This song and this book just go together.
Bookquote from The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher
Category: Blog
Flash: Magic Menace Mode
ID 236270372 | Pink Wand © Chernetskaya | Dreamstime.com
“Magic Menace Mode activated!” I whispered with force.
“What are you doing Jennie?” Deborah who sits in the seat next to me asked.
My palms tingled from holding my fists tightly. “Shh. I just want out of here,” I said as I opened them up and shook them out.
“Don’t we all?” Deborah used her stylist to scratch down the next day’s reading assignment, or to doodle. It really didn’t really matter which.
The class was bullshit, put together by the overlords of the odious. Whitewashed lies unusable in the futurescape of the blinking minutes of mankind. History, math, English, science. None of it matters when computers will read, think, and create for us. Even voting isn’t going to be a thing much longer. Everyone knew that.
But if Magic worked, the rules would change. Imagine everyone with purple skin. Try to pick out people-of-color for target practice when colors vary for lilac to royal! Would light or dark became the new focus?
I recorded the three chapters to read tonight and the fifteen questions we were to turn in and flipped the notebook cover close on the flatscreen. Three minutes left in class before bell. Then I had newspaper, which no one read, lacrosse which no one came out for, and a musical practice, where no one sang on key but the parents will sing praises of. I could slip in the reading somewhere in there; my tablet had enough charge to pull that off.
I waited for the classroom to empty, the teacher darting out first to make it to the parent lines. Another stupidity. No buses to save tax money; instead all the parents left work early and waiting in long lines with engines running, angry at the wait. That wasn’t saving time, money, resources, or anyone’s sanity. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I made my way to the newspaper room.
Bill was waiting for me; he lost his key the second day.
Him losing the key was a ritual. Every year since sixth grade all of us news nerds would get a key, he would lose his between the first and fifth day. As a freshman, he managed it without even leaving the room. Then Meghan would misplace hers sometimes around Christmas, and finally Chris sometime in March. I was the keykeeper for the group by default.
“S’up.” Bill followed me in the room, before bearing off to head toward the graphics computer to download the pictures he had taken today and see if any of the ones other kid emailed in were usable by administration rules. “Meg working today?”
“Fast food. She left last period.”
“It’s gonna hurt when she graduates this year.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” I booted up the ancient monster we use for article assembly and formatting, and did a quick scan of the articles Chris approved for Friday’s publication. It was his quarter as editor-in-chief, a job that bounced between him and me and one of the freshmen we were training up to take over when the Junior crew graduated; Meghan had pushed four years of schooling into three years by attending college courses over the summer. Chris did most of his work during lunch now that basketball season was at its height.
After twenty minutes of quiet clicking, me doing a lot of format tweaking, we both sighed. Mine was because of the ancient software which thought if you moved something one line it needed to pop it over fifteen points had finally agreed to fit everything but the last page into the space needed. It took a delicate hand and earned me the prize of grand wizard at the party before winter break. The group bought me a wand for my Hogwarts and Kane Chronicle obsessions. Bill’s sigh was because he had finished flipping through the pictures from the week and had flagged the ones for me to put in our “This Week at Washington Wigwam” back-page spread.
“Ten minutes until practice.” I said before I picked up the plastic monstrosity of a wand they had given me, with its humongous pale pink gem and silver foil decorations, and started waving it around randomly.
Bill rotated his neck, cracking it loud enough I worried he had broken his spine for a moment. “MUN wants to do an all-day special practice Saturday and my Boy Scout troop has a fundraiser and I can’t decide which to go to or would look better for the college applications I’m filling out.”
The newsroom was full of overachievers, from Bill’s Model United Nations, Eagle Scout, and track commitments to Meg three advanced college credit courses plus two part-time jobs. Some days I felt like the lost cause; my family didn’t have college funds, so unless someone would offer me a free ride including a way to get to university and back and housing and food, it was the salt trenches for me after graduation next year. My present virtual job editing (and writing, shh, if you pay enough) essays for high school students wasn’t much for resume fodder, especially with AI muscling into my territory so strongly this past year.
“Maybe I could wave this wand and you and I could get an extra $100.” I shook the plastic toy, the tinsel tassel shushing with movement.
“Make if five hundred and I will be able to dodge the fundraiser.”
I smiled at him, rotating the chair to face him. “Deal, you wish really hard now.”
