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Once Upon a Time in the Swamp by CS Boyack. A Review

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Overview.

It’s good to read a book not full of errors! I enjoyed this story. It kept me reading, and I couldn’t wait to get back to it when I had to stop reading.

Blurb.

Mari and her husband opted for a simple life as farmers. It’s been decades since the world tore itself apart, pitting neighbor against neighbor and family against each other. They were happy in this re-emerging world, until disaster struck.

Mari sets out on a solo quest to avenge the deaths of her family and loss of everything she holds dear. She’s ill equipped for the task, but seems to have time on her hands. Time alone in the wilderness to deal with her personal demons along the way.

She is helped by a few sympathetic elders and a couple of animal companions with lessons Mari can use if she pays attention. Can Mari find justice for her family?

Set in a post apocalyptic, Gulf Coast world, this is a story for fans of the old Spaghetti Westerns.

Story.

Mari White comes back from hunting to find her husband and son have been murdered. The sheriff is no help and so she takes it upon herself to track down the killers and exact revenge.The world in which she lives is brutal. It is in the aftermath of a terrible war where everyone seems to have been fighting everyone else. Society has broken down.The story is a cross between a western and a post-apocalypse tale.

Characters.

The main character is Mari. She is tortured by the death of her husband and son, and consumed by her desire for vengeance. She is basically a good person, but her experiences have pushed her kindness to the back of her mind. Nevertheless, she still has enough to rescue a dog when its owner wants to kill it.At the end, Mari has come to terms with her loss and starts a new life.

One of the characters I liked was not even human, but a longhorn ox called Dirt. Dirt is awkward and can be trouble. He has a temper, and Mari has to work hard to get him to do as she wishes. Nevertheless, he proves essential on many occasions.

The pup Mari rescues is another character. Mari called her Worthless, because her original owner was going to shoot her because she was ‘worthless’. The pup is full of life and fun, and gives Mari comfort in her low moments.

Mari meets other people on her travels, most of whom help her. One interesting ‘character’ is a skeleton of a woman. Mari stays in her house and gives the skeleton a personality and talks to it.

Writing.

Mr Boyack does an excellent job of building the world in which Mari lives. He describes the surroundings so we can really get an idea of where we are. As a Brit, I don’t know this area at all, and have no experience of the swamps, but I got a good idea of the wetness and the dangers, including the animals that live there.

The story is told in the first person. Mari is relating the tale. It sounds, to my British ears, as authentic Southern USA. I can hear the drawl. I am glad that I was reading on my tablet, though, as I needed to look up a few words and the animals mentioned.

A good read. I gave it 5*.

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Taking chances makes us human

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This comment on elfcat.com is so true.

elfkat's avatarAdventures and Musings of an Arch Druidess

I’m going to give my useless opinion. But here goes. When I was growing up a gentleman from the Explorers Club used come every year and give a presentation and I so wanted go with him. And except for the 18 year old these men were old enough to make what they thought was an educated choice to go (and the money) and do something extraordinary.

Nothing in human history would have been done without people who made those kind of choices. This includes people like our ancestors who boarded the May flower as one of mine did. Have you been to Disneyland and seen the ship in the lagoon that was the same size? Imagine that in high seas.

Imagine the women who were Suffragettes. They made the choice to be different or those of us who marches for gay rights knowing and risking attack.

People make choices to…

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The Unlikely Origins of BeatrixPotter’s Tales.

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An interesting post about where Beatrix Potter may have got her inspiration from.

The Unlikely Origins of Beatrix Potter’s Tales
Continue Reading here
Poetry

I Am Earth.

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After some protests in Germany in February, over the destruction of a village to make way for the expansion of an open cast coal mine,I thought of a poem I wrote a couple of years ago, called I Am Earth (found in Miscellaneous Thoughts) and decided to write a sequel.

The Ancient Greeks thought that the Earth itself was a goddess called Gaia who, along with Uranus, the sky, created all living things. In I Am Earth, she bemoans what humanity has done, and threatens us with destruction. Here she is telling us what she is doing to bring this about.

I Am Earth (2)

I am Earth.

I am your mother.

I gave you birth.


I told you

What will occur.

And now you will rue.


You ignore me

And take little heed

Of my anxious plea.


So I send you rain

To flood all your homes

And give you pain.


I send the drought

So no crops will grow.

There’s famine, no doubt.


I heat the world

And many will die

From the heat I have hurled.


Winds I will send

In hurricanes now.

Your lands they will rend.


Yet you will not learn.

To me you are deaf

So the world I will burn.


Fires in the summer;

Deep snow in the cold.

