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Johnny Depp Presents the People's Artist

A Treasure Map, Some Kidnappers, and the King of Rock 'n Roll

In The Treasure of Moonlight Rdge, book three of The Moonlight Ridge Series, winter weather on the mountain goes from unusually cold to undeniably arctic, and a half-frozen stranger appears at the door. His mysterious message from long ago brings intrigue, danger, kidnappers, mishaps, and a search for ancient treasure. * The Moonlight Ridge books are southern fiction, a mixture of fact and fiction based loosely on my childhood and stories I heard from my parents and grandparents. The stories are set in the 1950s Alabama backwoods and a small Alabama town called Eden, which for hometown people is actually recognizable as my hometown of Leeds, Alabama. There's a lot of adventure as the two protagonists, Lily Claire and her "twin" cousin Willie T., explore the woods, finding mystery, magic, and occasional danger. As my character, Lily Claire, says, "We have always lived with ghosts on Moonlight Ridge." Living so close to nature, surrounded by seemingly endless woods, isolated woodlands, country folks who are constantly experiencing strange and unexplainable events, magical realism is a part of everyday life. There is magic all around us, all the time. In these environs, you don't have to imagine or invent the magic, it happens all around you and there is just no way to ignore it. What we now call the supernatural or the paranormal, was so constant in my family as I was growing up, my stories naturally reflect magic, beauty, and mystery as I have always known it. * If you like Southern fiction, you're in for a treat!

Book Trailer: Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge: Music by Roy Burkett and Nancy Veldman

Treasure Review from Don Noble

❤ Erskine Batson is a walking vocabulary lesson who never uses a simple word if a long word can be found. When he is late collecting the garbage he exclaims, “I’m derelict in my duties. I feel somewhat remiss.”

https://www.apr.org/show/don-nobles-book-reviews/2022-05-16/the-treasure-of-moonlight-ridge-by-ramey-channell?fbclid=IwAR0Fd0yLJzcjiDgw6H9012WCI7BkYXoLZc_Q30Ru6zE99M48OTPkajSFZ7c

5 Star Review from Readers' Favorite

Reviewed by Rolanda Lyles for Readers' Favorite : Two cousins, Lily Claire and Willie T., are more than just cousins; they are best friends. They do everything together. They are more like siblings because Willie T. never seems to go home! It's getting close to Christmas in their backwoods town of Eden, Alabama. The cousins are together while their parents are at church "hanging the greens." They find themselves face to face with a desperate stranger at their front door, near-naked in the middle of a snow storm! The stranger turns out to be rock-n-roll star Neon Leon and he is on the run in need of help. The fearless cousins, along with their teacher, Mr. Erskine Batson, find themselves knee-deep in chilling circumstances beyond anything they had ever imagined. The gang works together to help Leon escape from his captors and make a discovery that leads them all on an unsuspected adventure. Ramey Channell's The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge is an amazing children's adventure full of excitement and imagination. Set in a small backwoods town in Alabama in the 1950s, the language and personality of the characters show that much thought and consideration of the time period was taken. I appreciate Channell's witty writing of the characters and their humor and motives. This dynamic duo is fearless and always willing to perform a task when needed. A story that both adults and children can enjoy, Ramey Channell's The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge is sure to knock your socks off. I look forward to exploring again with Lily Claire and Willie T. in more of Channell's writing. https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/the-treasure-of-moonlight-ridge

There Is Magic All Around Us!

Thanks so much to Bradley Sides and Alabama Writers' Cooperative for this interview on the AWC Blog!

https://alabamawriterscooperative.org/news/2022/4/25/there-is-magic-all-around-us-a-conversation-with-ramey-channell

Fun Times on Moonlight Ridge!

I once lived on a mountain called Moonlight Ridge, and it seemed like a mystical place then. Looking back, I still think there was more than a little bit of enchantment there. We lived and played like wild children of the woods, and we never imagined that there was any life or any home more desirable than our own.

Share the fun, surprises, and magic on Moonlight Ridge, just east of Eden!

