kids

New Beginnings

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I like to look at the new school year as a time for new beginnings. New shoes, new clothes, new books. This week has been crazy busy, with school starting. My baby even started Kindergarten this week. I can’t believe she’s old enough–just yesterday she was born (or so it seems).

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I apologize for the cellphone quality. I couldn’t find the charger for the camera, and buying a new one is next on my list.

I had another new beginning yesterday, of sorts, and I found it appropriate it fell on the first day of school. I did a book signing at a friend’s book club event for The Devil Within. I was so nervous when I arrived, but the people were nice, and when my time came to speak the words just flowed. I guess that’s what happens when you’re talking about something you love. Unfortunately, there are no photos of me signing book, but this napkin wrap around the stem of my wine gave me quite a laugh:

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Here’s to the new school year (2015-2016) and more new beginnings to come!

Don’t forget to grab your copy of No Turning Back for $1.99! Only one week left on this sale!  

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Available at Amazon: http://amzn.to/1TAOxjl

And Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1EWHdJe

Enter to win a free copy of my newest book, The Devil Within. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Devil Within by Lauren Greene

The Devil Within

by Lauren Greene

Giveaway ends August 31, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Follow Lauren Greene

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No Turning Back from Kindergarten!

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Today, my darling daughter and I are taking one last vacation before school starts. She’s starting Kindergarten next week. I can’t believe she’s already five. I’ll blink, and she’ll be eighteen/ I feel like when my boys went to Kindergarten, I wasn’t as much as a slobbery mess as I am with Hailey. Maybe it’s because she’s my baby, and it signifies that I have no more babies at home. Maybe I’m just becoming a huge softy in my old age. Whatever it is, I’m so emotional. I know she’ll do fine. She’s outgoing and sweet and a hard worker (when she’s not in her imaginary world–I wonder who she gets that from?). I think her mommy is going to have more trouble with her leaving the nest than she is!

How did you feel when your birdies went to Kindergarten or left the nest?

Before I leave you, I wanted to let you all know that my first book, No Turning Back, is available for the next two weeks at for kindle at Amazon and for the nook at Barnes & Noble* for only $1.99.

No Turning Back is my first novel and is in the women’s fiction genre. It’s a unrequited love story with a little twist! I self-published it back in January. Here’s the blurb:

Kaia Hart seems to have it all: a job as a successful architect, two perfect children, and a handsome husband, Patrick, but she’s haunted by an accident in her past. On a business call, one day, she’s surprised to find Asher, her once-love, has moved to town and will be working with her. In “No Turning Back,” Kaia faces nightmares from her past and big decisions about her future, as the two worlds seem to collide. Will Kaia give up everything for Asher, or will she find comfort in the arms of Patrick?

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*B&N is currently showing the $3.99 price, but it should be updated shortly.
Don’t forget to sign up for my monthly newsletter! It goes out once a month, and you can sign up here–> http://eepurl.com/bo4ILP

Follow Lauren Greene:

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There’s still time to enter to win 1 of 2 free copies of The Devil Within on Goodreads:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Devil Within by Lauren Greene

The Devil Within

by Lauren Greene

Giveaway ends August 31, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Newsletter Is A’Coming!

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I had a busy weekend. I told my boys I would take them to Airwalk, an indoor trampoline arena one of the first weeks of summer. This was the weekend! We went up with a friend. And, there’s no video proof, but I did a front flip! It only took me the whole time to get my nerve up but once I did I wanted to do it over and over again. We had a two hour jump, but we only lasted one and a half hours. Granted, my oldest told me he could have jumped the whole 2 hours, but my seven year old was exhausted. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory and made a stop at the Lego store before we came home. I want to be a kid again!

Here’s some videos of the kids getting their jump on:

I’ve been goal oriented lately, but with our day trip and then my niece and nephew being here yesterday, I didn’t achieve my goal of getting my newsletter set up this weekend. There never seems to be enough time in the day. Plus, now I’m ill and feel so tired from hacking up a lung. But I’m just going to move that goal over to this week and make sure it gets done.

