Our main character, Anna, is in London as the fulfillment of a dream she shared with her late mother. Her mother longed to travel and broaden her horizons, while she struggled to manage her out of control diabetes. In the end, scrimping on test strips and insulin killed her mother, but freed Anna to leave a dour and unsupportive father to pursue her masters in London.

Still a scholarship student, stealing train rides and working three jobs to subsist, she is however in love with London. As an SAT tutor to wealthy young girls in private school wanting to study in America, she glimpses a completely different world. Tentatively absorbed into the family of one of her favorite students, she is pulled into the life of the wealthy who travel between Saint-Tropez, Lisbon, Monaco, and London. Her student’s older sister, Faye, takes her on as a project, dressing her and trotting her out as she would a pet. When Anna returns to London to continue her studies, the Wilders invite her to house-sit one of their many properties. At that high end address, she has access to Faye’s forgotten wardrobe, and one of her two suitors introduces her around not as the tutor but as Faye’s friend. As she is incrementally sucked further and further into the half lie of an existence that she sees as a dream, we wait with clenching stomachs for it all to fall apart—as it inevitably does.

But the middle-class friends that she left behind and the beau who seemed to spurn her for the lie she was living are the ones who see her through the darkest chapter of her life to a wholly honest and earned existence and career. While this book does have a satisfying ending, it is not the usual Cinderella story, and it is gut-wrenchingly successful at making us expect the very worst for our heroine.

When calamity after calamity began to presage disaster, I did what I have never done before. I read the last page to make sure I wanted to survive the downfall to get to a happy ending. Once I knew she was not doomed, I was able to enjoy the last third of the book.

The writing is strong, and almost too evocative if you’ve ever been a ‘fish out of water’ at work or school. I think the only people who could blissfully enjoy this book without the stress that comes with it are the ‘beautiful’ upper class, so-called friends Anna met along the way. They would not understand the grief of not being able to pay the train fare to your second job.

First, they asked me to complete a detailed online survey about the characters in the book, key objects, stand-out moments or imagery from the plot, etc. I was also given a link to an online folder to upload images to support the survey. I combed the covers of recent Sibylline books and referenced the color palette of one specific title. I did note that the book was more serious than mine and that the quirky, comic tone of my book might mean going with lighter tones of the colors. I sent an image of another press’s cover and a pre-Raphaelite painting to suggest the hair of my main character. I mentioned specific items of clothing, like a sapphire blue satin, knee-length Chinese tunic/jacket with side slits and frog closures. I sent images of a vintage Samsonite make-up case in blue and cream, as well as pictures of a 1979 VW Bug, which in my book is covered with graphic advertising in the form of a Flintstone-like arm holding a giant fried chicken leg. It becomes a major plot point in more than one place.

I went to Houston and dragged my friend Carla all over town taking pictures of Victorian and Craftsman architecture as well as the facades of many of the theaters in town.

I uploaded all the images. A couple of weeks later, there was some indication that they didn’t have everything. So, I went through the whole process again. Eager to talk through the images with Alicia.

My editor and the copy editor sent formatted copy of the interior of the book. I went through two sets of edits, looking for minor corrections and formatting issues. Everything seemed to be chugging along.

Then the week I was to interact with the designer on the initial image came and went. I reached out to Vicki DeArmon, to see if there was an issue. Another book had been added to the fall roster, pushing my book back—cover would come in two weeks. When it did, I was somewhat dismayed.

The palette was exactly the same as the go-by, not lighter tones. The female character was curvy as described but actually looked stocky. Her hair was auburn but looked heavy rather than like a ‘cloud’ around her head. More importantly, her face was turned away and looked way too serious. The VW was prominent but did not have any comic ads on it. The make-up case looked more like a briefcase. Art Deco design became texture in the background. There was nothing about this that said ‘comic’, ‘whimsy’, or ‘theatre’.

I pushed back by return email to Vicki, expecting to be able to talk to the designer. Her response was somewhat cryptic and did not offer any interaction with the artist. She promised to forward my concerns. I got a new version, color even darker, minus the VW and with some indication of stage lighting, which I’m not sure will read to a non-theater audience. But the figure still looked to be 50 not 32 and there was no indication of humor or whimsy.

After a rather lengthy response expressing my concerns about this appealing to the audience I hoped to bring to the project, I got reassurance from Vicki that they wanted to make me happy, but time was critical. This was the final version. At last, there is some sense of the fun and quirkiness in the book. It is not everything I wanted. But it is a major step in the right direction.

What do you think?

Some of the reviews and blurbs refer to a number of iconic figures in the folk-rock movement of the 1970s. Specifically, some say the characters in this book are inspired by the relationship between Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, with a third character I suspect is very much based on Carly Simon as the woman who came between them. But these characters are not thinly veiled rip-offs of real people. They are multi-faceted, brilliantly talented, and achingly human in their flaws and weaknesses.

Much of the story is based on Bayleen Island, off the coast of Maine. The town is a summer playground for the rich who build enormous ‘cottages’, while the locals live in aging clapboard cottages and work in all the industries and professions that make the lives of the elite so simple and relaxed. It is also home to an annual music festival that provides much needed cash flow to the community.

