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Fiction Fragments: Christopher Golden
December 11, 2020 December 6, 2020 Michelle R. Lane 1 Comment
Last week I had a dream conversation with one of my writing heroes and fellow vampire enthusiast, Jewelle Gomez. I'm really proud of that intereview and hope you enjoy it, too.
This week, Girl Meets Monster welcomes yet another writer who has been an inspiration to me, Christopher Golden. Not only is he an inspiration as a successful writer of scary stories, but also as someone who supports the work of other writers.
Christopher Golden is the New York Times bestselling author of Ararat, Snowblind, Red Hands, and many other novels. He is the co-creator, with Mike Mignola, of the Outerverse horror comics, including Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As editor, his anthologies include the Shirley Jackson Award winning The Twisted Book of Shadows, The New Dead, and many others. Golden is also a screenwriter, producer, video game writer, co-host of the podcast Defenders Dialogue, and founded the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. Nominated ten times in eight different categories for the Bram Stoker Award, he has won twice, and has also been nominated for the Eisner Award, the British Fantasy Award, and multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award. Golden was born, raised, and still lives in Massachusetts.
GMM: Welcome to Girl Meets Monster, Chris. Tell me about your newest book, Red Hands, which I believe is out now. Without giving away too many spoilers, what is the book about and what inspired the story?
CG: Thanks so much! Red Hands opens at a July 4th parade in a small town in the mountains of New Hampshire. A car plows through the crowd and a sick man staggers out of the vehicle. When people try to restrain him, everyone he touches becomes hideously sick within seconds and drops dead. When Maeve Sinclair steps in to stop the man, she ends up killing him, and the death touch he possesses—the Red Hands virus—passes to her. Ironically, I finished the novel in January of 2020, before the world became truly aware of the coronavirus. The idea for Red Hands had been bubbling in my brain for years before I set about writing it. Though it has a killing contagion at its core, and though it resonates strongly with Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," at its most basic it's really about how much we rely on the people around us, how much we need them, and about what it would feel like to know that you could never touch them again for fear of killing them. Which, of course, has taken on a whole new weight in the current environment.
GMM: You're obviously a successful writer, with several awards under your belt, as well as being a New York Times best selling author. For many writers, finding yourself on the New York Times best selling author list is like a dream come true. It's something many of us aspire to. Something any writer could be proud of. How has that success affected you as you continue to write? A few months ago, I interviewed Paul Tremblay, who was very candid about his experiences with impostor syndrome and the feelings of doubt that creep into our brains as creative people. Can you share what your experience as a writer has been in terms of impostor syndrome and how you push through it to keep writing? Were there any negative side effects of becoming a best-selling author?
CG: It's certainly a mark of pride to be able to call yourself a New York Times bestselling author, but beneath the umbrella of that phrase is a vast array of different experiences. There are NYT bestselling authors who make the list with every book and who consequently make many millions of dollars per year. Then there are those of us who were fortunate enough to break onto the list with one project or another, but who are far from the sort of household names that usually make the list. I'm happy and proud to be able to say I've been on the list, but it hasn't really affected me very much. It's a constant battle to get readers' eyes on your work. Some people know who you are, but most people don't, and some who do have made up their minds about what they think of you without ever reading your work. I don't know until a book is in readers' hands and I start to see the results whether or not it's any good. And I certainly never know if something is going to sell. My sales tend to rollercoaster, with one book doing pretty well and the next crashing into the basement, so I have to start from scratch for the one after that. But I've been on that rollercoaster for dozens of books over the course of twenty-five years or so. I don't love riding it, but I'm used to it by now. As for impostor syndrome…very occasionally I'll have a day where I'm working and I think I may actually be fairly good at this job, but that lasts about half an hour, and then I'm frustrated with myself again. I always try to explain that when I want you to read my book, I'm not making a quality judgement about it myself. I'm asking you to read it and make that call for yourself, mostly because I love the story I dreamed up and I want to share it with you. Whether I told my story well is really up for you to decide. And that evaluation is going to vary from reader to reader.
GMM: What is one of the most personally rewarding experiences you've had as a writer, and what advice would you give to new writers in terms of how to define success in their writing careers?
CG: I'm going to come at this from a certain angle—with a story. Years ago, not long after Bantam published Baltimore, or, the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, which I wrote with Mike Mignola, we made a deal for New Regency Films to make a movie version. They optioned the rights to the book and hired me and Mike to write the screenplay. By that time, I'd already had loads of Hollywood disappointments, but this was my first screenwriting experience. I was truly excited about it, though still pretty realistic about the odds of making it all the way to a finished film. We had family coming over for someone's birthday or one holiday or another, and my wife Connie bought a bottle of champagne. She wanted to celebrate the Baltimore movie and screenplay deal with the family. I refused to do that. I said we'd hold off on celebrating until the movie was actually made and released, because that would be the triumph, that would be the success for us to celebrate. Of course the movie didn't get made—not then, anyway. At first the cynic in me thought that justified my original reaction, but over the years I've done a complete one-eighty on this subject. I regret not celebrating then. It was absolutely worth celebrating, an important step for me and a moment I should have been willing to rejoice in. Success is moment by moment. It comes in tiny victories. The really big ones are few and far between, and there are always setbacks, small failures and disappointments. Cherish the small successes, the small victories, every step you take that's a step forward. Don't hesitate to celebrate. You're not going to jinx anything. Just keep your head down and do your work and when good things happen, pause to mark them and appreciate them…and then get back to work.
RED HANDS
by Christopher Golden
~1~
Later, Maeve Sinclair will think of the girl with the pink balloon, and her heart will ache with a sting unlike anything she's felt before. She'll feel that sting forever, or for as long a forever as the world is willing to give her. In her mind's eye, the little girl's hand will always clutch the balloon string so fiercely, and Maeve knows it's because the girl lost her balloon at the Fourth of July parade the year before. When you're three years old, that's the sort of thing that can scar you, and little Callie Ellroy was three last year when she watched her Mickey Mouse balloon sail into the blue and vanish forever.
It's not Mickey this year, just an ordinary pink balloon, even a bit underinflated, as if Callie didn't want to invest quite as much of her now-four-year-old adoration this time around. Yet she holds the string so tightly and smiles so brightly, showing all of her crooked teeth and every ounce of the joy bursting within her, that Maeve is sure the little girl can't help but love that balloon. A little deflated or not. Plain, ordinary, boring balloon or not. Her sneakers are the same pink as the balloon, and though Maeve can't hear the words she speaks when she tugs her mother's arm and points at her sneakers, the pantomime is enough to communicate just how much delight she's taken from this moment of pink epiphany.
Maeve has watched Callie Ellroy grow. She can remember the moment five years ago when Biz Ellroy—short for Elizabeth—had rushed up to her, beaming, and shared the news that she was pregnant with the little bean that would become Callie. Biz had even picked out her name already.
At twenty-nine, the memory makes Maeve feel unsettlingly adult. She'd been standing in nearly the same spot where she stands today, watching a troupe of clowns toss candy from the back of an antique fire truck while the Conway High School marching band blatted on trumpets and thundered on drums in a rough approximation of "Yankee Doodle Dandy." But she'd been twenty-five then, still young enough that older people hesitated to take her seriously. Now she's on the verge of thirty, unmarried, no children, steadily employed but not in love with her job, and looking for a change.
Maeve gets a little shiver as she watches Biz holding Callie's hand. The same antique fire engine goes by, probably the same clowns on the back, throwing the same stale candy. Only Maeve figures the fire engine is a little more antique now than it was then, and aren't they all, really?
Time is fucking merciless, Maeve thinks. It doesn't ever slow down for you, even when you need it to. Even when, for instance, you still live in your hometown and can never escape the certainty that there's another life for you out there, somewhere. Maeve wants to work to improve people's lives, but after four years studying global health and public policy at George Washington University, dipping her toe in the water of half a dozen D.C. internships, she felt lost. She came back to Jericho Falls and got a job working for CareNH, a White Mountains political action committee. The money sucks, but she loves New Hampshire. She loves her parents, and her brother and sister. Over the past year, she's foolishly allowed an old flame to reignite, and that makes it harder to leave and all the more important that she does.
