Shawn McPike - The Official Website of the Author and Novelist [Blog]

November 03, 2009

Last Fragment is Alive...

Well, now I must certainly get my act in order and begin updating my blog on a regular basis. If you don't Follow me on Twitter, I would encourage you to do so. Between facebook, Twitter and this Blog - it's a lot to keep updated. Especially as I work as Lead Social Media Strategist for AT&T dealing with ATTCustomerCare and helping us reach out to our customers through this exciting medium.

For those of you who know me, you know I've been out here in various shapes, forms and sizes for a while now. From the glory days of logging on via Prodigy and then AOL, to today where I report my (almost) every move to FourSquare.

Anyway, on to more selfish, self-promotional matters. I am officially published as of today. Well, actually last night. My first short story, part of Unearthed: An Anthology of Suspense is called Last Fragment. There is an excerpt on the site. I love feedback, as God knows I am no Hemingway nor do I have any six-toed cats. I do have a puppy who can't seem to learn to potty outside, though. Not sure that's very marketable.

So please check it out at Midnight Showcase Fiction or Lulu. A couple of weeks and it should be on Fictionwise as well.

Next up, Silent Treatment in May of 2010 and True Calling in ??? Well I just got my final rejection from Zoetrope's All-Story, so I need to send the manuscript back out to somewhere new. Any ideas? [Shameless self-promotion comes to an end]. Now to update my site.

Have a great Tuesday. I know I will.

Technorati Tags: anthology, author, book, digest, suspense, writer

Posted at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

October 13, 2009

Sometimes Big Things Come in Big Packages

Most days are indistinguishable from the next, merely a mishmash of flashy commercials and product placement mixed with the constant drone of priorities around work, family and yourself. And if you're lucky, at the end of it all, the day might allow you enough time to look back and admire or admonish that which you accomplished, with the proviso that you start all over again tomorrow. But every once in a while, a moment occurs which makes that particular day unlike any other. Of course we all know the main days that fall in this category such as marrying the girl of your dreams, having your first child, and finally paying off those student loans.

But even more compelling and memorable are the moments that come out of nowhere; the seemingly innocuous occurrences that, upon later reflection, serve as life-changing milestones. Such was a day for my wife and I four years ago. Married for two years after having met online, we walked the aisles of our local pet superstore looking for dog food, when I said something that would change our future in ways we could scarcely imagine.

“Hey honey, want to look at the cats?”

In hindsight, there was no good reason for me to ask such a question. My wife was allergic to cats, and when I say allergic, I mean really allergic. So allergic in fact that her eye swelled shut from exposure to my long-haired cat Kenya while we were dating. She tried to play it off as if it wasn’t that bad, but I was fairly certain she wanted to retain the use of both eyes while we dated. This was one of the first moments where I realized how much she truly loved me. So when we were married, a good friend of mine took Kenya and we lived animal free - for a while.

So here we were in the pet store, looking at an assorted display of chew toys for our two-year-old dog Roscoe, when I popped the question. At the time, I more than half expected her to respond by calling my mental state into question. But to my surprise, and hers too, she responded with a look of glee.

“Sure - sounds fun. What could be the harm?”

Indeed.

We approached the cat room, which was a small rectangular room on the far side of the store. Contained within it were approximately a dozen stacked cages each containing one to two cats. A glass wall allowed you to get a good view of the cats from outside the room. For my wife, this was ideal as it allowed her to avoid all the allergy-inducing dander yet still be in close proximity to the assortment of furry felines.

Coincidentally, that day a local shelter was having an adoption drive at the pet store as well. They had dogs and cats and many, many tiny kittens at their station situated near the front entrance of the store, a crowd of people naturally began to gather there. However, back in the glassed-in cat area, where there were many older and abandoned cats, my wife and I stood alone.

“These cats have no shot today, with those kittens up there,” I said, nodding in the direction the burgeoning crowd in the front of the store.

“Oh look, an orange cat! I love orange cats.” Before the potential ramifications could even register, my wife had darted inside the cat room. I quickly glanced around to see if they sold eye patches nearby but saw none. I then did what every husband does at some point for their wives - I followed her, knowing that the outcome was going to be the antithesis of everything we believed upon entering the pet store that day.

“Look! He’s so cute, and friendly.” My wife poked her finger between the bars of his cage as he rubbed against her.

“He’s also filthy, and appears to be sick. Don’t they take care of these guys?” I asked.

Then I saw something which changed the whole matter for us. Jasper, which was his name, was about ten months old and had been picked up as a stray by Animal Control. He was not from a shelter at all. I looked at my wife, as we both knew what that meant. If he wasn’t adopted within days, Animal Control would euthanize him to make room for more.

“What if no one takes him because of all the kittens up front?” My wife looked at me with brown eyes that began to well up with tears.

