This week, my friend Timothy G. Huguenin, asked me if I still had any pictures of Rod Sering’s typewriter around. I had to look around, but I’m slowly digging them up and thought they might be fun to share.

Let me preface things with this disclaimer: To the best of my knowledge, this Royal KMM belonged to Rod Serling during a time in his life when he still lived in Binghamton, NY. It was purchased by the man I bought it from to write term papers while he was a student at Harper College in the 1970’s. Everything is word of mouth, I have no documentation. The typewriter is not for sale and I only learned about its previous ownership after I paid a whopping ten dollars for a rusty, mud covered, old typewriter with keys that barely moved. I was looking for a project and I sure got one!

This picture was taken after I’d removed the mud, strands of hay, and bird poop. There was still a long way to go to make it work and clean it up. I don’t restore the typewriters I work on very much cosmetically because that takes the history away and the fun. My interest was in getting it to work. The process took roughly a month of spare time sessions. I’ve always been fond of the Royal and Remington brands of typewriters, so that’s where I was headed at the time. A nice non-portable typewriter to either use for writing or possibly sell when it was ready.

The phone rang and I picked it up nervously because it was the guy I’d bought the two typewriters from. Maybe he’d want them back or more money? Turned out he’d just called because in talking about writing and my reviews of speculative fiction, he’d forgotten to tell me about the Royal…

Hoping to post more about this well-used typewriter soon. Stay tuned!

This is my little buddy, Moon Moonbeam, who hangs out with me every day when I’m writing and reviewing. We just want to take a minute and say thanks to all of our friends who follow us and even those who just popped by for a quick look around. I feel very fortunate to have learned so much from all of you and the trust you put in me to provide honest reviews of your work. Every creative person I’ve met has inspired me to look at things differently. Recently I’ve been invited to try new things and I wasn’t sure if I should, but the encouragement I received has been awesome! On Sunday I will be a guest on a podcast that is run by WC Marchese and Gary Buller to talk shop. Also coming up is a project that Aphotic Realm is doing. AA Medina got in touch and asked if I’d like to contribute. Pretty cool stuff, right? I am working on ideas right now! Life can be pretty good sometimes!

THE WORLD IS FILLED WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE NO LONGER NEEDED AND WHO TRY TO MAKE SLAVES OF US ALL. THEY HAVE THEIR MUSIC AND WE HAVE OURS

THEIRS ARE THE WASTED SONGS OF A SUPERSTITIOUS NIGHTMARE

OURS ARE SONGS OF FREEDOM AND EQUALITY

BUT WITHOUT THEIR MEAN HURTFUL MUSIC, WE WOULD NEVER KNOW HOW STRONG, TRUE AND POWERFUL OUR MUSIC REALLY IS

-WOODY GUTHRIE

A little inspirational quote for the day from a man who was never shy to speak his mind. Woody wasn’t perfect and neither are we, but he went out and did things. He took that risk and spoke up during some dark times. We owe it to ourselves to at least try shining our light in the darkness. Be that light a poem, story, essay, song, painting, sculpture, or dance. By doing those things we assert that we are human beings and that we are free no matter what else is happening around us.

I may be an exhausted wreck from all the health appointments over the past couple weeks, but luckily these little guys have my back. As you can see, there will be no unauthorized entry into the birdbath. They are small, but mighty. So I’m very glad they returned for another season in the back garden!