Blog Archives

A #TankaTuesday poem: The Photograph

9/14/2022

This week poet Colleen Chesebro invites writers to use the Shadorma form. It has a syllabic pattern of 3-5-3-3-7-5 syllables and otherwise, it is freestyle.

My poem is a playful attempt to capture a mom's longings, and I've entitled it:

THE PHOTOGRAPH

There are days

a mom longs to hear

from her child,

all is well.

A photo can say it best

with laughter and smiles.

My three sons, two grandsons, and a son-in-law (blue cap).

Have a wonderful rest of the week, and I hope a photo or phone call come your way soon. 😊

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A #NewRelease by authors Mae Clair and Staci Troilo

9/13/2022

51 Comments

Hello blog friends,

We've much to celebrate!

Writers Mae Clair and Staci Troilo worked together this year to co-write a new mystery entitled, The Haunting of Chatham Hollow.

It was released two weeks ago, and it has already earned fantastic reviews. I've purchased my copy, and I'm flying through the chapters. It is a must-read.

Today Mae and Staci will share a bit of the back story with us.

Welcome, Mae and Staci!

❤️

Gwen, thank you so much for hosting me today. I’m delighted to be here with you and your readers to share The Haunting of Chatham Hollow. I co-authored this novel with Staci Troilo, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was amazing to work with a co-author, especially someone as talented as Staci. She and I found we work great together, so who knows—maybe another down the road.

For now, we hope others will enjoy our supernatural mystery which includes dual timelines, ghostly happenings, a town curse, murder, and rumors of buried gold. During our short promo tour, you’ll meet several characters who populate the book. Today, I’d like to introduce sisters Elayne and Shelley Orrman from the 1888 timeline. Spiritualism is a key thread in the book, so Staci and I thought we’d have each character sit down with a medium as a way of introduction.
Let’s listen in.

SPIRTUALIST: Welcome ladies. It’s a pleasure to meet you both. I’ve already met your mother, Dorinda, and your aunt, Irene Chatham.

ELAYNE: Mother suggested we come.

SPIRTUALIST: Why is that?

ELAYNE: Who can say? It’s often her way—to meddle.

SHELLEY: (lightly touching her sister’s arm) You know she means well, Elayne. You’re just upset about the way she handled the problem in New York.

SPIRTUALIST: Mrs. Orrman did mention an embarrassing situation prompting her visit to Chatham Hollow, though she didn’t elaborate.

ELAYNE: Thank heavens. But then she wouldn’t for fear the matter should reflect unfavorably on her. Never mind I was the aggrieved party.

SPIRTUALIST: You have me curious, but I would never pry.

ELAYNE: Thank you for that. It’s best left in the past. Initially, I dreaded coming here, but Chatham Hollow has been an unexpected pleasure.

SHELLEY: (giggling) I think a certain spiritualist has something to do with that. Namely, Victor Rowe.

SPIRTUALIST: Naturally, I’ve heard of him. (allows his gaze to linger on Elayne) Perhaps I speak out of turn, but I’m led to believe Mr. Rowe is a man in his early forties. You appear much younger.

ELAYNE: Perhaps you should stick to your earlier conviction and not pry in matters that don’t concern you.

SPIRTUALIST: Pardon. My observation was inappropriate.

SHELLEY: Well, I certainly have no qualms admitting I find Mr. Rowe’s rival, Benedict Fletcher a charismatic and intriguing man.

ELAYNE: (frowning slightly) He certainly fawns over you at every opportunity. You need to be on your guard, Shelley. I’m not certain Mr. fletcher is all he presents himself to be.

SPIRTUALIST: I sense protective concern in that statement.

ELAYNE: Shelley is the younger sister, and somewhat still impressionable.

SHELLEY: (shifting to face her sister) And you are not, simply because…

ELAYNE: What happened in New York has left me with a jaded outlook on life.

SHELLEY: But not Victor Rowe?

ELAYNE: (standing) I think perhaps we should go.

SPIRTUALIST: I’m sorry if you’ve soured on the discussion, Miss Orrman. You are welcome to remain for a reading.

ELAYNE: No thank you. I prefer to discover the future for myself—but if I was to consult a medium, I know just the man for the task.

SHELLEY: (grins broadly) Mr. Fletcher?
Elayne rolls her eyes and heads for the door.

BLURB:

One founding father.
One deathbed curse.
A town haunted for generations.

Ward Chatham, founder of Chatham Hollow, is infamous for two things—hidden treasure and a curse upon anyone bold enough to seek it. Since his passing in 1793, no one has discovered his riches, though his legend has only grown stronger.

In 1888, charlatan Benedict Fletcher holds a séance to determine the location of Chatham’s fortune. It’s all a hoax so he can search for the gold, but he doesn’t count on two things—Victor Rowe, a true spiritualist who sees through his ruse, and Chatham’s ghost wreaking havoc on the town.

