The Importance of Family Stories by Eileen O'Finlan

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On February 25, 2022 my Aunt Joan passed away. She was 88 and had been living in a nursing home in Vermont for years while her Alzheimer's progressed. A few days before her passing, she fell and broke her hip. Her condition made it impossible to operate as she would not have lived through the surgery so the only option was to keep her comfortable. On the evening of the 25th, she died peacefully in her sleep.

My aunt's passing means that out of a family of seven kids, my mom is the only one left. She, too, is in a nursing home. At 95 and stricken with dementia, she is unable to comprehend that she has lost her last sibling. Knowing this, we have made the decision not to tell her. The necessity of that decision made all the more profound for me the wealth of family lore that is now gone. I know many of the family stories, but until I no longer had anyone to ask, I didn't realize how many questions I have about them. For years, we'd been asking my mom to record her memories. She'd always promised to do so, but somehow never got around to it. Now it's too late.

Family stories are important. They tell of a shared past, of lives lived, relationships built and cherished, sorrows endured and shared, and joys celebrated. They express the things that were important to a family. Pay attention to the stories that get handed down, told repeatedly. Commit them to memory or, better yet, write them down. And ask all the questions you can think of while you still can.

I remember one day when my mom and I were washing dishes together. She was in a reminiscing mood so I heard all about the time when she was thirteen years old and her mother was hospitalized for weeks with a serious illness caused by drinking contaminated raw milk. As the second-to-oldest child and the oldest girl, it fell to her to run the household and care for her younger siblings while her mother was in the hospital and her father was working. This story was told to me only a few years before her dementia progressed to the point where she had to go to a nursing home, but unlike many family stories it was the first time I'd ever heard it. She also regailed me with details of how she and her mother worked in a factory together during World War II. They were working on a project for the U.S. Navy, but each group of women was making a different part and none of them ever knew what it was they were building. I thought about how many of the events from my mom's life would make great stories, but I have so many questions. I've no doubt a lot of them will find their way into my future novels, but I so wish I had the opportunity to ask all the questions that come to me now when I ruminate on them.

My aunt's passing and the inevitable day when my mom follows her, signals the end of an era in our family. But the stories will live on as best as we can continue to share them. No doubt we'll add new ones of our own for future generations. I hope they ask a lot of questions.

Rest in Peace, Aunt Joan

 

Elizabeth Goudge Best Selling Author ~ 1900 - 1984 by Rosemary Morris

To learn more about Rosemary and her work please click on the cover.

Elizabeth Goudge – Best Selling Author -1900-1984

By unknown. Original publication The Joy of The Snow by Elizabeth Goudge immediate source scanned from book.

 

Recently I re-read some of Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge’s acclaimed novels, which include The Little White Horse that J.K. Rowling selected of her favourite books and one of few with a direct influence on the Harry Potter series. (The novel won Goudge the annual Carnegie Medal of the Library Association, as the year's best children's book by a British subject. It was her own favourite among her works.) I have also re-visited my copy of Elizabeth’s autobiography, The Joy of The Snow. “For the millions enchanted and inspired by Elizabeth’s THE JOY OF THE SNOW will be an enduring monument to her life’s work. It is more than an autobiography. She tells us, in poignant, candid detail, the story of her spiritual, and physical journey from a golden Edwardian childhood…and gives a glimpse of the deeply personal inspiration behind some of the best loved writing of our time.”

Elizabeth’s parents were Reverend Henry Goudge, who taught in the cathedral school in Wells, Somerset, and Miss Ida Collenette, who met in Guernsey. Elizabeth loved her holidays at her maternal grandparents’ home on the Channel Islands. She lived in Wells until eleven years old when her father became a canon at Ely Cathedral and principal of the Theological College. Ely, was Elizabeth’s “Home of homes.” In 1923, her father accepted the prestigious post of Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and she was uprooted from Ely.

First educated at home by a governess, then sent to a boarding school in Hampshire in 1914, she was taught ‘how to run a big house, arrange flowers and be presented at court.  However, she had a teacher who introduced English literature, especially Shakespeare. It also familiarised her with the New Forest and the sea marshes at Keyhaven, fodder for her novels. There were few genteel ways for a young lady to earn a living so her parents insisted on her attending an Art College to learn crafts she could teach to others. She liked weaving, leather work etc., and wrote in her spare time.

