Blackbead

Bringing humor to the table is ALWAYS a plus; ask any woman and she will tell you she loves someone who "makes her laugh." The problem with that is I'm always wondering what they are laughing AT!

My wife is the same way about spiders. I keep trying to assure her that 99.9% of all spiders are helpful - they clean your house of vile little creatures that actually do damage. But, she wants everyone she finds out of the house or dead.

Hmmm, now there's an interesting slogan - "Out of the House or Dead!"

Aye! That it is! Your work will be show this year at the Centennnial Celebration of the Fort Worth Poetry Society; Books 'N Authors 'N All That Jazz at Weatherford College; The Texas Pirate Festival; Middlefaire; Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival; the Granbury Pirate Invasion; Pirate Days in The Colony; the Texas Renaissance Festival; and the Middlefaire Fantasy Faire! I'm going out to Scarborough Faire this weekend to try and arrange a book-signing there. Who knows? May be the RIGHT person will see it and THIS will be the year you can retire!!!

God bless; Happy Birthday; and a BIG hug!

Blackbead

Ransom,

I had some success with doing home parties in friends' houses. I gave the hostess a small percentage (15%) of the PROFITS and a hostess gift. I never made as much as when I do one of the shows like Rumba is suggesting but sometimes you find people who want to come back and buy again and again.

Blackbead

"Daddy Longlegs"? "Galliknippers"? "Mosquito Hawks"? I wasn't in on the original conversation but you have me intrigued.

I've been so involved in the books that I haven't made anything new in months. I need to get back into the jewelry mode, soon, because we are going to start doing shows again. Thanks for the poke in the ribs!

Stick with the wire - whenever I make something with wire and beads it will not stay on my shelves. The very first thing I did was pretty bad but I put it out at the very next show and it was snatched up. There are LOTS of good books out there that give you helping hints. I have some at the house and will try to remember to send you the titles.

Blackbead

Well, they were blind enough to take my check and I am scheduled to show me wares at this year's Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival! I'll have everything but me t-shirts! That means the most beautiful jewelry ever plundered, treasures from around the world, pirate toys, replica flintlocks, books, CDs, bumper stickers, magnets, buttons, and more!

See you there?

Blackbead

The Iron Hand of Mars by Lindsey Davis; The Poe Shadow by Mathew Pearl.

If you need the perfect pirate Mother's Day card, check out my website at www.Blackbead-jewelry.com and follow the links to my MOTHER'S DAY CARDS!!

Blackbead

Go'bless ye, Captain Keys! Keep the rum flowin' and ye'll awlays be welcome!

Blackbead

Congratulations! May you and your growing family have fair winds, cool grog (or warm milk!), and a full treasure chest, ALWAYS!

Blackbead

By the grace of God and all that is Holy! Has it been another year? I send you joyous felicitations on the annual celebration of your birth! May the sea smile upon you for many more years and may you receive all that is your heart's desire on this special day! Fair winds, cool grog, and a treasure chest overflowing with love, light, good friends, and happiness! And may I FINALLY get to meet you and that amazing husband of yours before another year passes us by! And now, in honor of this special day and the promises that it brings, for YOU, Red Bess . . .

Shifting Axis

Flashing by like the cars on a distant highway,

I barely felt the passing of the years

As a child,

As a teenager,

As a young man.

But now, over fifty, I feel the rush of time

Flying by me like an eighteen wheeler at ninety MPH

As I stand, fixed, by the side of the road.

With so many feelings left to be felt,

So many thoughts left to be thought,

So many mountains left to be conquered,

So much love left to give,

I, like all before me, find the sands of time

Slipping through my fingers

Like water out of a cracked, old bucket;

The cracked, old bucket that my hands have become.

And now they tell me that I have lost

1.26 microseconds of every day

Because the axis of the Earth has shifted.

The mass of the planet has been redistributed

As the giant pieces of the world we ride on each day

Slammed against each other in just one more

Of Nature’s eternal struggles.

The photos of the devastation are heart-breaking.

But as I look at the picture of a survivor,

Her feet clad in red shoes atop the cassette deck

That has become the threshold of what she now calls “home”,

My own axis shifts.

Looking inward, I believe in my heart that

There is still time to be who I want to be;

There is still time to try to do what is right.

Looking at the face of that survivor,

Feeling her anguish but inspired by her humanity,

I draw from her portrait of fragility

The strength to survive my own shifting sands.

Rising, turning my face into the rushing wind of time,

I suddenly know without any doubt

That this cracked, old bucket can still carry water

To those thirsty enough to drink it.