When rising music star Jesse Reid, son of one of the pillars of yacht club society, has a dramatic motorcycle accident hours before he is set to perform on the mainstage, local band The Breakers and their lead singer Jane Quinn get the chance of a lifetime. Promoted from the smaller venue of the festival, they take the stage with only minutes of warning, causing Jane to perform barefoot. But if the crowd is disappointed and dismissive at first, Jane’s voice and her unique cover of Jesse’s latest hit cause them to pause their exit, while the band’s original music quickly wins them over. It’s a career making performance that soon launches them into the major leagues and a record deal.

Meanwhile, the aunt who raised Jane is a nurse at the sanitarium where Jesse is recuperating and drying out from addiction. Jane works there as well, one of her many jobs that helps to keep the Quinn clan solvent. But it reinforces the social divide between Jane and Jesse, whom she finds hypnotically attractive. The fact that her own mother was a musician that ‘disappeared’ into drugs and mental health issues only brings them closer as he heals and she begins a career that ricochets between being the darling of the industry and blackballed as a problem artist because she demands the same artistic freedom that male artists have.

But the family secret that she is keeping and Jesse’s struggles with fame and drugs conspire to sabotage a once in a lifetime love.

This book is written in a starkly honest and emotionally raw way, but the poetic language and the vivid descriptions of the creative process, an artist’s sensibility, and the machinations of the industry that more often stifles than supports artists makes this a work of literary brilliance. This is a must read for lovers of music, survivors of the 1970s, and anyone who has a creative bone in their body.

I bought this book months ago, on multiple recommendations. I kept putting other books earlier in the queue. Maybe it was God’s way of preparing me to read it at the right moment.

A random example of the lyricism of his language, “The night comes padding in from all directions, dusk stuffs the town in a sack, lights go on in the houses down the hill like bullet holes in the darkness.”

He masterfully creates characters that are constantly in crisis, even when the conflict is with memory or place. He finds a way to their truth in every moment. For example, “It is probably never easy for anyone to return to the place where they grew up, there’s no way to forget who you are there, no matter how hard you’ve tried to become someone else.”

The book begins with a runaway foster child, drowning in grief for the death of her closest friend. She has a postcard she’s carried through countless foster homes and sneaks into an auction to see the original painting. Seeing the art, she recognizes an expression of the soul and not an object to go over the couch. She is immediately ejected from the proceedings.

In the alley behind the auction house, she encounters a frail shadow of a man, who is the dying artist. He’s sold everything he owns to buy back his first painting and the memories it represents. He recognizes in her graffiti art, a kindred spirit. When he texts his lover in the auction “I’ve found one of us,” that sets in motion a series of events, adventures, and encounters with the trio of ‘friends’ depicted in the painting. But Backman’s style of revealing moments, encounters, tragedies, and loves from the past defies any of the usual tropes. His storytelling has epic dimensions but is totally personal. This is not a thriller, a murder mystery, or any of the usual genre tales. But every page is a revelation of a deeply human truth about friendship, art, and the cost of being human. He reveals story not so much like peeling layers of an onion, but more like watching Scheherazade do the dance of the seven veils while telling the fragments of stories that will keep her alive one more day.

Go to a bookstore, go online, drive to the library and find this book. At this point, you may be able to find it on a bargain table, as an eBook or an audio book. But if you read to understand what it means to be human and not just for entertainment or distraction, do yourself the favor of taking this journey when you have three days to totally indulge yourself in the soul-cleansing act of literary epiphany.

1. Peel one Idaho potato per person you hope to feed. Note: This is the job usually given to the kids or grandkids. It’s okay if there are bits of peel left, they add vitamins.

1. Cut into big chunks, rinse.

1. Cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer until completely cooked. Be sure to add sea salt, minced garlic and herbs (fresh if you have them) to the boil.

1. Drain completely, add unsalted butter, then mash them. Let the potatoes cool, then put them in the fridge while you work on other sides.

   

2. Once your mashed potatoes are cold, add a splash of milk (whole or 2%) to make them a bit creamy.

1. Add Miracle Whip, mustard, chopped onion, and celery; a bit of pimento or diced bell pepper if you like. Mix thoroughly as you add.

1. Last, add 2 boiled eggs cut into chunks, mix gently throughout.

2. Garnish with additional boiled eggs halved, pimento, paprika or fresh minced herbs.

1. Cover with a damp dish towel and put in the fridge until you’re ready to eat.

NOTE: Don’t forget to compost the eggshells and potato peels. They’re great for your garden.

Bon Appetit, y’all!

I plunged into using my critique group, my writer associations, and my publisher’s resources to learn everything I could. Writer friends recommended more groups and resources, some of which cost money.

The first wake-up call was that I had no social media presence at all. My small press would help educate me, but a lot of responsibility would fall to me. They provided a list of all the major socials that I needed to stake a claim to and provide to them. I had a Facebook page for many years, but it had been hijacked fairly recently and Facebook decided to delete it—along with 20+ years of production photos. So, I needed a new FB page as an author, Instagram, Twitter/X, Substack (yea that was a good idea), Threads, TikTok, and on and on. I dutifully went online to create my accounts and share them with my publisher.

Trying to post on all these things turned into an escalating nightmare. It takes time—time that I am not spending writing. Plus, who wants to hear from me constantly that I have a book and it will be coming out in so many months/weeks/days? Some relief came from a marketing workshop my publisher offered where they suggested we focus on doing enough posting on the two to three socials where we are most likely to find our audience. The number of posts to attract the algorithm varies, and the age group of each is different. For my genre, that turns out to be 1-3 weekly posts on FB, Substack, and either X or Instagram.

