Nancy’s Legacy

As I was sitting at the desk in the bookmobile office one morning, a white-haired lady entered the office. With a disapproving gaze around the room, she declared, “This place is a mess!”

True as that observation may have been, I felt indignant and was ready to defend the office’s state of disarray. Just then, my supervisor Cindy entered the office.

“Hi Mom.”

And that’s how I met Nancy.

Over the years I developed a friendship with Nancy. We met for breakfast at Friendly’s occasionally & in 2011 I learned that every day at 4pm Nancy played boggle on a site called Pogo. We enjoyed ‘buying’ clothing, backgrounds & other items for our colorful, customizable avatars. We could even gift items to our friends. We had a blast!

As time went on, Nancy and I established a core group of friends all over the US, Canada & even England. For years we played happily and I developed some amazing friendships with these boggle players.

And then Pogo made a decision I’ll never understand; they were removing boggle from their selection of games!

Quickly we scrambled to share contact information and friend each other on Facebook while looking for a new game site where we could also chat.

We settled on one called serpentine. It wasn’t nearly as colorful as pogo and we had no avatars to customize but at least we could play and chat.

However by this time Nancy was in a nursing home and even though I showed her how to log in on serpentine she never joined us there.

Nancy passed away August 28, 2022 at the age of 89. I’ll always remember her as a dear friend who enhanced my life greatly. Because of her I have met some remarkably wonderful friends.

What better legacy is there than that?

Lucille Ball Moment #472

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV on Pexels.com

I frequent a local grocery store quite often and have my preferred cashier, Janet. When she is not manning her register, Janet can be found restocking the candy and other impulse items housed near the registers.

This morning, armed with a travel mug of Dark Roast, I steered my cart of selected items to her register cheerfully, prepared to make her day.

“Good morning!” I sing, maneuvering my way between the conveyor belt and my cart.

“Hey!” Janet replied, positioning herself behind the register.

Across the conveyor belt from me are the some of the aforementioned impulse items –gums, mints, candy–which Janet has just neatly restocked. In true Peni fashion, I innocently lift a large box of garbage bags out of the cart and onto the conveyor belt. Unfortunately, I overshot the conveyor belt somehow and snagged one of the shelves of impulse items. Even more unfortunately, the shelf collapsed, sending its contents and those of every other shelf beneath it crashing to the floor.

A weary Janet looks stunned. “How did you do that?” she gasps.

I begin to apologize profusely, because I know what these kinds of jobs can be like and I truly appreciate cashiers. She proceeds to ring up my items quickly, as if she wants me out of her line as soon as possible.

Feeling bad, I bag my groceries, waiting for her to recite my total. I pay for my purchases, and Janet comes around to help bag (fortunately no other customers were in her line).

“I’m really sorry,” I say again, offering a hug.

“That’s all right, “Janet assures me. “I’ve seen worse!”

I still felt bad, making more work for her, but it’s not the first time I’ve caused such a scene. Sometimes I only need to be in the vicinity of delicate, breakable items and they’re destroyed. Yeah. I’m like Carrie that way.

But due to the lovely morning weather and the joy-inducing caffeine in my system, my mood quickly changed and I embraced my accident-proneness. I hope Janet didn’t mind the extra work I caused her, but she’s known me for awhile now and when she sees me coming, she probably prepares herself. And if she hasn’t in the past, she surely will after this morning!

Meet Author Candace MacPhie!

Have you ever experienced wanderlust? Candace MacPhie has and it has inspired her to produce some entertaining memoirs like Life Strikes Back Book 2 in the Back in a Year series. Read on to learn about this author!

1.I’d like to offer my condolences on the passing of your mother. Would you say traveling was cathartic for you, aiding in the grieving process?

 

Thank you. And yes, this was cathartic. Trying to carve out a ‘normal’ daily routine after being a caregiver for so long was confusing and didn’t fit. I didn’t know how to ‘do my day’ without looking after someone. And I didn’t know myself. What did I like to do? Where did I belong? I was going through the motions of life. Leaving everything behind and living life on the road gave me time to reflect, time to face grief, and space to heal.

