The Town Gray Built

These days we all seem so preoccupied with getting the best deals on "Black Friday."  Funny how we seem to lose the meaning of Advent - lost in the plunder we bring home, but right now, this very minute, we should be planning for the coming of the Christ child - not how much we can spend on something we don't need.

My latest eBook reflects some of the meaning of Advent.  Odd, it didn't start out as that, but the more I read it, the more I realized this IS an Advent story.

"The Town Gray Built" began as a dream.  In fact, this IS the entire dream as it was given to me.  This has happened only twice while I have been an author.  The first was "Always Have - Always Will" and for some reason, I wasn't the writer, only the vehicle to put the message on paper.  God has a funny habit of doing these things.

"The Town Gray Built" tells the story of Mary, a young woman who has been hired to manage a store on an island off the east coast and although she's quite enthusiastic about her new assignment, she finds the task a bit more complicated than just running a store.  The town she moves to looks like something out of the Twilight Zone rather than a happy, bustling town.  The place seems to be shrouded in a gray fog that envelopes everything - and everyone.  Somehow the people of the island feel she can change that for them and Mary wonders what she's gotten herself into.  After all, she is simply one person.  What can she do?

But Mary perseveres in her new quest and this story reflects the success she hopes for.  It's a story of love, redemption and the renewal of Christmas faith.  Mary works her magic for the people of the town, called Sunshine, never thinking of herself in the process, but along the way, an unexpected blessing comes her direction and the sunshine is restored to the entire island.

Once again, "The Town Gray Built" has been published by Smashwords.com and is available now.  The story is a "short" - too long for a short story but too short for a long novel, so I kept the price at $1.99 to make it affordable for everyone (and all these books can be read on a computer - you don't need an eReader for them!).  All my ebooks come with a small price tag, too.  Don't forget these:  "Seven Doors of Time" @$4.99, "Always Have - Always Will" @$2.99 and "Good Old Uncle Norman" @$2.99.  The prices reflect the size of the book.  And of course, my fiction series in print at PublishAmerica.com with "Northwoods Forest Mystery", "Death Across the Pond", "The 'Ghost' in Bolton Hall" and "Murder and Pasta Don't Mix."  Check the publisher for all their latest special prices, as they change quite often or you can get them through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and other book retailers.  And you can check our web site for more details: http://www.thecookcompanies.com/

In this season of Advent, which we are about to enter, perhaps it's good to reflect on the true meaning of the season.  It isn't Christmas, but the prelude TO Christmas.  It isn't about giving gifts or spending money, but taking a look back at our year and seeing where we need to improve. This is a penitential season - one of great love, giving of oneself and faith.  We live in the hope of a better and brighter new year and that we may benefit from the wisdom of reflection.

Heralding Autumn

I adore September, when it rains then produces the most beautiful autumn foliage, however this year we started early, faltered and are now late.  I had hoped for one of Wisconsin's most brilliant autumn displays, but alas, not yet.

Our weather has been clear, sunny and very warm for the past ten days.  Now October, we will continue on this path for the next ten days and by the end of the next week, we should be in the 60's where we belong.  Still, I would love to see some dazzle.

You can see a bit of colour here.  This is the street up from us and it's always pretty.  People are house proud here and La Crosse is a lovely place to live, even if there are no decent jobs here.  Poor Mick has been out of work for eleven months now with nothing in sight.  And that's sad.

But looking ahead, I am in the middle of writing four new novels - all true crime.  No weddings, nothing terribly soppy, but I will be blowing things up, bumping people off, shooting weapons, etc. - the usual stuff.  One has a historical theme to it, another is contemporary with an historic twist and the other two, well, I won't give those away.  Suffice it to say, these are all under 25,000 words and will be on Smashwords.com for $2.99 each before the end of the year.  And as always, there will be a free 20% download of each new book and with Christmas coming up, Smashwords may do a special pricing, so I will opt for that as well.

And just so you don't forget, here are the books currently for sale at Smashwords.com.  You don't need an eReader to read them either.  Just select the HTML choice and you can read the books on your computer.  It's easy, fun and certainly cheaper than a movie and dinner!!

Always Have - Always Will (a Love story)
$2.99





Good Old Uncle Norman - A goofy Crime Drama, also $2.99

Seven Doors of Time

This book is a compilation of seven stories of various lengths, subjects and genre.  This book took several years to write and has over 158,000 pages in it.  Price is $4.99.

So there we are for October.  Another Blog will be coming later in the week on another topic.  My wish for you is fair weather and following seas...and beautiful Autumn colours!

Two new novels have just been published from author Karin Ficke Cook

I am so pleased to announce Good Old Uncle Norman and Always Have - Always Will (at $2.99 each) were just published by Smashwords.com and are available in all formats for your eReader and your computer.  They join Seven Doors of Time, which is a compilation of seven independent stories available at $4.99 - a higher price but for a much larger book.  As always, there is a free 20% download to try out the novels first before you buy, just to see if you like them.  "Seven" is longer, so it has a 30% free download.

Always Have - Always Will is a departure from my usual crime/mystery genre.  This is a love story about a woman whose husband has just died from injuries sustained in a car accident.  It was no one's fault - just a simple accident.  But her heart is broken and she finds it difficult to move forward in her life.

Not wanting to face her first Christmas alone, the main character Molly O'Brien, decides to take a spiritual retreat to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina to see if she can deal with the sadness and pain she isn't able to shake.  She finds much more than she ever expected to find there, including love - love of The Father, Blessed Mother and her Son, but also from a new man in her life.  There are new feelings to deal with and new situations, but in all, Molly finally finds the peace she's craved and a chance at another kind of happiness.

This book has been written for the Catholic/Christian market, but anyone who loves this type of story will enjoy reading it.  At this time of global conflicts, our world is in serious need of positive experiences and people and this story is proof of that.  Hopefully it will inspire you the way it inspired me to write it.

Good Old Uncle Norman is a crime story, but it has a very funny side to it - if that's possible.  Take one slightly dotty uncle, the household staff, his family and some stupid criminals and you get this story line.  Norman and his household staff devise a plan to bring two killers and thieves to justice and do it in a comical way.  The family steps in and jumps into the plan, too.  Even their goofy dog gets involved and the results are side-splitting hilarity.  It leaves the police scratching their heads, too.  Although this has a serious theme, if you want a good giggle, Good Old Uncle Norman and his friends deliver.

Just to keep you aware of all three books now published with Smashwords.com, Seven Doors of Time is the largest of the three.  At around 158,347 words, it comprises seven stories with different plots, time frames and locations.  Character development in these stories is paramount in the plots and I think you will like all of them, except you may want to punch out several of them - but not all in the same story!!!  These stories took me a little over three years to write, while I was also writing others and they make a good mix of themes.  Some stories are longer, two short and the others in between and one even has time travel involved.  They were a blast to write, so I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did writing their stories.

So now as I turn the corner to age 63, my feet are firmly planted in the literary world.  It's taken a lot of hard work, some imagination and even more blunders to actually publish a good book.  And quite frankly, I never understood just how hard I would have to work to get to this point.  So this is retirement?  I'm certainly not slowing down either.  Two new novels are on their way in the next two months, with another two before the end of the year.  Eventually all this hard work will pay off and my enjoyment will be the reader being entertained with my work.  That's what it's all about for me.

Just go over to Smashwords.com and pull up my page, then take a look at the book descriptions and see which ones you are interested in.  Or you can go to our web site at: http://www.thecookcompanies.com/ and get all the information you need for all seven of my books.  (The other four are paper books available from PublishAmerica.com.)  Enjoy reading and happy autumn!

New Book has Launched

Today, 11 June, 2011, my new eBook, Seven Doors of Time, has successfully launched and is being published by Smashwords.com.  They had the option for a sampling of the book, which I was delighted to accept, so readers could see what the book is all about.

This book is not a novel, but a collection of seven stories written over several years.  Each story is different...different plots and locations, time periods, etc.  One story is very short..only a couple of pages.  Two are much longer and the others are right in the middle.  The book totals 431 pages in the HTML version with over 158,000 words in total.  That's a lot of writing.  It's one of those books you can take on holiday, a weekend getaway or just to read when you want something light before going to bed at night.  Just don't read the crime and murder stories before bed...or the one about ghosts and murder.  You might have bad dreams!!

The link to find the book is: http://smashwords.com/b/66076 and you can either sample the book or order it.  I thought the price of $2.99 US or £1.85 UK wasn't bad for the size of the book.  It certainly beats the price of a movie!!!  And you can have your own treats while you read!!  Try taking a glass of wine into a movie theatre!

