Fayetteville Farmer’s Market 2011

One of my favorite places to visit is the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market on the Fayetteville Square with its great food, fruits, vegetables, flowers, art and entertainment but my visits there were rare this year due to medical issues and the weather. After a very wet, cold winter that seemed to last through May with unusually cool temperatures and too much rain and flooding lasting for six weeks, Northwest Arkansas didn’t see any traditional springtime weather as we moved right into summer with the rains all but disappearing, driven away by weeks of very extreme heat with temperatures into the 100s and dangerously dry conditions. Arkansas farmers—including those who normally have such wonderful fare at the Farmer’s Market— took a huge economic hit as the extremes of weather were a disaster to the crops. The highest temperature registered on my thermometer was 117 degrees in August. Now, here it is September and the much welcomed cooler temperatures and light, pleasant rains have made their way back in. As the fall season approaches, I’m looking forward to visiting the Market again before it closes for the winter on November 19th, 2011.

Reference: http://www.fayettevillefarmersmarket.org/

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.

Who Knew?

I make most of the bread I eat myself but still, from time to time, buy loaves of bread from the store. I keep and reuse the plastic twist ties from those loaves for any number of handy, useful things. I had no idea the different colors of ties related to the day the loaf was baked.

Fresh bread, it seems, is delivered to the store on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The color codes are used to designate which day of the week the bread was baked on and aid stockers and re-stockers in determining the oldest bread on the shelf. I’m told all bakers use the color coding but that some may not use the same colors to designate the same day.

The basic rule seems to be this for the day the loaf of bread was baked:

Monday - Blue
Tuesday - Green
Thursday - Red
Friday - White
Saturday – Yellow

If you tend to buy bread from the same company, you can research and find out which color code they use. This would help guarantee you are buying the freshest loaf on the shelf.

Largest Snowstorm On Record...

…For NW Arkansas

And I’m right in the middle of it. It’s 8 a.m.; been snowing since 3 a.m., temperature is 18 degrees, wind chill is 7 degrees. Sky is so dark, snow is falling so heavy the nearest homes to me can barely be seen. Forecast is for snow to continue at a rate of about 2 inches per hour up until about noon today. Here’s a shot with an 18 inch ruler almost buried—just under 17 inches of snow and like I said, it’s still falling heavy.

Ice Covered Trees

One of the most beautiful and unusual pictures I’ve seen from Mount Magazine State Park, Arkansas. Picture was taken by Park Ranger Doug and posted over on the Arkansas State Parks website. Thanks, Arkansas State Parks and great job, Doug.

Blizzard?

Not often I see blizzard warnings for Northwest Arkansas, but here it is. In fact, I'm told this is the first one ever for this part of the country. So far, there's just over one quarter inch of ice and about three inches of snow and the snow is still falling. If that minus nine degrees actually gets here Thursday night, it will be a record cold reading for this area.

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.

It's Official!

My book “Storytellin’ True & Fictional Short Stories of Arkansas” is now in worldwide distribution and available at www.Amazon.com or you can order a copy through any book retailer. You can search by the book’s title or author name (Jack R. Cotner) or you may use ISBN 9781456363819. Suggested retail price is $12.95.

Thanks to everyone for your interest and support during the long and interesting road to successful publication.

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