christian fiction

Sunday Bookends: A surprise snow day and heavy and light reading mixed

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date for this post.

I’ve just sat down to start this post after watching Little Miss and The Husband sled down the hill behind our house after an unexpected snowfall. I’m not sure why I didn’t gather wood today to start a fire since it would have been the perfect day for it, but instead, I sat under a big fluffy blanket and read a book, watched some Lark Rise to Candleford, and watched others out in the snow while I sipped tea. I also cooked some roasted potatoes to go with small steaks The Husband cooked. It was the first time we’d been able to eat roasted potatoes in probably a year since our oven had been broken. It’s been nice to have it fixed.

We added a salad with red peppers to it and it was the perfect dinner.

Later today we plan to have lunch with my parents and then come home to light the fire and have a cozy night before the week starts over again.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Currently Reading:

What book was I reading yesterday? Not really a cozy one, but still very well written – A Walt Longmire Mystery: Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson. I read a couple chapters of it and then moved on to a cozier read in Nellie by Amy Walsh.

Nellie officially released Thursday and is a sweet, cute book about a young woman who pretends to be a cook to get a job to help her family.

Here is a quick description:

Finances are tight for the O’Dwyer family who live on a mountain outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1931. Life gets even harder when their beloved Dadaí must cease work as a coal miner to become a patient at the West Mountain Sanitarium.

Nellie is her preferred name, but family and friends have heard Mam shout “Fenella Aileen O’Dwyer!” all too often with the countless predicaments she got herself into throughout childhood. So, it’s not altogether surprising when Nellie impulsively accepts a job as an assistant cook at the Clarinda House in a case of mistaken identity — though she’s the last person her family would ask to prepare a meal.

Fortunately, along with determination, a talent for acting, and the gift of blarney, Nellie has Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book, a treasure she discovered at a Red Cross drought relief sale. As her reluctant admiration for her employer grows, Nellie wishes she could be the truthful woman of faith that Mr. Mason Peale esteems. If she confesses all, will she lose her job along with the friendships she’s formed at Clarinda House?

You can find out more about it HERE    

I should have Nellie finished this week and I will probably start another cozy mystery to offset the darkness of the Longmire book. I forgot that I had planned to start Blessed Is the Busybody by Emilie Richards in early February so I think I will start that this week. I also want to try The Tale of Hill Top Farm by Susan Wittig Albert, but will probably hold off on that one until Spring. It feels more like a spring book.

Recently Finished:

The Cat Who Went Into the Closet by Lilian Jackson Braun

These books can be hit or miss at times but this one, though not heavy-hitting at all, was actually very good.

Up Soon:

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson

Pocahontas by  Joseph Bruchac (previewing it for Little Miss for school. I also have a choice on the same topic by Jean Fritz.)

The Mystery At Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene.

The Husband is reading a book by Dean Koontz, or was at least.

The Boy is reading Horus Rising by Dan Abott.

Little Miss and I finished The Borrowers this past week. I hope to start another book with her soon but we haven’t decided on which one. We started listening to Caddie Woodlawn by Carold Ryrie Brink the other day on our way to pick up groceries and she is enjoying it but I don’t think it will replace our bedtime listening of The Great Christmas Pageant Ever or Fortunately the Milk.

Friday night she asked me to read to her before bedtime because we’ve been listening to audiobooks. She asked if I would read her part of my book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing.

I did but found myself critiquing my writing so it wasn’t as much fun for me. I think tonight I’ll suggest I read her something written by someone else. I’ll even read her The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder again! (If you’re new here, this is a bit of a joke because she wanted me to read her the Little House and Paddington books over and over again last year and the year before.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched the French film Amelie as a buddy watch with Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

I also watched Lark Rise to Candleford but actually read more this week than watched things.
What I’m Writing

I am continuing to work on Cassie, which releases in August of 2024.

If you want a little sneak peek, you can check out my blog on Friday. I think I might have a little tidbit to offer up from it.

On the blog,I shared:

What I’m Listening to

This week I’ve been listening to Needtobreathe’s Caves.

An audiobook version of In This Mountain by Jan Karon.

A podcast featuring old Jack Benny radio shows.

Photos from Last Week

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: Fall weather mixed with summer weather, mood reading, and comfort watching

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments


It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

Friday and yesterday were busy for me so I did not have a lot of time to write a Saturday Afternoon Chat post. That means I’ll share a little more here this week about what has been occurring.

Last week’s weather was gorgeous so Little Miss and I spent time outside and on the neighbor’s trampoline part of it.

I took photographs of the leaves while we were up by the trampoline, especially on Friday when Little Miss had a couple of her friends over.

I had never really looked to see where the little woods behind our outbuilding and our neighbor’s shed go but on Friday I could see that it leads to the backyards of the houses on another street. The woods are a little deeper further to the left and even further out they are deeper still.

I would guess the deer that show up in our backyard come from the deeper woods that lead out of town. Our one neighbor feeds the deer, which is actually illegal, and I’ve considered calling the Game Commission on him several times but two weeks ago his wife died and now I can’t bring myself to do it.

After talking to him one day this week I learned she’s been sick for a while now after a freak accident two years ago when she fell and hit her head. I wonder if he wanted the deer to come down so she could see them from the kitchen window. I get annoyed with the deer being in our yard and the yards of my neighbors because with White-Tailed Deer in Pennsylvania come deer ticks. I have two friends who died from complications from untreated Lyme, some family friends who were hit hard by it (one still deals with chronic Lyme), and my dad dealt with Lyme several years ago and is still suffering from the effects of it.

I will pray we can keep ourselves safe from the ticks so my neighbor can still see the deer while he mourns his wife. My neighbor is elderly and sometimes complains about everything when I talk to him, including the neighbors I am close to. Because he said some disparaging things about my neighbors, who have become friends, I am never anxious to talk to him but I took a container of homemade chicken noodle soup to him on Wednesday night anyhow. He was very appreciative, even as he tried to launch into a series of complaints about a variety of things.

Yesterday he returned the container with a post-it note on top.

“God bless you. Thank you.” And he signed his name.

It melted my heart.

I think he needed that act of kindness right now whether he’s always been kind or not himself.

So, as another act of kindness, I’m going to try to tolerate the deer in our backyards and hope they don’t cause an accident on the street and treat the pets with tick medicine and us with tick spray.

Little Miss and her friends had a lot of fun playing with the leaves and jumping on the trampoline Friday. I had fun having what felt like a real autumn experience. It was a nice warm day and I didn’t have the weird symptoms I sometimes have when the weather is cold and the pressure is low.

The girls were able to see each other again last night when we went trick-or-treating with them in their town, which is about a 40-minute drive from us. There was a Trunk-or-Treat and then a costume competition that I attended, but after that The Husband walked with Little Miss and her friends and parents around town and I sat in the car and enjoyed some coveted reading time.

