Memorial Day is a great day for picnics, parades and to have family get-togethers, but the real reason for the holiday is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. It’s a day to remember the men and women throughout history that have had the courage to face circumstances most of us cannot imagine or endure.

Here are a few quotes about courage:

Courage is simply the willingness to be afraid and act anyway.
~Robert Anthony

Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.
~General Omar Bradley

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
~Maya Angelou

Hope everyone has an awesome and safe Memorial Day Weekend! We aren’t traveling but are celebrating by grilling and having a picnic by our pool. Hope the weather is warm enough to go swimming and no rain, please.

Author P.I. Barrington will be visiting here on Wednesday, June 2nd.

I saw this clever video on Jennifer Shirk’s blog and it is hilarious. I love the part where the author, Parnell Hall is sitting next to the famous mystery writer, Mary Higgins Clark. Enjoy!

Have you read Amish inspirationals?

I finished reading two by Amy Clipston - both are wonderful reads. I downloaded the A Gift of Grace on my Kindle. It’s the first book in a series called the Kauffman Amish Bakery Series. It was a free read and I enjoyed it so much that I got Clipston’s second book, A Promise of Hope, from our library. If you haven’t read Amish romances, I suggest you start with Clipston’s books. You’re in for a treat.

Blurb for A Gift of Grace:

Rebecca always dreamed of being a mother, and now she was—of two teenage girls. Somehow, it just wasn’t the scenario she had planned for…

Rebecca Kauffman longs to fulfill her quiet Old Order Amish life by giving her husband Daniel a child, but for years she has been unable to conceive. When her older sister, Grace, who left the Amish community for the modern world, dies in an automobile accident, Rebecca is left custody of her two teenage nieces, Jessica and Lindsay. Now Rebecca wonders how she is going to take on this daunting task of being an Amish woman raising two English teenagers.

Rebecca struggles to give the girls the guidance they need as she tries to fulfill her duties as an Amish wife. The strain between Rebecca and Daniel mounts as the girls search for their identity in this new home. Caught between her husband’s disapproval and her nieces’ unhappiness, Rebecca begins to question her place in the Amish community, her marriage, and her faith in God. Will she be able to reconcile differences in her home—or will the clash of cultures tear her world apart?

About A Promise of Hope:

In A Promise of Hope, the second book in the Kauffman Amish Bakery series by Amy Clipston, an Amish widow with newborn twins discovers her deceased husband had disturbing secrets. As she tries to come to grips with the past, she considers a loveless marriage to ensure stability for her young family … with her faith in God hanging in the balance.

Thank you to everyone who commented on the Creative Writer Blogger Award Contest! I’ll have another contest soon!

Amanda drew the winner for me. She drew Rebecca’s name. Congratulations, Rebecca! Rebecca gets to choose a Samhain eBook or Desert Breeze Publishing eBook or a $5 GC to Amazon.com or BN.com.

Congratulations also to Anna Lisa! I’m going to also give a $5 GC or Samhain or DBP eBook to Anna Lisa because she’s the only one to guess the big LIE.

Number 3 was the lie. I did try out for the play, As You Like It, at Ohio State University, but I didn’t get a part. When I attended the production, I saw why I didn’t. The actors were awesome.

Number 1 - True - I was a carhop at B & K root beer stand in Findlay for 3 seasons. I used the money from carhopping to pay for my contact lenses (yes we had hard contact lenses back in the late 60s), braces and other things.

Number 2 - True - I worked for a couple of months in a small bar/restaurant on the weekends when I wasn’t able to work enough hours at my campus job with class conflicts in the spring before graduating.

Number 4 - True. My parents gave me a dummy one Christmas when I became interested in ventriloquism from Vonda Kay Van Dyke’s talent as Miss America for 1965. I checked out library books and taught myself how to throw my voice. It really isn’t as hard as it sounds.

Number 5 - True. I wanted to ride the Greyhound bus to Findlay, but my friend Rosemary talked me into hitchhiking. My parents picked us up at the bus station and never knew we got a ride with strangers. It was a stupid thing to do. Rosemary went on to become a CIA agent.

Number 6 & 7 - Both True - Not much fun going to the hospital in D.C. while on a class trip. I’m still a klutz! I originally wanted to go to Bowling Green.

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My next scoring project starts in June for Washington Reading. I’m thankful to be assigned to this project because they only need 500 readers for it and there are 1000 in the scoring pool. They needed twice the number for the Pennsylvania one we just finished. I’m going to try and write a lot before attending Lori Foster’s Reader- Writer Event on June 5th because I have an editor’s appointment.

I enjoyed escaping recently to Canada, Idaho, and New York. I managed to visit all these scenic and action packed locations within a few short days. I know – it seems hard to believe that I could make these trips so quickly. I did it by reading about the thrilling lives of tracker, Stacey Parker and hostage rescuer, Cord McConnell. Rebecca Vickery writes about these two memorable characters in her book, Surviving with Love. Great secondary characters add to the richness of the story.

You’d think a tough ex-military guy, like McConnell, could handle the petite tracker, but it’s a lost cause from the moment they meet. Both were hired to find two young boys taken hostage by dangerous criminals. Although Stacey’s tracking skills impress Cord, he’s also attracted to her physically and emotionally. Stacey’s a sassy, smart, tough and sweet woman with amazing outdoor skills. Even though Stacey doesn’t like Cord bossing her around on the Canadian trail to find the boys, she falls hard for him anyhow. Not only does she have to protect herself from the kidnappers, but also from her lustful and romantic feelings for Cord. The dialogue between these two characters is so much fun to read.

If this book should be made into a movie, I’d cast Reese Witherspoon as Stacey. Of course, her hair color would need to be changed to strawberry blonde. A possible actor for Cord’s role might be Gerald Butler. He’s tough but compassionate at the same time.

I highly recommend Surviving with Love, but only if you enjoy reading the following in a novel: explosive sexual tension between the hero and heroine, an action plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat, a developing romance between two strong-willed individuals, dynamic dialogue, and last but not least, feeling the experience of tracking criminals in a wilderness. I hope you read this outstanding book, you won’t be disappointed.

click here to buy from Amazon Kindle for only $3.99! For paperback, click here! To purchase at Smashwords, click here!
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CONTEST for Creative Writer Blogger Award: Don’t forget I’ll be drawing a lucky winner on Monday morning. You don’t have to be correct about which one is the lie. If you left a comment, you’ll be entered.