Many of you have been asking if I am planning on moving soon, since I have been giving away some of my household items. I will be moving at some time in the future but there are no immediate plans for that.
            I have the unexplainable urge to 'unclutter' my life; that includes getting rid of some possessions, activities, ideas, thoughts and even a few individuals.
            I will strive to make some sense of it. I shall start at the beginning and move quickly so this expose doesn’t turn into another novel and you aren't reading this for a week.
            I had a wonderful, normal childhood. I was raised in a Christian home by Christian parents who loved me unconditionally. We lived in the country with no close neighbors. My sister was 8 years older than me. Add that to the fact my grandma lived with us and there was very little ‘work’ for me to do, so I was basically an only child with time on my hands. I amused myself by having an imaginary audience; not just a singular imaginary friend, as most children do, but an entire audience of faceless individuals who listened to my dialogues. (Obviously, I was unwittingly practicing to be a speaker.)
            I married when I was 16 years old. I had the first four children by the time I was 25 and the fifth child when I was 38. Somewhere in the years between age 16 and age 68, I lost who I was; I lost Gloria.
             She became entangled and involved in raising 5 children, teaching Sunday School, working various jobs, including but not limited to: a pie baker, a restaurant manager, a business owner, a seamstress, a wife, a mother, a farmer, a grandparent, a Director of Chidren's Ministries and a caregiver. These were not necessarily unpleasant job titles and I learned an unbelievably immense amount of information, people skills and empathy from each one; it just was not exactly who I was. I enrolled in college when I was 55 and although I was able to be on the Dean’s List, and I was thankful that my brain still worked…I did not realize I was 'in training' to become the Gloria I am now.
         Numerous grandchildren have lived with me over the years. I calculated I have said the words, "Get up...it's time for school" for 45 straight years; from the time my first child started kindergarten until the last grandchild moved out.
            I took 'care' of my family and livestock and 'life' for the 38 years I was married. Was I an enabler? Absolutely. It seemed even more true after I divorced. I helped take care of my dad after my mother died. I have been responsible for Kalisha for nearly 32 years……..I am done. (Not done loving Kalisha or anyone else; just done being a caregiver.)

                  I had been without a 'significant other' in my life for 20 years and that was fine with me. I considered myself to be a strong, independent, 'take on anything or anyone' woman. I could swear louder, work harder, laugh longer and kick your ass further than most women I knew and I did not need anyone to help me....until.....I started writing the three romance novels in July of 2015. I cannot explain it logically but I slowly became a person I wasn't sure I recognized. Old hurts and thoughts resurfaced. I had 38 years of baggage I had been carrying with me and wasn't even aware of it.
             It was time to unpack and get rid of it. I did, I have, and I am traveling  much lighter now that I have given the baggage to Someone who can carry it much better than I can.
           

Many of my readers know  I recently flew to Magnolia, TX to attend a book signing for my book, 'Bring a Cowboy Home' because the setting for this series of novels is a ranch outside Magnolia, TX.
I have had many people ask me about the trip and how it became a 'thing' and what I did there. I thought I would write this post so y'all could hear the story at one time.
When I visited my daughter and her family in November, 2015, we visited many of the small towns near her home in Cypress. I told everyone we met about the books I had written and their connection to Magnolia, Tomball, Montgomery and Spring. I was encouraged to contact them when the book was available so I could come back and sell them.
So....when it was available, I called Nina, a lady who was especially enthusiastic when I was there and asked her if there were any upcoming festivals or somewhere that I could sell the books. She put me in contact with Tana in Magnolia's office of Community Development. Tana was so excited, she took the ball and ran with it. She told me the best time would be Depot Day, an annual event featuring food, vendors and live music surrounding the original Magnolia Depot.

The newspaper ran an article about the visit. Talk about feeling like a celebrity...wow. I can't thank the people enough for making my visit so memorable.

I apologize for the quality of this photo. AND the number of acres listed in the article is definitely incorrect.

Midwest author writes series based in MagnoliaTony Gaines
Midwest author writes series based in Magnolia
Author Gloria Doty stands with her host Pat Zaiontz.

Gloria Doty
Midwest author writes series based in Magnolia
"Bring a Cowboy Home" is the first book from Gloria Doty's Magnolia Series.

