Showing posts with label Barnes and Noble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barnes and Noble. Show all posts

Monday, June 8, 2026

Selected Poems at Barnes & Noble



Selected Poems contains "The Apple Orchard" and more watercolors than the past paperback. Looks like Barnes & Noble has a ten book limit, so The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land, Dana's Dreams, The Taties, & Hoagie will be published elsewhere, perhaps Kobo & Apple Books. The same goes for paperbacks and eBooks. In the meantime, these ten hardcovers & fab paper doll books are now available at Barnes & Noble: 

The Art of Dana Lee
Selected Poems by Dana Lee
Ghost Stories by Dana Lee
Minie' Ball
Dana's Dolls
Fun with DARK SHADOWS
Fanging with Claude
DOC
Hot Blood
Fabulous Fellini Paper Dolls




 

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Minie' Ball Available at Barnes & Noble


 

Dreams 5/26

 

5/26


  Happy Birthday in Heaven, Daddy! What an amazing night to be a dreamer! I think that the first dream took place in Germany, but I’m not certain, it was Dream Land, after all. It starred two young white men with dark curls, one much taller than the other. The taller one traded a gun for a fishing rod; he had a stash of handguns. I touched one of their heads and told them that I loved them. Then, they both were kidnapped for science. I was working with a young woman trying to find them. I found a table of toddlers who had been vaccinated. They all had one horribly mutilated leg. I could not find the young men though. 


  The second dream was awesome, probably the best. I’m pretty sure that it took place in Austria during the late nineteenth century. It starred a ginger vampiress wearing a teal silk gown. She was gorgeous. I put a large piece of tissue paper into a white porcelain bathtub full of hot water. It dissolved and fizzed. The vampiress became round and soft like a ball with a head. She was still dressed and talking, but her gown had changed colors, gold and rust. There was a tall, slender, fancy, white plastic doll house, taller than me, empty, and loaded with glass, so transparent. I was running through a shop with a young blonde woman and wanted to go back and fetch a wooden doll pen topped with a doll wearing a gray woolen coat and cap. Back in the vampire’s palace we found some dead boys. There was another room full of antique stuffed animals, all kinds. There was another wooden puzzle pen of the vampiress, complete with the ginger curls and turquoise gown. I pulled it apart. 


  The third dream was out of this world and took place at a swanky establishment where Ron and I were attending a late doll show and auction. After the show, before the auction started, I was trying to get my green trimmed, knee length, houndstooth coat off of an old redheaded woman who was wearing it. I wanted it back because it had some cotton balls stuffed in the pockets. When I got it, I realized that the cotton balls were pink. The woman opened her carpet bag and revealed a bag full of them, all colors, plus a couple of knitting needles. They were not cotton balls, but wool. I told her, never mind, that she could keep the coat. Now, there was a young man with dark hair wearing a suit, who I conned the old women into presenting the auction. He wasn’t happy about it, and I did not care. I knew that he liked me and set him up. I told him that I could not help it, that I had been up all night. I was walking out into the night going for the parking lot, looking for Ron. A young white man in a red jacket was shooting at me with a pistol and nearly hit me. Why I confronted him, who knows. I had a hold of him, and he was talking about my bra, how he could feel the strap. I joked that it was no big deal. He confessed that he liked me and didn’t really know why he wanted to shoot me. I was now back inside the building with Ron, and there was a huge flea market set up. A man had four miniature poodles with poodle cuts on leashes. I was petting a white and gray one when I noticed a cardboard sign with red lettering that said that Charles Schwab was for sale. I told the man about Arthur, and he asked me if he was brown. I told him that he was white and brown. He asked if he was brindle, and I answered, no. Then I walked down to a table on the far right where Paulina was sitting with another woman, selling antique trinkets. I was telling her about Rachel coming from a family of ten, and how her mother just had another baby.


