Watson and the Terrific Ten

Watson and the Terrific Ten by [Johnson, John  Eric,, Isabel Arribas]
by John Eric Johnson

JEBWizard Publishing is excited to announce the upcoming release of a wonderful new book by Cumberland (RI) native, John Eric Johnson.

For those of us who love the wonders and magic of Christmas, this is a story you’ll want to share with your kids, grandkids, and everyone who loves a good Christmas tale.

Order your ebook copy today on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Watson-Terrific-John-Eric-Johnson-ebook/dp/B08NGYW7MQ

or send an email to info@jebwizardpublishing.com to reserve a signed print copy for $14.99. Book will be released on December 1, 2020, in plenty of time for Christmas. Be sure to let us know how you’d like the book signed and where to send it.

Excerpt from Watson:

A Leap of Faith

The first thing in the flight manual was for the reindeer to flump ten yards and land—maintain balance and flump again. A flump is half flying and half jumping and is also the sound that reindeer hooves make on rooftop landings. Since an estimated 73% of all takeoffs and landings on Christmas Eve would be in the 10 to 100-yard range—flump training was critical to the success of Santa’s sleigh.

However, the most important part of flying and flumping has always been the landing. And everyone knew that the key to a good landing was the two-step stop. This refined method of stopping was developed by an elf named Rusty countless years ago during a particularly harsh winter. Rusty was a student of all things flying and knew that easing into a stop on ice was better than just trying to dig in the hooves and slide. Simply put—it was touch the ground, take two steps, and stop.

“It’s all about control,” Rusty said often to his young apprentice, Troy.

“Feel the landing,” Troy yelled. “Do not fear it. Take two steps and stop.”

All the reindeer lined up along a field of snow that was 100 yards long and 50 yards wide. Troy walked the line and draped a silver bell attached to a gold chain around each reindeer’s neck.

The bell would continue to ring on flumps and flights for as long as the reindeer remained in the training program. Once the reindeer resigned or was dismissed—the bell would NEVER ring again.

“The best of luck to all of you,” said Troy. “And remember the gold is not at the end of the rainbow. The rainbow is the gold.”

The first hooves on lesson was that every time Troy blew his whistle the reindeer would flump ten yards and stop. Ten flumps down and ten flumps back.

Tweet!

And all 20 reindeer flumped.

It was like a dance. They all went up in the air and came down ten yards later—just the way Troy designed it.

That is all, except Watson.

Watson was so happy to be given a chance to fly that he put just a tad too much effort into his flump and soared all 100 yards. When he tried to land, he forgot to take two steps and slid into a snowbank and then over the edge of the field and down a steep hill. Watson rolled hooves and antlers end-over-end to the bottom— before crashing to a stop in a different snowbank.

By the time Georgia and Sasha arrived at the end of the field all they could see were four skinny legs and two smiling teeth sticking out of the snow. Then they heard what can only be described as sounds a seal and then a duck would make.

“Aaaagh, quack quack!”

Over and over again.

“Aaaagh, quack quack!”

Georgia and Sasha thought Watson must be hurt until they realized he was laughing.

“Aaaagh, quack quack!”

As they dug him out of the snow—Watson laughed and laughed—and soon Georgia and Sasha were laughing right along with him. And the more they laughed, the harder it became to stop—until all three were rolling on the ground.

“Aaaagh, quack quack! Aaaagh, quack quack!”

Troy, however, was not amused. He glared down from the top of the hill. His face the color of Santa’s red suit. His black licorice turned red in his lips. And Georgia swore she saw steam—like you would see over a cup of hot chocolate—coming out of his ears.

“What did I just say?” seethed Troy as he banged his cane in the snow. “Follow the rules. The exercise was to flump ten yards, not 100! Do you want to be one of Santa’s reindeer or not?  I won’t tolerate this! I simply won’t tolerate this!”

As hard as they tried, Georgia and Sasha could not stop laughing. They would try to think of something very sad like not having sugar cookies every day, but then they would hear, “Aaaagh, quack quack!” and the laughing would start again.

The rest of the day’s training was more of the same. Most of the reindeer struggled to make a 10-yard flump—while Watson struggled to keep from flumping further than ten yards.

Despite a less than stellar first day, Watson, Georgia, and Sasha all headed back to the stables with huge smiles on their faces. Flight training was going to be fun! Not easy, but definitely fun.

“Aaaagh, quack quack!”

After the day’s session, Troy met with Santa.

“I’ve never seen a reindeer make that long of a flump on the first day of training. Twenty yards maybe, but 100 yards is simply amazing. We may have a superstar in our midst. Undisciplined no doubt, but a star nonetheless.”

Santa simply ran his hand down his beard and said, “Hmmmmm.”

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JEBWizard Publishing (www.jebwizardpublishing.com) is a hybrid publishing company focusing on new and emerging authors. We offer a full range of customized publishing services.

Everyone has a story to tell, let us help you share it with the world. We turn publishing dreams into a reality. For more information and manuscript submission guidelines contact us at info@jebwizardpublishing.com or 401-533-3988.

Signup here for our mailing list for information on all upcoming releases, book signings, and media appearances.

You Might be a Moron if…

“On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

H. L. Mencken

What sparked this diatribe (and public service anoouncement) on morons was a meme circulating on Social media. I won’t dignify it by repeating it, but in summary it implied that by having had a black president for eight years that somehow mitigated and eliminated the centuries-long history of racism in this country.

