WeWriWa - A Heart on Hold - New Release 4/17/16

A HEART ON HOLD (AN EVERLASTING HEART #1)

Welcome to this week's edition of Weekend Writing Warriors! My debut novel just re-released and in honor of this, I would love to share with you a piece of A Heart on Hold.

Let's set the scene . . . Charlotte had said goodbye to her childhood love Lieutenant Sanderson Redding as he left to fight for the South in the War Between the States, but not before proposing to Charlotte. A rogue telegram came in from Sanderson, telling Charlotte of his impending return for sick leave. This excerpt begins as Charlotte's father, George, spots Sanderson at the edge of their yard and points him out to her.

***

Charlotte’s world moved in slow motion as she grasped her skirt in her hands and whirled about.

She gasped as she locked eyes with those, deep and hazel, of her love. He stood, reins in hand, like a statue of perfection. “Sanderson!”

In an instant, she was in his arms, grasping him around his thin waist. She turned her face up to take in every minute detail of the man she had promised to share her life with.

Sanderson’s face was gaunt and pale. Sweat stood out from his forehead in large beads and the dark circles under his tired eyes looked like shiners. 

“Even more beautiful than that day at the station,” Sanderson began as he cupped her chin in his calloused hand and smiled into the face of his beloved.

Before their lips could meet in a much-anticipated kiss, a coughing fit overcame him, leaving his lips bloody as he sputtered, wheezed, and fell to his knees. 

***

I hope you enjoyed this excerpt! You can get your copy on Amazon for $2.99 here!

Here is your portal back to the other amazing WeWriWarriors! 

I am pretty excited to be writing this post. For the first time in many, many years, a ToRnAdO made an appearance in my little corner of west Texas! My children and I were outside playing basketball and enjoying the beautiful weather when we needed a drink from Sonic. Dinner was in the oven and Sonic is just around the corner, so away we went. We were on the way back, with old fashioned cream soda drinks in tow, when hail began to pound us out of NoWhErE! Between the hail and the sudden onset of rain, conditions were nearly white-out. We pressed on, and noticed all of the other cars were pulling off to the side of the road and the hail was getting larger. Well, as some of you may know,one of my four children is my son with Asperger's Autism. 

From the backseat, I heard the niggles of an impending meltdown. So there was really only one thing to do . . .crank up some rock-n-roll and plow on through, cheering and loudly exclaiming how much fun you're having! Despite being in a complete white out and pummeled by flying boxes and branches and hail, IT WORKED. He was laughing by the time we arrived home, even though my heart was pounding out of my chest! All kids and animals are safe and dry inside, plus two baby white winged doves who were blown into the street and now call my bathroom their temporary home.

On another note, I learned tonight that The Saga of Indian Em'ly is in the running for the 2015 RONE award for best Novella! 

Reader votes are crucial in this first stage, so my publisher has lowered the price of Indian Em'ly to just .99 cents! 

Voting starts May 16th! 

If you would like an ARC, please let me know in the comments! 

WeWriWa - 4/10/16 A Heart on Hold (Release on 4/14/16)

Hello one and all! I am switching gears today from Missi Wanderin' in the Woods (where we just finished Chapter One) to A Heart on Hold, which will be released on April 14th! This is the first in a four book series that is very near and dear to my heart.

Thank you for all of your kind comments when I debuted the cover.

Now, A Heart on Hold is up for preorder! Yay! Click to get your copy pre-ordered for $2.99!

Follow this link to get back to the Weekend Writing Warriors bloghop!

“Don’t die till we get to have some fun, girl.” Samuel’s whiskey-ruined voice was hot in Charlotte’s ear. 

Somewhere behind her, his Yankee cohort's maniacal laughter pulsated with cruelty. 

The older defector's Bowie knife grew closer to her face, but with her arms lashed behind her, Charlotte could only watch in helpless terror as the promise of death drew nearer. When the icy blade met the skin of her neck, she knew her end had come. 

Sanderson, she prayed, her thoughts swirling like a tempest. Where are you? 

