THANKS AND HAPPY ALL SAINTS DAY

Please let me take time to thank everyone who helped make the launch for THE MOST UNSUITABLE COURTSHIP a success. Thanks to those who showed up for the Facebook Launch Party, and thanks to those who bought the book. I am very appreciative of my readers. Thanks for making me an Amazon Bestselling Author of Western Romance. You are the best!

I had such fun chatting with readers and other authors on Wednesday. Previously, readers helped me with a scene in my current release. Writing that dust storm scene after those suggestions was interesting. I hope it turned out as those who had input visualized.

Reader feedback is extremely helpful. Authors are mostly solitary people. We sit in our writing caves creating our books and hoping that what we write will resonate with readers. Book sales are our general indication of whether what we’ve created pleases readers. Having reader input before the book is completed was a new—and pleasing—occurrence for me. I loved it.   

Now I want to wish you Happy All Saints Day. Does that seem strange? Not only is this a saints' day in the Roman Catholic Church, it is a time in many Protestant Churches when we remember those who have died. Not true saints in the Catholic meaning, but honoring those who have passed from our lives but remain in our hearts. In many churches, this Sunday will feature a memorial time in the church service along with special music. In some Protestant Churches, the names of those from the congregation who have died in the past year will be read or listed in the bulletin.

All Saints

This past year, we have lost family and friends, as have most of you. Today and this weekend, those names are especially on our minds and in our hearts. We also honor those dear to us who have passed from our daily lives. We miss our parents, especially, but also others who mentored or befriended us and in some way shaped who we are today. Not marking their deaths in a somber way, but celebrating their lives and contributions with joy. We rejoice that they were in our lives and honor their memories.

Remembering My Mom

For me, I especially miss my mom. She lived near us the last eighteen years of her life. I saw her several times a week and spoke to her on the phone at least once a day, usually more. I was always close to her, but we became so much closer those last few years. I miss her every day. I'm sure there are people about whom you feel the same. Today and this weekend, let's give thanks that those people were with us on earth for however long and bless their memory. Rejoice that we knew them!

Thanks for stopping by!

IN MEMORY - ATTACK ON 9-11-2001

The words are still true:

The Star Spangled Banner
By Francis Scott Key 1814


Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

May it ever wave proudly in the home of the free!