Tending Turnips

Story-Ventures into Unknown Terrirtory 52:70

2012-01-31T10:35:00.000-05:00

Enchanted Typewriter Chapter Ten: Golf in Hades by John Kendrick Bangs (published in 1899).

This is the Last Story in Ventures into Unknown Territory for 2012
(God Willing We will Have more from this theme in 2013).
Genre: Comic Fantasy
Length: Six Pages
Summary: Boswell tells the author about the game of golf in hell. The story is a comic fantasy, that is sure to bring a smile to any cantankerous face.

What I learned about Writing

If you want to do a big concept keep it simple. Don't get bogged down in all of the details, which this author could have done, but just tell simple anecdotes that create the whole thing. Its almost like hearing a visitor at a club house talking to the regulars about what it is like at his home course.
Also think about what makes an event/sport good, and what makes it bad. What are the questions that people have that play this sport? How does one win this sport? Then have famous characters or people participate in the sport. What are the people/characters good and bad qualities? What would they do if they were playing the sport? This story was dated but could easily be updated by using recent personalities.

Characters in the Story

The Narrator
Jim Boswell
Apollyon
Medussa
Napolean
Deliliah
Napoleon Bonaparte
Diogenes
Solomon
Motaigne
Simple Simon
Mc Guffin
Stygians
Old Peter Stuyvesant
Colonel Bogey
Munchhausen
Xanthippe
Queen Elizabeth
First Words

"Jim," said I to Boswell one morning as the type-writer beganto work, "perhaps you can enlighten me on a point concerningwhich a great many people have questioned me recently. Hasgolf taken hold of Hades yet? You referred to it some timeago, and I've been wondering ever since if it had become afad with you."

Favorite Quote

Munchhausen, having received an imaginary challenge from an imaginary opponent accepted. He went out to the links with an imaginary ball, an imaginary bagful of fanciful clubs, and licked the imaginary life out of the colonel.

Last Words

I can only hope that for one and all thefuture may hold as much of pleasure as the place of departedspirits has held for me.

Where to Find this Story

One can find this story online at the Classic Reader.

How I Discoverd or Acquired this Story

I was looking up information on Philip Jose Farmer and found the book The Enchanted Typewriter mentioned on the Wikipedia page for Farmer. I looked to see if the Enchanted Typewriter was public domain, and it was. Then I looked at the titles of the individual stories, and Golf in Hades seemed like a good story to read, and that is how I found this story.

Story: Ventures into Unknown Territory 51:70

2012-01-30T13:06:00.004-05:00

Beneath the Cellars of Our Town by Steven Millhauser _1998_

Summary Non Spoiler

Length:15 pages

Genre: Fantasy-Milieu

It would be far truer to say that they bear no relation whatever to any period of history, but rather exist as a place apart-a place from which to contemplate the town coolly, or even to forget the town altogether.

First Sentence of Story

Beneath the cellars of our town, far down, there lies a maze of twisting and intersecting passageways, stretching away in every direction and connected to the upper surface by the stairways rough stone.

Quote

One might argue that the aisles of a supermarket, bursting with colour, are far more exciting than our dull world below.

Last Sentence of Story

You who mock us, you laughers and surface crawlers, you restless sideways-sliders and flatland voyagers - don't we irk you, don't we exasperate you, we mole-folk, we pale amphibians?
What I learned about Writing

Milieu: Leaving things only in the milieu creates tension in itself, because we are searching for the normal patterns of writing.

Tidbits
The underground world delineated in "Beneath the Cellars of Our Town" recalls the author's 1986 novel, "From the Realm of Morpheus," which described a series of subterranean kingdoms.

Recommended To

All those in love with Jung or Freud and find the interior of our minds to be a great maze full of intriguing passage ways. Or those who liked watching Being John Malkovich.

Where to Find It
I read it in Millhauser's book The Knife Thrower published in 1998 by Crown.

Story: Ventures into Unknown Territory 50:70

2012-01-28T13:56:00.000-05:00

Dream of a Strange Land by Graham Greene (1963).

Non Spoiler Summary

Length: fifteen pages

Genre: Literary fiction, thriller
Summary: A man with leprosy, in search of his Eden, finds it full of false mirrors and spinning roulette tables.

Quote

As the red winter sun sank in early afternoon below the black firs the cars ggan to multiply upon the drive.

First Sentence

The house of the Herr Professor was screened on every side by the plantation of fir-trees which grew among great grey rocks.

What I learned About Writing

COlor: Graham does a fabulous job of using color to form his settings. I need to include more color into the creation of my worlds. The color brings the reader into the moment with such psychological depth that might not be created by any other effect.

Tidbit

The Internet Movie Database lists 66 titles based on Greene material between 1934 and 2010.
A catholic writer.
Greene likes to set his stories in unusual places.

Where to Find It

I found the story from the collected stories of Graham Greene published by The Bodley Head and William Heinemann in London 1972.

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory" 49:70

2012-01-27T12:25:00.000-05:00

Here There Be Tygers by Ray Bradbury (Published in 1951)

Non Spoiler Summary

Length: 13 pages

Genre: Science Fiction-Space Exploration

Summary: Space explorers find a planet that is a Utopia in which theirdreams may come true. Bradbury asks should they publicize their discovery. Canthey profit from a planet that is perfect?

First Sentence

You have to beat a planet at its own game," said Chatterton.

Favorite Quote

this planet is alive. It's a race itself. But it needs us to show off to, to appreciate its beauty. What's the use of a stage full of miracles if there's no audience?"

What I Learned About Writing

Each Character will enter into the environment differently due to their desires, past experiences, and psychology. Chatterton sees the planet as hostile. But the others see the planet as a rare beauty one which can easily be pleasured. The conflict comes from the crew on the ship and their reaction to the moment at hand.

Tidbits

Watch the Russian Version on You Tube.
The reference is to the phrase "Here Be Dragons" used by medieval cartographers as warnings on unexplored portions of their maps. According to Wikipidea Article
This story was first published in New Tales of Space and Time

Where to Find It

It is collected in Bradbury's short story collections R is for Rocket and The Golden Apples of the Sun.

Library Notes

2012-01-27T12:03:00.001-05:00


I, Robot: What if?

One study commissioned by the UN found that “more books are translated into Spanish in a year than have been translated into Arabic in the past 1,000 years”8

William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn. The Fight of Our Lives (Kindle Locations 2070-2071). Thomas Nelson.

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 48.5:70

2012-01-26T12:57:00.000-05:00

Impossible Dreams by Tim Pratt (2007 Hugo Award Winner)

Check this one out and enjoy the pleasure of the unknown universe that might lay right behind a store that exists on another dimension.

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 48:70

2012-01-26T09:38:00.002-05:00

Isaac Asimov, "I Robot: Catch That Rabbit"(1944)

Length: pages 82-110- (28 pages long.)
Genre: Science Fiction-Robot Adventures

Introduction Summary with No Spoiler

Isaac Asimov shows what happens when a pioneering lead robot named Dave has had too much strain on his leadership network. He commands his sub-robots to dance because he lacks the ability to initiate a proper response in an emergency situation. In the discovery of the problem, the two engineers find themselves in a cave that has collapsed. Will they get out in time, before the air runs out?