The new job's in Boston. A non-profit called Liquid Dreams, which she thinks is a stupid name but she admires the hell out of the company's mission, fighting for clean drinking water in the U.S. and around the globe, and fighting against corporations trying to monopolize control of the water supply. It's a fight worth having, and so what if her job is as an events coordinator and not impacting the company's political efforts—she'll be serving that admirable goal, and that's what matters to her.
It's time to leave Jericho Falls. She just has to tell her family. And she has to tell her…Nathan. Her Nathan. She guesses he's her boyfriend, but that seems too concrete a word for the tentative way they dance around each other. Or, more accurately, the way she dances around him. Maeve is sure he'll want to carry on seeing her, even if it means a long distance relationship. Three hours in the car doesn't seem that long to begin with, but Maeve already knows it's going to wear on them, and the truth is she never really thought of her thing with Nathan as long-term, just like she never thought she'd stay home for seven years after college. Both things just sort of happened. She wonders if she ought to leave both of them behind—Jericho Falls and her relationship. Nathan's sweet and a comfort to be around, but so were the plush animals in her childhood bedroom.
Today's parade feels like an ending of sorts, and maybe a beginning, too. The Mayor rolls by, sitting in the back of an old Cadillac convertible with his leathery wife, who's never quite learned how to apply her makeup. Maeve feels a rush of love for the old bat and for her town, because in other places the Mayor's wife might've been replaced by a younger, blonder version, but in Jericho Falls, she looks just the way you'd expect her to look. The future is going to catch up to her town soon, and though Maeve yearns to be a part of the rush of the real world, it saddens her to think of Jericho Falls changing. She thinks, momentarily, that the Mayor's wife should ditch him for a younger, more attractive husband, and then run for Mayor herself. If the future has to come to Jericho Falls, Maeve wants it to arrive in heels.
All of these thoughts spin through her head while she glances around the crowd. Her dad munches an ice cream sandwich from a street vendor. He's with Rue Crooker, maybe his best and oldest friend, so close that when the kids were little they called her Auntie Rue. Maeve's brother Logan is over beside their mom, on the other side of the street, which is a good illustration of their lives since Ellen Sinclair finally had enough of her husband Ted's alcoholism and changed the locks on the house. None of it had been as ugly as Maeve feared, but it hasn't been pretty, either. Her dad's had a rough time with addiction, but he's kicked the pills at least, and he's trying, which is maybe why Ellen and Ted can stand across the street from each other and offer a smile and subdued wave.
Maeve likes that. They'll always be family, thanks to the three children they share, so it's nice if they can manage not to hate each other. The youngest member of Maeve's family finally arrives, her twenty-one year old sister Rose, who grins nervously as she approaches their mother and Logan while holding hands with her girlfriend in public for the very first time.
This is the Sinclair family today, doing their best to reenact a tradition begun decades earlier. The Jericho Falls Fourth of July parade, held at 11 a.m. on the actual goddamn Fourth of July, no matter the weather and no matter the stink some locals put up because they like the parade but they want to be on vacation somewhere nicer, somewhere with a great fireworks display, on the actual holiday. Other cities and towns cave to the pressure, celebrate a few days before or even after the Fourth, but not Jericho Falls. Fuck that. It's another thing that makes Maeve proud of her town.
She'll dwell on all of this later. She'll turn it over in her head, wondering if there was something she could have done differently, anything that might have changed the outcome. If she had been paying more attention to her family, or the parade, or the crowd instead of lost inside her head and worrying about breaking the news of her new job and impending departure to her mom, would she have been able to save lives?
Would she have been able to save herself?
Of course, she'll never know.
Fiction Fragments: Sonora Taylor
September 25, 2020 September 22, 2020 Michelle R. Lane 1 Comment
Last week, Paul Tremblay stopped by Girl Meets Monster and we talked about impostor syndrome and how he deals with it, and he shared an excellent fragment from his short story, "We Will Never Live in the Castle."
This week, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sonora Taylor. I haven't had an opportunity to meet her in person, but I'm hoping to change that soon.
Sonora Taylor is the author of Little Paranoias: Stories, Without Condition, The Crow's Gift and Other Tales, Please Give, and Wither and Other Stories. Her short story, "Hearts are Just 'Likes,'" was published in Camden Park Press's Quoth the Raven, an anthology of stories and poems that put a contemporary twist on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Taylor's short stories frequently appear in The Sirens Call. Her work has also appeared in Frozen Wavelets, Mercurial Stories, Tales to Terrify, and the Ladies of Horror fiction podcast. Her latest book, Seeing Things, is now available on Amazon. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband.
GMM: Welcome to Girl Meets Monster, Sonora. I really enjoyed your fragment, because I love when horror/science fiction blends with humor in a story. There's something about the humor that makes the horror a bit more unsettling while simultaneously more palatable. Like a cup of tea you drink while watching an alien invasion. Where did this story come from? What inspired it, and do you often include humor in your horror/science fiction?
ST: Thank you! I wrote this in 2016, which was when I'd gotten back into writing short stories and was seeing what forms, themes, and genres stuck with me. I'd been reading Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett around this time and was definitely influenced by their style of writing. I love absurdist and humorous horror, and I found myself thinking it'd be funny to write in the style of one of those self-care articles, but for how to relax during one of the least relaxing experiences I could think of. I originally considered writing a book of these sorts of essays called Consider This, but I didn't have enough ideas. Then I started writing my first novel, Please Give; and all my attention went to that.
GMM: You mention the importance of self-care rather ironically in your fragment, but the idea of self-care has become a cultural phenomenon that has social, political and economic relevance, especially at this moment in our history. We obviously aren't facing an alien invasion (not yet, but 2020 isn't over), but we are facing a pandemic and an outcry for social change. How do you view self-care in this time of uncertainty, and what do you do to look after yourself on the darker days?
ST: I see self-care as a way to step back and focus your attention on taking care of you, especially in a time where we feel an even more pressing need to look out for each other and be caretakers–for loved ones, for marginalized people, for the greater good. Many of us, especially women, are taught to put ourselves last after we've taken care of the kids, the spouse, the world. But to me, this is all backwards because you can't do those things if you haven't been tending to yourself! I find I'm a better wife, daughter, dog mom, friend, writer, and activist when I've taken a breather and set aside time to reset myself.
I like to decompress with simple beauty rituals, which I can fortunately do at home since I still don't feel comfortable going to a salon (though I do miss getting pedicures and massages). I love taking baths with nice bath bombs and music. I also like to use face masks and sheet masks to give myself a boost. Drinking tea is one of my self-care practices, but that's more a daily habit than anything special. I also like to plan and prepare really nice meals. I made a pasta last week with chanterelles and I felt so good serving it and eating it.
GMM: What can we expect from you next? What are you currently working on? Have the events of 2020 had an impact on your writing, either your process or what you're writing about?
ST: Right now I'm working on my next short story collection. It's called Someone to Share My Nightmares and will focus on romantic/erotic horror. I'm also formulating my fourth novel, an apocalyptic nature novel called Errant Roots.
I do find that it's harder to sit and write this year than in previous years. My mind is in a lot of places and it can feel exhausting to sit down and write a whole other reality. I've written, but it's been slower than normal. When I finish a piece, though, it feels fantastic.
Tea Time by Sonora Taylor
You should always take the time to make yourself a cup of tea.
With the stress of the day-to-day, it can often be difficult to remember simple acts of self-care. Or we remember, but choose not to partake because they seem selfish, or mundane, or useless. This could not be farther from the truth. Any act of self-care is worthwhile, and this includes the pouring of hot water onto cold tea leaves.
Consider the practice itself. You take a mug, you choose your tea, you warm the water, you pour the water, then await the allotted time for your tea to steep. The preparation itself is meditative. To make yourself a cup of tea is to close yourself off from the stress around you, be it an obnoxious co-worker or a troublesome spaceship landing outside of your building.
The relaxation does not end with preparation. The act of sipping tea is one of the most relaxing things you can do. Each sip delights the tongue with flavor, steam, and comfort. Picture yourself sipping tea. Notice how the noises around you, like phones ringing or people screaming, just seem to disappear as readily as the tea in your cup.
Once the cup is gone, the sense of ease remains with you, warming your hands like the sun or an errant laser. Tea transports us to worlds we never knew, worlds where we are alone and comfortable, not visited or invaded. To make yourself a cup of tea is to grant you an escape from everything.
