Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

Grandma’s Feather Bed

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Today I’m thinking about beds. Hoping for a nap? Nope. Doing research for a scene in a book, which sent me down a research rabbit hole. The articles and photos I perused about beds led to an “aha!” moment for me. Remember the  Hans Christian Andersen story, “The Princess and the Pea”? In the story, a skeptical queen decides to test a so-called princess by seeing if she can feel a pea … [Read more...]

Spring Thaw

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The robins are back! I’m not sure where these red-bellied birds go for the winter, but I saw one for the first time this morning. A sure sign of spring. So I decided to look for other signs as I took my morning walk. Some trees now have buds. Green shoots are poking up from the cold ground along with a few brave crocuses. The ugly patches of dirty snow are nearly all melted away. And ice no … [Read more...]

The Courage of Motherhood

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When I held my first baby in my arms, looked in his shriveled red face and felt his tiny fingers wrap around mine, I cried with joy (and probably with wacko pregnancy hormones too!). Even though I trembled with nervousness when I placed his swaddled body in the car seat for the trip home, I was excited for the new adventure that lay ahead. Five children and eighteen years later, I can look back … [Read more...]

St. Patrick – A man who loved his enemies

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Happy St. Patrick's Day! Most of the time, when people think of March 17, they think about leprechauns, pots of gold, and wearing green to avoid getting pinched. But the origins of this holiday are much more spiritual in nature. And I researched those origins, I found myself awed by the ministry of the man who became a legend. At the end of the 4th century, Maewyn Succat was born to … [Read more...]

All about the green in spring

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Since it's springtime and the leaves are turning that beautiful fresh green and since tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day and since we're moving to a new house about five miles down the road and my current office is in chaos, I thought I'd do a pictorial blog today. Flowers and trees can say so much more about these things than I can, anyway.  I will give you a quote to get you through the week (from an … [Read more...]

When private love letters…aren’t so private anymore

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My Darling Wife… On his thirty-third birthday in 1868, General William Hicks Jackson proposed marriage to Selene Harding, granddaughter of the founder of Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville (the setting of my Belle Meade Plantation novels). The General had his eye on Selene for quite some time. But he wasn't part of Nashville’s social circle, and Selene had the attentions of many eligible … [Read more...]

It’s about time…

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Okay, be honest: did anybody oversleep yesterday? Show up for church an hour late? Forget to turn your clocks back? We've been known to be an hour early for church when Daylight Savings Time ends in the fall, but we never forget in the spring! Never! Oh how I love that extra glorious hour of daylight! I must admit though, that changing over to Daylight Savings Time is a temporary full-time job … [Read more...]

A Gift From the Past

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My parents live in California, where I was born and raised.  They come to Texas for frequent visits, however, and on one recent visit my dad gave me a savings bond that my Great Grandmother Monninger had given to me when I was little.  He'd filed it away for safekeeping alongside other documents and as the years -- then the decades -- slid past had forgotten about it.  When he came across it a few … [Read more...]

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