Freedom to Grieve

Freedom is a word that resonates deeply with me, and I'd planned to write a very different post this month. 

I'm a digital nomad, which means I travel and work from wherever I lay my hat. I love that freedom to roam. Freedom to change my surrounding. Freedom to explore. Freedom to embrace new experiences.

Freedom represents joy. It's my happy place... but ... with the recent death of my Mum, freedom has taken on a new slant. Instead of looking outwards, at what traveling can add to my life, I'm looking inwards at what is missing from it.

Grief is Personal

Everyone grieves differently. That's what friends, family, and the experts say. There's no one-size fits all. There's no normal way to grieve.

There's no timetable for grief. I've got my ticket for the grief train—but I don't know how long this journey will last.

How Long Does Grief Last?

My grief is still fresh, but unfortunately it doesn't have an Best Before date. 

Wouldn't it be great if grief expired? Then you could just throw it away when it started to smell bad or grow whiskers!

Grief Milestones

It was my birthday this month. The first milestone I experienced in a year of firsts. 

When I'm asked my age, I usually have to calculate the years to figure it out. It's an unimportant number I don't have to hand. But this year was special. It was the first birthday without a mum. The tight grip I'd had on my emotions disintegrated. I slipped into a black hole of grief that knew no bounds.

To be honest, it's been a few years since my Mum was aware enough to celebrate my birthday, and more recently, her dementia caused her to forgot she even had a daughter. But rather than lament the loss of this annual tradition, I used my birthday as an opportunity to create a new tradition. I'd give her a birthday card and present, and thank her for being my Mum. After all, she's the one who did all the hard work back then. She deserved a special celebration. 

This year, she wasn't there to thank, and it was the beginning of a new solo tradition. This caused such a huge tidal wave of grief, I thought I was going to drown.

Will I ever be able to ride that big wave of grief?

Now all I can think about are the future milestones lying in wait to ambush me. I hope they're easier to manage than this first one.

The Birth of Sylvie Sunshine

Part of how I'm managing my grief is through creative exploits. I've been obsessed with watercolour, and on the days when I feel motivated enough to get off the sofa and open the curtains, all I want to do is sit at my art table to sketch and paint.

One morning at 3am I started doodling. I have no idea why, or where it came from. It was a mindless activity. I was in the zone. I didn't know where my ideas were heading, or why I was doodling. But by the end of my sketching session I'd created a character.

Sylvie Sunshine is born

Over the next few days I kept reviewing this sketchbook page. I was strangely drawn to her. I had no idea why I'd given her a Christmas Pudding tummy and dressed her in a bikini—but I just felt she was here to help me.

By the end of the week, I'd developed my doodles into a comic strip idea called "Life's a Beach (until it's a Bitch)", and dubbed my character Sylvie Sunshine. Suddenly the bikini made sense, and she became part of the family. She was here to navigate me out of that black hole, and lead be back into the sunshine.

I'm fine in here!

I have a close affinity to Sylvie Sunshine. My Mum's name was Sylvia and she used to call me her little Sunshine. So those two halves have culminated into a new whole. I also like the play on words and it's similarity to that well-known term Susie Sunshine. Plus the irony that Sylvie is anything but a little ray of sunshine.

I've sketched many scenarios based on my first-hand experience with grief, and some of them have that interesting dynamic of being funny and sad at the same time. 

I've learnt that joy and sadness can co-exist, and Sylvie is here to help rebalance the ratio between both ends of that spectrum.

One Day at a Time

You can follow Sylvie Sunshine on Instagram.

About Jay Artale

Jay Artale abandoned her corporate career to become a digital nomad and full-time writer. She’s an avid blogger, podcaster, and nonfiction author helping travel writers and travel bloggers achieve their self-publishing goals. She shares tips, advice, and inspiration to writers with an independent spirit at her website Birds of a Feather Press, and documents her travels and artistic endeavours at her blog Roving Jay. Follow her on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Jay is the author of A Turbulent Mind: A Poetry Collection of a Mother's Journey with Alzheimer's.