WeWriWa - March 27, 2016 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

On last week's installment of Weekend Writing Warriors, we were in the throes of the Emergency Room excitement in Vicenza, Italy when the life of an unborn baby hung in the balance. Welcome to this eight-sentence snippet. To get back to the other Weekend Writers, click here!  

A favorite Italian restaurant, Il Fauno's -- wonderful waitstaff, great food, and
an American toilet!! 

After a quick, burning shot to stop the contractions and a tub of progesterone capsules to insert nightly, we were released. These people who didn’t even speak my language had just saved the life of my unborn child. “What did the doctor say before he left,” I asked our nurse as she walked us to the front doors of the hospital.

The view from the villa where we lived

The view from the other side of the villa

Our Texan kitchen in Italy

Her lips tilted into a half-smile. “He said Americans and their modesty . . . do they not understand that there is no modesty in life and death?”

I locked eyes with my husband and blinked back unwelcome tears 

as I remembered my nurse's words. No modesty in life and death. I 

wish I had asked her if dignity followed the same rule.

Our chilly villa where I was on bed rest for four weeks following the ER incident. 

April 14th -- the rebirth date of my debut novel, A Heart on Hold. Cover reveal time!!! 

The Sonogram - March 20, 2016 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods - WeWriWa

Welcome back for this Weekend Writing Warriors edition of Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. 
Weekend Writing Warriors is where a wonderful group of authors, from prepublished to multipublished, share eight-to-ten sentences from one of their works. We welcome critique, observations, and any other comments from blog readers! Find them here!!
We left off in the Italian Emergency Room, where we just learned Sara's (well, my) baby was still alive -- unlike what the Army doctors said. Adrenaline still surging, let's see what happened next. 

Before the words were out of the nurse's mouth, the doctor had the internal probe inserted and located the source of the problem. He spouted off a slew of musical Italian words and, though I didn’t understand what he said, I understood the soft tones of relief that colored them.

“The placenta is detaching,” she relayed, her eyes still on the screen. A fast little heartbeat 

 pounded in perfect rhythm from the speakers. “See the blood clot there? Your body tries to fix it, to save precious bambino.” 

The doctor rattled off something else and patted my naked thigh before disappearing.

Charlie stammered from the other side of the table. “Did um -- well, our -- did we cause this?”

“No," the nurse smiled, "but no more having the sex, okay?”

Researching some pictures to go along with this excerpt, I was glad to find this article. 

That horrific "birthing center" on the American military base in Vicenza has shuttered its doors. This was the establishment that gave me the advice to "let the miscarriage happen naturally" and that it was "God's will". 

WeWriWa - 3/13/16 - The Italian Hospital

Hello one and all! It's been about six months since we visited the Italian Hospital in Vicenza, Italy. In the last six months, my family and I have moved from Texas to Oklahoma and back to Texas again. The gypsy blood keeps pumping! I was able to wean one of my sons off of his ADHD medication and another, my baby Bitty, was found (after many tests and hospital visits) to have a GLUTEN allergy! Never, ever a dull moment at my house. Let's see what happened in the wood-paneled Italian hospital room where the bleeding and cramping in a young, pregnant Army wife waited, terrified. I remember it like it was yesterday . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh dear God . . .  

The doctor barked something in Italian, completely ignoring any shred of modesty I’d retained and any sense of privacy I might have desired.

“He said get on the bed, now,” the nurse translated, grabbing my arm and helping me roughly onto the bed. I held my hand out for the sheet, but she snatched it away. “No time,” she said.

Someone had pulled a tiny sonogram machine into the room. The doctor squirted the cold jelly onto my still-flat belly and dug the probe into my flesh as the nurse manipulated my legs over the candy cane stirrups just as I’d feared. Before I could get embarrassed, a strong, thudding beat pounded out of the speakers apparently attached to this particular machine.

“The baby is alive,” the nurse relayed, relief evident in her strained English. “The doctor must use the internal probe now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you enjoyed this ten-sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. If you'd like to switch gears a bit, check out the rest of the weekend writers at the Weekend Writing Warriors blog. I have featured debut author Madeline McCandless and her contemporary western (spicy) romance, Silver Sky at Dawn (Silver Sky Ranch series #1) on my Everlasting Heart blog. Feel free to stop by and show her some love! 

