Robin Gregory's Blog, page 2
September 8, 2020
Gnome Appreciation Society
Dear esteemed colleagues,
The most fun I've had in a long time. An interview with the UK's notorious Jason Denness...
https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...
The most fun I've had in a long time. An interview with the UK's notorious Jason Denness...
https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...
September 1, 2020
10 Free Ways to Show Gratitude to the Writers You Love
Dear writerly friends,
I just had to share this excellent post by the inspired Jodine Turner:
Authors write in isolation. It is a solitary craft. Perhaps we eventually go on to share our manuscript with trusted friends or family, or perhaps we bring our rough drafts to a critique group or editor. But writing is a basically autonomous craft, and as such, a writer’s life leads us to especially appreciate feedback. In the form of reviews, or contests, or personal correspondences of thanks for our work, as some examples.
I was recently notified of two more book awards to add to my credits for “The Hidden Abbey.” I was awarded the Bronze Medal from the Global E-Book awards and Finalist in the American Fiction Awards Contest. I felt that flutter of thrill in my chest to learn my work was validated and appreciated.
Author Andi Cumbo-Floyd wrote a blog in April 2019 about her poignant experience in receiving gratitude from readers. Andi spoke about a year of experiencing dark days, with family deaths and a host of other misfortunes. She went on to say how a new favorite novel captured her heart and saved her from deep despair.
She sent a quick email to the author to say thank you for the book, to tell her how much of a comfort it was in her hard days. The author wrote back to say that was the kindest note she’d ever received. Andi was teary thinking that a note that took one minute to write could be so meaningful to someone whose novel’s words had helped her to heal.
The kindness and appreciation we can give our fellow writers is not to be underestimated!
Here is Andi’s list of 10 ways you can easily show kindness and love to the writers whose works have mattered to you.
10 FREE Ways to Show Gratitude to the Writers You Love
1. Write them a note. Say thank you. Tell them what their work meant to you. You can find most people’s email addresses or contact forms on their websites, or you can message them through social media.
2. Follow them on Amazon or BookBub or Goodreads. That little follow means you’ll get notifications about their new work – win for you – but it also helps boost their standing and opportunities on those platforms.
3. Review their books. Reviews matter. They help other readers decide if they want to pick up those books, and they help authors, especially authors who are just starting out, to be able to get other promotional opportunities. You can post a review to Goodreads and then just copy and paste it anywhere that author’s books are sold.
4. Recommend their books to your local public and schools libraries. Many libraries have forms you can fill out to recommend a book. It’ll take you two minutes, but it’ll mean a whole lot to an author.
5. Suggest podcasters you know interview them. If you listen to a podcast that is thematically appropriate for a writer whose work you love, drop that podcaster a line and suggest they check out the book and the author.
6. Share your copies of books. When you tell a friend you loved a book, it makes it more likely that they’ll read it. And more readers means more fans, overall.
7. Post about what you read on social media. Do a quick Instagram story about what you read. Post a link on FB or Twitter. Tag in the writer if you can.
8. Join their launch team. Many writers have launch teams to help spread the word about their new books. It’s easy, and often you get to read the book early.
9. Sign-up for their email list. Sign-ups matter to an author because of future book contracts and marketing opportunities, but they also give you behind-the-scenes access to the author and sometimes special deals on books.
10. Go to their readings. Just be there. Listen. Ask questions. It means the world to see the faces of readers in the flesh.
*************
What forms of support have you most appreciated as an author?
Perhaps you can thank 30 writers for the next 30 days. Or 5 writers in the next week. Or even your favorite one today.
Connect with Jodine Turner:
FB.com.JodineTurner.Author
I just had to share this excellent post by the inspired Jodine Turner:
Authors write in isolation. It is a solitary craft. Perhaps we eventually go on to share our manuscript with trusted friends or family, or perhaps we bring our rough drafts to a critique group or editor. But writing is a basically autonomous craft, and as such, a writer’s life leads us to especially appreciate feedback. In the form of reviews, or contests, or personal correspondences of thanks for our work, as some examples.