Another Poem About Freedom by Sarah McDermed

One of my favorite poems is exhibited on a brass plaque on the inner wall of the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. The great American poet Emma Lazarus wrote the poem in 1883. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

One Generation Away

By Courtney Pierce

Who knew I'd become an activist for the Constitution at the ripe age of 62? I surprise even myself, but that document means more to me now that at any time in my life. As a pre-teen, back in the 1960s, my participation in protest events and social causes fell beyond the boundaries of parental permission. Besides, back then I didn't fully understand the importance of our Bill of Rights, especially our right to free speech. Freedom, like vast wealth, can be squandered. 

For nearly forty years, between the 1970s and 2010, I took our freedom for granted. Of course I could speak freely about anything. Of course I could go anywhere I wanted in this great country—by foot, by car, or by airplane. While we were working, raising families, saving for retirement, paying bills, and building careers, our country succumbed to deep corruption through greed. We trusted too much, looking away because we were overwhelmed by daily life or in denial. Once our votes were cast, we didn't hold our elected officials accountable for their promises.   

Fast forward to 2021. Now we're paying the steep price of apathy. A bit too late we're waking up to the reality of a foreign infiltration to strip us of our divine sovereignty. The result is unconstitutional tyranny, division, and censorship.

Big Tech has given us a social score by reporting users who enter select key words or subjects into search engines. We're being tracked, monitored, and entered into a massive database. The distressing part of this is that those search parameters haven't been disclosed to the public. We don't know what can "eliminate" us with the push of a button just for researching the truth. And what about labeling parents as "domestic terrorists" if they dare question their kids' curriculum and mandates imposed from their local school boards? I never thought I'd hear of citizens being denied healthcare if they didn't get an experimental injection. No VAX, no new kidney. These are only a few examples of the injustices in play today.

Does this sound like America? Have our now-fearful leaders read The Nuremburg Code? The culprits most complicit will be held accountable, but we citizens (aka sheep) are not off the hook. But we are sheep no more.

The mistakes of history are doomed to be repeated unless we, the people, stop crimes against humanity in their tracks. We must take back our freedom before it's too late. The good news is that we can take our country back if we band together. Elected officials report to the collective "us." Fear-mongering won't work with Americans—Republicans nor Democrats. Political parties mean nothing anymore. 

Let's come together to reject division based on race, politics, medical status, religion, age, or gender. The more the corrupt side of government tries to slice and dice us, the faster we'll heal to keep fighting for what our country stands for. It's coming. Our moral compass will remain strong in our belief that light eclipses dark, and good wipes out evil. That's not political. It's human.

The world is watching the United States with eyes wide open. Countries throughout the world are aghast at the hijacking of America. It really is a World War without a shot being fired. It's a war of propaganda and oppression, just like Nazi Germany. Instead of a yellow star, we have vaccine passports. "Papers please."

They say that as goes the U.S., so goes the rest of the world. America is the defender of freedom for the whole planet. That's a heavy responsibility, but it's time for us to step up. 

Ronald Reagan gave us an important message in 1964, but we didn't heed his warning closely enough. His words wrap us with more meaning today:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States when men were free."

It's up to us, this boomer generation, to claw back our freedom for the next generation. and the next generation after that.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Coming in 2022!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting her too . . . for a different reason.

Freedom from and Freedom to by Lucy Monroe

 Freedom.

When Judith offered a chance to guest blog with Romancing The Genres and told me the theme for October was Freedom, I could not say no.  Why?  Because I've spent a long time building freedom from… and freedom to… into my life.

Freedom from debilitating deadlines.  Freedom to write the stories that burn in my heart to be written.  The worst part about realizing those freedoms were gone was that I had done it to myself.  I had signed too many contracts for too many books.  I had agreed to revisions that gutted my spirit as deeply as they gutted my stories.  No one forced me into those situations.  No one.  I don't blame publishers, editors or my agent.  Why would I?

