Death’s Head
By Friday Vash
What must go through his mind
What stories does he have
So many people met
So many pleas for more time
So many hugs of thanks
From celebrities to
The poorest pauper
What thoughts keep coming back
To play on repeat
What conversation will we have
When I die
🧚♀️Interview With Linda M. Crate🧚♀️
1. Please share your bio, if you have one made.
Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has fifteen published chapbooks, the latest being: not your piñata (Alien Buddha Publishing, June 2025).
2. What made you want to become a writer/artist?
I became a writer because I have always enjoyed words. Even as a child I picked up on the fact that if you gave multiple people the same words they could come up with different stories and I found that fascinating. I also loved being able to connect with protagonists and even sometimes understanding the antagonist even if I didn’t always agree with them.
I liked living in worlds that were different than my experiences on earth. It gave me hope that maybe one day we could build a better world for ourselves and the next generations.
I like drawing and painting, but I’m not as talented at those things so while I dabble in art from time to time my main form of creation is through writing.
I do like taking photographs, too, my college bestie told me I had an artistic eye for photos. I think it’s one of my favorite compliments. It’s stuck with me through the years.
3. What inspires you to keep writing/creating?
Living, honestly. I am always inspired by everything I’ve lived through and experienced. I can find inspiration in conversations between strangers, the weather, shows, music. Anything can serve to fuel my muse, and my muse is relentless. I often say I didn’t find writing, writing found me.
4. Coffee ☕ or tea 🍵? Tea.
I actually cannot stand the taste of coffee. It’s too bitter for me.
5. Are you a cat or dog person?
I like both, but I definitely lean more towards dogs.
6. What type of books do you read for fun?
I usually opt for fantasy or poetry books. Although, I do enjoy reading most anything.
7. What is your favorite story/artist piece you have made?
I have so many stories that I don’t know if that’s fair, but I have a few that I think about often:
A Love Defiant first published in the Anthology Soulmate Syndrome Volume #2
Queen Amalia from Summer of Speculation Villain’s by Cloaked Press
To New Futures published in Prismatica – Issue #6 in 2016
Black Magic first published in Ricky’s Backyard
Child of the Roses first published in the 2017 Edition of Fall Into Fantasy
Millicent’s Revenge first published in the 1st volume of Yarnswoggle
8. Are you a multi-genre or single genre creator?
I’m definitely a multi-genre type of person.
9. What is your favorite place to hang out?
My mother’s house, the library, or on a boat ride but I’m an introvert so I rather be alone or with “my” people.
10. What do you do to relax?
Swim, read, take nature walks
11. Do you have a favorite show?
I don’t watch a lot of television but I always liked Law & Order: SVU, CSI: Miami, and NCIS
12. Do you have a favorite author/artist?
Authors: Anne Rice, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, JRR Tolkien
Artists: Vincent Van Gogh, Kelly McKernan, Joel Tesch
13. What future stories/creations are in the works?
Depends on where my muse takes me. I have so many ideas, I don’t think I have enough time. Lol
14. In true Kelly Lynn Colby fashion, what is your favorite ice cream?
Cookie Dough if we’re talking about cartons of ice cream, soft serve I like twists especially if there’s sprinkles or it’s cherry dipped.
15. Is there anything you believe new authors should know?
It is hard. Don’t give up if this is your dream. Some days there’s more rejections than your heart can fathom, but you gotta keep on going and you have to have a thick skin.
What is one editors “hell no” is another editors “hell yes”. You just have to find the right person for the right piece and that can take time.
16. What do you have planned for the future?
I want to be able to travel more, get some more books out, just keep living and writing, find time to live and not simply exist, and to receive as many dreams as reality as I can make.
17. Where on social media do you want to be found?
My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Linda-M-Crate-129813357119547/,
my instagram is: ,https://www.instagram.com/authorlindamcrate/,
my Bluesky: authorlindamcrate.bsky.social,
& my twitter: https://twitter.com/thysilverdoe?lang=en.
This is from her upcoming book Ars Poetica
WILL THEY SEE
Will my kids read them
My stories
My poetry
The random collected quotes
That may help them later in life
I don’t know
I hope one day they will
He was sweet in the beginning
Many times throughout the relationship, too
But more and more
He accused her of cheating
Of not loving him enough
Constant beradement
So much name calling
Taking all her money
Her confidence
Her self love
Everything he could take
Long fights until dawn
Outside the house
The best husband
The kindest
Who wouldn’t hurt a fly
One day he is so high
So drunk
He throws her against the wall
Straight out of a bathtub
She call the cops
He even tells them she deserved it
She made him do it
He is out of the house now
She can have peace?
No
Brace for the rest of her life
Because the injury was major
His friends constantly asking
Coming by for things she doesn’t have
Even cutting power lines to the house
Limping for rest of her days
Constant bullshit from all sides
Leaving town
Leaving her home is the only way for peace
For happiness
Why must people be this way?
Friday is doing so well with the Challenge. how are you doing with the prompts ?
the bumble bee
when i heard the buzzing,
i was afraid that there was
a wasp in my house;
to my surprise it was just
a big bumble bee—
hello, bumble!
i asked the universe to let her
trust me,
and i held out a hand;
she seemed to recognize i was
trying to help her and she crawled
onto one of my fingers—
as i headed out of the steps
of my apartment and outside she had
managed to walk from one
shoulder to my other shoulder,
and she seemed to buzz in
gratitude;
but it was so loud in my ear
that i waved her away—
but the following day i saw her
checking in on me,
as if to see if i were okay.
