What makes you abandon a book you started reading?
Goodreads recently posed this question then posted a charticle to document answers they received from readers.
I confess I’ve stopped reading Ayn Ryan’s Atlas Shrugged multiple times. Just can’t get into that tome.
What about you? What makes you put down a book without finishing it?
Research and details in a book can make a major difference in a reader’s pleasure.
That’s why in Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise I include details selected from my time in South Korea.
Lily’s apartment is where we lived in U.N. Village.
I walked the same roads that she walked to catch the bus to Eighth Army Headquarters. 
We got so used to the train whistle we didn’t even hear it.
These pictures stir memories for me and I hope give you a good idea of where Lily lived. If you’ve read Love in the Morning Calm, is it like your mental picture?
A gold dress also plays an important role in both books. I got the idea for those scenes from my own experience having a gold dress made to wear to the reception President Park Chung Hee and his wife gave for President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. Here’s what my dress looked like. Is it what you pictured Lily wearing?
There’s a carved Papasan in both stories. I brought back several carvings from South Korea to remind us of our time in Han Nam Dong.
That’s the Papasan third from the left. When we lived in Seoul, Papasan meant a title used to address elderly men. The term has come to be used for pimps or a person who manages a bar or a brothel or a similar establishment. The kindly men in the white suits we met didn’t do any of that!
You’ll find I used others places we went during our time in South Korea and developed scenes around them. Places like Chungpyung Reservoir. I can still remember our picnic on the hood of the motor pool jeep with the sound of the roaring dam behind us. Ace and Lily picnicked there too.
I hope these glimpses of South Korea when I was there enhance your reading of Lily and Ace’s love story. Or make you want to read.
It should also demonstrate how writers use their personal experiences in creating their fictional stories.
In 1966, while on temporary assignment to South Korea, Green Beret Major Ace Cabot meets Lily Reed, a Department of Army civilian at Eighth Army Headquarters. Ace is a high-potential career officer, who should resist the temptation of any woman, but he can’t ignore his interest in her.
Lily is a firm supporter of the budding women’s lib movement. She enjoys her freedom and new life away from her stifling hometown. Her plans leave no room for any man. No matter how captivating his smile.
In an uncertain time, in a temporary safe zone, yielding to temptation changes both their lives forever.
Available for Kindle Nook Apple iBook/iPad and Smashwords for PDF, Diesel, or Kobo
For twenty years, Lily Johnson’s life, albeit a life of lies, has been good. Then her daughter falls in love and trouble abounds.
The young man her daughter plans to marry is the godson of her daughter’s biological father. A Green Beret Lily thought died in Vietnam.
When they meet him face-to-face, the years melt away and old passion returns, but Lily’s convinced revealing the truth could mean losing her daughter and the only man she’s ever loved. He believes Lily betrayed her promise to wait.
Is the flame of love strong enough to be re-ignited, or, is it too late?
Available for Kindle Apple iBook/iPad Nook Smashwords for PDF, Diesel, or Kobo and in Paperback
A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Retrieving chickens from the neighbor’s yard is a common event on the Miller Farm. However, yesterday brought a new twist.
One of the white hens was in the yard behind ours. We don’t know these neighbors – yet.
I called for Rachel – master chicken getter, and we headed to the back of our yard. The plan was for Rachel to reach over the fence and “get” the chicken.
Plan A failed–too much brush and the chicken would not cooperate and stay near the fence.
We moved on to Plan B. Someone had to go into the neighbor’s yard. There was a fence and we couldn’t go over it, couldn’t go around it but there was a gate – we could go through.
But it was directly behind our largest beehive. Since it was night, the bees were sleeping and as long as we didn’t wake them up, we were fine. (See previous post on Don’t Wake the Bees.)
Rachel went through the fence, through all the brush and tried to convince the chicken to come home. The renegade hen actually went the opposite direction – it does have a birdbrain, remember.
After countless attempts that resulted in mosquito bites and scratches, we decided to resume the hunt in the morning. Next morning, the renegade hen was nowhere to be seen.
Rachel was afraid a possum had gotten it. The hen couldn’t fly away. We clipped wings to prevent any other wandering chickens. Then we spotted her two yards away. Since she is white, she is easier to spot.
Rachel went off to resume the chicken hunt. I joined her after getting water and food for the good little chickens that stayed in the coop.
