Category: Sunday Bookends

Sunday Bookends: Call Me A Cab, wishing it was actually spring, and an Irish tune for you

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends5 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.

What’s Been Occurring

Last week was supposed to be my busiest week of the month, but after a couple of appointments were moved around and my parents contracted Covid, almost all of what I had to do was shelved.

My parents didn’t allow me to help them much while they were sick, but luckily their case has been fairly mild. It certainly didn’t make them feel well, but it did not hit their lungs as severely as it hit mine. Thank God. I don’t mean to say that my lungs were severely damaged as they remained clear even during the hospital stay, but my oxygen did drop quite a bit and so far that has not happened with my parents.

While my parents were sick, other friends of ours also caught the dreaded virus and it was quite rough on them. One is on oxygen and the others are recovering but were left with damaged smell and taste, similar to what my son and I are still dealing with. I am also still dealing with hairloss and have asked my son if I can borrow one of his knit hats if I should discover a bald spot this week. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.

We enjoyed one or two days of warmer weather this week and this weekend it went back to winter temperatures.

Today and tomorrow we are lighting the woodstove. That’s how cold it is going to be. Then I believe the temperatures might warm up a bit again later in the week. For now, though, they are calling for a high of 23 on Tuesday. It is the end of March! Gah!


What I/We’ve Been Reading

I am still reading Call Me A Cab by Donald Westlake and this is a bit of a different book than I usually read, but I am enjoying it.

I think it is a different book for Donald Westlake too, but this is my first book by him so I’m not sure. My husband, who is a huge fan of his, says he writes all kinds of styles of books but, yes, crime is among his most popular.

My husband says that this book was one of a few unpublished works that were found by his wife in his desk after he died. It was published last year by Hard Case Crime Novels as a full novel but another source I bumped into said it was originally published in Redbook in an abridged form. I’m not sure if the Redbook info is accurate or not.

Either way, the premise is that a woman asks a New York City cab driver if he will drive her to meet her fiancé in Los Angeles. The cab driver checks briefly with his boss, who also happens to be his dad, and agrees after the woman offers him a few thousand, plus expenses, for the trip. What follows is the story of their journey and her reason for the trip — which is to give her more time to decide if she really wants to marry Barry, her plastic surgeon fiancé who lives in LA.

I’m about a third through the book and so far, I really enjoy Westlake’s humor and the way he doesn’t drag out descriptions until you completely lose track of the story. I can’t even remember if he described  It’s so different than how I’ve been told to write, and I love it.

The chemistry between the two main characters keeps me reading because I need to find out what happens to the woman, Katharine Scott. I’m on Chapter 16 and I think it was the first time I learned the cab driver’s full name — Tom Felton. Some people don’t like when a book is written in first person but this one is interwoven with such much entertaining dry wit that I can’t see how it could be written in third person.

I caught this description on Penguin House and thought I would share it here to explain the plot better than I can:

In 1977, one of the world’s finest crime novelists turned his pen to suspense of a very different sort – and the results have never been published, until now.

Fans of mystery fiction have often pondered whether it would be possible to write a suspense novel without any crime at all, and in CALL ME A CAB the masterful Donald E. Westlake answered the question in his inimitable style. You won’t find any crime in these pages – but what you will find is a wonderful suspense story, about a New York City taxi driver hired to drive a beautiful woman all the way across America, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, where the biggest decision of her life is waiting to be made. From Pennsylvania to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada on the way to California, the characters’ odyssey takes them through uncharted territory – on the map and in their lives.

It’s Westlake at his witty, thought-provoking best, and it proves that a page-turner doesn’t need to have a bomb set to go off at the end of it in order to keep sparks flying every step of the way.

I’m not sure I’ll make it since I’m such a slow reader (I get distracted eas — squirrel!), but I hope to finish the book by the end of this week.

If you are curious about the book, you can find a link to an excerpt on the Crime Reads site.

Last week I finished Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison. I enjoyed the book but ended up skipping a lot because I felt like it was fairly tedious in parts, even though it was a very important subject matter and very well written. There seemed to be several slower parts that I wasn’t sure were needed but then again it was important to show the healing the young main character needed after eight years of being held captive by a sex trafficker.

The book did not go into explicit detail regarding the main character’s abuse but it made it clear she was very abused, sexually and otherwise, as well as being forced into prostitution. In other words, it was a tough book to read because of the subject matter but also very important.

What We watched/are Watching

The husband and I watched a lot of Brokenwood Mysteries this past week.

What I like about Brokenwood is how well-rounded the main character is or at least is becoming as the series goes on. Each episode (which are about 90 minutes long, so like mini-movies) we receive another breadcrumb of information about his personal life and I like that. We don’t learn as much about his partner, Sims, as the series goes on, however. I haven’ t got a clue about her family or her personal life at all as we never see her at home or anywhere but at work. Maybe we will as the series goes on, but Mike is really the main character anyhow so he’s the main one we want to know about. I like Mike. He is like a mix of two or three newspaper editors I had all rolled into one. That’s hard to explain but as a combination, I like Mike much better than I liked any one of those editors, though I liked one much more than the other two.

I also watched a Bob Hope movie called Alias Jesse James. I missed a lot of it because I seem to get interrupted a lot when I am trying to watch a movie by myself.

I also watched a comedy special on Amazon with Jeff Alan called I Can Laugh About It Now.


What I’m Writing

Last week I shared:

about old television shows that I enjoy watching,

five comedians you should check out,

a review/recommendation of Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz,

and an update on my upcoming book Beauty From Ashes and future writing projects.

This week I have some other blog posts I hope to share and I also hope to work more on writing Mercy’s Shore, the next book in the Spencer Valley Chronicles.

What I’m Listening To

I have been forced to listen to the songs from Encanto over and over again this week as well as some Katy Perry because Little Miss has heard these songs either from the movie or on Youtube. Youtube is being taken away from her this week because I either have to listen to weird gaming YouTubers or various renditions of the songs of Encanto. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Encanto and the music but I don’t need to hear the songs on repeat. All day. Every day. For weeks and weeks. Or sung by Little Miss and all her little friends.

To break up the monotony, I listened to some Rend Collective.  Revival Anthem is one of my favorite songs by them. I do ask, if you listen to it, that you play it very loud and dance a bit to it. Don’t be shy. Enjoy the rhythm and the words. It will brighten up your day. I need songs like this. Songs that will let me shout away the depression and anxiety with God’s truth. Try it. It’s fun.


