M. Jean Pike's Blog, page 42

A few thoughts on neighbors…

Good neighbors are worth their weight in gold. Seriously.

When I looked at my house, four summers ago, I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. Of course I knew that storing my lawnmower in the cellar would be inconvenient, considering my setup.

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But that was a little thing, and I figured I could just get a shed. Everybody’s got one, right?

After one summer of lugging the mower up and down the cellar hill, I started pricing storage sheds. I visited lots that were overwhelming with the sheer volume of sheds they offered. I even looked at Amish made sheds. The cost was more than I anticipated and much more than I could do, so I decided to save up for another year.

The next summer, I had to put on a new roof, and a storage shed was more out of my reach than ever. Even the Rubbermaid sheds at Lowes and Home Depot were more than I could afford. And the cellar hill was killing my back! All I could do was pray.

I mean that seriously.

Since I’ve been alone, I have learned to rely on God for everything, both big and small. And He has never once let me down. But that’s a post for another day.

A few weeks ago, I saw a shed listed for sale for $50. I jumped at the chance to buy it, because I had seen the same shed at Lowes for ten times that price. Yesterday, the people delivered it.

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They delivered it in pieces, but at least I finally had a shed. And how hard could it be to assemble it, anyway? As I said before, I didn’t have a clue what I didn’t know.

When I bought this house, I knew some things about it weren’t perfect, but I also knew a lot of things were — at least, perfect for me. God had provided a charming little cottage at a price I could afford. What I didn’t know was that the cottage was surrounded by the most wonderful people on earth. My neighbors are the kinds of people who would do anything for anyone. I really believe that.

They have brought in my mail, mowed my lawn, and brought me desert for no reason. They have helped me move furniture and pumped out my basement when it flooded. Today one of them spent this whole beautiful day assembling my new storage shed.

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I know it’s just a shed, but I’m feeling very thankful today.

I don’t know what I would do without my amazing God who cares about the little things.

I don’t know what I would do without my neighbors.

To Sell or Not to Sell…

In the grand scheme of things, this is tiny. It’s not even worth the time it will take to organize my thoughts and write them down. But as a novelist, I’m insanely curious about human nature and why people behave the way they do. Or should I say, misbehave? If you can help me out here, please do. Because I can’t think of a single good reason that people would do something so pointless.

A few weeks ago I was listening to the radio program of a popular finance guru. He made some good suggestions for ways of paying down debt. One suggestion was to sell some of the things that take up space in your home without paying “rent,” things you don’t have a use for, and put the money toward a car or credit card payment. It made sense, because I have tenants like that. We all do.

I went through the house and came up with my first two items: a gas grill that I obtained used and never once grilled anything on,

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and a large dog crate that Emma outgrew months ago.

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I dusted off the cobwebs, took pictures, and posted the items on a local Buy-Sell-Trade page. Within a day, my inbox blew up with responses, dozens of messages all asking the same question:  Is this item still available? I typed yes, and hit send. Again. And again. And again. And then… nothing. But that’s not even the annoying part.

After a few days with no real takers I reduced my already low prices. No less than five people contacted me to arrange for pickup. The dog crate is big and bulky, but I dutifully folded it up and carted it to the Big Lots parking lot to meet the prospective buyer. He never showed up. I carted it back home. The next day, I wheeled the grill up from the basement for a woman who had to have it. She never showed up. This scenario played out four times, twice for each item, before a woman finally came and bought the crate. I haven’t been stood up that many times since I was in high school 

Haiku

It seems like everything has its own day now, doesn’t it?  Since today is National Haiku Day, we thought it might be fun for our third and fourth graders to try their hands at creating some of these wonderful little poems. Since they tend to spend a lot of time on their writing projects, and tomorrow we are moving on to informative essays, I whipped this little Haiku up as a model to show them that it doesn’t have to take all day (lol). I myself am guilty. I tend to take forever with my writing projects, so I was pretty happy with this spur of the moment burst of inspiration!

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Cold

Spring abandons us

Frigid sky rains sleet and snow

Cold, cold April day.

 

 

 

A Few Thoughts on Setting

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After four years, I’m still a relative newcomer here. Some of the foods seem strange to me. Some of the words and phrases sound like a foreign language. But while I’m still finding my footing in my new state, I realize there’s an awful lot to love.

So when it came to creating a setting for my new novel, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it would be set in Southern Ohio.

Just a disclaimer — the novel is not set in the city I live in. It’s not set in any specific small Ohio city. And yet, it is set in all of them.

When Frankie Bonetti relocates to Port Arthur, Ohio, she discovers many things that delight her; down-home family diners and cute shops to poke around in. She finds beautiful churches, and places to get amazing cups of coffee. Her new Main Street is charming, complete with a renovated 1930s theater.