Book Launch * The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge *

I'm so excited to announce the long-awaited arrival of book three of The Moonlight Ridge series, The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge, a surprising, almost true story, just in time for the holiday season! After rescuing a lost infant in book one, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, and meeting witches on the mountain in book two, The Witches of Moonlight Ridge, in The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge the two protagonists meet a mysterious visitor in the middle of a snow storm, discover a secret code message that leads to a treasure map, and evade kidnappers as they search for hidden treasure at Christmastime on the mountain. And their intrepid fourth grade teacher, Erskine Batson, is right there with Lily Claire and Willie T. on this 'Christmas on the Mountain' adventure, along with beloved brown dog, Witch Boy, and a surprise larger-than-life visitor! Join the fun and adventure in the search for The Treasure of Moonlight Ridge. Paperback available from Amazon, or request it from your favorite local bookstore.

New Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge book trailer!

I'm so happy to share my new Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge book trailer! Many thanks to Barrel Rider Productions for this awesome video. Thanks to Roy Burkett and Nancy Veldman for the Sweet Music!

Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge

Great-granddaddy W.T. Greenberry purely doted on possums. My great-grandmother, however, hated, abhorred, and despised possums, with their little beady eyes and their long old tails scraping around through the house. W.T. brought so many possums into the house that great-grandmother would open the back door and call Rich Man and Poor Man, the hunting dogs, into the house to chase the possums out, and they’d raise a ruckus all through the house, chasing possums up the draperies and under tables and up the bed posts. And Great-granddaddy W.T.? He’d grab anything he could find, a broom or a rifle or an umbrella, and go chasing the dogs and leaping over chairs and devonettes and yelling. “Run, possums, run! Run, little possums!” W.T. implored the scattering possums as he tore through the house in a state of mad panic. “Ye bastards! Ye cursed bastards! Great sons of bitches!” he bawled at the hounds, warping at the big old clumsy dogs, whacking them across their heads until they ran back out the door, whining and yelping. Then W.T. would yell out the back door, “Hounds from Hell! Murderous mongrels! Keep away from my marsupials!”

Happy 4th of July Birthday to My Dad

July 4, 1911

The Cornerstone: Gordy’s Poem

Written for My Father after His Death

"Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?”

Beneath the birding sky, cold-blue and safe,

bricks laid one to another, timeless bond and true,

by hands long learned and destined to this trade:

a world of walls and beauty, shelters made.

Unlost, unvanished, close beneath blue skies,

and yet somewhere a’wandered, biding still,

he built a hearth within our hearts held strong

in patterns made of mortar, brick, and song.

© Ramey Channell  

Childhood Is The One Story That Stands By Itself In Every Soul

Good Reads from Goodreads!

Goodreads asked Ramey Channell:

What’s the best thing about being a writer?

   I've found that the best thing about being a writer is the connection to the reader, and to people who respond to the stories I'm telling. My poetry, short stories, and my books, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, and The Witches of Moonlight Ridge, evoke an emotional response from the reader, and create a common ground for communication and sharing. I love the feedback I get from readers.


   

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

My own childhood is the basis for the Moonlight Ridge series. As a small child, I lived in the most magical, enchanted, and sometimes frightening place imaginable. And I had my best friend along for the adventures: my crazy cousin Willie T.!

What are you currently working on?

   I'm currently working on book three of The Moonlight Ridge Series. Book One is a summer mystery, Book Two, an autumn mystery, and Book Three is all about a cold, cold winter on the mountain and a Christmas mystery. If you enjoyed Earl Hamner's "The Waltons", Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn", and Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird", you'll be a fan of Lily Claire and Willie T. and their adventures on Moonlight Ridge.

goodreads

A good place to meet your favorite author and your next favorite book. 

When the Wind is In the Trees . . .

     "As the story goes," Erskine told us,"Uncle Jasper says there was a famous robber that hid out in these woods. He robbed the stage coach on several occasions, and always got away with it. Rode a beautiful Andalusian horse he'd bought from the Moor, the inn keeper. For years he pestered travelers on this road, stole gold and silver coins and jewelry.
     "But, he finally got caught. A troop of soldiers was layin' for him out here in the woods, one night. Shot him right here, in front of the inn, with his sweetheart lookin' on.
     " They called him the Highwayman."

