Tag: Trains

Sunday Afternoon #Thursday Tidbit, # Poetry

I see blue sky above my silent back yard.
In the distance, dogs bark.
A saw whines, followed by other construction noises.
A plane flies overhead.
Far away, a train whistles.
Caressed by a cool, autumnal breeze,
I reflect on my life, at peace.

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The above poem was published in the November 1^st issue of The Weekly Avocet. I actually composed it in my back yard on a Sunday afternoon. You can click the Play button below to hear me read it.

By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled, The Red Dress is available for download from their site here. No matter how you read it, please be sure to review it wherever you can. That goes for all my books. Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe, happy, and healthy.

New! The Red Dress

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

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My Books

Bailing Mamma Out #It’s Six-Sentence Story Thursday Link Up

While driving through the streets in my pick-up truck late one night, I was listening to a country song about a man who was drunk when his mamma got out of prison, and before he could pick her up at the station, she was run over by a train. Well, that wasn’t exactly my story, but it was close enough. My mamma was the one who was drunk, not me. I was driving to the police station because she’d hit another vehicle, killing the driver. This wasn’t the first time she’d drunk and driven. She’d probably end up in prison and never get out.

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The above story was inspired by the song in the video below and is my response to this week’s six-sentence story prompt. The word is “station,” and the trick is to write a story or poem of no more and no less than six sentences, using this word. Click here to learn how to participate, or leave your story in the comment field.

By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled, The Red Dress is available for download from their site here. Thank you for reading. Stay safe, happy, and healthy, and may you always have positive experiences.

New! The Red Dress

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My Books

A Trip to Australia Without Leaving Home #Thursday Book Feature

In a Sunburned Country

by Bill Bryson

From the author of Notes from a Small Island and other travel memoirs comes an account of the author’s experiences traveling in Australia. He explains how he traveled across the country by train, drove through the Outback, and visited museums and other tourist attractions. He also provides some history and describes venomous snakes and other creatures, even seashells, that can kill you in Australia, contrasting this with the friendliness of most of the people there.

I enjoyed being able to swim and boogie board without leaving my recliner. I was fascinated by the idea that children in the Outback, who are isolated on cattle stations, receive their education via short-wave radio through “schools of the air.” It’s also interesting to note that Australians once treated the Aboriginal people not much differently than we treated the Native Americans in our country. If you’d like to visit Australia and don’t want to spend money on a passport, plane tickets, train tickets, rental cars, food, and hotel rooms, Bill Bryson’s book is the way to go.

New! The Red Dress

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My Books