Tony Gaines
Midwest author writes series based in Magnolia
Gloria Doty with her host, Pat Zaiontz.

Posted: Sunday, April 17, 2016 9:32 pm
Midwest author writes series based in Magnolia By Taelor Smith Houston Community Newspapers
Gloria Doty an author from Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been writing her whole life. She has published a devotional, a book chronicling the life of her daughter living with Asperger’s, and has contributed to many magazines. When it came to writing her first fiction novel, Doty knew she would have go outside of her everyday to better create a captivating tale.
“My daughter and her family lives in Cypress. Even when they lived in Katy, we would come [to Magnolia] to visit and I always like the name Magnolia. I don’t know why, I just liked it. I like the flowers, everything.”
Doty’s book “Bring A Cowboy Home,” is the first novel in her new fiction series. It follows the love story of a cowboy in a rural town. She drew her inspiration of the people and the town particularly from Magnolia because she had become so familiar with the Texas city.
“When I started writing this romance novel, my main character was in Chicago but she was going to meet a cowboy. I wanted him to come from somewhere I knew. I just decided I’d make him be from ranch outside Magnolia, and it just grew.”
Although it is a love story, Doty says the book gives readers a bit of adventure. The characters take readers on a journey through Magnolia and epitomize some of the very people you’re bound to meet in the beautiful area.
“It’s not the typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy meets girl type of romance. It is a romance, but it has some mystery. Lucy carries a gun with her at all times. There’s some excitement.”
The books were written quickly as Doty started writing the series in July 2015. It only took her one month to write each book and she says it all came to her pretty easily because Magnolia was so inspirational.
“I fell in love with the people in the book, therefore I fell in love with the town of Magnolia.”
Doty spent the few days leading up to Magnolia’s Depot Day come down and explore the precious town of which she has based her series. She enjoyed a day out on the 11 acre farm of 4B Community Development President Pat Zaiontz. While there, she along with her daughters and granddaughter experienced life out on a real Magnolia farm. They were able to see many of the animals kept on Zaiontz’ farm such as rabbits, donkeys, cows, and geese. Doty shares that she was taken aback by the experience because she had never seen anything like this.
“I was actually raised on a farm and lived on one, but not one this big. I’m loving it.”
In all of the research done while writing the series, Doty had not been able to visit a Magnolia farm until then and she loved every minute of it. The experience is sure to inspire her writing for the two additional novels she plans to add to the series. Doty shares that fans have been so excited about the series so far that it would only be right to give readers more in the series.
Tana Ross, City of Magnolia Economic Development Coordinator and member of Magnolia Historical Society, was able to put Doty in contact with Zaiontz so she could have a true Magnolia experience. In addition to spending time with her family visiting farms in Magnolia, Doty was able to learn history about the city. She will finish up her visit to Magnolia by attending Depot Day, the annual fundraiser held by Magnolia Historical Society where the community comes out for a day of fun, food, and games.
The first book from the Magnolia Series titled “Bring A Cowboy Home” is now available on Amazon. Doty will be at Magnolia’s Depot Day on April 16 to meet fans and sign books. The remaining two books from the series, “Loving A Cowboy,” and “Riding With A Cowboy,” will be available later this summer. For more information on Gloria Doty, her wonderful book series and other writings, please visit her website at http://www.writingbygloria.com.

This is a short story I wrote for an international contest several years ago. It won first place in the Thriller category. That's not my usual genre but it was so much fun. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Feeling Better?
By
Gloria Doty  

