Ukiah's Piggy Bank and a George Mark Fundraiser

So the piggy bank broke Friday. The Piggy Bank. The little piggy that went to the market and provided George Mark house with a day of care for one lucky child. Ukiah’s Piggy Bank.

I wasn’t in the room when it happened. My husband was doing what he usually does when being in a room for longer than fifteen minutes; he was rearranging it to make it perfect. He’d moved a furniture item and the shelf on which the piggy bank was perched fell and the piggy bank broke into a million ceramic pieces.

When I got upstairs to witness the scene, my heart broke into a million pieces along with it. I was absolutely bereft, although I didn’t show it. I shed a few stray tears, but I didn’t have time for much else. My daughter was in the room with my husband when it happened and we needed to wrangle her away from the debris.

We spent a good amount of time scooping up all the loose change, change I hadn’t cashed in since the last Piggy Banks for George Mark fundraiser. We had it to put all of it somewhere. I brought out two smallish tins, thinking it would be enough, but instead we ended up using a fairly big plastic bin. Close to five years of putting in all our spare change, two years of the little munchkin having to share change with her brother coin per coin netted a nice little collection.

April 5^th is almost around the corner. April 15^th too. Those two days and the eight days in the middle are always the roughest for me. I had planned a bunch of distractions to keep me occupied around those dates, so I don’t feel the lingering, the weight, the pain. But they’ve mostly fallen through. I was supposed to run a 5k on April 5^th, but that got cancelled. I’ve got a work trip smack in the middle of these dates, but I’m not sure it’ll be distracting enough. My parents are coming and will be here on the 15^th, but I’m not sure how that will go.

But I do know that on either or on both days I’ll be going to George Mark House and cashing in the nice little chunk of change we’d saved up in Ukiah's piggy bank. Maybe I’ll use a portion of it to buy Ukiah another piggy bank, so it’s always there, a fixture in our house and in our lives. He deserves that legacy.

I'll do what I did for my birthday. I still have a few more U Hope bracelets to give away. The first four people who donates to George Mark  and sends me an receipt  of their donation via email will receive a bracelet. Anybody else who donates and sends me a receipt will receive a special jewelry or bead gift (your choice). 

If you do donate, please tell them its in memory of Ukiah Gardner. They'll know exactly who you are talking about. They always do.

And if you can't donate, don't worry about it. Spread the word. Tweet about George Mark House (Use the #Supportgmch hashtag and if you want, tag @gmch in the tweet), Facebook it (Send me a link via twitter or email), or use any form of social media you want just to let people know George Mark House exists and the incredible work they do.  Do that and forward it to me and I'll give you free space on my blog. This means a blog post or as many blog posts as you want, space on my sidebar, whatever space you'd like to have.

Ukiah's never very far from my thoughts. Doing this means means he's in yours and that makes a world of difference to me.

Book Review: Spring Into Summer

Before I get into this book review, I must confess two things; one is that this book is written by someone I have a certain of level of online friendship with and level of affinity for. In other words, the author Eden Baylee is just tops in my book, but I'll still try to review her book as unbiasedly as I can. The second thing is that I don't have too much familiarity with the erotic fiction. I've read fiction that was erotic in its own right, but wasn't marketed as erotic. But I know what I like and and I know what works for me.

And Spring into Summer did just that. The novel is comprised of four separate stories, two set in the spring and two set in the summer. While seemingly disparate stories, they interconnect with ideas of love and the main characters' sexuality blooming and blossoming in ways none of them had imagined.

In A Season for Everything, the first story in the book, we meet Claire, listless 20 something trying to find footing in life who ends up with a friend in London. From there, she soons finds and falls in love with an older man who reveals he's dying. He instills in her a love of poetry and music and art and above all else a love for The Spring and the magic it can bring.

Unlocking the Mystery tells the story of an introverted real estate agent named Evelyn who hides behind her work and doesn't have much of a social life. She moves into a big secluded house and gets more than she bargained for when she finds a key in the house. When she asked a neighbor about it, she's presented with a box the key unlocks and finds herself immersed in letters from her former house owner's pen pal/lover in Ireland. When she finds a stamped envelope back to the man, she plots a journey to give him the woman's last letter to him.

Summer Solstice tells the story of Ava, a woman who was dumped at the alter a year ago and who was trying to piece herself back together. She's invited to a Summer Solstice party that turns into more, much more than she bargained for.

The Lottery tells the story Sierra, a young Canadian on a backpacking adventure though Thailand who tries to help out some lovely women she met there by convincing their employer of a gambit that can drive up business and gets way more than she bargained for in the process.

