Have you gotten your copy of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction at Lulu in E-Book & Paperback versions, or Amazon in Paperback (only) yet?
I am on Substack as well. Poking the Bear’s Belly for Fun is a place of healing, as I discuss recent events related to my previous place of employment, including racism and discrimination, the growth I experienced after resigning from that company, and the foibles and overall experiences of life. I welcome your visit.
Wayne Donald stares outside their upstairs bedroom window. She is scratching the curly, messy knot of hair on her head while she huffs and breathes outwardly in exasperation.
“You gon’ tell Charlie ’bout them chickens of theirs cluckin’ about in the yard again, Kinley Chris, or do I have to put on my knickers and go on over there and do it myself?”
Wayne Donald is in rare form this morning. It is a raging hot Sunday in the depths of the South, and wandering chickens are the last things she wants to deal with the day before going back to school. The girls had been out for Christmas break, enjoying every moment of freedom their grandmother would allow, and now… the countdown to back-to-school has begun.
“Who out there?! Which ones? Some, I don’t mind. I put some chicken feed out near the fence yesterday morning—might be sopping that up.”
“Looks like Helen, Lucy, and Quack.” She squints her eyes to look closer outside of their upstairs bedroom window—zooming in with imaginary binoculars. “Yeah… that’s definitely Helen, Lucy, and Quack.”
Kinley Chris looks up from an adventurous book she had been reading, keenly stares at her younger sister, and nods in approval.
“Long as it’s not those other demon birds, I say, let them be. Charlie Rhett and ‘nem are at church anyway at this hour. It ain’t no need bangin’ on their door about some harmless chickens just cuz you don’t like the way they cluck.”
“They irritate me, Kinley Chris, and I just can’t take it. Why you gotta put that chicken feed out on Sunday mornings when I wanna sleep in?”
“Who are you to tell me where and when to put chicken feed, Wayne Donald? It’s late morning, and you shoulda been up about an hour ago anyway. Don’t get on my bad side before noon.”
Wayne Donald shuffles off to her bed, plops her flimsy body back down, tucks her face underneath the sheets, and fake-sobs. Through the sheets, she continues her argument with her big sister.
“I’m just sayin’… they cluck and squawk and make so much noise while they’re eatin’, Kinley Chris. How can you even read with all that racket walkin’ in through the window?”
“You were just up, Wayne Donald. You could’ve closed the window, silly. They aren’t that loud, and it’s too early to be complainin’. Get yourself a few more winks in, and I’ll go downstairs in a bit and fetch us some breakfast. If Helen, Lucy, or Quack laid some eggs, we’ll have us a mighty fine batch of eatin’.”
To this, Wayne Donald does not debate. She turns over, snuggles up into a ball, and closes her eyes. “Fifteen more minutes,” she says. “Fifteen more minutes.”
This piece is my offering for this week’s Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge, #353. I love it when these two sisters start speaking to me. When I saw the prompt roll out this past Monday, and those chickens staring back at me, I said, “Ha! Wayne Donald and Kinley Chris,” so here we are. Thank you so much for reading.
Have you gotten your copy of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction at Lulu in E-Book & Paperback versions, or Amazon in Paperback (only) yet?
I am on Substack as well. Poking the Bear’s Belly for Fun is a place of healing, as I discuss recent events related to my previous place of employment, including racism and discrimination, the growth I experienced after resigning from that company, and the foibles and overall experiences of life. I welcome your visit.
The lovely Melissa Lemay at Mom with a Blog and editor of Collaborature, invited me for an interview, to which I happily obliged. I appreciate her presence here on WordPress, her strength as a writer, and the outpouring of support she lends other creatives throughout the WordPress community, too. Below is a snippet of the interview:
Melissa Lemay: Hello, Tremaine! Thank you for joining us here at Collaborature today!
Tremaine L. Loadholt: Hey! Hey! Hey! You can just call me “Tre.” Tremaine is WAY too formal. LOL!
ML: Understood. It’s a bad habit.🙃 Will you tell us a little about when your writing journey began?
TL: Ah, okay. I began writing when I was nine years old. My mother’s oldest sister died from a crack cocaine overdose in an alley behind another user’s home in my hometown. I was particularly close to this aunt, and so was my mom. When she died, it’s like my mom lost a piece of her; therefore, I lost a piece of me. I wrote a poem to memorialize her death and celebrate her life, and that’s where it started.