I am a grown ass woman and I made my own choices, but when I realized those choices weren't working, it was also up to me to fix that.

Fixing it came at a high cost as any kind of true freedom so often does.  However, I now turn books in early because I can.  I write stories that matter to me and when someone thinks they should be gutted, I pull the book if I don't agree.

It's an amazing feeling to know I'm on the path I'm meant to be on, but also that my journey down that path is set by me.  I appreciate every one of the publishers I have worked with and continue to work with.  I am grateful for all I have learned from my editors and agents along the way.

But all of that has led to a new sense of freedom for me, not just a feeling, but a hard fought for reality.  Again, not without cost.  Pulling a book is no easy thing.  Trusting the process when sometimes it leads to what feels like failure?  Not easy.  But worth it.  Because the alternative is stifling the very creativity that has brought me this far.

My hero in my current release has a newfound freedom and what he decides to do with it is pretty darn great, if I do say so.  Duty and an old promise forced him to let go of the only woman who ever mattered.  He's no longer under contract to marry another royal, but can he convince Emma that freedom means they're meant to be together?

HIS MAJESTY’S HIDDEN HEIR

Harlequin Presents

ISBN-13 : 9781335568106

ISBN-10 : 1335568107

The prince is in for a shocking revelation in this secret baby romance by USA TODAY bestselling author Lucy Monroe!

The mother of his child…

…and wearing his crown?

Prince Konstantin can’t forget Emma Carmichael, who vanished after a wedding contract forced him to end their relationship. A surprise meeting five years later shocks Konstantin—Emma has a son. Unmistakably his son.

Emma wants Konstantin in their son’s life—yet she’s wary. She’d had no choice but to walk away; his family hadn’t deemed her worthy of being his princess. But as their reunion stokes the flames of their passion, can she trust that this time their bond is strong enough to prove them all wrong?

About the Author: With more than 8 million copies of her books in print worldwide, award winning and USA Today bestseller Lucy Monroe has published over 75 books and had her stories translated for sale all over the world. 

While she writes multiple subgenres of romance, all of her books are sexy, deeply emotional and adhere to the concept that love will conquer all. 

A passionate devotee of romance, she adores sharing her love for the genre with her readers.

Learn more at https://www.lucymonroe.com/

Let Freedom Ring!

 

By: Marcia King-Gamble

www.lovemarcia.com

Freedom means different things to different people. Freedom to me is keeping an open mind to possibilities.  Captivity does not necessarily mean being physically restrained, It means being mentally restrained as well. This condition prevents us from becoming the best that we can be.

Why do I say that?  Because I’m a woman of color who grew up outside of the USA. Some might call me a child of privilege, if privilege means having two working parents who owned a home and were able to afford a gardener and housekeeper (although help was cheap back then.)  I was fortunate enough to attend a prestigious private school, and belong to every club there was. My family gave tea parties because that’s what you did on a small British island.

All of those things changed when my family moved to the United States. The house was replaced by a tiny apartment in Brooklyn New York. Gone was the cook and gardener.  My mother who had earned the equivalent of a masters in the UK, discovered that her degrees wasn't worth much in the United States. She accepted a position as an assistant teacher, working for those  far less educated than she. Eventually, she went back to school to regain the credits she lost. My father, a civil engineer, found it impossible to regain his status. He went to work as a technician for a company providing appliances to major restaurants. A big step down for a man used to running his own show.  

In the USA, we were not living the dream.  I was on  a constant search to find out who I was. Where I came from, I wasn’t a minority, nor was color ever a barrier to getting ahead.  Here I was in a  strange land with a thick accent, and completely lost when it came to American black jargon,   To many I was a “Tom.”  I also didn’t walk around dropping the race card or feeling that every white person was out to get me. I never considered that having nutbrown skin would hold me back.

My parents, despite experiencing a huge financial loss, (three Eastern Caribbean dollars equaled one US dollar) never lost their pride or determination. They were insistent my sister and I continue our education at private schools. I am still grateful for that extra financial effort and that push.

