Some authors plan on writing as a career. Not so for Lisa Bell, our guest this week–here’s her story, and she’s offering a signed copy of THE INNER NEMESIS to one happy camper…I mean commenter. (:
Lisa and I contributed to a wonderful Christmas collection called CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE AGES, and she’s also offering one signed copy of this book plus a couple of others to form a Christmas anthology. We are celebrating this new release!
Take it away, Lisa! (Oh, and did I say I get to meet Lisa in person next week in Texas Hill Country?!?! Very excited here.)
I didn’t grow up dreaming of someday writing for a living, but I became an unexpected writer. In retrospect, I always enjoyed writing. People often told me I should write a book. Imagine my surprise when a corporate manager reviewed my first standard operating procedure and said, “Just because these are technical documents, they don’t have to be boring. Lose the passives.” Now, passives top my list of editor pet peeves, personally avoiding them as much as possible.
I don’t remember the exact moment of my paradigm shift or why it came, but one day, I knew.
I am a writer.
Saying that changed my perspective. At the time, I worked in the corporate world. After that day, instead of announcing my corporate position and timidly adding, “and sometimes I write,” when asked, I boldly said, “I am a writer. I daylight as a business analyst.” The mental shift, didn’t change me, but it altered my perspective.
I left the corporate world intending to freelance write and edit books. God had other plans, and I became a magazine editor, which means writing and editing, plus a host of other responsibilities. Most of the time, I love my job. Having written hundreds of articles in my current position as an editor for NOW Magazines, LLC., my heart desires fiction writing. Recently returning to that passion, I find myself searching for time to work on a novel.
My second desire, helping other writers, led to my side career as a freelance editor, but I love teaching writing skills and encouraging others in their writing. Somehow, I grew passionate about seeing others succeed. Which steered me to create two books designed for writers. Honestly, I designed the planner for myself because I couldn’t find one that fit my needs well.
What better way to help writers than with interactive tools? My Inner Nemesis offers a combination for journaling ideas, writing prompts and inspiration—perfect for use as morning pages exercises or when you need a break to get ideas flowing.
A Day in a Writer’s World provides one-page per day for recording critical, important and pleasurable tasks. At the end of the day, assess your degree of success, and jot down notes you need to remember.
Welcome, Peggy Wirgau–and everyone, get ready for a treat! Peggy’s giving away a signed paperback copy of her very first book.
My debut novel, The Stars in April, is based on the true story of a twelve-year-old Titanic survivor, Ruth Becker. Released on March 30, 2021 by IlluminateYA, the book has been honored with a Starred Review from School Library Journal.
In 2012, during the hundredth anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, I discovered among the survivors the name of a girlwhose parents were missionaries in India. Twelve-year-old Ruth Becker was separated from her family as the Titanic lifeboats were loaded, yet she managed to share her blankets with others and offer a handkerchief to a stoker who had injured his finger.
What would make this young girl act so bravely when she must have been terrified? How did she feel about leaving her home in India, and what led to her decisions in a lifeboat full of strangers that cold, dark night? As I asked myself those questions, I began researching and realized I needed to tell Ruth’s story.
An excerpt from the back cover:
The year is 1912. When doctors in India are unable to treat her baby brother’s illness, Ruth’s missionary parents decide there is one solution: move her mother and the children across the world—to Michigan.
But India is the only home Ruth knows. In a matter of days, she must leave Papa and all she loves behind, abandon her dream of one day playing violin in the Calcutta Orchestra, and embark on a four-week journey to England, followed by the voyage to New York aboard the luxurious, ill-fated RMS Titanic.
Ruth’s story is one of courage and self-sacrifice as she earns her sea legs and faces the unknown, culminating in a desperate, tragic night she will never forget.
One of the best parts of writing the book was getting acquainted with a member of the Titanic Historical Society, who knew Ruth in her later years. He graciously provided several tales she had shared with him about her life in India and aboard the Titanic, and I was able to weave them into the novel. One that took place in India involved a tea party that her mother hosted for other missionary wives, only to have it interrupted by wild monkeys who had decided to invade their veranda and eat the sandwiches!
