Ramey Channell's Blog

This is a poetrait I did for my sister of "Skipper and Sophie", two loved and cherished canines. Fondly remembered.

❤ 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

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-revi...

Thanks so much to Bradley Sides and Alabama Writers' Cooperative for this interview on the AWC Blog! "https://alabamawriterscooperative.org..."

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!

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.

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!

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!”

July 4, 1911

The Cornerstone: Gordy’s PoemWritten 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 strongin patterns made of mortar, brick, and song.


© Ramey Channell