I am so happy to welcome Denise here today. She has a wonderful new book to tell us about.
Thank you for having me here today, John, to help celebrate my latest release, Sounds in the Silence. 😊
Sounds in the Silence was written in two decades that were forty years apart. In 1965, Maria woke up in the old house soon-to-be inn, and heard a female voice pleading to be found. Maria is startled but not frightened … yet. The next night, Logan and Maria hear the ghost’s request and see a misty outline of a woman. The problem they run into is no one wants to discuss their house’s history.
When they weren’t working on the house or hunting ghosts, Logan, and Maria would practice singing popular songs, including Blowing in the Wind and Sounds of Silence, as well as their own originals, to perform for their guests. They had big dreams that didn’t include a ghost or someone breaking into the barn and killing the chickens. This leads them into an unwanted mystery.
Great music, bell-bottom pants, and long hair in the 1960s make for fun writing material. I had an enjoyable time grocery shopping in 1965, spending less for two full carts of food than I would for one bag of groceries now. It was nice to reminisce through Logan and Maria while they visited the micro-machines at the library, ate bologna sandwiches, and received welcome baskets from the neighbors. The sixties are a favorite decade of mine to explore and write stories in.
Blurb
A dual timeline where murder has consequences 40 years later for the living—and deceased.
Maria and Logan Davis stumbled upon the perfect old house by a secluded lake—a prime candidate for their dream inn. They knew a renovation was involved but didn’t expect a persistent ghost that pleaded to be found. Determined, Maria delved into the mystery, only to uncover a haunting love story and murder from the Roaring Twenties. Yet, the young couple’s curiosity shifts to fear when they realize someone has taken a dangerous interest in their barn. With time ticking away, they must unravel the secrets of their home’s past before it’s too late.
Yes, I do believe we get messages from angels and ghosts.
Author Bio
D. L. Finn is an independent California local who encourages everyone to embrace their inner child. She was born and raised in the foggy Bay Area, but in 1990 she relocated with her husband, kids, dogs, and cats to Nevada City, in the Sierra foothills. She immersed herself in reading all types of books but especially loved romance, horror, and fantasy. She always treasured creating her own reality on paper. Finally, surrounded by towering pines, oaks, and cedars, her creativity was nurtured until it bloomed. Her creations include children’s books, adult fiction, and poetry. She continues on her adventure with an open invitation to all readers to join her.
“Using this image (below) as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really. Either put your offering (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before the end of the week. If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here. Thank you for taking part.
This Post was published on May 17, 2018. I think it is still relevant.
Top Ten Things Not to Put Off When You Have a Lot to Do
Living long enough to experience what happens when things are put off inspires this list. Not all of these things have occurred, but enough to give me the title of Consultant on What Not to Put Off.
10 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off buying an anniversary present. If you do, at best, you’ll have to spend more to find a gift. At worst, what you want to give is no longer available, and your second choice falls way short. (That pair of rubber dish gloves just didn’t have the same panache did it, Emanuele?)
9 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off paying Tiny, the WWF champ, the ten bucks you borrowed. If you do, at best, you won’t run into Tiny. At worst, you’ll meet Tiny just after he leaves his financial planner with the news that he is broke. (Right now would be a good time to have that ten spot out where Tiny can see it, Emesto. There won’t be time once he grabs you by the throat.)
8 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off responding to that traffic ticket. If you do, at best, you can cover the late fee. At worst, a rookie police officer will see you drive by and will have memorized the license plates of all the outstanding warrants for this week. (Yes, those lights and sirens mean to pull over, Emo. You better hope someone can come and bail you out. Oh, and don’t worry about your new car. The wrecker folks got that name for a reason.)
7 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off paying that final notice on the water and electric bill. If you do, at best, you might get a grace period. At worse, you planned on filling the bathtub and buying some candles but were caught by surprise. (How do those shins feel after hitting that coffee table five times, Enceladus?)
6 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off filing your taxes. If you do, at best, you will remind the IRS agent of his father. At worst, you will remind the IRS agent of her ex-husband. (Why do the terms ‘delinquent, fine, and jail term’ keep coming up in the discussion, Eoin?)
5 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off renewing your auto or driver’s license. If you do at best, a wait at the DMV is the only penalty. At worst, just when some eyewitness of a bank robbery described a car like yours, a state police officer pulled in behind you. (Don’t think these guys aren’t going to have guns drawn, Eren. The bank robber will probably get a lighter sentence than driving with expired plates and license.)
4 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off sending your house insurance premium. If you do, at best, your banker will remind you. At worst, the rare piece of space junk entering the atmosphere and landing on your house will remind you of the forgotten check. (Don’t worry, Erin. Insurance companies have huge hearts and will likely forgive your oversight. Believe that, and I have an underwater lot I think you would like.)
3 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off making those airline reservations to attend the mandatory company seminar. If you do, at best, you’ll have a center seat on a packed plane. At worst, you’ll be on standby, and as luck would have it, there are no seats available. (Who would have thought that Dubuque, Iowa, was such a popular destination, Erskine? You can tell by the tension in the voice that the boss is not going to forgive and forget.)
