Tag: Heaven Help Me

Finding Compassion Amid Uncertainty #SixSentenceStoryThursdayLinkUp #Excerpts #WritingPrompts

“Stewart has a cute birth mark on his nose,” Mary Ellen found herself saying about the father of her unborn child.

As tears threatened, Kim squeezed her hand. “I know, sweetie. People say they love you, then desert you when you need them the most. We’ll take care of you.”

“She’s right,” Agnes said, putting a hand on Mary Ellen’s shoulder.

***

Who are Agnes and Kim in relation to Mary Ellen, and why are they helping her? Read “Heaven Help Me” in my new short story collection, Living Vicariously in Wyoming to find out. See below for details and where to get your copy.

Thanks to GirlieOnTheEdge for inspiring me to post the above excerpt with this week’s six-sentence story prompt in which the given word is “mark.” If you’d like to write something in exactly six sentences, using the word at least once, you can share in the comments or click below to join the fun and read other six-sentence creations. Thank you for stopping by.

 

InLinkz – Linkups & Link Parties for Bloggers

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  newsfrommycorner+subscribe@groups.io .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!

Heaven Help Me #TuesdayTidbit #Excerpts #Inspiration

A month later, as they were driving home on a little–used country road late on Christmas Eve, Mary Ellen said, “Bobby Joe, I think I’m in labor. It’s too soon. Dr. Sanders said it wouldn’t be for another week.”

“Okay,” he said, pulling to the side of the road. “I’ll call Agnes and have her meet us at the hospital. Oh, shoot, my cell battery’s dead.”

“Oh, God, I think my water just broke!”

***

Note: The story excerpted above is from my new collection, Living Vicariously in Wyoming, which, along with three of my other books, can be downloaded ABSOLUTELY FREE from Smashwords as part of its end-of-year sale. Please see below for details.

At the risk of providing a spoiler, I want to point out that the barn where Mary Ellen eventually gives birth is reflected in the book’s front cover image. Thanks to David and Leonore at DLD Books for creating this beautiful photo. And thank you all for reading.

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

 

My Books Free from Smashwords This Month

 

I’m pleased to announce that Living Vicariously in Wyoming, Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me, The Red Dress, and My Ideal Partner are available as part of the Smashwords 2025 End of Year Sale! This runs till the end of the month. Click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books ABSOLUTELY FREE! Happy reading!

 

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

 

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  newsfrommycorner+subscribe@groups.io .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!

Heaven Help Me #SixSentenceStoryThursdayLinkUp #Excerpts #Inspiration

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mary Ellen said, gulping back tears.

“Kim and I have been trying to have a child of our own, but it’s not easy. Adoption can be a pain in the anatomy, and there’s no sperm bank here in Sheridan.”

Mary Ellen brightened. “I could give my baby to you and then go back home, couldn’t I?”

“I hate to say this, kid,” Agnes said, “but when I talked to your dad this afternoon, I got the impression that he doesn’t want you darkening his door again.”

 

My Inspiration

 

In December of 2005, when I heard the song, “Breath of Heaven,” sung from the perspective of the Virgin Mary after being impregnated with the Christ Child, I was touched. A month later, after my late husband Bill suffered his first paralyzing stroke, I found myself identifying with the Virgin Mary’s feelings of fear, uncertainty, and isolation, though I wasn’t pregnant with a Messiah.

I wondered, what if a teenager, raised in a Catholic family, gets pregnant and tells her father she’s giving birth to a second Messiah. Thus, “Heaven Help Me,” the story excerpted above, was born. It appears in my new collection, Living Vicariously in Wyoming.

Your Turn

 

Thanks to GirlieOnTheEdge for inspiring the above with this week’s six-sentence story prompt in which the given word is “impression,” and the idea is to write something in exactly six sentences, using the word at least once. You can click below to participate on your blog and read other six-sentence contributions. Thank you for stopping by.

 

InLinkz – Linkups & Link Parties for Bloggers

 

Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

 

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

 

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  newsfrommycorner+subscribe@groups.io .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!