In recognition of Veteran’s Day, I am reposting this from previous years. We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. This poem was written by John McCrae. I learned it in school as a child and remember it every Veteran’s Day. My sincere gratitude to all our veterans, living and dead, for the sacrifices they made so we could enjoy freedom. 3 0
This post only for a test purpose to determine that my former followers are also seeing this remastered blog site. I will to all of you. 😀😀😀 Best Regards, 🥰Noelle Granger 0 0
I read a review of this book and was fascinated with the historical time — the Great Depression and the point of view, that of a young girl, based on the author’s mother. Six year old Katie Ryan lives in a small, third-floor, unheated flat in Swampoodle, Philadelphia, along with her parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Her Nana, who gives Katie her constant companion – a cloth doll named Molly – has consumption and the doctor says she needs to be in a warm, dry climate to recover. This sets her mother on a path to have them leave Pennsylvania for California. But how to do that? The train tickets are expensive and Mr. McGuire, the grandfather, and her father earn barely enough to keep them alive. Growing problems with her oldest brother, anti-Irish discrimination and the need to support the family finally drives the family to a train trip west in search of a better life. But before they reach California, they are diverted to Colorado with the hope of well-paying jobs for Katie’s father and grandfather. The family’s fortune improves and they move into a house. Which brings me to boxty. Boxty are delicious Irish potato pancakes. I’ve had them and they are a family favorite in the Ryan family home in the 1930s. To Katie, they come to represent the warmth, safety and security of family. After her grandparents die and her father spirals into alcoholism, a further twist of fate leaves Katie to assume the role of mother for her three youngest brothers. In the end, Katie must overcome the toughest of circumstances to escape from a sinister orphanage where she and her youngest brothers have been dumped, in order to secure a safe life for them all. I can’t say enough about this book. I fell in love with Katie – her matter-of-fact view of life, her bravery, and her determination to hold her family together in the face of continuing tragedy. She hardly has a childhood and the events that buffet her are heartbreaking. All of the characters in the book are extremely well drawn – I still harbor a hatred for her father – and desperate choices her mother and father have to make are hopeful as well as destructive. The book speaks sadly to wearying, unending rounds of childbearing in a time without birth control and the treatment of children in orphanages in those days. And yet there are small slices of humor scattered here and there with the antics of the children. The reader is left with a nice dose of hope at the end. I recommend this book highly. It is a gripping read, one the reader is unlikely to put down, and a realistic view of desperate times in this county and their singular effect on a generation of immigrants. About the author: Golden Boxty in the Frypan was inspired by Dr. Pat Spenser’s mother’s coming-of-age experiences during the 1930s. She is a retired professor and community college president, who has lived in three countries and seven states. Pat loves to travel and spent time in Africa, Spain, France, Croatia, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Greece, Mexico, the Galapagos, and the Bahamas, as well as Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands and has road-tripped across the continental United States several times. She enjoys getting to know people and learning about their culture. Pat’s short story, A Healing Place, won the 2019 Oceanside Literary Festival. Other short stories are published in journals such as the Literary Yard, Scarlet Leaf Review, and Potato Soup Journal, Almost an Author, and in a California Writers Circle anthology. She speaks to service and community organizations on human trafficking, writing processes, and her books. When not writing, Pat golfs, reads, walks the beach, hangs out with family and friends, or frequents book clubs and writing critique groups. She now lives in Southern California with her husband. You can visit Pat Spencer online at: Website: https://patspencer.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pat.spencer.9849/ Instagram: DrPatSpencer Twitter: @DrPatSpencer 1 0
