The Courtroom – Friday Fiction In Five Sentences

November 4, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

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My grip on the armrest was so hard that my knuckles must have turned white.

Anger boiled inside me like a witch’s cauldron barely containing itself and the loud voices of other people in the room sounded like a roaring babble in my head.

I refused to believe the verdict that had just been handed out, but the smirk on his lips and the sneer in his eye’s said it all as I looked at him with burning intensity.

Justice has just let the man who abused and violated me walk away free; in fact, the defense counsel tarred and feathered my image till I could barely recognize the strumpet that they portrayed me to be.

It’s not over! Not by half a mile! I have a plan and he won’t know what hit him like a ton of bricks.

Encourage me, buy my book

Blog

THESE ARE THE REASONS NO ONE READS YOUR BLOG. 11 LITTLE TIPS TO CHANGE THINGS.

November 2, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha2 Comments

As a writer cum blogger, we all know how much effort and time it takes to craft your words, curate your images, tag, categorize, primp, polish and publish courageously, only for you to sit back satisfied, twiddling your thumbs anticipating a deluge of comments from expected readers, but, gasp and with a lump in your throat, no one hits that like button or even leaves a smiley face behind. It could dampen anyone’s enthusiasm.

The situation is tougher when you are just starting out with your blogging or writing passion and you need that validation that comes from others – of course, your few good buddies and mom would probably support you, woe betide them if they don’t, but we all do need that extra validation because we are social beings, so spare yourself the rhetoric of ‘I’m writing for myself,’ and let’s get to the cause. Read More

Short Stories

The House…

October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

Out of habit, Miranda, glanced at the vacant house as she walked past.

She was always willing to tell the story of the house and it’s former inhabitants to anyone, of course without missing her highlighted moments of local fame as a witness to a highly publicized grizzly incident.

This is where she grew up and lived all her life. She knew the late Jones’s. Houses in the neighbourhood were close to each other, that everyone knew the other’s business and each wall had an ear listening to it.

She remembered that night when she overheard Jack’s gruff voice as he shouted ‘over my dead body Sue!’

It was nothing new to hear him make such declarations. The Simpsons loved hard, played hard and fought even harder. Their strange shenanigans were noisy enough to give the neighbours a clue.

Tilley, the beautiful Mrs. Jones went missing, her body parts found in different parts of town. The strange thing was that Jack was found with a slit throat and missing ears. The murderer is still at large.

InLinkz

Thank you, to Priceless Joy for hosting this charming platform where we unleash our stories and Yinglan for providing an innocent photo that brought out my dark side 😉

Short Stories

Old Habits – Friday Fiction in Five Sentences.

October 28, 2016October 28, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

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Passing the flower shop, he bought the usual – a beautiful bouquet of red carnations, she loves carnations on Saturdays.

Whistling, he walked slowly to the boulangerie and ordered his basket of the usual, grabbed a free newspaper and waited – he is a man of habits, formed over three scores of existence.

The tram pulled up, boarding along with other passengers, the next thirty-five minutes trundling ride was spent in a light conversation with the gentleman who sat beside him; they talked of little things and their rheumatism – he made a mental note to tell her about the interesting fellow who still wore his old tweed jacket and a dated fedora cap.

‘How is she today?’ He perfunctorily asked the stoic-faced nursing assistant and walked down the familiar corridor, passing room numbers 28, 29, 30 and then opened the door to her room, number 31; everything was as it should be.

Bert took off his coat, planted a cool kiss on Ida’s pale shrunken cheeks, patted her hand in a familiar dismissive mode and sat down to eat whilst he regaled her with little anecdotes of the past week; she stared at him with vacuous eyes, lost in a caged world of her own which he preferred, the staged accident was quite effective, he had grown tired of her nagging.

Have you checked out my new site? I hope you will. Thank you 🙂

Stay tuned for our blog party tomorrow Saturday 29th – Sunday 30th. It’s a Blog-o-ween!

Guest Posts

Meet Robin Baldwin and Her Gorgeous Family

October 23, 2016October 23, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha24 Comments

I simply love getting to know folks better in this space. I keep thinking that one day in the near future, there’ll be a facetime opportunity to meet with all those whom I’ve connected with over these past months of blogging.

