#treasured-contributor — Public Fediverse posts
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Life with Others: Pete Mladinic’s Review of Carla, Swept Away by Casey Robb
Life with Others: A Review of Carla, Swept Away by Casey Robb
Taken as a whole, this collection of ten stories takes readers on a journey through imagination, through places and times that reflect the world author Casey Robb and her readers live in. Stories of lived lives—they keep readers on edge, turning the page to find out what happens next. A reader comes to the end of any one of these stories thinking, yes, that really happened to people I know or to me. Detailed settings, complex characters, suspenseful plots, and well-crafted sentences make these stories memorable. Diverse in mood- funny, sad, filled with drama- they rank among the best short stories in contemporary fiction.
There’s a lot of darkness in “Carla, Swept Away,” the title story, with its dark ground and dark sky. The reader follows the story from a rural Texas coastal town to the seawall in Galveston, where it ends. It begins with a young girl, Sarah, outside her home during a storm that, to Sarah, is more exhilarating than threatening.
The storm is blowing in all black and swirly. I am dancing in the street, twirling, like the clouds. Carla has arrived. Her wind lashes my back, my yellow slicker flapping like a feral thing. Her skies let go. Heavy drops hammer my cheeks like marbles. The distant ditch is spilling dark water across the county road. The murky stream steals up our street and drowns our lawn.
The story revolves around the death of Sarah’s younger sister, Allie, killed close to home by a hit-and-run driver. At the end, in Galveston, Sarah’s father swims offshore and rescues her mother, who has gone out too far. While the family’s grief is at the heart of the story, the writer, who has been there, brings it to life. Her protagonist, Sarah, takes the reader back to the early 1960s, to her region of Texas, to the roadside ditch where Allie lost her life.
Whether Rusty will ever get out of the cave alive is the big question in “The Devil’s Grip.”
He could go no farther. His reaching arms were stuck, and his legs stretched way down, unable to push or pull. His sweating hands twisted and turned, but couldn’t dislodge his chest. The earth had him in a vise.
He had gone into the cave to retrieve a barrette that Sissy, Rusty’s older brother Tate’s girlfriend, had lost there on a previous venture into the cave, Rusty’s “special” place. The central scene, Rusty alone in the cave, is the story’s climax, the height of its conflict. It is then and there that Rusty gains an inner strength that will allow him to go further in life and will take him to Sul Ross State University to fulfill his aspirations of becoming a geologist, and consequently urge Tate, an auto mechanic, to study to be what he wants to be, an engineer. The cave, The Devil’s Grip, is the metaphor of motivation in Rusty’s journey.
In “He’s a Rebel,” Sarah and her friend Angela want to be Cher, the singer, half of the duo Sonny and Cher. Angela, tall and dark, even looks like Cher. She has Cher’s bangs and, slightly older than Sarah, a boyfriend. At school, she urges Sarah to meet a guy, Frankie, whose allure vanishes the moment Sarah enters his dirty, unkempt house, where he lives with his often-absent mother. Unbeknownst to Sarah, Frankie has a girlfriend. She arrives at his house with four other girls, and she and Sarah fight. Sarah thinks Frankie planned it all so trouble would happen. He is not a nice guy, and he lives in a bad home. At the end of the story, in her own home, she says:
“Well, I’m only going to say one thing.” I shook my head. “I’m glad I have a dad.” He gave me a puzzled smile. “And a mom.” “Wow,” Mom said.
Sarah’s epiphany is that the person she wants to be is herself.
Other stories are equally rewarding. “Baba Yaga at the Toy Store” is about a young girl’s encounter with a survivor of the Holocaust. “The Rabbit Trap” involves racism in the Deep South. “The Piano Man” is set against the backdrop of the executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. In “Tiger, Tiger,” the protagonist, a Vietnam vet, has guilt-filled flashbacks on a plane during a storm. “The Fruit Dish Finds Nandi” takes readers down to the Yucatán in Mexico. “Valentine’s Day” is a romantic comedy of errors. “You Takin’ Me to Paisley, or What? ” is a story about a young woman who is a hippie hitchhiker and an elderly man, recently widowed, who lives in a travel trailer, and it ends with an ironic twist. Each story is a journey, one readers will want to take, and take again.
Carla, Swept Away is available on Amazon ($12.99 paper, $3.99 Kindle).
Copyright © 2026 Peter Mladinic
All Rights ReservedPeter Mladinic was born and raised in New Jersey. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1973 and earned an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas in 1985. Professor emeritus at New Mexico Junior College, where he was a member of the English faculty for 30 years. During that time, he was a board member of the Lea County Museum and president of the Lea County Humane Society. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, USA. Peter Mladinic’s most recent book of poems, Maiden Rock, is available from UnCollected Press.
