Out of the Wilderness

I don’t normally cross promote between this blog and the one I use for my book stuff, but I’m just too excited not to right now. As some of you may know, I published my first children’s book last January. You can find it on Amazon here.

But today, this very day, I’m announcing my second book… The Brave Bamboo and well, the excitement level is just bubbling over, I can’t help it.

So to tag along with going public with The Brave Bamboo, I want you to have a chance to win the very first signed copy. Now, it won’t be out till early 2017 so for the entire month of this month, you can enter as many times as you want to the drawing which will be held the first week of January. All you gotta do is purchase my first book. See what I did there? Shameless promotion of both books! 🙂 But in all seriousness, I value anyone and everyone that buys my book because hey, it’s your money and if you’re willing to take a chance on something creative I’ve done, well that just makes me so happy inside and out. It’s a big deal.

So for every one “Big and Small” book you buy, you get one entry to The Brave Bamboo signed copy drawing. Buy two books, get two entries. Three books, three entries… and so on. Feel free to comment with any questions and most of all, have a super Christmas season! Here’s the video promo about this…

-Out of the Wilderness

If you’re like me, saving $5 can feel like a win! Check out the link below and we both can save $5 on Amazon…

Use my link to get $5 at Amazon for signing into the Amazon App the first time: https://amazon.com/mpr?referralcode=BEN6405N&ref_=mpr_tr_ss_wl83857_T1AP

No, this isn’t a post about the recent U.S. election. If you’re somehow still hungry for that sort of thing, just scroll your Facebook feed and you’ll be plenty satisfied.

This post won’t be as heavy as all your friends’ opinions on the impending doom/bright future of the United States. Not as heavy, but SO MUCH MORE SCARY.

Have you ever ventured out to an estate sale? If you haven’t, you must this very weekend. Even if you don’t buy anything, you’ll still be glad you went, once you get past the possibility that you might be BUYING A DEAD PERSON’S BELONGINGS.

Dun dun dunnnnnnn!

That’s not even the scary part! We’re getting there…

Estate sales can be full of entertainment, wonder, and insightful conversations. Chat it up with someone there, or the people running it, and they usually know a lot about your city, items you see in the house, or they somehow know your cousin. Funny how even big cities can feel like small towns sometimes.

Get to the point, man! OK, sorry, once I get to talkin’…

Over the years I’ve seen some extremely unique, eclectic items. The most recent that I picked up was this lamp.
Cool, right? But unfortunately, for every amazing discovery, there’s a frightening one. Now we get to the scary part!

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN!!!!!

Behold, exhibit A.
Need I say more? This was from a recent estate sale and no, I did not ask anything at all about it. I even tried to avoid eye contact.

I’m sure there’s a cute and harmless story about it and it’s not a Chucky-like doll that, when the night falls, turns into a freaky, big-foreheaded,chaps-wearing, plaid-shirted, killing machine.

Also, hey, you gotta share this post within 24 hours of reading it or else the doll will show up at your house TONIGHT!!!

-Out of the Wilderness

Florida is the state that holds the most memories I have of growing up, although I lived in a handful of other states as my dad followed orders in the Coast Guard. He was born and raised a small town outside of Tallahassee, Florida called Monticello. On summer vacations, we were shuttled between his parents house there and my mom’s parents house in Tallahassee. The best summers.

My grandparents house in Monticello had (and still has, as you see below) a white fence between the neighboring house. My sisters and brother and I saw it as an easy way to compete. So we walked up and down the fence many, many times.

I had the chance to swing by the old house last week when I was in Tallahassee visiting family and reading my book to a classroom full of kids, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to walk the fence again. Not quite as easy as it was back in the day, but I still managed. Glad the owner of the house didn’t think it was weird, or at least he didn’t say anything out loud 🙂

Here’s to doing things for old times’ sake!

-Out of the Wilderness

This is in west Nashville, and I couldn’t help but post a few photos. I found out it’s been dubbed “Small World” because evidently the guy who owns it has the last name of Small. Oh, you clever guy, you! Anyway, take a look, pretty interesting right?