What goes around comes around......

I know I've been absent from here for a while, and I apologize. I'm on deadline for my next book and finding time to procrastinate or to do any writing that isn't part of the book is difficult.

Lots of exciting things have been going on. First . . . I will soon have a copy of my cover for the upcoming sequel to my award-winning MIRACLE IN THE MIST. It's called INTO THE MIST and will be released in March 2008 from Medallion Press. I'll have it up on my website as soon as it comes through. Okay, that's enough business.

Second . . . I'd heard from my mother for years that what goes around comes around and when she passed away, my husband took up the mantra. Over the years I have seen both of them proven right. My most recent brush with it all started when my husband hired two Cuban fellas to help him with work around the house. They came over from Cuba on a raft made of car inner tubes and lost their water and food the first day at sea. How they made it here is something that only God can tell you.

One of them, Luis, speaks no English and the other, Geraldo (Jerry), speaks very broken English. When Jerry met a lady at church, he decided he wanted to write her a poem, which he did . . . in Spanish, then translated it exactly into English. An exact translation transposed words and sentence structure and as a result, the poem make no sense, so he asked my husband to ask me if I would correct it for him.

When my husband asked me, I was deep into working on my book, but grudgingly agreed to stop and do the poem. The chore, as I first saw it, took hours to move words around and reconstruct sentences. But as I worked on it, I saw what a beautiful sentiment it held. In essence, he compared her to an angel. When I’d finished I asked him if he wanted me to print it out. He said yes, so I did it on paper decorated with a red rose down one side that I had hanging around. He was delighted.

Two weeks later, he gave me a totally unexpected gift. That's a picture of her. I named her Miss Lily, and she's an AKC registered Golden Retriever who is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I've wanted a Goldie for over 25 years, but couldn’t afford one. Jerry rents property from a woman who raises them. She gave him a puppy and he gave her to me as a thank you. He also named her, unbeknownst to me, Lily. Destiny? Who knows? What I do know is that I have a friend in Jerry and a wonderful new companion.

My book may be late because of the time I took to help a nice young man when he needed it, but somehow, it doesn't matter. And every time I look at Lily, I'll remember a young man who wanted so desperately to tell someone how much he loved her.

What goes around comes around.
Blessings and happy reading!
Elizabeth