David C. Hughes, Writer

And Now for Something Totally Different! (Sort of)

Whew … can you believe January 2015 is almost over? Time flies when you’re having a blast, and I’ll tell you what, I’m having a blast!

For the next few months I’m stepping away from focusing on my “Dailies” and stepping into blogging two of the books I plan to release this year: The Other Side of the Covers and On My Daddy’s Knee. With these two books I’m shifting gears for a season away from Christian inspirational writing toward children’s short stories.

The Other Side of the Covers is a collection of spooky stories aimed at 8 to 12 year olds. My daughter, Hannah, loves scary stories, and she’s constantly nagging me to tell her another one. Many of the tales contained in The Other Side of the Covers stemmed from improvised stories told while driving Hannah back-and-forth to gymnastics. Just last night, on the way home from church, she asked, “Dad, would you tell me a scary story? It can be real or you can make it up.” Since I’ve exhausted most of my real-life scary stories (I’ve got several), I have to rely more and more on the make-believe stuff. Talk about fun! And weaving stories on the fly is great exercise in both improvisation and storytelling. The story I told last night is called “Ants,” and I’m sure it will end up in a book somewhere. …

On My Daddy’s Knee is a collection of fun stories aimed at pre-school to 7 year olds. Again, most of the tales in this collection stemmed from stories made up on the fly while in the car. These are shorter stories that can be read out loud to children, and beginning readers will find them fun to read to their parents.

I also plan to intersperse short reviews of books written by authors under the Progressive Rising Phoenix label between short story postings. I’m excited to get the word out about these amazing writers!

So … look for the first installment of my short story, “Show-n-Tell,” this Thursday. Until then, enjoy!

Blessings,

David