Randy Thornhorn's Blog, page 7
January 21, 2015
I Must Admit I Am Saddened …
I am saddened by how many people I know and care about who let fear govern their lives.
Putting the life you want on hold until you or someone else gets those ducks in a row is almost always a bad idea. Your family, children, friends, the world of people around you — they are all more resilient and adaptable than you think they are or than they think they are.
Carpe Diem. Seize the day. If you want something or someone in your life, go for it now, have the life you desire now, today. Reach out and take it while you can. Do it before your opportunity slips away.
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is really fear.” ~ Gandhi
January 13, 2015
James Joyce and The English Teacher
.
.
“Silence, James. Your English is improper.”
“But how do you know?”
“I am an English teacher.”
“That explains volumes.”
“I’ll teach you, young man!”
Always remember that every English teacher would be utterly adrift and out of touch if you transported that English teacher into a classroom a hundred years into the future. English teachers teach static rituals of a form that is not in stasis.
~RT~
January 12, 2015
Word Bastards
Bemoaning the media’s use of a bit of slang to describe a highbrow artistic work, a woman recently told me she was saddened when we are “forced to downgrade and debase language to be understood”.
Well, with all due respect (and from this writer’s perch), you cannot “downgrade” or “debase” language (so you certainly cannot be forced to do it).
Language simply is.
The variance and progression of language throughout history—most notably in literature–proves that all words (with all their variations, bastardizations, and derivations) are simply colors in the palette, colors to be used when and whereever is appropriate or to achieve a desired effect. Yes, every word is a button waiting to be pushed, a tone to be struck or invoked.
The slang of today is often the codified usage of tomorrow. And slang is often the most rich and colorful language there is. It is not a debasement or a downgrade. It is actually language when it is most alive.
Nowhere is it more alive than in the marrow of Southern Literature. Of course, there are certain elite who consider Southern Lit itself to be a downgrading and debasement of language. I have my own choice words for them.
RT
January 10, 2015
THE KESTREL WATERS is FREE! Today Only —
Click Through and Read It Now
THE KESTREL WATERS is FREE! Today Only —
Until Midnight Tonight, The Kestrel Waters is free online at Amazon.com for Kindle download.
December 27, 2014
Missoura, Missoura
Long boxes of the bastards
On the Lexington track
Missoura, I wish you could see.
They’re headed to hell
And they ain’t comin’ back
And brigands are all that they be
Brigands are all that they be.
I once woke, with the cockcrow
With the frost in my bed
On the pillow where you once pledged to me.
You may run to high heaven
You may run from the dead
Your children lie under the tree
Your children lie under the tree
With me
Missoura, Missoura
Hear the drums drumming after
My love keeps a-coming with no place to hide
Through the wilderness night
Through the rain in the morning
O’er the blood red horizon
The river rises high.
Moonlight lit fire to Little Blue Bridge
So the medicine man never came
All the Glasgow folk
And Roanoke
Came shaking their crowns o’er the shame
Came shaking their crowns o’er the shame
Done hunted this Ozark for to carry you home
Till a Yankee shot got in my way
Now my shroud be ship sail
My head be a stone
And I still pines for you everyday
For Missoura, I pine, everyday
I pray
Missoura, Missoura
Hear the drums drumming after
My love keeps a-coming with no place to hide
Through the wilderness night
Through the rain in the morning
O’er the blood red horizon
The river rises high.
.
.
.
.
.
© Randy Thornhorn
December 26, 2014
Did you read The Kestrel Waters?? A Plea for Review …
If you have read The Kestrel Waters but have not posted a review on Amazon, I would appreciate you doing so, if at all possible. I am in dire need of meeting a quota for number of reviews, so the book will be indexed at a higher priority by the Amazon algorithm.
Please, if you will, you can post your review by visiting this page:
http://www.amazon.com/Kestrel-Waters-Tale-Love-Devil-ebook/dp/B00E82QNUC
Thank you kindly,
RT
December 24, 2014
NEW COVER: The Kestrel Waters (Talk to me, Thornfolk!)
__
NEW COVER: The Kestrel Waters (Talk to me, Thornfolk!)
We Beseech Thee. Let’s hear your thoughts on this new cover …
__
October 26, 2014
On The Southern Literary Trail – Notification to Goodreads book group members with Kindles
THE KESTREL WATERS (On The Southern Literary Trail post-1980 read for November) – Kindle notification to all group members:
If you have a Kindle, a free newest edition ebook copy of The Kestrel Waters will be sent directly to you upon request, with no further ado on your part.
I finally got a look at the ARC version NetGalley is sending out for Kindle viewing and was not very happy with with what I saw on my Kindle. It did not display on the page like a normal Kindle ebook, did not have proper line indentations, and was very difficult to read. So I’ve already sent replacements directly from Amazon to group members Candace and Brenda for their Kindles. My apologies for the unforeseen complication.
Any of you who wants the The Kestrel Waters for reading on Kindle, if you will contact me through private message with an email address, I will have the book sent directly to your Kindle for free from Amazon, without any need for you to visit or join NetGalley.
Yours from back of beyond,
Randy Thornhorn
Randy Thornhorn's Blog
- Randy Thornhorn's profile
- 57 followers
