The Evolving Cover of Manuela Blayne

 Manuela Blayne  is a story about an innocent African American girl who lost her virginity in the worst way imaginable. The setting is in the early twentieth century in the deep South. Her friend, a white girl who was a couple of years younger, observed the events of the story unfold. 

This novella has special importance not only because something similar happened in my childhood in the mid twentieth century but also because it shows a Black life that needed to matter but didn't. I first self-published the book in 2015 with a cover that showed something I saw in the story that seemed obvious to me but an idea too obscure for readers to see without explanation.

What I had in mind was that each of us is a vessel designed by the Potter, the Creator of us all. Beautiful creations come in a variety of colors. 

 Manuela Blayne has received some powerful reviews, but I am eager for more readers to feel the events of the story. I submitted it to Southeast Media Productions for it to be released again, this time with a  new cover depicting the eerie forest where Manuela was sexually molested.

When I was a little girl, my friend was raped. Adults said that some boys "got to her." What happened in her life seemed to matter no more than what could have happened to a heifer or one of the other farm animals. My parents wouldn't allow me to spend time with my friend, and I lost track of what became of her.

We submitted the novel for an editorial review with Readers' Favorite, where it received five stars.  K C Finn, an author who reviewed it, had a perceptive comprehension of what the story has to say:

"Author Mary Lou Cheatham has crafted an excellent tale of friendship, self-discovery, and inner strength in this important and expressive work of interpersonal drama."

After a few days, an expert pointed out that the books of the Covington Chronicles series should look enough alike that the readers can know they belong together.  Jodi Hockinson of Southeast Media Productions and I are trying to make the books match. This process requires hours of work and thought. 

In the meantime, Manuela Blayne received a favorable review from Kirkus, and we decided to include a quote from it on the cover. Manuela Blayne, A Life Apart 

Here's the new cover. 

Eggs in Toast Topped with Wilted Greens

 This recipe does not have exact measurements. I’m simply telling you how to prepare the dish. It may not be the same each time, but it will be good. We had fun cooking and eating this today. Try it. We prepared two generous servings.

Begin by collecting the greens.  I went to the garden in the back yard to harvest some tender fresh greens, including a cup of small arugula leaves. I finely chopped a few basil leaves. These have a strong flavor. Then I snipped some tiny pieces of rosemary. Young tender collards would have been good, but our current crop hasn’t come up yet. Back in the kitchen, I added enough tender fresh spinach to fill a medium mixing bowl.

How much garlic do you like? An entire bulb went into this dish. Here’s an easy way to prepare garlic if you don’t mind having some visible pieces in your food. Cut one end off the bulb. Be sure that each clove has an end sliced off. Heat the garlic in the microwave twenty seconds. Let it cool about a minute. Peel it. This step is easy when the garlic has been heated. Mash the cloves with a knife turned sideways. Then chop it finely.

Finely dice half a medium onion. Pour a dash of oil into a skillet. We like half olive oil and half canola oil. Cook the garlic and onion.

While the onion and garlic cook, zest a lime. (You’ll need only half the zest of a lime.) Juice it. Set the lime juice and zest aside.

Pour the greens into the skillet with the onion and garlic. It will instantly shrivel to a fraction of its raw size when you start cooking it. You don’t need to cook it a long time. Season it. I like tomato bouillon and vegetable bouillon mixed with ¼ cup of water. Stir the seasonings into the greens. Let the greens rest while you prepare the eggs, but keep them warm.

Slice a Roma tomato. You will need four slices.

Place a large skillet or a griddle on the stove. Oil it.

Lay four slices of bread on a cutting board. With a sharp device, cut holes in the bread slices. Place the bread slices and the round pieces on a hot griddle or skillet.

Drop an egg in each hole. Cook on one side and turn. Be careful not to let it stick. Use enough oil. (Or if you prefer, you could use butter.) If you prefer runny eggs, you won’t need to do anything but cook them. If you like your eggs firm, stick the yolks with a fork.

As soon as the little round centers are done, place two on each plate. Stack tomato slices on the bread. We placed a few crumbles of blue cheese on top of the tomatoes. Top with some lime zest. These little rounds are delicious open-faced sandwiches.

Place the eggs cooked inside the toast on the plates.

Drown the greens in lime juice. Dip them up with a slotted spoon and spread them over the eggs.

You may know some other names for eggs cooked in toast. If so, drop me a note. I wish I knew what else to call them besides eggs in stoast.

 

 

Where were you on 9-11-2001?

Here’s my 9-11story. I seldom think of it after nineteen years, but with all the hardships we are witnessing as a nation in the year of 2020, the visions of that day come back to my mind.

In late July of 2001, my first husband Robert Cheatham (Bobby) had a respiratory arrest.

Since January of 1997, he’d struggled with a variant of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a disease of the neuromuscular system that paralyzes. Most people who have it regain about ninety percent of their body functions, but he didn’t. He improved in tiny increments, but his condition always deteriorated. In the meantime, he developed spinal stenosis and gained a huge amount of weight from heart failure, recreational eating, and the inability to move. He was profoundly paralyzed from his diaphragm to his feet, and he had limited use of his arms.

