What a sunny day today! Personally, I do find it a bit too bright for my tastes or sensitivities, which is why I am wearing my tinted glasses – but nonetheless, it is still glorious feeling the warmth shining down.

And the plants! It’s as if a fine green carpet rose up through the deadened ground in the matter of just a week. Winter to spring spearheaded by the sharp edges of the tulip leaves breaking through the ground, leading the charge for the remainder of life stirring underfoot – ready to rise and greet the warmth as it rains down.

As you can possibly surmise, I am smitten with spring. If I were to put the seasons in order of my favorites, I would have a difficult time determining which I like more: spring or autumn. Opposites of one another, I enjoy them for that very reason; the greenery of life and rebirth on one hand – and a bright and fiery foliage death on the other. If it were not for the necessity and bountifullity of summer and the food which it produces, I would enjoy it if spring were to immediately follow autumn, which would likewise loop back to spring in a shorter, more joyous year.

Events in town have been somewhat quiet as of late. Thankfully, I have not had any encounters with persons possessing abilities or deal with any supernatural beings. This has given me time to catch up on my letter writing to friends and read a great many books. Although, now that I think of it, now that the snow is past us a season, I should spend my nights training again. I do not wish to be caught unawares or unprepared if a problem were to arise.

I’m off to inventory my supply of seeds so I can determine what I need to buy from Cutler’s this week. Knowing my garden will be soon growing is like knowing a field full of friends is coming to visit – which is a poor choice for an analogy as I do not eat my friends as I intend to eat the vegetables.

As a side note, the word I used above, “bountifullity,” is not a word according to my copy of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language. I should write to them and petition for its inclusion.

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Greetings from Emily. March is already upon us. 1853 is burning by more quickly than a narrow candle while reading an engrossing book.

One of the annual joys of March is it means we are immersed within the maple sugaring season. Trees throughout Amherst have sprouted wooden buckets (and here and there I’ve seen some metal buckets as well!), catching the sweet sap. A new and notable invention this year is the introduction of tubes to collect the sugary goodness, but this is an instance when innovation comes at a steep price.

Local maple sugar producer, Occasional Creek Maple, is using these tubes to direct the flow of sap from the trees to his sugar shack. Where does he get the tubes from? I’ll tell you! He is using the Internets tubes!

What Internets tubes look like when attached to a tree, of all things.

As you can very well imagine, the sticky syrup not only greatly slowed down the speed of the Internets, but it also tends to clog the tubes. Father had taken no notice as his t-mail still clicks along unabated with his AOL (America Over-telegraph Lines) subscription. Vinnie, however, was quite upset as this inconvenience considerably limited the number of cat videos she can see per day.

Determined to fix this grievous error, last night I suited up in my battle dress, loaded up on weaponry, donned my mask, and walked to Belchertown. I easily found the Occasional Creek Maple sugar shack from the sweet smell and the column of evaporated water pluming up from the vent in the roof. A light was on inside. I considered climbing a nearby tree to pounce upon the proprietor when he exited the building, when a little voice said, “Why not simply knock on the door and speak to him?”

I turned and saw Lavinia standing behind me. Drat. She had followed me yet again! It is difficult to conduct missions with a nosy younger sister following my every movement. Her suggestion did have merit, so I removed my mask and we lightly knocked on the door.

An overview of a long story: no blood was spilled. We had an enjoyable evening as Mr. Delaney showed us how the sap is boiled and becomes maple syrup. He did apologize for our slower Internets but was forced to use the Internets tubes for his sap collection because someone had stolen his tree buckets. It is not an ideal solution for him either as he is frequently having to pull cat videos out of his sap collection tank. So, not only is his syrup clogging the tubes, but the Internets content is also interfering with his sugaring operation! I pledged to track down and apprehend the thieving so-and-so and get his sap buckets returned to him so everything can get back to normal. He said he would pay me with syrup and maple candies. Vinnie was overjoyed.