As a voracious reader, now driven to read as much as possible in the various genres I write in or hope to write in, I decided to start writing reviews as content. I could support my fellow writers and use one of my passions as grist for the mill. Not very original, I’m discovering. It was not uncommon for me to read one to three books a week, plus I had a huge stack of books I’d brought back from Bouchercon (which I just recently rediscovered). What could be easier?

Since Substack seems to be a haven for writers at various stages of their writing life, I began doing my reviews here. But not wanting to charge people, and with only a few subscribers and equal demands on my time and energy elsewhere, I began reprinting the reviews on my new FB page and doing graphics on Instagram and X that point to the reviews.

The problem has become ever growing stacks of books that I constantly reshuffle and that seem to grow faster than I am able to review and retire the book to some safe haven for recycled lit. Plus, wanting to support my fellow writers, I tend to buy them rather than pursue ARCs or digital versions. (Forgive me, I’m old school, I love the feel, smell, and relationship to the actual book.) So, in addition to sucking up my time and space in my 900 sq ft farmhouse, they are an increasing drain on my retirement income as well.

Never having been a huge social media type, (I usually only posted when I was doing a play) I completely underestimated the amount of time it takes to put out a single post to all the media and check for activity on my accounts. I also underestimated how hypnotizing it is to respond to dozens of insipid (probably AI produced) questions and puzzles. In no time at all, I’ve used all my time, and have none left to actually create new pages on my next book. In addition, the mind-numbing quality of this hypnotic state does not promote creative thought. As a Pantser, I end up having to re-read and re-edit the last three or four chapters before I even try to write the next five pages. You see where this is going.

It’s a conundrum. In order to have a successful launch in October, I need to be doing the groundwork now. But in order to have a second book in October 2027, I need to be writing now so I can finish a first draft and spend copious amounts of time editing and re-editing in order to get it to my publisher by next March or April. WTF!!!! (Sorry, you see my frustration.)

The good news is that I have discovered that my young cousin has just graduated from college and is a genius with socials. I am hiring her to rework my existing webpage to create an Author landing page. I may in time be able to pay her to pick up some slack on the socials as well. I may have to go back to work to afford that, but it can’t be more taxing on my schedule and brainpower than what I’m doing now, right?

Living the dream!

ROAD TRIP takes place in two timelines and with three POV characters. In present day, two sisters are dealing with the death of their mother and the aftermath of a shyster televangelist who apparently convinced her to give away her retirement and mortgage their family home. In the past, specifically the 1920s in Ireland, their ancestress is forced to leave her home and go to the new world at the behest of the spinster aristocrat who has taken her under her wing. But she learns later that her benefactress was murdered on the day she left for New York and she has been accused of stealing the cash, family jewels and painting that Lady Delia gave her—and then killing that lady.

Sisters Maeve and Teresa do not get along. Maeve, the younger daughter, is the rule-follower, and the one who took leave from her university teaching position to care for her dying mother. Teresa is an actress, vagabond, and impulsive ne’er do well that shows up late for the funeral and steals $100 from her sister’s purse to get drunk the first night. But their mother’s final wishes were that they take the coffee can of money she’d been saving for years and go to Ireland to learn of their roots.

Teresa has figured out the painting over the mantel is the only thing of value left to them, but to authenticate its provenance, she must convince her recently fired sister to go with her on the trip her mother wanted them to take.

These two could not be more different, but the trip forces them to work together and to use their various skills to learn everything they can about the family that is part of their heritage. Along the way, they learn about the crime their ancestor was accused of, an IRA theft of artwork connected to the family, meet a cantankerous old woman who is the last of their line and a cousin in a nursing home with the letters their great-great-grandmother sent home to her half-brother. They also meet a charming whiskey maker who wants to sweep Maeve off her feet and into his bed.

The characters and relationships are the strength of this book; the mysteries are charming McGuffins that bring the sisters closer and lead to their ultimately reconciling the crimes against their mother, their great-great-grandmother, and the relative who turns from cantankerous adversary to benefactor. It’s all neatly tied up and charming. Perhaps not as intensely mysterious as some of Andrews’ previous mysteries, but delightful.

I’d like to say creating characters. I think I’m very good at making even small incidental characters memorable. After all, as they say in the theatre, there are no small parts, only small actors.

However, as a theatrical director, I always found my strength was looking at the dialogue in a script and being able to immediately visualize it as action, blocking, and emotional interaction. I could sense the rising action and how to increase the stakes in a scene by the way I blocked the actors to move on the stage and the activities I gave them to complete. But I nearly always was working from a script written by a gifted playwright who knew how to construct scenes, create tension, and build to a climax. Having acted in and directed plays by brilliant minds from Shakespeare to Chekhov, Noel Coward to Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard to Wendy Wasserstein, and Jane Austen to Lauren Gunderson, I know what beautiful language sounds like. I also know when something is written to sound both poetic and as if it might reasonably come out of the mouth of a debutante, a policeman, or a college student. That is the gift I bring to my writing. My experience of the most brilliant writers of dialogue in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the middle of my theatre career, when I commonly did between 5 and 10 shows a year, I often had the opportunity to work with emerging writers. As a director for Stages’ Texas Playwrights Festival, Wordsmith, and later for the playwriting competition at Queensbury Theatre, I was often entrusted with staging (or acting in) a play for the first time. The playwright might be someone with an established track record like Jack Heifner or James McLure, or a first-time playwright with a great idea that needed tightening and structure. Some of the playwrights I collaborated with went on to greater success. But we nearly always remained friends, or friendly. Because, birthing a play is not a solitary act, it is a collaboration. Theatre is a collaborative art that requires a level of trust that breeds friendship.