“Creativity can serve as an anchor in our lives, giving us hope for something beautiful to emerge from the emotional wreckage around us. That’s what I hope my readers will experience in my novels as they escape into another realm…”
~Debra Whiting Alexander
WELCOME, Debra Whiting Alexander! As an Emily Dickinson lover, I’m excited about your new release. Debra’s here to tell us more, and is offering a GIVEAWAY to a commenter: See details below.
A RIVER FOR GEMMA
(Releasing August 16, 2021 Available for preorder now!)
Three spirited women. One perilous past. And an unlikely heroine…
Pigeonholed as “intellectually disabled,” a young woman’s desire for motherhood collides with her grandmother’s hidden past, forcing her to muster the grit to save their lives. A sparkling tale of wild courage and unexpected miracles.
Sometimes a woman must take risks to learn to be brave…
When I was nine, I read the poem, “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died”, by Emily Dickinson. That little poem stirred something in me—a desire to capture on paper compelling moments of life in a simple way. When something touches my soul, I listen to it. Those moments often end up in my novels.
Raised in San Diego, I grew up on a steady diet of western movies and musicals and a love for the ocean, cowgirls, pianos, golden retrievers, and art. In Oregon my home backs up to lush green fields, horses, stunning sunsets, and hazelnut orchards. The beaches of southern California were the inspiration for my debut novel, Zetty, but it’s in the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest that I found inspiration for my second novel, A River for Gemma.
Inspired by my grandmother who died in a psychiatric hospital at the age of 41, Zettyblends personal history with my professional background. The story shines a light on the stigma of mental illness and the shame that often accompanies it. A River for Gemmais the story of a young woman with an intellectual disability and challenges our ingrained perspectives on disability and capability. Writing an uplifting story about nature and the pure of heart gave me a wonderful escape from the difficult years our country has recently experienced.
My writing career began with seventeen published books of non-fiction related to post trauma recovery for children and families, including a project written for schools and parents following the 9/11 attacks. My passion today is to write stories about the humor, spirit, and strength of unconventional women. I relish the opportunity to write about friendship, motherhood, mental health, and to do it with spiritual substance —matters of the heart and soul. I’m hooked on Upmarket Women’s Fiction because it allows me to integrate all the things I love most.
Comment and Like for a chance to WIN a signed copy of A RIVER FOR GEMMA! Winner to be announced Thursday evening. Good luck!
Welcome to Sandi Rog, who sheds fresh light on the ancient Biblical story of the Samaritan woman at the well. I learned something new about this passage I thought I knew so well, so you may, too. Sandi is offering a pdf copy of this book to a commenter.
Broken. Rejected. A failure.
On Photine’s daily trek to Jacob’s well, one step forward is another step back into her past as she relives the dismal events of her life. All she knows is brokenness, much like the waterpot she carries on her head. Rejection from those who used to be her friends is now commonplace. Failure should be her name. After all, who else in all of Samaria has gone through five husbands? And now she no longer sacrifices for her sins. Why bother when she’s just going to commit the same act every single day? She no longer cares.
Then one day, a day that started out like all the others, she meets a man at the well who offers something she had all but given up on. Hope. Hope for healing… Hope for forgiveness. Hope for a new life. Can she dare believe that His promises are meant for someone so broken? Someone so lost? Someone like … her?
This is not your typical “woman at the well” story that you’ll find in most novels. Rather than focus on all her husbands, I start this story with Photine meeting Jesus. For those of you who don’t know, Jesus has a chat with this woman while she’s at the well, and He reveals “everything about her.” This causes Photine to believe Jesus must be a “man of God,” and the story takes off from there. You can read about this encounter in John 4:1-26.
I didn’t grow up in the church and was so confused about what God wanted. All my life I had questions about Jesus and truth, but I always got different answers. Which ones were right? I finally found someone who was willing to teach me the truth. What stood out the most to me was when he pointed to his Bible and said, “Don’t listen to a word I have to say if it’s not found in this Book.” That moment in time transformed my life. I learned I could always find truth in God’s word, and I learned to read each passage in context. I imagined Photine must have felt similarly, and that’s partly why she had so many questions for Jesus and was so excited to share her account at the well with others. As I wrote this story, much of my own story became a part of Photine’s. More importantly, not only was our story about looking for answers, it was about learning to forgive and discovering the depths of God’s love for us through the sacrifice of His son. I often never thought I was “good enough” to receive His love (truth is, none of us are), and that is part of Photine’s story.
