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@jimmyinnes.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 1:27 PM

Noooooooooooo!!!! I missed another bloody #TheCampfire!

Very annoyed at myself. It’s been that kind of week. I’m going to have to set an alarm for next month 😎 I want to tell the story of my recent trail walk with my friend 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

@oldmanrambling.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 10:38 PM

Just how did I forget the tag?
I am getting old and cracked like an engine that needs taking out of service. Sorry, Petie. #TheCampfire will never forgive me for this and I shall be out in the cold next month.

@organicgay.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 8:58 PM

#TheCampfire Wind in the willow. The first tree I ever planted.

@pamlivengoodbrown.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 7:07 PM

#TheCampfire Today I have a confession to make, instead of a story to tell. I have been perpetuating a fraud on you all, and most seriously upon on everyone’s favorite barista, @sdcushing.bsky.social

Most mornings I stop by the East Coast Kin Coffeehouse and ask Susan for a lovely brew … see alt

Image of a bright red, Kool-Aid looking drink in a pint glass, with 2 flavor packets in front of it. Both packets say “energy” on them, one packet is white and red, one packet is white and yellow.

Confession continued - And Susan happily obliges with a kind word and a smile, usually with a fancy GIF of some fine freshly brewed coffee goodness. But … I don’t like coffee. So as I am asking for a lovely blue brew, in real life I’m sucking down some Kool-Aid looking drink for my caffeinated goodness. And I KNOW I have the taste buds of a child, because if I need to have my morning caffeine on the go, I will drink the lemonade flavored caffeinated packet that is light yellow in appearance when mixed with water. Lemonade hides the shame a bit.
So please feel free to call me a fraud or a liar, the next time you see me in the ECK Coffeehouse asking for a coffee. In reality, in coffee shops, I order hot chocolate or a fruit smoothie, just like a child.
So now you know my shame 😄

@skarabara.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 3:18 PM

#thecampfire

I'm going to talk about connection today. Not necessarily a love story for one person but for humanity.

There are times in this world, more than I care to acknowledge, that one can feel totally alone. Totally disconnected from the people around them. Like you are an outsider to it.

Two pairs of feet facing each other, one in black and white Converse and the other in striped socks.

@shlead.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 2:51 PM

“The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you.”
- Lin-Manuel Miranda on Fresh Air, WHYY, January 2017

#TheCampfire
#TheBeatles
#music

Story in ALT.

The cover illustration of my book, "Leadership Lessons with The Beatles".

#Campfire
A Lifelong Love of The Beatles

I was 17 years old when I first listened to The Beatles and fell in love with the music.
While studying engineering, I stayed in a women’s hostel. The resident student advisor was the only one with a radio, and some of us begged her to use it on Saturday nights when the Listener’s Choice program came on All India Radio, Madras. The Beatles’ songs from the program sounded magical. A lifelong fan was born. When my family in Madurai bought a record player, I jumped with joy. I could buy my favorite records with my scholarship money and take them home during holidays to play and share with my sisters. When my husband, daughter, and I left for the United States, I packed the few records I had between my sarees, and I still have them today in my stereo cabinet. Over the years, I have bought the box set of all their albums on vinyl and CDs, and their songs dominate my Spotify playlist. I never saw The Beatles in person. I don’t regret it, though. There is something intimate about listening to them alone, without all the noise and hoopla associated with live performances. When I turned 60, I asked my family to celebrate it at Cirque du Soleil’s “Love” show based on The Beatles, in Las Vegas. It was a memorable experience.
Now in my seventies, I love their music as much as I loved it when I was a teenager.
When my granddaughter was old enough, I introduced her to Strawberry Fields Forever so we could sing along in the car. Instead of being annoying, her repeated requests to listen to it delighted me. Now her twin brothers have become huge fans as well. The love continues.

@pmgibbs.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 2:20 PM

#TheCampfire
This is an affection about a man across the street living in an apartment above a garage.
I start with a wood fire pizza from his favorite restaurant, The Black Pelican. Mark, a ferocious reader of books, all star griper of change and tender in spots
⬇️ alt

if you glimpsed through his rough, died on October 1st.
I don’t even know his last name, but we had many good talks while sitting on his small side porch. His gravel and grit voice punctuated with coughs, held court with stories from youth, complaints about society changing before he could grasp the changes and books. He’d never reply to a text, but call and he’d pick up with a what’s going on.
In the everyday coming and going he always had a book so I started leaving books which I thought would be of interest to him. The best he had to say was, I wouldn’t have picked this up, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for bringing it over.
His most famous gripe, out of a never ending stream, was this street is full of old people in by 5. I reminded him that we were old too and he simply replied, yeah, but we’re still outside.
So there will be no more books to share, waves of hello goodbye or hearing the new gripe. He has left on the edge of fall when the light starts to wane early and the mighty oaks begin their shedding and we’re all in by 5.

@mickpic.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 2:13 PM

Good morning, Susan. I hope all is well with you. A lazy day off for me. May I get one of your wonderful #BrewBrew pours, please? Happy Tuesday to #ECK worldwide. I don't know if it's a cheat to name drop my own book in #BlueBrewBooks, but I did a bit for #TheCampfire today. A memory for Jeffery.

