Category: Fiction

Valentine’s Day Getaway

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Flash Fiction: Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge #359

Photo by Birgith Roosipuu. In the photos, there is a bouquet of pink roses laid on a white surface. Gathered around the roses are five pink heart-shaped macarons and a mug of coffee with steamed milk.

He doesn’t like to celebrate Valentine’s Day; says it’s too commercialized and filled with people gunning to purchase items they’ll never buy again until next year. I agree and don’t agree at the same time. I am not into the capitalist side of the holiday; I am into the romance side of it. I planned a trip away from home — just the two of us (he often likes to do group activities with our boys and a few of our lady friends, but not this time), at one of the most luxurious AirBnBs you’ll find on this side of Maine. We live in Auburn, and this place is in Sanford — not even a two-hour drive for us.

In Auburn, Gray enjoys fishing, attending the balloon festivals, and visiting various farmers’ markets, but I want to try something different. I’ve booked a lovely two-bedroom cottage, not too far from Mousam View Place (where I’ve made reservations for dinner and wine tasting). We’ll also dive into a pottery session, play golf at the Sanford Country Club (shout out to my Godbrother Chance for the day pass), and explore the nightlife Sanford has to offer during the final throes of Winter.

If I didn’t take matters into my own hands, we’d be basking in one another’s presence in front of the 55-inch Roku SmartTV yet again on Valentine’s night. And while I love looking at my honey, I yearn for more. Ooh, here he comes now.

“Hey, love. How was work?”

Gray looks defeated from a day that pummeled him simultaneously, yet as soon as he lays eyes on Terrence, his entire mood changes, and his body relaxes.

“You know, same shit, different day. Dan hit us with yet another project that’s due early next week, and I am over his need to impress the upper echelon. Dude has such a comfy position and has no earthly idea how hard it is to cram project after project into a timeline of completion. It’s like talking to a deer in headlights — he’s clueless.”

Terrence shifts his body and raises himself from their boneless, tan-colored couch to meet Gray’s gaze.

“Love… I am not making light of your current situation, but it’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and you’re off tomorrow, so I’ve booked a day trip to Sanford. Now, before you say ‘No,’ don’t. I am not trying to hear it. I have a list of things planned, and I know you will love at least three of them, so… pack a bag, baby. We are getting out of Auburn for four days.

“What do you mean? What have you gone and done, Terrence? Shiiiit, I need a getaway. And you know I don’t rock with Valentine’s Day like that, but this sounds more like a mini vacation than anything else, so… I’ll let it slide… This time.

Terrence squeals with excitement and claps his hands together enthusiastically. He glues his body against Gray’s and showers him with tiny kisses. As soon as he turns to dash to their bedroom to grab his bags, Gray speaks again.

“I don’t know, though, Ter. I got this project that I really need to focus on. If I don’t have the numbers crunched and a gameplan for launching a compatible AI platform for our company, this luxurious lifestyle we have grown accustomed to may take a nosedive.”

“Says who?! Gray, I make more than enough at the gallery to cover us until you find another job, which you would in absolutely no time. So… again, there will not be a ‘No’ to this. It’s already done.”

Silence coats the room, and the two of them busy themselves with last-minute packing, eager for the romantic getaway. Terrence is getting his way.

I knew that he would try to weasel out of this before we could even get into it, but I was not having it! We work too hard, he especially, to not enjoy the fruits of our labor. And I can’t wait to snuggle up next to him tonight after we are settled into the comforts of the cottage.

This Valentine’s Day weekend, I will give the love of my life, the love of his life.

This is my offering for this week’s Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge, #359. How creative can you be with this week’s theme?

Scattered Words: Hardcover $26.00 USD|Scattered Words: eBook $11.00 USD|Scattered Words: Amazon

Jade’s Arcade: Video Games at the Mall

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Flash Fiction: A Wayne Donald & Kinley Chris Adventure

Photo by Element5 Digital on Pexels. The image depicts a glowing, lit sign that reads “Arcade” hung above the entrance to a hallway. At the other end of the hall, we see a doorway leading to a room with different arcade games.

“I gots $5.75″ to spend at the arcade, Kinely Chris. That ain’t enough for four hours’ worth of playing video games. What you got?”

Wayne Donald yells to her big sister as she’s scraping change from her piggy bank for their impending trip to the mall to explore Jade’s Arcade. The girls do not get out often. With their grandmother being the town’s declared homebody, their Uncle Henry has access to them every few weeks and allows them a trip or two upon those visits.

“I have ten dollars. Now, lemme just say this… You know as well as I do that Uncle Henry ain’t gon’ give us more than $5.00 a piece when he comes, so I’ll go on and give you two of my ten dollars, so you’ll have $12.75 once he’s done handin’ out money. I’ll have ’bout a dollar more’n ya, so we can split that last dollar later, before we leave. That sound all right t’ya, Wayne Donald?”

Wayne Donald is shaking up her piggy bank, trying to see if any more coins are dangling from side to side. The empty echo of nothingness signals to her that she has nothing left to spare. She looks in Kinley Chris’s direction and nods her approval before speaking.

