Read the Owners Manual for Jewelry - You Have Nothing to Lose But the Dirt!

Now Available on Amazon Kindle for just 99 cents 

The Lowdown on Jewelry Cleanup
 (The Owner's Manual for fine Jewelry) 

Written by Bill Russo after a decade of cleaning jewelry in fairs, flea markets, and in BJs Wholesale Clubs on the Northeast Coast.

"You will learn 'what to do' to keep your precious gems looking bright and new," says Bill Russo, "but more importantly, this manual shows you what "Not To Do!"

Read this book!  You have nothing to lose but the dirt! 

Banned on Kindle, Read my new Book on Tradebit

After successfully publishing over six
books on Amazon Kindle, I have
had a bit of a scuffle with both the robots and the humans who are running the platform.

I compiled, edited, updated, and annotated 10 stories from the early 1900s.  The tales were all published before 1923.  Virtually page written before that year is in the public domain - meaning a person can use it for any commercial purpose without crediting any person or publisher and without paying any fees.

I submitted the book, which also contains one of my short stories, and it was dragged through a week long inquiry by both human auditors and robot readers.

They ultimately challenged a fascinating 1922 story by Franz Kafka, called the Hunger Artist - about a sideshow performer whose skill was being able to exist in a cage for 30 days without food!  I had proof that the story was public domain, but Amazon refused it.  So I removed it and changed the title from the Ten Best Stories to the Nine Best Stories.  I resubmitted all my information on the authors whose work I had updated.  

Another week dragged by and once again Amazon's readers and robots challenged the public domain status of my work.  They did this despite the fact that they themselves had versions of the works for sale on the Amazon platform.  

Since a soon to be 72 year old man, existing mostly on a small social security repayment, cannot fight a billion dollar corporation, I withdrew my book from submission and instead published it on Tradebit where you can buy it for just $2.99 ( www.tradebit.com ) (The Nine Best short Stories of the 1900s)

Among the stories I collected and freshened up, are two noteworthy yarns by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  One is the first draft of The Great Gatsby.  The other is the original story that inspired the move, The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt.  It's a funny, bittersweet accounting of a man born old who lives for 72 years, going backwards in age from tottery to an actual tot and finally to a mute infant.  

There are also two Sherlock Holmes yarns, one of which is rare and almost never included in Baker Street collections.  It was written for the Queen on England in a book about the size of a postage stamp.  In fact it was written for the library of the Queen's dollhouse!

The Dollhouse by Katherine Mansfield is another fascinating story in the collection, as is her story titled, "The Fly".  

My contribution to the collection is a narrative that takes the reader back to a time when gambling was both illegal and a sin!  That was before the government realized there was a huge profit to be made, so wageing became legal and not sinful.  It also became less romantic and perhaps more crooked than when it was run by people like the hero of my story - the Colonel.  A short, heavyset man, the Colonel  was one of the last of a dying breed - the neighborhood bookmaker.  He was liked and respected by everyone....with the exception of one renegade police officer who vowed to put the hard working honest bookie in jail.  

A quick reminder that the rest of my work is available on Kindle.  Type in "The Creature from the Bridgewater Triangle" and you will be able to get to my author's page where you can sample everything I've done.  

If you read any of my work and like it - five star reviews are deeply appreciated.  

thanks,  Bill

The Bridgewater Triangle is Coming to National Television in August

The Bridgewater Triangle 
Documentary makes its nationally
televised debut on Saturday, August 15 at ten p.m. on Discovery's Destination America
channel.

The news was announced recently by the film's co-directors, Aaron
Cadieux and Manny Famolare .  

The movie opened around the Halloween season in  2013 in limited release and played to capacity audiences at selected theaters, colleges and film festivals.  Along the way the Cadieux-Famolare team has picked up about a half dozen awards, and many five star reviews. 

The project was the first in depth treatment of a 200 square mile swamp area of Southeastern Massachusetts that has been home to an astounding number of strange and unusual events. 

UFOs twice the size of a 707 were spotted by large numbers of people, including two television reporters.  A local man and his dog met a talking, three foot tall Puckwudgie; ghosts and odd creatures abound in the area.  A well respected police sergeant saw a real life incarnation of the mythical 'Thunder Bird'.  

Many people who visit the area don't see a ghost, a snake as large as a stove pipe, or phantom hitchhikers - but many of them say that they feel something.  Something odd, eerie, and hard to describe.  

The documentary (and other 'triangle merchandise')  may be purchased on Blu Ray and DVD from the Bridgewater Triangle Documentary website.

For 99 cents you can purchase Bill Russo's account of his meeting with the talkative puckwudgie.  He tells that story and others (some real, some not) in this popular book,   "The Creature From the Bridgewater Triangle".  It's in the Amazon Kindle Store.  Click the link to get to Bill's author page - B00OEZK8IQ

Dear Flabby: How can I keep Pests Out of the Garden?

