The temperature was all over the place this week, ranging from a high of 92 degrees to a low of 78. There were also a couple of brief thunderstorms. After today, the forecast is for temperatures in the 70s. Meanwhile, the deer and wild turkeys continue to visit, although their appearance aren’t as frequent, at least during daylight hours.
We had a pleasant surprise this week when T-Mobile showed up to install two-gig fiber internet on our estate. Needless to say, we signed up and it was installed on Thursday. Since we were used to fiber in Scotland, it was a disappointment when we moved and had to rely on broadband service that was intermittent, requiring us to also purchase a hot spot to ensure connectivity. Now we’ve cancelled the broadband and hotspot, which was twice what we’re paying for the fiber.
After a fantastic start to the season and for most of the year, The Detroit Tigers were on a roll, with at least a ten-game lead over whoever was in second place in the American League Central Division. The regular ends today and Detroit is tried with Cleveland for top of the division. Both teams will be in the playoffs, but the final season games will determine who they play.
The Detroit Lions played the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night and came away with a 38-30 victory. Detroit plays Cleveland today. Go Lions!
The Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans both had a bye this week, so I’ll wait to wait for next weekend to watch them play.
“The writing of a novel is taking life as it already exists, not to report it but to make an object, toward the end that the finished work might contain this life inside it and offer it to the reader. The essence will not be, of course, the same thing as the raw material; it is not even of the same family of things. The novel is something that never was before and will not be again.” — Eudora Welty, WD. 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 September 28th, the thirty-ninth Sunday of 2025 and the fourth and final one in September. (Compliments of https://www.onthisday.com/birthdays/).
Agnolo Firenzuola, Italian poet and litterateur; Alessandro Tassoni, Italian political writer (La secchia rapita – The Kidnapped Bucket); David Walker, African-American abolitionist (Appeal to Colored Citizens); Prosper Mérimée, French author (Carmen); Francis Turner Palgrave, English poet (Golden Treasury); Rudolf Baumbach, German writer of student drinking songs; Henry Arthur Jones, English playwright (Judah); Thomas Frederick Tout, British historian (Manchester school of historiography); Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm); Barry Pain, English writer (Punch); Wacław Rawicz [Berent], Polish biologist and writer; Stanner E.V. Taylor, American director and screenwriter (Lucky Jim, Ramona); Eugenio d’Ors, Spanish Catalan essayist and philosopher; Herman [H. C.] McNeile [pen name Sapper), English soldier and writer (Bulldog Drummond); Elmer RIce, American playwright (Pulitzer-Street Scene) and novelist; Charles Petrie, British historian known for his study of royalism and Jacobitism (If: A Jacobite Fantasy); Muchtar Auezov, Kazakh writer; Ed Sullivan, American newspaper columnist, and television host (The Ed Sullivan Show); Stephen Spender, English poet (Oxford Poets); Edith Pargeter, English author (wrote as Ellis Peters); Antonio Jacinto, Angolan poet; Edgar Feuchtwanger, German-British historian and author (Hitler, My Neighbour); “Tuli” Naphtali Kupferberg, American poet and singer (Fugs); Thomas J.J. Altizer, US Radical theologian (God is Dead); Michael G. Coney, English-Canadian sci-fi author (Cat Karina); Nabil Maleh, Syrian film director and writer; Gillian Rose, English philosopher and writer; Brian Keenan, Irish author (An Evil Cradling); and Ben Greenman, American author and editor (The New Yorker).
Any names familiar to you? There was one for me this week: Ed Sullivan. 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
Work slowly continued on my first edit pass of the manuscript for Harding’s Challenge: The Great Rebellion based on reader feedback and make adjustments based on what I think works best. Since my last post, there were another four new chapter reviews this week, bringing the total to 307. As always, plenty of feedback to improve the story.
Here’s another snippet:
Evangeline owned many pets. They weren’t real in the sense of breathing and with a heartbeat, but they were her pets. Nor were they make-believe. They were as real to her as the breathing type, but she’d fashioned these from her imagination. Her automaton creations were that better than your usual, run-of-the-mill breathing creatures.
She loved the sense of the cool metal beneath her fingers, the smell of hot oil that the things emitted. She cared most that she could give each tiny beast a purpose, a service of sorts. There were some that could fetch things for you, act as eyes and ears, or do repetitious tasks that made life easier. But for her, it was far more than that. They gave her the sense she wasn’t alone anymore.
Continual solitude, paired with an abusive father—not just to her, but to everyone around her—was just about more than the young woman could bear.
The one thing that upset her most as a child was her father never allowed her to have a live pet. Not a single one.
However, her father held vast resources, which meant what she couldn’t create herself, she could dream up and he would find someone smart enough to bring her designs to life. It came with a cost, though; she learned later that often the designs of her creations were weaponized and used for evil.
Through time, her requests for specific types of creatures became very intricate and refined in nature. The one her mother insisted was the least ladylike creature she ever could have asked for was an arachnid.
“Spiders are not for playing with, Evangeline,” her mother would say. “You are a lady of refinement and are to act as such.”
Evangeline, who also went by Evie, was never too concerned with her mother’s criticisms; those often came filtered down from her deranged father.
Evie paced in her room, reviewing the events of the day and their implication as the automaton crawled up her arm. The spider her mother so desperately wanted her to discard quickly become her best friend and one of her favorite creations.
The spider’s clockwork gears moved its eight legs toward her.
“My dearest Prissy,” Evie murmured.
Smiling, Evie adored Prissy despite what her parents thought of it. Both Barnabas and Izabella Latimer insisted their daughter be nothing but the picturesque, prim and proper, young lady society would expect.
She was a natural beauty, after all; that part was easy. It was her willing participation in the events and discussions of the hateful beliefs of her father and his friends that were problematic.
Her striking, deep blue eyes complemented her pale white skin, but the raven color of her hair was one thing her father always detested when it came to what he wished to hide most from the world. Indeed, Evangeline Elizabeth Latimer was the picture of beauty and propriety; and her mother worked hard to ensure that her unfortunate mistruth should never come to light.
On the other hand, while her father was deceitful and secretive, his daughter’s hair was a quick reminder of the shrouded truth their family held, hoping she would stay in the dark about her history.
Deep within the core of Evie’s soul, she knew something was amiss with her parents. The stern way her father regarded her mother always showed an iciness bordering on disdain. Evangeline held theories as to why, but her delicate education and time at The Three Graces Finishing School for Southern Young Ladies prevented her from verbalizing them. Evie frowned, loathing that place with every fiber of her soul. Despite her aversion, she learned to be a lady.
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.
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