The stories from the ou
tset are obviously romantic in nature, especially the first two. Claire needs to find herself and finds it in Stephen. Evelyn thinks she knows who she is and through exploring herself and her own desires through reading this other person's letters, she finds out she can be a lot more. The sex, the erotica is there, but it's hidden underneath the build of the story. The interesting part of Unlocking the Mystery is that the erotica involved in this story is written into the letters written by the woman's pen pal/ long distance lover she's never met. It feels passive, buried this way, but it's anything but.

Where it really gets cooking is in the story Summer Solstice. Of course there's a battered heart at the center, Ava. But it's when she reveals her desires and dreams, first to herself in quite a scene, and then to others at the Summer Solstice party that things really heat up. This was my favorite of the entire collection and wouldn't let me go for a variety of reasons and it's where I can tell the author was having the most fun. And it left me wanting more in a variety of ways (*Spoiler Alert: Where did Keith go?  No really, where did he go? He didn't just leave did he? He had to still be there. Were there digits somewhere? Please say he left a number somewhere. Gah! I mean I'm fine with resolved but not resolved endings like that, but they needed to end up together. Eden, you better tell me they end up together in your mind, otherwise I'ma have to write my own fan fiction that unites them because it obviously has to happen, OMG!)

In The Lottery, Eden takes everything that was boiling over and turns it down to a nice simmer and just lets it bubble for awhile. It was enjoyable and while not as titillating as Summer Solstice, wrapped everything together nicely.

It's an honor just to be nominated

Since the inception of this blog, I've never been nominated for anything. Not that that's something I look for and honestly, I blog so seldom that I haven't really built a fan-base and a bunch of admirers. I've got a few loyalists, (hi all six of you) but mostly I tend to be screaming out into the void. Which is fine. My writing and my musings are meant to bolster my own writing skills and are sometimes meant for my own catharsis.

But just recently an internet friend who I respect and admire very much nominated me for a versatile blogger award. Eden Baylee, Thank you very much. I met Eden during the Indies Unite for Joshua campaign and have admired everything about her. She's very generous with her time and energy and just as encouraging. For her to direct even more time and effort might way (however slight) by nominating me is an incredible thing. So, again. Thanks Eden.

So, as a nominee I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself you wouldn't automatically know and then share 15 sites who I'd also like to nominate. 

1. Still, after all this time, I'm unhealthily obsessed with the movie Hackers. This is odd for probably a lot of reasons. First, I don't own the movie in any form (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, or digital), but I do own both movie soundtracks (I. KNOW. In my defense, one of them was a gift). But if I find it on cable I'm watching it, then rewatching it (thank you DVR magic), then falling down the rabbithole known as the internet, looking at all the behind the scenes pictures and crap i don't need to be looking at. But I can't help it. I plead insanity your honor, otherwise known as infinite love for the young Jonny Lee Miller (Rowr.) Okay, better. Next.

2. I can do a spot-on impersonation of Chunk's "Ok, I'll talk" monologue on command. It comes as no surprise to people who've read this blog and especially as no surprise to the author's I've interviewed, but I love the Goonies. It might surprise a some of you that I could probably recite the entire movie by memory, but this scene especially is one that I can pull-off verbatim. I have done my version of the truffle shuffle as well, but that's embarrassing and best left to the professionals.

3. The town I grew up in was named after a cattle brand. It's still an interesting bon mot I'll parade out at cocktail parties just to get some people to scratch their heads and go 'Hm, interesting'.

4. The town I grew up in also has the only man-made lake in the shape of it's name. Guiness Book of World Records here we come, or something...

5. My mom said if I was born a boy, she would've been tempted to give me my last name as my first name. My maiden name is Kerby. So for those of you keeping track, if I was born a boy I would've been Kerby Kerby. Thanks for that story mom.

6. It's been six years, but I still haven't finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Yes it's a great book and it merits finishing, but it's just sooooooo long. I love Chabon. Love him, and his wife too, but I just haven't been able to muster up the strength to plow through.  I KNOW, I'm sorry.

7. I once mistook a rock for a whale. We were traveling down the 1, and we saw several cars stopped at a turn out. We looked out into the water and there was a whale, so we stopped at the next turn out. We were staring at two whales but only one of them kept surfacing more frequently. There was a family of four stopped beside us and the teenager (snottily, on retrospect) pointed out that we were staring at a rock and that the real whale was the other thing we had been looking at. Thanks snotty teenager from 15 years ago. Sad thing is, I have several stories like that. At the grand canyon I mistook a rock for a dear. Yosemite, the same thing. It's a common theme I guess.

Now onto the 15 other bloggers I nominate:

Laura Zera: Insightful on so many topics, ranging from travel to mental health but also entertaining to read.

Wherever Writer: Her travel musings make me yearn for adventures, especially those happening in home state of California. She's a neverending source for travel inspiration.

Planet Sandisan: Otherwise known as my pop-culture soul mate, or more to the point, my pop-culture compass. When I'm curious about books, TV shows or movies, she usually helps me find true North.