More than a century later, the citizens of the Hollow gather for the annual Founder’s Day celebration. A paranormal research team intends to film a special at Chatham Manor, where the original séance will be re-enacted Reporter and skeptic Aiden Hale resents being assigned the story, but even he can’t deny the sudden outbreak of strange happenings. When he sets out to discover who or what is threatening the Hollow—supernatural or not— his investigation uncovers decades-old conflicts, bitter rivalries, and ruthless murders.

This time, solving the mystery isn’t about meeting his deadline. It’s about not ending up dead.

Thanks again for hosting me today, Gwen. It was a pleasure to drop by—along with my unnamed spiritualist and Elayne and Dorinda. (The sisters usually agree on topics, but not when it comes to Chatham Hollow’s two mediums). I invite your readers to pick up a copy of The Haunting of Chatham Hollow at the link below. Staci and I both appreciate the support and wish everyone happy reading!

PURCHASE LINK

Connect with Mae Clair at BOOKBUB and the following haunts:
Amazon| BookBub| Newsletter Sign-Up
Website | Blog| Twitter| Goodreads| All Social Media

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Thank you, Billy Ray Chitwood . . .

9/11/2022

33 Comments

Dear blog friends,

Yesterday I learned that a writer friend is not doing well. I've never met Billy Ray Chitwood in person, but I think of him as a close friend because of his books and blog. Isn't that how most of us know each other?

Through our writing, we give of ourselves. We share tidbits of our life, our dreams, and our sorrows through our characters. One way or another, these fictional people come to life because of our personal journey. Sometimes we even sell a book.

Today I honor my friend and all writers, who in silence pound away at a keyboard and create different worlds. I'm grateful for each of you. At times you have brought me to tears, other times to a dreamy world, and always to a place in time that I've not visited before.

I invite you to enjoy some glimpses into one writer's life -- Billy Ray Chitwood.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

Wish I could put a 'smiley face' on my life and struggles, but I must be truthful. I came into the world as a 'blue baby', born in a clapboard house up a muddy lane in a sawdust hamlet of rural Tennessee. It was the aftermath of a big depression. Poverty was everywhere, as were malaria and broken homes.

I'm rather fond of a phrase I used in my memoir: I ate a lot of emotional soup as a kid and have been trying all my life to digest it. The broken home, family, the times, the world were vague message carriers at the time. There were emotional and physical abuses by an itinerant father. There was a strong and hard-working mother who tried to keep the family together, working as a telephone operator by day, in war assembly plants at night, and as a boarding house cook. She was a wonderful mother.

HIS THOUGHTS ON WRITING:

Writing is my therapy. I find pieces of me on and between the lines of what I write. Writing for me is as much about finding those loose ends of my life smack in the middle of a sentence or paragraph as it is writing a polished piece of prose that readers will enjoy reading. Nothing gives me more pleasure than grabbing a word or phrase that says exactly what I want it to say. It's difficult for me to imagine good writing coming without passion.
As a kid I played around with words, writing silly poetry, mimicking the famous singers of the day - loved to sing. After a ten-year marriage came to an end, I played with the 'lotus eaters' for a number of years – booze, gin mills, piano bars, pretty ladies, and lonely motel rooms...wrote my maudlin poetry on bar counter napkins and motel stationery...my 'self-pity period'... In college the English Romantic poets – Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge - appealed to my emotional hunger, as did the group known as the 'Naturalists': Emile Zola, Thomas Hardy, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Jack London, et al.
About his first book: A dear actress friend of mine was brutally murdered in Phoenix, AZ. She was twenty-six years old, a mother of two small children, and had her entire life in front of her. Her body was found in the desert six weeks after her disappearance and savage murder, ravaged by the summer heat and denizens of the desert. My first book, PROBABLE CAUSE, was published and went out of print. That book became the first 'mystery' book out of six of the 'Bailey Crane Mystery Series' (Books 1-6) – AN ARIZONA TRAGEDY – A BAILEY CRANE MYSTERY (Book 1 of 6). The book was my way to say goodbye to a lovely lady whose life was cut short by an evil predator...the killer has never been caught, so far as I know, and the case remains a 'cold case' for the Phoenix Police Department.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Have a wonderful week, dear blog friends...
❤️

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At the river's edge...

9/6/2022

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Hello blog friends!

It's time for another poem. Colleen Chesebro posted the rainbow picture at the right and asked each participant to choose a color and feature it in a syllabic poem.

In my area of the United States, the season is beginning to shift. I've chosen to write a Tanka poem focused on that movement -- at the river's edge.

How about your area? Are you beginning to see the approach of Autumn?

Have a wonderful week, hopefully with abundant sightings of rainbows. ❤️

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