 

 

2. What do you find the most challenging about writing your travel memoirs?

 

Two things. First is finding the threads to wrap a series of things that happened along the way into a cohesive and enjoyable story for the reader. The second is drudging up the feelings and painful memories. Then forcing myself to stay in the mindset of how I felt at the time and not applying my ‘now’ brain to a ‘then’ situation. It was cringy to write with the ‘then’ brain, but allows for loads of character growth and tension in the books.

 

 

3. Have others contacted you, expressing how you’ve inspired them to travel more?

 

Yes, and I love that people have added places in my books to their travel plans. And those who can’t travel have shared that they were excited to take the trip on the pages.

 

 

4. Do you have plans for another book about your wanderings?

 

This question makes me smile. I intended to write one book about this trip. But when I got into it, I quickly realized I didn’t have enough space to adequately share the adventure. It bloomed into five bookseach covering a different geographical area and journey. All of them can be read as a standalone, but it’s more fun to take the full trip. The first two books are out now, and the next three are in the works.

Book One: Finding Color. Travels through Canada, Greece, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Russia. Book Two: Life Strikes Back. Travels through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary. Book Three: Hello, I Am Here. Travels through Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. Book Four: Beautifully Warped. Travels through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Book Five: Landing Place. Travels through South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Canada, USA, and England.

Meet Author Candy Wolff!

We all deal with grief and loss at some point in our lives. Candy Wolff poignantly shares her own story in Lost and Found in Mexico A Widow’s Road to Recovery. Read on to learn more about Candy and her story.

1.Please let me offer my condolences on your loss. Why share such personal pain in this book?  Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.

When I got back from Cabo and had to tell my story to many people, it was shocking to hear everyone say “You need to write a book”.   It took me a few months to process but I truly felt that God was telling me a story to share not only of my faith but of a financial story to tell that.  So many women tell me that they would have no idea what to do if they lost their husband.  So, I want to share everything that I went through to show people you can survive a horrible tragedy and come out stronger in the end.  If I can help just one person then I feel that what I went through is worth all the pain to help others.

2. Would you say the writing process was cathartic for you?  Yes, It was very hard at first to replay step by step of what transformed in the 4 days that I was in Cabo dealing with the death of my husband and the issues I had with the Police.  It brought up lots of anger, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, and lots of tears.  It also brought me joy, happiness and laughter as I was able to recall all the good memories we had over the years.  Along with all the wonderful memories from the many previous trips we had to Cabo.  It will always hold a very special spot in my heart.

3. What is your best advice for someone going through similar trials?  Listen to your body it will tell you how you need to feel when you need to feel.  Give yourself lots of grace, and be around those that can support you.  Don’t take what people say about to heart if it does upset you, most people have never felt the pain an agony you are going though.  So, they don’t know what to say but they want to say something.  I tell people it’s ok to not say anything just that you are here for me.  Because NO words will ever bring back your loved one, but having those who are still alive and love you around is very important.  You will go thought brain fog which is something that still haunts me to this day, and I pray that one day I will get my brain back.  It will never be the same but I just want to be able to have clarity in thinking.  A few last thing is don’t beat yourself up if the house isn’t clean, the laundry isn’t getting done, if you can just take care of you and your kids and just do the basic needs then that is a good day.  With everyday that passes the grief does get easier even though when you are in the middle of it, it may feel like it will never end.  It’s ok to laugh and smile and remember all the good times that will help with the healing.

4. Do you have other writing projects planned for the future? Yes, I do!  My life is just beginning and I can’t wait to show people that out of a horrible situation, amazing things can come out of it.  You are stronger than you think and that’s my story I want to share moving forward.

Meet Author Donna M. Cramer!

Lester Lion Calls 911 is here to teach children the importance of dialing 911 in cases of emergency ONLY. Learn about Lester and his author Donna M. Cramer below!

1.Where did you get the inspiration for Lester Lion?

My first children’s book, Lester Lion Wants To Roar, is the children’s version of my own recovery from a concussion/traumatic brain injury.  I wrote it quite early in my recovery, and the story and the words came to me one day.  I chose a lion character because the age group I taught (Preschool – 1st Grade) always loved animals.

2. You taught special needs students for over 20 years. During that time did you witness any students dial 911 when they shouldn’t have?
I witnessed several students call 911 after they were taught about this during Fire Safety Month. Several parents came in and told me the story of their child calling 911. They were usually embarrassed and ashamed and would ask me what to do. I would have a class discussion about this, but I always wished I had a book about the occurrence.

