All The Write Stuff: The Moldy Orange Bandage:

As much as we may love our families and friends, they possess the ability to drive us crazy!

The Moldy Orange Bandage:

Playbooks and Short Stories

by Lirio Blanco Show

Genre: Literary Fiction

As much as we may love our families and friends, they possess the ability to drive us crazy!

In this pair of theatrical playbooks (with a few short stories as an added bonus), two family-friendly plays for tweens and up showcase two different dramas.

In The Moldy Oranges, married life between an American husband and his Latin immigrant wife never proves dull . . . especially when the mother-in-law lives under the same roof. And then, when their trusted neighbor requests a mysterious brown bag be hidden in their closet, it provides the trigger for family secrets, suspicion, and intrigue. What is in the brown bag? A diary? Stolen jewelry? A secret detonator for a kitchen stove, perhaps?

Based on the events of Atlanta's 2014 ice storm, a group of middle school girls are trapped in their after-school classroom, seemingly abandoned by the last faculty member, who flees to protect her own family during the crisis. Three girls and the class bully must learn to cooperate for survival until help arrives in The Box of Bandages.

From architect/author Lirio Blanco Show, these stories provide a peek into family life with an in-law, stranded girls struggling to cope with a bully, as well as a handful of short animal stories . . . some based on true events, some completely fiction. Who dares to say which is which?

The answers lie within...

EXCERPT

“EXCERPT 1”

Terry the Chipmunk

Terry the Chipmunk was running through the mead-

ow when he caught a glance of beautiful acorns in

the distance. He was hypnotized by their beauty. The

acorns were fat and shiny. They captivated Terry’s

eyes. He did not waste time to run and start filling his

cheeks with these attractive acorns.

His two cheeks were so puffy, and they got puffier,

puffier, and puffier, until they both looked like a pair

of furry water balloons.

However, Terry wanted these acorns all for him-

self. . . So he started to plan how to conceal them inside

his cave. Realizing his neighbors would return soon,

he became frantic, his eyes swelling with the emotion

of owning these marvelous acorns.

Venus, one of his friends, approached him and he

tried to run and hide from her. Curious, she chased

him for some time until she cornered him against a

tree root.

Terry was so afraid to share his nuts that he pressed

his teeth together protectively to hide them . . . tighter,

tighter, and tighter until—Snap! Crack! Ping!

Tiny pieces of his teeth began to chip off.

Hearing a desperate yelp from Terry, Venus tried

to get a better look. Somehow, she convinced him to

open his mouth. Not only did the shiny acorns fall to

the cavern floor, but tiny pieces of pearly white inci-

sors, the two front teeth Terry had been so proud of,

tumbled all over the ground.

Terry kneeled down in disbelief and cried and cried

and cried in his distress, sobbing “What a pain, oh,

what a pain!”

Feeling compassion for her friend, despite his

greedy behavior, Venus tried to calm Terry down.

Terry couldn’t stop crying until, suddenly, he realized

among the spilled acorns, he saw all that was left of his

beloved incisors. He held his head with his two paws

in disbelief and scrambled to rapidly retrieve his trea-

sures. This time Venus clutched a few in her own paws to

challenge his attention.

She held one paw out, and Terry hesitated. Venus smiled

at him warmly, and

when Terry saw her teeth reflecting the radiant sun-

light, he remembered his own lost teeth. Terry dropped

the few acorns in his grasp and his fingers touched his

naked gums with the realization that he had lost some-

thing far more precious than a few acorns . . .

He had lost his teeth.

Venus explained that, had he not been so greedy by

trying to hide the extra acorns—more than he could

have ever eaten all winter—he would never have bro-

ken his teeth.

“But don’t worry, Terry,” she continued soothingly,

patting his quivering paw with her own, “Dr. Drill, the

Chipmunk dentist, will fix your teeth.”

Terry replied, now calm, “Thanks Venus . . . but will

you take me to him?”

“Of course,” Venus said. “But next time, Terry, you

have to remember—when we give to someone, we are

entitled to receive as well.”

Amazon * BookLogix * B&N * Bookbub * Goodreads

Book Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Moldy-Orange-Bandage-Playbooks-Stories-ebook/dp/B09J67P5D5

BookLogix: https://shop.booklogix.com/product/the-moldy-orange-bandage/

B&N: https://valsec.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-moldy-orange-bandage-lirio-show/1140257810?ean=2940162476467

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-moldy-orange-bandage-playbooks-and-short-stories-by-lirio-blanco-show

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59203907-the-moldy-orange-bandage

Book Trailer:

https://youtu.be/3V3NLQL4W3Y

About the Author

Albalis Vargas-Smith, a.k.a. Lirio Blanco Show, is an architect, painter, muralist, and writer from Panama. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Universidad Autonoma de Centroamerica in San Jose, Costa Rica. In addition, she received a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from Auburn University, Montgomery. She has more than twenty years of experience in architecture, having worked both in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Atlanta area. She has done theatrical scene and set design as volunteer work for community theatre groups. Back in July 2016, Albalis went solo as an entrepreneur, architect, and painter, founding the Vargas-Smith Studio. The reason? To spend more time with her daughter. In 2020, she decided to finish a series of backburner short stories and theatrical plays. One of the theatrical plays is presented in this book. Currently, Albalis lives in Johns Creek, Georgia, with her daughter, husband, her dog, Toni, and a precious bird, Ruperta.

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