Unlocking My Love Part 3

Welcome back, readers. If you have been following this little three-parter I have created, you know about my first written story and how I strayed from the writer’s path during high school. However, if this is your first time reading this short jaunt down memory lane, I shall direct you to where you can visit previous installments. You can read, or revisit, those crucial points in my writing journey here: Part 1 and Part 2. Would I consider those my first writing piece is a matter of perspectives? Sure, both were written in the form of freelance, but the title of my first official story for eyes beyond my own goes to a piece I wrote for a writing contest.

After many years of blogging (you can visit my most recent blog site: WordPress), I came across NYC Midnight while scrolling instagram. It was a flash fiction writing contest. If you travel the literary circle like I do, I am pretty sure you may have heard about it. At the time, NYC Midnight was hosting a flash fiction writing competition and I decided I would enter. It would be my first experience sharing my fictional work with others, and I was very nervous about doing it.

For those who are unfamiliar with NYC Midnight, their flash fiction competition is unique because every entrant is sent a random genre, setting, and object. Each writer must write in the assigned genre using the setting and incorporating the random object. It must be an object, not an item that has the name of the object written on it. For me, I was assigned a ghost story, a boardwalk, and a cowboy hat. Prior to this competition, I had never written a ghost story, nor had I ever considered creating a piece in the genre. It was a challenge to say the least. Yet, I still wrote a piece.

After I finished writing the piece, I submitted it with the intent of losing. I was proud of my piece because I enjoyed writing it. You can imagine how I felt two months later when I learned I had placed in the top 15. While the feedback for the piece centered more around grammatical errors, the story itself was well-written. It was enough to rekindle the flame I had for writing when I was in High school.

Since the contest, I have entered many more writing competitions. I still have not won a single one, but what I have done is become more consistent with my practice. After creating an account here on Vocal, I have made Top Story a few times, even for a ghost story I wrote: Last Weekend at Home. I also discovered I enjoy writing ghost stories more than I thought I would (thank you Vocal), which encouraged me to use all my stories to publish a book on Amazon titled After Life. Additionally, I started writing a realistic fiction series on Vella titled: Diary as a Single Woman.

It was a long journey to rediscovering my love for writing and unlocking the passion I put away many years ago. I am planning to continue down this path and look forward to the day when I can make creating short stories, novels, series, and more a career.

Here is an excerpt of my story: **Hauntingly in Love**, which is in my first book **After Life**:

The boardwalk has always been empty at night since the evening of the dangerous swell. According to rumors, it was haunted, but no one had yet confirmed it. Seth, a young man in his twenties wearing a Stetson, was determined to brave the evening and uncover the truth behind what many had claimed. He walked down the boardwalk to a bench, sat down and observed the sun kissing the horizon with a full moon gazing down upon him.

A slight warm breeze touched his cheeks. “Nice hat,” a gentle female voice announced from behind. Strangely, he was not startled and turned to face a beautiful young woman. Though he was confused about how she appeared out of nowhere, he felt a connection to her from deep in his memory.

“Why, thank you, Ma’am,” he replied politely in his best imitation western accent while simultaneously tipping his cowboy hat and standing up.

She smiled and curtsied.

“It’s a Stetson,” he added aloofly, “Stetsons are cool.”

She giggled childishly.

“I’ve seen you here before,” she announced quietly. “You always wear that cute cow-, er, I mean, Stetson.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Wait, what? What do you mean, you’ve seen me here before?” He had never been to the boardwalk. “This is my first time ever coming here.”

“Really,” she cocked her head in surprise, “well, you know, it’s rumored that this is a haunted boardwalk.”

“I know. That’s why I came. I’m fixin’ to find a ghost,” Seth returned to being a Western film actor.

“They say the ghost stares at the sunset every time there’s a full moon,” she smiled, warming his heart with a hint of familiarity.

You can read the story in the book. It will be the first story. I have also provided links to the book, episode, and other parts in this piece.