I was recently notified of two more book awards to add to my credits for “The Hidden Abbey.” I was awarded the Bronze Medal from the Global E-Book awards and Finalist in the American Fiction Awards Contest. I felt that flutter of thrill in my chest to learn my work was validated and appreciated.
Author Andi Cumbo-Floyd wrote a blog in April 2019 about her poignant experience in receiving gratitude from readers. Andi spoke about a year of experiencing dark days, with family deaths and a host of other misfortunes. She went on to say how a new favorite novel captured her heart and saved her from deep despair.
She sent a quick email to the author to say thank you for the book, to tell her how much of a comfort it was in her hard days. The author wrote back to say that was the kindest note she’d ever received. Andi was teary thinking that a note that took one minute to write could be so meaningful to someone whose novel’s words had helped her to heal.
The kindness and appreciation we can give our fellow writers is not to be underestimated!
Here is Andi’s list of 10 ways you can easily show kindness and love to the writers whose works have mattered to you.
10 FREE Ways to Show Gratitude to the Writers You Love
1. Write them a note. Say thank you. Tell them what their work meant to you. You can find most people’s email addresses or contact forms on their websites, or you can message them through social media.
2. Follow them on Amazon or BookBub or Goodreads. That little follow means you’ll get notifications about their new work – win for you – but it also helps boost their standing and opportunities on those platforms.
3. Review their books. Reviews matter. They help other readers decide if they want to pick up those books, and they help authors, especially authors who are just starting out, to be able to get other promotional opportunities. You can post a review to Goodreads and then just copy and paste it anywhere that author’s books are sold.
4. Recommend their books to your local public and schools libraries. Many libraries have forms you can fill out to recommend a book. It’ll take you two minutes, but it’ll mean a whole lot to an author.
5. Suggest podcasters you know interview them. If you listen to a podcast that is thematically appropriate for a writer whose work you love, drop that podcaster a line and suggest they check out the book and the author.
6. Share your copies of books. When you tell a friend you loved a book, it makes it more likely that they’ll read it. And more readers means more fans, overall.
7. Post about what you read on social media. Do a quick Instagram story about what you read. Post a link on FB or Twitter. Tag in the writer if you can.
8. Join their launch team. Many writers have launch teams to help spread the word about their new books. It’s easy, and often you get to read the book early.
9. Sign-up for their email list. Sign-ups matter to an author because of future book contracts and marketing opportunities, but they also give you behind-the-scenes access to the author and sometimes special deals on books.
10. Go to their readings. Just be there. Listen. Ask questions. It means the world to see the faces of readers in the flesh.
*************
What forms of support have you most appreciated as an author?
Perhaps you can thank 30 writers for the next 30 days. Or 5 writers in the next week. Or even your favorite one today.
Connect with Jodine Turner:
FB.com.JodineTurner.Author
August 25, 2020
Visionary Fiction and the Global Pandemic: A Brave New World
Dear Bright Souls, I want to share a beautiful post on writing by my esteemed colleague, Jodine Turner...
This is precisely the time when artists go to work… We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.— Toni Morrison
During this turbulent era of the coronavirus, I am sheltering in place, staying at home with my husband and our cats. The situation may or may not have changed by the time you read this.
For now, I shelter in place but feel a profound connection with every other person in our world going through the pandemic, having their own experience, their own struggles, their own fears, horror, sacrifices, and maybe even moments of joy and love and rediscovery.
We’ve catapulted into isolation. Thankfully, modern technology allows many of us a semblance of contact. Still, uncertainty and stress barrage our thoughts. Anxiety floods our emotions and trembles through our bodies. We heave a collective lament of shock, of grief, of mourning. We isolate from each other for all-around safety yet are entrenched in this together. Forced to slow down while life as we knew it changes.
I hope this will prove to be a crossroads that activates a global shift in consciousness. Just like in Visionary Fiction stories.
As a Visionary Fiction author in this time of extremes, I see that we are currently living what the philosophy of Visionary Fiction is all about. This is the genre of transforming consciousness. It ushers in the evolutionary power to ignite our personal and combined potential.
What exactly is Visionary Fiction?
