Holiday Long-Reads
Storying with Friends.
During the holidays, Patty’s Worlds will be featuring book excerpts, holiday themed essays, poetry, short stories, published, brand new, we don’t care.
Using our guidelines, please send us your works.
We’re increasing the wordcount to 5000 max for the duration of the holiday season.
I’ve already gotten a nice entry, which will feature during #SublimeSundayReding this week.
Please be in touch via way of the email Patty link at the bottom of each page.
For now, please enjoy tonight’s feature.
Hello, all my faithful followers everywhere!
Happy Holidays from High Priestess Laya MoonWalker Gibbous, Derrick Gibbous, and all the Blended Lives Federation as well as the Order.
I’ve come to you this evening, in celebration of Ms. Patty L. Fletcher’s latest release.
She’s just released Book II A Battle of Choices, but we talked it over and decided to share book I.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be reading Book I Sides of the Order together.
Occasionally, we’ll have a sneak Peek of book II.
For now, please enjoy this excerpt.
The Blended Lives Chronicles:
A LADY MOONWALKER SERIES
BOOK ONE
SIDES OF THE ORDER
By Patty L. Fletcher
Independently published with assistance provided by
Dawn Blythe
Illustrations by Colleen Myles
Editing by Jo Pinto and Dawn Blythe
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright 2023 by Patty Fletcher
All Rights Reserved
ISBN:
Dedication Page
The Blended Lives Chronicles: Book One Sides of the Order is dedicated to those who share the mission of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled.
And to the late Phyllis Staton Campbell.
Phyllis read the original draft of this book in 2016. When she was finished she said, “I believe you’ve got something here. It needs work but if you put your imagination to the test, I know you can do it.”
For years, this manuscript languished in a folder. It went from computer to computer with me. Then, in early 2022 I woke at 3 AM with a soft voice whispering in my ear saying, “It’s time. Time for you to be brave, and tell the tale.”
I threw off the covers, bumbled to the coffee pot, brewed a cup and began.
I wish Phyllis were here to read the finished product. She’d be well pleased.
Phyllis, wherever you are, I hope you know I finally finished it.
Phyllis was like a mother to me and I miss her as much today as when she passed.
For those who never had the pleasure and privilege of knowing Phyllis you may visit: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/17252783.Phyllis_Staton_Campbell
Many of her works can also be found on the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled website at: https://nlsbard.loc.gov
Prologue
August 2060
The thought of him after all this time, still makes me half-crazy. Though my head was all twisted up for a while, the love and want I felt for him was always real and raw. It still is. I dream about what it would be like to kiss him, to have him kiss me and to feel his strong arms folding round me in a tight embrace. I can’t help it. It’s been a decade since I saw him or heard his voice, but I can still remember what he sounds like. I can still remember his scent. He never smelled like heavy men’s cologne. More like a strong, clean scent of man. That musky male scent that always drove me slightly insane. That smell of gentleness and safety. I’ll never forget the smell of him.
Late at night or during the middle of the day, like now, with the rain drumming on the roof and slapping at the windows, I imagine what having his mouth on mine would feel like. We never did that. Never kissed, even though both of us wanted it. I wanted it then and did right before we parted that day but, in the end, I chickened out.
And I suppose it was for the best.
I imagine how it would’ve been then, and I imagine how it would be now. I dream of such a day as this, with the rain and wind howling around the house, everything quiet and still. Me, sitting here at the computer working.
And suddenly, a knock sounds at the back door. Rising in annoyance at my work being interrupted, I march to the door, my slippers thumping on the floor as I go. My voice leaks out a bit of that annoyance and I ask, “Who is it?” and then, I feel my heart drop, thudding like a tumbling boulder into my stomach as his voice says, “It’s Derrick Gibbous, open in the name of The Blended Lives Federation.”
Flinging the door open, I snarl to cover my nervous thrill of his being there after all this time, “So, Casimian, I reckon they don’t have communicators where you come from?”