Quote

"Is everything normal now?"
"Well he hasn't got religious mania, and he isn't running around in a circle spouting Gilber and Sulivan, so I suppose he's normal."

Writers Notes

Liked the idea of a whole body metaphor. The robots danced to represent a hand "twiddling his fingers".

Tidbits

The first step in cooking rabbit stew is catching the rabbit. (Recipe for Cooking Rabbit Stew)
The Story First Appeared in Astounding Stories.
Astounding Stories was renamed Analog.

Where to Find The Story

I, Robot
The Complete Robot
The Asimov Chronicles

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 47:70

2012-01-25T11:45:00.001-05:00

How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaimon (2006)

Length: 11 Pages also available in Audio Download
Genre: Fantasy Hugo Award Finalist

Non Spoiler Introduction

Girls are foreign. Girls are especially foreign when the quest is to hook up with them at parties. These girls are even more foreign than the confounding Janes who enter into our lives.

Quote

Understand me, all the girls at that party, in the twilight, were lovely; they all had perfect faces but, more important than that, they had whatever strangeness of proportion, of oddness or humanity it is that makes a beauty something more than a shop window dummy.

Writers Note

The everyday teenage world is a fantastic world full of unexplained mysteries. It is a dawning period. A period where a good author can draw from again and again. The world we lived in as teenagers was new and exciting. It is okay to leave the story unfinished and in a way full of mysteries that will never be explained.

Listen to It

Tidbits

The proper way to say Pernod is not Per Nod but Per KNow. I learned that listening to Neil Gaimon's reading of his story.
Neil Gaimon wrote the fantastic Sand Man a comic novel par excellence.
This story was a finalist in the Hugo Award for Short Story.

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory 46:70

2012-01-24T12:30:00.003-05:00

Picture of Ship by

pyxelated

The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carrol (1874)

Length: 291-307 in the Oxford Book of Narrative Verse.

Genre: Nonsense Lyric Poem in a form of an adventure.

Non Spoiler Summary

This story is a nod to all that travel is, where it is more fun to get lost than to stick to the route. A blank map leads our way.

The hapless souls out at sea are searching for the snark and avoiding the Jubjub and Boojum that would mark certain discourteous disaster. Will they or will they not find their antediluvian Snark?

Quote

Drawn by A. Hylian Warrior

Other maps are such shapes, their islands and capes!
But we've got our brave Captain to thank'
(so the crew would protest) ' that he's bought us the best
A perfect and absolute blank!'

Writers Notes

Write the summation of a process in verse. How you solved a problem and then use numbers instead of words to add it all up. Include enough technical words on your subject to seem like an expert. But be obvious about making mistakes.
The sums do not have to add up, this is a good way to show that you are off your rocker. The man can't even divide by two, or add or subtract. So this man is leading a bunch of crazies off the cliff.... into the unknown:

Two added to one - if that could be done'
It said ' with one's fingers and thmbs!"

See page 301 of the Oxford Collection of Verse.

Tidbits

Eight nonsense words from the "Jabberwocky" that do appear are bandersnatch, beamish, frumious, galumphing, jubjub, mimsiest (which appeared as mimsy in "Jabberwocky"), outgrabe and uffish.
In the fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, a character named Tyrion Lannister jokes about being afraid of Snarks, referring to them as imaginary monsters of childhood. The first instance occurs in the first book of the series, A Game of Thrones, and other instances occur throughout the series.
The Boojum tree, a bizarre kind of tree native to Baja California, was named after the Boojum in the poem

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory 45:70

2012-01-20T10:49:00.000-05:00

Charles B. Cory

Montezuma's Castle (1899)

Genre: Travel Adventure

Length: Three Pages

Summary - No Spoiler

The tale is a retelling of an event that is told by the collector, and told to us by the author. The curiosity dealer goes into a cave in search of curios that he can sell to the curious. The search for junk leads him to the edge of his life as he is betrayed by his assistant.

Quote

"What is an ibex?" I asked.
"I'll be hanged if I know," answered the collector. "But there are fellows in these mountains who say that there really are such animals, and if he wanted to have an ibex, and had to have an ibex, I might as well get him an ibex as anybody else, even if I had to make one.

Writers Notes

Write about what you know, this story is believable because it focuses on something the author does a lot, travel to distant lands in order to find the perfect specimen. He probably was annoyed at all of the hacks that were involved in the trade and wanted to buffoon the men who practiced curiosity dealing. Use your annoyances to come up with a good story.

Libri Vox Recording

Tidbits

Charles B Cory was an avid golfer and played the game in the Olympics.
Due to his ability to travel anywhere he wished this soon became the best collection of birds of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico in existence.
He lost his fortune in 1906.

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 44:70

2012-01-19T09:32:00.003-05:00


The Story is Named after a Ghostly Salamander.

The Road Out of Axotle by Terry Southern (Esquire 1962)

Length: 18 Pages
Genre: 1960's Beats (a quest)

One Sentence Non Spoiler Summary

Told in the first person, this story follows the travels of the narrator with two Cuban Nationals through an Odyssey of Mexico. This story is an Odyssey with mythic proportions through the Minotaurs Maze. The unpaved streets of Mexico construct the maze. The narrator hopes for a quest where he can loose himself for awhile and then get back home again; will he find his way out of the maze?

Quotes

Beyond the fence, a trace of the old road's continuation was visible in our headlights for about fifty feet, before it disappeared into the night. On our side of the fence the road branched out left and right, and it ran alongside the fence in both directions for as far as one could see.

Writers Notes

Knights Errant: The knight can be called on his quest without any intention to do so. A simple road trip in unknown territory can work like a maze that the Conquistador must find a way to get back home again.
Quests: Home and back again. The character does not change in his ordeal.
Circular Ending: Loved the circular ending that frames the story.

Tidbits

Southern wrote the screen play for "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Love the Bomb."
He served as relief editor for Esquire (a two month term in 1962)
He also wrote for Saturday Night Live.

Where to Find It

Terry Southern's Short Story Collection Red Dirt Marijuana
Great Esquire Fiction (The Finest Stories from the First Fifty Years)

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 43:70

2012-01-18T09:18:00.000-05:00

Image from bezalel instritute of Art.

A Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway

(Link Opens up into a PDF File)

Length: 2 Pages
Genre: Lost Generation, Romance, Hemingway

Short Summary-No Spoiler

A woman attempts to get the attention of her husband and grows tired of trying, so she must find a substitute for the missing piece that is in her heart. But where can she find something she can pour her affections to, then she thinks she saw a cat in the rain. Could the cat be a cure for her lonesome heart?

Quote

‘Oh, shut up and get something to read,’ George said.
He was reading again.

Writers Note

The wife is set on a wondrous course because of the lack of attention paid by her husband. She then goes out to find a cat in the rain, but cats don't go out in the rain. This is where she gets the call to the journey, a mirage, or reality, a cat in the rain is what she seeks.

Protect IP Strike Please Write YOur Congressman

2012-01-18T08:22:00.001-05:00

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 42:70

2012-01-17T13:45:00.004-05:00

Requiem by Robert H. Heinline (1940)

Length: Seventeen Pages
Genre: Science Fiction-Space Travel-Romance

Short Summary-No Spoiler

Robert H. Heinline answers the question; "Can an old man travel in space?"