Visionary Fiction stories quicken a growth in human awakening, both for the characters in the stories and for us in our lives. I am a founder of the Visionary Fiction Alliance, a website where authors and readers of this genre connect, united in their appreciation for tales about expanding awareness. With that intention in mind, the Alliance defines the genre in this way:
“Visionary Fiction embraces spiritual and esoteric wisdom, often from ancient sources, and makes it relevant for our modern life. Gems of this spiritual wisdom are brought forth in story form so that readers can experience the wisdom from within themselves. Visionary Fiction emphasizes the future and envisions humanity’s transition into evolved consciousness.”
Based on the premise that Visionary Fiction readers can inspire their own deep soul wisdom through a story’s character, the description continues:
“As the world evolves away from the Newtonian model of the five senses to the more evolved quantum model that includes the sense of spirit so resurgent today, Visionary Fiction is rapidly becoming the genre of choice to express that evolution and predict the breath-taking future that might follow the anticipated leaps.”
I can’t help but wonder, in what ways could our current world crises stimulate such evolutionary leaps? What transformations are possible? What new paradigms might emerge?
The Visionary Fiction Alliance goes on to say this regarding the genre: “The emphasis is on our limitless human potential, where transformation and evolution are entirely possible. Growth in consciousness is the central theme of the story and drives the protagonist and/or other important characters. The plot, or story, is universal in its worldview and scope.”
Visionary Fiction takes the reader on a quest, an initiation into the deeper mysteries of existence in story form. It plays an extraordinary role in today’s tumultuous world as a catalyst and facilitator of rebirth.
Examples of Visionary Fiction
Three top-rated Visionary Fiction novels illustrate the genre.
The first example is from Margaret Duarte’s “Enter the Between Series,” the novel Between Now and Forever:
Medicate or nurture; reform or set free. These are quandaries rookie teacher Marjorie Veil faces when she takes on an after-school class for thirteen-year-olds labeled as troublemakers, unteachable, and hopeless. Faculty skeptics warn that all these kids need is prescribed medication for focus and impulse control. But as Marjorie soon discovers, behind their anti-conformist exteriors are gifted teens, who are sensitive, empathetic, and wise beyond their youth. They also happen to have psychic abilities, which they have kept hidden until now. Can Marjorie help them do what she has failed to do for herself: fight for their spiritual and emotional freedom?
A second sample is the novel The Anathemas by Victor Smith:
This novel weaves the religious controversy about reincarnation into a multi-lifetime saga of conspiracy, redemption and love. A novel, yet a story firmly based on history, notably Procopius's Secret History and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With the pace of a thriller, it portrays the spiritual adventure of man and woman coming face-to-face with the life-and-death experience. Reincarnation... heretical but inevitable.
The final example from my “Goddess of the Stars and the Sea Series,” is my novel, Carry on the Flame: Destiny’s Call:
Humanity is in the midst of one of the greatest crises in its evolution. Sharay struggles with a deep soul-calling asking her to help show the way forward, to help humankind move through the fear, chaos, and bleak times of today's world. Born into a lineage of priestesses in modern day Glastonbury, England, Sharay's path is blocked by her jealous Aunt Phoebe, who uses black magic against her to steal her fortune and magical power. When Phoebe commits Sharay to a psychiatric ward and accuses her of murder, Sharay struggles with the temptation to fight Phoebe's vengeance with her own. But Sharay must learn to transform her hatred for her aunt. She must face her grief, loss, and her own dark side in order to claim the mystery held deep within her cells that will allow her to fulfill her destiny and prove that the ultimate magic is the power of love.
Visionary Fiction and the Global Pandemic
We are, of course, worried about the coronavirus and the impact it has, in ways most of us never thought possible — medically, socially, emotionally, and economically. Yet tumult always precedes rebirth. A new paradigm is conceiving itself in our hearts, birthing possibilities for a new and better world. Visionary Fiction is in a unique position to contribute to that. We need these stories that fuel metamorphosis, cultivate empowerment, and bring readers a beacon of hope.
Visionary Fiction offers a vision of humanity as we dream it could be.
