33 Short Films About Shelbyville

Scenes from my visit to Shelbyville, Indiana, on Sept. 25, 2025, spiced up with a few Simpsons quotes about the fictional Shelbyville, Springfield's rival city.  

Highlight: Capone's Downtown Speakeasy in the town square.

~Sandy Allen's Wikipedia page~

Newspaper Comics from 100 Years Ago

This "Freckles" comic strip appeared on September 21, 1925.

These political cartoons from 100 years ago portray flappers, Rudolph Valentino, tariffs, and egg prices. But more than anything else, cartoonists were portraying the so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial."

This one-panel comic strip from September 22, 1925 is basically an extended pun on the phrase "Chinese Boxer Rebellion." Since that event had happened right around the turn of the century, the readers of the paper would have at least been familiar with the term, even if they didn't know the exact historical reference.

Here's a "Mutt and Jeff" strip from Sept. 23, 1925. 

A look at a Wisconsin newspaper from Sept. 24, 1925 shows a man getting in trouble for surreptitiously selling moonshine out of his ice cream parlor during Prohibition. Political cartoons lampoon the senator from Wisconsin and, for some reason, the General Andrews that Andrews Air Force Base is named after. My local cartoon, Kin Hubbard, who lived in Irvington, Indianapolis, did that last one. It also makes passing reference to the flapper fad of knee painting, mentioned in "All That Jazz" in Chicago.

Finally, this newspaper from Winslow, Arizona features hundred-year-old ads from Levi jeans and J.C. Penney. 

Hands Off Our Free Speech

There is some shit up with which free Americans cannot and shall not put, and a crackdown on free speech is a stinking, leaking, overflowing silo of such. 

https://www.redbubble.com/i/holographic-sticker/Disloyal-to-Dear-Leader-by-ErinORiordan/174105277.A3LW6

https://www.redbubble.com/i/holographic-sticker/I-Criticize-Dear-Leader-by-ErinORiordan/174105068.A3LW6

https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Disloyal-to-Dear-Leader-by-ErinORiordan/174105277.3KEDS

https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/I-Criticize-Dear-Leader-by-ErinORiordan/174105068.NE00P

Don't let them tell you what you can and can't say. Resist. Make them keep their damn hands off your natural human rights and intellectual freedoms. The Enlightenment genie is out of the bottle and no, we will not be putting it back in. 

Find the 'Oakley Falls' Audiobook on Apple Books Now

The steamy Sapphic vampire fantasy Oakley Falls in not only available in print once again, but also in audiobook format.

Find it on Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/oakley-falls/id1837713875

This 43-minute book is only $1.99.

New Audiobook Releases: The Deep Space Scrolls, Guide to Fortune-Telling By Dreams

 New in audiobook:

What does it mean for your future if you dream of cats, beans, knives, or an earthquake? This anonymous author knew back in 1894 and now all of their dramatic A to Z secrets can be revealed. Learn the meanings of dozens of dream-objects and how they can foretell the future, at least according to this old-timey "science."

Find it from these retailers:

NOOK Audiobooks: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/guide-to-fortune-telling-by-dreams-anonymous/1148152682?ean=2940203505866

Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/audiobook/909357316/Guide-to-Fortune-Telling-by-Dreams

Kobo, Walmart: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/guide-to-fortune-telling-by-dreams?sId=0b847828-3c59-4a1f-8464-1732293b7eff&ssId=c-St_smNKF9hhofApQ3UH&cPos=1

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2hDTgKfwCHjBULUsUsGUwZ

Hear a short sample of the introduction on YouTube: 

The other new book I published in audio format is The Deep Space Scrolls:

Robert Franklin Young (1915-1986) was a science fiction short story writer and novelist from New York State whose career spanned 50 years. In The Deep Space Scrolls, he imagined the voyage of the starship Camaraderie 17 as it encountered the mysterious Spaceship X. The circumstances of that mysterious craft cause pilot Colonel Greaves and the senator committee who interview him to question the nature of human history. It provides proof of the most unlikely story in the most unexpected place possible.