With a laugh he takes my face in his hands saying, “Tried to call. Your communicator keeps going to voicemail. Can’t very well call if you don’t ever answer.” Just like that, we’re back into that happy bantering rhythm.
Stepping back, I state, “Well, don’t just stand there, didn’t your momma teach you to come in out of the rain?”
Stepping through the door, shutting it behind him, he turns to me as I ask, “So, what the hell took you so long to get here? I’ve only been wishing for you for a decade. I mean, hell, I know I screwed up but —” Suddenly, without warning, he grabbed me, pulling me into his arms and crushed his mouth onto mine. Completely taking my breath away.
The rain pounded furiously onto the house, the wind howled, and the blood roared hot and pulsing in my ears. For a moment I nearly resisted and then I flung myself into him and we stood holding one another locked into a hot, fervent kiss filled with a heated passion nothing in my wildest imaginings could’ve ever prepared me for.
When we pulled apart he said, “Well, at least now I know how to shut you up.”
Normally, I’d have had a sarcastic retort, but like it or not, he was right. That kiss, that hot, wet, wonderful kiss, had left me completely undone and I could do nothing but stand there with my legs barely strong enough to hold me upright catching my breath and trying, without much success, to calm my thundering heart.
“Derrick, I’ve wanted you for so long. Needed you for so long. Even if you’re only here for an hour, I must have you. All of you. I must know. I must know what you feel like inside me.”
Suddenly a loud crash of thunder shook the house. I sat up with a jerk, popping my neck as I came up from where I’d been laying over on the table where I’d been working. Gods, only a dream. How I wish it were real.
I stood from the chair and started to stretch. I jumped as the communicator rang. “Hello?” I asked, holding the device to my ear awaiting the caller’s reply.
“Good evening, Lady Moonwalker. It’s Frank Prince. How are you today?”
“Hello, Mr. Prince. What can I do for you?” I asked with great trepidation.
Patty’s Worlds
Bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled
ALL MY BOOKS ON SALE FROM DECEMBER 12, 2024 THROUGH JANUARY 1, 2025 ON SMASHWORDS.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/PattyFletcher
Patty L. Fletcher
Patty has written and published several works of fiction and nonfiction. She has been featured in several anthologies and created and published The Writer’s Grapevine Magazine.
See and buy her work here.
Books
2024
The Blended Lives Chronicles: A Battle of Choices – Published October 31, 2024
Book 2 square photo – A blood red background with white font. The title, The Blended Lives Chronicles sits on the top in smaller font. A Battle of Choices is in the center, with larger font, displaying this as the main focus. Patty L Fletcher is on the bottom right hand corner in medium font. The logo sits on the center. The logo is a white skeleton key with its top key ring angled to the right and the bottom angled to the left. The key sits inside the space of a crescent moon, also in white, but with a thin black border. The crescent moon opening is angled down to the bottom right.
About the Book:
Lady Laya MoonWalker and Derrick Gibbous find themselves, once again, at odds with those who would segregate and purify anyone deemed unworthy. When Laya begins to fulfill a prophecy set by higher powers, she must learn to wield her magick in new ways. Amidst the fight to protect their loved ones, they each must choose when to sacrifice and when to hold strong to their beliefs, their love, and their morality.
Please review when your reading is through.
Blended Lives Chronicles: Sides of the Order – Published October 31, 2023
Alt Text:
The cover is a deep, candy apple red, with the title, The Blended Lives Chronicles: Sides of the Order at the top in white text. At the bottom is the author’s name, Patty L. Fletcher, also typed in white. Above the author’s name and below the title of the book is a white skeleton key, taking up about 3/4 of the cover space.
The cover is a deep, candy apple red, with the title, The Blended Lives Chronicles: Sides of the Order at the top in white text. At the bottom is the author’s name, Patty L. Fletcher, also typed in white. Above the author’s name and below the title of the book is a white skeleton key, taking up about 3/4 of the cover space.
