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!!! 

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 - 5/17/15 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back, y'all! Here we go . . .

“What did . . . mean,” I huffed, struggling to keep up, “when you said . . . honest like I told you to be?”

Luckily, we were coming up on the car and his stride slowed considerably. Without missing a beat he went to my side first and opened the door, as usual, and waited until I was situated before shutting it and getting in himself. His hands were trembling and his eyes darted from side to side, as though he was just waiting for someone to appear at the window. Something in his eyes gave me the impression he wanted something to appear, just so he could deal with it. Icy fingers of fear gripped my spine, leaving me with a sense of utter, terrifying helplessness in the passenger seat. What if he flipped and felt he had to deal with me?

Whatever had clouded his eyes passed almost as quickly as it had come, and he began to speak. “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.” 

Thanks for stopping by and riding the storm out with me as we make our way through the first chapter of my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods! Leave me a comment and tell me your thoughts, if you like :-) 

To get back to the other awesome WeWriWa authors, go here!  

WeWriWa - May 3, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this week's eight sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir from Missi Wanderin' in the Woods! Let's see how Charlie, the soldier who had just sought help for PTSD symptoms only to be escorted out of Mental Health by Military Police and told not to come back. 

“Just so long as we’re clear,” the smaller officer snorted as they turned to go.

            Charlie stiffened. “Excuse me?” Both MPs froze, their backs to us, as my husband with the dreamy dimples continued, his already loud voice now a bellow. “You two may be Military Police, but I am still your senior NCO, so turn around and stand at attention for God’s sake!”

Wind gone from their sails, the Private First Class and Corporal slowly turned. “I appreciate your doing your job, but you will conform to military standards when addressing your senior NCO. Is that clear?”

Get back to other Weekend Writing Warrior participants here! 

Welcome author Pete Abela!

Please join me in welcoming author Pete Abela to the blog today! 

Hi Pete! I have read your book WINGS and to be quite honest, I was blown away. From historical accuracy to the passion in your words about your subject . . . this book simply has it all. Can you tell us a little bit about WINGS?

WINGS tells the story of Walt and his grandson Scott, who both have a fierce longing to fly albeit in vastly different circumstances. Walt - who grew up in the depression - found out first hand that becoming a pilot takes sacrifice and tenacity. When World War II broke out, he pestered the RAF (Royal Air Force) for eighteen months before they finally accepted him. Scott spent his childhood listening to tales of his Grandfather's aerial exploits and developed an intense craving to be a pilot. However, the number of people wanting to be a pilot vastly outweighs the limited opportunities on offer.

How interesting! What drew me in was the way you were able to combine Walt's yellowed, reminiscent memories with Scott's modern day exploits. Who is this story more aimed toward?

WINGS weaves together two tales: one set in war-torn northern England, and the other set in the modern-day Illawarra region of New South Wales. As Scott progresses, his grandfather declines – Walt loses his wife, his sight and his hearing – but throughout these difficulties is still there to offer support and encouragement. With insights into the modern aviation scene and life in the Royal Air Force of World War II, this is a must for anyone who has an interest in history, aviation or simply an old fashioned love story.

It really felt as though you had personal connections to your characters, thus lending the feeling of familiarity to your readers. Are Scott and Walt based on real people? 

Although Wings is a novel, I did draw inspiration from two men I greatly admire. The first is my grandfather who was a fighter pilot during World War II; the other is my younger brother who is a commercial pilot with a major Australian airline.

I consider them both to have lived through fascinating, unusual and difficult circumstances and I thought I could draw on and extend some of their experiences as the basis for this novel. One of the scenes I really enjoyed writing is the story of Walt’s wedding. He was given a 48 hour leave pass to get married, although more than a quarter of the time would be spent travelling. Heavy snow held up the train and it began to look as if he would not make it home. Given Walt was about to be posted overseas for twelve months, these few hours with his sweetheart were very important. I enjoyed this because of the contrast between the situation faced by Walt and the relative luxury and freedom we enjoy today.

Thank you so much for being here today! I hope you'll be willing to come back and share with us two more of your vastly different works -- A PAINTED ROOM and LESSONS FROM A TWO YEAR OLD! How can readers find out more about you and find your works? 

Author Name: Pete Abela

Website: http://peteabela.blogspot.com.au

Twitter: @PeteAbela

Facebook: facebook.com/PeteAbela

WeWriWa - April 19, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this week's eight sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. Without further ado, let's jump right back into the mix and see what is going on in the Army clinic that drew the MPs on the run . . . and see why in the world I followed them inside. 

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

The MPs stepped to the side, like something out of a movie, revealing my husband standing between them.

“Is this your wife?” one of the burly officers barked.

Charlie nodded and stepped beside me, but the Military Police officers just stared at us - unmoving. “Are we leaving?” I asked, feeling as though I’d walked into a group where the punchline of a joke had just been delivered.

Charlie just put one hand on the small of my back and began guiding me toward the door with the MPs following us closely.

I kept my voice at a whisper, acutely aware that all eyes in the clinic were fixed on us. “Charlie, what is going on?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To get back to the other amazing WeWriWa participants, click here! 

To see my other blogs for this week, click here for my snippet from A Heart on Hold, my debut novel, and click here for a snippet from my forthcoming Amish novel, Old Amarillo. 

Spring Break, Cancer Stuff, and A Book Sale

Thanks for stopping by at this, the tail end of Spring Break (or beginning of Spring Break, depending on where you are). Around here, we kept it interesting as a family of six (and sometimes seven) usually do.

I started off the break a few days early, getting a sub for my 6th grade classroom the Wednesday prior so I could have a couple of procedures done in the O.R. Pretty heavy stuff, but now I'll be the better for it and there was no indication that any cancer had crept anywhere else in my bod. Yay! However, I did have an issue waking up from anesthesia . . . suppose I just needed a bit of extra sleep :-) 

The Saturday after surgery, the family packed me into the car and we sojourned across the Lone Star State to my every-three-month checkup in Houston at MD Anderson. We tried to make it a mini-vacation, with stops in San Antonio and Galveston (despite the rain and fog) to dip our toes in the ocean. We found lots of dead jellyfish and some awesome seashells to bring home. 

At the appointment, it was determined all is well and I'm not due back for another three months -- double yay! No more surgery slated in my future (thankfully) and my oncologist maintains that everything cancerous was most likely removed in the first surgery (way back a year ago!) and the spots he was concerned with are posing no immediate threat. Works for me! 

On a lighter note, I just learned that my Amish romance novel, Rebekah's Quilt, is on sale this month for just .99 cents! I hope you'll pick up your copy today!

Come back Sunday and check out a sneak peak from my newest work, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods!