From the Desk of Patty L. Fletcher – a Bit of Positivity to Fuel the Day – a Short Story to Carry Along the Way and Some Time Sensitive Information for all from The Seeing Eye® to Help Plan Your Day
By Patty L. Fletcher
Tuesday July 16, 2024
*Reader’s Note*
When I sat down to begin this post, it was not quite 8:30 AM Tuesday morning. It is now 1:23 PM in the afternoon of the same day and I’m just now sitting down to complete it.
🤷♀️
It’s been a terribly busy day.
One more thing, this newsletter is navigable via heading navigation.
Greetings…
Today, I’m alternating between housework, clearing out my inbox and catching up on stuff I missed while I was on staycation.
Below you’ll find a post of positivity to fuel your day, a short story to carry along your way, and some important news you’re going to want to save, to help plan your day.
First, a little update from me and the Chief.
I suppose I should get to the news everyone is waiting for. If you’ve read or know someone who has read The Blended Lives Chronicles: Sides of the Order Book I you and readers everywhere are going to be excited to learn, the manuscript for the second book in the series, A Battle of Choices is now with my editor and right-hand lady Dawn Blythe. Things are a bit behind schedule but we’re still hopeful of having it out by the Celtic New Year – Samhain – Halloween season.
🎃🎃
I’m over the moon and thanks to all the feedback from readers via way of reviews, notes, phone calls and texts, the second book, The Blended Lives Chronicles: A Battle of Choices II is going to be better than ever.
The Blended Lives Chronicles a Lady MoonWalker series is near and dear to my heart. It’s a romance, yes, there is science fiction, and fantasy too. But the series is so much more. It deals with disAbility, the hot button political issues of the day, discrimination, abuse, and mental illness too.
I invite you to please make sure you pick up a copy and you can do so free until the end of this month. Make sure you keep reading to the end to learn how.
On the home front, this morning, when I put out a call via text to my friends for help getting a new iPhone charger quick, because mine had shorted out, one of my helpers saw my plea and when I asked her if I could drop her some PayPal money so she could add it to the Walmart order she was helping me fill out, because I have a bit of trouble doing so, she said yes. That was great by itself. But when she saw the delivery time on the order, she decided to make a run to the store to pick one up rather than waiting because my phone was near death’s door, and she didn’t want me to be without. I tried to tell her that I had my iPad and an old-fashioned landline, but she would not hear of it.
I really do have some awesome friends.
I’m still infested with ants. I must tell you; I know they’re bad everywhere but here, I’ve never seen the like. When you find them on food or in a drink you may have sitting beside your bed, or on your desk while you work, if you pick up the thing, they’re in or on they swarm. They are aggressive. I have tried every treatment people have shared, sprayed my windows, yet still they’re coming in by the droves.
When I asked our pest control about this he said, “We’ve been instructed to spray the outsides of your windows.”
I’ve been told, by more than one person of a reliable source, that there is a bed of ants underneath or at the edge of the building and until this is removed, the problem will continue.
Ah, well, it’s what it is. But if I suddenly disappear you know the ants have decided to carry me away, so I will stop killing their colony.
I drown suffocate, or squish every, single, one of the devils I can, and I feel no guilt.
Something to note, these little buggers bite, and while one or two bites don’t do damage, I am allergic to all stinging and biting insects and I now have reason to believe these ants are part of the sinus issue I cannot seem to get rid of.
If this isn’t enough to raise a body’s blood pressure, which is really starting to be a thing here, I fell from a rotting swing a few weeks ago, and rather than getting better the injuries I suffered from that are worse.
It was with all that swirling round in my mind, threatening to drag me down which sent me in search of positivity.
Here are the offerings I found.
Enjoy.
Poetry Place: Fairies in the Guarden – #TenderTuesday
#TenderTuesday . . . Fairies in the Garden
Jul
16
*
Fairies in the Garden
My garden brings the fairies,
You will never know the hour.
The sun may just be peeping
Past the apple tree in flower.