The only child of a loving family, Elizabeth enjoyed a privileged life, but was neither well-educated nor prepared for the onslaught of the 20^th century, yet places where she had lived, would be the settings in her books. Her first published novel, Island Magic, set in Guernsey, was a great success in England and America. I enjoyed it as much when I read it for the second time as I did when I read it years ago. It incorporates Elizabeth’s invalid mother’s memories, island’s folklore, and myths. In the novel she describes St Peter’s Port where her maternal grandparents lived until they moved to a farm close to one which gave the fictional name Bon Repos. Her characters Rachel and Andre, who live there, are based on those grandparents she adored. The protagonists’ children, whose external and internal lives, hopes, and dreams Elizabeth portrays so sympathetically and vividly, that they almost leap from the page.  

A founding member of The Romantic Novelist’s Association, her next novel Green Dolphin Country published in 1944, brought her fame, won a Literary Guild Award and a special prize of £30,000 from Louis B. Mayer of MGM before being filmed.

Elizabeth’s gift of changing the commonplace into a magical, wonderous world inhabited by unique characters enthralled her fans. Her realistic, fantasy or historical fiction intertwines, legend and myth, spirituality and love of England that add to their appeal; She stated “As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself.”

www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

 

bookswelove@shaw.ca 

 

Ending a Book Series by Diane Bator

 

The Conned Lady, Book 5 Wild Blue Mystery series

I hit send on Valentine's Day and submitted The Conned Lady, Book 5 of my Wild Blue Mystery series. As all writers know, every time you hit send on a book, it takes a little piece of you with it and stirs up a jungle of butterflies. This book was exactly like that – but different. The Conned Lady is the last book in the series that started my writing career.

To tell the truth, I’ve thought about ending a series for a while now but there were so many unknowns:

·       How would I do it?

·       What would happen to my characters?

·       How hard would it be?

·       Will my readers be upset?

·       Will that mean I can never revisit those characters again?

When I started writing Book 5, I hadn’t intended to end the series just yet. I had plans for one more book but the characters had other ideas. This one wrapped up so many things that it left me no option! Once I got to the final climax, the next move was for them to all live happily ever after. Who was I to argue with an organic, natural ending to the series?

What would happen to the characters? Life will go on even though the readers and I will no longer be a part of it. Working out what would happen to them next was so easy. The last chapter truly wrote itself.

I truly hope my readers are not upset. I was prepared to struggle with that last chapter and saying good-bye to a long list of old friends that I’ve worked with since I first started writing about their adventures around 2010 then published in 2013 when Books We Love took a chance on The Bookstore Lady. Characters definitely become a part of your life and it’s hard to imagine not having a next book to follow them around and see what they’re up to. At the same time, I still have the freedom to use those characters in future short stories or novellas or even a new book or series should the vision arise.

I guess for me, I think of ending this series much like going home after a vacation. You’ve had a great time with friends but it’s time to go home and get back to work on something else. Since I do have more series in the works, there will always be more endings. Hopefully the next series ender will be as smooth as this one.

Happy reading!

Diane Bator

http://bookswelove.net/bator-diane/

Make Believe World

 https://bookswelove.net/dowell-roseanne/

 I live in a make-believe world. Okay, not literally, but vicariously through my characters.  I decide where they live, name their towns, or sometimes I let them live in a real city/town.  I prefer small towns, maybe because I’ve always wanted to live in one. I especially like towns with Victorian houses and apparently so do my characters, because I use them a lot.  I often say I must have lived during the Victorian area, probably as a mean old nanny. I’m sure I wasn’t the lady of the house, and by house I mean mansion. Queen Anne Victorian homes are my favorite. I love the round turrets, all the gingerbread, and wrap-around porches. It was always my dream to buy one and restore it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be and I’m past the point of wanting one now.

Back to my make-believe world. I’d like to say I choose my characters, but truthfully, they choose me.  Sometimes I even get to name them, but if they don’t like the name, well, believe me, they misbehave until I change it. And, yes, that’s happened several times. Just because I like a name doesn’t mean they do. The last time it happened it wasn’t even a main character. She was only in the story for a short time, but boy was she stubborn. She refused to talk to me and anything I wrote was garbage, better known as dreck in the writing world.

As I’ve said previously, I write many different genres, from Women’s Fiction to Romance to Mystery and even Paranormal. Most of my books are a combination of romance and another genre. As a reader, I’ve always favored mystery and romance, so it only made sense to combine them.  Mine would be classified as cozy mysteries, the gory stuff takes place off scene.