Quote

"No I just wanted to live a long time and see it all happen. I wasn't unusual; there were lots of boys like me-the kind of boys who thought there was more ramance in one issue of the Electrical Experimenter than in all the books Dumas ever wrote." pg14

Writer's Notes

Knights Errant
The older gentleman is seduced bydreams of his youth. Youthful dreams force him to take a journey to seeif his body can handle the stress of a young man's game."Incidents out ofa long life ran through his mind in vagrant dreams." pg 8 UnlikeFitzgerald who does everything for the dream girl; Heinline's characterenthusiasm comes from the dreams shaped by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Science Fiction has captured his core and won’t let go until he sees what spaceis like for himself. Our hearts have some hidden piece that needsto be filled by a lifelong yearning. Theyearning is different for every person. A Christian man’s yearning can only be filled by JesusChrist. But in the secular world it is something that will make theknight leave the garden.

Paragraph Breaks
The movement of time is signified by a line break; but just in case the reader misses this cue Heinline writes "a few hours later."pg 6

Tidbits:

The beginning poem was written by Robert Louis Stevenson:
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will!
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Where You Can Find "Requiem" by Heinline:

Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master.
Listen to the Story on Radio Broadcast of Requiem on NBC Radio program X Minus One on OTR.NET.

Movie Reviews: Only Sharing the Ones I Loved

2012-01-17T11:13:00.000-05:00

Go to Review on Butler's Cinema Scene

Buck (2011)

Viewed on Netflix Instant Que (1.16.2012)also on Show Time (until 1.17.2012)

Genre: Documentary

Age Group Best: Highschoolers hanging in the parking lot to Old Men Playing Checkers
Length: 1:28:48

Short Summary-No Spoiler

Buck Branaman is a great horseman, who learned to harness his own pain from his abused youth, to train people how to treat their horses with love and respect.

"God had him in mind when he made a cowboy."

Tagline

There's no wisdom worth having that isn't hard won

Why Spend the Time

This book is about way more than just horses. It is about how we deal with people when we are put in the position of leadership. Horses like people need to be treated with the right love and the right respect, this movie has such great heart that it will make you cry.

Personal Reaction

This movie just makes a lot of good "horse" sense, and I regret the time I have failed at being the best man I can be. The best man I can be is a man who understands his flaws and knows that despite or because of these flaws he must carry on. I would recommend this movie to "men's groups" who have the time to watch and discuss this movie. I would love to share this in a community group.

Quote

“I hope the message people get from that episode is that with a horse, or dog or children comes a great responsibility. It’s more than keeping them fed and putting a roof over their heads. And if you fall short the results can be tragic.”

Director:Cindy Meehl

Prodcued By: Cedar Creek Media

Awards: Sundance People's Award 2011

Hot Docs Top Ten 2011

Only sharing movies I love.

Stories: "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory 41:70

2012-01-16T12:20:00.000-05:00

Pierce Arrow Automobile

Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald(Metropolitan Magazine in 1922)

Length: 5 Pages +
Genre: Lost Generation, Romance

Short Summary-No Spoiler

Dexter, A golf caddy has winter dreams of one day making it big on the golf tour; where he will be respected by his doings and is name will be known. He obtains the privileged life, but a girl haunts him to follow the call to adventure. Will the call still be there after his fortunes are made?

Quote

There was a fish jumping and a star shining and the lightsaround the lake were gleaming. Dexter sat beside Judy Jones andshe explained how her boat was driven. Then she was in thewater, swimming to the floating surfboard with a sinuous crawl. Watching her was without effort to the eye, watching a branchwaving or a sea-gull flying. Her arms, burned to butternut,moved sinuously among the dull platinum ripples, elbow appearingfirst, casting the forearm back with a cadence of falling water,then reaching out and down, stabbing a path ahead.

Writers Notes

Knight Errant is set on his wondrous course by the desires and passions he has for a young maiden. In Araby by Joyce the young boy goes to the Araby Fair; while in Winter Dreams the boy becomes a man and then is moved by her gravity. The story looks at what happens when the Knight leaves the garden.
Details Uses a lot more details to describe an event than does Hemingway. Both writers though yield tremendous power in their prose. Fitzgerald's story seemed more resonant to me and my personal journey than did Hemingway's aloof style.
Direct The Focus: Fitzgerald turns the focus for the reader by saying, now don't go looking this way but this is the part of the story that concerns us.
Quote and Use of Verbs: Fitzgerald uses great verbs to describe his heroine, driving, flying, falling, stabbing, crawling. These are all verbs that move. She is a moving creature because of the verbs used for her.

Tidbits

In 1917, on probation and unlikely to graduate, Fitzgerald enlisted in the army, where he was eventually stationed at Alabama’s Camp Sheridan.
At Camp Sheirdan he met the girl that would send him on his quest for tangled love, Zelda Sayre.
Fitzgerald wrote the Great Gatsby not in the United States, but abroad in France.

Where to Find It

Spark Notes on Winter Dreams
The Story Can Be Read Here

Stories: Ventures into Unknown Territory 40:70

2012-01-15T11:52:00.000-05:00

Araby by James Joyce (1914)

Length - Five Pages

Genre: Irish Fiction

Short Summary-No Spoiler

A young innocent boy from Dublin yearns to write of an adventure that will capture the heart of his exotic neighbor. The neighbor makes the writer dream of the Araby Market. The events that happen in the market are found in the short story Araby by James Joyce.

Where to Find It part of Dubliners by James Joyce

Find more Info on the Wikipedia Article on the Story.

Tidbits:

The Poem The Arab's Farewell to his Steed (mentioned in Araby) speaks of the price that adventures may bring to ones treasured possessions.

Stories: Ventures into Unknown Territory 39:70

2012-01-14T10:01:00.000-05:00

Adrian Berg, R.A. (b. 1929)

The Lake, Kew Gardens, Summer, Night 1984

Kew Gardens by Virginia Woolf 1919

Length:Four Pages
Genre/Movements: Impressionism and Postmodernism

Short Summary with No Spoilers

The visitors to Kew Gardens are reminded, by the gardens beauty, of their past affairs and dips into the eddy of love.

Writers Note:

A Great refleciton is written by the literate kitten.

I Wrote a Haiku about the progress of a big squishy slug that I witnessed in Ecola State Park, in Oregon.

Dad and I hike up-
through dewy laid state park-
grey slug crawls on moss

Woolf unpacks the essential idea that our struggles do not matter as much to the large natural world we live in. Nature will proceed with or without our help. She describes our circumstance in this quote:

In the oval flower bed the snail, whose shell had been stained red, blue, and yellow for the space of two minutes or so, now appeared to be moving very slightly in its shell, and next began to labour over the crumbs of loose earth which broke away and rolled down as it passed over them. It appeared to have a definite goal in front of it, differing in this respect from the singular high stepping angular green insect who attempted to cross in front of it, and waited for a second with its antennæ trembling as if in deliberation, and then stepped off as rapidly and strangely in the opposite direction. Brown cliffs with deep green lakes in the hollows, flat, blade-like trees that waved from root to tip, round boulders of grey stone, vast crumpled surfaces of a thin crackling textureall these objects lay across the snail's progress between one stalk and another to his goal. Before he had decided whether to circumvent the arched tent of a dead leaf or to breast it there came past the bed the feet of other human beings.

