The Shepherd's Crown

       Our granddaughter is reading one of Terry Pratchett's books from this series and loveing every minute of it.  I wanted to talk with her about the book she was reading and looked in our local library.  Unfortunately they didn't have that book, but they did have The Shepherd's Crown.  I read it from cover to cover and found it an amazing read.
        Upon the death of the head witch, Teffany, a good witch, must take on the leadership of the entire witch's band. She is charged with protecting her community, and healing the sick, setting bones, and helping with childbirth. As her responsibilites grow, she must make decisions that affect her entire community as well as neighboring communities.
       Fear of failure, lack of time and sleep, the need to be in two or more places at once, the threat of invashion from the fairie raiders, are stressful. Will the other, older witches, back her as she takes the lead and wants to make changes in the way things are done?  Will they accept a man into their group?

Terry Pratchett has woven a delightful story with many different characters, each with their own personality, problems, and prejudices. Neil Gaiman says, "A Terry Pratchett book is a small miracle." I say Neil is right on.

                           

Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization (NETWO)

2018 Jory Sherman Short Story Contest Rules

Genre’ – Author’s choice (exception - no erotica)

Word limit - 2500 words or less

Submission Deadline  -  April 1, 2018

Awards   1^st place  $100  2^nd place $75   3^rd place $50

Entry Rules

1.      Entries must be short stories, 2500 words or less to be considered.

2.      Entries must be typed, double spaced, one side only on 81/2 by 11” white paper, with 1” margins.  Please use either Courier or Times Roman type fonts, 12 point.

3.      Each story should have a cover sheet containing only:

·         The name of the story

·         The author’s name

·         Complete address

·         Telephone number

·         E-mail address

·         And word count

4.      The author’s name should not appear anywhere except on the cover sheet.

5.      Entries must be previously unpublished short stories written in English by the person whose name is on the cover sheet.

      Published on-line is published.

6.      Failure to follow all the contest rules will result in disqualification; entry fees for disqualified entries will not be returned.

7.      Three judges will review each story and select the winners.  Judges decisions are final.

8.      Judges do not see the author’s name, or any other information about the author. No entrant know the identity of any judge.

9.      Entries postmarked after the deadline, whether by U.S. or mail or e-mail, will not be considered.

1     Neither NETWO, any of its members or any judge is responsible for late delivery of entries, or lost entries.

Awards

1.      No more than one cash prize will be awarded to a single author.  However, this does not preclude an author from receiving additional certificates for honored stories.

2.      Winners will be announced at the NETWO Writer’s Conference,  Saturday April 28^th.

3.      NETWO may request permission to print some of the winning entries in future issues of the newsletter, With Pen in Hand. This is NOT a requirement to enter.

4.      The author relinquishes none of his or her rights by entering the contest.

Entry Fees

1.      Entry fee for each story submitted is $10.00 payable by check or paypal on the NETWO website  www.netwo.org

2.      Checks should be made out to NETWO or Northeast Texas Writers Organization

Submissions

1.      Story submissions may be emailed to NETWO.short_story@mail.com They should be sent as an attachment and as a .doc file.  No PDF files please. The cover sheet and the story should be sent in separate attachments but in the same email.

2.      Or  3 copies may be mailed to:

Galand Nuchols

1215 Choctaw

Mt. Pleasant, TX 75455

 Elizabeth Moon is my favorite sci. fic. author.  I have read most of her books from cover to cover twice and parts of them 9 or 10 times.

Cold Welcome is a bit different from her other series, yet she keeps the same well developed characters.  Her female protagonist, Ky, is returning to her home world after years away fighting a war.  She is returning  as a hero. But her shuttle is sabotaged by a group that is determined to kill her and all her family. Survival is the name of the game. Ky is strong, both physically and mentally, but her enemy is old, well financed, established, and has a secret they are desperate to keep.  Ky and the passengers she is marooned with must die if the enemy's secret is to be kept.

The passengers are not military and sometime reluctant to follow Ky's leadership. They don't really believe they are in danger from people meaning to actually KILL them dead and cause Ky trouble. The discovery of the enemies' hidden cave proves to be both Ky's possible salvation or her and the group's death warrant.

This is a novel that will be difficult for the reader to put down before the last page is read.

A Wrinkle in Time

MADELENE L'ENGLE created a classic in her book, A Wrinkle in Time. The novel is imaginative, thought provoking, adventurous, all the elements that made me ignore everything I should have been doing, and read the book from cover to cover in one, long, satisfying setting.

Meg and Charles Wallace are 'different' and the conversational target of all those others who are 'normal'. The normals aren't called upon to confront 'evil' and save Meg and Charles' father, however. Who are the strange beings that come to Charles and Meg?  Are they spirits, ghosts, angels, or something else?

Some of the author's lines that grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go.
       "Just because we don't understand doesn't mean that explanations don't exist."

       "There are forces working in the world as never before in the history of mankind for the standardization, for the regimentation of us all, or what I like to call making muffins of us, all alike as the muffins in the muffin tin."

