A little school-related news …

South Canaan, PA — Western Wayne High School senior Ty Alpaugh has been named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists in the 63rd annual National Merit Scholarship program. She is the first Western Wayne student to achieve the honor in the District’s 47 year history, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). Ty, daughter of Cole and Amy Alpaugh, of Lake Ariel, is among the top 16,000 students nationwide who earned the distinction of semifinalist.

According to NMSC, about 1.5 million students entered the 2018 program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The semi-finalists comprise the highest scoring entrants in each state and represent less than one percent of the top-scoring U.S. high school seniors. These academically talented students earned the opportunity to compete for some 7,400 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $32 million to be offered next spring.

In order to be considered for a Merit Scholarship® award, semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 90 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and more than half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar® title.

For more information on the competition and the scholarships, go to www.nationalmerit.org.

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Senior photos

Some things for your senior think about: what places are especially important to her. They can be anything from a backyard garden or pool, to a grandparent’s farm, to a high school field. It’s best to decide on a minimum of three locations, although one of them can be my little favorite outdoor space here in The Hideout (there’s a stream and boulders, etc.) Also, she’ll need to pack a suitcase – it’ll help if you have a spacious rear seat and a sheet for changing (I strongly recommend a mom, sibling, or best friend be present to help.) Six or seven changes are common, even for senior boys. And don’t forget the shoes.

Again, the most critical part in making these HER unique session are the locations. Sit down with a her and a pad and pen at the kitchen table. Props: absolutely bring props. Athletic gear, musical instruments, stuffed animals (live pets, too.) Buy her a small bouquet or cut some wildflowers from your backyard. Six or seven props are common. Also, I need her to finish this sentence: “My favorite thing about me is my … ”

Senior pics take from three to four hours to come up with 1000+ raw photo choices. I like to take advantage of late day sun, so most shoots are from 2pm until sunset.

The session is $249. Travel beyond your house is 50 cents per mile, although I’m flexible with many close locations. You receive 600+ images on a flash drive, at least 12 are Photoshopped for blemishes, and a variety of special effects are used at my discretion (these include Splash and HDR). You’ll own the full copyright to all images and therefore are free to print them, post them, or upload to a commercial printer such as Yorkphoto.com to get the wholesale price on images (it takes out the middleman fee for you – currently, 8x10s are just $2.99.) My guarantee is that you’ll love them, or hand the flash drives back for a full refund – and keep any samples. I don’t want anyone to ever not say ‘wow’. Western Wayne seniors/parents can contact me for an invitation to view prior senior albums on Flickr and Zenfolio, where photos remain private and unsearchable to the public.

Oh, and, 100% of the proceeds from my senior shoots fund soccer programs for kids in Haiti.


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Soccer Balls for Haitian Orphans Campaign

Here’s the GoFundMe link to kick a few bucks toward a really awesome cause. Thank you!

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Necessary Fiction review of Dash

A friend messaged me with a link to a new review at Necessary Fiction earlier tonight. ‘Nuff said …

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Dash with Paris.

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A free book?

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Okay, here’s the deal for my closest friends and allies … I have a couple dozen advanced copies of my new novel available. It’ll be first come, first serve for anyone in exchange for an honest review on either Amazon (to review on Amazon you need an account and to have made a minimal purchase at some point), or GoodReads.com. Second caveat is that the (however brief) review be posted during the first week of April. Send me an email at [email protected], or private message me on Facebook.

What’s it about? Well, here’s the review from ForeWord Magazine in its entirety:

“Surely Dash’s run of bad luck must be winding down. He’s lost his job and fiancée and finds himself alone on what should have been his honeymoon flight from Vermont to Australia. What else could possibly go wrong? Lots of things, as it turns out. In Cole Alpaugh’s darkly comic and richly layered Dash in the Blue Pacific, the defeated Dash never makes it to Sydney but instead crashes in the South Pacific. What seems like a near-death experience at first is actually the beginning of a mind-bending, life-changing journey for a man at the end of his rope.

Dash’s adventures begin with a familiar trope: a man washes up on a remote island’s beach, worries that the natives will eat him, and plots his escape. In Alpaugh’s hands, however, the story is anything but stale. Instead of building signal fires and rafts (though these will come), Dash is preoccupied with a tribal chief who wants to feed him to a volcano, women who want his help to make the island’s first white baby, and a young girl who hopes to escape the island with the “soldiers” who sometimes come to her shores looking for the prettiest among them. And then there’s the former god Dash spends many hours consulting with, a half-fish, half-man mind reader named Weeleekonawahulahoopa—Willy for short—who has resigned his godly role after failing to save his people from drowning. It gets weirder after that.

The weird parts work because Alpaugh integrates them into a story that is physically raw and wickedly funny. Dash is as incredulous about all that is happening as anyone, and his self-conscious skepticism keeps the magical elements from seeming off-the-wall. Little by little, Dash’s conversations with Willy reveal Dash’s deeper emotional wounds, and offer another interpretation for his dreamlike visions.

Taken simply as a comic adventure story, Dash in the Blue Pacific is thoroughly entertaining. When you consider the other elements—racial tensions, human grief, and spiritual redemption—it takes on new levels of meaning. Book clubs will be talking about this one.” – Sheila M. Trask, ForeWord Magazine

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The year in repeat.