I will go out tonight to find the scofflaw, but first I will enjoy pancakes topped with sweet, local Occasional Creek Maple syrup.

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Good afternoon. This is Emily. I know I am almost two weeks late in writing about the new year, but the Internets tube between Amherst and Belchertown froze up, yet again. It took an unseasonably warm day and several beefy men with chisels to free up the flow of of Internets. It is good to be back on here, the Twitters, and Pinterest again.

The new year has come upon us again. I think 1853 has a positive ring to it and I hope that ring resonates throughout the year and keeps our town trouble-free (or, at the very least, zombie-free).

I am quite looking forward to my upcoming trip to Boston to visit my dear brother, Austin. I’ll be sad to leave my Amherst, but I’m sure he and I will have an adventurous time in the big city.

In case you have (incorrectly) assumed that I had anything to do with this silliness, I would like to say no. As I may have stated before, I cannot fly, so while I do dearly wish I were the one responsible for that “unidentified flying object”, it was not I. Instead I could be described as an oft-invisible, non-flying object, which really make little sense.

I must go now. Lavinia wishes to use the Internets to look at daguerreotypes of cats. An entire world of information on the Internets and all she wants is to see cat pictures. I wish there were some way to convey the magnitude of the exasperated sigh I just let out.

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What a wonderful day! Why yes, it was foggy and dreary out, but not inside the Dickinson home on Pleasant Street! I was up for most of the night reading a delightful book…which is exactly what I tell my family when I have really been out on patrol. Apart from a stray cow, nothing happened last evening.

I digress – the day started out nicely. I thought it was strange that the noon hour came and went, but my family had yet to wake me up and demand I participate in the household chores. Our family, like most, do not celebrate birthdays, so their gesture was warmly received by me.

When I had risen, I found a wonderful lunch waiting for me in the dining room. After I was full to the bursting point (as it felt!), I was whisked out-of-doors by my sister. A few minutes later we were at our secret destination: John Lovell’s studio – which was odd since Lavinia had brought me here for a daguerreotype slightly over a month ago on Halloween. Mr. Lovell is wonder at making his pictures, but honestly, the man has not a bit of creativity. Looking at the sample pictures on his walls, every person is sitting in the exact same pose. No matter, it is the thought that counts, and I have a nice picture of myself, wearing a festively silly hat. That cupcake featured prominently beside me? I ate it straight away without sharing and without remorse. It was delicious.

Thinking about my age, I have to say that being 22 feels exactly the same as I felt when I was 21.

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Hello and good afternoon. This is Emily. It is quite a dreary December day that is more reminiscent of November than the normally wintery month that the calendar says it currently is. I should be gleefully assaulting my dear sister with a flurry of snowballs, but there is no snow and instead I just have to make do with daydreaming about it.

During my daily perusal of The Internets, I went to one of my favorite “sites”, Indie Author Land, to read about what wonderful new authors and books may be found…only to see a daguerreotype of myself staring back at me. See below -

I was stunned to see that the man who spied on me and wrote a book about it was interviewed right there, on one of my favorite places to go on The Internets. After my initial anger wavered, I read the lengthy article where I was able to glean much information about the mysterious writer person. I was sure to take a good many notes, but then I had to relinquish the Internets Box to Lavinia so she could see how many times she was “Poked” on the Facebooks. I tell you, she has not an ounce of shame.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sharpening my sword and thinking about meeting this Eric Nixon person. Mark my words, someday I will find him – and when I do, I will be successful in dissuading him from writing another word about me.

(Or, I will just kick him in the shin.)

As an asides, if you do not follow me on the Twitters, you should (unless you’re my sister or parents, in that case, please do not).

