When your life is full of down-n-dirty, life altering, things will never be the same, shit just got real kinds of drama, it can be easy to lose any sense of perspective. Little mishaps suddenly morph into major catastrophes. The drama gets amped to eleven.
Cut myself shaving = I’m a lousy excuse for a human being.
Spilled coffee on my shirt = This is why nobody likes me.
Left my lunch in the kitchen counter = My life is a lie.
These minor calamities swirled in with legitimate disasters eventually result in a woe whirlpool from which there is little hope of escape.
It spins the opposite way in the southern hemisphere.
I hate that damn woe whirlpool.
Sometimes, if you are very lucky, the universe takes pity on you and decides to throw you a bone. What I have learned is that when presented with such a prize you should cast aside any shreds of pride or humility (if you are lucky enough to still have any) and snatch that prize as greedily as a T-Rex would a tethered goat. It could be a long time before such an opportunity to rise above your troubles arrives again.
Well, here’s my goat.
It’s a book. And I happen be in it. Last year the people at America’s Haunted Road Trip, who publish a series of books all about haunted places across the country, held a contest. They asked people to submit a true ghost story. So I did. I wasn’t one of the three cash winners, but I was selected for inclusion in the book. Kinda cool, huh? Click on the pic to go to the publisher’s website where you can read the back cover blurb and order a copy (they are out of stock at the moment).
My story, “What Dreams My Come” is on page 17. I can’t post the story here because that would be violating copyright. I can tell you that the story is about vivid dreams that my sister and I had on the same night. Details from the dreams, when put together, coincided perfectly with an incident that happened to our grandfather when he was young. An incident that neither me, nor my sister knew anything about, until later that day when our mother told us the story after we had mentioned our dreams to her.
It’s not a million dollar, multi-book deal from a major publisher, but it is my name in print. And that’s more than enough to keep me happy for now.