Rarely have I read a book so filled with love, acceptance, kindness, faith, and hope. The Gift brought me to tears several times, and the experience of reading it was uplifting. This is the second in the Harbor Pointe series, covering two centuries of stories linked by the Harbor Pointe Inn on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in California. Banished by her parents, Sixteen-year-old Shelly is heavily pregnant as the result of a one-time mistake. Her father gives her the keys to his old truck and some money for gas, and tells her to drive across the country to live with an aunt in Washington until her baby is delivered… and possibly longer. Out of gas and money, Shelley finds herself on a fire road close to the West Coast when her contractions begin. A snow storm rages outside as Shelly delivers the baby on her own, then determines that she and the baby will die in the truck if she can’t find them shelter. Wrapping the newborn in her father’s old coat, she follows a flickering light in the distance. The light is from a lighthouse, and she collapses at the door to the lighthouse keeper’s cottage. She is rescued by Jes, the lighthouse keeper, and his wife, Mary. Shelly and her baby are a Christmas gift of life and love to Jes and Mary, who lost their only child after a few years after she was born. The love between Jes and Mary as they open their hearts and home to Shelly and the baby is miraculous. The characters in the story are so real and their emotions so beautifully rendered that I felt great joy while reading. This is a happy story – only good surprises as you get to meet Jonathan, Shelly’s boyfriend; his cousin Howard, who happens to live in Harbor Pointe, and Jonathan’s parents. The allusions to the real Christmas story filter in here and there, as well. I highly recommend the book, and I hope everyone will read it to feel the joy of the season. About the author: Gwen M. Plano grew up in Southern California and spent most of her professional life in higher education. She taught and served as an administrator in colleges in Japan, New York, Connecticut, and California. Gwen’s academic background is in theology and counseling. Recently retired, she now lives in the high desert of Arizona, where she writes, gardens, and travels with her husband. When Gwen is not writing, she’s often in the beautiful Red Rocks of Sedona, where she finds inspiration. She has authored five books. The Contract is a thriller fiction novel she co-authored by John W. Howell, which received multiple awards and is an Amazon Best Seller. You can find Gwen Plano on her blog: https://www.gwenplano.com/ 2 0
Good-by Old Paint is the latest volume of C.S. Boyack Hat series. The main characters are Lizzie St. Laurent is a college dropout working multiple jobs to make ends meet. In the first in this series, she visits her grandmother’s house snitches a box from a moving truck and in that box finds a hat. But not just any hat. This Hat can talk and can alter its look to any fashion appropriate to Lizzie’s wardrobe. More importantly, the Hat can transport Lizzie to other places, once it’s on her head. Lizzie is taken by the Hat to a cabin owned by her grandmother, a place which no one knows about, and discovers she can play a mean jazz bass, when the Hat plays through her fingers. In Good-by Old Paint, Lizzie is a bass player in a band, trying to sell time shares by telemarketing without much success – even with the help of the Hat, and driving for Uber with little in the way of tips. She is visited by two special agents on special assignment from Section 13 of the FBI, one which deals with supernatural goings on. They request her to get rid of a large population of gremlins infesting a server farm of the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency in return for cancelling her seventy-two thousand dollars in unpaid student loans. She accepts. Let the fun and mayhem begin. Lizzie thinks she can get rid of the gremlins by shooting them with her .357 magnum revolver, but shooting them doesn’t make a dent. Her job is going to involve magic, and Lizzie introduces us to some old friends in a witches’ coven and some new, very odd ones – especially when Lizzie is the recipient of a curse that gradually turns her into a frog and has her eating dried crickets. I choked on my coffee when I was introduced to Dawson Charlie, a glob of sourdough starter that escaped from his crock, feeling frisky. The conversations between Lizzie and the Hat are hilarious, and she is constantly flummoxed as her, a rusted-out Mini Cooper with a torn roof, refuses to start without a booster. This author comes up with the most inventive, imaginative characters and this book is full of humor. Goodbye Old Paint is the latest in a delightfully fun series of whimsical fantasy with overtones of chick lit and Disney magic. As a novella, it is a fast, fast read, and I am definitely looking forward to the next Hat adventure. 5 stars About the author: Craig Boyack was born in Elko, Nevada, which the author claims has always been a little behind the times and gives him a unique perspective. He moved to Idaho in the early 2000s and jumped into his writing career where he found other writers and critique groups. He likes to write about things that are unusual, and his books are science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal designed to entertain his readers. The Hat is a seven book series, and the author has written twenty eight books in all, several of which I’ve reviewed and all of which I’ve liked. You can find the author On X @vigilante On his blog, Entertaining Stories: https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/ 0 0
