I know it’s late in the afternoon on the day I’m to post here. I haven’t written anything and actually have no idea what to write. As the blog is shutting down after this month and I have only been part of it for a few months it’s not as if I can reflect on my reflections.

Instead I think I’ll simply tell you about my titles. I have three Christian Historical Novels released in 2012. They take place in the fictional town of Cottonwood, Iowa in the 1870′s. Healing Love is the first of the series and is the story of Lydia and Sterling. She runs from her abusive brother and ends up in a forced marriage to Dr. Sterling Graham. With his selfish pride but tender care and her fear and lack of trust how do they make this marriage of strangers succeed?

Lord’s Love, second in the Cottonwood series, is Maggie and Sinjon’s story of her commitment to her faith and his arrogance. He’s a Lord from England sent to Iowa because of his debts. She simply wants to enjoy her new life away from her mother’s meddling.  Sinjon wants her but will he understand what keeps her from accepting his proposal?

Grief and need bring Katie and Drew together in Giving Love. Katie is the answer to Drew’s infant daughter’s survival as well as a caregiver and housekeeper for him and his 3 year old son. Will they be able to give what each of the family members need to overcome their grief? And what of the future when baby Annie no longer is dependent on Katie to live?

All three books are available on amazon.com and smashwords.com. Beginning chapters are available to read at http://www.sophie-dawson.com

Stepping into the 21st Century

My husband will be 60 by the time this is posted. I’m getting my blog posts all done before NANO starts. For his birthday I’m giving him a Whitepaper Kindle. He doesn’t want one. He never wants new technology. It’s time though that I once again try to drag him kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I know it’s almost 2013, but the resistance is great.
I had to threaten him in order to get him to agree to having a cell phone. We live on a farm which means he can be anywhere within two miles of home and still not be able for me to find him. At the time it was harvest. At any one time he can be anywhere. I received a call that he needed to be made aware of. I spent 45 min. driving around the farm before I gave up. Come to find out… he was in town 20 miles away. That’s when I threatened to not go looking for him anymore. He got a cell phone. This was after I had been using one for several years. See what I mean about kicking and screaming?

Now it’s 2012. We flew for vacation this year twice. Both times he takes books and magazines to read. I’m not talking little paperback novel. I’m talking big honking history paperbacks. We were gone for 2 weeks. He’d read all he had before the first week was done. So we spent an hour at a bookstore. I have an iPad. I have all the books I plan to read and more on it. Sure was fun when we still had five hours in the rental to get to our next stop. Two more big honking history books.

I pack light. I mean light. Of course I did laundry. We took one suitcase. It weighed 46 lbs when we left for vacation. We left the magazines along the way so they are no longer in it. With only a few souvenirs not weighing much the suitcase now weighed in at 49 lbs.

Now I’m pulling him kicking and screaming again into the now rather than the past. He may not use the Kindle other than on vacation, but I don’t really care. As long as he uses it then I’ll be satisfied. And since I do the packing, only 21 century reading material will be included.

Sophie Dawson writes Christian Historical fiction

8 Things To Do Or Not To When You Travel

We take a winter vacation each year. I’ve worked my husband up to two plus weeks. He has a hard time getting off the farm. This past winter we went to a Caribbean island with another couple. The suggestions below come from this experience. They aren’t specific to that region and can be modified to fit your travel plans.

1.  Choose a resort on the leeward side of the island. Many of the islands straddle the boundary of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. On the leeward side of an island the water is calm and the breezes are refreshing. On the windward (note the wind portion of the previous word) side if you travel east the next thing you will encounter is Africa. There’s a whole lot of miles without anything to cut the wind and slow it down. This results in pretty steady 30 to 40 mile an hour wind blowing across the beach you were hoping to spend the week on. Also, the waves are driven by these winds lifting the surf into motion which this old lady doesn’t want to struggle against.