Ryan Casey: An awesome writer who blogs on all things writing and happens to be a good source of encouragement and inspiration at times.

Steven Luna:  Because the Joe Vampire series is my kind of awesome and his blogging is just as funning and insightful.

Sharkbait Writes: He writes about car racing and demons (not the same books, but maybe they should be) what's not to love?

Majk Ink: For basically all the reasons Eden described: Author, school nerd and techno genius. Enough reason for me.

Jason Jack Miller: For educating people on the magic of Appalachians,  schooling you on music and just general badassary.

Heidi Ruby Miller: For Sci-fi writing awesomeness, and also general basassary.

My New Plaid Pants: Another pop-culture compass. He keeps me up to date on all the best casting gossip/movie/TV news and hands out a healthy dose of man-candy whenever you need it. He's a saint.

And I'm going to renominate Eden, cause why not? She's on my blog roll for a reason people.

That's eleven and I need four more, but I'm currently tapped, so you'll have to make due. 

For Jose (Joey) Valdez

A boy died last week.

A 15 year-old boy died needlessly and now his parents are tormented with nightmares and what-if scenarios.

A boy died because people in his life, at his school, told him mean horrible things, bullied and harassed him endlessly.

A boy died because depression lied to him, told him he wasn't good enough, that he wasn't worth it. And he listened.

A boy died because..... God knows why.

That boy was Jose Valdez (Joey). This boy was a very good friend's God son. I'd met him a handful of times, saw his smiling face at birthday parties and barbeques. While I didn't know much about him, I'm heartbroken by his loss. His family and all of those people that loved him are left wondering why. And sadly there's no real answer. For whatever reason, he felt he he should take it upon himself not to be here anymore.

Way back when, I wrote a post about Amanda Todd, a girl I never knew who took her own life because the bullying was so bad she felt like escape was the only thing. But then I didn't do anything. Back in September at the start of the school year, Robbie Cox and bevy of other bloggers and authors did a Bloggers Against Bullies blog campaign and while I wanted to participate, I decided against it. I could give you several excuses, but none of them are worth listening to. But when that campaign rolls around next year, you can bet I will be participating, for Joey. For all of the upset, depressed kids who we've lost before or are on the verge of losing.

This can be prevented, and should. It starts with talking to your child, talking to every child about the very real harm that can be done by just a few snickering jokes, planned pranks, tiny shoves. It starts with listening to the harm being done, even if that child won't talk. We have to coax it out of them so they can get the help they need.

Sadly it's too late for Joey. But it's not too late to do something real and significant to help his family and friends. His friends (especially his God-mother and dear friend Maria Lizeth Martinez) are trying to raise money for the funeral costs. Got a few dollars to spare? Please go to Joey's GofundMe page and contribute.Want a t-shirt so people see the face and remember the name and know how much more work their is to be done to save kids like Joey?  Buy a T-shirt. In Northern California? Well there's several fundraisers you can attend. Just check Maria's facebook page for details.

Can't contribute monetarily? Signal boost. Post it on your facebook walls, post it on twitter, hit all the social media websites. Get people to listen. Make them understand. Take it to our school boards and see if we can't shore up anti-bullying policies and education. Take it to our local and state government, let's go national. It has to stop. Wouldn't it be an incredible legacy if somehow we made it stop with Joey?

Casting the Movie Compare and Contrast: The Devil and Preston Black and Hellbender

After I casted the movie Hellbender, Jason Jack Miller showed me a blog post where he had done the exact same thing for Hellbender, and then digging around on the exact same site, I found he'd also cast The Devil and Preston Black. So I've decided to do a little compare and contrast.

First up Hellbender:

Henry  Collins
Who Jason chose: Jake Gyllenhaal
Who I chose: Garrett Hedlund

Jason, I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. I love Jake, but he's too much of a puppy dog to fill the part. Garrett has the ruggedness, and the earthiness that I read into the role. I think Garrett can fill the well worn flannels and the trucker caps better than Jake.

Alex Ramsey
Who Jason chose: Miley Cyrus (pre-twerk)
Who I chose: AnnaSophia Robb or Katie Cassidy

You know I have to say I get Jason's choice. She has that softness and the touch of country the part of Alex needs. She'd look great in a pair of cowboy boots, I have to say, but I'm still not completely sold. She's better than my two choices, but she's still not the one. I feel like if Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood could still portray college aged girls, they might be better fits, but the right Alex is still out there, waiting to be found.

Ben Collins
Who Jason chose: Paul Walker (Sniff!)
Who I chose: Ben Foster

Paul would've been great in the role, thinking on it, but even if he was still around, I still would've chosen Ben Foster. Let's be honest, Who is just as much of a loose cannon as Ben Collins? Ben Foster is who. Who can show you all the layers that lie just beneath the surface and tell the immensity of the character's story without hardly uttering a word? Ben Foster is who.