Many have shared their wondrous experiences with tea. Consider Martha, an accountant who never missed her morning tea. Each morning after breakfast, no matter what she was doing or who was in her presence, she'd stop and make herself a cup of tea in the company kitchen. She found the ritual conducive to her work. One morning, Martha heard her phone ring and several emails ping in her inbox. But alas, it was 9 o'clock – tea time! She ignored the shouts from her office and went to the kitchen to make her tea. She was not gone for five minutes, yet when she returned with her mug, she found not her office, but a smoldering crater where her desk and wall had been. Had she not held to her morning ritual, she too would have been blown to smithereens! Thankfully her morning tea that day was soothing chamomile, otherwise the sight might have scared her dead.
Tea is much valued for its life-saving properties. Green tea is often seen as the healthiest, with its antioxidant power. But all teas have some sort of health benefit to them. Black tea improves your breath. Peppermint tea aids in digestion. Hibiscus tea seems to frighten off the invaders, seeing how they recoiled in fear from Mrs. Thompson's hibiscus plants when stomping through her garden. All tea has something special to offer.
But perhaps what is most special about tea is what it can do for you. Even when you are most alone, a cup of tea is there for you, warming your hands as you stare out your window and watch your neighborhood, city, and state burn to ash. The skies have turned red and the ships have grown in number, but your reliable kettle burns on the stove and whistles to you, calling from the rabble and chaos, "Time for tea!"
Fiction Fragments: John M. McIlveen
August 28, 2020 August 25, 2020 Michelle R. Lane 3 Comments
Last week, I talked to L. Marie Wood about her vampire fiction and how she finds balance between life and her many roles within the horror community. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it.
This week, I am very pleased to welcome writer, publisher and friend John M. McIlveen to Girl Meets Monster. If you haven't had the privilege of meeting John, do yourself a favor and say hello to him the next time you see him at an event.
John M. McIlveen is the author of the paranormal suspense novel, HANNAHWHERE, winner of the 2015 Drunken Druid Award (Ireland) and nominated for the 2015 Bram Stoker Award (HWA), and two story collections, INFLICTIONS and JERKS. His forthcoming works include the story collection A VARIABLE DARKNESS, and the novel GIRL GONE NORTH, nominated for the 2019 Wilber and Niso Smith Foundation Award for "unpublished manuscript."
He is a father to five daughters, Editor-In-Chief of Haverhill House Publishing, and works at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. He lives in Haverhill, MA with his wife Roberta Colasanti.
GMM: Welcome to Girl Meets Monster, John. Last week I asked L. Marie Wood how she balances all the hats she's wearing on her head. Rumor has it that you only sleep 4-5 hours each night. Aside from catching fewer winks than the average human, how do you balance your work, family, writing and publishing responsibilities? Has the pandemic had an impact on changing some of your habits? How have you adjusted?
JMM: The rumor is true, I sleep about 4 hours a night, usually 12 a.m. – 4 a.m., no alarm clock. I'm at MIT between 5-5:30 and home by 3:00 p.m., work on the house/yard until dinner (about 6-6:30 pm). I typically settle down to write and/or publish (wherever the spirit leads) aroud 8:30 p.m. to midnight. Lunch hour at work is my window for reading. As for family, four of my five daughters are grown, out of college, and forging ahead with their own lives and families (which may be, in retrospect, why I started publishing). Just Roberta and me at home, now, for the most part.
The pandemic has changed few to none of my habits. My job at the lab is considered essential, so that schedule hasn't changed. Now, the house fire we had on March 7 destroyed our house and most of its contents and backed Haverhill House up at least eight months to a year. A year will likely pass by the time our home is rebuilt, and though we have managed to still get sit titles out so far, and are in line to reach ten, which, although it's half the original plat, isn't all that bad, considering the amount of time we have to dedicate to getting things on track again. Still, we had to push ten or eleven titles down the road a year.
GMM: I loved your fragment and look forward to reading the complete story. Those last two lines of dialog really spoke to me:
"Why do you keep changing?"
"Is there a specific way a girl is supposed to be?" she asked.
Whoever this child is, she has some very progressive ideas about identity and its intersectionalities. And, I'm dying to know why she does keep changing. Traditionally, male writers haven't always been particularly skilled at (or concerned about) writing believable female characters. They often exist in a story as window dressing, or to serve the needs of the male characters. Eve strikes me as a very complex character. What experiences in your life and as a writer have impacted your ability to create realistic female characters? What inspired this story?
JMM: Females have always been front and center in my family and my life. Five daughters, two step-daughters, sisters, nieces, a very strong-willed mother, and my wife, Roberta (we'll leave the exes out). I have lived with an array of these beautiful, quirky creatures and have witnessed so many personalities, styles, emotions, shapes and sizes, cheered their succeses, dried their tears, the list is quite extensive. All said and done, each one of them have made me a better and wiser man, father, writer, husband, protector, etcetera. They spill over into my writing on every level, and as with my life, female characters tend to be front and center in most of my writing. In my novel Hannawhere, twin sisters Hannah, Anna, and social worker Debbie Gillan are my three main characters. In my second novel Girl Gone North, sisters Emma and Thalia Holden are my main characters. When I run into a situation with one of my female characters, I find I usually don't have to reach far into my memories to find a daughter, sister, or other close to me who has been there. These characters are often based on the women in my life, and on some occasions, the merging of a few (Hannah and Anna Amiel had certain traits from all of my daughters). In my collection Inflictions, the story "Smokey" is a tale of a horribly neglected toddler named Cassie. The story was prompted by a picture of my then-toddler daughter Kayleigh. As I wrote, my character became Kayleigh and by the tragic end of the story it was about 3 a.m. and I was emotionally shattered. I had to lift my sleeping Kayleigh from her crib and sit holding her an hour or so until I calmed.
GMM: Aside from your collection, A Variable Darkness, what else are you working on right now? What projects are you most excited about? Are there any projects you're looking forward to publishing at Haverhill by other writers?
JMM: I'm not writing nearly as much as I should be, but I am putting the final edits on my crime and suspense novel Corruption. My children's book Owen and the Apprentice Troll is nearing completion but has taken on a life of its own. My YA novel, The Elephant in the Endzone, which deals with teen depression, is about half done. And my Horror novel Are You Experienced? is about 1/4 done, but is starting to come together.
Haverhill House…where do I start?
On the burner and coming soon:
A children's book, Milk, the Cat by Meghan Arcuri-Moran and illustrated by Ogmios
Souless by Christopher Golden
I have to make a timeline for all the titles pushed out this year, foremost Cyclops Road by Jeff Strand and illustrated by Lynn Hansen.
Exciting look forward:
Tony Tremblay delivered his follow up novel Do Not Weep For Me
J. Edwin Buja delivered his sequel to King of the Wood, titled The Consort
And a certain lady asked to talk about the sequel to her Stoker nominated novel Invisible Chains
Plus, a staggering slush pile.
An excerpt from the short story "Eve" from the forthcoming collection A Variable Darkness by John McIlveen
Around him lay only forest, flat and dense with trees—endless oaks, birches, locusts, and maples in every direction, rising skyward on thick trunks… and one smashed up Escalade.
Guy knew this wasn't possible, but denial dampened his reaction. Hills don't simply disappear. There had to be a logical explanation, like shock, or maybe delusions from hitting his head. That had to be it, because he thought he could also see a young girl moving among the trees, about a hundred yards deeper into the woods. He refocused, and sure enough, there she was, dressed in light blue overall shorts, long strawberry-blond hair falling halfway down her back. She appeared to be writing or scraping something onto the trunk of the tree, but it was difficult to tell from such a distance. He took a few hesitant steps toward the child and stopped.
"Hey, little girl!" He called. "Hey!"
She looked over at him with indifference and dutifully returned her attention to whatever it was she was doing. He started to walk towards the girl and when he had cut the distance in half, she moved to a tall elm about a dozen trees away from him. She deftly climbed the tree and propped herself at the crux of a branch some sixty feet overhead. There was nothing natural in it, the way she had ascended with the dexterity of a squirrel; Guy had never seen anything quite like it from a human. He watched her for a few moments, wondering if she were avoiding him, but she just as deftly climbed back down and headed in another direction.