Hopefully, as in Visionary Fiction, we are now envisioning a world of our brightest imaginings. During times of crisis, the mists between the current chaos and the imagined world of possibilities are like thin, gauzy veils. When we draw them aside, we get to explore — in our imaginal realms - that normally unseen place where our soul is limitless, and where magic, mystery, and hope thrive. Visionary Fiction parts that veil to glimpse the soul that is inherent all around and within us, those unseen realms that parallel ours and fuel our visions. And from that soul-filled place, we can listen, envision, and act.
Without vision, we endanger our humanity and jeopardize the capacity for our civilization to heal.
Rengeneration Through Embodied Love
My vision is one of global cooperation and collaboration, in respect and love. That is what embodied love entails. Living it in our daily life, walking through the trenches of suffering, pain, and fear, yet still embodying love amidst it all. That is the central theme of each of my Visionary Fiction novels. The alchemy of embodied love, the greatest healer and ultimate magic.
Today’s world is turbulent. What do you read that invokes your vision of a new world?
What do you envision the world could become?
Jodine Turner is a multiple award-winning author of Visionary Fiction, Historical Fantasy, and Magical Realism. While living in Glastonbury, England, the ancient and mystical Isle of Avalon, Jodine began writing her Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about magical Avalon priestesses throughout the ages to today. The series is an edgy saga of a young Avalon priestess who's reborn during three different critical junctions in history in order to help humankind move through fearful and bleak times — the demise of Atlantis, the Dark Age's suppression of the feminine, and today's turbulent world. jodineturner [dot] com/
This is precisely the time when artists go to work… We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.— Toni Morrison
During this turbulent era of the coronavirus, I am sheltering in place, staying at home with my husband and our cats. The situation may or may not have changed by the time you read this.
For now, I shelter in place but feel a profound connection with every other person in our world going through the pandemic, having their own experience, their own struggles, their own fears, horror, sacrifices, and maybe even moments of joy and love and rediscovery.
We’ve catapulted into isolation. Thankfully, modern technology allows many of us a semblance of contact. Still, uncertainty and stress barrage our thoughts. Anxiety floods our emotions and trembles through our bodies. We heave a collective lament of shock, of grief, of mourning. We isolate from each other for all-around safety yet are entrenched in this together. Forced to slow down while life as we knew it changes.
I hope this will prove to be a crossroads that activates a global shift in consciousness. Just like in Visionary Fiction stories.
As a Visionary Fiction author in this time of extremes, I see that we are currently living what the philosophy of Visionary Fiction is all about. This is the genre of transforming consciousness. It ushers in the evolutionary power to ignite our personal and combined potential.
What exactly is Visionary Fiction?
Visionary Fiction stories quicken a growth in human awakening, both for the characters in the stories and for us in our lives. I am a founder of the Visionary Fiction Alliance, a website where authors and readers of this genre connect, united in their appreciation for tales about expanding awareness. With that intention in mind, the Alliance defines the genre in this way:
“Visionary Fiction embraces spiritual and esoteric wisdom, often from ancient sources, and makes it relevant for our modern life. Gems of this spiritual wisdom are brought forth in story form so that readers can experience the wisdom from within themselves. Visionary Fiction emphasizes the future and envisions humanity’s transition into evolved consciousness.”
Based on the premise that Visionary Fiction readers can inspire their own deep soul wisdom through a story’s character, the description continues:
“As the world evolves away from the Newtonian model of the five senses to the more evolved quantum model that includes the sense of spirit so resurgent today, Visionary Fiction is rapidly becoming the genre of choice to express that evolution and predict the breath-taking future that might follow the anticipated leaps.”
I can’t help but wonder, in what ways could our current world crises stimulate such evolutionary leaps? What transformations are possible? What new paradigms might emerge?
The Visionary Fiction Alliance goes on to say this regarding the genre: “The emphasis is on our limitless human potential, where transformation and evolution are entirely possible. Growth in consciousness is the central theme of the story and drives the protagonist and/or other important characters. The plot, or story, is universal in its worldview and scope.”