You can find it at these retailers:

NOOK Audiobooks: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-deep-space-scrolls-robert-f-young/1137360723?ean=2940203726186

Kobo, Walmart: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/deep-space-scrolls-the?sId=d631ebe0-8111-42d9-827b-39eb2df35d2b&ssId=sOxVsinVmkZuHUrvel1Cv&cPos=1

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4GDgVIrk7K9vKSc5WWFwE3

Don't forget, you can always check aeess.com for the latest audiobook releases. You can download the mp3 file, yours to own, directly from me. I get to keep all the royalties except the cut that the payment processor takes. 

Happy Birthday, Siobhan Fahey

Happy 67th birthday to the Irish singer Siobhan Maire Deirdre Fahey of Bananarama and Shakespears Sister fame. 

Bonus '80s music fun fact: Siobhan's sister Maire played Eileen in the "Come On, Eileen" music video.

"Bring Back Bananarama" post at Dorothy Surrenders

Back in Print (eBook): Oakley Falls, a Sapphic Vampire Fantasy

Back as a stand-alone ebook: Oakley is a lesbian, a vampire, and a stripper. She and her mortal lover Hollie have their issues, but Oakley's unlife is going well...so why does she find herself waking up chained to a chair in the basement of The Third Eye Gentleman's Club? Could it have something to do with her favorite pro basketball player, flamboyant, New Orleans-bred Johnny Lee Bayliss?

(Yes, I named a character after Timothy James Bayliss from Homicide: Life on the Street.)

"Oakley Falls" was originally published in the Vamps anthology from Torquere Press. Get the ebook for 99 cents now from these retailers:

Apple Books
Barnes and Noble
Kobo/Rakuten/Walmart
Smashwords
Tolino
Vivlio

Oliver's Famous Clam Chowder

Herbert: A Romantasy

New Audiobook Releases: Aesop for Children, Northern Drinking

Are you looking for an audiobook you can listen to with the whole family? Do you want to introduce your children to classic literature, help them gain an appreciation for books, and improve their vocabulary?

Aesop, according to tradition, was a storyteller who lived in Ancient Greece. This volume collects ten of Aesop's fables: 

• The Young Crab and His Mother
• Belling the Cat
• The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse
• The Fox and the Grapes
• The Bundle of Sticks
• The Lion and the Mouse
• The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf
• The Frogs Who Wished for a King
• The Rat and the Elephant
• The Crow and the Pitcher

These are all good lessons to learn at a young age, but not too challenging for kids to understand. Find this audiobook for 99 cents on the following platforms:

Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/audiobook/712089234/Aesop-s-Fables-for-Children

Kobo, Walmart: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/aesop-for-children-3?sId=fa7f94cb-4f8e-4cb8-82c3-d4bd43951de6

If you're in the market for something a little more adult to listen to and you enjoy nonfiction, maybe you'll prefer Northern Drinking.

Where did Anglo-Saxon drinking customs come from? To answer this question, John Ashton looked back at artifacts from Beowulf to drinking horns. The resulting drinking history is anything but dry.

"Northern Drinking" is a chapter excerpted by Ashton and James Mew's 1892 book Drinks of the World. You can find this audiobook for 99 cents from the following retailers:

NOOK Audiobooks (Barnes and Noble): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/northern-drinking-john-ashton/1148106371?ean=2940194978496

Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/audiobook/906020096/Northern-Drinking

Kobo, Walmart: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/northern-drinking?sId=49df5acf-3519-4fa5-9ddb-d45dd8dcf39f

O. Henry at Overdue Podcast

In this episode of Overdue Podcast, hosts Andrew and Craig discuss O. Henry's short story collection The Four Million.

If you like listening to O. Henry short stories, you might enjoy Art and the Bronco.

Apparently, I've never mentioned Overdue Podcast on this blog before. I'm surprised, because I've been listening to this books podcast for years. A brief list of some of the many, many books they've covered since February 2013:

The Amityville Horror

Animal Farm

Bad Feminist

Bunnicula

Charlotte's Web

The Color Purple

The Da Vinci Code

Fifty Shades of Grey

Frankenstein

Gone Girl

Gone With the Wind

The Haunting of Hill House
The History of Love

How to Win Friends and Influence People

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Little Women

Ready Player One

Rosemary's Baby

Till We Have Faces

To Kill a Mockingbird

Wuthering Heights

...You get it: A combination of classics and popular literature. 

Jokingly, I say that I theorize that Andrew and Craig of Overdue are secretly Ghost Beach, the dj duo named after a Goosebumps book. 

