Remembering Ed, My Dream Man

            After high school, Ed attended college for a semester before joining the Air Force. Later he served in Korea as a staff sergeant with the air rescue squadron. When his dad died, he left the military, returned home to help his mother, and resumed his college education. That’s when I met him.

It was 1956. As a high-school senior, I was on a work/study program, attending school half-day and working the other half. I wore a starched yellow uniform as the snack-bar girl at the Piggly Wiggly market in the San Fernando Valley. A cute box boy would smile at me as he pushed a customer’s shopping cart out the door and into the parking lot. His smile went all the way to my toes.

            Although he was going bald, he was very handsome in his short-sleeve white shirt, blue bow tie, and yellow apron. He’d order three scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup during his break every evening. I noticed his high school graduation ring with 1951 scored on it. He graduated from high school in 1951! That meant he graduated when I was eleven years old. I leaned into the refrigerator under the counter and counted on my fingers. He had to be twenty-three years old, and I was only sixteen. Yikes!

            At the time, I thought my parents would never allow me to date someone that old. Yet, they did. When he came to the door on our first date, I wore a strawberry-colored, jersey two-piece outfit. I opened the door, and he said, “Wow!”

            When we walked into the theater to see The King and I with Yule Brynner and Deborah Kerr, the song was Getting to Know You. How appropriate.

            I fell in love quickly with my dream man. We were married in 1958 and enjoyed a 60-year marriage, raising our family together. He lived into his 80s, then Parkinson’s ravaged his body and mind.

On January 6^th he celebrated his 90th birthday in heaven.

The Little Blue Coat

Signing Book Contract for Her Heart of Gold

Trading My Knitting Needles for My Pen

(This is my first blog after several dormant years.)

	When my daughters were small, I knitted a blue coat with a dark blue velvet collar and buttons. My oldest, Dawn, and my youngest, Melanie, wore the coat, while their sister Kathy had a more tailored one because she was a tomboy. She asked the neighbors to call her Jim.

	Today that little blue coat hangs on my wall in my bedroom, invoking memories of Melanie sitting on the edge of the back seat in our station wagon so she wouldn’t mess up her long blonde curls. (Of course, it was before seatbelts were required.)

	I’ve traded my knitting needles for my pen. 

	My ideas for my novels come from everywhere, mostly daydreaming. My most recent endeavor came when after 56 years, my daughter Dawn searched and found her birth family. They welcomed her with open arms. It was the seed of an idea for the novel I wrote during the pandemic.

	I recently signed a book contract with Ambassador International for Her Heart of Gold. It’s about the adoption triangle from the point of view of the birth mother, the adoption mother, and the adoptee.

(I’ll let you know when Her Heart of Gold is published. Until then, I’ll blog everything from memories from the 1950s, musings, and book reviews.)

Just Released: Sweet Charity

Dr. Nancy St. John has a well-kept, twenty-year-old secret.

A pregnant high school senior, she is banished by her parents to live with her spinster aunt in Chicago.

Heartbroken, Nancy concentrates on her work and avoids intimate relationships. Hope, the daughter Nancy gave up for adoption twenty years earlier, finds her. A bond blossoms between them but is challenged by Hope’s leukemia. Hope needs a bone marrow transplant, but she has a rare blood type. Nancy is not a match. Nancy is determined to find Skip, Hope’s biological father, who never knew about Nancy’s pregnancy or why she disappeared so mysteriously.

Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble

(Ebook and Paperback)

Adventurous Sisters Live Their Faith

Book Review: Where We Belong by Lynn Austin

Author, Lynn Austin, has created wonderful and diverse characters in Where We Belong.

Adventurous sisters, Rebecca and Flora Hawes, live their faith not only in what they say, but in what they do as well. Many Scripture references are lived out in Where We Belong by the sister’s actions.

Although I did not like the flipping back and forth between time and place in the organization of the book, Austin kept me interested throughout the story.

Order Gillian’s Heart at www.desertbreezepublishing.com

New Release: Gillian’s Heart

On September 1, 2015, www.desertbreezepublishing.com will release my contemporary romance e-book, Gillian’s Heart.

Gillian Grant, abandoned by her alcoholic parents, is raised by her grandmother in a beach house overlooking the Pacific in Reagan Beach, California.

As a tribute to Gram’s memory, Gillian is determined to restore the house to its original beauty and hires Dusty, a handyman and surfer, to help her. Dusty shares the apartment above the garage with Gillian’s childhood friend, Josh.