–linda m. crate
i rather dance with the moon
i couldn’t begin to tell you
every place where
it hurts,
for there are so many
scars that are only half-healed
or open themselves
when i scratch deep enough
into the wound to feel it again;
so let us not imagine those places—
instead let me dwell in the places
of healing: books, conversations
with friends and family which are
cozy and comfortable, music, poetry,
fantasy books, the forest, underneath
the moon in a sky full of stars, in the
sunlit kisses of the creek, in the wings of
fantasy and imagination where my mind
is prone to go;
for these places bring me joy—
& while i will not deny the pain i’ve known,
i’d rather dance with the moon than relive
all of that misery again.
–linda m. crate
shift in perspective
climbing faery hills
the world seems
a bit more magical than
mundane,
and i am able to see
rainbows of flowers and
colors i may not
otherwise observe;
and i can suck in a deep
breath of fragrant life beauty
and fall in love with the
blue skies and the sunlight dancing
through the trees once more—
sometimes a mere shift
in perspective is needed for
happiness to come flying in.
–linda m. crate
a different world
butterflies do not swim,
neither do fish fly;
but i imagine a world in which
the inverse is true—
a place where you can
swim with
butterflies,
and where sometimes fish
sometimes forget where
they’re flying to and smack you
in the face;
but i can imagine the chaos
it would cause for the drivers
who are simply minding their business
only for a fish to fly into their windshields—
but i still think it would be fun to swim
with butterflies,
imagine how quickly they’d be able to swim
to keep themselves from the hungry maws
of predators;
imagine how their beauty would dance
across the sea.
–linda m. crate
even the sun feels cold
serenity is a state
of mind that i’d like
to reach again,
sick of being caught in the
chaos of all this fear,
all this anger, all this pain;
sometimes the daffodils
help me see the beauty in the
midst of all these nightmares
but i fear i need more light—
i know there’s light within me,
but it feels too weak and dim
to illuminate my soul the way
it needs to shine;
need some other source to touch
me with their fire—
because even the sun feels cold.
–linda m. crate
As a side Note we wish a happy Book birthday to Linda for Her Faerie Witch Queen that released today.
She is doing well with the Challenge. How are you doing ?
i will be the light
hammers are not made
of cloud,
and neither are nightmares
made of unbreakable
steel;
i will be the light
that breaks open clouds,
and shatters
nightmares
so they no longer have
any teeth—
i feel their fangs
have bitten this world
long enough,
so i will be the moon that
brings about a song
of reality that hurts less
than any we have
ever known;
i believe my magic is
strong enough for this.
–linda m. crate
paint a better world
graveyards
are for the living,
for the dead
know their names;
perhaps they
even don
new ones in their new
lives—
sometimes i pray
in a kinder
universe
than this one,
but if they must return
to us in this
one that will help
shatter all the nightmares
this world has
ever known so we can feel
the light of the sun without the
crushing tongue of defeat or doom
brushing us in a painting—
let’s break the paint brush,
and paint a better world.
–linda m. crate
i need a faerie godmother
my childhood is
a dress from gossamer thread,
being the eldest daughter
i was expected to take care
of everyone else but no one
ever took care of me;
i was expected to be self-sufficient
and always told i was strong when
i asked for help instead of actually
being given help—
sometimes i wish that i had been
given a dress of many feathers,
instead of this dress of glass which will
easily shatter should i ever grow
weary from the weight of the world;
but like always i suppose i’ll have
to rely on my own magic to make it
something less heavy and cumbersome—
it would be nice to have a faerie
godmother like maleficent was to
aurora in the live action movies,
someone who could make it all happen
with one whim of their magic effortlessly.
–linda m. crate
the people you don’t forget
unique is hard
to describe,
but you know it when
you see it or feel it;
originality wrapped
in a bow so different from
anything else you’ve
ever known—
some turn their nose
up at it,
but i actually find it refreshing;
i love that new things
can be invented in an old
world—
i love seeing those who choose
to define themselves rather than
allowing the world to define
them because more often than not
people get it wrong,
so i like seeing people express
themselves in ways i’ve never seen
before;
people like that you don’t forget.
–linda m. crate
beautiful as the moon
let me disappear into nature,
from the forest to the glen;
i’ll grow a pair of inky
black feathers like those
of a crow—
i’ll live in the purest blue skies,
and shelter in a woodland
cottage during storms;
i will be free of society
and all the damage
they’ve caused me and those
i once loved—
maybe there i can know
a place called magic,
the place who can give me
a comfortable song who will embrace
me in all of my phases;
tell me i am as beautiful as the moon.
–linda m. crate
illuminate
starting from nothing
can be rewarding,
books wouldn’t be written
if an author didn’t first
sit down and write it;
i love the act of creation,
making something
of nothing—
adding a little bit of magic
to a world who seems to
have forgotten it,
whispering a bit of whimsy
in a world who often
forgets
how to dream;
nightmares run rampant—
i think it’s important to
create light when and where we can
to illuminate those who have a hard time
seeing in the dark.
-linda m. crate
She is doing well with the Challenge. How are you doing ?
Friday is doing so well with the Challenge. how are you doing with the prompts ?
Fae Corps Publishing 