List of Epigraphs in Persephone’s Underground, a new novel by Rickey Pittman,

Bard of the South

         Readers who have followed my writing, know I like to use epigraphs to set tone, create a mood, or pique curiosity about the chapters that follow them.  Here is a list of the epigraphs I used in the construction of this novel which is a mystery, a thriller, and references the famous legend of a goddess. I hope you willl find something in thist to help your thinking and your own writing.

Midway upon life’s journey tardily/I realized that I had lost my way/Within a dark wood and no more could see/The proper path. —Inferno Canto I

In the dangerous world of bounty hunting where

every merc has a mark and every prey

has its price. —Kayleena Pierce Bohen

After a few months in my parents’ basement, I took an apartment near the state university, where I discovered both crystal methamphetamine and conceptual art. Either one of these things are dangerous, but in combination they have the potential to destroy entire civilizations.” ― David Sedaris

 No disease is more dangerous than a bad husband —Sabrina Jeffries

Worse than drugs is drug trafficking.  Much worse. —José Mujica

TELEPHONE n. An invention of the devil, which abrogates some of theadvantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. —Ambrose Bierce

And they said: If a man commit murder/ Should his father protect him and hidehim?/And Kung said: / He should hide him —Canto XIII, Ezra Pound

I realize now that I wanted to disappear. To get so lost that nobody ever found. To go so far away that I’d never be able to make my way home again. But I have no idea why. ― Jessica Warman, Between

The truth may be buried, but it can never stay buried forever. —The Book of Cold Cases

We are all debts owed to death —Simonides, Greek Lyric Poet

It was a time when we were happy. It was a time when we had souls.

 —”Love’s Always in Color”

In mythology, Hades is depicted as stern and pitiless, unmoved by prayer, pity, or sacrifice.

A woman bends over me, Searching my reaches for what she really is. Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon. —“Mirror” by Sylvia Plath

There was nothing in the dark that wasn’t there when the lights were on. —The Twilight Zone Episode 6, “Nothing in the Dark.”

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,/And Mourners to and fro—Emily Dickinson

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. —George Bernard Shaw

I am not sure who you think I am.—Scarlet St. Clair, A Touch of Malice

Every hooker’s got a hard luck story.—Eddie Jillette in No Mercy

I’ve seen the future, brother/ It is murder.—Leonard Cohen

The road to Angola may well be paved over the road to hell. A young man is better off dead, there’s no doubt, for there’s a road to Angola, but there is no road out. —Micki Furman

For God speaketh once, Yea twice, though man regardeth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed. —Job 33:14-15, American Standard Version.

I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or tales —Lord of the Rings

At the door of every bridal bedchamber an angel stands, smiling, with a finger to his lips.–Les Misérables

Listen to the hummingbird whose wings you cannot see./ Listen to the hummingbird, don’t listen to me.—Leonard Cohen

Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness and still become something beautiful.—Author unknown

Anam cara in the Celtic world is the word for “soul friend.” In the early Celtic church, a person who acted as a teacher, companion, or spiritual guide was called an anam cara. It originally referred to someone to whom you confessed, revealing the hidden intimacies of your life.—John O’Donahue

Some ghosts are so quiet you would hardly know they were there.—Bernie Mcgill

Let me be mad, then, by all means! Mad with the madness of Absinthe.—Marie Corelli

To fight evil, you have to understand the dark.—Nalini Singh\

Now if I don’t meet you no more in this world, then I’ll, I’ll meet you in the next one, and don’t be late, don’t be late, cause I’m a voodoo chile.—Jimi Hendrix

The cards tell a story…but you write the ending.—Theresa Reed

The past is not dead and buried. It’s not even past.—William Faulkner

The first thing you notice about New Orleans are the burying grounds – the cemeteries – and they’re a cold proposition, one of the best things there are here. Going by, you try to be as quiet as possible, better to let them sleep. Greek, Roman, sepulchers—palatial mausoleums made to order, phantomesque, signs and symbols of hidden decay—ghosts of women and men who have sinned and who’ve died and are now living in tombs. The past doesn’t pass away so quickly here. You could be dead for a long time.—Bob Dylan

There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.— Ernest Hemingway

Keeping things the way they’ve always been.—Motto of Cafe Du Monde

Evil is a true thing in Mexico. It goes about on its own legs. Maybe some day it will come to you. Maybe it already has—Cormac McCarthy

Lithoboly is the mysterious rain and hails of stones sent by stone-throwing demons.

