Author Archives: wendywelch

Small Town Writer Tribes

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The bookstore, like every small town shop, rejoices in several networks and tribal affiliations. The tribe of writers is just one of these. Today I present three members who have recently published their own work–resulting in some very diverse stories, now available on-line.

Joann Lee

Joann’s mom is the lady my friend Elizabeth and I bought our goats from. (Welcome to the networking hotbed of rural living!) Joann lives where people tend to believe her lifestyle is not okay and theirs to comment on; she balances daily between being herself and flying below the radar. It comes out in her work, a romance about two women from very different backgrounds spending the summer at the beach.

Broken Star is available from jms-books.com.

Sheila Mayes

Sheila is from Pennington Gap and has written a novel based on real events, the story of a young girl from Afghanistan who struggles to get an education in America. In her words, the book “was important, but not a priority. As I was writing, Malala, a 15-year-old Pakistani girl, was shot in the head on the way home from school by the Taliban. My writing hit fast forward, the book became a priority and I completed it in March 2013. I am only one person, but I knew I had to do something to help end the violence against women all over the world.”

Sheila is donating a  portion of her e-book’s sales to the Malala Fund to help educate and end violence toward women. Sheila is on Facebook.

Michael Samerdyke

Michael is the writing group coordinator at our bookstore; if you’ve read Little Bookstore, he’s the one who started the group and has nurtured it these past five years. He writes lovely, strange short stories that range from hearts-ripped-out-of-bodies horror, to ripping through your heart with empathy at his nuanced portrayals of how people interact. His snowmen dance, his cat people long for more than blood. http://www.lulu or Barnes & Noble on-line carry Mike’s e-books, both collections of short stories linked by a framing story.

In Featured Creatures: a Phantasmagoria, space invaders, experiments run amok, rampaging dinosaurs and other horrors parade across the Star-Lite Drive-In’s screen for the greatest summer film fest ever. In The Dream Cabinet of Dr. Kino, the mysterious doc travels from town to town showing visions of mad scientists and monsters, vampires and werewolves, and other horrors in his cabinet.

Enjoy!

Tallulah’s Tail – er, Tale

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Jack gets inside the head of foster-cat Tallulah –

Tallulah (for that had immediately become her name) arrived at the bookstore with her three kittens from the shelter for distressed pets. Hmmm, she thought as she spied the other animals – Zora the lab, Bert the terrier, Valkittie the elderly cat and Owen and Bob the black and white young cats. But a door closed and she settled down to motherly duties. Every morning the door would open and the humans brought her fresh food and water; every day passed with kitten feeding and cleaning. Eventually the kittens left one by one and she didn’t mind one bit – they had begun to steal her food before she could get to it.

After the last kitten left the humans began leaving her door open from time to time and she could explore the rest of the house. My goodness – so many books in the place!

IMG_3627Time to position herself in the hierarchy of animals. Flipping her long-haired tail like a feather boa, she set out. Valkittie proved impossible to dislodge from her overall managerial position but the other cats adjusted appropriately, which left the dogs. It was just about then that she felt a familiar urge. Bob and Owen seemed like nice boys – but strangely uninterested in her allure. Now Bert, the terrier – he’s a real man. Could he be the one?

Alas, no. It seems cross-breeding won’t work.

The cat-flap? Of course! A world of furry men await!

That’s how she met the muscular black tom from the gym next door, who worked out and thus could leap the yard fence in a single bound – ah, bliss. He said he’d stick by her and show her a good time. But, no – just like the other one, once she’d given her all, he doesn’t come round any more.

Then one of the humans put her in the box she’d arrived in all those weeks before and she went for a trip. Oh, so sleepy – then awake and back in the box again. Such a palaver and just a bit stiff and sore. And somehow… lighter.

Here I sit and wait!

Here I sit and wait!

So, here she sits and waits to see what will happen next. Maybe somewhere out there is someone with room in his/her heart and home for a beautiful young Tallulah who doesn’t get those urges any more, but just loves to get petted by any passing human. Tallulah makes an attractive desk accessory and elegantly enhances any room decor. All she wants is a human to call her own. Could it be you?