I didn’t have a chance to complete last Sunday’s post as we were dealing with the second loss of a pet this month. Hope, our fifteen-year-old who we adopted back in 2014, had a gastro-intestinal carcinoma and was euthanized. She joined Alfie, who lost his fight with a heart condition on November 3rd.
We’ve given a home to two feral kittens who were born on August 22nd. They’re live wires, until they tucker themselves out. We’ve named the boy, Leo, and the girl is Lucy. So far, Tommy our feral from Michigan who has been with us since 2017, doesn’t seem to impressed with the newcomers, but he should settle down eventually.
There’s been plenty of wildlife visitors this week: deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, and birds. The kittens are enjoying watching them on the deck!
The Detroit Lions lost to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving Day, dropping their record to 7-5. They’re still in the hunt for a post-season playoff position, but need to win the rest of their games and hope for some help from other teams.
The Detroit Pistons saw their thirteen-game winning streak snapped as they lost two games. They won last night and are still in first place in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division, with a 16-4 record.
The Michigan Wolverines lost to the Ohio State Buckeyes 27-9, dropping their record to 9-3, while Ohio State remains undefeated. The Wolverines are out of the college playoff picture, but will still be invited to a bowl game.
Meanwhile, the Michigan State Spartans upped their record to 4-8 with a 38-28 win over Maryland. Unfortunately, the Spartans are not bowl-eligible this year as a minimum of six wins are needed.
Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players .… I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.” —Gore Vidal. Compliments of https://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/72-of-the-best-quotes-about-writing.
So who was born on this date in history? Let’s find out who in the writing world was born on November 30th, the forty-eigth Sunday of 2025 and the fifth and final one in November. (Compliments of https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/).
Veronica Gambara, Italian poet; Philip Sidney, English Elizabethan era poet (Arcadia) and soldier; Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, French ecclesiastical historian; Johnathan Swift, Irish author and satirist (Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal); John Toland, Irish rationalist philosopher; Hermann Kurz, German poet and novelist (Schillers Heimatjahre); Louise-Victorine Ackermann, French poet (works characterized by a deep sense of pessimism); Theodor Mommsen, German historian and scholar (A History of Rome) who won the 1902 Nobel Prize in Literature; Henri Ernest Baillon, French botanist (History of Plants); Mark Twain, American author (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer); József Kiss, Hungarian literary (Zsido Dalok); John McCrae, Canadian physician, soldier and poet (In Flanders Fields); Lucy Maud Montgomery,Canadian author (Anne of Green Gables), Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister (Conservative: 1940-45, 1951-55) during World War II, and writer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1953); John Tasker Howard, American composer and music historian; Corneel Goossens, Flemish literary figure and art historian; Jacques Barzun, French author (The House of Intellect); Robert Lax, American poet (The Circus of the Sun; The Peacemaker’s Handbook); Anne Wadman, Dutch writer who wrote in Frisian (Fioele & faem, Smearlappen); Robert Evett, American composer, writer, editor, and music critic; oan Ganz Cooney, American educational television writer and producer (co-founder of the Children’s Television Workshop; Sesame Street); Adeline Yen Mah, Chinese-American writer (Falling Leaves) and physician; David Mamet, American playwright (Speed the Plow, House of Games); Sergio Badilla Castillo, Chilean poet; Keith Giffen, American comic book writer and artist (Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League); Joël Champetier, French Canadian science fiction author (La Taupe et le Dragon; Survie sur Mars); Daniel Keys Moran, American sci-fi writer (The Great Wheel of Existence); David Nicholls, English novelist and screenwriter (One Day); Chris Weitz, American screenwriter and director (About a Boy, The Golden Compass); and David Auburn, American screenwriter, theatre director and playwright (Proof; Summer, 1976).
Any names familiar to you? There were three for me this week: Johnathan Swift, Mark Twain, and Winston Churchill. Whether you recognize anyone on the list or not, if today’s your special day I hope you have a great one!