"Wait a minute!" Guy said.
The little girl stopped and watched him expectantly. She looked about nine years old, thin-limbed, and fawn-like, with vibrant blue eyes. Under closer observation, he realized her hair was dark brown, not strawberry-blond as he had first thought, and attributed it to the play of sun through the trees.
"I got in an accident," he told her. "I can't find my way out of the woods.
"I know," the girl responded, her tone neutral. She resumed walking.
Guy followed, equally concerned for his and hers. He asked himself why such a young child would be alone in the deep woods. "Are you lost?" he asked.
"You're lost," she said, in the same impartial manner. She looked at him, her alert brown eyes reflecting him and the surroundings, and walked over to another tree.
Brown eyes?
Guy felt prickles of unease run through him. There was no question that her eyes had been a striking blue before she'd climbed the tree. He looked back at his Escalade, trying to get his bearings so he could get the hell out of there, but the SUV was no longer in sight. He ran a few steps in the direction he thought he had come from, but stopped, uncomfortable with the idea of letting the girl out of sight. Everything else he had looked away from had disappeared.
He returned to where the girl stood. She now had rich ebony skin, but the same light blue overall shorts, which he found more disconcerting.
Isn't it the clothes that are changed, not the child inside them?
She seemed unconcerned, giving him the impression that she wasn't lost, which meant she was faring better than he was. Again, she scribed something onto the tree.
He stepped beside her, feeling as if he'd fallen into the rabbit hole. "Something's going on here that I don't understand."
"Something's always going on," she replied, matter-of-factly.
He couldn't tell if she was being disparaging, or just answering him the way most children her age would, but she was making him feel dense. Frustrated, he asked, "Can't you give me a direct answer?"
"I can," she said, pinning him with glimmering green eyes. She skittered up the tree, spent five minutes up above, moving from branch to branch, and climbed down.
He followed her thirty yards to a huge, majestic oak. "What are you doing?"
The girl, now with shiny, waist-length coal-black hair, started writing on the tree with what looked like a simple wooden stick, but as she moved it, the name Joey Wilkerson appeared as if engraved. "Writing," she said.
"Writing what?"
"Who is Joey Wilkerson?" Guy asked, understanding that his questions would have to be precise if he wanted precise answers.
"A broken heart," she said, but offered no explanation.
She climbed the tree again and moved from branch to branch. Meanwhile, he inspected a number of trees and saw that most of them had names engraved: Dedrick Aaldenberg, Luis Rosios, Peter Craig, Hirohito Ishushima, Glenn Levesque—and hundreds, maybe thousands more. She descended, now wearing a mane of tight auburn ringlets.
"Are these all broken hearts?"
"Yup," she said, the simplistic word making her, for the first time, sound her age.
"Why are they all men?" he asked, as he followed her to another tree.
"Boys, too… mostly boys," she said. "There aren't enough trees for girls and women, their names are on the leaves."
Guy thought about this for a while and asked, "Why so many females?"
She looked at him and smiled sadly. "Thirty-one years," she said.
"How do you know how old I am?"
"That's how long your eyes have been closed."
"I don't know what you mean."
"I know. You will when you have to," she said, rubbing an almond-shaped eye with the back of her hand.
"Who are you, Confucius?" he blurted with frustration. "What little girl talks in circles like this?"
"Me," she answered. "You are angry with the wrong person." She engraved the name Abubakar Kwabena.
"You've already written his name," Guy said, noticing the name was already on the trunk once, and again. "Twice."
"A heart can break more than once. His has broken three times." She looked around and held out a pale arm. "Girls, women, they grow another leaf. Some trees have many names; some names have her own branch."
He followed her gesture and looked back at the pale-skinned girl with Afro hair and Asian eyes. "Speaking of names, what is yours?"
"I was never named," she said. "What would you have named me?" She seemed so sincere that he seriously considered it.
"Eve," he said.
"Then, for you, I am Eve."
"Okay Eve, why are you writing the names of all the broken hearts?"
"Broken hearts deserve recognition."
He chuckled and said, "My name should be written here somewhere a dozen or two times."
"You are here…once," said Eve.
"Once! How is my name here only once? I've been trashed by more women than…" Guy quieted when he noticed the way she looked at him. Her smile was much too knowing for the Samoan child's face that wore it.
"A wounded pride is not a broken heart."
Guy's indignation was defused when Eve took his hand. She led him a long way into the woods, during which her features changed numerous times.


text:
Deborah Burstyn
Up the Creek Records brings hip vibe to Walnut Creek
February 25, 2018 at 10:14 a.m.
Vinyl's acclaimed superiority in music listening quality hasn't gone unnoticed.
Walnut Creek resident working to restore homes in fire zone
November 22, 2017 at 4:59 p.m.
First people need to cry. Donn Peacock understands that. So he lets them, even though the clock is ticking and there is an awful lot he needs to get done....
Love indies and foreign movies? Film society a gift for cinephiles
Film aficionados east of the Caldecott Tunnel know that Mountain Shadow Film Society's offerings often are their best chance of seeing some indie or foreign films.
Bar, bat mitzvahs not just for 13-year-olds anymore
June 6, 2017 at 9:42 a.m.
WALNUT CREEK — No quavering adolescent voice stammered through the ancient verses. No nervous 13-year-old student whose parents and grandparents had made him or her do this stood on the altar on...
Clogging: Traditional roots, contemporary flair
November 1, 2016 at 6:55 a.m.
In the Bay Area, our nearest mountain range is the Sierra Nevada, not the Appalachian Mountains. But a traditional form of dance rooted in the Appalachians found its way west, probably...
Walnut Creek warlock's readings to help others
Storm Faerywolf is a pleasant guy who happens to be a warlock — the male version of a witch. And not just for Halloween. Faerywolf — he had his name legally changed...
Walnut Creek: In digital age, signs are welcome old-fashioned communication
Walnut Creek: Memoir writer moves forward by looking to past
Orinda: Want to be in Fourth of July marching band?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


R. Shankar is John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics, Yale University. His popular Open Yale Course �Introduction to Physics� has a major following �... His popular online video lectures on introductory physics have been viewed over a million times. In this second book based on his online Yale course, Shankar explains essential concepts, including electromagnetism, optics, and quantum mechanics.


If you are overweight, you might not be happy about your state, knowing that it can actually be a very dangerous one, one that leads to a lot of problems in the long run. If you are like a lot of other people, however, the slow results that exercise and diet bring might have discouraged you many times, and you might not be able to count the times you have given up on them and one losing weight in general. It is good to know, then, that these people can find healthy supplements that help them achieve their goals with more ease and in a shorter amount of time. Finding the best weight loss supplements and using them to achieve your own goals, then, is certainly something that you should do, as it is something which will provide you with benefits which will no doubt satisfy you thoroughly.
One who starts taking supplements like these will be able to benefit, first of all, because these supplements will help him or her enjoy the advantages which are related with weight loss. One who knows just how deadly being overweight is might know that many diseases, some of which include high blood pressure, heart disease, and so on, are related to this condition. Also, if you are overweight, you might not be happy about the way you look, which causes you to suffer low self-esteem and self-confidence, two things which rob you of a lot of opportunities in life, as they make you unsure and afraid to take these opportunities. Losing weight through supplements, then, will give you all of these benefits, which might just change your life, making it richer, fuller, and altogether more healthy than it used to be.
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One who starts taking supplements will also be able to benefit because through them, he or she will feel more focused and energized, which is great for all aspects of life. Taking supplements for your health, then, is certainly something that you should do, as when you do so, you can be sure that you can enjoy more energy as well as all of the benefits which are related to losing weight and living a more fulfilling life.


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Are you ready to take a stand against abortion and counter culture?
In this companion piece to his bestselling book Counter Culture, David Platt offers sound Biblical support and practical action steps to help Christians take a courageous and compassionate stand against abortion. Drawing heavily on personal stories and Scripture, Platt encourages Christians to get involved and highlights a wide variety of ministries and organizations currently countering abortion that need your help.
The stage is set for the God of the universe to do the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the shocking, and the scandalous. And He wants you to be a part of it. It's time to take a stand for Christ, join the fight against abortion, and counter culture!
