Autumn Arrives

It's high time that Autumn arrived in Atlanta! It felt wonderful with 50 degrees this morning, especially after being in Alabama, Mississippi and New York with so much heat and humidity.

This is my front door wreath that I hung the first week in September while I waited for signs of fall. It's my favorite time of year.

Our leaves have barely started to change but with the cool nights ahead it won't be long now, and I will be inspired once again on my morning walks. These are the days of homemade soup, sweathers, caramels and candy corn, and great coffee on the patio, while listening to the wind blowing through my trees and the sweet birds singing their lovely music for my enjoyment and of course, a good book to read.

It's also a time of rememberence for me. My mother loved fall and she often visited me in October. I would take her to Garden Ridge and she would snap up as much fall foliage that our cart would hold to take back to her tiny apartment for floral arrangements. I can almost smell her chicken and dumplings that we insisted she make and her tea cakes, our family favorite. Mama had a sweet tooth and when we made afternoon coffee, she had to had a sweet roll or slice of pie to go with it. Later she would iron clothes on my screened porch until supper, surrounded by a pot of yellow mums that she always bought for me.

One of the things I look back on was being out of school for the day to go gather pecans at my brother Sam's farm. We worked hard all day to harvest them and it would be a little added income for our struggling household. This weekend I saw my brother Sam who is the oldest of mama's eight children. He's not in good health after a stroke and congestive heart failure and can barely talk. It was hard to see him this way, so small and weak. I remember him as my big, handsome brother who would pick me up and run with me if I was in trouble or mama was threatening a whippin'. He cried when I surprised him this past Saturday and I cried with him. Sad now to think life had come to this, where he has lots of time to ponder his life and the past, unable to speak.

Plants and trees go into their dormant stage, and I watch as squirrels gather nuts for the winter. We too, draw inward during the fall and winter staying inside our homes for the most part, as we pass the winter and nurture our souls with food, family and friendship, remembering.

A TEXAS LEGACY CHRISTMAS-REVIEW

Romance thrives once again like the star of Christmas shining in the East when two childhood lives are reunited many years later. Zach Kahler rekindles his friendship with Chloe Weaver after returning from NY to live in Kahlerville.

Zach is looking forward to leaving NY to run a newspaper in his hometown after big city life. Implusively, he adopts 6 year old twins after they pick his pocket. Once they arrive in Kahlerville, they reside in a boardinghouse where Chole is working until he can find a proper house to purchase. The children become a handful to manange, however, but he is endeared to them despite their antics. He remembers Chloe as he little girl whom he used to give his lunch to back in his school days and the affect she has on Zack, now that she is all grown-up, takes his breath away. He must first provide a stable home for the twins before getting involved with love.

Chloe was an abandoned, poor girl and grew up with a wounded heart. Jacob Barton is a demanding employer who is totally smitten with Chole and confesses his love to her. Her response is not what he wants to hear so he refuses to give up. He knows that she is attracted to Zach and makes it difficult for her to see him while working at the boardinghouse. She needs her job desparately and works hard, so she she does not upset his continual advances to court her.

A miracle of love awaits you in the festive Christmas story along with well developed subplots and compelling characters from other Texas Legacy series. This is a wonderful romance to put you in the mood for the holidays. DiAnn Mills creates another memorable love story that will warm your heart like a cup of hot chocolate. This would make a perfect gift to those on your list who love a historical told with vivid imagery as only DiAnn can do!

BACK TO SCHOOL

A sure way to know that fall is on the way, is when the children return to school, and the commute to work is slowed by the volumes of school buses on the major streets of the city or county, depending on where you live. Even though I don’t have children at home, my grandchildren are returning to school. I love walking down the supply isle at the store to smell the crayons, glue and pencils then gaze at all the new notebooks and lunch boxes. Maggie is in the 3rd grade, Angelina is in the 1st and Peter is in preschool. Their backpacks are almost as large as they are. But aren’t they so cute?