Jamie Collins
Who Jason chose: David Straithern
Who I chose: NA
Who i would choose: David Straithern

I hadn't actually cast Jamie when I read Hellbender partly because I didn't have a feel for him and partly because he was just background big chunks of the time. While reading The Devil and Preston Black, I tried figure out an actor that was just the right amount of down home intelligence and fatherly instincts. Nothing came to mind, then I saw Jason's pick and knew it was the right one. Perfect!

Katy Stefanic
Who Jason chose: Katie Holmes
Who I chose: A half-hearted vote for Lucy Hale

I get Jason's logic on this one. Katie Holmes has a lot of soft edges the way Katie does. She embues a certain down-home vibe that Katie Stefanic has in spades. My only concern is that the ages are off. I wanted somebody younger and fresh-faced to fit the bill and Lucy Hale was the only one that came to mind. She has a lot of sharp edges on Pretty Little liars, which is why I didn't love her as Katie, but she just released a country album, so maybe she knows how to get a little backwoodsy. Plus the music correlation makes a lot of sense because Katie's pretty versed with a fiddle. Is she the type of girl that "When she's on, she can make you cry?" Don't know. Could work.

Billy Lewis
Who Jason chose: Patrick Fugit
Who I chose: --
Who I would choose: Patrick Fugit

Patrick needs to be in all the things. I love him and have loved him ever since Almost Famous. He's got the same live-wire, can show you multitudes in just a look presence that Ben Foster does and I think Billy Lewis needs that. He doesn't get much time in the book, but he's really interesting.

Darren Lewis
Who Jason chose: Jeremy Davies
Who I chose: --
Who I would choose: Jeremy Davies

No, I'm not intentionally piggy-backing on the choices Jason made. But he made such great, shrewd choices that I have to bow down to the master and give credit where credit is due. Jeremy Davies is yet another awesome live-wire who needs to be in all the things and even though Darren doesn't have a big part, Jeremy Davies could sell the crazy better than anyone. Co-signed.

Charlie Lewis:
Who Jason Chose: Charles Durning
Who I chose: Clancy Brown

I'd say who you choose depends on how you read the part of Charlie Lewis; Craggy old grandpa with a hint of menace, or pants-shittingly scary with a hint of ferocity with regards to protecting his family. If it's the former, Charles, and if it's latter, Clancy. Charlie Lewis put the fear of God into me, so I'm going with Clancy.

Now, onto The Devil and Preston Black:

Preston Black
Who Jason Chose: Joseph Gordon Levitt
Who I Chose: Ethan Peck

Why am I always casting Joseph Gordon Levitt out of stuff for these imaginary movies? I did the same with him when I cast Joe Vampire. Authors keep seeing him as their every man and I keep seeing him as anything but. I mean, you know I love me some Joseph Gordon Levitt, but he's not who I'd envisioned for this part at all. When I'd originally casted Ethan Peck in Hellbender as Preston, it's because the character read as tall, dark and haunted and I've been dying to see Ethan Peck get something like that. When I read The Devil and Preston Black, he's all I could see. His deep voice and physical presence seem to be exactly what Preston needs. And, okay, this might be an overshare, when the sex scenes start happening, he'd have my full attention.

Danicka Prochazka
Who Jason Chose: Mila Kunis
Who I Chose: Ivana Melicevic

Don't ask me to explain my choice because Jason's is clearly better, but either would work i think.

Pauly Pallini
Who Jason Chose: James Franco
Who I chose: I got nothin'

I could never get a read on Pauly, there wasn't much of a physical description. The only thing I knew about him was the he was a recovering alcoholic and he was taking whatever work he but I think Franco would work.  

Dino 'Mick' Micheleno 
Who Jason Chose: Robert Forester
Who I Chose: Iggy Pop

 The part read less wisened father figure and more aging rockstar holding onto the glory days to me. I love me some Robert Forester but no.

Stu Croe
Who Jason Chose: Channing Tatum
Who I Chose: I got nothin'

This character was another blank slate for me. I couldn't quite see who could play him. And I look forward to seeing Channing in anything and everything. This would work. Cut print send. 

Book Review: The Devil and Preston Black

My childhood home was pretty deceptive looking. On the outside it looked like a mobile home, but it had an addition built on to it, a massive den the size of the two bedrooms combined. This was everyone's sanctuary, with mom's sewing table in a corner, dad's massive pile of books in another and a card table that served as my arts and crafts table in later years but served as a gaming or puzzle table pretty much all the time.