I'll be working on keeping things updated on the web sites and pages and you should see the book listed at major electronic retailers within a few weeks.  It takes a little time to get it listed, but this is readable on almost every eReader available. Since this is my first foray into the electronic publishing industry, it will be interesting to see how well it does.  If it is successful, there will be a sequel with seven more stories. But I can't rest on my laurels (nor would I), because there are new projects underway, with the novel about murder in Victorian Whitby, England, plus a very new project, my first ghost writing experience for a true crime mystery novel.  I think I must be glued to my office chair, because all I seem to do it write...it that a good thing?

Even if you don't have an eReader, you can still read the book, because in the formats I have chosen, you can read it on your computer and/or laptop.  Just go to the link above and see what it says.

Happy reading, everyone!

Love, Commitment and the Salvation Army

When Mick and I were first married, we had everything we wanted - a nice home, two cars and whatever we needed.  We had a deepening faith in the Lord and so much more.  We volunteered at the church and I went back to college.  There were so many wonderful things that lay ahead of us.  Of course, sometimes when things are "too good", we can become complacent and never realize how great we have it.

Then things changed.  My income was lost when my portfolio tanked.  We lost our home, our cars, our posessions and were forced to leave the dream home I'd designed and built.  It broke our hearts. However, our faith was strong and it was tested beyond where we ever thought it could be.  But love and the commitment we made when we were married anchored us and bound us together.

Sometimes we feel as if all is lost when things fall apart.  How can we stand alone to face the horrible things life throws at us?  Leading a charmed life means nothing when you haven't faced adversity and there are no challenges to surmount.  God doesn't give us anything we can't handle, so you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off....then begin again.

Sure, I could get depressed or angry, but why?  Things happen in life - that's a fact.  Loved ones become ill and die.  Illness strikes and you have to handle it.  Sometimes being an adult isn't much fun and learning to do without all of those luxuries you feel you must have slams you back into reality that you CAN do without them.  No Iphones, IPods, Ipads, High Def televisions, etc., they simply aren't necessary.  But love and commitment are.  There is no shame in being poor - you simply have to learn to re-prioritize.

When we had been in La Crosse for about four years, we ended up being forced out of our home by an unscrupulous leasing agent and we had to live at the Salvation Army for a month.  We had to give up our beloved pets, one of whom died during our ordeal.  Mick and I were separated at night and the only time we really saw one another was after work for a couple of hours.  That was it.  People kept asking us how we could still smile through all the adversity we were in and we explained it was simple.  We had made a commitment through the good times and the bad.  Through sickness and health and through want and plenty.  And we put our focus on God and His constant love for us.  He is always the third person in our marriage - always.

 

After we found this apartment and our wonderful landlord Dave, things began to look up.  Then Mick got laid off for six months.  And I had to give up working because of my Post Polio. I poured my time into writing and finished up the final two books, getting them into print, but probably because of the cost, they haven't sold very well.  But that's okay.  Another learning experience and that's a good thing.

Now, Mick is unemployed again and our economy hasn't picked up yet.  He has health problems and is trying to quit smoking...not an easy task after doing it for 42 years.  One step forward - three steps backward.  But once again, the tests come...and go.  We are still standing strong.

For those who are considering marriage, just married or those oldsters (like us) who have been married for a long time, it's always good to look back and see what kind of glue is holding you together. God's love is for Eternity.  It's very real and tangible.  And it really doesn't matter what denomination you belong to - God knows your heart - what you really need to make your life complete.  For us, the challenges we face could have torn us apart numerous times and we still have many more to go.  But our love and commitment are strong and even the Salvation Army experience made us stronger.

Thanks to my friend Alma for her floral photos.

The Memory of Frost...

John Crane Watercolour

I think about all the winters of my youth, replete with overloads of snow.  None of this two to three feet business, but five, seven or ten feet of it...all in one storm.  I remember the winters of the 1950's in Iowa and for me, they were magical.  I had the best snowmen - over fix feet tall.  There were rides down Duck Creek Park hill on my aluminum saucer with my Boston Bull terrier Mickey scrambling after me all the way down.  He just hated that saucer!