2 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off paying that credit card bill. If you do, at best, you’ll rack up a big late fee. At worse, just when you are trying to impress someone by grabbing the dinner check, the waiter comes back and tells you in a loud voice that your card has been denied. (You can try all you want to explain a bank error, Eske. Your soon-to-be ex-client isn’t believing your story.)
1 If you have a number of things going on, do not put off double checking your parachute before your skydive this weekend. If you do, at best, it was done right. At worst, you will find yourself in a position of having to hope the spare will do the job. (After all, Estanislao, you have gained a few pounds. Oh, and that go-cam recording should be hilarious, so let’s hope you are there to enjoy it.)
A hot, steaming cup of Columbian Dark Roast and water meets my lips. The brain shouts hallelujah as the liquid races through the pounding nerve endings, quelling the revolt and opening the neurons so that rational thought can resume. The clock is set for June 22, 1924. The location is Long Island, New York. The duration is one hour. The plunger is pulled, and we find ourselves at Mitchel Field near Garden City, Long Island.
Army First Lieutenant Russell Maughan is preparing his Curtiss P-1 Hawk for a dawn-to-dusk flight across America. He plans to be the first to fly across the North American continent in one day. The takeoff is scheduled for 3:58 AM tomorrow morning. He plans to land at Crissy Field near San Francisco before sundown. If so, the flight of 2670 miles will take 20 hours and 48 minutes.
In talking with the Lieutenant, he plans to make fueling stops at Dayton, Ohio; St. Joseph, Missouri; North Platte, Nebraska; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and the Bonneville Salt Flats at Salduro, Utah.
We wish him well just as the alarm heaves me into the down softness of the couch. I have a text from Linda Hill. It reads. Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “water.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
“How come you didn’t stay for the takeoff of the Lieutenant?”
“It is complicated.”
“Try me.”
“Okay. The flight took place on the 23rd of June in 1924.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Today is the 22nd. I didn’t want to go another day.”
“Ah. Your obsessive compulsiveness made you want the time to be exactly 100 years.”
“Right.”
“I hope you get help with that. Well, did he male it?”
“Yes. He flew and arrived one minute before sundown on the West Coast, setting a record as the first to fly transcontinental in one day.”
“I guess that was important at the time.”
“Of course, it was. Aviation was new, and records were just waiting to be set.”
“Care to go for a new record?”
“Does this involve VooDoo Ranger by chance?”
“Well………”
“You call Uber?”
“Check it out. He’s over there.”
Photo – Dan Antion
“OMG.”
“What?”
“Thant’s a 1966 Ford Fairlane two-door sedan.”
“How do you know that?”
“My first job was as a sales representative, and I had a company car like that, only blue.”
“I can’t imagine you as a sales rep. Door to door?”
“Aw, come on. I represented the company brands at retail.”
“Stores, you mean?”
“Yup. I ensured all was good so the consumer wouldn’t be disappointed by an out-of-stock item.”
“So you carried the company’s water.”
“Sure did.”
“Did they make water?”
“You are an idiot, you know that. Let’s get to the Voo Doo Ranger.”
“Right behind you. You can have shotgun too.”
“Since I’m buying, I hope so. Oh, I almost forgot. There will be no Views of the Neighborhood tomorrow. Going to be busy. I hope everyone has a peaceful Sunday.”
Engineering students at Johns Hopkins have created a silencer module for the campus leaf blowers, reducing the devices’ overall noise pollution by 37%. At the same time, they succeeded in almost completely eliminating the high-pitched whining that annoyed them the most.
The design is patent-pending, and Stanley Black & Decker, who sponsored the students, expects to sell them in two years.
It’s not uncommon for leaf blowers to be banned by homeowners associations or following apartment tenant protests—their endless, up-and-down caterwauling of various frequencies is the delight of no one, and worse, landscapers often use them in the early morning to avoid the heat of the day.
“The sound that comes out of this leaf blower is very complicated, and it contains a lot of different frequencies,” said team member Andrew Palacio. “A lot of different notes on a piano would be a good analogy.”
The Johns Hopkins campus currently uses battery-powered leaf blowers, which are already quieter than gasoline-powered ones. Since last September, Palacio and his team members Michael Chacon, Leen Alfaoury, and Madison Morrison have examined the devices in depth—how many sounds are there and what is causing them.
Overall, they have workshopped more than 40 versions of leaf blower silencers. Many of them worked but diminished the power of the air coming out. They eventually came up with an easy-to-secure suppressor that functions much like the ones fitted to firearms.
“Our product takes in a full blow of air and separates it,” Alfaoury told Johns Hopkins. “Some of that air comes out as it is, and part comes out shifted. The combination of these two air sections makes the blower less noisy.”
“It ultimately dampens the sound as it leaves, but it keeps all that force, which is the beauty of it,” adds Chacon.
It’s one thing to come up with trumps in a class project, but this invention isn’t designed to win them any science fairs, but rather for going on Home Depot or Lowe’s shelves.