3. You dedicate Lester Lion Calls 911 to “all firefighters, first responders and EMTs”. But also to children who are “differently abled, either physically or neurologically.” Would you like to elaborate on those dedications?

The firefighter dedication seemed to make sense because they were the individuals who would come to school during Fire Safety Month.  Also, and on a personal note, my husband suffered a heart attack this past August and collapsed at our home.  The EMTs were so helpful and responded so quickly.  They helped save his life.   The students I always worked with were individuals with special needs.  These children struggle daily to manage their place in a fast-moving society.  I was always aware of this, but after my brain injury, I became acutely aware of what it is like to live with anxiety, to live with speech difficulties and slow cognitive processing.

4. Can we expect more adventures for Lester Lion?

Yes, I would like to take Lester on more adventures.  I have a story about friendship that is currently percolating in my mind.

Meet Author Bjorn Leesson!

Love historical fantasy? Check out Bjorn Leesson’s RUNES OF THE DOKKRSDOTTIR!

1. What inspired Runes of Dokkrsdottir?

The series as a whole is the weaving together of several of my interests, and they are many, with the core of the origins being a love of history and the mystery of the supernatural.  The spark that got it all smoldering was a few revelations about my own genealogy and the real life scientific evidence that there were female Viking warriors – something that was always alluded to in Norse lore but not proven until recently.

2. Tell me about your protagonist, Myrgjol. What drives her?

Myrgjol is a very layered character, being both complicated and simple at the same time.  She knows early on that she is very different from everyone else in her culture – not just in appearance, but much more.  She is quite impulsive, and that does occasionally backfire on her, but more times than not, her instincts and skills carry her through successfully.  What drives her is a sense of destiny, and her very deep love and loyalty for her friends and family, as well as a desire to see her world become peaceful and filled with Light.  Ironically, she must do so using her powers of Dark and her incredible ability for combat.

3. What did you find the most enjoyable about the writing process? The most challenging?

For me, the most enjoyable aspect of writing this story was being able to “fill in the blanks” of history with creativity.  But more so, actually being able to create a living, breathing character that is real, relatable, and deep for the reader.  Also, creating a story that is complicated but still interesting with multiple tendrils of story-telling by tying up hundreds of seemingly unrelated things to weave a canvas showing the reader that “everything is connected”.  The most challenging aspect was resisting the urge to solve problems with “unbelievable” solutions, as I want this series to be viewed as a wild and crazy story that still could exist in the real world – “fantasy”, but still relatable to everyday life.

4. Book 2 of the Outside the Thalsparr Series, Rune of Renewal, was just released. How many installments can we expect in this series

Currently, There are four installments completed and ready, with Book 3, Runes of Destiny and Book 4, Rune of Revenge to be released before August, and perhaps as soon as the end of May.  Book 5, Rune of Whispers is in the editor’s hands now.  I am currently writing Book 6, Rune of Building, which will likely become two books.  After that, the seeds are planted for perhaps three more books in the future – and honestly, who knows how many after that.  For those who fall in love with the Thalsparr, there will be a lot of stories and many interesting characters to immerse yourself in.

April Book Discussion

Willie’s Women met once again to discuss their current reads!

BRENDA is reading our local book club’s selection, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab . She’s also currently listening to the audiobook but gives it only a 2 because she doesn’t like the time jumps.

KARI has almost finished Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Kari says “it’s a cool story” but she skips a lot because she finds there’s too much unnecessary description. She rates it a 3.

PENI JO was gifted yet another novel by friend PATTY APOSTOLIDES– The Lion and the Nurse. Currently reading and enjoying it very much! Next month will give a rating!

Willie’s Women meets at 1pm Eastern in my Zoom Room the 3rd Sunday of each month. Non-RHS members are invited to attend one time. Next meeting is Sunday, May 19.

Meet First-Time Novelist Angela van Breemen!

A soprano soloist, Angela van Breemen has written her first thriller novel, Past Life’s Revenge A David Harris and Emma Jackson Mystery, due out July 9, 2024. Learn more about this talented author below!

