February Comes With A Heart And A Recipe In Honor Of Josephine Wake

February has come in cold and white, which doesn't bother me since I don't have to go out in it too much (picture me saying: COVID). Yesterday I did a snow angel for the first time in years, and today it's disappeared under a new layer of snow.

Like my current work in progress I feel I'm finding layers that were hidden from me before. I wrote the original first version of this wip YEARS ago, and lost it (computer got wiped and I cried like a baby).

So I am going from a previous copy leading up to the original first version and already in the first three chapters my heroine has decided what I wrote before is not correct. She is much more tomboy in this one. I love meeting her this way. This is historical fiction, so I have room to work but also a structure I must follow. I like the challenge. I like my heroine. I like progress is happening.

I feel this novel will be all the better for me having waited to really meet this woman. Have you had that happen? Your character tells you what to do, or tries to work with you instead of making you go it alone?

Yeah, it's great, isn't it? Have a wonderful February.

In honor of our dear friend Jo, 

here is a recipe for quick and easy 

Pimento Cheese 

 my mother Sue Miller gave me.

Ingredients: 2 bags shredded sharp cheddar cheese, 1/2 a block of cream cheese, warm/room temperature, 1 jar (12 oz) pimentos (roasted red peppers), mayo to taste (I like about 1 tablespoon. If you like yours a bit spicy, add your favorite hot sauce or some diced chili peppers.

What to do: Cut up pimentos into small pieces. Mix everything together. You'll see why you want everything room temperature when you do. You can eat right away or let sit over night to marry the flavors.

February 3 question for IWSG - Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It’s often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

Yes I have and I am so very grateful. I have been a part of a group for almost seven years now that I found from the IWSG/ABC Blogging Challenge (in April) and through all our ups and downs, we are still going. We've lost a few along the way, Jo is one of them, but we still hold them in our hearts. 

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

The awesome co-hosts for the February 3 posting of the IWSG are 

Louise - Fundy Blue , Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, Patsy Collins at Womagwriter,

and Nancy Gideon! Please go visit them and thank them for co-hosting today!

PS

I hate the changes blogger has made to posting here. I can't figure anything out that before was so easy to do. So pardon my unprofessional looking blog posts for now. I am still working out the roaches. Yes, these aren't just bugs to me, but roaches. Yuck.

baby image from: https://babygooroo.com/articles/decoding-your-babys-cry

January 2021, Jo Wake, IWSG, Rain, Whew!

 

 

On February 6 (the next IWSG posting), we would like all who want to participate to share a recipe that brings warm memories of friendship and love in honor of our blogger friend Josephine “Jo” Wake who passed away December 16, 2020. She was a dear friend, full of spunk and she wrote a blog:

JO WAKE about FOOD, Life and a Scent of Chocolate. 

I had the honor of meeting her and her husband Matt in 2019 and it was a great joy.  We spent three days with them in Canada. I miss her already.

The link to the Linky link is here...              HONORING JO WAKE RECIPE LIST

The awesome co-hosts for the January 6th posting of the IWSG are

 Ronel Janse van Vuuren , J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner Sandra Cox, 

and Louise - Fundy Blue! 

Please go and visit their blogs and thank them for all their hard work! Also, visit the IWSG website and sign up, if you'd like. We are a great bunch of folks who do our best to help support others like us... meaning Insecure and yet Happy to write, even when we're not! There is a question every month to answer if you'd like. This month I'm not as I already have sooo much to write about.

So, in this "new" version of blogger, I can't seem to fix when this posted, so it's two days early. But oh well. That much longer to read it I guess. I also wanted to post about my newest work that is no longer in progress, but done, finished, out, and not just in ebook form. The new soft cover is ready for your buying/reading pleasure. I do hope you enjoy it/get something from it. For me the road has been long slogging my way through doubts, physically making myself write especially when I felt I was over being a writer, and some long talks with myself. These characters, these folks in this novel wouldn't leave me alone. Nor would my family, especially my husband and my mother. So I thank them, and all those who supported me, pushed me gently, and read it for me and gave me feedback. This book has finally blossomed into the life it was meant to live. 

                                     AVAILABLE ON AMAZON NOW IN SOFT COVER

The past is not an easy force to be reckoned with. 

 

For Annalyn and Jack heartache is unexpected. After a whirlwind romance and marriage, a shattering secret tears them apart. Desperate to escape, each embark upon separate journeys to try and heal, to rebuild faith in life with new loves. But moving forward, they discover that rebuilding their futures depends upon coming to terms with their past. Will facing the truth allow them to find, and accept, the love and healing they each so desperately need, or will the secret continue to break lives—and hearts—apart?

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON NOW IN SOFT COVER

Rain Has Finally Come

Rain has finally come to the dry desert of my writing life. I can't believe with all that happened in 2020, that this is the year Rain chose to come to fruition. A blessing. An accomplishment I thought I might never see. I almost gave up. Family decided otherwise and gently prodded me to finish. Family stood behind me. I stood up to my indecision, to my fear, yes, fear, to finish this story. I feel so insecure about this novel, but I needed to give light to the vision in my mind that first sparked as long ago as the late 1990s. Yes, it took that long for it to all come together.