Lady Laya MoonWalker is a well respected author and magazine owner and a high priestess in the magickal community. After a drawn-out battle with the forces of dark magik, she has come into her own. She lives and works on Planet Korponious, where she is the owner and creator of an Interplanetary Magazine called “Blended Lives Chronicles.” Her mission is to blend the lines of race, creed, and disability that separate so many and to elevate the recognition of the training and ability of Service Animals of all kinds to a new level. She has just been accepted into the Blended Lives Federation and now hopes to continue her work in a way like nothing known to her before.
Laya has created a lot of wreckage along the way through her dark journey into the light, and now she wishes to set this to right. She has just received her best break ever. Frank Prince, the CEO of The Blended Lives Learning Center, has invited her to the Celtic New Year Convention and Witches Ball as a reporter to write a story on the progress of The Blended Lives Planetary Federation. She will be their guest speaker at the opening ceremonies
When Laya arrives at the Celtic Convention, she finds herself face to face with an old and dear friend, Blended Lives Learning Center Instructor and member of the Order of the Night, Derrick Gibbous. As they begin to connect, causing old sparks to reignite, they are tossed into a nasty battle from which not everyone will escape. People are not as they seem, and not everyone supports the side for which they appear to work.
As their love for one another grows, so does the battle. Despite everything, Laya and Derrick are determined to see their work to unite beings of all kinds succeed.
Pathway to freedom – Published November 26, 2020
Alt Text:
The cover of “Pathway to Freedom”.
A garden with rocks and pebbles, surrounded by grass and trees. To the left, a bench sits below a tree with a seated dog silhouetted on the grass in front of it. An ethereal glow of gold and green shines through the middle of the picture with the title of the book written in fantasy style lettering in darker gold and with black shadowing.
The cover of “Pathway to Freedom”. A garden with rocks and pebbles, surrounded by grass and trees. To the left, a bench sits below a tree with a seated dog silhouetted on the grass in front of it. An ethereal glow of gold and green shines through the middle of the picture with the title of the book written in fantasy style lettering in darker gold and with black shadowing.
In this, the first book in her memoir trilogy, Pathway to Freedom – Broken and Healed: Book One – How a Seeing Eye Dog Retrieved My Life, Patty shares how her decision to gain complete independence with the help of ‘The Seeing Eye Guide Dog’ school in Morris Town, New Jersey, reveals to her a glimpse into worlds she had never before known existed. Once home from ‘The Seeing Eye’ she soon begins to realize all is not right in her world. Watch your step as you journey down the pathway with Patty and Campbell, for there are many obstacles along the way. There are triumphs and tribulations, tears and fears, but through it all that forever guide by her side, King Campbell works tirelessly to keep her safe from harm.
Bubba Tails – Published October 3, 2017
Alt Text:
Bubba Tails book cover
The cover is white with pink highlights around the title at the top and Patty’s name at the bottom. In the center is a watercolor paininting of a black lab dog sitting down with black puppies and golden puppies beneath it playing. A couple of the puppies are seemingly reading an open book on the ground. Behind the dogs are colors of pink, purple, and blue watercolor.
Bubba Tails book cover The cover is white with pink highlights around the title at the top and Patty’s name at the bottom. In the center is a watercolor paininting of a black lab dog sitting down with black puppies and golden puppies beneath it playing. A couple of the puppies are seemingly reading an open book on the ground. Behind the dogs are colors of pink, purple, and blue watercolor.
In this magical and love-filled tail, King Campbell AKA Bubba travels to the puppy nursery at The Seeing Eye to help ready a group of puppies who are just about to embark on the fabulous journey of learning to become Seeing Eye dogs. Just as he is about to finish his tail, a wee pup becomes very frightened of all that lies ahead, and one frightfully stormy night she runs away! Will King Campbell hear the urgent call from the puppy nursery in time? Will they find her and save her so she can fulfill her destiny?