FACTS BEHIND THE FICTION:
THE WOMAN AT THE WELL HAS A NAME! WHO KNEW?!
The Woman at the Well isn’t named in Scriptures, but according to the Orthodox Church her name is Photine (Photina or Photini) and she’s revered as a Saint. They say that Peter gave her the name “Photine” after her baptism, which means Enlightened One. They also say that Photine had five sisters (Anatole, Photo, Photis, Paraskeve, and Kyriake) and two sons (Victor and Joses). Victor, Photine’s oldest son, was also considered a saint.
THE TRUE PEOPLE OF GOD
The main differences between Samaritans and Jews rested in the appropriate place to worship God and the Samaritans assumption that Moses would return as the Messiah. Samaritans practiced their religion through sacrifices in the same way the Jewish people did because they believed in the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible); although, they still changed some things in their version, especially in regards to Moses. The Samaritans believed they were the true people of God, which is why there was so much animosity between them and the Jews. While the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem, the Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim. It is said that the modern-day Samaritans are the Palestinians, which would explain the conflict that continues to this day. Because the Samaritans were a mixed race (2 Kings 17:24-35), some also worshipped man-made gods of that time. However, in this case, it’s clear Photine’s interest lay in the One true God.
PHOTINE WAS A MARTYR
The Orthodox Church reveres Photine as a martyr. After converting her family, they left their homeland and traveled all the way to Carthage to share the gospel. In 66 AD they were persecuted by Nero, and it says they “all” were tortured and executed. Sabastianos (a Greek name) was also among them, known to be a good friend of Victor (Photine’s oldest son). They say Nero ordered her (and them) to be thrown down an empty well, which also reveals she likely told him of first meeting Jesus at the well and how he told her “everything she ever did.”
Sandi Rog is a First Place Winner in the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Awards for her book, Out of the Ashes.She’s received numerous accolades for her other inspirational novels, including Walks Alone, The Master’s Wall, andYahshua’s Bridge. She has also spoken at Christian ladies retreats both in the United States and Europe. After serving as vocational missionaries in The Netherlands for thirteen years, Sandi returned to Colorado with her husband and four children where they settled down with a kitty cat and too many spiders. You can learn more about Sandi and her books at www.sandirog.com.
It’s a true delight to present D.A. Featherling this week. What an ingenious, effort-full gift she has given to her grandson, and also to others who read her work! This travel adventure series, 13 books in all, was originally written for 10-12 year-olds, but adults seem to like it, too, although the series is geared for a Y/A audience. I’ll let Dorothy explain, and she’s giving away one paperback copy of Book One to each of THREE commenters. Now, D.A. explains the origin and development of her series:
These books were originally aimed at the YA audience. My grandson loves to read, and I wanted to write something he would enjoy, and I could leave as a remembrance/legacy for him. At the time I started the series, he loved time travel stories. So, as a doting grandma, I decided to write some for him.
Of course, the first issue I had to solve was ‘how was I going to get my characters from one place/time to another?’ A lot of time travel books have been written and everything from a tree house to a rowboat to a horse and more used as the medium of travel. I finally decided a board game would best serve my characters, so before I started writing, I designed The Time Game.
Twelve illustrations gave me twelve locations to send my characters and the center “Deep Underground” picture would finish the series with book number thirteen. I had the game manufactured and added a few ‘penalty’ type boxes to help the excitement of playing, but the illustrations were intended to be the key to the stories.
My protagonists are twins – Marcus and Samantha Willoughby – in the beginning twelve years old. I aged them a year every couple of years so that by the last book they were eighteen and graduated high school. That also allowed readers of various ages to enjoy the adventures since they weren’t limited to one age.
They discover an old board game in a deceased relative’s dusty attic. They take it home and soon find they have introduced excitement and peril into their lives they never expected. Their great-uncle was a self-styled scientist/inventor, and the game was produced and stored by him. A most important part of the story (and the game) are four stones (gemstones used in the game). The red stone transports the twins from their time to the place they ‘land’ and returns them home. The blue stone produces a force field, the green stone heals, and the yellow stone provides heat and/or light. The stones are introduced one at a time in the first four books and then in combination in succeeding books.
