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My Review of Carol Beth Anderson’s Beauty and Deceit.

Black and white silhouette of a castle.

A new spin on Beauty and the Beast involving, fairies, magic, and a contest.

I’m a huge fan of fairytales and fairy tale retellings, so I was very eager to read Beauty and Deceit, Anderson’s take on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast.

Carol Beth Anderson’s Beauty and Deceit

First off, I really enjoyed how she got away from the Stockholm Syndrome/Prisoner aspect of the original tale. It was always tough for me to swallow the whole, “I’m a prisoner of this creepy monster because my dad took a rose. But, hey he’s nice to me and we live in this swell castle. I love him!”

C’mon, raise your standards, girl.

Instead, our heroine, Aeryn is selected to “compete” for the Beast, in the style of the show the Bachelor. Except, the nine other contestants are Fae and have unearthly beauty and magical powers, while Aeryn is an attractive, but normal (or so she thinks, spoiler alert) human.

While Aeryn is not a prisoner of Tor, the Beast, she’s a prisoner of her motives to enter the contest, and her Savior Syndrome. She has an overwhelming urge to take care of everyone else’s problems, to the detriment of herself. In this case, the fairy who brought her into the contest will take care of her poor and starving family as long as she is in the contest. As she gets to know the other contestants, and their motives for joining the contest, she tries to solve their problems as well. But like all protagonists with a flaw, the more she tries to help, the more she messes things up. And oh nelly, does she mess things up.

I liked how the other characters had varying reasons, good and bad, for joining the contest (and wanting to win). The alliances between the contestants constantly shifted and merged along the way. I’ve never seen the show, The Bachelor, but I’ve read enough to imagine it must be the same way. Some join to find love, others for fame, probably some just for the fun of it.

Tor, is difficult to like, let alone love. Okay, I take that back, he’s an absolute jerk. He’s arrogant, conceited and obnoxious. It’s hard to have empathy for his plight. You really have more concern for the rest of the people effected by his curse. Throughout the story, I wanted to scream at Aeryn, “Dammit! Walk away, your family will be fine. You don’t have to put up with his crap. Let someone else win.” But, Aeryn is determined to win, to save her family, the other contestants and the people trapped by Tor’s curse. What she risks losing is herself and those she truly loves.

The author does a great job with the protagonist in that she’s not a perfect Mary Sue. She does have anxieties and flaws that cause her to constantly trip up along the way. Now, I did wish (spoiler alert #2) that Aeryn hadn’t suddenly developed magic along the way. I would have liked her to get out of some of her problems using other skills (but that’s just me—this isn’t Burger King, I can’t have it my way).

If you’re looking for a fun and fast-paced retelling of Beauty and the Beast I feel you will enjoy CB Anderson’s Beauty and Deceit. There’s magic, love and romance, quite a bit of spite (instead of hair pulling, one girl casts a spell making another girl’s hair fall out. these girls take catty to a whole new level). Now for those who disapprove of such things, two of the female fae fall in love with each other during the contest. I thought it was a riot. I mean, wouldn’t that be a shocker on the real TV show? Final ceremony, “Sorry bud, I’m just not that into you. Me and Sara hit it off during the show and we’re going to open a winery together.”

But if you don’t like that sort of thing, well, this may not be the book for you. It was such a small part of the plot, it is hardly worth mentioning. That being said, I thought their romance subplot might make a great short story, since the details didn’t make it into the book (just a suggestion if you read this far, Beth).

My one beef with the story is that I thought the ending was a little too easily resolved. I want to avoid spoilers here, so, all I will say is I would like to have seen the emotion of her final choice drawn out more.

But all in all, a fun twist on a classic tale. And it now places second for my fastest read book, at just over 5 hours (Dawn Hosmer’s Bits and Pieces is still #1 at approx. 3 hours).

Thanks for reading! Please check out some of my other reviews and blogs, or even my own books, The Dark Land series.