Stephen Sanders

©2010

Drink deep, me hearty! And continue to pour out the gifts your spirit and hands provide to all of us on a daily basis. For someone who I have never met face to face, I am thankful for knowing you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Blackbead

By gum and by gar! A pox on me for not thinking to send out signals of my imminent approach! On the other hand, the "Captain" had me jumpin' from weather to lee the entire trip! We even had events after hours for all but one night. I plan on returning in the future and bringing me lovely wife as well. I should have more time to mingle when it be a pleasure trip. Hopefully, i can see you all then.

Blackbead

A most EXCELLENT tale!

Keep writing, Brother; one of these days we're going to have to name a "Pirate Laureate" for this here Pub! Who knows? It may be you!

Blackbead

Ahoy, shipmates!

I just returned from a business trip to Charleston, SC, and had a wonderful time! I wound up organizing an event at "The Buccaneer", a local restaurant with a pirate theme. It was an excellent evening full of tales of Vance, Bonnet, and Blackbeard and the history of Charleston! If youa re ever in the Charleston area, I recommend a trip down to the old town area and an evening of food and drink at this place! I was there for St. Patrick's Day and had a great time at $3 a Guinness! If you want more info, check out their website - http://www.thebuccaneerrestaurant.com/!

Blackbead

Ahoy, mates! Check out Cindy Vallar's review of "A Night at Devil's Tavern" - http://www.cindyvallar.com/tavern.html - she said some very nice things and gave us 5 Stars! If you'd like a copy, they're $6 a piece, drop me an email and we can haggle over who's going to pay postage! Fair winds to ye all! Blackbead

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday, dear Angel of Death,

Happy birthday to YOU!

Blackbead

Looking for some piratical t-shirts to wear when you aren't in garb? Check out the sale going on at Blackbead's Treasure Chest! Navigate over to www.Blackbead-jewelry.com and follow the links to the buy t-shirts. Take a look at what we got and if you find anything you want, use the code 4OFFPATTYTEE when you check out and you'll get $4 off ANY t-shirt! We got "It's In Me Blood"; we got "Just Get Her in Range of Me Long Nine!"; we got "I AM the Booty!"; and many more! Come see! Come shop! Come save $4 a shirt!!

Ahoy, mates!

When: 10:00 AM Central Standard Time on March 6, 2010

Where: I'll be on the web! Navigate over to www.qxfm.com and look for the "Listen Live" button; click on that and you'll have three options to choose from - click on KYQX and your there - Linda Bagwell's "Books 'N Authors" show!

If you get the chance, please listen in to hear the latest about Blackbead Books, Raising Black Flags, Echoes From Other Worlds, and much, much more!

Take a look at http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/the-besler-steam-plane_658.html. It may not be an airship but it's still perfect for the motif.

I can't believe it went for $102!!!

I have a couple of the CD/Nano players that look like the chest that holds Davey Jones' heart in "Dead Man's Chest"; they look pretty cool, always draw attention at the shows where I vend but they are plastic and not as nice as this radio. I have one for display and one for sale and I hope it goes at the Texas Pirate Festival in May! I'd love to have one of those radios, though . . .

I be Blackbead . . . on both and where'ere I go!

Just finished Shutter Island and about 4/5ths of the way through The Poet. Sad to say, I can't really recommend either of these books.

Flying alone, heading north-northeast out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I see the sun just rising off the tip of my lower, starboard wing. It is barely six o’clock in the morning but the day is dawning crisp and clear with long patches of cumulous cloud formations for me to skip between. These patches run at various heights and I have no doubt that my one-man patrol will be almost invisible to our enemies if I keep my wits and the clouds about me.

My Arabian is fully loaded – twin Maxim guns above and six High Explosive bombs below with my trusty Bolden Repeater in the middle – and I feel ready for action! My primary mission today is to search out any concentrations of the enemy and note them down on my map. If, however, I see any opportunity to pay a visit on them then I plan to leave my mark where I may!

Pounce like a silent wasp, put my stingers where they would be most effective, then fly away quick before they can turn their heat rays on me! The reflective armor coating my ship is effective but a sustained blast of their ray can still disintegrate my Arabian and me. The reflective armor is the result of one of our scientists (I don’t recall the man’s name) noticing that the Martians direct their beam with the aid of a parabolic mirror. The heat ray bounces off the mirror and flies in the opposite direction so it was decided to coat the facing surfaces of our war machines with a mirror-like silvery-colored paint that helps reflect the worst of the effects of the heat ray. The solution that provides this coating is a closely kept secret and, while I have seen it being applied, I have no knowledge of how it is made. All I know is it works well enough to give a target of the Martian’s heat ray a few extra seconds to escape – and I know that it has saved me on more than one occasion!