Legends say that anyone who sees the rougarou and lives will be cursed with bad luck and misfortune.

Your nightmares follow you like a shadow, forever.—Aleksander Hemon

I believe the sicario “is going to be a part of our future. Killers like him are multiplying…He is a pioneer of a new type of person: the human who kills and expects to be killed and has little hope or complaint.”—Charles Bowden from El Sicario.

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.—Paul Gauguin

The wise man sees the coming evil and hides himself.—Proverbs 27:12

“Perhaps he makes a choice. He chooses the memory of her. That’s why he turns. He doesn’t make the lover’s choice, but the poet’s.” ― Céline Sciamma

And quiet is the thought of you, the file on you complete, except what we forgot to do, a thousand kisses deep.—Leonard Cohen

This week I interviewed Dawn Perkins, owner of the Shoppes on the Alley, 215 Trenton Street, a boutique offering a wide assortment of foods, clothes, Louisiana items, and other goods, including the books of the Bard of the South! There is something here for everyone!

With approximately 40 vendors inside, the Shoppes is open from 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday! Trenton Street is a popular tourist destination, and as they discover our downtown, the Shoppes is sure to draw tourists in to discover more about Louisiana. One of Dawn’s vendors/workers is Angel, who was responsible for this Riverfest award:

Inside the Shoppes, one will see these vendors:

Here is a list of the vendors and the products they offer!

I wish you good shopping!

Last Thursday, April 10, I kept a promise to visit the Point Coupee Museum on the banks of False River. The purpose of my visit was to research a future historical novel titled, False River. The museum is open 7 days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The docent, Harry Portier, was so knowledgeable!  Here are some photos I took with notes .

8348 False River Rd, New Roads, LA 70760

Here is pitcher and pan and a chamber pot, which Cajuns called,
pot de chambre.

A large mortar & pestle for grinding corn. In French
it is, mortier et pilon.

A petite mortier et pilon for grinding herbs, spices, etc.

A wash pot and board with an agitator stick.         Here is a pie safe using cheesecloth.
Cheesecloth had many uses in 18th Century Louisiana, especially used as mosquito
netting.

Sugarcane has long been big business in this region.
The sugarcane harvester was invented here, which
greatly increased production. Read the following slide:

Here is a very old church pew from the region. Here, a chair with a leather seat. They used
wet rawhide that shrunk until the seat was tight as a drum! By the way, all the chairs I saw
were smaller than what we use as folks were smaller then.

A wall that used bousillage, a mixture of Spanish Moss
and clay to fill in wooden walls.

This, my friends, is a trundle bed. A smaller bed under the top bed
would be pulled out for company. There were three types of mattress
stuffing used through the years: corn husks, Spanish moss, and
feathers!

This is a corn husk mop (floor scrubber)! Here’s a crib with cheesecloth netting,

Here’s a historical map of False River, the Oxbow that the
Mississippi River left behind.

Here is a spinning wheel.  And here is a loom. It and the trundle bed are the two oldest
house items in the museum. The loom was shared in the community. Women would make
their cotton thread, and weave their cloth. Men would come and take the loom apart (it
was solidly built with wooden pegs, like everything in the house) and move and assemble it at the next home, who already had her thread prepared, Amazing!

This was my little adventure into Point Coupee Parish, New Roads, Louisiana. I hope my little adventure inspired you to visit there someday,

Rickey Pittman
A Bard of Acadiana

I have my college students read about, study and write about dystopias. In addition to requiring them to read the dystopia classics,  I supply them with. this information:

Dystopia Definition, Description, and Vocabulary

Dystopia: A frightening, nightmarish, dysfunctional, violent society set in the future, ruled by a ruthless, brutal, corrupt, totalitarian government of privileged rich elites,  who stress conformity and discourage and suppress accomplishment or competence by monitoring, technology, laws and other means of control.

• Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society.
• Censorship of Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted.
• A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society.
• Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance.
• Citizens have a fear of the outside world and change.
• Citizens live in a dehumanized state.
• The natural world is banished and distrusted.
• Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.
• The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world.
• HERE ARE SOME WAYS CITIZENS IN A DYSTOPIA ARE OPPRESSED:

1. Thought crime: This describes a person’s politically unorthodox thoughts, such as unspoken beliefs and doubts that contradict the official position or question the government’s laws.
2. Newspeak: a controlled language
2. Links to an external site. of simplified grammar and restricted vocabulary designed to limit the individual’s ability to think and articulate “subversive” concepts such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will. This type of society dictates what language is acceptable and politically correct. As has been the case in communist and socialist countries, any individuals who do not follow official or cultural guidelines are shamed, fined, or even arrested.
3. Face crime: Any facial expression that hints of one having an unacceptable, improper attitude that suggests the person has something to hide. Even a twitch, frown, sneer, smirk, rolling eyes, uttering to one’s self, laugh, or grin can give one away. “Your face gives you away.” CLICK HERE  to see an example of when Nick Sandmann with the Covington High School visiting Washington was so persecuted by the media: Fortunately, a lawsuit was filed, and media and individuals were taken to court and required to pay major damages.

4. Dystopian Elite: This rich privileged upper class, known as the Deep State, exempt themselves or fellow elitists from the same rules and controls they place on society.
5. Kleptocracy: Kleptocracy is a government whose corrupt leaders(kleptocrats) use political power to appropriate the wealth of their nation, typically by embezzling or misappropriating government funds at the expense of the wider population.
6. globalism – Gobalism is the desire for a one-world market, a world without borders, and eventually will create a one-world government control that will lead to a loss of personal and national sovereignty, culture and identity and to homogenized culture.
7. NAZI – National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
8. Fascist – Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and the economy.
9. HERE ARE TACTICS (AND FALLACIES) AND TERMS USED BY THE BUILDERS OF DYSTOPIAS: 
10. 1. Denial
    2. Dismissal – such as describing something as “misinformation.”
    3. Spin – give (a news story or other information) a particular interpretation, either a favorable or unfavorable one.
    4. Lies – Sometimes contradicting previous statements.
    5. Discrediting sources or making false claims about sources.
    6. Censorship – Example of Twitter and Facebook censorship of anything pro-Trump.
    7. Red herring – something, especially a clue, that is or is intended to be misleading or distracting:
    8. Poisoning the well – this is a smear tactic, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing a person or idea. Usually, this is an attempt to avoid a direct or truthful answer
    9. Character assassination.
    10.  Fake news that uses digital manipulation of videos, texts, taking statements out of context, plagiarism, misuse or doctoring of photos, feeding misinformation and disinformation to the public.
    11. Political jargon – using lots of words to say nothing, using cliches, and the usual phrases and words.
    12. Trolling is defined as creating discord on the Internet [or in public] by starting quarrels or upsetting people by posting inflammatory or off-topic messages in an online community. Basically, a social media troll is someone who purposely says something controversial in order to get a rise out of other users (James Hanson). Trolls can be set off by [posts] hats, clothing, signs, or the presence of someone they resent. Trolls can shame or embarrass in a restaurant.
    13. DOXING searching for and publishing private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the internet, typically with malicious intent. Hackers and online vigilantes routinely dox both public and private figures.
    14. Voting fraud.
    15. Utopia – a perfect society.
    16. Definition of communism: A system where the government owns and controls everything. Private ownership of property is abolished or confiscated. The government seeks to build a classless society. Government, ruled by a communist committee and/or dictator can determine one’s work, where one lives, and where one can travel.

This is the outline I followed (more or less) for my presentation to the Sons of the American Revolution at the Picadilly Restaurant in Monroe, Louisiana on Friday, January 17, 2025.

Cajuns in the Revolutionary War

INTRO:

