“The Day The Shadows Bent.” Watching the April 8th Eclipse by Jeff Baker

Posted on April 11, 2024 by jeffbaker307

The Day the Shadows Bent

by Jeffrey Scott Baker

(April 8th, 2024)

I decided not to deal with the traffic and go see the total eclipse, besides I’d seen the total one in 2017. And I had things to do here. So, I stayed in town, feeling that I liked watching the partial phase in the city I grew up in.

And I did more than that.

Back in February 1979 I was in my first year of College at Newman University (then called “Kansas Newman College”) when the last total solar eclipse for about forty years to cross the US. swept through Canada and a lot of the Pacific Northwest. Much of the rest of the country got to watch the partial phase and that day not a lot of us were paying attention to our classes. Fortunately I didn’t have any classes at the peak time for the local eclipse, so I grabbed a camera from the Journalism room and took some pictures, mainly of eclipse watchers and the crescent shadows on the ground.

So, April 8th, 2024, I drove over to Newman University and watched the eclipse, not too far from where I had stood and photographed the one forty-five years earlier.

The sky was clear, except for some filmy clouds high in the sky and the sun blazed its usual blue-white. There was a crowd of students gathered outside the Bishop Gerber Science Center, most with those eclipse glasses that I frankly don’t trust. The kids and maybe some of the faculty probably hadn’t been around in 1979.

I found a spot on the sidewalk where trees cast leafy shadows and started taking pictures around 12:55pm, and took one a few minutes apart for a while. About fifteen minutes later I could notice a thick crescent shape in the mix of sunlight and shadow, but I later saw that it was visible in the earlier pics I took.

I pointed out the shadows to some kid who hadn’t known an Eclipse did that. And I hadn’t been able to watch that in 2017; it had been largely cloudy.

The eclipse went on, the sky got a little darker, around 1:30 it got noticeably cooler, although the evening news only listed a five-degree difference.

Around 1:40 the crowd cheered; we had reached maximum eclipse, about Eighty Per Cent of the Sun covered by the Moon.

Then it started to recede and the crowds slowly started to disperse.

The experience actually made me a little wistful; much has changed for me in forty-five years, mostly for the better. The campus had improved a lot. McNeill Hall, where I ran in to check the TV coverage in 1979, was now faculty offices. On that eclipse day I didn’t live on campus yet. Several of the buildings I knew were gone, and new ones had been put up. I smiled to see students watching the eclipse from the courtyard that was where the old Science Building had been.

There won’t be another country-crossing Total Eclipse until the ones in the 2040s. I will be in my Eighties by then, if I’m still around. I may have someone drive me where I can watch totality.

Or I just might go back to where I was standing in 2024 and 1979 and watch the shadows bend.

—end—

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“Burger And Fries,” Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story From Jeff Baker. April 8th, 2024.

Posted on April 8, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Photo by Robin Stickel on Pexels.com

Burger With Fries

by Jeff Baker

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The Draws for this month’s Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were: A Bedtime Story, set at a Burger Place, involving a Pepper Mill. I’d been where a buddy of mine had stayed in college and this story just breezed out of me! —-jeff

It was back when I was in college. A couple of my friends and I were renting this old house on the edge of campus by the tennis courts. We didn’t play but we liked it. Charlie could check out the guys, Hector could check out the girls and I could check out both. Plus it was a three minute walk to class or to the cafeteria or to the convenience store and burger place down the road.

Of the three of us, Charlie was the only one who had grown up in town, and so he went for a dentist appointment one Friday afternoon after class (I drove we only had the one car, a beat-up old Nova with a Dr. Who bumper sticker on the back) and sat and read comic books while he was getting checked out. Then he came out (wearing a bib) and said “J. D., uh, I’m gonna have to have a couple of wisdom teeth pulled. Can you stick around?”

I nodded. I had no place else to go. My next class was a lab class but that wasn’t until Monday morning. So I sat there and read and about four comic books later, the doctor helped Charlie out of the room. He was staggering like a TV drunk and had a sloppy grin on his face.

