Growing old is...lucky! by Sheila Claydon

Find my books here

I know this book cover doesn't seem to match the title of my blog, but bear with me!

A couple of weeks ago my cousin was 80, so I called him to wish him a happy special birthday. Our whole life we have teased one another so I knew our conversation wouldn't be emotional nor full of the cliches often used on such occasions. What I wasn't expecting when I laughingly asked him how he had got to be so old, however, was his answer.

"It's because I'm lucky." he said.

Wow!

Then, on 9 Feb, I read fellow author Barbara Baker's BWL blogpost 'He's determined to Ski again' about her 90 year old father, and I clicked on the link to her YouTube video of him doing just that Dad Skiing Again - 90 years young - YouTube . He was amazing. So graceful and determined.

Double wow!

That video together with my cousin's words, were so uplifting. And my cousin is right. To achieve a very old age relatively healthy in both mind and body is not just lucky, it's a privilege. A privilege not granted to everyone. Like many people, I have lost friends in their forties and fifties. I also know two children who lost their mothers while they were still in reception class and another girl who died from a brain tumour when she was barely in her teens. The unlucky ones.

So old age needs to be celebrated. Medication, even operations, might be needed to keep some aches and pains at bay but they need to be celebrated too because, even as recently as the mid twentieth century, very little of it was available.  We are the lucky ones, which is something we should never forget, which brings me on to my book Saving Katy Gray the final book of my When Paths Meet trilogy.

It is a romance but behind the romance is the story of a bright and intelligent woman gradually succumbing to dementia and how, with Katy Gray's help, she found herself again. Not completely but enough. Enough to live a fulfilling life. Enough to use the skills she never forgot even on her worse days. The hero, the heroine, the romance are still there but I hope that readers will take from it the wider lessons. The ones that make growing older just part of life's story. 

I have two favourite sayings about ageing. The first is a slick throwaway, attributed to the film star Bette Davis.  And there is a lot of truth in it for even the healthiest of us as we grow older.

Old age ain't no place for sissies 

The second, by Albert Einstein, is the one I want to live by though.

Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious 

children before the great mystery into which we were born.

If I can do that right to the end, then I will indeed be lucky, and privileged. I hope you will too.

Other books in my When Paths Meet series deal with autism, childhood trauma, adoption, desperation and death. Not subjects that are usually associated with romance you say! Don't be fooled, these books are contemporary romance with a capital R. It is romance that is embedded in real life, however, because very few of us tread a smooth path where love is concerned. If you decide to read them, I hope you enjoy them.

More Than Romance by Helen Henderson

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
Click the title for purchase information

February - the month of romance. For couples who didn't get engaged on New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day is an alternative. Then a June wedding is held. However, there is more to the month than the one event. Before the heart-shaped boxes of chocolate come out, there is Groundhog Day, celebrated on February 2nd.

What could be the most well-known event celebrating Groundhog Day is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. People gather in Gobbler’s Knob to see Punxsutawney Phil predict the weather for the rest of the winter. According to legend, if Phil sees his shadow (meaning the Sun is shining), winter will not end early, and we’ll have another 6 weeks left of it. However, what many wish for is a cloudy day. For if Phil doesn't see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

Pennsylvania is not the only place which claims a weather prognosticator. Among the other furry marmots which join the activity are Jimmy the Groundhog, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; Sir Walter Wally, Raleigh, N.C.; Shubenacadie Sam, Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada; and my favorite, Staten Island Chuck, New York City.

The Ivy Hill woodchucks loved
to eat the tall grasses in the field and
along the lane.

According to the Farmers' Almanac, "Groundhogs prefer to eat wild grasses, leaves, berries, and, as any gardener who’s ever had one around knows, food crops." In some parts of the country, a sign of approaching spring is when the groundhogs, also known as wood chucks, leave hibernation to eat their fill of grasses alongside the interstate or country lanes.

The average groundhog can move approximately 700 pounds of dirt When digging its burrow. Burrows can be up to 46 feet long and up to 5 feet underground. On my family farm, they liked to burrow beneath the corner of buildings. Especially the wooden-floored shed where saddles, bikes, and gardening equipment were stored or the corn crib.

 

When snow covers the ground, the woodchucks
hibernate below ground in their burrow.

 

One canny groundhog had an entrance at the front corner of the shed and another at the back. He would come up see if anyone was sitting on the porch, before popping back into his burrow and coming out at the back of the shed to munch on whatever caught his fancy. To discourage using our garden as a buffet, the kitchen garden was on the other side of house to put the structure between it and the groundhog. We had to walk around the entire house to get to the garden, but the would-be thief had to go even further.

 

 I hope you enjoyed these memories.

~Until next month, stay safe and read.   Helen

 

To purchase the Fire and Amulet: BWL

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.

I'm excited by Nancy M Bell

 

To learn more about Nancy and her books please click on Kayla's cover.

I'm excited because I am about to embark on my very first author tour! Jude Pittman, publisher of BWL Publishing and I will just be back from a whirlwind tour of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New Brunswick when you read this. Currently, the date is February 7, 2023 and I am in the middle of preparing for the departure.

