Laura Mae's Blog

Hello everyone! This is going to be a very different post today, as it’s not related to books or writing, but a bit more personal. So, for those of you who are not aware, my fiancé Gilberto and I are planning on starting a family but we need a little help with this. We are both not used to asking strangers for help, especially when it comes to money, but we are on a time crunch. I have a link to the Go Fund Me here if you want to go straight there and help donate.

If you’d like to learn more about what we need the fund for, this is copied straight from the page:

“Hello! We are Laura and Gilberto and we need a little help with starting a family. To make a long story short (which you can read on to learn more about us), we are wanting a family of our own, but Gil has had a vasectomy from his first marriage. He has 3 kids and after the 3rd, they decided to go this route, but little did he know that he would meet me (Laura) and fall so deeply in love. Enough to get engaged, giving them names already, and starting to look at options. The funds would be for a reverse vasectomy. The other options we’ve looked into have been adoption and IVF, and both are even more costly than doing the reversal. We are going through a clinic called “Dad’s Again” and they have the highest success rate in the world that specialize in reversal vasectomies. We happen to live in the same city as them, so we are excited to be working with them, but it will still cost a pretty penny. The total that they need is more around $8,000 USD but we are just looking for some help. We need about a $5,000 deposit to start the process. Literally, anything you can do to help us, we would greatly appreciate it. We are both not someone who asks anyone for anything, but since we are both not getting any younger (I’m 34, he’s 45), time is working against us. Not to mention, he is still in the middle of a divorce and the fees of that, as well as paying child support to his youngest child, it’s stretching our budget quite a bit.

Because I can’t attach a photo of the email from the clinic, I will copy and paste this from the email they sent:

“For the in-house payment plan we ask for a $1,000 nonrefundable surgery deposit to be paid within 24 hours of booking your surgery. This does go towards your surgery costs. We then require 3 weeks prior to your surgery date $5,090. Then the remaining balance of $2,610 would be paid off over 12 months with payments starting 30 days after your surgery.

We don’t charge interest or “run your credit”, but we do charge a $25 per month service/handling fee to process and manage the balance. Your monthly payment will be $242.50. We work hard to make your needs work so you can have your reversal with us, and you don’t have to settle for less.”

Alright, now a little about us and how we met! Of all places, we actually met on Twitter! I was on there more because I was in the middle of promoting my first book and a lot of folks I met on a Facebook group had a writing community over on Twitter. He knew those people too, and we would post memes on each others tweets, private message from time to time, but just little things here and there. I did enjoy talking to him when we did, and one day I noticed he wasn’t on Twitter at all, and I got worried. So I reached out to a mutual friend of ours and he gave me Gil’s number. From there we haven’t gone a single day without texting or talking to each other. We evolved from texting, to voice messages, to videos, to video chats and then… he finally came out to see me. He only lived 13 hours away and when his city got a bad freeze, he asked me where he should go on a quick getaway. I convinced him to come here, to the desert, and he did. He was here for 3 days and in that time, we both fell head over heel for each other. The last night he was in town, I knew I had to tell him how I felt and thankfully he felt the same. Only about 6 months later, we started living together. And a year after we started dating, we went on a family vacation with my family and some of his, and that’s when he proposed! Of course I said yes and that photo of us above is one of our engagement photos.

He wants more than anything, is for us to have our own family, with this new life we have now. We both weren’t looking for anyone, when we met. I was ready to move in with my sister and just live out my days with her; while he was looking for land to put a trailer on in the middle of nowhere. Both of our lives changed so quickly but in the best possible ways. I’ve always wanted my own child, the experience of being pregnant and bringing a life into this world. From the bottom of our hearts, we are so grateful to anyone who can support us in starting a family. We are happy to talk more about our situation but didn’t want to overshare and can answer any questions.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope that you are able to help, even if it’s only a dollar. If you are unable to, please either share this blog, or the GoFundMe page directly. Thank you so much!!

Hey everyone! This won’t be a long blog as the title explains pretty much what this is about. Yes, I will be attending the Tucson Festival of Books again – my 3rd year! But this time, I will have an entire THREE HOUR time slot!

As always, it will be at the University of Arizona, which is of course in Tucson Arizona. Click here for all information!

I will have several copies of all three books as well as a couple of hard copies of Fliers. No hard copies of Sparrows or Vultures though.

The time has come… to pre-order the LAST book in the Fliers Series, Vultures! Just click here if you want to go straight to pre-ordering the ebook. Or if you want to stay and hear me get all sentimental and such, keep reading.

As you can see, Vultures got a new cover art! Let me know what you think of it in the comments and how excited you are! Gotta keep the hype train going! Also, feel free to ask me any questions!

Once you receive this book, you may notice that there is no dedication page, and I’m so bummed about it. Long story short, I didn’t give the guy who formatted it the right file, and the right one had the dedication. So, because it won’t be on there, I thought I would put it on here:

I am dedicating this final book to everyone that ever believed that I could finish this thing.
But, especially to Gil.

With this being said, I truly want to thank everyone who has been asking me about this book for the last couple of years. With COVID going on, it was making it difficult to get everything perfect. And of course it won’t be perfect now, but I think it’s pretty dang close. I really hope this book is everything you were hoping it would be. As an author, having to stop writing about characters who have meant the world to me for so many years (10+!), is extremely hard to part with. However, I have thought about possibly writing a prequel but haven’t got much further than just thinking about ideas. I do know one thing for sure, after this book is out, is that I won’t be publishing anymore. And I say this for a few reasons.

I started writing Fliers more than 10 years ago and my biggest goal was to finish it and publish it to the public for others to immerse themselves into this fantastical world. Now that that journey is coming to a close, I won’t be adding anymore to this story. If I happen to do anything more, it will be something I will publish here to read for free. I didn’t set this goal to be an author or to make money/career. I just loved writing this story and now it’s done.

Vultures will be available on March 13th, 2022, which isn’t coincidentally the same day I am going to be at the Tucson Book Festival! If you will be around town, I will have my own booth set up from 12:15pm – 2:15pm to sign and sell all THREE of my books! And of course, I’ll have more bookmarks as well!