Ancient evil stalks the Alaska back country. Some places were never meant for humans to trespass.
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My Review of Shawn Burgess’s The Ghosts of Grief Hollow

Man in baseball cap with three books

Book Review

  • Betrayal
  • Incest
  • Murder
  • Suicide
  • Love Triangles
  • Vengeance
  • Ghosts
  • Madness
  • Rivalry
  • Horror

Nope, it’s not Game of Thrones, nor is it Hamlet. It’s The Ghosts of Grief Hollow, the sequel to his macabre tale The Tear Collector (recently renamed The Tears of Grief Hollow). It’s amazing when you get to the end of a book, and think, what the hell did I just read, but in a good way. I really enjoyed Shawn’s first offering, and if you read my review, it was a tough act to follow. Once again, Stephen King’s It blended with Monster Squad, Shawn manages to up the ante on the horror and thrills, taking us back to the tiny Appalachian town of Harper’s Pass. Its haunted and troubled past comes back to bite its descendants in a big way.

The Markland X grew are trying to settle back into some sense of normalcy after grappling with the evil spirt of Samantha Mellinger, whom they (thought—spoiler alert) vanquished in Grief Hollow. Of course, if it seems too good to be true, it is. In this sequel, their loyalty and trust to one another will be stretched to the breaking point. And, like in the first novel, the kids realize that they are on their own. They know that either no one will believe them, or in the case of their one adult ally, Detective Holt, he’s become too wrapped up in his police work and in the unravelling of his marriage to pay attention to what’s really going on—until it is too late.

Shawn builds up some compelling new characters in the sequel. Lady Zuuva is an intriguing local legend that plays into the darkness of Grief Hollow. I didn’t think Shawn could top the centipede scene from the first book, but dang, I’m not sure which was creepier, the scene with the roots, or…well, I’ll put it this way, if you have phobias about giant bugs, this book is probably not for you.

Speaking of trigger warnings. All of them. Yep. With this book Shawn pretty much nails every trigger you could think of and does it beautifully. Kind of like Game of Thrones. This book is not for the faint of heart, and don’t get too terribly attached to any character. Shawn will kill your favorite character ruthlessly. And I love it.

Thanks for reading! You can also check out my unique brand of Alaska Backcountry horror, The Dark Land series

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass.
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Sin City meets Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them: My Review of Eric Lahti’s Better Than Dead

Book Cover. Woman blue-green skin and pink painted lips

Or, what if Voldemort won, and he was female instead and kind of kinky?

Better Than Dead was a wild departure from Eric’s Henchmen series. In this piece of speculative fiction things that go bump in the night: sorcerers, vampires, ghouls, gorgons, giants, basically every fictional magic creature in the pantheon have revealed themselves to be real and are living openly with humans. His main character, Ace Colton, is a Lead Slinger, paid by the banking industry to go after magic users who have robbed banks. After pursuing two targets and finding a still living head on a broom handle, Ace realizes something out of the ordinary is going on in town—that’s saying a lot for a city teeming with the paranormal. From there the situation only spirals into the Twilight Zone. Forget brainless zombies. Corpses are coming back to life with an agenda. They can’t die until they fulfill their task—whether inane or bloodthirsty. Ace teams up with Tabitha, a vampire with her own agenda. They’ll dodge ghouls, hit squads and mythical creatures while trying to uncover the necromancer responsible for the chaos before the entire city falls to darkness. Not that it was such a great place to begin with, but Ace doesn’t want to spend his days as something in between dead and alive.

Buckle up for a fun, fast-paced noir action story with a flawed anti-hero and some great twists and turns (and quite a bit of kinkiness…Ava and the machete, OH MY!).

Ace is not a perfect hero. In fact, there’s quite a few times you want to smack him upside the head. He’s good at what he does—he shoots guns and fighting—but at times he’s slow to pick up on the clues. This makes the story and character more realistic, since he’s figuring things out, rather than having everything come together seamlessly. At first Ace is portrayed as a stereotypical, alcoholic “Humphrey Bogart-type character.” As the story progresses, the feelings and emotions, both good and bad, in the relationships between Ace and the various women in the story: Jezebel, Tabitha and even Ava show a lot of heart.

Since I have read a few of Eric’s novels at this point, I can really see his development as an author in this tale. His other novels tend to be just action-packed fun. What I liked most about the novel overall, was the underlying moral theme that Eric delivers without being too preachy or heavy handed. Human beings have a terrible track record of how we treat those who are different than ourselves. What would we do if we found people (or creatures) with magical capabilities living secretly among us? In Better Than Dead, they are feared, vilified, exploited, used for government experiments, sometimes they are tortured and killed. Using the backdrop of a heartless city with no mercy, he paints a realistic portrait of human nature.

I’ll be interested to see where Eric takes this character and story next…there’s going to be a sequel, right?