Tell me more about this newsletter, you say? In the next few days, I’ll have a sign-up sheet over at my Facebook Author Page:https://www.facebook.com/laurengreenewrites. I’ll send a newsletter out once a month or so with important news about my books. I’ll also feature some authors I love who are up and coming, just like me. I’ll have a personal section, a section on writing, and probably a section on what I’m currently reading. This is still in the works! So make sure to be on the lookout for the sign-up sheet that’s coming soon!

P is for Party

/ legreene515 / 13 Comments

Who doesn’t like a good party? Today is my son’s 7th birthday. We had a wonderful time celebrating at the gym with fourteen of his friends! We invited his whole class, and had a great turnout. Now we have tons of new toys (time to get rid of the old ones).

Liam is a Lego lover. He wanted a Ninjago Party.

I went a little crazy when I ordered the cake, but I think it turned out great.  We don’t do a lot of “big” friend birthdays, mostly just family, so it was fun to splurge on my middle child a little bit!

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The top part was vanilla, and the bottom was strawberry (Liam’s favorite). I have photos from the actual party, but I’m not going to post them as they have other people’s kids in them. Needless to say, they had fun tumbling at the gym, jumping on the trampoline, and just generally being kids.

And here’s a video of Liam doing what he loves to do best, putting together the Ninjago Lego set we gave him for his birthday.

I loved birthday parties like that when I was kid. Did you have BIG birthday parties when you were growing up? Do you have big birthday parties for your kids, or do you mostly do family parties? Share in the comments!

Oliver

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I was going to post a longer piece I wrote, “Oberon.” It’s about 1,000 words, but I really need to work on it some more. I originally wrote it for Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds Flash challenge, but I decided not to post it, because it needed more than 1,000 words.

Instead, I wrote a story about Oliver today for Flash!Friday. The setting had to be in a kitchen. And here is the photo prompt of a Prison Guard from the public domain.

Prison Guard

Tuber Tears
@laurenegreene
209 words

“Oliver, chop up the onions,” Momma said.

She stood near the stove, stirring the soup. Poppa was on duty again, and had been for the last two days. Momma worried about him. The phone was secured to her ear, the cord cutting a trail through the kitchen.

“Oy, weapons made out of pencils. That’s what killed Solomon, I heard. Ian’s job is going to give me a heart attack. I swear, I’ll kill him if gets hurt and leaves me to fend for these eight kids on my own.”

Tears streamed down Oliver’s face. He wiped his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt. His sister toddled in, and Oliver pushed her out of the galley kitchen that seemed crowded with him, Momma, and the voice of Aunt Tessa coming through the phone.

“Is this enough?” Oliver asked, his eyes red-rimmed.

“Why you interrupt me? No—we have to take some up to the prison too, Oliver. Keep cutting and keep your snot out of the food. Tessa—yes, sorry. Why God didn’t grace me with a girl before number six is beyond me.”

The tears burned his eyes now. He thought of Poppa with a pencil stuck in his neck as he scraped the onions into the soup.

Kindergarten

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My youngest is taking a test to try to get into the magnet school for Kindergarten today. I can’t even believe she will be going to Kindergarten next year. All my kids went to daycare from the time they were 18 months. I never cried when my boys started Kindergarten. But, I can already tell I’m going to cry when she starts next year. She is such a Momma’s girl, and she’s supposed to still be a baby. Hold your babies. They don’t stay babies for long!

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H is for Hughie

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Being a parent is hard. I should know. I have three little kids. Kids don’t live up to their parents’ expectations. They’re not born to fulfill their parents’ lost dreams or to make their parents’ lives better.  They’re born to live their OWN lives. They need to be guided and loved and accepted for who they are. For a long time, after I realized my oldest son functioned differently, I felt lost. I didn’t want life to be harder for him. And sometimes–a lot of times–HE makes his life harder.  All I can do is show him love, support, and get him the help he needs when he needs it.  Kids need to feel like they’re loved for who they are, unconditionally. Parents need to be able to set aside any misgivings they have to achieve that properly. And I bet you’re wondering how this relates to “Hughie.”