Dana's Dreams coming soon to Barnes & Noble, an omnibus of 600+ pages


Friday, May 22, 2026

More & More Magical


   Another perfect day, this morning Doug, who hired me, said that he wanted the souvenir shop to shine like the top of the Chrysler building. Of course, I was the only one to catch the allusion to Annie. Lucky, I had Daddy Warbucks, Albert Finney is a favorite, on my first tour. I was able to get the witches an Inner Witch cauldron love candle complete with a rose quartz love cat, Rosey. Maybe I should've gotten the money candle, but I'll have to get that one for Blue Witch because I love the way this one smells with jasmine, sandalwood, and ylang ylang. Plus, it's a real reusable cauldron perfect for future doll magic. I also got a handmade pipe, the Peruvian ocarina, that matches my Gelfling Halloween costume. I can wear it around my neck. Mummy brought me a Kokopelli stained glass windchime that hangs in the dining room from her trip out west. Then I stopped at the awesome greenhouse by the cave and picked up a gorgeous chenille hanging basket for the front porch. I haven't gotten one of those since I worked at Meder's. I still had money for a soft pretzel. I think that Fabulous Fellini Paper Dolls will be my next publication at Barnes & Noble as they're ready to roll. I deleted my Amazon account, and the witches will be HEXING them, for sure. Sorry I missed Suesday. We stopped off at Shiner's obelisk and Island Pizza for the first time, good pizza! 🍕 Thanks Mummy, Grandma, and Daddy Warbucks! ✨💖✨

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Mehitable Visits Crystal Cave


   Mehitable had a wonderful time at Crystal Cave. She got to meet Devon who plays bass. Mehitable was made by a violin maker. Devon told me that Meadowood Music is a fabulous place. We can have a complete quartet once we find a violinist and violist. I'm sure they'll come along. I'm going to have to make a little book full of all of Mehitable's exploits. Right now I'm working on fixing up The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land for Barnes & Noble. 

Monday, May 18, 2026

Ghost Stories: Crystal Cave

  I love my new job at Crystal Cave and have another chapter to add to Ghost Stories by Dana Lee that should be available soon. It began with a dream. I dreamed that my best friend, Theresa, and I were having supper in the cave, and she said, "See you tomorrow", the night before my first day. Then I saw a Scooby Doo looking ghost during my first "lights out", when the lights go out in the cave. It looked like a Halloween sheet ghost without eyes, shimmering electric green as Danu, my Glo catfish. It began at the stairs up to the Totem Pole, (who I call a deva), and moved towards me down the hall. It lasted the entire "lights out" while I tried to blink it away. I did not see it again, but a week later I was alone in the cave sweeping. At the very same spot where the ghost had appeared, at the foot of the stairs up to the Totem Pole, I caught the faint whiff of a good cigar. The smell grew and walked with me so much that I began chatting with it. I never knew such a friendly ghost, so welcoming. It followed me all the way to the mouth of the cave. Another week passed before I made the connection and named the ghost. I'm quite sure that it is Samuel Kohler, who bought the cave in 1872 for five-thousand dollars, protecting it from vandals. When he passed away his son David broke into the cave and stole a calcite speleothem from Prairie Dog Island that is on his grave in Kutztown Cemetery. It must pin him to the cave. 

  I was covering for miniature golf reading Poldark when the maintenance man, Mike, came to cut the grass. He said that there is a white lady ghost, and that the guy that hired me saw a ghost in the rest room of the restaurant that I'm going to work in. He thought that it was a real person and was waiting for him while he closed, but there wasn't anybody there. The owner told me that the inn is haunted. The tenant said that his kitchen cupboards just opened. He said that he's heard horses in the restaurant that used to be a barn. The girls have told me everything from the seats in the theater moving to noises in the restaurant and the rest room doors of the souvenir shop opening and closing. 

  The cave bathroom is haunted. The first time I just saw something black, very solid, perhaps the hem of a skirt, beneath the stall, when nobody was there. The second time it was loaded with sprickets. Sprickets are unique to the cave, half spider, half cricket. They don't chirp or bite. They are big, have very long legs, and are stripey brown and black. They have extraordinarily long antennae too. We think that they eat algae, which is good for the cave as the algae corrodes the soft limestone. They hang out in the eighteenth hole box at mini golf too. Their closest known relatives are found in Australia with 97% the same DNA. I passed the first stall and saw a young white woman with wet hair covering her face sitting on the toilet. She was wearing pants and a long-sleeved top. I wondered why somebody would have the stall open and looked back, but there wasn't anybody there. A spricket followed me up to the theater, tickling my neck.     
 

The Art of Dana Lee Available at Barnes & Noble


 

Hot Blood Available at Barnes & Noble

 

Mehitable Returns to Crystal Cave