@mickpic.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 2:07 PM

...He paused. A branch in the flames crackled slightly, releasing a few glowing embers into the air. In the distance, a kyote barked a lonely howl.
“Listen,” Figment said, “the night is here…”

#TheCampfire

@mickpic.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 2:07 PM

What is the story behind the story? I’ve dropped little hints and tidbits about the novel that my friend and I self-published twenty years ago. This is a condensed history that led to that, and a short clip of one of the characters, Figment, talking about telling stories around
#TheCampfire. (alt)

Picture shows a scene of a far off shore. The sky is green and sickly. Four characters are on the deck of a ship. In the foreground: a dark warrior kneeling over his sword. In the background: An older woman looks on. The mage stands by, and the wizard seems pleased with his handiwork. It is a moment of anticipation.
****************************************************************

Cover to the novel BLACKSENT: Boof of The Umbra, by Michael A LaFlamme and Michael D. Poe
Cover art by Angela Sasser

*****************************************************************

Short excerpt from book on story telling around the campfire:

“I take it you have a story to spin?”
“Oh, so many. So many. Where to begin?” The mage tapped his front tooth with a fingernail. “‘Once upon a time?’ ‘A long time ago, in a …kingdom far away?’ Nah! Those are how you start children’s stories. It’s dark now and children sleep. Grownups forget about stories in the daytime. But I think it’s why they stay up late. They want to remember and can only do that when the sun goes down. Why else do they tell stories around a campfire? So, anyway, I have a different way of starting my stories.”
He paused. A branch in the flames crackled slightly, releasing a few glowing embers into the air. In the distance, a kyote barked a lonely howl.
“Listen,” Figment said, “the night is here…”

Picture shows a man dressed in light, violet robes with swirling mists at his feet and around him. He holds a staff with feathers and a small crystal on the end. He has a goatee and is bald. He is grinning, a travelling wizard.
Commissioned art by Sam Hogg of Jeffery Barker as his character Zandor, a wizard from the novel, BLACKSENT.

******************************************************************
We were young creatives, fifty-three years ago in Muskegon, Michigan. Aspiring comic book artists, singers, tellers of tall tales, with big personalities and more ambition than experience. We were all almost instant friends. We worked together: Michael, Jeffery, Scott, me and some others to put out a self-published comic. (We called them 'zines' back in those days.) It never went far, but it was more about having fun and fellowship. We would gather at Denny's after a movie and chat about stories to the middle of the night and into mid-morning sometimes.
We would also play D&D: Wizards, warriors, mages, and paladin. Those games helped to inspire the stories for the comics, and eventually those comics worked their way into the novel BLACKSENT: Book of The Umbra. Though their names are not on the title page of our book, their input and late-night tales were essential to its creation.
I’ve been thinking of our little group of creatives, recently, probably because that is the job of old men. But especially of Jeffery, who passed on 8 years ago. He created the character of Zandor, a wizard. Though Zandor and BLACKSENT were fictional, Jeffery was a mystic in every way. He lived his life as a series of possibilities, potential, and wonder. Nature was his church; trees, rivers and lakes, his sacramental pool; love, his holy book.

Picture shows three guys, two kneeling over a map and pointing in different directions, the third guy standing and pointing in a different direction too.
Three old friends, dressed as their characters from a book, undecided on which way to go next.

@skarabara.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 12:25 PM

Today is #thecampfire where we tell our stories on the first Tuesday of every month.

Stories can be sad, happy, joyful, scary. They can be hard to read or hilarious. Stories bring us closer together, connect us. We need stories and connection.

I'm still thinking on mine, but I hope you join!

@petecalandramusic.bandcamp.com Oct 6, 2026, 1:25 AM

1) A Thread: Larry Rivers, Allen Ginsberg and Me, a story. #thecampfire
In the winter of 1986, I was the music director and pianist/conductor for the original Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors in the East Village. One Sunday, between shows, I wandered into a used record store.

Larry, Stomu and me, Southampton late 1990s. Larry's silhouette from To Tell The Truth, 1960's. Don Cherry, Larry and me at The Continental Divide in the east village, 1988 or so. Larry's painting of Allen...

@pmgibbs.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 1:00 AM

sweet soft sky dreams
See you tomorrow at
#TheCampfire with stories
to tell

@sdcushing.bsky.social Oct 5, 2026, 1:07 PM

One day til #TheCampfire! Here’s the traditional reminder from me — Are You Ready?!

@pmgibbs.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 2:13 PM

Bummer! Yeah, I’m still scratching from yesterday. That’s a good story for #TheCampfire coming up on Tuesday October 6. Check out the hashtag to get an idea of the stories. You can write a thread or single post or do a photo and write in alt text. There’s nothing like crazy adventures.

@pmgibbs.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 2:08 PM

It’s an opportunity to share stories. Use the hashtag #TheCampfire and tell your story in a thread, single post or use a photo to write in alt text. Click on the hashtag and see previous stories to further understanding. Hope to hear your story on Tuesday.

@lunarbandanas.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 2:04 PM

What does this meeeeean??
#thecampfire?

😃

@sdcushing.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 1:05 PM

#TheCampfire is just a few days away! Are you ready?!