Lines in the Lawn

My, that went fast. The simple illustrations that I planned to do didn't take more than three or four hours to complete, and with proofreading done, blurbs written, and, a sample epub version looking as well as it is going to look, I uploaded Lines in the Lawn to Smashwords today, 8 June 2020. We'll see if it makes its way to Apple, Kobo & B&N in the coming days. I will probably wait to see if it passes muster for those stores before submitting it to Amazon.

This little story is sort of a joke. I hated (note the past tense) mowing my lawn. As a kid we moved the the 'burbs when I was eight, and so I knew how the great game of having the greenest, most weed-free, most uniform lawn in the neighborhood is played. (Cutthroat) And so, when we moved into our house on a new street in a small town, I wasn't about to play that game, even though I had nice neighbors who did play the great lawn game. They'd mow twice, if not three times a week, put on fertilizer and weed-killer themselves or having a lawn service.Weed-wack every edge. Blow the grass clippings off the sidewalk and driveway, before the wind did. On the other hand, my grass grew just fine without any help from me at all. I'd put some week-killer down ever so often to keep the "creeping charlie" in check, but it never hurt all my wild violets in the grass. Nor those bright yellow spring flowers, were my hose couldn't reach. And there was some tall grass around my trees. And I only mowed once a week, and only if it needed it. As I told my neighbors, there's always at least one snake in any suburban paradise, and when it came to lawns, I was theirs.

This story was sort of a my response to the great game. I actually mowed my lawn like Roy. It provided a little amusement in an otherwise dreary chore. Given how much I hated mowing the lawn, I rather hoped to die doing it. It would be so ironic. But last year we moved to a condo, so that not only do I not have to mow the lawn anymore, but I'll have to find another ironic way to die.

Below is the blurb for Lines in the Lawn: 

A SHORT STORY of some 4,000 words, with illustrations, written to be read by a grownup for a child

Young Roy Williams liked to look down from his bedroom window on to the front yard, with its neat, precise lines made by the wheels of a lawnmower his father used to mow. He couldn’t wait for the day when he too, could make lines in the lawn

But he had to wait, for what seemed like forever. He had to wait until he was old enough, and big enough to be able to push the lawnmower, and not cut off his foot with it. And when that day came, he discovered that he had to start mowing in the what his dad called “the minor leagues.” Which is to say, the small, flat backyard of the Williams’ home

After some setbacks, Roy makes it to the major league of mowing – the long, sloping front lawn. He discovers that mowing the hilly front yard of the house was hard work. He also discovers that his style of mowing – his lines – rather clashed with those of his father’s 

Ah, but is there more to Roy’s style than just artistic temperament

Lines in the Lawn was written to entertain the grownup as well as the child. As a consequence, there are words that the grownup will have to explain. Words like “diagonal,” and “pantomime.” However it is felt that this is a plus, since it encourages a conversation between the grownup and the child or children, enriching the experience for both.