He laughed and put both his hands alongside his head and scrunched his face, closing his eyes. “Go!”
“Abracadabra.” I circled the wand over the floor, and then flicked it over the center of the area I had delineated. “Bammo!”
I inhaled sharply.
“Did it work?” Bill asked jokingly, then opened his eyes to discover it had indeed worked.
Stacked on the floor were four neat bundles of five dollars, each strapped together in red bands indicating a hundred bills in each pack.
“I think that is a little more than we asked for,” he muttered.
“To be fair, all three of you bought me the wand, so I guess the extra two are for Meghan and Chris.”
“Want to try that again?” he glanced up at me. “Ten thousand would get me a car.”
“No, no.” I shook my head, staring down at the windfall. “Not today.”
(words 1,061; first published 1/25/2026)
Other Cool Blogs: Skokie Dungeons and Dragons
Thinking about all the cool blogs I saw during the 2025 A to Z challenge as I contemplate whether to participate in 2026, one standout is Skokie Dungeons and Dragons. Not only did he do the typical describe monsters and dropping some personal opinions, but for the month of April he also provided a pencil sketch of each monster. This is some incredible artwork.
I’m not including any pictures here. An author should have control of their art, but, let me tell you, WOW.
If D&D monsters is your jam, go check out his April blog: https://skokiedungeonsanddragons.weebly.com/the-crimson-empire/archives/04-2025/2
Book Review (SERIES): Seashell Key
It is your Lucky Day to live through The Monster Storm at Seashell Key, an tourist island where the children of the people who work there explore their world and attend school. This chapter book series containing diversity and good pictures, peaks with the second book of the series. I read all of these through the local library system.
Seashell Key Series by Lourdes Heuer (author) and Lynnor Bontigao (illustrator)
Book 1: Seashell Key
Book 2: The Monster Storm
Book 3: The Lucky Day
Amazon Cover
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for SEASHELL KEY
Seashell Key is the first in author Lourdes Heuer and award-winning illustrator Lynnor Bontigao’s young chapter book series―perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Mercy Watson, about a diverse community of kids living in a beautiful seaside town!
Welcome to Seashell Key! Summer is here, and the children of this cozy coastal town are ready to welcome visitors to their little oasis. There’s Mateo, who runs his little kite-making business, Sail and Soar, alongside his dad’s Sky and Sea store; Sasha and Sophia, who comb the seashore next to their mother’s sandwich stand; and Eli, Ezra, and Elana, who live in the cozy-but-cramped lighthouse and entertain passing tourists with tall tales.
Filled with a vibrant cast and lots of summery fun, this is the start of an exciting chapter book series.
MY REVIEW for SEASHELL KEY
A pleasant child book with a mix of female and male characters (in equal number for the children!).
Things that could have been better:
(1) The female and male division of “traditional” to be stronger than it is. Mateo’s (single?) father run a retail shop and flies a plane; Sasha & Sophia’s (single?) mother owns a lunch counter and the kids also eat at Mrs. Cerise’s fruit stand. So small business owners, but split along gender lines for “traditional” tasks of food preparation. (Parent genders match their children.)
(2) Children interests are also gender-coded. Mateo makes kits, Sasha draws pictures, Sophia dances-writes poetry-and-sings, Eli is interested in investigation, Ezra in science fiction, and (yay for breaking tradition) Elana in digging-and-archeology.
(3) The very small discouragement of school and keeping things clean. “Sometimes she suggests they study. Sometimes she suggests they clean. These are both terrible, terrible suggestions.” But the person reacting is the younger sister who is a disorganized artistic type. With parent supervision of a child reading this section, the parent can point out Sasha is an organized person and Sophia is a disorganized person, but both are able to function and get things done is fine, thereby mitigating the school bashing. I get tired of the constant school bashing in children’s books. We don’t have to say it is great, but nor do we need to disparage it. School, like work, is a fact of life. It has good and bad.
Things that are great:
1) Seeing tourists show up again and again throughout the book. Parents can work with children to take apart the pictures. The illustrator, Lynnor Bontigao, has done an amazing job.
2) All the different animals Sasha draws.
3) All the different kites Mateo makes.
4) The celebration of imagination of all the children.
(Homeschoolers and summer-vacationers can definitely use any of the four stories within this book as a jumping point for different activities.)
Each of the four stories/”acts” has a story arc of three chapters. Introduction of the characters, problem/want to solve, and the action of solving it. The children each come up with their own solutions to their need-to-explore/fight-the-boredom at the start of summer.
The bedrock for this series is community, in particular the tourist community of Seashell Key and the children of the year-round residents.
Plus a star for diversity. Checked out from the local library.
Amazon Cover
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE MONSTER STORM
The Monster Storm is the second book in author Lourdes Heuer and award-winning illustrator Lynnor Bontigao’s young chapter book series Seashell Key―perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Mercy Watson―about a diverse community of kids living in a beautiful seaside town!
It’s fall on the island of Seashell Key! A monster storm is on the horizon, but that won’t stop Mateo from entering the fall festival competitions, or Sophia and Sasha from showing off their swimming skills. When the storm finally hits, Eli, Ezra, and Elana gather around the flashlight to tell spooky stories about the monster of Seashell Key―that is if they can agree on what the monster actually is! When the storm finally passes, the gang has to work together to find Pixie the dog―hopefully before the monster of Seashell Key finds her!
Filled with a vibrant cast and lots of fall fun, this is a great addition to an exciting new chapter book series.
MY REVIEW for THE MONSTER STORM
Wow, the second of the series is a step above for children’s books.
Again, amazing illustrations by Lynnor Bontigao. The chapter where Eli, Ezra, and Elana ride out the storm in the lighthouse by telling spooky stories have all three children in the pictures of the stories. Each picture has so many hidden details, starting with the kites of the first page, no doubt made by Mateo. Going through the pictures with a new reader will be an adventure in-and-of-itself.
The format is the same as the first book of the series – this time the first day of fall instead of the first day of summer for Seashell Key. Instead of tourists in the background, we have the building of a storm and dealing with the day after. Four Acts, each of the first three concentrating on one family group/child then finally collecting them all for a final adventure. Each act has three chapters.
With the introductions completed in the first book, this time we dive right into the stories. Mateo is a maker, so be prepared to have the child-reader want to emulate his creations from a banana-cheese-sour-cream pie to the no-scarecow. Each child we previously met personality shines through during the competition. Sasha embrace of reality to Sophia’s love of imagination; these two are so clearly different from each other, but their sibling bond still comes through. Elana’s history and archelogy interest makes the obvious choice of a ghost for the costume contest.
The final act, where the beat of the storytelling from the “scary” stories being repeated when they discover the green water monster is perfect. (If you like to watch for great storytelling by an author.)
Also, if you are a storyteller and want to see how it is done, this is a excellent book to pick apart for character building and connecting groups of characters together. I have read several “adult” books where every scene is isolated and the characters in one scene is not connected to the next, aside from the main character – Seashell Key seamlessly has the isolated groups come together. If you are a person who loves character building, this series is doing it well.
Library book.
Amazon Cover
BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE LUCKY DAY
The Lucky Day is the third book from author Lourdes Heuer and award-winning illustrator Lynnor Bontigao’s young chapter-book series—perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Mercy Watson—about the adventures of a diverse community of kids living in a beautiful seaside town.
It’s the last day of school before spring break, but there’s still so much to do! Mateo is on a mission to catch a leprechaun, and Sasha and Sophia can’t wait to work on their school garden. Elena just wants to read about dinosaurs, but when she finds a secret map in her textbook, she’ll need all her friends to help her find the treasure of Seashell Key—and make a treasure map of their own!
Filled with a vibrant cast and lots of spring fun, this is a great addition to an exciting new chapter book series.
MY REVIEW for THE LUCKY DAY
I absolutely adored the second book of this series. This third book returns to one of my ongoing objections of children’s book: the maligning of school.
“Tomorrow is the start of spring break. But today is a school day. Bad luck!”
Then the day goes on to be a wonderful day of school, the first day of spring.
Illustrations by Lynnor Bontigao continue to support the narrative, while also providing interaction for young readers who may still be more interested in the pictures than in reading. The structure of four acts persists, though this time the children are separated by age group as appropriate for school. Mateo and Eli are first in Math class, and like the previous first acts of the book series, Mateo makes things. Sasha, Sophia, and Ezra are together in Science class; all three bringing their unique energies to a gardening project. Elena makes friends with a new kid in language arts. And the fourth act, everyone is together in art class and then after-school.