Quote

"Why should I mind, Simon? Doesn't one always think of the past, in a garden with men and women lying under the trees? Aren't they one's past, all that remains of it, those men and women, those ghosts lying under the trees,... one's happiness, one's reality?

Tidbits

Virginia Woolf was born in London and her real name is Adeline Virginia Stephen.
She suffered from manic depression and finally committed suicide by drowning.
She helped form the Bloomsburry Group a collective of great writers "generally modernist in outlook, were chiefly united by a strong reaction against the preceding Victorian Age. The group included, amongst others, writer E M Forster, biographer Lytton Strachey and painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant." BBC Four
Read Kew Gardens Here

Stories: Ventures into Unknown Territory 38:70

2012-01-13T12:08:00.000-05:00

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Length: 6 pages
Genre: Minimalism, Naturalism, Hemingway.

Non Spoiler Summary

  A man and a woman attempt to communicate in a situation full of still life tension, in a bar outside of Madrid Spain.

Writers Analysis

Hemingway uses simplicity to highten ones awareness of the complexity of the moment. Hemingway uses things in the environment to bring out a fuller meaning: From the bead curtains described and then played with by jig when she is nervous.
The hill that looks like a white elephant: The Absinthe leaves a bitter after taste, from an at first sweet encounter. This could refer to the characters decision concerning the effects of their affair. But he allows room for the reader to decipher the fuller meaning of the text.The use of alcohol in this story is interesting. I do not know too many women that love the taste of beer, but Jig orders two of them like a pro. Also alcohol allows the drinker a form of relaxation... "Man I could use a beer right about now!".
A bar is quite! I don't know too many bars that are quite so this conversation has to take place in the dead hours maybe between 2pm and 4pm. Other wise could they have this conversation there?

Its the little things that add up to the bigger story.

Quote from the Story

The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. […] The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.

Tidbits

Hemingway served as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War.
He was wounded in World War One, where he served as an ambulance driver. He was only 18.
Ernest's dad was a doctor in rural Illinois.

Read It Now

Stories: Ventures into Unknown Territory 37:70

2012-01-12T08:53:00.000-05:00

A Drowning Incident by Cormac McCarthy (1960)

Genre: Southern Gothic, Western, modernist

Length: Two Pages

Non Spoiler Summary:

A walk in nature reveals the story to be written; a life and death drama is played out.

My Notes on the Writer's Craft:
Cormac looks at the unnoticed things around and about this landscape. One gets the idea that their are countless stories that can be told by just taking a walk in your garden. The life and death struggle held within a spider web. The shoe of mystery left in a pool of water. He explains to me that by mowing a lawn, or going for a walk, all I need to do is look around and their will be something to write about. But how you write it is what the author must master.

Quote from Story:
In one pool an inexplicable shoe sat solemnly.

Tidbit:

The story was written for his school newspaper the Phoenix, published in 1960 while he was attending the University of Tennessee.
An adaptation of McCarthy's 2006 play The Sunset Limited aired on HBO in February 2011. It stars Tommy Lee Jones (who also directs) and Samuel L. Jackson.
Cormac McCarthy was born Charles McCarthy;^[1] on July 20, 1933.

Click here to read the story.

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 36:70

2012-01-11T11:59:00.000-05:00

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner (1930)

Length:9 Pages

Genre: Southern Gothic

Non Spoiler Summary

Emily attempts to utilize her strength to keep her home, as it was when her father died.

My Thoughts on Writers Craft

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner is mentioned in Stephen King's the Stand.

It was too much like that Faulkner story that was in all the college anthologies. "A Rose for Emily." The town fathers hadn't known what that terrible smell was but after a while it had gone away.

Stephen King probably utilized this story in order to shape the relationship between Frannie Goldsmith and Harold. Both stories deal with an alone girl, and a savant gardener and cook. Both Frannie and Emily bury their fathers in the garden. And then attempt to hold onto a time that is flickering by in an unstoppable fluency. Stephen King utilized the story but made it his own, this is what good authors do. What is haunting about this story is the need for humans to cling to the past, no matter what or whom it may harm.

Quote from the Story

uniforms--on the porch and the
lawn, talking of Miss Emily as if she had been a contemporary of theirs,
believing that they had danced with her and courted her perhaps,
confusing time with its mathematical progression, as the old do, to whom
all the past is not a diminishing road but, instead, a huge meadow which
no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow
bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years

Tidbits

Mentioned in the stand by Stephen King.
Ole Miss changed their mascot from the Rebels to the Bear, The Bear is a William Faulkner short story.
He attended the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford, and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity

Where To Find this Story

Read It Online.

Library Notes

2012-01-10T11:23:00.000-05:00

Where do I get my photos? I get my photo ideas from reading a variety of things. I look up the art when it speaks of a piece or an artist. Then once I Google the artist name I look at their art and find one that speaks to me. Than I save it to my files. I hope to honor the artist by posting their art on my blog. I hope to always give credit to the artist and their work on my page. If any artist does not want me to share their art just let me know and I will remove it immediately.

Thanks Gregory D. Rothbard

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 35:70

2012-01-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Wake for Susan by Cormac McCarthy (1959)

Cormac McCarthy beautifully describes the setting:

Here in the graveyard, scrubby pines grew boldly within a circle of oaks and hickories. The stones nestled secretively beneath the tangled honeysuckle. They were moss-mellowed and weather-stained in that rustic way which charms lovers of old things.

The author makes me wonder when he writes, "it was a real year." A real year compared to what years? Are some years real and others not? This sense of wonder sparks the need to listen for an answer to his thoughts. He reveals that in 1834 a young woman died and that she was probably a lot like the author, on the brink of something great. 1834 is not too long ago, but where is this woman's story? The inscription in the rock, on top of her grave, silently witnesses her life.
The reader finds here a need to know more about the people that shaped our present, by the work of their hands. I am excited to read his novel the Road, for he knows "the people" from where he grew up.
We are half way through the winter short story festival for 2011-2012.

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 34:70

2012-01-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

Prairie by Brian Evenson is a "Zombie Tale" of our Pioneer Past, when Pioneers had to do things that were often left out of the annals of history.
Genre: Zombie Horror
Length: 4 pages

Writers Craft Reviews

The historical blend of reality and fantasy makes an interesting read. Evenson gives a diary of a pioneer family on the journey west and the tragedy that occurred on the way. The story was influenced by The Silver Web Cabeza de Vacca's sixteenth century account of crossing North America after being shipwrecked. The day to day account gives the story an immediacy that can not be ignored. I found Prairie by Brian Evenson in the Living Dead Volume One Edited by John Joseph Adams.
We have consumed the remaining provisions. We eat the living when we ferret them out, and have eaten the horses as well. Still the prairie continues without cease. (227)

I also appreciated the amount of details that the author chose to put in the story. When he describes a gruesome act he does not go overboard, but uses just enough information that we can see that it might be too much for the character to record.

We struck a fire and ate what we could of the newly dead, then slit back the sack. Inside were two gray and curled women who stumbled away when released. We rode them down and coupled them severally. Later, we directed their movement by ropes slung about their necks. Later still, we ate their fleshly portions.