Thanks for reading! My Alaska backcountry horror novels The Dark Land and The Devil’s Valley are available on Amazon.

The legend of the headless ravine is steeped in blood. Its thirst for human blood never sleeps, even in the dead of winter.
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ARISE: My Review of the Second Book in Eric Lahti’s Henchmen Series

http://ericlahti.com/

Let me set the scene. You wake up, and there’s two people in your house drinking your coffee and beer.

Oh, and they came to kill you.

Must be a Tuesday for Steven, our anti-hero in Eric Lahti’s Arise, sequel to Henchmen. After unleashing the God of Dreams and taking out congress, he thought he’d be able to just settle down in his cabin in Colorado and stay below the radar.

Nope. When you unleash a God, it irritates the universe. Now a bunch of deities he never knew existed want a piece of him. He’d be okay with fighting off the world if it were only him they wanted to kill. But the stakes are higher. He must come out of hiding and make it right, or it’s not just his neck on the line. The life and souls of the few people he cares about are being threatened. Particularly, Jessica, the woman he doesn’t want to admit he needs. And there’s something special about Jessica. They don’t just want to kill her. He has to figure out why the supernatural being is after her before he destroys everything.

The Henchmen are back. Doing all the wrong things for the right reasons. Eric’s action-packed speculative fiction takes us from the mountains of Colorado to the beaches of Tijuana, to the deserts of New Mexico. This group of assassins and misfits will take on cults, demi-gods and even Nazis to reign in the God of Dreams before the out-of-control deity turns the world into a living nightmare. Before it is over, a new power will Arise out of the dust of a secret lab in the New Mexico desert. But if you want to find out whether that new power will be good or evil, you’ll have to read Eric’s book.

Thanks for reading!

Usually, I would jump to the third book in his Henchmen series, but since I happen to have a hard copy of Better than Dead, and I am going off the grid this weekend, I am going to be reading that instead.

Mean while, if you would like to check out my horror stories, you can find them on Amazon below or in select Alaskan bookstores

The legend of the Headless Ravine is steeped in blood. Its hunger for human flesh never sleeps. Even in the deepest cold of winter. Some places were never meant for humans to trespass…
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SLC PUNK!—A Review

A Stream of Consciousness through Anarchy and Mental Health in 1985 Salt Lake City

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133189/

Unreliable Narrator

In some stories, you don’t know that the MC is an unreliable narrator, you only find out at the end. Not in SLC Punk! Right from the start, we know that Stevie is an unreliable narrator, but we don’t care, because we’re along for the wild ride, and we want to see what his moment of reckoning is going to be.

(If you don’t understand the device of the unreliable narrator in film/writing, check this out)

https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/what-is-an-unreliable-narrator-in-film-examples-of-unreliable-narrators-in-movies/

I would put him in the category of elusive unreliable. He withholds information from the audience to let the story slowly unfold. In terms of types, I argue he’s both naïve (naif) and liar (self-preservationist). Naïve, because he believes that everyone is on the same journey as him in his quest to overthrow the system and inspire anarchy. We (and Stevie) watch as his social circle is slowly torn apart by their underlying mental health issues. He’s a liar, because he is lying to himself about his own motives and only discovers this by the end of the story.

The irony is that he is surrounded by other unreliable narrators:

  • The Naif—Bob
  • The Self-preservationist—his father*spoiler alert, his part of his moment of reckoning is recognizing he’s more like dad than he wants to admit)
  • The Madman—Sean, Bob’s father, most of the cast)
  • The embellisher (Mark)

He is telling their stories through his eyes. The anarchy, alcohol and drugs can only mask the underlying darkness for so long. The awakening is painful and harsh when Stevie sees things for what they are.

The story begins and ends with the shattering of a mirror and a life, but with all things, it is the journey in between. Look forward to our deeper discussion on tonight’s show.

Thanks for Reading!

campsite, DMShepard
Pond behind our campsite at Jack Creek in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

About the Author

I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass…

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He “Forgot” to Tell Me He Was Married. So, I Forgot to Meet Him for Our Date.

Tales From the Dating Vault: The One Time I Stood Someone Up.

Having been stood up and ghosted myself more than once, I find that behavior pretty childish. I will admit, there was one time I did it and I have no regrets. I’ll explain.