At the far wall was the big built-in entertainment center, The TV sat high center, with all of the electronics on a shelf above it. On the shelf below the TV sat all the musical equipment, a reciever, a tape deck, in later years, a CD player and on top of all that, the record player. On either end were massive shelves filled to the brim with vinyl. I spent a good chunk listening to it, all of it. I had my favorites of course, guilty pleasures too, but I tried to take it all in. In the intervening years I'm still not sure I scratched the surface (Ha, see what I did there!) of the collection. But I loved all of it and am suddenly sad I didn't spend more time at the alter of the player. I probably would have had I not damaged the needle when I was eleven, which took my parents entirely too long to get fixed.

The Devil and Preston Black  is exactly what the title says it is. It's a book about Preston Black, a down-on-his-luck musician just trying to find his way and having to fight the devil to do it. It's about wayward rock idols, old music, ways of life on the verge of extinction and the character trying to figure out who he is when his entire history was a blank page. It's about music giving a life meaning when that life can't find the meaning on his own.

If Hellbender was my childhood diner, then  The Devil and Preston Black is the den of my childhood home, filled with scratched vinyl  and tuneful music both new and old. I haven't been this at home in a book in a long time, if you consider a place where the main character has very philosophical text conversations with Joe Strummer, argues with John Lennon and where Jerry Garcia's death bed felt quaint home, which I do.

But the book isn't just filled with musicians no longer with us, it's filled to the brim with music, so lively and fluid it came right off the page. I got into a twitter discussion with Jason Jack Miller where he mentioned that he was worried that the sections in which he described the music being played were too tedious, but to me they were some of the best parts because I was transported into the music. I haven't been able to read sheet music since around ninth grade and the talking about chord progressions wasn't something  I understood, but it's something I felt. I could feel how the music was taking place around him, how it progressed and shifted and was shaped while the characters were playing it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'm probably gonna run right out and by The Revelations of Preston Black just to be a completist (Sshhhh! Don't tell my husband). I'm giving this one an A+. It invoked my parents record collection for crying out loud. Any book that can do that gets an A+.

Murder Ballads and Old Magic

Jason Jack Miller (@JasonJackMiller on twitter) has graciously provided some more incite into the old magic that he incorporated into his novel Hellbender and its origins. Sisnce I've declared this week Hellbender week, I eagerly agree to pass it along. It's a striking article and it goes a long way to explaining a lot of the magic he wrote into the book. While reading the book, I was intrigued but didn't think much on what it all meant. Now that I have a better knowledge in the history this was grounded in, I have a fuller appreciation of how it was used in the book.

Murder Ballads and Old Magic

Jason Jack Miller

In my novel Hellbender, things aren’t always what they appear to be. It’s set in an Appalachia where serpents can be called forth from rocky crevasses and rattlesnake beads can be used to keep the devil away. Springs can be poisoned from afar, and milk can be ‘blinked’–or tainted by a rival witch. The Appalachians of Hellbender may not be the tallest, but they are the oldest, and as such, contain many nooks where beliefs remained untouched for generations. In some instances, the valleys and ridges blocked modernization so well that the culture of the mountain people could be totally forgotten by the ‘outside’ world. In other words, the mountains have let time stand still.

Where streams carved hollows into the lush Appalachian Plateau, families found shelter from the same kind of persecution that forced their ancestors out of Europe a generation earlier. Many of the first Europeans to settle Appalachia were Germans who picked up stakes when Pennsylvania got just a little too crowded for them. They filtered down through the Shenandoah Valley, trickling westward as rivers like the Potomac and James poked holes in the imposing Allegheny Front, and later, through the Cumberland Gap. They brought fiddle tunes, some of which remain virtually unchanged in Appalachia compared to their counterparts in Europe, melodies that either succumbed to contemporary styles or had been forgotten altogether. The new wave of settlers brought their food culture–no place on earth expresses the German love of deep-frying like Pennsylvania, with its potato chips and funnel cakes, and Southern culture’s chicken fried chicken and hush puppies. Even the log cabin, the butt of many an Appalachia joke, came from Germany and Scandinavia by way of those first Europeans.

Living so far from civilization had its quirks. Laws were less likely to be enforced, or just as easily ignored depending on which side of the law you fell. The Whiskey Rebellion is a prime example of folks thumbing their noses at distant lawmakers. The influence of the Catholic Church diminished in much the same way. It wasn’t until Protestant churches ordained ‘lay pastors’ to venture into the wilderness to tame the savages that religion gained a strong foothold in Appalachia. Not that it mattered to some folks, who were content to rely on the traditional culture of their ancestors, the magic that kept the devil away. The Swiss and German-speaking people of Helvetia, West Virginia, still burn an effigy of Old Man Winter on Fasnacht, a pre-Lenten holiday that falls on the cross-quarter day of Imbolc. It’s a tradition that can be traced back to pre-Roman Europe.

