Skip to main content

Shenandoah

    Hey, everyone. I hung around the house today. Among other things I played some songs on the keyboard. I played from a book of American folk songs and it was a lot of fun. There were songs like Old Susanna and Red River Valley. I noticed one that I didn't know called Shenandoah. I played it and found it to be one of the most beautiful, haunting melodies I've ever heard. Some songs just touch a cord in certain people as I am sure you know.
    I played it 5 or 6 times and decided to go and hear it on I-Tunes. I listened to several versions and bought one by Haley Westenra which is terrific.
    I began to play the song again (on my keyboard ) and meditate on what the writer had been going through when he wrote it and I came up with my own story for the guy. Then I decided to write it out for a short story. Before I did that I went to Wikipedia and did a search on the song.
   No one knows who wrote it, though there are plenty of ideas. It seems that it started out with just the one verse, probably during the 1800's, then different folks added a verse over the years to support their own story. Once it was supposed to be about an Indian Chief and his daughter. Another time it was about runaway slaves who fled to the western territories. Yet another time it was about the settlers heading west to build a new life. By the way, the second verse that I put at the end of the short story is one which I wrote to put my slant on the song.  I hope that you enjoy the story and I'll insert a link below. I believe I could make a novel out of this without much of a problem. Perhaps hearing about how a story comes into someone's mind may be of interest to you.
    I have traveled through that part of the country many times and it is hard to imagine any place being more lovely. If you ever get the chance, try driving the Blue Ridge Parkway, or Interstate 81, through old Virginia. Particularly the Shenandoah Valley.
    Hey, I uploaded this story to Smashwords and I'm the 2600th book in the line, so it may be tomorrow before I can have this published. I haven't even done a cover for it yet, although I have plenty of pictures of Virginia around here somewhere. I'll have to have a cover on it or I can't get it on Apple, Kobo, Sony and the others.
    By the way, when the story comes out it will be free, which is not a bad deal. I should also mention that it carries a 'G' rating.
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
P.S. I understand that the I-Pad 2 went on sale in 11 new countries this weekend. If any of those people have come to the green retreat for the first time, I'd like to say that you are as welcome as May flowers. http://www.smashwords.com/b/57011
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The White Chicken Mystery

    The other night I happened to come home very late. It was the middle of the night and I was driving up a steep mountain road. Near the top I saw something white in my headlights. It was standing in the other lane, standing very still. It was a large white chicken. It was probably a rooster because I thought I could see his comb as I whizzed by at my customary pace. He never moved a muscle. This is weird, don't you think?      After a couple of days to consider this phenomenon, I have come up with some plausible answers for his bizarre behavior. 1. He was conflicted whether or not he should cross the road. 2. He was feeling cocky and decided to play chicken with the traffic. 3.He was being hen-pecked at home and had decided to end it all. 4. Someone had egged him on to do it. 5. He had just watched the movie Fantastic Four and decided to try to stop a truck the way that Ben Grimm did on the bridge. 6. He had driven himself crazy wondering if ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Egg Art

     Hey, everyone. One of the odd customs in America is the Easter Egg Hunt. Here at the Green Retreat, we do a hunt every Spring. I just ran across some of the pictures from this years hunt and it is obvious that an artist had sneaked into our midst. The orange egg is a rendering of one of the Angry Birds of gaming lore. If I were a bird and had to pass an egg that size, I would be angry too. Ha, ha.      We typically will dye about 10 dozen eggs and people get quite creative with their quotes and colors, as you can see. Many of the eggs are a bit risque for these pages. After having a few laughs, we hide the eggs. All of them are never found, which is cool. It is amusing to see old men (me) and all ages of folks, walking around with a basket on their arm. Some of the hiding spots are dastardly. Like eggs hidden in the guttering downspouts and ten foot up a tree. The kids are perhaps the most devious at hiding the colorful orbs, goi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Biscuit

    Hey, everyone. What a relief that Christmas is over, huh? I don't think it was meant to be the way it is.     I started thinking about the so-called good 'ole days today. My wife says that at her house, they would take a left-over biscuit and shine their shoes before church. I one-upped her by saying, "Oh, yeah? I ate the biscuit when everyone got finished with it. And I was grateful for it." Truly, though, you can and people did, shine their shoes with a biscuit. Hey, they were greasy little buggers.     Speaking of greasy little buggers, I remember when everyone had wells and were very conservative about water, particularly those of us who had to crank a handle up and down to get a bucket of water. There was no daily bath. (No showers in those days, mate.) About twice a week we took a bath and here's the recipe: The oldest kid took a bath first, then the next oldest etc. You can see why younger siblings hated the older. Bathing in the...
Post a Comment
Read more