THE BOWL and THE STONE and MARK TWAIN!

October is my birthday month ...

    and Meilori's is always interesting then.

 The ghost of Mark Twain sat down beside me at my table, ignored me, 

placed a paperback on the polished mahogany, and started reading intently.

 The ghost of Oscar Wilde, obviously curious as to what could so totally absorb his friend, 

plucked the book from Twain's hands, and looked at the cover:

"Evocative title and intriguing cover art," he murmured.

"Tarnation, Ostrich!  Give me back my book.  I was just getting to the good part!"

Ignoring Mark Twain (an art he had perfected over the decades), Wilde turned the book over and read the back.

"The Virgin Isles, is it?  I always wanted to go there in life.  I would wager that those islands are the only things virgin left in this ramshackle world."

He made a face.  "Who names a girl Sam?"

Twain snatched back his book. 

"It's set in 1962, Heathen.  And in those days, innocence still had a chance, don't you know?  And I visited St. John's when alive, and it is a lovely, wild place."

Twain smiled.  "This THE BOWL AND THE STONE reminds me a bit of my Huckleberry tale."

He opened the book.  

"Where was I?  

Oh, yes, Sam and her friend, Nick, were just about to visit the contrary hunchback, Trumps, about that there man who appeared and up and disappeared on them."

He sat back with a smile.  

"Pirates, exploring a 240 year old plantation gone to ruin, and life-changing danger.  No doubt about it, Ostrich, this book is a winner."

Oscar looked this way and that.  "Where is this Bish Denham, Roland?  Your author friends always visit with their new books."

http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/

"She was wise enough to stay away from Meilori's during my birthday month.  But I am visiting her blog today about my own book."

Mark Twain looked down.  "Dang!  I was looking forward to meeting her and talking about her island days."

I smiled sadly, "She lives in the states now.  But her mother’s side of the family has been in the Caribbean for over one hundred years.  Bish was raised in the U. S. Virgin Islands. She still has lots of family living there whom she visits regularly."

Oscar asked, "Has she written any other books, Roland?"

"Two more actually," I said.  " You can find Anansi and Company: Retold Jamaican Tales and A Lizard’sTail, at Amazon.com."

Mark Twain wrote in his lazy scrawl on a scrap of paper and shoved it to Oscar.  

"To learn more about Bish, Ostrich, you can visit her blog, Random Thoughts, at

 www.http:/bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com.

She can also be found on Facebook:

 www.facebook.com/BishDenham/Author 

Twitter @BishDenham

And Goodreads: 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6439315.Bish_Denham

Oscar sniffed proudly, "I am a poet, Clemens.  I refuse to twitter!"