At its most basic, the magic of Appalachia is a response to the dangers of the new landscape. Mountain lions, wolves, bears, snakes, harsh winters, floods and unruly neighbors were just a few of the perils faced by those first settlers. In times of severe famine, or when a cow had been cursed (or had simply just stopped producing milk) an axe could provide magical sustenance. The blade is stuck into a tree and a rag is tied to the end. With the utterance of a few magic words, milk will drip from the threads into a bucket providing the family with nourishment. The magical nature of the axe comes to Appalachia via Scandinavia, most likely as a result of the magical nature of Thor’s Hammer.

From Hellbender: “There’s still plenty of women in these hills who can get a full pail of milk from an ax handle or an old rag. And Mary Lewis was one of them. I seen it done with my own eyes a hundred times.” 

Hair magic is another theme seen in Appalachian folklore. The idea that you could have control over a person if you possessed something that belonged to them is a belief expressed in many different cultures, not just Appalachian. Folklore says if just one of your hairs found its way into a bird’s nest you’d end up insane. So hair clippings and fingernails are buried, and their location is kept a secret by the buriers. It may sound strange, but the same idea is a building block of Roman Catholicism, with the consuming of the body and blood of Christ.

From Hellbender: “She wrapped the hair around her middle finger and made three crosses over Alex’s lips. Inaudible words flowed from Chloe’s mouth to Alex’s ear. Chloe pulled a silver coin out of her pocket, dropped it into the cup and tipped the purple liquid toward Alex’s gasping mouth. “Put the coin in your mouth, but don’t swallow it.”

The ultimate expression of Old World magic comes from a need for the most basic of human necessities–protection, mostly from enemies, especially from the Devil. Of course, the magic needed for such an old foe is an old one and there are none older than the SATOR Square. SATOR Squares have reportedly been found at the ruins of Pompeii, destroyed in 79 A.D. Early Christians considered it a sign of their coming savior. One found in Manchester, England, in the Second Century was taken as proof Christianity had spread at least that far in less than 200 years.
Essentially a multi-directional palindrome, a SATOR Square is placed above a window. The devil becomes confused by the repeated letters. It’s a key piece of the iconography of the Hellbender cover, designed by Hatch Show Print of Nashville, Tennessee.

From Hellbender: “Jamie picked open a pair peanuts then threw the shells into the fire. “SATOR squares? I don’t know. They’re like puzzles I suppose. They’ve been found on the walls of buildings destroyed by Vesuvius at Pompeii. Early Christians say it was a message from God saying their savior was on his way.”

He gestured for Dave’s stick and began drawing rows of letters in the dirt. “Five lines of five letters arranged in a square that form multiple palindromes.”

I tried to read the letters, but it was difficult in the low light. I leaned over to see. It read:

S A T O R

A R E P O

T E N E T

O P E R A

R O T A S

“Some people say the words are nonsense, but when rearranged in a cross they spell out ‘paternoster’ flanked by an ‘A’ and an ‘O’.” Jamie handed Dave back his stick. “Our father and the Alpha and Omega.” Jamie stomped the letters away with his foot.

Silence fell over the camp. By now the crickets were in full swing. Finally, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anymore. “In my life I’d never seen anything to prove magic was real. Magic would’ve kept my mom around. Would’ve kept Jane alive.”

I’ve witnessed some crazy/scary things in my time here in Appalachia–mountain lion footprints where mountain lions were thought to be extinct, back-to-back comets after 50 years with none, ball lightning, mountaintop removal. Things that have rational, explanations, even if the explanations are unpopular. But I’ve had even more amazing experiences with people I’ve met and friends I’ve made here–making music, drinking wine, paddling wild rivers.

Something’s going on up in the mountains, but it’s not my job to figure it out. Nobody believed me about the mountain lion footprints anyway. Maybe it has something to do with the people. After all, it’s people who end up passing those stories on. And maybe the stories are so hard to believe because of how they went down. Late at night. Middle of nowhere. Not a credible witness in the bunch.

Or maybe it’s the mountains themselves. Over the last three hundred million years they’re the only real constant in this equation. Moses received the Ten Commandments on a mountain. The gods of ancient Greece lived on a mountain, too. So maybe it’s only in the mountains, my Appalachians, that snakes can be called, and protection from the devil can be obtained with a few rows of ancient letters. Doesn’t matter what I believe, those traditions will be here long after I’ve gone.

3 Silly Questions with Jason Jack Miller

Jason Jack Miller, the Author of Hellbender, The Devil and Preston Black, and The Revelations of Preston Black graciously took some time to answer my three silly questions.

Question 1: First I'd like to say that I love love loved the character of Ben. *Spoiler Alert thanks for not killing him off. End of Spoiler Alert*. And as I said in the book review Pap reminded my of my Grandad so I loved him quite a bit as well. Did you have a favorite character to write/read when you’re rereading/reviewing HELLBENDER other than Henry?  I'm an author myself and when I reread my own book, I'm drawn to rereading certain characters. Who were you drawn to the more you wrote it and read it.