“I’m leaving for work now, Danny. I left a few crackers and some Sprite on the nightstand for you. I’ll see you this afternoon.”
            Casey turned for one last look at Danny, totally under the covers. She really hated leaving him alone when he was not feeling well, but she couldn’t miss work again.
She locked the door to the apartment and went down the stairs, passing elderly Mrs. French in the entry hall.
            “Everything okay?” Mrs. French asked in her nosy neighbor way.
            “Yes,” Casey said, trying to smile. “My husband is not feeling well, but I’m sure it’s just a touch of the flu.”
            “Well, make sure he stays in your apartment. We don’t need him spreadin’ any germs to the rest of us.”
            “Yes, ma’am,” Casey answered. “I will.” She wanted to add, ‘you hateful old bat’ but she smiled and went out onto the street as she did every day. Danny had been sick for weeks and it was getting tiresome.
            Casey tried calling home on her lunch hour but of course, Danny didn’t answer. He’s probably sleeping, she thought. That’s a good thing.
            As Casey turned the key and opened the door, she hoped Danny might be setting up, but as usual, he wasn’t. The crackers and soda were untouched.
            “Oh, Sweetie, you’re not feeling any better?” she asked as she went into the kitchen. “Can I make you some soup or something? You have to eat, you know. I wish we had the money for you to go to the doctor again, but we just don’t. It costs so much and the last time you were there, we could barely afford the prescription, remember?”
            She touched his cheek. He didn’t feel like he had a fever, but she wasn’t very good at telling that way and they didn’t own a thermometer. She smiled to herself as she washed the few breakfast dishes, remembering how her mother had always felt her head when she was sick and knew immediately if she had a fever or not. Casey wished her mother were here with her in this cramped little apartment. She would know what to do about Danny…but she wasn’t. Casey sighed and suddenly felt sad and very alone. Her mother would never come see her; they hadn’t spoken since she and Danny ran off to Chicago and got married. She could hear her mother’s voice telling them they were making a huge mistake. She accused Casey of being delusional about life and never accepting reality, but she and Danny left anyway.
Casey didn’t want to think about the realities of their hasty decision. Nothing turned out the way she thought it would. Danny quit his job, so there was only her paycheck to pay for rent and food, bus fare and his damned cigarettes and then the doctor bill and the medicine, too. Well, now they were behind with the rent payment, but she had done her wifely duty, hadn’t she? She gave him his medicine, measuring every dose; sometimes a little more than it said on the bottle, but she wanted him to get better, faster.
She really wished they had a fan. It was so hot and the apartment was stifling, but a fan would make the electric bill even higher. She couldn’t allow herself to think about what they would do when winter came and they had to pay for heat. Maybe she could move before winter; just her. If Danny didn’t want to work, she would find a place of her own.
            Casey shook her head to clear her thoughts. Her main concern right now should be Danny and what to do about him.
            The loud knock on the door startled her.  Probably the landlord, but she didn’t have the money he would be looking for.
            “Who is it?” she asked.
            “The police, Ma’am. Open the door, please.”
            “Police? Why? What do you want?” Casey stammered.
            “We’ve had a complaint about a smell coming from your apartment.”
            “Did Mrs. French call you?” Casey asked. “She’s such a busybody. I just forgot to take out the garbage.”
            “Open the door, Mrs. Croll.”
            Casey opened it a crack and looked into the hallway. A policeman and two men in suits were standing there. They pushed past her and moved toward the bed.
            “Please don’t disturb my husband. He doesn’t feel well.”
            The officer in the uniform took Casey by the arm and led her out of the apartment.
            “Come with me, Mrs. Croll. They will see to your husband.”
            As Lt. Wills pulled the sheet back and put a mask over his nose, he asked the coroner, “How long do you think?”
            “We’ll need to run tests for sure, but from the looks of him, I’d say it’s been over a week.”
 

Bonnie and her husband live in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon.
They recently celebrated their 46th wedding anniversary. Bonnie worked for the Forest Service for 20 years and helped her husband with a fly fishing shop for many years. This is her first published book and she is understandably very excited. I'm going to ask her a few questions about the book and her experiences while writing it.

 Give me a brief overview of your book.
Passages Across Time brings a modern day woman in touch with women from long-ago. Can the past help her find her future? CJ has lost her faith in God and in herself after a disastrous broken engagement. Returning to the country home where she grew up, she begins to find peace. She also rediscovers the love of her childhood crush, Sam.
An unexpected windfall gives her the opportunity for the adventure she has always dreamed about. While CJ is torn between her desire to travel and her growing love for Sam, she discovers a different treasure, letters written to her by her grandmother and journals written by her great-grandmother. Will she find her own answers in the choices these remarkable women made? Will she renew her faith in God?
 
What made you decide to write a romance?
I always thought that I would write children’s books, but my heart was just not in it. This story came to me one morning and I realized that this is the book I was meant to write. I am sad at the turn of modern romance books, and their graphic content. Christian romance was my clear choice, and I loved combining the story of a growing love with a growing faith.
 