On the other hand, writing a novel can seem like a lonely and solitary activity. It doesn’t have to be. That’s what critique groups, writer’s associations, and beta readers are for. Long before you submit to an agent or publisher, you’ve shared your words with a handful of people you admire and trust to be painfully honest and constructive in their criticism. We support each other, we build each other up, we shore up the gaps in each other’s craft. In those situations, I’ve always found that my gift is being able to sense when the dialogue is clunky, out of character, too wordy, or too erudite for the character and situation. That is my gift to my most trusted fellow writers. That, I think is what I might bring to the table if I were to share craft advice with a larger group.

So, while I’m working on my second novel in my mystery series and trying to submit my Christian Women’s Fiction novel to agents and publishers, I intend to start framing a course or workshop to share what I know about how a character speaks their truth. Who knows, maybe someone will want to listen, and someone will gain something from it.

This book is not written chronologically. It goes back and forth between the 1980s and 2015, the year the Supreme Court struck down laws banning same sex marriage. There are three POV characters, Frank and Teresa, and their daughter Lena.

The central plot revolves around Los Angeles Civil Rights attorney Lena Antinori, who fights for the rights of members of the LGBTQ community by day, while hiding the fact that her own father is Gay. When her father, Frank, calls to excitedly announce that he and his long-time partner have decided to make their union official now that they can legally do so, she has very mixed feelings.

Deep into a landmark legal case, she agrees to plan her father’s wedding with reluctance and dread. The journey toward that event brings up a multitude of feelings, including her past anger and resentment over her father’s infidelity, coming out, and her parents’ eventual divorce.

Lena’s struggles in the present day of the novel are juxtaposed with scenes from the past that tell the very real love story between two young Italian Americans, who marry and create a family with a son and daughter, amidst the middle-class economic struggles of a life in the suburbs of New York.

But Frank has always felt an outsider—different. His one brush with same-sex attraction as a teen brought out his rigid mother’s scorn and taught him to put any such feelings in a box and bury them. However, friendship with another couple rekindles those feelings. The husband of the other couple is leading a double life and leads Frank into similar duplicity. While he still loves Teresa, he cannot seem to fight his attraction for Henry, and the freedom he feels when he is with him.

Teresa struggles with the waning closeness she shared with Frank. She feels overwhelmed by being put in the position of raising their children with less and less of Frank’s involvement. She begins to suspect Frank is being unfaithful. But having been raised a good Catholic girl and generally naïve, it is not until her cousin suggests that Frank may be Gay that she comes to understand the recent chill between her husband and her thirteen-year-old daughter. At nine, Lena witnessed a moment of casual intimacy between Frank and his lover on a weekend boating excursion. But it is only when she takes Health at thirteen and learns about homosexuality that she puts it all together, creating a distance between father and daughter that will take decades to mend.

In scenes from the past, Teresa tries to ignore the situation, then confronts it. Frank renews his efforts to ‘hide’ his true nature but is doomed to fail. Eventually, they agree to separate. Their son blames Teresa but finds it possible to forgive and accept his father. Lena spends her teen years alternately hating her father for leaving them and resenting him for finding happiness. But all four live with the ‘secret’ for fear of public scandal, Frank losing his employment, or even being sent to jail for being a homosexual.

In the present, Lena who seems very liberal-minded and a do-gooder is still structuring her life around the lessons she learned as a teenager. She fights discrimination cases in court yet cannot admit to her peers that her father is Gay. But eventually, through planning her father’s wedding and reading her late mother’s journals she finds her way back to the love she had for him. Through the wise counsel of a new friend who is also a ‘queer spawn’, and the love and support of her brother and husband, she comes to ‘out’ herself at a major speaking event.

It takes the character Lena from age 9 to her 40s to come to grips with who her father is. And this is a so called ‘enlightened’ woman. I have to admit that at times I started to lose patience with the duplicity and hypocrisy of this character. But the details of the emotional stigma, scenes of ostracism, the AIDS panic, and the pain and guilt are represented with such clarity and sensitivity that you follow this journey to her true breakthrough. And I suspect the audience the author is truly trying to reach will need the full journey to understand not only the character arc but the societal changes.

Lisa Montenaro chooses to have her character find her enlightenment in 2015, a pivotal year in Gay-rights. It is sad to think that we have lost so much ground in the last decade and that battles already fought are once again being used to incite suspicion, fear, and hate in our society.

This is a mother/daughter relationship, with a vivid and wonderful layer steeped in the “delicious culture” of the Jews of Rhodes, most of whom were sent to death camps at the end of WWII. Those who survived have been scattered around the globe, but they have a wonderfully vibrant familial structure, cuisine, and language which is a hybrid of Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and Yiddish.

Aurora is a senior citizen; a narcissist she is uniquely a part of her subculture yet never contributes to it. As a youthful beauty she married a serial cheater, had two children, and then was abandoned by her husband for a younger version. He took their son and all their assets but left their daughter with Aurora.

