There are moments from childhood that refuse to fade, even as the years gather behind us. For me, one of those moments is the gleeful chaos of Lego Island—the 1997 CD-ROM that felt impossibly alive, whimsical, and ahead of its time. I spent more hours than I could ever quantify racing around those bright plastic streets, delivering pizzas with reckless joy, and watching the Brickster sow mayhem...
November 11, 2025 — Keokuk, Iowa That night, the sky in Keokuk didn’t look extraordinary at first glance. Standing in the cool November air, I saw a faint glow to the north — almost like a trick of the light, a soft haze against the dark. To the naked eye, it could’ve been mistaken for distant city glow. But through my camera lens, the truth unfolded: the northern lights had come to Iowa. Aurora...
Recovered Files from the 2023 Powdertown Expedition Compiled and transcribed by J.E. Hamelton Jr. Author’s Introduction There’s a place north of Keokuk that locals don’t talk about much anymore. They call it Powdertown, though on maps it’s marked as Mooar. A century ago, it was the largest black powder plant in the world — a maze of buildings owned by DuPont, where men worked with the quiet...
There was a time when paper felt like magic. As a child, I would sneak sheets from the supply closet at Wells Carey Elementary — not to draw, but to write. I didn’t yet know what I wanted to say; I only knew that blank paper called to me. There was something sacred about pen meeting page, about thought turning tangible, about watching my words leave a trail of ink that couldn’t be undone. That...
There is a silence that lives in small towns — a quiet not born of peace, but of pause. It lingers behind shuttered windows and hand-painted signs, in the faint hum of a neon “Open” that hasn’t been switched on in years. Walk down Keokuk’s Main Street, and you’ll feel it too: that mingling of memory and absence, a kind of reverence for what once was. The bricks tell their own story. Each one...
Jerk isn’t just a seasoning; it’s a story—one that began long before Ophelia Caribbean rolled up to a corner in Keokuk. It’s a legacy of fire and patience, of rhythm and resilience. Every flicker of the grill tells a part of that story, carried from the hills of Jamaica to the heart of the Midwest. Most people think jerk is about heat, but that’s only half the truth. Real jerk isn’t about how...
Some of us are born seeing the world through a lens others don’t understand. For years, people tried to call that difference a limitation. They measured it, categorized it, even tried to soften it with words like condition or challenge. But for me, it’s never felt like any of those things. I see it instead as a spectrum of vision — a way of noticing what others overlook. I am an entrepreneur and...
Words used to arrive like guests; they were expected, announced, and received with care. Today they tumble in uninvited, coatless and loud, demanding attention the moment they appear. We live in a culture of reply, where speed substitutes for insight, and where the pause that once did the quiet work of refinement has been mistaken for weakness. Yet every meaningful sentence still begins in the...
Every writer needs a place to set down their pen. For some, it is a desk worn smooth by years of ink and thought; for others, it is a quiet room where a lamp glows past midnight. For me, it is here: The Inkstand. This space will not be confined to one genre, nor hemmed in by a single theme. Some days I will weigh in on the affairs of our nation, where politics marches loud and history whispers in...
James E. Hamelton Jr. is an author, entrepreneur, and creative visionary behind The Inkstand, where thought and storytelling intertwine. His debut epic novel, An Enchanted Heart, introduced readers to his gift for weaving emotion, mythology, and human truth into vivid, enduring worlds. From the haunting banks of the Mississippi River to the quiet pulse of small-town life, his work explores the beauty and complexity of the human spirit. When he isn’t writing or developing new ventures under Hamelton Brands LLC, he continues to expand his literary universe with stories that challenge, inspire, and linger long after the final page.