Today I am going to see my parents for the afternoon. It is supposed to rain all day and the temperature will be dropping, which makes me sad because on Wednesday I am supposed to take Little Miss to a reptile zoo an hour from us. She absolutely loves reptiles and I had no idea this place was so big so I am excited to take her. It is a trip with the library. I do see we might get some – I can’t even say the word – that wet, cold, white stuff that day so we will see how it goes. I hope the trip isn’t canceled.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I did not have as much time to read this past week as I had hoped. I was editing and revising Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage so it can be edited and proofread or spending time outside much of the week.

That is why the books I am reading are the books I was reading the week before. It also doesn’t help that I am a mood reader. I may have started a book and be enjoying it but there are some days when a book simply doesn’t fit my mood. For example, I am reading one book that I like very much but the subject matter can be heavy. There is a boy who saw his mother murdered and is in foster care, a woman who used to be a prostitute, and a man whose wife was murdered. The writing in the book is amazing but there are times I don’t feel I’m emotionally stable to read the book. The writer is very good so I feel like I’m living the book and there are days I don’t want to live that and then go to bed thinking about it.

Those are the days I am glad to be able to read books with my 9-year-old, like The Black Stallion which we started last week.

Have you ever read the book?

I never have but I have seen the movie. Several times. I have always loved it.

So far, I am really enjoying the book, though we are at the part on the island and that can be a bit tedious. I am looking forward to when they get rescued. The problem is, my daughter is also a mood reader so the nights I am in the mood to read to her from one book, she wants something completely different. When she feels insecure or has overheard something scary from the news, she wants to go to her comfort reads – much like I do. This past week those comfort reads were Paddington and Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman. Actually, we listen to Fortunately the Milk usually. Sometimes she reads to me from the book and it is so entertaining to hear her trying to do the British accents. I always do the accents of the characters in the books so she feels like she has to as well but I have been reminding her that her mother is an old lady whose practiced accents a long time. She’s just starting so she’ll get better at it as she grows.

Back to my reading, I’ve been bouncing between three books but this week I am focusing on one, finishing it and then the next one.

I had been bouncing between Walls Crumbling by Alicia Gilliam, Polly by Naomi Musch, and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr.

This week I plan to finish Polly, then finish When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and then finish Walls Crumbling.

I also want to finish The Red Badge of Courage, which I am listening to with my son, and Death at the Seaside, which I have also been listening to. I have about 40 minutes in both the books and I am certain I’ll be doing dishes this week so I’ll have time to listen.

I looked at the books I said I wanted to read this autumn last week and would love to a couple more books from that list by mid-November. Then I want to start my winter list, which will include Little Women. I hope to stretch that book out into the long, dark months that come with winter in Pennsylvania. It will be my first time reading it.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched Rebecca for the Comfy, Cozy Cinema and then the rest of the week I really did not watch a lot other than Newhart. The Husband and I did watch episodes of old British sitcoms, The Manor Born and Yes, Minister.

This week I hope to watch some Miss Scarlet and The Duke and maybe Death in Paradise, which I have not watched in a long time. I have not seen any of the episodes with the latest detective.

What I’m Writing

As I mentioned above, I am finishing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and will have that out to be edited by Wednesday. I plan to continue writing Cassie and hope to finish it by the end of the month or mid-December since it is a smaller book.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

Needtobreathe has a new album out so I will be listening to that all week, I am sure.

Here is one of the latest songs:

Photos from Last Week

As I mentioned above, I took a lot of photos of autumn leaves last week.

I’ll share some of those photos here today and the rest in a separate post later in the week.

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: Fall photos, did not finish books, I’m not a real book blogger, and watching old movies (again)

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

Yesterday I rambled about last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post. You can read that here if you want to.

One thing I mentioned was that I wanted to get some more photographs of the autumn leaves left on our trees. So many have been blown off already and it has been gloomy almost every day for the last week and a half so I haven’t felt like going out to take photographs, but I made myself yesterday. For you. My blog readers who don’t have fall colors. I pushed myself out there and I was so cold and frozen and stumbled home and was forced to huddle under a blanket with hot cocoa and a book the rest of the day. It was rough. Still, I managed to grab some photos for you and they are in the Photos of the Week section further down in this post.

 Today I may try to grab a few more photos as I go to visit my parents for the afternoon but it looks like it is going to be another chilly and windy day so we will see.

The Boy’s friend visited yesterday and they were hanging out in the living room, so I was able to hang out on my own all day and took that time to write blog posts, read a book (that I ended up tossing aside because it was just too awful. See below.), and watch a concert by a Christian musician I like. It was a nice day and I think I need to lock myself upstairs more often.


What I/we’ve been Reading

(I want to reiterate for any book bloggers who visit here that I’m not really a book blogger. I sign-up with the book blogging link ups because I like to see what others are reading and to meet new bloggers. I just don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that I am a fast or voracious reader. I do read a lot, but I am also writing books of my own and homeschooling my two children (ages 9 and almost 17), so I don’t read as much as many of the bloggers who link up for these fun features.)

This week I got caught up reading the first book in a multi-author series I am a part of this week. The series is called The Apron Strings Books and it is going to offer 11 books which will each focus on a particular decade from the 1920s to 2020. I am writing a book called Cassie, which will come out in August of 2024.

The first book is called Polly and it is by Naomi Musch.

A description:

One cookbook connects them all…
Polly ~ Book One in a string of heartfelt inspirational stories, featuring different women throughout the decades from 1920 to 2020.

The Great War has ended, but Polly Holloway’s heart is shattered when her fiancé finally returns home—with a French war bride. Now her future feels desolate, until she fastens onto the idea of using her skills and a special cookbook to turn her grandfather’s Victorian house into a fashionable ladies’ tea room. Yet, how will she endure the patronage of the woman who stole her sweetheart? Moreover, the suave tavern owner down the block is interfering in her business, personal and otherwise. Heaven only knows what goes on behind his doors.

Ross Dalton can no longer sell liquor in his establishment. With prohibition in force, it’s a mixed blessing. Ross met God on the battlefield, and he wants to start fresh, but he must earn a living. Converting his bar into a coffee house offers a partial solution. Still, bootleggers are pressing him to pedal their moonshine, and the girl up the street is convinced his place is a front for a speakeasy. She’s awfully cute when she turns up her pert little nose at his friendly overtures. How can he convince her he isn’t going to tarnish the neighborhood or ruin her business? And will she believe he’s a changed man when the bootleggers double down?

I’m really enjoying the book and am excited that I am receiving advanced copies of all of the books since I’m part of the project. I can’t wait for everyone to read these books. I was so wrapped up in this one I was actually talking to a character. Out loud. In the middle of the night. Eek. Yes, the story certainly pulls you in.