Imprint: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.


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The police chief said he hopes to send a message that drug dealers are not welcome in the city.
CHILLICOTHE - Frustrated by another series of heroin overdoses, Chillicothe Police Chief Keith Washburn said he knew it was time to send a message to drug dealers.
In March, he began working with state and federal agencies to conduct undercover operations with the intention of sending a message to people who sell drugs in the city: "If you're going to deal drugs, stay out of our community. We don't want you here. You're not welcome. We're going to get you."
He made the comments during a Monday news conference announcing the arrests of 30 people in a weekend drug sting.
At least 50 local, state and federal officers and two SWAT teams converged on Chillicothe to make the arrests. Twenty-two were felony arrests, while eight were misdemeanors. Charges included tampering with evidence and drug-related charges. Many people were arrested in Chillicothe, while other arrests took place in the Columbus and Cincinnati areas.
Officers reported they seized cocaine, marijuana, pills, cash and guns, including one AK-47. Chillicothe Police Detective Bud Lytle said numerous arrests were made at 374 E. Fourth St.
Washburn said some of the people who were indicted are considered to be mid-level, and there were some connections between them and other cities. He went on to confirm officials think they are dealing with multiple drug rings, but he would not go into specifics, citing the integrity of the ongoing investigation. Officials said there are additional people being investigated.
The sweeps was spurred by Friday's grand jury session, in which 38 indictments were returned, but only eight were open. The rest were secret indictments, meaning they were not open to the public until they are served. Twenty-eight of those cases were related to the drug investigations.
Washburn called the investigation "pretty significant" and said about half of the people indicted are local, while others are from Columbus and Dayton areas. Six people indicted are still at large.
Many of the people served with secret indictments were arraigned Monday in Ross County Common Pleas Court.
Agencies involved were the Chillicothe Police Department, Ohio State Highway Patrol, U.S. Marshals Service, Ohio Investigative Unit, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Ross County Prosecutor's Office.
"This is going to be as large as we can possibly make it. As you know, we have a significant drug problem here. We're going to do whatever we can to combat that problem," Washburn said.
When questioned about the influence of the roundup, Washburn said there were not any overdoses over the weekend. This year, his officers have responded to 184 overdose calls and issued 74 doses of naloxone, a drug that counters the effects of an opiate overdose. There have been 24 confirmed overdose deaths in Ross County and 13 confirmed overdose deaths within the city, he said.
"You're never going to eradicate the drug trade. What we want to do is make the supply harder to get. There's nothing we can do about the demand. That's up to the individual to seek treatment, cure themselves, but what we want to do is make it harder for that person to get the drugs. And along with the drugs come the outlying crimes, such as theft, robbery, we want to slow that down too," Washburn said.
Washburn asked residents to continue to call in with tips and information on suspected drug activity. He said one of the complaints he hears most is that when residents call in tips, they don't always see an officer respond. He said it takes time to build these cases, but every tip is investigated.
So far, there have been no links between the investigation referenced Monday and the investigation of six area women who went missing or died between 2014 and 2015, Washburn said. However, he said everyone arrested is being questioned about the women.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Chillicothe Police Department at 740-773-1191. Information also can be reported anonymously through Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers by calling 740-773-TIPS (8477) or by visiting www.southernohiocrimestoppers.org.
30: Number of arrests during a weekend drug sweep, including 28 on secret drug-related indictments issued by Friday's session of the Ross County grand jury.
50: Law enforcement officers from local, state, and federal agencies who helped with the sweep.
184: Number of overdose calls in Chillicothe in 2016.
74: Doses of naloxone, an overdose counteracting drug, given by the city's officers in 2016.
24: Number of overdose deaths in Ross County in 2016; 13 of them were inside the city limits.


The water rat is native to Australia and New Guinea. It is relatively large, weighing over 600 grams and reaching a length of up to 60cm from nose to tail tip. The thick soft fur is usually dark brown above and golden-orange below, with a distinctive white tip. It is well adapted to its semi-aquatic life, possessing webbed feet and water-repellent fur. Along with the platypus, it is the only Australian amphibious mammal. Life span is approx. 2 years.
Making a nest at the end of a tunnel in the riverbank, breeding can occur throughout the year, with peaks in spring and summer. As many as five litters, averaging 3-4 young, can be born each year. Gestation period is 35 days. The female suckles young for about 4 weeks, which remain with her for another 4 weeks, gradually attaining independence.
The water rat is common in rivers, streams and estuaries throughout the state (fresh or salt). Although primarily nocturnal, it may be seen during the day. It has difficulty maintaining its body temperature in cold water, and to restore this, it spends a considerable amount of time shivering on the land, preferably in the sun.
Unlike most rodents, the water rat is a predator. Its diet includes aquatic insects, frogs, lizards, fish and crustaceans.
Protected. Natural predators are snakes and birds of prey.


text:
United Kingdom News & Current Events
United Kingdom Profile
News and Current Events
The Church of England Is Established and Parliament Reigns Supreme
During the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547), the church in England asserted its independence from the Roman Catholic Church. Under Edward VI and Mary, the two extremes of religious fanaticism were reached, and it remained for Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I (1558–1603), to set up the Church of England on a moderate basis. In 1588, the Spanish Armada, a fleet sent out by Catholic King Philip II of Spain, was defeated by the English and destroyed during a storm. During Elizabeth's reign, England became a world power. Elizabeth's heir was a Stuart—James VI of Scotland—who joined the two crowns as James I (1603–1625). The Stuart kings incurred large debts and were forced either to depend on parliament for taxes or to raise money by illegal means. In 1642, war broke out between Charles I and a large segment of the parliament; Charles was defeated and executed in 1649, and the monarchy was then abolished. After the death in 1658 of Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector, the Puritan Commonwealth fell to pieces and Charles II was placed on the throne in 1660. The struggle between the king and parliament continued, but Charles II knew when to compromise. His brother, James II (1685–1688), possessed none of Charles II's ability and was ousted by the Revolution of 1688, which confirmed the primacy of parliament. James's daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, then ruled.
England's Empire Grows While the American Colonies Revolt
Queen Anne's reign (1702–1714) was marked by the Duke of Marlborough's victories over France at Blenheim, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet in the War of the Spanish Succession. England and Scotland meanwhile were joined by the Act of Union (1707). Upon the death of Anne, the distant claims of the elector of Hanover were recognized, and he became king of Great Britain and Ireland as George I. The unwillingness of the Hanoverian kings to rule resulted in the formation by the royal ministers of a cabinet, headed by a prime minister, which directed all public business. Abroad, the constant wars with France expanded the British Empire all over the globe, particularly in North America and India. This imperial growth was checked by the revolt of the American colonies (1775–1781). Struggles with France broke out again in 1793 and during the Napoleonic Wars, which ended at Waterloo in 1815.
Democratic Government Emerges
The Victorian era, named after Queen Victoria (1837–1901), saw the growth of a democratic system of government that had begun with the Reform Bill of 1832. The two important wars in Victoria's reign were the Crimean War against Russia (1854–1856) and the Boer War (1899–1902), the latter enormously extending Britain's influence in Africa. Increasing uneasiness at home and abroad marked the reign of Edward VII (1901–1910). Within four years of the accession of George V in 1910, Britain entered World War I when Germany invaded Belgium. The nation was led by coalition cabinets, headed first by Herbert Asquith and then, starting in 1916, by the Welsh statesman David Lloyd George. Postwar labor unrest culminated in the general strike of 1926.
King Edward VIII succeeded to the throne on Jan. 20, 1936, at his father's death, but he abdicated on Dec. 11, 1936 (in order to marry an American divorcée, Wallis Warfield Simpson), in favor of his brother, who became George VI.
Britain Enters WWII
The efforts of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to stem the rising threat of Nazism in Germany failed with the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, which was followed by Britain's entry into World War II on Sept. 3. Allied reverses in the spring of 1940 led to Chamberlain's resignation and the formation of another coalition war cabinet by the Conservative leader, Winston Churchill, who led Britain through most of World War II. Churchill resigned shortly after V-E Day, May 8, 1945, but then formed a "caretaker" government that remained in office until after the parliamentary elections in July, which the Labour Party won overwhelmingly. The new government, formed by Clement R. Attlee, began a moderate socialist program.
