Fiction Review: Mannequin – Short Story

Every little girl dreams that their Dad is larger than life, bigger than who they are, but for Lynne, whose father is your work-a-day geek who wants to be more than what he is, the department store mannequin (nicknamed “Ken” ) becomes her dream Dad until a certain musician makes an appearance and drives home that it’s not always the clothes that make the man, it’s who he is on the inside that makes him.

Lynne, who goes with her father to shop for clothes at Elite Threads, spends her time there daydreaming about the mannequin in the window being her father – and being everything he isn’t while he’s trying to earn a living for her and her family.

Trying on one hideous combination that should stay on the mannequin, her reverie is interrupted by a charismatic stranger and his purple shirt. A purple shirt that changes everything.

Mannequin really stirs the heart in bringing you into Lynne’s world. Susan does a wonderful job of intelligently bringing across that spark of childhood that most of us have left behind, and the dreams that maybe our Dads were what we dreamed that they were.  Mannequin was a story that came into my life at the right point  – I was very down when I nabbed it during @westofmars’ sale, and a few minutes later I was smiling. Any story that can do that, well, is magic.

Grab it now at Smashwords!

Happy Holidays

May your holiday season be blessed no matter what you celebrate.

Lego Deathstar

I just had to share this – done by a friend of mine and her son, as it’s awesome beyond words for this geek:

Identity Crisis? Nah.

Today I sat down and went through the usual rote things I do while writing. It struck me, that this blog is a bit too unfocused, so starting in the new year, you’ll see a bit more focus on what I write.

Image via Wikipedia

What do I write?

I write about two things – hacking (computers) and music. Those two are my literary coathook and I write them well, thank you very much. They interest me, they have a part in my life (in some ways) and they’re what comes to me in the time when ideas come to us all.

That’s not to say that the humour will be gone. God no. If I lost my sense of humour, I might as well be dead.

This, this is just part of my self revitalization.

Revitalize

I find myself staring down the barrel of a new job, and with that excitement comes the revitalization of a few storylines that I’ve had to put aside due to lack of interest – my own, that is.

Image via Wikipedia

I also find myself being able to write long bits at a go, and not splitting my attention into other things, the story is keeping my interest, which means that it will likely keep my reader’s interest.

I truly feel that I’ve been revitalized, that things have changed for the better. That I’ve moved on from who I used to be, to another step of becoming who I am.