The game consists not only of the stones, but tokens as well. Each token is imprinted with one of the illustrations on the game board. When the twins put the matching token on the board square while holding the red stone and touching, they are transported through time to the place represented by the illustration. They have no control, therefore, on where or when they will end up. The titles of all the books represent the number of the tokens as well, i.e., “Eye of the Storm: The First Token”, and so on through book number 13 titled “Deep Underground: The Final Token.”
Wanting the books to be unique, I made a huge effort to find places that had something interesting and not necessarily well-known in history as destinations for the twins. Also, I wanted there to be an element of danger or adventure involved in each story. So it was necessary for me to do a lot of research to come up with unusual ideas that tied into the board illustration and ones that occurred at different times in history. The books are set, not in order, from 1798 to 2048 in various locations throughout the world…and beyond.
As you can tell, the twins get around to a lot of places and to a lot of different times. While researching for the novels, I often discovered what I considered interesting tidbits of historical information that really didn’t fit into the storyline. Not wanting my readers to miss anything, in most of the books, I’ve included a section at the back…”Authors Note”…and shared those bits of information. So the books are educational. And whether humorous or serious in content, always correct as far as the information is concerned.
I also made every effort to be sure the books are as historically accurate as possible. Many readers enjoy having a story that’s true and often contains real people who were involved in interesting and not well-known situations.
The Time Game Series books are clean reads, with a slight faith element where appropriate. Hopefully, even though my grandson is now a bit older and less inclined to read as opposed to looking at a screen, I hope the children/grandchildren of others will enjoy the books for years to come.
BIOGRAPHY
D. A. (Dorothy) Featherling is an award-winning, multi-published author with thirty books in print. She has published adult thrillers, mysteries, romantic comedies, and end times fiction. Her non-fiction books include a 1930s Georgetown, Texas cold case murder, two e-books on giving school presentations and a print book encouraging activity for folks who sit too much. She also has a thirteen-book time travel fiction series being read by ages 9-99. The board game that inspired the books has been produced and is available through her website.
Her administrative years in private corporations, state agencies, and a university physics research center, and as owner of a home staging business, have given her a multitude of ideas and characters for her novels.
She has also written numerous technical pieces and has won awards for fiction, journalism, and public speaking. Her first mystery, “It Adds Up to Murder,” book 1 of the “It’s Murder at the Office” series, won a Daphne du Maurier Mystery and Suspense Award. D.A. now lives in Georgetown, Texas.
This week, Ben Fox highlights his vision for his remarkable new site. I’m excited about this venture, and think you will be, too. Ben invites readers to send him feedback and ideas at ben@shepherd.com
I love to read and I love wandering through my local bookstore. Nothing can replace the pleasure I get from that experience. That said, I want to try to build something like that but for the online world and help readers discover books in a new way while helping authors meet more readers.
Shepherd is my attempt to try to find new ways to discover amazing books. I ask authors and experts to recommend 5 books on a topic they know well. Alongside that list, I introduce readers to the author and their book.
This is a win-win situation where readers can find amazing books and authors get to introduce their book to more readers.
For many years I’ve been wanting to do something to promote books and reading. I started working on the project full-time in December 2020, with no background in publishing. But I am a long-time tech entrepreneur. I think that brings a fresh perspective to this industry and I am hopeful I can bring some value to readers and authors.
I bought the domain Shepherd.com many years ago. I wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for, but when building this project I felt the domain name was a perfect match for this project. It matches the goal of shepherding readers to pastures full of amazing books.
In addition to myself, I work with a freelance developer in Berlin and a designer in Serbia on a part-time basis. For the April launch of Shepherd, I manually created data entries for 400+ book recommendation lists, 2,340 books, and 2,457 author profiles. I should have some help soon to speed that up, and along with the developer, have built a really great system to improve the process.
There is a growing trend in publishing that authors have to become their own marketing team. This concerns me because it takes time away from writing and is very difficult to do. I have decades of experience with online marketing, which it is not easy to learn and requires daily investment.
