Fáilte
Welcome to The Village Oak Tree Stories and Poetry
I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your Irish scéalaí, back with more stories and poems from authors around the world.
I know it's been a bit since I read everyone any stories so I have collected several for today, this first day of 2025.
For today's show, I have another episode of The Grave Diggers of Orpheus chapter 14. The third part of Liora's story, A story from a Substack writer about a wizard king, a fictional story about a special cat, a science fiction story about love and space ships, and two poems.
So gather round once more and let me read to you as we sit together someplace warm.
Happy New Year everyone. I finally put together some stories and a poem for you. They’ve been collecting for several weeks now and I finally gathered up enough of them for a decent audiobook show.
I hope everyone had a nice holiday season but it’s back to work now. I don’t have much going on in the news commentary area either as it all seems to be the same old news rehashed over and over again.
I had a quiet holiday season as my family made other plans rather than come visit me so I did what all modern grandparents do these days. I used Facetime on an iPad and made phone calls to visit remotely with my scattered children and grandchildren.
The weather here in Virginia was up and down like a roller coaster. Thank you climate change. My home heating bill thanks you. I suppose it could be worse. We could be living in the Transnistria part of Moldova right now, who just had all of their heat and hot water turned off due to the spat with Russia and Ukraine shutting off all of the Russian gas going through their country.
This isn’t the only region or country over there falling on hard times because of all of this so we should be thankful for what we have. Those that have it anyway. With homelessness up by eighteen percent in the U.S. in 2024, there are a lot of people shivering right here under our noses.
In other news, I finally finished the edits on my book, Fugitives in a New United States so it is now safe to read without incurring punctuation and grammar mistakes. I plan to offer it on more self-publishing platforms this month to get wider distribution. Once I have all of that started, I will start writing the sequel. I haven’t quite come up with a good title yet but I should know something in a couple of weeks.
The sequel picks up where the first book leaves off. Our two main characters head out to rescue doctor James’s two sisters who are in a forced labor camp in northern Virginia. Once they are rescued, they all have to escape back up north and make it across the northern U.S. border into Canada. There will be plenty of action adventure, much like the first book. I may even write in some romance beyond the now married main characters. Who knows yet. You’ll have to read the first book and then wait for the second book, which I hope to have out by the end of this year.
I don’t have much else to add here because I want to keep this newsletter focused on the stories and poem for this week as much as I can. I hope you will listen to the audio file as I spent my afternoon enhancing the stories and poem once again. I am not a professional by any means but I still try my best to bring the listeners a good reading of these stories that the writers so graciously allowed me to read to everyone.
Thank you for being patient and I’ll be back again next week. Sláinte
Go raibh maith agat. Thank you for listening to the show today. I hope you enjoyed the variety of stories and poems again this week. If you like the show, and are listening to it on YouTube, please like and subscribe or reply as this goes a long way towards reaching more people around the world.
As a Seanchaí, I hope you will allow me to continue delighting you with a story or a poem here under The Village Oak Tree. Maybe they will bring you a smile and take you away from your troubles for a time.
As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "May the coming new year bring you and yours health and prosperity. Gods knows we will all need every bit we can get" Slán go fóill.
Stories and Poem:
Cast into Darkness
Liora’s Story: Chapter 3. It’s In the Trees, It’s coming…
The Dream Walker
Night after night, I walk through dreams to help hearts remember what minds cannot.
Lattices of Yearning
At the end, you should find your first love.
The Little Snowflake’s Journey
By Moon and Sun in Medium.com
Irrational Confessions
Your touch ignites me
Share this post