From early childhood, Leyla has experienced the harsh criticism of a father who then abandoned her to a needy mother, ill-equipped to function successfully in the world. Leyla became the parent in many ways and has cared for her comically delusional mother ever since.

The first five pages of this book almost stopped me from reading it. Leyla is a self-critical, hyperactive, perfectionist suffering from extreme insomnia, who discovers online that her absentee father has died. You have to accept how tightly wound this character is, to her own detriment, but to the benefit of everyone else in her life. If you can, you will revel in her journey to self-enlightenment—and permission to be herself rather than the iconic personae she has set herself the task of becoming.

The juxtaposition of this delusional, entitled, and manipulative mother and this daughter who finds it impossible to let go on any level for fear of failing someone is a hilarious and at times excruciating story. Her father’s love is now beyond hope, and her mother’s love is always an obligation. Against all odds, Leyla has married an extremely successful Jewish lawyer and produced two adorable children who are the center of her life. But in her quest to become perfect so she can earn their love and adoration, she very nearly destroys it.

Overhearing a chance conversation while she is hiding from a school event, Leyla comes to suspect her husband may be on the verge of becoming the next lover of a single, female entrepreneur. To discover the truth, she decides to leave her boys with her in-laws for the first time in their lives, so she can follow her husband to the Cannabis-biz conference at the other end of California. At the last minute she cannot leave them and so drags them along on this harebrained and uniquely unplanned excursion. As you can imagine a series of misadventures occur, not the least of which is her accidentally imbibing in THC laced brownies. Her tightly wound personality is so completely unraveled that she is mistaken for an industry guru and makes a collection of instant friends—something she has never been able to do before.

Meanwhile Aurora has found out that her own father’s last (of 8) wives has died when she is called by the hospital as the “next of kin.” She takes this as a sign that things are looking up and that she is entitled to whatever her late stepmother possessed. She drives her ancient Saturn south and hooks into her familial culture to wring whatever she can from the situation. When things don’t immediately work out, she pulls her daughter into the mix, whereupon Leyla discovers that she has a large extended family that her mother never introduced her to; a family that might have been there to help and support them when Leyla was struggling as a child to raise her mother.

This book is a full serving of eccentric personalities, a rich sauce of cultural heritage, and an aromatic mix of the spices of comedy and near-tragedy. But it is a dish to be savored.

Jessamine Jo Woodley (Jessie) is 63, recently divorced. Her husband of over 30 years betrayed her trust, had an affair, and after a contentious divorce left her heart-broken, living paycheck to paycheck, and convinced men always leave. Her beloved great aunt, who showed her more love than either of her parents, dies and leaves her the chance to reset her life and start over.

While stubborn and naturally adventurous, Jessie has spent her life feeling that she had to earn approval and love. With her parents, and in her marriage, she put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own. Only with her great aunt did she know unconditional love. But now her aunt’s will offers her the fairy tale Colorado cabin she loved as a child and a trust fund for life. She only has to live in the cabin for six months and complete a series of six challenges designed to open her heart again and teach her to love herself, so that someone can truly love her.

Her aunt’s lawyer proves to be a strikingly handsome, blue-eyed professional. But he has the manners of a Southern gentleman and the humor she’s always been drawn to. Nevertheless, she makes it clear from the first day and the reading of the will, no matter what her aunt expected, they will not be getting involved.

Finnegan (Finn) Conrad has his own baggage. He tends to lead a double life. His professional persona allows him to be aloof and distant while providing for the needs of his clients but never inviting or rewarding the unwanted attention of nearly every woman he meets. Jessie’s great-aunt was discerning and determined enough to break through to discover the real, caring, and gentle man hidden beneath the veneer. The terms of her will make him the proctor for the various challenges designed to open up her niece’s life. But he receives his own set of challenges that lead him to open himself to love as well.

The book is formulaic at times, and occasionally predictable. But the characters are vivid, challenging, and their reluctant journey to love is quite entertaining. There is personality conflict at times, but the gentle pull between them is mutual and delightful to follow. This is a story of mature love, not merely physical attraction. I recommend it, particularly if love hasn’t always been kind to you yet you still cling to hope.

RYDER is part of a series featuring the sons of two large ranching families in the central Texas hill country along the Colorado River, in the mythical town of Hartsville (rats! why didn’t I think of that). There’s a lot of talk about how hard ranch work is, but little detail to make it believable. Each family has thousands of acres and runs about 12,000 head of cattle. Atypical in my experience.

Billie Wallace is the only daughter of six children. She is a bit of a wild child, impetuous, and free-spirited. So of course, her parents encouraged her to take college courses online to become the accountant for the family ranch. Working in an office instead of outside with animals is killing her spirit. She’s started taking barrel-racing lessons from two of her sisters-in-law. At the beginning of the book, she is competing for the first time and doing well until she cuts the corner a little too close and crashes.

Ryder Rivers is the youngest of a large family of brothers (including a twin, 4 minutes older), who grew up with Billie. They were always close friends, until an accident killed both his parents when he was fourteen. He has lived a half-life for the last ten years, emotionally shut-down, pursuing only shallow friendships and one-night stands to protect his damaged heart. But when Billie crashes, he is the first one to leap from the stands and over the rodeo arena fence to rush to her side.

