I'm A Fighter

Three huge mounds of vanilla ice cream sat in my bowl, covered with thick, zig-zagging lines of chocolate syrup, waiting for me to devour them. I plopped onto the couch and stared at the wonderful goodness waiting to greet my stomach.“Bet ya five bucks you can’t eat all that,” my big brother Kenny said, cheshire grin stretching up his face. I spooned a heaping bite into my mouth, savoring the rich flavors. “You’re on.”Kenny laughed and chatted quietly with my parents while I dug into my evening treat, full of excitement. Bite after yummy bite slid...

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Wonderful Holiday

All the stress that goes into Christmas (shopping, wrapping, packing and shipping, shopping, shopping, and more shopping) sometime seem like a waste of time, but somewhere between when the family arrives, the exchanging of hugs, eating the food, and opening the presents, a weight lifts from my shoulders. I look around and see all the smiles. Laughter echoes off the walls, drowning out my exhausted thoughts with happiness. I don't mind that my feet...

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Time's Running Out

“Mommy, is tomorrow Christmas Eve?” Kid #2 asked, batting her lashes over her big, brown eyes.Kid #1 ran into the kitchen and slid across the floor like Tom Cruise in Risky Business--but with his pants on. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve Eve.”“Huh?” She tilted her head to the side and scowled at Kid #1 like he was out of his mind.I laughed and made another cup of coffee. The countdown had begun, and I needed more caffeine if I planned to survive.***Two...

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Six Sentence Sunday

Well if last week's countdown didn't freak you out, this one will. There are SEVEN days until Christmas. Eeep. I hope you've all completed your shopping by now. I haven't...despite my efforts. Sigh. I appreciate you stopping by and leaving comments...every Sunday is like Christmas with the Six Sunday visitors! Enjoy! ~He kneels until we’re eye level, holding me with his gaze. "Have you had waking dreams before?" "Y-yes. The first time was a couple days before we arrived here." He wraps his powerful arms around me, trying to make me feel better,...

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My Christmas Punishment

For months I’d seen commercials exhibiting her beauty: cream colored skin with all the right make-up and a snow-white dress with fur wrapped hems and glittering undergarments. I had to have the Holiday Barbie, and in a bad way.Every Christmas list I wrote included her name. Every daydream involved stellar weddings between her and my most handsome Ken doll. I outfitted him with a tux well ahead of their meeting so when the special day came he’d be...

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Tuesday Teaser with a Tune

How’s that title for alliteration? So I thought I’d try something a little different this week (and maybe in weeks to come). On Sundays I post six lines from my first novel (soon to be published, visit my site for more details), but I’m thinking maybe I can make Tuesdays a day to share from my current novel. Yes, they are from the same series, but I won’t post anything that spoils all the fun . . . just tidbits I feel confident and happy with . . . and the inspiration for that segment. Oh dear, I said inspiration.I once guest blogged with Derek...

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Six Sentence Sunday

Can you believe it's Sunday again? And there are . . . hang on let me count . . . fourteen (14) days until Christmas. Have you done your shopping yet? That's where I am today, so if I don't respond to your comments, please know I love you and appreciate the time you take to visit me. :-)Now without further annoying commentary by me, I give you my six.Enjoy!~“W-what i-if she’s a shifter?”He peels my fingers from his forearm and takes me by the hand. “She is not a shifter.”“But how do you know? You said—”“I know what I said, and we also know how...

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Friday Funny

Kid #3 faked me out Wednesday. She wailed and screamed and wouldn't walk. So I did what any good mother would do and ignored her rushed her to the hospital. It was POURING out. The roads were flooded and my ears were ringing from her high-pitched cries, but I pressed on. The triage nurse took all Kid #3's vital signs then said our wait could be a few hours. CRAP! But the baby was sick, so there I sat. After about an hour in the waiting room, her...

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Divorce Court

In the evenings my husband and I watch a string of courtroom television. I’m not sure whether our enjoyment of the nightly trash is to make ourselves feel better or worse. Half of me can’t believe people like that exist. You know what I’m talking about, the kind of people who destroy others’ property and act like it’s no big deal, the kind that beats each other and fights over petty amounts of money.The cringe-worthy experience is good for the children too. We get to explain why one person is right or wrong and what not to do as a grown human being....

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Six Sentence Sunday

Every week I find it's harder and harder to make a decision on what to share with you all. I hope you'll enjoy today's snippet. I feel it will "reveal" some fantasy aspects of my soon-to-be-published novel.Enjoy!~“We are here.” “Where?” He must be joking. We haven’t even gone through the base and there’s nothing in front of us but trees and Darkness.“Nochtann,” Arland whispers, waving his hand in front of him. Two large wooden doors appear before us, adorned by intricate carvings of ivy with jasmine flowers blooming all over.~ To read other awesome...

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Friday Funny--Or Weird

Every week I review the search terms people used to land on my blog. Most of the time people use my name, or a post title, but this week there was a special search: Delete K R Y S T A L. Frankly I was appalled. Who would want to delete me? And what did I ever do to them? Geesh! A quick google of the exact same search terms revealed I was seventh in the list of delete K R Y S T A L's. I couldn't find anything standing out I thought this person was...

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When I See You . . .

When I see you, my car is warm, comfortable, full of music and life. When I see you, I’m waiting at the last red light before arriving at work. When I see you stand on the corner of 2nd and E, arms wrapped around your frail frame, I imagine how cold or hot you must be. When I see you, some days your clothes are tattered and ill fitting and others you appear to have been first in line at Goodwill hand outs. When I see you, I tell myself to be a better person, to bring you lunch, to have a conversation with you . . . to help.Then the light turns...

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What Was I Thinking?

Christmas lights were tested and more were purchased. We had a sitter for Kid #3, and kid #2 was ready to help decorate the house for holidays. I ventured into our garage, past my car and the set of four-wheelers, and grabbed the tallest ladder I could find. For whatever reason, all the aluminum death traps leaned against the wall in front of my Jetta. I took my time and maneuvered between my baby and my son’s four-wheeler—I’m sure he considers that...

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Six Sentence Sunday

Choosing this week's six was not easy, but with a little help from a friend (you know who you are) the decision has been made. Enjoy!~What am I supposed to do here? This world may be where I came from, but it doesn’t feel like my own. Somehow I’m supposed to fight Darkness for these people and I’ve never so much as punched a person. I miss Brit. If she were here I’m sure she would love the opportunity to save the world. Scratch that, I’m glad she isn’t here.~To discover other great authors who participate in Six Sunday, click he...

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The Dress

I spotted my prize casually draped over an all-too-perfect-mannequin in the store window. My heart fluttered and my hands chilled. The dress with the scooped-neck had to be mine. I recognized the relentless desire the second we walked past NY&CO. Like the black and pink striped fabric was tethered to my soul. An all too familiar feeling I get when I see the one. My husband spotted me staring as though the cutest puppy in the world was inside that store. “Go ahead. I’ll take the girls to the playground.”Attempting to hide my enthusiasm, I bit...

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Six Sentence Sunday

Last week was a hit with Kate's honest expression of her feelings, but this week I wanted to share something with you all that shows a different side of her story. Pain. I don't usually set-up my six, but this needs it. Kate has been told people recreate painful scenes from their lives on the walls . . . Enjoy.~I walk over to the walls—running my hands across them as I did inside—inspecting some of the distressed art. One in particular stands out more than the others. A woman is impaled in her chest by a stake driven into the ground, a child with...

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Friday Funny

As many of you are aware it's been a happy week in my household. My book was accepted by the publisher, I created a new website (For those who missed the update . . . www.krystal-wade.com), there have been lots of other happy things, but those are the only ones you should be interseted in. That's right, folks, Wilde's Fire is going to be available for you to READ! Now since I have so much FREE time on my hands (HA! HA, HA, HA!) I created this strip...

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Snakes and Lakes

My best friend Michelle lived in a lakeside community where winding roads were made from white gravel. Tires kicked up dust as cars sped down the precarious lanes. Trees were sparse, anything green sparser. The grass was covered in a fine layer of gray, remnants of weeks worth of travelers. Only when the rains came did everything gleam anew. And falling H2O was not present this day. Michelle and I walked down these roads, passing boarded up homes, barking dogs, drunken neighbors, and the occasional dead animal. Blue skies stretched endless across...

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Six Sentence Sunday

For those who ventured over here last week and found I hadn't updated anything, I'm sorry. I was out of town, but now I'm back and hopefully have provided you with some amazing six sentence content. This isn't a continuation from the exact place we left off, but it is in the same chapter.Enjoy!~“What did we do in these dreams?”I stare at my hands, afraid to meet his eyes again—afraid he’ll laugh me out of the room, but I might as well lay it all on the line. If this is a dream it won’t matter, but if it’s real, well, he’ll know what he’s done to...

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Guest Blog: Kelly Gamble

Twitter should be considered an author's match making service. Not for dates (although I'm sure they occur, too), but for friendship with like minded people. Kelly and I met through the 140 character limit social networking site, and her friendship and writing expertise has helped me greatly. Hopefully she feels the same way about me. I asked Kelly to write a guest post and gave her creative freedom, and she wrote this, saying this is what my blog...