If you want to learn more about the series, you can join our group on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/apronstringsreaders

I was reading a cozy mystery called Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco but it was a DNF for me yesterday. It drove me crazy. The story was just – not good. The things that the characters did were ridiculous. Listen, I know cozy mysteries aren’t the best literature out there sometimes but this book was out and out ridiculous. There were way too many pages where it was just dialogue and not good dialogue either. I was disappointed because the beginning of it had so much promise.

So, in addition to Polly, I am back to reading Walls Crumbling by Alicia Gilliam. I am enjoying this book, which is the second in the Seth Browne series.

A description:

Hiding from the world brought them all together.

Facing it might tear them apart.

Can they survive beyond the walls of the white clapboard house?

Can Seth endure the exposure of a state agent investigating their newly-buried past, including the grave he dug with his bare hands?

Will they find the missing redhead needed to exonerate Seth from suspicion? It all depends on little Benji.

Government intrusion could force the boy even further into his silent bubble — or empower him to reveal his darkest secret.

Meanwhile, Cassady fears a new identity remains permanently out of reach. An invisible link to her past seems to threaten any hope of a romantic happily-ever-after.

Seth secretly wonders if trusting God isn’t the answer for his growing temptations. He’s praying, but every day, the walls are closing in on him.

Walls Crumbling invites you to step into a world where God builds firm foundations over the top of broken rubble.

In addition to reading those books this week, I hope to finish Red Badge of Courage this week, plus a cozy mystery book I’ve been listening to forever on Audible. I am reading Red Badge of Courage with my teenager for school and neither of us got to it last week to read so we will finish it this week.

I have also been reading chapters of a book called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. I am really enjoying it, but since I am a mood reader, I have laid it aside a couple of times to pick up a cozier book. I believe it’s considered a middle-grade book but it does have a lot of deep subject matter in it since it is about a family who had to leave Germany to escape the Nazis.

Little Miss and I finished Gone Away Lake last week and I have ordered Return to Gone Away Lake for her.

I try to cut myself some slack when I don’t think I’m reading enough and remind myself I’m also reading books with the kids, plus writing my own books and this blog. I am not a speed reader and I’m also not retired yet. When I get to the retirement stage, I will read more books and I’m sure I’ll read them faster.

Photos from Last Week

As I mentioned above, I made it a point to go out for a drive yesterday in very gloomy weather to take some fall photos for my blog readers who don’t live in an area where the leaves change. It seemed like every beautiful tree or group of trees I saw was in a spot where I couldn’t pull off the road to take a photograph. In other places so many leaves had blown off that it wasn’t really pretty enough for a photo.

Still, it was fun to drive around and see the leaves that are still left.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Penny Serenade with Cary Grant and Irene Dunn (who also starred in The Awful Truth with my friend Erin and I watched for The Spring of Cary feature).  Released in 1941, it was a comedy-drama that focused on the struggles of a newly married couple and then follows them through the struggles of a pregnancy loss, adoption, childhood illness, and the continuing struggles all those things bring to a married couple.

It was a bit heavy for me in some parts and made me want to cry, but it was very well done and did showcase so many issues parents have to deal with – some of them funny and some of them heartbreaking.

There were some really hilarious scenes when the parents had to figure out how to get their daughter to sleep, learn about bathing her and other issues she had to face as she grew up.

The ending didn’t sit well with me for a variety of reasons but I was glad that the movie explored how a couple can group apart when suffering a tragedy in their lives and marriage, but that it is possible to come back together again.

I also watched Strangers on a Train with The Husband and The Boy for Erin (from Still Life, with Cracker Crumbs) Comfy, Cozy Feature. As a commenter pointed out, this movie really wasn’t cozy or comfy but Erin and I never got around to adding “Creepy” to the name of the feature so…there you go.

Next week we are watching Rebecca – also not a comfy or cozy movie.

This week I hope to watch some actually cozy YouTube videos from some of my favorite YouTubers and find some other cozy old movies I have not watched before. Followers on here and on my Instagram (www.instagram.com/lisarhoweler) have been giving me some awesome suggestions for movies and I am adding them all to a list in my notebook. I’m especially looking for cozy, feel-good films for November and December so let me know if you have any of those suggestions.


What I’m Writing

I am editing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage this week. I will pass that on to my editor husband and some proofreaders on November 1 and start right in on Cassie from the Apron Strings Book series I mentioned above.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening to

I have been listening to a lot of worship music this week, especially from Joshua Aaron, an Israeli-American Messianic Jew.

My dad shared this beautiful version of The Blessing being sung in Hebrew on his Facebook page last night and  wanted to share it with you today.

Here is another version of it in a video he filmed in Jerusalem:

Now it’s your turn.

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

September Newsletter: Cooler weather, writing book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries, and a giveaway!

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 3 Comments

One week during the winter of 1993 snow covered everything until the world was a white wonderland, but also a dangerous situation. Snow hung heavy on tree limbs and electric lines, both ready to break under the weight of it. An icy sheen of snow hid the highway that traveled in front, and slightly above our house. Electricity was on in most of our tiny village, split into two different electric companies by the creek behind our house.

My grandmother’s electricity was off so Dad started the truck, warmed it up, and headed out through three feet of snow – over the river (creek) and through the woods to Grandmother’s house he went.

He brought back my 84-year-old grandmother so she could wait until the power came back on. I don’t remember much about her visit other than her wearing a warm coat and looking out the window with us at all the insane amount of snow. I think that might have also been the year the neighbor’s teenage son was hit with a snowplow. He wasn’t killed, thankfully, but it was a nerve-wracking moment.

Here we are 20 years later and outside the air is brisk and we are piling wood up behind our garage to prepare for the cold weather we are sure to get this year. I am hearing that this could be quite a nasty winter when it comes to snowfall.

So far the trees haven’t changed color much but are just starting to and we know before long the hillsides will be ablaze with brilliant reds, orange, and yellows.

I am looking forward to the beauty, to the chilly weather, to the chance to sit under a blanket and read a book without the urgency that seems to come with summer – an urgency to soak up all the warm weather and sunshine, I suppose.

While I wait for autumn to hit us in full force, I am writing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, which is set to release in late November or early December. My original release date was November 21 but I may need to push it off a couple of weeks to make sure the story flows the way I want it to.

I’ve considered no longer offering pre-orders simply because they can be so stressful, but there will be a pre-order for Cassie, the book I am writing as part of the Apron Strings Book Series because that is part of our agreement in being part of the project. Cassie will be released in mid-August of 2024. I’m very excited to be part of this project, which books will start releasing in January.

