TALES FROM THE BAYOU: One Writer's Journey

By Donna L. Martin

Part memoir, part writing journal, TALES FROM THE BAYOU, One Writer's Journey, is a collection of stories straight from the bayou. Award winning author, Donna L Martin, shares tales of growing up among the ghosts, gators, and gumbo-loving Cajuns of southern Louisiana. Somewhere along the way, her childhood dreams of becoming an author came true.

• Language: English
• Publisher: STORY CATCHER PUBLISHING
• Release date: Oct 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781734627718

Book preview

TALES FROM THE BAYOU:

One Writer’s Journey

By

Donna L Martin

Copyright © 2021 by Donna L Martin All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below. Donna L Martin/Story Catcher Publishing P O Box 27788 Knoxville, Tn 37927 www.storycatcherpublishing.com

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Knoxville/Donna L Martin—First Edition

ISBN 978-1-7346277-1-8 eBook

ISBN 978-1-7346277-2-5 Paperback

Story Catcher Publishing, Knoxville, Tn

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

1. Riding The Ferry To Nowhere

2. Someone Throw Me A Lifeline

3. Recycling Vacations

4. In The Eye Of The Beholder

5. Killing My Little Darlings

6. Turkey Tails And Wishbone Dreams

7. Not Your Normal Zen Garden

8. Don’t Get Too Comfortable

9. Stocking Up For The Winter

10. Falling In Love With Fall

11. A Case Of Mistaken Identity

12. Weathering The Storm

13. Covering All The Bases

14. Hiding In Plain Sight

15. Murder On A Saturday Afternoon

16. Dreaming My Life Away

17. It’s Getting Hot Out Here

18. Taking Chances And Rolling The Dice

19. Being Accountable For Your Accountability

20. Soaring To New Heights

21. In Search Of A Four-Leaf Clover

22. Entertaining The Troops

23. Inching My Way Along

24. Trusting Your Gut

25. A Storm Is Coming

26. Changing The Channel

27. Broken In The Most Delicious Way

28. Tis The Season To Be Sneaky

29. Chasing The Cinderella Dream

30. Some Things Come In Small Packages

31. Wrapping Up Christmas

32. A Taste Of Thanksgiving

33. There's A Strong Wind Blowing

34. Trick Or Treat, Smell My Feet

35. A Little Book Loving

36. Hiding From The Fashion Police

37. Fall Is For Festivals

38. The Adventures Of Billy

39. Step By Step

40. Summertime Jobs

41.Before The Age Of Technology

42.Crawfish Boils And Mudbug Races

43. Sweets For My Sweet

44. Yay! Vacation!

45. Take A Ride On The Soul Train

46. Just A Little Sleepwalking

47. In The Land Of Mythology

48. Going Up In Smoke

49. The Kid Next Door

50. The Dream On Cafe

51. A Canning Craze

52. Pimp My Ride

53. The Beastly Menagerie

54. Staying True To My Roots

55. Summertime Reading

56. More Than Just A Cardboard Box

57. Call Of The Wild

58. The Witching Hour

59. The Sounds Of Home

60. Fish Head Soup

Dedication

To all my childhood ghosts and memories from living near the bayou. You helped make me the writer I am today!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hybrid published author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of flash fiction, children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna offers occasional BOOK NOOK REVIEWS of great children’s books and offers WRITERLY WISDOM to new and established writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She loves dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. If you enjoy her books, share some love, and leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Want to connect with Donna?

Facebook:www.facebook.com/donasdays

Twitter:www.twitter.com/donasdays

Website: www.storycatcherpublishing.com

Mail: Donna L Martin, c/o Story Catcher Publishing

P O Box 27788, Knoxville, Tn 37927

1. Riding The Ferry To Nowhere

My hometown is surrounded by rice fields and swamps. Canals run everywhere and sometimes there is literally no other way to get from one place to the other than by boat.

Once a month, my siblings and I would pile into our old car and my father would drive north to the ferry. The only way we would get to the next biggest town was to float across the boggy swamps on an ancient boat pulled across the murky waters along steel cables laid across the bayou. My mother could be seen with her feet peeking out the passenger window as she patiently waited for the sluggish ferry to reach the other shore.

I, on the other hand, was terrified to be on that ferry. I always imagined some freakish accident happening; the cables breaking and being swept down the canal to some mysterious place where the gris gris or Cajun swamp monster lurked.

Writers sometimes find themselves bogged down by writer's block, self-doubts, and the insecurities when it comes to their writing. They impatiently wait for muses who sometimes never show up while deadlines rush to meet them. They need that ferry to pull them across a river of creativity, carrying them to the other shore on the path to publication...

Why stop dreaming once you wake up?

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2. Someone Throw Me A Lifeline

You would think a gal who was raised around the swamps of southern Louisiana would know how to swim like a snapping turtle, but that was one life skill I never quite learned how to master.

When I was seventeen, I traveled to San Diego to spend some time with my older brother. He was in the Navy and stationed on the battleship USS Enterprise. I thought I would have the time of my life, romping on the beach and cultivating a tan.

I was wrong.

My first day at the beach, my brother and one of his Navy buddies decided it would be funny sto grab me, drag me out to water over my head and dump me in the Pacific Ocean. What they didn't bargain on was my getting disoriented and nearly before they had to drag me back to dry land.

That is one memory I've carried with me for more than forty years, coloring my fear of water I can't see through and preventing me from enjoying the local pool each summer.

A worldwide crisis can turn everyone's world upside down. It can instill fear in some, frustration in others. As writers, we sometimes allow all the daily tasks and writerly deadlines weighing on our minds to try to drown us to the point of immobility. We can't seem to see a light at the end of the tunnel and allow our fears to drown us in a sea of overwhelming uncertainty and lack of confidence in our ability to achieve our daily goals.

Here are some of the things I have done to help keep my head above water during these challenging times...

1.      Find a way to write daily whenever possible. My local library allows access to their computers in two-hour blocks for quick tasks I can do there. It also gives me a chance to check out books and do research for my next book.

2.      Set priorities. If there are submission opportunities with