And there was always a fire in the fireplace, stories by the firelight and hot chocolate with the mini-marshmallows in it.  I can still smell the cookies baking in the kitchen and see my family around the table for supper  (dog smacking his lips under the table). Those were the days we actually ate supper together.  No television - right to the homework.  Basically television was only for Saturday and Sundays.  Music was always playing, however and once in a great while, Dad would get out his Benny Hill recordings.  Mom was aghast at those, because they were too "blue" for her taste and naturally I was too young to hear such raunchy things.  But if anyone knows me well, they will tell you I can hear dust falling!!  I just loved those albums!!! And now they are classics!  And boy, are they tame!

But in school, I will always remember reading the poetry of Robert Frost.  His thoughts were so simple - nothing complicated or obtuse.  No wonder he was an American Poet Laureate.  My very favourite one is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."  And here it is:

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping there

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Those wonderful nights when I could walk through the deep snow, listening to the snow falling on the ground, tweak memories of being in love, sharing those walks with someone who was also attuned to the falling snow and enjoyed such a simple pleasure with me.  I hope that wherever he is, he will still take the time to wander through a snowy footpath in the pristine snow, listening to those frosted flakes of diamond encrusted snow as they fall on the branches.

Robert Frost reminds us to savour the simple pleasures of life...snow, nature, a child's smile.  And perhaps, as I have grown older, I can appreciate those memories in a deeper way...innocence, wonder or love.  Those are the warm fuzzies of my childhood and a fantastic base for being an adult.  I'll never give up those dreams and memories - they will be tucked away in that tiny place in my heart where the good things are kept forever.

I'll stop by the woods on my way home tonight and smell the fresh air God has created for me. And I'll never take this for granted...nor the snowy woods on a winter's evening.

The "Holidays" are for the Birds

Why do people always celebrate "The Holidays?"  You have Hanukkah which is a beautiful celebration of Hebrew Tradition.  You have Christmas, which is the birthday celebration of Jesus Christ.  Then there is Kwanzaa - a celebration of the African culture.  And last but certainly not least, there is the New Year's Day celebration - football at it's finest and another day off from work.  The only "holiday" in here is actually New Year's Day.  The others celebrations of culture and one birthday..they aren't holidays.  I suppose I should mention Boxing Day - December 26th as a holiday, because people have that off (unless you are in retail) and people shop 'till they drop, so technically that IS a holiday.  But not everyone has Boxing Day to celebrate, so it's really only one.  It's not here in the United States.  But you can find it in the UK and other countries - just not here.  So one holiday will have to do.

 This is what holidays mean to me.  It's a vacation on the West Coast of Ireland..in Connemara.  I've been all over the world with my family and as a travel agent, but I always seem to come back here to give me peace in my life.  I wind down, I relax and soak up the tranquil atmosphere that is the Wild West.  Mick and I find commonality here.  He was a seminarian in Galway, Ireland with the Redemptorists.  Back in the 70's, Mick and I were actually in the same place at the same time, but never met.

Yes, it seems rather odd, but that's how things sometimes happen.  But if asked where we would want to retire (other than the UK, of course), it would he here, with friends and family along the Atlantic sea coast.  There is something familiar about it, something historic and ancient.  While thoroughly modern, there is a laid back attitude and "Irish Time" we love.  There are places where time has stood still and I feel the generations of my family still with me as I walk along the rocky pathways near the shore.  The beach beacons as I trudge through the grasses, then onto the sand and the tide pools show me a world I never knew existed.  How fun to simply be and see God's handiwork everywhere I look.  What do I see here?  There are tiny sea creatures in the tide pools, plus wonderful shells and other sea debris.  There are tiny fish who seem to leap at me in joy.  The seaweed has unfurled itself in a dense green display, ever shifting as the tide washes over it. There is always something new to see here.

As I become older, my memories fade just a bit, but most of them are still vivid.  Ten years ago, my sister Deb and I made our sisters' pilgrimage to the Republic to see the sights and visit my old haunts.  It was wonderful.  We toured through the Waterford Glass Factory, stayed in THE most unusual and delightful B&B in Ardmore, County Waterford.  And of course, we had to spend a good deal of time at Ben View House in Clifden with my friends Eileen and Des Morris.  They grew up in the house.  Deb and I drove up to Westport and had lunch on the Quay.  We went to Kylemore Abbey and took hundreds of photographs.  We also went up to Sligo then back down to Kleggan and Clifden, all the while seeing the rugged coastline, the awesome mountain ranges and the plethora of sheep - many of them in the road as we drove!  Now that's what I call a holiday.

Clifden, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland from the bay 2000.