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What's That Smell?

I wanted to roll down the windows, spray Lysol, or better yet, kick the slug out of my car. (For information on what a slug is, click here.) My stomach is made of figurative steel. My gag reflex is almost non-existent. But body odor-coughing-bad breath scented with Halls-newspaper reading-cell phone ringing constantly-moaning when he fell asleep GUY nearly caused me to lose my lunch while driving down I-95 yesterday evening. Compassion is one of my better qualities. I understand we all have bad days. Sometimes we wake up late and there’s no time...

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Catching Up

We set out on our journey at five in the morning. The stars poked through the night sky so bright it was as though no darkness existed above. Our breath floated in white clouds around us until the truck warmed. My three beautiful children closed their eyes and returned to sleep, leaving my husband and me with quiet time. A rare occasion. We chatted a bit about the drive, about where we’d like to stop, and what we’d like to do for fun before venturing onto the second part of our trip.Then we passed through our favorite part of Virginia, a place...

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Who's There?

On a night like any other, Mom and I sat on our dingy, paisley couch covered with a mustard-yellow blanket and watched tv. The big window behind us was propped open wide, allowing the cool breeze to graze our necks. Cuddling was something I liked to do with my mom often, and I don’t believe she minded either. I snuggled into her arms, wrapping myself around her like a leech. Crickets chirped, singing their evening tune, a song never changing no matter...

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Six Sentence Sunday

For those of you who didn't participate in Six Sentence Sunday last week, you can see what you missed here.This will be my last continuation about "HE" (Yes, I'm evil and NO, you still won't fully understand who HE is. Muahahahaha!) Enjoy!~He laughs, joining me on the floor. “No, Kate, this is not a dream.”“Well, you have been in almost every one of my dreams since I was fourteen,” I say, not meeting his eyes. Do concussions cause hallucinations? I rub the back of my head. The swelling from my meeting with the rocks on Goat Ridge has gone awa...

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Friday Funny

So I had a whole blog planned for today. I was going to recap my week, talk about carving pumpkins with the kids while sipping on apple cider, complain about the crazy amount of dance practices my daughter has tomorrow for the upcoming Nutcracker (YAY, go Kid #2), let you all know I'll be on the road next week because my brother is marrying the most wonderful girl in the world (and I'll go crazy with Kids #1-3 in the car), and tell you I appreciate...

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Jail Bait

One day after school, my neighbor ventured across the pastures to play. Like so many other times, we watched tv, tossed the frisbee around for our dog Sam, climbed the wooden walls to the hay storage areas in the barn—very dangerous—and ventured behind the pond to see what we could discover in the run-off.We jumped into piles of hay from heights that could break something if we hadn’t landed just right. We collected tadpoles from the stream and laughed as they wriggled in our hands.We were kids, and fun was the only thing that mattered.As the sun...

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Six Sentence Sunday

By popular request, I'm picking up where we left off last week. So if you missed out, go read HERE, then come back...don't worry, we'll still be here when you get back.~“Y-yes. I came to find someone to talk to and saw all of the food and couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry I’ve made such a mess.” I kneel to gather pieces of plate, chicken and potatoes from the floor. “This is all just a dream, it’s just a dream, and everything is going to be okay,” I whisper to myself.“A dream?”~There is no official Six Sentence link this week, but make sure you check...

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Halloween?

Orange pumpkins lined our neighbor’s porches. Carved and downright scary, the most wasted food on the planet illuminated all the decorations people had so intricately put on their homes for the spookiest day of the year.Walking home from school I envied these families, envied the kids living in those homes who would don their Halloween best and romp around the neighborhood collecting candy later that evening. For free.My parents didn’t allow us to celebrate Halloween, said it was the devil’s day, it was evil and . . . I’m not even positive what...

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Six Sentence Sunday

Another week has flown by! Can you believe it? I feel like Sunday comes faster and faster all the time. Sigh. Well, I didn't want to give too much creepy away this week. Figured I'd save some for the grand finale. We're going to go for more of a What? response this week. :-) Enjoy. ~I put so much food on the plate it heaps with potatoes and chicken. Turning to take the treasures back to Brad’s room, I bump into someone standing right behind me. My eyes work their way up a man’s chest, neck and face and finally rest on eyes so familiar, my hands...

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First Love

Jason was a pimply-faced kid who lived with his grandmother, and everyone always told me to stay away from him. We were young, innocent, and had ideas for the future grander than anyone around us could imagine. Before Jason, I dreaded Sundays, but after we met, the epic day of rest became my favorite day of the week.Mom and Dad tried to find excuses for me not to sit with him at church, tried to tell me I should be with them, with family. Jason and I moved pews. We sat in the back, or behind them. So long as they couldn’t see us, we didn’t care.As...