I met Todd* when I was working a week on/week off rotation in Prudhoe Bay. At the time I was single and looking. As the saying goes in Alaska, the odds are good, but the goods are odd. Even more so in a place like Prudhoe Bay, where there are way more guys than girls. Todd worked in a different department, but in the same camp. This good-looking, southern boy laid on the charm from the get-go.

*Once again, name have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

My best friend has a saying:

Don’t get your honey where you get your money.

My Best Friend’s Favorite Saying about Work Relationships

Having been burned by work relationships in the past I made it clear to Todd that I wasn’t interested in pursuing anything while we worked up north together. After sometime, I transferred to an Anchorage based position, but he and I kept in touch. He wanted to “pursue a relationship” with me now that we no longer worked together in such close quarters. I was till leery since he lived out of state (Louisiana) and worked a rotational up north.

It just so happened that he had a long layover in Anchorage one week and wanted to take me out on a date. I agreed to pick him up from the airport.

The day of, he called me at work to confirm the time. He also let a little bomb drop.

“It’s okay that I’m married, right?”

No. It was absolutely NOT okay that he was married.

He had months to bring up this information.

I sat at my desk flipping back and forth between shock and seething with rage.

He then launched into what I like to call the “Serial Cheater Speech.” At that point in my dating career, I had encountered enough married guys who were out trolling the dating market. They all had some well-rehearsed variation of the same speech:

  • If I told you I was married you wouldn’t give me a chance
  • We got married too young
  • She let herself go
  • We never have sex anymore
  • She only cares about herself
  • She’s cheating on me
  • Etcetera

To be frank, I don’t care. I deserved to be with someone that is free to be with only me. Any guy that is using deceit at the start of a relationship just to trick me into being with him is bad news.

He didn’t respect me or want a real relationship with me. If he did, he would have been honest from the beginning.

He wanted to use me.

As much as I would have loved to give him an earful, I was sitting in the cube farm at work.

I decided on a better course of action.

He wrapped up his whiny speech with, “So, it’s okay, right?”

“Sure.”

“Great, see you at the airport.”

I hung up and put my phone on silent. He had some nerve.

I Turned Off My Phone

Wouldn’t you know, that afternoon was a gorgeous day for a bike ride on the Anchorage Trails. I had an awesome afternoon ride, enjoying the beautiful spring day. I came home that night to several missed calls and plaintive voicemails.

He called me at my desk two weeks later, when he got back on shift.

Note, not when he was home. Can’t have the wife find out he was trying to cheat!

He demanded an explanation as to why I didn’t show up. which I felt was pretty ballsy. As far as I was concerned he didn’t have the right to demand anything of me. But I decided to to respond honestly.

My Response:

You’re married. I don’t date married guys.

He tried to launch into his speech about his unhappy married life.

I cut him off and told him never to call again, especially not my work phone.

Time is valuable. I refuse to let people squander my time. I see too many people letting others waste their precious time. Yes, I stood him up. I have no regrets cutting out people who have no respect for my boundaries or time.

I met my future husband less than three months later. If I had been wasting my time with Todd, we would have never connected.

Set boundaries and value your time. The right people will always respect you for it.

Thanks for reading!

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass

About the Author

I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

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The Statute of Limitations on A Booty Call: Weird Dating Tales of Old

I’m taking a break this week from my 30-Day Space Available Adventure to dip back into the Dating Vault. I was joking with one of my younger single friends about booty calls.

How long is it acceptable for a guy to keep your number in his queue, then call you up out of the blue expecting you to be receptive to his advances? The weirdest one I had was a year.

Yep, you read that right. A year. This was after he DID NOT call me back after our first and only date. Now, I will say after that less than stellar date, I wasn’t hankering to hear from him. which was why I was surprised to get a booty call more than a year later.

Let me set the stage.

My sophomore year in college, I decided to try out the on-line dating thing again. One such date was a guy named *Mike. Mike and I chatted online for a bit before deciding to meet for dinner. We had pretty good rapport in our online messaging and phone calls, so I was pretty excited about Mike. From his online pictures, he was good-looking (I know, I know, some of you sense danger already. This is when online dating was in its infancy). I even went out and bought a new outfit for this particular date.

I would regret wasting the money later, though I still have the shirt. what can I say, I’m kind of a clothes hoarder.

*Once again, name have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent

What’s the Most Taboo Topic on a First Date?

My regret was not in how Mike looked. His pictures were spot on. My regret was in our dinner conversation over Mexican food at Azteca* restaurant.

*I mention the specific name because it will be an important detail later during the booty call!

