“I love va-ca-tions! I love va-ca-tions!” Alison sang for the umpteenth time. Feeling as crimped as the new curls in her strawberry-blonde coiffure, Eileen turned to confront her daughter. “Alison, if you yell in this car once more—” The girl seemed to be weighing the punishment against the suspense of not knowing it. “If you…
Category: Family life
Chase the Dream: Childhood Dreams, Chapter 2 part 3. Plus: This Fall-en World
Since this last Chapter 2 segment of Chase is so small, below it I’m also posting another updated seasonal vignette originally published in 2020. Betty Rawlings looked across her Bible at the two boys devouring her gingersnaps. “It’s good to see that my reading didn’t affect your appetites.” She tousled Forrest’s hair, then smoothed it…
Chase the Dream: Childhood Dreams, Chapter 2 part 2
As Forrest and Tom daydream of their rodeo futures, the two boys share their hopes and heartaches.
Chase the Dream: Childhood Dreams, Chapter 2
Eileen insists that Harvey hide his rodeo past from their daughter, but now Alison is planning her future as a world-champion barrel racer with her cousin Jenny. Alison’s aunt and father wonder how the Austin family will ever reconcile the life Al dreams of with the one Eileen desires.
Chase the Dream: Childhood Dreams, Chapter 1 part 2
Even before watching her first rodeo, nine-year-old Alison Austin dreams of being a beautiful woman on a fast horse, little guessing what such dreams will cost her and those she learns to love.
Chase the Dream: Childhood Dreams, Chapter 1
Raised as a tomboy, I never intended to write romances. I never even read ‘em. Stocked by my cultured mother and paternal grandmother, the resort library contained no such pulp. My best friend and her family devoured precarious stacks of Harlequins® at her farm, but I despised the melodramatic cover art, writing and plot. Why…
Harvest of Memories
Crimson jewels my husband picked sit in white ice cream buckets on our kitchen table, facing me, challenging me. He pats me on the back, whispering sweet matrimonial-style nothings: “Honey, how about making fresh cranberry jelly?” I smile grimly and search for a recipe. I haven’t canned cranberries for years, not since my granny was…
Carpe Diem
My husband and I were thrilled with our firstborn, but people congratulating us usually added, “Enjoy your time with her. Soon she’ll be in school and you’ll be writing again.” Sure, I’d think, in about eighteen years. The reality was almost double, although God had clearly blessed us with our miracle child. I was young,…
When the Early Bird Catches the Night Owl
In little more than a month, Daylight Savings Time ends. Gain an hour? For me it only means I’ve already lost winter’s war and won a mere 3,600 seconds in which to try keeping up with our family’s night owls. It’s not an issue when the sun shines, but as darkness swallows bright minutes at…
Constance Colson-Clay 