I'm so excited ....

... here is the cover proof of the book "Images of America: Harrodsburg" which Anna Armstrong and I are writing ....



What do you think! Personally, I LOVE it, but I'm a little prejudice.

Too many books, so little time

To much writing and not enough reading makes Bobbi a dull, overworked woman. I decided to take the day off today and catch up on some reading. Since the last book I read was "Mockingjay" - the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy - I'm having a hard time deciding what to read. I've narrowed it down to four choices:

1.) "Battle Royale" by Houshun Tahami - the Japanese version of "Hunger Games" - published in America in 2003, several years before "Hunger Games"

2.)"Infinity" by Sherrilyn Kenyon - first book in the Chronicles of Nick

3.) "Pretty Little Liars" by Sara Shepard - first book in the Pretty Little Liars series - this has been turned into an ABC Family series and one of my newest guilty pleasures.

4.) "Clockwork Angel" by Cassandra Clare - a prequel to the Mortal Instruments Series

Decisions, decisions ... eeny, meeny, minny, moe - "Infinity" it is.

Spell-Bound

SPELL-BOUND

Terrifying experiences
signal a disaster is coming.
Although the surface seems calm and serene,
unbeknownst to them,
strange things have begun to happen
A long dead woman,
spell-bound by her beauty,
has been lured from her grave,
to make them pay,
to seek her revenge.





(Photo by Randy Ellefson)

Shambles

SHAMBLES

A summer storm has subsided
and all is quiet,
but there are continued hints of clandestine gloom.
Everything is now in ruins
and an ever growing mystery
is leading to a new event,
drawing us closer to catastrophe.





(Photo by Dan Felstead of Wood and Pixels Narratives)

Interesting Sights in Wally World

INTERESTING SIGHTS IN WALLY WORLD



Wally World is the cheap store to buy all types of items,
but the class of people who come here is wide, varied and strange.
Preppies who wear their teeny shorts with assess hanging out.
Large women, like me, who waddle in under the supposed veil of darkness,
only to have the bright lights shows every layer of fat.
Rednecks with no shirts on, or wearing shirts that are so dirty
you wonder when they were last washed.
Well-to-do people who seem to look around,
before finally placing an item in their carts.
Women with "back" boobs;
men who need man bras.
Land yachts and SUVs taking up 2 parking spaces,
just so no one will hit their precious cars.
People with handicapped tags appearing to have no problem jogging across the lot,
or at least moving at an easier pace than me.
Most of the gay population coming at night to avoid the stares and evil words.
Small children left to run across parking lots
while their parents make conversation near the Wal-Mart doors or by their cars.
Watch out cars; be careful of these wayward children.
Parents who allow their children to stand up in the shopping buggies,
where the chance of tipping over is too great.
Parents who allow their children to run wild throughout the store,
or those who attempt to discipline by screaming at the top of their voices.
Is it any wonder I don’t go shopping anymore?
The sign on the truck above says it all,
... We Sell for Satan, Always ...
I prefer waiting in the car and enjoying the menagerie enter the store
watching the antics with a pen and paper in hand.

Jade and the Old Woman

(Photo by Dan Felstead of Wood and Pixel Narratives)

JADE AND THE OLD WOMAN



Jade walked down the old brick sidewalk, stepping gently over a few cracks and loose bricks. Even though she was over six feet tall, the glamour didn't keep her from tripping if she wasn't looking where she was going. The occasional person she met on the sidewalk paid no attention to the plain young woman walking down the sidewalk. She laughed to herself thinking of the green skin and long thin legs that no one could see but herself.

She was looking for a new place to live and she'd had a friend recommend a boarding house on Daisy Street. As she carefully watched the house numbers increase in size, she finally stopped at 1132 Daisy and looked at the sight before her. Before here was a metal gate with an arbor covered in thick green morning glory vines. The glories had not started to bloom yet, but they promised a delightful array of colors in the coming weeks.

Two clay urns marked the entrance on each side of the sidewalk and Jade stood looking over the gate at the two-story house. She knew from her friend that there was also an attic room and this was the room that was for rent. Cheap, which was exactly Jade's price range. Because she came from the planet of Jadocon, she was used to the hot dry air that would be present in the attic room during the summer.

Four white round post held up the front portico and they each had several layers of red paint, reminding Jade of a candy cane. She had been introduced to candy canes during her first winter on Earth, but her best friend Devan. She felt a wave of sadness come over her at the thought of losing Devan. Life on Earth had been so much better when she had a friend she could share her secrets with.

