Sheri L. Swift's Blog

 

Nothing like an early Spring to make you shake off the frost and head outside to see those early morning rays of the Sun.

Things pretty much remain green here in the Blue Ridge with the Pines and Grasses.  The Oak, Maple, Poplar and Dogwoods remain bare for a little longer.

Looking forward to completing my fourth in the Legend of the Mer series.

Thank you for being patient with me while I finish Will's story.

Happy Spring 💮

Song of the Coyotes 

Each night I lay my head down

Deep in the Winter chill

I hear a sound beginning which starts as a lonely shrill

It soon becomes a song with a high pitched two-tone

A few join in to say you're not alone

Several more add their voices high and strong

Now all the woods are singing the Coyotes song

It's a sweet sound to me and soon I drift off with the tune

I dream of them singing together beneath the Winter moon

The Coyotes are Guardians of the highest ridge top

May their wild song continue and never stop

I pray God will keep them safe and forever free

May they always sing their Coyotes song to others and to me 

- Sheri L. Swift

 

Winter Musings
Some days are ordinarySome extraordinarySome bleakSome spectacularI suppose life is like thatYou never know what to expectJust when I think the sun is goneAnd the spark with itComes a new snow dayWith it's soft billowy snowflakesSome days it's quietExcept for the laughter of childrenSome nights are filled with mistAll the worlds asleepOther nights the storm ragesWith whipping windThe torrents of ice mixed inBangs hard against my windowAnd I'm awakeI prayI sleepA new day dawns How marvelous it is
- Sheri L. Swift

 

Choosing Joy

I've learned in my nearly 60 years that joy is a choice sometimes rather it be during an every day occurrence or a Holiday.

It's been a rough year for me, in fact a few.  I've been tired without knowing exactly the reason and times of extreme pain.

I discovered I had a tumor recently which was removed and it had a lot to do with my illnesses.

My firstborn daughter and family moved to VA nearer where I live. We got to spend Christmas for the first time with my Son-in-love and two Grandsons.

We had Christmas early this year so everyone of us could be a part of it and a few new friends as well.

Something amazing happens when I'm with my kids and grands.  I choose joy and everything else seems to disappear for awhile. 

I don't know what the future holds but I'm spending this new energy writing as much as I can. 

Pray you have the very best Christmas and a joyful season ;) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoax (Amelia Island Suspense Book2)

HOAX

Soon-to-be bride, Lacey Campbell, discovers a secret just days before her wedding causing her to doubt everything she's always believed about her family.

When her strange premonitory dreams begin again - visions of snarling canines and dangerous Inuit Knives - past experience tells her that danger isn't far behind.  With her police-chief fiancé, Ford Jamison, she struggles to preserve her famous grandfather's legacy while searching for a possible claimant to his estate.

As she pursues the truth, she risks losing everything - her future with Ford, her precious restaurant, Black Pearl and even her life.  Can she escape the peril, outwit her hidden adversary, and reveal the biggest Hoax of all?

  By Leanna Sain

My Author friend Leanna Sain is at it again with her 2nd book in the Amelia Island Suspense.  Can't wait to check this one out.  Amazon is taking preorders now with a release date of November 16th.

 

What a year this has been.  The thing which took the wind out of my sails was my youngest daughter above and little granddaughter were in a terrible accident in January 2020.

Each were in separate hospitals with serious injuries.  I did a lot of praying.

My little granddaughter liked to help take my Christmas decorations down.  I promised her in the hospital I would keep my artificial tree up till she could come next.

Little did I know it would be months before that happened.  I was so thankful each had healed completely.

In the end we all laughed and decided to put a sheet over it and enjoy it again the next year.

My grandsons thought it rather ghostly on Halloween.

As soon as they all left I promptly removed the sheet and it was Christmas once more.

The photo above was taken about that time.

Thank you God :)

The other day like always I picked some of the blue Hydrangeas growing in my garden for my 4th of July table.
I especially planted blue Hydrangeas some 20 years ago in memory of my Grandpa McLain.  He always had them in his front yard.
From my earliest memory of him I couldn't wait for him to walk in the front door.  Some days I ran into the yard as he got out of his car.
The reason being from the moment he grabbed me up he would twirl me around in the air or by hand on the floor.
I felt as if he were Fred Astaire and I Ginger Rogers dancing away in perfect step.
He made me smile, he made me laugh.
He always had a dance in his step and a kindness to everyone he met. No one was a stranger to him.
It's his bright smile and a tune he whistled all the day long I will also never forget.
The Hydrangeas with their pom pom shapes remind me of Grandpa cheering me on, "You got it Kid."  ;)

Sweetheart surprised me with a new Christmas stocking this year.  He knows I'm a Mermaid girl.
After a back injury this past summer I've been away from the computer.  I only have two weeks left of physical therapy and then back at it.
I think I've got the best job in the world.  When I write I get to travel with the Mer and their extended family.
In the fourth Legend of the Mer things are hard for Will.  He's always been different in the way of sensing things deeper and hearing all of the pod, not just his family's thoughts.
Wills not sure he can keep his family's secret or even keep his sanity.  Somethings got to change....
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and the best of New Years! 