The series has lots of cool ideas of projects to do with a homeschooler or active child of the kindergarten through third grade age. The children in the narrative aren’t always perfect angels, but they are always exploring, figuring out things to do, and making things happen. There is agency here. There is diversity in the tourist town the children live in, both in the adults and in the children.
Checked out from the library.
Flash: Jacks and Sleds
Photo by Ivan Lopatin on Unsplash
Mason finished setting the new, undamaged piston rod in place, holding the half of the broken rod between his teeth and the rest of it behind one ear as he hung upside down in the engine. Reaching as far as he could, blood rushing to his head, he rotated the crankshaft with his fingertips, moving all four of the replaced rods smoothly.
One steam engine repaired.
Pushing up, backing out, and twisting sidewides, then stopping a moment to get unstuck from the broken rods catching on things and making sure nothing else broke on the vehicle, he finally escaped and landed on his feet in the good solid Midwest clay soil. A deep inhale reminded his lungs how they worked, and blood returned to his feet, making him lightheaded.
“All fixed, Fat Man.” Mason eyed the jackalopes chowing down a bison carcass before turning to his customer. Damn stupid, if you asked him to take those psychotic carnivorous bunnies with razor sharp antlers and teach them to fly, but he and Santa didn’t shoot the breeze much. “Try not to bounce her off any more buttes.”
“You are a good man, Mason Carter.” The large man approached his steampowered ride. He knocked his boots against it and climbed aboard.
Mason snorted. “Sure Nick, I believe that based on all the coal I got growing up.”
Picking up the reins tightened them. The jacks raised their bloody mouths from their feast and hissed. The man-in-red’s voice rumbled out, “You are a good man, but you were a very naughty boy.”
“That I was.” Mason tucked his thumbs into his Levi’s. “Still am according to Amy.”
“Your woman should know naughty.”
“That she should. But she is a good a girl as they come, now.”
Nick touched the brim of his straw hat. “Thanks again for coming out at midnight. Presents are under the tree and payment in the bin.”
“See ya around, Fat Man.”
“Tell your granddad I said hi.” Santa clicked his teeth and the jacks came to attention, two dozen of those crazies leaped together, once, twice, the steam engine screamed, and the sled took to the sky.
The bison blood and skeleton faded, as these thing were wont to do when the magic recedes from the word of modern man. Mason focused on the Fisher constellation as he moved back into the world he lived in most days. White glittering against the eye-burning black circled counter reality for a heady moment before wobbling rainbows trailed into his mundane world, a single moon visible in the December Christmas night sky.
After tossing the metal rods into a very particular pile for melting down later, he walked wearily from his clapboard workshop next to the railroad tracks to his adobe house. Slipping into the warm building, he checked the tree, noting the presents had doubled to eight, and tucked the stuffed coyote his grandfather had given him back into his son’s arms. His granddad was such a narcissist and was tickled pink his great-grandson looked so much like him.
Poor kid. Life isn’t easy for those of his bloodline that see through the veil, and little Lucas could see everything. Mason hovered over the crib, just breathing and watching the baby blowing bubbles into the fur of the stuffed toy, the little chest raising and lowering with each precious moment of life.
The mundane beat out magic any day.
When the chill air had thwarted the overheated cheeks from hanging upside down, Mason climbed under the wedding ring quilt his wife had been gifted from her ex-coworkers at the Last Ace Saloon. He pulled her back gently against his front, and she wiggled into place. Kissing her shoulder, he snuggled deep into their joint nest.
“Everything good,” Amy sighed, more asleep than awake.
“Yeah, I got Nick back on his way.”
“I hope you got paid this time.”
His late-night customers rarely paid in coin or livestock, and the complicated trade of favors between supernaturals was beyond anything his woman needed knowing. She understood his grandfather made sure they would never go hungry, but in return for that wealth of support his grandson might need to crawl out of bed at midnight on a Christmas. That was enough for her. Food and safety for her and her littles. Mason’s hand drifted across her soft belly and kissed her shoulder again. “He dumped a load of coal into the bin for us. No worries about heat this winter.”
(words 750; first published 1/18/2026; written 1/14/2026 – Joined a new writer’s group this week (1/13/2026). The challenge given to each person in the group to bring to the next meeting was write a 750-word story based on a random roll. Mine was – character: A Man; plot: gets stuck in Santa’s sleigh; setting: in the Wild West.)