Smokey Mountain Breakdown

Well, I'm well into the November Story Cycle. I'm running a bit late and some may go into December. I'm 3000 words into "Porn and Donuts" at this point and it just gets stranger and funnier as I go along. It's one of those stories that is really fun to write and for all the fact that Lucius is just absolutely worthless, I really like him. I think there is a tad of Friend Scott in him. I had aimed to wrap that story up in 5000 words, but it looks like it might need 6 or even 7 thousand.

The other two are coming along nicely as well. I have the first part of "The Ghosts are Dancing" up on EditRed. Here's a teaser:

He had farmed the holler all of his life, and his father had farmed it before him, as his grandfather had before his father. And when he looked out over the broad bottomland with the rotten rock cliffs rising up from the banks of the creek, his heart felt at peace. The ghosts of his ancestors kept him company each day as he tilled the fields. They whispered into his ear in a way only he could discern.

“Needs a bit more ammonia, Joel.”

“Watch out for that rock, Joel. You’ll break the plow.”

“There’s a storm coming.”

He heard these voices in his mind and sometimes he heard his Daddy’s voice and at other times the tobacco roughened voice of his Papaw. They spoke to him on a level deep in his bones, in his farmer’s bones.

The hound dog sat with his back legs splayed out and every once in a while, he’d straighten up and scratch that special spot on his belly. His black rubbery lips would stretch into a wide grin and his ears would tighten against his sleek skull. Such was the pleasure of a hound on an early spring day. The sun kissed the hound’s back and warmed the tender green of the fields. Joel slapped his thigh and called the dog to him.

Such was the day before the night when the rains came.

You will have to be one of my readers to follow the story. Sorry to give you guys one more place to go and another login to follow to read this stuff, but it's necessary for a number of reasons. If you email me your EditRed account name, I'll be happy to add you. Well... provided I know you and trust you.