                                                     - The Witches of Moonlight Ridge

Bringing Witches to Moon Lake Library

  And still of a winter's night they say

When the wind is in the trees . . .

The perfect pre-Halloween gathering: Monday night, October 29th, I read from "The Witches of Moonlight Ridge" to a wonderful audience gathered at the Moon Lake Community Library, on a dark and delightful night in Mentone, Alabama. Thanks so much to library staff and visitors! 

Evy, the beautiful witch of Moonlight Ridge

There she stood right before us, almost close enough to touch. And she was beautiful. She wore a long black skirt and a ruffled cotton blouse. Her black hair was tied with a red ribbon. And she wore one red earring.

"Who are you?" Erskine breathed, sounding like he couldn't find his voice.

There wasn't a sound, except the wind rustling through the dry autumn leaves.

“My name’s Evergreen,” she said. Her voice sounded like music. “Folks calls me Evy.”

Willie T.’s face broke into a wide grin, and he stepped toward the strange girl with his hand stretched out like he was going to touch her to see if she was real.

Willie T. couldn’t take his eyes off the pretty girl, whatever she was: ghost or human, one or the other.

“Do you live around here somewheres?” he asked.

She tipped her head slightly toward the woods and added, “Over on Cat Bluff.”

“Gyaah!” he exclaimed. “Up there with the panthers and the bob cats, and whatever and all? I didn’t know nobody lived up there! You ever seen a panther?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at the strange young woman.

“I seen plenty,” she answered. “They ain’t bother us none. We ain’t bother them.”

New Review of "The Witches of Moonlight Ridge"

Thanks so much to the very talented Alabama writer, Mike Burrell, author of  the newly published novel The Land of Grace, for this review. Here's what Mike had to say about The Witches of Moonlight Ridge:

The setting of Moonlight Ridge is a pervading force in this charming novel. It’s a believable setting, filled with loving parents and happy, adventurous children. But it’s also a mysterious land of ruins, a magical forest, witches, sinister lawmen, KKK, monsters, all swirling in history, legends, and myths that its characters can almost reach out and touch.

The timeline of the story is also important in that the tale unfolds back in the 1950s in a Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn kind of world when parents didn’t hover over their children and think it necessary that every movement of their children be somehow supervised. An example is when the grandmother prepared a picnic lunch for the children and told them to go find the cat, knowing they would be wandering the woods all day. I’m not sure this could happen today, and I can almost hear readers wonder “where are the parents?”

The first-person narrator, Lily Claire, is a young girl. She’s convincing in her narrative and the wonder she finds in the world around her. She is drawn so deftly that at no time does the author intrude on Lily’s story. Her sidekick is her cousin, Willie T. All of the characters are sharply drawn, and the dialogue artfully rendered so as to project regionalism without implying ignorance. My favorite character, and the most complex member of the cast, is Erskine Batson, the garbage man/reluctant school teacher who falls in love with the beautiful witch, Evy. 

A delightful and charming story for the young reader as well as certain seventy-two year old men who enjoy a little magic mixed with memories of a rural childhood.

About - Mike Burrell

The Highwayman of Moor's Gap

Here's how our fourth grade teacher, Erskine Batson, first told us about the Highwayman -  

“This place is full of history,” Erskine told us, shaking his head a little. “Surprising that nobody seems to talk about it.
“As the story goes, Uncle Jasper says there was a famous robber that hid out in these woods. He robbed the stage coach on several occasions, and always got away with it. Rode a beautiful Andalusian horse he’d bought from the Moor, the inn keeper. For years he pestered travelers on this road, stole gold and silver coins and jewelry.
He finally got caught. A troop of soldiers was layin’ for him out here in the woods, one night. Shot him right here, in front of the inn.
“They called him the Highwayman,” Erskine added as he snapped the stem off a dead weed and started scratching the back of his head with it.
“Uncle Jasper says he’d never harmed a soul. Stole a bunch of loot, though. President James Buchanan hisself had put out a warrant for our Highwayman, put a bounty on his head, because of this being an important travel route down through here to the southern shipping ports.”