One of my long-term goals with Shepherd is to make it easier for authors to market themselves and figure out how I can help. To start, I ask authors to recommend 5 books on a subject they are passionate about and we feature one of their books alongside that list forever. The goal is to help authors meet more readers interested in that topic and sell more books.
This is just the start, and we have a lot more coming at Shepherd.
I love to read and books, and stories are one of my favorite things about humanity. I want to see more authors make enough from their writing to do it full time. Partially for the selfish reasons that I love reading and want to read more great books. And, partially because I think the more we share our experiences and perspective with others, the more we create a more understanding world.
We live in a time where social-media algorithms serve only to reinforce our world view. I want Shepherd to play a role in combatting that. A book is one of the best ways to help someone see the world through different eyes. We need a lot more of that right now.
I’ve got a lot planned for Shepherd! Between now and August we will be rolling out a feature to relate book lists to each other to help readers follow their curiosity through the site, full topic pages to help readers find books they are interested in, and a search feature. Plus, a lot of improvements to the front page to help readers find something that interests them.
Visit Ben’s site to find what may become your favorite book!
Welcome to Georgiana Daniels, who veered from her normal writing path a few years back . . . and discovered a new genre! She’s offering a giveaway: a paperback copy of Crumbs of Passion to a reader hungry for some FUN READING. (USA only)
Have you ever had a harebrained idea that you had to see through to the end? That was me, back in November 2019—and that’s how Crumbs of Passionwas born! Every year I try (and fail spectacularly) at National Novel Writing Month, NANO for short. That year, I decided to switch things up and write a cozy mystery, just for the fun of it.
Until then, I’d written Christian fiction, and my hope was always to share a deeper purpose and meaning. But when KC Crumb—a woman on the wrong side of 35, returning home after losing her job and her boyfriend—presented herself to me, I had to see what would happen. (I mean, once she found the dead body of her ex in her garage, I knew things were about to heat up!)
Creating a small-town mystery with a cast of zany characters was both a creative release and a way to slip into someone else’s stilettos. I have to say, following my harebrained idea was the most fun I’ve had writing in years, and I believe it comes through in the book!
Now I’m inviting you along on my harebrained adventure, to join KC and her gang of gung-ho ladies from Crumb’s Bakery as they solve murders and share a whole lot of laughs and friendship along the way. (KC Crumb is also hoping for romance, but we’ll just have to see about that! Book 2, Crumb and Punishmentis in the works—due out Summer 2021.)
You can get to know the gang when you join my newsletterand receiveThe Mystery of the Missing Groom, the short story prequel to Crumbs, as a thank you!
What harebrained ideas have you had lately? Enquiring minds want to know!
What do you get when you cross a jilted ex, a dead body, and a killer canine named Pooh Bear?
When social media manager KC Crumb is fired from her bougie job in L.A., she returns home to Beaver Bluff, Oregon only to discover a dead body in her new rental. Unfortunately, the body belongs to her philandering ex-boyfriend—a man she publicly threatened before she left town 15 years ago. Now all eyes are on KC, including those of hunky officer Antonio Hamson. With the help of her new best friend, who happens to be a jiu-jitsu expert/librarian, and a gaggle of gung-ho ladies from her aunt’s bakery, KC and Pooh Bear set out to track down the real killer. Half the town is under suspicion, including a shady car salesman and a preening personal trainer, causing the clues to mount faster than the followers on her newly single social media profiles. And when her life is mysteriously threatened, KC has to sniff out the murderer…before the handsome officer hauls her in for homicide.
Author bio:
Georgiana Daniels is an author, homeschooling mom, and master’s degree student. “Busy” is her middle name, but if she finds a nugget of free time she enjoys knitting, reading, and fumbling around on the piano to the dismay of others. Georgiana lives with her family in Arizona where she’s always on the lookout for her next great adventure.
Three-time Christy and two-time Carol and INSPY Award–winning author Cathy Gohlke writes novels steeped with inspirational lessons from history. Her stories reveal how people break the chains that bind them and triumph over adversity through faith. When not traveling to historic sites for research, she and husband, Dan, divide their time between northern Virginia and the Jersey Shore, enjoying time with their grown children and grandchildren.