We approached from the front yard this time. Once again, we met a fence. Once again, we couldn’t go over it, couldn’t go under it and this time there was no gate. Only a small opening through which we were able to squeeze.
Renegade hen was in the far back of this yard among much undergrowth. We split up to try to corner her.
At one point, I came to a dead fallen tree. I couldn’t go over it, couldn’t go around it, and refused to go through it.
Once again, we gave up the hunt and returned home.
This afternoon we took all four dachshunds for a walk. We were joined by a former classmate of Rachel’s who graciously agreed to take one of the leashes. We told him about our wandering chicken just in case he spotted her somewhere in the neighborhood.
A few houses down from ours, Rachel spotted Renegade Hen once again.
She handed me her two leashes leaving me with three dogs while she resumed the chicken hunt.
Bradley and I watched from a safe distance knowing that Bella would have too much fun hunting this chicken. After a few unsuccessful minutes, I handed my three leashes to Bradley, who by this time probably wished he had stayed at home.
Rachel was tromping through the brush calling, “Here chick chick.” One thing we learned is that chickens do not come when called. 
I stood guard should the chicken try to make a run for it.
Finally, we had success.
I took two leashes back from Bradley, Rachel carried the chicken, and we headed back to the house, hoping this will be our last chicken hunt.
Not a word I made up.
Not a game played with a pickle.
Pickleball is a racquet sport which combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis.
It’s not something new, though it is sweeping the country today.
According to Wikipedia, the game originated in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington at the home of Congressman Joel Pritchard, U.S. House of Representatives for the State of Washington.
He and two of his friends returned from golf and found their families bored one Saturday afternoon. They attempted to set up badminton, but no one could find the shuttlecock. They improvised with a whiffle ball, lowered the badminton net, and fabricated paddles of plywood from a nearby shed.
So why is the game called PICKLEBALL?
The popular story told today is that it was named after the Pritchard family dog. As the story goes, the whiffle ball belonged to the dog. Whenever an errant shot happened, Pickles would run and try to get the ball and hide it. They named the game for their dog’s ball, “Pickles’ Ball”, then it became Pickleball.
The truth is the Pritchard family didn’t get the dog until 1967 according to Joan Pritchard so actually, the dog was named after the sport.
Pickleball offers great exercise, but it’s not as strenuous as tennis. We have a little “league” here in the San Luis Valley and play several times a week.
A great diversion from sitting in the chair at the computer. The exercise clears my head and stimulates my creativity.
Here’s a video of Pickleball action. (Not our league)
YOUR TURN:What do you think? Is Pickleball a game you’d like to play?
One of the question authors are most frequently asked is where do ideas come from.
Today, I’ll be sharing the background behind Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise. These two books tell the love story of Alex (Ace) Cabot and Lily Reed Johnson.
Though not a series in the true sense of a book series, Love in the Morning Calm is the Prequel and tells how Lily and Ace met and fell in love. The Pendant’s Promise picks up the story twenty years later.
The idea for Lily and Ace’s story came from my personal experience at Eighth Army Headquarters in South Korea. What was I doing in South Korea at Eighth Army?
That’s a story in itself.
My husband is a retired Army Reserve officer. He completed R.O.T.C. during college and at the height of Vietnam War received his commission when he graduated.
With a military background – my father was an Army Air Corp officer, I was proud that my husband joined the Army Reserves…until his first unaccompanied assignment.
The thought of being stateside while he served at the Korea Procurement Agency, Eighth Army, South Korea, was not appealing.
It was so unpleasant that I sold our car, purchased airline tickets for our toddler daughter and myself, and followed him.
During our time there, I worked as a Department of Army Civilian (DAC) at Eighth Army Headquarters in G3. 
That’s why, in the story, Lily is a DAC at G3. I knew what it was like. You might recognize the picture from the cover of Love in the Morning Calm.
Both novels are fiction loosely based around Lyndon Johnson’s Southeast Asia in 1966.
The characters in Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise are figments of my imagination, but I confess they have some traits of people I met during my time at Eighth Army G3. (That tee shirt saying, watch what you say or you might end up in my novel, is actually true.)
The setting is accurate though I’m sure that Yongsan Compound has changed dramatically since we were there.
If you’re read either Love in the Morning Calm and The Pendant’s Promise, you might recognize some of these places.
The parade field in front of Headquarters, pictured here from 1966.