Some of you know I am writing a book about Daniel Boone, Daniel Boone and Me, aimed for YA and adult readers. I never expected to take a side trip with this book, but I wrote a story for an online prompt and the members of my critique group encouraged me to expand on it. So I ventured down the rabbit hole of research on Daniel Boone. Along the way I learned some interesting facts about this legendary explorer and hunter. Portrait of Daniel Boone from Wikipedia by Chester Harding (copyright free) “I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days,” he reportedly said. !. Daniel Boone was not southern. He was born in 1734 and raised by Quakers in eastern Pennsylvania, about 10 miles from the modern city of Reading. In 1734, this was fairly close to the frontier, and he was given a gun at age 12 to hunt. 2. Boone was not well- educated. He disliked school and went hunting as often as possible. His sister taught him to read and a little of writing. 4. In the early days, Boone had long braided hair, dressed with bear grease. He tied his long shirt with a leather belt, from which hung a powder horn, a bullet pouch, a knife and a tomahawk. He dressed himself like the Indians in a breechclout – a length of cloth that passed between the legs and then under a cloth belt, with the extra cloth hanging in the front and behind. Many hunters dressed that way. 5. He did not wear a coonskin cap! He wore a wide-brimmed felt or beaver hat, much like the Quaker style hats worn by men in Pennsylvania. Daniel Boone wears a blue capeau coat over his buckskin coat, based on one seen in the only legitimate portrait of the frontiersman, painted circa 1820 by Chester Harding. Indian at lower right is his Shawnee friend from Missouri who accompanied him on hunting trips. (True West Magazine) 6. In 1775, Boone and a group of thirty men completed a 200-mile trail through the wilderness to the Cumberland Gap—a natural break in the rugged Appalachian Mountains—and into Kentucky, which would become his home. This trail would be named the Wilderness Trail and the route by which many settlers moved west. By the artist George Caleb Bingham I hope you find these tidbits interesting, and I’ll have more as I come closer to a publication date! 0 0
I will be honest at the outset of this review and tell my readers that I have never read a book by Mae Clair that I didn’t love. This one is no exception. The Price of Atonement is the first of The Harbor Point series, for which the writers of the Story Empire banded together to each write a novella set around the fictional Harbor Pointe Inn and lighthouse. Our series spans two centuries, from past to future. You may recognize most of these wonderful authors: Mae Clair, Gwen Plano, DL Finn, D. Wallace Peach, Jan Sikes, Stacy Troilo, Joan Hall and Harmony Kent. The Price of Atonement is the first release, and The Gift by Gwen Plano will be released on October 17. You can preorder all the books on Amazon. Each story is completely independent of the others and can be read as a standalone. The Price of Atonement starts the series off with a bang, or maybe I should say shivers. Set in the late 1880’s, a strange man named Leviticus arrives unannounced in Harbor Point, along with his assistant and caretaker, Wyatt Resnick. Leviticus is a traveler, seeking ghosts who won’t cross over and haunt the people where they died. While his reasons for doing this is not revealed at first, in typical Mae Clair style, it has to do with the deaths of his wife and brother. The Hawthorne family of Harbor Point run an inn, where Leviticus and Wyatt stay, and have some profound secrets concerning an angry ghost, located in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage, who threatens a young mother and her baby. The characters are so well drawn that the readers knows them, feels their fear and their guilt, and roots for Leviticus to help them, even at the risk of his own well-being. Leviticus in particular is so unusual – he has a rope burn around his neck, has to drink an elixir to stay alive, and clearly has been alive a looong time. He can both see and hear the angry ghost. Mae Clair is a past master at creating the environment and settings for her characters. You can feel yourself in Harbor Point, beautifully described: “Leviticus caught the scent of yarrow and coast buckwheat, tasted salt and brine on his lips carried by a draft of chill autumn air. The crash of waves against the rocks made him stride past the lighthouse, the structure looming over his back. A narrow path had been cut between the dunes to a rocky beach below.” What has caused of the ghost’s anger? Who is threatened and how will Leviticus convince her to leave? Why is Leviticus on his journeys? I read this story straight through, unwilling