The complication is that Billie’s older brother Cole is Ryder’s best friend. He is protective of Billie. Cole is also the walking-wounded in that he married the love of his life who bore his son then had an affair with the local football coach. As it goes in small towns, he was the last to know. It nearly ended his marriage, but a month after the discovery, his wife was diagnosed with cancer and was dead within months (perhaps a bit too much poetic justice). He is raising a six-year-old alone and guarding his own ravaged heart against any form of betrayal.

Of course, in a series of dramatic scenes and romantic confrontations Billie forces her way into Ryder’s life and truck—truck hood—and eventually his bed. Riddled with guilt, but obsessed with each other, they choose to withhold the info from their families, and particularly from Cole until it is too late and he really feels betrayed.

Meanwhile, Billie is desperate to find a different way to contribute to the family ranch and Ryder inspires her to build a business plan to create an animal therapy operation on her family land. This book does try to normalize getting therapy when you need it.

That’s pretty much the entire plot, with a lot of cameo appearances by the family members featured in the other books.

This would be a cute, relatively simple family saga of 80-90 pages if the author stuck to that plot alone. The other almost 300 pages consists of generic stories of ranch life (I had to laugh at the image of lush green pastures in August); complicated family relationships (with so many names it is hard to keep track); a lot of misogynistic views of gender roles (Billie wants to break out and choose her path but as soon as she hooks up with Ryder she’s toying with the idea of babies); profanity and raunchy sex talk (interrupted by pleas to God for intervention) that passes for playful banter; and fairly graphic and imaginative descriptions of the sex. Lots of it.

I won’t lie. I finished the book. It was perhaps a little too titillating for my taste. But the thing that bothered me more than the creative sex was the lack of any emotional or moral reluctance to hook-up with anyone and everyone—until you found THE one. From that point on it was unimaginable that you would cheat or continue to be promiscuous, not out of morality, but because that’s the way the family worked.

The series is about two large, close-knit families. Each of the offspring sows their wild oats until they find their soul mate (it’s expected of the boys if not necessarily the one daughter). When they find that strong, unique woman to tame them, usually with her own career and passions, they immediately start having babies, often twins, with or without a marriage license.

This is not a romance about Texas and family. This is not a book about true love, though it uses that term a lot. This is not a book about a woman refusing to be drawn into familial expectations and choosing her own path. This is a book about sex as something you need as much as fast food, giant trucks, designer boots, or shelter.

SUNBEAM IN PARADISE is a sweet little read. Lexi is a vibrant young woman who moved to Pennsylvania from Colorado after her first love ran off with someone else. She thought she’d found love again, but in the opening chapter it is clear he’s still in love with his ex. An accident on the volleyball court confirms her worst fears.

Pennsylvania must be the land of second chances, because Clifton, an aw shucks brand of Southerner, has relocated from North Carolina for similar reasons. He’s been watching from the sidelines, but when Lexi is left behind, literally, he steps up to help her clear equipment and find the miracle of love she’s been praying for.

This book is a testament to God answering prayers, the stereotypical Southern gentleman, platonic lovers becoming more, and the power of family to make or break your heart, your life, and your faith. While it has cute if predictable obstacles and conflicts, (Cliff and his siblings are named for Dallas characters and his brother J.R. is a villain) it is a peaceful, happy way to spend an hour or so. It is just formulaic enough to preclude any fear that it will not end happily. Cliff’s accent and syntax are a little too rustic to be believable, especially in juxtaposition to his brother. He’s deeply in love but still calls Lexi “ma’am”. His dog loves Lexi more than it loves him. For weeks they are inseparable to the point she sleeps over, in his bed while he’s on the couch. And there is a snake-in-the-grass lawyer with an Irish name. Enough said.

If you like this one, there are five or six other novellas in Chas Williamson’s series that I suspect follow the same clean, faith-centric formula to love.

Robert Lee Ahrendt would have been 97 in June. He went to school in Lexington with my late mother. He was married to his wife Janie (Tucker) Ahrendt for 74 years. She is slightly younger at 93, but still vibrant and engaging with a ready sense of humor. Something they shared. They had four children, one a daughter who was in my class in school here in Lexington. They were blessed with numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and most recently two great-great-grandchildren. All of whom knew the love of Robert and Janie.

He served his country, even though he probably bemoaned the fact he graduated from high school too late to be part of WWII. It would have been important to him, at a time when his family’s German ancestry may have caused suspicion and prejudice from certain people.

He worked hard and played hard his whole life. He was a significant part of the community, serving on the volunteer fire department, Lions Club, School Board of Trustees, the City Council, and as a lay leader at our United Methodist Church.

Life was not without its share of sadness and grief. Robert outlived many of his siblings. He and Janie lost a son, Neil, way too soon. But faith in God saw them through that.

The women of the church pulled together as always to help serve for the funeral, but there were more hands than were even needed, because everyone knew the need to pay back the care and commitment the church has known time and again from this family. The sanctuary was filled to overflowing, with a couple of dozen people having to watch the simulcast of the service in the Family Life Center that Robert helped see built, even in difficult financial times.

The service reflected the joy of a life well-lived, and the strong belief that Robert’s recent blindness and weakness were now at an end, and he has moved on to a joyful existence in the presence of the God he knew and cherished. While there were tears, many of them were shed by non-family members. The monitors and the display in the Family Life Center where lunch was served focused on images from a vibrant, happy, family-centric life. One that was filled with travel, laughter, and the small adventures associated with first hugs, first steps, first driving lessons, and the smiles they bring. Like the smiles shared by all those folks eating, remembering, and laughing together today.