The air is cold, especially as it rushes past at almost one hundred and forty knots! Even with my leathers, boots, facemask, flying helmet, goggles and gloves, all lined with either rabbit fur or sheepskin, I can feel the frigid air. I’m dressed to stay as warm and as safe as I can – all of my clothing, even my goggles, have their own coating of reflective armor. Completely covered in our silvery suits, my flying mates and I truly appear to be “knights of the air,” as the newspapers are calling us. I really . . .

Wait! What’s that below me, off to port? I saw the morning sun glistening off something metallic. I drop my speed and lose some altitude.

The Arabian handles like a stalking, silent panther as she almost glides through the early morning air. Down below, there’s a clearing among the vast Canadian forest. Almost skimming the tops of the trees now, I bring the nimble attacker over the clearing but with the rising sun behind me.

Excellent! Standing against the trees, their crews gathered together, perhaps in a conference, are three of the gigantic Martian tripods! I have caught them totally unaware, out in the open, and with their crews several yards away and with the sun behind me to blind them to my approach! What incredible luck!

But the slimy “octoes” have noticed me now and they begin slithering back to their war machines! Quickly, I pull back on the stick and roll into a right turn, coming around completely to reorient my weapons on the tripods! My swift attacker is lined up on them before the clumsy Martians are even halfway to the safety of their machines! Pressing the firing button on the top of the control stick, the Maxims open up on the Martians as they awkwardly struggle to get back aboard their tripods! The bullets rip into them and I slowly pull back on the stick, leveling the Bolden on the tripods themselves. I press the trigger on the front of the stick and the Arabian jerks in the air as 20mm shells blast out of my nose cone and slam into the tripods! Then, pulling up before I reach the war machines, I look to my left and pull back on the lever that releases my bombs! One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six! I can hear the mighty explosions erupting individually as my bombs strike among, or on, the wicked looking Martian machines! Flames leap into the sky, nearly singeing my ship’s tail as I leap back up, away from the clearing!

This time, I plunge the Arabian back down to port and come back around in a tight turn, my left wing dropping, giving me an excellent view of the destruction I’ve rained down on the octoes! I can see some of them, dead in the clearing, cut down by my Maxims and at least one of the tripods is engulfed in flames!

Now, to finish the job!

I let the Arabian glide out away from the forest clearing and then cut back to the right, making a figure eight in the sky and bringing my guns back to bear on the enemy. Crossing the tree line again, I lower my nose to rake the field with machine guns and the remaining tripods with the cannon. I make several more passes before I silently head back for base. On my last pass, I verify that there is nothing moving within the area of the clearing; that two of the three tripods are on fire; and that the other appears that it will be a long time before it kills again.

Pulling my map from the pocket on the side of my seat, I note the spot where these Martians met their doom – just about ten miles north and east of Winifred Lake. The Colonel will be interested to know about this: three tripods within a hundred and fifty miles of our base. Surely that means they are on the move again and that’s something that the Colonel will want to factor into his strategy.

I turn back for Edmonton, thinking I’ll leave the strategy to the Colonel, I’m happy just killing the ugly balls of slime! The cold wind dries the sweat on my chin and nose as I pull the facemask away and slip it into a pocket of my flying leathers. I’m violating regulations that say I must leave the reflective armor on till I am on the ground again but I don’t care. My smile is too big to be held behind the facemask and I don’t plan on getting caught on my way back to the airfield.

I look up, into the sky, and give my thanks to God for letting me survive another attack against the Martians. I pray that Frank can see me, wherever he is, and know that I’m doing my best to make the cruel invaders pay for what they did to our family and what they tried to do to our Earth!

Blackbead Books, get there by clicking Blackbead Booksis having a sale for the rest of February! Check out the books for sale, if you see anything you want, use the code WINTERBOOK when you check out and get 10% off your purchase price. Here be what's available for purchase:

1. Raising Black Flags: Original Poetry By and About Pirates

2. Echoes From Other Worlds - Blackbead Books' newest publication! Contains over 180 pages of pirate, fantasy and science fiction poetry, short stories and artwork!

3. Characters in Black and White

4. Characters: The Buffalo Soldier and Other Poems

5. The Stone Garden - A book of haunting, black and white photographs by Kenneth King.

Come look see and shop for you bargain!