Lyrics:

Spirit fall down

Start a Holy riot

Fill this place now

With the tongues of fire

Break the strongholds

Come and unleash heaven 

Burn within us Make us bold as lions

This is our revival anthem

Can you feel the darkness shaking

Oh, we are the dry bones rising 

This will be our great awakening

This is our revival anthem

Fill our hearts, Lord With a Holy danger Lead us beyond

Our fear of failure

We’ll fight the good fight In Your strength and power

We’ll take back the night Victory is ours 

We will praise You when our hearts are breaking

Praise You when our world is caving

We will not, we will not be moved

We will praise You till we see Your kingdom 

Greater things are surely coming

You are God, and You are on the move

Now it’s your turn

What have you been doing this week? Reading, watching, writing, or listening to? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: A somewhat rough week, missing when Christian fiction was good, and the ongoing battle with depression

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends6 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

This week I started Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle by Ann B. Ross and I’m really enjoying it.

I’m also looking forward to reading Call Me A Cab by Donald Westlake.

I’m actually looking forward to reading anything that isn’t Christian fiction right now, as awful as that sounds, but I need a break from the new Christian fiction – yes, the stuff like mine – that is fairly cheesy and very watered down.

I was in the library of my parent’s church this week while Little Miss was at Awana and I was looking at books by Bodie and Brock Thoene, books that were about real issues, real people and not fluff. They were great and there aren’t a lot of Christian fiction writers like them out there now. Don’t get me wrong. I like fluff books too. I write fluff. I’m just in a really bad place when it comes to Christian fiction right now, especially how a lot of the new stuff seems to have the same template and be the same story but with different characters.

Little Miss and I are reading some Paddington again this week. I guess she needed some comfort reading and I did as well.

The Boy is slogging through Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

He hates it. I’m hoping to find him a better classic book to read before the school year ends.



What’s Been Occurring

This week presented some challenging moments for me. Those moments left me deeply hurt, worried, sad and finally in a pretty deep depression. There are a couple people that were a part of one of these moments who think I am in a deep depression because they said my writing wasn’t good, but that isn’t actually the issue. The issue this week was once again being disappointed in the behavior of people who profess to be Christians. Or I should say, that was my issue until I worked toward changing my way of thinking.

Christians are not perfect, merely forgiven. No Christian is going to do everything right all the time. The Christians who hurt me this week did not do so spitefully, they did so carelessly. Had they listened to me over the last few weeks, maybe they would have known how I have been slipping deeper and deeper into depression, all while trying to pretend I am not.

I have been doing an awful lot of pretending lately. I have pretended I am okay, I have pretended I’m not worried about myself or my family. I have pretended I want to have a career in writing novels. I have pretended I’m good enough to write novels. I have pretended that it doesn’t hurt when people I grew up with and used to be close friends no longer speak to me.

The next paragraph is not in an attempt to whine or sound like my life is so hard, but to explain a bit of what I have been pretending. Also, please read this with the little bit of humor I wrote it in and not as dark as it sounds. 😉 I have been pretending that my hair is not falling out in clumps and that isn’t freaking me out (my family knows I am freaking out, but I’ve tried not to mention it too much to anyone else). I have been pretending that my smell and taste is back to normal after Covid. It is not and there are some days I can’t even eat because everything is disgusting and has the “Covid smell and taste.” I have been pretending that I don’t feel like I’d rather stay in bed all day long than face another day of unknown health oddities. I have been pretending that I can keep pretending, shoving it all in so no one can see it to keep people from looking at me like most doctors do – like I am a sad, anxiety-ridden loser who needs to be on as many pills as possible and then hidden away.

I don’t have a lot to look forward to each day, other than my children and some days even that is a challenge. My 7-year old doesn’t want to do her school work many days so sometimes we both end up crying. My 15-year old is amazing but he’s trying to figure out life as he transitions into being a teen and marches toward adulthood so sometimes his dad and I screw up trying to communicate with him and then we all end up in tears. (I know we will figure this out but some days I just feel like I’m really bad at the mom thing.)

Then we came to the end of my week when I went to a new doctor for my thyroid and my blood pressure was sky high, my weight was the highest it has ever been in my entire life, and the doctor told me I have to try a new medicine that could make me feel even worse than I do now or I can face a myriad of health issues that will slowly kill me.  I’m already sick on the thyroid medicine I take now so I have no idea what to expect from this new stuff.

Hmmm…can’t figure out why the blood pressure was so high after the weird situation with the writing group that happened about the same time I found out there was a very good possibility my elderly parents had not only been exposed to Covid, but now had it. (We now I’m know that they do indeed have it.)

The entire time I was at the appointment I kept worrying they would try to admit me. I was almost out the door when the nurse wanted to take my blood pressure again before I left. She did so while my arm was in the air and I was on the verge of a full blown panic attack as I flashed back to my time in the hospital when I briefly thought I might die on a ventilator (I did not think this for the majority of my stay, thank God). Needless to say my blood pressure was still high. I seriously don’t even think the woman knew how to take a proper reading.

Once at home, I took the bp meds that have been making me dizzy, watched some TV with the hubby and the bp dropped more than 30 points. In fact, it dropped even before the medicine kicked in. I guess because I was out of the stressful situation.

So, last week was hard. I don’t know what this week holds but I do hope it is something a little better. Right now I am not going to pretend that I am optimistic that it will be better. Writing the truth feels good. I am not optimistic. I have hope, but not optimism. I am not trying to fake it until I make it anymore and it feels good to be honest about my current emotions instead of trying to pretend that “I’m fine and I know things will be fine.”

Bull crap. I don’t know that at all and I am not fine.

Walking away from a writing group that I loved, but that was stressing me out (not their fault other than that awful experience of my work being shredded in front of a bunch of strangers), finally admitting that I was trying too hard to be something I am not, was completely freeing. I will, however, miss the wonderful ladies who were a part of the group.

I like writing my stories, no matter how stupid they are or how they don’t follow the strict rules of writing. I will probably continue to share them on my blog, but maybe nowhere else. I don’t even know yet. I will offer books for sale for friends and family to access but I probably won’t push their advertising much in the future. I was writing for fun not for acclaim and when that fun started to be stomped out of me, it was time to step back to what once made me happy – just sharing my ramblings on here and with friends and family.

What We watched/are Watching

Now on to happier things. Last week we watched more Brokenwood, some Mystery Science Theater (Manos, The Hand of Fate. It was absolutely horrific, which if you know anything about MST3K is actually a good thing. More opportunity for quips and laughs.), more Night Court, and I watched some old All Creatures Great and Small but then decided I really don’t like the actor who plays James Herriot in the old. He made James Herriot into a kind of uptight jerk without a Scottish accent. He’s much sweeter and less huffy in the new series, which is what I would imagine the real James Herriot (James Wight) was actually like.


What I’m Writing

Honestly, not a whole lot right now. Maybe someday again. I did share a Randomly Thinking on the blog last week and a book review.

What I’m Listening To

There has been a need for uplifting music this week so there has been some Elevation Worship and Matthew West going on.

