Blue Dreams

Here I was born in the USA and sandwiched between my two brothers, and I got the blues and they got the pinks and the kitchen sinks and the water was still good around here, maybe a little hard, and mom would boil it just to be sure. We were loved, that’s for sure. Dad had hurt his back carrying us around when we were little, and by the time he reached forty he began to really feel it. See what loving does? After all the medical leave dried up he had to go on disability. Life would get harder day by day. Dad was cross easy and all the time, and spent long days lying on his back in bed, in pain. Mom moved the television in there, and I sure didn’t miss it. We all chipped in to do the things Dad could no longer do, and we would have to do it well cause Mom was hard to please. We lived in a big old house probably wasn’t gonna survive the next hurricane. Everytime I saw one of those puppies swirling on the news, off the coast of Florida and comin our way, I got scared. My little brother he wanted to see it happen, he liked to see things destroyed. Big brother was the opposite. If it happened, if the swirling beauty bounced on up the eastern seaboard and reached us with still gale force winds drawing energy off the Atlantic shelf; if we got slammed, well, he would be the first one to begin rebuilding, after he made sure we were all okay.


Excerpt from BLUE DREAMS

my nanowrimo novel. 2015

SHADOWING

" I was hot with a madness. I was becoming accustomed to the darkness inherent in me. I may not have been happy about the violent quality, but I accepted it. I was conscious of it. I was not running from it anymore. The immediacy! I could access the power. I could nurse on the fear. I could feel it, I could compel it out of a human with no remorse." - K

K IS FOR KARMA

"Sure, I might go overboard (and our kind always did) and reduce them to hourglass sand, but why not show me some love? And come out karmically ahead? Have the courage to sit across from me and suck tapioca into the fat straw with sweet and cool, fresh green tea. We need not talk. Just look me in my eyes for a minute, and watch as the good feeling rises up in you, and you begin to have that long lost energetic you had when you were just a child, and fearless." - K

UPCOMING RELEASE

Design by Katya, 2014

Starting today, I am writing into my second year of the National Novel Writing Month, with an eye toward the continuation of a series I started last year. I am excited! This is a literary fiction set in Oakland, California. Female protagonist, first-person narrative. Last year, November, the words spun out of me and wove what looks to be shaping up well as Book One and Book Two of the series.

I hope to finish editing Book One by year end, latest. The 'beta reader' response was very encouraging. The story is character-driven and has elements of dark fantasy, but certainly classifies much closer to Literary Fiction.

I plan to release Book One, Daughter of Darkness, as a Novella on Amazon.com, beside my other publications. All have been well-received in the marketplace, with 4-5 star ratings. My indy author page is located here: KATYA MILLS . Thank you for all your support!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

To my beloved friends and fans, I want to wish you all a Happy Halloween
from the daughter of darkness...

'Roses' by Katya Mills, 2010

I took this photo in the Morcom Amphitheatre of Roses, in Oakland, where i found sanctuary from the downward spiral of my life. The years 2010-2012. Life was crazy, wild, I was experiencing a shutdown that was necessary for my re-emergence, I guess. Anyway... I believe I may use this photograph for the cover of my short story on Amazon, Everlee & Lee. I plan to change both name and cover in the coming weeks.

NOVELLA (2014) COVER DESIGN

My plan is to release a Novella
to the world within weeks...
I designed the cover, ici.

The photograph is
courtesy of the Romanian
artist  Sandy Manase

5 k 10 blessed

I got 50,000 words on paper
I felt nothing for a while
Then i felt OK
Soon OK felt really good
And really good
Got even better

Then I did not know
What the heck to do with myself?
Then I climbed a mountain
With some friends

Walking the ridge line
With a full circle view
Then summiting under the sun
Brought it all home

I wrote 50,000 words
What a blessing.

(You can read my poem
about my national novel,
here)
50,000 words under the sea

Boy and girl, Unified

I broke the 25,000 word barrier.
You can read about my process,
on In Filament, #5 .

I am thinking about how the
community of poets, writers,
artists, readers, and wonderful
representatives of the human
race, well, you all pull me up
'in filaments'. So thank you.
I get thrown into the fire of my
creative, internal. Tossed up
against that fence.
Then I bounce back with a
madness so sweet.
The catharsis kicks in, and
lays down at my feet.