Often one does not need to be gross to be scary. (227)

Library Notes

2012-01-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

I am currently reading the Stand and now that this will take me a long time. The book has a great following and one group of Stand fans twittered a version of the book. It's rather cool, check it out now. The site also plays a soundtrack that is connected to the book.

Geek Equations: Value of Food

2012-01-09T08:41:00.002-05:00

So how do you figure out the value of something: Taste (T) divided by cost (C) equals value (V). So if the taste is excellent but the cost is high the value for the customer is less.

Seduced by an Ad

2012-01-09T05:15:00.000-05:00

I love this ad check it out! It works on that primal level and actually makes me want to share it. Amazing!

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 33:70

2012-01-08T12:48:00.003-05:00

The old strange man walks back and forth patrolling the small town. Does anyone know where he came from? Does anyone know how long he has been on his patrol? Why is he sentenced to check the doors each night? He never says a thing but his presence is known. The people say when asked about him; "Oh, him? He's the night watchman!" The Night Watchman by David Braly is a fantastic tale of suspense that can be found in the Read All About It! (Source Book) edited by Jim Trelease.

He had walked the sidewalks of Sawyerville at night for as long as anyone could remember. He never hurried, never strolled, and proceeded in a slow but businesslike manner from one door to the next, turning each knob to make sure that every store in town was safely locked. To think of Sawyerville at night without thinking of its watchman was impossible.

Note: Unfortunately this story is not available online.

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 32:70

2012-01-06T11:00:00.000-05:00

A Suburban Fairy Tale by Katherine Mansfield

Mr. B. was a stout youngish man who hadn't been able—worse luck—to chuck his job and join the Army; he'd tried for four years to get another chap to take his place but it was no go. He sat at the head of the table reading the Daily Mail. Mrs. B. was a youngish plump little body, rather like a pigeon. She sat opposite, preening herself behind the coffee set and keeping an eye of warning love on little B. who perched between them, swathed in a napkin and tapping the top of a soft-boiled egg.

I love the description of the two characters in this short story. A man stuck. His wife a youngish plump little body comparable to a pigeon. You can picture a little nest as they preen over little B. This bit of fantasy blended with reality is a perfect illustration of the division between the "adult world" and the "world of the child." It reminds me of a gathering of crows and the fact that I use to call these birds ca-ca birds, or short ca-ca. Dad mom look at the cacas. Its like an arma-dildo instead of armadillo.

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 31:70

2012-01-05T08:18:00.000-05:00

Where is the Voice Coming From by Eudora Welty.

What caused a white man who lived and worked on Deacon Street in Thermopylae, Mississippi, to kill a black man who lives on the same street? Eudora Welty captures the tension of people living on the edge of a changing world. She shows why one might consider gunning down a forward looking brother. The story is a nod at the biblical story found in Genesis between Cain and Able. Am I my brothers keeper is the question that Welty posed.

So I reach me down my old guitar off the nail in the wall. 'Cause I've got my guitar, what I've held on to from way back when, and I never dropped that, never lost or forgot it, never hocked it but to get it again, never give it away, and I set in my chair, with nobody home but me, and I start to play, and sing a-Down. And sing a-down, down, down, down. Sing a-down, down, down, down. Down.

Eudora Welty on the Short Story.

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 30:70

2012-01-04T08:09:00.001-05:00

Alice Walker's The Color Purple is the next book in our Library Book Sandwiched In Book Club. Here is a short story by Walker titled Use.
Alice Walker explores the people we watch on television, thinking we know them, but in reality they are strangers to us. The viewer finds ways to exploit other people's stories to be amused. The story explores how we turn our noses down on people whom we think wear a mask of no regard, but in reality they are gifted by talents of their own.

Quote:
You've no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage. (A pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?) On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other's faces. Sometimes the mother and father weep, the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs.

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 29:70

2012-01-03T09:52:00.003-05:00

Zora Neale Hurston—novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist—was known during the Harlem Renaissance for her wit, irreverence, and folk writing style. She won second prize in the 1925 literary contest of the Urban League’s journal, Opportunity, for her short story “Spunk,” which also appeared in The New Negro.

Zora Neale Hurston tells it straight as she saw it in Spunk her first published short story. Hurston was a master as mixing folklore, true-life, and mid-Florida scenery into one mean picture. Did she write of the American experience, or the AfraAmerican Experience? I believe she writes of people neither white nor black, of a certain place and time, and that she goes beyond the limitations of classification. Enjoy the story for the story that is told, and find the connections where you may.

“Ain’t cher? Well, night befo‘ las’ was the fust night Spunk an‘ Lena moved together an’ jus‘ as they was goin’ to bed, a big black bob-cat, black all over, you hear me, black, walked round and round that house and howled like forty, an‘ when Spunk got his gun an’ went to the winder to shoot it he says it stood right still an‘ looked him in the eye, an’ howled right at him. The thing got Spunk so nervoused up he couldn’t shoot. But Spunk says twan’t no bob-cat nohow. He says it was Joe done sneaked back from Hell! ”

2011-2012 Winter Short Story Festival 28:70

2012-01-02T09:18:00.000-05:00

Tennyson: The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters came and beckoned the sailors far from home, to a land of golden rays and pleasant weather all year long. A place far from home. A place we used to know. One gets the sense of wanting this year to be better than the rest, time will tell if the year will blossom into a swell; new-year is like a cloud on the horizon full of weather that will either destroy the crops or make them prosper.

A land where all things always
seemed the same!
And round about the keel with faces
pale,
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
The mild-eyed melancholy
Lotus eaters came.

Okay, sorry for having two from Tennyson, but these poems must be dusted off and read again... I believe you will find them to be full of joyful moments. I downloaded these poems from the Gutenberg Project under the title Six Centuries of English Poetry with commentary by James Baldwin. A short story must have the five elements of storytelling in order to be considered. The elements are:

A story has a beginning middle and an end.
It has to have a sense of place.
It has characters/actors.
It has to have an internal or external conflict.
The conflict has to be resolved.

Tennyson was excellent at telling stories through the structure of poetry.

2011-2012 Winter Story Festival 27:70

2012-01-01T12:47:00.002-05:00

Alfred Tennyson tells of a heroic heroine and Sir Lancelot's quest in this telling epic poem titled the Lady of Shalott. I love the setting that was created by this poets feel for England; you can feel the warm ground mixing with the cold morning sky.

(Part Four) In the Sotrmy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The brodad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining
Over Toward Camelot;
Downs she came and found a boat
Beneath a Willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote,
The Lady of Shalott.
...
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lists: the Best Books I read in 2011

2011-12-31T10:55:00.003-05:00

I have read a lot this year - 60 books total! Next Year, I hope to start and finish books before jumping to the next one, there were way too many books left unfinished. Oh well! The top five books on the list were chosen by how well I recalled the book during my non-reading hours.
All in all a great year of reading, here is my top 5 books for 2011:

Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder:
This book was a lot of fun as I plunged into Hodder's Steam Punk - Time Travel Adventure.
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Gravity's rainbow was the hardest book to read for this year. But it was so worth it!
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The laughter was exhausting.
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
Proving Rome was full of debauchery.
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
The characters remained with me for a long time after completing the novel.
(not finished yet) Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.
Bonhoeffer grabs a hold of you and won't let go, you might know the ending of the story, but what this does is show the man and where his theology and core beliefs were developed

I am looking forward to 2012! Happy New Year!

