Thanks to Thea for the lovely picture of my Rosey Corner books.
“A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost.” — Marion Garretty
Do you have sisters? I do. I have two sisters who are also my best friends. If needed for any reason, we’d link arms and be ready to stand against any troubles that might come our way. We can also celebrate the happy times together too. I hope you have sisters, brothers, cousins, or friends who are that way for you too.
My mother felt that way about her sisters. She had three sisters. Almost the same at Kate in my book Angel Sister. She was the second child just like Kate. She didn’t have any brothers. Neither did Kate. Mom was the fixer in the family, the one who tried to make things right for her sisters as well as herself. Just like Kate. Mom always had a can-do attitude. So did Kate in my story.
I guess you are beginning to see where I got inspiration for my character, Kate, in Angel Sister. And of course, those of you were right who guessed that my random line from Sunday’s post was Kate in Angel Sister. Several of you remembered it was when Kate was talking to Lorena after she found her on the church’s steps. The little girl’s mother had promised her if she didn’t cry an angel would come take care of her. So when Kate found her, Lorena’s first question was “Are you an angel?” And Kate answered with the line in the last post. “Me? An Angel? Far from it. Just ask anybody.”
That one was a little more obvious than the one from The Refuge last week. In fact, Deborah thought it so obvious that she wouldn’t guess Angel Sister. She thought I’d be sneakier than that. Marji said Angel Sister was the first of my books that she read and that she liked the story so much, she’s read my other books too. I hope some of the rest of you have given several of my books a try. Not that I expect you to remember every line. I don’t remember every line! But I can grab one of the books off my shelf and pull out one of those random lines that I did write at one time or another.
Many of those lines in Angel Sister were inspired by the stories my mother and her sisters loved to tell about their growing up years during the Great Depression years. Check out the picture below of them with their parents. My mother is the second tallest girl in front of her father (in my eyes the prettiest one.) Next to her is Evelyn the inspiration for my character, Evangeline (Evie). Margaret, who loved to fish and had the reputation as a kid of crying a lot, became Victoria (Tori), and Bertha (Bill) is the littlest one.
I didn’t base Lorena on Bill. But I did let Lorena take the fourth sister’s place. If you’re curious about Bill’s name, she was the fourth daughter, the one my grandparents surely hoped would be a boy. They didn’t have a name ready and the lady who came to help my grandmother after the baby’s birth told them after a week with no name that she was just going to call the baby Bill. The name stuck and although she got a different name eventually, she was always Bill to the family.
And then here is my favorite picture of the sisters after they were older. This is how they always had fun when they got together. Mom is on the left in the picture, then Bill, Margaret, and Evelyn. Bill, the youngest, died first of a cancer type illness. Evelyn went next, then Margaret. Mom was the last one standing and she ever missed those sisters.
Even though my story is fiction, I’m glad I could thread Mom’s memories into the background of Angel Sister and bring my characters to life by remembering the looks and personalities of Mom and her sisters.
Are you ready for a new random line? I hope so because here it comes.
A dream room where her imagination could take flight. Until nightmares had intruded.
So what do you think? Which book did I find this line in? Remember each time you leave a comment with your idea of which book these lines might have come from, you get another entry into my book giveaway. I’ll pick, by a random drawing, three winners who will be notified by email. Deadline to enter is midnight EST October 28, 2022. You must be at least eighteen years old to enter the giveaway.
Remember, you can go to my website and look at my books to grab a random guess if you can’t recall this particular random line.
Thanks so much for playing along with me on this Random Line Game. You are making it extra fun.
Comments 31
Author
Thanks to all of you who guessed a book. Unfortunately, none of you guessed the right book. So I guess I’d better go do Sunday night’s post to let you know which book was right. First I’ve got to grab another random line from another book. Should I make it easy or hard? Hmm. So far I’ve had two fairly easy ones and two not so easy ones. This one must have been extra hard.
This quote is from “When the Meadow Blooms,” a wonderful story.
Thanks for sharing the photos of your mother’s family and how you came up with your story for the Merritt family in the Rosey Corner series.
