Turkeys, NPR, and Morning Coffee

Who would have thought Turkeys would enjoy listening to NPR in the morning, or sharing a wake-up cup of coffee with an old friend?

This video is from almost two months back. We have more recent Turkeyings. Probably get to them about two months hence.

Often a few turkey will come to our windows, peer in, look back and forth as Susan and I sharing a morning croissant.

“Is that a ham and cheese?” one gobbles. Another gobbles, “Is that a blueberry?” and another “Is that a cherry?”

Well, first thing, if it were any of those we wouldn’t share.

Okay, we would, but only because the Turkey guard our backwoods furiously and we appreciate their diligence.

You haven’t lived until you’ve ducked from a wild turkey flying overhead.

Enjoy.

 

The Inheritors Chapter 3 – Reginald Seth Van Gelder, 1635AD

Read The Inheritors Chapter 2 – Tommy Ayers, 210 Cavalos Era

Creator and above level members can download a PDF of this chapter to read offline


The Inheritors Chapter 3 – Reginald Seth Van Gelder, 1635AD

 
He woke up terrified. And pleased. Nothing — Nothing! — Father ever told him mentioned anything like this.

Addie, his nurse since suckling babe, came in at his first stirrings. “Young Master?”

He wanted her to take him to her breast as she had for every fall, every come-uppance, every insult since first he walked.

Instead he pulled his bedsheets tighter around him, feeling naked for the first time before the woman who had washed him since birth.

His young sister Sharon called him from the hall. “It is morning, Seth. Come out and play.”

“Close the door.”

Addie stared at him. “Master Reginald?”

“Close the door , ” he shrieked.

She closed the door behind her and approached his bed.

“Stay.”

Her dark, Welsh-coal hands fell against her white apron and black skirts. “Master Reginald, it is Addie here. ” She raised her arms to embrace him and started towards him again.

“No. ” He struck his foot to the frame beneath the covers of the bed.

She turned and opened the door. “I will get your father. He will see to this. ” She stared at him from the doorway, “full-rigged ” as Father said when talking with his chums.

Seth did not answer. She closed the door and left.

He pulled the scattered bedclothes around him, feeling himself and something else, something new and different recently come from him.

One of his mother’s nurses knocked on his door. “Are you well, Reginald?”

“Yes. quite well.”

The lie sickened him. Something was different today. The childish-fat still clinging to his chest and stomach and arms and face, something Addie rubbed to a fine glow yesterday to make him laugh, not to be touched today.

Not to be touched by Addie.

Father’s heavy steps came down the hall. The door opened and Father stood there, short and solid, balding without his wig but with his mustache perfumed and stiffened until it curled like some vizer’s sword upon his face.

“Get out, ” Seth shrieked.

Father lifted a rod he’d hidden behind him. “That so? Get out yourself, then. Get out of that bed I’ve given you and then get out of this house.”

Mother rushed up behind him and pulled the rod from his hand. “No, James. Please. You know the boy. It’s his fits. It’s not him at all.”

Father bloodied her nose and took the rod from her. “A fit, is it? We’ll see to that. Get out of bed, Reginald. Do you hear me? ” He lifted the rod over his head again. “Get out of that bed.”

Addie came back and stood behind Father. She rested a dark hand on Father’s arm and, upon seeing her, he put the rod down and stared at his wife.

“A fit is it he’s had? See to him, then.”

Addie curtsied to Mother and Father alike. “Yes, Master James. ” She closed the door behind her as they left. “You are well, Master Reginald?”

Seth tensed, hoping to stifle the quivering of his chin, to squeeze shut the watering of his eyes. He promised himself not one summer ago to no longer suffer Father’s rages.

It was no use. His own rage grew at each failed attempt.

Father was correct. He, Reginald Seth Van Gelder, was less than a worthless churl, some high-toby gloak, not fit to be seen by Father’s eyes.

His rage turned inward once again. What had he done? What warranted such rage between Father and son?

Is this the proper fit in every London house?


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Asis Likes Opera (and he owns the yard)

It’s wonderful when you share joys with your neighbors.

One of my joys is music. Can’t get enough and there’s not much I don’t like. Or at least recognize cultural value in.

I noticed Asis the Hawk a’bobbin and a’weavin’ to some classic tunes.

Opera.

I enjoy a good opera. A good Gilbert and Sullivan.

Evidently Asis does, too.

Enjoy.

 

Three Offerings for #WorldReadingAloudDay 2020

Hello!

Sister Jamie Beth Cohen aka (@Jamie_Beth_S), author of Wasted Pretty, mentioned she’d done a reading for #WorldReadingAloudDay.

I, of course, never heard of #WorldReadingAloudDay.

The joys of mountaintop living.

But I love the idea, so here are three I hope you’ll enjoy.

The first two are from The Augmented Man, the last is from Those Wings Which Tire, They Have Upheld Me, one of the stories in my Tales Told ‘Round Celestial Campfires anthology.

Hope you enjoy!

(and let me know what you think)

 

 

 

Metrics? We don’t need no stinkin metrics! (finale)

I got ya charts right here, they make the data clear, unless you’re doing metrics you’ll never know if you’re near. Can do, Can do. This is what metrics can do…

This is the fourth post in a thread on author marketing metrics, specifically regarding some fascinating advice I got through a Facebook group (that spawned these posts). Part 1 provided a cantankerous but realistic intro to the subject of author marketing metrics. Part 2 started an analysis of the advice along with a few suggestions re selecting keywords on Twitter and Amazon and closed asking how one demonstrates their story-telling and -crafting ability in a tweet (we’re getting there). Part 3 continued the analysis.

Here we get to some tough questions that should be asked about any advice you get. But before we do…

Only take advice from someone you’re willing to trade places with.

 
It’s worth pointing out that the person giving the twitter advice is

  • Not a recognized name author
  • Publishes through a POD service that does no marketing (and isn’t it amazing how many POD publishers make doing all your own marketing sound like a godsend?)

I’m not willing to trade with the person who gave the advice analyzed in Part 2 and Part 3 (should be obvious from my comments on the advice. if not, read the following).


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