Ben really took on a life of his own. In HELLBENDER, Ben was little more than a supporting character, in there to help move the story along. He ended up getting so many of the good lines, and that really seemed to resonate with people.  After that reception, I knew I had to bring him back for REVELATIONS. In fact, I'm not really sure I had a choice.

I wrote HELLBENDER as my thesis for Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction program, and at the time, Henry represented the way I felt about the mountains and Appalachia. Perhaps I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about the way I perceived people looking at me and my rural upbringing. So I wanted to show Henry as a responsible, intellectual person of Appalachian origin. And as a result, Ben had most of the fun. (And the good lines.)

Not surprisingly though, I really felt the most drawn to Katy by the time I finished REVELATIONS, She felt the most honest, the realest, and the least like a caricature.

Question 1b: Any chance that some of the other characters from Hellbender might get their own stories like you've done for the character of Preston. I didn't talk much about Preston in my book review but you did a fairly good job setting his character up for his own book which I have not read yet (but I will) Any chance Ben gets a chance to shine or maybe you'll craft Pap's back story. I loved Katie and Chloe as well and I'd really love to hear more about the magic they practice and know. 

Well, since you asked…. My next book, ALL SAINTS, is pretty much a Ben story. It's a weird version of THE WIZARD OF OZ (set in Yucatan, Mexico) that lets Ben deal with his PTSD once and for all.

Ben is also the star of a short story appearing in Despumation Press's premiere issue this February. "Rhythm of War" is a snapshot of Ben and the events surrounding a firefight in Fallujah.

The first two or three books were meant to be read in no particular order. HELLBENDER was my thesis, and was written first. But THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK comes first chronologically. The story lines don't merge until THE REVELATIONS OF PRESTON BLACK. So if I tell you more about ALL SAINTS, I might give away some of what happens in REVELATIONS. Needless to say, Ben does what none of us thought was possible (with regards to an antagonist.). And he does what Preston most certainly couldn't.

You'll see that THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK is almost as much a Katy story as it is a Preston story (No Ben yet. Sorry.) But it also introduces us to this other character who becomes very important later.

My wife, Heidi, introduced me to Madeleine L'Engle and the idea of a linked series, where we follow the events of a family, or group of people, rather than just one person. And so far it seems to be working out pretty well for me.

Question 2: Let's talk about charities for a second. As everyone who has been to this site knows, my favorite is George Mark House.  (I'm very tied to the organization and if you want to know more about why, just hit up the My Son tag on my blog to learn more about what they did for me and my family and what they continue to do for us and other families like us) Here's your opportunity to talk about organizations that make your heart go aflutter and your skin get all goosebumpy with the happies. If you'd like, take a second to talk about a charity or organization that you support or you'd like to mention and why its important to you.

The mountains are near and dear to my heart. For so long, the place where I grew up was more a source of shame than anything else. As a kid, I played in abandoned coal mines and in old coal tipples. The county I grew up in has the distinction of being Pennsylvania's second poorest, and it seemed like no matter where I went, I was reminded of that fact. Add in high unemployment, a "worse than average" health status score, and a suicide rate that was higher than the state average, and you can see why I was reluctant to talk about where I grew up.

But the mountains changed all that. When I started working as a whitewater raft guide I saw a side of these hills that I never could've imagined. I met people who were awed and astonished by the mountains and their beauty. I met business people who saw opportunity where most only saw despair. So when I had a chance to give something back, I chose Friends of the Cheat, a group that, "… supports the preservation of the Cheat Canyon and encourages land use that protects sensitive wildlife habitat." http://www.cheat.org/

When I was a guide back in the 90s, the Cheat was a dead river. Acid mine drainage had made it unfishable and undrinkable. But the Friends of the Cheat have done some amazing work in the last twenty years to change that. And their Cheat Fest held each May is a heck of a party!

For ALL SAINTS I'm looking at veterans' charities to work with. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America does some amazing work. http://iava.org/

Question 3: This is important! You will be graded! What is your favorite character in the movie The Goonies and why? What that character choice says a lot about you as a person and I WILL judge you accordingly. (For example, if Mouth is your favorite character, I'm not sure we can be friends.) Please note that if you have not seen The Goonies and you don't feel you can register an opinion, I may send you a copy just to remedy this fact. I have done it. You can ask Steven Luna (@stevenluna) if you don't believe me.

Hey Mikey, gotta go to the Bathroom?

You thought I was going to say 'Mouth' for a second, didn't you?

It's weird, because I never really thought of this. But when asked, Mikey was the first one to pop into my head.

Mikey had the unenviable responsibility of being in charge. More than Josh even. Mikey had the plans and the heart, and that's how I see myself—as the one who has to make sure everybody's going to be okay. The one who stays up at night worrying. Sometimes it sucks, being the responsible one, but it must come from being the older brother. (Right now a bunch of people are reading this and wondering who the heck I'm talking about. And I'd remind them that the Goonies question is being answered by 'Jason Miller,' not 'Jason Jack Miller.' Big difference there. Huge, in fact.