(For details of World War II, see Headline History, World War II .)
Britain Enters European Community and Margaret Thatcher Becomes First Female Prime Minister
In 1951, Churchill again became prime minister at the head of a Conservative government. George VI died on Feb. 6, 1952, and was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. Churchill stepped down in 1955 in favor of Sir Anthony Eden, who resigned on grounds of ill health in 1957 and was succeeded by Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home. In 1964, Harold Wilson led the Labour Party to victory. A lagging economy brought the Conservatives back to power in 1970. Prime Minister Edward Heath won Britain's admission to the European Community. Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman prime minister as the Conservatives won 339 seats on May 3, 1979.
An Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands on April 2, 1982, involved Britain in a war 8,000 mi from the home islands. Argentina had long claimed the Falklands, known as the Malvinas in Spanish, which had been occupied by the British since 1832. Britain won a decisive victory within six weeks when more than 11,000 Argentine troops on the Falklands surrendered on June 14, 1982.
Although there were continuing economic problems and foreign policy disputes, an upswing in the economy in 1986–1987 led Thatcher to call elections in June, and she won a near-unprecedented third consecutive term. The unpopularity of Thatcher's poll tax together with an uncompromising position toward further European integration eroded support within her own party. When John Major won the Conservative Party leadership in November, Thatcher resigned, paving the way for Major to form a government.
Tony Blair and the Labor Party End Conservative Rule
Eighteen years of Conservative rule ended in May 1997 when Tony Blair and the Labour Party triumphed in the British elections. Blair has been compared to former U.S. president Bill Clinton for his youthful, telegenic personality and centrist views. He produced constitutional reform that partially decentralized the UK, leading to the formation of separate parliaments in Wales and Scotland by 1999. Britain turned over its colony Hong Kong to China in July 1997.
Blair's controversial meeting in Oct. 1997 with Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, was the first meeting in 76 years between a British prime minister and a Sinn Fein leader. It infuriated numerous factions but was a symbolic gesture in support of the nascent peace talks in Northern Ireland. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement, strongly supported by Tony Blair, led to the first promise of peace between Catholics and Protestants since the beginning of the so-called Troubles.
Along with the U.S., Britain launched air strikes against Iraq in Dec. 1998 after Saddam Hussein expelled UN arms inspectors. In the spring of 1999, Britain spearheaded the NATO operation in Kosovo, which resulted in Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic's withdrawal from the territory.
In Feb. 2001, foot-and-mouth disease broke out among British livestock, prompting other nations to ban British meat imports and forcing the slaughter of thousands of cattle, pigs, and sheep in an effort to stem the highly contagious disease.
In June 2001, Blair won a second landslide victory, with the Labour Party capturing 413 seats in parliament.
Britain Supports Post-Sept. 11 America, Enters the Iraq War
Britain became the staunchest ally of the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks. British troops joined the U.S. in the bombing campaign against Afghanistan in Oct. 2001, after the Taliban-led government refused to turn over the prime suspect in the terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden.
Blair again proved himself to be the strongest international supporter of the U.S. in Sept. 2002, becoming President Bush's major ally in calling for a war against Iraq. Blair maintained that military action was justified because Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction that were a direct threat. He supported the Bush administration's hawkish policies despite significant opposition in his own party and the British public. In March 2003, a London Times newspaper poll indicated that only 19% of respondents approved of military action without a UN mandate. As the inevitability of the U.S. strike on Iraq grew nearer, Blair announced that he would join the U.S. in fighting Iraq with or without a second UN resolution. Three of his ministers resigned as a result. Britain entered the war on March 20, supplying 45,000 troops.
In the aftermath of the war, Blair came under fire from government officials for allegedly exaggerating Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction. In July 2003, Blair announced that "history would forgive" the UK and U.S. "if we are wrong" and that the end to the "inhuman carnage and suffering" caused by Saddam Hussein was justification enough for the war. The arguments about the war grew so vociferous between the Blair government and the BBC that a prominent weapons scientist, David Kelly, who was caught in the middle, committed suicide. In Jan. 2004, the Hutton Report asserted that the Blair administration had not "sexed-up" the intelligence dossier, an accusation put forth by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan. The report strongly criticized the BBC for its "defective" editorial policies, and as a consequence, the BBC's top management resigned. In July 2004, the Butler Report on pre–Iraq war British intelligence was released. It echoed the findings of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee of the week before that the intelligence had vastly exaggerated Saddam Hussein's threat. The famous claim that Iraq's chemical and biological weapons "are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them" was especially singled out as highly misleading. But like the U.S. report, it cleared the government of any role in manipulating the intelligence.
On May 5, 2005, Blair won a historic third term as the country's prime minister. Despite this victory, Blair's party was severely hurt in the elections. The Labour Party won just 36% of the national vote, the lowest percentage by a ruling party in British history. The Conservative Party won 33%, and the Liberal Democrats 22%. Blair acknowledged that the reason for the poor showing was Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq.
Terror Strikes at Home
On July 7, 2005, London suffered a terrorist bombing, Britain's worst attack since World War II. Four bombs exploded in three subway stations and on one double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing 52 and wounding more than 700. Four Muslim men, three of them British-born, were identified as the suicide bombers. On July 21, terrorists attempted another attack on the transit system, but the bombs failed to explode. A leaked document by a top British government official warned Prime Minister Blair more than a year before the bombings that Britain's engagement in Iraq was fueling Islamic extremism, but Blair has repeatedly denied such a link, contending that the bombings were the result of an "evil ideology" that had taken root before the Iraq war. Blair proposed legislation that would toughen the country's antiterrorism measures, and he suffered his first major political defeat as prime minister in November, when his proposal that terrorist suspects could be held without charge for up to 90 days was rejected.
In April 2006, the Blair government weathered a major scandal when it was revealed that since 1999 it had released 1,023 foreign convicts—among them murderers and rapists—into British society instead of deporting them to their countries of origin.
In Aug. 2006, London police foiled a major terrorist plot to destroy several airplanes traveling from Britain to the U.S. Intelligence sources asserted that the plan was close to execution, and had it succeeded, it would have been the deadliest terrorist attack since Sept. 11. A number of young men, most of whom are Britons of Pakistani descent, were arrested in connection with the plot.
Blair announced in Feb. 2007 that as many as 1,600 of the 7,100 troops stationed in southern Iraq would leave in the next few months. "What all this means is not that Basra is how we want it to be, but it does mean that the next chapter in Basra's history can be written by Iraqis," Blair said.
Gordon Brown Succeeds Blair
In May 2007, Blair announced that he would leave office on June 27. Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, succeeded Blair. Brown is a study in contrasts to Blair. Brown, typically dour, lacks Blair's charisma and quick wit. The new prime minister faces the task of shoring up the Labour Party, which has not fared well in recent elections, and of regaining the public's trust. Both have suffered from Britain's support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Just two days into Brown's term, police defused two bombs found in cars parked in the West End section of London. The attackers, who officials say are linked to al-Qaeda, tried and failed to detonate the bombs using cell phones. Police detained several foreign-born suspects, several of whom were doctors. The next day, on June 30, an SUV carrying bombs burst into flames after it slammed into an entrance to Glasgow Airport.
In July 2007, four Islamist men, all originally from the Horn of Africa, were sentenced to life in prison by a British judge for attempting to bomb the London transit system on July 21, 2005.
On June 11, 2008, despite much opposition, a new counterterrorism bill passed by a nine-vote margin in the House of Commons. The bill allows the detention of terrorism suspects for up to 42 days without charges, extending the current 28-day detention limit. The vote was seen as a much-needed victory for beleaguered prime minister Brown. On Oct. 13, 2008, in a setback for Brown, the House of Lords rejected the bill in a 309 to 118 vote.
Gordon Brown and Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki made a joint announcement in December 2008, stating that all British troops would be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of July 2009.
A Historic Changing of the Guard
In January 2009, amidst global economic and financial turmoil, the Bank of England cut interest rates by more than a percentage point, from 3% to 1.5%—the lowest level in its 315-year existence.
In May 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported that several MPs had submitted dozens of inappropriate or inflated expense claims, including those for mortgage interest; home repairs and renovations; personal items, including television sets, beds, and manure. As part of the fallout, the speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, was forced to resign in June 2009 amid criticism of his handling of the controversy. He was succeeded by Conservative John Bercow.