WeWriWa - August 23, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back, sorry I'm running behind. Back to school has thrown my schedule askew. Popping back into the Italian hospital room . . . 

Several more people had wandered in and one even left the door propped with his foot.

I glanced at Charlie, nervous, feeling Italian eyes burning through my skin. This was more embarrassing than when I had to give a urine sample at the post clinic and, while trying to manage my four-year-old and two-year-old, wound up spilling the entire cup of pee in my pants. “Ask if I get a sheet,” I begged.

The nurse produced a piece of a sheet, wide as a wash cloth and long as about five of them. I wiggled out of my clothes as he tried to shield me with the sad excuse for a sheet. “I had no idea it would be like this.” Over the sheet, I watched as the nurse unfurled two giant metal stirrups from the end of the exam table; ones that resembled massive candy canes and, if I was looking at them right, my feet didn’t rest in them, but my legs went up and over them. A fleeting vision of King Henry VIII’s torture chamber popped into my mind. A deep cramp bent me over the table. 

Thanks for popping by. To get back to the other Weekend Writing Warriors, click here! 

The Final Installment of The Saga of Indian Em'ly: The Journey Home is HERE!

The fourth and final installment of the Indian Em'ly Saga is here . . . and just .99 cents! This is by far my favorite of the series, and I hope it will be yours too. Get yours here! 

BLURB

Twelve-year-old Knocks Down and his little sister, Cactus Flower, manage to escape the evil orphanage along with a new pale face friend, Kid McCoy. But once they escape, they are set upon by a gang of murdering claim jumpers who steal Cactus and leave Knocks Down for dead. 

Determined to find his little sister, Knocks Down gets to the nearest town where they’ve taken her, only to discover she has been sold as a slave! With Kid McCoy’s help, Knocks Down goes after her. Escaping once more, they encounter an old nemesis, a soldier from the nearby fort that was responsible for their mother’s death—and he’s set on seeing Knocks Down and Cactus Flower dead, as well. 

How can a boy defeat a battle-hardened soldier? Just when Knocks Down is about to give up, the biggest surprise of all changes everything on THE JOURNEY HOME…

EXCERPT

    The day passed quickly and in relative silence until Kid realized something. “Say Chief, where is it we’re headed, anyway?”
    I scanned the foreign horizon, an odd feeling suddenly gripping my backbone. “South,” I whispered, “back home, to the land of the Comanche.” Without thinking, I dropped to a crouch and let every sound fade away. Chirping birds, whistling wind, even the breath of Cactus and Kid. Every sound disappeared except the one that had pricked my ear and shot the rash of tingles in the first place. 
    “Something has happened nearby.” 
    Cactus slipped her hand into mine. “I hear it, too. Let’s go.”
    Kid scratched his head. “What’d I miss? I don’t hear nothin’.”

    By the time we arrived at what was left of the pale face camp, Kid heard it too. The dog’s whimpering had grown louder with each step, and more mournful. There hadn’t been but six people in camp, two of them children, and no survivors. The dog, a hulking black beast with pointed ears, low hips and a long tail, lay by the body of the girl. Whining, he licked her face and nuzzled her hands, as if trying to wake her from a deep sleep.

WeWriWa - 8/15/15 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods - The Italian ER

Welcome back to this week's ten-sentence snippet from MISSI WANDERIN' IN THE WOODS. Click here if you would like to be a part of my blog tour for my forthcoming Amish Western, Old Amarillo, September 4-11, courtesy of Loving the Book blog tours. I would be honored to be hosted by my WeWriWa friends! Find my launch party on the 3rd of September here!

Without further ado, let's see what's in store for Sara and Charlie and the baby they may have already lost . 

I bit back a sob. “I understand, but I’d really like a sonogram to be sure.”

“Go on about your business and if you’re still cramping Tuesday, come into the walk-in clinic. After all, you’re just ten weeks along.”

