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Kelly I. Hitchcock Posts

Six Sentence Sunday 8/19/2012

Published by Kelly on August 19, 2012

Welcome back to my 6-sentence snippet series from my book, Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook. Over the next 8 weeks, I will be sharing with you snippet from each chapter. (Click here to see last week’s snippet)

Today we meet Hallie, a young single mom finishing up her tech school degree so she can move herself and her son out of their Section 8 apartment and she can retouch the tattoo she got in her juvenile delinquent days.

Years ago, Hallie had gotten the tattoo in the kitchen of a friend of a friend who ran with her old crowd, back when looking tough meant something to her. It was supposed to be an artistic rendition of her initials, a drawing she’d done as a kid, but the friend of a friend who’d done the tattoo had been so messed up at the time the tattoo had come out lopsided and jagged, and Hallie had been too messed up to notice. It looked like shit; it really did. She kept telling herself that when she got it all turned around, she’d get it redone and smoothed out. It wasn’t exactly an option when you weighed it against gas money to drive your child to his Grandma’s and yourself to school so you could finally get things turned around. She didn’t need a tattoo to tell her she was tough now; she had the toughest job on the planet already.

That’s all for today! Be sure to check out some of the other talented people over at www.SixSunday.com, and come back to visit next week!

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Audiobooking ninja!

Published by Kelly on August 13, 2012

I’ll be the first to admit that I am so far behind the curve with the audiobook craze it’s semi-sad. I always said I didn’t think I could get into audiobooks even though people like my mom were into it. I recently figured out that the iPod Touch my wonderful boyfriend got me is perfect for ear-reading.

The first book I ever tried to read via audiobook was Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. It was for a summer class, and I had a really hard time getting into the book, so I thought I could help myself out by getting the audiobooks from the library to follow along with. Even then, cassettes were a dinosaur means of listening to anything, so I unfairly judged all audiobooks based on a book that was not for me on a medium that no one used anymore. (That was the only class I ever dropped.)

Ten or so years later, I realized that audiobooks were available in a digital format, available on Overdrive from my library (since I am not a bjillionaire who can afford the ridiculous price tag publishers put on audiobooks), and amazing for specific activities, and way better than simultaneously reading and ear-reading.

  • RUNNING: I wish I’d discovered audiobooks back when I was training for my marathon. Now that I live in Texas, running outdoors doesn’t happen all that often, and audiobooks are what keep me sane running on the boring old treadmill.
  • WEIGHTLIFTING: Yep, this is my favorite activity of all time ever. Yes, I am being sarcastic, but it’s an important part of the ole regimen, and listening to an audiobook is a great way to lose count of reps. Not really.
  • SEWING: It’s one of the primary ways I distract myself when I should really be writing, but adding audiobook listening to the mix does at least make me feel a little more productive.
  • PUTTING AWAY LAUNDRY: It might be my least favorite activity of all activities, but I don’t want to delegate it in the event that the clothes don’t get put away in the right place. Dammit, dog, why won’t you pay the same kind of attention to *clean* underwear? Sorry – TMI. My point, audiobooks make it more tolerable.
  • VACUUMING: Yes, you could listen to the buzz of the vacuum, but an audiobook is much nicer.

Not-so-great activities: riding the bus. You’d think it’d work, but it’s a surprisingly crappy experience.

I felt the same kind of ambivalence before I got into e-books, but when I took up e-books, I began reading 2-3 times the amount I did with paperbacks. Now that I’ve added audiobooks to my repertoire, it’s more like 3-4 times what I was reading before. I’ve read 49 books this year, and I feel like a multi-tasking ninja!

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Six Sentence Sunday 8/12/2012

Published by Kelly on August 12, 2012

Welcome back to my 6-sentence snippet series from my book, Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook. Over the next 9 weeks, I will be sharing with you snippet from each chapter. (Click here to see last week’s snippet)

Today we meet Jody, a woman with three kids who’s putting herself through nursing school so she can leave her husband. In this scene, she reflects on the foot tattoo she got for good luck.

