Susan Lower's Blog, page 11

Meet Local Authors

I know it’s not my usual Friday post. It’s Thursday, but I wanted to give you all the heads up so you all have enough time to plan accordingly.

I know this summer has been flying by and your schedules are filled up with back-to-school activities and getting back on track after all that travel. Or you may just been resting and staying in the cool from all this hot weather we’ve had in Pennsylvania.

It’s been a hot month, there is no denying it.

With that being said, I don’t want you to miss out on meeting some amazing authors that will be gathering on Saturday (August 29th, 2015) at Memorial Park in Watsontown PA.

Some of your kids have already started back to school, some don’t start till Monday. I get that. All I’m asking is that you pencil in an hour or so and stop by the park. You don’t want to miss this opportunity. It’s not everyday that you’re able to go out and meet so many great local authors at the same time.

Authors attending are:

Carrie Noble – 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Winner for Young Adult Fiction

Roberta Brosius – Young adult

Roberta Gore – Young Adult / Speculative Fiction

Joanne Brokaw – Humor

Tonya Wilhelm – Children

Susan Lower (me) – New Adult/ Romance

Brenda Hendricks – Children

Sue Fairchild – Chicken Soup for the Soul

Michelle Lazurek – Non-Fiction

Julie Landau – Adult Fiction

and a few others. Check out the book fest page at www.westbranchchristianwriters.com

While you’re there get a message, have your face painted, grab a snack or just come and say howdy!!

Got questions you’ve always wanted to ask an author?

Need to get your book signed?

That’s what this day is all about.

I hope to see you all there!!!

 

Legacy’s Worth Leaving

A few nights ago, I sat watching Cake Wars. A man who had always had been an auto mechanic was competing against other cake artist for the grand prize money and have their cake be part of a celebrity event. Not only did this guy change his life’s ambition and mentor this to his children, he won the competition!! I almost feel off the couch when I did that whole fist pump thing in “YES!” that I’d been routing for him to win.

Which makes me believe even more that the legacy we pass on to our children is more than a trade or a job, but a way of life. It’s a way of putting people and passions first. While there is always a sense of duty to family and sense of doing what is right, it’s going above footsteps and creating new foot falls to lead another generation. 

 

I don’t think we stop and ponder enough the legacy we are leaving in our own lives for the generations to come. Having been raised on a dairy farm, I’ve grown up with that instillation of tradition and legacy you get, which is not at all a bad thing.

When I look at my own family, I see my father passing on not only a trade or job to my brother, but a way of life. Just like my grandfather who raised horses, passing on the love for raising animals and farming to my dad.

I guess that’s why I can’t let go of being a farm girl. It’s part of my legacy. As they say, It’s in your blood. Yet there isn’t always enough room for everyone to follow the same path and not everyone has a legacy that runs as thick as others.

So, what do you do when what you’ve been raised all your life to succeed and it’s not what you desire? Or maybe it is but you weren’t the chosen one to inherit it?

 

I hadn’t thought of this before, but as I think of Kati’s story in THE FRUITCAKE BRIDE, she has pretty much taken the inheritance of her mother and made with it what she could. It’s so important to Kati to hold on to her mother’s recipes. It is her mother’s fruitcake recipe, after all, that she bakes and shares with Adam that helps Adam see Kati not as a young girl, but his potential bride. Without holding onto the legacy of her mother’s baking, Kati may not have known any other way to secretly show her love to Adam or have the courage to stand up for what she really wanted.

See what I mean?

Confused? It’s okay. Sometimes I confuse myself. But I feel like I’m on a roll with this whole Legacy thing.

I can’t help thinking a lot of the things we pass on to our children is more than tradition. A a cake on your birthday or a kiss at the stroke of midnight, that’s tradition. Learning a skill or a trade is just a job.

A way of life, love, shared gifts with others – now that’s an inheritance and no one has to wait till someone leaves this earth to receive it. That’s a legacy to me worth leaving.

Maybe I’m wrong. What do you think? What does “legacy” mean to you?

Which ones do you think are worth leaving?

 

A New Kid on the Farm

She’s too young to be without a mother. By the tags in her ears she had been passed from one auction to another. That is until she arrived one Wednesday in the auction ring in the community of Bellville.

He wasn’t looking for another mouth to feed. He wasn’t looking for a kid, and an orphan kid at that, but he brought her home anyway.

When grandpa brought this little baby goat home, a little girl fall instantly in love with her. The kind of love only a foster mom could have for a kid. And this little girl called her little kid, Buttons.

The grass is taller than Buttons. After all, this little goat is still just a babe.

When Buttons arrived she could barley stand on her own.  Around the clock she was cared for by three kiddos and the one who brought her home. Now, she can stand. She can walk, and she can hang out with the other goats that call the farm their home.