Too upset to talk anymore, I handed the phone off to Charlie, slunk to the bedroom, and buried my head in the pillow. The next morning after dropping the kids off at the on-post childcare facility, Charlie packed me into our pink and purple Volkswagen Beetle – Pink Floyd edition and took me to the Italian Emergency Room, or l’ospedale.

The nurse pulled us back first, before the patients sitting in the strap-backed wheelchairs and through the jungle of glass bottles that dangled from threatening IV poles that would have looked more at home in a 1960’s mental institution, and into a room no larger than a humble office with wood paneling and magazine pictures of wolves taped onto the wall. A small exam table sat off to the side, almost out of place amid the tangle of books and misbegotten papers. The doctor, who hadn’t looked up from his work since we walked in, mumbled something in Italian before turning around expectantly.

     “Strip now,” the nurse translated brusquely, “waist down.” 

Thank you for popping by. Follow this link to get back to the other contributors for the weekly Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop where authors in all phases of publication post eight to ten sentences of the work of their choice and add their link so that readers may enjoy their work. Comments from others are what make this something we all look forward to each week, so feel free to let those fingers fly and tell how you feel about this and all of our snippets! 

Would you like a free advance review copy of OLD AMARILLO (AMISH JOURNEYS #1)?

Would you like a FREE advance copy of Old Amarillo (Amish Journeys #1) in exchange for a review? Sign up here to be a part of my blog tour through Loving the Book book blog tours!

Sara Barnard's OLD AMARILLO Book Blog Tour for AMISH JOURNEYS #1

How about coming to hang out at the release party on September 3, for prizes and trivia and stuff? 

OLD AMARILLO Release Day Party!!

WeWriWa - August 8, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this week's snippet from Missi. Last week, our characters feared a miscarriage. Find out what happened next. 

“I’m afraid I’ve lost our baby.” The cramping was enough to double me over and the onslaught of impending hysteria wasn’t helping. Charlie put me to bed and called the clinic on post. As luck would have it, we were at the beginning of a four-day weekend.

"I’m sure it’s just a simple miscarriage,” the nurse explained, nonchalant. It sounded as though she were sucking on a lollipop. “God does these things, let it happen naturally.” Then, she waited, letting her end of the line grow silent.

Thank you for popping by. Follow this link to get back to the other contributors for the weekly Weekend Writing Warriors bloghop where authors in all phases of publication post eight to ten sentences of the work of their choice and add their link so that readers may enjoy their work. Comments from others are what make this something we all look forward to each week, so feel free to let those fingers fly and tell how you feel about this and all of our snippets! 

WeWriWa -August 2, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back! Last week, we got a peek into soldier Charlie's softer side when he insisted they go back to the Italian pound and adopt the twin brother of the little dog we'd just given a home. 

Thoughts of our puppies fizzled as I glanced from my ring to his haggard face and rested my hands on my belly again. Charlie seemed to read my thoughts. “I am so, so sorry Sara, I love all of you, Lil’ Grub, too.”

Emotion threatened to choke me as I remembered the night we almost lost our baby. I was ten weeks along and we’d just made love. I went to the restroom to get ready for bed and discovered I was bleeding. Big black clots trailed by bright red blood covered the bottom of the tiny European toilet. I called for Charlie through a veil of tears. 

Follow this link to get back to the rest of the amazing Weekend Writing Warriors.

WeWriWa - July 26, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods/ Sara and Charlie

Welcome back everyone! Last week we left Sara, scared and pregnant in the Volkswagen. Let's delve a bit deeper into her mind today.

My mind wandered back to our family, aside from our children. We had visited the Italian version of animal control, the canile, in hopes of adopting a family pet and left with one of two twin puppies of unknown lineage. We promptly named our new girl, who looked to be a mix between an Italian Greyhound and a border collie, Rosie Giulietta. Rosie for Caillou’s little sister and Giulietta for Juliet, the most famous Italian. 

