Out on a Limb

For much of this month I’ve been fighting the blues as I stew about the state of my country and the world. The famous serenity prayer reminds me to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. A wise woman (my mother) often said, “nothing lasts forever.” I know that is true, but sometimes “not forever” seems like a very long time.

Here is the original photo that I used for the Dear Folks cover. Dad is in the upper left. His photo album has a lot of great pictures, and I included some of them in the book, along with images of items he collected during and after the war, including cartoons from Yank magazine, news clippings, and his pass and copy of the program for the Nuremberg trials.Every day, but particularly on Veterans Day, I think of my dad and the multitude of others who served their country bravely and faithfully, not only during World War II, but over the past nearly 250 years. I pray that their sacrifices may not have been in vain.

Disclaimer: I’m not tech-savvy. Anything beyond my laptop’s word processing software is a mystery to me. When given a choice, I opt for low-tech every time. I don’t even have a smartphone. I could probably figure out how to use one, but I like to disappear and intentionally make myself unavailable. However, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to avoid getting one. More and more daily tasks require mobile connectivity. The following anecdote is a case in point.

It's that time of year again . . . Last Friday evening eleven local performers shared ghost stories and music at the Halloween edition of the Scribes on Stage series at the Peacock Performing Arts Center in Hayesville, NC. I shared my favorite, Adventures in the Hobbit Barn. Now that summer heat has dissipated and the leaves are changing, it's a fun way to usher in autumn.

Hayesville, NC is the best! We had a great crowd at the Corner Coffee and Wine Shop on Friday night. I got to ham it up with some wonderful local talent—storytellers, writers, poets, and musicians. It’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for five years! What a perfect evening. Photo by our host, my friend, Kanute Rarey.

Nature Nugget: You won’t see this spectacular sight ever again! Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) has been lighting up social media and the night sky recently. According to EarthSky.org, it’s the brightest comet in 27 years, since Hale-Bopp in 1997. A3 is a long-period comet, with an 80,000-year orbit around the sun. Its orbit is retrograde, meaning that the comet moves in the opposite direction to most major solar system planets. Its perihelion distance—closest point to the sun—came on September 27, 2024, when it was 0.39 astronomical units (AU, or Earth-sun distances) from our star. The comet was closest to Earth on October 12. It will only be visible into late October, so check it out soon or wait another 80,000 years!

Marketing remains elusive for me, but more experienced writers tell me I’ll one day get the hang of it. The above picture is a screenshot of a message that arrived in my personal email inbox today. I’m glad Amazon gave me this plug, and I’m wondering if it will help sales of my new book. So far, I’ve only received one review, and I have just 23 followers on Amazon. If you’re an Amazon customer, please follow me. For those of you have read the book: Please, take a moment and give it a rating or—even better—a review. My dad and I thank you!

I’ve had my share of close calls. Most of these were self-inflicted: miscalculations, not paying attention, or overestimating my abilities. One that still gives me the shakes happened at dusk, in the early 1980s in the Idaho Panhandle.

A neighbor shared this earlier today: "As of 6 am…this is our current status. This is probably better for us - projected to go right over our house. It was projected to be west of us leaving us in the eastern bands, which is the worst. Crazy that it was a Cat-1 still that far into GA!"

My friend, Mary Ricketson, and I just heard that we won state medals in the Literary Arts Division of the 2024 North Carolina Senior Games. We are ecstatic!

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.