CHICKENS is now available in the Kindle Store.

TEXAS+CHICAGO+OREGON+VERMONT+CHICKENS+TEXAS+CHICAGO+OREGON+VERMONT+CHICKENS

Galen and I gave a program for the United Methodist Women in the San Luis Valley last Saturday. We read a couple of the stories from my books, played some music, and talked about publishing. We'd never done a program like this before and really enjoyed it. I printed out the above poster to pass around during the talk. KENTUCKY CLIPPINGS isn't actually published yet but is well on the way.


The Kindle version of Chickens in the News is live! The paperback is also available here.

There is one impressive story the didn't make it into the CHICKENS book — Mike the headless chicken. True Story. Mike lived in Fruita, Colorado, without a head, for 18 months in the 1940s. I Googled ""headless chicken" and looked at pictures. Ewww! Kind of gross. Want to know more? Check out this PBS video. I am okay with not having this story in my book. :-)

Shameful neglect

I have shamefully neglected this blog for quite a while now and it is time to rectify that because I am about to publish my first paperback! I received a proof of CHICKENS IN THE NEWS today, five days before I expected it. This is what the front cover looks like:

Obviously, this is not a scholarly work but it sure was a fun project that is historical, at times hysterical, and sometimes both at the same time. Who knew chickens could be newsworthy? Did you know the rooster was once the emblem of the Democratic party? Or that there was a supreme court case about chickens? Or that a man and his rooster and hens were all arrested and taken to jail for making too much noise? Or that a shark broke into a hen house? Or that a very well-known minister of his day preached a very long [and drastically edited by me] sermon about chickens?

A Kindle version for $1.99 and the paperback for $4.99 should be available at Amazon by the end of the month—June 2016. I will post here when the books go live.

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A Kindle countdown for TEXAS CLIPPINGS begins on June 30—99 cents for five days. 

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Research and typing for another new book, KENTUCKY CLIPPINGS, is in the first proofreading stage and will be published in both Kindle and paperback versions this summer.

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I have been learning and learning and learning new software, SCRIVENER, so I could publish paperbacks. Scrivener is wonderful but is a bear to learn, in part because different people have different ways of doing things and all the ways are right. I have read it is perfectly normal to want to tear your hair out when you first begin using this powerful writer's software, but more and more of it makes sense to me now and I am glad I put in the effort to learn as much as I have so far. I first tried finding my way around SCRIVENER with TEXAS CLIPPINGS and quickly decided that it was not a good idea to begin that particular process with a 300+ page book so CHICKENS gets to be my first paperback.

Chicken Clippings

We have seven hens and a rooster – our first chickens ever, and are amazed at how personable they are.  We are keeping them for eggs, not Sunday dinner.  Anyway, having chickens has made me more sensitive to clippings about them.  Here are some from my book Chicago Clippings:

Joseph Schubert admitted charge of his landlord that his chickens were eating cement floor under his store and said they laid hard shelled eggs because of their diet.

Rev. G.A.T. Cornelius, Los Angeles, while feeding chickens, came on egg with his initials on it.  This may prove something but we don’t know what.

A. Greer, Asheville, N.C., refused $500 for bulldog which he has trained to keep chickens in coop until they lay their quota of eggs.

Maltese cat hatched 15 chickens from eggs of hen belonging to Peter Donlin, Pittsfield, Mass., which died.

A Columbia, Conn., hen is said to have laid an egg bearing a picture of Col. Roosevelt. This is the ultimate in campaign press agent work.

Gary, Ind.–Judge Huber interrupted court until he went home and got chickens out of rain.

New York.–In mix up of suitcases on steamer Robert Fulton, Mrs. Hull, Brooklyn, lost one containing $600 worth of jewelry and received one filled with broiled chickens.

Bristol, Pa.–Mrs. Ellen Buck, chicken fancier, as an experiment, made flannel coat for rooster, whereupon 65 other chickens followed her around until they all got coats.

Bloomington, Ill.–Lady Show You III, champion hen, has been sold to J.A. Bell, Chicago, for $800.  Has record of 82 eggs in 82 consecutive days and 281 eggs for last year.

Tarrytown, N.Y.–Hen belonging to Gilbert Brown laid 72 eggs in icehouse last summer.  Brown training other hens to try cold storage system.

Rooster perched on bellcord of N.Y., Bridgeport, express, causing signal for engineer to stop train.  “&@5!*!” being what the engineer said about it.

Boston.––“Freckles,” cat owned by Mrs. C.A. Buzzed, had litter of kittens.  Were drowned.  “Freckles” kidnapped 3 chickens from hen and is raising them.

This chicken story is from a September, 1899 Oregon newspaper:  Three hens belonging to Dr. Shaw, of Russellville, Ky., are high flyers.  They recently ascended 200 feet in the air in pursuit of a hawk.  When the noon whistles blow they quit scratching gravel and hasten home to dinner.