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Six Sentence Sunday

It's Halloween Season, so I thought I'd take us over to the Dark Side (insert evil cackle) this week.Enjoy!~He leans in, closes his eyes—The sun disappears. The sky turns black. Emerging from the forest, gray beasts with hollow eyes surround and watch us. Before Arland can turn and fight, a mangled creature rushes forward and stabs him through the heart with a long, dagger-like claw.My screams fill the darkness.~Thanks for visiting. Make sure you head over to Six Sunday and check out other participating autho...

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Family Ties

My eyes opened, but I couldn’t move. Someone was watching me. Someone was in my room. I tried to bring the blanket over my head, but didn’t want to draw attention. I took a shallow breath, afraid to be heard.Afraid I’d be killed.I glanced through my fuchsia blinds, expecting to see someone standing outside my window. No man with a gun or knife waited to murder me. I turned my head slowly toward the door. No one was there, but I felt a presence. Felt the gaze of a hate filled person boring into me, but where? Where was this person? Fear pricked...

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Blog Award Time

I’ve received a few blog awards lately and have been so busy I haven’t acknowledged them yet. I do appreciate everyone thinking of me when they receive these, and hope you'll forgive me for being so late with a response.I received the Liebster Award from Derek Flynn and Diana Murdock. They are both wonderful bloggers and writers. (Derek’s also a musician . . . a good one, too!)1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.2....

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Little Shop of Horrors

Today my family and I went to the grocery store. We like to make an event out of shopping—or shopping makes an event out of us. I’m not sure. Whatever the case, we enjoy going together. My husband and I stick the girls in the race car cart, sip on Starbucks and pick out meals for the week.But this morning Kid #2 decided she didn’t want to ride in the cart; she wanted to drive the fluorescent-green mini shopping buggy. I shook my head, but daddy couldn’t resist the cheesy smile kid #2 flashed him . . . and so we were off: Kid #3 in the race car...

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Six Sentence Sunday

By request, I'm picking up close to where we left off last week. Brit pulled a very old--and dirty--bottle of rum from behind her back and looked excited enough to drink it.~ Appalled, I eye the nasty bottle. “You aren’t honestly going to drink that, are you?”“Not just me. You, me and Brad!” Brit says, pointing to each of us.I sigh. “Let’s get to the next camp site before we do anything illegal.”~Thanks for visiting. If you'd like to see other amazing authors who participate in Six Sunday, click he...

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9 Lives

Cats are supposed to have nine lives, and my cat Doc knew how to use them. When we moved from the city, he was just as lost as the rest of us. My parents insisted on sending the cuddly feline out into the unknown, only allowing him to enter when he was hungry. We couldn’t leave his food out, or the mouths would multiply.Doc was all white with the tiniest patch of black on top of his head, right between his ears. He earned his name because he reminded us of a doctor in a lab coat. Okay, I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s the story I’m sticking...

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Six Sentence Sunday

Is it Sunday already? Wow! Where does the time go? I've picked six (sounds like the lottery, doesn't it?) fresh lines for your reading pleasure. I've frightened you, I've given you sweet . . . now it's time for FUN.~“You remember that time we brought Uncle John and his girlfriend Cindy out here with us?” Brit asks. I nod. She pulls a dirt-encrusted bottle out from behind her back. “Well, I stole this bottle of rum from them and buried it . . . with a little help from a stick.” She’s proud of herself—I haven’t seen her look this giddy in months.“You...

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Climbing Trees

A huge Oak tree grew along our farm’s property line. Lush, green grasses sprouted under expansive shade the tree provided. The area was like a secret meadow intended for only my brother and I.On windy days I’d venture away from the house and spin in circles in the meadow, allowing the tall grasses to tickle at my legs. My hair whipped my face, but I’d smile—this was heaven.One afternoon Dad nailed boards into the trunk of the Oak, so Kris and I could climb up and imagine worlds far beyond the one we lived in. We discussed imaginary wars and how...

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Guest Blog: Jason McIntyre

Today I'd like to welcome a good Twitter-bud and amazing writer, Jason McIntyre. I've had the pleasure of reading some of his work and let me just say, I wasn't disappointed. I have BLED and can't wait to devour it. Okay, I'll be quiet and let Jason do the rest of the talking . . . make sure to leave him a comment!Hot Blood: My new book ‘Bled’ turns up the heatWhat is it about scary stories in the summer?I’ve written my share of books and shorts...

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