Jody rubbed her temples, knowing this would be the most peaceful moment she’d likely experience that day.  They were right in the middle of clinical rotations, eight hours of nonstop chasing after the floor nurses, asking as many questions as you could and trying to keep up.  Her floor nurse was just over five feet tall and weighed over 200 pounds but was harder to keep up with than all three of her spastic children combined.

But, she figured, it came with the territory of being part of a degree program that had “accelerated” at the beginning of the name.  She needed accelerated; she’d already wasted seven years getting a mostly useless Bachelor’s degree in history, in which time she’d managed to punch out three kids and marry a husband who was about as useless as her degree.

It was why she’d gotten the golden koi tattooed on her right foot when she found out she’d been accepted to the program.

That’s all for today! Be sure to check out some of the other talented people over at www.SixSunday.com, and come back to visit next week!

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Six Sentence Sunday 8/5/2012

Published by Kelly on August 5, 2012

Welcome back to my 6-sentence snippet series from my book, Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook. Over the next 10 weeks, I will be sharing with you snippet from each chapter. (Click here to see last week’s snippet)

Today we meet Beth, a woman who got a tattoo on her honeymoon ten years ago after marrying her husband with cystic fibrosis. As she celebrates her tenth anniversary, she reflects on the permanence of the tattoo.

Charlie sat up to cough, bracing himself with his left arm. Beth’s throat tightened; she could barely even see one year into the future, let alone ten. The tattoo was already starting to fade, the once-black vine now a dark, drab olive green. Why did they always turn greenish instead of fading to gray? Still, if it faded to green, it would only make the rose vine look healthier, more alive, and the edges of the red petals would have the hint of pink they always got when they were at their fullest bloom.

Maybe she’d keep the tattoo after all.

That’s all for today! Be sure to check out some of the other talented people over at www.SixSunday.com, and come back to visit next week!

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Library Bookspotting for July

Published by Kelly on July 30, 2012

As many of you know, I volunteer once a week at my local branch public library. While I would never dream of bashing another author for his or her efforts (yes, even Stephenie Meyer), I often come across books that make me giggle (A Look At Uranus) or just say double-you-tee-eff a few times. Because many of these are just too good not to share, I’ve decided to make this a monthly feature on the site called “Library Bookspotting”. Are you looking for an RSS feed icon? It’s over there —>

I’ll also be live-tweeting a book each week while I’m at the library if you want to watch me on the Twitterz. For now, I’ll just share all the ones I have snapped pics of so far.

Oh yeah, did I mention I am in Texas? Of  course I am, because there is no way this book could exist anywhere but in Texas. For those of you who don’t know, Colt McCoy was the quarterback for the University of Texas, and is a regular folk hero here in Austin. The premise of the book was about Colt’s upbringing on a farm in rural Texas with an evangelical Christian family that worshipped football (as most of Texas does), just in case you couldn’t tell that from the ridiculous cover.

I’ve been curious about the images O’Reilly uses on the cover of their technology books for a long time. A book on XSLT with a horned owl on the cover? I suppose it makes about as much sense as anything else. But this one? Just how does an Olde West-inspired heist, complete with firearms, represent Open Source and Free Software Licensing? Are they implying the software is highway robbery? How could they? It’s free!?

Yes, this is a graphic novel (a young adult graphic novel, I might add) called “Night Head.” Now yeah, I’m sure that this didn’t originate in the US, but you’d think someone would take a second look at the title to make sure it means what you think it means. And definitely before putting in the young adult section of a public library. Yikes.

This is a children’s non-fiction whose sole purpose, I believe, is to train crazy cat ladies from a very young age. For the record, I am a dog person, and I would never tell my dog a riddle because she is too dumb to even understand the difference between food and dirty gym socks most days.

For some reason, mystery books (especially those in a series) have the cheesiest titles I’ve ever seen. For the record, cahoots is one of my favorite words, but even for this feline-themed mystery series, this title is REALLY reaching.