My Work In Progress
Since my last post I’ve completed the first edit pass on the manuscript for Harding’s Challenge: The Great Rebellion based on reader feedback and make adjustments based on what I think works best. I should finish the first of six/seven edit passes over the next week. There were another eight new chapter reviews, bringing the total to 341. As always, plenty of feedback to improve the story.
Here’s another snippet:
“I am making an assembly in the ballroom. I would like for you to join us there.” Izabella stared her down, lifting her chin a bit too high.
“But of course, mistress. I will be there momentarily.” Anna replied with a curtness that came out rather abrupt. At least, far more than she anticipated.
“What was that, Annabelle?” Izabella’s mouth twisted as her hard eyes narrowed. The woman looked slightly miffed as her finely contoured brow instantly perked above her right eye.
Anna bowed, avoiding Izabella’s challenging stare, lowered her head and curtsied. “I will be there in haste, Madam Latimer. Most certainly,” Anna murmured.
“Humph. See that you do, or else I might have to see to your disciplining.” Izabella scoffed as she glanced down at her. Her fairer skin seemed to tinge as her cheeks flushed.
Anna knew better than to lift her chin, or else the tines of Izabella’s beautifully cut Marquis Diamond might meet her cheek and leave a nasty cut. Worse, she would be made to clean the mess and suffer the ridiculing of someone who would be in her same position if it weren’t for the governor.
Anna wanted more than anything to spit out her thoughts but knew better than to do anything of the sort. Risking Evie would be selfish, and it was something she couldn’t bring herself to do. No matter how angry Izabella might have made her, betrayal was beneath her, and Anna waited patiently as the woman shuffled her petticoats.
Something large and black suddenly darted across the floor, just adjacent to the door, and Izabella immediately froze in place.
“Ah! Good God!” Izabella’s hand flew up to her chest as her jaw dropped. “What on earth is that?”
Anna glanced where Izabella pointed, her lips curving into a slight grin upon realizing what it was.
“It would appear your daughter has been building automatons again, Madam Latimer,” Anna remarked.
“But what is it?” she hissed. “Oh, my heavens!” She stepped back with a frown. “Is that a mouse?” She groaned as she pointed at the creature again. “Hurry, remove it! Ugh, what did that refinery teach her? This is not ladylike!” But, Izabella knew full well, it was the tutoring of her husband that gave rise to Evie’s menagerie of automaton animals.
Each statement found Anna hiding the smile that twitched at the edges of her lips. She bit back a chuckle. Izabella’s fear of a mouse, even a mechanical one, was just enough to soothe the pain of Anna’s position—at least for the time being.
Following her mistress’s request, Anna scooped up the mechanical creature and looked it over.
“Indeed, mistress. It is a mouse. Or maybe a rat?” Her eyes widened.
“Oh! No, please! Stomp it! Get rid of it!” Izabella turned and laid a hand on her forehead, groaning in disgust. “Whatever you do, I never wish to see the creature again.”
“I will get rid of it hastily, madam.” Anna headed toward the door.
Izabella exhaled with a sigh so loud she might have heard it from the servants’ quarters.
“Oh, I swear this house will be the death of me. God, deliver me from this world of calamity!”
Once the door closed, Anna rolled her eyes, thinking the woman knew nothing of calamity, but still smiled at Evangeline’s newest creature. Its arrival was perfect timing, and Anna wondered if there was any way Evie could have operated it from a distance. Could Evangeline be that innovative? That intelligent?
Anna took the mouse and placed it into her apron pocket, determining that she would hold onto it. How could she destroy something that brought her both a smile and peace at a moment she so sorely needed it?
How could she destroy something that was made by the hands of her sister?
More next time.
This brings us to an end for another week. I hope you found something of interest. If you have any suggestions for a topic you’d like to read about, please let me know. Until the next time, thank you for reading and hope you drop in again.
© Copyright 2025 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved