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#BookPromotion #BookReview #CaseyRobb #MasticadoresUSA #PeteMladinic #TreasuredContributor -
“What If” by Cindy Georgakas
Photo by Ray Bilcliff on Pexels.comWhat If?
What if we spent more time worrying less
about accomplishing something
and more time in the present moment?
The mind is an insidious machine
always evaluating and judging
what we should be doing, instead of being.
What if we watched our thoughts and
brought them back to the issue at hand
and breathed through the pain?
What if the issue at hand
is more than we can handle and we fall prey
to the mind's wicked pleasures?
What if we were the observer and
witnessed the feelings that wash through us
like we watch a movie?
What if we weren’t so afraid to walk into doors
that are new or worry they might close shut
and lock us out?
What if we walked into the waves crashing upon
the horizon and swam in the uncertainty
of the unknown?
What if we lived our whole life thinking, wishing,
regretting never getting our feet wet
and died never having lived?
Then what?
Copyright © 2026 Cindy Georgakas
All Rights ReservedCindy is a San Francisco native who currently lives in a small community nestled among the trees with her husband. She is a health and wellness professional, a certified life coach, personal trainer, yoga/meditation teacher, and bodyworker. She draws inspiration from her clients, friends, four children, 4-legged furry kids, and nature.
Her new book, Celebrating Poetry, is a #1 New Release Bestseller on Amazon. A companion guide to her book, Re-Create & Celebrate: 7 Steps to Live the Life of Your Dreams, has over 41 5-Star reviews. She has received multiple Spillwords Press Awards and co-authored best-selling anthologies. She is also a Treasured Contributor to MasticadoresUSA. You can read more of Cindy’s work at Unique Times.
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#CindyGeorgakas #MasticadoresUSA #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor -
Featuring an Art Show by Kushal Poddar
Copyright © 2026 Kushal Poddar
All Rights ReservedThe author of ‘Postmarked Quarantine’ and ‘How To Burn Memories Using a Pocket Torch’ has nine books to his credit. Kushal Poddar is a journalist, father, and the editor of ‘Words Surfacing’. His works have been translated into twelve languages and published across the globe. Twitter- https://twitter.com/Kushalpoe
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#art #KushalPoddar #MasticadoresUSA #TreasuredContributor -
“A Safe Haven” by Cindy Georgakas
Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.comA Safe Haven
Whenever I feel sad or lonely, I wander to the forest of protection canopied by the branches that hold me,
sheltering me from the sun and rain, infusing my soul from the outside pain and distraction of the world’s agenda.
Respite delivers me, nature my teacher where earth's perils feel far away, and my mind clears as my heart beats love.
This is my safety net where earth meets sky, vapor meets air, and I disappear into the backdrop of the ocean, floating free.
Copyright © 2026 Cindy Georgakas
All Rights ReservedCindy is a San Francisco native who currently lives in a small community nestled among the trees with her husband. She is a health and wellness professional, a certified life coach, personal trainer, yoga/meditation teacher, and bodyworker. She draws inspiration from her clients, friends, four children, 4-legged furry kids, and nature.
Her new book, Celebrating Poetry, is a #1 New Release Bestseller on Amazon. A companion guide to her book, Re-Create & Celebrate: 7 Steps to Live the Life of Your Dreams, has over 41 5-Star reviews. She has received multiple Spillwords Press Awards and co-authored best-selling anthologies. She is also a Treasured Contributor to MasticadoresUSA. You can read more of Cindy’s work at Unique Times.
Submit to MasticadoresUSA and subscribe for more great reads!
#CindyGeorgakas #MasticadoresUSA #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor -
“Socially Unacceptable” by Nolcha Fox
Photo by u0415u043au0430u0442u0435u0440u0438u043du0430 u0428u0443u043cu0441u043au0438u0445 on Pexels.comSocially Unacceptable
I’m that weird girl
eating with my hands
under the trees in the park.
Grease drips down
my face and arms.
My lips are stained
from berry kisses.
Crumbs and clutter
flutter in the breeze
and fall around me.
Mothers pushing strollers
wrinkle noses,
rush by
without a wave.
Birds and squirrels
approach, applaud
and join me in the feast.
Copyright © 2026 Nolcha Fox
All Rights ReservedNolcha Fox’s poems have been curated in print and online journals. A best-selling author, her poetry books are available on Amazon and Dancing Girl Press. Nominated for Best Of The Net and Pushcart Prize multiple times. Editor of Chewers by Masticadores and LatinosUSA.
Website: https://writingaddiction2.wordpress.com/ and https://nolchafox2.wixsite.com/nolcha-s-written-wor/blog Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nolcha.fox/
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#MasticadoresUSA #NolchaFox #poem #poetry #TreasuredContributor