After arriving home to our rented two story villa in Arcugnano, the little mountain town just outside of Vicenza at the base of the Dolomite Mountains, it was Charlie who insisted we go back for her brother, the little black and white puppy with the floppy black ears. “I can’t stand the thought of him being in there and missing his sister, and they’re so young . . . plus, we are able to give them both a home, and it would make them happy. Let’s go back and get him tomorrow.” That is how Rosie’s brother, Romeo, came to live with us.

Thank you for stopping by! To get back to the amazing WeWriWa bloghop contributors here!

Follow Sara's trail of trouble over at her website: www.sarabarnardbooks.com 

Come check out the Prairie Rose Publications Christmas in July and Fandango! Join the event here! All books 26 books are only .99  or if a duet, 1.99. Look for The Bank Robber's Lament, by me! <3 

WeWriWa - July 18, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods - What's Next for Charlie and Sara?

Welcome back to the Weekend Writing Warriors bloghop and this week's eight to ten sentence snippet from a published, pre-published, or work-in-progress (or WIP). We are making our way through the first chapter of my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. 

Last week, Charlie confessed that he'd been tossed out of the Army shrink's office for being honest and telling the psychiatrist exactly what he was thinking . . . scroll down and check out the last couple of entries for that little gem . . . and what earned him an MP escort out of that office, along with an invitation NOT to return.  Let's see what happens next. 


He chuckled again as my grim expression transformed to a half-smile. Without meaning to, I let go a little laugh, followed by a bigger one. Before either one of us could make sense of the sudden onslaught of jocularity, it was there, just as real as either of us and filling the car with much needed comic relief. Tears streamed down our faces as we gasped for breath before becoming tickled all over again at our cacophony of funny whoopings and whistlings and snorts.

As our laughing jag faded away, Charlie started our car – a pink and purple Volkswagen Golf, Pink Floyd Edition – as the stark reality of our situation settled over me like a cloud of buzzards over a rotting carcass. Here I was in Italy, pregnant, so far from home, and with my two precious babies to protect. I had a husband, fresh from combat and already exhibiting irrational, self-medicating behavior, who had just managed to get himself blacklisted from the only psychiatrist within reasonable driving distance. Just. By. Being. Honest. 

Thank you for stopping by for this week's snippet of military madness. To get back to the other WeWriWa bloghop participants, follow this link. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop over to my Amish blog, Sara's Amish Dreams, for a cover reveal! 

Western Romance Box Set

Good morning one and all! I hope this finds each one of you well and good this morning.

I have wonderful news. If you're looking for an affordable box set of five western romance novels, I hope you'll check out A COWBOY'S HEART.  Just .99 cents!

Right now, it is climbing in Amazon's top 100 bestselling Western Romance books! 

Here's a bit about each book featured in this box set . . .

In Cheryl Pierson’s time travel story, TIME PLAINS DRIFTER, Romantic Times reviewer Donna M. Brown says, “4.5 stars…Cheryl Pierson's fresh, well-crafted novel pits some unlikely heroes against evil incarnate. The characters are vibrant and tell a story of courage in difficult circumstances.”



THE CALLING is an inspirational tale by Sara Barnard about a young man who turns away from God and the woman he loves to follow the outlaw trail. But love holds true and Esau can’t forget the past as God pushes him to face his sins and make things right again in a most unusual way!



In CLAIMING HIS HEART by Tanya Hanson, a handsome stranger who arrives in a peaceful California valley bearing a mysterious letter leaves Charmlee no choice but marriage to him. But Charmlee and Tulsa each have plans of their own. Is there a bigger dream for the future ahead that they can’t see?



ALL FOR LOVE by Beverly Wells tells a gut-wrenching tale of social injustice in Wyoming of the 1880’s. Lorelei Webster, schoolmarm, tries to right the wrongs of the small town she’s a part of, and hopes for the help of the town doctor, Seth Taylor. Will her determination spark more than friendship between them as they work together?