  1. What inspired you to write Past Life’s Revenge?
    The inspiration for Past Life’s Revenge is rooted in my belief in reincarnation with the idea for this book going back forty years. During childhood, my parents had many friends who were mediums. Discussions around the dinner table about past lives were commonplace, so the concept of reincarnation was a very natural one for me. Although I have always been writing poetry, I never considered writing a full book, however, when I was twenty-three, I had an idea for a story. David Harris, a young man, is tormented by terrible dreams and visions. After having sought the advice of psychiatrists and other health professionals without receiving any relief, he is convinced by his new girlfriend and psychic Emma Jackson, to undergo a past life regression. When he learns he was murdered in his most recent reincarnation, and that his killer is still alive, instead of finding closure, David is intent on revenge. In my early twenties, money was tight, and I wrote the story on any scrap of paper I could find using my mother’s old electric typewriter. In my youthful enthusiasm I wrote furiously and then one day, I stopped and put the half-finished manuscript aside. Life’s challenges got in the way. Finding work. Meeting the love of my life, to whom I have been married now for thirty-five years and having run a successful dental supply business with my husband and author, Peter Thomas Pontsa, life simply got in the way. Every now and again, I would come across the yellowed and curled manuscript, look at it, say “Nah,” and then put it away. In December of 2022, I came across the manuscript again, but this time, I started reading it. What surprised me the most was that the story was good! The second thing was that the language really sounded like it had been written forty years ago! So, I began rewriting it and kept going until the story was finished! One day, I wrote nearly 5,500 words. My husband came to check in on me to say it was time for dinner, took one look at me and said, “You look pale. Did you even eat today?” I was so wrapped up I forgot about everything except the story!
  2. You’re also a soprano soloist and poet. Do these talents influence your writing?
    Absolutely. There is a cadence in poetry which is musical. In fact, even writing prose, has a rhythm and beat. When a writer is in the zone, and the words come naturally, there is a tempo and flow which is transcribed to the page. This very cadence is what makes the reader want to turn to the next page, and the one after that! My CD, In the Breeze was released in April of 2024. Celtic in nature, it was very thrilling to put three of my poems to music. The first piece is called Do You Hear the Drums? It was cowritten with Casey Cole, a good family friend, excellent house painter and musician. Two years ago, he came over one day to do some work on our house, and while the first coat of paint was drying, he said, “Angela, you’ve got to hear this instrument!” It was a handpan drum. As Casey began to play, the words and melody to a song just popped in my head, and I started singing. Mars Giammarco, from Red Egg Studio, produced my album for me, and the way he mastered this song and the other ten on the album is just amazing. Tho the Seas Were Rough is another original piece I wrote based on a challenge given by a writing group to which I belong called the Wordsmiths. The challenge had been to write about the sea. Peter and I had just seen the movie Fisherman’s Friends and I was so inspired, I decided I would write a sea shanty! As I wrote the poem, the music was there too. That’s the cadence of writing at work! My third original song is contemporary and is called I Will Be in the Breeze. I wrote the poem in remembrance of my mother. Rina Valcourt, a dear friend, and music teacher
    loved the poem so much, she wrote music for it.
  1. What did you find most rewarding in writing this novel? The most challenging?
    I always felt guilty that I had left that manuscript unfinished all those years ago. It’s why I never turfed it, because deep down, I hoped I would complete it. It was a very satisfying and joyous experience to sit down, write the book and see it in print. The most challenging aspect was modernising the language and getting rid of all the adverbs!
  2. Are you currently working on the next David Harris and Emma Jackson mystery and
    how many do you expect will complete the series?
    Yes! Peter and I went on a writing vacation earlier this year, and I have written nineteen chapters of the second book in the series, Revenge is Not Enough. After having successfully apprehended the killer of David’s previous self, Emma and David have launched an investigative firm specializing in solving cold cases using the paranormal. I expect to write at least five in this series. I am sure, readers, myself included, will want to see what cases David and Emma will solve, and also how their personal relationship will develop over time.

Meet Author Adam Wilson!

In the mood for satirical scifi? Check out Adam Wilson’s What About Tuesday? , a novella published by Read Furiously.


1. Your bio describes you as ‘A former comic editor.’ How do you utilize that background in your current writings?

As an editor, you really get a window into other people’s creative process that most don’t get, and I think getting to see how other people write really taught me a lot about the writer I want to be. I got to see how a lot of different writers approach their scripts. How they have to think both visually and narratively to help establish the flow of their pages and pacing of the panels, what they make explicit in the scripts to the artists vs where they leave open to interpretation, and how all these layers that exist under the surface of the story come together to help shape the final product. 