The strangest phenomenon was that he could still play trumpet. Most of the time he played flugelhorn because it required less wind he said. (He taught trumpet and was a band director at Louisiana Tech University.)

Back to July of 2001—he was an inpatient at a rehab hospital. One morning while Fermi, a physical therapist, was working with him, I sneaked into the adjoining bath to take a shower. I heard Fermi calling me in a panicky-sounding voice. As quick as I could I threw on underwear and a tee shirt.

Bobby had stopped breathing and he had turned dusky. “I believe he’s gone,” Fermi said.

“Let’s get him in bed.”

Fermi and I lifted him from a chair and threw him over into the bed. Actually we dropped him into the bed, and he started breathing again. We turned on every call bell in the room, and I rushed out into the hall to yell for help.

The arrest resulted from a massive shower of pulmonary emboli (blood clots) in his lungs. After a couple of weeks, the doctors decided to send him to the LSU hospital in Shreveport to have a Greenfield filter installed in the inferior vena cava to catch any blood clots his body could have been manufacturing and sending to his lungs.

On the night of September 10, 2001, I followed Bobby, who rode in an ambulance to Shreveport, about seventy miles from the hospital in Ruston. He was admitted, and the following morning staff members took him downstairs to the operating room to get the Greenfield filter.

That morning I followed along behind. When I stepped into the hall, two swarms of employees hovered around the television sets on the wall. One of the twin towers had already received the blow of an airplane crashing into it. The nurse called me. “Come with us. I’ll show you where the operating room is so you can come check on him.”

After following her to the door, I returned to his hospital room, where I sat and watched the second airplane. A reporter announced that President George W. Bush was located at Barksdale Air Force Base, which is in Shreveport’s twin city, Bossier City. When the news people made this announcement, President Bush had already gone somewhere else.

As I sat in the room and watched the events of the day unfold while I waited for Bobby to have his procedure, a strange calm came over me. After all we’d endured and relied on the Lord to lead us through, I had developed a sense that God would take care of me no matter what.

The vascular surgeon stayed home that morning to watch television and was three hours late coming to work. The nurse telephoned me and apologized for the delay. She asked me to come to the operating room.

That afternoon I followed an ambulance back to Ruston. Cars were sitting in long lines at the gas stations. The world has not been the same since then. Neither was Bobby. From that day until he died in January of 2002, he never spent an hour free of pain in his legs. One theory was that he was making more clots, which were pooling in his legs and causing the pain. His physical, emotional, and mental deterioration was horrific.

Since 9-11, I have developed a kind of distance that has helped me go through whatever my life presents. I still become anxious at times, but I have a kind of assurance that things will be all right. I’ve always known, but now I know on a deeper level that when my time comes, as Job said, I shall see God.

An Inteview with Cam Dockery, Chainsaw Sculptor

 Interviewing 

Cam Dockery

texassaw1@gmail.com
806-778-9353

www.TexasSaw.com

1. I read somewhere it was apparent when you were only six  years old that you had artistic talent. How did you get started carving?

-I have always enjoyed drawing and I have enjoyed that my whole life.  Although, carving is different because it is like drawing a picture a thousand times from different angles.  I also enjoy building things and carving is a really good way for me to do that!  

2. Where did you perfect your skill? Where did you study, and who taught you?

-I am self taught, I do not know if I will ever perfect my skill.  For many years I carved once a month at Post Trade Days, there I was asked to carve many different types of things.  That was in the early 2000’s and I continue to enjoy the carvings that are special orders.  I have been carving for 20 years and have made over 8000 carvings.  

3. What is your favorite object to carve?

-Something that is unique about me is that I will carve really large carvings.  I have done carvings that were 30 feet tall.  Military carvings are very special.  Memorial carvings for loved ones who have passed away are also special.  The most important are the carvings of Jesus and other Biblical subjects.  Normally it isn’t so much the subject I am carving but it is the reason it needs to be carved. 

Levelland, TX, 3 ft.

4. How long have you been chain-saw carving?

-20 years

5. Do you carve full time? 

-Yes, The name of my business is Bearly Making It and we have been in business for 20 years in Whitharral, Texas.  

6. How wide is  your territory? In other words where are the places farthest away your work is on display?

-I do on sight carvings all of over Texas, New Mexico and Colorado.  I have sent carvings to every state in the United States and also to England, Australia and Japan.  We ship UPS and can usually get an order to you in a few weeks.  I provide the wood. 

7. Is this work or play? Explain.

-I enjoy carving but I also take it very serious.  Although no one really needs what I make, when someone calls with an order, I do my best to make them happy. 

8. Do you prefer to cut down your own trees?

-I prefer to pick out my own logs but I don’t necessarily cut down trees anymore.  I am very picky with the logs I use.

Taos, New Mexico, 5 ft. 

  9. How does your wife help you with your business? 

-First of all she is typing this.  Lol!  She also does the website and any social media for our business.  My wife is a school teacher at Whitharral ISD and has taught for 20 years.  We have two sons, an eleventh grader and a sixth grader.   They are very involved in school and school sports and have been around the business their whole life.  

10. What are  your long term goals?

-I want to be able to say that my carvings made each customer happy and that each customer felt important when they left.  

Thank You!

                                                         Roosevelt High School Eagle