Summer Fun on the Farm

I'm the kid with the funny smile.

      When summer comes around, I alway think about the way it used to be when I was young. Once a year, my father had a two-week vacation. My brother, my sisters, Mom and I piled into the car and went out to see my grandma and grandpa in western Pennsylvania. Many of my mother's siblings lived near my grandparents, so I saw my aunts, uncles, and many of my cousins as well. I was blessed with a passel of cousins since my mother had five brothers and one sister. But there are only a few cousins in the photo above.

      My grandparents’ farm was about ten acres on one side of the hill. There was a barn for the cow and there was plenty of hay. My grandmother canned vegetables from her garden but she had a huge freezer in the basement, too. An old coal furnace and a coal bin occupied part of the basement as well as an old wringer washing machine. There wasn't any air conditioning. Nobody had air conditioning in those days--including us, the city slickers from New Jersey. We didn’t live in the city but my grandfather called us city slickers anyway. 

      It always seemed as if life on the farm was slower. My relatives chatted for hours and I listened attentively. In fact, every one of those visits out to Pennsylvania was mostly spent catching up on all that had happened since the last time we saw everyone. My grandmother regularly wrote letters to us and my mother wrote to her, but phone calls were very limited due to the cost of a long distance call in those days. Phone calls were usually reserved for emergencies. 

      I didn't have the usual chores I had at home, which was a nice break. I picked daisies for my grandmother and she put them in a jar along with all the other daisies or dandelions she received from her other grandchildren. We picked blackberries. Sometimes, we went into town where we wandered through the 5 & 10 cent store. Sometimes we went to what had been the old company store for the coalminers when my mother was a youngster. My mother worked in that store for a while as a teenager. We didn't go to any historical sites in that area although there was a granite monument in town with the names of all the residents who served in World War II. My mother's name was there along with her brothers' names. 😊 

      I enjoyed being part of a large family, even though we only saw each other once a year. I miss listening to all those stories. My relatives told some wonderful tales. We didn't need any other entertainment. 

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Excerpt from OUTSIDE BLESSINGS and SALE!

I took the photo of the man on the jetty on the day before Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey. As you can see, the ocean was already quite stirred up at that point. I have no idea who the man was walking out on the jetty but I thought he was living dangerously. However, the image stayed in my mind and became a scene in OUTSIDE BLESSINGS. 

That's the way my mind works. I save up images and when I need a specific scene, I simply have to draw from my memory. I find it helps to create a vivid description when I know exactly how it looked in real life.  That's why I take so many photographs. I want to imbed them in my memory because I just might need the image in a book somewhere. 

There will be a sale on the ebook edition of OUTSIDE BLESSINGS at all the usual ebook distributors sites from Saturday, June 21st until Friday, July 4th. The book will only cost $0.99. 

So, save up your pennies and buy OUTSIDE BLESSINGS while it's on sale. 

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THE COMPANY YOU KEEP Audiobook

The ebook edition of THE COMPANY YOU KEEP is still available for only $0.99. If you enjoy a book set in the wintertime, a marriage of convenience, a meddling ghost, and evil paranormal circumstances you should enjoy this story. One reviewer said, "The story is full of twists and turns and keeps the reader turning pages to the end." Another Kindle customer said, "The writing is fresh and original, an excellent read." One more said, "A fantastic story, with an even more imaginative ending."

Now the book is also available as an audiobook with virtual voice at: https://www.amazon.com/Company-You-Keep-Penelope-Marzec-ebook/dp/B00WQ77NSW/  It's a real bargain at $3.99. But you can also buy the ebook and get the audiobook for only $1.99. 

Watch the video to see more of what the story is about. 

When Fiction Comes to Life

Books are magic. They have the ability to inspire and inform. But sometimes fiction takes on a whole new dimension when a writer’s imagination produces scientific breakthroughs. This has happened when science fiction writers let their imagination run wild. 