I think everyone can agree that exes are typically something a person shouldn’t bring up on a date, right?

His Ex and her Magnificent Fake Breasts

Not in Mike’s case. He spent the whole date getting wasted and talking about how gorgeous his ex was. I got to hear all about her plastic surgery and magnificent fake breasts (and how much he missed them). His grand plan was to train to become a pilot so that he could make enough money to impress her to win her back.

I stabbed at my chicken enchiladas trying to pretend to be interested in this bizarre conversation. I seriously wondered why the hell I was there. I couldn’t even have a margarita since I was driving, though I planned on drowning my angst when I got home.

When I got up to use the ladies’ room at one point, Mike made sure to comment on how great my backside looked in my jeans (but not in such polite terms). When we finished dinner and split the check, I declined the honor of going back to his place.

SHOCKING!

I know, how could I resist such charm?

Obviously, he never called me for a follow-up date. I never called him requesting another either. The feeling seemed mutual at the time.

Can I pick a winner, or what?

A Year Later…The booty Call

Late at night, over a year later, I was sitting on my couch studying for one of my electrical engineering finals. You can imagine my surprise to receive a random text from a number I didn’t recognize:

HEY, WHAT ARE YOU UP TO TONIGHT?

Baffled, I replied:

WHO IS THIS?

A few moments later:

MIKE! WE HAD DINNER AT AZTECA!

I’m sitting on my couch holding my phone surrounded by piles of engineering notes. My phone was one of those small, gray Motorolas that were popular circa 2003. Not great for fast texting, but practically indestructible. I’m staring at this thing trying to figure out who the hell this guy is, then it hit me.

It was the creepy guy that went on and on about his ex, her fake breasts and his pilot lessons.

So I texted back:

HOW ARE THE PILOT LESSONS GOING?

Funny…he never replied.

Personally, my statute of limitations on booty calls is pretty short. If you didn’t get any on the first go round, probably doesn’t make sense to call me out of the blue a year later. But then, there is the saying, “Fortune favors the bold.”

Thanks for reading!

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About the Author

I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass: The Dark Land
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Ripping the Bandage off Quickly: My 30-Day Space Available Adventure, Part 5

Day trip to Savannah, GA: Contemplation…

Since it was the last day I would have my rental car, I took a day trip down the highway to Savannah, GA one of my favorite places. I walked the riverfront and the old squares of the antebellum city. I always admired the way the Spanish moss hung on the stately live oaks. I drove the coastal highway out to Tybee Island. All the while, my mind churned over what I was going to tell Jake that night at dinner.

Lighthouse on Tybee Island, near Savannah, GA

By the time I made the long drive back up to Charleston, I knew what I was going to say.

Inflection Point

I think everyone in life has multiple forks in the road, or in my case, what I like to think of as inflection points. This was one for me. I was twenty-five years old, and had a series of less than fulfilling relationships under my belt, to say the least. I often attracted what was broken in me, clinging to relationships that weren’t working because I desperately wanted to be with someone. I felt that having a chronic illness made me in adequate to be loved.

This time, as much as I cared for Jake and he cared for me, I saw that this was not going to fulfil what I wanted and needed in life. I needed more than just a relationship with someone. I needed the right one who could support my goals and dreams. To cling to Jake and what we had, no matter how good it felt at the time, would be selfish. So I let go honestly and fully.

That night when I got back to his place and we talked, I told him I was never planning on moving back to Charleston.

I wouldn’t realize it for a long time after, but in that moment, I began to grow up.

Jake took it well. At the same time, for the rest of my stay there was a distance between us. The easy, carefree connection vanished. We made love a few more times, but it wasn’t the same. The painfulness of goodbye stole the magic.

Farewell Party

The weekend before I left, we attended a party hosted by some of his coworkers. Jake and his roommate played in the band. They covered rock classics like Watchtower by Hendrix and Whiteroom by Cream. I tend to be a wall flower in general, but this was one of the most welcoming and fun parties I had ever attended.

The following Monday, Jake drove me to the base at Charleston. In his late twenties, Jake broke his femur in a bad motorcycle accident. They had to install a metal rod in his leg. I remember him rolling his eyes as he set off the metal detector. He explained about the metal rod, but they still gave him a full pat-down. They waved the wand over his leg multiple times, then finally let us pass to the waiting area.

“Every time,” he grumbled, then laughed.