Hush – by Leanna Sain
She dreams a murder before it happens.A young woman is strangled while her killer sings the words from the lullaby “Hush, Little Baby.”Lacey Campbell’s life is full, but not idyllic. As head chef for a chic restaurant and primary caregiver to a mother with Alzheimer’s, she doesn’t have time for the nightmare and at first she tries to deny it. But the next day, she discovers it's a disturbing reality. When she dreams the second heinous murder she knows it’s time to tell the police.Detective Ford Jamison is called back to the little coastal town to help with the case and soon notices an alarming trend: the killer is using the lullaby as a “blueprint” to target women who resemble Lacey. This doesn’t slow the killings and now Lacey is afraid to fall asleep at night because the next face she sees in her dream might be her own.As a hurricane churns ever closer to the little coastal town, danger and suspicion spin out of control. Time is running out. Can they stop the killer before the last verse of the lullaby?


~~~

I got reconnected with this local author recently.  She weaves quite a suspenseful tale and can't wait for this new one.  She graciously answered these questions for my blog:
1.      When did you decide to become a writer? In other words, what made you actually sit down and write something? A Halloween party was the catalyst. We were at a friend’s house—a recently purchased, 100 yr. old farm—and after supper we hiked out to a spooky cemetery. It was the perfect Halloween scenario, complete with the big full moon. On the way back my flashlight glanced over to the right and spotlighted an old wooden gate. While one sort of expects gates at a farm, this one was hardly ordinary. There was no fence—just a gate—sitting all by itself at the edge of a pasture. “Um, Lisa? Why is there a gate with no fence?” I asked my friend.  “Dunno. It was like that when we bought the place.”  “Dum, dum, duuuum,” I sang in my scariest voice in an effort to maintain the Halloween spirit.   “The gate to nowhere.”We both laughed, then she said, “That sounds like the name of a book.”  “Yeah, it kind of does, doesn’t it.”  “Why don’t you write it?”  “Hmm,” I replied, my mind suddenly taking the idea and running. “Maybe I will.” And that was the story seed for my trilogy: Gate to Nowhere; Return to Nowhere; and Magnolia Blossoms.
2.      Every writer is eventually asked this question, but where do your ideas come from? I call them “story seeds,” and they can come from anywhere. I keep a little notebook in my purse to jot down whenever something strikes me. Those get added to a Word document on my laptop. Right now the list of story ideas is so long, I’ll have to live forever to get them all written.
3.      Why do you write what you do?It’s what I like to read. I love a good edge-of-your-seat story with a dash of history and sometimes a touch of magic realism stirred in. And a love story…there must be a love story.
4.      What is the hardest thing about the creative process of writing? Having enough time to get it all done. I don’t have a problem with the actual writing. It’s the “marketing part” that gives me fits.
5.      If you’re a Christian, what are the challenges you believe Christian writers face now and in the future? I’ve heard a Christian man—a Sunday school teacher, no less—say you have to include the sex, and bad language if you want to sell books. That comment floored me! I disagree. For a Christian, your writing is part of your testimony. And I think people are desperately looking for books and TV shows that don’t include all that. The problem is they’re hard to find. I’m doing what I can to remedy that.
6.      If you would, please tell us what was the hardest thing about writing your last book? My latest book, entitled Hush, is different that the rest of my book. I wrote it while watching my mother struggle through the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease. I used the writing as a sort of therapy, a way to get rid of some of the hard emotions I was dealing with. As a result, this book is a little edgier than my others. I created a minor character suffering with the disease, which allowed me to weave some of the things my mother said and did right into the story. I dedicated the book to Mama to honor her, but that didn’t seem to be enough, so I decided to donate half of what I make on sales to Alzheimer’s research. There’s not a cure for this horrible disease and there’s a 100% mortality rate. We need to find a cure. 
7.   What are you reading now, and who are a few of your favorite authors and why?Sue Grafton: I love how her mind worked. Amazing mysteries. I hate that she never got to finish her “Z” book. Sarah Addison Allen: I love the magic realism she weaves through her stories. Frank Peretti: What a great story teller. Ted Dekker: consistently able to produce those “edge-of-your-seat” books I mentioned earlier.
I hope everyone will check it out and how awesome you're donating half to Alzheimer's research.
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Leanna Sain, earned her BA from the University of South Carolina, before moving back to mountains of western NC. Her Southern suspense or “GRIT-lit,” showcases her plot-driven method that successfully rolls elements of best-selling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Nicholas Sparks, and Jan Karon all together, making it her own. She loves leading discussion groups and book clubs. For more information or to contact her, visit: www.LeannaSain.com
Buy Link: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hush-Leanna-Sain/dp/1645262502/ref=sr_1_1?
Social media links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeannasbooksTwitter: Leanna Sain@LeannasbooksWebsite and blog:  http://leannasain.comGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/LeannaSain

The Autumn Dance
The trees know when the time is nearThe breezes change from warm to coldThere is a rustling in the windAn ancient ritual long been toldThe leaves clap with overwhelming gleeFor their purpose has become clearTheir array of colors are gold, orange and redsIt is now the Autumn of the yearFrom mountain tops to nestled valleysThe wind sweeps across and downIn late amber sun, freezing rain or snowThe multi colored leaves can be foundThe leaves know the time has comeThey let go and take a chanceThat they may fulfill their purposeAnd join in the Autumn Dance
- Sheri L. Swift