My predictions for 2015:

A plane crash will kill lots of people.
A politician will get caught in a bold-faced lie.
Hamas rockets will land in Israel.
Israel will bulldoze a Palestinian home.
Dozens will die from an exotic disease.
Someone will have their head cut off by a man in black.
A black kid will be shot by a white man.
Gay people getting married will be called queers.
A mining accident will trap workers.
Iran will almost have a nuclear weapon.
There will be record heat.
There will be record cold.
A tornado will kill someone in Oklahoma.
A controversial statement by the Pope will be walked back.
Scientists will clone something.
An American ski racer will be injured.
A lunatic will open fire in a crowded [fill in the blank].
Old people will die.
Babies will be born.

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A beautiful creature.

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Now available on Amazon for pre-order!

A man, his fish, and a pissed-off Volcano God. Pre-order a copy today!

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Walking in the Woods with a Killer

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Sign post on Rt. 390.

BARRETT TWP. – Today was sunny and almost 60 degrees in our part of the Poconos. I told my wife that it was a pretty afternoon for a long walk in the woods. Alone, I said. Just a couple of cameras and a bottle of water. It’s safe, I explained, since hunting is currently banned in Barrett Township where the accused killer’s family lives.

My oldest daughter got married 43 days after Eric Frein is accused of killing Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II, 38, Dunmore, and wounding Trooper Alex T. Douglass, 31, Olyphant. The crimes occurred 45 days before my younger daughter was running late and missed the school bus. Mom had to drive. Police are still searching for Frein. The events aren’t connected, of course. Just horrible, wonderful, and slightly frusting things that recently happened. And all made for a good reason for a walk through the woods.

Sometimes I miss being a journalist. I peek at the online newspapers until a pop-up window tells me I’ve exceeded my monthly free visits. The Wayne Independent is filled with stories about people I know, while the Scranton paper gets the local sports posted online fast. There sure weren’t live updates of high school football scores when I was chasing stories. And seeing the credit line of one of the Times-Tribune photographers makes me do a double take because his dad was one of my heroes when I was starting out. Fred Comegys was – and is – the best photographer I’ve ever known. It really is a small world.

I don’t have interest in the $175,000 reward posted for Frein. I’m a photographer, not a bounty hunter. What if you find him, my wife asked. Will you call the police? I’m not taking a cell phone, I said. I figured the news editor I’m trying to sell the pictures to would call police. But that’s not really any of my business. For background, I used to cover wars, and the job is to present images and facts to people who buy your magazine or newspaper. You aren’t there to take sides. In fact, taking sides is one of the reasons so many journalists have been killed over the years, but that’s a subject for another time. The bottom line is that you have to work with the assumption that someone is likely not going to kill you if you don’t pose a continued threat. You might surprise them, which is a dangerous moment, but someone you come across in a sniper position doesn’t want to pull the trigger unless he has to. Guns are loud.

I picked a spot for my hike from a Google Earth map. I know the area around Canadensis fairly well. When you’re facing a needle in a haystack, you mix what you know with your gut feeling. I took a 90 minute, sixty mile perimeter drive, as well. I always felt more comfortable in a war zone if we were inserted after a helicopter sweep, rather than marching into a jungle. You are less claustrophobic, and you have a better sense of the terrain.

Deep in the woods of Barrett Township, a few thousand feet where Frein allegedly took the gun he used to attack officers, there are countless squirrels readying for winter, and even more birds making angry territorial cries. There are hundreds of dark stumps that look like mad-men. There are trees that cast shadows that look like prone bodies, and some of the remaining leaves catch the light with the same reflective quality of a rifle scope. I walked in twenty minute intervals, stopping to listen for five minutes each time. It was something I learned to do when hunting Contras in Nicaragua. You go to a place where they might walk right up to you, the Sandanista commander had said. Then you go to another place. Do it enough times and boom, he said, shooting an invisible rifle with his hands.

I didn’t see a single cop, nor did I see the weather balloon-like contraption they’re now using. It’s outfitted with some kind of spy technology, like slow moving drones, I suppose. The area campgrounds and parks are empty, but people are in their yards doing chores. A pretty teenage girl was rough-housing with a Golden Retriever, and she waived when she looked up.

The woods around Frein’s family home are quiet while you are walking, but noisy for those five minute stops. Falling leaves sound like marching boots if you listen too closely. Each breaking twig is the approach of a cold-blooded murderer. Those dark stumps just about drive you crazy. I swear, every single one was Eric Frein for a second or two, long enough to begin raising a camera.

It’s also a comforting hike because of the thick brush and changes in elevation, gullies and open trails for power lines. Walk far enough and there’s a house with a barking dog. The proximity to roads make it unreasonable that our outdoor sports were ever cancelled at Western Wayne High School. Our tennis courts were a million miles away from the trail of overturned leaves I followed for a few hundred yards.

Maybe Frein is still in those woods. If I walked right past him, then I’d like to thank him for not shooting me, although I know he was only making the correct tactical decision. But for what he’s done to the families of the officers, I sure hope he makes a fatal mistake.

A school bus passes electric no hunting sign in downtown Canadensis.

A school bus passes electric no hunting sign in downtown Canadensis.

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Woods in northern Barrett Township.

Woods in northern Barrett Township.

Torn strip of no hunting tape in Promised Land State Park.

Torn strip of no hunting tape in Promised Land State Park.

Woods in central Barrett Township.

Woods in central Barrett Township.

Posted sign of closed hunting areas.

Posted sign of closed hunting areas.

Trail in southern section of Promised Land State Park.

Trail in southern section of Promised Land State Park.

Loch Ness Monster in pond along Rt. 390.

Loch Ness Monster in pond along Rt. 390.

 

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