First of all, I want to thank everyone out there who visits my website, even though I haven’t been active on here whatsoever. I don’t know you are, but seriously, thank you. I hope you find something on here interesting and enjoy my existing content. I wanted to give you all an update on what’s been going on with me because I feel like I need to put this out there.

The first thing you might be wondering is “Laura, where the hell is your third book Vultures at?! I want to read it and finish your amazing story!” Honestly, thank you for thinking so highly of it and also, it’s coming, okay? I have had a lot going on in my personal life and it’s definitely been put on the back burner. Trust me, it hangs over me every single day and I want to finish it, I do. The reason why it’s also very delayed, is I was waiting on my wonderful editor to make her way through it, and she has also been going through many life changes. For a while, I was using this as a crutch to not look at my WIP at all. But you know what? Screw that. I am slowly trying to motivate myself to look at it again and make necessary changes. I also have to thank my boyfriend for encouraging me to keep going. To be clear, the book is finished, it is just in the fine tuning stages and I’m cleaning it up. Since Vultures is the final book in my series, I want it to be perfect and satisfying. There’s nothing worse than waiting this long for the ending to have it fall short, so I’m working on it.

And because this is my website and my blog, I’m gonna get personal for a minute, cause I can. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life, in the best way possible. I’m like, 99.9999% sure that I found my soulmate and he’s completely changed my life. I’ve known him for about 3ish years from Twitter and in March of this year, we were able to meet in person. It was a build up for quite a long time and our friendship slowly involved into a romantic relationship. We spent about 3 days together and even in that short time, I knew he was it. He allows me to be myself and I’ve never felt so safe with anyone in my life. We talk about literally anything and I’ve already decided that (excuse the cliche) he’s the one. I could go on and on about him, but if you follow me at all on social media, you’re probably already aware of the impact he has on me. He’s one of two now that has actually finished Vultures and is helping me tremendously on fine-tuning it.

All in all, things are going great and it seems can only get better from here. I would love to be able to tell you a release date but probably won’t be out until Spring of 2022.

Again, thank you all very much for your support and I look forward to the day I can make a blog post about announcing Vultures release date and checking “write a fantasy fiction book series” off my list.

Happy Reading

Laura

These dream blogs are more or less for myself, but being able to type them out instead of writing them out helps me a lot, so feel free to enjoy.

Last night was a strange one. For starters, Jimmy Fallon was in it. O.O I was on a beach area, wearing a white dress and there were a ton of people around. Jimmy introduced me to everyone by my full name (which was very weird to hear him say) and it had a very SNL vibe. I came out in my dress and high-fiving people as I ran through the crowd, smiling and doing stupid hand things to the camera (it was awkward, like me). I was basically there to talk about my book but never did so. — My interpretation of this is, I recently saw Jimmy Fallon and so I think my brain was just basing it off that. No significant meaning, just my brain filling the dream void.

The next part of the dream, I was at a bowling alley and it was weird as well. It was dark and some of it was familiar and some of it wasn’t so I left. I have dreams of people chasing me a lot, and this was no different. Usually when this happens I will take off and fly into the sky to escape (and also show off cause like, who wouldn’t?) After I left that place I ended up by the street near by where I found a kite. It was striped and the wind was strong so I tried to fly it. I don’t normally fly kites so I had no clue what I was doing. I was successful in flying it for a minute and it went pretty high, but I’m not sure what happened after that. — I looked up what kites mean and as with most symbols in dreams it had a dozen different meanings. I am going to be realistic about this one and pin it on the day I went golfing with my dad and it was really windy and I mentioned that it was a good day to fly a kite. Boring I know, but I don’t think the several meanings behind it matches whats going on in my life.

As my day goes on, I forget more and more but these were the most significant parts and I wanted to record it. Hope you enjoyed!

“We’re leaving tonight,” Landon announced at the dinner table and flicked his hazel eyes directly at Samuel, preparing for backlash. His best friend Aspen sat across from him and she used her dark brown hair to cover her face and slumped down in her chair.
“Oh, you are, are you?” Samuel replied, his tone deep and stern like fathers do.
“You haven’t been able to get a radio signal for at least three days and we haven’t had fresh air in weeks. It’s time to move on,” Landon said as cooly as he could. Samuel let his fork drop to the wood table, making Landon slightly jump. “And I hope you mean ‘we’ and in ‘me, myself and I’.”
To much of Landon’s relief, Aspen finally jumped in. “I’m sorry dad, but we can’t keep living like this.” She sat up straight in her chair, her dark eyes soft but narrow.
“Like what?” his voice raised. “Alive? You’re tired of being alive? ‘Cause I can damn well assure you as soon as you step out of this bunker you’ll both be good as dead.”

Landon stood up, flinging his chair back, “this isn’t living! I’d rather take my chances out there than be stuck down here for another minute. It’s been three weeks since the world ended, but we’re still here. We haven’t ended. And maybe other people are out there, too, but we’ll never know if we stay here.” A flash of Omar’s face appeared in his mind. Butterflies invade his stomach as he thought of the last time he saw him. It was right before Homecoming and he couldn’t gain enough courage to ask him. Little to his best friends’ knowledge, Omar was mainly why Landon wanted to leave.

Samuel stood up as well and challenged him. “You want to be ripped apart by monsters, that’s fine by me. But in no way is my daughter going with you.”
“I’m going with Landon whether you let me go or not, dad. He’s right, this isn’t living! I love you and don’t want to leave you but this is way worse than we ever thought. We could be down here for months, maybe years! It’s no way for anyone to live.
Her dad’s eyes softened at her words and the vein in his forehead disappeared. “Your mother and sister were taken from me far too soon, I can’t have you suffer the same fate.”