The use of Tail instead of Tale for story and Magik instead of Magic is intended for these short stories. A great play on words from King Campbell.
Campbell’s Rambles – Published July 31, 2014
Alt Text:
Campbell’s Rambles book cover
The cover is a photograph of Patty and a black labrador dog with a guide harness and they are standing next to a body of water. The dog is looking down at the water which has flower petals strewn on the surface. Patty’s hair is dark brown and she is wearing a dark blue shirt and black pants. Behind her are various people all looking at the water. On the water’s edge in the distance are shrubs and trees and a blue sky.
Above and below the picture is a gray border with the title and Patty’s name in blue and black.
Campbell’s Rambles book cover The cover is a photograph of Patty and a black labrador dog with a guide harness and they are standing next to a body of water. The dog is looking down at the water which has flower petals strewn on the surface. Patty’s hair is dark brown and she is wearing a dark blue shirt and black pants. Behind her are various people all looking at the water. On the water’s edge in the distance are shrubs and trees and a blue sky. Above and below the picture is a gray border with the title and Patty’s name in blue and black.
This is the story of how the author obtained her first guide dog, Campbell, from The Seeing Eye™ in Morristown, New Jersey: what motivated her, the extensive training she had, the special relationship she developed with her trainer, and the good friends she made.
Once she returned home to Tennessee, there were many new challenges to be met and overcome, including domestic abuse. All that was in addition to her chronic conditions of bipolar disorder and fibromyalgia.
With honesty, courage, and humor, Patty Fletcher tells a remarkable story of personal development that is sure to inform, entertain, and inspire others, both blind and sighted.
Anthologies
Midnight Roost – Published October 17, 2023
Alt Text:
Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories book cover. The background of the book cover is a creepy nighttime scene with a full moon and shades of dark blue and black with spindly tree branches and silhouettes. On the ground is dirt with a gravestone. Amongst the trees silhouettes of owls with glowing cyclops eyes.
At the bottom right of the book cover is the author’s name, Kaye Lynne Booth.
Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories book cover. The background of the book cover is a creepy nighttime scene with a full moon and shades of dark blue and black with spindly tree branches and silhouettes. On the ground is dirt with a gravestone. Amongst the trees silhouettes of owls with glowing cyclops eyes. At the bottom right of the book cover is the author’s name, Kaye Lynne Booth.
20 authors bring your nightmares to life in 23 stories of ghosts, paranormal phenomenon and the horror from the dark crevasses of their minds. Stories of stalkers, both human and supernatural, possession and occult rituals, alien visitations of the strange kind, and ghostly tales that will give you goosebumps. These are the tales that will make you fear the dark. Read them at the Midnight Roost… if you dare.
Poetry Treasures 3: Passions – Published April 18, 2023
Alt Text:
Poetry Treasures 3: Passions book cover.
The background is a craggy beach with a blue sky above and a blue ocean. On the sand sits a treasure chest that is open and glowing gold. Kneeling to the left of the chest is a barefoot woman in jeans and a long sleeve red shirt and long brown hair.
The title sits at the top of the cover in cursive black lettering. Below the title are bubbles of images featuring a ballerina, a cat, a man fishing, a woman painting, a woman hiking, a woman baking, a woman riding a horse, and a man playing guitar.
Poetry Treasures 3: Passions book cover. The background is a craggy beach with a blue sky above and a blue ocean. On the sand sits a treasure chest that is open and glowing gold. Kneeling to the left of the chest is a barefoot woman in jeans and a long sleeve red shirt and long brown hair. The title sits at the top of the cover in cursive black lettering. Below the title are bubbles of images featuring a ballerina, a cat, a man fishing, a woman painting, a woman hiking, a woman baking, a woman riding a horse, and a man playing guitar.
Open the cover
and you will discover
the Poetry Treasures
of guests on
Robbie Cheadle’s
2022 “Treasuring Poetry” blog series
on Writing to be Read.