Cathy is giving away a hard copy of Night Bird Calling to one commenter on this blog. And here’s my review of this novel: Religion can cause great pain when it’s used to control others, and there’s a vast difference between this kind of travesty and true spirituality. The author has the courage to go behind the scenes with abuses kept hidden in other eras, but also shows how healing results through honesty and faith.
What inspired you to write Night Bird Calling?
Years ago I wrote a number of short stories based on some quirky characters in a fictional North Carolina foothills town called No Creek. I loved those characters, but in order to create a novel I needed an outside character who could see both strengths and foibles in my town folk and still care about them, still want to become part of their community, and who could tie their stories together.
For many years I’ve also wrestled with the idea of writing about the racial divide and abuse I saw growing up during years of the civil rights movement in the South, as well as domestic abuse and church oppression, things I experienced in my youth and young womanhood. Night Bird Calling is the marriage of all those experiences and stories.
Night Bird Calling involves some very challenging topics like domestic abuse, racism, and church abuse. What motivated you to write on these topics? I grew up mostly in the South during years of the civil rights movement, where I witnessed segregation, desegregation, racial oppression, and abuse but also heroic stands against injustice and some hard-won changes. I learned that attitudes do not change just because laws change. Transformation of the heart is also needed.
That is as true today as it was then. As a young woman, I ran away from an abusive marriage and an oppressive church. My journey toward emotional and spiritual healing took many years. I want women in similar situations to know that they are not alone, that God loves them so very dearly and that the condemnations of their oppressors do not come from Him.
I wrote Night Bird Calling not only for victims of abuse, but in the hope that readers might gain insight, sympathy, and empathy for those who’ve been abused or pushed down, that they might better understand and see creative ways they can help, ways they can be a voice for the voiceless or those needing someone to walk alongside them.
Visit website at cathygohlke.com and Facebook at CathyGohlkeBooks.
The word Psychedelic doesn’t show up here very often, but that’s what Sally Carpenter has titled her series. Those of us who came of age in the 60’s either were drawn to, or stayed away from those lights! Writing about this era would be daunting for me, but below, Sally tells us how she chose it. Leave a comment to enter a giveaway for a paperback copy of “Flower Power Fatality.” (U.S. addresses only.)
The Glint of an Idea
By Sally Carpenter
How did a week at church camp lead to the creation of a cozy mystery series?
As a youth, I attended a summer church camp in Santa Claus, Indiana. Yes, that was the name of the town. At the time the Methodist Church owned a campground there. When mom picked me up from camp, I wanted to visit the town’s claim to fame: Santa Claus Land, the world’s oldest theme park that opened in 1946. The park is still in operation as Holiday World/Surfin’ Safari.
In about 2016. I was searching for a setting for a new mystery series, something different than the usual cozy towns. Santa Claus became Yuletide, Indiana, which, like its counterpart, has streets and stores with holiday names.
Santa Claus Land became the Country Christmas Family Fun Park. My protagonist, Noelle McNabb (she was born December 25), works as an actress in the park’s Candy Cane Capers musical show.
In a radical move, I set the books in 1967. I’m not hip on modern technology; I don’t even own a cellphone. I love the culture of the 1960s: the music, media, clothes, vibes. It was a dark time too, with the generation gap, Vietnam War, civil rights movement, space race and the Cold War.
With the popularity of the James Bond, movies and TV shows were full of spies. Television sets brought the Cold War into everyone’s living room. I created a spy agency that recruits Noelle. With her acting skills, she was a natural for undercover work. However, Noelle is a Christian; she attends Bethlehem Community Church in Yuletide. Her morals clash with the actions of the spy agency. Noelle loves her country, but what if her duty conflicts with her Christian beliefs?
Noelle also discovers she has an aunt she’s never heard of. Should she find the woman or let it be? Can Noelle bring her relative over from the dark side?
But when Noelle is confused, she returns to the solace of her holiday-themed hometown. Christians also draw their strength from the Christmas story, the birth of the babe that brought salvation to the world.
From a week at church camp to the Psychedelic Spy series is quite a jump. One never knows which experiences God uses to inspire a writer.