Aspen took her father’s hands. “Come with us, then. You don’t deserve this life either.” Landon’s jaw tightened and he pushed his fingers through his red hair with frustration. That wasn’t the plan, but he couldn’t separate Aspen from the only family she had left. Landon let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, you should come with us, too…” Landon said, barely above a whisper.
Samuel dropped his head and took a deep sigh. “We could always come back, right?”
“Exactly!” exclaimed Aspen. She was the most excited Landon had seen in weeks. Samuel released a smile that Landon never saw before and it weirded him out a little.
“Alright. Yeah, okay. We could be stuck down here for…a while. The world is ending anyway, why not make the most of it, right?”
“There you go!” Aspen cheered and hugged her dad. Landon rolled his eyes but stopped when Aspen caught him.

The three packed up everything they possibly could and headed out to the new world. Landon was the first to go up the ladder and push the bunker door open. A wave of fresh air hit his face and he almost coughed with the amount of oxygen. He took his first step out onto the grass and used his hand as a shield from the sun. He expected things to look bad but not buildings completely flattened to the earth. As Aspen’s eyes adjusted and she looked at her surroundings, the house closest to the bunker was theirs and it was pulverized.

“Oh my god…” she gasped. Samuel had barely left the bunker before Aspen threw her arms around him. Her cries muffled into his flannel shirt. Not a soul was in sight, not even the beings who no longer had a soul. The neighborhood Landon knew so well was like a scene from a movie; destroyed cars, blood splattered on the road and grass, houses burnt to ash. It was a nightmare, but worse because there was no waking up. The horrible realization hit him and tears began to well, but then his eyes soon wandered to a house across the street. It still stood the same, aside from some broken windows and the front door hanging off the hinges. Aspen stopped crying to see what Landon was looking at and she spoke.

“Omar’s house.”

The sound of his name made something inside Landon tingle. The light at the end of the tunnel. It only felt like yesterday that he saw his face in the hallway, giving him a look that he still holds onto. A look that told him he might have a chance. Landon blinked tears away and his feet made their way across the street. Aspen followed, sniffing but held right a large knife for protection. Samuel stayed close behind, asking Aspen who Omar wasand just said he was a friend of theirs. Landon held a pistol in his left hand and took caution with every step. He heard a few birds chirping here and there but nothing like before. As they approached the yard, unfamiliar noises echoed around. Groaning from the undead who he imagined were in an intense amount of pain. Landon thought of his parents, the day they died and then came back. He couldn’t imagine how much pain they were in and hated that he couldn’t help them relieve it.

They headed inside the house and Landon felt butterflies in his stomach. Even though the house was in ruin, it was still where Omar lived. Pictures of the family hung on the walls and Omars smile made Landon grin. Aspen and her father walked past Landon as they explored the house on their
own. Landon soon ventured to the kitchen to see if he could take any food left behind. He zipped up his bag after fitting some canned goods inside when Aspen yelled down to him.

“Landon! You might want to come see this!”
He furrowed his brows and ran upstairs. He turned the corner to a bedroom at the end of the hall. “You probably shouldn’t be yell–”
“Look, it’s his journal!” she said, holding up a notebook and a huge grin
His stomach twisted into knots. “Uh, isn’t that an invasion of privacy?”
Aspen rolled her eyes and flipped a page. “You’re not even a little curious what goes on inside his head?”
Landon blushed and shrugged his boney shoulders. “Did he say anything about me?”

Aspen scrunched her nose up with a smile and searched the pages for a mention of his name. Just then, Samuel entered the bedroom and Landon became less excited for her to read anything aloud.
“Ooh, here we go!” she cleared her throat. “Todays the day. I’m gonna ask Landon to the dance. I’ve never asked a guy out before. How do I do that? What if people see us? I mean, they’ll see us at the dance, but I’m not even sure if he’s into guys. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should wait until high school is over, the people here suck. And if I get turned down and people hear about it, they will know I’m gay and I also got turned down by the first guy I asked out. Alight, decision made, I’ll just take Tiffany. She’s pretty, I like her hair. Once all this highschool bullshit is over, then I’ll come
out. Then I can stop pretending…”

The butterflies disappeared from Landons stomach and were replaced by wasps. “He was gonna ask me?”
“Well I didn’t see that coming…” Aspen said and closed the journal. “I’m so sorry, Lan.”
“I should have said something sooner…” Landon said softly.
“Wait,” Samuel spoke up. “You’re… not dating my daughter?”
“Ew dad, no!” she said and stuck her tongue out at Landon.
“Ouch,” Landon responded, slightly offended.
“No offence, Lan,” she quipped.
Samuel laughed. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in months!”

Landon didn’t know how to respond to that so he took the journal from Aspen while they had a good ol’ laugh. He admired that Omar kept something to write down his feelings; he didn’t even do that himself. Absentmindedly, he flipped through more pages and was curious what his last entry was. It was four weeks ago.

“Hey, listen to this… ‘Lots has happened since my last entry. The world as we all once knew it is gone. The school was attacked by students and teachers who weren’t themselves and trying to eat everyone. We were all in dresses and tuxes and I wanted to black the whole thing out, but I couldn’t. I was bitten by some chick who sat in the front of my math class. It was so bizarre, she even had braces on. Everyone I knew who wasn’t immediately eaten by a group of them eventually got sick. We were taken to the hospital that looked like a war zone and they patched us up. My date Tiffany was also bitten pretty bad but she started coughing and sweating like a pig. I sat next to her to comfort her but I never got that bad. I fell asleep in the hospital bed with her, but I was woken by her violently attacking me! She wouldn’t get off of me and tried biting me, so I did the only thing I could and I stabbed her with a scalpel. It didn’t seem to do anything even after I did it five times so I tried her temple and she went limp. That was the craziest shit I had ever done! I ran out of the hospital as fast as I could and came home. My parents weren’t home because they went on a date the night before. I fear they may never come home.

The bite on my arm should have turned me into one of those things but I’m still waiting. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Are there others like me? I need to find out. Consider this my last entry, journal. The last mundane thing I’ll probably ever do. If anyone reads this and you know what’s wrong with me, I’ll be staying at a house I know to be abandoned on 42nd Avenue by the railroad tracks.” Landon and Aspen exchanged wide eyes.

“I know where that is,” Samuel spoke up from the corner of the room. “Used to belong to misses Fairchild but then she died. She had no family left so it just sat there. If we take the train tracks north, I know exactly where to find it.” Landon raised his brows and smirked at him. “Thank you.”
Samuel nodded back respectively. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Landon thought.