If you’d like to learn more about this series and the authors who are writing the books (there will be a book focused on each decade from 1920 to 2020), you can join us in our Facebook group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/511319271100448

We share memories, talk about the decades our books are in, share silly and fun posts, and offer sneak peeks of the books. We’d love to have you join in the fun.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reception of my latest book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, and have really been excited to see reviews coming in from people I have never met or interacted with in my life. This happened with my other books as well, but reviews for those books sometimes came from people I had at least “met” somewhere online (and sometimes from people I never met). This time around I have people coming out of the woodwork who have read the book and reviewed it.

There is a large group of readers who think reviews on an indie author’s books come from family and friends. This isn’t the case with mine because most of my family doesn’t read my book and if they do, they aren’t really the rating or reviewing kind.

I don’t know of many real-life friends who have read my books – at least not close friends – and they certainly aren’t leaving ratings or reviews if they have.

This past week I received a review on Bookbub that I didn’t expect at all.

“This is a fun cozy mystery about a woman named Gladwynn Grant. Gladwynn moves in with her granny who isn’t the knitting parlor, baking cookies type of sweet old granny. She’s got spice. Gladwynn takes a job at the town newspaper thinking her new home in Brookstone will be a quiet life. She’s dead wrong. Her granny is also trying to set her up with the pastor in town, Luke. It had some fast moments but is easy going and the characters were fun. Very entertaining.”

I don’t know who you are Ryan, but thank you!

If you haven’t had a chance to read Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing yet, you can pick up a paperback copy on Amazon (soon to be available on Barnes and Noble too), read the ebook through Kindle Unlimited or buy it on Amazon, or you can order a paperback copy from my personal stash.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

My Books page: https://lisahoweler.com/order-my-books/

The Spencer Valley Chronicles – all four books and a novella – are back up on Kindle Unlimited, which, if you don’t know, is a subscription book service offered by Amazon. The one drawback to having my books on KU is that I can’t share them digitally anywhere while they are enrolled in KU. Amazon likes its exclusivity.

I can, however, sell paperback versions of the book in other places so this coming year I will be offering the Spencer Valley Chronicles in paperback at Barnes and Noble as well. And, as I mentioned above, you can order autographed copies of the book at the link above.

I have had people ask before if I make more money with my books in KU or with people buying them.

The answer is that I make more money when a person outright buys the book since Amazon pays less than four cents a page read now (as of this autumn) and also determines what is and isn’t a page. For example, I sell my Spencer Valley Chronicles ebooks for $2.99 and if someone buys it I receive about $2.05. If someone reads it in KU, I receive maybe $1.50.

Why stay in KU then? One, Kindle Unlimited helps my books to be seen by people they might not have been seen by because Amazon will sometimes recommend them when a person reads a book in KU that is similar to mine. Two, many readers don’t want to buy a book by an author they don’t know so KU is a way they can try an author by essentially borrowing a book, deciding if they like the author, and then returning the book without filling up their Kindle with books by authors they don’t really know or maybe even like.

I’m not a well-known author so most people wouldn’t even try my book if it wasn’t for the convenience of KU. In other words, I wouldn’t make any money at all, most likely, if it wasn’t for KU because one, no one would see my books, and two, very few would want to take a chance on my book if they had to buy it outright, even if my prices are low.

I understand number two because that’s how I am as well. I don’t want to spend money on a book by an author I don’t know until I’ve tested that author out.

Someday I would love to have enough clout in the book-writing world to release my books on any platform and know they will sell, but I’m not there yet. Hopefully a few years down the road.

That closes my writing update for now.
If you would like to read about other updates you can catch up on my Sunday Bookends post from this week or simply follow my blog by subscribing below:

You can also sign up for a paid subscription where you will be able to get exclusive content, such as sneak peeks of my next book, giveaways, author interviews, etc. Paid subscriptions are $3 a month.

Subscribe



I post 2 to 5 times a week depending on the week and what I have going on and occasionally I’ll even post seven days a week, but this is a rarity. In other words, I hopefully won’t fill your inbox up too much with blog post notifications.

My friend Erin and I are watching comfy and cozy (and sometimes a little creepy) movies for the months of October and November and then blogging about them if you want to participate in that feature in any way. She and I often do movie-watching features, which you can find by going to my search bar at the right and typing in Classic Movie Impressions, the Spring of Cary, or Comfy Cozy Cinema.

This week she and I are writing about Arsenic and Old Lace. We will be offering a link-up opportunity this week for anyone who might want to join in and write about their impressions of the movies as well.

I snuck this September “newsletter” or writing update right in under the wire, didn’t I?

Hopefully, I will get better about offering my newsletter updates earlier in the month from now on.

Photos and blog posts of the month:

I thought I would share some photos taken in September and also a link to some of my more popular blog posts from August and September for anyone who is interested:

Celebrating 60 years

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The African Queen

Saturday Afternoon Chat

Why Do You Blog?

She Was Ready for Heaven

Book Giveaway:

In my Sunday Bookends posts, I share what I am reading and right now I am reading a book called A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo. For this month’s giveaway, I am offering one reader of my blog and newsletter a chance to win an ebook of this book, which releases October 1. I can only gift this to someone who reads on a Kindle so let me know in the comments if you are interested.

I hope you will also let me know in the comments how you have been doing, what you’ve been up to, and, of course, what you’ve been reading lately.

Sunday Bookends: The Word is Murder, more swimming, and watching Marilyn still

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 2 Comments




It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

This week I haven’t been able to read anything other than The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz because I just have to know what happened. This is a book where the author has made himself part of the story and it’s brilliantly done.

I’ve mentioned before that Horowitz has created or written for several well-known television shows including Foyle’s War, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Injustice, New Blood and Collision.

He also is the only author approved by the Arthur Conon Doyle Estate to write Sherlock books and he has written two — Moriarty and House of Silk.

His other books include the Alex Rider series (for teens), The Magpie Murders, the Power of Five, Diamond of Five.  

At one point I thought the book might be wandering into territory I didn’t want to read about and I considered dropping it but then Horowitz, writing as himself since he is the main character/narrator of the book, said he was only continuing to talk to the rude consultant to the police because he had to know what happened to the victim. It was how I felt too. I can’t stop reading until I know what happens so more than once I’ve been up late reading the book, desperate for a resolution.

The book starts with a woman walking into a funeral parlor and arranging her own funeral. Odd enough but then later that day she’s murdered – strangled in her home by a cord on her curtains. A man named Hawthorne is called in as a consultant and Horowitz decides to write a book about Hawthorne and the investigation. Hawthorne is rude and blunt and Horowitz starts to second guess the decision but he’s already invested and needs to know what happened to the victim so he pushes forward – much like the reader.

Horowitz does such a wonderful job crafting the story and weaving in humor that you can’t help but want to push forward, though.

This is the first of four books in the series. I started reading book four when I saw my husband’s library book on the kitchen table, opened it to see what it was about, and couldn’t put it down. That’s when he told me it was book four and he had the other books in his Kindle. Our accounts are connected so I downloaded the first book immediately.

