Happy Veterans Day

Meet my Veteran and husband Danny. He served on the USS Kittyhawk CV-63 as ships company and the USS Carl Vinson CVN-70 where he was attached to Air Anti-Submarine Squadron VS-29. 

You can read a story about what happened between him and our eldest son, Milton, after Danny returned from one of his cruises @

http://shannonvannatter.com/tina-pinson-real-life-romance-part-1-of-1/


While being a navy wife wasn't easy ( wives didn't come with the seabag.) I am very proud of the service my husband gave. His father and my father both served their country as did our eldest son.



Thank a Veteran today. And remember the cost that so many have paid. 

Freedom isn't free.

Black Rain Now Available

Only 99 cents @

 Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Blurb: 

Joseph dreams of a life beyond the cold, black world of coal he and his family live in. Blackness has seeped into his skin. He fights to keep it from seeping into his soul. He is fortunate to have work, and blessed to be at home with his wife Antoinette, even if home is a gray patch town in the Kentucky hills. But the war between the states threatens to strip that away too. He presses on providing for his family, but tragedy strikes, leaving Joseph to wonder if there is life beyond the Black Rain and whether he has the faith to dream again.

From Review by Mama of Angels

..The story of their family intrigued me from the beginning. I felt every emotion and by the end of it, I was crying, in a good way. I have never read a fictional book that has affected every emotion in me before. I did not want the story to end and I look forward to reading more about Joseph and Antoinette!!

Excerpt

The Coal Fields of Kentucky

September 1863

"Don't you be dying on me, Nette. I don't want to be living with out ya," Joseph Abernathy McCormick whispered as he bathed his wife's face and neck with a cool cloth and laid the rag back in the bowl of water. He smoothed her sticky hair from her face and gulped when he felt the heat beneath his fingers. She was warm. So warm. "Oh, God. Please don't--"

He couldn't finish the words. Didn't want to think them. They clung to his thoughts. His wife was sick as was his son, and some in the patch had already died from the illness.

He sucked a breath and sat back, trying to keep his eyes on his wife, but long hours in the mines and long hours sitting up with Nette took their toll. His lids grew heavy.

He could close them for just a moment. Just a moment.

"Joseph. Mr. McCormick."

The touch of a whisper buzzed in his head. He opened his eyes and, after a few blinks, a woman came into view.

"Muriel? Something wrong? Is Nette--" He licked his lips and started out of his chair.

"No, your wife is fine." The woman put her hand to his shoulder to stop him. "I just come to sit with her and the boy so you can go get some rest."

Joseph looked at his wife lying there. She looked so serene he didn't want to go. But Muriel was right. He needed his rest. He couldn't burn the candle at both ends and expect not to get burned.

He felt little better than a man crawling out from under a rock when the whistle sounded the next morning rousing the shift for work. A touch of sleep didn't go as far as they claimed. He just hoped it would get him through the day. He dressed and went to see about his wife.

"You'll be pleased to know their fevers broke finally," Muriel informed him before he slipped into see his room.

"Thank you," he told her with a nod.

"Don't be thankin' me." Muriel smiled. "I believe the Good Lord heard our prayers."

Joseph returned her smile and gave another nod before he stepped in with his wife.

He slipped to the chair near the bed, studying Antoinette, and his sixteen-month-old son and namesake, Joseph -- Joey. Antoinette held their little boy close and let him suckle as she lay back and closed her eyes. Joseph should leave and let her rest. After a couple of nights with a sick boy and her ailing herself, she deserved it, but he couldn't move. He couldn't tear his gaze from his wife and son.

The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman

About the book:

How far would YOU go to avenge a daughter’s cruel death? Cara is considered rebellious and inappropriate to befriend. Dayne is the apple of Elder Simmons’ eye—until he takes a stand against their teachings. Can his prayers and love reach Cara and show her the way to redemption? Will Cara realize God’s love and forgiveness before she goes too far?

The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman is a novel of hope shining through the darkness with strong elements of suspense and romance. This novel was a semifinalist in the Genesis contest. Release date is September 30, 2013 from the Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, an ACFW approved publisher.

Link to buy the book:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1938499948/

Excerpt

Twenty years earlier

The shadow creatures on the wall shook their wings and legs. Heads with horns nodded. Scary, dark faces watched.

The little girl clasped her floppy-eared rabbit against her chest and stared into the dark.

“Mmm …” Mommy’s murmur reached to her through the walls, and the giggles from her mother tiptoed in, shooing the fear away.

Whoosh. She blew out a breath and squeezed her rabbit tighter. “Mommy has a friend with her, Ramsey. She loves me just like I love you and will give me hugs in the morning after the man leaves.”