Here now, is an excerpt from
my nano nano. I hope you
read it, feel it, like it, hate it.
Cause that's what it did to me
and that's okay. The feelings
keep me going, when they're
not shutting me down.
 xoxo
Katya Webber Mills

Excerpt (in the 24,000+ range)
aka the flauna and flora floating
on the surface of my new moon
escape...

National Novel November: 

"Could only put up with a boy for so long, especially since he was gettin’ some. Boys wanna start acting like they own a girl, usually because there scared of losing her. Then you try calming them down about it and relax, and they start thinkin’ you’re hiding something. All the insecurities arise, and then what was a pure oxytocin play becomes a big downer of hurt feelings, jealousies, physical abuse and emotional blackmail. Any girl knew the warning signs. Only some could pull out of a tailspin relationship in time. Attachment was a bitch.

But anyway, I began to feel something for the boy was keeping me happy-like. So before and after our unified moments, I would listen with some trepidation; only to see how he was recklessly  gunning toward an opportunity to get shot or locked up. Cause black had him not only breaking the law, but then some. "

Excerpt # 3

National Novel Writing Month
6834 words. Day #4

"No more! I pulled it all back and fell back into the plush of the foam behind the vinyl covering the booth. I couldn’t take no more. I could only look at him from behind my tears and how it all had hit me, and who he was and what he had been through, so terrible, so bad. And how finally for once in my life there was someone who I never would have any question, got my back. So certain on point here - this crazy man in this crazy world, was the eye of the hurricane where I might finally relax and just be. Be my crazy self in the insanity of it all. And so it was."

K by K 2012. Richmond CA

Excerpt #2. National Novel Month.

The work is going well. My word counts are a bit off, but the quality is more important than the quantity. I am writing a parallel piece every day about my 'process' of writing a novel this month, and those thoughts can be found @ K IS SILENT. My entries here all month, will be strictly excerpts of the actual novel I am attempting to write. I realize that excerpt #1 had all sorts of profanity in it, and so today's excerpt will be profanity-free. Enjoy!

K 'nanowrimo' 2013

"HE took me to a broken old tool shack in the heart of East Oakland, California. If you call it a heart. The beating center of clandestine criminal activity, pumping its black blood of underground decentralized mercenary trade out across the land. Stifling good-naturedness and choking civility and perpetrating chaos in any way possible, by any means necessary. A real triumph of the black market. A real home for the underground. A real perversion of faith. A real viral sickness of sociopathy and anti-establishment terror, murder and hidden power, blackmail and deception, betrayal and violence. "

Excerpt (national novel) #1

Here's maybe my favorite paragraph I wrote, day #1...

"I really would have laughed, I would have. Problem was, I had no fucking clue where I was. No fucking clue whose piece of shit dirty-ass van I was sitting in. No fucking clue why my head hurt, how I got here under the neon light pissing down and the smell of piss all around. No fucking clue about anything, except that my life was clearly derailed and the fear was rooted in the base of my spine and branching out like a tree in flash fast forward photosynthesized heroics. I began to lose my breath and could not catch it. The air felt frozen against my face, and my eyesight suddenly became so sharp I could read the street sign a hundred yards up the hill leading on to the highway. It said Santa Clara Avenue. I said it in my head."

K by K, day 2 nanowrimo!

NNN - National Novel November!

'books on glass' by k

I will be writing a novel in the month of November, as part of the National Novel Writing Month. Wow, I am so excited! I will attempt to fictionalize the last decade of my life in Oakland, California. In the first 10 months of 2013, I have posted around 200 times between this blog and my website. I self-published my first novel and published a short story. I have met so many friends online and off, and rekindled old friendships. 

 I left Oakland and have found a home in Sacramento. I am healing. I have worked really, really hard to build community and write. Now is a chance to push my skills to another level, and put my past exactly where it belongs -- in the past. Exorcise the demons. And have a hell of a time, doing it. This should be great fun!  I will be updating you all on my progress, by posting excerpts on the daily, throughout November. WIsh me luck!