Dear Anxiety,

Hello it’s me again. I’m here for our nightly chat, I figure this time I won’t even fight and try to sleep but just give in and let you take over my mind. Where do you want to begin tonight? A recent conversation I’ve had that I felt went completely wrong because I couldn’t get the words out right? The store where I was waiting to check out and didn’t realize the person behind me had way less but it was too late to offer them to get in front of me? They must hate me right? I’m inconsiderate and rude. Continue reading →

It was freezing tonight, the blustery cold New Jersey air stung my face as I stepped out to make my way home. I had gotten off work an hour early thanks to Barney, my boss, who took pity on me having to walk home and said leave while the store was quiet. I had worked at the book store owned by him aptly named Novel Idea for the last five years; first as a lowly “gopher” assistant to Barney’s nerdy nephew Kyle who left to finish his college degree in something nerdy to now the assistant manager position he vacated. Barnabus Dewey aka Barney is a widower who lives above the bookstore he opened 40 years ago with his wife Clara whom he met by chance when she punched him in the face mistaking him for a thief. He is a man of few words mostly answering in a series of grunts that I now refer to as “Barneyisms” such as “Gerr” is yes, “Unnnn” is no, and “Hmmmpfh” is I am not pleased but not mad enough to care but the story of how he met Clara is one he never grows tired of telling. Barney in many ways saved my life, he found me begging for change outside a restaurant one cold dark winter night and asked if I need a place to stay; thinking he was some creeper I pepper sprayed his face as well as a bit of my own and ran only to be found by him the next day, assuming he was going to the cops I begged him to let me make it right that I would pay for any damage I caused but he hushed me and said he wanted to offer me a job. In shock, I inquired an explanation and he replied “Oh, I don’t know just a feeling I have, the last girl who assumed I had bad intentions punched me in the face and giving her a second chance was one of the best decisions I ever made.” Not to ramble on but here I am, a former small time con-artist/street rat turned responsible adult; people can change I guess.    Continue reading “All Things Below: Part One” →

All Things Below-the mermaid series. Grace Stanton was a teenage runaway who lived a life of petty crime until a chance meeting with a bookstore owner changed her path. Now in her mid-twenties she lives a peaceful life in Oceanside, NJ with a full time job at the bookstore but still feels lonely and out of place with the world. That all changes one night when a random book is left at her doorstep. Grace finds a letter in the book from a family member that she never knew she had telling her she is the last in line to protect an ancient city and its people as well as the world she knows and she comes from an ancient royal line of mermaids-yes mermaids.  She learns the book has hidden in it the portal to this ancient world along with a key that if used would unlock an evil serpent king named Dramond who wishes to control both worlds for his own personal twisted happiness. Grace quickly discovers nothing is as it seems and not all myths are just that.