Little Engine That Could

We now have The Little Engine That Could, with illustrations by Cincinnati artist Loren Long, in stock at Words & Images

Forbes Special Issue on BOOKS

Forbes magazine has a special BOOK issue on line.


http://www.forbes.com/2006/11/30/books-publishing-internet-tech-media_cx_mm_mn_books06_1201book_land.html

I enjoyed Cory Doctorow's article on giving away his work.


http://www.forbes.com/home/2006/11/30/cory-doctorow-copyright-tech-media_cz_cd_books06_1201doctorow.html

Festive Shop Decoration

Here are some better pictures showing our lovely bows.

Christmas Walk Photo

One of our visitors last weekend took a photo that happens to include Words & Images' storefront. If you look really close you can see our huge tartan plaid bows over each window.

http://www3.photosig.com/go/photos/view;jsessionid=az5rSb9Pxc94IjgiO8?id=1882021&forward=

Cathal Liam Book Signing Dec 9

Cathal Liam will be at Words & Images on Saturday, Dec. 9th from 2 to 8 PM to chat with visitors and to sign books. All three of his titles will be available for purchase: Consumed by Freedom's Flame, Blood on the Shamrock, and Forever Green.

This event will be during the third weekend of Metamora's annual Christmas Walk, a celebration of the old-fashioned joys of Christmas. Lights and festive decorations, holiday music, Santa in his cabin, are all featured during this traditional festival of the season, now in its third decade.

Cheerio for First Books!

I couldn't help myself.

Cheerios(R) Cereal is offering books as a premium in their packages and giving people the opportunity to participate directly in First Books through on package information.

Cheerios® Spoonfuls of Stories® Celebrates 5th Birthday By Giving the Gift of Reading: Five Million Award-Winning Children’s Books Free in Cereal Boxes this Fall!

for information on First Books go to:

http://www.firstbook.org/site/c.lwKYJ8NVJvF/b.674325/k.9BF9/About_First_Book.htm

Cathal Liam's Blood on the Shamrock

Words & Images now has signed copies of Cathal Liam's Blood on the Shamrock available for sale, as well as his two other works--Consumed by Freedom's Flame and Forever Green.

Visit Cathal's site at www.cathalliam.com


Cathal Liam
Born of stout Irish, Scottish and English stock, Cathal Liam writes short stories, poems and Irish editorial commentary for publications in the United States and Ireland. Those familiar with his work know he writes from an Irish point of view that is imbued with nationalist underpinnings and republican overtones. Through Cathal enjoys speaking and reading to interested groups, he carefully guards his privacy, preferring 'the quiet life.' When not involved in some research or writing project, he reads, travels, gardens and spends time with his wife in their present-day Cincinnati, Ohio home.
His successful first novel, CONSUMED IN FREEDOM’S FLAME: A Novel of Ireland’s Struggle for Freedom 1916-1921, initially published in hardcover in January, 2001, was reprinted three months later. In 2002, the title was printed twice in softcover and a third time in October, 2004. The story weaves fact and fiction around the exploits of a fictional young Irishman, Aran Roe O'Neill, and his friends, both imagined and historical, during twentieth-century Ireland's most dramatic and historically significant five-year period. As part of ForeWord Magazine's 2001 Book-of-the Year honours, the book received a bronze medal for historical fiction.
In June, 2003, his second book, FOREVER GREEN: IRELAND NOW & AGAIN was released. This collection of writings ofters a rich stew of imaginative stories, political commentary and original poems. It has since been reprinted.The book's stunning cover, a painting by renowned Irish-American artist Edmund Sullivan, captures the timeless beauty of Ireland. It won ForeWord Magazine's honorable mention award for Travel Essays in 2003.
His newest effort, BLOOD ON THE SHAMROCK: A Novel of Ireland's Civil War, is the sequel to CONSUMED... It resumes the chronicle of Ireland and of Aran Roe O'Neill during that most divisive yet politically momentous period, 1921-1924. Though the Irish Civil War was only a tragic ten-month episode, its build up and aftermath still sullies Ireland's dearm of national unity. Besides describing the dramatic historical particulars underpinning this internecine conflict, Cathal Liam's book takes issue with Eamon de Valera's contradictory role during the run-up to the Civil War and regards Michael Collins's contributions in helping create the modern Irish state as fundamentally important.

Horwitz's Longest Raid of the Civil War

Lester Horwitz, author of The Longest Raid of the Civil War, will be at Words and Images for a book signing event on Saturday, Oct 7th.

October 6-8 is the annual Canal Days festival in Metamora, Indiana. The town will be filled with vendors of all sorts, antique dealers will line the Whitewater Canal while handcrafts are situated in the Gazebo Park.

Music Festival, Metamora, Indiana

The 8th annual music festival went off smoothly. The weather was not the greatest on Saturday but the musicians played on, workshops were held, and everyone seemed to have a fine time. Rick Henly and Rich McConnell gave their Music Americana presentation four times in two days at the Metamora Grist Mill, and then wrapped up Sunday with a session on the canal boat.

Read for the Record August 24 2006

Read for the Record is featuring The Little Engine that Could with new illustrations by Loren Long. A special edition is available for purchase at Starbucks.

Read for the Record website
http://www.readfortherecord.org/events/

Loren Long's Little Engine
http://www.lorenlong.com/little-engine/little_engine_that_could.html

Metamora Music Festival Labor Day Weekend

Eight years ago Jim Wendel, pictured here, decided to have an old time music festival in a meadow area he owned near the Henry Pond house. This area happens to be the subject of a painting by T.C. Steele of the Hoosier school, who boarded at one time with the Pond's according to local lore. This would probably have been about the same time that he was working with J. Ottis Adams at the Hermitage in Brookville. Later he settled in the Brown County area.

On Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend free workshops on dulcimer, harp, and mandolin will be offered. Free performances will be held the afternoon and evening of Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Pete and Sara Walthery, Tom and Missy Strothers, and John Gates are all returning for another year of fun, song and fellowship.

New this year! Thanks to a grant from the Indiana Arts Council, we will be hosting Music Americana, a review of American history done in story and song by Rich McConnell and Rick Henly. They will be appearing twice each day at the Gristmill, thanks to the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site and the Indiana State Museum for agreeing to partner in this.

Food concession at the site will be provided by the Metamora Lions Club.

All the regular canal boat rides, train rides and carriage rides will be going on in town as usual.

kerosene lamps

This is a nice summary of kerosene lamp information from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

http://www.abc.net.au/treasurehunt/s967236.htm

Reading Roundup

Did one quick read over the weekend of a collection of Roald Dahl short pieces. "Lucky Break" was the story of his start as an author, on the advice of C. S. Forrester, and his working pattern when he is writing. Also included was his first story "Piece of Cake", an autobiographical account of being shot down during his RAF service.

Started a Faulkner biographical criticism but haven't gotten too far in it yet.

At home I'm reading a locally published oral history of Whitewater township in Franklin County Indiana, The Stories We Have to Tell. Full of photos as well as the pre-1950 stories collected from residents.

Over the weekend we had the first version of the new "Canoefest" in Brookville, IN. I learned that the Franklin County Historical Society is republishing Reifel's History of Franklin County, Indiana. It will be $75, which is reasonable when you consider that you can't find a copy of the last reprint under $100 and finding an original edition on the market is almost impossible.

Metamora Grist Mill

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20060614/LIFE01/606140308/



The Metamora Grist Mill, part of the Whitewater Canal State Historic Site, was featured in a story in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Wednesday, June 14th. The paper is doing a year long series leading up to a HomeGrown Thanksgiving. Each month a local foodstuff is featured, in November they will all be pulled together for a complete Thanksgiving meal.

Neil Simon wins Twain award

Neil Simon wins the Twain Award for American humor

from Jacqueline Trescott's article today in the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/14/AR2006061401428.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Neil Simon, one of America's most successful playwrights, has been chosen as this year's recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center announced yesterday.
For the past half-century, Simon has been prolific and often produced. Everyone of a certain age probably can name numerous Simon works, as his plays -- including "The Odd Couple," "Barefoot in the Park" and "The Sunshine Boys" -- have translated into film and television and into the national consciousness.

Poet Laureate

There was an announcement today that Donald Hall will be named the Poet Laureate of the United States.

Now I would assume, apart from the fact that I really never heard of Mr. Hall, poetry is just not an arena of attention for most of us. I was surprized to read that the position is appointed annually. I guess that I always thought that once you were the poet laureate you stayed there indefinately until either death or age took its toll. Mention was also made of the fact that there are really few demands associated with the position, it is primarily an honorary recognition, with a yearly stipend and travel allowance attached.

Recent Reading

I finished Children of the Flames this past weekend at the shop. The story of Dr. Mengeles eugenics project based on twins at the Auschwitz camp. Memories from narratives supplied by various of the twins survivors involved were alternated with the biography of the doctor. It really brings back to mind the thought--all that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

I'm reading Florida's Flight of the Creative Class at home right now. He was the keynote speaker at the Indiana tourism meeting in Indianapolis last month but I wasn't able to fit in that trip.

Train Guy is carrying around another Louis L'amour and my brother is working on Shelby Foote's civil war books.

The Independent Bookstore

http://www.slate.com/id/2141725/

Slate reviewed a newly published book that turned into a discussion of the role of independent book sellers. Personally I have a bias toward the quirky used book emporium. One of my favorites is Ohio Book Store on Main Street in Cincinnati, and there is the Dust Jacket in Mt Lookout Square. Up in Wabash, Indiana I happened upon Reading Room Books last summer. All of these stores are probably using the internet for sales, but they still are an interesting experience.

Some of the comments on the Slate article suggested that outside of major areas such as New York there was really little to lament in "fly-over" country, and that the coming of the big box and on line booksellers was actually a blessing. I would have to say that I was appalled to discover that there were no bookstores in existence in Franklin County when I moved here. But Indianapolis and Cincinnati are not that far away.

The Creative Class

I'm about to embark on several of Florida's Creative Class tomes. We're having a public input meeting concerning the state's draft report on Rural Indiana and I think that his work has probably informed many of the committee. Doubt very much that I really get too far before tomorrow evening, especially in view of the fact that my income tax return is still underway.
RISE 2020 is the program, this site should have a link to the draft report.
www.purdue.edu/pcrd/RISE2020

I've been reading an interesting book about the Oxford English Dictionary, still on the historical overview part and haven't really gotten into the OED itself.

Can we come out yet?

There were a couple of days that were warm. There was even one Sunday that we spent the afternoon on the benches in front of the shop. Met some great people from the Eaton area who were scouting a location for their antique auto club excursion this summer.

This winter I finished Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, much more interesting than the one from last year. More of a sense of the person was conveyed, rather than just the financial strategies. I read this week that Chernow is planning a bio of George Washington next.

I read Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins this week. A fantasy work for the young readers set. A fairly quick read, and appears to be a start of a possible series. Young man falls into another world, seems to fulfill prophecies, completes quest and returns to our world--The Overland. But a hint that he may be returning.