I am not a science fiction fan, for the most part. I have read some sci-fi books because I was told to do so or I became intrigued with others’ recommendations. 

When my daughters were teenagers, they often quoted lines from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. They thought it was a wonderful book. So, I read it. It contained a lot of humor and I enjoyed it but it wasn’t romance, my preferred genre.

My sister told me to read The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, so I did. The profound truth in it about humans’ tendency to destroy was all too real. It didn’t have a happy ending.

Romance books have not only a happy ending but lots of emotion. To me, they are very satisfying reads. Nevertheless, the imaginations of science fiction writers are notable because the magical inventions they dreamed up in their stories led to a host of technological inventions. There are several online lists of the books and authors responsible for the original ideas.

You can see one list here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_existing_technologies_predicted_in_science_fiction

Many ideas came from one television series, StarTrek. I was a devoted fan of the original TV show. I had a crush of Captain Kirk. Using a cell phone makes me feel like one of the characters in that series. You can see a list of other gadgets that resemble those on StarTrek here: https://www.sideshow.com/blog/trek-tech-10-star-trek-gadgets-that-have-beamed-into-reality/

Evidently, there are a few books considered romances that have some new technologies in them, but I’m not really interested in science fiction romances. Though I wouldn’t mind haven’t a robot clean my house.  

I believe it is amazing enough that two people can find inspiration in each other and commit to a lifetime together. That is not an easy task judging from the many divorces that occur. So, while the sci-fi writers can imagine a world full of amazing gadgets, I’d like to stick to a world of love and peace. 

Is that too much to ask?

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OUTSIDE BLESSINGS Reissued!

Harbor Seals at Sandy Hook, NJ

     In February, during the JeRoWriMo challenge, I edited and revised OUTSIDE BLESSINGS, a Young Adult Paranormal Romance. The book was originally published by New Concepts Publishing but the rights were returned to me. 
     The book centers around the Irish and Scottish legend of the selkies, who are seals with the ability to shift into human form. The legend claims that some of the fallen angels fell on land and became fairies, but those who fell into the sea became selkies.
     I believe selkies could live in New Jersey, too. After all, harbor seals spend their winters here every year. 

Here’s the blurb:

    In the winter of 1896, Neema, 16, works as a seamstress. She is a halfling. Her mother was a selkie. Her sister Lila fell in love with a human but was jilted on her wedding day. When Lila is found dead in the rocks of the town's jetty, officials assume her death to be a suicide. Lila is buried outside the town limits since suicides are not allowed in the hallowed ground of the cemetery. The would-be groom is missing.

     Neema does not believe her sister would commit suicide. She crawls on the rock jetty searching for clues to prove someone harmed her sister. There she meets Emmett, 17, a new surfman in the lifesaving service. He is drawn to Neema, but she's odd. Yet, when they kiss, their feelings for each other intensify.
     The lifesaving dog finds a sealskin along the edge of the shore and fights with a seal for the skin. Emmett kills the seal.
     Neema learns of selkies seeking revenge upon Emmett. How can she warn him of the danger?
Neema discovers a hidden room in the cottage of her employers. Are they harboring a criminal unknowingly?
     When a nor'easter hits, Neema knows it presents an opportunity for the selkies to enact their retribution against Emmett. As a ship founders offshore, Emmett must go out with the other surfmen to save those on board the ship. Neema shifts into a seal and saves him, but can she save herself from the selkies' revenge?

    

The old Lifesaving Building at Sandy Hook, NJ

Inspiration for my books usually comes from more than one source. For Outside Blessings, in addition to seeing the harbor seals lolling about on their sandbar, I also visited the Centennial Cottage in Ocean Grove, NJ. There I learned seamstresses were often hired in the summertime to sew trousseaus for the brides in a family. After hearing that, my heroine became a seamstress for a wealthy family. 

