Bøger af Mark Randolph Watters

Non-poets need love, too! We may not have the mechanics of a Whitman or the insights of a Dickinson or the intrigue of a Poe, but onward we try, crafting our own brand of the art of poetry. Blue Ridge Sunsets strikes at the sensitivities of the 'everypoet', touching upon the elements of what moves each of us, perhaps not as eloquently as the greats of literature, but nonetheless real. Read on!Inside are some ninety-nine "poems", most of which rhyme (heaven forbid!), though an honest attempt was made with each poem to avoid forced rhymes. Elements included are those of love, loss, sadness, gain, triumph, frustration, joy, God, eternity, humor, reminiscence, and wisdom. I try to avoid esoterica, as such tend to annoy, if not beguile, most of us. These are straight-from-the-heart poems, presented in simple language and imagery. I hope you enjoy these poems and find some level of connection with each.

Lance Hawthorne, his life irrevocably altered by his witness of a horrific crime at the innocent age of ten, is cursed to shoulder the yoke of guilt for taking no action to report the crime's perpetrators, despite his having rock-solid evidence. His guilt deepens after the death of his beloved mother five years later, a death he is convinced he caused.Hawthorne drifts through life, his faith shattered, his risk-aversion having rendered him all but fearful of his shadow. Until the fateful office poker game offers him a chance to return to his boyhood home of Benevolence -- and to the hell that awaits him.Lance Hawthorne is a man rushing headlong into his twilight, haunted by a past that won't let go and a future that won't let up.

Words matter. Don't they? Of course they do, but the extent they do matter depends on how effective are the conveyances of their intended meanings. We assemble our words - our thoughts and feelings - from the building blocks of vowels and consonants. We string together these letters into syllables into words with the hopes our shades of meanings are clear and unambiguous. That, however, is not always the case. Are you more or less likely, for example, to eat 'candy' or 'milk chocolate-covered caramel candy'?This work is an assemblage of vowels and consonants, formed into syllables and words and sentences, given punctuation and syntax, which I sincerely hope in their final delivery convey thoughts and feelings that in some ways touch your life and provide at least a modicum of entertainment and introspection. And such interpretive meaning that you can call your own.

Welcome to Raventon, Georgia, a quiet river town. Yeah, right!Taylor Smart and her mom, Susan, move to Raventon, into the antebellum house renovated by husband and dad, Mike Smart. Only Mike isn't around anymore, and no one seems to know what happened to him. Caves harbor secrets only the bravest dare explore. From day one, Raventon is anything but quiet --and its residents anything but ordinary.Step into the Chamber of Skulls ... if you dare!

Follow the adventures of Taylor Smart, America's latest and greatest teenage American heroine, along with her talented classmates, as they dive headlong into the strangeness that seems to gravitate to the town of Raventon, a community tucked quietly in the shadows of the hills and valleys of northwest Georgia.Come into their world, as the Raventon Three (Taylor Smart, Pilfree Romulus Bojo, and Bobbie Leigh Harwell) take on all challengers and endure all difficulties and discomforts to get to the truth!

Taylor Smart and her two friends, Bobbie Leigh Harwell and Pilfree Romulus Bojo accept a mysterious offer to play a game of a series of challenges they at first believe is no more than a prank. The game soon takes on a completely different countenance whereby failure to comply with the letter of each challenge's unique rules is not an option. Once committed to playing the game, the three friends cannot abandon the game. Each challenge of the game requires complete focus and teamwork, each participant utilizing one another's strengths while adapting for weaknesses. The price for failure is, well ... their lives.