Books and Music

2011-12-30T13:16:00.001-05:00

Stephen King the Stand Modern Library Read this Month.... To listen to my whole Modern Library and Music Juke Box: Listen Here.

Bruce Springsteen

Blue Oyster Cult

Bob Dylan

The Sylvers

Larry Underwood

2011-12-29T09:43:00.001-05:00

Caged in Darkness by J.D. Stroube

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was invited to read and review Caged in Darkness by J.D. Stroube, from the author’s invitation, and I am very glad that I read this one.   The book captures the best of my guilty pleasure reading, that of Young Adult coming of age stories.

Savannah, the main character is a sixteen year old on the threshold between the nursery and the adult world.   Savanah has found a sanctuary from her parents, who appear at first the embodiment of evil. But then her world is tipped over when she accidently bumps a box over and releases a devil from his crystal palace.   The devil is now bent on killing and possessing the innocent in order to regain his strength.

The book reminded me of Dawson’s creek and the love triangle between Joey, Dawson, and Pacey.   The kids are so hormonally charged and have no real way to deal with this energy that the sparks lay right at the surface, and are about to light into a dramatic volcano.   J.D. Stroube then adds a bit of the supernatural to the mix and the volcano spouts in a captivating young-love story.

Stroube’s understanding of the teen years is apparent; she perfectly describes the psychology behind teenager’s complicated and intense feelings.   She mixes this psychology with a sense of humor in order to lift the reader up from the intensity.

One problem I had, which was probably my own fault, was the switch of narrators. I would be reading and then ask, “Wait who’s talking here? Okay its Ash, so this is a guy’s perspective, which makes sense.” This at times distracted from the overall story. But the different narrators did add something to the overall effect of the story.

Stroube’s research into the supernatural was great. It left me wanting to find out more about witches in history, the role of the niphilim, and fallen angels. I wish she would have spent a little more time developing the setting.   I wanted to know more about the town in which the story takes place.

I was hooked throughout the book and definitely was entertained by J.D. Stroube. I can’t wait to read another one by her, there are so many possibilities.

Innagural Winter Story Festival 26:27

2011-12-24T11:23:00.000-05:00

Twas the Night (Late) Before Christmas by Richard Armour

"The hour was now midnight and quite a bit past,
But our labors, thank Heaven, were finished at last...
As we gazed at our efforts through lead-lidden eyes
And thought of the morrow and shouts of surprise,
We prayed that the children, the morn of St. Nick's
Would please not awaken at least until six!"

The whole version of this poem is hilarious, however, this is not available in the public domain; and I do not want to get sued for printing this poem in whole, without permission from the author. Hopefully, someday this 1947 poem will be published on the public domain to rekindle the fun spirit of Richard Armour.

An Encyclopedia of Modern American Humor, ed. Cerf, Bennett (New York: Modern Library, 1954), 478-479.

Bard of Roth's Jukebox

2011-12-23T09:12:00.000-05:00

Do you have a difficult time find the right album for your teenage audiophile? Let Twist and Shout Records lead you to their list of the best of 2011. Twist And Shout's List. I love Twist and Shout Records, a store ran by the cat of two retired math teachers from Denver Public Schools. I used to go to the shop all of the time when I was living on Bayuad street in the Washington Park area of Denver, Colorado. I spent countless hours listening and honing my love for music.
Wooden Shjips received second place on the list, right behind Tom Waits. Wooden Shjips are a pyschadelic band from San Francisco, so not really my cup of tea. I did like listening to Destroyer which was fourth on the list. Of course Tom Waits won!

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 23:27

2011-12-22T08:51:00.000-05:00


IF there is any team that most represents		the dad.

Santa Claus is in the Living Room, written by Santiago Roncagliolo

Theme or Short Introduction

Memoir of living in a screwed up broken family.

Intended Audience

Adult

Length

Short story.

Memorable Quote

The new boyfriend treated me well and made Mom laugh. On the other hand, Dad . . . well, he kept on being Dad. He went along promising me that one day he’d get back with my mother and from time to time made tender gestures – like bringing her flowers or giving her a kitten. Without fail, those gestures backfired: Mom would find out he’d stolen the flowers from the neighbor's garden. Or she’d remind him – at the top of her lungs as usual – that I was allergic to cats.

Feedback Requested

I hope to keep Tending Turnips short and simple and easy for readers to find good short-stories. I think having headings will enable the readers to find the story with more ease. Let me know if this is helpful, thanks Gregory D. Rothbard

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 22:27

2011-12-21T11:20:00.000-05:00

'The Maccabee of Miami Beach' by Thane Rosenbaum
A down-and-out retiree gets a dramatic chance at fame — though maybe not fortune —will he shine in the midst of the lights of Miami? Miami, a city of bright light full of retirees, from New York and beyond. This story is how one man got his final act of liberation.

Rosenbaum is also the author of the novel The Golems of Gotham.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 2011 21:91

2011-12-20T11:21:00.000-05:00

Happy Chanukah, listen to the Spinning Top by Shalom Alechiem!
I love Shalom Aleichem because he captures the beautiful and ugliness of the human condition; or the "Jewish Human Condition". His stories were the basis for Fiddler on the Roof. Enjoy this story about Chanukah and the dreidel where betting is allowed and even holy on those eight crazy nights.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 20:27

2011-12-19T12:23:00.002-05:00

Tis the Season is a funny holiday story, set in the near future, a future where Christmas(TM) has been incorporated- Enjoy your right to laughter at the corporates, while we still have a chance.

We set out early. There were a reasonable number of people on the streets, all of them doing that thing we all do on the 25th, where you don't say anything illegal, but you raise your eyebrows and smile a holiday greeting.

Reviews: The Fight of Our Lives

2011-12-19T11:16:00.000-05:00

William Bennett helped me re-tune to the politicalspectrum in his book A Century Turns, which was published in 2010. Now that it is 2011 and Bennett gives roomfor my fears in the book The Fight For Our Lives. The Obama administration has exemplifiedwhat was wrong with the tenants of 1970’s elementaryeducation, Free To Be You and Me, itallows the Bullies ample room to dictate the rules of the playground.

But instead of Bullies with large arms and NeanderthalThoughts, we have a world being run by the terrorists carrying nuclear war heads under their arms, and our President andLeaders say, "Hey as long as you don't bother us too much, you are free to stay as long as you want, and keep being yourself, -- your beautiful baby (imagine a sort of Sammy Davis Jr. voice). Just make sure the doors are locked, and the water turned off before you leave." Extremist fanatics are house guests with an addiction to methamphetamine; we welcome the terrorists in only to discover our house has been trashed.  

The United States use to reign in the fight for freedom, now we haveabandoned our post and let the Barbarous Destructive Theologians free reign todo as they see fit.  This is not good,not good at all.  A bully does not changebecause they are cuddled and loved. Bullies change when they know there are consequences to their actions.  This book is a hopeful wake up call to theUnited States, hopeful in waking the United States up before it is too late.