     The hero is a member of the US Lifesaving Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard. Before Superstorm Sandy, I visited the old Lifesaving Station on Sandy Hook many times and listened to historians explain how the surfmen used specific apparatus to save the people on the ships caught in the shoals during storms.

The first edition of the book received wonderful reviews. One of them is on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29333194-outside-blessings#other_reviews

At PRG Book Reviews, Linda Tonis said, "There were surprises and secrets revealed and the two main characters were wonderful."

Raven Hill Reviews said, "I gave this book 5 stars and would recommend it to anyone who likes Historical Paranormal Romance, especially stories of Halflings and Selkies. Outside Blessings is a must read for those long winter days!"

The book is currently available for pre-order at several distributors:

Kobo

Barnes&Noble

Smashwords

Apple

Vivlio

Fable

And more distributors will be added soon! It will be officially released on June 7th!

I hope you'll take a look at it. 

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Once Upon an Earthworm

 

Yesterday it rained quite a bit. We went on a jaunt to Bo’s Attic, which is a delightful secondhand shop. Hubby bought his favorite Pilsner beer glasses, the old-fashioned kind which evidently nobody makes anymore. When we returned home, hubby saw an earthworm drowning in the rain on the driveway. He wanted to save the poor creature, but he used a thin stick to attempt to pick it up. The worm writhed in several desperate moves to get away from the stick. I told hubby he should use his fingers. He said the worm would bite him. I told him worms don’t bite. I picked up the worm and placed it in the dirt under the pine tree. 

Afterward, I reminded him that he has picked up a few snakes in the past and one did bite him. Fortunately, it wasn’t a venomous snake, so he was lucky. Well, he said the worm was germy. 😆

I told him how I used to bring earthworms into my classroom for a science lessons. I had the kiddies figure out which part of the worm was the head. We checked the worms’ reaction to light and to cold. It was a great lesson, but I dropped the lesson after a while because some parents freaked out seeing their children touch worms. 

Today hubby found another earthworm on the driveway. He picked it up with his fingers and put it under the pine tree. Then he went inside the house and washed his hands. 😁

Some worms were saved by us. While it is possible they could become a meal for a robin, if they live they could help the soil in our yard. Worms are important creatures. 🪱 And they don’t bite.

Our First Date, Fifty Years Ago

 

Hubby surprised me when he showed me this old 3 x 5 card he had saved from a long time ago. I hadn’t seen it until now. Hubby reminded me that it will soon be the anniversary of our first date, which occurred fifty years ago in May. In August, we will be married forty-nine years. But we dated for a while first. 

I noticed hubby for the first time at a party given by Fred, one of the members of our singles group. For those of you who are young, the way we met other single people before the Internet was through a singles club. We actually met others in person, face-to-face.

Fred was a wonderful guy who gave a lavish party once a year. I went to that party with another man who later turned out to be Mr. Wrong. At the party, my friend Emily spotted hubby. Hubby was hard to miss because he was dressed in a leisure suit, which was the height of fashion for men at the time. Emily asked him for his phone number. 

Then Emily decided to host a small dinner party at her apartment and invited hubby to it. She also invited me. I had already broken up with Mr. Wrong but she asked another friendly guy we both knew to the dinner. She thought he would be a good match for me. He wasn’t but he was pleasant and eventually married another friend of ours.

That dinner was on May 10th. After the dinner, I walked out to my car and hubby escorted me through the parking lot. He asked me for my phone number and I gave it to him, writing it on the small 3 x 5 card you can see above. (By the way, that is not my phone number now.) A few days later, he called me. I agreed to a date on May 17th. He picked me up and we went to the Red Bank marina where he had his 16 foot motorboat. It went slowly up the river, which was fine with me. It was a leisurely romantic cruise but I didn’t know the engine wasn’t working properly. Afterwards, he took me to Danny’s for pizza. He held my hand as we walked. He didn’t let it go. I think that was a clue that he liked me a lot. 😊

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