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."

The Adolescent New Year by Belinda Roddie The adolescent New Year got into the remaining crate of beer that his dad had left behind after fading into the ether of yesteryear. Knowing that his time was fleeting, he drank underage, belched loudly at the thought of his long, long ancestry, and debated whether or not he wanted to punch February in the face while the other startled months watched, waiting for their turn to shine again. At least they got to keep living each year and simply have a break - no, the New Year had to age quickly and die just as fast, the shrapnel of a wasting planet's past.

The girls dug out three trenches in the mud, the gravel pickled with almost salty rain, and waited quietly for someone to walk by. They trusted no one in this dead zone. They shouldered pistols and a grenade each, a smear of dirt under each eye. Not to look cool, but instead to camouflage in the wet, murky gloom.

You Didn't Stutter by Belinda Roddie You asked me if you had stuttered. If your tongue had failed you once again in the execution of your bubbling, fleeting pubescent wrath. And I told you you didn't. That I had understood every goddamn word that had drifted like shrapnel from the fall-out. Every string of commentary unraveling from its film reel as the movie puttered out and faded to shivering gray. How dare I? Yes, and how dare you attempt to use a fishing hook to salvage my jaw. How dare you refuse me a steak dinner and then act upset when I pay my own way toward the meal. The gristle in your stomach sits, while the feast digests in mine. I'm not afraid of your judgment, or your lack of kindness. The lack of it should hurt you more. The unsettling of your life should make me smile.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the afterparty," grumbled Taylor as we took turns shoveling crumpled beer cans into the nearest recycling bins. "What did you have in mind, then?" I asked. "The magic New Year's fairy to clean up the mess?" "Shut your damn face. That's what I have in mind." On the corner, Wesley was waving us down with two garbage bags slung over his shoulders. Of course, he was still massively hungover.