Is Leroy Vance a SAINT OR SINNER? Gil McDonald pens a riveting tale of a hard hearted bounty hunter, hot on the heels of a gang of outlaws. Injured and on foot, Vance faces almost certain death. But when he realizes that there is a young woman and her brother who desperately need his help, he risks everything for them. Will this bounty hunter and sinner finally find true love with the wife of another man? Or will any of them get out alive?

WeWriWa - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods - July 12, 2015

Last week, we finally found out what Charlie did to get thrown out of the Army shrink's office with an MP escort. He told the truth. Many of you commented and stated that you weren't sure how you would have reacted to news that your husband told the shrink he was dreaming of throwing her out the window . . . let's see what happens next. 

Cupping my hands around my mouth and nose, I closed my eyes. I didn’t have time to draw a breath before he continued.

“Her eyes got real wide. Real, like, deathly wide. Then she went all white and picked up the phone.” Charlie gave a little laugh, breaking the solemnity that had filled the car. “Then the MP’s came. Thought they were gonna arrest me, and I said for what, telling the truth?”

To get back and sample more from other delectable Weekend Writing Warriors, click here. 

My debut novel, A Heart on Hold, is on sale for just .99 this week! Get yours here! See where we are falling in love with Charlotte and Sanderson eight sentences at a time on my Everlasting Heart blog here. 

Keep up to date with my upcoming releases at my website. 

Missi Wanderin' in the Woods - WeWriWa - July 5, 2015 - What Got Charlie Kicked Out of the Shrink's Office with an MP Escort?!?!?

Thanks for stopping by this week. In the time since we've met last, we have had quite a few adventures: an interstate move, a mess of new baby animals added to the pack, and a family vacation to my cancer doctor down at MD Anderson. Scroll down for those posts, if you'd like to read about those adventures :-) 

Now, to get caught up to speed on MISSI WANDERIN' IN THE WOODS, my forthcoming memoir where one woman must rely on her eclectic wilderness background to face a host of frontcountry problems, from a PTSD-infected marriage to an extreme cancer diagnosis. 

In our last eight-to-ten sentence snippet, our fresh-from-Afghanistan Charlie had just gotten himself escorted from the Army psychiatrist's office by the MP's . . . but his pregnant wife has yet to find out why.  

Charlie quit his cyclic observation of our surroundings and stilled in his seat. “I answered her  truthfully and said that yes, yes I do think of killing, dream of killing . . . often.”

Chills chased each other up and down my spine, dancing a terrifying dance that brought beads of sweat to my face.

“That’s not all.” Charlie’s voice was uncharacteristically soft, “then she said I got a funny look on my face and she got real sarcastic and said ‘Well what are you thinking about right now?’”

I swiped at the pearls of sweat that had begun their epic descent. Already, I dreaded hearing what would come next. 

“So again, I told the truth . . . I told her I was thinking about what sound her body would make when I threw her out that second story window and she hit the concrete sidewalk below.”

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday! To get back to the other wonderful Weekend Writing Warrior contributors, follow this link here. 

If you would like to keep up to speed on my current releases and forthcoming events, feel free to check out my website or on Twitter @TheSaraBarnard  

New Babies, MD Anderson, and a Beached Shark

Well, I failed again on my eight sentences for Sunday. Part of the reason is I was too dog-tired to even open my computer while the other part is I got off track on my days and forgot it was Sunday! My scheduler for posts has never worked on here, thus rendering me gone another week. However, I have interesting stories to share with you as a result as my most recent MD Anderson visit.

As many of you know, I have to be seen at MD Anderson in Houston every three months as the result of a cancer diagnosis that shook my world just under a year ago -- it shook my world alright, and saved my life. Sound strange? It does to me, too, which is why I had to write about it, just to make it make sense. That book is almost done :-)

Well, check out some of our adventures while there . . .

We braved the beaches at the end of a jetty in Galveston . . .  this picture was taken just before my daughter's foot was stung by a jellyfish (we still don't know what kind) and we had our first encounter with a fin in the water . . .

This baby Bonnethead shark flopped up on the beach right behind the kids and me, at my husband and son's feet. I immediately snatched him up for a photo op. He was so sweet and precious!! I wondered how anyone could ever be scared of them. Then again, he was just a baby. I put him back in the water, he swam back to my feet . . . several times. The surf was so rough. Finally, I think he made it back out to the sea. I watched and watched for that sweet little fin.