See them? No! But I discern
Pixie clues they leave behind:
The fragrant thyme they danced upon . . .
I am always sure to find
A dewdrop mirror clinging
To a blossom hanging low;
I hear their tinkling laughter
When the breezes softly blow.
Sometimes I think I spy them
Riding on a firefly’s back
At dusk above the garden,
But their pathway’s hard to track.
Jumping off, hiding themselves
In moss blankets–soft delights–
Their flying steeds unharnessed.
“Go to sleep, my garden sprites.”
By Faye Gibson
Art by Becky Kelly
*
*
*
*
Text and image source: Petie Barre https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0cvuJhJzgw3NAP9bXJgaYQRPugRqSM3ToNLSy7MHmJayKbMrShrf8NKwFcRUMuqBGl&id=100032362197041&mibextid=Nif5oz
This post was found at: https://purplerays.wordpress.com/2024/07/16/tendertuesday-fairies-in-the-garden/
Author’s Corner…
Another thing I am allowing myself time to do is to go through my folders to make certain I’ve not missed any great pieces while enjoying my staycation. It’s a good thing too, if I’d not done this, we’d have all missed a grand post.
Here’s Sponsoring Member Stephen Halpert with more.
The Ivory Box
By, Stephen Halpert
Jenny had inherited the ivory box from her aunt, a missionary who had spent her adult life in China. After she had it for a while the sinister, harsh faces carved atop it had begun to unnerve her. She decided to sell it.
She took it to Mr. Doer, a reputable dealer in Eastern antiquities whose shop in Providence on Thayer Street was legendary. Jenny was upset when the kindly old gentleman shook his head and told her he would not purchase it.
“But it’s an antique,” she said.
“Yes,” Mr. Doer agreed. “And a very fine carved specimen from the Ming Dynasty. But I must refuse it because it is ivory and I would not want it confiscated by the authorities. The laws are very stringent when it comes to ivory relics.”
Her immediate thought was that he was trying to lower whatever price she might expect him to offer. But that thought quickly diminished when he added, “It is an unusually fine carving. These boxes are said to be magical, and I would suggest that even without authentication it’s worth a considerable amount.”
“Magical?” she said. “What do you mean magical?”
“That is very hard to say,” he smiled. “Such carved boxes were treasured by royalty. Apparently in some way they could make wishes come true.”
Fiddlesticks, she thought to herself.
He smiled and stroked it lovingly. “They appear throughout folklore and seem to possess a mind of their own.”
How can a box have anything close to a mind? She thought the old man was daft.
Other customers needed his attention. Politely he thanked her for showing it to him and suggested she consult information about oriental magic.
Jenny and her sister Rose shared a tidy brownstone in Providence on Benefit Street near the Brown University campus. Neither had married and both served on the faculty of an exclusive girls’ boarding school nearby on the East Side. That afternoon over tea Jenny told Rose about her meeting with Mr. Doer and his gibberish about the box’s alleged magical qualities. “I suppose if it weren’t so spooky I could keep pins in it.”
Rose peered at seemingly ominous faces. Her eyes sparkled. Something about them made her smile. “Why don’t we trade,” she suggested. “I’ll take this and give you the silk tapestry Auntie bequeathed to me.”
“The one on loan to the RISD museum? Are you sure? It’s worth a fortune.”
Rose nodded. “So what? The box felt warm and comfortable in her hand. Now when she peeked at its top, the faces seemed to be smiling.
“You don’t find all that hocus pocus spooky?”
“Oh no,” Rose said. “You know me. The more peculiar something might appear the greater my affinity.”
Jenny refilled their cups. “That’s right, you always did like Halloween.”
After tea Rose took the box to her room and made a special place for it on her dresser. She felt an uncanny connection with it that warmed her heart.
In it she placed a half dozen pins, a barrette and a photograph of Ralph, her one true love whom she hadn’t heard from in years. “Oh if only you would contact me,” she murmured. Those words brought tears to her eyes. Rose refused to accept that Ralph was dead, an unreported causality in Afghanistan.
