Through many roads, by me possessed,

He shambles forth in cosmic guise;

He is the Jester and the Jest,

And he the Text himself applies.

--From An American, by Rudyard Kipling

Don't forget, September 9 is Constitution Day.

"[T]he American Constitution is, so far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”

W.E. Gladstone

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, because if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”

Daniel Webster

“The Constitution is the guide which I will never abandon.”

George Washington

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I'm hard at work doing another editing pass on my manuscript for an anticipated contest submission. Ideas for improvements keep coming.

Tarzan the Terrible ended much as I anticipated, but I still enjoyed the ride. A good book should be a marriage of two imaginations--that of the writer and the reader--on a common journey.

As for Knights of Spain, Warriors of the Sun, I'm continuing to read it, and enjoying it (see the History Bite below), but being possessed of another story idea, I'm spending most of my reading time with Marengo: The Victory that placed the Crown of France on Napoleon's Head by T.E. Crowdy. It's fabulous. This is in preparation for a wyrd warfare story that will feature my three French horsemen in Napoleon's army. I've already written the origin story about them in Egypt, and another about their exploits at Borodino. The former has been submitted to a publication for consideration. The latter has already been published here.

For those who might've missed the story described below, you can get it here.

Drown Melancholy

By STANLEY WHEELER

An old sea shanty, a reminder of a curse, drives a pirate captain to the brink of madness… Can the crew make their final score, or will the curse destroy them all?!

History Bite:

With a detachment of 50 horsemen, De Soto set out to find Ocale. The first village they found was abandoned, but they did capture two natives. He also located lush fields of corn and sent back supplies therefrom to his main force. De Soto sent a captured Indian to the Chief of Ocale asking him to come from hiding and threatened to bring the hammer down if he did not. The return message was not conciliatory. The chief not only refused to reveal himself, he also promised to take two heads per week from the Spanish force.

Although De Soto ceased his efforts to contact the chief, that one began to make good on his promise. De Soto's men feared to stray from camp. Several were killed and decapitated. After these dead were buried, the natives dug them up during the night and hung them from trees.

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