THE WRITER'S VIEW: COURTNEY RENE

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The View Outside My Windows
By
Courtney Rene

I am an outside, sunshine, baby. I love the sun. I don’t mean that I somewhat enjoy it, I mean I L O V E it. I am that sad little shell of a human being in the winter, when snow covers the ground, and the world is gray and icky for days on end. I hate with a capital ‘H” hate nothing more than being cooped up inside when the sun is out and shining and warm. But sometimes there are deadlines, and revisions to be made, and stories to complete, and research that just has to be done, so I have to stay inside and actually do work. Uck.

I don’t have an actual office at home. I have a dining room table or a bed or a counter or just a plain ole lap, but not a real live office. So this past weekend, when I was sprawled out on the bed trying to get work done, the continuous thwack, thwack, thwack, that beat against my ears, pulled me to the window. I gazed outside to see, this:

There you have my sweet Seren. She is my dancer. The girl lives, eats, and breathes dance, so it is always entertaining to see her in the spring when the softball bug bites her in the…behind. She spends every free moment that she can con…finagle…beg someone to toss a ball her way so she can practice. Usually it’s me. See the yellowed dying grass at her feet? This is her softball spot, can you tell? The sight of her swinging away made me feel so sad, as I wanted to be the one tossing yellow softballs at her. I quietly closed the curtains, picked up my computer and sulked from the bedroom to the dining room, and got slowly back to work.

I made small progress. Well until my oldest daughter, Sidney, interrupted me to say she needed to run an errand. She’s been driving almost a year at this point, so this doesn’t really affect me all that much in general. I get up and give her the mama speech: Be careful, you’re in no hurry, text me when you get there but not while you are driving, etc. etc. etc. I stand in the mudroom and watch out the window.

I see this view more and more often lately. My baby is no longer a baby. She is always driving away. If not to work or school, then she is off to the mall or out with friends. I miss her.

Again I try to head back to my computer, and to my work, but I am sadly no longer in the mood to write anything. I look outside the front window. The squirrels are out. The bluebirds are fighting over the dropped corn I set out. The little lady down the street is walking her beagle and all I want to do is go here:

I give up writing for the day. Instead, I grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the outside world that is my yard. I don’t want to watch out my windows; I want to be out there living in it.

About the Author:

Courtney Rene lives in Ohio with her husband and two children. She is a graduate and member of the Institute of Children’s Literature. Her writings include magazine articles, short fiction stories, several anthologies, and her Shadow Dancer series, published through Rogue Phoenix Press. For a complete listing, visit http://www.ctnyrene.blogspot.com. Feel free to contact her at ctnyrene@aol.com

Find Courtney online at:

www.ctnyrene.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/#!/Ctnyrene
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shadow-Dancer/164433473646449
http://twitter.com/#!/ctnyrene

Sweet Sixteen is supposed to be a turning point in your life. The world is before you in all its glory, just waiting for you to reach out and grab it. Right? For Abigail Staton, no. Not so much. Not only does she suddenly lose her best friend due to a fight, but out of the blue her mother expects her to believe that the father she has never met, is actually a werewolf. With that revelation, Abby is thrust into the world of two wolf clans who are not only fighting each other, but also fighting for Abby, one of the few females born to the shape-shifters. Her father is determined to pair Abby up with Derek, a very dominant and overwhelming shifter. Abby vehemently balks at this union to disastrous results. When war is declared between the two clans, Abby has to decide what side she is actually on.