Bah! Humbug! (Or, Ebenezer Scrooge Meets 21st Century Tennessee)
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed below are strictly those of Ebenezer Scrooge and are not meant to thwart the happiness on The Happy Book Blog
These Dreams
I cannot remember much about the morning I told my lie. I can’t remember if my mother asked if I had slept well or if I had any dreams. I can’t remember if I had walked down those carpeted steps
The Second Thanksgiving
This post’s for you, Misty Brianne Boyd, best friend for life, and all of us Millers and Boyds who -- 22 years ago -- moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee as strangers and soon became the family that each
Shoplifters & (price)Gunslingers
Unlike my husband, I’ve never actually caught a shoplifter red-handed in our store, but I’ve always been hankering to. A female version of Barney Fife, I’m constantly fingering the bullet in my shirt pocket, just waiting for the moment when I
Yankee Deserters in a Confederate World
Stepping back to survey the scene, my best friend, Misty, my older brother, Joshua, and I, Jolina, wiped the sweat trickling down our faces with itchy forearms and smiled. Above us, the sun pierced the canopy of kudzu, spraying the
Filling Our Brains With Nothing But Marshmallow Fluff
As my husband and I were driving home from camping this afternoon, he asked, “Is it just this group who’s talking deep and philosophical all the time, or is everyone that way these days?”I thought for a moment, ran my
Eight Months Pregnant & Ready to Push
Writing my novel over the past eight months has almost run parallel with pregnancy: it's been full of joy, it's been full of pain; at times inspiring, at other times overwhelming. On many days I have woken up exhilarated about
Selling Baby Snappers for 50 Cents a Piece
Although my family’s rancher was built out of the same T1-11 siding my father used to build his storage barns, and the wallpaper, paint, and plumbing fixtures previous donations to Springcreek Christian Camp, it was a luxurious mansion in comparison
Dancing in the Dust Devil
Today I danced in a dust devil. My husband and I were back on our property where our new house is being built, and when we looked out through the framing where French doors will soon be we saw all
How My Former College Found Me
It all happened because my family and I had ventured into the depths of the Appalachian Mountains to witness the redneck representation of Renfro Valley: a smaller, slightly cornier Dollywood without the drawing card of voluptuous Dolly.During the four