Brown called early elections in April 2010, just three years into his term. He never found wide favor among his constituency, and his aloof and often gruff demeanor hurt his popularity ratings. In addition, the global financial crisis left Britain mired in a recession for six straight quarters, beginning in April 2008.
In the May elections, Brown faced off against David Cameron of the Conservative Party and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats. The candidates participated in the country's first ever televised debates. Clegg's charismatic and informed performance boosted his profile and he emerged as a serious contender in the race, making the election one of the most exciting and followed in Britain's history. Cameron was considered the frontrunner throughout the campaign, but his showing in the May 6 election did not meet expectations. Indeed, the election produced a hung Parliament, with none of the competing parties winning enough seats (326) to form a majority government. Conservatives took 306 seats, Labour 258, and Liberal Democrats 57. Brown resigned as head of the Labour Party on May 11, ending 13 years of rule by Labour.
The Conservatives wooed the Liberal Democrats to form a coalition government, offering to put electoral reform—a main point in the party's platform—to a referendum, establish a five-year, fixed term for Parliament, and give the Liberal Democrats five cabinet posts, including Clegg as deputy prime minister. The arrangement marks the first such partnership between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats and the country's first coalition government since World War II. The unlikely partnership raised more than a few eyebrows in Britain and beyond, leaving many to wonder how long the two parties at opposite ends of the political spectrum could work together amicably, especially given the agenda that lies ahead. The government faces the daunting task of imposing austere cost-cutting measures to shore up the flagging economy. Nevertheless, Cameron and Clegg, the young dynamic duo—both are age 43, promised unity and a new direction for the country.
Royal Wedding Precedes Media Scandal
On April 29, 2011, Kate Middleton married Prince William in a $20 million ceremony watched by more than 3 billion people. A million people lined the streets of London, half a million gathered in front of Buckingham Palace, and two billion tuned in via television or computer to watch the couple take their vows at Westminster Abbey. Middleton received rave reviews for wearing a modern, but restrained wedding dress designed by Sarah Burton, the creative director for the late Alexander McQueen.
A media scandal involving the News of the World, the British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, riveted England during the summer of 2011 and had observers all over the world closely following the constantly evolving story. Murdoch shuttered the 168-year-old paper after several allegations surfaced that staffers hacked into voicemail accounts belonging to not only a 13-year-old murder victim, but also the relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of the Royal family, and other public figures. Prime Minister David Cameron ordered two separate investigations after Andy Coulson, Cameron's former communications director and a former editor of News of the World, was arrested under suspicion of corruption and conspiring to intercept communications.
Murdoch's News Corporation suffered financially as stock prices took a hit and he withdrew his $12 billion bid to buy British Sky Broadcasting. Nearly 20 people were arrested in the scandal, including Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World, on suspicion of illegally intercepting phone calls and bribing the police, and Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the tabloid, on suspicion of phone hacking and bribery of police officers. In addition, Paul Stephenson and John Yates, two Scotland Yard senior police officials, resigned amid allegations that police accepted bribes from News of the World employees.
In testimony before a parliamentary committee in July, Rupert Murdoch and his son James apologized for the wiretapping and hacking but denied they knew the unethical practices were taking place at the paper. "This is the most humble day of my life," the elder Murdoch said during the hearing. Another humbling moment occurred when a man threw a pie tin filled with shaving cream at Rupert Murdoch. His wife, Wendi, jumped from her seat and punched the man.
Rioting and looting broke out in several cities throughout the country in early August 2011 after police shot and killed Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man from north London. The protest over his killing was initially peaceful but turned violent, with demonstrators fighting police with makeshift weapons and setting fire to police cars and several buildings. The riots spread to other cities, and police were widely criticized as ineffectual in stemming the violence and looting. Cameron pledged to "fight back" against the rioters, describing them as "groups of thugs."
London Sets New Olympic Record
For the third time in modern Olympic history, London, England, was the proud host of the Games, making it the first city to achieve such an honor. Channeling social media with apps, updates, streaming, and tweets, the 2012 Summer Olympics lived up to their hype as the first truly "multiplatform Games," which made these Olympics instant, accessible and interactive.
Same-Sex Marriage Bill Passes and Receives Royal Approval
On July 17, 2013, Queen Elizabeth II approved a same-sex marriage bill. Her approval came the day after it passed in Parliament. While the queen's approval was simply a formality, her quick response cleared the way for the first gay marriages to happen next summer in the United Kingdom.
The bill allowed same-sex couples to marry in both religious and civil ceremonies in England and Wales. It also allowed couples currently in a civil partnership to convert it into a marriage.
The Duchess of Cambridge Gives Birth to a Baby Boy—and Later a Girl
Source: Luke MacGregor/Pool Reuters/Associated Press
On July 22, 2013, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to a baby boy named George Alexander Louis. The baby was born at 4:24 p.m. and weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces. Catherine gave birth in the private Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital in London, the same place where Prince William was born.
The baby's name was announced two days after his birth. George Alexander Louis would also have the title His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge and would be third in line to the throne, following Prince Charles and Prince William. Due to a rule change in 2011 that ended the long-standing tradition that the crown was only bestowed on a daughter when there were no sons, Prince William and Catherine's baby would have been third in line to the throne no matter the gender, because the baby was their first born.
Prince William and Catherine weren't the only happy couple to receive baby gifts. Any baby born in Britain on July 22, 2013, would receive a silver penny from the Royal Mint.
Catherine gave birth to her second child, a girl Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, on May 2, 2015. She weighed 8lbs 3oz.
Parliament Rejects Cameron's Plan to Strike Syria
In August 2013, Syria was accused of launching a chemical attack in suburbs east of Damascus, killing about 1,400 people, many of them women and children. President Barack Obama announced plans to strike military bases and the artillery that he believes were responsible for the chemical attack. Prime Minister Cameron backed Obama's plan. However, on Aug. 29, the British parliament rejected Cameron's request for authorization to attack Syria—a stunning rebuke to Cameron. The vote was 285-to-272, with 224 members of the opposition Labour Party voting against the request, citing the lessons learned from the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After the vote, President Obama said he would seek Congressional approval of a military strike.
Cameron's government suffered another blow in June 2014 when his former press secretary Andy Coulson was found guilty of phone-hacking when he was tabloid editor.
Cameron Wins a Second Term in a Resounding Victory
Cameron's Conservative Party breezed to victory over Labour in the May 2015 general election. The Conservatives won enough seats to secure an outright majority in Parliament, and Cameron earned a second five-year term as prime minister. It was a stunning loss for Labour's Ed Miliband, who resigned the day after the election. Polls indicated a close race, but it turned out to be a rout for Labour. The Conservatives took 331 of 650 seats in the House of Commons, an increase of 24 seats from the 2010 race. Labour won 232 seats, 26 fewer than in 2010. Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats, who joined the Conservatives in a coalition government after the 2010 election, also fared poorly, taking just eight seats. They secured 57 in the previous election. He also resigned as party leader.
See also Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and dependencies of the United Kingdom.
See also Encyclopedia: Great Britain and England .
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: United Kingdom
Office for National Statistics www.statistics.gov.uk/ .


With the damning findings of a federal investigation set to delay Metro's light rail plans for at least a year, now more than ever the transit agency wants to distance itself from the old metro. The new Metro board has vowed to provide greater transparency, and to signify the shift it's now streaming every board meeting live on the web for public consumption. Wendy Siegle has more.
Not long ago, Metro faced harsh criticism for not being as transparent as some had hoped. There were many gripes about the agency's lack of public openness; its failure to post meeting times online was one of them. Metro caved-in last year and started posting the times online, but the rebranded "New Metro" has gone a step further. Now people can watch committee meetings and board meetings live on their computers.
Robin Holzer of the Citizens Transportation Coalition says the webcasting feature is a positive improvement. People can watch the meetings live on Metro's website, or view them later through the online archives. Metro President and CEO George Greanias underscored the benefit of being able to stream the board's committee meetings since that's where most of the decision-making takes place.
But watching the meetings online only gives people the opportunity to receive information, not give it.