Now it’s your turn

What have you been reading, watching, doing, or listening to? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Moriarty, stupid winter weather won’t go away, and All Creatures Great and Small

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends6 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

I have been reading the same books I was reading last week. I know. How sad. I don’t know why I didn’t read more this week. I can’t even tell you what I did instead other than some editing on Beauty From Ashes, working on character profiles for a future story, homeschooling, and being depressed a couple of days for various, silly reasons.

I finished Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz during a very rare marathon reading session I held during Saturday’s snowstorm (see below). I curled up under the covers with two cats on either end of the bed – one by my head on a pillow and the other one at my feet — while the grinding roar of the neighbor’s snowblower drifted to my ears from the tightly closed window. Downstairs my son chatted and played video games with his friends while my daughter watched cartoons on an old phone. My husband, meanwhile, had curled up for a nap to help him prepare to shovel and snow blow the driveway later in the day.

I knew something was amiss throughout Moriarty but couldn’t figure out exactly what. I had it guessed though long before the end and yelled out, “I knew it!” when it revealed what I had suspected all along. What a mind twist, though. I definitely recommend it, especially if you are a fan of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories. This is written in a similar manner on purpose to make the book fit in well with the originals.

I should have Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison finished by the end of today. Then I will continue to read a memoir about a woman who left the Mennonite community for a book tour and start either the next book in the All Creatures Great and Small series or a book my husband recommended —Call Me A Cab by Donald Westlake. This will be my first book by Westlake.

Little Miss and I are finishing Emily’s Runaway Imagination for the second time and then we will start Ribsy, also by Beverly Cleary.  

The Boy is reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson and I am terribly behind on it because I am supposed to be reading it with him. The Boy is also reading Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman.

I forgot to ask Hubby what he is reading, but I’ll add it later when I find out.



What’s Been Occurring

Snow, snow, snow. That’s what’s been happening here as Winter 2021-2022 gives its last gasp before moseying on out of here.

We received a few inches on Wednesday of last week and by Thursday it had melted and made way for more snow on Saturday.

On Friday I ran an errand to the local supermarket and I ran in and out without a coat.

The sun was bright, I wanted to open the windows and would have it hadn’t been for a cool breeze. I thought of chasing my children outside, warning them this was their last chance for warmth for a few days, but I gave up. We might as well muddle through this weekend and they can enjoy the warmer weather next week.

The Boy had a couple of friends over and, of course, they got snowed in with us, so I had a house full of teenage boys for a couple of days. My husband and I hid upstairs while they were downstairs playing video games and watching memes or what I see as inane YouTube videos. Little Miss chatted with her friends on the phone while playing stupid online games.

We were going to take the boys home Saturday night but I didn’t know if I liked the idea of them being on the road. I didn’t want to say anything, though, because my husband has a busy day today with some work things and I didn’t want to complicate things even more. We went back and forth about it for a bit, trying to decide, and I texted their parents while my husband went to get gas. While he was at the gas station, down the hill from our house, a wind gust came up and white-out conditions developed. I received a text that announced the boys were staying another night because my husband didn’t feel it was safe to drive.  Whew. Not long after he came back the white-out conditions subsided so I don’t know if that was God answering my prayers about what to do or not. I do know that the wind and blowing snow continued off and on the rest of the night.

We are all expecting this to be our last snowstorm of the season, thankfully.

The next few weeks will be busy for us with various homeschool activities, doctors’ appointments for me and my family, dentist appointments, and an appointment with the dog groomer. Little Miss has also joined gymnastics so that adds another activity to our plate. She attends Awana on Wednesday evenings until the end of April.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week the hubby and I started to watch Chinatown with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, but got interrupted. Hopefully, we will finish it later this week. We also watched a lot of Night Court and then I had to binge watch all of season 2 of All Creatures Great and Small before today because I didn’t want to pay for another subscription through Amazon. I had purchased a seven-day trial and planned to add PBS Masterpiece to our list of channels until I noticed we already have a couple of kids channels, another PBS channel, Britbox, and Acorn. Streaming is starting to be as expensive as cable at this rate.

I enjoy the new All Creatures Great and Small, even though I originally refused to watch it because I have a soft spot for the original. What I like about the new version is they actually have James with a Scottish accent, instead of a British one, like he had in the original. Since James Herriot (well, James Alfred Wight, which was his real name) was from Glasgow, he would have had a Scottish accent. I guess back in the 70s they didn’t like to be authentic in that way. Watching the show has made me want to go back and finish reading the series. I think I’ll tackle that in the next couple of weeks.

Later this week I may watch Redeeming Love, the controversial movie based on the controversial Christian Fiction Romance by Francine Rivers since it has been put up on Peacock.

I haven’t made my mind up yet about that one. I never read the book and never really had an interest, so I don’t have that much interest in the movie but would like to see what all the fuss is about.



What I’m Writing

I have been writing a few blog posts but haven’t shared all of them yet. Last week I shared:

I am working on a Randomly Thinking post for later this week and will also be working on some rewrites for Beauty From Ashes and maybe a couple other story ideas I have.

What I’m Listening to

I am still listening to the new Elevation Worship album, which I love.

I also really enjoyed Pastor Steven Furtick’s sermon last week:


Now it’s your turn

What have you been reading, watching, listening to or doing? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: A total bizarre car accident, worship music, and what’s next for my fiction

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends15 Comments

What’s Been Occurring

I mentioned last week that we hadn’t left the house in a couple of weeks due to weather and a cold (which was very short, thankfully). This week I finally left the house on Friday and then wondered if I should have stayed home.

I went down into our little town to grab a couple subs for my kids. On the way back, I pulled into a parking space in front of the local newspaper, which my neighbor’s own. I didn’t even put the car in park, though, because I remembered I needed cash for the product I was hoping to pick up. I put the car in reverse and swung to the building next door, parking in front of the bank.

After pulling some money out of the ATM, I got back in my van. I broke a piece of chocolate I’d picked up at the store off and when I looked to my left, out of the driver’s side window, a car pulled into the space next to me and instead of stopping it kept driving into the curb and railing in front of the bank. I said to Little Miss who was in the backseat. “Uh-oh, I think that woman hit the accelerator instead of the break.” I thought her forward motion would cause her car to get caught on the curb, she’d get a clue, pull the car back a bit and then park it before getting it out and inspecting the clear damage to the front end of her car.

Instead, she yanked the car into reverse, never took her foot off the accelerator (or the accelerator stuck, I’m truly not sure which), and the car shot backward into the small side street behind us, somehow swung out and around the back end of my van and down into another small street. In the intersection of that side street, she did two doughnuts (for those who don’t know, this is when a car spins around twice while still on four wheels, not flips over, thankfully), kicking out moves I’ve only seen on TV.

