Changes

Well. It's been a week, hasn't it? A couple of them. 

My tree, the cottonwood that stood up to lightning strikes, a committee of turkey buzzards I was afraid were going to take up residence in its branches, being a squirrel amusement park, and decorating the side yard with leaf clusters and sticks, went down in the last storm. It was there the entire 46 years we've lived here, and I miss it.

It seems like summer just started, but both the fair and the circus have passed. There are cars at school every day, where teachers are back in their classrooms already. The coolest thing about teachers--and there are many cool things about teachers--is that they don't have to make dramatic announcements or jump on a platform or make up swag or hire a PR firm to show that they're going to change the world. All they have to do is go to work, and they change it every single day. 

I remember saying--more than once, using different words--that my goal in writing books wasn't to give anyone a better life, but that I hoped to give them a good afternoon. I still hope that, but it makes me realize anew the enormity of what educators do.

Today, I'm starting what I hope becomes a series here at the Window. A friend shared a wonderful love story on social media yesterday and I asked her if I could use it on the blog. Thanks to Janie Haynes for the message of love everlasting. 

Janie & David Haynes

From Janie Haynes on July26, 2024. 

It’s been almost 51 years ago. I was coming home from another wedding of many I sang at. By that time a lot of my friends and cousins were married and I also sang in their weddings or was in their wedding parties or both. Windows down in my '66 Chevy and singing to the Carpenters eight-track tape, I was wondering when I would ever find my true love.

I remembered a sermon from a Billy Graham Crusade saying if you want something specific in life you need to pray what God wants for you. It was late, no traffic in sight, and I stopped on our road leading home. Under that beautiful, full moon, I kneeled on the roadside and asked God to bring who he wanted in my life.

It was just about two weeks later that I met David. Saturday we will celebrate 50 years being married.

I thank God for David and our family…and those 50 years.

Thanks for being here this week. If you have a story to share, one that changed your life or someone else's, we'd love to hear it. PM me. I hope Janie and David's story made you as happy as it did them...and me. Have a good week. Be nice to somebody.

More to Come... by Lee Ann Murphy

As the winter dusk creeps across the sky and shadows begin to fill the yard, I see the reflections of the Christmas tree lights in the window and so I find myself pondering on the year just past. Like all years, it was, as Charles Dickens once wrote, the best of times and the worst of times. 2023 was a time of transition and change. Although I resist change, I have learned that life is an ongoing process and that whether or not I like it, change is a part of that.

           Just as the seasons change around us or as the weather shifts from sunny skies to storm clouds, nothing remains unchanged. Once the holiday decorations get packed away and life moves back toward

normalcy, I think of the New Year as a clean page and uncharted territory. A new year offers opportunities and many people often make resolutions for change.

I seldom make New Years resolutions but I sometimes set goals and make plans although I have learned that even the best-laid plans can go awry. Another thing that I have learned is that I never know what an incoming year might bring or what may happen.

            Tomorrow, my children, all grown, will gather with me to enjoy pork, a traditional dish for prosperity, black-eyed peas seasoned Southern style with bacon and onions, other side dishes, and cake. Some years I bake a confection from scratch, an old-fashioned cherry layer cake. It’s often used as a Christmas cake but since my later mother celebrated her birthday each December 25^th, we often had a birthday cake with red and green decorations. Her grandparents started the tradition when she was a child, to make sure her birthday wasn’t lost in the holiday magic. I’ve often baked the cake for New Year’s Day and plan to again this year.

            For those who might want to try a vintage dessert, here’s the recipe:

Cake:

2 cups white sugar

½ cup vegetable shortening

2 eggs

3 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

1 can dark sweet, pitted cherries (not pie filling) 

Instructions:

Cream sugar with shortening, then add eggs and blend well.

Sift together flour, spice, and baking powder, add into creamed mixture alternately with milk.

Fold in the dark, sweet, pitted cherries but reserve the juice for the icing.

Blend well and spread in two prepared 8-inch cake pans and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

While cake is baking, prepare icing with 1 cup shortening, two cups powdered sugar, a dash of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla and the reserved cherry juice.

Frost when cool, stacking layers on top of each other.

January, named for the two-faced Roman god of transitions, gates, and doors, often represented the life versus death struggle as well. It’s joined the ranks of my least favorite months because my father left this world in January in 2009 and my husband departed ten years and a few days later. Widowhood was never something I aspired to gain but as I will soon mark the five-year milestone, I’ve adapted as much as anyone ever does.

