family life | Kim's Musings

ABOUT MARY SCHMIDT

Mary Schmidt, aka S. Jackson, grew up in a small Kansas (USA) town, and she lived in other states since then. At this time, she and her husband split their time between Kansas and Colorado (they loved the mountains and off road 4-wheeling). Traveling is one of their favorite things to do, and she always has a book or even three books that she reads, in the same week. Books were really her thing.

It seemed like every time she turned around she was obtaining a new library card due to the current one being stamped complete. Diving into a good book made any day perfect and you would be surprised at the number of books she read over and over. She drew paper dolls and clothes for them, and used watercolor as her medium when painting scenes, especially flowers.

She continued with art in high school exploring a wide variety of arts. The creative side of her loves to be an amateur “shutter-bug” and they actually have an online art gallery. In college she went into the sciences of all things and received a Bachelor’s degree in the Science of Nursing. Her nursing career was highly successful, and she hung up her nursing hat in December 2012.

Visit Mary’s Blog at When Angels Fly!

The Big Cheese Festival

In The Big Cheese Festival, we meet Stubby Mouse and his family and friends. We learn that Stubby Mouse has a secret, that he is being bullied by another mouse, simply because his tail is short. Read how Stubby Mouse stood up for himself, and how he ended the bullying, in this delightful story for children. Targeted at ages 4-8, the book is easy to read and perfect for home or classroom. Children learn how bad bullying is, and what they can do to help stop bullies! Stubby Mouse encourages children to take a stand against bullies, and always be kind to each other. This story illustrates how everyone is different and unique, and it is a delightful read with cute illustrations for both children and adults. Take a stand against bullying today!

Suzy Has a Secret

This book teaches a child, ages four to eight years-old, about personal safety and body ownership. Children learn how to identify who safe adults are in a child’s life. This book shows in positive and practical ways how parents, and educators, can talk to children about personal safety. Children learn about bad touch and good touch, and how their body belongs to them. Parents and educators can help children learn who the safe people are in their lives, and that they can always tell one of them about anything that may happen, and they aren’t comfortable about. Using little bug fairies and fairy houses, ensures that children aren’t scared when this story is read to them, or they read it on their own.

When Angels Fly

We often find ourselves daydreaming about what our futures will be like. This may be especially true if one lives in an environment most would consider less than desirable. Some are lucky to find their futures much like their childhood dreams. Others find the paths to their dreams strewn with hurdles.

Growing up, Sarah dodged her mother’s blows. She often hid in her room crying about her life. Still, she believes in her future and the happiness it can bring. In their book, When Angels Fly, authors S. Jackson and A. Raymond tell Sarah’s story – their stories. The authors use their journals to describe Sarah’s experiences of family dysfunction, strength, courage, faith, abuse, grief, and so much more. You’ll read how, like many, she attempts to escape from her mother’s abuse through marriage. And like many, she learns it is not a viable alternative. Then Sarah experiences a parent’s ultimate tragedy twice, the deaths of her sons, Joshua and Eli.

When Angels Fly is about much more than the telling of a family’s tragedy. It is also the story of finding faith after it has wavered. Most of all, it’s a story of love lost and found.

Get your copy of When Angels Fly.

Visit Mary’s Blog at When Angels Fly!

I am participating in the Author Helping Authors – Egg-cerpt Exchange.

Throughout the months of February and March, I plan to delight you with exciting information about books and authors who are or could become your favorites. So make sure to check this out and let each amaze you with their ability to write awesome stories.

Today, I am featuring Linda K. Sienkiewicz, author of In The Context of Love.

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Author Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes women’s fiction/contemporary romance. Her debut novel is titled In the Context of Love.

What makes us step back to examine the events and people that have shaped our lives? LindaKSienkeiwicz And what happens when what we discover leads to more questions? In the Context of Love, contemporary fiction by Linda K. Sienkiewicz, revolves around the journey of Angelica Schirrick as she reevaluates her life, and its direction.

