writer) is coming to my town and I didn’t hear about it until it was too late. All the tickets sold in hours. I wish she would bottle her writing mojo and send it to me as an apology for not personally reaching out to her number one fan (me) regarding her visit to my city.
Perhaps, I could find her hotel. This is a small city. There are only about half a dozen I’d need to steal a maid’s uniform for call. Then I would just simply camp out in the lobby and wait for her to come down. I know what she looks like because I have pictures of her wallpapered all over one wall of my office. I have even attached my face on her body on some of them so it looks like we are one person. So cute. Try it. It’s one of my Pinterest Boards. Then we could have coffee together and talk like the old friends I think we are. If she doesn’t want to do that, then I’ll have coffee and talk to her through the top of the trunk of my car.
KIDDING.
Totally kidding. Would. Not. Do. That.
So…where were we?
Yes. Send me your reading suggestions. Thanks, that’d be great.
There is something empowering and freeing in using and in place of but, which I suppose makes sense. But is a word that limits someone or something. And is a word that increases someone or something. These conjunctions-junctions really do have important functions.
The idea that we are not solely one thing or another was a, “whoa,” moment for me.
I’m trying to traditionally publish and I know it’s hard.
I like to play the piano and I need to practice more.
I want to learn to play Redemption Song by Bob Marley on my guitar and I need to find the music.
My goals and motivation sharpen way the hell up when I do this. I even accidentally created the first step to accomplishing my goals in two of these examples.
Reading and Writing The, “And”
Do you like characters that are complicated, flakey and don’t always know what to do? I always have. Though we are in an age where authors are told readers want strong female characters. Yes. Certainly.
But (oops, my but gettin’ big).
I like characters that mess up because of who they are and not in spite of themselves. Now, I know, like you know, that some characters in some bestsellers are TSTL (too stupid to live). I won’t list them, but you feel free to in the comments. Hee.
But (again) what if you read about a songwriter who is divorced from a cheating husband and loves two men? Is such a conflict even possible?
What about a man who’s trying to save his marriage and loves his best friend’s fiancee?
Whaaaaat?
Would their conflicts resonate with you? Do you think you might feel all the betrayal and redemption these characters do? Could they possibly become more human to you? Would the promise of a character arc from, “I thought I was right,” to “Now, I know I’m right,” appeal to you?
Or would you find it boring?
Tony Soprano was a good provider to his family and he was a murderer.
Jack Bauer fought for justice and acted unethically.
Dana Scully is a skeptic and she searches for the truth.
These are characters that came to life for us. We may not agree or support all of their decisions but we will never forget them.
Become Instantly Fascinating
Think of people in your life and throughout history with personas that contrasted with their actions or their beliefs. Make statements about them that brings their humanity to the surface.
Then create statements for yourself and see where the, “and,” takes you. You are more than you think you are. You’re pretty fascinating, if you ask me.
While I’m afraid that I am wasting my time—the precious moments I’ve been given on this earth—by writing What The Heart Wants and I may fall in front of people whose opinions matter to me, I keep trying everyday to make it the best it can be because I am human—conflicted and flawed. I am afraid to fail and I keep writing.
and 
both made me cry buckets, but there were others. My new decorating book, 
made me cry. My home doesn’t have to perfect to be beautiful?? Pass a tissue.
makes me cry, then I’ll let it all out. Maybe my eyeballs need washing.