Author
You sound really sure, Maria. I like a confident guesser even if she does happen to be wrong. LOL. Glad you enjoyed reading about my Rosey Corner inspiration.
I really have no idea !! But I will guess When the Meadow Blooms.
I don’t know about this one, I will guess Small Town Girl since a picture of the book is up above. I haven’t read that one yet.
Author
You should go back to Rosey Corner and catch up on what the Merritt sisters are up to, Connie. By the time Small Town Girl starts, Evie is getting married and Kate is old enough to fall in love. But sometimes love is not easy.
At first, I had no idea where the quote was from, but after reading some of the earlier comments to your post, I’m wondering if the quote really is from “When the Meadow Blooms”. That was the most recent book of yours that I read, but I don’t actually remember that particular line . . .
Anyway, I really enjoy all of your books that I’ve read and hope to read many more soon.
Thank you, too, for sharing those wonderful stories of your mother and her sisters.
Author
Roberta, there is a reason you don’t remember that line. It wasn’t in that book. I’ll be revealing the source in a little bit when I post Sunday night’s post. So glad you’ve enjoyed my stories and that you want to read some of those you haven’t gotten to read yet. Love that. Glad you liked reading about Mom and her sisters too.
I’m terrible at guessing or remembering. One of the shaker books maybe. Blessings. Love the photos.
Author
I love that you keep playing along with my games whether you think you’re good at guessing anyway. Glad you liked the pictures of Mom and her family.
When the Meadow Blooms
Maybe ” When the Meadow Blooms”.
I am not sure which book the line is from. I was almost 100 percent sure on the last one though that I was right with Angel Sister. 🙂 I love the photos of your mom and her family and am sure that you miss them all. It looks like they had a lot of fun together.
Author
I’m glad you enjoyed seeing the pictures of Mom and her sisters, Hope. They did have a great time when they got together. Much laughter and story telling. And you were right about that Angel Sister quote. Also, you weren’t alone on not knowing where the current random line was from. Nobody did.
I’m guessing The Outsider, but it’s only a guess.
Author
A guess is all it takes, Tammy. It doesn’t have to be right, and I’ll have to tell you and everybody else that none of you got it right. 🙂
My guess is When the Meadow Blooms.
Every book from you is a treasure.
My favorite is still Angel Sister.
Blessings!
Author
Then it was good I picked a random line from Angel Sister last week for my game, Paula. Thanks for playing along and I very much appreciate your kind words about my books.
When The Medow Blooms! Thank you for sharing this post .
Author
So glad you enjoyed it, Sarah.
When the Meadow Blooms
I think it is from When the Meadow Blooms…here’s hoping. I loved seeing pictures of your Mom and her sisters and how they fit into Angel Sister! You have a wonderful legacy to pull from!!
Author
I’m glad you enjoyed some of the back story or inspiration I had for writing my Rosey Corner books, especially Angel Sister, Pamela. The characters moved farther away from my mom and her sisters in the two other Rosey Corner books, Small Town Girl and Love Comes Home. But Rosey Corner was still like the community where my mother grew up.
If I have the right Pamela, it was great to meet you in Casey County.
Ann it was wonderful meeting you Saturday. You are exactly how I had you pictured in my mind. I enjoyed listening to you talk about how you began writing and the progression of your books.
Your books open worlds for me and your characters come to life as I read. I truly have enjoyed each and every one of the ones I have read. Thank you!
I think this line is from When the Meadow Blooms. I loved that book and shared it with several of my friends.
Author
That’s great, Suzanne. I’m glad you liked the story enough to share it with your friends. Thank you.
When the Meadow Blooms? This contest has made me realize I need to re-read all your wonderful books. Now the question is, where to began again?
Author
So nice of you to consider reading my books over again, Amy. Other than the books I write which I read a gazillion times to try to make the story better and catch all the mistakes, I rarely reread a book. That’s because I have so many I want to read that I haven’t gotten to yet. But I’m very complimented that you might consider reading some of my stories more than once.
guess The Innocent
Guess – River for Redemption
Good job fooling me on the last one. I was sure it was too obvious to be Angel Sister. By I’m pretty sure this one is from When the Meadow Blooms.