The PX 
The military buses
Next week, I’ll be sharing more photos of places around Seoul that I incorporated into both stories.
YOUR TURN: Do you like seeing “real” pictures to compare to what you imagined when you read books?
A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Rachel came into the house the other day saying, “Mom put some shoes on and come with me.”
I’ve learned not to question, but just go. We went into the neighbor’s yard while I tried to guess what lie ahead without asking aloud, “Is there a chicken next door?” or “Have more quail escaped?”
I followed Rachel through the fence in the back of the neighbor’s yard, and there in the corner was a little “nest” with five eggs.
It seems the younger chickens, who had just begun to lay, were unsure exactly where they were supposed to put their eggs.
We do have three very nice nest boxes complete with wood shavings, but sometimes the nest boxes are occupied so I guess the younger chicks gave up and went elsewhere.
We briefly considered giving the eggs to the neighbors as rent payment for the chicken’s use of their yard, but realized we had no idea how long they had been there and did not want to inflict rotten eggs on anyone – especially our neighbors.
This does solve the mystery of why we were getting so few eggs. We assumed it was the hot weather, but clearly, we just weren’t looking in the right place.
Silly humans forgot–chickens don’t always do what you want.
Storms.
They come in all shapes and sizes.
They’re not just about the weather.
Relationships can bring on storms.
Storms can also be about the times of stress and strain in our worlds.
Good storms like building an addition to our homes or moving to a new place.
Scary storms like a wildfire near your home.
Edie Melson shared this great graphic recently on her blog. I think St. Francis de Sales sums up the best way to address any storm, any time, any kind.
What do you consider non-weather storms in your world?
Do you have any secrets to share about weathering all kinds of storms?
The fires are dying. Firefighters are moving to other locations or going home to wait for their next assignment.
You’d think after all the drama of living in a wildfire that we’d sit back and enjoy the calm.
Nope. From one adventure to the next.
We began the garage addition to our new home that we’d planned to start in June.
The very large shovel (I have no idea what its technical name is) arrived one morning last week at 6 a.m. to start excavating.
I was so excited for two reasons.
One, the equipment meant we were actually starting what we’d talked about and planned for the last year.
Two, my son and his family were here. My two grandsons got to watch heavy equipment wipe out concrete and dirt.
Even my son was excited to be so up close to a steam shovel at work. He remembered I read Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel when he was young.
We both knew that the machine in the front yard ran on diesel not steam. For that matter, so did the entire neighborhood. Diesel exhaust stinks! And big machines are noisy.
The steam shovel in Virginia Lee Burton’s story was named Mary Anne, but our shovel looked like a male so I named him Stanley. Our driver was Steven, but he told us to call him Digger. 
Digger and Stanley worked hard for two days. Down came concrete retaining walls. Crunch went the steps to the house. Large stumps were no match for Stanley and Digger.
Even a ginormous boulder rolled into Stanley’s jaw like a fly ball to center field.
Our contractor Jeff brought his backhoe to shift dirt around, but Stanley’s wide jaws were no match for the little fella. He couldn’t keep up!
We’re excited about having a garage before the snowfalls and during the cold winter months of mountain top living in Colorado.
The lovely walkway with steps from the driveway is gone. 
But we never considered we’d trade fires in the backyard for a major hole off our front steps.
We can only enter the house through the back door by walking around mountains of dirt.
It’s going to be a long project adventure!
Have you ever began a much anticipated project and been surprised by the reality of the process you had to go through?
Another blog from Chicken Wrangler Sara
Saturday morning I went to let the chickens out and discovered this:
A giant quail or a silly chicken in with the chicks. Upon examination, I determined it was the latter.
The day before I noticed the cage door in the roof was open, but since this is the cage that requires a step up to reach, I’d left it open. Oops.
A group of hens roost on top of this cage at night and apparently, this hen had fallen in.
I was headed to help with a garage sale at my school and so I didn’t have time to figure out how to get the chicken out. I left her there hoping she would not die of a heart attack.
She didn’t.
In fact, when I returned, she had managed to get out on her own.
I discovered that by using a stick, I could close the door without getting a cinder block to use as a step. Since then everyone has been where they are supposed to be.
I’m hoping that continues to be the case.
We hear a lot about how paper is being replaced and we’re a paperless society.
Here’s a great short video that proves the soothsayers are wrong.
Be patient. I promise you’ll have a good laugh.
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