I'm going in a completely different direction with this one and I am loving these characters. Especially Mrs. Winston. This is one feisty Grandma and she is on a mission!!! Enjoy the prologue and leave some feedback as it is always appreciated.
Twenty years was a long time to stay away. Melanie Winston realized that fact the moment she stepped foot into the state of New Jersey. She had been gone for too long and so much had changed. The cab ride from the airport had certainly proven to be an eye opener. There was no time for nostalgia she realized as a small flurry surrounded the cab as they sped into the night heading straight for a past she had thought dead and buried.
Robert McGowan loaded his tools into the van early Saturday morning. Normally he didn’t work on the weekends but this had been an emergency appointment in the area for one of his prominent customers. As he flexed his shoulders he took a look around at the light dusting of snow that had fallen overnight. Not enough to make a mess but enough to make going without heat even for a couple of hours unbearable.
Leaving town twenty years earlier had been bad enough. Although her parents had made the decision and Melanie hadn’t a choice in the matter did little to ease the suffering it had caused. Now it seemed that no matter which way Melanie could slice it this trip had been long overdue. Truth be known she had missed her grandmother terribly and it had been unfair for all concerned. There were too many deep dark secrets that could be uncovered upon her return. She just had to make sure that she kept to herself for the couple of weeks she would be in town. That shouldn’t prove difficult. When she went back home she wanted to go back with a clear conscious and more importantly an intact heart.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
The Million Dollar Question...
Sandra Bonaldi – The Million Dollar Question…
I’ve been asked many times – “Why do you write?”
It’s a loaded question with many answers. I didn’t choose to write – I had to write! I will always remember the night when it all began. I spent the evening alone, the kids already in bed as it was late. Joey was four, Jackie, two, and Mark, three months old. I was in bed and sleep was a long way off.
One minute I was all right and the next the tears were bubbling up as though a wellspring about to explode.
For years I had been kidding myself. I had been living a lie. I had three beautiful children, a nice home, yet I wasn’t happy. My heart was far from okay and was feeling a loss that even I could not comprehend. I prayed as never before and with a pen and paper the words spilled forth as they had never done before. The words were bursting forth from a broken heart and they demanded their story be told. And I put them down the best way I knew how. The only way I could put them down. They were the truth turned inside out.
Contemporary Romance seemed to be my comfort zone. After all, who could resist the hero sweeping in just in time to save his damsel in distress? There had to be that happily ever after…
At first I kept my writing a secret. After all, in my opinion it was just a bunch of jumbled up emotion coming from a broken heart. Most of it was run on sentences of raw emotion. Digging deeply into something that could not be explained because there was no rhyme just as there was no reason.
My writing was something all my own. As far as I was concerned no one needed to know, and for close to a year I was able to keep it under wraps. I was keeping a journal and writing some poetry. When I decided to actually write a book I knew it was not going to be an easy feat. But I fell in love with the characters. I laughed with them and I cried with them. To me they were real and I thought of them as real people.
Write what you know. I knew something about young love and I certainly knew about heart break. Put them together and Past Reflections was born. It was a labor of love. It was what I referred to as my “therapy book!”
I’ve been asked many times – “Why do you write?”
It’s a loaded question with many answers. I didn’t choose to write – I had to write! I will always remember the night when it all began. I spent the evening alone, the kids already in bed as it was late. Joey was four, Jackie, two, and Mark, three months old. I was in bed and sleep was a long way off.
One minute I was all right and the next the tears were bubbling up as though a wellspring about to explode.
For years I had been kidding myself. I had been living a lie. I had three beautiful children, a nice home, yet I wasn’t happy. My heart was far from okay and was feeling a loss that even I could not comprehend. I prayed as never before and with a pen and paper the words spilled forth as they had never done before. The words were bursting forth from a broken heart and they demanded their story be told. And I put them down the best way I knew how. The only way I could put them down. They were the truth turned inside out.
Contemporary Romance seemed to be my comfort zone. After all, who could resist the hero sweeping in just in time to save his damsel in distress? There had to be that happily ever after…
At first I kept my writing a secret. After all, in my opinion it was just a bunch of jumbled up emotion coming from a broken heart. Most of it was run on sentences of raw emotion. Digging deeply into something that could not be explained because there was no rhyme just as there was no reason.