The one area that Bennett does not do a good job of is pointing only at Islam.  Islam is a fanatical religion but there are more fanatics out there than Islam.   He needed a more balanced attack; the way it stands now it appears that he is anti-islam to the extreme; which then makes him look like a grumpy bigoted old man.  

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their [...] book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 [...] : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 19:21

2011-12-18T10:07:00.000-05:00

This story of a cold time was found in my Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library-American Indian Myths and Legends. It tells of a time when the planet was cold and all of the animals were about to freeze to death. The story shows how the wolf, the fox, the wolverine, the bobcat, the mouse, the pike, and the dogfish steal fire and warm up the world. - Enjoy the story Keeping Warmth in a Bag.

Interesting Facts

The story is from the Slavey Native Americans who lived in British Columbia.
The Slavey are related culturally and linguistically (of relating to the language used by a group) to the Plains tribes in to the south.
They made their living by hunting, fishing and trapping.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 18:27

2011-12-17T10:03:00.000-05:00

Ghosts surround us, we are besieged by the Ghosts of Past, Future, and even the Present. The poem Ghost of a Night by Charles Liepsig celebrates a haven for Ghosts who need a place away from the stormy night.

Quote from the Poem:

This borderland has fences
made of psychic razor wire.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 17:27

2011-12-16T09:33:00.001-05:00

Illustration by Gregory D. Rothbard
Possible Christmas Sweater Design? Might Work!

It’sthe advent blue note time of year; we get amped up andthen somewhere in the middle of the crazy advent shopping and preparationfrenzy, we get the blues. Today's story hitsthis note well; it is a dark impression of American youthtoday and their relations to Santa.

Caveat Lector: not for kids.

Quote from the Story:

"’Cause I don’t want it to be like last year."
Tonya sighed heavily and rubbed at her temples. She’d been hearing this same tirade from her son for an entire year now. "Henry, there was nothing wrong with what you got from Santa last year."
"I asked for an X Box, and he gave me a Playstation. It’s not the same."

Tri-Star Pictures gets Panned

2011-12-16T07:30:00.000-05:00

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 16:27

2011-12-15T08:15:00.000-05:00

Illustration by Gregory D. Rothbard

The Brass Canaries by

Gwendolyn Clare

“Ah, the brass canaries. They’re delicate, very fragile,” our Maker warns. “Only recommended for the most discerning and dedicated hobbyists.”

Why did the maker make the Brass Canaries, they are so delicate, and yet they are a thing of beauty? This story looks at the annual re-animation of Christmas.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 15:27

2011-12-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

Sketch by Gregory D. Rothbard

The Wager of Gerald O’Rourke: A Christmas Story by Francis J. Finn, S.J. (1859-1928) – 00:27:34

A young lad wants to make sure he is up for Christmas Mass. No one believes he will get up? So he makes a wager with his friend of four dollars, that he will indeed arise without assistance before any one else wakes, by 3:30 AM! This is a great traditional Christmas Story, about a boy who will break the malaise and sleep that usually plagues him. The story answers the question, "What good do little events have on the grand scheme of things?"

Geek Equations: Lorentz Factors Fueled by Coffee Stains

2011-12-14T08:12:00.002-05:00

Illustration by Gregory D. Rothbard

Scientist: "Curved space-time tells matter how to move, and matter tells space-time how to curve." 
Student: "So dude its like a dance... only bigger." 

Nahin, Paul J., and Ben Bova. Time Travel : a Writer's Guide to the Real Science of Plausible Time Travel. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest, 1997. Print. pg 53

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 14:27

2011-12-13T08:54:00.000-05:00

How does Santa do it?  Visiting billions of houses? Eating trillions of cookies, and not get completely bloated; wouldn't he explode from eating so much?  Also how is it possible that his reindeer are not "diced venison off the runway." A physicist gives us the answer in today's Christmas Science Fiction story: Harnassing the Brane Drane by Robert Brilling.  

To make better sense of this you may want to skim the wikipedia articles on brane cosmology and the Planck constant.  I really enjoyed reading this story, especially after learning a tidbit more on brane cosmology and the plank constant.Also I found the book, Warped Passages Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions by Lisa Randall to be very helpful. 

New Blog 2012: Turnips 365

2011-12-13T06:49:00.000-05:00

Cartoon by Gregory D. Rothbard

I am starting a new blog that will begin on January 1st 2012. It will be my journal of creative ideas and short story ideas. I found that Tending Turnips was getting bogged down by two many forms of writing. Tending Turnips is my cultural reviews and book reviews; Turnips 365 will be my attempts at writing fiction for 365 days during the year of 2012.
Polycarp55 is my religious journey.
And words people say is my dictionary of terms I want to share and hopefully remember.
I hope to find the time to write fiction everyday; it does make me a wee bit nervous to try my hand here, but one should feel butterflies, before anything that is worth the time to pursue. Thanks for reading, Gregory D. Rothbard

Editors Notes

2011-12-13T03:00:00.000-05:00

Cartoon by Gregory D. Rothbard

Check out my weird playlist on You Tube. There is some, might I say, interesting music here; of the likes you might not have heard of. Check it out and enjoy thanks for your readership.

Bard of Roth's Classic Jukebox

2011-12-12T11:48:00.001-05:00

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 13:27

2011-12-12T09:47:00.000-05:00

Christmas Wedding by Vylar Kaftan

The story begins with a wedding in Florida.  The first sign that something is wrong in this Science Fiction Christmas story is the mention of snow in Florida.  Snow in Florida can happen, but there is enough snow to make snowballs, this is very unlikely; so what has happened?  Doomsday Scenarios? And while it snows in Florida, Mel prepares for a wedding day on Christmas: 

Through the door she saw hundreds of poinsettias, clustered around the small chapel. The red-and-green centerpiece on the altar blossomed like a holiday garden. White candles, wreathed with pine, flickered on the sides of the pews. Collagework covered the walls–thousands of pictures, carefully clipped from bridal magazines. Green garlands edged the windows at the chapel’s sides, framing the snowy scene outdoors. Red and green ribbons draped down from the ceiling, connected to a suspended cluster of–
“Mistletoe!” she exclaimed.

Can tradition exist in a snow day in the post apocalyptic period? Can non traditional love (three ladies getting married)find traditional form during Christmas?

Now she had to hold herself together like a vase glued with elementary school-paste, until there was a time and a place to be vulnerable.

Love cracks into the guarded places when we are most vulnerable. I knew I wanted to marry my wife when she provided shelter, during my first hurricane experience in Florida. It was a small hurricane but knowing that she was willing to put up with my fear encouraged the love I had for her. This story illustrates how people gather together during the toughest times; that what really matters is our personal relationships with people who are in our immediate, and non traditional families.

Christmas Wedding by Vylar Kaftan (Double Click To Read)
Story was listed in the BestScienceFictionstories.com: Top Christmas Stories.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 12:27

2011-12-11T09:32:00.000-05:00





She hadn't done Christmas in almost eight months.  


She'd given him a Gone With The Wind
 Halloween and a Fourth of July with whistling busters, panoramas, 
phantom balls, and double-break shells, but those were only stopgaps.  
The man needed cookies, he needed presents, he was absolutely aching for
 a sleigh filled with Christmas cheer.


