#TuesdayTreasure: Guest Post by Linda Yezak (@LindaYezak)

Good Morning and it's a blustery one!

Cold, ice, & rain does not make for a fun day but this week's Tuesday Treasure will warm your soul....

Every year, St. Mary's Catholic Church in my husband’s hometown of Bremond, Texas, holds a bazaar complete with drawings, booths, barbecue, and a whoppin' big auction. And every year, you'll find us there–not because we’re Catholic, but because the bazaar is full of family and fun. We get a kick out of it.

Everything is up for auction. Homemade and home-canned goods, quilts, toys, furniture, motor oil (yes, you read that right), wine made from Muscadine and wild grapes. We almost always buy the canned goods, paying far more than we would if we just got the same thing in Kroger. But it's fun, and it keeps us in good standing with a community  we'll be moving to when he retires, and besides--we know and love most of the folks who did the canning.

But not everything we buy is edible. One year, we bought a jewelry box handmade by a prisoner in Angola. Loved it then, still love it. This year, my heart went to something I kept calling a bottle, because I could see it only well enough to know I wanted it.

When they brought it out so we could see it better, I really wanted it, even though I still didn't know what it was.

Well, $40 later, we were the proud owners of a "beer growler," and we got it for $4.99 less than the sticker price at Texas Slav & German Warehouse in Bremond (they donated it to the auction). Aside from the heavy brown glass, it has a ceramic top and an ornate silver handle.

I had to look up what a growler was because I didn't have a clue. It's not used to make beer, but to carry it home from the beer barrel at the local pub--the 18th Century six-pack, so to speak. (They date back to the 18th Century, but the term "growler" didn't show up until the 19th Century. It was a slang term, describing the "growling" sound the brew's carbonation made when leaking from the top.) Since beer wasn't sold on Sundays, folks would go get their "fix" on Saturday night.

This one isn't an antique, but I love it anyway. It would carry maybe a liter of Coke, or it could (and no doubt will) just sit on a shelf and look pretty. I doubt it'll ever be used to bring beer home.

Things like this silly growler and the jewelry box commemorate wonderful times and the true treasure: being with family. Can’t put a price on that.

Over twenty years ago, after a decade of life as a "single-again," author Linda Yezak rediscovered God's love and forgiveness when He allowed her a second chance at marital happiness. She is now living her greatest romance with her husband in a forest in East Texas. After such an amazing blessing, she chooses to trumpet God's gift of second chances in the books she writes. Linda's novels are heart-warming hallmarks of love, forgiveness, and new beginnings.

Find out more about Linda by visiting her Website 777 Peppermint Place and be sure to check out the blog, Author Culture that Linda shares with 5 other authors.

Also check out Linda's book, The Cat Lady's Secret which is available now through Pelican Book Group and Amazon!

Well Friends, hope you enjoyed this week's Tuesday Treasure and I hope you'll check back for Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

IMW, take care, God Bless and Stay warm!!

PamT

Tuesday Treasure: Guest Post by Linda W Yezak

Good Morning Friends,

It is my pleasure and privilege to bring you this Tuesday Treasure by my friend and fellow author, Linda W Yezak.

PRISON TALK

You never know what you're going to find at an auction, or where it'll take your imagination.

The Bremond Fall Festival and Church Bazaar always features an auction, and we try never to miss it. True, we usually come home afterward having paid too much for silly things, mostly foodstuffs that would've cost far less at a grocery store, but occasionally we come across some treasures.

What I found this year is a true gem.

This wooden jewelry box with inlays was handmade by an inmate in Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola Prison--aka The Farm, the largest maximum security prison in America.

                   

This is a beautiful piece of work regardless of who created it, but when we discovered an inmate made it, we had to have it. A piece with a history is always appealing because it's interesting, different. Because Angola is a maximum security prison, I wonder about the man who made this, what he did to land himself at The Farm, and how someone with such patience and talent could do anything awful enough to be sentenced there. Perhaps if he'd exhibited that amount of patience and talent long ago, he wouldn't be there now.

After MSB won the bid, the lady who donated it for the auction told us she'd bought it for $60 at the Angola Prison Rodeo, which is also an annual event. Every year, the warden challenges inmate artists to design a poster to advertise the event. The posters are terrific works of art themselves. This one is my favorite, from 2007:

The artistry and craftsmanship of the inmates' works bring out a series of "what if" questions and turn this writer's brain toward the plot of a new story. My mind wanders, plans, designs. Who would my main character be? A guilty man, like in Dead Man Walking, or an innocent, as in The Shawshank Redemption? Would I want a story where the prison is reformed, like Brubaker, or would I aim for an inmate-hero story instead, like The Hurricane?

