Get to the Crossroads — Brother Love

Posted on by Teagan Riordain Geneviene

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Train at crossroads
Dan Antion’s Crossroads

First a note of apology.  Half the time, WordPress is preventing me from using “likes” on comments or on posts — even here at my own blog. I’ve logged on repeatedly and it does no good. As for the “happiness engineers,” they give me no joy.

If you’ve made a comment, be sure that I tried to acknowledge it.

Have you been to the crossroads?     

If you haven’t started the new weekly serial, Brother Love, or if you’ve fallen behind, here’s your chance to get up-to-date. 

It’s a mysterious, you might even say spooky story, set somewhere in the late 1950s, during the hot month of August, in a small southern town. I’m writing it in full-on pantser mode — completely unplanned.  The story is driven by random “things” readers leave in comments.

Antique globe showing the Mississippi Delta, by Dan Antion
Antique globe showing the Mississippi Delta, by Dan Antion

Blogger Dan Antion illustrates weekly episodes of Brother Love with his photos.  

I tell the story through the eyes of local outcast, Birdie Devovo, and from the observations of Jinx the magpie.

angel-devil female_darksouls1 at Pixaby
Darksouls at Pixabay

The idea for this story started nearly a year ago.   It is partly inspired by a Neil Diamond song that has always caught my imagination.  I didn’t have time to write a new serial back then, but it now it’s here!

Along with the song “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show,” another inspiration is the blues legend of the devil at the crossroads and Robert Johnson. 

Crossroads with 3 blue guitar statues on a pole is a marker for Highways 61 and 49 in Mississippi
Electric guitars on a highway sign marks the crossroads where legend claims musician Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil for the ability to play the blues. (Wikimedia)

If you know me at all, then you know that something supernatural or magical is sure to be afoot.  Not to mention a good dash of whimsy.  The story is also peppered with music, both classic blues and 1950s rock and roll.

Here’s an extra route to the crossroads.

Here are links to all five chapters.

Prologue and Chapter 1

Chapter 2, A Shadow

Chapter 3, A Hymn

Chapter 4, A Domino

Chapter 5, A Face

Coming this Saturday — Chapter 6, A Ring.

I’ll see you at the crossroads.

Brother Love promo image

***

Now the obligatory shameless self-promotion

Universal link to my Amazon Author Page

Novel-book-The Three Things Serial Story-Teagan Riordain Geneviene-The Writer Next Door-Vashti Q-spotlight-author

USA:  The Three Things Serial Story: A Little 1920s Story Kindle 

Amazon UK

Bijou front only 2

USA:  Murder at the Bijou — Three Ingredients I

Amazon UK

USA:  Atonement in Bloom

Amazon UK

Pigs collection cover banner

USA:  The Glowing Pigs, Snort Stories of Atonement, Tennessee

Amazon UK

Atonement Video Cover copy

USA:  Atonement, Tennessee

(E-book still on sale at 99¢ )

Amazon UK

This is a work of fiction.  Characters, names, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright ©  2019 by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene

All rights reserved. 

No part of this work may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.  Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

All images are either the property of the author or provided by free sources, unless stated otherwise.

 

47 thoughts on “Get to the Crossroads — Brother Love”

  1. Pingback: Brother Love — A Pause | Teagan's Books
  2. Pingback: Brother Love 7 — A Lament | Teagan's Books
  3. Pingback: Brother Love 6 — A Ring | Teagan's Books

    1. Yesterday I couldn’t even format the post I was working on. It kept putting everything in tiny size font, no matter what I did. Thank goodness that went away overnight, but all the other problems persist.
      Thanks for taking time to visit, Rob. Hugs on the wing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. The legend of Robert Johnson and the crossroads is one Ive long been fascinated with.
    I’ve been enjoying your chapters and look forward to more.
    Happy writing and hugs to Jinx!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. Dont worry about the buttons, Teagan! Four weeks in the past i got no buttons for liking and reblogging. Now i got them back, but only active after commenting. Lol What crazy guys at wp.com. And the had automatically unfollowed me from a lot of blogs too. Awaitng Saturday! Best wishes, Michael

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Any one of the things people are experiencing make it hard to keep a blog going (let alone growing), but all these together… I was being snarky and sarcastic the first time I said it, but maybe they really do want to go out of business. (Rolls eyes.)
      Thanks for making time to visit, Teri. Great big hug.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. I know the engineers have been working on the Like button. So far, they’ve managed to solve my problems in the browser and on my phone, but I fear the change will be short-lived, as Apple is messing with the underlying cause…again.

    Good idea to give folks a chance to get on board, So much has happened, but binge reading might be nice.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Dan. Considering we were over a month into the series, and that many people have personal schedule changes with summertime, I thought the catch up post would be a good idea.
      Terrific post at your place today. Hugs on the wing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  14. A pox upon the happiness engineers. WP has been glitching for everyone for a while now. I blame the Gutenberg update.

    I love the Brother Love story. Can’t wait for the next installment! Hugs.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Really neat slide show Teagan. Saturdays are double fun now….Dan and his friend at the bar with Cheryl cutting them down to size, and reading the next chapter of Brother Love.
    🐾Ginger 🐾

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. Good idea to keep people up to date on the story – they’d be foolish to miss it!!
    Sorry to hear about your problems with WP, it’s rough to not have complete control over your own website.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  17. I had some WP trouble recently, both with the like button and with me being suddenly logged out of my WP account. Weird, but now it seems to be settling down. Maybe they’ve been working on things behind the scene.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Sally mentioned that they did some kind of upgrade over the weekend. If they don’t watch it, they’ll “improve” themselves out of existence…
      Have a nice coast down the other side of the midweek hump, Priscilla. Hugs.

      Like

      Reply

  19. I keep finding people trapped in my Spam folder, and it’s usually the people who regularly comment, so yes, something is not right (or many somethings). Thanks for the links. It’s always good to be able to catch up. I look forward to the next episode. I read about this free course from Yale University (they’re offering it through Coursera) and it’s proving fascinating so far. The Science of Well Being https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being
    I hope WordPress starts behaving again soon. Looking forward to the next episode, Teagan!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hi Olga. You’re right. The followers-in-spam issue seems to be an ongoing thing for years now. WordPress has so many, completely different, ongoing, and ever increasing problems.
      That course sounds interesting. Let me know how it goes for you. Thanks for the link.
      Hugs on the wing.

      Like

      Reply

    1. You’re right, Joanne. My WP issues used to be on and off — for the past year or more. The past several months, they just kept escalating.
      I have no patience with WP — or any of the other (most of them) companies with “help” that hands me a “how to” that doesn’t work, and basically tells me to do it my own damn self. They (all) need to put out quality products in the first place.
      Thanks for visiting. Great big hug!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  23. Having trouble with WordPress? Not surprising. I like your slide show with Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show. I always liked the song. I hope your issues get fixed soon. WordPress on!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, Tim. I had a lot of fun making it. Then I was thrilled by how most of the images fell into place with the lyrics. Especially “eyes black as coal” — I was positively giddy. LOL.
      Yep…”pressing” on. Thanks for taking a moment to visit. Hugs!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.