A quote from the short story by James Patrick Kelley the Best Christmas Ever. Kelley

presents a story of the last remaining man, and his heart ache for someone to share

Christmas with.  The story is modeled after Capra's Wonderful Life. 

Caveat Lector: Some of the material is not suitable for young children, but the 

overall feel is fantastic.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 11:27

2011-12-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the greatest surprises are awaiting for us in our technologically enhanced dreams. Here is such a story: Spider by Duncan Shields.

Review John Peel Record Stacks from the BBC

2011-12-08T11:46:00.001-05:00

John Peel was a personal hero of mine. He brought me through the chaotic rendering of "so much music". His voice on BBC Radio One introduced me to bands in a way that comforted my young curious mind. I needed someone to take me under their wings and tell me, "Check this out man, what do you think, hmmm...." and John Peel was that man.

It was a pleasure to listen to his show. The one thing that made him stand out was his lack of need to sound cool. He never sold out. He never would use a voice modulator to sound cool. He played the music he liked and thought others might. Heck, he was first person to listen and love the White Stripes, way before they were cool. He was the incredibly genuine John Peel.

No one, and I mean no one has had the affect that John Peel had on my life with music. Okay, besides my brother Andy. But with Andy I was nervous to pick music he might consider uncool. My brother Andy is the muse of music for my family, he rocks and deciphers music boldly. But beside my brother, John peel had the greatest affect on my likes for music. I miss his hour of great music, too bad he didn't live a bit longer. No one has replaced his position of musical guru since his death in 2004. I miss him greatly. He would have been a great immortal.

Below you will find the episode one of a four part you tube download of a documentary from our friends over the pond, about the great John Peel and his tastes for music.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 10:27

2011-12-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Hoodoo Mc Figins Christmas

A boy wants to play Santa Clause to his parents. So what happens next is a miracle.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 9:27

2011-12-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

Hansel and Gretal were forced into the deep dark wood, where they meet a witch who brings them to a wonderful gingerbread house; only to find evil in the most pleasant of Gingerbread Houses.

But what of the witch? She is described as a heinous specimen, for which had no right in doing those evils so described. But, didn't she have a right to these castaways? Didn't she feed them, in a time of famine? House them from the evil black forest? So were they hers to eat? Wink. Wink. Nod. Nod.

So what does this have to do with Christmas?

First, I have noticed some awesome looking gingerbread houses for sell at our local Publix Grocery Store.

Second, during this time and season, there are plenty of young children who's parents have abandoned them to the wiles of the world. This year we must think of them when we are having a grand time with our family. We must also be thankful for the times we get to spend with our family, and the gifts we lovingly can give to each other.

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 8:27

2011-12-06T09:17:00.000-05:00

Father Frost a Russian Fairy Tale:
Fairy Tales are dark things. They tell us of a subteranean darkness. This story is similar to the little match girl, in that it shows the need to protect youth from the adult mean world.

Deserted by her father, the poor girl sat down under a fir-tree at the edge of the forest and began to weep silently. Suddenly she heard a faint sound: it was King Frost springing from tree to tree, and cracking his fingers as he went. At length he reached the fir-tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp crackling sound he alighted beside her, and looked at her lovely face.

I was listening to the Schnitt-Show yesterday, and he was talking about a teacher who told her elementary class that Santa was not real. This is not her job. Her job is to allow the children to be formed by their parents, and allow these parents to celebrate the miracle of St. Nick. A teacher should protect her students from the cynical adult world. The only cure from the icing of ones heart is to embrace the myth. The Father Frost story ends with a warning about what happens when adults keep the warmth of home away from their children.

"At that moment the door flew open, and she rushed out to meet her daughter, and as she took her frozen body in her arms she too was chilled to death."

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 7:27

2011-12-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

The Christmas Gift that Came to Rupert by Brette Harte

Little drummer boy,
beats on his drum, announcing the
arrival of Christmas.

Innagural Winter Short Story Festival 2011 - 6:27

2011-12-04T11:49:00.000-05:00

Indian Pete's Christmas Gift by Herbert W. Collingwood.
This story's theme is good but the times it was written taint the discovery. But all strangers with strange customs are welcome to celebrate the Holidays with us.

You might want to tell your young ones that this is the way we use to think about Native Americans, and women and that it is dated material, and that our viewpoints have changed.

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 5:27

2011-12-03T08:34:00.000-05:00

Our Lady's Juggler is another story about the gifts we give to others.

Unfortunately, this is not a sound recording yet, but hopefully this will change as this is a public domain story, so here it is in its written form.

Book Reviews: Flash Writing

2011-12-02T14:08:00.001-05:00

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just the type of book I love. Nick Hornby is the master of coming of age psychological dramas, what does it mean to be a man in this day and age is answered in most of his books. I am thankful for his honest and insiteful journey he shares in his books.

View all my reviews

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 4:27

2011-12-02T08:59:00.000-05:00

Yes Virginia There is a Santa Clause by Francis Pharcellus Church the classic story about the truth of Santa Clause. I was read this statement when doubts were creeping in, and appreciated everything it answered for me. I hope you take time to read, or have this read to your children during this year 2011. This statement, is great for children ages 6-10 who are starting to ask, "Is Santa Real?"

Innagural Winter Short Stories Festival 3:27

2011-12-01T08:07:00.001-05:00

The Fir Tree by Hans ChristianAndersen is a story of what it means to be young and to yearn to be taller,greater, and statelier.   A lonely tree compares his boughs to othersand finds them lacking.   But is the tree really lacking anythingthis Christmas season?  The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson.

Innaguarl Winter Short Stories Festival 2:27

2011-11-30T10:42:00.001-05:00

Who would want to kidnap Santa Clause?  Will the old demons of wanton behavior be able to upset the kids on Christmas?  Will the Spirit of Christmas prevail, find out in the Kidnapped Santa Clause by L. Frank Baum.  L. Frank Baum "The Kidnapped Santa Clause"

Oh to be Scottish

2011-11-30T10:30:00.001-05:00

Tending Turnips

Story-Ventures into Unknown Terrirtory 52:70

Enchanted Typewriter Chapter Ten: Golf in Hades by John Kendrick Bangs (published in 1899).

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Story: Ventures into Unknown Territory 51:70

Beneath the Cellars of Our Town by Steven Millhauser _1998_

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One might argue that the aisles of a supermarket, bursting with colour, are far more exciting than our dull world below.

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Story: Ventures into Unknown Territory 50:70

Dream of a Strange Land by Graham Greene (1963).

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory" 49:70

Here There Be Tygers by Ray Bradbury (Published in 1951)

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this planet is alive. It's a race itself. But it needs us to show off to, to appreciate its beauty. What's the use of a stage full of miracles if there's no audience?"

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 48.5:70

Ozymandias

Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 48:70

Isaac Asimov, "I Robot: Catch That Rabbit"(1944)

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 47:70

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory 46:70

Length: 291-307 in the Oxford Book of Narrative Verse.

Genre: Nonsense Lyric Poem in a form of an adventure.

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory 45:70

Montezuma's Castle (1899)

Genre: Travel Adventure

Length: Three Pages

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 44:70

The Road Out of Axotle by Terry Southern (Esquire 1962)

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Stories "Ventures into Unknown Terreritory " 43:70

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