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Still Amongst the Beach Detritus · 22 March 2025

[Note: This is the sequel to the sequel, Again Amongst the Beach Detritus. Or the third part to Amongst the Beach Detritus.]

“Stop!”

I felt the pressure let up. I was given a reprieve. The man in the uniform rotated the weight of his foot off of my body onto his heel. Then, he stepped away. I was free. And I did not waste any time. I rushed off to a hiding place amongst the beach detritus. I would bide my time there to see if I could get my claw on the precious again.

***

I was not really paying attention when I heard the voice again. It was the one who held the precious. Sophie. And she was with her knight in shining armor. Joey. I waited amongst the detritus to see if they had the precious. I sulked when I saw that it was not on her finger. Somehow the finger was there, but the previous was not.

Then, I noticed. Sophie had the precious in her other hand. Not on a finger, but between her fingers. Like she was holding it out. Like she was offering it to somebody. Like she was offering it to me!

I shuffled out of my hiding place. I rushed over to Sophie and the precious. She smiled and leaned down. Joey muttered something. If crabs could smile, I would have been smiling the biggest smile any crab had ever smiled. I held out my claw. “Gimme. Gimme the precious.”

Joey smiled. “He actually wants it.”

“Of course he does. He thinks it’s precious.”

It is precious. It is the precious. And she is wrapping it around my arm above my claw. “Oh joy!”

Sophie stands and smiles. I put my claw in front of my body and bend my front four legs.

“Look. He’s trying to kneel. Like he’s some sort of knight. He thinks you’re his queen, Sophie.”

“No. I think he’s just thankful.”

I am thankful. I am thankful that they have relinquished the precious to me. To me! I shuffle off toward my spot in the detritus. But before I get there, I feel myself being lifted. “No! Help me!”

But there is no help. I see Sophie and Joey looking up at me. Their mouths are open and their eyes are wide, but they cannot help. They are getting smaller as I rise.

I look up to see the bird. He has me in his talons. He seems to be smiling. He wants the precious. “You’ll never get the precious, you ugly bird.”

“Precious? Precious? You’re the precious. I just want to…”. He looks down at my claw and seems to notice the precious for the first time. “…I just want to take the precious off your hands. It is so shiny and bright.” He looks forward again and scans the beach. “Plus, you’ll make a nice meal.”

I see where he is headed. The rocks. He’s going to crack my shell on the rocks. He’ll take my precious.

I grab his other talon with my free claw. He squawks. He lets go of my claw that has the precious. But I don’t let go of him. The fall will crush me. And he’ll get the precious.

“Let go, you dumb crab. Let go.”

But I cannot let go. Not yet. Not until… He turns. He turns toward the water. He is squawking again, but he is flying above the water. I look down. Blue everywhere. I let go. “Goodbye ugly bird.”

***

It takes a while, but I find my way back. Crawling along the bottom of the sea and then up onto the beach. The precious is still on my arm above my claw. I am safe in my beach haven. Safe. And still amongst the beach detritus.

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My Second Sequel · 15 March 2025

I wrote a second sequel to a short story. And I think it works.

I am not much for sequels. Which does not mean that I do not watch movie sequels. I do. But rarely, does the sequel measure up to the original. Which is why I pretty much do not write sequels. Unless they just come to me.

That is what happened to Amongst the Beach Detritus and Again Amongst the Beach Detritus. I just had to write the sequels. They jumped right out of my mind and onto the page. Literally. Okay. Not literally. But it did just happen. I wrote the first story and the second popped into my head right away. Maybe the next day.

Well, lo and behold, the second sequel percolated in my mind and came out a couple weeks later. Or thereabouts. I could not get the notion out of my head that the ending of the sequel was wrong somehow. I mean c’mon. Squ… Wait. I do not want to give you a spoiler. So suffice it to say, that I was not satisfied with the ending of the sequel.

It is interesting because I was actually fine with the ending to the original story. But the sequel reared its ugly head and said, “Write me.” So I did. And like I said, the second sequel just kept bugging me until I finally wrote it. It did not so much say, “Write me,” like the sequel did. It was more like, “C’mon, you know you did not really like the other ending.” And, “Think about it, do you really want the sequel to end that way?” The second sequel kept nagging me and nagging me. So I finally relented and wrote it.

I am not sure that the second sequel works. I think it does. It is somewhat humorous. And yes, I will put it on my blog next week. Or maybe I already put it on my blog. I am not sure. After all, I am still writing this piece about my second sequel. Which, by the way, is entertaining. At least to me. Then again, maybe I need to say that. After all, a piece of writing is like a child. Whether it is your favorite piece or not, you need to give it time and attention as if it was the favorite. (I really do not have a favorite child. But I do have favorite pieces of writing. Which is not possible either since you can only have one favorite by definition. At any rate.)

Well, that is about it. I am not really much of a fan of sequels, but I have written a couple for one simple short story. And maybe they are so short that they are really one story that just did not get written all the way in one sitting. But it does not matter because when all is said and done, they are three pieces. An original and two sequels. I hope you like them all.

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Books and Blogs · 8 March 2025

Just because you have books out there, does not mean that anybody will buy them. Or maybe that is just me.

I have more than two dozen books out there on Amazon. And I would venture to guess that I have sold about that many books. Total. It is not discouraging or anything like that. It is just interesting. Well, I suppose not that interesting even. After all, I do not do that much promoting or anything like that. I can barely even tell people I have known forever that I have books out there. Okay. Maybe I tell them. But I just do not push myself on anybody.

I suppose that is the thing. In order to sell books, you need to tell people that you have books for them to buy. You need to be a self-promoter. Which is not me. I just do not know how to do it. It is not that I am humble or anything like that. (I try to be.) It is just that I do not know how to do the whole self-promotion thing.

“Hey, did you know that I wrote a book. Several, in fact.”
“That’s nice.”
“Wanna read one?”
“What’d you say?”

That actually sounds like a self-promotion conversation I would have. Even with myself. Still, if I am going to be a self-published author, I ought to at least do a little self-promotion.

I suppose that is what blogs are for. They are for writers to just get stuff out there. Show people that they have bodies of work. Or maybe that is just me. I suppose that I should promote my writing more with my blog. Maybe with posts like this one. (Hey! Did you know that I wrote some books?)

I also need to write and write and write because to not do so would be to deny the gift that God has given me. Even if nobody reads my stuff, I must write. Besides, writing is like breathing. Breathe in. Write. Breathe out. Write.

At any rate.

I had a nice thing happen at school the other day. The kids on the morning announcements promoted my book. Not my latest book, but perhaps one of my best books. (I am not sure since not that many people have read it.) The student held up the book (we have video announcements) and said that she was thankful (thankful Thursday) for talented staff who share their talents. Well, I may or may not be talented. That is for others to decide. All I do is write and publish. Others can decide whether what I have written is worth anything or not.

Well, I am not sure that I have said anything here. I may have just reiterated something I blogged about before. Which is that I am not much of a self-promoter. Or that I need to do a little promotion of my books on my blog. So here is my pitch.

I have lots of books out on Amazon. At least a couple people have reviewed a few of them. Maybe you should buy one too and give it a review. Ooh. Maybe that is an ad campaign.

“You should buy one too, and give it a review. You should buy one too, and give it a review.”

Nah. Too silly. And what does the “too” refer to.

Maybe it should be:

“You should buy one or two, and give them a review.”

Nah. That does not match the subject and object. One is plural and the other is singular. Ah well…

Well, I hope that I have not been too much of a self-promoter. But I do hope that you get a book or two of mine. And whether you like it or not, give it a review.