A phobia is an extreme dread or fear of something. When a person encounters the object of his or her fear, he could experience anxiety, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, an irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea, dry mouth, etc. While this person’s phobia may seem outrageous or unreasonable to you, I assure you it is not unreasonable…
The look of wonder and excitement in a child’s eyes when he or she is introduced to books and the world of reading is priceless. Most small children are fascinated with flowers. My two-year-old granddaughter loves to watch the butterflies and the bees fly around and land on their colorful petals. Taking a toddler on…
Would you have cereal or serial for breakfast? Does a teacher use chalk or chock to write on the blackboard? Would chard or charred be served with dinner? cents, scents, sense A cent is 1/100th of one dollar, so cents would be more than one cent. Heather was so broke, she couldn’t even afford the pack of…
A beast lives inside of Jaz Barker. Can she learn to control it before someone innocent is hurt? Jaz has a horrible nightmare and wakes up in a puddle of blood. It appears she has had a miscarriage, but she wasn’t pregnant. She is also severely anemic. To treat it, she must keep going back…
Have you ever encountered a cling of koalas? How dark would the sky be if a cloud of bats filled the air? Would a cluster of spiders make your nightmares more terrifying? If you do have a nightmare, would a comfort of cats help to calm you down? A cling of koalas – When a baby…
I never thought of myself as a writer. I never thought I would enjoy it the way that I do today. Like that little boy, Mikey, in the old cereal commercials, I tried it, and as soon as the flavor hit me, I started gobbling it down. Note: This giest post was originally published on…
Which one of the stories in this book is his favorite? Where does he get his inspiration? What is his biggest fear as a writer? What is the name of his band? Note: This interview was originally published on The News in Books on May 13, 2014. Where do you get your inspiration for your…
Something strange is going on in St. Clair, Georgia. People aren’t acting right. One man escapes with his family and hides out in the hills, but will they be able to find safety there? In this book by Stephen Helmes, there are four stories. Three are tales of horror, and the other one is a…
Does a ceil or a seal live in the ocean? Would you store potatoes in a cellar or a seller? Is the temperature be detected by a censer, a censor, a censure, or a sensor? Does perfume have a pleasant cent, scent, or sent? cede, seed Cede means to yield. Knowing that defeat was inevitable, the…
I didn’t set out to become a poet nor did I sit down one day thinking I would try to write a poem. For me it began more circuitously. It began with a foreign tongue. For me, reading and more importantly translating is the way I first discovered the stirrings of my own voice within.…