Gillian and Dusty have nothing in common, except the restoration of the house. Later they discover their shared grief for beloved grandparents. But Gillian also suffers from anorexia and abandonment, and is in denial. While she has a strong faith in God, Dusty is an unbeliever. Concern for his salvation, they agree he will attend church if she will attend a twelve-step program.

It is during a twelve-step meeting Betsy, Gillian’s mother, arrives and announces the house was left to her, not Gillian, and she plans to sell it.

Gillian always dreamed of her wedding in her grandmother’s garden overlooking the Pacific. Will there be a wedding? Who will capture Gillian’s heart—stable Josh or can she trust Dusty, a new Christian, who has kept secrets from her? And who holds the deed to the house?

 

Book Review — Finding Me by Kathryn Cushman

Finding Me peeks curiosity to open the book and discover Kelli’s story.

Trust was shattered when Kelli discovers her beloved father wasn’t who she believed him to be. She goes on a journey in search of her family. Along the way, both Kelli and readers discover devastating secrets.

Some may find the story implausible. Others will consider it a page turner, not wanting to put it down, especially the last 100 pages.

An emotional story, one of Kathryn Cushman’s most touching dialogue is, “She loves you like a sister. We both do.”

Finding Me is a bittersweet story with a take away message— Kelli’s father was a coward. Will Kelli follow his example?

Includes thought provoking questions to dig deeper in the Questions for Conversation section at the back of the book, for individuals, groups and book clubs.

Kathryn Cushman’s other books include A Promise to Remember, Waiting for Daybreak, Leaving Yesterday, Another Dawn, Almost Amish, and Chasing Hope.

Bethany House provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Marriage

As a freelance writer, I spend my days alone in my office, yet, every once in a while I get out and see what the rest of the world is like. Yesterday, I attended a women’s luncheon and sat next to a lady who recently divorced after 63 years of marriage. I’ll call her Violet (not her real name). Did she see my shock? After that many years together, what drove her to get a divorce? Violet said, “I was tired of him telling her how to cook and how to clean. Now he can cook, clean and pay the bills himself.” She seemed happy with her decision. She went on to say that family and friends couldn’t believe she hadn’t done it sooner.

Many years ago I talked to a woman who said at the beginning of her marriage, she wanted out, but couldn’t see how she could do it without an education or a job, so she stuck it out and in later years she was glad she had. That was how it was for many women in the early 1900—they stuck with it.

In the early years of our marriage, my husband said, “Divorce isn’t an option. Whatever problems we may have, we can work them out.” He was right and I’m grateful for a committed, godly spouse. Something else he said, “Marriage isn’t always fifty-fifty. Sometimes one partner gives 75% and the other 25%, etc. Recently, I read that each of us needs to give 100% to our marriage. I like that even better.

Also, have a threefold marriage—God, wife and husband. Never go to bed angry. Communicate—listen twice as much as you speak. There’s a reason God gave us two ears and only one mouth. Set a priority—God first, spouse second and children third.

Recipe for a Happy Marriage

Submission                                                                              Joyfulness

Love                                                                                        Patience

Respect                                                                                   Kindness

Time                                                                                        Commitment

Trust                                                                                        Encouragement

Humility                                                                                  Communication

Sense of Humor

Mix together mutual submission, love, and respect. Add a sense of humor and joyfulness. Fold in time, trust, humility, patience, kindness, commitment, encouragement, and communication. Pour into a lifetime.

TEMPERATURE: Moderate

TIME: Forever

AMOUNT: Unmeasurable Blessings

Happenings

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d share recent happenings.

In November I signed a contract with Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc. to publish my book, Gillian’s Heart. It’s a contemporary Christian romance, set in southern California. I enjoyed writing Gillian’s story and now I’m busy formatting the book to send to the publisher.

This year my other endeavors consisted of speaking for Stonecroft Ministries in Coos Bay and Medford, Oregon. At the Coos Bay event, I sat next to a young woman expecting her first baby. She was darling with a bubbly personality and excited about this time in her life. I enjoy these events and meeting new women.

May book talks on my historical novel, Lily, were well received with those attending being engaged in the discussion questions. I share how Lily began as an idea while sitting in church and the 27 year journey to publication. It’s a fun evening for all.

My work-in-progress is Sweet Charity. Nancy, a high school senior, gave her baby up for adoption in 1958 and later became a distinguished OBGYN. Twenty years later Nancy comes face to face with her daughter who needs medical attention to survive. Nancy’s blood type does not match her daughters. Will Nancy find her daughter’s biological father who never knew about the baby?