“He’s okay, but he’ll be out of it for a while” the dentist said. “Take him home and get him to bed.”

“Thas’ right, get me to bed,” Charlie said.

The dentist bill was paid by his folks insurance so I drove home with Charlie happily dozing in the back seat.

Got him home just as Hector got back from his last class. The two of us helped Charlie into his room, got him down to his shorts and into bed, all the while he was babbling away like Dick Wilson on an episode of “Bewitched.”

We were about to turn out the lights and leave when Charlie called out that he wanted a bedtime story. He insisted on it.

So I sat down beside the bed and faked it.

“Once upon a time,” I said. “Not too far from here, a car drove up to the burger place on the corner. The car radio was playing Buddy Holly or The Shirelles and the kid behind the wheel wanted to impress his girlfriend.”

“Hey! How ‘bout makin’ it his boyfriend?” Charlie said groggily.

“It’s my story, remember?” I said. “Besides, this is back about Nineteen-Sixty-Two.”

“Oh,” Charlie said.

I went on.

“Anyway, this guy pulled up to the drive-in place the Burger place had and grabbed the microphone and ordered a couple of burgers with fries for him and his girl. The voice asked if they wanted their special Seasoned Pepper Fries (which cost extra.) Of course, the guy said yes, to impress the girl.”

“Impress th’ girl,” Charlie said with a snorting laugh.

“Works for me,” Hector said from the doorway.

“Okay, the carhop brought the order out and the girl and the guy started eating and then the girl said she couldn’t taste the pepper on the fries. So the guy grabbed the microphone and said they needed more pepper. The carhop showed up a few minutes later with a little shaker of pepper and sprinkled it on the fries. She left, the girl tried the fries and there still wasn’t enough fries for her.”

“Thas’ why I date guys,” Charlie said.

“So, the guy gets on the microphone again and yells at them to send out more pepper. About a minute later, this old pepper mill floats up to the car all by itself!!!!

“Hooray.” Murmured Charlie.

“It starts sprinkling pepper on both of them in the car and there’s this weird, ghostly laugh, and the kid shifts gears (he’d had the car on for the radio) and barrels out of there, jumping the curb.”

I paused for dramatic effect and then began saying (in a spooky deep voice) “And THAT was the Last time they ever went to: The Haunted Burger Place!”

I was about to give off a weird, loud laugh, when Hector grabbed my shoulder and pointed at Charlie. Happily asleep. We snuck out of the room, turned out the lights and shut the door.

And I had forgotten about that evening nearly thirty years ago until this afternoon. Car cut me off in traffic; beat up old Nova with a ragged Dr. Who bumper sticker on the back.

I breathed out “My God! When we owned that thing I was amazed it made it around the block!”

—end—

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, LGBT, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Draws For April, 2024. April 8th, 2024, Mike Mayak)

Posted on April 8, 2024 by jeffbaker307

First, here’s the prompts for the April 2024 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Then my usual long-winded explanation:

A Bedtime Story

Involving a Pepper Mill

Set at a Burger Place

Now, on to the details.

Hi! I’m Mike Mayak, I also write as Jeff Baker and I’m the current moderator for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, which was started by ‘Nathan Burgoine a few years ago and carried on by Cait Gordon and Jeffrey Ricker. It’s a monthly writing challenge mainly for stress-free fun that anyone can play.

Here’s how it works: the first Monday of every month I draw three cards; a heart, a diamond and a club. These correspond to a list naming a genre, a setting and an object that must appear in the story. Participants write up a flash fiction story, 1,000 words or less, post it to their website and link it here in the comments. I’ll post the results (and hopefully have one of my own written!) the week of April 15th, 2024.

As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage. And this month I had help! I fanned out the cards and let Ebbet and Miss Meow-Meow (picture above) nose whichever card they “picked.” So, the results were the Seven of Hearts (a Bedtime Story), the Ace of Diamonds (A Burger Place) and the Six of Clubs (a Pepper Mill.) So we will write a bedtime story, set at a burger place involving a pepper mill.

So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week! And I’m putting the 2024 Flash Draw sheet at the end of this message, again! (* indicates those have been used.)