There is something so magical about returning to school that I can still remember how I felt as a child. Maybe in a new dress and armed with my new supplies, we’d walk to school, (it was safe back then), meet our new classmates, and hopefully find a new best friend or keep an old one. Then we would be assigned a desk. How I loved that! A place for just my things made me so happy.

New books that the teacher would write our names in, brightly colored cut-outs on the walls and a clean slated blackboard with the teacher’s name written in big letters greeted us, making the atmosphere our “home away from home” comfortable and friendly. Our minds were filled with the bright hope of learning and reading time that took us to faraway places. Lunchtime was fun and they had the best yeast rolls ever in MS, and we would return to our rooms with full tummies but just a little bit sleepy. Recess was a blast, jumping rope, playing kick ball or swinging on the playground or hopscotch.
I was one of the odd children that loved walking home at 3:30 taking my time on the sidewalk, chatting with friends or my sister, Dianne, enjoying the slant of the afternoon sun and the smell of my mama’s sweet potatoes frying, and her standing at the door with the proverbial apron on, wearing brown pointed glasses with fake rhinestones, and her arms folded across her ample bosom. She was a lovely, steadfast vision of what it meant to be come back home at the end of the day for this little girl, and sweet memories of going back to school.

Staying Out of the Kitchen

I'm over this summer heat! Enough of the 103 degee Hotlanta temperatures. To prove it, here's my nice and tidy kitchen that I don't cook in when it's this hot. Oh no...it's salads and more salads for me. But actually a Chic-fil-la milkshake sounds even better on a hot day! Since my power bill is outrageous already, I try to find ways not to turn the oven on, (and I have 2 of them). Now this doesn't mean that I don't like to cook. Sometimes I actually like to. For instance, on a fall day, I love to have sweet potatoes baking and a homemade chicken pot pie bubbling or a delicious chuck roast complete with potatoes and carrots cooking slowly. I make delicious spahetti sauce, but not with meatballs. I'll give that award to Kathy Christine of Augusta, GA, who was kind enough to send some with my daughter for my freezer. Can't wait to take that out and have it one night when I'm too busy to cook. One of my quick meals is chicken burritos topped with chilies and cheese and sour cream. Don't worry, I cook this almost entirely fat-free. It can be done and tastes great. I make wonderful grits for breakfast. They must be slowly and gently cooked with butter, so you yankees out there don't compare the grits with what you might find at a resturant to the real southern dish. By the way, never could master biscuits like my mama so I buy Pillisbury's frozen ones and they are so good.

I love to cook red beans and rice with sausage and cornbread on a cold winter day or big white lima beans ladened with ham. My sweet mother taught me how to make cornbread and chicken n' dumplings. Speaking of chicken, my homemade chicken noodle soup is my son's favorite and I also make Green Chili chicken soup. Kept for special occasions, because of the high-fat, is my fried chicken. No one makes it better, just ask my kids. That's really living it up to me. I make a simple meatloaf that taste even better the next day as a sandwich. No southerner would be complete without crowder peas with okra swimming on top and sweet iced tea. My favorite. Banana bread is especially good with morning or afternoon coffee or Oatmeal Raisin cookies. For company I like to make Banana pudding from scratch--not the instant pudding you mix that you buy at the store. That stuff is disgusting. I taught my daughter, Sheri, how to bake and decorate sour cream sugar cookies trimmed in beautiful icing for Christmas and how to decorate cakes as well. Now she is better at it than me.

Uh oh--I think this is making me hungry! I can't end this without telling you (more info than you ever wanted) that my sister-in-law, Sylvia makes the best jambalaya that you ever put in your mouth. She & my brother Gary made fabulous jumbo! We used to have it on Christmas Eve when they lived here. How I miss that....Now... that Sil is an awesome cook, whipping up gourmet meals in a flash. Just get out of her way! My sister Dianne makes the best cole-slaw in the world, and her hubby makes the best wings that I've ever put in my mouth! My sister Doris? Well, there's nothing she can't cook, but she's had a lot more practice than me. My son, Jared grills wonderful steaks and his wife Amy has introduced us to some good and healthy California cooking.