We Didn't Start the Fire, Part 7: Firestarters, the Final Verse

"We Didn't Start the Fire," Part I
Part II: British Beatlemania 
Part III: Julie S. Howlin
Part IV: Firestarters Podcast
Part V: Firestarters Podcast Continued
Part VI: Firestarters Podcast Continued Some More

[Verse 5]

Birth control, 

Ho Chi Minh

Richard Nixon back again

Moonshot, 

Woodstock

Watergate, 

punk rock

Begin, 

Reagan, 

Palestine

Terror on the airline

Ayatollahs in Iran

Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, 

Sally Ride

Heavy metal suicide

Foreign debts, 

homeless vets

AIDS, 

crack, 

Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores

China's under martial law

Rock and Roller cola wars

I can't take it anymore...

O. Henry Audiobook "Art and the Bronco" for Sale at Walmart and Everand (Scribd) Now

 

In the mood for a Western? Stream Art and the Bronco by O. Henry, a Western short story available now on Kobo (Rakuten, Walmart) and 

Walmart/Kobo Link: kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/art-and-the-bronco-1
Everand/Scribd Link: https://www.everand.com/audiobook/906020046/Art-and-the-Bronco

Here's a sample:

That's my campfire from this past weekend, by the way. The husband and I stayed at a camper in Niles, Michigan. 

Back in Print (eBook): Oliver's Famous Clam Chowder

Back as a standalone e-book: Their vampire friends insist that werewolf couple Natalie and Matthew really must try Oliver's famous clam chowder. When the wolf pair meets the vampire chef, though, it's Oliver himself who's on the menu.

Heat level: Spicy. This is a male-male-female erotic romance.
Ending: Happily-for-now. This story continues in "Oliver's Good Night Kiss."

Oliver's Famous Clam Chowder is available for 99 cents at the following ebook retailers:

Apple Books
Barnes and Noble
Everand
Kobo at Rakuten
Smashwords
Tolino
Vivlio

If you prefer the audiobook format, get it for $1.99 at Apple Books.

Would you like to listen to a completely free short story on YouTube? Sample Grimm's Fairy Tales with the spookiest story in the collection, "The Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was." Unlike Oliver's Famous Clam Chowder, which is definitely for adults only, the Brothers Grimm's folk tale is appropriate for most ages. Adults listening with young children should be aware that it mentions death, ghosts, and corpses. 

When the audiobook drops, all 60+ tales, in one collection, will also be 99 cents.

We Didn't Start the Fire, Part 6: Firestarters, Part III (of IV)

"We Didn't Start the Fire," Part I
Part II: British Beatlemania
Part III: Julie S. Howlin
Part IV: Firestarters Podcast
Part V: Firestarters Podcast Continued

Part VI: Firestarters Podcast Again is as follows.

Hemingway,

 

Eichmann

Stranger in a Strange Land

Dylan,

Berlin

Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia

British Beatlemania

Ole Miss,

John Glenn

Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul,

 

Malcolm X

British Politician sex

J.F.K. blown away

What else do I have to say?

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it...

Back in Print (eBook): "Herbert: A Romantasy" by Erin O'Riordan

Available now as a stand-alone erotica ebook: "Post Op" by Erin O'Riordan. 

Liv Stenke prefers to keep a level head when it comes to romantic entanglements. When she meets the mysterious, and occasionally downright weird, Dante Sugar, all of her usual reservations are overcome. 

What exactly is Dante's deal, though? Is he even human?

eBook on Apple Books
eBook on Smashwords
Barnes and Noble

Rakuten Kobo

Tolino

Vivlio

Heat level: Steamy. 
Ending: Happily-for-now.

"Herbert" previously appeared exclusively in The Erotica Anthology. Read a sample here. 

Back In Print (eBook): "Post Op" by Erin O'Riordan

Available now as a stand-alone erotica ebook: "Post Op" by Erin O'Riordan. 

Dr. Maggie Keller is a respected surgeon and a good girl. So why can't she stop thinking about her patient Joey and his beautiful boyfriend Max?

Heat level: Steamy. This is a guy-guy-lady menage erotic romance.

Get the ebook for 99 cents on Smashwords!