Thanks for playing, and I’ll see you next week!

And have fun!

——mike

Flash Draw Sheet for 2024 (“*” indicates prompt has been used.)

Clubs

A A Slippery Slide

2 A Rubber Duck

3 Warm Woolen Mittens

4 A Snow Globe

5 Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers

*6 A Pepper Mill

*7. A Giant Mallet

8 A Giant Penny

9 A Box of Rubber Bands

*10 A Grapefruit

J A Cellphone

Q A Dumpster

*K A Comic Book

Hearts

A. Science Fiction

2 A Romance

3 Paranormal

4 A Mystery

5 A Thriller

6 An Adventure Story

*7. A Bedtime Story

8 A Monster Story

*9 A Fantasy

10 A Horror Story

*J A Crime Story

Q A Melodrama

*K A Legend

Diamonds

*A A Burger Place

* 2 A Herd of Horses

3 A Roomful of Hats

*4 An Empty Gymnasium

5 The Temple of Diana In Greece

6 A Field of Lettuce

7 A Haunted House

8 A Western Ghost Town

9 A Greenhouse

10 A Giant Teepee

J A Costume Shop

Q A Cake Shop

*K An Outdoor Stage

Posted in Mike Mayak, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge | 1 Comment

Yum! “Breadbowl” for Rainbow Snippets from Jeff Baker. (April 6th, 2024)

Posted on April 6, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

This week, we get to share pasta with two old friends, from my story “Breadbowl.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/04/05/breadbowl-and-pasta-for-friday-flash-fics-from-jeff-baker-april-5th-2024/

“Pasta in breadbowls,” Dimitri said. “Perfect!”

Dimitri and Chuck had met at the day shift at the warehouse. After a couple of after-work beers they had agreed to officially “go out,” but had agreed to stay “just friends.” Dimitri was dark-haired, short and muscular. Chuck had long reddish-blonde hair and was lean like a soccer player.

Here’s one more snippet (I’m getting hungry!)

“You know, we’ve got a better relationship right now than a lot of couples I know,” Dinitri said, finishing the last of his pasta.

“Yeah,” Chuck said. “Hey, do you ever wonder what would have happened if we’d, you know?”

The two young men stared at each other for a moment, then broke into broad grins and laughed.

“This is better,” Chuck said.

“A lot better!” Dimitri said.

I didn’t realize I was channeling one of the last episodes of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. And a lot of this story has happened to me!

Next week, something old…till then, take care! —–jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 1 Comment

“Breadbowl” And Pasta For Friday Flash Fics from Jeff Baker, April 5th, 2024.

Posted on April 5, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Breadbowl

by Jeff Baker

“Soup’s on!” Chuck said, pushing the door shut with a foot as he brought in the two boxes the kid had just delivered.

“Cool!” Dimitri said from the couch.

Chuck set the two boxes down on the small table in the corner of his apartment and opened the lids. Steam rose up from both of them.

“You want plates or just the boxes?” Chuck asked.

“Boxes are fine! Plastic forks and knives too!” Dimitri said, unwrapping the little plastic package that came with the box. “I’m hungry!”

“Yeah! Same here,” Chuck said, plopping down in the chair opposite Dimitri. “I been working too hard. We both have!”

“Pasta in breadbowls,” Dimitri said. “Perfect!”

Dimitri and Chuck had met at the day shift at the warehouse. After a couple of after-work beers they had agreed to officially “go out,” but had agreed to stay “just friends.” Dimitri was dark-haired, short and muscular. Chuck had long reddish-blonde hair and was lean like a soccer player.

“Mmmph!” Chuck said after his first bite of the pasta. “Almost forgot!” He jumped up and ducked into the kitchen, coming back with two bottles of zero-calorie tea.

“Cheers!” Chuck said, raising his bottle.

“What are we celebrating?” Dimitri asked.

“Uhhh, Easter!” Chuck said.

“That was last week,” Dimitri said. “Of course, the one my family celebrates is in May.”