Returning with her children from their first visit with her now imprisoned husband, she tries to figure out where it all went so wrong. Can she face the failures and secrets of her past and move forward? Can she find love and purpose again? Her future, which once held so much promise, crumbled like dust after the mysterious disappearance of her first love, and the shattering revelation that derailed her life, and divided her parents. Only when she finally learns to accept the violence of her beginning can she be open to life again, and maybe to a second chance at love.

Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of Michigan Notable Book MOTHERS TELL YOUR DAUGHTERS, says “Sienkiewicz’s powerful and richly detailed debut novel is at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey. It should be required reading for all wayward daughters, and their mothers, too.”

Eggcerpt from In the Context of Love:
Context-of-Love-Cover-high-res I lay, stomach down, on my bed with my head hanging off the edge. I was an analytical person, a conscientious honor roll student, a quick learner. I’d studied literature, ancient history, read Shakespeare and Salinger, yet none of it, nothing, had given me the skills or words to make sense of this.

The following morning, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had opened my curtains to an ash-filled sky, charred houses, trees burnt to stubs, the ground still smoking. Instead, the sun had risen like a relentless machine, and the sky wafted like a freshly-washed blue sheet above us. My house was the same house, with the same eggshell white ceilings, dark wooden floors and braided rugs. The only difference: I understood reality was a dark beast, capable of shifting under my feet.

I fingered the silk edge of my blanket, trying to reframe my past in light of what I now understood to be the truth. Everything I’d thought about myself had been a falsehood. In many ways, our family operated like any other family. Dad paid the bills, fertilized the lawn, and kept us free from foot pain. Mom knitted and purled, chased after flesh-eating germs, and smothered me until the sound of my own name made me cringe. We played Uncle Wiggly and Chutes and Ladders. I went trick-or-treating on Halloween. I had a sandbox. I pushed my plastic baby doll in her flimsy buggy back and forth along the sidewalk while squirrels scolded me from the trees. We had two cars, one and a half baths, and a color television. Hot and cold water. Electricity. We ate pot roast on Sunday, spaghetti on Wednesday, and tuna casserole every Friday and we weren’t even Catholic.

My friend Becca was terrified to stay in the house alone with her addled grandfather because he would forget who she was and try to kick her out. Lizzy was ashamed to be seen with her mother, who was so obese she couldn’t walk to their mailbox without wheezing. Jessica’s father owned a motel where a man was found shot in the head in room thirty-six. Paige suspected her parents were swingers who went to sex parties. Skip seemed to have been deserted by his folks…

Yet, I was certain no one’s family had a secret as hideous as mine.

In the Context of Love can be purchased in paperback or e-reader on Amazon http://amzn.to/1IiVWEs or Barnes and Noble http://bit.ly/1QFs340

Here’s an interview with Angelica Schirrick, the narrator of In the Context of Love:

Do you have a nickname?
I’ve been called troublemaker, short stuff, hot stuff, cupcake, angel, and hure (by my German grandmother — don’t ask why), but most people call me Angie.
What do you do for a living?
I’m the marketing and community service director for Safe Harbor, a non-profit women’s domestic violence shelter in Cleveland, Ohio. Not too bad for someone with an associate’s degree from a community college.
What’s your most important goal?
To see my two children grow up to be happy and well-adjusted, despite having a crazy activist for a mother and a felon for a father.
What’s your worst fear or nightmare?
That my two children do not grow up to be happy and well-adjusted.
What do you do when you can’t sleep at night?
Not so long ago I had horrible nightmares that left me wide awake and sweating in the sheets. I sleep better now, but if I find myself tossing and turning, I fix myself a glass of warm milk. That usually does it.

Author Linda K. Sienkiewicz attributes her creative drive to her artistic mother, who taught her to sew, and her father, who let her monkey around with the gadgets in his workshop. Her poetry, short stories and art have been published in more than fifty literary journals. She has a poetry chapbook award from Bottom Dog Press and an MFA from The University of Southern Maine.

Website http://lindaksienkiewicz.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/LindaKSienkwicz
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/lindaksienkwicz/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lindaksienkiewicz/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lindasienkiewicz.author