At the time my husband passed, I was editor for two regional newspapers in southwest Missouri. As the staff dwindled due to ongoing budget cuts, changes in ownership, and the decline of newspapers, I became a one-woman machine. I wrote most of the paper, including sports, which is not my forte. I laid out each edition and sent it to press. When the opportunity arrived from Gannett, the parent company, for a severance package, I accepted it willingly to focus on my writing career.

My long-term dream of becoming an author hit pay dirt in 2010 with my first novel, Wolfe’s Lady, (Evernight Publishing) which debuted in the last days of December.  As my media job demanded increasing hours and my husband’s health declined, my output slowed and I had a hiatus in my author career. I returned with fresh publications in 2021. I ended the year with my two most recent titles in October, Huck’s Legacy and in November, The Scarred Santa.

I have four titles under contract so far in 2024 and more to come.

One of those upcoming releases is in edits now, The Cowboy’s Last Chance. The tag line is “Eight seconds is the span of time for a bull rider to win or lose, live or sometimes die.”

I’ll share the gorgeous cover now – I love the use of color, the theme, and overall presentation. Kudos go to the cover artist, Tina Lynn Stout.

On this last day of the outgoing year, though, my focus is on 2024. I may reflect on auld lange syne, like the traditional song heard so often at this time, but I look forward to the new, to the blank slate, and the unknown that awaits. As I remember those who left this world in January, I offer a shout out to my dad, Jerry Sontheimer, who introduced me to life and taught me there is no such word as can’t. Because of him, I can and will continue. I also offer a word to my late husband, Roy Murphy, who said "I do" and did.

In closing, I wish all the happiest in the coming year. May your heart’s desires come to pass.

To keep up with what’s new (and old) with me, follow my Amazon author page here:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lee-Ann-Sontheimer-Murphy/author/B004JPBM6I.

From an early age, Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy scribbled stories, inspired by the books she read, the family tales she heard, and even the conversations she overheard at the beauty shop where her grandmother had a weekly standing appointment. She was the little girl who sat at the feet of the elders and listened.

As an author, she has published more than sixty novels and novellas written as both Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy and as Patrice Wayne for historical fiction. She is also the author of a new Faery Folk series from Evernight Publishing writing as Liathán O'Murchadha.  Her current publishers include The Wild Rose Press, World Castle Publishing, and Evernight Publishing.

She spent her early career in broadcast radio, interviewing everyone from politicians to major league baseball players and writing ad copy.  In those radio years she began to write short stories and articles, some of which found publication. In 1994 she married Roy Murphy and they had three children, all now grown-up. Lee Ann spent years in the newspaper field as both a journalist and editor and was widowed in 2019.

In late 2020, she hung up her editor’s hat to return to writing fiction. A native of St. Joseph, Missouri, she lives and works in the rugged, mysterious, and beautiful Missouri Ozarks

Lee Ann Murphy

Changing Traditions Bonnie Edwards

While we think that Christmas is full of traditions that never change, over the course of a lifetime, change is inevitable. Life is like that…the only constant in life is change.

When I was a child, Christmas meant a large family dinner that my mother slaved over. My older sisters helped with setting the table and clean up. My Dad and brothers were exempt from kitchen duty. (big surprise, right?)

Eventually, my much older siblings had other places to be on Christmas Day because they’d married and had their own households and in-laws who wanted to see them.

When grandchildren appeared, my mother gave up cooking a feast and my parents and I travelled from house to house watching littles open our gifts. Those were lovely Christmas Days, full of smiles and cheer and less work for my mom. Dad did the driving.

I got my license at 18 and drove us around Toronto on one of the coldest Christmas Days on record. It was bitter, the kind of dry cold that sucked the heat out of our very lungs. That year, my Nan was with us. I recall a white out on the way home. For those of you from warmer climes, that’s a term for when wind whips snow across the road. White outs are sudden, and vision is totally obscured by blowing snow. My Dad, calm as can be, coached me through it while I white-knuckled the steering wheel. I remember thinking of my little Nan and how I couldn’t let anything happen to her.

Eventually, I married and had children of my own and my parents included my home and children in their Christmas Day rounds. I missed seeing my siblings, but as we know, little children prefer being at home with their new toys and games. Also, I had a feast to prepare. Luckily, my husband helped with everything!