Lance Hawthorne, his life forever changed by a horrific crime witnessed at the innocent age of nine and the yoke of guilt carried after the death of his mother five years later, is a man who has attained a stature of comfort at the price of cynicism and indifference. Virtually afraid of his shadow, Lance wallows in risk-aversion and an inhibitive philosophy of self-preservation he deems the "long view". Lance has lived an adult life of conspicuous consumption, despite an upbringing fraught with the hard lessons of a rural South Georgia farming community and the morals of honor and frugality taught him by his mother, Sara. He has failed to satisfy his insatiably materialistic notion of success. Now he is given what he believes is a chance to do so. That chance focuses on a return to his hometown, after a thirty-two-year absence, to consummate a major land purchase for his company in what he is told will be a test of his negotiating and management skills. Lance discovers instead he is a pawn in a scheme of corporate fraud and drug-trafficking and decides to climb aboard the gravy train. His leverage is his possession of damning evidence of the life-altering crime he witnessed as a child. During his hesitant return home, Lance is ravaged by memories of his past. He is confronted in a restaurant by a mysterious old man who challenges Lance¿s spiritual well-being. A "spirited" debate ensues. Lance encounters drug-runners, murder and corporate malfeasance, as well as a taste of Old South aristocracy. Lance survives several brushes with death but cannot escape the shackles of his past. Finally, he has no choice but to face the truths of his ghosts ... just in time. Or is it? Lance is a man rushing headlong into his twilight, haunted by a past that will not let go and a future that will not let up. The Ghosts Of Benevolence is a novel of ghosts literal and figurative, greed, deception, murder, betrayal, and redemption.

A tale of love, loyalty, war, commitment, death, and redemption, of growing up at a moment's notice, of discovering what's truly meaningful. Seventeen-year-old Jacob Hoffman, son of a Dunker pacifist, has a winsome and manipulative fifteen-year-old girlfriend, Rachael, who wants to marry him, or so she thinks. But Jacob's heart is set on a rifle, a sparkling Springfield rifled musket, and he's determined to get one - even if it kills him. Taking a treasured heirloom, a five-dollar gold coin given him by his dying Grandpa, he sets out to 'buy an adventure' -- a rifle. On the eve of the deadliest single day in American history, Jacob and his daddy's slave wagon-maker, Bigun, skip town in the wake of their inadvertent involvement in the killing of three nefarious drifters, and find themselves thrust into the midst of the Rebel line of battle, smack in the apex of a sunken road, Hog Trough Road, now just minutes away from receiving the full wrath of French's and Richardson's divisions of bluecoats.

Welcome to Raventon, Georgia, a quiet river town... Having worked weekends for years renovating an antebellum home in the quaint town of Raventon, Mike Smart suddenly vanishes, leaving behind little more than a plaid shirt, a cell phone, and remnants of an apple pie. A year passes and still no sign of Mike. Lacking a body, authorities stop just short of declaring him officially dead, quietly believing it so. Taylor Smart and her mom, Susan, pick up the pieces as best they can in the wake of the devastating loss of Mike, moving to the small town of Raventon and into the refurbished old home. Local lore casts shadows of suspicion for Mike's disappearance upon the eccentric Miss Peasy, the Smarts' next-door neighbor who is much more than her weirdness paints her to be. Meanwhile, Taylor meets and befriends Bobbie Leigh Harwell, a bold and brazen girl plagued by the inconvenience of phobias. She introduces Taylor to the idea of exploring a certain cave. Caves, they soon learn, harbor secrets only the bravest dare explore. From day one, Raventon is anything but quiet -- and its residents anything but ordinary. Step into the Chamber of Skulls ... if you dare!

A compilation of poems, essays, limericks, and short stories, BRIDGES is my expression of accumulated wisdom and observations spanning my sixty-four years on this earth. Many of these spans, these personal bridges, are not yet complete, as construction continues as long as I can draw a breath. Someday all will be complete, as will be yours. Maybe herein we will find some common ground, as well as some grounds for friendly dispute. Maybe our bridges are more or less parallel. Perhaps not. Regardless, bridges, literal and figurative, facilitate and exacerbate a life's journey. Bridges take us to places we yearn to go, as well to places we dread. These are some of my Bridges.

July 3, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. July 4, 2020, Raventon, Georgia.Now it gets weird. Book III in the Raventon Mysteries series, featuring Taylor Smart and the Raventon Three. The most incredible mystery they've encountered!For a season, special people come into your life.Paths intersect. They just do. You don't know why or for how long.And then they're gone.But, you're better for them.