Am I boring you to death yet? I just want to add that I quit buying cook-books sometime ago. I have about 20 presently. I gave a lot away 2 yrs. ago. I do occasionally find a receipe that I want to try.

So now I've made up all these excuses for not cooking because I'd much rather be reading or writing or singing or dancing. I need a cook! Wait a minute--I need a housekeeper too. LOL! By the way, if you haven't seen the movie, No Reservations, check it out. It's all about love and cooking. Great movie!

If anyone would like to send me their favorite summertime receipe, I'd love to have it. Guess I'll go fix my salad for dinner...boring huh?

Starting Over

As of two weeks ago, this is where my everyday job will be. I resigned from the realtor world, with a gut-load of sadness. I was lucky enough to work with three of the most wonderful ladies that I could have ever wished for in a work place. They were my family away from home. I miss seeing them everyday and their friendship, their different moods and the days of stress, smooth sailing days, the fast paced days, the pull-your hair out days, the fun, the laughter, the bubble gun we consumed, the constant ringing phone, FMLS uploads, GMLS glitches, and the tears when we supported each other through difficult phases of our lives. I still want to answer my home phone with Thank you for calling Weichert Preferred...

This is a picture of my home office. It has a wonderful view of the trees outside, along with chipmunks, birds, bunnies and lately three wild kittens. It's right off the breakfast room, so we are planning on some French doors for privacy and walling off the arches that lead into the dining room eventually. The TV is too distracting for me. But it's hard not listening to The O'Reilly Factor or Shaun Hannity on Fox. The paintings on the side of my desk are a few that I've painted.

Since quitting my job I have finished a chapter on my second book, done a review, submitted an proposal to an agent, and had my laptop repaired, including more memory installed. Now if I can just get it to recognize the other computer to retrieve my documents, I'll be happy. Not bad for just getting back into the groove and a fresh start. Once school begins, I'll start my critique group back up again since my writing buds have school age children. We took a month off because of summer conflicts, but I really look forward to reading their submissions, not to mention their feedback and support for me.

I had a nice distraction this weekend with a visit from my daughter and grandchildren, but now, if I can quit watching the hummingbirds, I'll get back to writing.

Review of Bygones

This is the first in the Sommerfeld trilogy and a wonderful story of widow Marie Koeppler, the rediscovery of her Mennonite faith that she abandon long ago, with the awakening love of her ex-beau, Henry Braun. When her Aunt dies, Henry brings news that Marie’s daughter, Beth, has inherited her Aunt’s home and café, but she can only claim it if Beth lives there for six months.

Her daughter bristle’s at the thought of going to Sommerfeld for six months to live in what she considers a backward lifestyle with no modern conveniences. However, her fiancé convinces her that she should go and stay in order to buy their antiques, then use the money from the sale of her Aunt’s home and café to start their own business.

Marie is not so keen to go because of her tearful past, and the way in which her family disowned her when she left the Sommerfeld community to marry her first husband. Marie decides that she will do whatever it takes to help her daughter start her life with a good future, including hiding the truth.

Will the community still shun Marie, or will her family see her true heart and mend the distance between them? This compelling story, written in Kim’s beautiful style of the gentle Mennonite community with a Kansas backdrop, gave me new insight to the Mennonite faith and customs.
This is an engaging romance and I look forward to the 2nd in the trilogy. Kim’s stories just keep getting better!