They wasted no time and headed towards the tracks. They came across a few sick people emerging from the woods. It was nothing like Landon expected. Nothing had prepared him for the fact he would have to kill people who already died. It was somehow more difficult than he thought. An elderly woman limped up to him with her mouth wide open and made horrible moaning noises. As if she or it, was starving. Aspen and Samuel were busy dealing with a couple of other infected people so he had no choice but to deal with the thing. He remembered what Omar said about the head and he lifted his small pistol, shut his eyes and pulled the trigger. His eyes flew back open and was surprised to see her on the ground, lifeless again. But with that echoing shot, a flock of birds took to the skies in an instant. A sinking feeling fell over him as it felt the sound travelled for miles. Life was a standstill and a noise like that was surely to be heard by other hungry undead.

“I bet that attracted them to us…” Aspen said with terror in her eyes.
“We should move then. Come on,” Samuel said and purposely put himself behind the teens as they moved away from the scene. Soon, more groans came within ear shot and Landon knew he made a grave mistake. He looked back and saw dozens of infected pouring out from the trees nearby. His heart beat so hard it was hard to see straight. Just as he was about to turn back around to fight, Samuel alerted them to the house ahead. Landon grabbed Aspen’s hand and they all ran up the stairs to the house. The door was locked so they began to pound.

With each pound Landon’s fist made on the wooden door, his heart matched it. Dead behind him and his crush only feet away, it was enough to make his head explode. Just then, the door swung open and Omar greeted them with the smile he loved so much. Aspen and Samuel moved inside instantly while Omar looked down the barrel of his shotgun at the horde behind them. Omar stood out on the porch and took the infected out one by one. Seeing the infected grow closer, Landon used his pistol to help him out the best he could. His shot wasn’t as good as Omar’s but once Omar realized Landon was standing by his side, he flashed him the sweetest look and nothing else mattered.

Once the infected were all dead, they returned to the safety of the house and Omar barricaded the door. As they all wandered around the entryway to catch their breath, Landon noticed the bite on Omars arm. “You’re really immune?”
“I see you read my journal,” Omar said with heavy breathing and a smile.
Landon returned it. “Yep.”
“That’s a total invasion of privacy, you know?”
Landon’s smile faded. “That’s what I told Aspen but she–”
“Landon, I’m joking!” he laughed and gently touched his arm.
He could feel his face turn red. “Sorry.” Landon swallowed a few times so his voice wouldn’t crack for his next question. “So, I know it’s a little late, but, Omar… Will you go to Homecoming with me?”
Omar smiled and grabbed Landon’s hands. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Aspen and her dad left the room while they danced around the living room with no music.

Their days may have been short, but they were oh so sweet.

*****

Laura Mae

This is a story I wrote for a contest, but sadly did not win. Which means you can all read it now! I had fun going outside of my comfort zone with not only writing a short story, but also a love story with two gentlemen. Let me know what you think!

“We’re leaving tonight,” Landon announced at the dinner table and flicked his hazel eyes directly at Samuel, preparing for backlash. His best friend Aspen sat across from him and she used her dark brown hair to cover her face and slumped down in her chair.
“Oh, you are, are you?” Samuel replied, his tone deep and stern like fathers do.
“You haven’t been able to get a radio signal for at least three days and we haven’t had fresh air in weeks. It’s time to move on,” Landon said as cooly as he could. Samuel let his fork drop to the wood table, making Landon slightly jump. “And I hope you mean ‘we’ and in ‘me, myself and I’.”
To much of Landon’s relief, Aspen finally jumped in. “I’m sorry dad, but we can’t keep living like this.” She sat up straight in her chair, her dark eyes soft but narrow.
“Like what?” his voice raised. “Alive? You’re tired of being alive? ‘Cause I can damn well assure you as soon as you step out of this bunker you’ll both be good as dead.”

Landon stood up, flinging his chair back, “this isn’t living! I’d rather take my chances out there than be stuck down here for another minute. It’s been three weeks since the world ended, but we’re still here. We haven’t ended. And maybe other people are out there, too, but we’ll never know if we stay here.” A flash of Omar’s face appeared in his mind. Butterflies invade his stomach as he thought of the last time he saw him. It was right before Homecoming and he couldn’t gain enough courage to ask him. Little to his best friends’ knowledge, Omar was mainly why Landon wanted to leave.

Samuel stood up as well and challenged him. “You want to be ripped apart by monsters, that’s fine by me. But in no way is my daughter going with you.”
“I’m going with Landon whether you let me go or not, dad. He’s right, this isn’t living! I love you and don’t want to leave you but this is way worse than we ever thought. We could be down here for months, maybe years! It’s no way for anyone to live.
Her dad’s eyes softened at her words and the vein in his forehead disappeared. “Your mother and sister were taken from me far too soon, I can’t have you suffer the same fate.”

Aspen took her father’s hands. “Come with us, then. You don’t deserve this life either.” Landon’s jaw tightened and he pushed his fingers through his red hair with frustration. That wasn’t the plan, but he couldn’t separate Aspen from the only family she had left. Landon let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, you should come with us, too…” Landon said, barely above a whisper.
Samuel dropped his head and took a deep sigh. “We could always come back, right?”
“Exactly!” exclaimed Aspen. She was the most excited Landon had seen in weeks. Samuel released a smile that Landon never saw before and it weirded him out a little.
“Alright. Yeah, okay. We could be stuck down here for…a while. The world is ending anyway, why not make the most of it, right?”
“There you go!” Aspen cheered and hugged her dad. Landon rolled his eyes but stopped when Aspen caught him.

The three packed up everything they possibly could and headed out to the new world. Landon was the first to go up the ladder and push the bunker door open. A wave of fresh air hit his face and he almost coughed with the amount of oxygen. He took his first step out onto the grass and used his hand as a shield from the sun. He expected things to look bad but not buildings completely flattened to the earth. As Aspen’s eyes adjusted and she looked at her surroundings, the house closest to the bunker was theirs and it was pulverized.