Well today, I wrote for Microbookends about Hughie, whose father can’t or won’t accept her for what she is.  It’s a sad tale, but someone in Hughie’s family (probably his mother) obviously accepts her for who she is, as witnessed by the objects in her room. The bookends were “play” and “boy.”

Born a Boy
@laurenegreene
109 words

“Play ball, Hughie,” Dad said.

The metal bat crashed against the innocent heads of the dolls. Porcelain shards littered the room like a murder scene: one eye, half a smile, and a broken nose.

Hughie, in her princess bed, grasped her bunny lovey as she pulled the covers up to her chin.

The acrid smell of alcohol stung her nostrils as Dad stumbled toward her.

He yanked the bunny out of her arms and threw the window open. Hughie and Dad watched as the bunny fluttered like a feather then landed on a rock below.

He spat the words. “I’ll never call you Lily. You were born a boy.”

I know my kids will go through that period where they hate me, and they blame me for every mistake in their life. I’m okay with that, as long as they know I love them and that I’ll accept them.

Here’s a picture of my three little monsters. You can so get a hint of their personalities from this. Oldest is in the stage where he won’t smile. Middle is silly. Little is sweet (and she has a sweet in her mouth too!)

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Easter and Editing

/ legreene515 / 15 Comments

This weekend, I’m going to read over the edits and send “The Devil Within” back to my editor. I must have told myself this about a thousand times as I watched the clock tick by. I didn’t literally or figuratively watch the clock. I mostly spent time with my family, because it was Easter weekend.

I am not religious, but I was raised in the church. Everyone in the south seems to be.  When Christmas and Easter come around, it’s a big deal. We had egg hunts galore, including one for my daughter’s daycare where the organizer brought an ice cream truck. Boy, that was popular! We know have candy pouring out of our ears–the dentist will be happy to see us coming soon. And we spent time with our family.

The thing is, my edits are done, but I really want to read through one more time and make sure no more changes need to be made. I’m also a hater of conflict, and there are several suggestions my editor made that I don’t agree with. I’m done procrastinating TODAY. I keep telling myself just to finish the darn editing. After all, the sooner it’s finished the sooner I can move on with edits on my other works.

Having your work edited is so hard mentally. Being a writer means you’re a creator of sorts. You create a world for your characters to live in, and when someone shoots that all down or doesn’t understand where you’re coming from. It can be quite hard to accept. It’s all part of being a writer though. Whoever said writing was easy? No one ever.

I’m glad I put editing on the back burner this weekend though, because I was able to spend a lot of quality time with my three growing kids. One day, they’re not going to want to wake up at the crack of dawn to see what the Easter bunny left. One day, Easter egg hunts are going to be things of the past. Until then, I need to enjoy these little moments.  I’ll leave you with this little gem from the weekend. I usually try to keep my personal and writing blog separate, but this photo of my middle boy is just priceless.  Happy Belated Easter!

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A Trip To the Archives

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Today, I wrote flash fiction for one of my favorites: Micro Bookends. I swear, the writers over there are inspiring. I always make it a point to go through and read every story, because there are some amazingly talented people writing shorts on Micro Bookends. I had to research the photo Dave put up to figure out what the heck it was. When I first looked at it, I thought it was carpet. Ha!

This one is short. I usually have a hard time sticking to my 110 words, but not today. It fit in easily.

A Trip to the Archives
@laurenegreene
100 words

“…beat the crap out of me,” the kid in front of us said.

My dad shook his head. I was in the process of dying from boredom as we walked through rows and rows of scrolls.

“How can they find anything. Haven’t they heard of computers?”

“They’re tagged,” Dad said, giddy with excitement.

“Why can’t we go see something normal, like Big Ben? Who comes to the Archives anyway, and why is this even considered interesting?”

Dad’s mouth ran like a river of words never ceasing when he found it fit to lecture me.

“Pip, I’ll never understand your generation.”