ML: That is an incredible place to start. What are some things you enjoy writing about?
TL: Life, love, relationships (all forms), LGBTQ rights and appreciation, socioeconomic trials, systemic racism, hope, and peace.
ML: I know you have published at least one book. How many have you published? Will you tell us about them and what inspired you to write each?
TL: Okay, this is a meaty question, and I fear I will become verbose in answering it. I will do you one better. Here is the link to the books I have written and published (a total of five) via my website… Published Books. I am also sharing my Author Pages via Amazon and Goodreads. What inspired me to write each? Anytime I compile a body of work, I am moved to do so—compelled, really. I cannot describe what comes over me, but it always feels like the right time. I hope this makes sense.
ML: It makes perfect sense. Do you think it is imperative that we pass on writing and the arts to generations that come after us?
TL: I do. I spent about eight years mentoring young writers, helping them harness their craft, and showing them different forms/genres/methods for expressive writing. I also hosted writing prompts and placed a spotlight on them when featuring their work. This was a part of my “Young Minds of Medium” venture. To this day, I maintain a relationship with several of them, and I am overjoyed by how they have excelled.
ML: That is meaningful. Thank you for participating in that. What is something important that you have gained or learned as a result of writing?
TL: Patience. I have always been a patient person, but writing, especially editing and publishing, has given me a newfound understanding and appreciation for what it means to be patient. It does not matter how fast you want to get somewhere or do something, or accomplish your goals. If patience is not factored into your method of living, you very well may not succeed.
ML: Preach! Which do you enjoy more: poetry or flash fiction?
TL: Now, why’d you have to go and ask me this?! LOL! Poetry is my first love. If I want to find, become one with, learn more about, and understand… truly understand myself and everything around me, poetry is what I turn to. Fiction (be it flash, micro, short stories, etc.) is how I commune with my characters—how I become one with them. If I need to get their stories out, and I know poetry will not be sufficient, fiction is what I turn to. I love writing both forms of genres equally.
ML: If you could go anywhere in the world to write, where would you go and why?
TL: Anywhere in the world? Hmm. I’d have to say Tonga. I would love to immerse myself in the culture, learn the beauty of their connection to one another, experience Vitamin D the way it’s supposed to be experienced, and produce poetry and fiction for at least two more books. I would like to explore at least twenty of its 170 islands.
ML: Why stop at 20?! Who are some people who’ve inspired you on your writing journey? These can be fellow writers, people in your life who have inspired your writing, etc.
TL: My late cousin, Chrissy. I have written about her life and death so much that it is a part of my modus operandi. My now deceased dog, Jernee Timid. I cannot tell you how many poems or longform pieces I have written about her life as well as her death. She was a source of motivation for me. Renown writers: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Octavia Butler, June Jordan, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Mitch Albom, and Elizabeth Gilbert.
If you’re interested in reading the rest of the interview, you can do so by visiting Collaborature, and also (if you have time) read a few of the works shared by other talented writers, artists, and creatives throughout our blogosphere.
Have you gotten your copy of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction at Lulu in E-Book & Paperback versions, or Amazon in Paperback (only) yet?
I am on Substack as well. Poking the Bear’s Belly for Fun is a place of healing, as I discuss recent events related to my previous place of employment, including racism and discrimination, the growth I experienced after resigning from that company, and the foibles and overall experiences of life. I welcome your visit.
I admire writers who can turn words into endless quotable lists. Poetry is meant to be consumed at any given time, and every offering of jagged remnants of you is digestible at all hours of every day.
Barry Dawson Jr. IV, (BJ Dawson) is one such writer. He and I have collaborated on many pieces of poetry, meshing our words and methods together for a tad over twenty years.
I get him. He gets me. Our efforts have not been in vain, and if life favors us, we can expect more collaborative pieces in the future.
For now, please enjoy the review I have done for his second book of poetry, which is currently listed on Lulu and awaiting global distribution by other book retailers.
As a long-time collaborator and lover of wordplay, BJ Dawson did not disappoint with his second offering of poetry, “jagged remnants of you: This Chapbook Was Supposed To Be A Love Note.”
