Growing up in Wisconsin, one of the first signs of spring was a robin singing in the tree in our backyard. It was a ritual, much like the groundhog, but way more reliable. Wisconsin is also known for sometimes not following the adage: In like a lion, out like a lamb. Witness this March with sub-freezing temps and mounds of snow.
But there was always, always, the robin. How he/they survive the “in like a lion, out like a T-Rex,” I’ll never know.
One thing I never enjoyed about early spring in Wisconsin was the Yo-Yo weather it can have. Up one day, down the next. But even worse was the ugly melting when it finally warms up.
Fresh snow, when it falls and lands atop roofs and tree limbs and fence posts, is white as powdered sugar. But when it melts, it is wet and dirty like unkept bed linen. Car exhaust and road dust darken it to gray and black on roadways. Puddles are everywhere, and when you drive through them, they splash up onto your car along with the salt used to help melt snow and ice. It creates rust and damages the undercarriage. Sometimes, if the temps drop, underneath the melting snow is black ice, and one never knows until you test the breaks and feel the slide forward and the pitch sideways if one isn’t careful.
Still … there is something about spring that brings relief. Hope, if you will.
Spirits lift. There seems to be more smiling and laughter. People shed some of the nineteen layers of clothes one wears in a Wisconsin winter. Families begin planning their summer trips. More people are out and about- shopping, hiking, walking, running.
There is more life happening in and around you.
I’ve noticed here in Virginia, in the small woods beyond our backyard, there are crickets chirping and frogs croaking. I’ve seen several blue birds and a couple of cardinals. And of course, the robin.
Mostly, when I think of spring, I think of hope and rebirth. Grass, brown and dormant in winter, turns green. White, sometimes pink and red buds breakout on trees, and after, trees grow back their leaves that had been shed during winter’s harshness and cold.
Just as there are different seasons in nature, I believe there are different seasons within each of us. I notice this especially as I grow older. While my thoughts turn outward, rather than inward with what I might do to improve myself and get better at … life, I notice there is a willingness in myself to get and be active. Not only in my walking, but also in my reverie and meditation.
I
notice a willingness within myself to move beyond self. To reach out, to shed
my shell, much like a tree budding and leaves growing. To become more, somehow.
I think this is one of the great lessons of nature that sometimes isn’t noticed, or, if noticed, seldom thought deeply about. We need to grow; each of us needs to grow. To become better- not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. If nature demands that of itself, shouldn’t we? Something to think about …
Live
Your Life, and Make A Difference!
To My Readers:
Connect with me on
Social Media:
Author Website at https://www.jrlewisauthor.blog
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**ONLY
11 DAYS UNTIL FAN MAIL LAUNCHES! ELEVEN DAYS!**
A lot will happen when it does! There
is a Seven Day Book Blog Tour that begins with three book bloggers sharing
their thoughts on Fan Mail on the 30th, and that
continues for the next seven days. There will also be special activities
associated with the book in the weeks that follow.
April will be a busy month! I have two
book sales and signings taking place at two different local libraries, along
with a regional craft fair I’m taking part in. If you go to my Facebook and Instagram
pages, you will find details as they get closer.
I took part in the Author’s
Spot Podcast. It was a little about my life, my writing, and about my
newest book, Fan Mail. You can find it at: https://podcast.theauthorsspot.com/1973858/12365749
Need a New Book? I
have nine available, and I hope you gift someone, maybe yourself, with one of
my books. If you have read one of my books, I would like to ask a favor. If you
could go online and write a review or, at the least, give a rating on the book,
it would be of great help. Both a review and a rating would be wonderful. The
review could be one or two lines. It doesn’t have to be long. Just let others
know you read it and hopefully, enjoyed it. Obviously, 4s and 5s are the best.
Thanks for this consideration.
My newest, Fan
Mail, is Available for Preorder at https://www.blackrosewriting.com/thrillers/fanmail
Use code
PREORDER2023 to receive a 15% Discount. If
you head over to my author website at www.jrlewisauthor.blog/ you
will find the cover to Fan Mail, along with the book
trailer, and the first two chapters to preview. You can also PREORDER the
Kindle Version on Amazon at: amzn.to/3WBbRps
**If
you are a blogger, librarian or reviewer, Fan Mail is available
on NetGalley for free UNTIL MARCH 30TH.**
Fan Mail: New Release! A
Literary Titan Silver Book Award Winner!
A barrage of threatening letters, a
car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of
adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best
friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to
their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It
rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family,
nearly killing their dad.
As these boys turn on each other,
adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly
lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but
not his heart.
Would he once again have to put
himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will he?
Blaze In, Blaze
Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers! A
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A
Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!
Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the
conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime
family, meant the end. It was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge
knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness
never worries about collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to
go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann. The killers can be anyone and be
anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage.
Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must
die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP
Betrayed: Two
Top Shelf Awards: 1st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up
Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1st Place Winner for
Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan
Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A
Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!
Betrayed is
Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS
A late-night phone call, a missing
kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking. A promise is made and kept, but
it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Greed can be all-consuming,
and seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the
hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx
Spiral Into Darkness:
Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!
He blends in. He is successful, intelligent, and
methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no discernible
pattern. There are no clues. There are no leads. The only thing the FBI and
local police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face-
gruesome and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any
message coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in
their own world, do not know they are the next targets. Neither does their
family. And neither does local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm
Caught in a Web: A
PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by
BestThrillers.com
Caught in a Web is also
available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka
They found the bodies of high school
and middle school kids dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. A violent
gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the I-94 and I-43 corridors. They
send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it
down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a
fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay. Detectives Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor and
Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the drugs, shut down the ring, and
find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696
The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his partner search for the clues behind the
bodies of six boys left in various and remote parts of the country. Even though
they live in separate parts of the country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old
Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle.
The two boys become interwoven with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand.
The three of them are on a collision course and when that happens, their futures
grow dark as each search for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5
Book One, Stolen Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers!
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in
the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!
Two thirteen-year-old boys are abducted off a safe suburban street.
Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they will end
up like the other kids they found- dead! They have no leads, no clues, and
nothing to go on. To make the investigation that much tougher, Kelliher
suspects that one of his team members might be involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ
Book Two of the Lives Trilogy, Shattered Lives:
The boys are home, but now they have to fit back in with their families and
friends. Their parents and the FBI thought the boys were safe. They were until
people began dying. Now the hunt is on for six dangerous and desperate men who
vow revenge. With no leads and nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and
wait. A dangerous game that threatens not only the boys, but their
families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:
Three dangerous men with nothing to lose offer a handsome reward to anyone
willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett McGovern. He does not know that he, his
younger brother, and a friend are targets. More than anyone, these three men
vow to kill George, whom they blame for forcing them to run and hide. A fun
vacation turns into a nightmare and ends where it started, back on the Navajo
Nation Reservation, high on a mesa held sacred by George and his grandfather.
Outnumbered and outgunned, George will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect
his adoptive father and his adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who
these men are? Or where they are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared
for betrayal that leads to his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives
Photos Courtesy of Arno
Smit and Unsplash