“He’ll be here after they are gone. Someone will take him.” However, I was not sure of either of these statements. He was cute, but it was hard for many people to look past the newness of kittens to see the love and affection a slightly older cat could give. Plus, he was dirty and probably had some sort of disease - which didn’t improve his prospects much.

My wife could tell my heart was not in complete agreement with my response as we locked eyes for a moment in an unspoken discussion. I smiled and leaned out of the cat room door to flag down a salesperson as it was getting late on Sunday and they would be closing soon.

“Excuse me, I know you close in less than an hour, but we need to bring our dog in to make sure he won’t eat this orange cat. Can we come by tomorrow to introduce him to Jasper?”

The look on the employee’s face told us all we needed to know. “Oh, no I’m sorry, but he goes back to Animal Control tonight. I’m afraid this is his last day . . . “

My wife’s eyes reached their watershed. At that moment, we knew two things for certain. Firstly our dog had better like cats. And secondly one of us needed to drive like Flight of the Bumblebee back to the house, retrieve Roscoe and get back to the store before it closed. My wife, being the more experienced driver at high speeds (her references to my driving typically involved the words “pokey” and “grandpa”), took the challenge and returned with Roscoe a full twenty minutes before they closed.

Two things we learned that day were that Roscoe absolutely adores cats and just wants to lick them on the head, and that my wife’s desire to save this cat’s life coupled with her love for him had apparently cured her cat allergy. Twenty minutes later and we were the proud new owners of a ten-month-old orange and white cat.

Four years have gone by since that day when we adopted Jasper, and our family has grown in the interim. But Jasper, the patriarch as we sometimes call him, has changed our lives for the better. He has brought joy and comfort to moments of great sadness, as in the period surrounding my father-in-law’s heart-wrenching death. Jasper befriended almost everyone that has ever walked through our door, and for those he didn’t - we began to wonder if he knew something about those people had missed. He also brought surprise and laughter to our lives, as in the time I spotted him in a window twelve feet off the ground, to which he demonstrated to me the floor-counter-refrigerator-cabinets-window method of arriving there.

At times, even when he was naughty, you could only shake your head and laugh. LIke the (expensive) occasion where his trek up to the twelve-foot-high window resulted in the door to the freezer being being knocked open - all day long. By the time I arrived home from work, everything in the freezer was as soggy and wet as a short-armed newspaper on a rainy morning, and Jasper he was in deep hiding.

A litany of emotions, all elicited from this orange-and-white strange little cat. Whether it be wrestling the dog, or laying over the heat register in the morning completely blocking the warm air flow into the room, or grooming my own orange hair and beard, Jasper constantly reminds us that life is too short to spend time worrying about the little things. We all try to save time everywhere we can by doing things faster or multitasking.

However, what we’re never told is that the rebate coupon for all this time has long since expired, and the time you thought was saved inevitably ends up wasted. So take the long way to where you’re driving, read the menu twice, let your gaze in your true love’s eyes linger just a little longer. Don’t wait until you are older to do the things your heart desired when you were young. No one is guaranteed of getting old, so jump on that refrigerator if you want to. After all, you can replace the spoiled food from the freezer, but you can never replace a missed-out-on dream.

Technorati Tags: story cat author writer blog inspirational

Posted at 08:23 PM in Short Stories | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 08, 2009

Intro for new novel. Working Title: Mr. Pants

“We need to talk.”

These were the last four words that Will ever expected to hear from Annie, and on their wedding day of all days. Those words, as perfect in their intimation as they were succinct, conveyed to him the undertone of the conversation that was about to follow. He held the telephone handset dead to his ear, unable to respond.

The room began to spin around him and he began to feel lightheaded, as if he were slowly being exsanguinated. He attempted to process what he had just heard as he slowly recoiled onto the brown leather sofa in his hotel room. Will sat staring at the floor holding the phone tight to his ear searching for comfort. But there was none there. He wished he could be somewhere . . . anywhere else than here. He raised his head and looked at the silent faces of his family who had congregated in his room. A distinguished old clock in the corner chimed the top of the hour. It was one o’clock.

One hour until the ceremony Will, old boy. Well, you almost made it.

...

More to come!

Posted at 05:06 PM in Novel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 07, 2009

Jasper the Orange Cat - a Short Children's Story

Well, sometimes you write something and fall in love with it the minute you write it. And you think surely others will too, but after quite a while trying to "sell" this story (and the other follow-ups), I've decided to share it with you here. Read it to your children and I hope they enjoy hearing it as much as I did writing it.

~Shawn

Jasper the Orange Cat (by Shawn McPike)

Dedicated to little Sam Jam...

"Maria had always,

loved kittens so greatly."

"She often imagined,

one day she'd own eighty."

"Am I old enough, Mama?"

she asked once, then twice.

"To have my own kitten,

with fuzzy toy mice."

Mama kneeled down,

and said with a grin.