I knew when I cracked open this gem, I would find elements of Frost, Hughes, Plath, Shakespeare, and Baldwin. I also knew that I would feel the pulse of Run DMC, The Roots, Yasiin Bey, and KRS-One.
BJ has managed to lend the subject of love to us as its most undressed and wanted self. There is beauty in the ugliness of the word, whether it be stoic or in action.
Quotables are on nearly every page, and as a writer and reader of poetry, I could not contain my excitement while highlighting phrases and making notes in the margins.
This is an exceptional work of art; a masterpiece on love; the lack of it, attaining & loss of it, and the hope for it to one day show its face again wherever we may seek it, and I applaud BJ’s knowledge of love and how best to write about it.
Not only did he gift us poetry in various forms about a thing many of us have yet to grasp perfectly, but he ended the book on a brilliant note: “I am fresh out of spells and right now, I sure do miss you with a vicious numbness that just won’t let go.” Now if this isn’t a “flawless victory,” in the land of literary victors, I don’t know what is.”
It is one thing to read a person’s work, critique it, and bask in it because you know they are going to put their all into it and so much more, just as you would. It is entirely another when you read their work and get lost in it, and all you want to do is share it with others because it’s just that good.
BJ, my friend, take a damn bow. You truly deserve it.
Have you gotten your copy of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction at Lulu in E-Book & Paperback versions, or Amazon in Paperback (only) yet?
I am on Substack as well. Poking the Bear’s Belly for Fun is a place of healing, as I discuss recent events related to my previous place of employment, including racism and discrimination, the growth I experienced after resigning from that company, and the foibles and overall experiences of life. I welcome your visit.
One of my dearest friends, Poohbs, decided to send a gift for Zumi Tye along with the items I purchased from her website. When I opened the box housing the items that would now be new features in our home, this little buddy had been wrapped separately and packaged along with everything.
I have placed the new addition in Zumi Tye’s terrarium to see how Zumi takes to it, and well… So far, Zumi hasn’t really paid much attention to it. I’m sure Zuse probably senses that it’s a toy or not a living being, but I still want to see how Zuse reacts to its presence over the next few days.
Naming things is typically my claim to semi-fame, but I would appreciate some input from all of you. I have listed three potential names for Zumi’s new friend. Which of the three should this lovely beauty of a toy be saddled with?
I hope you’ve enjoyed the photo montage I’ve created of Zumi Tye and such a wonderfully colored toy sea turtle. I’ll update everyone after the new year on which name I have selected, taking into account the input from all of you in the comments.
If you’ve read/viewed my previous post, then you’ve seen this photo and even got a little blurb about the above book in the caption as well. However, this blog entry is its formal review of it. Deanne (Dee) Dennis is an up-and-coming writer whom I follow on Substack. She is one to keep an eye on, seriously. I enjoy her bubbly spirit, enticing words, and drive to grow and learn more about the woman she is becoming.
Below is the review I posted for Big Fat Juicy Heart on Amazon and Goodreads:
The title is appealing, and so is the book!
I was intrigued by the title, and even more ecstatic to read the words within the cover. I began reading the poetry of Deanne Dennis by way of Substack.
Poetry is my first love, so naturally, I gravitated toward her offerings. I am happy I did, and as a subscriber, I have remained.
Big Fat Juicy Heart is short, sweet, poignant, truthful, and luring in all the right ways. The writer gives the reader just enough poetry to know her capabilities, but does not completely fill the cup or surge into an overflow.
Every poem is strategically placed, flows well, and builds a strong tower all on its own.
I would have loved to see a few more pieces about self love and familial love because these two subtopics regarding love are near and dear to me.
However, for her debut poetry book, Deanne Dennis soared high above what many have been able to do with verse, and I look forward to reading more of her work.
There’s just something about poetry that makes you want to write poetry, and this book… well, this book reminds me how good it feels to be poetic. You can find Big Fat Juicy Heart on Amazon in Kindle ($4.99) and Paperback ($9.99) formats.
Have you gotten your copy of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction at Lulu in E-Book & Paperback versions, or Amazon in Paperback (only) yet?
I am on Substack as well. Poking the Bear’s Belly for Fun is a place of healing, as I discuss recent events related to my previous place of employment, including racism and discrimination, the growth I experienced after resigning from that company, and the foibles and overall experiences of life. I welcome your visit.
A Cornered Gurl 
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