Tomorrow is my Birthday and this is on my mind today…..

This blog has special meaning for me as I look back through the years and think about the future.   My books and things that I write are things that I want to continue to create and share.  I want to use the writers group that I started to help others with whatever projects are in their hearts to write or do.  I want to reach out to others and tell them to never give up.  The thing that makes it most difficult to achieve what we have in our hearts to do is the ability to believe.   I have heard so many times to watch what you wish for because it might come true.  If we look for failure and believe there is no way we can do this or that….. It is probably true because how can we succeed when we already believe in the failure or the dream?  If we believe we can do something that still does not make it a guarantee to be doable.  We have to be willing to work, learn and never give up to succeed.  That is something I hope to share with young people too.

On my birthday tomorrow, I did not get a special promotion set up for my books and have not been able to be online much lately….. but I am not giving up.  I am here and every day is special.  My books are my way to reach out to others and have a voice.  They are my dream I can hold in my hand and hope to find ways to let others know they even exist.   They make me smile.

Thanksgiving has come and gone for another year but there are always things in our hearts and lives we will be thankful.   I am thankful to see another birthday.  There are times some may hate to admit how old they are but I feel as if every year is a blessing and I try hard to have the chance for many more.   Tomorrow is my birthday.   There are more things than I can list that give me so much joy and I am thankful to have been blessed with in my life.

            One of the things that delighted me is to see one of my dreams become a reality I can hold in my hand.  I always wanted to see one of the things that I have written published.  I wanted to hold a book in my hand that was mine from cover to cover.  I wanted to use the things that I write and create to reach out in many ways.

I have tried with each of my books to write stories that will be interesting and entertaining.  I also wanted to write in a way that the reader could feel a part of the story.  I wanted to find words that could help them to see, hear, feel and know the characters in the stories.  I wanted to bring fictional people to life.

I was going to try the traditional publishing route but time became an important issue.  I was sick and quickly getting so much worse.  They told me I had cancer and I knew what I faced.  I wanted to see at least one of my stories as a book and could not wait.

I had to decide what story I would choose.  I love Journey Home.  That was the first novel I wrote and will always be special to me.  Life Goes On is a novel that tells about a family in crisis.  If I could only have one I thought that was a story that would be a good read but one that might have meaning to others in many ways.

I wrote a story about a family in crisis when the father lost his job.  There are times we do not realize how wonderful life is until some unexpected thing changes everything we know.  How we handle those changes in life, can have far reaching consequences.  The choices we make can affect more than our own lives but lives of others around us. 

When the father lost his job, they lost their home and had to live in the only place they could find that they could afford.  That place was a rundown apartment made from an old home that had once been stately, but through the years became a part of the inner city scene of crime and desperate times for so many as they tried to survive.  The new friends in the neighborhood and school were the nightmare some parents have and others have to live.  The family they had known and children they loved seemed so different they felt they had lost all they knew and valued.  The feared they were losing their children to the streets and people they did not understand. 

When we think that life can get no more difficult we are often surprised when we find even more challenges and obstacles we must find ways to overcome or survive.  When the father could not find a job and they could not pay the rent even on that lowly apartment they began to feel despair and hopeless.

When there seems to be no hope we may find a lifeline and a second chance but life is often so complicated nothing seems easy.  When they were offered help from a distant relative to relocate and have help in rebuilding their life it seemed like their only chance.  Convincing 3 children to move to a new part of the country with people they did not really know leaving behind all that was familiar to them and what friends they had would not be easy.  Making it work would be the biggest challenge they faced in many ways.

Each member of the family would find challenges never before faced and the choices they made could have life altering consequences if they were to survive in the individual lives and as a family.  Learning what family really is would be something they would have to find in their hearts and lives.

This is not a story where they faced difficulties and each made the right decision to live happily ever after.  This is a story I tried to create as complex and intense as life can often be.  They do not always make the right choices but learn how to stand up and go on to make life, family and future their goal.

Since I published this book I have had numerous people demand to know who they really are.  I have explained that it is entirely fiction.  One woman demanded over and over to know who they “really” were.  She claimed they were too realistic to be fictional.  She wanted to know what happened later in their lives.  I took that as a compliment.  I will have to wait until I have time to write the next book to see where the story takes me with the characters and their lives.

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Goes-On-ebook/dp/B004XJ6U26/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

After I survived the surgery and had the whole upper lobe of my lung removed it was a difficult time.  I was and will always be hooked to oxygen.  At first I thought of it as a life line but as time went by began to feel as if it was more of a leash.  Leash or lifeline I did not give up.  I felt compelled to not waste a minute and was so unsure of how long I might have as a future.  I decided to publish Journey Home.  I love that book.  I think of it as the longest short story you will ever find because it started as a project inspired from helping my daughter to write her own short story for a class she had at school.  She was so determined I should write my own.  As I began to work on the story it took a life of its own and the characters too.  I loved writing the story and page after page it developed until I had almost 600 pages. 

I wrote other blogs telling all about it and going back to school at ASU to help me to be more and be able to do more to make it the best book and story possible.  Life got in the way but it did not stop it.  The time had come to work and make it a book I could hold in my hand and share with the world.

After doing several paintings I decided to use the one you see as the cover for the book.  I love hearing from the people about it and so far no one I have heard from has seen the end coming.  I have read some really good books that I have enjoyed but half way through you know who did it.  I have also read some that have the story so disjointed hiding the ending it takes away from the story.  I wanted the reader to be able to go there and feel what they felt and know them but just as life can have some surprises so does the story.

You can hope that a person, who feels so alone, can find a way to enjoy the warmth of love and friendship and friends that are true in heart and not in reality something to fear. You can find someone who strives and tries to build a life even when life has left so many heartaches. You can hope she finds a way to survive what is lurking, following and finally intent to destroy her. When you can find a story that takes you to the places, lets you feel a part of the story and really get to know the people there..... You might have a copy of Journey Home. 

In the story Lara’s inheritance required her to reside in the old family home she had grown up in.  The will also included a man she had never met and was suspicious of his involvement with her uncle.  If things seem too good to be true it makes it even more difficult to know who to trust, but there are times we cannot accomplish some things alone.

Lara knew in her heart someone was stalking and watching her.  They did little things she could not prove to others but made it evident to her they were near and not giving up.  If her apartment was broken into and nothing done but the kitchen chairs all pulled back she could not call the police to say someone broke in and stole nothing, damaged nothing and she wanted action.  Even her friends thought her imagination as an author was part of her problem.

Moving to another part of the country to live in the isolated old home might be just what she needed to get away from her problems and find a way to get her life back in order.  It also might be the end of her life with things, people and events she had no way to anticipate.  Finding the truth might be all that saved her but she could not do it alone.

When darkness came and she gazed out the window there was no way for her to know who or what was looking in, and what more they had in mind.

There is more to home than a location and an address.  Home is in the heart and the journey to find it for Lara, might be one she did not live to accomplish.  This 480 page novel is one I hope you enjoy with an ending you never forget.

http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Nance/e/B004PVDVR4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

I have shared things about my books in other blogs but am getting tired.  I think I will go ahead and post this and try to finish it later.  This is a special time for me and I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful day.

I hope if you get the time you might stop in my fan page and share some of the things I worked on there including the photos of my art and paintings. 

https://www.facebook.com/LindaNanceFanPage 

 I hope you have a good time there and also my author page.

 http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Nance/e/B004PVDVR4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

  I will be back soon.