J.B. Sommerset

"In The Mist" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 This week has been a long one, there is so much to do in tax season, so much to do with the businesses. Now that we have an orange butthole's friends running the show, that might get even more complicated. Who knows, at this point some of us are just watching the crapper burn down. Anyway, here's a quote for all of you out there in the interwebs- it seems we are all lost... "Let's face it, if you have no where to be, lost isn't so bad..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

A 2025 Promise, J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 Following up on the last quote of the week, here another one about being alone. In todays modern world, where we are all connected every minute of every day, the value of being alone is overshadowed by an artificial type of connection. That being said, even today, even as connected as we are, a person can still be utterly alone. So here's a quote about it... "The thing about being lonely is this; it's worse when you have to go through it alone." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"A January Evening" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2025 This week I let my inner isolationist take the wheel for the quote. This one is from one of my old works, but I think it is more relevant today than it ever was when the world wasn't such a weird place. Hope you get some insight from this quote. "An axe, a saw, and a dog are much more a friend to the wise man than most of the persons of this world." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Snow again" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 There is an old Marxist saying that goes, "Religion is the opiate of the people." I agree in part with that quote, but there is more to that, it's summed up, sort of, in the rest of his writing. I have chosen to shorten that and add it here. So here you are, the quote of the week.  "Power is the opiate of the rich, much like religion is the opiate of the people..." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

This post is for those of you here in the states, not my friends over seas. To the rest of the free world, I feel obligated to apologize for what comes next, because it’s not just going to affect us. It will have ripples that will change everything. This election was the “go ahead” for the Putins, the Kim Jongs, and the Victor Orbans of the world. For that, as an American, I am sorry. To start with, I am so utterly disappointed in so many people today. I did not vote for him, I voted for Harris. For me, the choice was obvious, and oddly enough, it had nothing to do with politics- we’ve been down that road before with this man, he lied then, like we knew he would. Last night we cast our ballots and let the statistics show the nature of our character and basic values we care about. America voted a 34-time felon, twice impeached, con artist into office. We vapidly put the keys to the country in the hands of a narcissistic mad-man and his cronies. A man, who, by our own adjudication sh...

If you haven't noticed, A.I. is all the rage these days when it comes to content creation. Art, Writing, and Music are all being flooded with A.I. driven works. And very few of them are quality. They are usually ugly things that muddy the art pool or clever mimicries of existing masters. Some people are easy to fool however- you've all seen those posts on Facebook, you know the ones, where something is just off. Then you read the comments and sure enough, it's A.I. generated. Some of the music is quite funny, some of it is a little to close to the real thing.  I have written about this before, and I am still struggling with it. I have always wanted my work to be completely original, after all I cultivated the works and the skill for years and years. It doesn't seem right that Someone can screen-cap my work then stick it into an app, craft a prompt and poof! My works originality is out there for anyone who can barely type. That being said, many wise people have said that...

"The Way Down", J.B. Sommerset (C) 2024 This should have been posted on Friday, I was, however, indisposed. So I am posting it now. One of the things about living on a mountain, and it being the fall, is that you have to get prepared for winter. This year, I have been chopping a lot of fire wood, and winterizing the house. We did alright last winter, but it was a mild winter in comparison to the one before it. This morning is the first morning since Friday that I have been able to sit down to update. So here it is, your quote of the week, it all about autumn: "Fall is the reminder that all things end, even suffering, and also that there is reprieve in the ending of things."  J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Well, here it is, the audio book of the week. In this case, since it is coming into the season, the Halloween season that is, I picked something dark. Again, I have mentioned that I like H.P. Lovecraft . I have posted a number of his stories, but it's hard to remember which ones. I know I have posted the likes of " At the Mountains of Madness ", " The Dunwich Horror ", and " The Shadow Over Innsmouth " (one of my personal favorites). I even recently reviewed " The Color out of Space " with Nick Cage - which was really different than the original but okay for what it was. I am almost certain I've never posted this one. This week, lets have a listen to " The Dreams of the Which House ".  Cheers!

                                                    "Mountain Moon", Copywrite J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 It's been a long couple of weeks, summer is winding down and there are a lot of projects that I need to get caught up on before the snow flies. Like all the wood choppin' and the stacking of at least a couple of cords. So, needless to say, I am very sore, and there is so much more to do. This week my "quote of the week" will reflect that. So here it is, short, simple, and almost like it was said by another old timer standing in his underwear on the front porch: "It will quit hurting when the pain goes away..." J.B. Sommerset. Cheers!

Well it's that time again, this week has been busy and I haven't had the time to find something new for the audio book of the week. In part because I have been binging on short stories, this week I have been revisiting one of my favorites " Thomas Ligotti ". Such a juicy and plump set of works. He is a dark delight, and there is a lot of his stuff that I just haven't got to yet, so hear is a new one, at least for me. Enjoy, "The Red Tower" by Thomas Ligotti.  Cheers!

"Mist on the mountains" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2023 Up here, on this mountain I am frequently alone. It's never really bothered me, sometimes I wish there were some company, but I am never bored or unhappy with where I am, in part it's because it's not the first time I have lived this remote. Years ago I discovered what it was like to be surrounded by people, but still feel alone. It was then that I started to understand that it wasn't a need for company that made me feel alone, but it was that the quiet gave me space to hear my own voice in and that was the start of my self exploration. So, this weeks quote is about isolation and being lonely. I am pretty sure this has been said before in a different way, I just don't know who said it or when. "If you take the time to get to know yourself, and learn to prefer your own company, you will never be lonely." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

"Lil White Blossom" J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Welp, it's fire season again, which means that, being where I live, I will spend a lot of time looking at my "watch duty" app. Like more than I should, and definitely more than I want to. At any moment there could be a catastrophe. Yay for global warming or climate change, or Earth menopause, or what ever it's called now. This will be quick because I must get back to looking at the app to see if the woods I love so much are on fire. Here is the quote of the week:  "You can get scars doing the things you hate, or you can get them doing the things you love, either way, if you have lived than you will have scars..." J.B. Sommerset. Cheers!