“Thanks, Kinley. I sure do appreciate that. I know which games I’m gon’ play, too! Mrs. Pac-Man, Frogger, Skee-Ball, and Air Hockey. And if Uncle Henry’ll put me on his shoulders, I’ll play basketball, too!”

“Ya ain’t skilled enough to play Frogger, and you always bouncin’ the balls into other lanes with Skee-Ball. Stick to what ya’know, and that’s Mrs. Pac-Man and Air Hockey.”

Silence fills the room, and the younger sister nods her head in agreement, and tilts it to the left—she’s trying to gauge whether or not she should just stick to what she knows. More than likely, she’s going to do what she wants anyway. She coughs into her cupped hands and rebuts.

“Kinley Chris, I do believe I’m gon’ play what I said I’m gon’ play. If I don’t try, how will I learn?”

“Y’know what, Wayne Donald?! Ya got me there. Ya got me.”

Uncle Henry pulls up to their grandmother’s castle-like home, parks his truck in the driveway, and honks the horn twice. The girls skate down the stairs, yell their goodbyes to their grandmother, and bolt through the front door.

“HEY, UNCLE HENRY!” They shout in unison.

“Hey, girls. So, Jade’s Arcade, right? Should be just a few tykes there by the time we get to town. Y’all buckle up for safety. And here’s ya money.”

He leans slightly over the front seat of his truck and hands the girls a $5.00 bill apiece—crispy bills, too. The girls look at each other with huge smiles, slapping their faces.

“THANKS, UNCLE HENRY!” The hum of the truck presses into the cool air of the late morning. Uncle Henry turns his radio to 94.5, and the lovely sounds of electric jazz fill the truck. A smile slaps his face, too, and before the girls can say anything else, he says tenderly…

“Y’all welcome.”

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V.

This concludes the adventures of Wayne Donald and Kinley Chris. Thank you for joining me on their memorable journey!

This flash fiction piece is my offering for this week’s Melissa’s Fandango Flash Fiction Challenge. It is week #357. When I saw the image, the girls sprang into action, and the story above is what came to me.

Perhaps, you’ve got a story brewing within you, too, for this week’s image offering?

Scattered Words: Poems for Jernee Timid Loadholt is available now! Have you gotten your copy? Hardcover|eBook

Guard Your Empathy

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A Book Review

The Cruelty by Candice Louisa Daquin. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

If I can be completely and utterly honest, there are probably about six books I can recall from my entire lifetime that have shaken me to the very core and left my mouth agape while I read them, and long after, when I think about them. The Cruelty by Candice Louisa Daquin has been added to that small collection.

As a debut novel, I expected more turns of phrase and moments of slipping into poetry, since this is the author’s main genre, and although there are bits of poetic cameos, this is definitely a novel through and through.

The gory and thoroughly brutal details are so vivid, I cringed during many chapters, and was forced to take my fair share of breaks to avoid sensory overload.

My patience and empathy were tested.

I wanted to fight, to jump into various scenes with guns a-blazing, to light the demon and his demon spawn on fire and watch them burn—anything to provide aid to the story’s protagonists, but they clearly did not need my help.

I got lost in every inch of every page of this book, and I know for a fact that other readers will, too.

Here is the review I shared on Amazon and Goodreads:

The “Cruelty” is an Understatement

I don’t think I’ve ever read something as emotionally stressful, yet incredibly engulfing and enveloping as “The Cruelty.” As her debut novel, Candice Louisa Daquin unleashes an undeniably sound writing style incorporating gore with poetically flowing imagery that managed to keep me glued to the storyline—afraid to look away, but also having to take a few breaks to be able to fully digest the content.

What both Camila and Julia endured surpasses True Crime and Unsolved Mystery episodes. And to come out on top and in love, with hopes of a flourishing future?! That is the Chef’s kiss I didn’t see coming.

I applaud the author for taking a chance on this novel and sharing its intense content. The bite of it is sharp and long-standing, and the characters are layered; feeling like family or the creepy neighbors of which one steers clear.

The way the novel ends signals there could be a sequel? And in all honesty, I am eager to see if that will come to fruition.

After taking a deep dive into a book that is so creatively woven to hit several genres of writing, I now wonder, what would top this?

Will Candice Louisa Daquin give us another piece of Camila’s puzzled life?

I surely hope so.

If you’re looking for a rape-revenge, intense survivor thriller, and a warranted cliffhanger, this should be your next read. You will need a solid stomach for gore, vulgarity, and vivid descriptions that fit extreme levels of mental, physical, and emotional abuse.

This page-turner will do more than enthrall you; it will change you forever.

Scattered Words: Poems for Jernee Timid Loadholt is available now! Have you gotten your copy? Hardcover|eBook

Helen, Lucy, and Quack

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Flash Fiction: A Wayne Donald and Kinley Chris Adventure

The image above is by Erwin Bosman on Pexels. It depicts three chickens perched on a branch. The chickens appear to ascend in height from left to right; the leftmost chicken being mostly brown, the one at center being mostly white, and the rightmost being mostly black.

