Category Archives: YA fiction

Ground Control to Everyone

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mt and dbI’m Major Tom (left) and that’s my brother David Bowie. We were dumped behind a store in Wise at about nine weeks old.  We’re named after David Bowie ’cause we were rescued the same day he died. He was an animal lover, so we wanna sing you one of his songs–not the one we’re named for, though.

Last year, despite the best efforts of about a dozen cat rescuers, 477 cats got killed in the Wise County Shelter. Along with 87 dogs. How many are gonna get it this year? Me and my brother won’t be among them ’cause we got rescued, but it’s gonna take more than a dozen people to make that number smaller.

LOVE SONG by David Bowie

The words I have to say
May well be simple but they’re true
Until you give your love
There’s nothing more that we can domt and db 2

Love is the opening door
Love is what we came here for
No-one can offer you more
You know what I mean
Have your eyes really seen?

Love is the key we must turn
Truth is the flame we must learn
Freedom the lesson we must learn
Do you know what I mean?
Have your eyes really seen?

Four hundred and seventy-seven cats is a lot. Can you help? Foster. Adopt. Get your family pet fixed. Don’t take unwanted cats to the shelter; get them fixed and adopted. Pay to spay someone else’s cat. Share photos. Say a prayer. And let’s see what we can do together.

Caption This

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So you’ve all noticed by now that the blog times and lengths and subjects are sliding all over the place. That’s because I’m writing a book, deadline for delivery Feb. 29, 2016. (Leap Year brought me an extra day!)

The subject is adoption and foster care in Appalachia, and it is a strange writing process this time. I love going back to my journalistic roots, but I’ve never had to be self-protective in writing before. The material is darkness and light in unexpected blotches of both, and you never know when you’re going to hit which. You just listen to the people telling their stories, and refuse to bundle things into patterns where they don’t belong. No square pegs forced into round holes to make us feel better about ourselves as humans.

And you keep a sense of humor about you. Which is why, in lieu of a lengthy angst-ridden blog post about writing Fall or Fly (the working title of the book) I am offering the following.

CAPTION THIS – winner gets three hand-crocheted dishcloths. Second place gets a kitten. :]

Let’s say deadline is Dec. 1, since I think that’s Tuesday coming and a lot of people will also visit for the Monday Book. If I can manage to post it on Monday this week. I’ve got a good one. But not as good as this photo. Have fun!

caption this! 011