This time of year floods me with memories. Uncle John’s Cider Mill is an apple orchard in Michigan where you picked a bushel and took it inside a massive red barn and they cold-pressed your cider on an ancient apple press and bottled it for you to take home. As a kid they had hayrides with a flatbed pulled by a John Deere and the most delicious doughnuts. After I grew up, it became a date place where you wore ski sweaters, tight jeans and high-heeled boots and kissed your hot date in the corn maze.
The country cemetery on a steep hill where my mother used to stop the car and we all got out in the dark and made etchings of the stones. You couldn’t get back in the car until you had one. Once my brother climbed the roof of a crypt and jumped me in the shadows. I have a strong heart, but that one almost did me in. It’s funny now, but at the moment it wasn’t at all, but I was so scared it’s a miracle I didn’t burst into flames on the spot.
Experiences little and big color our lives and change our perceptions. One of my goals as a writer was always to add that these memories and feelings to whatever I did. Lately I have read some wonderful books (all of my book reviews are on my page.) Goodreads.
Please take a look and follow me there if you enjoy hearing about new books and discovering other authors that explore fear and loneliness, the human condition, as in love and how tough it is to have it, keep it or even find it.
To me the only two reasons to read for pleasure are to escape or to find a connection in the story that traces the lines between what we know or yearn for as sentient human beings. The past five years of becoming the writer I am now has been exhausting, amazing and a journey where I slayed a few demons, told quite a few stories and lucky for me have made amazing, and supportive new friends.
Enjoy every minute and thanks as always to my loyal readers and web subscribers The Literati.
My suggestion for atmospheric reading this week is NOBLE JONES. A short story that explores what life is like in Savannah, Georgia for a young woman named Scarlett who is the archetype of a “reverse Millennial.” She’s a restoration architect in her twenties and wants the traditional family life and kids, but feels quietly pressured by her peers and co-workers to remain single, hip and free. After she joins a new dating site, she stumbles upon something evil and scary that crosses over from her nightmares and into reality. Don’t miss it!
Have a fabulous week! Until next time, Love, Hustle, then Read or Write. Xox Bibiana