I thought she was going to come flying back at me and I told Little Miss, in an alarmed voice. “I’ve got to get this van out of her way!” Before I could, though, her car shot around the other direction and she slide full force into the front of the newspaper office, coming to rest partially against the building and partially in the parking space my van had occupied five minutes before.

Little Miss told me later she’d heard glass shatter and she thought the woman had broken her front windshield and was dead. I don’t even remember hearing the glass. I think I was still in shock that she hadn’t hit our van. Someone walked over from the restaurant across the street and another person stepped out of the newspaper office and I stayed glued to my seat, unsure I really wanted to go see if she was okay, afraid she wasn’t. By the time I did walk across the street — since I first turned around and saw a woman I know at the bank standing outside the building with her hand on her heart, looking very shaken — the elderly woman was out of her car, standing and didn’t seem to have a clue what had happened. A member of the fire department arrived quickly, not sure where he came from, and asked her if she was hurt. She said, no. He asked her if she was on any medication. She didn’t know. He finally suggested she sit in the newspaper office while they waited for an ambulance. Inside he asked her if she remembered what had happened. She didn’t. She just sort of smiled at us all like she was trying to figure out what the fuss was about. She, of course, was evaluated by the ambulance personnel when they got there. I’m not sure if she was taken to the hospital or not.

The woman from the bank checked on me later that evening and told me “God was watching out for you today!” She probably had a better view of it all from her office and may have even seen how close the woman’s car came to my van.

God was watching out for me because if I had parked at the newspaper and walked to the bank (as my Mom suggested I could have done), that woman probably would have killed me while I tried to walk back to my van. She also would have hit my van for sure, not swirling around it, but slamming directly into the front of it, and possibly injuring Little Miss.

I told my mom that this was one time I was glad I was lazy and hadn’t walked the hundred or so feet to the bank. “See,” I told her. “Being lazy paid off this time.”

In reality, it wasn’t about being lazy. I simply hadn’t put the van in park yet when I remembered I needed, or at least wanted, the cash.

Little Miss was pretty shook up after that and wanted to go home, but the fire chief told me to stay so I could give a witness statement to the state trooper. Little Miss wasn’t crying but had wide eyes and kept saying, “I just want to go home now.” I finally told the chief I was going to take my daughter up to my house and come back, since the local state police barracks is about fifteen minutes away and the trooper wasn’t there yet. I did return and give a statement, which was a very boring one since it had all happened so fast.

After all this, by the way, the newspaper office didn’t have what I was looking for so I should have just gone home. Sigh.

Since was the first time I’d gone out in a couple of weeks, it also made me a bit hesitant about Tuesday when I have to drive back down the street to get some blood drawn for a thyroid panel. I hope that trip is a lot less exciting.

What I’ve Been Reading

This past week I continued on Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz and Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison. I expect to finish Every Star in the Sky before the end of the week.

I will probably start Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle by Ann B. Ross after I finish Moriarty.

Little Miss and I are reading Emily’s Run Away Imagination by Beverly Cleary again.

The Boy is still reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

What I’ve Been Watching

The husband and I have continued to watch Brokenwood Mysteries and I really enjoy the show. I’ve fallen in love with the main character, but not in the way you think. He’s just a likeable guy and I’m interested to know more about him as the show goes on.

I feel like I need a break from murder and mayhem this week, however, and am going to look into a subscription of PBS Masterpiece so I can watch the new All Creatures Great And Small to take my mind off the craziness of the world.

What I’m Listening To

I’ve been listening to songs on YouTube that were used on Brokenwood episodes most of the week. Most of the artists are from New Zealand, I believe. My husband says they have a large country music scene there that he was unaware of until this show.

Some of the songs are going into my playlist for a book I am working on called Lily.

I also was introduced to Jordan St. Cyr’s songs Fires

And Weary traveler:

Elevation Worship has a new album which I hope to listen to more this week. So far, I like the song, Lion.

And also, What I See

And.. well, I think I might love the entire album. My husband says it is their best yet and I think he is right.

What I’m Writing

I finished sharing Beauty From Ashes on the blog this week (called A New Chapter for the blog) and am now moving on to working on a couple of other stories I’ve been wanting to tackle, before I start book four in the series, which I so far have named Mercy’s Shore. I don’t know if I’ll be sharing that one on the blog or not, yet. We will see.

Last week on the blog I shared a post about what we are reading for homeschooling as well as one about looking back at February and forward to March.

Your Turn

So, what are you reading, what have you been doing, listening to or watching? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Love for Miss Julia, more reading and less watching, and a New Zealand theme this week

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends4 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.




What’s Been Occurring

Last Sunday we visited my parents, and my dad actually watched a movie with us, after he took the kids to their frozen pond to do some ice skating. Dad doesn’t usually sit in one place for a movie but he really enjoyed The Finest Hours with Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, which I mentioned I had watched last week. He barely moved from the spot on the couch. I had a feeling he might like this one based on his service in the Air Force, and while this movie didn’t deal with men in the Air Force, it did focus on men working together in a sort of branch of the military (the Coast Guard).

We will not be visiting my parents today because Little Miss and I caught a cold late last week. Friday and Saturday was spent blowing noses, drinking tea and her crying because her throat hurt so bad. I cried because I had a horrendous burning in my nose that results in my eye and nose pouring liquid. Lots of fun.

Before anyone asks, no, I don’t believe we have been re-infected with the dreaded virus. This definitely feels more cold-like and less bioweapon-like.

I figure we picked it up when I took Little Miss to her first gymnastics class on Monday. We had not left the house much before that, other than her weekly Awana class. Part of the reason we didn’t leave was the continuing weird Pennsylvania weather. It’s been cold and snowy and then rainy and warm. I’m waiting for it all to settle a little bit before we plan any major outings.

During the week we did schoolwork and I finished editing on Beauty From Ashes, then realized that I had not finished the final chapter. Sigh. So, while battling a burning nose that felt like it might explode, I worked on that on Saturday, so I can send the book out to my critique group and to a couple of editors this week to get it ready for the April 26 release date.

If you are interested in serving on the launch team for the Beauty From Ashes team, you can apply HERE. There isn’t a lot of commitment to this, other than agreeing to share about the book on your social media sites. Anyone on the launch team will receive an advanced copy of the book in digital form (via Bookfunnel).

In addition to writing and blowing my nose, I also watched what was unfolding in Ukraine with deep sadness. Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, wrote a beautiful post that sums up what I am sure many of us are feeling about this conflict.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Ross yesterday. I will be reading more of the Miss Julia series. I really enjoyed the book. It was a type of cozy mystery.

Here is a description:


Everyone loves the irrepressible Miss Julia. Her latest triumph is getting Hazel Marie and J. D. Pickens to the altar before it becomes too obvious that they’re expecting twins! But why has Sam agreed that he and Julia will attend the odious Dr. Fowler’s marital enrichment sessions? Could Sam feel their flames need fanning? Meanwhile, this lady of a certain age must spring Etta Mae from jail when she’s wrongly accused of attacking Francie Pitts. With a fragrant felon to be caught- plus a wedding, babies, and a heaping dose of mischief-it’s fortunate for all that Miss Julia’s on the case.