 I also love ghost stories – not evil mean ghosts though. One such story is Shadows in the Attic and another Time to Love Again. I’ve always been fascinated by ESP, hence my story Entangled Minds – previously published as Connection of the Minds.

My character’s ages range from their mid-twenties to middle age and into their seventies. Yes, seniors need love, too. Geriatric Rebels is a favorite.  It’s fun working with different characters, and I especially like when they add a bit of humor. I really form an attachment to them. Once a character chooses me, I make a character worksheet so I know everything about them, not just what they look like.

I love creating my characters, picking their careers, anything from housewives, authors, teachers, floral designers, and interior designers. Sometimes their careers play a part in the story, sometimes not. The character in my work in progress (WIP in the writer’s world) is a former teacher. It’s not a big part of the story, but it’s something I needed to know. She’s a real character in the true sense of the word. She came into being in a previous story, All in the Family. It started out with her having a small part, but Aunt Beatrice Lulu (ABLL) grew into a big part of the story. Once I finished that book, she popped up again and demanded her own book. Problem is, she takes fits and goes into hiding every so often, which is where she’s at right now and has been for some time. Sometimes she pops up for days of writing. Other times, I get a paragraph or two. I’ve never had a character do that before.

Oh, I’ve had writer’s block a time or two, but once I’m over it the writing flows. Not so with ABLL.

  It’s also fun describing my characters, their hair and eye color, height, even their weight. I’m often asked if I’m a plotter or punster. I tried plotting once and ended up blocked for almost two years. For me, plotting doesn’t work. I usually know the beginning and end of my stories. What happens in the middle is as much a surprise to me as it is to my readers. ABLL is full of surprises. What that woman doesn’t get into. So even though she goes into hiding, it’s generally worth it when she reappears. I’m not sure where she came from, but I’m sure enjoying working with her. Okay, I’ll be honest, a little bit of her is me, a little bit my sisters, and even my mother. She’s a combination of all the people I love and it’s so much fun living in her make-believe world.

You can find my books at https://bookswelove.net/dowell-roseanne/

BWL Publishing Inc. New Releases, books to take your mind off all the Roman troubles and the Ides of March

 According to Wikipedia,  In modern times, the Ides of March is best known as the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Senate.  This meeting is famously dramatised in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "beware the Ides of March."^[20][21] The Roman biographer Suetonius^[22] identifies the "seer" as a haruspex named Spurinna. Some fascinating historical research presents itself for our historical authors.  

But at BWL Publishing March is another one of our Release Dates, and to take your mind off all that doom and gloom from the Romans we're delighted to present four more fabulous BWL Releases that we're positive you're going to enjoy.

NEW RELEASES FOR MARCH 2022

 

Musgrave Landing is located on Salt Spring Island in the Pacific Northwest. This small village is serviced by a ferry from Vancouver Island. Isolated, everyone is interested in everyone else’s business and apparently someone is capable of murder.
Eccentric romance novelist Mimsy Lexington has a secret. When she approaches Katie Mullins to help find details around her late husband’s death, Katie and her boyfriend Danny Walker are drawn into a web of lies and deceit. The deeper they dig, the more they realize the biggest dangers may lurk close to home and need to suspect everyone—including Mimsy.
Living with survivor guilt ex-soldierJared O’Connell craves forgiveness from his childhood friend for the death of her brother in Afghanistan. To get himself emotionally fit before he sees Mardi, he relocates to the coast to renovate his family home. Close to finishing her studies, Mardi James can almost taste success. Her world crumbles following an alleged assault resulting in partial memory loss which may end her long-term career plans. Recovering at her family’s coastal holiday home, she is approached by a man who apparently knows her, and calls her by name. Jared is devastated when Mardi doesn’t know who he is. An opportunity to seek her forgiveness and move on with his life appears lost to him.
Villages have idiots. Peladon? Peladon is a country, so it has an Idiot. The day job? Getting blamed for things other people did. The other job? When the world’s about to end (or the washing up won’t get done—whichever comes first), who you gonna call? When nothing else has worked, you call the Idiot. Because some things? Some things, only an Idiot would try. This is his story.  Segorian Anderson used to be an Idiot. Now he’s a King – though his wife tells him there’s not much difference. And there isn’t. Because somebody always hasto get the blame. Like now. Not just because of the naked girl floating on the Royal bedroom balcony, screaming. And not because everything’s going to hell. But this time? This time, it might really be his fault.