Please welcome today’s guest, Sharleen Scott…
- On May 18, 1980 Mt St Helens erupted and my hometown was directly in the ash trajectory. I worked for the local newspaper and was one of the few people allowed in the downtown area following the eruption. The ash turned day to night and no one knew what damage it would do. We still find ash in the flowerbeds.
- My roommate and I had a housewarming party and she invited a friend who…
- I married eighteen months later.
- Our son was born. I’d been working as a travel agent for eleven years and started my own home-based agency so my son wouldn’t go to daycare.
- My daughter’s birth turned the agency into “Nap-Time Travel” until the two kids decided naps weren’t going to happen. I chased kids while booking cruises and airline tickets.
- September 11 brought changes to the world and directly affected my small travel agency. Within three years, I sold my office.
- To fill the void after losing my beloved travel career, I began writing and studying the craft of writing. The first attempt will stay in the back of a desk drawer. The second and third (the start of a romantic suspense series) received great comments from beta readers and made me think I had a chance at this whole writing thing.
- Then my mother-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and my father-in-law with inoperable prostate cancer. We became caregivers.
- I continued writing as a way to deal with the situation and wrote my third novel, Tangles.
- I published Caught in Cross Seas and Caught in the Spin in 2014 and Tangles in 2015. I’m currently writing book three in the Caught series. I doubt my life will be the same again.
Thank you for sharing, Sharleen. Very interesting. I’m sorry about your mother-in-law and father-in-law. My best friend’s mother passed away from Alzheimer’s last year. It’s a horrible, horrible disease. Thank you so much for sharing with us.
Check out Sharleen’s book…sounds like a moving and compelling read…
Blurb:
While faced with the challenge of his mother’s escalating Alzheimer’s disease, Logan McKinnon discovers secret journals that leave him questioning everything he knows about his family. With no one to ask, Logan must find a man mentioned in the journals to discover a truth he may not want to know.
Excerpt: (This excerpt follows the life changing moments theme of the blog.)
Logan exhausted the file cabinets by 9:00 p.m. and still hadn’t located the insurance policies. Thinking there could be more files in the closets, he poked around until he found a locked box marked Personal in the top of the guest room closet. It was heavy and locked. He didn’t find a key, but rather than give up, he jimmied it open with a screwdriver. Hoping to find file folders, he was disappointed when the contents were books and notebooks, all numbered and dated.
He sat on the floor and selected a white book marked Number One. He opened it to the first page and was stunned by what he found. The first entry, with its childish scrawl and misspelled words, made him smile.
April 1936
Dear Jurnal, My name is Lois and I am six. Mama says girls like to rite stuff so she gave you to me. I hope we can be frends and I can tell you my secrets. Love, Lois
July 1936
Dear Jurnal, Larry called me a bad name today. I dumped mud on his head. Daddy spanked me. It hurt. Big brothers are icky, and I hate him. Don’t tell anyone. Love, Lois
Logan doubled over with laughter as he read his mother’s diary. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t stop. The entries were short but telling of Lois’ early life, and he found himself engrossed. Hours passed as he read the entries detailing her fights with her older brother, Larry, stories of her cat named Puffpuff, a dog named Hunter though he was gun shy to the point of terror, and he sniffled when he read about the day she stopped hating Larry.
April 1939
Dear friend, my grandpa died today and I’m sad. When Mama told me, I ran to the barn and cried until my stomach hurt. Puffpuff tried to make me feel better but it didn’t help. Larry found me and I yelled at him to leave me alone. He said he was sad, too, and wanted to cry with me where no one would see him. Boys aren’t supposed to cry. He held my hand and we cried together. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone he cried. I think Larry is an okay brother after all, but don’t tell anyone I said that. Love, Lois
Logan placed the journal in the box and closed the lid. He stared at it, debating if he should return it to the closet where it belonged and leave it alone. His curiosity won, and he shoved the box in a corner and covered it with a blanket. The late hour caught up with him, and he stripped off his clothes and climbed into bed. Blissful sleep came quickly.
Bio:
Sharleen Scott lives in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, Brett, two college kids, and two spoiled cats.
Buy links:
Amazon Kindle and Paperback: http://amzn.com/0991589041
Nook: http://tinyurl.com/kvoc797
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id990513887
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/tangles-2
Author Alicia Dean 