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As she settles into her fixer upper, she finds that people are neighborly in Port Arthur. They are the kind of people who bring each other hot meals and sometimes kittens. They are loyal beyond belief to their sports teams. And while they have their differences, there is a prevailing sense that they are all in it together.

While the same can be said for small cities all across the nation, there’s something about Ohio that just seems so All-American. Far from the perfect town, Port Arthur represents every town, and the struggles of its people are the struggles of people everywhere. Frankie’s old house is my old house, and it’s your old house, too.

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As strange as it may seem, fictional people and their towns have to be more real than those in real life. So in striving to create a real story with real people, I needed a real setting.

And life doesn’t get much more real than here.

 

National Pet Day

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Happy National Pet Day from us to you!

Bird Crazy

I love birds, don’t you?

Back in Western New York, I live on five wooded acres, complete with a creek that ran all the way to the Genesee River. It was a gateway for nature, and my world was filled with birds. I liked to sit on my back deck and watch them fishing for their supper in the creek: Blue Herons, Kingfishers, even an occasional owl. I bought a bird book to help me identify some of the gorgeous, colorful birds I was seeing. I put up nest boxes and had the joy of watching dozens of clutches of bluebirds hatch and fledge.

When I moved out of state and bought a little cottage in town, I really missed my birds. I put up feeders and filled them with good quality seed. I soon had cardinals and finches and bluejays, but how I missed the cedar waxwings and the indigo buntings and the bluebirds.

After a couple of years I started to really notice the robins building nests in my apple tree. I noticed the wrens with their delightful, trilling songs. I noticed the graceful flights of tree swallows as they danced through the sky as if with fairy wings. I bought a handmade birdhouse at a flee market and planted a little garden spot.

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To my utter amazement, it attracted a blue bird!

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Unfortunately, she abandoned it after the first hard rain, so I knew my flee market find must have structural issues! Last week I bought a cute bluebird house. I took down the flee market bird house and put up the new one.

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We had an unexpected April snowfall in the night, and this morning I looked out to see that this little tree swallow had staked a claim! Not a bluebird, but still, I hope she’ll stay. I’m learning to appreciate even the common, everyday birds, and I’m looking forward to a good season of birding, no matter what kind of bird babies they are!

April Showers…

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I could sure do without any more rain for awhile, but I do love that all the recent rain  brought out my spring flowers! I planted 72 bulbs last fall, mixes of multicolored tulips and daffodils. It looks like most of them are going to come up!

Last spring I drove past a home in Circleville that had such a lovely explosion of spring flowers out front that I had to drive around the block for a second look. That’s my goal for my rock wall garden some day. I want people to drive around the block

A few thoughts on color…

When I bought my fixer upper four years ago, it was a very colorful house. The previous occupant’s personality came shining through in every room.

The guest bedroom was purple. One wall in the master bedroom was crimson. The living room walls were cave brown and the walk in closet was peachy beige.

Color is a wonderful thing, but these choices were definitely not me. When I moved in I painted every room country white, and waited for the house to tell me what colors it wanted its rooms to be. Does that sound crazy?

I’m not sure if it was the house talking or the fact that I’ve always love a red kitchen, but within three months my dated kitchen cabinets were cranberry, the ho-hum hardware updated to shiny black porcelain knobs.

The living room stayed white until just recently. I love the look of an exposed brick wall, but the real thing was a little out of my reach financially. This winter I achieved the look with a faux whitewashed brick wallpaper. I loved the hints of soft gray that popped out once the accent wall was done, so I matched the color and painted the other three walls Gray Frost. It’s lovely and soothing, and I wish I had done it sooner.

It’s no surprise that when Frankie Bonetti, the heroine in my current work in progress, bought her fixer upper she painted the living room Gray Frost.

After all, she loves what I love. And that’s one of the things I love most about her!

 

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Shadow Lake Released Today!

My new contemporary romance, Shadow Lake, was released today from Black Lyon Publishing!

They weren’t looking for love … So love found them

Sexy campground owner Shane Lucy needs summer help. Divorced and raising a teenaged son alone, the idea of finding love is the last thing on his mind. Yet there’s something sincere and kind about lovely Emma, something genuine unlike anything he’s encountered before.

Emma Beckman is trying to pick up the threads of her unraveled life. Recently widowed, she ventures into Shadow Lake for the prospect of tranquility and a new summer job. But her new boss is a prospect all his own. – a magical, beautiful prospect …
Of love on the lake.

www.blacklyonpublishing.com
Coming soon to Amazon.com!