You can find all these books at your local library, but you don’t have to take MY word for it…

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Six Sentence Sunday 7/29/2012

Published by Kelly on July 29, 2012

Welcome back to my 6-sentence snippet series from my book, Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook. Over the next 11 weeks, I will be sharing with you snippet from each chapter. (Click here to see last week’s snippet)

Today we meet Lacey, a woman who’s struggled for 4 years to sell the house that she owned with her ex-husband, the last symbol of her old life. She always said when she sold the house, she’d cover up the tattoo she got the day after she got married.

She’d always said she’d treat herself to a Betsey Johnson swimsuit when the house sold, but they’d announced a month ago that they were going out of business. By the time the house sold, she wouldn’t have a chance. Oh well, it made a better early birthday present anyway, Lacey thought to herself, admiring the suit as she relaxed on the chaise. But the tattoo – she couldn’t really cheat with the tattoo. If she covered it up now, it would only remind her that those last ties still weren’t severed. For the millionth time, she pushed a familiar thought from her head… that it would never be over...

That’s all for today! Be sure to check out some of the other talented people over at www.SixSunday.com, and come back to visit next week!

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Six Sentence Sunday 7/22/2012

Published by Kelly on July 22, 2012

I have not fallen off the Six Sentence Sunday planet, I promise. Actually, I have been spending pretty much every spare minute editing the hell out of my new novel, Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook. Over the next 12 weeks, I will be sharing with you a 6-sentence snippet from this book, starting today.

Today we meet Jenna, a college girl getting her first tattoo with her sister and her father, the two closest people in her life. She has a complicated and tense relationship with her mother, who kicked her out of the house when she was growing up.

Jenna turned the corner to the narrow hallway that led to the house’s single bathroom at the end of it, walking by a large tin type photo they’d taken at Silver Dollar City for Jenna’s twelfth birthday.  They’d dressed them all up in olde tyme outfits, her father almost a spitting image of Jed Clampett.  Jenna sat on his knee in a bonnet and pigtails, the frilly frock they’d dressed her in gathered in a big pile of ruffles that fell well below her short legs.  Laura wore what looked like a christening gown even though she was nine years old, smiling softly under her bright white lace bonnet, her hand resting on the shoulder of their mother, the one Jenna struggled to call “Mom”.  In the photo, she looked tired, probably from chasing two high-energy girls who constantly caused trouble when they were together around a theme park all day.

Jenna was a spitting image of her mother, especially in this photo, but the similarities ended there.

That’s all for today! Be sure to check out some of the other talented people over at www.SixSunday.com, and come back to visit next week!

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The Versatile Blogger Award – Thanks!

Published by Kelly on July 16, 2012

Versatile Blogger AwardThanks to my lovely author pal Denise DeSio for nominating me for this award. According to the rules, I must now tell you 7 things about myself:

  1. I’ve just finished writing and editing my second novel-length work, a collection of short stories about women and their tattoos. It’s called Portrait of Woman in Ink: A Tattoo Storybook.
  2. My first book, The Redheaded Stepchild, is a self-published collection of disjointed short stories about Cady, a young woman dealing with the presence of a difficult stepmother. No zombies or vampires.
  3. The Redheaded Stepchild has been chosen as a semi-finalist in Literary Fiction by 2012 Kindle Book Reviews. Finalists will be chosen on September 1, 2012 and winners will be chosen on October 1, 2012.
  4. I finally, after four years, sold the house I owned with my ex. Stupid recession.
  5. I love all kinds of cheese, especially provel, which is apparently not a substance recognized by the state of Texas. Case in point: favorite meal = grilled cheese and tomato soup. Also not Texas appropriate, especially in July.
  6. I am a ridiculously skilled seamstress. Why buy a new summer wardrobe when you can be a glutton for punishment like myself, spend hours making it yourself, and spend just as much money?
  7. I’m a total geek. I drool at HTML5, can write specialized subsets of XML, and I love Battlestar Galactica.

I’d like to nominate the following people for this award:

Congratulations! If I didn’t send you the award by email, please feel free to grab the award image and post it on your site, and don’t forget to pass it on.

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