It seemed to me like Erskine’s tale had finally jogged something loose in my brain. 
“The Highwayman? I’ve heard Papa Jasper sing that song about the Highwayman! It’s a sad song.” 

“Um hm,” Erskine agreed. “He sang that song for me just a few days ago, when I was pickin’ at him for information. It’s a sad tune, all right. But the song was originally copied from a poem written by an Englishman named Alfred Noyes, about a robber highwayman in old England. But it’s so close to the same story that happened here, Uncle Jasper says when he was a boy, everybody thought the song was written about the Moor’s Gap highwayman. The poem, too. A strange case of coincidence. King George’s army killed the highwayman in England, and it was the local militia killed our highwayman here on Moor’s Gap Road. Shot him dead, with his sweetheart lookin’ on.”

Erskine sighed and turned to face me and my cousin.

“The moral of the story is, crime doesn’t pay,” he concluded.

The Witches of Moonlight Ridge

Ah minna hoe!

"Ah minna hoe! Ah minna hoe!" 

Can you translate these mysterious words into everyday English? When you read  Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, you'll know just what it means! 

Then, to continue the adventures and revelations, read The Witches of Moonlight Ridge, and find out how the legend and tragedy of Alfred Noyes' poem, "The Highwayman," is linked to the 1950s Alabama backwoods.

You may also meet the three weird sisters who are rumored to haunt the mysterious place called Cat Bluff, situated high above Moonlight Ridge and the pleasant town called Eden.

And what about that dog?

On the Trail of Treasures and Secrets from the Past

The first day of May in Montgomery, Alabama was such a beautiful day for me and my personal chauffeur, Susan Hoke Cleveland! We visited the Alabama State Archives for a day of research and a bit of sight-seeing. The Archives building and the research library are wonderful places to visit. 

The Alabama Department of Archives and History was established on February 27, 1901. According to the enabling legislation, one of the purposes of the department was " The collection of materials bearing upon the history of the state and of the territory therein from the earliest times." 

Here I am with a bust of one of my heroes, George Washington Carver. George Washington Carver was an American botanist and inventor,  one of the most prominent scientists and inventors of his time, as well as a teacher at the Tuskegee Institute.

And here I am with Booker T. Washington. Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and advisor to presidents of the United States between 1890 and 1915.

In one of the meeting rooms, Susan and I discovered a beautiful quilt collection. 

This quilt is called "Feathers and Flowers." 

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My purpose for visiting the archives was to do research for the book I'm currently working on, historical fiction based on events taking place in Birmingham in the early years of the 20th century. The beautiful, indomitable, and intrepid protagonist of this novel is my always kind, always fun-loving, adventurous grandmother, born in 1890, who was instrumental in shaping my views on justice, fairness, good times, and good literature! 

My grandmother, Dovie Mullins Satterfield.

Check back for news and updates as the plot thickens.

Quotes from Quotable Folks

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             “Some might say we lose ourselves in a good book. In truth, we find ourselves."         — Cassandra King

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“There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer: no disease that love will not heal: no door that enough love will not open...It makes no difference how deep set the trouble: how hopeless the outlook: how muddled the tangle: how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all. If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world...” 
— Dr. Emmet Fox

                                        *

“We all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls.” - Robert McCammon

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“If you'd ever had a grown-up daughter you'd know that by comparison a bucking steer is easy to manage. And as to knowing what goes on inside her - well, it's much better to pretend you're the simple, innocent old fool she almost certainly takes you for.”                        - W. Somerset Maugham

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— Nora Ephron

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"You can never be wise and be in love at the same time." — Bob Dylan

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"Childhood is the one story that stands by itself in every soul." —  Ivan Doig

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"I've found that a song can be more effective than a 400-page textbook."
- Buffy Sainte-Marie

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"Mystery is not the absence of meaning, but the presence of more meaning than we can comprehend." —  Dennis Covington 

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To share your favorite quotable quote, leave a comment below.