The story...

Many people have asked me how I come up with ideas for new stories.....

and the truth is... they just come to me. As I sit here at my computer station

at Loon Lake, I think back over the last fifty years about situations that I have

encountered or been a part of ... and those memories often generate a story

line or two for a new short story. In Tales Unleashed which will be published

before too many weeks, there are several stories related to cemeteries...but

that would be normal, considering almost forty years spent in the undertaking

business.  And as I drive out a country road, by an abandoned cemetery or

farm house, I think, gee, this would be a great setting for an interesting

short story. And so with all that in mind, and having some recollections of

life in a small town, twenty eight such stories have been created for the

new book. The new book will be smaller than Undertakings of an Undertaker,

it'll be a pocket size paper-back, like the ones we used to read as kids.

And there will be seven to ten pencil drawings I've made to accompany

many of the stories...all in all, I think you'll enjoy it.

Can't promise it will be out by Halloween, but we shall see.

If you like the unusual, the odd, the uncanny, I think you'll find it a good

read. Thanks for stopping by...you'll see some postings on Facebook and

other social media when the book 'hits the stands' as they used to say.

Thanks for stopping by today.. you can leave a comment at the end of any

of my postings here in the comments section following the post.

Have a great day....let's hope for some sunshine for once! SS

What a sad time...

 

What a sad time we live in... when a young college girl is out jogging.. then

all of a sudden is gone, snatched, as if she never existed.

The whole nation has been looking for young Mollie Tibbetts for over a month

since her disappearance in mid July while she was out enjoying her day near

Brooklyn, Iowa.  They found Mollie, today, in a corn field.

A suspect has been taken into custody.

We need to pray for her, her family, and our country. The level of madness

in this country is beyond description, with little hope for an optimistic

corner to be turned.

It can happen to anyone at anytime, anywhere.

We gave up the sanctity of being safe years ago, and garner little hope


of returning to those years of innocence that we

all miss so much.

Say a prayer for Mollie. I was greatly touched by

her story.

On my 'bucket list'...

There's someone very unique and famous buried in Interlaken, N.Y.....

A man who brought you some of the most amazing stories that were

ever put to paper....a man who captured the imagination...breaking the

 barriers of 'real time' to places unknown...places that were in many

instances even hard to comprehend.

He passed away much too early....his name was Rod Serling.

From the Twilight Zone to the Night Galleries, Serling's expertise

at the typewriter was unmatched.

His grave site is on my bucket list for later this year.

So on the 'just right' day this fall, when the leaves are starting to

turn and surrender to the brisk winds, I'll go visit Rod in his

quiet surrounds... and thank him for him contributions.

It's a trip I've wanted to make for years... and experience has told

me not to put things off  for another day...after all, we don't know

how many more of those days each one of us might have left.

I'll talk and listen, and photograph...and bring it back to you here.

I'm actually experiencing a bit of a chill as I write this...knowing

I'll be in the company of one of the true greats. 

UK reading Undertakings...

My recent numbers with my publisher Book Stand Publishing of
California were most pleasing to me this week.

Thanks to my friend Peter Abraham in Bristol, England, my Amazon
Kindle sales were outstanding during July in the UK.

Peter, shown here, has a writing blog also called Confessions of an
Undertaker, and last month did a you-tube review of my book.. and
it must have hit the mark with his audience, which resulted in great
numbers of people buying my book.

So again, thanks Peter...you're the man......

It's going to be a busy fall with lots of stuff already on the calendar...

the summer is ticking by quickly...get out there and enjoy it.

Back on L.A. talk radio....

Thursday night, Sept. 27th, 7:00 p.m. PST, 10:00 p.m. Eastern, I'll be back

on L.A.Talk radio on a program entitled Writers Block. Each week the three

hosts talk to writers around the country about their passions, the hang-ups,

the inspirations, the dilemmas etc. It'll be a fun night to be back on the air.

The week of the podcast, I'll post details here of how you can hear the show

live, and even call in to say hello..

Thank you all who have supported by book, and more details about the new

Tales Unleashed are forthcoming! 

Oct 26th...7 p.m. in Palmyra NY...

---

Death, Lore and Local History.  A conversation with Stan Swan and Patti Unvericht

October 26th at 7 pm

Join local authors Stan Swan and Patti Unvericht for a fascinating discussion about Death, Lore, and Local History. Bring your questions and join the conversation!

~With 35 years spent in the funeral business and now a self published author (Undertakings of an Undertaker, true stories of being laid to rest and Tales Unleashed; coming soon), Stan Swan has pretty much experienced it all in the death care industry.
~An authority on both local history and the supernatural, Patti Unvericht is the author of two books through The History Press, Ghosts and Hauntings of the Finger Lakes (6/5/2012) and Hidden History of the Finger Lakes (7/16/2018).

Parkland...a must see

I'm not sure how I missed this movie...and though this is not a site to
review movies, I'm making an exception here.

The movie Parkland (2013) is the story of Parkland Hospital in Dallas
where President Kennedy was taken after being shot in Dallas in 1963...
if you are old enough...you'll remember the day.... where you were..what
you were doing.

Parkland is a riveting film and reveals some facts I had never been aware
of before...some of those things include:

1. His wife before leaving the emergency operating room where he was
pronounced dead...removed her wedding  ring and and placed it on the pinky
finger of the President's left hand.

2. There was a physical altercation between the Secret Service and the local
coroner at Parkland...the coroner wanted to keep the body there for autopsy..
the presidents men wanted him taken immediately back to Washington D.C...
the Secret Service won out...and a casket was brought within a short time
to the operating room where the presidents body was casketed.

3. The first lady...still covered in blood from the assassination...road in the
back of the hearse with the body on the way to the airport.

4. The Secret Service didn't want the president's casket to be put in the
belly of the airplane like a piece of luggage so they quickly removed several
rows of seats to accommodate the casket...and over ten men struggled to
get it up the steps and onto Air Force One.

5. The U.S. armed forces were put on high alert, not sure if this was
part of a 'first strike' by a foreign government to take advantage of the
assassination. It turned out to be only the act of one deranged man,
Lee Harvey Oswald.

November 23rd, 1963 was a dismal day for the U.S....and those of us
who were alive will never forget it.

If you haven't seen the movie Parkland...see it. It's available on Amazon
Prime and at other locations.

It's ninety minutes of history.....you'll feel like you were there in the middle
of it all.

Let's pray we won't see another day like that ever again.

One final note. The first lady's pink 'pill box' hat has never been found.
It's location remains a mystery.. and I'm guessing, maybe a subject for
this writer to investigate one day in the future right here.