I’m also listening to Death by the Seaside by T.E. Kinsey when I drive somewhere or wash the dishes and I hope to finish When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr this week as well.

Little Miss and I will be finishing up the second book in the Boxcar Children series this week – Surprise Island.

The Husband is reading. I can’t tell you what because he was attending a car show for work (he is a newspaper reporter/editor) so he’s not here for me to ask.

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote about what’s been occurring in my post yesterday and the only new thing that has happened since then is that Little Miss and I went swimming yesterday afternoon at my parents. We will be doing the same this afternoon.

I’m still hoping for a fairly relaxed week coming up. I have to take our van to a local scrapyard to see if they will buy it off us and take Little Miss to gymnastics and then that’s about it. I’d like to spend a good part of the week putting my grandfather’s poems in scrapbooks before my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary party in September.

I’m really looking forward to fall this year, which I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently. Summer just feels so busy and I really want some days where I can stay inside and accomplish some of the things I  need to do for my books and journals and stock photography since those are my own sources of side income right now. Plus they are fun.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week we watched Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (we actually still have to finish it), The Super Mario Brothers movie, Newhart, Designing Women, and I finished Monkey Business with Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe because I kept getting interrupted while watching it. This upcoming week I am watching All About Eve with Marilyn.

I also watched a video with Darling Desi on Youtube where she talked about how she is ready for fall. I’m right there with her.


What I’m Writing

This past week I worked on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and am going to work on it through August and hope to finish it by the beginning of September so I can continue on Cassie for the Apron Strings book series. My book for that series comes out in August of 2024.

On the blog this week I shared:

What I’m Listening to

Little Miss and I have been listening to a playlist that includes a lot of Christian musical artists while we swim. Those artists include: Matthew West, Elevation Worship, Crowder, Keith Green, MercyMe, and a few others.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

I am severely behind on blog posts but did read a few. I’ll leave a link to some of my favorites next week.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: Cozy mysteries, busy days, birthday parties, and flash flood watches

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

Today I am joining The Caffeinated Reviewer for the Sunday Post.


What I/we’ve Been Reading

Since last posting, I finished the Nancy Drew book I was reading – The Secret of the Old Clock. I enjoyed it very much, even though it was very simple.

Friday night I finished a book I was ready by an indie author for an endorsement. It was Christian Fiction and I will share more about it when it releases officially.

I am also reading Secrets of the Amish Diary by Rebecca Phillips and hope to jump back into The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz later this week.

I really enjoy the Amish Inn Mystery books by Phillips. They are relaxed and easy-going, but also full of murder and mystery. The characters are so loveable and I don’t mind that the pace is a little slow at times. It isn’t too slow but a little slower than some mysteries. I’m fine with that since that’s what cozy mysteries are too me.  The clues for the mystery don’t come out slowly, but the story itself does and I actually enjoy that about cozy mysteries.

What’s Been Occurring

Yesterday we took Little Miss to a birthday party. We weren’t going to stay long because the little girl wasn’t feeling well, but the party was outside so we stayed a little longer. Little Miss and The Husband hiked to a small stream and swimming hole behind the family’s house and Little Miss took a swim with her friend.

This swimming hole and waterfall are actually part of their property. Isn’t that awesome?

After we visited there, the entire family headed to the grocery store for our weekly groceries.

Right before we walked inside, though, The Boy came running to us in a panic because he had looked at the schedule at work wrong and it turns out he was supposed to be at work at that time. We were 30 minutes away so after a quick call to his boss, during which she reassured him he was okay and just to get in as soon as he could, The Husband did a dash through the store and we headed back home. After we unloaded the groceries and took The Boy to work, Little Miss and I headed to my parents for a swim in their pool.


Today, with the area under a flash flood watch, we stayed home to relax and for me to catch up on some work for the book that releases this week instead of next now (you heard it here first). I also have some journals I want to design and upload to our journal store on Amazon. Unfortunately, The Husband could not stay home and relax part of the time because he had to go to a political rally to cover it for work.

At least he was able to enjoy this view while there.

This week we have a couple of summer reading events, gymnastics, and lunch for The Husband and I for our anniversary.

Oh and Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing releases on Tuesday now instead of next Tuesday.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week we were in and out of the house a lot or I was busy with finishing up things for the release of Gladwynn and designing graphics to promote it so I didn’t watch as much as I do some weeks.

I even forgot to watch the Marilyn Monroe movie I had planned to watch to write about on Thursday. I didn’t even remember until Friday that I had not watched the movie. I will be watching it this week instead.

The Husband and I did watch a few episodes of Newhart and I rented Into the West, an Irish movie I really enjoy, but never got back to finishing before the rental ran out.

This week I hope to watch a couple of Marilyn Monroe movies and some documentaries on Ireland. Why Ireland? I have no idea, but I’ve always loved Ireland. This past week I started one and it was being narrated by an American who sounded like he was on an American news show. I just didn’t trust him is all I’m saying. I need a show about Ireland to be narrated by an Irish person. (*wink*)

What I’m Writing

I am working on book two for the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries and have already put it up for pre-order on Amazon. I already mentioned how busy I was last week so I did not have a lot of time to write blog posts. I only posted one yesterday about how busy I was.

What I’m Listening To

While writing this week, I listened to this:


Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Sunday Bookends: My husband is a speed reader, finally enjoying Fellowship of the Ring, a DNF for Anne, and working on Gladwynn’s book

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 1 Comment

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

It took until around Chapter 9, but I finally got into Fellowship of the Ring. Or it finally picked up, whichever. I mean, I guess I liked it before then but a character I remember from the movies showed up around Chapter 9 and that’s when things started to really pick up. Now I’m moving through it much faster and would love to be able to finish it by the end of the week, but I’m not sure I will. I have enjoyed listening to it some of the time on Audible and reading it part of the time. Friday night I sat on the back porch and read a couple of chapters of it, which took quite a while since the chapters are so long.

I also started reading Death of a Poison Pen by M.C. Beaton. It’s a Hamish Macbeth Mystery and takes place in Scotland. It’s a much lighter read than Fellowship of the Ring so I’m using it to break up the old style of Tolkien’s writing but I will probably focus on FOTR this week because I do want to know what happens. Yes, I did watch the movie but I sort of glazed over after hour two and got a bit lost. I’d rather read it.

I finally gave up on Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery. It was terribly depressing and I once heard a reader say life was too short to read a book you don’t enjoy so I finally put it back on the shelf. I’ll try some of the other books in the series at another time.

Little Miss and I are reading On The Other Side of the Hill by Roger Lea MacBride. Some nights we are reading The Miss Piggle Wiggle Treasury.

The Boy is reading Fellowship of the Ring.