Are you an organized writer, using a formal outline and following a clear story idea from beginning to end, or did your book just evolve as you wrote it?
I have to laugh as I answer this one. I started with a basic overview of this story, but it made twists and turns as the words flowed out, often surprising me. For example, I decided that CJ should travel, but how did I manage that? If she stayed working in her office in the city, when would she have time to travel? And how would she fall in love with Sam, back in the country? Suddenly the entire story changed, not just for CJ but for her grandmother and great-grandmother. The words just kept coming. I then wrote the ending, and filled in the middle.
 
We are both well past our thirties, how is this book different than it might have been years ago?
I did start a novel in my thirties, but never finished it. As I look back now, I can see how bad it really was. I simply did not have the life experience to craft a really good book. Now my characters have depth, based in large part on all of the people that I have known in my life. I have experienced love and loss, success and disappointment, triumph and tragedy. This experience translates into a believable story.
 
What was the most difficult part for you to write?
The middle. The beginning just rolled off of my fingers, and the end nearly wrote itself, but filling in all of the details that make up the core of the book took work. Description comes easy to me, but I struggled with dialogue. A wonderful editor, Rosemarie Fitzsimmons, gave me the help I needed to bring life to the characters.
 
How long did it take you to write the book, and how long to get published?
It took a year to write, and a year to get published. I made some mistakes as the process unfolded. The first publisher I looked into with my on-line research at had a word count requirement of 45,000. I hit that mark and submitted my book, only to have it rejected within two hours (I don’t think they actually read it.) That was when I discovered that most publishers require 60,000 words. Rewrite time. That was when the book got better. More meat and less fluff. More context, more dialog, more interaction between the characters. I found another publisher, submitted, and was rewarded with a request to submit the entire book. A week later, they politely rejected it, letting me know that I did not meet the required formula. There is a formula? Yes, the hero and heroine have to be together on 50% of the pages. There has to be an HEA (Happily Ever After.) Girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl have a problem, resolve it and live HEA. Not exactly the story I wrote, though it has the required happy ending. More online research revealed a good Christian publisher, and I submitted a third time. They accepted! I was so excited, that I threw my laptop in my husband’s lap so that he could read the email. That is when he read the fine print, where they asked for money up-front. It turns out they were a vanity press. SIGH.
Then I found Booktrope and Vox Dei. It took 12 weeks before they read my book, and just as I was about to give up and look into self-publishing, I received an acceptance email. They have been wonderful to work with, and I am so glad that God led me to them.
 
Do you plan to write another romance?
Oh yes, The Story of the Year is well underway. I have over 25,000 words and the ending, I am just working on filling in the middle. It includes a newspaper reporter, a forest fire (and a cute firefighter), an old diary, and Christmas. It is totally separate from my first book, though there are some similarities. I can’t wait to see where the story goes!
 
Gloria, thank you so much for allowing me to take part on your blog. Good luck with Bring A Cowboy Home.
 
Passages Across Time link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Passages-Across-Time-Bonnie-Howell/dp/1513708449/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454612985&sr=1-2
 
Writing on the River Blog link: http://www.writingontheriver.com/blog.html
 

Until we reach our heavenly home, we will always face situations that stretch us to our limits and even threaten to break us, but if we trust in our Lord, hang onto his word and his promises, we will never be broken beyond repair.

One pie was a rhubarb custard for 2 granddaughters who would rather have that than cake for their birthdays.

I am not writing this to brag about my pie-baking abilities, but rather to tell you I never baked, boiled or cooked ANYTHING until I got married. I was the baby of the family, my grandma lived with us and it was probably easier for my mother and grandmother to do it themselves. It didn't exactly prepare me for cooking for a family, and there are some great stories of my first efforts. But I learned. It is never too late to learn something.
It would seem that cooking of one type or another was part of nearly every job I ever had.

These recipes and stories and many more from other cooks and bakers will be included in the book I am working on.
In 1979, I started gathering some of the family recipes from people I knew , so there is a vast assortment of material, a few dating back to the covered wagon days of their ancestors and some from a lady in Montana where we camped and some from the school cafeteria where I worked for years. Baked beans for 200? Yep.
Am I going to test them all? No. Is there going to be calorie and nutritional information included? No. Will you enjoy the anecdotes and the recipes? I hope so. But you will be making them at your own risk if you purchase the book when it is ready. LOL