1. About me: I am a member of SCV. My ancestor: Samuel Pittman was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, serving in North Carolina, most notably participating in the Battle of Cowpens where he fought under General Daniel Morgan. My wife’s ancestor: Was a STEWART in the Revolutionary War. She is a member of the UDC.
2. Why Cajuns fought against the British in the Revolutionary War and with Andy Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans: When the French and Indian War (7 Years War) ended, the Acadians were expelled between 1755 and 1764 by the British. 14,100 Acadians, approximately 11,500 were deported, of whom 5,000 died of disease, starvation, or shipwrecks. Their confiscated land in Canada was given to settlers loyal to Britain; they did not realize they had created enemies with a long memory and a depth of deep anger.
3. The Acadians joined the French Creoles, Creoles of Color, Spanish, Germans, and others under General Genardo de Galvez (Gov. of Spanish Louisiana) in the American Revolution War to recapture Baton Rouge and the West Florida Parishes in 1779 and to attack the British at Mobile, Natchez, and Pensacola. Spain was an enemy of Britain, so the Acadians, who suffered more cruelly than the American colonists from the British, were happy to fight against them.
4. Armand Broussard was a Cajun in the conflict. His family had been forcibly removed from Acadia (now Nova Scotia) by the British, leaving him with a strong resentment towards British rule. In addition to participating in battles, due to their knowledge of Louisiana’s swamps and waterways, the Cajuns employed effective guerilla tactics, ambushing British patrols and disrupting supply lines. There is an Armand Broussard House in Lafayette (I believe it’s still in Vermilionville. Another interesting place is Acadian Village).
5. Galvez was officially recognized by George Washington for his aid during the American Revolution, which qualifies the descendants of those militiamen to become members of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) or Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) as Patriots.
6. There were Cajuns from other areas who fought the British. At the time of the Revolution, a group of Acadians from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia enlisted in the Continental Army and fought as patriots under the leadership of Colonel Jonathan Eddy who was originally from Massachusetts.
7. Strange as it may seem, however, this transfer of Louisiana from France to Spain in 1762 was a most fortunate development for the oppressed Acadians. France made little effort to relocate displaced Acadians and what attempts were made were dismal failures. The Spaniards, however, made it possible for the Acadians to settle in Louisiana, assisted them materially, and even managed to bring the thousands of stranded Acadians in France to Louisiana in seven expeditions. One of the first official acts of the Spanish governor of Louisiana was to take a census of Acadian militiamen.

Virtual Benefit Concert for Arlington National Cemetery
Reconciliation Memorial Litigation
Monday, January 13, 2025
8 p.m. Eastern

REGISTER FOR THIS VIRTUAL CONCERT HERE: https://www.memberplanet.com/s/sshfl/pittmanconcert

I hope you can attend this virtual event!

Can’t Make it?
It will be Recorded and all Registrants
will receive the recording link

(Registrants will receive email link for Event on Sunday, January 12th to check email)

Marita Woywod Crandle

Mosquito: Southern Vampires

A New Orleans Penny Dreadful

Recipe Contributions by Chef Chris Dunn

Pelican Publishing, New Orleans 2024

Paperback 384 pp.

A Five Star Review by Rickey Pittman, Bard of the South

I have loved the horror genre all my life—books, novels, movies, theatre, and Halloween. Vampires  especially have always fascinated me. Though I enjoy all of the vampire stories, and novels, the best I’ve read is Mosquito: Southern Vampire by Marita Woywod Crandle. The novel is beautifully bound—and includes a Foreword by Chef Chris Dunn, an introduction by the author, and has twenty-eight chapters that in the Penny Dreadful tradition with one chapter printed each week that were compiled into this novel. The artwork on the cover was created with woodcuts—the artist (French Quarter artist James Mennitt)  carved the image backwards on wood, then ran ink over it onto a piece of paper. The wonderful interior art was created by New Orleans artist, illustrator, historian, and tour guide Mary Dugas.  You will probably want to try several of the recipes of Chef Chris Dunn!

    The storyline works well, carrying the reader into the world of New Orleans and the world of the vampires who live there. The writing is sexy, full of conflict, heart warming moments (Yes, you do find yourself feeling warm thoughts about some of the vampires), and insights into what it means to live a transient, adventurer’s  life in New Orleans—the city where Vampires really do live. You will learn more about New Orleans and about vampires than you could have imagined. You will see why New Orleans has long been considered a magnet and melting pot for the supernatural. More information about the book and about the projects of Marita is included below.

The book can be ordered HERE or on Amazon.

Marita’s FB page is HERE:

Marita’s website is HERE:

She and her staff run these places in New Orleans: New Orleans Vampire Empire (Chef Chris Dunn), Boutique du Vampyre (a private vampire speakeasy),  Potions Lounge, the Vampire Café, and the Vampire Apothecary.

Here’s the back cover of Marita’s novel: