Featured, Once upon a time entries
Tiffany Monique uses Hash
tags
Literati!
Our own Tiffany Monique has entered our contest, Once upon a Time, but to what end? She is ineligible to win the money and she has already won the love and respect of the staff and readership. These are unanswered questions…O!… Wait!
UNTITLED STORIES and UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
by Tiffany Monique
If my life were a Twitter account, the first ten years would have hashtags– #uglydivorce, #singleparent, #dysfunctional, #black, #abandonment, #VietNam, #siblingrivalry, #movingagain, #TheLastUnicorn, #TheColorPurple, #sing, #draw, #perform, #arts…
I run away to my imagination. Have since the 3rd grade when Mom and Dad told us about the divorce. In my mind sometimes, I would be the same person, only I would have the gift of appropriately measured prophecy, which I would always use in moderation, and never for stock tips. I’d be the black version of every powerful princess, empress or creature that I’ve read about, and I’ve been a reader my whole life.
I also have this extremely pragmatic side, anal-organization and need for order because my life felt so out of control for so long. Reality used to be a friend of mine, but we are on speaking terms now. It helps me cope with some of my weirder idiosyncrasies.
#etcetera
To this day, I don’t get my Dad, and he doesn’t get me, but our relationship is better than ever, considering. My Mom and I have a love-hate thing going, and it’s no one’s fault. We try every day, and we have fruit from those seeds, but the ground is, shall we say, awkward. Mom blames Dad for making her an unnecessary single parent. My Dad, well, all I know is what my Mom told me, up until recently.
Not all that different from any other after school special.
It sounds so melodramatic. But really it’s just my life. I sit down with this thing every morning over coffee. Only now there’s a guy who wants to sit down with me, and I have these words inside of me, dying to come out like some kind of preemptive apology for our marriage being harder than normal.
Here the frick I am in the middle of planning my wedding, wondering what I should do to learn more. I mean, it is a part of my dowry whether I want it or not, this new hashtag, that came about while I was busy looking for a new job and a ceremony venue.
#PTSD
Maybe I’m only telling my story for me.
Maybe I’m writing a letter to my future husband, or better yet, my unborn kids. I didn’t know then about what could very well be the linchpin to my whole life. Or maybe it’s just another bad variable in a doomed marriage from which I am spawn. In either case, I learned that my Dad came home with something from the war. He avoided it, like he did a lot of things— with a stony visage and conversations about the weather and grilled hamburgers. I spoke to my Dad about his time in Viet Nam last month, which he (to this day) never brings up. He says he came back normal. Mom’s journal and my older brother say otherwise.
They say you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. They say those who don’t learn from their past are destined to repeat it.
What am I supposed to know?
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You can reach Tiffany at tiffany@awordwithyoupress.com or at her own websites if you would to hash out some ideas for the website, or visit her here:
Tiffany is our princess, soon to be wed. Our own Princess bride!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VYgcrny2hRs
“Untitled Stories and Unanswered Questions” by Tiffany Monique in a hash tag…#personalbrilliance . I believe the most precious moments of life happen with the inner vulnerabilities of an intimacy born of real life joys and sorrows, pride and regrets and yes, o, yes the telling of our life stories with all the questions we plead to understand. Tiffany, for those of you who have never had the priviledge to meet her as I have, is genuine, honest, blunt and has a timing for poetry which hopefully she will share on another occasion.
I also am an admirer of people who offer us possible reasons for how their lives have been played out without insisting they know for sure, because we never really do. Given the keynote of Mr. Rivera’s work within this contest and beyond, the subject of PTSD is extremely germane.
Thank you Tiffany for both this excellent Prologue and your work with A Word With You Press. It is an honor to know you and read your words.
Parisianne, in a perfect world my story would have a whole bunch more fairy tale characters but suffice it to say I am the weirdest thing in my own imagination, and I thank you for listening to reading an engaging all of my writings and poetry.
For the record, this story is for Fred, and because of Fred. I submit for the commentary from my peeps at A Word with You Press. I wish to improve.
If we are honest Tiffany which I believe you to be, we arrive at writing groups to get blunt suggestions and A Word With You Press to improve by being treated to masterfully written stories with kinder critique. When one reads true genius of the written word it is humbling and inspiring in the sense of knowing that there is a pantheon to reach for. I find that I learn more from the greats of the pen rather than those of equal or lesser ability than the level I have reached, but am unsatisfied with. Still, there are amazing reads within these contests and grand fun to be allowed to participate in them.
You grabbed me with the first paragraph re the hashtags, then injected another halfway through with such finesse. In your first hashtags, you tell the reader who you are and what roles you identify with in a line or two…Other authors may take chapters to get there. In your PTSD hashtag, you explain your current life question and prime the reader to take up the novel. We somehow know you will rise above that hashtag and prevail, breaking the bonds of history/legacy and forging a new, brighter path in your marriage. Great job!
I appreciate what you are saying and it helps to know that you got involved.
You are so worth the wait.
I was pissed cause the damn thing came to an end. If the chief doesn’t pick this to go forward, you have got to tell me where, how, whatever it takes for me to get my greedy little hands on it to read. Jest to say you raised the bar.
I thank you. I was wondering if I had presented my newfound journey appropriately. I’ll keep working on it.
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site
before but after checking through some of
the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!
Here is my webpage :: look what I found
Everybody out of the pool. This has a brilliant flash, muted sunlight on black water, and the narrator’s voice is so tight with all that it carries about, all those pale, yellow-toothed memories that cannot be put down, because without them, there would only be the icey hole of realization that there will never be any real justice for all that pain.
Great hook, superb trigger flashes, and anyone who has ever dealt with such black pools of pain, so mesmerizing in that vague sunshine, will likely want to dive in.
Excellent start.
Fond regards,
Shawna