“Oh my god…” she gasped. Samuel had barely left the bunker before Aspen threw her arms around him. Her cries muffled into his flannel shirt. Not a soul was in sight, not even the beings who no longer had a soul. The neighborhood Landon knew so well was like a scene from a movie; destroyed cars, blood splattered on the road and grass, houses burnt to ash. It was a nightmare, but worse because there was no waking up. The horrible realization hit him and tears began to well, but then his eyes soon wandered to a house across the street. It still stood the same, aside from some broken windows and the front door hanging off the hinges. Aspen stopped crying to see what Landon was looking at and she spoke.

“Omar’s house.”

The sound of his name made something inside Landon tingle. The light at the end of the tunnel. It only felt like yesterday that he saw his face in the hallway, giving him a look that he still holds onto. A look that told him he might have a chance. Landon blinked tears away and his feet made their way across the street. Aspen followed, sniffing but held right a large knife for protection. Samuel stayed close behind, asking Aspen who Omar wasand just said he was a friend of theirs. Landon held a pistol in his left hand and took caution with every step. He heard a few birds chirping here and there but nothing like before. As they approached the yard, unfamiliar noises echoed around. Groaning from the undead who he imagined were in an intense amount of pain. Landon thought of his parents, the day they died and then came back. He couldn’t imagine how much pain they were in and hated that he couldn’t help them relieve it.

They headed inside the house and Landon felt butterflies in his stomach. Even though the house was in ruin, it was still where Omar lived. Pictures of the family hung on the walls and Omars smile made Landon grin. Aspen and her father walked past Landon as they explored the house on their
own. Landon soon ventured to the kitchen to see if he could take any food left behind. He zipped up his bag after fitting some canned goods inside when Aspen yelled down to him.

“Landon! You might want to come see this!”
He furrowed his brows and ran upstairs. He turned the corner to a bedroom at the end of the hall. “You probably shouldn’t be yell–”
“Look, it’s his journal!” she said, holding up a notebook and a huge grin
His stomach twisted into knots. “Uh, isn’t that an invasion of privacy?”
Aspen rolled her eyes and flipped a page. “You’re not even a little curious what goes on inside his head?”
Landon blushed and shrugged his boney shoulders. “Did he say anything about me?”

Aspen scrunched her nose up with a smile and searched the pages for a mention of his name. Just then, Samuel entered the bedroom and Landon became less excited for her to read anything aloud.
“Ooh, here we go!” she cleared her throat. “Todays the day. I’m gonna ask Landon to the dance. I’ve never asked a guy out before. How do I do that? What if people see us? I mean, they’ll see us at the dance, but I’m not even sure if he’s into guys. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should wait until high school is over, the people here suck. And if I get turned down and people hear about it, they will know I’m gay and I also got turned down by the first guy I asked out. Alight, decision made, I’ll just take Tiffany. She’s pretty, I like her hair. Once all this highschool bullshit is over, then I’ll come
out. Then I can stop pretending…”

The butterflies disappeared from Landons stomach and were replaced by wasps. “He was gonna ask me?”
“Well I didn’t see that coming…” Aspen said and closed the journal. “I’m so sorry, Lan.”
“I should have said something sooner…” Landon said softly.
“Wait,” Samuel spoke up. “You’re… not dating my daughter?”
“Ew dad, no!” she said and stuck her tongue out at Landon.
“Ouch,” Landon responded, slightly offended.
“No offence, Lan,” she quipped.
Samuel laughed. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in months!”

Landon didn’t know how to respond to that so he took the journal from Aspen while they had a good ol’ laugh. He admired that Omar kept something to write down his feelings; he didn’t even do that himself. Absentmindedly, he flipped through more pages and was curious what his last entry was. It was four weeks ago.

“Hey, listen to this… ‘Lots has happened since my last entry. The world as we all once knew it is gone. The school was attacked by students and teachers who weren’t themselves and trying to eat everyone. We were all in dresses and tuxes and I wanted to black the whole thing out, but I couldn’t. I was bitten by some chick who sat in the front of my math class. It was so bizarre, she even had braces on. Everyone I knew who wasn’t immediately eaten by a group of them eventually got sick. We were taken to the hospital that looked like a war zone and they patched us up. My date Tiffany was also bitten pretty bad but she started coughing and sweating like a pig. I sat next to her to comfort her but I never got that bad. I fell asleep in the hospital bed with her, but I was woken by her violently attacking me! She wouldn’t get off of me and tried biting me, so I did the only thing I could and I stabbed her with a scalpel. It didn’t seem to do anything even after I did it five times so I tried her temple and she went limp. That was the craziest shit I had ever done! I ran out of the hospital as fast as I could and came home. My parents weren’t home because they went on a date the night before. I fear they may never come home.

The bite on my arm should have turned me into one of those things but I’m still waiting. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Are there others like me? I need to find out. Consider this my last entry, journal. The last mundane thing I’ll probably ever do. If anyone reads this and you know what’s wrong with me, I’ll be staying at a house I know to be abandoned on 42nd Avenue by the railroad tracks.” Landon and Aspen exchanged wide eyes.

“I know where that is,” Samuel spoke up from the corner of the room. “Used to belong to misses Fairchild but then she died. She had no family left so it just sat there. If we take the train tracks north, I know exactly where to find it.” Landon raised his brows and smirked at him. “Thank you.”
Samuel nodded back respectively. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Landon thought.

They wasted no time and headed towards the tracks. They came across a few sick people emerging from the woods. It was nothing like Landon expected. Nothing had prepared him for the fact he would have to kill people who already died. It was somehow more difficult than he thought. An elderly woman limped up to him with her mouth wide open and made horrible moaning noises. As if she or it, was starving. Aspen and Samuel were busy dealing with a couple of other infected people so he had no choice but to deal with the thing. He remembered what Omar said about the head and he lifted his small pistol, shut his eyes and pulled the trigger. His eyes flew back open and was surprised to see her on the ground, lifeless again. But with that echoing shot, a flock of birds took to the skies in an instant. A sinking feeling fell over him as it felt the sound travelled for miles. Life was a standstill and a noise like that was surely to be heard by other hungry undead.