I've only been to Nova Scotia before and it was a quick visit, although I did get to Peggy's Cove and the best lobster roll ever! This time, we will be promoting the new audio books of the Canadian Historical Brides collection. SInce Jude is the co-author of Pillars of Avalon (Newfoundland) and I'm co-author of On a Stormy Primeval Shore (New Brunswick) we are covering as much of the Maritimes as possible in a short period of time. We will also be meeting with some BWL authors who live in the area, so doing double duty in that respect.  It will be so great to meet with everyone and enjoy talking about books and writing.  

Hopefully, the weather will co-operate as we're busing it and taking an overnight ferry from North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques NFLD and then returning the same day via overnight ferry to North Sydney. Should be quite the adventure.

See you next month, until then stay safe, stay warm.

 

Dirty laundry challenge, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

A Bright Darkness,
Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

Valentine's Day is now behind us, but I still believe that love should be celebrated all year round. Your special person should be told every day that they are special; your family should be told regularly that they are special, in fact, if you are blessed with pets, they love to hear it too (though the act of feeding/petting/playing is really an act of love).

So one way I demonstrate the love for my partner is to wash his dirty clothes. I am the Master Launderer. To help me fulfill this chore, all I ask of him is three things:

1. to place dirty clothes in the hamper

2. to ensure socks are separated as he like to wear double socks in his work boots

3. to empty all pockets.

Fairly simple requests, don't you think? Well...

Five minutes before I bring the clothes hamper to the laundry room, I give him a heads-up.

"Is your laundry in the hamper?"

"Yup," he replies.

I peek into the spare room he uses as his 4 a.m. dressing room. Sure enough, there's dirty t-shirts strewn on the bed and on the floor there's dirty, doubled-up socks and gitch. 

I check his bathroom. Hanging on the hooks behind the door are three pj bottoms, two t-shirts and a pair of gitch. Missing is the partridge in a pear tree.

I gather the dirty specimens and proceed to the laundry room.

"You did empty your pockets, right?"

"Yup," he replies again.

By now I'm convinced he's forgotten (on purpose) the three simple requests from the Master Launderer. I pull out a pair of his jeans and check the pockets.

Good grief.

The 'empty' pocket contains two quarters, one loonie, one previously washed unused band aid, two echinacea capsules, one drywall screw and one lip balm.

Does he deserve a good old-fashioned scolding? Probably. Will I? Nah. I'm the Master Launderer and he is not.

Besides, I'm a buck-fifty richer.

Update on the P&E Awards

The final book in the Twisted Climb trilogy, A Bright Darkness, placed third in the Best Young Adult book category! You need to get your hands on a copy... the action doesn't stop as Jayden, Connor and Max are tasked with releasing the lost souls trapped in a world below the dream world: the Un-world. In my totally biased opinion, the conclusion is truly epic. 

Stay safe everyone and remember to tell the ones you love that you love them :)

J.C. Kavanagh, author of

The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3)

and
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
and
The Twisted Climb, voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh

Weaving a Little Love into Every Story By BC Deeks, Paranormal Mystery Fiction Author

 

Visit B.C. Deeks' BWL Author Page for Book and Purchase Information

 

http://bookswelove.net/deeks-bc/

I write heartwarming stories of mystery and magic. But I learned most of what I know about writing craft when I joined a romance writing group. Do you know the most important lesson my mentors taught me? LOVE is part of every story. I’m not talking romance necessarily; but the development of an intense feeling of deep connection and caring. Your story won’t come alive for your reader unless your characters resonate with each other.

At its foundation, my Beyond the Magic series is a story of family ties - three siblings who have a strong bond with each other because their mother died in childbirth and their father is a harsh disciplinarian. The Otherland is a society that is desperate to preserve its hereditary magic and so is relying on genetic matching for their mating practices. The realm’s leaders don’t account for love matches and when one occurs, it could destroy their world. In the series, each of the three siblings set out on an adventure and, in turn, form a bond with another ally who they need to fight off dark forces. Ultimately, they all — mythics and mortals - must fight together to defeat an ancient prophecy. Each plot evolves around the emotional development or arc of the primary characters as they grow to trust their skills and inner emotional strength so that they can do what they must to meet their goal.

Isn’t that what life is all about? Perhaps modern advertising around Valentine’s Day focuses too much on romantic love. We can choose to expand it to recognize our own emotional attachment to our family and friends. Who do you care about? Let’s come up with a way to show them.

·         Help your child make a handmade Valentine's card for their favorite teacher.

·         Pick up a book as a gift for a friend who’s always there for you.

·         Wrap up cookies and drop them over to a neighbor who always waves and makes you feel part of the neighborhood.

·         Mail cards to family who live far away just to say you care.

·         Tell a friend how important they are to you.

Life is full of relationships and our books must accurately reflect the depth of those connections. It doesn’t matter whether the book is a mystery, a romance, science fiction or any other genre; to be successful, a story has to weave all the emotional complexity of life through our characters.