 Teeny Tiny Stories From the Marinated Jungle Author, Lee Widener By Julie Carpenter Friend of the Chickens, Lee Widener, has published another book! And, as you might suspect, it’s weird. Bizarro, even. If you’ve never read Bizarro literature before, your brain is in for a treat. Besides, your synapses were probably due for rewiring anyway. Bizarro literature is much like nonsense. It exists to defy expectations and break your mind out of any boxes where you might comfortably store your imagination. In a word, it’s a trip. If you’ve never heard of it before, read Widener’s guest post, What is Bizarro Literature and Am I Weird Enough to Read It.
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 Why Sacred Chickens? by Julie Carpenter Since we have a lot of new readers, we thought we would republish our very first post! It sort of explains why we chose this name. (Spoiler alert: it's not a terribly good explanation.) This was first published waaay back in March of 2013. Why Sacred Chickens? We had to name this blog something. And let's face it...chickens often get the short end of the stick. Well...not around here but in the world at large. Besides, believe it when I say all the good cat names for websites are taken. So...why chickens? And where does the sacred part come in?  Book Review: The Distance From Four Points Author Margo Orlando Littell By Julie Carpenter Robin Besher’s goal for her adult life has been to bury her time in Four Points, a poverty-stricken coal town in Appalachia, but she finds that the past doesn’t always stay put in this riveting story of a mother who finds her worst nightmare coming true. Robin, who has been living in a posh Pittsburgh suburb, is forced to return to the small town where she once escaped an abusive family situation through teenage prostitution. Worse yet, her own teenage daughter, Haley, must return with her. The Distance From Four Points was not as far as Robin led herself to believe.  Random Thoughts: Haunting Myself by Julie Carpenter Lately I’ve been having some odd experiences with time. So, this going to be an odd, drifting sort of blog post. I like that the topic of the piece is also my excuse for the disorganization of my thoughts. I don’t know where to start, so I will start with a dream I had about eternity. (Yes, my subconscious is an odd place.)
 Diving Into Whistlestop- The Bite by Jarad Johnson If you don’t know by now, Julie published a book! It’s called Things Get Weird in Whistlestop, and I reviewed it recently. I just re-read it (quarantine…I have time on my hands), and there are some stories in there that I want to get into a little deeper. The first I’m going to talk about is The Bite, a story about a woman who encounters a fairy while spraying her roses, and it ends rather badly for her – depending on your point of view.
From here on out, there will be spoilers so if you haven’t read the book, you may want to do that first.  The Frustrated Gardener by Jarad Johnson Commentary by Julie and Morty Readers, I am frustrated. Flummoxed. Disconcerted with my garden. The soil seems unhappy with me, and I with it. Because I planted little seedlings over a month ago, and they have done nothing. Zilch. They have sat there, alive at least, staring at me as weeds have grown around them. You see, we have had some unseasonably cool weather, and it has stunted the growth of my annuals. And how does one enjoy the garden when it. Just. Does. Nothing. It’s a little discouraging, and the connection with nature I seek to foster seems to flounder. Or, at least, stagnate. O mother earth, why can I not enjoy the growth of the seedlings that I hath planted? Hast thou forsaken me?
Morty: A bit dramatic are we?  Book Review: Coney Island Siren Author, Theresa Varela By Julie Carpenter In one of the first few pages of the book you will read the sentence, “This book is dedicated to the women who have lost themselves in the search for love,” and the story within the pages lives up to the theme. Varela’s book explores domestic abuse and the ripple effect it can have, passed on from one family and relationship to another, causing damage throughout time, generation after generation. More than that, the book is an exploration of one woman’s relationship with herself, a study of how her choices were made, of choices that can never be undone.
 Digging In Happily Ever After by Jarad Johnson The Disney versions of the classic fairy tales are the ones that my generation, and a few before me, grew up with. They’re the ones that we are familiar with, and unless we actually take the time to read the original (a term used loosely here) then we are never aware that older fairy tales can be quite dark. Often there is no “happily ever after” as Disney would have us believe. If you read the Grimm’s versions of fairy tales (and these were collections of earlier and often even darker tales), they are usually quite…grim. It’s kind of in the name. These folk stories were not always about happy endings, or even about love.
 Book Review: The Flight of the Wren Author, Orla McAlinden by Julie Carpenter I read this book when it came out in 2018 and it’s one of the few books I’ve read over the last couple of years that still haunts me. I am just sitting down to do a review for various reasons, including two moves, renovation chaos, and a small family medical crisis. No one ever accused me of being organized. Still, I think this may be a very good time to read this book, with the heavy footsteps of a pandemic and other signs of the apocalypse trudging on in the background. (I’m only partly kidding.)
 Gardening in the Heat by Julie Carpenter It’s June and while northern gardeners are just reaching the dizzying peak of summer blooms, here in the south we’re rapidly creeping towards sunstroke territory. My hydrangeas are already acting like drama queens. I firmly believe they droop their leaves a little lower if they see me looking at them. We’ve had a fairly wet early summer with afternoon thunderstorms that leave the garden feeling more like a steam bath than a garden, fogging up windows and the gardener’s glasses. As bad as it is, I have to remind myself that it will get worse. By July around here an afternoon thunderstorm will feel like the sauna on the devil’s back porch.
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