When you interact with someone for a while their warmth seeps through their words and Robin is one of the lovely souls I have been interacting with in this space and I believe in connecting my friends. Please, I implore you to take a bit of time to visit her blog and say hello.

Thank you, dear Robin, for sharing bits of you with us 🙂 Image result for images to thank you flower

A bit about me

My name is Robin Baldwin. I was born and raised in Southern California, where I still live. I have a Bachelor’s degree in business and a Master’s degree in mass communication. I am a senior manager at IEEE Computer Society and have worked there for 21 years.

I have been married for 19 years to my amazing husband, Michael. He is a wonderful life partner and father to our daughters.

I am a Christian and believe in the power and beauty of God. I converted to being Catholic about a year after my daughters were baptized at our church. So spirituality is an important theme in my poetry.

I try to have a positive outlook on life whenever possible. I treat others like I want to be treated and I always want the underdogs to win.

A bit about my blog

On my blog, you will find thoughts, mostly poems, about what’s going on in my life through the views of the various roles I assume in any given moment: mom of twins, wife, daughter, friend, manager, woman, spiritual seeker.

I’ve written poetry on and off throughout the years since I was a teenager. In the last several years I’ve been busy working and parenting, but lately, I’ve found small windows of opportunity to write. It has made me want to write more, so I decided to start a blog as a creative outlet.

I have been amazed at the generous support and love this blogging community gives. It keeps me motivated to keep writing.

One of my initial poems for my blog is at https: My Table

I also write a lot about my daughters, so this is my most recent post about when my husband and I decided to let our twins room in separate rooms for their class field trip: These Girls

How I keep motivated with blogging

I keep writing about the things that matter most to me. Seeing the likes, comments, and follows really helps!

What’s your most challenging moment in your blogging journey so far?

None so far and Yes, I would totally encourage others to blog! Especially if you ever wondered if you have what it takes to be a writer. The feedback from this wonderful WordPress community is empowering.

My typical day

I am up by 6:30 am to get ready for the day. Then I wake up my girls up and get them going for school. I take them to school and then go to work. I usually have several meetings each day either with my team or with colleagues to discuss various projects we’re working on.

After work, I meet up with my family at home where we have dinner together (my husband is the cook and makes fabulous meals!). While the girls finish homework, my husband and I try to catch up on each other’s days.

In the near future

I don’t have any specific plans for my blog other than to continue to keep nurturing it by posting at least a couple of times per week, visiting other blogs, and participating in blog parties like the ones you host each month.

However, my next goal in writing is to submit to poetry publications. And, now that I think about it, some day in the future I might publish a book of my poetry.

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

This is my Hood! Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

October 22, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha33 Comments

Hot copious cups of cheap Nescafe wakes up my foggy brain cells. Sometimes, I wonder how on Earth this super machine of the brain functions, with a million thoughts and ideas buzzing in and out at the same time and not combusting. socsbadge2016-17

I have never been able to stay on one singular thought for as long as I can remember and I believe that this frenetic energy of buzzing thoughts increased with adulting, motherhood, wifedom, and my writing life.

Hovering over my shoulder while on the kitchen’s hot plate flipping pancakes, my muse whispers the beginning of a plot that keeps running away from the lines once I sit down to write, my trio are all talking at the same time to me, of course my superpowers enable me to hear each person, resolve their questions, whip up impeccable omelet for dear Himself and commune with my buzzing muse all at the same time.

How on Earth have I managed not to run off with the raggle-taggle band of gypsies to Never, Never Land, where we never grow old, never have to deal with an escape artist of a muse, a demanding brood of hungry children whose bellies seem to gobble the pancakes so fast, yet their pleading eyes’ keep asking for more?

For want of an explanation, I believe it’s because this is my hood, and I’m in charge. Join me for a hot cuppa of cheap coffee 🙂

Linda’s prompt for today’s’ SoCS is a to find a word with the two letter ‘ho,’ and I can’t help but slip in a Ho,Ho,Ho, it will soon be Christmas time 😉

Echos Of My Neighbourhood

Sail With Me – Echoes of My Neighbourhood

October 13, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha14 Comments

My Muse chose to take me to the harbour for a quiet time on Saturday morning. With my laptop, notepad and camera, I tapped away, sipping my warm latte and enjoying the gentle breeze from the Gulf.