In time, my family bought a house, and a three story one at that. My mother regained her masters and began working toward her PHD. At one point, she became an assistant principal. I went off to college, and shortly after graduation, began a career with a prestigious international airline. My travels took me all over the world and led to an executive status at yet another company.  

English was something I always excelled at, and while I could tell a good story, I never thought of becoming a writer.  Although, that did not stop me from submitting a manuscript when the multicultural market opened. That's where I got my first shot.

 It was an opportunity to be heard, and write stories I cared about. I am so grateful, I did not allow my mind to hold me back.

I share this story to let readers know that the only thing that can stop you from achieving goals is “fear itself.”  Don't allow yourself to become a prisoner to self doubt.  If I had listened to folks (including relatives) who constantly repeated, “people of color don’t do that,” “or you won’t get ahead because you’re black.” These can be self-fulfilling prophecies if you think like that. Free your mind and keep it open to infinite possibilities.

Like the adage says, where there’s a will there’s a way. My way didn’t include handouts, although I did educate myself on any opportunities available.  I refused to hold myself prisoner and believe that my skin color made me a lesser person, and would prevent me from living the dream. I refused to be sucked into that line of thinking because it only breeds negativity and fear.

Think big and let nothing hold you back. Don't imprison yourselves with negative thoughts and allow others to suck you into their vortex of despair.

Black, white, red or yellow, the world is yours for the taking. Don’t let others define who you are and what your life should be.

Act on your dreams and let them come true!

On October 19th Holiday Fake-Out will be released.  I am part of this amazing holiday anthology. you'll get to read from 22  talented authors and all for the bargain price of 99 cents/ You can pre-order using the links below. My story is Kwanzaa 'pon a time. I'd love a review.

Amazon- https://amzn.to/3jUiksR

iTunes- https://tinyurl.com/34rg95rd

KOBO- https://tinyurl.com/yc38tn5w

B&N- https://tinyurl.com/2zh74n2f

 

About Marcia King-Gamble

Romance writer, Marcia King-Gamble originally hails from a sunny Caribbean Island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. This former travel industry executive has spent most of life in the United States. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned over 34 books and 8 novellas. She has contributed to Michael Fiore’s DigitalRomanceInc and served as a moderator on the now defunct eHarmony advice boards.  Having witnessed the bad, the ugly, and the not so good in relationships, she still prefers to write about happily ever after. Caring for her animal family keeps her grounded and sane.

Visit Marcia at www.lovemarcia.com or “friend” her on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1MlnrIS

Be sure to join her newsletter mailing list.

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Freedom - a poem

Freedom

by Olive Runner

Give me the long, straight road before me,

A clear, cold day with a nipping air,

Tall, bare trees to run on beside me,

A heart that is light and free from care.

Then let me go! – I care not whither

My feet may lead, for my spirit shall be

Free as the brook that flows to the river,

Free as the river that flows to the sea.

from Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, Vol. XII, Sept 1918.

photos © Luanna S. Nau

Images of Freedom

 Freedom means many things to many people.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

FREEDOM TO MARRY
(Agung Pandit Wiguna on Pexels)

FINANCIAL FREEDOM

"Surrender to the freedom of forgiveness. Forgiveness may cost you your pride, but not forgiving them will cost you your freedom." ~ Unknown

As the great Janis Joplin sang in the song, Bobby Magee,
"FREEDOM'S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR 'NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE..."

The more we connect with and care about other people, the Earth, our Higher Power, etc., the more we choose to curtail our personal freedoms. We always have the freedom to choose. ~Sarah

Thankful for Learning New Things

 By Courtney Pierce

I’m thankful for many, many things in life, but I have to say that 2021 took “being thankful” to new heights. I’ve lived through turbulent times, not like the atrocities experienced in WW2, but close. Lock downs, censorship, distancing, and tearing apart of the family unit in schools have weighed heavy on my heart. Their slave playbook is trying to rear its ugly head in current events, but it won’t work. We boomers have too much resilience to not overcome adversity. Although we may feel drowned out by yelling, accusations, and downright lies, we have a voice . . . a big voice.

