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 Short women's fiction available from Wild Child Publishing (May 26, 2009) |
Romance Junkies: 4 Ribbons
LIBERATION VIA PEN is a great story.
Cate Masters does an exceptional job
working out her plot.
I could feel Krista's emotions
and sympathize with the upheaval of her breakup.
The empowerment displayed
towards the end was uplifting.
Any woman who has been
in Krista's shoes will enjoy this read.
They talked about their aspirations
as the steam evaporated from their cups.
Krista confessed her literary insecurities
while admiring the black flecks
within his grey irises;
eyes that invited close inspection.
His lips likewise taunted her,
whether involuntarily or not.
She couldn't tell if he intended
to tease, or if he was just being nice.
She hoped the former.
Nice guys tended to bore her.
Todd set his gaze on her.
"Follow the age-old creed-write what you know."
Krista took the advice to heart,
literally: what she'd known
for the past two years was Ethan.
She'd let him infiltrate her life,
her apartment, her thoughts, herself.
Thinking his invasion was laying
the groundwork for a future,
she'd dated him exclusively,
rearranged her life to
accommodate his likes and dislikes
until she could no longer remember her own.
She wrote to rediscover herself,
divine her innermost thoughts and feelings.
From their seemingly serendipitous meeting
to their breakup, Krista
chronicled and dissected
their relationship,
building to the crescendo
of their eventual fall.
She copied the first five pages
for the critique group
the following month.
The chick lit writer said:
"Your dialogue's too stiff;
make it sound more realistic."
"Make your prose more lyrical,
but get rid of the adjectives
and adverbs," offered the poet.
The mystery writer advised:
"Foreshadow your events to build suspense."
Krista nodded, noting each
writer's advice for her revision.
She spent the next two weeks
pouring over each sentence,
mercilessly slashing words,
constructing setting and scene,
the cadence of her prose
flowing lyrically. Like music,
the words streamed luxurious legatos
punctuated with sharp staccatos
as demanded by the scene.
They lifted her spirit,
excited her neurons in a way
that made her hunger for more.
The high of writing a
well-structured sentence was addictive.
As a bonus, certain aspects
of her former relationship came clear.
Ethan lived on the cutting edge
of pop culture, always had to have
the latest gadget, widget or gizmo.
He was exceptionally good with technology.
With people, not so much.
Had she possessed the foresight
to commit his faults to paper earlier,
Krista might have been spared much heartache.
The exercise allowed her to see,
finally, that Ethan was an ass.
By setting her emotions into words,
she not only defined them,
but her writing informed
her self-definition.