      "We can't take credit for our talents.  Its how we use them that counts."

     A Wrinkle in Time is a wonderful novel for any child or adult able to read and imagine a world like and yet unlike the world we live in.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen pulls adults as well as children into the challenging world of youth. What can a young boy do to save and endangered specie of bird? Quite a lot really, and some of it will get him into serious trouble with the law. What can Roy do about the school bully?  He's had lots of experience with bullies in different schools as his family moved around the country.  Some of his solutions are a bit unorthodox and are fun to imagine as the reader follows Roy from one encounter to another. Our granddaughter requested this book for Christmas, and I can see why she wanted it.  It is a great read.
Readers 4th grade  through adults will enjoy this novel.

Different and Dangerous

       Eddy Turner and his best friend Scott, both with ESP talents, are planning a fun weekend at a family reunion in the Big Thicket area of East Texas. Scott's reoccurring visions of a hangman's noose is a threat Eddy wants to avoid thinking about.  Is the noose a warning for Scott or for him. Or is it for someone else? When will they know?  When will the axe fall?
       The pickup is loaded with food, camping gear, clothes, and fishing gear, but illness and storms of weather and emotion have a way of disrupting their best laid plans.
       Can a man who feels he must die be saved? Will a story heard years ago, an almost forgotten story, be the key to reaching a tormented, harassed individual? Will help come in time to prevent the faces and voices from pushing the victim over the edge and into death? by Galand Nuchols holds the answer.
Different and Dangerous

Play The Cards You Are Dealt

        Play The Cards You Are Dealt by Galand Nuchols is the author's tiny step into the world of science fiction, or is ESP really a well hidden fact and not science fiction at all? Eddy Turner is an empath, feeling others' emotions offear, joy, curiosity, pain, etc. Dealing with the constant stimulus of emotional fallout from
people surrounding him daily is difficult.
       Eddy's stepfather is  physically and emotionally abusive to both Eddy and his mother. Their secret plans to escape the man are interrupted when Eddy's second ESP talent makes itself known. Friends of Eddy's blood father are called.  With their help, Eddy and his mother begin a new life in a secret compound where talents are protected and trained to use their special gifts.
       Can Eddy's anger and distrust of people be overcome by these new people in his life? Will he ever have real friends like normal boys his age? When he protests that life isn't fair, he is given the advice he must play the cards he is dealt.

     George Will's Article in the Longview News- Journal - Thursday July 6, 2017 titled The sequence to success should be a wake-up call to all our high school and college students.  The article is long and has a number of references to prestigious research institutions that indicate there is a pattern connected to reaching that goal of "Success".
   How do today's adults define success?  According to Will's article today's young adults define success as - insurance against poverty. And the recipe or sequence to the success pattern according to information from the Brookings Institution is:

•        First get at least a high school diploma

•        Then get a job. 

•         Then get married

•         Only then have children                     

    The above steps should be taken in that order. The formula is not a sure thing, however. Yet Wills quotes Wang and Wilcox research of couples ages 28 to 34 and found that "only 3 per cent of those who followed this sequence are poor." That means 97 percent were experiencing 'success.' I'll take those odds any day of the week.
      I keep remembering what someone told me years ago.  "The choices you make today affect the rest of your life."  George Will's article, "The Sequence to success," is well worth your time to dig out and read top to bottom.

Hurray For Our Young People

Twice in two weeks I have been privileged to discover young people out working along side our streets and on our school grounds. Three cheers for the kids and their sponsors!!!

Last week I passed a group from St. Michael's picking up trash along Florey and Choctaw Streets. I asked if I could take a picture of them and they agreed. Today I drove past P.E. Wallace School and saw a bunch of kids planting trees.  I had to stop, ask questions and take pictures.  I learned the group went to the Houston Zoo in April as part of an Earth Day Program.  Center Point Energy then gave them over one hundred Bottle Brush and Crape Myrtael trees to plant. I lucked out and caught the students in the act of finishing their planting on the school grounds along Choctaw Street.

I can image these same students twenty or thirty years from now stopping by Mt. Pleasant and pointing out the school they attended in 5th and 6th grade and showing them the very tree they planted May 5, 2017. They may also remember the crazy old lady that stopped to take their picture.

 

From Now On

       Ms. Royal has won me as a convert with her novel From Now On. 
Told in first person, Ms. Royal popped me, the reader, into a future time where I met groups of people living a way of life normally thought of as that lived in the Middle Ages. Knights, squires, castles, romance, and dungeons are all a part of this adventure. A secret few have control of time travel and have plans of their own for Manx Island, the site of this unusual tale.
      Erin is a strong, stubborn, woman determined to rescue Griffin, the man she loves, from the dungeon of a man trying to take over the island.
      I measure most of my science fiction books against Elizabeth Moon's novels.  This author is very close to Miss Moon's work.
      A phrase from Ms. Royal's novel captured my attention and I want to share it. 
"A new day begins, and it is one fresh with endless possibilities. Like a blank canvas it beckons, luring me to seize it with both hands and make it into something worthwhile, something memorable."
       The twist, turns, and ending of this novel make it a book I can heartily recommend to all readers looking for adventure via the printed page.

