It's FIRST FRIDAY! James. Lavene. Seewald.

Three talented authors give their take on same photograph in 150 words. It's always interesting, the different ideas and voices that a single picture generates.

JAMES

The armless redheaded doll gave me the creeps when I first dug it up. I was clearing away brush after the violent windstorm from three days ago when I spotted a small foot sticking out of the ground beneath the elderly privet. I had no idea how long the doll had been interred. We’d lived in the house only five months, and I knew nothing about the previous owners.

Soon after we moved in my two-year-old son started talking about a red-headed girl doll he wanted to play with. The little girl had it, and he wanted it.

There was no little girl in our house or anywhere on the block. Yet the baby kept getting increasingly frustrated because the little girl held the doll and wouldn’t let go.

He jabbered excitedly and held out his hands when he saw what I’d unearthed.

LAVENE

They’d looked everywhere for Rita.

The storm had torn the Outer Banks apart. Most people thought Susie’s mother was crazy trying to find a doll when their home had been washed out to sea. They didn’t understand. Susie needed something to think about, something to hope for. She needed to think there was something still left for her so she could pick up the pieces of her life.

Susie’s Mom needed that too.

Susie and her mother found Rita, finally, lying on a bench near the boardwalk, as though she’d been waiting there all that time for them. They cried together, and Susie wrapped her scarf around Rita where the rough weather had stripped her dress away. She smoothed her hand across the doll’s hair and tried to make her presentable.

“I think she’ll be fine now,” Susie said with a smile.

“I think we’ll all be fine now.”

SEEWALD

Silently slipping into the magical dress shop,

cloaked in the black velvet mystery of night,

her heart tripping like a hammer,

she escapes into a world of wonder.

A  land of make-believe comes alive

as she sees the exquisite dresses,

fingers the delicate fabrics,

and pretends she is the fey fairy princess of her dreams.

She slips into a confection of silk and buttery lace.

The purity of a violin's sotto sound begins

 as she dances, swirls, twirls in her pretty party dress.

And there is nothing but the perfection of this moment,

 serene and beautiful for all eternity.

A loud rapping, tapping startles her.

"There you are," her mistress says.

At Amazon

"It is late and time we were in bed."

She fervently believes

some day her dream will become reality,

but for now,

she is merely a broken doll

clothed in torn rags.

THE AUTHORS

DEAN JAMES

Dean (AKA Miranda) James is a seventh-generation Mississippian who has now spent over half his life in Texas. A medical librarian by day (in the Texas Medical Center in Houston), he plots murders, listens to music, reads, and works part-time at Murder by the Book on Saturdays. He is owned by two cats who make Sarah Bernhardt look like an amateur when they think it’s feeding time.

JOYCE LAVENE

Joyce Lavene writes bestselling mystery with her husband/partner Jim. They have written and published more than 60 novels for Harlequin, Berkley and Charter Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. She lives in rural North Carolina with her family, her cat, Quincy, and her rescue dog, Rudi. Visit her at www.joyceandjimlavene.com, www.facebook.com/JoyceandJimLavene . Twitter: @authorjlavene, http://romanceofmystery.blogspot.com.

Amazon Author Page

JACQUELINE SEEWALD

Multiple award-winning author Jacqueline Seewald has taught creative, expository and technical writing at the university level as well as high school English. She also worked as an academic librarian and educational media specialist. Her Kim Reynolds mystery novels, originally published in hardcover by Five Star/Gale includes: The Inferno Collection, The Drowning Pool, and The Truth Sleuth. The first two novels in this series are now available as ebooks in all formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc. Check out the The Truth Sleuth available as of January 2013 in paperback edition from Harlequin Worldwide Mystery.