Included are treasures from:
Patty Fletcher, D. Wallace Peach, Yvette Prior,
Penny Wilson, Colleen M. Chesebro, Abbie Taylor,
Yvette Calliero, , Smitha Vishwanath,
Chris Hall, Willow Willers, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer,
and Robbie Cheadle
Visions – Published October 22, 2022
Alt Text:
Visions book cover
The background is a dark blue, black gradient with blurry light orbs in a light blue color on the right side of the cover. In the foreground, there is one silvery orb with a child’s face and two handprints on either side of the face. The title is at the top in large, lowercase yellow-gold lettering.
Visions book cover The background is a dark blue, black gradient with blurry light orbs in a light blue color on the right side of the cover. In the foreground, there is one silvery orb with a childs face and two handprints on either side of the face. The title is at the top in large, lowercase yellow-gold lettering.
An author’s visions are revealed through their stories. Many authors have strange and unusual stories, indeed. Within these pages, you will find the stories of eighteen different authors, each unique and thought provoking. These are the fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, and horror stories that will keep you awake long into the night.
What happens when:
An inexplicable monster plagues a town for generations, taking people… and souvenirs?
A post-apocalyptic band of travelers finds their salvation in an archaic machine?
The prey turns out to be the predator for a band of human traffickers?
Someone chooses to be happy in a world where emotions are regulated and controlled?
A village girl is chosen to be the spider queen?
Grab your copy today and find out. Let authors such as W.T. Paterson, Joseph Carabis, Kaye Lynne Booth, Michaele Jordan, Stephanie Kraner, and others, including the author of the winning story in the WordCrafter 2022 Short Fiction Contest, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, tantalize your thoughts and share their Visions
From Kaye Lynne Booth, editor of Once Upon an Ever After: Modern Fairy Tales & Folklore, Refracted Reflections: Twisted Tales of Duality & Deception and Gilded Glass: Twisted Myths & Shattered Fairy Tales.
Strange Weather Anthology: True Quirks of Nature
Multiple Authors
Strange Weather Anthology cover shows top left bright sunshine, yellow-orange blend, top right corner wide black triangular cloud encroaching, red sky underneath, all reflected on water with small triangle black cloud bottom left.
No one can do anything about the weather, but we have captured it. Strange Weather Anthology: True Quirks of Nature is a collection of 15 true life stories from the 11 talented authors who lived through them, captured in vivid detail, in prose and verse. Some entries also include actual photographs.
Have you been through a hurricane…on a ship, seen balls of fire and strange flashes in the sky, dodged tornados while driving, seen a vivid or double rainbow or experienced strange rain patterns, unexpected torrential storms, different weather patterns at the same time, or woken to find myriads of giant snowballs everywhere?
Look inside for these awe-inspiring stories told from a personal perspective, including short autobiographies and where to find these remarkable authors.
FEATURED AUTHORS:
Ann Chiappetta John Cronin (Canada)
Carol Farnsworth Leonard Tuchyner
C. S. Boyd Lynda McKinney Lambert
Cheryl McNeil Fisher Patty L. Fletcher
Jackie Collins Robert D. Sollars
Marlene Mesot, Ed.
Strange Weather Anthology
Please click here to hear recorded excerpts from book II A Battle of Choices.
A photo of Patty Fletcher and her seeing-eye dog, Blue. Patty sits cross legged on the floor wearing a maroon t-shirt, a tan pottery apron, light blue capri pants, and black tennis shoes. Her hair is half up. Patty is hugging Blue on her right side with her face turned towards him. Blue is a black lab dog and is leaning against Patty with his head in her hands. He is laying on a gray dog rug and is on a brown leather leash that is looped onto a metal shelving unit.
About Patty L. Fletcher
Updated November 2024
Patty L. Fletcher is a woman of passion and exploration.
She studies the art of manifestation and is a seeker of knowledge and the wisdom to know what to do with it when it’s learned.