The Husband was on vacation this week and even with taking kids to appointments, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, and helping to take care of a sick dog he managed to read six books and start a seventh.

The books he read:

The Infernals by John Connelly

Out of Range by CJ Box

The Scared Stiff by Donald Westlake

Bye-Bye, Baby by Ace Atkins

Number One is Walking by Steve Martin

Standing by the Wall by Mick Herron

The one he is reading now: Don’t Ask by Donald Westlake


What’s Been Occurring

I wrote yesterday about our drama last week with Zooma the Wonder Dog. You can read about it in this post.

You can also see some of our photos from the week there but I will share a few here too.

What We watched/are Watching

Little Miss and I found two other Mary Berry series on Tubi on the Roku this week so we watched those episodes throughout the week.

I watched My Favorite Wife for my Spring of Cary feature with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and decided it was not my favorite Cary movie.

An Affair to Remember is up for this week.

The Husband and I watched Oceans 11 this week. The original with the Rat Pack etc. That was some ending. Whew.

We also watched a super creepy episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Dick York from Bewitched. Yikes. He was a very good actor and very underrated.

We also started Carefree with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but both had to head to bed for some sleep so we will finish it later.

I also watched a few art videos and a couple of YouTubers this week but had to take a break from the YouTubers as some of them grate on me because after a bit they all start to sound the same. They talk about the same books and wear the same clothes and skip in the same fields and it is starting to get a bit weird. I’m sure I’ll still watch a few of them, including Forgotten Way Farms, which is different from all the other “Young Woman Reading Cottage Core Style Books and Filming Herself Wearing Old Clothes and Skipping through A Field of Flowers.”



What I’m Writing

I worked on finishing Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing every day this last week and hope to have it finished this upcoming week. You can pre-order it here:

It is coming out July 18th now instead of June 20th.

On the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am listening to an audiobook of Fellowship of the Ring and other times I am reading the book.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Big Sky Buckeye, God’s quiet place:

https://bigskybuckeye.com/2023/04/19/gods-quiet-place/

Breath of Hallelujah: Pascha At Holy Trinity Cathedral Chicago

https://breathofhallelujah.com/2023/04/19/pascha-at-holy-trinity-cathedral-chicago/



Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.




Fiction Friday: Road to Bethlehem. Guest post, children’s author Lesley Barklay

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 1 Comment

Children’s author, or just author in general, Lesley Barklay provided me with a chapter of her book, Road to Bethlehem for today’s Fiction Friday.

Road to Bethlehem is part of the Bible Adventurers series for children.

Description:

‘Dear God’, Hannah prayed. ‘I wish I knew what it was like on that first Christmas morning . . .’

When Hannah goes to bed on Christmas Eve, the last thing she expects is to wake up in a dusty shed with her brother and a chicken. With no time to search for their parents, Joseph and Mary take the children with them on the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Will they reach the town in time? And how will Hannah and Joshua ever get home?

A delightful story about the first Christmas.

You can find more info about Lesley and her work on her social media sites: Instagram @authorlesleybarklay and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlesleybarklay

Road to Bethlehem – Chapter 1

The first thing Hannah noticed was the strange smell. Had Mummy left the window open? Was there a sheep in the front yard? Then, she heard the noises.

     Cock-a-doodle-doo!

     A rooster? She stirred sleepily. We don’t have a rooster any more. When she rolled over, her hand touched something strange. Something scratchy. What? Her eyes opened. She froze as she took in the small, dark room. Where am I?

     “Mummy?” she called. “Mummy?”

     “Hannah?”

     Hannah sat up and looked around to find Joshua sitting on the far side of the room, panic in his eyes. She ran to her brother, flinging her arms around his neck.

     “Where are we?” she whimpered. “Where’s Mummy?”

     “I don’t know.” Joshua sounded scared too.

     A shuffling noise made them cling to each other more tightly. Then a brown chicken jumped out of the shadows.

     “Argh!” Hannah shrieked. She clutched Joshua tightly.

     Everything was silent for a moment as the chicken regarded the intruders and then gave—almost—a little shrug and started pecking at the straw. Josh laughed. After a second, Hannah joined in. It was a little funny, being scared by a chicken.

     A low voice singing made them both jump to their feet. “Mummy!” they called as they ran out of the small door and straight into a young woman. They flung their arms around her, clinging frantically.

     “Mummy, we didn’t know where you were,” Hannah said.

     “We thought we were lost,” Josh said.

     It took a moment to notice the woman was not hugging them back. Another second, and they realised that this woman had a baby in her tummy. Hannah and Josh looked up, and suddenly saw that she was not their mother at all! She was short, like Mummy, and she had brown hair, but the similarities ended there. This young woman had dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair covered by a brown veil. And she looked young, like a high school student.

     “Children?” she said with a strange accent. “I am sorry, but I am not your mother.”

     Hannah and Josh let go of the woman. Hannah’s eyes blurred as tears started to fall.

     Josh squeezed her hand so tightly it hurt, and made the face he always made when he was trying not to cry. He opened his eyes really wide, and pinched his lips together.

     “Oh children, do not cry. It will be all right. We will find your mother. Are you hungry? Have you eaten? Why don’t you come with me and I will get you some food?”

     Hannah looked at Josh, and he looked at her. Mummy and Daddy always said that they should never go with strangers, but they were lost and scared, and this woman seemed kind. Mummy did say that if they were ever lost, they should find a policeman, or a shopkeeper, or another mummy to help. Surely having a baby in your tummy counted?

     “I’m hungry,” Josh said slowly.

     “Me too,” Hannah said.

     The woman seemed to take this as consent, because she put down the bucket of grain for the chickens and waved for the children to follow her. Arriving at her house, they found it was like nothing they had ever seen before. It was small, and dark. The roof was very low. The floor was made out of dirt.

     “Come, children, sit,” the woman said, pointing to a low wooden table, with cushions on the ground around it. Still holding hands, Hannah and Joshua sat obediently.

     The girl put a strange-looking bread roll in front of them, and broke it in two with her hands. “I have a little olive oil, if you would like.”

     Hannah bit her lip, trying not to cry. This bread didn’t look like the bread that Mummy bought, and Mummy used olive oil in cooking, not for eating.

     “No thank you,” Joshua said.

     Hannah shook her head.

     Joshua looked at the bread for a moment. “Do you have any peanut butter?”

     “Or white bread?” Hannah added.

     The girl shook her head. “I don’t know what peanut butter is, and I have never seen white bread.”

     “That’s okay,” Hannah said, and bravely took a bite of the grainy bread. The texture scratched her throat. She coughed when she swallowed.

     “Here, let me get you some water.” The girl went to a clay jug and poured water into two brown mugs. Hannah’s finger caught on the rough edges as she traced the edge of the mug. It looked homemade.