Ramsey said nothing. She ran her fingers over his face and could feel his black button eyes staring at her, trusting her to protect him.

“And she’ll read to us and I’ll sit on her lap and we’ll snuggle—all of us together.” She nodded and tugged on Ramsey’s left ear then rolled over.

Real live whispers and laughter floated into the room.

Opening her mouth in a wide yawn, she patted Ramsey’s tummy and whispered again, “Don’t be afraid. I’m right here.”

“Please. That hurts.”

“Mommy?” The little girl frowned but her eyes wouldn’t open. Just like they did when she and mommy put cucumbers slices on their eyes. 

“Stop it—”

             Rubbing at her eyes the little girl sat up. Mommy had never sounded like this before, and neither had any of the men—the men who brought flowers and candy and money. 

Carole Brown’s debut novel is entitled The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman. Besides being a member and active participant of many writing groups, she enjoys mentoring beginning writers. She loves to weave suspense and tough topics into her books, along with a touch of romance and whimsy, and is always on the lookout for outstanding titles and catchy ideas. She and her husband reside in SE Ohio but have ministered and counseled nationally and internationally. Together, they enjoy their grandsons, traveling, gardening, good food, the simple life, and did she mention their grandsons?

Personal blog: http://sunnebnkwrtr.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaroleBrown.author

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/browncarole212

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sunnywrtr/boards/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5237997-carole-brown

I also am part of several other blogs:

Geezers Guys and Gals:  http://geezerguysandgals.blogspot.com/

Stitches in Time:  http://stitchesthrutime.blogspot.com/

Barn Door Book Loft: http://www.barndoorbookloft.net/

Then There Was Grace

Coming September 1st

Adam was ready to live without Grace, until he lost her. 

He thought he didn't deserve grace then it found him.

Blurb

Bored, Adam prepares to divorce, Grace, his wife of seven years. Then Grace is killed in a terrorist attack, leaving him to raise their three-year-old twins, Faith and Hope. The girls have no idea the world's gone crazy, they just want their mother home. Adam isn't sure how to tell them she's gone. How can he, when he's not sure what really happened? When he doesn't want to believe it himself?

Grace's family and Adam's brother come to help, but Adam hesitates to open up to them. Their care only magnifies his loss. His guilt. If Grace would come home, he'd be a better husband. Father. Anything to stop the guilt ravaging his soul. But the more he uncovers about Grace, and her love, the more broken he becomes. Adam is a man with no heart. A man with no faith. A man with no God. Then there was grace.

Enjoy this excerpt

Adam didn't answer, but she wouldn't let that dim her mood. She left him a message and made plans to call him later.

     She was passing the 80^th floor when Aimee called to tell her she was on her way. Oh well, she would wait.

     "It is a beautiful day," she told herself with a sigh. "And cold," she decided standing on the observation deck a few moments later. She pulled her coat collar up her neck to her ears and stared out at the world around her. Here she was above the concrete, steel, and glass.

     Here she could see forever.

     Well, a couple of states perhaps.

     There was no congestion. That was far below her, the cars moved along like ants now.

God had made a glorious day. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and turning her face to the sun, let her worries slide away.

     "Thank you," she whispered. She stood there in the quiet for a moment then opened her eyes and pulled out her cell phone to check the time. When her sister, Aimee, arrived they could get on with enjoying the rest of the excursion together. Then they would have to go back to the world. Back to her brother, who lay in the hospital recuperating from a stem-cell transplant, and back to Denver, where Adam and her daughters waited.

      Grace flipped open her phone and began to punch in Adam's number, when a huge blast disrupted the stillness of morning. She grabbed for the bars of the railing surrounding the deck, dropping her cell as the floor on which she stood swayed.

      "Earthquake," one of the visitors on the floor yelled and moved himself and his family to the doors where they huddled until the quaking stopped.

      The ground beneath her settled, Grace picked up her phone and listened. Save for the distant sounds from the traffic below, there was quiet. She looked at the world in the chasm between the buildings, it seemed to move along in its ordinary flow. There were no accidents, or emergency vehicles coming down the road with lights flashing.

      Perhaps it was an earthquake, after all. She'd heard they sounded like approaching freight trains. If so, there could be another. Tall buildings and tremors didn't mix for her, she wanted off this ride. Grabbing her case, she tugged the strap of her purse on her shoulder and headed for the door when the quiet was felled by another huge blast. The tower rocked left then tossed right. 

      Grace managed to keep her balance, but now, unwilling to get in the elevator she looked for the stairs, noting several of the other observers already headed that way as she started to follow. She froze in her spot when the shrill blast of sirens sliced the morning air sending the chill clean to her bones.