Mystery Of The Death Hearth

It's been awhile since I've posted. Been working on my new book, Mystery Of The Death Hearth, and I'm happy to announce it is finally published. It's been a long, interesting journey completing a fictional novel with interesting, detailed plot twists and intriguing characters but I'm pleased with the result. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It's a Celtic tale of murder, power and intrigue.

Book Description:  Cultures on a collision course … In a far-flung outpost of the Roman Empire, the Great Cross—made of Celtic gold and amber now claimed by the Roman church—goes missing along with a fortune in coins and precious gems. Murder soon follows, igniting tensions when church leaders, maneuvering for political gain, are implicated in the violent plot. When the news reaches the Grand Prefect in Rome, Enforcers are sent to identify the thieves and recover the missing treasure. The trail leads to the Brendan Valley, where it falls to deputy magistrate Weylyn de Gort to work with those whose ways are alien to his Elder Faith beliefs. Along the way, he must find an elusive young Celt girl and her missing grandfather, unravel the mystery of an Elder’s runevision, and avoid death at the hands of an assassin as he faces the greatest challenge of his life.

Mystery Of The Death Hearth is now available at Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Death-Hearth-Runevision-Novel/dp/0615671675/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351341600&sr=1-1&keywords=Jack+R.+Cotner

Kindle and Ebook versions are coming soon.

For All You Kindle Users

Storytellin: True & Fictional Short Stories Of Arkansas...

...is now available on Kindle. More information can be found at the Kindle Ebook Store. Click on this posting's title for a direct link that will take you to the Kindle store.

The Marble King

"…the Logan County school was out last week and the return to classes wouldn’t begin again until after Labor Day. It was the first full Friday of their summer vacation and they were out to enjoy it.

Bradley was on the ground with a sharp stick drawing the circle that would be the ring for the marble game called ringer.

“Bet you still have that ugly, lame shooter don’t you, Larry,” ridiculed Bruce. He was busy chewing a wad of gum and flipping his own shooter—a black and white aggie—up into the air and catching it again like flipping a coin. Bruce considered himself the best at everything and that included marbles. He’d placed third in his first ever state marble championship last year and had a nice trophy and a fancy blue marble bag to show for it. He was a competitor and had no tolerance for those he considered inferior whether it involved marbles or anything else. He was a straight “A” student in school but in social situations, he might rate a failing grade for rudeness and belligerence. Many thought his attitude might have something to do with the fact his family had more money than anyone else in the small town. Larry thought it was because he had a wad of rude stuck somewhere in his body where good manners should have been…"

Excerpt from the short story “The Marble King” from the book “Storytellin’: True & Fictional Short Stories Of Arkansas”

Twitter Arrives

At the suggestion of my daughter, I’ve joined the Twitter community and added Twitter to this website. Not sure how it is going to work but am giving it a try. If you are so inclined, follow me and this blog on Twitter @JackRCotner and I’ll become one of your followers.

Good Times And Christmas Cheer

Me And Adelinda

Another Christmas has come and gone and here we are in a new year. Hope everyone had a safe and happy set of winter holidays. Time to get busy with projects for the twelve months of 2011.

Winter Holidays Are Here Again

Time sure does fly when you're busy. Seems like no time at all since Halloween came and went, then Thanksgiving did the same. Here we are just a few short weeks until Christmas arrives. Haven't had any time at all to draw, sketch or paint any new holiday greetings so I'll re-post one of my old favorites.

This is from a black and white pen and ink rendering I did in 1989. I later inked it with color and used it as a Christmas card. Five years later, I digitized it, added snowflakes, shrunk the image, printed multiple copies and used them as name-cards on holiday presents. The image eventually made it onto a poster advertising my holiday art displays and is part of The Cotner Collection Poster series. Here’s a version once again as a holiday greeting. Have a safe, warm and joyous Winter Season and a very Merry Christmas.

Pre-publication publicist flyer

For the soon-to-be released book,

“Storytellin’: True and Fictional Short Stories of Arkansas”

An interesting and intriguing collection of true Cotner family tales and original, entertaining short stories inspired by a variety of actual people and events in the River Valley and Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas.

The author’s grandfather, a railroad bull for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Line Railroad in the 1920s was the inspiration for “He A Friend Of Yours?” the uplifting tale of a young boy, a midnight train and the importance and value of friendship.

Many Cotners made their living by working with stone, the author included, and they inspired the chilling “Reba’s Stone” a story about a young dead girl and the gravestone that worked to set in motion the wheels of justice.

In the eerie “Grave Voices” a shady, prominent preacher is taught a lesson about honesty and being careful what you wish for—a story evolved from an actual event in the United Methodist Church in Booneville, Arkansas in 1923.

‘See a penny, pick it up’ is an old and familiar saying but it takes on a completely new meaning in “Pretty Penny”, the story of greed, sacrifice and lost love inspired by a walk the author took with his mother in the early 1950s.

A shiny, new red and white tricycle for Christmas at the early age of four years led to the unusual and completely weird tale of a playful yet destructive robot in “Pookie, Man Of Steel”.

With numerous fishing adventures around Logan County, Arkansas and interaction with the denizens of deep, murky waters to draw from comes “On The Prominent List”, the frightening yet oddly funny tale of a legendary snake called Old Fang of Black Pond and the man who would kill it.

And for something truly frightening, there’s nothing like the excitement of prowling around in a big, two-story ancient barn especially if you’re a twelve year old boy free from school on a hot summer’s day—the heat, the smells, the random encounters with spiders, snakes and who-knows-what. It’s the deadly who-knows-what lurking in the story “JackOBones” one needs to watch for. It’s a creepy, bloody tale of a butcher, his family and retribution.

These and many more stories wait within…take the journey!

Anticipated publication and release date for “Storytellin’: True and Fictional Short Stories of Arkansas” is December 2010

Nothing like the excitement of prowling around in a big, two-story ancient barn especially if you’re a twelve year old boy free from school on a hot summer’s day—the heat, the smells, the random encounters with spiders, snakes and who-knows-what.

My grandfather Artie had such a barn. Tin roof, faded red paint, big front double doors on the lower floor and a hayloft door front and venting door back on the upper floor. Long before retirement, Artie worked on the railroad in those days for the Rock Island Line but also ran a working farm with over 200 acres. He had the barn built during the Depression for $820 worth of cotton bales from his cotton fields…

One summer, my brother David, our cousin Kenny and I got creative and made life-sized dummies or scarecrows, properly dressed in bandanas, shirts, gloves and hats, faces painted to look as real as possible and even some of our grandfather’s glasses. We named our creations, Clyde, Claude and Clifton and placed them strategically around the barn. It looked like there were three people inside to the casual observer…

Grandfather discovered our scarecrow handiwork peeking out of the various grain and stall niches one evening just as last of the daylight was disappearing for the night and had a roaring good laugh…

“Boys, just for a minute there, I thought ol’ JackOBones had found me and my barn, “He squinted a little and grinned, “You did notice that big old full Moon up there tonight, didn’t you? Not safe to play in old dark barns in Arkansas under a full moon. No telling what you’ll find, or what might find you.”

“JackOBones?” we asked. Sounded creepy, spooky, wonderful even. We’d never heard of the guy but the whole scary full moon and a dark barn thing was cool...

Selected Excerpts of “JackOBones” from the Cotner family book of short stories both true and fictional. Copyright 2009 – 2010 Jack R. Cotner All Rights Reserved