     The girl sat down across from them. “Now, tell me why you were in my shed. Are you here for the census? Where are your parents? Where are you from? Your clothing is so strange.”

     Hannah blinked at all the questions. Her mind fixed on the one word she didn’t understand. “Census? What’s a census?”

     A shadow crossed the woman’s face. “The Emperor, Caesar Augustus, has called a census. Everyone must travel to their family’s birthplace to register and pay the tax. I imagine that is why your parents brought you here. They didn’t talk to you about it?”

     Joshua looked like he was thinking hard, so Hannah decided to ask the question that had been on her mind since they met the woman. “What’s your name?”

     “Oh, how rude of me,” the woman said. “My name is Mary. What are your names?”

     “I’m Hannah and this is Joshua.”

     “What beautiful names. Like Hannah and Joshua in the scriptures.”

     “Yes,” Hannah said excitedly. “Joshua is like Joshua who led Israel when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, and I’m Hannah like—” Here she stumbled. What was the story again? Mummy had told her, but it was so long ago that she didn’t remember.

     “Like the Hannah who prayed for a child?” Mary asked.

     “Yes, that’s right.”

     “And you’re like Mary, the mother of baby Jesus,” Joshua stared at Mary’s swollen stomach.

     Mary’s hands dropped to cradle her bump. Her mouth fell open. “What—what did you say?”

     In her excitement, Hannah didn’t notice her new friend’s dismay. “You know, in the Bible? The angel told Mary she was going to have a baby boy who would be the Son of God and save the world from their sins.”

     Mary’s face paled as she stood. “How could you know that?”

     Joshua looked curiously around the room, then back at Mary’s face, then around the room again.

     “Hannah,” he said quietly.

     “What, Josh?”

     “I think this might be the Mary,” Joshua said.

     “What do you mean?”

     “I think we’re in Nazareth. I think the baby in Mary’s tummy is Jesus,” Joshua said.

     Hannah’s eyes went huge. “Seriously? Are you the Mary in the Bible? Did you see an angel?”

     Mary hesitated, watching the children like they might be ghosts. “I don’t know this Bible you speak of,” she said finally. “But yes, I did see the angel Gabriel. He told me not to be frightened, that I had been chosen by God to bear his Son. When I told my family and my betrothed, no one believed me. Joseph nearly divorced me.”

     “Until he had that dream from God,” Joshua interrupted.

     “Yes,” Mary said. “Even though he married me to preserve my reputation, the other women still laugh at me when I go to the well. How is it possible that you know all this?” She stared at their clothing once again.

     Hannah squirmed self-consciously in her pink princess nightie. At least Joshua’s shark pyjamas had long sleeves.

     “Are you angels too?” Mary asked.

     “No!” Joshua said.

     Hannah stood up and did a little pirouette, almost falling over. “But I would make a good angel.”

     Mary laughed. “I’m sure you would, little one.”

     “Or a ballerina,” she added, but that made Mary look confused again so Hannah sat down, feeling the tears return. For a moment she had almost forgotten that she missed Mummy.

     Mary sat beside Hannah and placed an arm around her shoulder. “If you are not angels, and you are not here for the census, then why are you here?”

     “I don’t know,” said Josh. “But I think we have travelled here from the future.”

     “I asked God what the first Christmas would be like, and then we woke up here. Maybe he answered my prayer.”

     “Of course,” said Joshua. “Time machines aren’t real, so a miracle is the only explanation that makes sense.”

     “But how will we get home to Mummy?” Hannah asked. “We can’t stay here, and she’ll be so worried about us!”

     “I know,” Mary said. “I shall take you to the town gates to see the elders. They will know what to do.”

     “Wait,” said Josh. “If God brought us here, then no one else can really help us except God. Maybe we should pray that he will send us home.”

     “Good idea, Josh,” Hannah agreed.

     Hannah reached out for Joshua’s hand then closed her eyes.

     “Dear God,” Joshua said in a sweet, clear voice. “Please take us home to our Mummy and Daddy now. They will be worried about us, and we are a little bit scared. Amen.”

     Hannah cracked her eyes open. Nothing had changed. She added her voice to her brother’s prayers.

     “Dear God,” she said. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t really want to see the first Christmas anymore. I just want to go home. Can you please send us back? Amen.”

     She waited a beat before opening her eyes. Her lower lip trembled when she saw they had not moved.

     “It’s all right.” Mary patted Hannah’s arm. “If, as you say, God has brought you here, then He will send you home when He is ready, and not before. You can stay with Joseph and me. We will look after you for as long as God keeps you here.”

     A sense of peace descended on Hannah’s heart. Mary was right. God must want them here for a reason. She still missed Mummy and Daddy, of course, but she was safe. Now that she thought about it, it was rather exciting. She might get to see the very first Christmas!

     “Okay,” Hannah said.

     “Thank you,” Josh added.

     “I can only act as God leads me,” Mary said. “And for some reason I feel that he has led me to you. Now, who wants to help me feed the chickens?”

     “Me!” they both said excitedly.

     “We have three chickens at home,” Hannah added. “Brownie, Book-Book, and Cranky. Brownie’s the brown one.”

     “You named your chickens?” Mary said.

     “Yes, of course. Don’t your chicken have names?”

     Mary gave them a confused look. “No, they don’t.”

     The children helped Mary with chores all day long. They fed the chickens, cleaned, and watched Mary prepare the meal. The food looked strange, but they did not complain about what she put in front of them. Hannah wrinkled her nose. The food here was different, but she preferred to eat than go hungry.

Fiction Friday: Guest post with author Chelsea Michelle – a free chapter of Hours We Regret

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 4 Comments

This week I don’t have anything to share for Fiction Friday so I invited some authors to help me out and A.M. Heath is one of them!

This week Anita is sharing a chapter of Hours We Regret by Chelsea Michelle, her pen name with fellow author Amanda Tero. This novella, which you can get for free (see the link after the excerpt) is a Watson Twins Mystery and is listed in Christian Fiction as a cozy mystery.

And just a heads up for those of you who know about my next book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing – I’ve pushed back the release date by a month so I will have time to send the book out to beta readers and editors and give them more time to help me polish up the book before I release it all to you.

You can pre-order it here:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

Now, without further ado, a description of Hours We Regret.

Hours We Regret Description: 

A serial killer. A dangerous road. And a cell phone going straight to voicemail…

A string of murders happening just across the state line makes residents of idyllic Maple Springs nervous. While Michelle Watson is obsessed with finding the killer’s pattern, her twin Chelsea disagrees with her involvement.

Reading the victims’ stories makes Michelle face the decisions she’s been trying to ignore. Determined to live her life to the fullest, she makes an innocent choice that takes a life-threatening turn.

When Michelle stops answering her phone, Chelsea can’t ignore the feeling that something is wrong. Very wrong. With friends and family, Chelsea sets out to find her sister, all while questioning if her faith is strong enough to weather the trial. 

