Winter by J. S. Marlo

 

Wounded Hearts

"Love & Sacrifice #2"

is now available  

click here 

 

 

  

J. S. Marlo's BWL Books

     Before I published my first novel, I wrote stories for fun and posted them on a fanfic website. Many of these early stories took place in winter. Why winter? Because I'm Canadian and I live in the north. I have four seasons: Spring (lasts 1 month), Summer (lasts 3 months), Fall (last 2 months), and Winter (last 6 months). So, I spend half the year in the snow and the cold.

In one of these fun stories, my character was forced to drive in a snowstorm without winter tires. Needless to say, he ended up in a ditch. After reading that story, a reader sent me a message asking me what were winter tires, and why we didn't put 'normal' tires on our cars in Canada. I told her that winter tires look like 'normal' tires but they have a higher natural rubber content to keep them supple in cold weather and deeper & thicker treads, allowing for better grip and handling on snow and ice.

She lived in a part of the world where it's always warm, so she didn't understand how snow, ice, and cold could affect our lives differently. It was the start of a long conversation about car accessories: winter tires, studs, chains, winter wipers, block heaters, battery blankets... then houses: triple windows, insulated attics, basements, furnaces...

Looking back, I learned a lot from the exchange. I realized just because I knew about certain things didn't mean everyone else did. Sentences like "it's cold out" or "there are northern lights in the sky" doesn't mean anything to someone who'd never felt cold or seen northern lights.

As a result, I learned to become more descriptive, to look at a scene through my characters' eyes as if they were seeing it for the first time, and to assume that at least one of my readers will never have experienced what my characters see, hear, feel, sense, or smell.

Happy Reading & Stay Safe! J.S.

 

 

J. S. Marlo's Website

It's A Snow Day by Victoria Chatham

 

AVAILABLE ON THESE PLATFORMS

We knew our long, hot summer would not last forever. For the past week, I’ve been watching the weather forecast, mindful of the falling temperatures and gathering cloud cover.

Yesterday was one last brave hurrah of sunshine and mellowness, this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland with snow ten inches deep sitting on top of the cars. It doesn’t matter that what is falling now is a mix of snow and rain, today is the demarcation line between seasons.

My children, who all live in England, do not understand how their mother, who is so not a winter person, ended up in a country where there is so much of it. All I can say is that I make the most of it. On clear days I’m happy to go snowshoeing, but mostly I’m with the bears – hibernation sounds good.

I like to have a stack of books to read, titles by my fellow Books We Love authors, or thrillers by numerous authors like Lee Child, Anthony Horowitz, or Ken Follet.. I’ll compile a list of movies I’d like to watch, oldies but goodies (Casablanca, anyone?) as well as more recent heartwarming romances. Hot chocolate and a cozy fire add to the ambience, and on days when it really is too miserable to venture out of doors, it is time to get down to writing.

My next book, a contemporary western romance, is already underway, so being indoors writing will take up much of my time. Before I know it, the release date of September 1^st, 2023, will roll around, and I will have another title under my belt. I have to say, I love the writing life, whatever the season. How will you prepare for and deal with winter?

Victoria Chatham

  AT BOOKS WE LOVE

 ON FACEBOOK

 MY WEBSITE

Spring Has Sprung

 

Or so they say. You couldn't prove it by Ohioans. We've had the craziest weather. Up and down, up and down, snow, rain, and sunshine. Typical weather for April, with promises of warm weather to come.

It seems like Mother Nature likes to tease us. She'll give us temps and sunshine in the 70s for a few days, then drop us back down to the 30s. Last week we had two days in the 80s, absolutely beautiful weather. Even the 40s and 50s feel cold after those days. Dropping us into the 30s was just downright cruel. 

Fortunately, Ohioans are resilient and we roll with the flow, for the most part. That doesn't mean we don't complain. Ha, far from it. And in a couple of months, we're going to complain it's too hot. Seems like we're not happy unless we complain. 

All in all, we haven't had that bad of a winter, at least not to my memory (which isn't what it used to be). A few bitterly cold days in January - to be expected, and not that much snow. Okay, we had two good snowstorms of six inches or more, and they came one right after the other. But that was about it for snow, at least shovable snow. To me, that's a pretty mild winter. 

Anytime I'm not afraid to drive is good for me. I'm not a big fan of driving, don't like driving in the rain, hate driving in the snow or ice and driving at night in either or is the pitts. Nope, I don't like to drive. Now, don't get me wrong, there are days I'm fine with it. Sunny warm days with no traffic like early Sunday morning on the way to church, or after morning rush hour on the way to Bible Study. Not crazy about driving at night at all, so these longer days work great for me. Wintertime, I won't drive at night, the headlights on other cars are horrible, especially those new headlights. I discovered a long time ago, if you wear sunglasses while driving at night, it does help. But I still don't like it. 

So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Spring has sprung and in few weeks, we'll really feel the benefits of it, at least we will if it doesn't become summer before we've had a chance to enjoy spring, which also happens a lot in Ohio. Not that I'd live any place else. Nope, I'm Ohio born, and in Ohio I shall die. Hmmm, that almost makes me sound a little like Aunt Beatrice Lulu. If you'd like to know more about her check out the Family Affair Series at BWL Publishing

Oh, and by the way, Aunt Beatrice Lulu remains in hiding, as do my other characters.  I do have a couple of ideas for the story, but the ending still eludes me, without that I can't fill in the middle. If anyone has any ideas let me know.either by email or in the comments below. If I use your idea, I'll mention you as a character in my book (with your permission, of course).  (email address is: rodow62 at yahoo dot com. 

The work in progress started out with Beatrice Lulu's sister, Ethel telling the story, Well which didn't sit too well with ABLL (that's what I call her when I talk about her). No one was going to take over her story. So, she took over and then she shut down. Probably paying me back for trying to let Ethel be the main character. I have a few ideas for things that go wrong for her because we all know everything goes wrong for ABLL, she's always getting into trouble. Nothing big of course, because that's where my problem comes in, she won't tell me what her next big adventure is and how she gets out of it.