Follow Fest - 2014!

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This is my first time participating in Melissa Maygrove's Follow Fest Blog Hop, and all of us here at The Shellshank Redemption are excited about having folks visit us. (The tortoises are even happier to let me go out and do all the blog hopping - even though they have four legs, they're pretty short ones.)

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

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Name: Madeline Mora-Summonte

Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction

What genres do you write? Contemporary, dark contemporary, horror

Are you published? Yes. My most recently published stories are listed on my blog's sidebar, and my flash fiction collection, The People We Used to Be, is available as an ebook on Amazon. 

Tell us a little about yourself: I am a writer, a reader, a beach-comber and a tortoise-owner. And as big a fan as I am of AMC's The Walking Dead, I still have zero chance of surviving the zombie apocalypse. I'm so slow the tortoises can - and will - outrun me. 

What are you reading right now? An ARC of Christopher Scotton's The Secret Wisdom of the Earth. And I just finished the fantastic young adult novel, Girls Like Us, by Gail Giles. 

Which authors influenced you the most? Stephen King  

Where can people connect with you?

The Shellshank Redemption

Goodreads Author Page

Amazon Author Page

Dream Destination Blog Hop: Ciao!

Come join the fun! 

Visit Julie and Lexa to learn more 

and enter to win lots of prizes!

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When I was younger, I wanted to travel everywhere. Now, not so much. I think it's because overall I'm happy where I live and I enjoy my life. But there is one place I would - and will! - return to again and again….

ITALY!

My husband and I went to Florence years ago and just loved it - the food, the history, the art, the people. We ate fresh strawberries drizzled with balsamic vinegar, saw the leaning tower at Pisa, visited a museum in the town of Vinci where you-know-who was from. Wherever we looked, we saw paintings and sculptures come alive from the slides of those old art history courses we took in school. Every time I turned around, I saw another older couple - stooped, arm-in-arm, she with purse in hand, him wearing a dapper hat, on their way to Mass - that reminded me of my paternal grandparents. 

Some day, my husband and I will go back to Florence. We'll explore small Italian towns, we'll roam the countryside, we'll soak it all in. And who knows? Maybe one day, my husband and I will look just like one of those little old couples, and we'll become a small piece of someone else's memory, a small piece of Italian history….   

Motivational Monday/And a Blog Hop!

Q: IF YOU HAVE ONE PIECE OF SUCCINCT ADVICE TO GIVE TO AN ASPIRING AUTHOR, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

A: READ EVERYTHING YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON, THEN ANSWER BACK

(10Q with Joshilyn Jackson, Faster than Kudzu blog)

As readers, we're continuing a conversation started by another author and their story. We're listening, absorbing, responding in some way, whether it's laughing or crying or sending an email letting the author know we did a little of both.

As writers, we're starting a new conversation, using our words, our stories. And if we're very lucky - as I am - a reader, maybe more than one, will hear us.

To say I am thankful for my readers would be an understatement. Some of you I know in the "real world" and some I know through the "blog world" and some I don't know at all and probably never will but without all of you, there is no conversation. Without you, the words I speak out loud, the ones I try to put in the best and strongest order, the ones that rattle around my quiet office, have no need to land, either on screen or on paper. Without all of you, my stories are shackled to the page, the ink pinning them instead of only tethering them and letting them float up, an offering.

As a reader, I am thankful for the writers. As a writer, I am thankful for you all, the readers. Let's keep these conversation going strong...and maybe start some new ones.

What writers and readers are you all thankful for? Give a shout out in the comments if you'd like.

(And thanks to Tara and Vikki for running this Blog Hop. Check out more participants' posts here.)