Time is running out and the last thing Chelsea wants to do is file a missing person’s report for her twin.

An excerpt

Chapter 1

Michelle: 

“He’s getting closer,” I muttered, staring down at the new dot on the map. 

“Who is?” my sister asked, walking into the kitchen from behind me. 

I froze. 

Chelsea poured a glass of chocolate milk. “Michelle?” 

With a deep breath, I shoved the newspaper into her line of vision. 

“Not another one.” 

I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. “Yep.” Lord be with her family. My heart yearned to say so much, but it too was clogged. 

Over my shoulder, Chelsea groaned. 

I closed my eyes and waited for her rebuke. 

“A map? You made a map of this man’s killings?” 

“I wanted to see if there was a pattern.” I turned to face her, staring back into a face identical to my own. 

She was getting ready for work, so she wore the cute striped blouse I ached to get my hands on and an understated knee-length pencil skirt. 

“What kind of pattern were you expecting to find?” 

I shrugged, staring back at the map. “I don’t know. It was just a hunch I wanted to trace out. There was an episode of Diagnosis Murder where the bomber was spelling his name across the town.” 

“That’s sick.” She took a long drink. 

“So far they have that much in common.” My eyes bounced from dot to dot, but there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for where the serial killer struck. 

His victims were all women he had run off the road, but I couldn’t dwell on the other known factors of what they had in common. 

“We need to put trackers on our phones,” I muttered under my breath. 

“What?”

I angled away, reaching for a bagel to toast. “Yeah, and buy some mace.” I snapped my fingers, spinning around to Chelsea. “And code words. We need code words.” 

She stared at me blankly. “Michelle, we are not getting code words.” 

“Why not?” I split my bagel and dropped it into the toaster before leaning against the counter and crossing my arms. “They could come in handy someday. You never know.” 

She rolled her eyes. “One: Because I refuse to live in fear. Two: I refuse to entertain you as you live in fear. And three: I would know if something was off. Few people are as in sync as we are.” 

She had to bring up the innate twin connection as her argument. I chewed the inside of my lip as the toaster popped. “We can at least start with the trackers and the mace, and discuss the code words later.” 

Chelsea stared at me. I knew what was coming even as she opened her mouth and said, “Psalm 37 says, ‘Do not fret because of evildoers.’”

I wracked my mind for the rest of the passage. “It also says, ‘Trust in the Lord and do good.’” I made sure to emphasize the last part. 

Chelsea raised an eyebrow. “It also says ‘Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way… who brings wicked schemes to pass.’”

My mind scrambled. I was not going to let Chelsea win this argument. It wasn’t right to just turn a blind eye to wickedness. I grinned and paraphrased James 4:17, “To know to do good and not do it is sin.”

Chelsea opened, then closed her mouth.

I grinned in triumph.

“Look,” Chelsea said with a sigh. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t help to work against evil. I just don’t think we need to insert ourselves when it isn’t in our path—when in reality the only thing we’re doing is worrying, not actively helping.”

I waved toward the counter. “I have a map. I am actively helping.”

Chelsea picked up her purse and keys and gave me an incredulous look. “Do you even realize how that sounds?”

“Ummm … Like I’m brilliantly inserting myself.”

She rolled her eyes. 

“And before you tell me that it’s not my job, let me remind you that it’s the job of every citizen to help find him. They said, and I quote, ’If you know anything or see anything suspicious please call.’” I pointed again to the counter. “I’m looking for suspicious patterns … and trying to keep us from being victims in the process.”

She let out a sigh. “You know that’s not how it works. I’m gonna be late for work. Bye.” She started for the door. 

“You can’t be serious, Sea. You’re really going to leave without giving me a goodbye hug? This could be the last time you see me, you know.” 

That earned me another famous glare, the I’m-older-than-you, please-be-sensible type of glare that I was always getting from her. “I refuse to live in fear with you, Michelle.” She opened the door.

I yelled back, “I refuse to live in denial with you, Chelsea!” 

“Ha.” She shut the door. 

I scurried across the room and flung the door open, yelling for all the neighborhood to hear, “I love you!”

She turned around, her face a pretty shade of red and silent laughter bubbling out. 

I waved over my head at Ms. Rhonda, our neighbor, who paused her weeding to wave a dirty garden-gloved hand back at us both. “Morning girls.” 

“Morning, Ms. Rhonda,” we said together. 

“Your roses are still looking great,” I said. 

Chelsea walked closer to her car. 

I kept an eye on her as I smiled back at Ms. Rhonda. 

“Did you not hear me, Chelsea?” 

“I heard you,” she said. “I’m going to be late for work.” 

“Not until you say it back.” 

She pinched her lips together. 

I angled my chin in equal stubbornness. 

But time was on my side because Chelsea hated to be late. After only a moment’s stare off she caved. “I love you too.” 

“What? I can’t hear you.” 

“I love you too,” she said a little louder. 

“See? Was that so hard?” 

“Some days it is.” 

I stuck my tongue out at her. 

She laughed and got in her car. 

I went back inside, the trail of the serial killer mocking me from the kitchen counter. 

After spreading cream cheese on my bagel, I scooped up the paper and brought it with me to the table. 

The new victim was twenty-four, which remained in the twenty to thirty-five range he seemed to favor. 

A chill ran down my spine. We were twenty-six and well within that range. 

The article spelled out how beloved she had been to her community. She was saving up for a trip to France but never got the chance to take it. 

Tears burned behind my eyes. So much life was left for her to live, but he selfishly stole it from her. 

Too sick to finish my breakfast, I threw it away and took a shower. 



Author Bio and a Link to the novella:

Christian authors, Amanda Tero and A.M. Heath bring you faith-based, cozy mysteries under Chelsea Michelle. 

Amanda Tero grew up attending a one-room school with her eleven siblings—and loved it! She also fell in love with reading to the point her mom withheld her books to get her to do her chores. That love of reading turned into a love of writing YA fiction. Amanda is a music teacher by day and a literary guide by night, creating stories that whisk readers off to new eras and introduce them to heroic but flawed characters that live out their faith in astonishing ways.

Visit Amanda Tero at amandatero.com 

A.M. Heath is the author of the 2022 Selah Finalist, Painted Memories. She enjoys writing stories that entertain while feeding the soul in contemporary and historical settings. 

When away from her desk, she’s a faithful member of her local church where she teaches a ladies’ Sunday School class. She is happily married and raising four kids while embracing the small-town lifestyle and tightly woven family bonds. 

Visit A.M. Heath at christianauthoramheath.net

Read Hours We Regret for FREE!
https://subscribepage.io/hours-we-regret

Follow Chelsea Michelle on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@chelseamichelle

Or chat mysteries with them in their Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chelseamichelle