My writing was something all my own. As far as I was concerned no one needed to know, and for close to a year I was able to keep it under wraps. I was keeping a journal and writing some poetry. When I decided to actually write a book I knew it was not going to be an easy feat. But I fell in love with the characters. I laughed with them and I cried with them. To me they were real and I thought of them as real people.
Write what you know. I knew something about young love and I certainly knew about heart break. Put them together and Past Reflections was born. It was a labor of love. It was what I referred to as my “therapy book!”
Monday, June 6, 2011
Blessings -
Sometimes they don't come packaged in a pretty bow. I've experienced this and know it to be true. I have shared this song with almost everyone I know and it is touching. I just need to keep looking up and believing that everything WILL turn out all right because it is what God had promised me and sometimes that is all we have to hold onto...
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
26 Years Ago Today…
26 Years Ago Today…
January 20, 1985 at 12:30 PM a baby boy was born. It was a cold Sunday. I landed in the hospital about 3:00 AM. Was not supposed to go into labor but if you know me, nothing ever runs according to plan. Still doesn’t…
I was scheduled to go in for a C-Section on the 31st of December but Mark Gilbert had other plans. He wanted OUT.
My previous two C-Sections with Joe and Jackie I had opted to get knocked out, medicated but for some reason with Mark I decided I was staying awake for that one. There were also other factors involved. If you were going under you couldn’t have anyone accompany you into the delivery room. Basically, you were on your own. This happened to be the end result anyway. I went in alone and I remember watching the clock.
I remember the epidural. It took three nurses to sit me up and hold me completely still. You cannot move a muscle. My first argument was wearing my socks into the O.R. Funny, the things you remember. I was NOT taking my socks off and that was it. Needless to say I won that battle. If only wearing your socks was the long and short of it.
Nothing went according to plan with Mark as he had his own ideas about how he was making his grand entrance. And some things just never change!
The O.R. was sterile and bright. I watched every minute click by on that big white clock. There was a team of doctors. I remember one young doctor in particular, handsome with an excellent bedside manner. For some reason I had been taken aback when they told me I had another little boy. Had I expected a girl? I was just so glad he was healthy and screaming his little head off. I got a glimpse of him, was assured he was all right, and was immediately knocked out.
No matter what else you always remember holding your baby for the very first time. It becomes a memory that not only gets imbedded into your mind but into your heart as well. Every year when that special day rolls around my mind goes back to another place in time….
Mark, twenty-six years ago today…
And you retell the story that has been a part of you for so long that you do come to realize that the pains of labor disappeared and were replaced with the bundle of joy that had been placed in my arms twenty six years ago today…
I love you Mark!
God Bless you!
January 20, 1985 at 12:30 PM a baby boy was born. It was a cold Sunday. I landed in the hospital about 3:00 AM. Was not supposed to go into labor but if you know me, nothing ever runs according to plan. Still doesn’t…
I was scheduled to go in for a C-Section on the 31st of December but Mark Gilbert had other plans. He wanted OUT.
My previous two C-Sections with Joe and Jackie I had opted to get knocked out, medicated but for some reason with Mark I decided I was staying awake for that one. There were also other factors involved. If you were going under you couldn’t have anyone accompany you into the delivery room. Basically, you were on your own. This happened to be the end result anyway. I went in alone and I remember watching the clock.
I remember the epidural. It took three nurses to sit me up and hold me completely still. You cannot move a muscle. My first argument was wearing my socks into the O.R. Funny, the things you remember. I was NOT taking my socks off and that was it. Needless to say I won that battle. If only wearing your socks was the long and short of it.
Nothing went according to plan with Mark as he had his own ideas about how he was making his grand entrance. And some things just never change!
The O.R. was sterile and bright. I watched every minute click by on that big white clock. There was a team of doctors. I remember one young doctor in particular, handsome with an excellent bedside manner. For some reason I had been taken aback when they told me I had another little boy. Had I expected a girl? I was just so glad he was healthy and screaming his little head off. I got a glimpse of him, was assured he was all right, and was immediately knocked out.
No matter what else you always remember holding your baby for the very first time. It becomes a memory that not only gets imbedded into your mind but into your heart as well. Every year when that special day rolls around my mind goes back to another place in time….
Mark, twenty-six years ago today…
And you retell the story that has been a part of you for so long that you do come to realize that the pains of labor disappeared and were replaced with the bundle of joy that had been placed in my arms twenty six years ago today…
I love you Mark!
God Bless you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)