My Shaker book, The Blessed, is on e-book sale at 99 cents or less for a limited time. When the less than a dollar price disappears, the e-book will still be available for a reduced price for a week or so. So if you e-read and have ever considered giving one of my Shaker books a try, you might consider …
August 3, 1966 Jocie Brook here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Have you ever ridden on a motorcycle? For a long trip? Your legs can go to sleep and your hair blows around if you don’t put it in a ponytail. Sometimes a bug hits your arm. I love it. I never, never thought Dad would let me take a long …
The Beach Ah, the beach. The relentless crash of the waves. The beauty of their power. The joy of throwing your body into the surf. The happiness of sitting in the sun or walking along on the wet sand letting the ocean nip at your toes. The fun of hearing a child giggle at the first touch of the waves. …
What did you love best about summer when you were a kid? This year when The Innocent released I had a fun giveaway contest and invited readers to share some summer stories with me. I’m always blessed when I get to read these firsthand experiences from you all. Toni was like me in that she enjoyed playing with her cousins. …
Simple Gifts “Tis the gift to be simple, tis the gift to be free.” That has to be the best known line of any Shaker song. Many people change the wording a bit when they sing the song and say “Tis a gift to be simple,” but that little change of the to a does make a difference in the …
July 20, 1966 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. I’m a little itchy tonight. That’s not right. I’m a lot itchy tonight! Have you ever gone blackberry picking and come home with more chiggers than berries? I think I did this weekend. I love blackberries. They have that special tart taste like no other berry and a blackberry cobbler …
Did you ever go to the county fair? When I was a kid, the county fair was a big deal. No way were we ever going to go to one of those big theme parks and Disney World might as well have been on the moon as far as we were concerned out on the farm. We weren’t going to …
Today as I was exploring my new website and trying to learn how to do this or that on it, I clicked on that little spyglass at the end of the menu line and discovered a way to search through everything on my site, including all my blog posts. So I put in Shaker and came up with this …
July 13, 1966 Jocie Brooke here reporting from Hollyhill, Kentucky. Can you believe that there’s only about a month before school starts again? That’s just not right. Summer should last twice as long as other seasons. Each day needs to matter. Dad says I’m the one who has to make my days matter. I can’t be moping around wishing for …
“When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a wonderful treasure to always hold in your heart.” (Unknown source) A year ago today, my mother gave up her fight and moved on up to heaven. Some of you walked with Mom and me down that lonely Alzheimer’s path in her last years. It was a rocky path with …