Prime Number Post for 11th Day
CONTESTS AND REVIEWS AND 9/11 MEMORY
9/11 MEMORY: For my grandparents, the closest thing to compare would be when Pearl Harbor was attacked and America was forced to enter World War II after which my grandfather was drafted (later in the rounds as he was past thirty) and sent to England to be part of D-Day on the Sixth of June, 1944. For my parents, the next closest thing to compare was when JFK took a “magic” bullet to the head (and the eternal question of one shooter versus two shooter and how a “patsy” like Lee Harvey Oswald—a former Marine who “defected” to the U.S.S.R. during the height of the Cold War and was allowed to re-enter the U.S.A.—“disappeared” off the F.B.I.’s radar until the morning of November 22nd, 1963 is just plain weird).
For me, my story to my students is where I was on the morning of September 11th, 2001. I had parked my car at the St. Louis Union Station Parking garage and walking down the street alongside Union Station to the corner where I had to cross the Market Street boulevard to enter the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Building where I worked for the Small Business Unit for then Bank of America (or it might have been pre-merger Nations Bank). I met two fellow co-workers who said they heard that a plane might have hit the Twin Towers (the financial headquarters for Wall Street and brokerage trading in New York, there being another exchange in Chicago). No one knew any details other than that rumor (weeks prior, a misanthrope had taken a single prop plane and flown into a Texas I.R.S. building, so I thought this was a similar stunt—sorta, but as it turned out, on a much larger scale for a much more nefarious purpose).
When I got to the sixth floor, several co-workers were gathered in a conference room with a news feed on a cable news show. They showed footage of the plane striking the tower. It looked like a small passenger jet and there was a huge explosion and debris. Then the tv went to live footage and a second jet slammed into the upper stories of the Twin Towers (as it turns out, the second tower was hit).
My first reaction was to ask, “Where there people on board that jet?”
No one knew.
We tried to get to work as more news crept in. A third jet rammed into the corner of the Pentagon. Then news that the Air Force had orders to shoot any planes out of accepted airlanes or in restricted air space and that all flights had been grounded. Then came the rumor that a fourth plane had been shot down by the Air Force. That was redacted that the plane had “trouble” and had gone down and that its target had been the White House.
It was a quiet and gloomy day as the news unfolded bit by bit and experts began to put together a picture of co-cordinated terrorist attacks aimed at multiple sites across the country. The government made all buildings above sixteen stories shut down and evacuate. Our bosses gave us the option to go home. Most of us didn’t (our building wasn’t above eight stories).
But before the day was out, there was news that a terrorist team had tried to infiltrate a long distance jet plane flight at St. Louis’ Lambert International. Before being detected and detained, the team rented a car and drove out of town later being tracked as having driven to Texas and made good their escape across the border into Mexico. I remember saying at the end of the day, “Well, it’s been a good day.” Meaning, the country was still standing. That brought a response from a fellow worker, “What’s been good about it?” Which prompted my rejoinder, “The country still exists.”
The worse terrorist attack on American soil and a horrible loss of life by an enemy on American soil since the War of 1812. It was a rough day, but America—kicked in the teeth—took it and kept on swinging. Things changed after that: the romanticism of travel was gone and replaced by the paranoia of TWA safety checklists, the sense of openness and trust shut up like a turtle, and a sense of blame by some which, to me, is stupid—someone is not going to like for you for something and you can’t appease them without making yourself miserable and you shouldn’t live in fear.
America was not created for Americans to live in fear. We are definitely not perfect. The Bible states we are live alongside our neighbors in peace as much as things can be peaceful according to our powers and responsibility. But there is the St. Augustine theory of the Good: those who can should stop evil doers from doing evil, hence the need for the protection under National Guard and Sheriff deputies as prescribed by the Constitution. It is a tough call to be a law officer or a member of the Armed Forces, and such people should be respected (when upholding the laws of the land) and supported (sometimes by we citizens helping out as well).
We should not take our Freedom nor our freedoms for granted. Freedom isn’t always free, though freedom is an inalienable right. Freedom is constantly under attack by those who want control. “Question: is control controlled by its need to control? Answer: Yes.” (quote by William S. Burroughs). 9/11 has become another extension of Veterans Day for me: a reminder of the price we pay for choosing to be who we are. Otherwise, we will have to bow our knee to the latest bully.