“I bet that attracted them to us…” Aspen said with terror in her eyes.
“We should move then. Come on,” Samuel said and purposely put himself behind the teens as they moved away from the scene. Soon, more groans came within ear shot and Landon knew he made a grave mistake. He looked back and saw dozens of infected pouring out from the trees nearby. His heart beat so hard it was hard to see straight. Just as he was about to turn back around to fight, Samuel alerted them to the house ahead. Landon grabbed Aspen’s hand and they all ran up the stairs to the house. The door was locked so they began to pound.

With each pound Landon’s fist made on the wooden door, his heart matched it. Dead behind him and his crush only feet away, it was enough to make his head explode. Just then, the door swung open and Omar greeted them with the smile he loved so much. Aspen and Samuel moved inside instantly while Omar looked down the barrel of his shotgun at the horde behind them. Omar stood out on the porch and took the infected out one by one. Seeing the infected grow closer, Landon used his pistol to help him out the best he could. His shot wasn’t as good as Omar’s but once Omar realized Landon was standing by his side, he flashed him the sweetest look and nothing else mattered.

Once the infected were all dead, they returned to the safety of the house and Omar barricaded the door. As they all wandered around the entryway to catch their breath, Landon noticed the bite on Omars arm. “You’re really immune?”
“I see you read my journal,” Omar said with heavy breathing and a smile.
Landon returned it. “Yep.”
“That’s a total invasion of privacy, you know?”
Landon’s smile faded. “That’s what I told Aspen but she–”
“Landon, I’m joking!” he laughed and gently touched his arm.
He could feel his face turn red. “Sorry.” Landon swallowed a few times so his voice wouldn’t crack for his next question. “So, I know it’s a little late, but, Omar… Will you go to Homecoming with me?”
Omar smiled and grabbed Landon’s hands. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Aspen and her dad left the room while they danced around the living room with no music.

Their days may have been short, but they were oh so sweet.

*****

Laura Mae

This is a story I wrote for a contest, but sadly did not win. Which means you can all read it now! I had fun going outside of my comfort zone with not only writing a short story, but also a love story with two gentlemen. Let me know what you think!

Hello everyone! I know I haven’t posted anything in a while and I just wanted to quickly talk about a sensitive subject in the writing community. I’m sure you’ve already guessed it by the title of this blog and you would be correct. Authors reading their own reviews.

Now, depending on who you talk to you, someone will either say, “You should NEVER read your own reviews. It’s just going to hurt and will make you upset for no reason. Besides, the reviews are for readers, NOT the author.” While others will counter with, “It’s healthy to read your reviews because how else will you know how to improve on your craft? The bad reviews are sometimes not constructive, but some of them can be and it’s can be immensely helpful for knowing what to work on for future works.”

I can see both sides, personally. But I have to lean towards the reading of your reviews. I don’t get a lot of feedback from my books other than these reviews (and people can be very brutally honest when they post anonymously). If I don’t read them, I will keep writing the same way forever and never trying to improve because frankly, I’m not really sure where to improve. Again, not all of your reviews will have helpful feedback, but how will you know if you never read them?

There are some authors I know (not personally, but just in passing on social media) who will rant or complain about all of the horrible reviews they are constantly getting. Unfortunately, there are trolls out there who get off by bringing other people down and writing reviews that can really hurt them. I get it, it happens. But also, there are actual people out there who read it and… what’s that? Oh, they didn’t like it. It’s completely their call to write literally whatever they want on something. I do it all the time on purchases I make, more importantly, things I really hated. Folks tend to gravitate towards hating on things and sharing it with the world and other people just eat it up. I don’t know what it is. But sadly, that’s just the way it is. So, for the people who didn’t like the product and they wrote a review to express how much they didn’t like it is perfectly fine.

BUT

How an author handles that horrible review is 100000% up to that author.

This industry is a cut-throat one and it takes no prisoners. How you react to these reviews will effectively shed light on how you are as a person. Especially if you react to these reviews on a public platform. You are putting yourself in front of millions of people (potential readers and fans) to complain about all the terrible reviews you’ve gotten and it feels like everyone is out to get you. And you know what you look like to all these people? Whiney. Egotistical. An amateur author who has yet to understand the industry they want to make a career out of.

Anything a person does in the creative field (writing, art, music, ect) is always going to be subjective to each individual person it’s exposed to, meaning, not everyone will like what you put out. It’s just a fact of life. The ONLY way to deal with the harsh critics, bad reviews (even if they are trolls, doesn’t matter) and 1 star ratings, is to simply let it wash over you. It’s the only way to see what people say, comprehend what they said, handle it with dignity and then move on. Don’t delete reviews, don’t respond to reviews, don’t blast them on social media because “They didn’t like my book, Wah!” Trust me, it doesn’t make you look good and it will not help you sell more books AT ALL.

Feel free to comment below if you want to have a civil discussion. This, of course, is my opinion and I am an author so this is based on my personal experience. I hope this helps any authors who feel they have had a series of bad reviews or can’t seem to get out of a slump. It’s seriously about how you handle harsh criticism and the more you work on it, the better you will get at reading future ones and letting them just, wash over you.

What doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.

Happy Reading

Laura Mae

August 7th, 2020

I asked Laura where she would like to interview:

If Darby McAllister, Summer of L.U.C.K.‘s main female character, were asked to pick the world’s most perfect location for my Indie-Go interview, her choice, hands down, would be Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles’s historic Fairfax district. After all, that’s where Darby was “born.” If you’ve ever been to Farmers Market, which opened in 1934, you’d surely be a fan of the iconic retro décor that keeps the place looking pretty much like it’s still, well, 1934. And that’s only one of the reasons Farmers Market remains so popular. Laura Mae and I would enjoy aromas from food stands representing almost every type of cuisine that exists. We’d wander past stalls stocked with souvenirs, toys, home-made ice cream, meat and poultry, baked goods, kids books, fresh produce, beer and wine, gourmet food, groceries, and even custom-made shoes. Not to mention several candy stores that would thrill Summer of L.U.C.K.‘s Naz Nezri, the kid from Morocco with a big-time sweet tooth.