Seeing all that play out in real time is such a great lesson in understanding what’s possible in comics. All that really made me conscious of how I’m using the medium to tell stories. I started to see what kind of rules are there, which ones can be broken, and how you can push the boundaries and still create something that’s accessible and enjoyable to readers.

And more than that, it made me cognizant of the stories I wanted to write. I’ve worked with all different types of creators and some of them are so passionate and excited about the stories they want to tell. It really puts it into perspective and it makes you want to find stories that bring you the same kind of excitement.


2. Where did the inspiration for What About Tuesday come from?

The inspiration for What About Tuesday is funny because it’s actually twofold. My initial inspiration came from this period where I was really into reading about quantum physics a few years back. Just the lengths that science is going to understand the nature of the universe and matter and how all these seemingly different things are all so connected and play by such similar rules.

But as I was doing all this reading it also just struck me that, as interesting as it is, it doesn’t really impact most people’s lives on a day to day basis. Like were scientists to suddenly discover the missing piece of the equation that unifies everything from String Theory to Quantum Physics to proving existence of dark matter in the universe, wormholes and black holes, it’d be a huge discovery that would change the way we understand existence as we know it. But the vast majority of people would still just go about their day as if nothing changed. Cause nothing really would change, it wouldn’t impact every day life much. And I loved that idea. Something so significant is really completely insignificant. 

So I wanted to play with that idea. And ironically enough, I chose time as a way to examine it. 

What would happen if time wasn’t what we thought it was and it’s not this steadily ticking thing we assume it is (cause from a scientific perspective it’s not). How would that change someone’s life who suddenly became aware of it. Would it change it at all?

And it turns out using time in this was had a hidden significance I didn’t realize till even after What About Tuesday was published. 

See, in the book the main character suddenly becomes aware of these temporal anomalies where because time isn’t this consistent thing but we try to measure it with a static unit (days, hours, minutes, etc.), units of measurement go missing to right itself. Kind of the same way that our understanding of the continents is based on a map, but the map distorts their shape due to the fact you can’t accurately put a round object on a flat surface. In this case though, time will suddenly jumps from 2:00 to 3:00 or as the main character discovers, he wakes up and though no one notices it an entire Tuesday didn’t happen.

So through the story the main character has to reconcile the fact that knowing this makes it feel like he’s missing out on moments of his life. Fast forward a few years later and my therapist had just diagnoses me with ADHD. As we start unpacking why this makes it so hard for me to get things done sometimes, she starts explaining to me the concept of time blindness, where people with ADHD have trouble regulating their internal clocks and there are all these factors that can make it can feel like you’re losing hours out of a day. 

So in a roundabout way, the book I wrote about a science-y thing I was interested in ended up also being about a symptom of my undiagnosed neuro-divergency without me even realizing it. 

3. What do you enjoy most about writing?

I really love the ah-ha moments that come with writing. The ones where you’re juggling all these different pieces of a story and suddenly everything just clicks and makes sense. Those times when, even if you’re not done writing, you finally see the whole picture for the first time. 

Working as a comic writer especially, the collaboration with an artist really adds a whole extra layers to those moments – getting to see the ideas that only existed in your head suddenly appear on the page changes your relationship to the story. It makes it real all of a sudden. 

And sometimes the artist will interpret the script in a way that you completely didn’t anticipate and seeing their art on the page suddenly changes your perspective on something you’ve written. It creates this whole other type of ah-ha moment and can really bring the story you’re trying to tell to a whole other level. There have been a few instances where I rewrote dialog or changed scenes around just cause of these amazing reinterpretations of the script artists have sent me as we were working together.

4. What can we expect from you in the future? More graphic novels? Novellas?

So my next big project is a new graphic novel called Last of the Pops. It’s a book I’ve been working on for about the past seven years. It tells six different, loosely connected, stories that all revolve around the final ever radio broadcast. The book is very different from anything I’ve done previously, but I’m really excited about it. I pull in all these different interests I’ve had over the years – everything from music to technology to street art. And I really tried to play with form, utilizing not only sequential storytelling but also epistolary storytelling. It’s a big swing, but I’m hoping it’ll pay off and people will enjoy it.