International Christian Retailers Show in Atlanta

All this week, the ICRS is having their vendor show in Atlanta at the GA World Congress Center. I didn’t have a badge to get into the show since I’m not published and I do not own a bookstore, but I did have the privilege to meet up with some of my writer friends that did attend for book signings and we had dinner on Monday night at Steak and Ale. The picture of me was taken with Tamela Hancock Murray, agent for Hartline Literary Agency and Kim Vogel Sawyer, whose books I have reviewed. It was a very enjoyable visit over dinner, once we were finally seated. I met with Tamela at my agent interview at the Denver Conference a few years ago, but this was my first time to actually met Kim, though I had seen her from a distance at other conferences. Both ladies are so warm and friendly. Brandilyn was my mentor for the Denver conference. Others that were at the dinner, Chip McGregor, Terry Burns, Brandilyn Collins, Amy Wallace, Tricia Goyer and Sharon Hinck. There were many others, but I didn’t know everyone there, so I won’t even attempt to list them all. What is so cool is that only other writers understand a writer’s mind, so there is a great commonality among us. Chip McGregor who has his own literary agency, stood up and gave a toast to those that had book signings,and to those that have a new book coming out soon. They were antics at my table once Brandilyn joined us. She never takes herself too seriously, which makes it fun for everyone to poke fun at her and she likewise. Maybe that’s why she makes a good MC at the ACFW conferences. Brandilyn gave me her latest suspense book, Coral Moon of the Kanner Lake Series. I can’t wait to read it. Tricia gave me her latest book about the Spanish Civil War, Valley of Betrayal and you know I love historicals. It was a fabulous start for my week to be among these folks and get encouragement and support that they so freely give. When we got ready to leave I asked if anyone needed a lift to their hotel and met a lovely young woman, Julie Dearyan. We enjoyed her short visit in the car with us and made a new friend.
Thanks Amy for taking care of the details and making this all possible! :)

Real Freedom

I saw on the Foxnews that the last survivor of the flag raising at Iwo Jima died and was given a nice memorial. Such a price so many paid for our freedom and the privilege to live in the USA. I am sooo grateful. I’ll write more about that kind of freedom another day, but tonight I am thinking of freedom in another way altogether.

My beautiful sister, Gail Kathleen, died 12 years ago today, and we buried her on the 4th of July. I spent all afternoon today looking at family photos trying to find the perfect one of her, and decided this was my favorite even though she was just 17. Though only 58 when she died from Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, she accomplished what she was placed on this earth for. She raised 3 beautiful, intelligent children, and took great care of my dear mother. She had a green thumb and grew beautiful flowers and she taught me to sew. I was crazy about her and thought she was incredibly beautiful with her green eyes and black hair. She made the best cup of coffee and pot of red beans and rice this side of the Mississippi, as well as sweet ice tea and cold slaw. Her pecan pie was this side of Heaven. She was fun to shop with and chat with about the days events over coffee on a wintry afternoon while stew simmered on her stovetop. Her home was warm and inviting, and she always had her stereo on playing gospel music or Tijuana Brass. She loved music and that loved was passed down to her daughter.

The best gift Gail ever gave me was the gift of Jesus Christ. My mother taught me about God, how he cared for me and read the Bible, so I believed in Christ when I was 9 yrs. old. But it was only when I was 17, did I realize while spending time with Gail that I came to understand what that really meant. Gail loved the Lord and told me that Christ died for me, and that when I died, if I believed in what He had done on the cross, then I would live eternally with Him and my loved ones in Heaven and never die. I was attending a little country church during that time, and after reading much scripture for myself, a great joy burst in my heart when I read, “For God so Loved the World that he gave his only Son, that whoever believed in Him, would have everlasting life.” That’s it! The truth was very simple. Soon I was baptized and started on this wonderful journey of being a believer, or Christian, as some would say. Gail was the one that lead me to my faith.

Now, I was incredibly sad when she died so quickly after receiving the “cancer” news and surgery, but I believe it was the gift of peace from the Holy Spirit that kept me from crumbling at that gravesite and of course, the prayers of my praying friends. Her Freedom came in the wee morning hours of a terrible thunderstorm of which she had feared all her life. How ironic that God would send his Angels to carry her home to Heaven at that exact time, exemplifying to her that she would never have to fear anything again with no more suffering, but one day a new body! We celebrated that 4th of July after her funeral by doing what she loved—going down to the beach on Hwy 90 in Gulfport to watch the fireworks. How appropriate to celebrate her life and freedom with the freedom that we cherish today as fireworks exploded against the inky black sky!