We kissed one last time before I boarded the C-130 for Norfolk. I promised to be careful and keep in touch.

It was bittersweet parting from Jake. Kenny Chesney’s Anything But Mine wouldn’t be released until the next year, but I always think of Jake when I hear that song.

A Positive Outcome

Believe it or not, there is a brightside to the story. At the party I mentioned, Jake met his future wife. They started dating and got married less than a year later. The last I heard from Jake, they had three kids and seemed happy. Jake and I lost touch around the time I moved to Alaska and met my husband. We had been friends on Facebook, but suddenly he wasn’t there anymore. I don’t know if he just discontinued his Facebook membership, or if he unfriended me. Either one is okay. I understand the need to eventually move on. But I will always think of him and our time together in Charleston as one of the best I have ever had.

Next Stop: Norfolk, Virginia

Time to fly. Off to my next adventure!

Thanks for Reading

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About the Author

I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass…
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A Rift Opens with A Hard Truth: My 30 Day Space Available Adventure, Part 4

Killing Time and Relaxing

Those summer days hanging out on the beach, sometimes with Jake, but most of the time alone (he did have a job) were some of the best of my life. I finished The Two Towers and started The Return of the King. I managed to burn the hell out of my back because I lay on the shore too long in my bikini top and cut-off shorts on my stomach without putting on sunscreen or flipping over. Jake laughed at me that night and rubbed aloe on my back when he saw my burn (I hadn’t realized it…yet).

Isle of Palms Beach. On of my favorite beaches near Charleston, SC

He and his roommate had a band, and some nights I watched them rehearse. The Saturday before I was scheduled to leave, they were performing a huge party that one of their co-workers was planning. For the most part, it was a laid-back week of relaxing and just enjoying each other’s company. I didn’t have to put on a show or pretend to be perfect for him. He already knew who I was and liked it.

Spider Man

Me in downtown Charleston in August, 2003

Remember the giant spider the night I got there?

One night when we got home from dinner, the giant spider was halfway between the house and the tree in the front yard. No really, it was suspended by the lines it had created across the open space.

“I’m done with this. This is creepy!” Jake yelled, grabbing a shovel from the back of his truck. He annihilated the spider mid-air while I cheered him on.

A Divergence Arises

At the same time, a rift was opening between us.

A deadline loomed. It came to a head one evening.

“I wish you still lived in Charleston, and we could date for real again,” Jake said over dinner out of nowhere.

I looked at him across the table and said, ‘I wish I could too.”

In that moment, what wasn’t said was just as important as what was said.

The next morning when Jake got up early for work, I got up early too and drove to the beach. It was something I used to do a lot when I was stationed in Charleston. I would get up early and sit on the beach to watch the sunrise.

I needed to think.

I had already made one really naïve mistake with Bob.

Movies and romance novels make it sound like love conquers all. If you have amazing chemistry and you’re right for each other, relationships just magically come together. But this isn’t Sleepless in Seattle.

There’s another cold hard truth in life…

Relationships are work.

Long distance relationships even more so. Couple that with the fact that Jake and I were at two different points in our lives and diverging, and it becomes more than just work.

I was living in Seattle with the goal of getting my bachelor’s in electrical engineering. I still had three years to go in the program. Aside from the cost of moving, the program that was paying for my schooling was now set, unless I wanted to fight for my funding again, I had to stay in Seattle until I graduated.

And believe it or not, Jake understood. He wasn’t asking me to give up any of that. He, like me, just wished that somehow things could be different.

But they weren’t.

Jake had married and divorced early in his military career. He had made quite a few mistakes after his divorce (I was one of them when he ghosted me in our first go-round). He grew up and learned from his mistakes. He was almost ten years older than me, established in his career and looking to settle down and get married again.

The Hard Truth

I was leaving in a few days. Unless something miraculous happened, it was unlikely that I was ever moving back to Charleston. There was no future for me and Jake after the end of the week.

We both knew it.

Next Adventure: A Quick Trip to Savannah, A Wild Party, Acceptance, and Parting for Virginia

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I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass…
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Electric Connection: My 30 Day Space Available Adventure, Part 3

We left off last time with Jake’s request:

“You don’t have to sleep in the Livingroom tonight. No. Let me put it another way. Sleep with me tonight?”

So what did I do?