"Kittens are work, dear,

are you going to chip in?"

"Oh, Yes Mama please,

it won't be a bother."

"I'll feed him and groom him,

and fill up his water."

"All right then," said Mama.

"Once I get this floor mopped."

"We'll go and we'll search,

for a cat to adopt."

Maria sang in the car,

so happy with glee.

"We passed the pet store,

Mama, why would that be?"

"Kittens in stores," she said,

"will all get good homes."

"But kittens who are lost,

have no home of their own."

"They sit and they wait,

for someone like you,"

"To come and to love them,

and feed them their food."

"Then I want a lost one,

but where are they found."

"That's easy," said Mama.

"We'll go to the pound."

They arrived at the pound,

and parked in the back.

Maria started to run,

to the sign that read -- "Cats".

Maria looked at the kittens,

then pointed and said,

"There, two are eating,

and one is in bed."

Three lay there just staring,

with cute kitten faces.

Two batted playing,

at hanging shoelaces.

"So many kittens, Mama,

how will I pick?"

"They all are so cute,

picking makes me feel sick."

Then a voice from the corner,

said "Older cats too,

Can play with and love you,

just like kittens can do."

Maria saw that the voice,

had come from a cat.

Not a kitten, but older,

much older than that.

An Orange cat with white,

and a tiny pink nose.

She looked and she said,

"he's cuter than those."

The voice came again,

as the Orange cat walked over.

"I think you are neat,

do you want to come closer?"

As Maria approached him,

the Orange cat's tail did sway.

"Oh Mama, can we please,

let him come out and play?"

"We must ask their permission,"

said Mama, who laughed.

"You stay with the Orange cat,

while I go and I ask."

"I wish I had a home,"

the Orange cat looked sad.

"I promise I'll love you,

and never be bad."

"Oh Orange cat, I love you,"

Maria made up her mind.

"You'll come home with me,

no better cat will I find."

Mama returned with a clerk,

who could open the door.

The Orange cat was purring,

this is what he'd hoped for.

"Oh Mama, I want him,

he's what I came after."

"I know what to name him,

his name will be Jasper."

"Are you certain," said Mama,

to the kittens she pointed.

"I don't want to get home,

and you be disappointed."

"No, Mama I'm certain,

Jasper is my new cat."

"I'll love him forever,

and some after that."

The cage was quite full,

holding three kittens plus he,

Jasper barely could wait,

to live life cage free.

Said the clerk to Maria,

"One cat, two cat, three, four."

"But for you just the Orange cat,

will come out the door."

Maria cuddled the Orange cat,

who started to whisper.

"I'm grateful you picked me,

and I like the name Jasper."

"I love you dear Jasper,

we will go home and play,"

"Today and tonight,

and all the rest of our days."

Arriving back home,

everyone was so tired.

That Maria and Jasper,

lay down by the fire.

"Don't get too near the fire,"

Jasper said and then turned.

"Better safe far away,

than up too close and burned."

"You are so smart dear Jasper,

what else do you know?"

"I've so much to learn,

as I get big and grow."

Jasper said "I've learned lots,

as I grew up a bit."

"Like to do all your chores,

and not throw a fit."

"Jasper tell me do all cats,

talk just like you?"

"I have friends with their own cats,

and none of them do."

Jasper thought for a moment,

then said with a "Meow."

"When a cat loves his owner,

it just happens somehow."

"I cannot explain it,"

Jasper said taking a breather.

"Before you I could not

understand people either."

"I want to know everything,"

Maria said with a giggle.

"Make me older too,

I don't want to be little."

"You have plenty of time,

but right now I'm beat."

"Let's curl up and cuddle,

and sleep a good sleep."

That night as Maria,

tucked Jasper away.

She said, "Thank you dear Orange cat,

for quite a fun day."

"I love you so much,

you were right about age."

"You are never too old,

to laugh, love or play."

Jasper yawned as he stretched,

and said with a glance.

"Old can be new,

when given a chance."

"I love you Maria,

and I'm not going to go."

"For now I'm no lost cat,

I've found my true home."

<<<<>>>>

Technorati Tags: author, childrens, short story, writing

Posted at 08:59 AM in Childrens | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 23, 2009

I'm back

After some away time to get my health under control, I am now back - just in time for my first short story, "Last Fragment" to be published in October. Look for more information very very soon. I've also been focusing on my new position at AT&T related to Social Media Strategy.

Thanks for all the notes and follows on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/shawnmcpike.

Posted at 09:27 PM in Short Stories | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 05, 2009

500 Channels and nothing on (in West Virginia)

Think that those monstrous satellite dishes from years ago were extinct? Think again. This is not a camera trick. It in fact is a shanty house in West Virginia with at our best count SEVEN large dishes in the back. And I'll bet they still don't get local channels. Evdence as to the existence of seven dogs under the front porch was inconclusive.