writing

We’re Going Walkabout to Writeabout

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What are your plans for the Labor Day Weekend?  Have you ever gone “Walkabout”?  Just taking off on  a walking trip thru nature?  Wonderful exercise and helps clear the mind while restoring energy and balance.   Take along the binoculars for bird and other animal watching if you have them.  And a camera to remember the journey.   It’s good to be outdoors in the fresh air, reconnecting with Mother Nature and her wondrous bounties and creations.  It would be a great time to visit one of the wonderful local, state or national parks.

I will be going “Walkabout” myself over the weekend, while also going “Writeabout”, spending the weekend with Little Red Bear to complete the fifth story in his upcoming collection of adventures.  It involves an abandoned old mine, and we’ll just leave it at that for now.  Four stories are in the hopper and ready to go, and the fifth to be finished this weekend.  We have about a dozen competing story ideas to be number six in the first collection, but we need to finish number five first.  That’s our plan for the weekend.

Little Red Bear asked me to remind  that if you are headed outdoors over the holiday weekend- picnics, camping, hiking, etc.- please do be careful of fires, most especially in drought-stricken areas, the Southwest, California and other red-flagged western areas where it has been so dry.  There are a lot of homes at stake– human and wildlife.   As our friend Smokey says-

“Remember- only YOU can prevent forest fires!”– Smokey the Bear

And if headed to the beach, please keep a watch for dangerous rip currents still present from off-shore storms on both coasts. And remember the sunscreen.

Please check back next week for more Little Red Bear updates.   Our new Blog assistant, Rusty the Fairydiddle, left on an out-of-town assignment a couple weeks ago and I haven’t heard from him in a while.  Should we be concerned? 

As always, thanks for reading and have a wonderful, safe weekend! — Jim (and Red!)

Smokey the Bear and Babes in the Woods
Smokey the Bear Rules for Fire Safety

 

Over 100 and Over the Moon!

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DANCE PARTY!!    Announcing →→→→  My Facebook Author Page has over 100 LIKES and followers now– 102 to be precise!!  Huzzah and Hooray!!   We made it over 100 folks!  And my new Blog here is up to 30 followers already!  Little Red Bear is over the moon with it all.

A Big Bear Hug and Thank You to all reading and following along!  And if you haven’t yet,  there are links on the right hand side to join the party → My Author Facebook Page, the Blog here, and Twitter.   It’s never too late and the door’s always open to new friends.

Watch for a major news announcement here shortly.  (Hint- the newly created Blog Assistant Position has been filled!)   And more new posts in the coming days. 

Oh happy day→ we made it over 100!!    Let the dancing begin!!    

Hop-Ta-Doody-Day!!

 

Bear Dance Party!
Dance Party!
Dancing Bears Hokey Pokey

 

 

Happy Birthday to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!

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Happy Birthday today to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle!  Born in Edinburgh Scotland on May 22, 1859.  A Scottish physician, he is most famous for having created the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.

Could there be a Holmesian type mystery in the works for Little Red Bear and his friends in the Ozarks?  Stay tuned, because you never know what those weasels might be up to at any given moment.  How will you know if a mystery unfolds in the backwoods?  It’s elementary my Dear Watson, just follow along on the Blog.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

To “Bee” or Not to “Be”?

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The first collection in the “Adventures of Little Red Bear” series of short stories is moving right along.  From the beginning, I have thought six stories would be a good number for the first collection.  Half a dozen.  It’s a good number.  Red and I have finished with four of his first adventures, are nearing completion on the fifth story, and have had the sixth and final story for the first collection planned for awhile now and are ready to get busy on it.

But that’s the problem.  Story ideas usually come to me somewhere around 5am.  I wake up from sleeping and BAMM!  A new story idea is writing itself in my mind, or new story characters are chattering away in my head.  But the ideas don’t always arrive with the morning sun.  Sometimes they come out of nowhere, like yesterday afternoon.  Without thinking about it, a new story idea popped into my head that would make a very nice ending story for the first collection, too.  It involves this guy.

Honey Bee Carrying Pollen Back to the Hive

So now, what to do?  Hold it over for the next story collection?  It’s one of those that is almost writing itself, wanting to be told.  Hold what was previously planned for the final adventure over, and go with the new one?  Red and I already have more than enough adventures planned for the second collection of stories, so holding either one over creates a cascading domino effect of which adventure gets pushed out of the second collection then?  Or, include both and expand the first collection to seven stories?  Good grief.

I love it when new ideas and story characters come to mind, although sometimes it can be problematic.  But like we always say, there’s always room for one more.  Guess Little Red Bear and I need to sit down later over some biscuits and honey and figure this out.