A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Hello! I invited a fellow author to craft this week's blog post. I always talk about how I feel I live a connected life. The people I know and meet. The opportunities I have had. The places I've lived. Even the two men God brought into my life. I met Bettie Boswell over ten years ago in Ohio. Now, we have reconnected through our publisher, Mt. Zion Ridge Press. So when Bettie talked about "connections," I was all in. Enjoy the post and be sure to share those "unexpected connections" you've experienced in your own life in the comments!     Connections by Bettie Boswell I'm very honored to be Rebecca's guest blogger this week. She was in the first writing group that I officially joined over ten years ago. At that time, Rebecca was a published author. I was a dreamer, hoping a piece I'd written would one day find a home. Many years and miles now separate us, but we still have a  connection  through social media. When she asked me to write the bl...

Rebecca Waters, a graduate of Tampa’s George D. Chamberlain High School and the University of South Florida, served over fifteen years as a teacher in the public school system in Fairfield, Ohio. During that time, she earned both her Master’s and Doctoral degrees at the University of Cincinnati. Rebecca then taught at the University level for fourteen years at Cincinnati Christian University where she was awarded “Teacher of the Year,” in 2010. Rebecca left her position in 2012 and penned her first novel, Breathing on Her Own which released in 2014. Rebecca’s husband of forty-three years died in a bicycle accident that same year. Rebecca stepped away from writing during that time and focused on, in her words, “breathing and putting one foot in front of the other.” Rebecca spent the 2017-2018 school year teaching fourth grade in a school in Prishtina, Kosovo. For her it was a time of healing. On her return to the United States in 2018, Rebecca’s second novel, Libby’s Cuppa Joe was relea...

  Expect the Unexpected… Because God Can See Around the Corners If you follow my blog, you know Mike and I have spent some unexpected time in Ohio. We have a house there and Mike wanted to do some yard work. I wanted to see the kids and grandkids. Well, Mike finished the yardwork. We visited some with the kiddos. Never as much as I would like, but that’s another story. I cleaned out my office and managed to get a bit of writing done. It was a crazy week. We headed home and got as far as somewhere in Kentucky when our truck had a problem. We made it back to the Ohio house without incident. My Namesake...  Preparing for the Unexpected Go Rebi! But I trust that God can see around the corners.  There is always a reason things turn out the way they do. We may never know what or why, but stuff happens. I trust we are exactly where we need to be right now. Whether it is Ohio, in Florida, or wherever. I’ve experienced that feeling before.  Once, when I was in India, my young...

  You Can’t Get there From Here…Part II If you read last week’s blog post, “You Can’t Get There From Here,” you know Mike and I drove to Ohio from Florida via a new route. The first part of the drive was beautiful. But it turned somewhat complicated…at least at the end. I should have trusted the GPS. Just sayin’… The week was great. We accomplished all we intended to do and then some. So, since Sunday is a good day to travel, we headed south toward home early Sunday morning. We were packed and ready. The plan was to head South on I-75 early and stop somewhere (Read: probably Buc-ees) for breakfast. The weather was good, the traffic was light. We had everything we needed. We knew the route. Interstate 75 South. Easy. Then something happened. A light from the truck’s computer system warned Mike the DEF fluid was low.   Not the best way to start a thousand-mile trip. And it was Sunday. Nothing was open. Nothing. I take that back. We found a McDonald’s, ate breakfast, and made a p...

 “You Can’t Get There From Here” Mike and I decided to take a different route from our home in Inverness, Florida to our house in Ohio. We wanted to see if we could find a suitable route that would get us to the west part of Kentucky and avoid Atlanta.  I’m not “dissing” Georgia. I know many people who live in that southern state. Good people. But the traffic on the interstate through Atlanta is not always “user friendly.” Bowling Green is west of our normal route and one of our plans involves a trip to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Why Bowling Green? Because the Corvette manufacturing plant and museum is located in that part of Kentucky. We headed out on a Saturday in the truck. We didn’t need to pack much, but since our ultimate destination was Southwestern Ohio, Mike wanted to take some lawn care stuff like weed eaters and such for the house there.  Every Trip is Better with Buc-ees I had maybe …maybe, driven through the Florida Panhandle once that I can vaguely remember. I...

  Several years ago, while I still lived in Ohio, I received a Triple A (AAA) magazine. In it was an article by the Ohioana Library Association featuring     “Ohio’s Literary Trail.” Our writing group was intrigued. We researched the sixty-one sites. Some of them turned out to be a mere marker on the side of the road signifying “so-and-so was here.” Others were true sights to explore and gain insight into the experiences of authors familiar with Ohio.   Ohio Trail Mix: Available on Amazon We were intrigued. Five of us took it on ourselves to write short stories connected to each site. We had fun  getting together, exploring the area, and brainstorming ideas for stories. The result was an anthology we published n 2022. It was fun.  If you follow me, you know my formative years were spent in Florida. After living in Ohio for many years, I returned to Florida when I married Mike. I joined a group of writers called “Citrus Writers of Florida.” They are an eclec...