“Yeah,” Chuck said. Chuck didn’t have any family left except for some cousins out of state. Dimitri’s parents and sisters lived in the Northwest.

“Which one did you get?” Dimitri asked.

“Pasta Primavera.” Chuck said. “You?”

“Same.”

The laughed and kept on eating.

“You realize we’re making small talk don’t you?” Chuck said. “Like we’re on a date.”

“A first date!” Dimitri laughed.

“You remember our first date?” Chuck asked.

Dimitri grimaced. “Oh, God yes!”

“First and only date!” Chuck laughed.

Dimitiri nodded and broke off part of his breadbowl and dipped it in his pasta.

“We’ve known each other, what? Four-and-a-half years now?” Dimitri asked.

“Something like that,” Chuck said. “You know, that’s longer than my Mom and Dad were married.”

Dimitri nodded.

The two of them ate more and glanced out the window at the early evening sky.

“Staying lighter a lot longer.”

“Uh huh,” Chuck said. They ate some more.

“You know, we’ve got a better relationship right now than a lot of couples I know,” Dinitri said, finishing the last of his pasta.

“Yeah,” Chuck said. “Hey, do you ever wonder what would have happened if we’d, you know?”

The two young men stared at each other for a moment, then broke into broad grins and laughed.

“This is better,” Chuck said.

“A lot better!” Dimitri said.

“Hey, what’s on TV?” Chuck said.

“Lot of old re-runs,” Dimitri said.

“Better than watching the news!” Chuck said.

—end—

Posted in Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

“Hawks In the Neighborhood.” An Unpublished (read: rejected) Rainbow Snippet from Jeff Baker! (March 31, 2024.

Posted on March 31, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

This week, a story of mine that hasn’t been published yet! (Saturday Evening Post liked it but didn’t buy it!) I set it in a version of my late Mom & Dad’s old house. (Picture above.) Their Bi son is our narrator, helping out their bird-loving parents in “Hawks In the Neighborhood.”

“Mom,” I said, “you’re worrying over nothing. Remember how you were about the cat, before you started keeping him indoors all the time?”

“That was different,” she said. “Bertram gets fed and he can lounge around in the sunlight in the living room and he doesn’t go eating any birds.”

My folks had freaked when Bertram had shown up at the back door, happily presenting them with a freshly-killed goldfinch just after they moved in eight years ago. They hadn’t seen a Goldfinch in their yard yet; Bertram beat them to it.

He was an indoor cat from then on.

Here’s more snippet…

I told my Mom I needed to check this out before I did anything. Even though they had plenty of bird books I didn’t want Mom looking over my shoulder so I excused myself and went down to the Public Library to do research on hawks. Actually I did a lot of it on my smartphone sitting in the Library but I felt better around all the books.

Besides, I got to talk to Marty at the research desk. We’d gone to school together and I had kind of an unrequited crush on him. I told him what I was there for and he looked up and said “Sounds like a Cooper’s Hawk.”

Marty was a lot better than the internet or a library sometimes.

See you next week! (Not as late, I hope!)

Incidentally, the cat-and-goldfinch story really happened!

Happy Easter! —-jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

Encounter “Manifold Sorcery” for Friday Flash Fics, from Jeff Baker. March 29, 2024.

Posted on March 30, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Billy Gonzalez And the Manifold Sorcery

by Jeff Baker

Billy Gonzalez stood in the corner of the garage and sighed. It didn’t feel like that long ago he was babysitting his little cousin Martin and taking him to ballgames. Now the kid was working on his own car in the family garage. Billy smiled to himself. He could check fluids and change a tire, but Martin was rebuilding an engine. With used parts he’d gotten from junk shops. He’d gotten a deal on a car that “didn’t run worth crap” even if it looked nice. Pretty soon it was probably going to be the best thing on the road.

“Hey, Billy,” Martin said looking up from the engine. “Can you hold this thing right here for me?”

“Sure,” Billy said, grabbing what looked like a pipe and holding it steady. Martin grumbled and swore under his breath as he tried adjusting a metal band around one end of the pipe.