By voicing their concerns in person, Greanias says people are able to get feedback from the board in the moment. Holzer agrees but says the new webcasts may spur other modes of involvement.
Holzer says transit projects are better when the public's involved. The first step, she adds, is knowing what Metro has on the table.
After promoting how the "New Metro" will provide more opportunity for public involvement, the agency contends its new webcast feature is another step toward its goal of greater transparency.


~ We are a Company specialized in Book Publishing. Our Publication is all about Education. We Publish to Educate … We Tutor to enable you to earn your degree. We build your website to promote your Business, School, Church, Institution, Organization or Association. We write your Grant Proposals to enable you to get money to support your undertaking.
WHERE ARE THE LIBERIAN WRITERS?
Where are our intellectuals from whom we expect to see books written by them for our Liberian school system?
Where are the critics who have long complained that the Liberian school system has nothing but out dated books?
Where are the critics who kept telling us that books used in the Liberian school system are irrelevant for the Liberia culture?
Where are our graduate and post graduate scholars who have expressed concerns for the lack of books for Liberian schools?
Where are our Liberian scholars who are acquiring their graduate and post graduate degrees in Education, Curriculum Design, School Administration, and a host of other education topics?
Where are our lawyers, when last were some of our law books up dated, [Labor Law, Criminal Code, Constitutional Law, ] etc.
Where are our writers, where are our folklorists, where are our economists, where are our sociologists, where are our historians, our politicians and those majoring in natural sciences? Where are our elementary school teachers, where are our high school teachers, and where are our college professors? Are they writing? Where are the nurses and doctors who understand our healthcare problems and are able to address those critical health and hygiene issues in books for our people to read? The Ebola epidemic we just went through, who is going to write on this epidemic? I am not talking about criticizing Ellen for what you think she did not do or or what she did wrong; I am talking about the root causes of the epidemic and how do we, as a nation, prepare for it if it were to descend upon us again. What preventive measures do we need to take against ebola and other kinds of epidemics, malaria and other health problems?
We have the glorious opportunity now to write books for our children but we hear no voices, we see no manuscripts. We Liberians need to go beyond criticisms and castigating of other people and institutions and do some constructive writing that provide teachable moment for people to learn from your suggestions and recommendations for improvement. Our people are hungry for information to meet their literary needs. Criticism has its place, but what we need now is knowledge, education and recommendations and suggestion for improvement.
Kiiton Press is here to fill the void and the lack of book publishers qualified to publish books for our people. Now we have a publishing house, the community has gone silent when it comes to writing for our schools. The only popular discussion most people see is "Who is corrupt and who is not corrupt in Liberia." Interesting–we are a peculiar people.
Buy a book and see for yourself the quality of work we do. Kiiton press is not a "Tribal Institution," nor a "Regional Company." We publish and promote all the books we publish regardless of which ethnic group you come from or which session in Liberia belong to. Our loyalty is to Liberian education, not to a tribal education of any given ethnic group. We are here to help all Liberians and other people outside of Liberia. See some of the people for whom we have published: Some authors from Kiiton Press.


text:
Strauss Thump
by Airborne Toxic Event
Glen Schenau
Lithuanian 02:47
Hal 08:57
WOO (Live) 01:26
Coffins 03:21
Did You Know That Instruments Could Talk? 06:25
Strauss Thump 02:28
Fear Of Change 04:59
Countdown 05:15
Goose Brain 07:00
I'm Reading 03:27
You're Useless 06:45
Sexy 04:41
Airborne Toxic Event were an alternative/industrial performance group. The most significant performances were in Brisbane, Australia during 1990 and 1991.
The group's name came from a chapter in "White Noise", a famous book by the American writer Don DeLillo.
Musical influences were: SPK, Laibach, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Throbbing Gristle, and many others.
Artistic influences were DADA. We had all read lots of film theory and William S Burroughs before deciding to form a band.
Each member had been in other acts before ATE (The Pits, Birds Of Tin, MTTV, Xero) and were disenchanted with the contemporary guitar-oriented music scene of the early 1990's.
Totally sick of the formulaic direction electronic dance music was taking, they wanted to do something really different with samplers.
There was also a fairly popular "Performance Poetry" thing happening in Brisbane at the time. The Shamrock Hotel in Fortitude Valley had special "Poet's Nights" that the band would go along to sometimes.
ATE met at a Spring Hill flat each week. Drawing a "Big Picture" on butchers' paper helped plan future performances. Each member would "brainstorm" the paper with things to do. Some of these drawings got very arty as the night progressed.
The neighbours hated "Practice Night"....
The band liked to project Super-8 movies and slides onto the stage during shows to add to the visual performance. All the instruments were played live. No two performances were ever alike.
Unfortunately there were few photographs taken.
One of the most unusual features of this outfit was a decision to play without any drums (real or electronic). This really annoyed some people (who just need a beat). You know?
Use of early model digital samplers (Roland S-50 and Casio FZ-1) allowed repetitious "loops" to provide some kind of rhythm when desired.
Instruments were swapped among the players as needed. Performance standards were pretty "slack" compared to more "rocking" bands most people are used to.
Occasionally pieces of metal were beaten during a performance. (Thanks Alex and Sativa.)
Snatches of obscure radio broadcasts were layered under the other sounds.
Synthesisers replaced traditional bass instruments as well. Vocals were heavily distorted by reverb/chorus/delay as desired. A megaphone helped too.
Despite the electronica, ATE was not a dance-oriented band, at all.
One early show was at the old 4ZZZ studios at University of Queensland. Also performing that night were He Dark Age and Grunt. This was a very interesting night for the few who ventured to it. Grunt made use of a number of home made musical instruments in their show.
The 4ZZZ Band Collective ran the B.C. Club at Queensland University of Technology. The Collective's main function was to keep radio station 4ZZZ FM supplied with local bands for its benefit performances. ATE joined the Collective, participated at most meetings, and played for them a few times.
Unfortunately the club at QUT was never very popular because it was some walking distance from Brisbane's main nightclub districts and public transport routes. The Collective never reached its potential, and broke-up after some internal disputes over membership rules, and rowdy behaviour at meetings.
ATE did several free outdoor shows for 4ZZZ, mostly at Albert Park. One memorable performance involved several "guest" audience members hitting various thick pieces of metal. The "rock-heads" present didn't like it much.
The quartet supported Einstuerzende Neubauten at their only Brisbane performance (at Metropolis Hotel, on 2 July 1991). Some of this show was captured on film, but might have been too dark for use. A few of the Goth types were interested in the act.
They also did the 1991 Brisbane Anarchist Society Ball at West End Migrant Centre. The group's musical performance was at its peak by this stage.
After a few other "minor" performances, including the Treasury Hotel, the excitement was gone....
The members all got real lives, and work. They still see each other socially when they can.
On 7 March 2008 the band reformed to perform "WOO" at Brisbane's Institute of Modern Art.
Irena Luckus - keyboards, lyrics noise
Michael Elliott - keyboards, noise
David Macpherson - keyboards, et al.
Peter Macpherson - more of the same
alternative australia brisbane experimental non-music post-genre sound art Brisbane
Brisbane Music Graveyard Brisbane, Australia
A passionate posterity project aiming to share some of the great music created in South East QLD that might otherwise be lost to boxes under beds and discarded hard drives.
All monies go to 4ZZZ.
A 4000 Records initiative.
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4zzz.org.au
Brisbane Bands Of The Early 80s
Music From the State of Corruption
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Harold And Maude [Single]
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Brisbane Music Graveyard recommends:
Kinds Of Sadness
by Cloud Tangle
The debut album from Brisbane dark ethereal slowcore songstress Cloud Tangle. This album is awash with silky vocals, dreamy guitar, haunting synths and bold yet unobtrusive percussion. Brisbane Music Graveyard
Stephenson Street / Coalfalls [Single]
by Coalfalls
Incredible debut release from Ipswich trio Coalfalls. Instrumental sonicscapes with post-punk and shoegaze leanings. Highly recommended. Brisbane Music Graveyard
Marmaleene and The Moondusters
by Marmaleene and The Moondusters
Surf's up!! This is the collected works of a shirt-lived Brisbane psychedelic surf trio. Coming in at 1 hr 45mins - this is all the burly surf music you'll need to your next trip to the moon! Brisbane Music Graveyard
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