Now, she was on the run again and trying to stay ahead of the people who wanted to capture her and use her as a science rate. This quirky, eccentric house should throw the scientist off for a few months, allowing Jade to regain her strength and decide what her next plan of action would be. She still had four more years to spend on Earth before she could go home to Jadocon and if she couldn't escape these people, she would not learn everything she needed to learn.

The inviting red door beckoned to her to her and she opened the squeaky gate and stepped onto the red brick sidewalk, similar to the one on the street side, only a lighter shade of red. There were lush green gardens on each side of the sidewalk and several Boston ferns sitting and hanging from the front porch.

There was no door bell to ring, only an old-fashioned door knocker in the shape of lion's head. Jade hesitated but a moment, then grasped the knocker and rapped three times on the door. She waited several minutes before she knocked again, and this time she was answered by a quiver voice, "Hold your horses - I'm moving as fast as I can."

When the door opened, the woman on the inside of the door and the girl on the outside of the door both stared at each other in shock. The older woman looked to be older than any human Jade had encountered on Earth, she had never seen so many wrinkles and character in one face. The older woman looked at the girl and saw - not the illusion of glamour - but the tall green girl with large black, almond-shaped eyes. They both gasped in surprised.

The Memory Lives On

This is a poem I wrote last year - I thought it appropriate to run it again this yearl



THE MEMORY LIVES ON
September 11

I was going through a rough spot in my life,
in between jobs from birthing babies to elderly care.
I finally had the day off and after seeing my family off to school and work,
I settled in to enjoy the TODAY show.
No sooner did I have my nest made when the first plane hit the first tower.
Was it a horrible accident?
Had something gone terribly wrong?
Or were we under attack from a growing terror
we’ve kept on the back burner too long?
Bomb drills and survival skills raced through the edges of my mind
as I tried to comprehend what was going on.
Never one for telephone calls, I detested using the phone,
but I needed to have some answers
so I picked up the receiver to make my first call.
My hubby wasn’t quiet to work yet, but still on his long commute
and he turned on the radio to listen.
Still in shock, I was on the phone again with my soul sister, Linda Loo,
when the next tower was hit.
What the hell is going on?
What do we do?
Why hasn’t the Emergency Broadcast System made an interruption?
They interrupt programming when the wind blows the wrong way, but not today.
Throughout the next hours I was glued with horror
to the images coming from the frosty screen.
Airplanes,
box cutters,
terrorist attacks – how is this happening in the great USA?
And why is Bush Jr.,
our Commander in Chief,
reading a book upside down to the children gathered around him in a classroom?
Why doesn’t he do something – anything to make the horror stop?
Our lives will never be the same again, our freedom has been threatened.
I feel I dug a hole that day to bury myself away,
but all the pain and suffering in my personal life just no longer seems to compare.
And now it’s eight years later and the New York skyline remains ruptured –
our tribute to the terrorist,
by our lack of cohesive structure.

Shroud of Darkness

SHROUD OF DARKNESS

Darkness hangs like a shroud,
sooner or later we'll be together again.
Our love is all we need.

All is silent, ominously silent,
violence will continue,
an event setting off a chain of events.

A blaze of flame at the top of the cliff,
begging, pleading - then burst into flames;
he is gone, never to return.

A great storm rages over the heaven,
a rainless storm
for vengeance has become an obsession;
and he takes advantage of the opportunity for revenge,
by killing the girl his enemy loves;
turning her into a grotesque skeleton of his lost love.

Darkness hangs like a shroud,
as the stormy night draws closer to dawn.
A young man broods over a decision;
an era gone by,
the threshold between past and future.
Torn between the woman he once loved and the one he now loves.

Morning, a morning that should be a happy one,
love that lasted through time,
haunting adventure,
mysterious and terrifying
stands in majestic isolation.

Under the brightness of a full moon,
but no one knows that under this full moon
means something it has never meant before.
It is the sign of a new and evil power
that prowls the woods in search of a victim.

First night with strange and weird discoveries -
faint voices from the past
over an ancient phone with on wire connections.
There is a storm raging, a storm that can't block out
the wails of the past, the wails legends say
come when there is someone to die, the wails of the dead.

Darkness envelopes the world tonight for an incantation has been performed to rid the house of strange spirits roaming the halls -
there is danger in this night -
a mysterious voice from beyond the grave and a new terror
will take over the feelings of the frightened family.

The great halls echo, with the rumble of thunder illuminated
by light flashes of the angry storm, as two angry
spirits battle in conflict - spirits long since dead,
as the rain finally starts to fall.

Dangerous Curiosity

DANGEROUS CURIOSITY

The fiery evening sun
is settling into the darkness,
and will encase the secrets
determined to disclose the curiosity
which may mean grave danger.

No one is safe from the nameless terror
that hangs so close - hoping fears
will be put to rest