After more than forty years, we’re finally getting to the truth. Some of the nuggets we may not like; others might blow us away. That’s a subject for another blog in about six months. History in the making is still bubbling on the stove. Truth serum. Veritas elixir.

Spring of 2021 sprang forth with an idea when my career industry shut down. No concerts, no Broadway shows, no gathering of entertainment.  I switched gears to work at a local family-owned nursery while I finished my new book. My mother was a commercial organic gardener and got the bug. I learned all the Almanac wisdom from her and my grandmother.  My husband added more. It was a priority for us to create our own sustainable garden.

But after working in a huge commercial nursery that was beloved throughout the entire Flathead Valley, I found my niche. I learned much from dealing with the public . . . not just any public.  Most of the 40-year customers had been coming there to pay top dollar for beauty, walk the aisles with their dogs, talk about their kids, and seek help for what they didn’t know.

Other than getting back into shape at 22,000 steps a day (according to my FitBit), I reveled in working physically hard. Next came listening to the 30-year-experts who gave me plant advice. I drank in every detail of alchemy of our area, trends of varieties, and optimum conditions of our Zone. There’s a lot more to sticking a plant in the ground and expecting it to grow.

I had an epiphany that I’d stumbled into something special and quite personal: the customers.

“Are you looking for annuals that do well in sun or shade? Or would you like perennials that come back every year?”

“What’s your favorite color combination?”

“How much time do you have to water?”

Greenhouse after greenhouse, I zigzagged to show off our thousands of living trophies. These questions were how I got so many physical steps, so many overflowing carts, and so many hugs of thanks. Through our human connection, the customers were thankful, and so was I. I reveled in helping puzzle the plants and baskets into their cars and SUVs. The customers who wanted to plant their gardens, plant by plant, inspired me to spend the time to help them achieve the daily joy of blooms. The joy hung from their porches, graced their raised beds, encircled their mail boxes.

That was the goal . . . the crowning achievement of helping others.  My customers were ecstatic about leaving with their garden transformations of plants. Like me, they wanted to nurture living plants and help them thrive. I had no agenda except to make them happy.

As a writer, I captured that emotion and incorporated into my prose. You can’t make this stuff up. I have to experience the emotion of what I write, even if it’s a fictional story. I was accused once by a boss for being too benevolent. Their negative accusation was a personal badge of honor for me.

Every 25 years or so, we move up one generational seat on the life bus. In my teens, I remember thinking what it would be like to be grown up, taking care of myself, earning my future security, and being “old.” Back then, old age was imagining future life in my sixties. I’ve now arrived at the place that seemed so far away. I’m pretty darned close to the driver seat on the bus. The good news is that I still feel as young as I did in my teens. The only difference is that I have more wisdom from experience . . .  gain and loss, joy and sorrow, enlightenment and disillusionment.

My husband and I, my siblings, and my in-law siblings will soon take over as drivers of the bus, to maneuver through the curves and obstacles of what our current turbulent life has to offer us. We boomers are heartbroken to let go of the generation above us, those who’ve put their heart into investing our generation. If not already, they’ve handed over the wheel of trust to us. We can’t let them down, and we will get through the summits and valleys ahead.

At stake is everything right now, but when we stand tall, we will still have our country, our freedoms, and our sovereignty. Freedom is a precious gift we must hold dear. It can still slip from our fingers when we look the other way or have our voices censored. Our flag is an amazing symbol, along with all those who’ve died to fight for it. We’re not chattel who have to show “papers” to shop, travel, or eat at a restaurant. It’s happening in real time. Check out Australia, New Zealand, France, and the United Kingdom.

We’re at a crossroads of tyranny or freedom. We can’t "unsee" what’s about to put in front of us. We can feel it ramping up.  No more sleeping or blind trust.