“It’s not just some cool theoretical thing that will sit on a shelf and never be heard from again—this is ready to be mass manufactured,” said Nate Greene, senior product manager at Stanley Black & Decker, who graduated from Johns Hopkins in 2017 with an engineering degree. “This is a scarce and dramatic level of success.”
WATCH the story below from JH University Press…
The good news in this story is that a problem that is not Earth-shattering has been solved through hard work. Although leaf blower noise is a first world annoyance it is good to see it has been overcome. Today’s JohnKu talks about solving problems.
In Keith’s words, “Using this image (below) as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really. Either put your offering (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithchanning@gmail.com before the end of the week. If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here. Thank you for taking part.”
This post ran on May 7, 2018. Since we are again a puppy owner, I think the list still has some good advice.
* * *
The inspiration for this post has been a month of puppy raising.
10 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “Is that a new puppy?” If you do, at best, you will get a “yes.” At worst, the owner will wonder if you lost your mind and answer, “No, it is an old puppy.” (I think you could have guessed there have been some long nights, Eberhardt.)
9 If you meet a puppy owner named Tiny, do not say, “What kind of horse is that?” If you do, at best, Tiny, the WWF champ, will think you are kidding. At worst, Tiny just left the vet’s office with strict instructions to cut back on the amount of food he is feeding his Great Dane Puppy. (We all know you didn’t mean to hit a sore spot, Ede. The knowledge will not help soothe that pain, though, so running is definitely in the cards right now.)
8 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “Your arms look like you’ve been using.” If you do, at best, the owner will laugh at the statement. At worst, you’ll be handed the puppy to experience the joy of those needle-like teeth for yourself. (One way to get a puppy to release is to offer a chew toy, Edwaldo. Oh, you don’t have a chew toy? Next, stop the ER.)
7 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “How much did that puppy cost?” If you do, at best, the owner will ignore you. At worst, you must be patient as the owner details all the expenses so far. ( It has been ten minutes, Efrem, and now it looks like you will miss your bus. Aren’t you glad you asked?)
6 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “Is that a purebred?” If you do, at best, no one cares. At worst, you will have touched on the one item on which the owners violently disagree. (How were you to know these two were on the verge of a breakup over the question of pure breed or not, Ekewaka. Well, it looks like the whole argument has flared again. Best to quietly walk away.)
5 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “How are you adjusting?” If you do, at best, you’ll get a stiff upper lip response with no detail. At worst, your question triggered a loud and tear-filled explanation of how hard it has been. (Even though you are uncomfortable, Elden, letting this person sob on your shoulder is the right thing to do. I would tell those people they can move on and quit gawking.)
4 If you meet a puppy owner, do not ask, “Is your puppy house trained yet?” If you do, at best, the owner has no concerns about house training. At worse, you might have to listen to a lecture on the psychological damage owners inflict on poor puppies expecting house training too early. (Well, I guess it isn’t going well, Elhanan. What is your guess?)
3 If you meet a puppy owner, do not ask, “Which is easier, Puppies or kids?” If you do, at best, the owner will be honest and say, “Kids.” At worst, you’ll get a stink eye from hell and a request to step aside. ( Looks like both jobs are a problem, Elisha. I would step aside before someone gets hurt. Namely you.)
2 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “Why did you pick that name?” If you do, at best, the owner will assume you are not being critical. At worst, the owner will think you are questioning the choice and go to extremes to make the name choice seem plausible. (I think the owner believes everyone names their puppy Little Poop Ellen. I, like you, wanted more information about that choice. Oh well, maybe next time.)
1 If you meet a puppy owner, do not say, “What made you get a puppy?” If you do at best, you’ll get a heartwarming story. At worst, after the crying stops, you will feel sorry for the owner and the puppy and are now the proud owner of a new puppy. (I have to say, Elmore, that puppy is better off with you.)
Since it is a slow week activity-wise, The Producer developed a theme for today’s post. She suggested “Wandering the Neighborhood,” which means seeing a whole lot of different sights as we do just that. Ten Ten of Austin caters to us, and Dion provides entertainment.
Menu
acorn squash, black garlic, baby spinach
roasted cauliflower, eggplant, wild mushroom
smoked tofu, pickled vegetables, shiso
charred hamachi kama black garlic, pickled vegetables
miso king salmon eggplant purée, rice pearls
short rib ume chimichurri
Wagyu New York strip 10oz shiso
pork chop Japanese curry, pickled vegetables
king crab leg chili garlic butter, micros salad
wagyu tenderloin 8oz shiso gremolata
wagyu strip 14oz wasabi peppercorn cream
wagyu ribeye 24oz charcoal salt
The bus is ready.
We’ll start with a lovely red crape myrtle.
There are many hills here, so retaining walls must take on some style.
A red and white crape myrtle.
Rock wall topped with Carolina Jasmine.
Mexican Birds of Paradise.
A deer family in a neighbor’s yard. To the right is the buck making a getaway.
Pink crape myrtle.
A wall of thin rocks with a slate-like look.
A purple giant crape myrtle.
Another wall with a slate-like look made of limestone.
Well, that is our wandering for the week. It’s time to sit back and enjoy the food and music. I hope you have a terrific week.
