New Book...Celeste, Women of the Drifting Anchor Ranch

I don't know if I've even posted the fact that you can now purchase my new BOOK, as in old fashioned pages to turn.  We have not yet finished the process to offer the book in Nook or Kindle.  That will be coming.  Lulu.com is the company that carries my books. 

Celeste, Women of the Drifting Anchor Ranch is a character that I have fashioned after so many, many women.  I envision her as looking like a young Naomi Judd, with Reba Macintyre around the edges.  She's also patterned after a beloved friend who helped me to become an "Indie Writer."  That's Independent Writer if you do not understand that particular abbreviation.  I took all of my favorite red heads and put them together, and SHAZAM, out came Celeste.

Then there is the detail that I call the "Celeste," factor.  In high school there was a girl that stood out to me from the crowd as though there were a spotlight over her head.  She was quirky (which usually is a BAD thing in high school, and a COOL thing in college), and she didn't seem to be phased by the persecution of her peers.  We weren't close friends, but we were friends.

Forty years passed, a 27 year marriage was ended by my husband's death, and many moves later I wound up living a block away from Celeste.  THE Celeste that astonished and inspired me by her ability to just simply be who she was, NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE ELSE DID!

The day that we first became friends I told her about finishing the first draft of my novel Celeste.  At this point we had figured out that she was the High School Celeste that I had admired, and that had inspired me to choose the name Celeste for my character in the first place!

Isn't life interesting with it's canyons of twists, turns, and hair raising drops?  There I was meeting a friend that I had not seen in forty years who had inspired me to name my character Celeste, on the day that I finished my first draft of the book?  That seems a little more than coincidence.   However what some would call coincidence I prefer to see as "Synchronicity."  A moment when the past and present aligns to give you a new start for the future.

Celeste (the book) does begin in a rather raw way.  At the tender age of 14 Celeste is trapped into sexual slavery.  All my tales are stories of redemption.  I know that life has the gift of redemption waiting...right there...but sometimes we have to reach...just a bit higher...and then higher...AND THEN HIGHER STILL!  The important thing is to know that none of us is beyond redemption!

Please enjoy the book Celeste, Women of the Drifting Anchor Ranch.  Soon it will also be published in digital format.

Discouragement

I am quite frankly discouraged.  I have been writing this blog for several years now.  I post recipes, knitting patterns, sewing patterns, things that were relevant to life in the Western United States of America from 1860 to 1890.  I can't seem to draw any readership.  For a while people got a little more interested, and then nothing...nada, nee, nine, neit...bupkis.  It's enough to make a writer quit.  Oh how I am tempted.  I think I'll go find a white flag, put it on my front door, and SURRENDER!

Why am I working so hard to find a readership?  The dishes stand tall in my sink, and on my counters because I would rather write than wash dishes.  I have felt that writing fulfills me, but why would I be fulfilled when I know that nobody is reading?  I should just wash those dishes and quit writing...STOP!

I have declared a full on "WHITE FLAG DAY!"  That means that I will not think that I can ever write to earn money.  I will resign myself to being a disabled woman climbing her way up the hill to old age.  I remember as a child hearing the phrase, "Over the hill," in reference to elderly people.  Personally I don't think old age is OVER any hill.  As I approach that nebulous part of life I find that it's the hardest, steepest climb that I have ever experienced, and I have done some powerful climbing in my life.

So...today, I fully disclose that I hurt, my lungs are on fire, and I wish to go back in time about 5 years ago.  My husband was alive, and I could get a hug, each and every time that I wanted or needed one.  He was a giant of a man, in every way possible.  His hugs were magical.  He didn't just hug me, he engulfed me with love.

After he died, I began writing as a way to feel a need to get out of bed in the morning.  Life felt so flat without him sharing it with me.  I don't know why I continue to try to write something that might lift someone else.  Today, I would just like to write something that would lift, me, myself and I upwards.  I need to inspire ME!  Yet even that seems impossible to find.

So, knowing that there WILL be better days ahead, I apologize for my ranting whine today.  SIGH...guess I'll go do the dishes!

In case you trip across this post sa you read my blog let me assure you that there HAVE been better days since then.  I still am not making a living with writing, but that is no reason to give up.  After all, as a disabled senior I'm not even making a LIVING...doing ANYTHING!

I vow never to give in, give out, or give up.  I WILL give love, give hope, and give laughter.  I may definitely have some "White Flag Days," ahead when I will surrender but it will only be temporary.  I will then stand my bulky self upright and keep putting one foot in front of the other, or possibly, rolling the wheels of my wheelchair forward!