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Good evening. This is Emily letting you know that the man who wrote that book about me called Emily Dickinson, Superhero – Vol. 1 is giving away two signed copies on a web site known as the “Goodreads”. From what I’ve gleaned, you simply “click” on the “Enter To Win”-words below, tell it your address, and you’ll be entered. I have spent most of this evening perusing this web site and I am not only fascinated, but bewildered by the stunning array and quantity of books. I hope that I may live forever so I can read each and every book listed on their webby pages. If you don’t have a Goodreads account, it takes just a scant minute to sign up. It was quite easy for me to do. So easy, in fact, that I suspect my mother – who knows not a thing of the internets tubes – could enroll for a “Goodreads” account and later tell her friends at tea how simple it was. If I dare to speculate her being successful in this endeavor, I’m certain you could be as well.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Emily Dickinson, Superhero – Vol. 1

by Eric Nixon

Giveaway ends December 10, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Oh, how clever. This giveaway is ending on my birthday. I would have thought that the author would have known that in 1852, we have transcended such childish needs and do not celebrate birthdays. I am hoping he is not attempting an honorary gesture to commemorate my successful ability to have lived for another year. If so, I will air my annoyance on the Twitters.

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Good evening, it is Emily here writing to you again. I feel as if I should be saying “Good Night” as it is fully dark well before 5:30pm – which is not so much of an issue for me as I can see clearly in the dark as I can in the light. Is that what the jealous call, “a humble brag?” Perhaps it is (honestly, I do not know). This is not humble: I took the above daguerreotype and colored it and it is exceedingly beautiful.

This morning my dear sister, Lavinia, burst into my room, waking me up. I did not appreciate that, but she was distraught that our “web sites” were “down.” (As an asides, yes, Vinnie does have an online presence, but I shan’t tell you what it is for I do not want to send too many passengers to her site – it’s of no consequence, really – all she discusses is clothing, recent events, and the eligible young men of Amherst.) She said a “hacker” had struck, causing our web sites to fall down!

Needless to say, this raised my dander considerably. How dare someone, with malice in their heart, “hack” our web sites down? She said we were not the only ones and that hundreds of web sites were also knocked down, and in their place was a simple message, “hacked by hacker”.

Firstly, what a terrible message – nary a capital letter, nor punctuation, to be seen anywhere amidst their missive (if you can call it that). On second thought, it’s a terribly redundant message. It would be as if I were to leave a calling card that said, “Written by writer.” If I were to leave such an abbreviated message, at least I would have the wherewithal to include capitalization and punctuation.

After Vinnie had left, I began to envision the dastardly act in progress! The self-proclaimed “hacker” (no doubt some sort of shiftless layabout) would be wearing dark clothing to help conceal him in the midst of the early morning, pre-dawn darkness. He would then jimmy open a back door to the “server room” (an odd phrase, but then again, I do not make it up). Once inside, he would find a room full of individual sites, each one containing a web. There would be hundreds of web sites in the room (because they’re quite small). Because the “hacker” has not a mote of compassion or remorse, he raised a hatchet up high and swung it down, cutting a web, making it fall down. I would imagine he might have to brush the hatchet off because sometimes webs can be sticky, or maybe not. Maybe he also does not care about stray strands of webbing clinging to his weapon. The “hacker” continued until each and every web was down before dropping a slip of paper saying “hacked by hacker”, and leaving. (I know I should have put the comma inside the quote just there, but I do not want any reader to even think for a moment that this “hacker” has an ability to compose proper English when, in fact, he does not.)

Thoroughly upset by the version of events that I had thought up, I leapt from bed and vowed to lay waste to this “hacker”…after breakfast (mother had made bacon that smelled divine).

After breakfast, Vinnie found me in my garden shed, changing into my battle dress and equipping myself with weapons – and she laughed at me. Confused, I asked why. She said, “The webs do not work that way.” Well, I only know of one type of webs and they most certainly do work that way. She said things were fine and that our webs were “back up.” She asked a young man who fancied her to get the webs up, which he did after “fixing the code.” (Morse Code? What does the webs have to do with the telegraph?)

So, in the end, everything was set in proper order. Sometimes I feel this modern technology is akin to dark magic. Just give me science to rest upon and a good book to read and I will be set, thank you very much.

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Good evening, this is Emily. I thought I would take a moment to say a hello to those who might be reading this “web” page (although there should be nothing sticky about it as I have dusted thoroughly to remove all the cobwebs I could find).

Tonight happens to be Halloween. I would normally only mention this in passing, but my dear (dim) sister, Lavinia could do nothing but prattle on about it. In the end, to silence her ceaseless mouth, I relented and said I would wear a costume and go “trick or treat” with her. She said she would make me a costume. I was unable to look properly at myself in a mirror before she dragged me out the door and over to John Lovell’s studio in Marsh’s Block where he took the above daguerreotype. Vinnie brought her cat which seemed to have made its way into the image. Mr. Lovell exclaimed, “Ha! Ha! You were surely daguerreobombed by that rascally feline!” Indeed I was.

The tricking and treating was trying on my patience. Every group of youths we came across were dressed as various demons and monsters – it was all I could do to keep from letting my instincts get the better of me and lop off their heads with one fell swoop of my blade. I did receive three apples and a liquorice, which made it deliciously bearable.

Now that I have had some time to look at the picture, I was hardly the “frightful apparition” that Vinnie described me as being. No wonder every child we came across nearly laughed to death.

I hope this trick or treat fad does not make its way to other days of note. I draw the line at putting a turkey carcass on my head for Thanksgiving.

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Emily Dickinson, Superhero is here!

Well, not here here, but it’s available RIGHT NOW on Amazon and Smashwords (and soon will be on Barnes & Noble and iTunes)!

Before you head on over there, let me tell you a little about the two different versions. The book is divided into three separate (but connected) stories. If you want, you can read them one at a time, individually, OR you can get the entire book which is made up of the three stories. I did this for two reasons: thought I would make it flexible for people who like to read in smaller chunks (based on the popularity of Amazon Singles), and as I write more in the Emily series, I will be releasing the stories, one at a time, as I finish them.

I had intended on making the first story, Episode 1 – Tomb and Graves available for free – BUT little did I know that Amazon won’t let you sell a story for less than $0.99. I’m working on a way to try and get them to “price match” the $0.00 price on Smashwords. In the meantime, you can get it for free right here at Smashwords in any ebook format. Now you have an opportunity to read the first third of the book for absolutely free.

When you finish Tomb and Graves, you can either get the remaining two stories, Creation of a Superhero and Austin in Boston for $2.99 each on Amazon ($3.00 each on Smashwords), or get the full book for the same price as the remaining two stories ($5.98 on Amazon; $6.00 on Smashwords).

OR…

Would you like to get a free copy of the full ebook? From now until the end of the month (midnight on Halloween – spooky!), I will send the Kindle version of Emily Dickinson, Superhero – Vol. 1 in exchange for an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. Just send me an email (to: EricNixonAuthor at Gmail dot com) and say, “Yee-haw! I want to write a review in exchange for your awesome book!” It’s that easy! But, this offer is for a limited time. Once the biting wind of November 1st chills across your neck, this offer will be as gone as your kid’s trick or treat candy.

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Hello! I made new covers for the full book, Emily Dickinson, Superhero – Vol. 1, as well as the individual stories within the book (Tomb and Graves, Creation of a Superhero, and Austin in Boston). As for the reason that prompted this change, head on over to my website where I just wrote about it.

Without further delay, here are the new covers:

The full book:

Vol. 1, Episode 1 – Tomb and Graves:

Vol. 1, Episode 2 – Creation of a Superhero:

Vol. 1, Episode 3 – Austin in Boston:

They should be available on Amazon and Smashwords sometime realllly soon.

Maybe tonight? Perchance tomorrow? Who knows?

Either way, I’ll let you know RIGHT AWAY!

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