This is the eleventh book in the series, so I plan to go find the first book in the series so I can start reading them in order.

My husband picked this and three others in the series up for me at a local library book sale.

I am in the middle of Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison, which releases this week. Here is a description for that book:

She is willing to testify against her trafficker.
If she can stay alive that long.

“You’re safe here, Starr.”
How many times has Detective Cole Blacksky said that to her since helping her escape the life she’d been forced into eight years earlier?
Starr desperately wants to believe him, but she knows Brady Erickson, her former captor, too well. Although Cole has promised her protective custody on his family’s remote ranch, no place on earth is safe enough. Brady will stop at nothing to permanently silence her before she ever reaches the witness stand.
And he is powerful enough to do it.
If Starr wants to help the other women, she has no choice but to put herself in God’s hands. And Cole’s. But the longer she and Cole stay hidden, the more her life is at risk.
And her heart.


I finished His Road to Redemption by Lisa Jordan last night and hope to finish Sara’s book this week.

Once I finish her book, I will be delving further into Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz, which I opened to see if I would like it. I definitely like it and am anxious to get into it more.

Here is the description, but I am sure any Sherlock Holmes fans have an idea what it might be about:

Internationally bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s nail-biting new novel plunges us back into the dark and complex world of detective Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty—dubbed the Napoleon of crime” by Holmes—in the aftermath of their fateful struggle at the Reichenbach Falls.

Days after the encounter at the Swiss waterfall, Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York. Moriarty’s death has left an immediate, poisonous vacuum in the criminal underworld, and there is no shortage of candidates to take his place—including one particularly fiendish criminal mastermind.

Chase and Scotland Yard Inspector Athelney Jones, a devoted student of Holmes’s methods of investigation and deduction originally introduced by Conan Doyle in “The Sign of Four”, must forge a path through the darkest corners of England’s capital—from the elegant squares of Mayfair to the shadowy wharfs and alleyways of the London Docks—in pursuit of this sinister figure, a man much feared but seldom seen, who is determined to stake his claim as Moriarty’s successor.

A riveting, deeply atmospheric tale of murder and menace from one of the only writers to earn the seal of approval from Conan Doyle’s estate, Moriarty breathes life into Holmes’s dark and fascinating world.

The Boy started Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson this week and Little Miss and I are reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (again).

What We watched/are Watching

I watched another episode of Brokenwood and really enjoyed it. It is a crime/mystery show set in New Zealand. The episodes are all about 90 minutes long, so it takes an investment each time we watch one.

I don’t really remember watching much else this past week. I tried to focus on reading and finishing the book instead. However, this next week I hope to lose myself in some stories, including The Sister Boniface Mysteries, which is a spin-off The Father Brown Mysteries on Britbox.

We did watch one episode of the latest season of Death in Paradise and it was okay, but that show has lost some of its appeal for me since they are on their fourth DI (detective inspector) and this is a tiny island but has one of the highest crime records I have ever seen.

What I’m Writing

As I mentioned above, I am finishing up all the edits for Beauty From Ashes.

After I send the book out to the critique group and editors, I will be taking a break and then I will start plotting book four and another novella I have an idea for.

I did not write any other posts on the blog this week because of working on the book and because of the cold.

I do have some ideas for blog posts this week and I hope to tackle them and actually getting them written. I should have more time for blog posts with the book finally finished.

What I’m Listening To

This week the husband turned me on to a new-to-me worship artist, Brooke, Ligertwood, who released her new album this past week. I have been listening to her and also to Mel Parsons from New Zealand who I found while watching Brokenwood. Watching the show and listening to her helpe me continue the New Zealand theme.



Now it’s your turn

So that is my week in review. How about you? What are you reading, writing, doing, listening to, yadda, yadda? Let me know in the comments and leave a link if you already do a post similar to this one.

Sunday Bookends: Pennsylvania may be menopausal, light reads, and Chris Pine’s bushy eyebrows

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends4 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

This week I read a book for a writer friend that she is releasing later this year. It is a second-chance romance and I enjoyed it. I’ll be sure to mention it again when it officially releases. The author is Milla Holt.

I’ve also been reading Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Goss and I am enjoying the light (very light) mystery and humor.

At night on the Kindle, I am reading His Road to Redemption by Lisa Jordan, who I am in a writing group with. She publishes through Harlequin’s Love Inspired books.

I might finish those books this week (doubt it) and if I do, I will be starting a romance by another author I’m in a writing group with and finishing a book for a book tour. That’s the plan anyhow, but like I told some writer/reader people this week, I have book ADD sometimes. I pick up a book to see if I like the first couple of paragraphs, get hooked, and forget about the other books I was reading.

Off and on, for a while anyhow, I will also be reading from The Mitford Bedside Companion by Jan Karon, which was a gift from the husband for Valentine’s Day.

The Hubby is reading Wolf Pack by CJ Box as I write this but will probably be done with it by the time it goes on the blog. Oh and he is done before I even finish the post so he is currently in between books.

The Boy finished A Long Walk to Water last week and will start Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson this week for literature.

Little Miss and I are reading Little House on the Prairie again. Sigh. Hopefully, she will let me move on to another book soon.

What’s Been Occurring

Pennsylvania went all Whatever Happened to Baby Jane on us this week by throwing in warm weather, arctic weather, rain, snow squalls, high winds, flooding, ice jams, and a small amount of sun. The fun will continue this week as the rumor is that we are going to be hit with another ice storm at the end of the week.

The snow that had been on the ground for the past two months or so melted all in one day, rushing to the rivers and creeks, but those rivers and creeks were full of ice, which broke up and jammed along the banks.

This photo was taken by my husband who texted it to me along with this photo:

with the caption, “the things I do for my job.”

Apparently, he walked across the ice jam to get this photo, which is just great and something I’m glad I didn’t know until after the fact or I would have been freaking out.

Little Miss and I spent Monday night at my parents, at the request of Little Miss, who wanted to spend the night but didn’t want to stay alone. We ate dinner, played a game called aggravation, and then Little Miss and her grandpa made pancakes together the next morning. It was a nice start to the week.

The view from my parents.

Saturday stuck the area in a holding pattern as snow squalls decided to slide in and out of the area, bringing spontaneous periods of white-out conditions for anyone out on the roads that would quickly be replaced with blue skies and bright sunshine.

The rest of the week after that was sort of all over the place due to the weather but also taking our dog to a vet appointment for her vaccinations and an unexpected dentist appointment for Little Miss that got moved up from March because they had an opening. I kept waiting for a day where I didn’t feel like my brain was being pulled several different directions but that didn’t seem to happen, especially after Tuesday when I learned a friend I had not had contact with in a while (for the reason that sometimes people drift apart and just don’t make contact as often as they used to) died in a house fire.