Dear Flabby 

Ask Uncle Flabby anything.  He answers for free.
There is no money back guarantee. 

Advice to the Lovelorn, Forlorn, Timeworn, and Everybody Else

Today's Question:  How do I keep bugs and such out of my vegetable garden?

If growing your own food was easy, everybody would be doing it. The sad truth is that  all your hard work can be eaten up by little foes smaller than your pinky nail. 

The latest trend in human medicine is illness prevention by healthful living and conditions.  So too with your crops.  Strict garden cleanliness will go a long way towards keeping away pests that are bred by lodging places for the breeding of insects.  

Heaps of waste are incubators for garden killers.  A compost pile will do no harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots do invite trouble. 

People see Uncle Flabby every day or so, out in the garden seeming to mindlessly hoe and rake every furrow in the lot.  It's far from what it seems.  The constant turning of the soil keeps it open to air and water. Sometimes it brings to the surface, pests that will be eliminated by birds.  The constant stirring up of the soil by earthworms is also an aid in keeping the soil open to moisture and fresh air.

 Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins, chickadees, and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way. 

Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this good deed.  And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad might look ugly but he or she is a noble warrior and ally in your battle to grow the best fruit and veggies.  

Uncle Flabby advises  that all gardeners should try to make her or his garden into a place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden.

Put a 'Toad Abode' in your plot.  During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat. How can you make a Toad Abode? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would be better than a Holiday Inn to a toad. 

There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoppers and caterpillars are of this sort. 

The other kind sucks the juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is the worst sort. Plant lice belong here, as do mosquitoes, which prey on us. All the scale insects fasten themselves on plants, and suck out the life of the plants. 

Now can we fight these rats of the insect world? In most cases poisons and such should be avoided. But if you have to, these gnawing little punks may be caught with poison sprayed upon plants, which they take into their bodies when they chomp on the plants.

Sometimes we are much troubled with underground insects at work. You have seen a garden covered with ant hills. Here is a remedy, but one of which you must be careful. 

This question is constantly being asked, 'How can I tell what insect is doing the destructive work?' Well, you can tell partly by the work done, and partly by seeing the insect itself. This latter thing is not always so easy to accomplish. Your writer, Uncle Flabby,  had cutworms one season and never saw one. I saw only the work done. If stalks of tender plants are cut clean off be pretty sure the cutworm is abroad. What does he look like? Well, that is a hard question because his family is a large one. Should you see sometime a grayish striped caterpillar, you may know it is a cutworm. But because of its habit of resting in the ground during the day and working by night, it is difficult to catch sight of one. The cutworm is around early in the season ready to cut the flower stalks of the hyacinths. When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for them. A very good way to block him off is to put paper collars, or tin ones, about the plants. These collars should be about an inch away from the plant. 

Of course, plant lice are more common. Those we see are often green in color. But they may be red, yellow or brown. Lice are easy enough to find since they are always clinging to their host. As sucking insects they have to cling close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them. But the biting insects do their work, and then go hide. That makes them much more difficult to deal with. 

Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes. They eat out the body of the leaves, so that just the veining is left. They are soft-bodied, green above and yellow below.  

A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and squash leaves. It eats the leaf by riddling out holes in it. This beetle, as its name implies, is striped. The back is black with yellow stripes running lengthwise.  

Then there are the slugs, which are garden pests. The slug will devour almost any garden plant, whether it be a flower or a vegetable. They lay lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning up rubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other single insect pest. 

Beside these most common of pests, pests which attack many kinds of plants, there are special pests for special plants. Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages. In fact, the vegetable garden has many inhabitants. In the flower garden lice are very bothersome, the cutworm and the slug have a good time there, too, and ants often get very numerous as the season advances.

A common pest in the vegetable garden is the tomato worm. This is a large yellowish or greenish striped worm. Its work is to eat into the young fruit. 

Tend to your garden everyday.  Water your plot just as the sun is going down.  Tomatoes love water.  Give them plenty every day at twilight.  

Good luck and happy vegetable plucking and picking 
from your
Uncle Flabby.

High Seas Adventures and Killer Catfish!

Recent Reviews of Jimmy Catfish - click the link to find Jimmy

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XH8XY9Q

5

By Jeremy Gibbson July 11, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a very interesting read of an old town hosting one of the most unusual and captivating stories! If you want a good bedtime read that can send you off to sleep with grand tales sweeping through your mind, this is it! It's beautifully written. The descriptions of the town and it's people is so true to life that you'd be able to easily picture the story as though it were a movie in your mind. You'll be on an adventure literally from beginning to end!

By John Johnsonon July 9, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A real adventure! I was really impressed by the plot and the development of the characters. The author's style of writing is very easy to comprehend. The book really leaves you wondering on what is going to happen next. I personally found the captain character as my absolute favorite! Check this book out for a very interesting read.