I would bring Laura upstairs to the Upper Dining Deck, whose bland name completely misses its charm. Amid the market’s bustle, I bet Summer of L.U.C.K.‘s third kid, Justin Pennington, would love the quiet. Surrounded by windows overlooking a sunny, tree-filled plaza, it’s perfect for writing and conversation. Laura and I would sit on the Market’s signature green folding chairs at one of the colorful round tables. Although we wouldn’t find ghostly Mr. Usher or anything like his magical carnival up there, we could have (years ago) enjoyed the view out the front windows of a green and gold trolley, which came by below about every 20 minutes. It stops elsewhere now, but that vehicle inspired Summer of L.U.C.K.‘s brilliantly illuminated, gleaming green coach that thunders over a wall, swoops down, and transports Darby, Naz, and Justin to Mr. Usher’s carnival where he helps them find their way to self-acceptance. Laura would be relishing a beverage selected from any number of coffees, teas, and just about any other liquid she could imagine, including Moxie, Frostie Blue Cream Soda, and other classic stuff. For myself, I’d swig a Diet Dr. Pepper, my own personal heaven in a bottle, and as we’d talk, I’d relish memories of the days when I wrote Summer of L.U.C.K‘s first draft in this very spot.

Laura Mae: What inspired you to enter the world of writing?

Laura Segal Stegman: Of all the books I read when I was a kid, there were five or six about family, friendship and self-acceptance that I never forgot. These books and their characters taught me a lot, or touched me deeply, or made me feel good. I loved them so much that I read them again and again, even as an adult. And when I thought about trying to write a novel, I knew right away it would be a middle grade story, one that I hoped would mean as much to kids today as those stories still mean to me.

LM: How long have you been writing for?

LS: Growing up, I may have attempted a short story or two, but business writing has been a part of my career as a public relations consultant for a long time. As for fiction, though, my middle grade debut novel, Summer of L.U.C.K., took almost twenty years from first draft to publication. Of course that includes multiple rewrites and revisions. With an emphasis on multiple. I really learned to write a novel by working on Summer of L.U.C.K.

LM: What are you currently working on?

LS: When Summer of L.U.C.K. is published on September 15, 2020, by INtense Publications, it will be a dream come true. 

It’s about three kids searching for self-acceptance. Stuttering Darby is never perfect enough for her mother. Justin’s been silent since his dad died. Naz is struggling to learn English. But after they meet at summer camp, mysterious calliope music from an abandoned warehouse grants them power to communicate telepathically. When they sneak inside, the dark, empty space bursts into a magical carnival. They meet the ghost of Leroy Usher, Carnival King (the title’s L.U.C.K.), who asks for their help convincing his family to restore the carnival to its former glory. In return, he teaches them how to find their voices. 

My contract with INtense Publications calls for two sequels, and the first one, which is called Ready or Not, is about two-thirds written. Folks will find Ready or Not‘s first chapter as a sneak preview at the end of Summer of L.U.C.K. Having lived with these characters for so many years, I can’t wait to see them come alive in the minds of everyone who reads it.

LM: Are there any books or authors who inspire your work?

LS: The Diamond in the Window from my childhood, my all-time favorite middle grade book, inspired me to write Summer of L.U.C.K. Like L.U.C.K., it’s sprinkled with magical elements, and one of its main characters is an 11-year-old girl searching for self-acceptance. Other childhood favorites that influenced my work were Beverly Cleary’s Ellen Tebbits and Sydney Taylor’s All of A Kind Family series. While not a book, I have to also mention the first The Parent Trap movie as a big influence on Summer of L.U.C.K. Readers with sharp eyes will find references to it throughout the book.

LM: What has been the most challenging for you so far?

LS: Summer of L.U.C.K. was written over a seriously long period of time, during which I learned about the craft of writing fiction. I can’t even begin to list all those challenges, but chief among them was building conflict into the story. Ready or Not will be done in a little over a year. The challenges of writing under a deadline trigger a whole new set of issues, especially my impatience when it takes me a while to find my way through a chapter or section of the story. 

LM: What does a typical day of writing look like for you? Any rituals or ‘must-haves’?

LS: Before the pandemic, I spent every evening possible working on Ready or Not. Now, with Stay at Home orders and all business meetings held digitally (no traffic!), I have so much more available time, so I try to devote at least two days a week writing during the day as well as in the evening. My deadline is looming! 

LM: Any songs or type of music you need to listen to when you write? 

LS: I love listening to classical music when I write, especially Beethoven’s symphonies. I’m absolutely lifted by the energy in his work! 

LM: What would you say is your favorite book or series of all time? Why?

LS: The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, hands down. I’m one of the very few people who never read these books when they were published. Frankly, I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Witches? Hogwarts? The Dark Lord? Not for me, I thought. But I finally picked up the first one about three years ago. Within 15 months, I’d finished them all. And the only reason it took me that long is that I was so devastated by the ending of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I had to take a break before reading the very last one. That’s drama! 

LM: What genre do you typically read?

LS: Despite my love for middle grade stories, I’m a devoted reader of crime fiction, and my favorite authors in recent are Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling), Louise Penny, and Tana French. I love French’s use of language, and I’m devoted to the characters in Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series and Penny’s Inspector Gamache series. Once I finish a Strike or Gamache book, I can’t wait to pick up the next. 

LM: What are you currently reading? 

LS: Having just finished Louise Penny’s How the Light Gets In, my favorite so far of the Inspector Gamache series, I’m already engrossed in her next book, The Long Way Home. I’m also reading a bunch of middle grade books, including Grace’s Ghosts by Stephenie Wilson Peterson; Casey Grimes, The Mostly Invisible Boy by A.J. Vanderhorst; Derek Hyde’s Spooky Scavenger Hunt by E. Michael Lunsford; Banneker Bones and the Giant Robot Bees by Rob Kent; Read at Your Own Peril by Patrick Hueller; and Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo. Yes, all at the same time. (I switch around.) Can you tell how much I love to read?

LM: Who is your favorite literary character and why?

LS: Ah, too many to choose from! But the name that popped up just now is Auggie Pullman from Wonder. His narration pulled me into this book and never let me go. This touching, life-affirming story about making friends, navigating through fear, and growing up despite challenge after challenge touches me in the same place as did my favorite childhood books.

LM: Besides writing, what is it you like to do?

LS: I’m a big fan of Major League Baseball, and I follow the Los Angeles Dodgers all season long (mostly on TV, although we go to a game here and there). Aside from the integrity of the team as a whole, especially in recent time, I love learning about the individual players through social media and interviews. Their TV channel does a great job of weaving players’ off- the-field lives into their work on the field, which greatly appeals to the storyteller in me. 

As mentioned, I’m a big reader. I also love classical music concerts and theater, connecting with friends and family. You know, life stuff.  

LM: In a brief statement, have you self-published or traditionally published? What was your experience?

LS: I’m grateful to have connected with INtense Publications, whose principals believed in Summer of L.U.C.K. just as I did. Although they’re small and relatively recently established, they’re mighty, with more than twenty books published in the last year. Like with small publishers in general, much of the promotional/publicity work falls on me, but I’ve built my pre-author career in public relations, so my promotional skills are serving me well. I’m thrilled that INtense is my publisher, and I’m grateful to be working with them. 

LM: Are there any regrets you have or anything you wish you knew sooner?

LS: If I could change anything, I would have discovered the online writing community many years before I did. I elaborate on this below, but had I done so, I truly believe my journey to publication wouldn’t have taken as long.

LM: For aspiring writers out there, what would be the best advice you want them to know?

LS: On my way to publication, after I got as far as I could on my own, these things proved to be major factors in bringing my work to a level that helped me secure a publishing contract, and I’m happy to share them:

Laura Segal Stegman grew up in Southern California with parents who valued reading, and she remains spellbound by middle grade fiction. Some of her favorites, then and now, are The Diamond in the Window, Ellen Tebbits, All of A Kind Family, Wonder, A Patron Saint for Junior Bridesmaids, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Miraculous. As a writer, Laura’s non-fiction credits include collaboration on the travel book Only in New York, and her feature stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Westways Magazine and Christian Science Monitor, among others. A long-time publicist, she owns Laura Segal Stegman Public Relations, LLC, which has represented a wide-ranging client list of businesses, arts organizations and non-profit events over the years. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UC Irvine with a B.A. in Drama and lives with her husband in West Los Angeles and part-time in New York City. She loves reading, L.A. Dodgers baseball, classical music and theater.

You can find Laura on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and her website.

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Summer of L.U.C.K. – Stuttering Darby is never perfect enough for her mother. Justin’s been silent since his dad died. Naz is struggling to learn English. But after they meet at summer camp, mysterious calliope music from an abandoned warehouse grants them power to communicate without words. When they sneak inside, the dark, empty space bursts into a magical carnival. They’re greeted by the ghost of Leroy Usher, who asks for their help convincing his family to restore the carnival to its former glory. In return, he promises to teach the kids how to find their voices.

As Darby, Justin, and Naz are swept off on a series of midnight adventures via Mr. Usher’s carnival rides, they discover they’re capable of more than they ever imagined. With each challenge, their confidence in communicating – and in themselves – grows. Meanwhile, they scheme to persuade the Usher family to revive the carnival. But when Darby’s bunkmates trick her into starring in the camp talent show, her budding confidence falters. Can she risk being less than perfect by performing in the show and speaking up to Mr. Usher’s resistant son? If not, she’ll put the carnival in danger and sabotage her most important quest: to believe in herself, stutter and all.

Releasing September 15th! Pre-order here for the hardback, or here for the ebook!

Hey everyone! Now that the IndieGo Interviews have come to an end, I am posting this to let you all know what’s in store next! You may be wondering why this is titled as such so here I am to explain. I originally wanted to make this into a video but I ramble far too much and this is easier to keep my thoughts organized.

Most of you probably know me from my books, writing communities or something related to that. I am currently in the process of finishing my third book and will be publishing it sometime this year. It’s in this time (and even more now that it’s in the hands of betas and I’ve not written anything in weeks) that I have reflected on my journey so far. And also, where I am going after this book is done.

As much as I love to write, I’ve never looked it as a career. To me, once it gets to that point, I feel I won’t enjoy it as much. I write because I love to do it. I never planned on even publishing the books I have until less than a year before the first one. While I am extremely grateful for all of the experiences, people and opportunities to further my path as a writer, I am sadden to say that I won’t be continuing to publish books. I have thought about contributing to anthologies or something like that, but that will be the extent.

I have changed my social media counts a bit to match this “re-branding” and my name no longer has author in it. I am not saying I am no longer an author, but I want it to be a little less specific and more reflecting just myself. When I took a hiatus for a while, it was because I struggled with the simplest things and constantly wondered what made “successful” tweets and what didn’t. It’s embarrassing, but it caused me a lot of anxiety. My books aren’t selling at all (or like, 1 every few months) and it seems no matter how many followers I had, it didn’t help at all with sales. So now I am not focusing on writing or books, but more of just what I want to post.

In case you’re wondering, my main career goal is to be in marketing or advertising. (ironic, right?) Hey, maybe it will help with selling my books. Haha! I am wanting to go back to school to get my B.A. in graphic design or something related to help me with this goal. And my dream job is to someday work at a video game company. I’ve always been a huge gamer and I honestly miss playing as much as I used to. (I used to work at Gamestop for 8 years, and it was pretty much my entire life.) While the company sucked to work for, being able to talk video games all day was seriously awesome. I do miss that part. …there I go with the rambling. With that being said, I do have a new Twitch Channel! Check me out! I will be playing the Last of Us Part 2, starting TODAY!

Anyways, I wanted to make this post to let you all know what’s going on with me. If you unsubscribe, or unfollow, that’s fine with me, but I hope you don’t. I’m just trying my best to be myself and do what makes me happy. Publishing a story that I had a dream about was something I wanted to do, and I did it, and now it’s time to move on. I really hope you are all doing well and that you too, are doing what makes you happy.

Laura Mae