The friend would have been 80 this year. His wife died in 2018 and I thought he had moved to live closer to his daughter and grandson. Apparently, he had moved back to our area, and I didn’t even realize it. How awful is that? Not that he had ever contacted me either, but I still feel guilty. Seeing an old photo of him along with what remained of his home on the front of my husband’s paper was hard to see Thursday and I ended up falling into a deep depression for the rest of the week. I’m still there if I am going to be honest. It’s been a hard couple of months with losing friends and dealing with other hard things. Most of the time I was able to shove the sadness down, but Thursday I couldn’t seem to anymore and spent much of the evening breaking into sobbing fits for no reason.

Yesterday (or today as I am writing this) my husband and I planned to go out to dinner at a café near us and then visit the local library, which has a bookstore in the back, but my husband realized he’s been driving non-stop for work all week and was simply too mentally spent to go. Instead, we ordered food from one of the only restaurants in town, stayed home, and watched movies while the wind raged outside. We are hoping to take our trip out of town when spring comes.

A little update on the parosmia (this is when a person’s smell and taste is distorted from a virus, such as the nasty one we’ve been dealing with in the world the last two years, sometimes making food smell and taste rotten or like sewage) issue I asked for prayer for last week, or the week before: The smell remains for me on many days, but not all. Some foods are still off limit for me, including garlic, onion, (and any seasoning with those in it), and peanut butter (dear, Lord, the smell and taste of that for me is absolutely repulsive and it is the same for The Boy!). I can’t use my favorite Italian salad dressing on my salads because it has the same indescribable taste and smell and sometimes even meat has the taste and smell, though much milder than it did about two weeks ago. Last week was fairly good but today (or yesterday as you read this) was a bad day as a lot of the food I ate had that nasty flavor.

Thank you for the prayers and please pray for others also dealing with this, many of them with worse issues, to the point they can’t eat without throwing up from the stench and taste. This condition can also be caused by any virus, chemotherapy, and polyps, just for a little extra information (that you probably didn’t care about but may need to know in the future, though I hope not).

What We watched/Are Watching

It often takes me a couple of days to finish a movie if I am watching it on my own because I keep getting interrupted, which was the case with The Finest Hours, which I watched Thursday AND Friday of this past week. I watched it at the suggestion of Susan May Warren, an author who teaches for Novel Academy or My Book Therapy, a writing site I am a part of. If any of you read Christian fiction, especially Christian romance, then you have heard of Susie, as everyone who knows her calls her. I don’t know her that well so I just call her Susan. *wink*

Anyhow, I thought The Finest Hours was pretty good. It wasn’t the best but also wasn’t the worst. For the record, I enjoyed watching Casey Afleck more than I did Chris Pine. Never been a fan of Chris Pine’s bushy eyebrows. I know. So shallow of me. Seriously, though, Chris Pine really did well in this movie.

I watch most of my shows with my husband and he was very busy this week so we didn’t have time to sit and watch much of anything. We did watch an episode of the old show The Saint, with Roger Moore, and that was interesting since I had never seen the show before.

What I’m Writing

Thanks to the aforementioned Novel Academy, I finished the rough draft of Beauty From Ashes and am now working on edits. I say thanks to Novel Academy because the women from the group are now holding writing sprints each weekday morning and that encourages me to get moving and keep moving, on my writing projects.

Last week I also wrote a devotional for the group that is scheduled for February 28.

I didn’t write a lot here on the blog because I was working so much on editing the book and also tried to read more.

I did share a Faithfully Thinking and a Randomly Thinking post and two chapters from Beauty From Ashes (which is still called A New Chapter for the sake of the blog).

What I’m Listening To

This past week I didn’t listen to a lot of music, but I did listen to some Matthew West, who incidentally has a new song out.


Now it’s your turn

So that’s my week in review. How about you? What have you been watching, reading, doing, or listening to? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: I finished another book (it’s a miracle), cabin fever, rough draft finished

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Sunday Bookends3 Comments


Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished another book last week. It’s a miracle. I know.

It was The Cat Who Saw Stars and it was not one of Braun’s best at all.

I was very disappointed with the book because it meandered around, which she always does, but this book never got to the point of Qwill actually investigating anything. It was merely him visiting other people and judging contests and having odd things happen to him. The end of the book was one of the worst endings I have seen in a book as well. I’m guess this was one of her later books. She wrote 29, I believe, before she passed away and she must have been running out of ideas.

To cleanse my pallet this week, I am reading a Love Inspired romance by new-to-me author Lisa Jordan called The Road to Redemption. Love Inspired books are part of Harlequin’s inspirational romance line.

I also started a book by Sara Davison called Every Star in the Sky. It is a Christian Fiction book that deals with the topic of sex trafficking so I have a feeling I will need to take a break from this one a few times. I’m on the fifth chapter and it is very well written, but also a tough read. It is for a book tour so I have a deadline, but luckily it is a fairly long one.

After these two, there are a few books I hope to get to in March and April (but I’ll probably read only one because you know how slow I read), including:

Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Ross

The Reckoning Trees (which I have started) by Alicia Gilliam

Relative Silence by Carrie Stuart Parks

Until I Met You by Tari Farris

Cape Refuge by Terri Blackstock

But I also have books I am reading for book tours and author friends.

I will have to take some breaks from



What’s Been Occurring

This week the temperatures were terribly cold again in the beginning of the week, while we tried to chip our way out of the ice that fell the week before. Our driveway was a mess and I wasn’t able to go anywhere the whole week.

By the end of the week, the weather warmed up and things finally began to defrost some, clearing the driveway at least, but today the temps have dropped again, and we are once again in subzero temperatures. We are supposed to have a couple more days of this and then a slow warm up. My sinuses are just going to love the up and down temps. Ha. Ha.

This is what happens when your children have cabin fever. They stand in window frames and look like a scene from a horror movie.

My children are definitely having some cabin fever and sadly the only time they got out this week was to a memorial service for a good friend of our family’s. Ginger was 89 and quite a character. She and her husband Ernie were pianists who played beautiful music together. Ernie passed away in 2020 and she passed in January. She was originally from New York City and told some of the funniest stories. She was also very blunt, which created some hilarious situations. Honestly, she warrants an entire blog post so I should probably consider doing that for this week.

This week they will have another “exciting” outing when I have to drive 45 minutes north to take our dog to the vet for her annual vaccines. It will be in the town where we used to live, so my son will be excited to visit his old stomping grounds.

What We watched/are Watching

We started watching a new British comedy (new to us) called Ghosts and are hooked.  It is about a group of ghosts stuck in an old house who can’t leave, which is a real problem for the new owner, who inherited the house from a step-great-aunt.

