Easter is My Spring Forward Renewal Day

In the search for one's dreams, there are many paths that you can take. Some people forge right into them from birth. It seems like they start to conquer their hopes and dreams from the minute they
leave the womb. Others stumble around their entire lives and never really find what they are looking for. Hopefully they connect and live a fulfilling life but they may wonder about the “what if they had” concerning other decisions in their lives. Most of us fall in the middle of the pack. We start and stop along the path of life, running in a straight line sometimes, walking backwards at others and striding into the future with confidence when we can.

To sit and really think about the opportunities that our lives present to us is pretty awesome. There are those moments when you are right on point and in stride like when you land your first job - the one you really wanted, but didn't think you would get. Or when you have your children, and the miracle of birth stares at you with innocent eyes and clings to just your finger with their tiny fist. Watching your spouse, friend or child making the steps that lead them to bigger and better things in their lives. These all make us realize that life itself is pretty amazing.

Since I have been following my dream of writing and churning out books and stories and a lot of mess, I realized that there were times I missed an opportunity. A chance to make a dream come closer to reality. There are so many what ifs that sometimes I have let those overwhelm my actual life.
So I am trying to take a deep breath and go on, go on blogging even if I am the only one reading some of them. Go on writing, even if no one has broken my door down to fight over my manuscripts. Go on living, because each day is by itself pretty awesome.

My mind may get overwhelmed with reality at times, but along comes a wake-up call and you remember that life is great. Some days just the act of putting one foot in front of the other is all I can do, but that makes the other days of wonderment, joy, happiness, and overwhelming contentment all that much better. My mother told me you have to go through the down years in your life, because they make the up years, moments, hours, minutes, all that much sweeter. She was a wise woman.

Go on now, why are you sitting there thinking about what you want to do, go do it. Don't wait until the half century point of your life has passed you by, before you get back to one of the things that you love to do. Easter is my Spring Forward Renewal date. The time of year that I think about all the blessings I have in my life and feel Everything is possible. So go on, get started. My pen is waiting on me.

Patty Pick for 03/15/18 is "Redemption Road" by John Hart

John Hart became one of my favorite authors when I read his first book, "The King of Lies". He had my attention and the fact that he is a North Carolina author kept my attention. I couldn't wait to see if his next book lived up to the first, and it did. Now I cannot wait to read his new book, "The Hush" which came out February 27, 2018. 

Recently I read “Redemption Road”. The story is centered around the two main characters, this time a woman and a man. Elizabeth Black, a police officer on the brink of losing her career and maybe her freedom is fighting for both when her ex-partner, Adrian Wall, walks out of prison a free man. They have a very complicated history. Adrian, out of prison after serving a thirteen year sentence, left a  prison ran by a very corrupt warden and his staff. They are not ready to leave Adrian alone to tell tales. 

Elizabeth likes to rescue children at risk. She feels that her parents let her down and she wants to help the ones she can save. She is trying to save Gideon, a local child, whose mother has died when she is pulled into the kidnapping of Channing Shore. Channing, the rich daughter of a powerful local family, was kidnapped and tortured. Elizabeth saves Channing and their relationship develops throughout the story. The characters interweave their stories and leave you, the reader wanting to know more.  

This book is filled with rich, full characters that will draw you in or make you want to run as far as possible from them as you can go. Oh, by the way, there is a serial killer in the town looking for his next young woman victim. The characters will be trying to decipher the answer to what is going on in different ways and their reactions will guide them in their interactions with each other. It will keep you guessing what is coming on the next page and leave you reading as quickly as possible until the last word. If you take away anything from a John Hart novel, it is the thirst for more of his writing and you will remember them for a long time. A resounding 5 Stars!