I am working on a story that involves a harbour scene and I needed to revitalize my mind. Thankfully, there are several harbours around here and if you want a bit of calm, it’s best to go a bit early in the day before everybody troops in.

It’s a lovely place to spend a couple of hours and there’s something about the gentle sea breeze that kindled my imagination made my words flow faster.

Pamela takes us on a scenic walk in her neighbourhood before Hurricane Matthew and I think I’m going to hold Lady Lee responsible for planting hungry ideas in my head with her sumptuous looking pot of curry.

On Thursdays, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple and you can find out more about it through this link.

Challenges

Thank You and An Open Invitation.

October 12, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

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Almost remiss of me, I duly apologise for the delay in publishing this post. My life has been a rat race of late that each day I fall into bed all tuckered out.

I would like to thank all my dear blogger friends who made my last blog party rock. You guy’s know how to make a girl happy and some of you do have good dance steps 😉

I sincerely appreciate the support that I receive in this place from all of you.

For those who were unable to attend the monthly shindig, here’s the link to the party. There are loads of bloggers in there waiting to say hello to you. Do take a peek.

When you read the numbers upside down, the answer to the party riddle is: BILL IS BOSS HE SELLS OIL.

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NOW, to the interesting new thing coming up. You may be aware that The Writers’ Quote Wednesday which was primarily hosted by our amiable blogger Mistress, Colleen of Silver Threading and Ronovan, has been discontinued due to other exigencies.

However, with Colleen’s blessings, Bernadette of Haddon’s Musings and I have decided to pick up the Writers Quote baton because it is such an interesting series and it would be a shame to let it go.

Here’s the thing, we are looking for 2 more coordinators to join us in running this weekly series. Each week, a coordinator will give us a prompt word to work with, this way there’ll be four of us running the series as a team; it makes it more fun and lessens the burden when it’s just one coordinator.

Let me know if you are interested and what your thoughts are with regards to this. There are no hard and fast rules about the particular day that it should run, though the weekdays Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are preferable.

When we get other coordinators, the rules of engagement will be published and we hope to take off in November.

The intent of the writers’ quote series is to inspire your writing. You are free to write whatever you like based on the given prompt, but you must include your quote with your piece. You could write a story – preferably flash fiction, poetry, music or even share songs.

This is an open invitation to all interested bloggers. Let’s keep the ink flowing. Hope to hear from you.

Jacqueline and Bernadette

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Coined Words of A Writer – Streams of Consciousness Saturday.

October 9, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha5 Comments

‘When you give a beggar a coin, you buy him a meal for the day.’ I guess this saying would have been applicable in the past. Gone are the days when a coin could fetch you something worthwhile. Now a beggar needs as many coins as he can get to buy anything to eat. socsbadge2016-17

I remember my growing up days when my eyes grew round and shone like new coins or should I say kobo’s in expectation of earning a coin from running errands for a number of uncles and aunties who sent us down to the neighbourhood store to buy an item for them.

That coin represented a yummy goody-goody chewy chocolate stick or a handful of Chat bonbons.

Unfortunately, as I grow older the value in coins also drops with age – except if it’s a gold coin – but I still love the jingle of coins and I guess my love for them has translated into my growing coin collection from different parts of the World.

I don’t collect them with the expectations that they will suddenly grow in value overnight – though that’s a possibility, who knows? The value I receive is more of the emotional and intrinsic value that most keepsakes give us.

Something else that I love to collect are words, in the form of books or as my own thoughts and to think of it, if I am to receive a coin for all the words that I string together I would have a storehouse filled with bags of coins, coincidentally, as a writer our words which happen to be in abundance don’t fetch as much coin as we would like.

To be a writer is a painstaking work borne out of love for words and I guess I just have to settle with coining words that enrich my soul and possibly others’ as well. After all said and done, words are priceless and do carry a lot of weight.

I had no idea where I was going with the prompt word ‘Coin’ for SoCS, I just followed my rambling train of thought. Thank you, Linda 🙂