Before my appointment, we made our pilgrimage to the Rain Forest Cafe. Not for the food, but for the river ride in the back! We had just come out of the ocean and were soaking wet and shivering in this picture!

After my appointment, and a good report (of only some changes, but none cancerous . . . back in three months) we lit out for Dallas where these beautiful kids were waiting for us! We named them Banana and Carrot. 

And that brings us to an end :-) Hopefully -- now that I have reliable internet, the appointment out of the way, and a desk to work from, I will see you here Sunday for eight sentences :-)

Hello from our new Home-uh!

I have missed the last three weeks of eight-sentence posts and I would like to answer a few of the questions I received via email, right here on my blog! 

A sweeping storm coming in from the north

First of all, thank you so much for getting in touch and making me feel missed and loved. <3 We were in the process of moving from our home in the deep recesses of west Texas back to our favorite part of friendly, green, and historic Oklahoma. Thus the reason for my cheeky title -- Oklahoma, our new home-uh . . . get it? :-) 

Secondly, we have been here about three weeks and we just were hooked up to internet today. How we managed working just off our phones is a minor miracle, but we survived! It is good to be back online. 

Here are a few of the things that have changed in the three weeks since I saw you last . . . 

We gained some pets, 17 exactly. All Easter Egger hens, arrived to us two days old. Each one has a name, courtesy of my daughter, who will be raising them. I may hold a contest later to see who can guess them with some creative hints. Right now, they live in a brooder box that Dear Hubby built just for them (we call it Chicken Palace) between the laundry room and the hallway. (The garage was too hot!)

Soon, these two cuties will be joining us, too!

 


 Banana to the left and Carrot to the right. They'll be here in early July to join the brood!


Lastly, eight sentence snippets start again Sunday :-) 

Thank you again for all of your support!!

WeWriWa - May 31, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this week's snippet from my forthcoming memoir, MISSI WANDERIN' IN THE WOODS, where one woman must rely on her back country experiences to get her through some of life's toughest trials -- from a PTSD-infected marriage marriage to an extreme cancer diagnosis.  

I gulped and adjusted my growing weight in the seat. “And . . . what did, um, you say?”

Driver side mirror, rear view mirror, passenger side mirror, over the shoulder, out the window. Driver side mirror, rear view mirror, passenger side mirror, over the shoulder, out the window. “The truth, like you told me to.”

Sucking in the side of my cheek, I waited for him to continue. 
He didn’t.

“What is the truth?” I caught a squeak at the end of my word. 

Check out the other eight sentence offerings from wonderful weekend writing warriors here. 
If you are a fan of Amish fiction, enjoy my latest excerpt from my forthcoming Amish fiction novel, OLD AMARILLO here.
If historical romance is more your genre, you might like my debut novel - eight sentences at a time - A HEART ON HOLD here. 

WeWriWa - May 24, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this eight-sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. I hope you're enjoying the ride so far! Without further ado, come back to the car with me where pregnant Sara is questioning her fresh-from-combat-husband's sanity after he has just been forced to spend three hours talking to a woman shrink, who happened to be Muslim, after a PTSD-induced freakout. 

Whatever had clouded Charlie's eyes passed almost as quickly as it had come, and he began to speak as I exhaled a shaky breath and weaved my fingers protectively about my pregnant belly. “The Muslim headshrinker, she asked me the same question a million ways and none if it was about what happened between us . . . she didn’t even let me talk about that.” Finally, his darting gaze fell on me and stayed there a moment before flitting off again to check the driver side mirror, rear view mirror, passenger side mirror, over the shoulder, out the window. Driver side mirror, rear view mirror, passenger side mirror, over the shoulder, out the window. “She just kept asking if I wanted to hurt myself or someone else. Kill myself or someone else. If I thought about combat, dreamed about combat.” A sudden tell-tale glaze of perspiration gave his face an otherworldly glow.

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