You get dumber and dumber.


My skin I do shiver

And make buildings fall

As the ground it does quiver.


I will belch forth fire

From deep in my heart.

Make Earth like a pyre.


Will you now learn?

Don’t exploit my wealth.

Or you I will burn.


I AM DESTROYING YOU.

You can buy my poetry book, Miscellaneous Thoughts, from your favourite retailer, in ebook and physical book form.

The poems are in a variety of styles, some serious and some amusing.

If you purchase it I would be ever indebted to you if you would leave a little honest comment on what you think of it. You can post on any of the retailers.

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St Lawrence’s Lament

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I discovered poet’s corner purely by accident. I love the poetry. So much better than mine!

Jem Croucher's avatarPoet's Corner

Deconsecrated hallowed walls to commercial gain
Shamefaced the stone walls weep
The ageing tower crenels kiss the sky
and now glazed windows
arch to residential pews

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School

Why Don’t People Read More

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This post was inspired by on posted by Charles Yallowitz last Tuesday.

To read what he says, click here.

I always loved reading from a very early age, but not always the books we read at school. Sometimes I did. We read The History of Mr Polly by H.G.Wells for ‘O’ level (aged 16), and it was interesting and funny.

When I went on to higher education I chose English Literature as a subsidiary subject (I think it’s called minor in the US) because I enjoyed reading.

One book we studied I refused to answer any exam questions on it (we had a choice) because I felt that analysing it would ruin it for me. It’s this analysis of books we read where I think we go wrong. Everyone has an opinion about a book from whether it was enjoyable to what it means. (Same with poetry.) Many books people read and don’t see any extra meaning; yet in school we force them to find meaning, even if there may not be one. One of the comments said that in an interview with Pinter, he stated that An Inspector Calls has no meaning beyond the straightforward story. Yet children are taught to look for one.

As a writer, I read many posts and books on the craft of writing. One thing that constantly crops up is Theme. It seems as though we all have to have a message. Well, I’m with Pinter. Why can’t I just write a story without having to have a message and deeper meaning?

Poetry is the same, in fact, more so. Oddly, the posts of mine that get the most views are when I post a poem. Yet poetry books, we are told, don’t sell.

I also think that teaching is the reason people don’t review the books they read. Memories of doing book reviews at school (usually of the books they read independently) are not good. It’s work, and not easy work, either. I have quite a lot of ratings that do not turn into written reviews. I prefer to ask my readers to leave a comment rather than a review. I think this is less intimidating. So what if I receive some that are just one line. That’s better than none.

I read to my children. One has grown up reading, and loves a good book. The other never reads fiction. Hardly any books, in fact, preferring to get stuff from the net. My daughter read to her children, but they don’t read.

The way we teach our children should be improved. Not every child can be taught in the same way, yet in the UK at least, everyone seems to be taught in an academic way. This goes for all subjects. Some children respond to that well, but others are turned off.

And how many people remember much of what they were taught at school? Maybe they’d remember more if they were taught it in a less academic way.

We are told how important reading is, but turn so many of our children off it.

Poetry, Sport

The FA Cup.

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Just finished watching the FA Cup Final. We were beaten by our biggest rivals. *Sigh.*

Here’s a little limerick about it.

United has lost the cup

From it champagne we’ll not sup.

City won the game

And now it’s their aim

To win the treble, like us.

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Poet Kevin Morris’s Interview on Vancouver Co-op Radio’s the World Poetry Reading Series

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If you like poetry you might like to have a listen to Kevin’s interview. His poetry is sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always worth reading or listening to.

K Morris Poet's avatarK Morris - Poet

On Monday 29 May, I was interviewed by Ariadne Sawyer, of Vancouver Co-op Radio’s the World Poetry Reading Series about my recently released poetry collection, More Poetic Meanderings. My interview, during which I discuss and read my poetry, is due to be aired at 1 pm (pacific standard time) on Thursday 1 June, which equates to 9 pm here in the United Kingdom. You can find details of the World Poetry Reading series here https://coopradio.org/shows/world-poetry-cafe/.

I am pleased to announce that my interview is already available as a podcast on Mixcloud and can be found here https://www.mixcloud.com/VictorSchwartzman/world-poetry-cafe-for-june-1-with-kevin-morris/. I listened to my interview using Google Chrome, however other browsers should also work.

More Poetic Meanderings is available in Kindle and paperback and can be found here https://www.amazon.com/More-Poetic-Meanderings-K-Morris-ebook/dp/B0BZT9G139/.