Searching For a Rainbow

Have you ever had a time when you weren’t sure of your place in the world? Ever want to be some place other than your job, or feel lonely when surrounded by people? Have you ever felt like you really were not number one is someone else’ eyes? For certain, I am not unique in feeling this way. It’s like someone looking outside their den window, and seeing the same tree everyday, but then one day they don’t see the tree at all because they are so use to it being there. Too consumed with their own job, and demands of life, people miss out on relationships all the time with spouses, friends and family, because of self-centeredness.

Maybe it’s because we focus on ourselves, and loose sight of what’s right in front of us, being offered, rather than make a effort to genuinely care about another’s dreams, hopes and desires. How often do we dare yield a large part of ourselves to show someone that they matter more than anything else? Far too often we assume we know what the other person is thinking, and we believe we know more than they do about what was said in a conversation or an email taken the wrong way.

There’s a yield sign for traffic that I face every day to turn into our office parking lot. I have the right of way because the sign clearly states other drivers are to yield to U-turn traffic and it is the only way into our office park. Several times in the last few weeks, a man in a black Mercedes would not yield to me, almost hitting me. One day last week, he yelled--I blew my horn, but he proceeded to turn in front of me, then jerking his car over into my lane nearly coming to a complete stop as it if to scare me, all the while, shooting me the bird. Really nice man, I thought sarcastically. Quickly, I pointed in the direction of the yield sign that he had. Let me tell you, it unnerved me, and I was shaking by the time I got to my desk. Road Rage, nothing more, very real. Who knows, he may have made good his threats, because he was yelling and gesturing expletives at me. This was the same man who had done this to me several times this year.

This past Thursday morning, I couldn’t believe that we wound up at the intersection again at the same time. I shivered, he was moving fast, but apparently he had decided to acquiesce to let me turn into the office park, for whatever reason, barely giving me a second thought. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Life is about yielding to others, like it or not, especially if you have taken offense at something you thought someone meant, and you were entirely wrong. I have yielded all my life to almost everyone, but today I want to take care of me and my heart, and not be in constant worry about how someone perceives who I am. I’m longing to be held close to someone’s heart, that genuinely cares about my needs and dreams. I suggest you listen to your heart. As for me, I’m looking for a Rainbow…..

Where Willows Grow

My favorite book this summer so far, without doubt! Kim, I simply loved this book!

First of all, I loved this setting, drought stricken Kansas, (much like Atlanta right now) but in 1936. Genuine and good-hearted characters made me care about Anna Mae and Harley who are trying to survive the drought and pay for taxes, but just barely scrapping by to hold their farm together. With a baby on the way and their 5 yr. old Marjorie to feed, Harley leaves in hopes of finding work to send money back to Anna Mae, despite her strong protests. My heart swelled with love for these "salt of the earth" people. Anna's strong faith and God's continual provision gave her hope in their helpless situation, regardless of the outcome. When months go by and Anna doesn't hear from Harley, she remains steadfast, even though her heart is breaking. Complicating matters further, her childhood friend, Jack fancies himself in love with her, and sets out to convince her that Harley will never return.
It was hard for me to put this book down, and turn out the light because I wanted to find out how Anna would handle each turn of events that plagued her. Very convincing plot and well crafted, real characters made this book so appealing. Don't miss it!

Summer Reading

I have finally taken the time to review Lightning and Lace, by DiAnn Mills, though I read the book well over a month ago. Shame on me, but that’s what happens when you have several books you’re reading, along with my writing buds manuscripts. Throw in work, choir, family and everyday things that clutter our lives and it’s hard to find time. Sorry, DiAnn. Enough said.

This is the third book in the Texas Legacy series and a most enjoyable one. After meeting the characters in books One and Two, I felt like I knew them personally, and couldn’t wait to see how the final book compared. Not surprising to me at all, was a marvelous story of grief, faith, love and mystery as DiAnn wove the threads neatly together focusing on struggling widow, Bonnie Kahler, and her angry, troubled son, Zach. Travis Whitmore, the new preacher hiding his own past, becomes a pivotal force in helping Bonnie’s son find direction after his father’s death.

Mills has written a fast-paced, and another exciting adventure, full of emotion and surprises. I suggest this one as a very pleasant summer read for your vacation.