So, I thought I would offer this simple guide to those who may need it to understand their own implicit biases, to help them identify them, and hopefully to work on eliminating them.

Here’s a simple checklist to determine if you harbor any moronic, churlish, idiotic, misanthropic, antisocial, or racially biased fallacies in your character.

You might be a moron if…

…you believe your sexual orientation implicitly grants moral superiority over any other.

…you believe your race implicitly grants intellectual superiority over any other.

…you believe your ethnicity implicitly grants cultural superiority over any other.

…you believe your religion implicitly grants theological superiority over any other.

…you believe your place of birth implicitly grants hereditary superiority over any other.

…you believe your educational level implicitly grants knowledge superiority over any other.

…you believe your lack of education implicitly grants practical superiority over any other.

If you hold any beliefs that your personal characteristics- those mostly an accident or fortune of birth—grant you any measure of superiority over others, you are likely a moron. 

It is the content of your character, and your actions towards others, that measures your value as a person.

Keep these wise words in mind from the Neil Diamond song, Done too Soon whenever you find yourself feeling smug about yourself in comparison to others.

And each one there
Has one thing shared:
They have sweated beneath the same sun,
Looked up in wonder at the same moon,
And wept when it was all done

For being? Done too soon,
For being? Done too soon.
For being? Done.

Done too Soon, Neil Diamond

We all sweat beneath the same sun and look up in wonder at the same moon…

Everything else is just the dust of life.

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JEBWizard Publishing (www.jebwizardpublishing.com) is a hybrid publishing company focusing on new and emerging authors. We offer a full range of customized publishing services.

Everyone has a story to tell, let us help you share it with the world. We turn publishing dreams into a reality. For more information and manuscript submission guidelines contact us at info@jebwizardpublishing.com or 401-533-3988.

Signup here for our mailing list for information on all upcoming releases, book signings, and media appearances.

Excerpt from Forbidden Emotions: The Key to Healing by Marti Murphy

Living a Liberated Life

The Before Picture

“You are a smart, driven, responsible person. If you get honest with yourself, you will say your life’s not bad, but it does not feel good either. There are times, especially in the wee hours of the morning when you wake up and can’t go back to sleep, that something inside of you just knows “there’s got to be more.” In these moments of longing, you feel that somehow, you are missing the boat, but you are not sure where the boat is or, if you found it, how to board it.

You think you’ve found “that thing” and get excited trying to create this elusive “more.” You might even make some progress, but before you know it, despite your best efforts, you are back to square one and telling yourself, “my life is not that bad” until you hear about friends or acquaintances building their dream home, or who just retired and are traveling the world, or are moving to a new exotic place to start a new adventure or more importantly those who seem to be fulfilled, despite whatever worldly possessions or achievements they have or don’t have.

You want to feel happy for them, but all you can do is feign excitement because deep down you are envious. It is in these moments you fall back into this place of longing for more. What appears to be their good fortune hammers home the feeling that you are just settling and that something must be missing within you to not be living a life that you desire; one you have actually chosen for yourself, despite what family or society says you should want.

This feeling slowly chips away your self-esteem. Deep down you feel a quiet desperation, like a slow death of your spirit. Your situation is not bad enough, and yet it is not good enough, either. You feel stuck, and it is as if parentheses have been placed around your life and you cannot move beyond them—you can spend decades in this place of limbo.

I have felt this way.

That you could lead a fulfilling life—and a life not measured by the success model that most of us have been enculturated to measure ourselves by—feels more elusive than ever. (It is important to note here that to learn to measure yourself from your own standards that come from your heart, mind and soul is true freedom no matter what anyone else thinks.)

Without creating our own standard of what success means to you, you are trapped in a maze where it seems like there’s a club for “those people” who seem to have this magical membership to a wildly successful life and you are not a part of it. You hear about it all the time, and now you long for a membership. You long for a life that feels so out of reach to you, and you long for liberation.”

from Forbidden Emotions: The Key to Healing “Living a Liberated Life” by Marti Murphy. Published by JEBWizard Publishing. Order the book here or wherever books are sold.
Author Marti Murphy

Marti Murphy is an Emotional Fitness Coach, Certified EFT Practitioner, and Psychosomatics Practitioner (Body/Mind Connection).
Marti has been a life-long spiritual junkie, but nothing worked until she identified her forbidden emotions.

She was exhausting herself “trying” to think positive, under highly stressful financial circumstances, and it wasn’t working. When she gave up “trying” to change, she accessed her forbidden emotions. Forbidden emotions that were attached to her most negative thoughts.

As she gave these emotions full expression, she felt better without “trying” to think positive, and her life changed for the better.

She now specializes in helping her clients resolve conflicts in their personal and business lives, opening their eyes to their forbidden emotions. This helps allow guidance and direction to come through, creating inspired action. As this happens, life unfolds with more grace and ease.
For more information about Marti please email her at marti@martimurphy.com.

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JEBWizard Publishing (www.jebwizardpublishing.com) is a hybrid publishing company focusing on new and emerging authors. We offer a full range of customized publishing services.

Everyone has a story to tell, let us help you share it with the world. We turn publishing dreams into a reality. For more information and manuscript submission guidelines contact us at info@jebwizardpublishing.com or 401-533-3988.

Signup here for our mailing list for information on all upcoming releases, book signings, and media appearances.