I’m excited and honored to announce that my short story, “The Red Ball,” has been nominated for the 2026 Best Of The Net Award! I’m also honored to be among so many fellow talented authors and friends! Thank you, Michelle, for your continued support and love for this community! Hotel By Masticadores Proudly Announces Its…
Tag: Masticadores
“Fledgling’s Promise” by Joni Caggiano ©️2025 Now Live on HotelMasticadores
Fledgling’s Promise sorrow is a thistle that clawsits way through tender flesh festers like a wayward wounddyes blue bird color sky to gray red bricks, meld curtains shutshield dreams and hopes away like a girdle on an aged womanwith a belly made of silky clay moods shift a clock’s rigid arms sand drifts to erase…
“Stories of Resilience: After Rain Skies and One Petal at a Time at PWW Malaysia” – Thank You Michelle Navajas!
When I read the beautiful poetry in your books, Mich, there are innumerable and compelling lessons shared, as well as joy and sorrow. In other words, they are filled with soulful and meaningful bits of real life, which make your work so enthralling. After Rain Skies is representative of so many women and men globally…
“Polished Composure” by Joni Caggiano ©️2025 Now Live on HotelMasticadores
Polished Composure Timid love alights in garland eyes as I remember the tranquil sway of cattails in spring. Laughter and love permeate the air we breathe. My sun-kissed skin glistens with the reflection of the clear, chilly pond water. The yellowish-orange bills of the great egrets keep tune in this symphony of sound. Now wet,…
“A Knock” by Joni Caggiano ©️2025 Now Live on HotelMasticadores
A Knock crisp welcoming voice of the wrenhow her incantations I long to hearbut she placed her voice in a boxher color, joy, and song buried near wailing calls soft, tiny bulbs hoist sailoak tree slain by a dismal, frail windroots glisten in the sun, a forest-sickmy body dismantled, like my friend To continue reading,…
Editor’s Pick, “One Petal at a Time,” Live on HotelMasticadores
It is an honor to be featured today on Hotel Masticadores by Michelle Ayon Navajas as the “Editor’s Pick!” She did this for the anniversary of my book, One Petal at a Time. She is especially gracious, as she is releasing an anthology titled After Rain Skies – A Global Anthology to encourage a connection with…
The Cure – Live on HotelMasticadores
The Cure slow motion sobriety stirs direly like ticks on a thin-horned beast the black and white film resonates greasy black hair crawls like ants drunk for weeks, the smell lingers like a mucous trail of a banana slug blood dances a tango in your head vomit and snot, well-oiled fireworks explode on your white…
“Freezer Burn” Live Featured on IndiaMasticadores
Snow had fallen for five days in a row, and we were no longer allowed outside. Yet, my hateful sisters, Ruth and Elizabeth, somehow obtained mom’s approval to drive to the deli right up the street. Mom gave them money for sandwiches and hot cocoa. They both stuck their tongues out at me as they…
”Red Ball” Now On Hotel Masticadores
Red Ball Hannah wept silently into her dusty apron. She spun her thin face around, much like a donut, awaiting its freckling of powdered sugar. Tears cast their agonies upon hand-stitched hydrangeas, petunias, and magnolias while honeybees clung close with their bulging pollen-laden legs. Ruth had spent six months embroidering this apron for her and…
”Pheochromocytoma” Now On Chewers Masticadores
Pheochromocytoma She huddles coiled amongst the swath of blackberry with her matrix of thorny needles, spewing forth her painful pricks. Nerve bundles lay excavating within shredded muscles. Pain caused by unsummoned moles that convert and blast into a red-brick wall, a boundary of sanity and lost childhood of her red-brick prison. Pallid pathways etch memories…