And now, we have grandchildren ourselves and two of them have helped us decorate for the season for about five years. Soon, though, they’ll be called away for other pursuits and decorating will be more chore than joy without them.

Life changes. Christmas Day changes. But love of family remains years after they’re gone. They live on in our holiday memories and maybe, we hold them more dear because of the very changes we see.

One change that comes with time is the escape from winter that so many people enjoy.

Beaches! Sunshine! Sandals and drinks by the pool! Ah, yes, that’s a change I embrace. And to prove it, I’ve got a brand-new romance out now set in the lovely small island town of Last Chance Beach.

Here’s a little information on Make Me A Last Chance Beach Romance…

The worst thing that could happen to a man who doesn’t want children is to inherit two little boys.

The next worst thing would be to have a nanny with a child of her own.

Archie Jones, a wealthy playboy who’s never stayed more than two weeks in any one place finds himself saddled with an old friend’s four- and six-year-old boys.

When his brother suggests desperate Archie hire his wife’s sister, Archie can’t say no.

Equally desperate Beth Matthews is appalled that a man who can’t remember her name, or show up for family events, is now responsible for the lives of two adorable orphans. When he proposes she join him in a co-parenting partnership, she’s torn between her dislike of the man and the obvious needs of the children. Not to mention she’s a broke single mom with an explosive secret.

In this forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers romance set in the charming beach town of Last Chance Beach, Archie and Beth must find a way to compromise, live together, and always put the needs of their children first.

Archie soon learns he’s underestimated mousy Beth while she finds new appreciation for the footloose man who does all he can to build a loving family despite his many failings.

But when Archie suddenly abandons them, will Beth have faith in the changes she’s seen in him, or will she believe he’s returned to his wandering ways?

In Last Chance Beach love always finds a way.

Amazon (December 5)

Other major retailers (December 9)

Bonnie Edwards has been writing all her life, starting with a poem about Santa suffering with gout. She was seven, Santa was a thousandteen years old. Delighted with writing, she went on to write family sagas, humorous contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic paranormal ghost romances and more.

Published by Kensington Books, Harlequin Books, Carina Press, and Robinson (UK) Bonnie’s stories stretch from short stories to novellas and novels. Now, she’s happy to be publishing her work herself.

With 40+ titles to her credit, she has been translated into several languages and sold books worldwide. Learn about more exciting releases and get a free romance by subscribing to her newsletter, Bonnie’s Newsy Bits

Cheers and happy reading!

Follow her online:  Amazon     Website     BookBub     Twitter     Facebook    Instagram 

When Something Changes by Liz Flaherty

Book 1 of the Second Chances series. Picture by Chris McGuire.

Last night, long after I'm usually done for the day, I typed "The End" on the last page of the second book in the Second Chances series for Magnolia Blossom Publishing. While I know I will go back into that last chapter and rip it apart and put it back together with different seams, there is still a certain kind of peace in having finished the book. It's also bittersweet, leaving those people I've spent more time with in the past six months than my own family members. I am reminded of when my kids first left for college, when I was so excited for them and yet I still cried all the way home from drop-off day. 

However, just like after we dropped those kids off, I'm pretty drained. The main characters of the next book--Dinah and Zach--have been bothering me all morning, but not really telling me their story. All I really know is that something's going to change, because that's where the story always starts. 

How many times do you wake up with that surety? Whether it's with dread or anticipation, you know something's going to change. I took a picture of the sun rising this week, and it (the sun, not my picture) was beautiful. Right at this moment, it's rising again, red and promising, but not like it was the other day. 

Every day is a new story. Every day has changes in it. In my best Suzy Sunshine voice, I urge you to embrace the changes. In my lived-a-long-time voice, I admit I know that's not always possible, but that same voice reminds me (and you) that there are always silver linings. Sometimes, it's the looking for them that's hard. And sometimes, they are the beginnings of a great new story. 

So, there's Dinah and Zach. They're in their 30s, younger than I usually write, and they like music I don't know or like. I need help with that, if you have any advice. One of them has a dog. Maybe both of them. He inherited the old B & B on the lake in Fallen Soldier, Pennsylvania and he doesn't want it. But she does. Hmmm... What do you think?

Have a great week. Pray for peace. Be nice to somebody.