Life With Lily

     Life With Lily by Suzanne Woods and Mary Ann Kinsinger is a revealing book picturing the every day life of an eight year old girl growing up in an Amish home. While I'm not Amish and have no intention of joining an Amish community, I found that I envied the harmony, and support system in this home and community.
      Not everything was perfect. Lily manages to get into several jams thanks to a friend with interesting ideas and a persuasive tongue. While there is much support between different branches of the family and community, there are some that push their own beliefs onto others causing much discord. How mother and father handle the different crises' is revealing. We English               (everyone not Amish) can learn a lot from these people.
      I highly recommend Life With Lily for girls seven or eight years old through high school.  I also recommend this book for young adults considering marriage and having a family. In this time where stress, road rage, drugs, hate, and lying is becoming the norm, Life With Lily paints a different picture of family life, a better life if we English can adopt some of their attitudes and problem solving skills.
      Life With Lily can be purchased at Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Life+with+Lily
There are paper back and Kindle versions available.

Life With Lily

     Life With Lily by Suzanne Woods and Mary Ann Kinsinger is a revealing book picturing the every day life of an eight year old girl growing up in an Amish home. While I'm not Amish and have no intention of joining an Amish community, I found that I envied the harmony, and support system in this home and community.
      Not everything was perfect. Lily manages to get into several jams thanks to a friend with interesting ideas and a persuasive tongue. While there is much support between different branches of the family and community, there are some that push their own beliefs onto others causing much discord. How mother and father handle the different crises' is revealing. We English               (everyone not Amish) can learn a lot from these people.
      I highly recommend Life With Lily for girls seven or eight years old through high school.  I also recommend this book for young adults considering marriage and having a family. In this time where stress, road rage, drugs, hate, and lying is becoming the norm, Life With Lily paints a different picture of family life, a better life if we English can adopt some of their attitudes and problem solving skills.
      Life With Lily can be purchased at Amazon   https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Life+with+Lily
There are paper back and Kindle versions available.

WHEN THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON

Last week, I Skyped with our eight-year-old granddaughter and asked about what book she was reading. She was excited about WHEN THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin. I checked it out of our library and read it so we could discuss the different scenes and share which ones we liked and disliked.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of a young girl dissatisfied with her and her parents' poor life and determined to do something about it.  Learning that she must ask The Old Man of the Moon why her village was so ugly and poor, Minli sets out on a journey and meets a dragon, a poor but happy young man, a king, and finally the Old Man of the Moon. She had two very important questions to ask the old man, but learned she could only ask one.  Would she ask a question that might benefit her and her family, or would she ask a questions that would help her friend?

This book is made up of 48 short chapters, each a story within itself dealing with Milin's journey, her parents' fears, and what they all learned about being happy.

I can truly recommend this book for any young girl eight years old or older.  I wish I could sit down with our granddaughter and discuss it chapter by chapter.  I hope parents and grandparents will consider doing this with their granddaughters.  For more information about Grace Lin, the author, check out her web site at www.gracelin.com

Chuckleberry Chutney

          Skip Hughes, a former president of Northeast Texas Writer's Organization, has a new book of poetry out this year. Chuckleberry Chutney. One poem, Is My To-It Really Round? made me laugh as I am the proverbial procrastinator he has so eloquently summed up.
          Skip's philosophy comes through loud and clear in his poem Love's Crucible. This poem stopped me in my tracks and made me think.
          On page 59 Between Black and White  is a poem we should all take to heart.  I really must write the final stanza.

We must yet strive to right the wrongs of now,
Let lie the dreadful sins of long ago.
To hate a fellow human is to bow
To hate of self, of all things here below.

Chuckleberry Chutney by Skip Hughes can be purchased from Amazon and would make a nice gift for the poetry lover.

Merry Christmas to all and may 2017 be a blessed year for each of us.

    

In reviewing some of my clippings I found the information below and want to share it with everyone interested in our children's and grandchildren's education. I especially like the reference to Rip Van Winkle.  If you are interested in this book, Becoming Brilliant ,you can see and purchase it from Amazon



Becoming Brilliant by

Roberta Michnick Golinkoff  and Kathy HirshPasek

Golinkoff: We live in a crazy time, and parents are very worried about their children's futures. They're getting all kinds of messages about children having to score at the top level on some test. The irony is, kids could score at the top and still not succeed at finding great employment or becoming a great person.
Hirsh-Pasek: If Rip Van Winkle came back, there's only one institution he would recognize: "Oh! That's a school. Kids are still sitting in rows, still listening to the font of wisdom at the front of the classroom."
We're training kids to do what computers do, which is spit back facts. And computers are always going to be better than human beings at that. But what they're not going to be better at is being social, navigating relationships, being citizens in a community. So we need to change the whole definition of what success in school, and out of school, means.