Hello, readers!
Welcome to this week’s installment of First Sentence Friday and Free Book Friday!
One of my favorite Civil War books is News of the World, by Paulette Jiles. The way individuals received information back then was mainly through newspapers, telegraphs, letters, and word of mouth. Before the news became what it is today, i.e. delivered constantly through multiple sources, whether TV, phones, or computers, individuals, like in Jiles’ book, might travel around the region, and read from various newspapers to an audience willing to pay a nickel or so, for the weekly update. Many individuals back then were illiterate and couldn’t read anyway, even if they had access to those resources.
This week’s sentence gives a little more insight into Joetta McBride’s persona. Last week the discussion was around what worked for us when it came to managing stress, and in one of the replies back to a commenter, I said, “If the news is really bad, what I’ve learned is I have to know EVERYTHING up front, all the details and what it means. Like, give me the worst of it. I think it helps me process the matter.” Maybe this is the reason I wrote the sentence below the way I did. I’m often asked if the characters I create have any part of me in them, and I believe it’s impossible for them not to have a little of my “emotional DNA.” Joetta is still hanging on, waiting for news of her loved ones, and while she desires to know EVERYTHING, she’s also keenly aware that at any given moment, any update might deliver what she’s been dreading all along.
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CHAPTER 9
Joetta’s need to know what was happening was mixed up with the hope of no news.
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FREE BOOK FRIDAY!!!
For a chance to win a signed copy of The Saints of Swallow Hill, tell me about a time you were waiting to hear some significant/important news, and how it made you feel.
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PRE-ORDERS
Pre-orders gauge the interest and signal to the publisher readers are eager for an author’s work! Please consider pre-ordering because it really does help! If you’re holding out because you might win an ARC or a finished copy, remember you can always give away the extra as a gift to one of your reader friends. ????
Pre-order links for your convenience:
Kensington Publishing Corporation
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Joetta’s need to know what was happening was mixed up with the hope of no news.
At 15 years of age, the probability of moving to a different state was mind boggling. Leaving my friends, my extended family, my childhood church, and everything I had known my entire life, was about to happen, through no choice of my own. Daddy was waiting to hear about his job transfer. I didn’t have a vote. Finally the word came, and I found myself packing up my vinyls and 15 years of memories. North Carolina, here I come.
That’s a really tough time for such a shift, for sure! You’re established, and at a turning point in development. Hopefully NC was as welcoming and wonderful as I know it to be!
Not a happy thought but when waiting to hear from doctor on our son’s status after brain aneurysm.
Anonymous comment about our son. Forgot to put my name and email.
OMG. Nope. Waiting on medical news is NEVER an easy wait! I hope he’s okay.
The most recent time would be November 2018 when I was waiting for my granddaughter to be born. I had been at the hospital all night while my daughter was in labor. It was a happy time but also stressful. Thank God everything went perfectly and my granddaughter was born on Thanksgiving Day.
It’s exciting AND nerve-wracking. Been there, done that, except not a Thanksgiving Day birth. We were, of course, thankful for a healthy baby, even so.
Last year on my birthday my husband had an appt. with his Dr. , he had had a biopsy done and his appt. happened to be on my birthday, Well , the news was great and it was not cancerous, so it was the best birthday gift I have ever gotten hearing the news that there was no cancer. Thank God.
Amen to that. Like I mentioned above to another commenter – waiting on medical news is one of the hardest! That is a wonderful birthday gift!
waiting for school news
That’s a hard one, too. So much to consider.