20 Comments

Thanks, David, for the plug. I'm rather proud of this collection of stories, and when one's own brother actually praises it... well, one is speechless in amazement. (The ten buck check is in the mail, incidentally.) To those readers of this Substack, if any of you write literary reviews for journals online and/or off, the publisher will send you a review copy. Please let me know if you're interested (addhart@yahoo.com). Thank you.

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This odd habit that my brothers have of addressing me as "David" in public, presumably in order not to confuse anyone, is a bit bizarre to me. My family and oldest friends all know me as Ben.

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Obi-Wan Hart ... I wonder if he means old Ben Hart.

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Now that's a name I have not heard in a long time.

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I think my uncle knows him

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And other things.

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None of my grandparent in Ireland went by their real names

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I got my copy the other day but wasn’t able to start until now. I just finished The Grisly Pond which (appropriately enough) I read out in the woods by my own pond. I absolutely loved it! I’m excited to get into the rest.

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I'm pleased to hear it!

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One of the Amazon reviewers assumed -- resulting in evident disappointment -- that the book was a collection of "true" ghost stories from the region. It isn't. It has echoes of tales from the local lore, but the stories are all works of fiction. If any of you leave a review on Amazon (and I hope some of you might), please note that when leaving your remarks. Also, reviews on Amazon and Goodreads can be as short as one sentence or one word, along with whatever number of stars you think the book deserves. Thanks.

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Thanks for sharing I’ll have to check for when it drops.

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It's dropped.

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I remember Ellicott City fondly, not because I ever visited, but because I did a report on Benjamin Banneker in the 5th grade lo these many aeons ago. He had a farm near there and was famous, among other things, for helping to survey for the city of Washington DC in the late 18th century.

https://friendsofbenjaminbanneker.com/history/benjamin-banneker-2/

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True.

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Thank you very much for sharing this, David! I knew you were a native of Howard County, but not that you lived in Ellicott City--and in the Crow's Nest no less! Rest assured that our alleys and woods and creeks are still potent incubators for the young imagination. My wife and I, both raised within walking distance of OEC (and still Catonsville residents), will read Addison's book with enthusiasm.

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Oh, I should mention that the Crow’s Nest was a family home until we sold it in 1968; some wings of the family never quite forgave us.

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Ah ha, a fellow indigene. Good to know.

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Very excited for this! I always expected a volume of ghost stories from you. Any possibility of that in the future?

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Well, there’s one ghost story in my forthcoming collection of short stories.

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Fantastic!

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