CONTESTS AND REVIEWS:
I have entered three book contests. One for each of my published works. Leftwich Blues/Elfwitch Rules, I entered in the Young Adult Fantasy category for Teen Titan Literary Awards on the third of August. They have done a review, good, honest, and thorough, which I will share in a post when it appears on their website. It’s good enough for me to update my Amazon page and book cover with. I am anxious to see how the contest goes. Left/Elf was my first book and a huge learning curve.
Also on August the Third, I entered Ex-Mas Song in two categories for American Book Fest: Best Book Awards, Spirituality: General and Spirituality: Inspirational. I used Book Pro Award to help me collate the contests. You can pay Book Pro to enter the contests with all the necessary information, but they add on an extra fee. It’s better to check out the contest websites one by one and apply through them and pay the contest fee direct.
Along with a review through Book Life, I entered 13: Stone Corners and Other Stories in the Book Prize Contest. Both Book Life and Book Prize are administered by Publisher’s Weekly for independent authors. Highly recommended. This is the biggest contest I entered with a grand prize of $5,000 (after four rounds of judging). I did try to enter the KDP Storyteller Contest for 13: Stone, but as I had the ebook on presale I ended up freezing the book for editing when I took it off presale. Plus you have to have both the ebook and paperback book on sale to be considered for the KDP Storyteller Contest. So, I had to re-upload both the eBook and paperback book and for some reason, the contest did not let me enter. Lesson learned: don’t do a presale and enter as many contests as I can.
So, I will have more news to share on reviews and contests.
For now, here is a kindly and enthusiastic review on Leftwich Blues/Elfwitch Rules that fellow Substacker, Gabriel O. Maestas was gracious enough to do:
Review #1
And also, please consider checking over the Teddy Bear’s library of available stories:
The Book Life review for 13: Stone Corners and Other Stories came in on Wednesday, September 10th. It is kind, honest, and good. I got a solid “B” with the lowest marks for the digital illustrations. I don’t understand their rating on the editing. The same person did the editing on my last book and got a higher rating. Me thinks, reviewing “editing” is as subjective as anything else. You take what you get with reviews. I asked to be reviewed, so I don’t have to agree with the opinion and have to learn to live with it.
Review #2
Cummins blurs the line between the living and the dead in this second entry of his Thirteen series, depicting ghosts that emerge as much from memory and pain as they do from graveyards or basements. Across 13 tales, he explores fear, faith, and the echoes of family secrets, whether imagining the transformation of his grandparents’ house into a metaphorical mindscape where childhood memories melt into something darker in “A Sort of Homecoming” or revealing the true nature of a ghost in “Tearing at Holes”: not an external spirit, but the embodiment of a mother’s fears.
Cummins’s writing is often inspired by his life, situating the supernatural within familiar American locales such as bars, churches, and basements—normalizing the extraordinary while portraying ghosts as powerful allegories for addiction, trauma, and the memories binding us to the past. The collection is anchored by “Stone Corners,” which introduces the Raven Twins—Kelley and Mercury Branscombe—whose uncanny abilities manifest in each other’s proximity. Cummins revisits the twins across various tales, from “Sympathy for the Strawberry,” depicting Kelley’s childhood amid changelings and disappearances, to “Blue Harvest,” where Mercury tests adolescent initiations and the paranormal. These linked stories, while underdeveloped, explore how hauntings are passed down through family lineage, memory, and myth.
By blending the supernatural with emotive storytelling, Cummins serves readers both a collection of shudder tales and a meditation on the ghosts we carry within us, though the digitally-produced images scattered throughout and a handful of editing errors lessen the sway. Much of his writing carries a thread of Christianity, with references to Bible verses and church settings, and Cummins explores the idea that love, faith, and forgiveness can protect from hauntings, pitting those blessings against pain and fear. These tales may not terrorize, but they do leave behind a sense of unease, a faint inkling that the supernatural is more accessible than we think.
Takeaway: Uneasy tales melding the supernatural with memory, pain, and secrets.
Comparable Titles: Paul D. Davis’s Spirit Tales, Kevin Brockmeier’s The Ghost Variations.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: C
Editing: B-
Marketing copy: B
Print Date: 10/13/2025
https://booklife.com/my/project/13-stone-corners-and-other-stories-102459
@Janine Eaby and @L. E. Mullin, thank you for the likes!
@Bruno Rothgiesser, thank you for the like!