2. Don’t listen to the person at the counter on the small island where there is only one plane, the one you are to take, when your plane has a mechanical problem and they tell you, first, “You’ll make your connection.” Second, “It’s not Airline 1A’s issue since you’re going to change to Airline 2. Go to their ticket counter when you get to San Juan and they will reschedule your flights.” When the flight attendant tells you to go to your departure airline to deal with the situation, don’t believe them either.

3. Don’t leave the customs area going to said Airline 2’s ticket desk. This is, of course, at least three miles away. You’ll end up being told to go to Airline 1’s counter. You’ll walk back two and a half miles. Airline 1 being the parent company of Airline 1A’s regional one. Then you’ll be told you need to go to Airline 1A’s counter since you flew in on it. Fortunately, this counter is only a half a mile away, but there is now a line 30 people deep getting rescheduled. There are only two people handling this with two to three others standing behind chatting. The man who helps you will then ask, “Why didn’t you stay in the area after going through customs?”

4. Check in when you get rescheduled. This is to assure you are actually in the system for the flights the next day, especially if you are having to change airlines again to get to your destination. It’s under 18 hours now with an opportunity to sleep for no more than four hours so checking in shouldn’t be a problem.

5. Don’t throw away the toothbrush you took with you until you are back home. I thought about it but decided to keep it, my friend didn’t. She didn’t ask for one at the motel desk either ending up brushing her teeth with her finger.

6. As you walk down the concourse watch for the service desk just in case you aren’t in the system for seats on the flight you have a voucher for. Lessens the panic when you are very close to boarding time and going in on six hours of sleep the day before and four hours from last night.

7. Never pack your car keys in the suit case you checked to meet you at your destination. The couple we vacationed with left their car in the airport parking lot. He packed the car keys in the suit case. You guessed it. The luggage didn’t arrive when we did. Fortunately, their son met us at the airport. Something he’s never done before.

8. Don’t throw away the baggage claim tickets for that day but get rid of the ones from previous flights so you know which ones will match with your luggage when it finally does arrive.

I hope this helps you with your own future travels. I’ll store these in the back of my head and hope I don’t have to either relearn them or learn new things next year.

***

Sophie Dawson is a Christian Historical Fiction author. The wife of an Illinois farmer with 2 sons, a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter, Sophie has published the first two books of her Cottonwood Series set in the 1870′s in Iowa. Healing Love and Lord’s Love will be followed in Dec. 2012 by Giving Love. Besides her monthly post in Reflections, Sophie posts weekly on her Little Bits Blog and monthly on The Barn Door.

Greetings From Me, Sophie Dawson

Hi, I’m Sophie Dawson, a new contributing author to Reflections, so I thought I would introduce myself. This is my pen name. I chose Sophie since it means wisdom. I’m not claiming any but rather hoping I can pass on the wisdom God has revealed through His Word and my reflecting on it and how He has worked in my life. Now for the shameless plug. If you would like to see the entire reason why I chose to have a pen name it’s available on my website About Me page.

I’ve been married over 36 years to the same man and have two grown sons, one daughter-in-law (also grown) and one beautiful granddaughter (not grown but almost two). We live on a family farm in rural western Illinois. Not Chicago, the other Illinois.

Details about what I’ve done in my life you can find on the bio page, I think. If not I’ll get the info there shortly.

Right now my focus is following God’s purpose for me in writing Historical Christian Fiction. My stories of faithful living aim to show that making your choices, acting and reacting as God would have us does work. Even when the choices given can lead to temporary pain by choosing what is right leads to blessings and growth in the how closely we follow Christ.

Another shameless plug. You can find out more about my writing and books at my website.

I’ll be posting here the second Monday of each month. I hope you’ll find my writing enjoyable and worth your time. Aside from my almost weekly blogging on my site (see link above) I also contribute on the 13th of each month on The Barn Door.

So… Please accept my hand of friendship. I’m excited to share reflections of my life and learning hopefully with grace, in agreement with God’s Word and maybe a little humor with the occasional shameless plug.

See you next month.