Bette A. Stevens, Maine Author

Tears In the Sun

It’s “Read an Ebook Week” on Smashwords and for a short few days you can download “Tears In the Sun” free! So hop on over and download it, and if you like it feel free to leave a review!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/389965

Until Next Time…

First, thank you to Rave Reviews Book Club for voting me this week’s Spotlight Author! And, a huge thanks to all the members who agreed to host me on their site!

My name is Bruce A. Borders, author of crime-fiction books. I guess you could call me a professional dreamer – or a schemer. Either one fits.

As a young boy, books always fascinated me. The stories they told were so captivating, so spellbinding. The further I got into a book, the more absorbed I became – and the more questions I had. I wanted to know the what, where, who, and when, of the entire story. But the question that most intrigued me was the “how.” I found it utterly fascinating how everything connected, how seemingly impossible situations…

Write What You Know – Maybe

Thank you Rave Reviews Book Club for voting me this week’s Spotlight Author! And, a huge thanks to all the members who agreed to host me on their site!

What would you do if Child Protective Services showed up on your doorstep with an army of Sheriff’s deputies and tried to remove your three-year-old from your home? Knowing there’s no justification for their action and the court documents they presented are fabricated, would you stand by or fight to protect your child?

Over My Dead Body explores the deadly reaction and consequences when a protective father, Jeff Blake, tries to prevent the state from  taking his daughter. The director of Child Protective Services uses his position to exact a personal vendetta in removing three-year-old Ashley from the Blake’s home.

The situation quickly becomes violent as Jeff resorts to the only response…

The Flower Child, now available in hardback,  is about a young flower child that loses her best friend.

Did you ever lose a friend when you were a child? If you did, or if one of your children did, you can understand this can be a terrible and stressful event.

Children lose friends due to relocation, divorce, illness or even death. Some might blame themselves for the loss and they need emotional support to help them understand and deal with the loss. This is a wound that can last for many years.

In ‘The Flower Child – La Niña Flor,’ Dashi has lost her best friend, Rousseau the Rose. Rousseau is never coming back and Dashi will have to live with that fact.

The story helps young children learn to handle this type of loss and demonstrates, as hard as it seems, that life goes on and new friends…

Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

‘Does it hurt?’ asked the Rabbit.

‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.’

‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby…

Unlike what most people think, peace doesn’t vegetate at MacDonald, Burger King, Wendy’s or Chic-fil-A. You won’t find it at a German diner, a French Cafe or at an Italian restaurant. Neither does it reside at your most favorite steakhouse, nor is its habitat found at your nearest bar.  Like a kernel as small as a mustard seed peace germinates in the hearts of men and women

As the year closes, I look back at 364 days that have been a challenge for all humanity living on planet earth.  Many people died.  Death became an acceptable disease in our societies.  We have become desensitized to the suffering going on in the world. We see children being bombed, maimed, dying of starvation, or some type of curable disease, and we’re thankful that it doesn’t happen in the western world.  We hear the cry for peace, the scream for reconciliation…

How good it is to center down!  To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by!  The streets of our mind seethe with endless traffic; our spirits resound with clashings, with noisy silences, while something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment and the resting lull.  We look at ourselves in this waiting moment–the kinds of people we are.  The questions persist; what are we doing with our lives? What is the end of our doings?  Where is my treasure?  As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind–a deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.  It moves directly to the core of our being.  Our questions are answered, our spirits are refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily rounds with the peace of the Eternal in our step. …

When father takes his spade to dig
then the Robin comes along;
And sits upon a little twig
And sings a little song.

Or, if the trees are rather far
He does not stay alone,
But comes up close to where we are
And bobs upon a stone.
~“The Robin” by Laurence Alma-Tadema

Since the mid 19th century in the UK and in Ireland, the robin has been strongly associated with Christmas; its image has been used on Christmas cards and on postage stamps.  Legend has it, according to an old British folk tale, that when Jesus was dying on the cross, the Robin, then a simply brown bird, flew to his side and sang into his ear in order to comfort him in his pain. The blood from his wounds stained the Robin’s breast, and thereafter all Robins have borne the mark of Christ’s blood upon them.  More than…

For some Christmas music magic with violinist Lindsey Stirling.