Often we don't talk as much as we should about family hurts or secrets. Sometimes we don't share our fears with those who love us most, because we fear not being understood, because society tells us not to talk about "Things Like That."

We, I think, during this year have learned that talking about "Things Like That" can be helpful, can help us heal, can help us deal with new or ancient pain. Pain doesn't stay silent if we don't "talk" about it. It speaks in our brains and buries itself deep, changing and sometimes warping who we are. 

I hope that in reading Rain you are inspired to love yourself for who you are and to not judge others too harshly. Compassion and Empathy are two vastly underrated emotions/actions we as humans do actually excel with, especially when we listen.

The past is not an easy force to be reckoned with. 

 

For Annalyn and Jack heartache is unexpected. After a whirlwind romance and marriage, a shattering secret tears them apart. Desperate to escape, each embark upon separate journeys to try and heal, to rebuild faith in life with new loves. But moving forward, they discover that rebuilding their futures depends upon coming to terms with their past. Will facing the truth allow them to find, and accept, the love and healing they each so desperately need, or will the secret continue to break lives—and hearts—apart?

Rain is available on Kindle right now (in time for Christmas!). It will be available in paperback by New Years.

http://bit.ly/BUYNOWLBC

Please, if you read it and like it, leave a review/comment for me on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

Thank you, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

December 2020 Finally! & IWSG

 

IWSG WEBSITE

I am so darn happy December is here! (and not only for the snow!) I'm sorry I missed last month's post, and almost missed this one, but in November I was depressed, and, today is my son's birthday!

I feel a lot better this month. Last month I think because of Thanksgiving, I felt the absence of my family too keenly and couldn't write about it. We all made it through and for that I am more than grateful. I still miss the you-know-what out of my parents though. This is a looooong time to go without hugging/touching/seeing them. But I won't jeopardize them just because I miss them.

My son has been living with us all year because of a medical issue. He can't work and is not only in constant pain, but also depressed because of it. Finally, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It will take more time and more physical therapy for him to get back to his former self, but it IS working! I/we have much to be grateful for. So, December has not come too soon for me. 

The young lad with his snowman "Churchill!"

The other wonderful piece of news is that my book cover should be finished soon. The edits are finished. The formatting is happening as I write, and hopefully my next novel, "Rain" will be out before Christmas! (Hint, it would make a great present!) Shameless I am. But not about being happy! For the first time in a while, I do genuinely feel happy and hopeful for not only my future, but for our nation's future as well. The Covid vaccine should (hopefully) go a long way toward helping us all heal.

So I am not feeling too insecure today, even if I'm late to post. I feel optimistic and full of love for the world, and especially my son. He is a light in my life and has been since the day he was born 34 years ago. Though I'm sorry for the reason he is with us, I am not sorry he's here! I wish you all the best of the holidays, a Merry Christmas, whatever it is that you celebrate. I also wish us all the best in the new year to come. May we all be able to move on to a life that even though Covid will still be here, hopefully the new year will give us a chance to learn to live with it without fear. Blessings to you.

And before you stop reading, please stop by our wonderful co-hosts this month and thank them for being there for us! 

Pat Garcia, Sylvia Ney,Liesbet @ Roaming About Cathrina Constantine, and Natalie Aguirre!

October and The Air is Sweet IWSG

 

Click on image for IWSG Site

Have you heard of the singer Jackson Browne? 

He sang a song when I was younger called "Running On Empty". 

That is how I feel today, as I send my thoughts out into this crazy sad changing world. I mean, I know the world is always in a state of flux. The world is not stagnate and that is a good thing. The changes happening right now however, feel more threatening than changes I've lived through before. I am concerned for my children, for whether they will even have their own children and that if they do, what will their lives be like? Not like mine, that is for sure. I understand people reminiscing for the "good ole days" now. For me, that is BC... Before Covid. I've been doing well I thought until now. I've been very busy finishing a novel, moving, creating a new garden/yard, building shelves, building a gardening shed, taking care of our son. Busy. And happy to feel blessed to be able to do all these things. Now I see autumn and the colors starting to appear outside and I know this part of my life is done. I put my lawn "to bed" yesterday, mowed and weeded for the last time till spring, and I felt like a chapter closed in the book of my life. What will winter bring with people having to stay indoors more than they had to during the summer? Will our country smarten up and make more of an effort to end this devastating virus in a united front? Will the ones who refuse to wear masks for others finally realize that we need to stick together on this? That we can beat it, or at least slow it down if we just do basic steps to help? I feel the only blessing is that the majority of the time when the virus hits, it does it gently, that the majority of people do not die or have horrible consequences. That is indeed a blessing I am thankful for. Still doesn't mean I want to get it!

Anyway, I'll stop now and think about the breeze carrying autumn that blew over my face yesterday while I worked outside. I'll think about the love of my family, and my friends. I will listen to a favorite song that seems to speak to my soul no matter where I am every time the seasons move from winter to spring or summer to fall, "The Southland In The Springtime". I wish you all peace, health and happiness...

The wonderful co-hosts of the IWSG this month of October are....

Jemima Pett, Beth Camp,Beverly Stowe McClure, and Gwen Gardner!

Please go visit their websites and thank them for being here for us all!