It won’t be long before the mischief sets in.

There are four other goats, a bunch of rabbits, two dogs, and too many cows to count. However, they’re all family on the farm.

Sometimes family isn’t the ones you were born with or even blood relations, but the ones who accept you, love you, and are always there for you.

They help you get to your feet and give you the strength to stand.

 

Meet Jenny Anderson from Book 2: Unbridled

 

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Jenny Anderson, our main character in Unbridled, the second book of the Silver Wind Trilogy.

So who is Jenny Anderson?

Jenny Anderson maybe fresh out of college, but she’s not fresh out of faith. Raised in the church, Jenny often helps out with socials and leads the singles Bible study group in her church near Shelbyville, Kentucky.

How does Jenny relate to the character and from Book 1: Forgotten Reins?

Jenny is about three minutes older than her twin brother Josh, but Josh is still the taller of the two and therefore will always be her big brother.

Jenny and Josh both worked at Kingsley’s Estate the same summer with Sarah, where Jenny and Sarah became best friends, and Josh developed a crush on Sarah.

What’s Jenny’s qualifications to work at the equine clinic?

Jenny went to college and received a degree in accounting that equipped her to step in an take over the secretarial position at Micheal’s clinic. She now handles all the billing and keeping appointments and Micheal’s routes plan for the clinic to run smoothly.

What is Jenny’s favorite kind of music?

She enjoys music artist such as Franchesca Bartestilli and Toby Mac.

Out of her physical features does Jenny like best and least of herself?

Jenny has a love and hate relationship with her hair. She loves the style and hates her hair color. If you catch it in the book, her hair will change shades of red from time to time as she’s always trying to find the right shade of red that she looks best in.

Jenny’s favorite Bible verse:

Proverbs 24:14

Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it; there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

 

My Name is Inigo Montoya

Have you ever met a character in a book or a movie that is just so unforgettable?

This past weekend I enjoyed watching the the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie: On Stranger Tides. The movie came out in 2011, it was the first time I’ve seen it. ( I know, I’m catching up, but the point is….)

I love pirate moves, and one of my favorite movies is Princess Bride.

Have you seen it?

Do you know this character?

Inigo’s Montoya is on a mission. He wants to avenge his father’s death. Along the way he is side tracked and needs his friends to help lift him up and get him on his feet. In doing so, it puts him back on his path – avenge his father.

I love his character.

He’s flawed, but he’s loyal. He has heart, and we see his heart at the end. That battle where he kills the six fingered man who killed his father.

Yet, in doing so, he lets his father’s murder know who he is and his intention. “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Famous words right? A memorable line that is hard to forgot.

He says it over and over again. Why? Not for himself, but because he doesn’t want you to forgot who he is and what he is going to do.

Sometimes I think characters have the ability to become mentors to us in real life. I would hope that none of us are on the path that Inigo takes in this movie, but rather than avenge perhaps there is something else you are set out to do. What is motivating you to drive forward with you accomplishments?

We are not unlike many characters in books and movies. It’s why we love characters so much, we relate with them. They have hopes and dreams and motivations and their own problems just like we do.

At the end of the Princess Bride, Wesley (also known as the Dread Pirate Roberts) asked Inigo Montoya what he was going to do now that he’d accomplished his goal of avenging his father’s death.

To paraphrase, Inigo replies, “I hadn’t much thought about it.”

and Wesley says something like, “You know, you’d make a great Dread Pirate Roberts.”

And so, Inigo is given a new motivation and the story comes to an end.

Not every story ends, Our lives don’t end when one accomplishment is achieved, like Inigo a new opportunity comes along.

Until then we savior the scenes of good movies with irresistible characters and their words and actions that live long in our memories. And we go on to watch and wait for the next good book or movie to come along.

Which character do you relate to most and what is their motivation?

 

Hope For Your Day

One of my favorite poems is by Langston Hughes called Dreams. One of the lines of that poem is, “Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die Life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

You may recall the post a wrote some time ago about dreams, if you haven’t or would like to read it again, you can here.

Everyone has dreams. Not just the kind when you close your eyes and go to sleep, but the kind have you longing for something more, something you’re supposed to be doing. And these dreams lead to hope.

Hope – a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

 

So often I hear stories concerning young people being told they’ll never amount to anything above where they already are in life. It saddens me that in these stories parents tell their children not to expect to go to college. Never dream to be anything more than what the majority of the population is where they live.

While many of us do what our mothers and father’s did before us, because that is all we know. That is what we are comfortable with, we ignore the gifts and talents that we have been born with in order to do what is expected of us.

Hope is an expectation.

Someday, I hope to see my children graduate college, follow their hearts, and succeed in their dreams. Their dreams. Not mine, not anyone else. Theirs.

