Goines On: The turtle snaps

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Goines returned to the big green electrical box where he had seen the turtle two hours earlier, right before he texted George its precise location. He had not heard from George, and Goines was apprehensive what he would find this time. There had been that tractor clearing brush, so there was even the possibility the turtle might have been….

Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [9]

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Chapter 9. Changing World

Claude came in late that night, long after James had gone to bed. Clara and he had a long and revealing talk. Claude had thought his father was turning his back on his new sister and her mother, and he was surprised to learn it wasn’t J.F. but Clara who had decided to raise the child on her own.

Goines On: The hoot of an owl

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Goines was emptying the dishwasher when he heard what sounded like an owl hooting, and he wondered what the owl was saying, what he might be alerting other owls to or warning them about.

Goines On: Nightmare

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Goines seemed to have to race his electric toothbrush to cover an entire quadrant before the device’s 30-second beep. He supposed that perceived time was very slow this morning because he had gone deep into dreamland in the hour or two before arising. His psyche probably couldn’t have delivered the quartet of dreams any other way than by sedating him – otherwise he would have woken himself up to escape them.

All Over the Place: A coloring of mood

By Michael H. Brownstein

yesterday the sky witch blue
well lit
not a single cloud stain
the sun
bright yellow

Interview: Martha Sink on making pots

Inspire • Create • Serve

Interviewed by Moristotle

I became acquainted with Martha Sink in her role as a librarian with Alamance County Libraries. Questions would arise when I tried to use the libraries’ website, and I was directed to Martha as the person who could answer them for me. Indeed she could, and she was also quick to act on suggestions I made for improving the website. My wife and I even made a special trip to the libraries’ main location so we could meet her.
    When I emailed her recently just to say hi, she told me that her 37 years as an employee of the Alamance County Libraries system had been “a long time” and she had “a new career lined up and underway.” She said that she “figured that when [she] was more interested in throwing pots than coming to work, [she]’d know it was time to retire!”
    I told her I thought my readers would like to hear about her plans, and she agreed to do an interview. My questions are in italics.
    Photographs of some of her creations are interspersed throughout the questions and answers.

Goines On: Housing development

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Goines took his morning walk into the adjacent housing development to the south, where Mrs. Goines loved to walk because of its openness and the interest of its road paving and housing construction. Its clubhouse and pool were the first construction site he came to, only a couple of hundred yards in. The building looked almost finished, though only a small fraction of the development’s projected 400+ dwellings had been constructed and moved into. Perhaps the first home-buyers had been promised a clubhouse soon?

Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [8]

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Chapter 8. Peace

1886. May 1 – A general strike begins in the United States and on May 4 escalates into “the Haymarket affair” in Chicago, which eventually wins the 8-hour workday in the U.S.
    May 8 – Pharmacist Dr. John Stith Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that will be named “Coca-Cola.”

On the range there was peace. For the first time in years, there were no Indian raids, bandit attacks, or range wars. James had opened two toll roads across his land. The price was so low per head that even the hardest-core ranger saw no benefit in not paying it.

Help promote edRogers’ latest published novel

By Moristotle

“Readers play a significant role in selecting the winner,” says Amazon’s announcement of its 2019 Kindle Storyteller contest with an award of £20,000 to an outstanding writer publishing in English through Kindle Direct Publishing.
    Personally, I think edRogers’ latest novel, BODY COUNT: Killers, deserves to win on its own merits alone, but Amazon’s judges will look not only at the books entered, but also at reviews of the books on Amazon.

Goines On: Ziggy’s scarves

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Usually Goines didn’t take his morning walk until after Mrs. Goines returned from hers. But this morning he went out before she returned, which was what used to happen when Ziggy was still alive. Goines would look for “Ziggy’s mama” on their round, and all three of them enjoyed the encounter when it happened, which depended on their relative routes. He wondered whether he would spot her this morning and, if he did – and she spotted him – whether she, too, would think of their encounters when Ziggy was with him, and of how they would stop and she would give Ziggy a sweet potato treat.

On Franklin Hill Farm: Mind your own business

By Bettina Sperry

Early this morning, the last fox cub was lost to some unknown cause. Perhaps entangled with the hoof of a horse, I really don’t know, but I found it in the pasture next to the house – not in the dog run, not in the road, but with the four horses kept close to the house. Its body was still soft.

All Over the Place: Measures of a town’s health

A long poem in two parts

By Michael H. Brownstein

About two months ago, my town, Jefferson City, Missouri, experienced a very strong tornado – actually missed my house by about 300 yards. The whiplash was incredible – so much debris I filled too many garbage cans again and again for almost three weeks. In addition, the Missouri River flooded. A 10-minute ride to Menard’s for supplies – we had a bit of very, very minor damage – that usually takes 15 minutes round trip turned into a 2-hour fiasco.

The Loneliest Liberal: Electric fans

By James Knudsen

If you’re a fan of electric guitars, the preceding several weeks have seemed like the grown-ups fighting at the dinner table. A little background: in mid-June, Gibson, the legendary, iconic, revered, guitar maker, released a video titled “Play Authentic.” The video admonished guitar makers who make guitars that resemble, emulate, or otherwise copy the legendary shapes for which Gibson is known. Many guitar players felt this was a shot aimed at them as well, and the fallout on YouTube and other social media sites was swift, fierce, and unfavorable toward Gibson.

Goines On: Time after time

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Goines tried to remember how long ago it was he’d concocted a theory why his battery-powered toothbrush seemed to beep its 30-second signals sooner early in the morning than it did at night. It must have been about a year ago he’d emailed a friend his conjecture that the difference had something to do with variations in the operating rate of whatever device a human brain uses to estimate the passage of time.

Fiction: Jaudon – An American Family (a novel) [7]

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Chapter 7. Empire

1881. The post at Fort Griffin is abandoned. Residents of the civilian community begin moving to Albany, the county seat of Shackelford County. Lt. Bullis and 30 Seminole-Negro scouts pursue a band of Lipan Apache raiders into Mexico. It is the last action against Indians conducted by U.S. Army units in Texas.
    1882. The Texas and Pacific Railroad reaches El Paso from Fort Worth. The San Antonio-El Paso stagecoach line goes out of business.

James began to buy land in 1882. He was 33 years old and his empire was growing. He didn’t buy just any land. He bought ranches that surrounded the open range. The open range was government land that everybody could use, and comprised well over 5,000 acres of grassland. It was open to anyone who paid a small fee to the government to graze their animals on it. James couldn’t buy it, but he could block access to a large porion of it.