Gobsmacked: Winner of May Drawing, Opinions, Gossip and More!

Ahoy, Shipmates and Landlubbers Alike!

            Aye, it’s been another week of merriment, this time in ol’ PTown with me first mate. Rose Festival gearing up there, sailors everywhere as it’s Fleet Week, plus a carnival at the waterfront. (Yes, Adam, I'm back, arrgg-ing and bloggin'.) 

            But as all good things must, the birthday celebratin’ has come to a fittin’ end with the May drawin’, a bit late I confess.

The Drawing

            Had me best mate draw a name from me hat of all those who emailed and commented on me blog and here’s the winner o’ me France anthology plus hot off the press, the first copy to go public, Jan Eliot’s ninth collection of her cartoon strip “Stone Soup” with the more ‘n accurate title of Brace Yourself. (check it out at http://www.stonesoupcartoons.com/) I be sendin’ ‘em both to:

Lou Maenz of Springfield Oregon

            Congrats, Lou, me heartie! Glad ta hear ya could use some humor and good news!

Pirate ship in Cabo san Lucas

            This week, fer fun, I be sending along a few guest comments I found entertainin'. They have their own categories, so listen up! And enjoy.

Opinion

            Captain, My Captain!

            I stand with you on deck to toss the very word (dare I say it) - Platform - overboard. Do not misunderstand: I have great admiration for those who have yacht-sized ones and keep them afloat. My 'platform' is so small that I balance on it with toe-room only. My social networking is called email contacts and writer events. "Do you have FB?" he asks. "Yes!" (Which I almost never look at it and have exactly 3 FB friends, who just happen to be REAL friends not simply cyber-friends.) "Do you have a blog?" Well, no, but I'm linked to 4 good ones that teach me lots—and I barely find time to read them much less answer them so exactly when would I actually write my own??? But I digress. As for a website—I'm working on it; kind of; actually I'm thinking about it—in between writing my book (and occasionally a sellable essay). Truth is, until forced by winds of an agent, my 'platform' is Office Chair with Butt In It. No glamour involved. Some assembly required. Scaffolding sometimes.

            I do not despair. I am breathing it (memoir) and teaching it (senior life-writing) and writing it (nonfiction). I am a writer. I can't help it.

            LJ Bousquet

            p.s. Do not ask me to Twitter. Me old mother twitters about everything and anyone and it shivers me timbers.

Confirmed Gossip

From me pal, Randy Sue Coburn, who used ta work at the Washington Star:

            And here’s my little tidbit for your zeitgeist hopper:  In my cub reporter days at the DC newspaper, I did a telephone interview with a certain bodybuilder turned actor. He asked me what my bra size was. When a guy has to grope a girl even on the phone, well . . . to quote Captain Renault, “I’m shocked, shocked to find out that gambling is going on here!”

Pirate News

Well shiver me timbers! Dolly Parton has joined me pirate ranks.

            MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- In a dramatic change, Dolly Parton is hoisting the Jolly Roger and tilting her sails to the wind, matey! Pirates' Voyage is docking in Myrtle Beach! The spirit of Blackbeard and his buccaneers, Captain Kidd and Anne Bonnie sailing the coast of the Carolinas, comes to life in a new show opening in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in June of 2011.

Fer now, me hearties, that’s this week’s news. I be gettin’ back to the promised logs next week. I leave ya wi’ this little ditty from me long-time shipmate, Jan Eliot, who sent it ta me for "my" birthday jingle. Love it and her!

Smooth sailin’ and treasure ahead,

Captain Val 

COMING UP!

“Oh, Google, My Name is …”

… and IN TWO WEEKS the interview with Jessica Maxwell of Roll Around Heaven