“Damn!” Martin swore. “I’m gonna have to re-do the manifold. This pipe is cracked.” He wiped his hands on a rag which he tossed on the garage floor.

“Hey, I gotta go use the restroom,” Martin said. “Make sure nobody steals the car, okay?”

Billy waved as Martin went into the house.

“Not a lot of chance of that,” Billy muttered, glancing at the car’s wheels which didn’t have tires on them as well as the front bumper which was laying on the ground.

There was a whistle of air. Billy jumped back from the engine as a cloud of grey steam poured out of the dirty manifold. He was about to yell for Martin when the steam swirled to the back of the garage and formed into a tall, muscular man wearing nothing but an earring. He was bald and the same grey color as the steam. And he was real. Billy gave his abs and six-pack the once-over.

“Why the hell does the weird stuff always happen to me?” Billy grumbled.

“I am the Haunter of this place,” the man said. “Imprisoned by the Great King and his Sacred Seal. Doomed to only emerge briefly as I wander through the centuries.”

“Uh, are you going to grant me a wish or something?” Billy asked, wondering how it got in that car engine.

“I do not deal in trifles,” the man said. “I grant wisdom. Wisdom such as the Great King had.”

Billy had read his Granddad’s 130 year-old copy of The Arabian Nights, so he figured he knew who the Great King was.

“Where is he who summoned me by his ownership of my current prison, and his seeking of knowledge?” the man asked.

“Uh, he’s on the toilet,” Billy said, wondering how he was going to explain all this to Martin.

“Then let this be my decree,” the man said, his deep voice beginning to echo. “Let the wisdom be now imparted to my Liberator. Let it go forth and be appropriate.”

The man bowed low.

“And now, I must go. I have a brief time to view the world before I return to limbo and another prison to await another Liberator and brief freedom. Repentance! Repentance! Oh, Prophet of God!”

And the man vanished, like evaporating steam.

Billy stared. What wisdom had the genie—there was no other word for it—been talking about?

“Oh, man!” Martin said as he walked back into the garage. “It just hit me! While I was washing my hands! How to fix this! How to fix all of these! I mean, I’ve been working on cars for years and I just realized…”

Billy smiled as Martin went on. Definitely Martin was going to open up his own auto shop someday. Probably a chain of them. If he needed a name for them, Billy would suggest “Manifold Sorcery.”

—end—

Posted in Billy Gonzalez, Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Rainbow Snippets Goes Through The Hedge. March 22, 2024 from Jeff Baker.

Posted on March 22, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Note: Photo by Danny Boling.

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

This week, from a prompt pic taken and sent me by my friend Danny Boling, snippets from my story “Through The Hedge Of Thorns.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2024/03/22/through-the-hedge-of-thorns-friday-flash-fics-by-jeff-baker-march-22-2024/ You never know what you’re going to see on a city street!

Laying there on one of the metal benches was a young man, probably twenty-something, reddish hair and beard, sleeping soundly.

“He looks nice in those jeans,” Craig whispered.

“I don’t think he can hear you.” Jack said. “I don’t think anybody can hear us right now. Look.”

Jack pointed at the shop the bench was in front of. The bench reflected, but the cute redhead sleeping on it did not.

Here’s another snippet:

“Remember that funny feeling when we turned the corner? Like an extra wind or a change in, well, feeling? Kind of wavering?”

Craig shook his head.

“Remember the hedge of thorns around the palace in Sleeping Beauty?” Jack said. “I think this is like that.”

Craig stared back at the man asleep on the bench. This was crazy but Jack had always been able to see around corners, with what Jack’s Irish Grandmother called “Second Sight.”

I think somebody’s going to get kissed!

See you next week with more snippets! —–jeff

Posted in LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 2 Comments

“Through The Hedge Of Thorns.” Friday Flash Fics by Jeff Baker (March 22, 2024.)

Posted on March 22, 2024 by jeffbaker307

(Note: Picture by Danny Boling.)

Through The Hedge Of Thorns

by Jeff Baker

“Okay, here he is,” Jack said as they turned the corner on the downtown sidewalk.

