Yesterday our daughter Stephanie helped to rescue a fawn and help reunite it with its mother. She then got to hold a recently born goat kid. Stephanie loves her job and the perks that come with it as a heavy equipment operator and maintenance mechanic at Mid-Peninsula Open Space District. She lives on-site at the park and preserve.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
I’m pleased to announce that after a nearly three-year hiatus in book publishing, my latest book titles Shattered Darkness is nearing release! Its nine stories often feature O. Henry- and Twilight Zone-style twists. Shattered Darkness is my fourth book of this type.
My other books featuring such stories include The Jagged Edge of Shadows, Touched, and Palpable Imaginings. All three books can be found on Amazon in a variety of formats.
Palpable Imaginings features the work of seven other writers whose stories touched me and who accepted my invitation to have their work be included in the anthology. Our tales often featured Mystery, Suspense, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Action, and Thrillers! Stories of redemption, retribution, murder, courage, hope, love, new beginnings, alternate history, unusual powers, science gone wrong, nightmares, fate, narrow escapes, shoot-outs and survival. You’ll find them all here in 17 selected stories from 8 writers in Palpable Imaginings!
All three books can be found on Amazon in a variety of formats.
Touched: Terror, love, chills, hope, magic, thrills, and fantasy await you. Come inside and be Touched! These stories will inspire, haunt, amaze, and delight listeners who love to experience the wide array of speculative and flash fiction genres. Journey from inner hearts to outer space, utopias to dystopias, and many worlds in between. Experience the hope, strength, perseverance, despair, and heroism of ordinary people as they face breathtaking odds with their lives and, sometimes, the fate of whole worlds hanging in the balance. Touched is a celebration of life!
At the Jagged Edge of Shadows:
Best-selling author Russ Towne sends tingles down the spine with 12 short stories evoking the twists, irony, horror, and startling insight of O’Henry, Alfred Hitchcock, and Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone television series.
Listen to the unintended consequences of “eternal” youth, the mystery of a child’s toy, the power of the spoken word, and what happens when what you wish for comes true. With touches of the paranormal, this collection of stories makes you wonder what really goes “bump” in the night and invites you to peer more closely beyond the jagged edge of deepest shadow where our hopes, dreams, and fears collide.
An image of the cover of my most recently published book is shown above. A cover for Shattered Darkness hasn’t yet been created. I plan to have an image of the new cover to share with you in two to three weeks.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
I promise to soon post about something other than flowers but these day-brighteners grabbed my attention and I wanted to share them with you.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
At the corner of our home facing our two primary entrances sits a sight that makes me smile every time I pass them: Radiant Narcissus greet our family, friends, and other visitors.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
My Beloved, our local grandchildren, and I took advantage of perfect weather to see some sights at our local Japanese Friendship garden. It was a relaxing and quiet adventure.
Riley was so enchanted by the many huge multi-colored Koi that I startled her when I called her name to take her photo. She recovered quickly and smiled.
A lone mallard hen was getting a lot of attention from four males. That’s a recipe for at least three unhappy males. I believe the stern look in the above photo makes clear what this male thinks of the situation.
May your days be filled with blessings.
Love,
Russ
I love to take a walk in our backyard. It is often an adventure of visual delights. I just captured these images a few minutes ago.
In a recent storm a large branch of a peppercorn tree shattered and crashed over our back fence and crushed one of the smallest redwoods. I now only have five healthy redwoods of the eight that were planted about ten years ago. The drought got one, and branches from the peppercorn tree crushed two others about a year apart. Amazingly, our ancient fence was completely spared.
Speaking of fences, My Beloved has been building them to keep the dogs out of the mini-gardens she’s creating. Below is a photo of one.
As you likely know by now, I love flowers. Here are some that brought a smile to my face today.
I’m also a fan of shadows. This last image caught my eye. It looks like this fellow could use a haircut!
May your days be filled with blessings,
Russ
Our daughter and her boyfriend have worked for the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District for many years. They are Heavy Equipment Operators. As a reward for their excellent service they have been selected to occupy a home in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve in the Los Altos Hills for as long as five years. The home is above. The views are amazing including the City of San Jose and part of Silicon Valley (which I imagine will look especially nice at night) and some of the hills in the park.
Just during the few hours we helped them move into their new digs we saw a coyote walk nearly up to their house, a dozen turkeys, and four deer. It’s a wildlife paradise.
Their commute is about 400 yards. I’m proud of my daughter and her boyfriend and what they’ve accomplished. I’m happy their employer recognised and honored them in this marvelous way.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
What’s all this have to do with photos of beautiful flowers? They too have brought beauty into my life as I feel the warmth of the sun during my daily outings into my backyard when the walls of my home seem ready to suffocate me. They are like fleeting friends who remind me to absorb and appreciate all the beauty I can while it is available to me.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
I found some terrific questions on this list and believe many of you will find value in it.
With Love and Gratitude,
I love symbolism and contrasts in photographs. In these photos I took along my back fence I was, of course, attracted by the the beauty of the flowers themselves, but I especially enjoyed the many contrasts the scene elicited in my mind: Fleeting beauty vs. aged fence, silken vs. coarse textures, delicate vs. sturdy, vibrant color vs. subdued tones, uniform lines vs. varied wood grain.
Such images remind me how differences in people can enhance life and relationships when I look beyond individual surface attributes to see larger blessings all around me.
With love and gratitude,
Russ
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Russ Towne's A Grateful Man 