In these times when the world is a mess, when I’m hardly able to write, when I can’t make daily trips to the ocean to get my world back in order and I’m not even painting much, the one thing I can still depend on is music.

Whether I need peace, need simple pleasure, need to wallow in self-pity, or need to boot my butt out of the chair and away from the computer, I can depend on music to do the job for me.

And I’m forever grateful to a wide range of artists–people, simple humans I have never met–who somehow manage to touch my soul.

Among a very long list of favorites are The Pentatonix, Il Divo, Streisand, Adele, Jennifer Nettles, Lady Gaga, Pink, Carole King, Bee Gees, Roberta Flack, Johnny Reid and many more.

Some of my favorite songs are: Sounds of Silence, Hallelujah, Imagine, Believe, Stay…

Here are a few encouraging #SundayLines provided by our #WordbyWord authors with the theme WHEN YOU’RE READY TO BE INSPIRED and ideas for finding solitude, a voice, new ideas or maybe a purpose.

Interested in learning more? Click on the pictures below to gain more insight about each author.

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I read all genres but when writing I read in my genre. It helps to keep me focused.

Marian Lanouette

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“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” ~ Albert Camus

Sharon Wray

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Take a walk in the forest and listen to the silence. Before you know it you’ll be thinking up ….

Pat Amsden

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The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have. ~ Vince Lombardi

Jacquie Biggar

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We’re always unbecoming, and becoming, so look forward, not back.

Kathryn Jane

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I’m so happy about the new direction this blog has taken, and we’re all working hard behind the scenes to make this a place of beauty and courage and perseverance. One of the things we’re all passionate about is literacy. So, with that in mind, I’m posting my bi-annual reading list for preteen and teen readers: 2020 Mid-Summer Middle Grade & Young Adult Book List

As I’ve mentioned before, this is NOT a best-seller or new release list. A few of the books on this summer’s list won’t be released until early fall while others were published more than five years ago but only recently discovered. This is an ongoing, cumulative list of books the kids in my reading army have read that is updated twice a year.

We’ve all worked hard this year to read new-to-us authors and to search for books outside our comfort zones. With so many…

Gardening is Good for Your Health!

Even though we’re going through an unprecedented time, there are ways to enrich your mental and physical health.

Growing your own garden is beneficial to your well-being.

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Fruits and vegetables picked fresh from the vine taste better, are nutritious, and gives intense satisfaction. You don’t need a lot of room to create a good food forest.

This is a 4×4 ft bed. It is home to a tree with five different varieties of apples, a peach tree, sage, oregano, thyme, lavender, strawberries, and blueberries.

The trick is to fertilize every two weeks and water regularly- not too hard, right?

This strawberry square is made with fresh berries from my yard.

Even if you don’t have room for a small garden, there are community plots in most cities. Caring for your own plants feeds your soul and is a healthy decision for your family…

By Kathryn Jane

“In times of change, we can resist, or we can pull up our bloomers and get with the program–because change is gonna happen whether we like it or not.”

With the world around us changing at a terrifying pace, we have decided to stop floating along with the current, and start swimming.

Who are we?

Ten authors, originally part of a group of eighteen who created the Sisterhood of Suspense for the sole purpose of sharing our romantic suspense books with readers.

Over the last few years, most of us drifted away from romantic suspense and posting on our blog became sporadic… so we had a meeting.

Turns out, even though we now publish in many different genres, we still have some very powerful stuff in common. The most important being our desire to help others, and from this an idea was born.

We’re changing direction…

by Kathryn Jane

The creative process is different for all of us. But I’ve recently realized that mine is magically the same whether I’m writing fiction, or painting a picture.

When I’m writing a story be it short or a novel, it begins with a vague image of an opening scene, and the story grows one word at a time. Some people find this hard to fathom and describing it adequately has been difficult. The closest I get is to say the story unfolds for me, just as it does for the reader…like magic.

Painting works the same way for me…mostly. The exception being when I do commissions of people’s pets. But even then, I can’t think about the finished product. Instead I concentrate on one stroke at a time and somehow in the end, I have a remarkable likeness that amazes me.

But recently, after seeing a friend’s photo…

by Kathryn Jane

Something we all, yep ALL, need to pay attention to no matter what our circumstances, is self-care.

We live in a world brimming with information, watching bad news from around the world, and being exposed to a great deal of negativity minute by minute. In some ways this is good as we can see that in the grand scheme of things, a roof over our heads and food on our tables puts us among the fortunate.

Still, there is pressure. Pressure to be the best we can be at our jobs, and within our families. Employers and family need us, depend on us in every possible way. We can’t let them down. But apparently, we are letting ourselves down.

We stay late at work without extra pay, we stay up long past bedtime doing laundry, and we get up earlier than the rest so we can prep…

by Kathryn Jane

I disagree with lots of what goes by me on FB.

But instead of lashing out, shaking a finger or fist, unfriending or blocking, I sit back and wonder…

Why is this person’s opinion so different from mine?

How can she not see what I see?

Why does she not think like I think?

How can she be so wrong?

That’s when I stop and regroup.

That’s when I suddenly wonder if that person has the same reaction to what I post?

What if she thinks my opinion is way off the wall. My beliefs are out in left field.

What if she decides to unfriend me because my view of the world is so obviously different than the view she has?

Then I smile, thinking about the things we have in common. Things that have nothing to do with our religious or political beliefs…