Sally Carpenter is a native Hoosier now living in Southern California. She works full time at a family-owned community newspaper, including penning the Roots of Faith column. She serves as a lector (scripture reader) at her parish. Sally writes two mystery series for Cozy Cat Press.
Becky Van Vleet preserves family memories in her picture book series–she tells us how she got started and is offering a free hardback copy of Harvey, The Traveling Harmonica to one commenter this week.
Let me add a short review:A Harmonica can find a way into your heart–I discovered this while reading Harvey, the Traveling Harmonica. The generations come together in Harvey’s delightful travels from a father to his son. And surprise! Our hero experiences great danger, rescue, and newfound friendship in the process of family life. I highly recommend this colorful, exciting children’s book, and plan to share my copy with our eight-year-old grandson.
I love creating and preserving family traditions and passing down stories to the next generation. That’s who I am! Sharing family stories with my children, journaling, preserving family traditions from my own childhood came naturally for me as a new wife and mother in the 1970s.
In my current season of life with adult children and my lovely Grands, more than ever I pass down our family stories, and I constantly fan the embers for past and new family traditions. After all, I’m a baby boomer. Shouldn’t we be sharing our stories with the next generations? We have firsthand knowledge of our parents enduring the depression and our fathers fighting in World War II. It is more important than ever before to share our stories.
As a sixty-something retiree, I decided to try my hand at writing a children’s picture book about a true family story. With a little plaid skirt that had been traveling in our family more than seventy years, I couldn’t let this story fade away. I wanted my book to capture this story and preserve the family memories. Thus, Talitha, the Traveling Skirtcame to be.
With the publication success of my first book, I asked myself, why not try another one? What family memory did I want to capture? In my growing up years, my father played the harmonica and I came to love that sweet music from a little instrument that could fit inside his pocket. When my keyboard met up with my memory of my father, Harvey, the Traveling Harmonicawas published soon thereafter.
As I held my second children’s book for the first time, I asked myself, why not create a series of traveling books? All kinds of family stories swirled through my mind for preserving memories in the form of future children’s books. And I’m excited to say that Rosie, the Traveling Rockeris slated for publication later this year.
We all have stories to share along with family traditions. Our stories make our world. And what better way to preserve our stories, memories, and traditions than through books to connect us all together? I would love for you to check out my website which is devoted to family stories and traditions: https://www.beckyvanvleet.comIf you have a story to share, let me know and I’ll feature it on my website for others to enjoy!
I love creating and preserving family traditions and passing down stories to the next generation. That’s who I am! Sharing family stories with my children, journaling, preserving family traditions from my own childhood came naturally for me as a new wife and mother in the 1970s.
In my current season of life with adult children and my lovely Grands, more than ever I pass down our family stories, and constantly fan the embers for past and new family traditions. After all, I’m a baby boomer. Shouldn’t we be sharing our stories with the next generations? We have firsthand knowledge of our parents enduring the depression and our fathers fighting in World War II. It is more important than ever before to share our stories.
As a sixty-something retiree, I decided to try my hand at writing a children’s picture book about a true family story. With a little plaid skirt that had been traveling in our family more than seventy years, I couldn’t let this story fade away. I wanted my book to capture this story and preserve the family memories. Thus, Talitha, the Traveling Skirt came to be.
With the publication success of my first book, I asked myself, why not try another one? What family memory did I want to capture? In my growing up years, my father played the harmonica and I came to love that sweet music from a little instrument that could fit inside his pocket. When my keyboard met up with my memory of my father, Harvey, the Traveling Harmonica resulted, and was published soon thereafter.
As I held my second children’s book for the first time, I asked myself, why not make a series of traveling books? All kinds of family stories swirled through my mind for preserving memories in the form of future children’s books. And I’m excited to say that Rosie, the Traveling Rocke ris slated for publication later this year.
We all have stories to share, along with family traditions. Our stories make our world. And what better way to preserve our stories, memories, and traditions than through books to connect us all together? I would love for you to check out my website devoted to family stories and traditions: https://www.beckyvanvleet.com If you have a story to share, let me know and I’ll feature it on my website for others to enjoy!