Also available, and also 99 cents, on Kobo at Rakuten (for iOS and Android), at Apple Books and at Barnes and Noble

And also available at Everand and Vivlio 

We Didn't Start the Fire, Part 5: FireStarters II

Joseph Stalin, 

Malenkov

Nasser

and Prokofiev

Rockefeller, 

Campanella

Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn,

Juan Peron

Toscanini,

Dacron

Dien Bien Phu Falls,

"Rock Around the Clock"

Einstein,

  
James Dean

Brooklyn's got a winning team

Davy Crockett,

Peter Pan

Elvis Presley,

Disneyland

Bardot, 

Budapest, 

Alabama, 

Khrushchev

Princess Grace

Peyton Place

Trouble in the Suez

We Didn't Start the Fire, Part 4: FireStarters Podcast

Happy Saturday, people of the books. My husband and I went to Terre Haute, Indiana, to do a small plumbing repair at a business this morning. On our way, we stopped at the Oasis Diner in Plainfield. 

On the way back to Indianapolis, we heard "We Didn't Start the Fire." At that moment, I suddenly remembered that which I'd completely forgotten when I originally posted that Billy Joel-themed post:

That's right: FireStarters podcast, the podcast that went over the references in "We Didn't Start the Fire." How could I have forgotten this podcast that I used to listen to regularly? 

The podcast ran for 120 episodes, and that would be a lot of content to cover in a single blog post, so for now, we'll look only at the first verse. Enjoy, and stay tuned for more FireStarters!

[Verse 1]

Harry Truman, 

Doris Day

Red China, 

Johnnie Ray

South Pacific

Walter Winchell, 

Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, 

Richard Nixon

Studebaker, 

Television

North Korea, 

South Korea

Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs,

H-Bomb

Sugar Ray,

Panmunjom

Brando,

The King And I,

And The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower,

Vaccine

England's got a new queen

Marciano,

Liberace

Santayana goodbye

[Chorus]

We didn't start the fire

It was always burning

Since the world's been turning

We didn't start the fire

No, we didn't light it

But we tried to fight it

Short #HistoricalFiction Audiobook for #Summerween: Rhapsody in Blood

Stream "Rhapsody in Blood" now on Spotify.

For fans of historical fiction and readers of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, this vampire fantasy features fictional versions of blues singer Bessie Smith and composer George Gershwin. Vampire Bessie senses that George is not long for this world and offers to pass on her dark gift to him.

ZombieBoy

August 1, 2018: 32-year-old Canadian model, artist, and actor Rick Genest, known as Zombie Boy for his numerous bone- and viscera-themed tattoos, dies from an accidental fall from an icy balcony where he has apparently gone to smoke a cigarette. (Bummer August)

My screen capture, fair use

Stream 'Eminent Domain' Now on Spotify

A young couple buys the waterfront home of their dreams. After years of rehab to their home, they find it was all in vain. The government is going to take it from them. Feeling robbed of his liberty, Jeff is left hopeless and is willing to lose it all.

Stream the Eminent Domain audiobook by Tit Elingtin and Erin O'Riordan, narrated by Michael E., now on Spotify.

Eminent Domain is also available for Kobo on Rakuten and at Barnes and Noble for the Nook e-reader.

Get the 'Eminent Domain' Audiobook Free with B&N Audiobooks Subscription

Do you have an audiobooks subscription with Barnes and Noble? If so, you can listen to the Eminent Domain audiobook for free.

Listen to a sample here. 

Don't have Barnes and Noble's Nook app? Download it for free from Apple or Google Play to hear this suspenseful crime novel on iOS or Android device.

You can also find Eminent Domain at Rakuten and listen to it on your Kobo app. If you have a Kobo Plus Listen subscription, it's one of the thousands of books included in your subscription.

Look for Eminent Domain on Spotify soon. You can stream Cut, a Pulp Fiction-style thriller, right now.

Amazon Prime Days: More Ideas to Spark Creativity

  This is an affiliate post and if you click on some of the links inside it, I may earn a small commission. 

https://amzn.to/3I5iLRk

https://amzn.to/3TRRjZO

https://amzn.to/3GnTeSV

https://amzn.to/3TgkeGU

https://amzn.to/3ZTcD4M

https://amzn.to/4kklxzJ

https://amzn.to/3G1qeQX

https://amzn.to/4euy6XO

https://amzn.to/3I5TmqB