Laying there on one of the metal benches was a young man, probably twenty-something, reddish hair and beard, sleeping soundly.

“He looks nice in those jeans,” Craig whispered.

“I don’t think he can hear you.” Jack said. “I don’t think anybody can hear us right now. Look.”

Jack pointed at the shop the bench was in front of. The bench reflected, but the cute redhead sleeping on it did not.

“And look at all the people just walking around him, like they’re avoiding this little area but not seeing the guy. Or us probably.”

Craig stared at Jack. “What do you mean?”

“Remember that funny feeling when we turned the corner? Like an extra wind or a change in, well, feeling? Kind of wavering?”

Craig shook his head.

“Remember the hedge of thorns around the palace in Sleeping Beauty?” Jack said. “I think this is like that.”

Craig stared back at the man asleep on the bench. This was crazy but Jack had always been able to see around corners, with what Jack’s Irish Grandmother called “Second Sight.”

“So what’s going on here?” Craig asked.

“Sleeping Beauty,” Jack said. “I think he has to be kissed. There’s some kind of a curse.”

“So, this guy needs a princess?” Craig said with a shrug.

“Uh, no. I think he needs a prince,” Jack said.

“Where is he going to get one of those?” Craig asked. “England? Charles isn’t a prince anymore.”

“Yeah, but you are,” Jack said.

“Huh?” Craig gave him a blank stare.

“Remember your last name,” Craig said. “Herceg. You told me once it’s Hungarian for Prince.”

“Oh yeah, I did.” Craig said.

“That’s why I brought you here,” Jack said.

Craig stared back and forth from Jack to the man on the bench. He gave a What The Hey shrug and bent down, trying not to fall over.

He kissed the man.

A moment later, the man’s eyes fluttered open and he smiled.

—end—

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Reading Report, March 20th, 2024. From Jeff Baker.

Posted on March 21, 2024 by jeffbaker307

Reading Report: February/March, 2024

Again this month, unless noted most of these are short stories.

Re-read Asimov’s “Where No Man Persueth.”

Listened to a reading (on You Tube) of Mike Resnick’s story “The Wizard Of West 34th Street.” Posted it for Resnick’s Birthday. (I met him once!) A very good story.

Read several stories from the collection “Dracula’s Brood,” edited by Richard Dalby (1987, Barnes and Noble Books.) “Another Squaw,” by E. Heron-Allen. Aylmer Vance and the Vampire” by Alice and Claude Askew, and “The Feather Pillow,” a horrific tale by Horacio Quiroga, a South American writer I had never heard of. All the stories in the anthology are lesser-known vampire tales by authors writing in the later Victorian era and right before World War One.

Read Fritz Leiber’s “The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar” which actually has some LGBT representation but if I revealed more it would give away some of the story’s surprises (and the LGBT characters aren’t the surprise!) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are again their own worst enemies and to whom exactly does the title refer?

Also on the Leiber read front I read another of his Changewar stories: “Damnation Morning.”

Read “The Refugees,” a fun Dr. Poggioli mystery by T. S. Stribling. Who poisoned the wine? I actually managed to guess part of the solution to this near-100 year-old story.

FINALLY read Lord Dunsany’s often-anthologized “The Two Bottles Of Relish.” The set-up is a Sherlock Holmes-type story with the narrator (“Smethers”) doing the legwork. I half-guessed what was going on until the brilliant last line! (I think he wrote at least a couple more Smethers stories.)

I started reading Alan Napier’s posthumous memoir “Not Just Batman’s Butler,” finished by a writer who often interviewed him. It comes off like Napier is sitting down with the reader after dinner and spinning tales about his life over brandy or tea.

Read Kaje Harper’s weekly offerings (never miss those!)

Re-read Bruce Coville’s fun story “Am I Blue?” to post snippets on “Rainbow Snippets.”

Totally neglected Poe again. I’ll make up for that next month!

—–jeff baker, March 20th, 2024

Posted in Bruce Coville, Fritz Leiber, Kaje Harper, Reading, Reading Report | Leave a comment