Archive for December 2, 2013

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Welcome to My Monday Minis.

This is where I review short stories and flash fiction.

For today I’ll be telling you about Stickman

by Dennis E. Yates

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My Review

Put yourself in Doug’s shoes.

He’s waiting in the car outside the store for his girlfriend, Jane, to return with a bag of ice. What was taking her so long?

Do you ever notice how long a few minutes, or even one minute, are when you’re the one waiting.

He happens to notice someone lurking around the parking lot, scoping out the vehicles. Doug figures the guy is looking for something to steal. He wonders if he should call the police, but decides to wait and see what the guy does.

He can’t believe it when the guy breaks into the back of a van parked right in front of his car. Now, Doug knows he has to do something. Unfortunately, after taking pictures with his cell phone all day, the battery is all but dead. He manages to take some pictures of the license plate and the bumper sticker,  and actually gets the guys face peering out the back window.

You know those stickers people put on the back of their vehicles? The ones depicting the father, mother, boys, and girls, plus pets as stick figures? This van has one and it pings Doug’s radar. He’s read about the serial killer dubbed The Stickman. Could this guy be him?

Now Doug has to act. But what should he do. His cell phones dead and there’s no security guys to be found. Once the family gets in the van, he’s forced to do something. Anything.

This story reminded me of a movie, Amber Alert. Three friends observe a young girl in a car and it  looks like she’s in trouble. They recognize her face from an Amber Alert, so they follow the car.

 I wonder what I’d do in this situation. It’s such a surreal moment.  The decisions you make aren’t easy. Your thinking on the fly. Unless you are trained to react, it’s not something that comes naturally.

Stickman made me pause and wonder. I shared Doug’s indecision about what to do. As events whirled faster and faster, my feelings turned to trepidation. I felt like I was with Doug and my anxiety hit overdrive.

All the way until right at the end  I was deeply engaged in this story. The words flowed smoothly and characters and events felt genuine.

I would have given this more stars, but somewhere near the end, I felt some confusion. Like I’d missed something. I reread the end and again I felt something had been left out. Maybe it was just me. I still liked this one and will be reading more from Dennis.

3 Stars

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About Dennis Yates

Dennis Yates (born 1963) is an American writer of novels and short stories. He is a native of Portland Oregon, and a fan of long road trips, animals, engaging literature and independent films. He often dreams of escaping the Oregon rain clouds to the scorching sun and red canyons of the American Southwest.

Dennis enjoys writing psychological thrillers and dark comedy. On the lighter side, his quintessential, quirky road-trip novel The Teriyaki Samurai was a quarter-finalist in the 2013 Amazon Breakout Novel Award contest. Dennis draws deeply from his love of nature and the American landscape, which he firmly believes must play an important character in all of his writing.

He is a huge fan of such authors as Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, William Gay, Frank Bill, John Rector, Blake Crouch and many others.

Dennis can be reached at yates.author@gmail.com  and on Twitter at @YatesScribe.

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Flick. I just love this title. Sounds fun doesn’t it?

When I read Leanna was an astral-traveling telekenetic I was sold.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like and wished I could really do it.

Lets see what happens to Leanna when she does.

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by Keira Des Anges

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BLURB

Leanna Matthews enjoys flying below the radar. She does well in school, has a few close friends and hides the fact she’s an astral-traveling telekinetic. But there’s no escaping her creepy dreams or Simora, the bizarre little spirit lady, that suddenly pops out of nowhere to warn her against keeping secrets and predicts an encounter with a sinister evil. For the first time in forever someone…or something…is on to her.

But life turns around when Leanna meets Piper one sunny afternoon. She’s inexplicably drawn to him, almost as if she’s been waiting for him to come. Forbidden to have a boyfriend Leanna throws caution to the wind, lying to her family and friends to be with him, while ignoring Simora’s ominous message.

Yet Piper has a secret of his own. He is on a mission and Leanna, unwittingly, is the key.

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EXCERPT

 

One of the fringe benefits of astral traveling is never using doors, and when Leanna walked straight through the wall into the brightly lit hallway, the hustle and bustle of the day seemed all but forgotten.  Various medical personnel marched determinedly to their destinations and Leanna quickly dodged a team of doctors rushing down the corridor and the hysterical woman behind them.  She moved out of habit really; even if they bumped her they’d simply melt right through.

She stopped by the nearest nursing station hoping to hear news on her aunt.  But to her disappointment, the staff proved useless.  They were more interested in Nurse Johnson’s fling with the new anesthesiologist than discussing their charges.  Her mother was a medical professional; Leanna knew nurses were an integral part of the medical team.  But these guys were worse than an episode of Grey’s Anatomy!  Eventually bored of their gossip, Leanna made her way to the opposite end of the floor.

“Hey, Leanna!”  Her name rang out clearly as she passed by the waiting room door.  “Over here!” said the voice.

Startled, Leanna turned around to peek inside.  Three people sat in the small, blue waiting area.  Two women whispered animatedly to one another and a stoic looking man held a magazine, although his eyes seldom moved across the page.  They didn’t see her, so Leanna wondered who just called.

Then she saw her.

A little Indian woman, no more than four feet in stature sat in a green and purple, wing-backed armchair in the middle of the room grinning and waving madly at her.  She looked no more than thirty years old and was dressed in shimmering gold from head-to-toe with a sheer, golden scarf draped over her bright, oval face and jet-black hair.

Tiny glittery shoes peeked out from beneath the frock and sparkled as brightly as Dorothy’s red slippers in the Wizard of Oz.  Leanna thought she even resembled a munchkin, in a cute sort of way.  Like Auntie, she seemed more real than anyone else in the room and her smile grew larger as Leanna approached cautiously.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I don’t bite,” she said.  The little lady patted a second green chair embossed with bright purple and orange polka dots, which mysteriously sprang out of nowhere, and Leanna sat down.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” she beamed, greeting Leanna like a long-lost friend and clapping her hands excitedly.  “I’m so glad you finally came!”

“Waiting for me?  Why? Who are you?” Leanna asked, not quite sure she should be talking to her in the first place.

“Oh my!  You don’t know me do you?” she giggled childishly.  “I’ve been with you so long I sometimes forget you don’t remember.”

“Remember?” Leanna asked now thoroughly confused.  “I’m sorry, what are you talking about?  We’ve never met before,” she said apologetically.

“Oh Leanna, trust when I say I have been with you all of your earthly life, before and beyond,” the lady corrected.  “Until now you haven’t seen me because it wasn’t time.  But I have been with you as promised and kept watch over you.  Which, I might add, has been quite a task considering your little adventures,” she said smiling again, taking some of the sting from her words.

Leanna frowned, studying the peculiar, little lady in the shiny clothes.  She didn’t know why or how, but she did look vaguely familiar, like she might’ve seen her around; possibly in a dream.  Somehow, Leanna sensed there was more to the story than that.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

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By day, Keira des Anges has the distinct pleasure of assisting teenagers with disabilities find employment, empowering one life at a time. By night, she is a chew toy for her dog and cat and avid reader of anything spooky, magical and totally out of this world.  She lives in sunny Florida with her husband and two kids.

Twitter / Facebook / Website / Amazon

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