to put it down. And I hope to see the characters of Leviticus and Wyatt again, and highly recommend this, their first and hopefully not last, outing. About the author: Mae Clair is an award-winning member of the International Thriller Writers and a founding member of the Story Empire. She’s a bestseller on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with several of her novels chosen as book club selections. Mae writes primarily in the mystery/suspense genre, flavoring her plots with elements of urban legend and folklore. Married to her high school sweetheart, she lives in Pennsylvania and is passionate about cryptozoology, old photographs, a good Maine lobster tail, and cats. Discover more about Mae On Twitter: @MaeClair1 On her website: https://maeclair.net/ and blog: MaeClair.com 0 0
I need to let you know about the Carolina Book and Writer Conference, with keynote speaker Brian Sykes. He’ll be presenting on the influence of AI in our industry. This conference is absolutely free and I am giving you the link below. The conference starts on Friday, October 6th and runs through Sunday, October 8th. I am going to be co-hosting a panel entitled So You’re Thinking of Writing a Book Series with an incredibly talented writer, Mae Clair. She is a favorite author of mine and I am honored to be joining her. She and I will be in a debate about the pros and cons of this topic on Saturday, the 7th, from 11 to 11:50 EST. No boxing gloves will be used. Here is the link to the conference: https://carolinabwc.com/ You can register there and also see the full program. Join us! 0 0
The day my computer died and recovered, Hubs and I took a plane flight to Utah. He had booked a three night stay at the Park City Hilton, part of a promotion to lure time share buyers, but knowing we wouldn’t bite. What an experience our stay at the ‘Elegant Resort Hotel’ turned out to be! Sound the drums and bugles! We arrived in Salt Lake City around 8:30 PM but didn’t arrive at Park City until after 11 PM. We made sure to call twice along the way to let them know we were coming in late. We were looking forward to the apartment pictured in the brochure – wide open space with comfortable furniture and looking out through large windows to a views of the mountains! We checked in and were directed to go into the underground parking deck – a subterranean cave that looked like it had been carved out by Neanderthals – and drove around in a circle three times looking for the door that said Cedar East. We were told to try to park close to that door. Turns out someone had left the Cedar East door open so we couldn’t see the sign. There was only one parking spot left in the cave, anyway, on the other side of the circle from the door. I must admit looking for bats. The building was really, really old, which should have been a clue to what awaited us. The hallways were dark and dim and someone had been digging at the plaster walls, so the carpet was covered in plaster and dust. Probably the same cavemen who dug out the parking deck. The ‘apartment’ we’d been given had a cathedral ceiling with lighting that candles would have improved. The only windows anywhere were on either side of the fireplace — which we discovered the next day had a fabulous views of the side of a mountain fifteen feet from the building. The kitchen contained nothing – not even the usual two bottles of water most hotels provide. At 1 AM our time and exhausted to boot, the water would have been nice. Wine even better. Then we looked for the bedroom. Nothing on the ground level, but then we saw a steep flight of stairs leading up into the gloom. At the top, we discovered a light switch which illuminated the one bedroom and one bathroom on opposite sides of the hall. Perfect for two older people with four knee replacements at the end of a long day. The bedroom had just a double bed and no windows! By this time I was beginning to feel like a Neanderthal myself. Now Hubs and I don’t mind cuddling, but we haven’t actually ever slept in a double bed. So we made the decision that he would sleep on the pullout couch downstairs. We both spent a restless night. In the morning, we called the concierge and voiced our concerns about the “Elegant Resort Accommodations” we were promised, only to be told they had given away our reservation because we were late, and this was the only place they could put us. In the meantime, my daughter and son-in-law had purchased cards and balloons to be put in our ‘Elegant Resort’ apartment since it was Hubs’ birthday. They’d been thinking of champagne but decided against it – good decision! As it was, someone else got the cards and balloons. We left at 7AM the next morning, after getting the rest of our Elegant Resort Vacation cancelled and feeling like we’d escaped from the Stone Age. At least we didn’t have to attend the promised presentation on the Elegant Resort and our Hilton Hotel in Layton had water and queen beds waiting for us. The rest of our trip was all uphill. 0 0