My thanks to Ariadne Sawyer of Vancouver Co-op Radio’s the World Poetry Reading Series for hosting me on the World Poetry…

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Bluebells. A poem for May.

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It’s May, so the bluebells are out.

Image by Herbert Aust from Pixabay

Bluebells

Blue, blue,

Everywhere blue.

Bluebells your eyes they will woo.

Blue, blue,

A sea of blue

A sight you never will rue.

Blue, blue,

Woodland floor, blue

Gleaming with droplets of dew.

Blue, blue,

Bells of deep blue.

Such a magnificent hue.

Blue, blue,

Fallen sky, blue.

But under the trees they grew.

Blue, blue, all around, blue.

Such a beautiful view.

Do you like bluebells? I used to pick them from a woodland near where I lived, when I was a child. It wasn’t forbidden then!

memories, School

Memories. 10 Games We Used to Play

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Image by Silviu on the street from Pixabay

I wrote a post about my memories of my early days at school. That set me to thinking about the games we used to play.

At dinner time, we walked about 300 metres to the Church Hall where dinner was served. It was brought in, I think. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t cooked there.

After dinner we went outside to play.

There was a variety of games that we played.

First, there was what was commonly called ‘Mummies and Daddies’, or sometimes ‘House’. Someone would be Mummy, someone, Daddy and someone the baby. The baby would walk around in a crouched position. I can’t really remember what we actually did!

Other games involved larger groups of people. Here are some of them.

  1. The Farmer’s in the Dell. Someone was the farmer and stood in the centre of a ring. Then people would circle around singing a song in which the farmer chose, from the ring, a wife, a child, a nurse and a dog. Then ‘We all pat the dog’ and everyone would pat, in various degrees of hardness, the person who was the dog. The dog would then become the farmer.
  2. Down by the Waterside. Another ring game. The people in the ring would sing, ‘Down by the water where the green grass grows, There sits ——– washing her clothes. She sang, she sang, she sang so sweet and called for her playmate across the street.’ The person in the ring did actions according to the song, then called ‘——-, ——–, won’t you come to tea? Won’t we have a jolly time at half past three.’ The ‘friend’ then became the next person in the ring.
  3. What time is it Mr Wolf? One person would stand a distance away and turn their back. Everyone else was a few yards away. They would shout ‘What time is it Mr Wolf?’ and Mr Wolf would say a time. Suddenly the player who was Mr Wolf would say ‘Dinner Time and try to catch one of the others, who were all running away. If caught they would become Mr Wolf.
  4. May I? Similar to Mr Wolf, except the person was facing the others. He/she would tell each person in turn to do something to advance their position. 3 baby steps. 5 skips, 1 giant stride, etc. Before complying, the person told to move had to say ‘May I ?’ or go back to the beginning.
  5. Of course, there was the usual game of ‘tag’, which we called ‘tick’. And Chain Tick, where, when caught, the player joined hands with the others who had been caught, forming sometimes, a long chain that was difficult to avoid when it stretched over most of the playground!
  6. We also played a version called ‘Off Ground Tick’ where you cold not be caught if you were off the ground.
  7. We also played skipping with a long rope. I was hopeless at ‘running in’. Sometimes we had an elimination game where if you failed to run in, skip and run out, you were ‘out’. But we also had mass skipping in the rope.
  8. Playing ball against the wall, or catch, with a variety of ball games.
  9. And there was always ‘Jacks’ that could be played with stones as well as bought metallic 3D cross things. Bounce a ball and pick up the jacks before catching it. I think that was the general gist.
  10. Finally, marbles. There were two games we played with them. One we had to try to hit other people’s marbles. Any hit were yours. Then there was a game which involved getting the marbles into a hole. Someone won all the marbles in the hole, but I can’t remember how that went.

Image by InspiredImages from Pixabay

Did you play any of these games? Or did you play others. there may be some that I’ve completely forgotten, or maybe people in other countries played different games. I would be fascinated to find out what games you played.

Answer in the comments please.

If you would like to receive an exclusive, free short story by me, called The Haunted Table, simply click the link. This will take you to the page where you can download it.

Maria and Tom have bought an antique table for the old cottage they have bought. When they hear strange noises in the night that sound like crying, they worry their house is haunted, but the sounds seem to come from the table.

They set about trying to find what is causing the disturbances. The answer is stranger than either of them had thought.

(Clicking the link will add your email address to my email list, but don’t worry, you can unsubscribe immediately if you wish. Nor will you get any spam. I only send out an email each quarter, or if I have any exciting news–like a new release.)

There are dragons and magic in the world if only you look for them… V.M. Sang