What I know, since I'm a Christian and write Christian novels, is that my MC would come to the Lord--probably through his art, since I find it so fascinating. But from the salvation scene, where would I go? Prison release? A depiction of life in prison? Death row?

I also know that I wouldn't want to glamorize or romanticize prison life or the crime that landed my MC there. But what would my MC be guilty of? Can I depict some of the awful things that happen in real life, or would I prefer a soft-soap white-collar crime? So much to consider . . .

And to think, all this daydreaming and speculation came from a handcrafted jewelry box....

Definitely some things to treasure!

Linda W. Yezak lives with her husband and three cats in a forest in east Texas, where tall tales abound  and exaggeration is an art form. She holds a BA in English and a graduate certificate in Paralegal Studies. Thirty years later, she’s finally putting her degree in English to good use, combining it with her natural inclination toward story-telling to create fun, unique novels. Follow her on Twitter @LindaYezak and connect with her on Facebook: Author Linda W. Yezak 

Emily Taylor loves to help people, loves to ease their burdens and make their dreams come true. But when a conman ruins her reputation, she discovers that helping others is safer and easier from behind the scenes. 

When one of Emily’s gifts captures the attention of an avid journalist, her identity as the town’s anonymous benefactor—and her renewed relationship with her high school sweetheart—are threatened.

As her private life begins to unravel, she realizes the one hope for regaining control lies behind prison walls.

The Cat Lady's Secret is available now in Ebook and Print!

Well Friends, hope you enjoyed this week's Tuesday Treasure. Beginning June 24th I'll be participating and posting books from Authors Helping Authors "Rocking Summer Romance" blog hop so check back every week for great Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and of course, Saturday Spotlights!

Until next time....take care & God Bless!

PamT

The Writing Process Blog Tour

Good Morning Friends!

I normally don’t post on Monday’s but I was tagged by Linda Yezak for “The Writing Process” blog tour so here goes…..

What am I working on?

Currently I have 2 fiction and 2 nonfiction projects in the works as well as a novel I’m getting ready for publication. I am also proofing my 4 part Tempered series to go to print.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

My novels have been reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

Why do I write what I do?

In 1989 I recommitted my life and committed my writing to Christ. After that, my focus changed from traditional romance to inspirational romance. God is very real to me, and I feel people today need and want to hear more of His truths wherever they can glean them. People are hungry for practical (and real) Christian values, not some ‘holier-than- thou’ beliefs which are impossible to believe and impossible to live up to, and I do my best to encourage readers to develop a personal relationship with God. The deepest desire of my heart is to glorify God and to get His message of faith, trust, and forgiveness to a hurting world.

How does my writing process work?

I am 100% SOTP (seat of the pants) writer and often begin a story with a thought, dream, piece of conversation I overheard, or a character will just show up and start talking…And of course, Prayer!  As for how it works….when I actually make time to write it works very well. I normally do quite a bit of editing along the way and sometimes that hinders my productivity but when I get a chance to turn off the internal editor, I do and just flow with it.

I’m Tagging….Sheri Cobb South to participate....

At the age of sixteen, Sheri Cobb South discovered Georgette Heyer, and came to the startling realization that she had been born into the wrong century. Although she doubtless would have been a chambermaid had she actually lived in Regency England, that didn’t stop her from fantasizing about waltzing the night away in the arms of a handsome, wealthy, and titled gentleman.

Since Georgette Heyer was dead and could not write any more Regencies, Ms. South came to the conclusion she would simply have to do it herself. After honing her craft on five young adult books for Bantam’s long-running Sweet Dreams series, she tried her hand at the genre she had loved for so long. Her first Regency romance, The Weaver Takes a Wife, was published in 1999, to critical acclaim.  

In addition to her Regency romances, she is also the author of a series of Regency mysteries featuring idealistic young Bow Street Runner John Pickett, described by All About Romance as “a little young, but wholly delectable.”

A native and long-time resident of Alabama, Ms. South recently moved to Loveland, Colorado, where she has a view of Long’s Peak from her office window.

Linda W. Yezak lives with her husband and three cats in a forest in east Texas, where tall tales abound  and exaggeration is an art form. She holds a BA in English and a graduate certificate in Paralegal Studies. Thirty years later, she’s finally putting her degree in English to good use, combining it with her natural inclination toward story-telling to create fun, unique novels. Follow her on Twitter @LindaYezak and connect with her on Facebook: Author Linda W. Yezak  Linda's book, The Cat Lady's Secret will be featured on Tuesday Treasures next week!