In spite of everything that’s happening in the world,  I’m thankful for my family. They hold my spirit in their hands, and I hold theirs.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Kalispell, Montana with her husband and stepdaughter. She writes for the baby boomer audience. She spent 28 years as an executive in the entertainment industry and used her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor, and mystery. She studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and Authors of the Flathead. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and windtreepress.com 

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

Coming in 2022!

When Aubrey Cenderon moves to Montana after the death of her father, the peace and quiet of Big Sky Country becomes complicated with a knock on the door from the sheriff. An injured grizzly bear is on the loose and it must be eliminated before it kills again. The sheriff's insistence that she buy a gun for protection will present Aubrey with some serious soul-searching, because the grizzly-on-the-run is hunting her too . . . for a different reason.

I'm Ready for Fall by Paty Jager

Summer came and is quickly sliding into fall and I am struggling to feel as if I had a summer. While I enjoyed every minute of the last three months, I am having trouble digesting that they have come and gone.

June I was preparing for my trip to Iceland and ventured forth the end of the month. Up to my trip, I also jet-boated up the Snake River for research. Then July and August I pinged all around the eastern side of the state judging at county fairs, culminating with judging at the State Fair. 

This past weekend finished out my summer, I was set up at the Sumpter, Oregon Flea Market for three days selling my books alongside another author from the area. With this weekend over, summer is finished as well as my running around. For a while. ;) 

Now I need to sit down and get the book written that was supposed to be ready to go to my editor by now. Funny how having fun always seems to mess up my writing schedule. 

The worst part about having played so much this summer, I'm having a hard time getting my mind wrapped back into the act of writing. I've fleshed out the book I need to write. Made my suspect chart and drawn up info about the characters. I even have all the maps I need. But I keep finding other things to distract me.

The first book of the Gabriel Hawke series is being narrated and I stop to listen to the chapters as they are finished. 

I just published the third book in the Silver Dollar Saloon Series. Freedom. It is available in ebook and soon print.  

Their dreams brought them together. But will violence tear them apart?

Freedom longs to be out of the Silver Dollar Saloon, with a family of her own. When a white man promises marriage and children, she takes the biggest risk of her life, and follows him to the wilds of Montana Territory. Where he shows his true nature.

Water Runs Fast, a Crow off the reservation, comes upon a white man whipping a brown-skinned woman. After stabbing the white man and riding off with the woman, he realizes she is the woman from his visions. The one who pledged to help him and his people survive in the white man’s world.

On the run from the tragedy, the two grow close. Together, they begin a life as husband and wife. But will they have their chance at a life together, or will they hang for murder?

Universal link: https://books2read.com/u/mlawnB

And for one more week, you can get the first book in the Silver Dollar Saloon series, Savannah, for $0.99.

She went from an heiress to a pauper.

He outran the law and became preacher.

Escaping a past full of deceit and larceny, Savannah Gentry goes in search of her only kin, a half-brother she discovered after her father’s death. She hopes Shady Gulch in the Dakota Territory can give her a future. However, she stumbles into the arms of Reverend Larkin Webster, finds herself working in the Silver Dollar Saloon, and soon fears she’s gone from the frying pan into the fire.

After dodging death and incarceration, the Topeka Kid decides to turn his life around and takes on a new identity. Reverend Larkin Webster. It works, until he finds a temptation he can’t resist and steals the heart of Savannah Gentry. When her past collides with his, he wonders if this theft could end up with him losing everything… including his life. https://www.books2read.com/u/b5MkNp

While all of this is going on, I'm also in the critiquing stages of the 13th book in the Shandra Higheagle Series, Toxic Trigger-point. 

I guess it's no wonder I'm having trouble clearing my head and pushing forward on the work in progress, Chattering Blue Jay.  

Off to send Hawke chasing a convicted killer through the Hells Canyon of the Snake River. I hope I don't fall off a cliff! 

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 40 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

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