Hope is like a wishing well for many of us. It’s lowering ourselves into a place we can’t see and quenching a thirst that feels as if it will never be sated. It’s reaching deep down to where we don’t think we’ll ever touch the one thing we’re after.

But we can. All we need to hold on to our dream. As Langston Hughes poem suggest, without a dream, we can’t fly. We can’t soar, and we can’t accomplish the work we’ve been put here to accomplish. It’s the dream that gives us hope. It’s the dream that leads us to the work that brings us joy.

It’s what helps us press on during those days when nothing goes right, when a spark inside us draws us near to something, and motivates us to make it happen.

Almost thirteen years ago, I got a job working at a publishing company. Not as an editor, not as an author, but as the accounting department manager. I wasn’t even thinking about what I could do with all those stories I’d been writing while I was there. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I started writing my first novel.

The burning desire had always been there. Yet, I sat it aside because the expectations others placed on me during my youth didn’t include becoming a writer. Yet, unlike so many, I found my way. I persist and continue to hope and make it happen.

What is it that gives you hope? What is it inside you that you feel you should be doing that your not?

Some may think that time has been wasted. Yet, as I look back I think not.

Sometimes we have to experience situations, have people come into our lives, and gain knowledge before  we feel the dampness of the Hope well upon our fingertips. Reaching out is more than a distance,but a time.

Hope cannot read the face of a clock, but grasp it tightly. It is the fuel you need make your dreams happen.

Everyone needs hope. Too often we let go, but when things appear to be the worse and you are disheartened it will help you find your way.

That is why we must always have hope.

And I hope I’ve been able to give you a little of it today.

Grove City Writers’ Retreat

This past week, I escaped my usual routines to journey to Grove City, PA for the annual Saint Davids Christian Writers Conference.

I have had the privilege of serving on the board for the Saint Davids Christian Writers Association for the past six years. I go to serve.

Seven years ago, I attended my first writers conference at St. Davids. In the evening of the Literary Coffeehouse (now known as ‘Got Talent Night’), I listened to may talented authors reading poems and pieces from their books. At the time all I could think of was one day being able to stand up and do the same.

Seven years is a long time.

While I listened to most starting from the first page of their books, I started from that first moment when Sarah and Michael meet in Forgotten Reins. You know the moment, it’s in Chapter nine. And if you don’t, then I encourage you to read it.

This week, I was also blessed to have been invited to sit on website/ blogging and social media panels with well known authors such as Bob Hostetler, Cindy Sproles, David Fessends, Tracey Michea’l Lewis Giggets, and Jeanette Windell.

Please believe me when I tell you that when I tell you this is the “happiest conference on earth” it really is.

This week was both exhausting and exhilarating. The friendships I have made over the years and the people I have met have been invaluable to me.

Here I am with fellow critique partners and authors Roberta Brosius and Sue Fairchild.

I am both humbled and inspired by serving at this conference this year and in the years to come.

My spirit is renewed, my creativity is refreshed, and I am ready to write again.

May your week be blessed by the people you share it with.

 

 

10 Reasons Farm Girls Rock!

You can take the girl from the farm, but you can’t take the farm from the girl.

We farm girls are a rare breed indeed.

As you can see, someone came up with this fun recipe. Note: non of which includes sugar and spice and everything nice. While every girl has a bit of that in the mix, I’m sure, farm girls are so much more.

For fun, here are 10 ways Farm Girls Rock:

1. Don’t let the eyeliner and perfume confuse you, a farm girl can go from makeup to mud in three seconds flat.

2. Besides being beautiful, farm girls are strong willed and independent. They don’ t take no for an answer and never… ever… tell a farm girl she can’t do something because she’s a girl!

3. Farm girls work just as hard, if not harder then farm guys. They get up before the sun and are the last ones to slip under the bed covers at night.

4. Farm girls are free to roam their pastures and explore who they will become. They’re dreams are not limited to the end of the dirt road, rather they begin there.

5. Farm girls can mend fences as well as they can nurse sick calves back to health.

6. Farm girls are loyal and dependable. They don’t run when the going gets touch, but rather put on their boots and shovel the muck out.

7.  A real farm girl doesn’t care what color your tractor is just as long as you let her drive it.

8. Farm girls are creative, they can instantly think of over a dozen ways to recycle left over baler twine and fetch the best prices at market.

9. Farm girls are among the best multitask and organizers known to man. They can milk cows, grain feed, and keep track of individual cows all at the same time. Not to mention all the while waiting for their nails to dry.

10. Farm girls are among the most sought out females for marriage because they’re raised to work hard, have small town values, and honor their commitments.

Writing is an Emotional Art

First let me say I’m sorry that last week I didn’t have an opportunity to write.

