Showing results by author "Gene" in All Categories

Thanksgiving is coming! This means an amusing but tumultuous day with large and small children on hand to create playful chaos, loud noises, and the need to deal with spilled liquids. Tilly and Elmer love this of course, but they especially enjoy spending the day before Thanksgiving alone together cooking, verifying the quality of the contents of their liquor cabinet, and giving thanks for their continued fondness for one another’s amatory adeptness.

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was an early naturalist and nature photographer who wrote several best-selling novels. Her novel, Laddie: A True Blue Story (1913), includes autobiographical elements that corresponded to her early life. The story is told by Little Sister, the 12th child of a large family, while the character of the title is based on the author’s older brother, who has a strong connection to the land. The narrative has a country ambiance with lovely descriptions of nature.

Adventure-loving Arthur is a dog on a mission. And nothing wags his tail more than a run around his beautiful country. Tracking treasures from airport to train to bus, he doesn’t want to miss a single precious place. With eyes wide, looking at giant presidents’ heads carved into a granite mountain and thrilling rides under massive waterfalls, he can barely believe what he sees. But with so many wonders in store, he’s sure he’ll have even more awesome tales to tell all his animal friends back home! What cool points of interest will Arthur uncover on his sight-seeing quest?

gen-ius (noun) The attending or controlling spirit of a place or institution; in ancient belief, either of two mutually opposed spirits, one good and the other evil, supposed to attend a person throughout his life.

In the third and final installment, Ariel’s friend brutally dies on a train. She becomes traumatized and her powers shot. She must regain them when a new supernatural threat arrives, but she is now tired of the trains. She promises to avenge her friend’s death when she learns it was intended. She won’t be ready for the shocking revelation.

Fifty-eight years to the day after their first kiss on the night of the 1961 Halloween dance at South Branch High, Tilly and Elmer now find themselves chaperoning this year’s edition of the big party. They’ve gotten pretty good at kissing since their first time, but on this particular evening, their attempt to reprise the kiss, not to mention several other delightful activities they’ve gotten good at since then, is interrupted by a frightening phenomenon!

Tilly and Elmer have been married for 50 years! To mark the occasion, they have planned a grand celebration together; a romantic Caribbean cruise, where they can be alone together in a secret seagoing hideaway. They are all set for a glorious week of replaying the playful proceedings of their original honeymoon, in perhaps a slower but equally delightful tempo, when they find that their children and grandchildren plan to come along and celebrate with them! The cruise is loads of fun but finding their allotment of private time together is a challenge.

"The Song of the Cardinal" by Gene Stratton-Porter is the story of a big male Cardinal bird in the Wabash Valley, Indiana. Living in a tree near the home of a farmer and his wife, the bird sings with passion and joie de vivre to attract a mate, which he finds, and a charming romance develops. Unfolding at a leisurely pace, the story portrays the varied natural settings of the region in a most engaging way. The theme of nature and mankind’s responsibility to care for it, is present throughout the narrative.

The traditional South Branch High Labor Day picnic is atwitter with the news that their old classmate, Martha Darling, has come back from New York and is now the author of a best seller! Tilly and Martha rekindle their old friendship and are delighted with the reunion until Tilly, upon reading Martha’s book, begins to suspect that the steamy, best-selling love story is based on an old crush Martha had on Elmer! Elmer is sure of it - and doesn’t see a problem, but Tilly knows this could turn into a stormy situation!

Every summer, Tilly and Elmer attend the county fair, and their favorite fair activity is enjoying a ride on the Ferris Wheel, where they reprise the immodest impropriety they couldn’t resist engaging in on this conveyance when they were young lovers.

The Artisan presents itself as a fictional memoir written in the early 1990s by Timo Tomi to his American son, who has just joined Doctors Without Borders to assist during the conflict in Yugoslavia. Timo, a finish carpenter drafted into the Royal Yugoslav Army in May 1940, is taken prisoner when Yugoslavia collapses. Transported to Germany, he longs to return to his family farm, where his partially disabled father, mother, wife, and new daughter must struggle to manage without him. Only by accepting work can he hope to get enough food to survive.

Adventure-loving Arthur is a dog on a mission. He can’t wait to experience the 10 mind blowing world wonders. He is all packed and ready for this experience of a lifetime. From camel rides through the pyramids, to snorkeling in the ocean, nothing can stop Arthur from discovering what our planet has to offer. But with so many wonders in store, he’s sure to have many unbelievable stories to bring back home!

Boise remembered the Caribbean home of his childhood—in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands—as a paradise. But when his best friend is murdered and the case quickly buried by local police, Boise realizes how far paradise has fallen. With the aid of Dana Goode, a local reporter investigating the kidnapping of a real estate mogul’s daughter, Boise goes on the hunt for his friend’s killer. But he’ll find more than he bargained for—much more.

Elmer is thrilled to be named to head the annual Fourth of July Parade committee by the mayor of South Branch! This doesn’t seem like a difficult position, until Elmer realizes that he will be in charge of selecting the young lady who will grace the Betsy Ross float, the centerpiece of the parade. The competition is fierce, and the young candidates and their overambitious mothers will stop at nothing to influence Elmer’s selection!

Tilly and Elmer have been married nearly 50 years, and by now their holiday celebrations typically conform to long-standing traditions. This is especially true for major holidays such as June 14, “National Bourbon Day”! They have learned by trial and error that the festivities should begin with the “Celebration”, and that they should save the consuming of whisky until afterward. The rainy weather threatens at first to dampen their preferred plans, but after 50 years together, they’ve learned to adapt their affection to the situation. “Bottoms up!”

What would a Tilly and Elmer Christmas be without a minor mix-up in communication? Tilly only has one item on her wish list, but letting Elmer know what it is without just telling him is, as usual, a difficult challenge. Hints only go so far, although Tilly doesn’t think even Elmer can miss this one. And Elmer is certain he is on the same page as Tilly. Of course, that’s what he thinks every year.

Elmer and his coffee drinking buddies at Pearl’s Downtown Diner realize it’s May 1, the traditional date when, as young men, they started thinking that it should now be warm enough for a bit of lollygagging in the woods with their girlfriends. Of course it was rarely warm enough, and their girlfriends usually had other ideas...In this case, it actually was warm enough to enjoy some private time together in the woods and Tilly and Elmer set out to do what comes naturally to many species in the springtime.

Valentine’s Day is coming, and Tilly is determined not to let it pass without a celebration this year! She’s ready to let her hair down and enjoy a wild, romantic night with Elmer, even at the risk of a scandal...As it turns out, a convergence of high libido and low sobriety leads to an incident - as it often does! Nevertheless, Tilly and Elmer do succeed in getting out of St. Louis without spending time in jail, and, they come home with a Valentine’s Day story they won’t be telling their grandchildren any time soon.

Elmer and Tilly have a tradition of trying to outdo each other with outrageous pranks on April Fools’ day, and this year the unannounced contest is on again. Elmer strikes first, to modest effect, but when Tilly doesn’t respond in kind he begins to hope she has given up the game this year. And he forgets the game entirely when she announces that she is about to become the new sex advice columnist for the local newspaper, The South Branch Sentinel.

Love President Obama or hate him, you will be surprised to learn how many parallels there are between Lincoln, the 16th president, and Obama, the 44th president. Some similarities are obvious and predictable, but others are fascinating, uncanny, and mysterious. This is the fascinating account of two obscure Illinois lawyer-politicians separated by 150 years who against all odds came to the White House. This is an American story about success and failure, ambition and hatred, politics and passion.