Spoiler Alert! I didn’t sleep on the couch…

I will spare you the gory details, this isn’t a purple prose romance. But yes, there was always an intense connection between me and Jake. It was instantaneous and electric, as if no time had passed. There was no being near one another without touching. No touching without kissing. No kissing without…you get the idea.

Confidence is King

I bet you’re curious as to what Jake looked like. I think it’s funny how so many romance novels describe these towering six-foot-tall “Alpha Males” with bulging biceps, and tanned washboard abs. Jake wasn’t like that at all. I’m five-foot-nine, and Jake was slightly taller than me. Many say that confidence is sexy, and I can attest to that. Jake had a quiet, calm confidence that in my encounters over time with other men, few have ever been able to duplicate. His confidence drew me like a lode stone swings north, and it was comforting to connect with him once more.

Tough Questions

Toes in the silky white sand of the Carolina shore, I was reading The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers while I drank cheap beer with Jake on the beach. I made it my mission on this trip to finish reading the entire Tolkien trilogy since they were making all three into movies, and the third one was coming out in theaters soon.

Laying on the beach blanket next to me, Jake asked, “Are you still going to try to fly to Germany and see him?”

I knew this wasn’t an idle question. Remember that confidence, I mentioned about Jake? His confidence wasn’t a brash arrogance. Nowadays we hear a lot about “mansplaining” or guys just giving their advice without asking. Jake wasn’t like that. But he would ask questions to draw you out, at times even play the Devil’s Advocate. He wanted to know what I was thinking without trying to tell me what to do.

I put the book aside and rested my head on my hands. While I hadn’t officially “broken it off” with Bob, in my heart, it was over. The initiating event of what he had said about “not wanting to work,” had been weird enough. But his violent, expletive filled emails showed me a side of him that was truly terrifying. If he could be like that in an email, what would he be like in person when he got angry?

“No, Jake. I don’t want to go anywhere near him.” I looked out over the waves crashing against the shore, thinking about how Bob was over across the sea somewhere. It was strange how fast my thoughts about him had changed. Less than a week ago, he was a guy that was professing that he wanted to marry me and that he loved me. Now he was sending me hate filled emails about how horrible I was.

I didn’t know him at all. I felt incredibly stupid and naïve.

“You’re going to stay with me for the next week or so, right?” he asked, handing me another beer. I could see the tension release across his shoulders and the relief in his eyes.

“Yeah, I’ve got a whole month off. I talked to my friend Bri. You remember her, right?”

“A little bit, she was in your class in Prototype.”

“I told her if I could get a flight, I would try to make it up her way to Virgina.”

He smiled, “Well we’ll make the most of your time here until you go.”

Another Message From Bob

The Insincere Apology

That afternoon we went back to Jake’s to clean up before we went out to dinner. He took a few days off from work in honor of my being in town. I decided to go online to check for flights for the following week. Indeed, there was a regularly scheduled flight from Charleston to Virginia, leaving the next Monday. I could hang out with Jake for almost nine days.

Meanwhile, an email from Bob made my stomach sink. It was an apology—sort of.

“I’m sorry you took what I said the wrong way. I forgot that girls can be so sensitive about crap. I’m going out for a field exercise for the next two weeks. When I get back we can talk.”

Yeah…okay.

I showed that and the other emails to Jake. His jaw set in a hard line.

“You don’t think he’s sorry, do you?” Jake asked me, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Not for a moment.”

Next: Making and Breaking Connections and Slaying Giant Spiders…

Thanks for reading!

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I joined the Navy at 18 to escape a small town in the Mojave Desert. A diagnosis of MS disrupted my dreams of becoming an astronaut or a super spy. I made limoncello from my lemons and became a super electrical engineer instead. My fascination with live high voltage drew me to Alaska. I came for the job, but stayed for the adventure. I enjoy blogging about my journey as a woman working in STEM, my experiences dealing with everything MS has handed me, and the wonder of the Alaska wilderness. My husband and I have undertaken the task of turning 30 acres of remote land into an off-grid retreat. I write stories about unique women in STEM who save the day and the hot guys who sometimes help along the way, as well as historical fiction about the Klondike Gold Rush. Teasers for these stories can be found on my website. I self-published my first horror novella, The Dark Land, on Amazon in May of 2020. I released the sequel, The Devil’s Valley, in May of 2021. Both stories are set in the wilderness of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and draw on the Athabascan “Head Waters Peoples” legends of the Cet’ann, or “The People With Tails”.

Some places were never meant for humans to trespass…