My Cardboard Balcony

Things I've accomplished in 2013: - Finished an entire year's worth of AmeriCorps service - Passed both the CBEST and the CSET on the first try - Paid off an entire student loan (out of many), bringing my debt down to about twelve thousand dollars - Successfully completed a temporary job with high accolades - Moved into my own apartment with my sister and my girlfriend - Started a new job at a bookstore - Continued to contribute to this blog regularly with few delays and no missed dates - Kept in touch with close friends, present and past - Maintained close relationships with my family while gaining financial independence Things I need to accomplish now in 2014: - Apply for single subject teaching credential programs - Find more opportunities to further supplement my income - Be more productive in terms of publication opportunities - Complete (or at least continue) my third novel - Begin collaborating on projects for a freelance production group with my sister

"Caramel Kisses" is an unfinished novel I began to write back in 2009 and stopped working on in 2010. The two main characters - Adriana Maguire Reynard and Emma Burking - would ultimately be revised for my later completed novella, "The Liffey Is Half-Asleep," in 2011. Several elements of "Liffey" can be found in their original forms in "Caramel Kisses," such as the characters' names, the haiku scene, and Adriana's penchant for writing. This chapter, in particular, also originally had the Amaretto dialogue that was later used in my one-act play, "Enjoy." Because of its influence on my later writing, I figured that this story, though incomplete, was worth sharing. Caramel Kisses: Chapter Seven by Belinda Roddie I had been with women before, but I hadn’t really loved them. Emma had opened up a new doorway in me, entering a dusty attic where she only had to remove the cobwebs and she could make it good as new. But she was not t

"I didn't know we hired a sniper." "Yep. Codename's 'Patch,' but last name is Holmes. Boss tried calling her 'Homie' and nearly got a bullet between his teeth." "Yikes. She got a temper?" "No more of a temper than the insurgents." He passed me a knob of tobacco and watched me pop it into my mouth. "Best not to put down her strengths." "Right," I mumbled in between chews, "as long as she can shoot."