Out on a Limb

The first Amazon review for Dear Folks came in overnight, and I’m jazzed! Five stars and a lovely comment. Dad would be wowed. If you’ve received your copy and have had a chance to read it, please add your review online. It really helps get the word out about a new book. Thank you!!

On Wednesday, August 28, I ordered three boxes of my new books. The printer, in Ohio, promptly shipped them, simultaneously, each with its own tracking number. The first box arrived six days later.  I'm okay with that. The tracking report revealed an interesting itinerary. It visited White Bluff and Nashville, TN on Wednesday, then traveled to Gastonia, NC, and Greenville, SC on Thursday. My box took in the sights in Weaverville and Charlotte, NC on Friday, then returned to Gastonia. Maybe it wanted to retrieve something it lost there the day before. On Saturday, it went back to Greenville, where it sat over the Labor Day weekend. It finally landed at my local post office on Tuesday, September 3rd. The slightly damaged box had managed to protect all but one of the books.

It’s here! In honor of my late father’s 100th birthday, the long-awaited collection of his letters home from World War II is now in print. I know he would have been proud to share these stories with the world.

Anthologies are a fun way for authors to get their work out into the world. Some of you may have seen my May post about my piece the Personal Stories Publishing Project anthology, Now or Never. Old Mountain Press in Sylva, NC also has an anthology series to which I’ve been regularly contributing. My story, Stopped by the Curb, appears in the latest one, Good Old Days.

My friend, Chris Helzer, dropped another good blog post this morning. The Joy and Gratification of Strategic Prairie Restoration ostensibly discusses his extensive and admirable work of converting low-productivity row crop fields to high-diversity prairie. But beneath his exquisite photos and dynamic descriptions lies a poignant reminder of how small-minded humans can be.

Warning: This post is for word nerds and journalism aficionados.

My head is spinning. I am weary. Looking up reminds me of bigger things. NASA is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Chandra X-Ray observatory by releasing 25 never-before-seen views of a wide range of cosmic objects.

The second Saturday in July around these parts means a day of shape note singing at the John C. Campbell Folk School, which sits near the junction of North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. It’s just down the road from here.

. . . my mother brought forth, upon this continent, a new four-pound-eight-ounce preemie: me. I arrived kicking and screaming, and pretty much haven’t stopped since. To shut me up, they popped me into an incubator and didn’t let me out for a month. My mildly deformed feet prompted the doctor to warn my family to keep their expectations low. “She may never walk,” he said.

My husband and I recently visited Rabun County, Georgia, home to the Foxfire Museum. Appropriately, it's a little hard to find using GPS, but a paper map will take you right to it. Even if you aren't familiar with the original project, the books, or the magazine, take the time to check it out.

It's been a while since I've posted two Nature Nuggets in one month, but I just couldn't resist! This one comes from my friend, Chris Helzer, who works for The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska. If you like this excerpt, check out his blog at https://prairieecologist.com/.

What a fun afternoon at the Elf School in Clay County, North Carolina! Kanute Rarey, founder of the Mountain Area Storytellers, invited three local authors to read some of our works during the Grand Opening celebration at the Elf School of the Arts, an artist residency focusing on photography, printmaking, jewelry, weaving, book arts, painting, music, and writing.

It’s such a treat to live in the mountains! I glanced outside early this morning and didn’t pay much attention to the doe hanging around just outside the window. She’s there often and is good company for our two dachshunds. But an hour or so later I did a double-take when I saw a wobbly-legged fawn enjoying its first drink. I can’t ever get a decent picture through a window screen, but suffice it to say, it looked much like this Image by -Rita-👩‍🍳 und 📷 mit ❤ from Pixabay. I’m tickled the wildlife is so comfortable with us, and I’m really glad we put a fence around our garden.

My good friend, Lyn Messersmith, authored today’s guest blog and graciously granted me permission to share. It appeared in her weekly newspaper column, The Lay of the Land, way back in 2014. I found it in an old box of clippings and I think it is still timely today.

We had quite a storm here over Memorial Day weekend. I’m grateful we fared better than those poor souls in other parts of the country, where a tornado outbreak wreaked terrible damage that cost lives and destroyed homes. My heart goes out to those families.

One of my short stories is featured in the Six-Minute Stories podcast on the Personal Stories Publishing Project website. Fit To Be Tied is the true story of an adventure that befell me while working on assignment as a newspaper reporter. The story also appears in Now or Never, the tenth anthology in the collection, released in March 2024. (Publisher Randell Jones did a great job reading my story. I neglected to tell him how to pronounce "Niobrara," so for those unfamiliar with the river, it is pronounced "NIGH-oh-BRER-ah" with the "BRER" rhyming with “chair.")

Where were YOU on May 18, 1980? I was at home in Hauser Lake, Idaho, building a pig pen. I noticed what appeared to be a big thunderstorm moving in from the west. But by midday, it got dark enough that the street light on the road by my house turned on. I remembered hearing daily news briefs about Mt. St. Helens' recent stirrings.

Today is National Nurses Day. A flash across my screen this morning reminded me of the many people for whom I am grateful. I’ve recently had several medical appointments and encountered many more health professionals than I normally do. Their knowledge, efficiency, and patience continually amaze me. They even broke through my unreasonable fear of needles to extract blood without me passing out.