As many of you know, my husband was in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago injuring his wrists. We have three kids. I almost cancelled a planned trip over the weekend, but thanks to great friends and family I’m glad I didn’t.

This past weekend, I went on an adventure and headed to the annual NJ SCBWI conference. I love this conference for many reasons, but the main one is the energy and motivation I receive from being around like minded people and listening and participating in writing workshops and socials.

This year, one of the keynote speakers was John Cusick, literary agent and bestselling author of Girl Parts and Cherry Money Baby. John closed out the conference by reminding us that as a writer was still artist. I was captivated and intrigued by his presentation for us.

Emotional art: it was the first time I’d heard that term, but it fits.

My oldest child makes art using pencil and paper. Several of my dearest friends use paints on canvas, and others use yarn to crochet and knit their art. Yet, as a writer, I use words.

I recently had a friend tell me that she was absolutely amazed with my ability to make up stories in my head. Because as a writer, I have to first picture a scene, a person, a situation in my head before I can begin to formula the words to express and show others what is going on to bring that story in my head to the minds and imaginations of others.

It’s exhausting.

I hadn’t really thought of it until John said this in his keynote, but it makes sense. After a long day of work, you come home, have supper and just want to relax and decompress from the day before you get some much deserved rest. While I don’t use any more physical means than typing, creating worlds and people in your mind talks some focusing and effort.

Think of it as daydreaming. As kids we all sat at some point in time and daydreamed. It was that boring class or that sermon in church or grown up conversations where you just didn’t want to be there and allowed yourself to imagine yourself somewhere else.

It’s so easy to do when your kid.

As a writer, I sit down each morning and ask myself, just like in a tv series, where did I leave off last time, and then instead of clicking on the next episode to watch, I have to think what happens next, play it out in my mind as my fingers incorporate into words the story that I can see and wish to share.

Writing is an art of words.

It’s an emotional art that you have to seek deep inside yourself and let out.

It makes you vulenerable.

Literally, it sucks a life right out of you. Once you start this journey, you can’t ever go back. You’re never the same afterward. And, like a little kid — you can’t wait to do it again.

So this is where I leave you this week my friends, as I’m off to write.

Donations For Horse Rescues

Everyday numerous cats and dogs are adopted from local animal shelters. We read stories of members of the human society saving animals from cruel or inhuman situations. Immediate we think of our small household pets, but big animals need saving, too.

When I started writing the Silver Wind Trilogy I didn’t know that Equine (horse) rescues existed. That was until Mandy told me her story about Prince Fox. I checked out the website of the rescue that Prince Fox came from, and read the story of the horse named Bitsy.

This story touched my heart and inspired the Silver Wind Equine Rescue in the Silver Wind Trilogy.

There are horse rescues in every state, and there are hundreds of horses being cared for and searching for new homes everywhere.

Once upon a time a man held more value in his horse than he did anything else. Horses for many centuries provided us with transportation, ‘horse power,’ and good company. Like a dog is now known as our best friend, a horse was the means of life during the time before we had cars or tractors.

Today, having a horse isn’t a necessity as much as it is a luxury, but never the less still a privilege that some take for advantage. We forget the value of these might animals, and like an old antique car there are those who believe we should view them at a zoo.

Distastefully, and in respect to other cultures, you will find horse meat on your plate in some countries. Horses don’t have split hooves, so I don’t believe we were ever meant to add them to our food pyramids.

I do believe that like the veterans of war who we honor for service, that we owe it these great animals to care for them, respect their place here on earth, and be grateful for their existence.

If I were able I would have a stable filled with horses and enough pasture to all them to run free and enjoy ‘retirement’ now that we use machines to do the work we were once blessed to have horses help us perform.

Fifteen years ago, I said goodbye to my beloved horse and hello to becoming a wife. My husband is allergic to horses (and any animal with hair, fur, or feathers.) I watched my horse walk up onto a trailer and head for her new home at a facility for therapeutic children. You would never believe that a barrel racing Quarter horse could become a therapeutic horse, but that was my mare. In our front yard she gave rides to all the neighborhood kids. She was calm and a good companion for many a trail ride beyond the ridges of our farm and through the woods. Yet, when she heard the gate close as she stepped in the ring, she was in race mode. When she came out of the ring again, one of my (then) young nephews would climb aboard and cool her off.

It is because of this horse and the many years of cherished friendship and service that when you buy any of the Silver Wind Trilogy books, a portion of the profits from the series are donated to the Appalachian Horse Help &  Rescue here in Lycoming County, PA.

I don’t mean to get ‘salesy’ here with you, but for just a few more days FORGOTTEN REINS is on sale for $3.75. When you purchase a copy of this novel you’re helping me help the horses and helping Appalachian Horse Help rescue meet the needs of their current horses and future rescues.

You can find out more about the Appalachian Horse Help & Rescue here.

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