The next morning when she looked in her box the picture of Ralph had changed. He seemed much older and more mature. As she started to close the box she heard, “Wait, Rose. Please.”
Startled she drew back and looked around her room, trying to locate where this voice might be coming from. Then she heard: “I’m with you, always, and forever.”
She took a breath. That was Ralph. It had to be. That was always how he had signed his letters to her.
“Where are you?” But no reply was forthcoming.
Shaking her head, she peered at the intricate carving and to her surprise she saw Ralph’s face etched into the white ivory. She rushed into Jenny’s room and babbled incoherently about the vision of Ralph, hearing his message, seeing his image on the box. But when she showed it to her sister the ivory box appeared as it originally did, not with Ralph’s features.
Jenny looked at her and smiled sympathetically. “I know how much you miss him.”
Rose went back to her room. As she often did when she felt confused, she opened her tarot deck and withdrew a card. It was the Tower. That was the last card she wanted to see. It always upset her. Its appearance inferred something unexpected, possibly dangerous.
That Sunday at church she ran into Sissy, Ralph’s younger sister. The two embraced. Then Sissy said, “I have news.” She went on to say she’d gotten a letter from the State Department saying they had evidence that Ralph was dead. No further explanation was provided.
Rose’s hands shook and tears filled her eyes.
Sissy patted her shoulder. “Despite what they told us there’s always hope.”
Returning home Rose collapsed on her bed and fell into a deep sleep. She was dreaming of Ralph when she heard sirens that half awoke her. She sniffed, was that smoke? She felt dazed. Fire! It must have been a fire that took him.
Outside she heard fire trucks and the clamoring of voices. Was this real or part of a dream?
She looked out of the window. Two houses across the street were ablaze. A strong wind was blowing. She could see flames soaring into the sky. Her head was swimming. She had trouble trying to move her legs. A hand grabbed ahold of hers. “Come on, Rosie, stay with me,” a familiar voice said. “We’ve got to get you out of here. She was led down the stairs into the kitchen and out the back door. Neighbors stood in the street, dazed by the smoke and flames.
“Rose,” Jenny rushed up to her. “You’re safe.”
Rose nodded. “He was here. Ralph helped me. I know it was him. I just know it.”
She reached into her pocket and to her amazement felt the ivory box. Holding it she heard Ralph say, “I’m with you now and always.”
She clutched the box and tried to say, “I don’t understand.” But her words stuck in her throat. She opened the box.
There before her was a picture, but this time it was of the two of them. There they were as youngsters, looking as they had when they were children together in Providence.
About the author…
A graduate of Emerson College, Stephen Halpert has been a published author since the 1970s. Most recently, his weekly column “American Scene,” which ran in The Grafton News from 1989 to 2022, featured humorous vignettes of his life with his wife, Tasha, and serial fiction. In 2018, Halpert published his first collection of fictional tales, Abracadabra Moonshine and Other Stories, available on Amazon. His next writing venture is titled “Mona Lisa’s Eyebrows and other stories.” Contact Stephen to learn more.
News Nuggets…
Webinar on July 22: New CDC Regulations for International Dog Travel
Sharing with the kind permission of Dave Johnson Advocacy Department of The Seeing Eye®.
Dear Seeing Eye graduate:
Please join Melissa Allman, Dave Johnson, Jim Kessler, and Dr. Kyle Quigley on Monday July 22 from 3 to 4 PM ET on Zoom. The team will be discussing the recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Regulation for importation of dogs into the United States that takes effect on August 1. At this time the new regulation has no exemption for service animals, and it will pose a significant barrier for those who need or want to enter the US from Canada.
The webinar will be available on our website later that week for those who can’t attend.
For the Zoom invite please email your query to: advocacy@seeingeye.org
***FYI!
AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM PATTY L. FLETCHER!
Hello, Readers!
I’m excited to announce that my books will be available free as part of a promotion on Smashwords for the month of July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! This is a chance to get my book, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading.
You will find the promo here starting on July 1, so save the link: https://smashwords.com/shelves/promos
Please share this promo with the avid readers in your life!
Thank you for your help and support!
Happy reading!
THE BLENDED LIVES CHRONICLES
About the Book
Lady Laya MoonWalker is a well respected author and magazine owner and a high priestess in the magickal community. After a drawn-out battle with the forces of dark magik, she has come into her own. She lives and works on Planet Korponious, where she is the owner and creator of an Interplanetary Magazine called “Blended Lives Chronicles.” Her mission is to blend the lines of race, creed, and disability that separate so many and to elevate the recognition of the training and ability of Service Animals of all kinds to a new level. She has just been accepted into the Blended Lives Federation and now hopes to continue her work in a way like nothing known to her before.
Laya has created allot of wreckage along the way through her dark journey into the light, and now she wishes to set this to right. She has just received her best break ever. Frank Prince, the CEO of The Blended Lives Learning Center, has invited her to the Celtic New Year Convention and Witches Ball as a reporter to write a story on the progress of The Blended Lives Planetary Federation. She will be their guest speaker at the opening ceremonies.
When Laya arrives at the Celtic Convention, she finds herself face to face with an old and dear friend, Blended Lives Learning Center Instructor and member of the Order of the Night, Derrick Gibbous. As they begin to connect, causing old sparks to reignite, they are tossed into a nasty battle from which not everyone will escape. People are not as they seem, and not everyone supports the side for which they appear to work.
As their love for one another grows, so does the battle. Despite everything, Laya and Derrick are determined to see their work to unite beings of all kinds succeed.
Patty L. Fletcher lives in Kingsport Tennessee where she works full time as a Writer with the goal of bridging the great chasm which separates the disAbled from the non-disAbled. She is Also a Social Media Marketing Assistant.
To see, share, and Buy her work visit: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/PattyFletcher
And: https://www.amazon.com/Patty-L.-Fletcher/e/B00Q9I7RWG
As well as: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8431191.Patricia_L_Fletcher
Walk alongside Patty and Chief Seeing Eye® Dog Blue on the Pathway to Freedom at: https://paypal.me/tellittotheworld?locale.x=en_US
That wraps things up nicely for today.
Thanks to our Sponsoring Members for their contributions and support of Patty’s Worlds.
Learn more about becoming a Sponsoring Member below. And to you who are already members, please take advantage of all your sponsorship has to offer you.
*NOTE*
NOW OFFERING PODCASTING SERVICES AND MARKETING CLASSES.
A soft green circle with a light blue border and handwritten diagonal text reading Patty’s World. The text is also light blue with a teal outline around each letter to distinguish where they slightly overlap the circle’s border.
Become a Sponsoring Member of Patty’s Worlds
In return you’ll receive:
An ad or ads up to 500 words in length on the sponsor page of Patty’s Worlds which will remain until you either request them removed or ask to update in some way.
Your ads will also be used in Facebook events held on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/2022Pattysworlds, and in articles and essays found on my blog.
You’ll also have guesting privilege which means you may submit your work for use during blogging promotion days which are:
<>
• WordPress Wednesday
• Friday’s Fantastic Finds
• Social Media Saturday and:
• Sublime Sunday Reading.
• You’ll also be placed in the rotating announcements heard during the Patty’s Worlds Podcast. We do live presentations with real audiences, or one on one interviews. You choose. Contact me to learn more.
• You’ll also be eligible for all Patty’s Worlds Promotions classes such as what you’ll find on our Patty’s Worlds Podcast page coming during the month of June.
The price for becoming a sponsor is: 30.00 dollars every 90 days, or 100.00 dollars per year.
You will not receive the discount without the one-year purchase.
If you’d like to become a sponsoring member please visit the URL below:
We also welcome donations from those of you who love Patty’s Worlds and want to see it and all it has to offer continue forever.
Thanks for reading, liking, commenting on, and sharing our posts.
We couldn’t do all we do without you.