Max Meadows's Blog

Victorian-era children's Halloween costumes

begins with Victorian-era photographs of children's Halloween costumes.

I am pleased to announce the beginning of the serial release of my novel SLACK TIDE through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. All weekend long, the first two chapters will be available for download free of charge. Each purchase for $0.00 will change the way the Amazon algorithm interacts with my release, bettering its chances for recommendation to readers who don’t know me. If  you don’t own a Kindle, you can download Amazon’s ‘Kindle for PC’ app. So please, friends! Download, read, and enjoy! Tell everyone you know to do the same! And look for the following installment to appear next Friday, also free of charge.


Get it here:   SLACK TIDE 

Astronauts aboard Apollo 10 heard strange noises when they passed around the dark side of the moon. They were out of radio contact with Earth when the mournful sounds began. It's reminds me of the sounds played in old horror movies when something uncanny is unfolding. But behind the moon,  maybe it was radio waves from Jupiter bouncing off the moon--either way, this is pretty chilling. Take a listen!

Hand-cribbed map of Middle Earth by Tolkien and Baynes, recently found in Baynes' library
Writers often hear that they must know the background of characters and settings fully, even if those details never come to bear upon a story. Tolkien apparently created Middle Earth with just that level of detail in mind, as evidenced by an annotated map of Middle Earth found in illustrator Pauline Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. This article, released today, feels like a signpost to me on my own world-building journey, as I spent the greater part of yesterday drawing maps of my own.

"During these troubled times, many Highlanders relocated to the Cape Fear River Valley, where a large settlement of Gaelic-speaking Scots graced the land of the longleaf pine in the kilts and plaids of their family tartans."

Follow this link to read more at Our State magazine.

 According to the Census of 1860, Josiah Collins III of Somerset Plantation near Creswell, NC owned the following livestock:
42 horses55 mules52 milk cows30 oxen55 other cattle225 sheep496 swine328 enslaved people Ransom Bennett
Rowena "Rennie" Reeves Bennett
Darius "Ross" Bennett
Mourning Dickerson Littlejohn
Unidentified Somerset slaves On this day in 1986, the historical Somerset Place held its first family reunion for the descendants of the slaves who had lived on the plantation. At that time, the historical society responsible for the site began refocusing the presented history of the plantation, shifting from focus on its wealth and success to include the lives of all the people who contributed to the plantation. Read more about Somerset Place and its people.
 

The Skeleton was erected in 1902North Carolina has some of the most recognizable and beautiful lighthouses in the country. The old Cape Fear Light, pictured above was demolished in the late 1950s, had earned the nickname 'The Skeleton' for its gangling support structures. This video below discusses the attempt to find and restore the pieces of the Cape Fear Light that were sold as souvenirs.

Port Royal, Jamaica

Once known as "the most wicked and sinful city in the world" because of its pirate inhabitants, Port Royal sank beneath the ocean in a 1692 earthquake and tsunami. Blackbeard, Jack Rackham, and Stede Bonnet all frequented the port city. Read more at Atlas Obscura.