Monday, April 6, 2015

A Taxing Season



Wednesday my husband flies to a work conference in Portland, Oregon. As I try to write one more blog post about Guideposts’ ‘official release’ of a two-book mystery set by my mother and me…I am distracted.

Distracted because taxes aren’t yet sent to accountant, a date for cracked foundation work has yet to be set, a downspout is clogged with leaf stems, the grass needs watering but a freeze could still come…and the list goes on and on and….

Ironically the one thing not causing me concern? My children. Older son has been accepted into graduate school in Vancouver, where his girlfriend lives. Younger son just signed up to take the Graduate Record Exam because he is graduating from college a year early, next spring. My mother and writing partner, who fell gravely ill last April, is doing so much better.

Exactly twenty-five years ago, I flew with my husband to Portland to the same conference. We had just learned we were expecting our first child. I remember eating a sleeve of saltine crackers on the flight, splurging on room service in our hotel room, the intense lush green-ness of Portland compared to the high desert palette of northern Arizona where we lived at the time, and visiting Powell’s Books, the incredible huge book emporium.

It was not long after that trip, that my mother –-the author of nearly 20 novels at the time on her own – asked me if I wanted to team up with her to write.

Two and a half decades later, we have co-written nearly 50 books together, including these two in the Chesapeake Antiques Mysteries series.

Books, family, friends, faith…somehow when I take time to reflect on the good, tax returns and a cracked house foundation don’t seem so bad.

In this warmhearted Guideposts original two-book fiction set, widowed Miriam Maxwell returns to Chesapeake Bay to take over her late sister's antique store and reconnects with old friend Samuel Bentley. When Samuel buys a desk that belonged to Miriam's family for generations, a discovery hidden in a drawer sends the pair off on delightful adventures in mystery and history. shopguideposts.org/ChesapeakeSet

3 comments:

  1. Guideposts two book set sounds GOOD!!! When is it due out? I'm trying to get back into writing. Still can't seem to get past losing my husband. I take one step forward and two back. I'm in a good place and so want to get to the next step in this process. Hope all is well with you. Hugs Barb

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  2. This month, thank you!! And MUCH hugs and love to you!!

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  3. Congratulations on the wonderful writing career. I've been a published author since 2010. I understand how life can distract you sometimes from your writing. I'm glad your mother is doing better.

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