Visionary Fiction takes the reader on a quest, an initiation into the deeper mysteries of existence in story form. It plays an extraordinary role in today’s tumultuous world as a catalyst and facilitator of rebirth.
Examples of Visionary Fiction
Three top-rated Visionary Fiction novels illustrate the genre.
The first example is from Margaret Duarte’s “Enter the Between Series,” the novel Between Now and Forever:
Medicate or nurture; reform or set free. These are quandaries rookie teacher Marjorie Veil faces when she takes on an after-school class for thirteen-year-olds labeled as troublemakers, unteachable, and hopeless. Faculty skeptics warn that all these kids need is prescribed medication for focus and impulse control. But as Marjorie soon discovers, behind their anti-conformist exteriors are gifted teens, who are sensitive, empathetic, and wise beyond their youth. They also happen to have psychic abilities, which they have kept hidden until now. Can Marjorie help them do what she has failed to do for herself: fight for their spiritual and emotional freedom?
A second sample is the novel The Anathemas by Victor Smith:
This novel weaves the religious controversy about reincarnation into a multi-lifetime saga of conspiracy, redemption and love. A novel, yet a story firmly based on history, notably Procopius's Secret History and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With the pace of a thriller, it portrays the spiritual adventure of man and woman coming face-to-face with the life-and-death experience. Reincarnation... heretical but inevitable.
The final example from my “Goddess of the Stars and the Sea Series,” is my novel, Carry on the Flame: Destiny’s Call:
Humanity is in the midst of one of the greatest crises in its evolution. Sharay struggles with a deep soul-calling asking her to help show the way forward, to help humankind move through the fear, chaos, and bleak times of today's world. Born into a lineage of priestesses in modern day Glastonbury, England, Sharay's path is blocked by her jealous Aunt Phoebe, who uses black magic against her to steal her fortune and magical power. When Phoebe commits Sharay to a psychiatric ward and accuses her of murder, Sharay struggles with the temptation to fight Phoebe's vengeance with her own. But Sharay must learn to transform her hatred for her aunt. She must face her grief, loss, and her own dark side in order to claim the mystery held deep within her cells that will allow her to fulfill her destiny and prove that the ultimate magic is the power of love.
Visionary Fiction and the Global Pandemic
We are, of course, worried about the coronavirus and the impact it has, in ways most of us never thought possible — medically, socially, emotionally, and economically. Yet tumult always precedes rebirth. A new paradigm is conceiving itself in our hearts, birthing possibilities for a new and better world. Visionary Fiction is in a unique position to contribute to that. We need these stories that fuel metamorphosis, cultivate empowerment, and bring readers a beacon of hope.
Visionary Fiction offers a vision of humanity as we dream it could be.
Hopefully, as in Visionary Fiction, we are now envisioning a world of our brightest imaginings. During times of crisis, the mists between the current chaos and the imagined world of possibilities are like thin, gauzy veils. When we draw them aside, we get to explore — in our imaginal realms - that normally unseen place where our soul is limitless, and where magic, mystery, and hope thrive. Visionary Fiction parts that veil to glimpse the soul that is inherent all around and within us, those unseen realms that parallel ours and fuel our visions. And from that soul-filled place, we can listen, envision, and act.
Without vision, we endanger our humanity and jeopardize the capacity for our civilization to heal.
Rengeneration Through Embodied Love
My vision is one of global cooperation and collaboration, in respect and love. That is what embodied love entails. Living it in our daily life, walking through the trenches of suffering, pain, and fear, yet still embodying love amidst it all. That is the central theme of each of my Visionary Fiction novels. The alchemy of embodied love, the greatest healer and ultimate magic.
Today’s world is turbulent. What do you read that invokes your vision of a new world?
What do you envision the world could become?
Jodine Turner is a multiple award-winning author of Visionary Fiction, Historical Fantasy, and Magical Realism. While living in Glastonbury, England, the ancient and mystical Isle of Avalon, Jodine began writing her Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about magical Avalon priestesses throughout the ages to today. The series is an edgy saga of a young Avalon priestess who's reborn during three different critical junctions in history in order to help humankind move through fearful and bleak times — the demise of Atlantis, the Dark Age's suppression of the feminine, and today's turbulent world. jodineturner [dot] com/
July 21, 2020
Bits & Bodhis #1
Welcome, brave souls, to Bits & Bodhis, where you will find little astounding facts to help you to carry on during the dark night of the soul.
Shedding the shadow and awaking spiritually is not for the feint of heart. If you ever doubt it, here are religious initiations from around the world that you must NOT DO AT HOME... more my link text
Shedding the shadow and awaking spiritually is not for the feint of heart. If you ever doubt it, here are religious initiations from around the world that you must NOT DO AT HOME... more my link text
June 26, 2020
These Are Nutty Times
I apologize if this offends you.
But I’m sincerely struggling with the following question:
Is it racist to include an organized crime character in a book who is defined by ethnicity or nationality?
I don’t know. These are nutty times...
https://robingregory.net/2020/06/26/t...
But I’m sincerely struggling with the following question:
Is it racist to include an organized crime character in a book who is defined by ethnicity or nationality?
I don’t know. These are nutty times...
https://robingregory.net/2020/06/26/t...
May 14, 2020
Visionary Fiction Readers
Check out the new Visionary Fiction Reader's Pass
before price goes up from $4.95 per month to $9.95 per month!
~ Instant access to visionary fiction/30+ authors
~ Unlimited downloads
~ Low cost
From: The Visionary Fiction Alliance
https://visionaryfictionalliance.com/...
before price goes up from $4.95 per month to $9.95 per month!
~ Instant access to visionary fiction/30+ authors
~ Unlimited downloads
~ Low cost
From: The Visionary Fiction Alliance
https://visionaryfictionalliance.com/...
April 27, 2020
Podcast Postponed
✨Storytelling for healing & awakening✨
Join Ayn Cates Sullivan & Robin Gregory, award-winning authors for:
🌺FREE podcast: Wisdom of the Ages
May 11, 12-12:30 PDT
https://ctt.ec/UU14Q+ #SuperPowerUp #SuperPowerExpert
Join Ayn Cates Sullivan & Robin Gregory, award-winning authors for:
🌺FREE podcast: Wisdom of the Ages
May 11, 12-12:30 PDT
https://ctt.ec/UU14Q+ #SuperPowerUp #SuperPowerExpert
April 7, 2020
#WriterLift
Dear esteemed colleagues,
Please support authors whose book launches have been derailed by the shelter-in-place order.
See my video: https://www.facebook.com/robin.gregor...
🌻Joseph Mazur @joemazur3
🌸 Lenore Hart @ElFair
🌻Angie Rooker FB.com/AdreamRcreations
Please support authors whose book launches have been derailed by the shelter-in-place order.
See my video: https://www.facebook.com/robin.gregor...
🌻Joseph Mazur @joemazur3
🌸 Lenore Hart @ElFair
🌻Angie Rooker FB.com/AdreamRcreations
March 13, 2020
Book 2: Excerpt #2
As he rode his steed, Ulysses, through the sand-covered ruins of San Miguel de las Gaviotas, eighteen-year-old Moojie recalled The Pandemonium of April, 1906. An earthquake and tidal wave of biblical proportions had devoured the fishing village he once knew. The tide was low, and the residual rubble and beetle-bored timbers had the look of spit-out bones. The only building to survive stood high on a cliff, a rustic convent where Moojie had been found as a baby, wrapped in fur and tucked into a wooden fishing bucket.
He was looking for something.
A medallion stamped with a ghostly male figure sporting a nimbus.
He tied his shirt around his head like a sultan’s headscarf. His torso was sun-bronzed, his arms—the left, once intractable—well-hewn by ranch work. His abdomen was sunken, as if hungry with youth.
It was like any other day in November—wan and misty. The sun never fully appeared, and the flat light made time stand still. Warm fog curled in on an easterly breeze, and the sun occluded San Miguel de las Gaviotas like a yellow cataract. The village was so isolated from the world that news came from reels at the Nickelodeon and old newspapers left on the train. And yet, modern conventions pricked the troposphere of superstition. First it was the horseless carriage, then the gyrocompass, then instant coffee. What next? Never mind the scientific marvels, astronomical wonders, and wars of which the villagers had never heard. The landscape appeared so monochromatic that nothing bore distinction. In order to focus Moojie had to squint his eyes.