It’s the main thing we’ve been watching, and I can’t actually think of anything else I watched this week because I was working so much on finishing my next book. Which brings me to . . .

What I’m Writing

I’ve been working all week on A New Chapter, which I have renamed Beauty From Ashes.

I’ve been writing for 2-3 hours a day during the week as part of writing sprints with the Novel Academy ladies, but, of course, with two children and a dog, I’m not able to actually write the full time. I’m usually interrupted every ten minutes or so to let a dog outside or feed a child. Why do children think they have to eat every day? Sheesh. It does get tiresome after a bit. Anyhoo  . . . despite all the interruptions, I was able to finish the rough draft and will start editing and fleshing out this week.

I also shared posts on the blog last week, including:

The many adventures we do and do not have in very cold weather.

You Are My Sunshine is not necessarily a ‘happy song’

Fiction Thursday: A New Chapter Chapter 21 Part 1

Fiction Friday: A New Chapter Chapter 21 Part 2

How to improve dialogue and capture your readers’ attention

Book Review: Freedom Crossing

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to Matthew West, Johnny Cash, and a bit of Jack White to get through the week.

Now it’s your turn

So that is my week in review. How about you? What have you been reading, watching, listening to or doing? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Ice, ice baby, finally finished that Longmire book, and earworms

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends9 Comments


Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing, and listening to.



What’s Been Occurring

Cold. Cold. Cold. That’s what it has been in our neck of the woods for over a month now with this past week still being cold and then having an ice storm thrown into the mix.

Little Miss and I managed to make it 12 miles to get our hair cut before the ice storm set in on Thursday evening into Friday.

We woke up Friday morning with our trees, driveway, and many other things encased in ice. Unlike other ice storms where the ice melted during the day when the sun came out, there was no sun after this ice storm and the temps dropped even more over Friday night into Saturday, leaving us still encased in ice, with no sign of warmer temperatures for a couple of days. Saturday’s high was 16. Yikes.

The ice did make for some fun photographs, most of which I took with my iphone because my regular camera wasn’t happy with trying to capture close up photos. Mainly because I don’t own a micro lens and my nifty fifty was struggling to focus on the frozen drips of water.

The Boy was quite thrilled that he could run across the surface of the snow from our back porch and up the hill toward our garden shed late Friday evening when the temps had dropped around 14. Yesterday morning the temperature started at about 3 degrees and rose slightly while my husband chipped his car out of its parking space since none of us thought about the snow and ice freezing around the tires after he parked. He traveled to pick us up a grocery order about 45 minutes away, because that’s how far away we are from anywhere that offers grocery pick-up.

Before he did that, he started the fire in the woodstove and while he was out in the cold forging for food, I was in the warm house reading books and occasionally breaking up arguments about who would have the privilege of holding the Elsa doll and playing her for the “movie” Little Miss and her friends were creating during an impromptu playdate. They didn’t have a camera, so it wasn’t really a movie. It was more like a play.

Either way, I let them know that none of them should want to be Elsa because she was the real bad guy in the first movie anyhow. I mean, think about it, the woman froze an entire village in, causing a near economic collapse of the region. The village, serving as a commerce port, most likely supplied fish and fresh food to many other villages in a 50-mile radius so when Elsa had her little hissy fit, she threatened not only the livelihoods of the people in the village but also the lives of the people who relied on the village for their food.

“It wasn’t her fault!” little voices cried, horrified that I would suggest Elsa was the bad guy in it all. “She couldn’t control her powers.”

I swiftly mocked them. “It wasn’t her fault. Wawawa! It was. Get over it. She was evil.”

They eventually decided I was picking on them (I was not) and moved on to my suggestion that they all pretend to be in a Barbie girl band so they all could sing together at the same time.

(If you are new to my blog, please realize I use sarcasm a lot. I didn’t actually mock young children. I just joked with them. *wink*

Today promises more freezing temperatures and while I would prefer not to venture out, we will most likely go have lunch with my parents and maybe watch a movie before we come home like we did last week when we watched Song of the Thin Man, the last of the Thin Man movies with Myrna Lloyd and William Powell.

 After that, I have no plans to leave the house, but I am sure that at some point I will have to.

I know many of you who read my blog pray so I would ask that you say an extra prayer for me and The Boy. We lost our sense of taste and smell with Covid and while most of it came back from me, it has been much slower for The Boy. Now he and I both seem to be developing parosmia. This is where smell and taste is distorted and many things begin to smell and taste rotten. Please pray that this does not progress for us as it has for other Covid-19 survivors.

Right now peanut butter and garlic smell like a chemical to me and peanut butter tastes like one. My son is having the same issue with peanut butter, oddly. I’m trying to stay calm about it all and I do have some natural options we can try, so I ask that you pray for them to work. I’m especially worried about my son as he has already had stomach issues off and on over the years. From what I understand, this condition gets worse over time, not better for a while anyhow.

What I/We Are Reading

I did it. I finally finished The Dark Horse, the fifth book in the Longmire Mysteries series.  The series is great, and I love Craig Johnson’s writing, so the quality of the book wasn’t why it took me so long to finish it. I took so long because of being sick with Covid and then not being interested in dark stories while I was recovering for the month of December.

Up this week I hope to finish The Cat Who Saw Stars by Lilian Jackson Braun and continue The Reckoning Trees by Alicia Gilliam. I also started Miss Julia Renews Her Vows by Ann B. Ross to see what it is like and I’m hooked, so The Reckoning Trees might get bumped down. I’m not sure yet. I usually read a hard copy of one book during the day and the Kindle at night after I am in bed so I may read Miss Julia and The Reckoning Trees at the same time, after I finish The Cat Who book. Not that any of you care so I have no idea why I am sharing all that! Ha!

Little Miss and I have already read The Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder but we are set to read it again since it is part of our history/literature curriculum this week. I told her we didn’t need to read it again but she said she wanted to. It also reminded her how much she liked the Little House series so now she has asked me to read the second book in the series to her again. I’d prefer to keep reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle but if she likes Little House on the Prairie, we will read it again.

The Boy will probably finish A Long Walk to Water this week.

What We’ve Been Watching/Watched

I read more than I watched this week but I did watch, for some unknown reason, Runaway Bride, which I think is both sweet and awful at the same time. Richard Gere sort of irritates me. In every movie he just plays Richard Gere. Arrogant and cocky with a pout. But that’s just my opinion.

The Boy and I watched a couple of episodes of Longmire. Yes, I realize it’s like we have a theme going on in our house this week.

The husband and I watched the pilot episode of Fringe. I don’t know if I will watch more of that one. Science Fiction isn’t really my thing as much as it is for my husband


What I’m Writing

I have been working on getting to the end of A New Chapter’s first draft and hope to have it done by the end of this week. Every morning last week I wrote for 2-3 hours with a group of writers from Novel Academy. We participated in writing sprints that last about fifty minutes each.