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.”

Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

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.

Life In Photos #5

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Daily photographic musings

Jack Frost paid us a visit last week. The coldest day during that time was 13°, and it felt like 6°. This photo was NOT taken on that day. LOL. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
Sunday morning breakfast. Grits, cheesy scrambled eggs, and sausage links. Sunday, December 14, 2025. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
My little red Christmas Tree. Saturday, December 06, 2025. I forgot to share this photo collage last week, so here it is. DELAYED but not DENIED. LOL! Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
Zumi Tye consumed its fill of food and was heading back to its hidey hole in this photo. Sunday, December 14, 2025. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
Oh, nothing… I’d just washed my hair, and I was letting it dry under one of my favorite towels. Sunday, December 14, 2025. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
This lovely piece of art is situated perfectly near two of my neighbors’ apartments on our floor. I love walking past it. It’s such a unique piece to me. Sunday, December 14, 2025. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
A chilly Monday… I was dressed for the heavy winds that had been blowing outside over the past weekend. I knew to layer up before heading out to work. Monday, December 15, 2025. That was the last VERY COLD day before a warmer streak began on Tuesday night. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
You’ve seen this photo in the most recent post about Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction, but I took the photo earlier this week, so you get to see it here, too. LOL! Tuesday, December 16, 2025. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
Same with this one… Tuesday, December 16, 2025. Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt
My little home away from home: my cubicle space at work. Tuesday, December 16, 2025. Do you know which movie my Christmas shirt is referencing?! Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

I want to take this time to share two business ventures with you, both are from two close friends of mine, whom I love dearly. I am proud of them for stepping out into the world of creating, entrepreneurship, and testing the waters to get closer to fulfilling their dreams. I hope you will take the time to peruse their sites, become familiar with their initiatives, support, and/or purchase a few items wherever applicable.

I know I’ll be doing so soon. If you have no interest in either, please share the links with someone or a few people you believe would be interested. Thank you for your time.

Lyfer’s Choice (By SemsLyfe)
&
Clarity to Clients Collective

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.

3 copies of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction for $7.25

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For the first 3 commenters to email me… I’ve got YOUR copy for YOU.

Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction for YOU for the upcoming holidays. Fictional work by Tremaine L. Loadholt Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

Séduire is a collection of serial fiction tales and flash fiction standalone stories written over a period of three years.

Dive into the world of a little girl whose family uproots and moves to “The Deep South” because of a new opportunity presented to her father. Transport yourself to the life of a little girl who becomes a mother and a sister to her child at the hands of her sadistic and evil father. Walk with a grieving sister and her mother as they remember a woman who was brutally murdered by her partner. Her young boys live out her legacy as they mourn her.

Experience parenthood as you enter the world of soon-to-be young parents and their ups and downs in life change them significantly while they journey along their new path. Make a brief cameo into the hearts of a dedicated aunt and a rebellious teenage niece whose father has lost his grip on his child.

There are so many more characters with which to connect. As you thumb through each page, the author wants you to feel something; with these stories, you will.

3 copies of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction for $7.25!

Get your copy of Séduire at this special offer of $7.25 now!

You heard that right, beautiful people! I have three copies, and the price is $7.25. For the first three commenters/responders to email me at acorneredgurl@gmail.com, I’ve got a copy of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction for you. Not only will you receive an autographed copy, but you will also receive a Thank You card, and the items will be wrapped and shipped directly to you. Currently, only United States residents will be considered.

After I have received an email from three people with the intent to purchase Séduire for this holiday-focused discounted price, the comments to this post will be closed.

Last-minute Christmas shoppers, this is your chance to scoop up a thoughtful gift for the avid reader in your family. I’m side-eyeing you right now and pressing my right hand against my heart. Have you been thinking about purchasing Séduire, and just couldn’t dish out the $15.75 USD paperback or the $9.00 e-book USD price? Now’s your time to jump on a good deal while it’s here.

Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction for YOU for the upcoming holidays. Fictional work by Tremaine L. Loadholt Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

4 Reviews of Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction from verified purchasers:

Again, the first three responders to email me at acorneredgurl@gmail.com will receive a copy of Séduire for the holiday-focused discounted price of $7.25. I look forward to hearing from three of you soon.

Séduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction for YOU for the upcoming holidays. Fictional work by Tremaine L. Loadholt Photo Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt

Words cannot fully express my gratitude for every follower, reader, supporter, and writer in this community. All of you truly make WordPress what it is to me, and that’s home. Please know, making the above video for the express purpose of doing something different for Séduire was extremely nerve-racking for me. However, I am taking baby steps and coming out of my shell a little bit here and there. Thank you for being here for the unveiling.

If you happen to miss this post, and you still want to purchase a copy of Séduire, you can find the version that best suits you below…

Séduire: Paperback: LuLu|E-book: Lulu|Paperback only: Amazon