But then—
Horse hooves came thundering up the beach behind him! A horseman whooshed past him and ripped off his headscarf. “ATENCIÒN!!!” a male voice trumpeted.
The assailant vanished in the fog.
Moojie’s horse startled, nearly throwing him off. “Whoa boy! Whoa!” he said.
The horseman circled back.
“You crazy toad!” Moojie said.
They called him Abu. Like Zorro or Geronimo, he had only one name. Paunchy and stiff as a banker, his dirigible-shaped head and fig-colored lips lent him a certain charm.
He was looking for something.
A medallion stamped with a ghostly male figure sporting a nimbus.
He tied his shirt around his head like a sultan’s headscarf. His torso was sun-bronzed, his arms—the left, once intractable—well-hewn by ranch work. His abdomen was sunken, as if hungry with youth.
It was like any other day in November—wan and misty. The sun never fully appeared, and the flat light made time stand still. Warm fog curled in on an easterly breeze, and the sun occluded San Miguel de las Gaviotas like a yellow cataract. The village was so isolated from the world that news came from reels at the Nickelodeon and old newspapers left on the train. And yet, modern conventions pricked the troposphere of superstition. First it was the horseless carriage, then the gyrocompass, then instant coffee. What next? Never mind the scientific marvels, astronomical wonders, and wars of which the villagers had never heard. The landscape appeared so monochromatic that nothing bore distinction. In order to focus Moojie had to squint his eyes.
But then—
Horse hooves came thundering up the beach behind him! A horseman whooshed past him and ripped off his headscarf. “ATENCIÒN!!!” a male voice trumpeted.
The assailant vanished in the fog.
Moojie’s horse startled, nearly throwing him off. “Whoa boy! Whoa!” he said.
The horseman circled back.
“You crazy toad!” Moojie said.
They called him Abu. Like Zorro or Geronimo, he had only one name. Paunchy and stiff as a banker, his dirigible-shaped head and fig-colored lips lent him a certain charm.
March 6, 2020
Hasta la vista Book 2!
What a great feeling.
You know what it's like. When you get a novel to the point when it's ready for editing.
Book 2 of the Moojie Littleman Trilogy: "The Boy Who Killed Time," has officially gone in for manicuring.
What's it about? Moojie, now hailed in his hometown as a miraculous healer, escapes family and worshipful throngs to visit a parallel universe where his true love awaits. What he finds when he gets there is completely unexpected.
Tidbit from Chapter 1:
Start with what is broken. What needs fixing may be your best teacher. Moojie Littleman would be the first to tell you this. He once had a broken body, but now he was whole. He once was an orphan, but now he had a home. Maybe it had been life’s way of prodding him. Or maybe he’d signed up for these challenges. He had been called many names—Cripple, Hostile, Claw Hand, Pea-Brain—names that were given to disabled orphans of mixed heritage in America. Now they called him Wonder Worker...
Stay tuned! I plan to post News & Tidbits every Friday!
You know what it's like. When you get a novel to the point when it's ready for editing.
Book 2 of the Moojie Littleman Trilogy: "The Boy Who Killed Time," has officially gone in for manicuring.
What's it about? Moojie, now hailed in his hometown as a miraculous healer, escapes family and worshipful throngs to visit a parallel universe where his true love awaits. What he finds when he gets there is completely unexpected.
Tidbit from Chapter 1:
Start with what is broken. What needs fixing may be your best teacher. Moojie Littleman would be the first to tell you this. He once had a broken body, but now he was whole. He once was an orphan, but now he had a home. Maybe it had been life’s way of prodding him. Or maybe he’d signed up for these challenges. He had been called many names—Cripple, Hostile, Claw Hand, Pea-Brain—names that were given to disabled orphans of mixed heritage in America. Now they called him Wonder Worker...
Stay tuned! I plan to post News & Tidbits every Friday!