God speed Mr. Ahrendt…

We meet Joan Cavanaugh in her early 20s. She’s just out of college, recently married and a first-time mother. Her life seems to be out of her control. Her husband is single-mindedly building his career, leaving her with a colicky baby in a strange city for long hours. The person she thought she was, is subsumed into her roles as wife and mother. She’s lost herself.

She meets young Peter ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, the grandson of her charming neighbor, and they become quick friends, then much more. But Joan loves her husband and would never leave him. Eventually, out of self-preservation, Hutch breaks it off. But he never forgets her.

Twenty odd years pass, Joan in her mid-40s is a beloved wife and the mother of three extraordinary young women, when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. I know from personal experience that when a woman is diagnosed, it is a journey for the entire family, not just her. My mother dealt with cancer three times over a twenty-year period. Cancer either brings you closer, or it destroys you.

Hutch moved on with his life, married and had two children, but he is not immune to tragedy, either. His 17-year-old son is killed on the night of his high school graduation. The headline catches Joan’s attention and causes her to leave a letter for a young friend to contact Hutch when and if she dies.

There is a certain amount of synchronicity in this book; lives lived along parallel lines, strangers meeting in airports, children becoming friends. But it all works to weave a more tightly drawn picture of their lives in a six-degrees of separation world.

But when a series of random events and a DNA test collide, twenty years after Joan’s death, it causes such an upheaval that everyone’s memory or perception of Joan is irredeemably changed. From wise and loving mother to secretive liar, her legacy is all but destroyed—by keeping one dark secret to protect those she loved.

In this book, fellow Sibylline author Polly Dugan shows us the humanity of all the characters, and the tragedy of judging or being judged by the worst mistake of your life.

In my research on publishers that carry Christian or inspirational fiction, I have been hard pressed to find this level of good writing and high drama. But this book delivers on all levels. At just over 200 pages it is a quick read, endearing, sweet, inspiring, and yet it made me cry—tears of joy.

Chloe Randolph is a music therapist, happily living in her small hometown in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. She has three over-protective brothers and loving parents who are vacationing in Florida leaving her in charge of their house. She has a fulfilling job introducing music into the lives of emotionally and developmentally challenged children. The local octogenarian matchmakers have taken her on as an apprentice. The restoration of the Art Deco movie house as an arts center is her biggest challenge. Life is good, and she is a problem solver, so when they lose their main woodworker to a family emergency, she has to regroup.

Noah Brenden and his four-year old niece have been living at the local motel while he did the restoration work on the gazebo at the center of town. As Noah Knightley he was a hugely successful country singer who survived a horrific childhood with his twin as his only real family. Success brought him a life he was never proud of or fulfilled by. When his twin sister died giving birth, he turned his life around for Lili. Taking on the raising of his niece and escaping the paparazzi have taken him on a long and lonely journey. They move from town to town, living on the downlow. Now Lili is at an age where she seems hopelessly uncomfortable in social situations and needs the stability of a home and friends.

When Chloe storms into his life, he feels threatened. She recognizes him, remembering him from a music camp before fame took over. The town and the renovation project desperately need his woodworking skills, and she seems prepared to blackmail him to get him to stay. But then she immediately apologizes, and her genuine warmth and sincerity win him over. He chooses to stay, to renovate the center’s staircase, in time for the music festival that will fund Chloe’s music programs. But he’s determined to stay only that long and not risk getting involved with this girl who makes his blood race.

When Chloe offers him her father’s workshop, and the two-bedroom apartment above it as an incentive, he is prepared to refuse what would be too great a temptation. But Lili’s joy at possibly having her own room in a real home change his mind. He accepts, with every intention of keeping his distance from Chloe in the main house.

But the town of Truelove, the people, a blooming Lili, and Chloe win his heart—very much against his will. But perhaps as the fulfillment of God’s will in their lives.

It’s a beautiful, sweet, charming story, with real stakes and conflict. But it is told in a way that includes God, prayer, a church community, and deep family values. It builds to a highly dramatic climax and ends with a true happily-ever-after. You’ll love this!

If you do the math, the main character is in her early 20s but is head of a department at a major music industry magazine, which stretched credibility for me. She was apparently the last person to interview David Bowie before his death in 2016. Which means she did the interview when she was 14?

She is grief stricken over the loss of a sibling, which impacts every aspect of her life we are told. But that relationship is not truly developed.

She lives in Boston, but that city is not vividly depicted.

She falls for a seafood salesman, which could be interesting, but the arc of the relationship is not fully developed. There is no ‘cute meet’, she picks up with an ongoing flirtation at the market. At one point he sort of shuts her down, but later she learns he lost a parent. But other than not engaging with her, his emotional landscape is not fully developed.

She touches on politics and their influence in work situations, talking around MAGA and Trump, whom she refers to as ‘T’. She has to almost fire one of her coworkers, whom she sympathizes with, because he keeps trying to disprove the ‘liberal press’s’ attacks on T.

She talks to God, not just in prayer, but as you would talk to a ghost who appears regularly. This could be fascinating even riveting, but it is not. While her struggles of faith are clearly drawn, her guilt over becoming pregnant before she marries and goes on a mission trip is mentioned, but it doesn’t build to a satisfying conclusion.