Bio:

Jason Jack Miller knows it’s silly to hold onto the Bohemian ideals of literature, music, and love above all else. But he doesn’t care.

His own adventures paddling wild mountain rivers and playing Nirvana covers for less-than-enthusiastic crowds inspired his Murder Ballads and Whiskey series, published by Raw Dog Screaming Press. The first three books are currently available: The Devil and Preston Black, Hellbender, and The Revelations of Preston Black.  The next installment, All Saints, is due out in 2014.

Hellbender was Jason's thesis novel for Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction Graduate Program, where he is now adjunct faculty. The novel won the Arthur J. Rooney Award for Fiction and is a finalist for the Appalachian Writers Association Book of the Year Award.

His career got its start when he co-authored an outdoor travel guide with his wife in 2006. Since then his work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, literary journals, online, as part of a travel guide app for mobile phones, and in the award-winning writing guide Many Genres, One Craft.

When Jason isn't writing he's on his mountain bike or looking for his next favorite guitar.

He is a member of The Authors Guild, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. He lives just outside of Pittsburgh with his wife, Heidi, and a cat. His blog is http://jasonjackmiller.blogspot.com. Tweet him @jasonjackmiller.

Casting the Movie: Hellbender

It's not as if you didn't see this one coming. If I read a good book that's cinematic and visual, you better bet I'ma dreamcast that sucker to hell and back. I mean I've done it, a few times in fact. So you better bet I've got an all star cast picked out for this one. The book is just calling for some heavy hitters to really go after the material and embody the material the way it was meant to be shown.

So, without further ado:

 

Henry Jack Collins

Garrett Hedlund plain and simple, with Taylor Kitsch placing in a close second, but really it has to go to Garrett. There's a lot of action but also a lot of introspection involved in the part and I think Garrett could do both pretty easily. I can see him easily rafting down the river and saving drowning swimmers and just as easily unleash a can of woop ass on people who obviously deserved the vengeance coming to them.

 

Alex

This one is taking me awhile to suss out. For some reason, my brain is stuck on Katie Cassidy (when is it not, ha) but maybe it should go to someone younger like AnnaSophia Robb but I'm not completely sold. I need somebody a little softer, with more of a country edge and nobody's screaming at me for the role.  Ashley Benson maybe? I'm willing to leave it up for discussion.

 

Henry's Dad

I don't quite remember Henry's dad's name, so I apologize for not getting and posting it. But I do think I have figured out who should play him. Well Actually, I have two actors battling it out to the death in my mind for this role. William Sadler and Chris Cooper, but it has to be the grimy Hank Williams-singing version of William Sadler from Shawshank Redemption or the grimy slightly scary Chris Cooper from Adaptation with his two front teeth missing. They have to be on that side of the line of crazy for them to pull off the part. Henry's dad is constantly battling himself and using drink to do it and you know those two guys could do that part justice in a heart beat.

Ben

I love Ben. I said it in the book review but I'ma say it again. I love crazy old Ben and all the demons he's fighting in his head and his "for snakes" mentality and his willingness to run headlong into a shitstorm. He's my kind of people.Who better to play him than Ben Foster, who is nothing but masterful in every thing he's done, especially when he's had to play crazy and unhinged. You can't really take your eyes off of him in every movie he's in.  And yes I'm counting Get Over It. And yes I saw Get Over It. Leave me alone.

 

Katie

Katie is another one whose casting I've struggled with in my head. Lucy Hale for some reason resonates with me in the role, but I'm not really set on it. I'll leave this one up to the comments. Help a sister out.

Pap

Pap! OMG Pap! How I love him. Yes, if we lived in a just and verdant world, Pap would be played by none other than my grandad, but that ship has sailed. Can we all settle for Hal Holbrook? Is he still working? I think he'd do.  You need somebody very lived in with a well of sadness behind his eyes. Hal Holbrook would work great in that capacity don't you think?

 

Preston Black

Okay, hear me out, Ethan Peck. No really. First off, he'd be great in the lead capacity if the Preston Black books were to be spun off into their own movies. I haven't read them yet, but I think it works. And besides, I'll look for any excuse ever to cast Ethan Peck in anything. But I really do think t fits.

 

Charlie Lewis

The choice is really clear once it came to me: Clancy Brown. Who's gonna bring shit-your-pants crazy scary better? Nobody is who. Listen, if I got to run in the woods like a madwoman to escape evil, who better  to be the face of the evil I'm escaping? He's it plain and simple.

 

Odelia Lewis

Angelica Huston, hands down. As exhibit A, I give you The Witches. Nobody's gonna do justice to a backwoods witch better.