This week I just fell like crushing some skulls and making some dude lament me. That's right, we are going straight Robert E. Howard this week, well, his legacy at least. It's some premium " Conan the Barbarian " goodness. This one is a lot like the last audio book, Tarzan had 23 follow ups, well, Conan had 21 adventures (by Howard ). I plan to own them all someday, but these collections get quite expensive.  This week, I am going to step outside the Robert Howard series, and look at some additions people have written in the Conan sagas, and there are more than I can count. We are going to go with " Conan The Swordsman ", by  L. Sprague de Camp , Lin Carter and Björn Nyberg . A collaboration, great! This is o ne I have never read, so I will be doing this with you this week. I take it the legend himself  needs no introduction so enjoy your skull crushing this week. Cheers! 

"Orange Rays" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Sometimes we meet people who just can't let things go no matter how small and irrelevant to the rest of their life. They become fixated on those things and inflate them into HUGE battles that didn't need to be fought. These people are "shit stirrers". You'll know them because they will be proud of the fact that they use their "stick" to stir things up. Sometimes you might hurt their feelings when you acknowledge this trait because they don't see that they are the ones who start these things, they are placed into them by other people. They will complain about how people see them, about the image they have, the one they created. I have this quote I came up with  along time ago to encapsulate these people: "You can't show up to the party with a big moist shit stick and expect people think that you are the baker." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

Hey gang, it's been a while since I posted an interview with an author. I have posted interviews with authors before, and even this particular author, but not in a very long time. And being that this is one of my favorite authors, the wonderfully weird Kurt Vonnegut , author of such works as " Slaughter House Five ", " Player Piano ", and " Cat's Cradle ", I had to give it a go and put it up for you guys. For those of you who have never read any of his works, shame on you! Go out and get a couple of his novels and dive right in! Hope you enjoy this interview. Cheers!

Thimble Flower by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Sometimes quotes can be super formulaic and that can be annoying, but sometimes just because it's annoying doesn't make it less profound. One of the most common ones is: "If you don't learn to master your rage, your rage will become your master." There is an old Ben Stiller movie that pointed this out, it's called  "Mystery Men" . That movie was okay, it gave me a chuckle, but he was right about this. Most of the great quote writers do this. I am not great, but I have a couple of these formulaic little bastards in my notebooks, so here's one for the day: "Be specific to the particulars of your craft, but also, be particular to the specifics of your craft." J.B. Sommerset. Cheers!

That's right, I started " House Of The Dragon " season 2. Let's talk about it, like hard, real hard because it does a whole lot right, especially in todays world where screenwriters and showrunners have completely forgotten how to write a good story and then translate it to the screen. Most modern renditions of my favorite childhood stories are so bad that when I watch them I can smell the sour grape and watermelon vape fumes of the douche-people who wrote them. Because that's the kind of image modern literature and film puts in my head. A douchey one with a whole lot of vape-fumes. What an image, it I could describe it, it would look like this: It's this image of an androgynes guy sitting outside the Star-bucks. He's got whispers of chin hair on his prepubescent jawline, and poorly applied black nail polish on his hands. There's an uncentered man-bun on his head, a snake of ratty coils, unwashed hair that smells of pot smoke. Leaning on his tiny littl...

Well, it's that time again, the audio book of the week, although due to broken links these things are not as reliable as they used to be. This week I was exposed to the Disney film- " Tarzan ". Although it's a great kids movie, the Disney show doesn't really capture even half of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books by the same name. Of which, most people don't realize that Tarzan of the apes had a butt-load of adventures. Tarzan appeared in 24 stories written by the OG himself and numerous adaptations by other authors who loved his work! So, forgive me if this is a repost of an older book, there are too many to keep up with. This week I chose " Tarzan the Untamed ". Enjoy this turn of the century goodness.  Cheers!

"Lil' Shroom in the Potatoes" by J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 This summer has been strange, too cold and too cloudy, and now- instantly hot, a raging inferno. I went from bringing my plants in because it was too cold, to making sure they had enough shade within a couple of weeks. Half way through June it was 40 F at night here. Last night it was 85 F. Lousy climate change. Through my sweat and feverish delirium, I remembered I owe you guys a quote of the week, so here it is: "Love should be testing at times, but never at any time should it be a test." J.B. Sommerset Cheers!

  "Driveway Bear" By J.B. Sommerset (c) 2024 Most of the photos I post for the quote of the week are in fact photos I took from at "mountain lair". My 10 acres in the woods where I live, where I am surrounded by trees, animals, and magic. I have too many photos at this point to use in a life time of posts. I capture all kinds of wild life up here, and I do mean all kinds. I have mountain lions, bears, bobcats, elk, moose, deer, etc. This guy (in the photo above) was passing across my driveway as he moved down the mountain to a place with less secure trash cans. Sometimes it can be a little interesting and also a little dangerous, but I love being this close to nature. So, to honor that, this week I am posting an old quote about the subject at hand. “Consider all beings and where our progress puts them. Nature is not exclusive; it is inclusive with all its children, even it is chooses to eat them.” J.B. Sommerset Cheers!