Catching UP!

Work Began on the following book this week:

Chasing Nightmares

by James R. Kincaid

             Chasing nightmares, deliberately embracing terrors, isn’t what you and I are likely to do.  But you and I are not the four central characters in this novel, pretty typical college kids who sense that their lives are so predictable they hardly seem present in them.  They are determined not to succumb to the commonplace scripts set out for them, pathways that are so comfortable they might as well be padded, MUSAK softly playing.

            So, they set out from Los Angeles, trying hard to find the perilous.  They try hard to make themselves unprepared, open, desperate to vivify their minds and senses.  They make it only as far as Lake Tahoe and the nearby Donner Pass, where they do succeed in attracting horrors, certainly not the ones they had, despite themselves, anticipated. 

            But the nightmares they wrap round themselves also contain a good deal more than shivers, and the calls on their resolve demand more than simple courage (or foolhardy consistency).  Without knowing how it happened, they are drawn into a different strangeness, asking for and yet reluctant to receive something very much like love.

Jack's News!

  by your Official Bookstore Cat, 

and Gossip Columnist.

Hi Folks,

Haven't heard from anyone yet this week, but please don't forget me, folks. Just because the bookstore closed doesn't mean I won't be writing my column every week, and passing along news of all your doings on this blog. So if you are making personal appearances, doing signings, or even if you are only starting a new project, drop me line and I'll be sure to give everyone a heads-up right here on Fridays. 

Arline sent along a little, emphasis on LITTLE, contribution from Write Words, Inc. (Yes, we are still pretty well broke, but still trying to stay afloat!) toward the prizes for the 

Harriet Tubman Essay Contest

a project our Terry L. White has been supporting for awhile now. It IS Black History Month Folks and  if you want to celebrate that, you might want to support it, too. As Roger always says when he takes out the garbage, "Every little bit helps."  Here's all the info, one more time!

Harriet Tubman Essay Contest 

Deadline Has Been Changed !

NEW DEADLINE  March 1, 2017

So remind any students you know to get busy...

ALSO

Contributions are welcome 

to help with funding prizes for the 

Essay Contest Winners!

If you, your business or community organization can help fund the prizes,
Please Mail your contribution to:

Harriet Tubman Essay Contest
National Park Service
4068 Golden Hill Road
Church Creek, Maryland 21622

or contact:

Diane Miller, National Program Manager

Phone: 410-221-2290, x 1111
E-mail: diane_miller@nps.gov

Or

Terry Nield or Ellen Mousin
tubman.conference@gmail.com

As for around here, Arline started Publishing a New Book for Jim Kincaid this week.I knew she WOULD. She is still working on taxes, too, but most of the other business stuff is done for awhile! Maybe she actually will get started on her own book soon. She still owes one for the spirit series and I know it's been awhile since the last one, but I keep telling her, "You never forget your babies." And she keeps chuckling me under the chin and saying, "Of course NOT!"

She's also got an idea for a new historical, too. I keep telling her to write one with a cat in it. Meanwhile, Roger learned a new one for me from the Folk Song Book he got for his birthday. 

"The cat Came Back

The very next Day

The cat came back

He wouldn't stay away..."

Boy, I just love that one. We could sing it for hours.

As for the rest of you, PLEASE don't YOU forget to send me news of any personal appearances, signings and so on... so I'll have some gossip to pass on next week. 

Just send an e-mail to arline@mail.com with 

 "News for Jack" 

 in the subject line, and

I'll make sure it shows up here for all the world to see!