I have not been writing as much on the blog, but hope to remedy that as soon as this first draft is finished. I will have to work on the second draft and editing, but that won’t be as time consuming as writing the first draft is.

What I’m Listening To

Ah man. This week I got an ear worm stuck in my head and couldn’t get it out.

Here it is for you, so you can also get it stuck in your head:

Then you can also listen to this other earworm by them:

The rest of the week I listened to a lot of Mumford and Sons and The Dead South while I worked on my book.

I sort of liked The Dead South’s version of You Are My Sunshine, a song my aunt used to sing to me and my son. If you actually listen to the song, it’s not a very happy one, so the happy version of the song is a little bit of a juxtapose I suppose you might say. A family member told me the band murdered the song with this version, but I thought the interpretation was creative.

 I also listened to quite a bit of Brandon Lake, especially this song:

Then I introduced my son to Vanilla Ice and he was horrified.


Now it’s your turn

So that is my week in review. How about you? What have you been doing, reading, watching, writing, or listening to? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday Bookends: Sliding in the snow, rocking out, husband says to stop reading more than one book at a time? Wha-?

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends2 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing, and listening to.


What I’m Reading

This week I finished The Rhise of Hope by Max Sternberg (a Christian fantasy book) and Still the One by Susan May Warren and Rachel D. Russell (a romance).

Next up is to finish the fifth book in the Longmire Series, The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson.

I’ve also started The Reckoning Trees: A Seth Browne Novel, Book One by Alicia Gilliam and will finish it after I finish The Dark House because my husband told me last week after he read my blog, “One book at a time, honey! One book at a time.” Sigh. He reads one book at a time and then another and another and another until he’s read like 100 in a year. I’m a much slower reader who often gets distracted by other books.

Little Miss and I finished Freedom Crossing this week for her history/literature and I will be sharing a review of it here on the blog later this week. We also finished Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary and started The Mouse and the Motorcycle also by Beverly Cleary.

The Boy is still reading A Long Walk to Water.



What’s Been Occurring

This past week provided even more cold weather. I can’t remember a winter this cold in a long time. I didn’t want to leave the house at all but on Friday Little Miss and I had a hair appointment. I woke up to surprise snow, which annoyed me to no end. I hoped it was only a dusting and the plow trucks would come through before I had to leave in the afternoon but apparently they were just as surprised because the roads were not clear when I prepared to leave.

I often have to rely on others to get me places, either because I’m nervous about driving or have some weird health thing going on. I was determined, though, to do this on my own so I backed our van down our very steep driveway, onto the snow-covered street, and hoped the road I was going to be driving on to would be better.

It was not.

Not at all.

It was covered in snow and a thin layer of what looked like sleet. I carried on, hoping the road would get better.

It did not.

My dad had offered to take me and Little Miss in his truck, but he’d already had a busy morning and, like I said above, I wanted to do this on my own and not bother others. There comes a point though when trying to be brave becomes succeeding in being stupid and that point came when I hit the county line and saw the road was even worse the further I went. I finally pulled off and found enough cell service to call the salon and apologize because I knew the roads where they weren’t as bad.

You see, where I live is like a whole different world than the next county over. You can drive three miles south and the roads are only wet, while the roads in my town are covered in a couple inches of snow. You can be at my parents’ house and they have a dusting of snow and drive to my house and we have a foot. Okay, no, it’s not usually that extreme, but still — it’s a little weird.  

The woman who answered my call at the salon said she lived near me, so she totally understood the circumstances. One minute the road can be clear, the next covered in snow or ice.

So, I turned around and headed back home. We drove the half-mile and then it was time for me to go up our street so I could pull our van up the driveway. I usually go around to the other end of our street so I can pull the car in at a straight angle.

I forgot, however, how steep that end is so as I headed up, my van decided it would stop at the top of the hill of it and then slide back down. I shifted the van into low gear and hit the accelerator before it could slide very far and inched the car up to the flat part of the street.

That took about thirty seconds and when we hit that flat spot, I knew we were fine to make it the rest of the way down the street. The next task was the driveway, and I floored it but didn’t make it.

For reference, here is our driveway looking down, pictured last winter:

It’s a challenge even without snow

The car started sliding backward toward the street. Little Miss decided she didn’t want to be in the van when I tried it again so she requested (demanded) to be released so she could walk up the driveway to the house.

After two more tries and lot of accelerator pushing, (during which I hoped I didn’t destroy my engine), I managed to pull the van back into the garage, where it will sit until the driveway is free of snow and ice.

So, I didn’t accomplish getting to the hairdresser on my own, but I did accomplish getting the van back into the driveway despite the snow and ice. It was a small victory, but I took it.

What I’m Watching

My husband and I watched the last episodes of Lovejoy and to say I was disappointed in the last episode is an understatement. I can’t remember my exact words when it ended but it was something like, “Are you serious?! That’s it! Six seasons and that’s how they end it?”

Suffice it to say, I was not impressed and felt like the ending was a total cop-out. My husband reminded me that we can always go back and rewatch the beginning but somehow it doesn’t feel the same knowing that ended in such a depressing way. I would still recommend the series since it was very entertaining, but it did not end the way I hoped it would.

What I’m Writing

I have been participating in writing sprints with the writers at Novel Academy (a writing school of sorts) for the last two weeks. We meet in a “room” on Facebook, chat for ten minutes, share what we are going to work on and then go and write for 50 minutes. We return at the end and report how we did and then we do it again, up to four times if the host is able to and if we want to continue our writing for the day.

Thanks to these sprints I have marched on toward the end of A New Chapter’s first draft and I hope to finish it by the end of this week, or next at the latest. After that I will go back and edit and fix plot holes or errors or maybe even rewrite entire scenes or chapters. We will see.

At this point, my release date has been set for April 26. I’m excited for my readers to read the story in its entirety with all the changes or additions made (and there are going to be at least two new scenes that were not shared in the chapters I shared here). I have also narrowed the choices down for the book cover and think I will go with this one:

Last week on the blog:

 I shared a review of the book Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour;

Shared my random thoughts;

And shared a new chapter of A New Chapter (ha!)

What I’m Listening to

This week I enjoyed relaxing and writing while listening to a Jack White concert:

and then his new song:

Then I slipped into some White Stripes,

Mumford and Sons,

And then The Lumineers:


I know. Quite different for me. Don’t worry, I still love my Christian artists and worship music, and, of course, Needtobreathe.

Mac Powell, the lead singer from Third Day has a new album coming out so I’ll probably be listening to that this week.


Now it’s your turn

So that’s my week in review. How was yours? What are you reading, watching, doing, listening to, writing and all that jazz? Let me know in the comments.