MEET THE NEWMANS is about a television series of the same name. For twelve years the Newman family has been the subject of a situation comedy about the perfect American family. Del, a former crooner and heartthrob, is the patriarch both onscreen and off. He writes the episodes, directs, and produces. His wife Dinah, a former film starlet and singer has been happy to let Del take the lead. Although she does not personally know how to cook, American housewives hold her up as the iconic wife and helpmeet. Their two sons are an athlete and a singer. If this sounds a lot like a mix of The Ozzie & Harriet Show and I Love Lucy, then you would be correct.

Set in 1964, the world is changing. Kennedy has been assassinated, the Women’s Movement is ramping up because of “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan, the Civil Rights Movement is in full swing. While America still holds the Newmans close to its heart, young people see it as dated and out of touch. They tend to watch only to see the singing, younger son (think Ricky Nelson). One such, is 24-yr-old Juliet Dunne, a Lifestyle reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who would much rather be pursuing hard news. But the ‘boy’s club’ at the newspaper is never going to let that happen. Making matters worse, her long-time relationship with a rock and roller named only The Musician, briefly makes her national news, and forever makes her a newsroom joke. But Juliet is assigned to interview Dinah for a fluff piece that turns adversarial.

The network is questioning whether the show has outlived its place in the roster. With only two episodes left in the season, they lose one of their major sponsors. When Del has a car accident, the family and their agent try to hide his hospitalization and figure out a way forward, at least for the last two episodes. Dinah believes she can find a new sponsor, but she is ignored and dismissed by almost every company CEO, because she is not a man. It’s a wake-up call, that has her examining her life and relevance, and whether she has been complicit in keeping women in the kitchen.

Oldest son Guy steps up to direct. It’s been his ambition for some time, but his father has been dismissive. To make matters worse, he has been living in his brother’s shadow on and off screen. This is partly deliberate, because he is gay and in a long-term relationship with a man America (and his family) thinks is his playboy actor roommate. When the network offers the show a lifeline, it comes with a major ask—Guy must propose to and marry his onscreen girlfriend, both on the show and in life.

Younger son Shep chooses this moment to break out of his goody-two-shoes persona by posing shirtless for Life magazine and getting arrested. He’s acting out against the restrictions imposed on him as a performer, a son, a musician, and especially against the teen-heartthrob role that keeps him from declaring himself—to his brother’s onscreen girlfriend.

Dinah does a complete about face and turns to the young woman who shook her world before the accident. She employs Juliet to help her write the season finale, which will blow up everything America thinks it knows about them.

When things look like they cannot get any worse, all the balls they’re juggling come crashing down. But when the dust settles, it may not be a ‘happy ending’, but it is the best possible ending for all concerned.

If you lived through the 1960s, or if you are a fan of the old 60’s sitcoms that still run on streaming channels, this book will allow you to have your guilty pleasure, and still believe in change, all forms of equal rights, and true love.

Like most ‘good’ Catholic girls of her era, Meg has pursued the ideals of chastity (until she doesn’t) before marriage. She fully expects to marry, have children, and defer to her husband in all things. The trick seems to be finding a husband worth giving up her job as a teacher to special needs kids. She thought she found such a guy twice before. But when her fiancé breaks it off, shortly after she’s been laid off due to widespread teacher strikes, she despairs of ever finding real love.

She goes to work for the archdiocese, visiting the aged, bedridden, and sick. She probably cares too much for her clients, definitely has issues with the token respect given to women employees, and on top of that must problem-solve to avoid a younger priest with wandering hands. Generally, she respects and reveres the clergy for their sacrifice and position in the church and community.

One day while she is trying to lure her client’s cat out of a tree, she is assisted by a handsome, vigorous, and humorous man. They hit it off immediately, and she finds herself attracted to him emotionally and physically, in a way she has not previously experienced. So, it is quite a shock when she meets him later at the archdiocese and he is wearing his clerical collar.

Their friendship and mutual attraction grow over time. Both struggle. But when they finally give in to their passion, Meg believes that either he will leave the church, or better still, the church will change its edict about celibacy and finally let priests marry.

Don’t laugh. While both Meg and Father Andy are somewhat naive, there was a great deal of discussion about change within the church in the 1970s. It is only as a reader in present day that we recognize how pitifully pale their hopes are.

But this is not just an imitation of THE THORN BIRDS. The book delves into economic, socio-political, and civil rights issues, as Meg struggles with a hopeless love, and her personal sense of morality. She recognizes the deliberate blindness adopted by the church regarding the sexuality of priests, while condemning women for lesser offenses. She tries to make a life for herself without the requisite husband she assumed she would have. She struggles with whether to enter a nunnery or leave the church. Ultimately, she finds her voice and her purpose. Instead of a tragic love story, it is a coming-of-age book for Meg, the women’s movement, and the church. It is a book about changing perceptions of God, the role of women in society, and the treatment and status of the mentally handicapped. While not a happy ending, the book ends in its own type of triumph.

Finding Home in the Long Middle

This article is quirky and fun and filled with Ausubel’s distinctive self-deprecating humor. But it speaks to me. She talks about the old adage of “Kill your darlings!”. Her brilliant response is “Write the shit out of your darlings.” Make them so honest, and so uniquely you that they deserve to live. If they’re not right for this story, this novel, this article, then find another home for them. But be true to you and to what you have to say. I think we can all learn from that.