When they tell you to go jump off a bridge in WV . . .

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Filed under Appalachian, History
cropped-gedc0169.jpg

Summertime view from the New River Gorge Bridge overlook.

On October 22, 1977, the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, WV, officially opened. At the time, it was the world’s longest single-span expansion bridge at 3,030 feet across. That’s 390 feet more than half a mile.

When you’re driving across, it seems further.

Each October the bridge is open to pedestrians for one day–Bridge Day–which is this coming Saturday. They actually close the bridge for most of the day, which means if you want to drive from one side of the gorge to the other it will take 20 minutes instead of 30 seconds.

People celebrate Bridge Day by doing fun things like listening to live music, competing in a chili cook-off, taking tours down into the gorge, and jumping off the bridge.

Yup, you read that last one right. It’s 876 feet from the middle of the bridge to the river below and people are allowed to rapel and base jump. They sign up way in advance and vie for the chance to do this. Seriously. Jumpers need to have training and experience, but anyone can do a tandem jump with a group called Tandem Base. Well, the first 16 people willing to pay $1,275 for the chance can.

If you were thinking about surprising me with this as a gift, that’s okay, I’m good.

This year event organizers have also added a high line–no experience required–that allows adventurers to ride a zip line 700 feet from the bridge to a road below.

Phew. I’ll just have a pepperoni roll, listen to some music, and enjoy the view.

Here are a few more crazy facts about the New River Gorge Bridge:

  • It weighs 88 million pounds. Held up by a single arch.
  • The Washington Monument would fit under the bridge with 325 feet to spare.
  • Throughout the year there are Bridge Walk tours offered. They guide you on a stroll of the full length of the catwalk under the bridge. People pay to do this.
  • When the bridge was opened in 1977 it cut the trip across the gorge from 45 minutes to 30 seconds.

If you want to learn more about Bridge Day or the bridge itself, click here. I recommend a visit. Although I can’t advise you about jumping off of it.

The (Christmas) reviews are coming in!

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Filed under holidays, Reading, Writing

The Christmas quoteHeirloom has been out for nearly two weeks now! Yes, I’m still talking about my latest release–a novella that’s part of a collection with Kristi Ann Hunter, Karen Witemeyer, and Becky Wade.

Why?

Because I’m excited about it! And, the ever nerve-wracking reviews are (thus far) mostly good (and mostly good is great!). PLUS, you have a few more days to win a copy by way of Relz Reviewz. Just click on over to Rel’s website for a review and ways to rack up multiple chances to win a copy of the collection.

And if you’re wondering if the collection’s any good, here are a few reviews that made me grin:

All four stories involve unique characters united by the brooch. I enjoyed each novella as the romance unfolded and the backdrop of Christmas made it all the sweeter. The short novellas are the perfect length for a busy season. This book would make a great gift for the book lover in your life. -Jennifer K

What an absolutely delightful novella collection! I loved how perfectly the brooch was woven into each of the novellas! I adored every single one of these stories and highly recommend The Christmas Heirloom! -Caitlyn S

Probably the most unique and cleverly written set of novellas I’ve ever read! Every set of short stories will have some kind of connecting theme, but this has knocked it out of the park! -Amy

I loved the way the stories were woven together, and especially enjoyed having more stories featuring characters from from two of my currently favorite series. These novellas are beautifully created stories that feel like full length novels. -Caroline

Thank you ladies–your reviews were the best early Christmas presents ever!

 

Appalachian Thursday – A Poor Harvest

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Filed under Appalachian, bears, Family, Food, Memories, Nature

applesI’ve mostly given up trying to grow our food. I keep a pot of herbs and this year I grew a cherry tomato in a pot near the front porch. Based on what I paid for the plant and the number of tomatoes I picked, I’d say I broke even on that one.

But, like the local bears, I’m opportunistic when it comes to harvesting food. Blackberries, raspberries, apples, pears, grapes, and nuts tend to be plentiful in our area. We pick them wild and have neighbors who are glad to share.

This year, though, there just wasn’t much to harvest. I made an apple pie last weekend and had to supplement with store apples. The walnuts are few and far between. Even the hickory nuts are less this year.

Growing up on the farm, we had walnuts, chestnuts, and filberts (hazelnuts). Walnuts turned our hands (and clothes) black. Chestnuts could be removed from their prickly casing by pinching them between the soles of our boots and pushing them out. Hazelnuts we just let dry a bit and then whacked ’em good with a hammer.

Mom probably made things using nuts, but mostly the pleasure was in just eating them straight from the shell. And eat them we did! Chestnuts in particular were an easy target and the crisp texture and flavor of that buttery, yellow nut was SO good. You can score them and roast them briefly to make them easy to peel, but we just bit ’em until the shell cracked.

Hopefully 2018’s poor harvest is just an off-year–a down season in the cycle. And since there’s not much out there, I guess I’ll leave most of it to the critters. I kind of like it when the squirrels sit on the back deck methodically eating nuts that leave smears of black, walnut leavings.

Reminds me of how God provides for squirrels and growing children just the same. And how what he provides nourished my body back then and my heart today.

Praying with Jane (Austen)

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Filed under History, prayer, Reading

JaneHow could I resist?

I was offered an opportunity to be part of the launch team for Rachel Dodge‘s new devotional Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Sign me up!

I’ve read and reread all of Austen’s novels and while I was vaguely aware that her father was a clergyman it never occurred to me to think of her as a person of faith. But it turns out she left three written prayers that were saved by her sister Cassandra.

Prayers Composed by my ever dear Sister, Jane.

Growing up immersed in the Anglican church, Jane likely took part in family prayers each morning and evening, attended multiple–lengthy–services on Sunday, and spent a fair amount of time in personal prayer each day.

This is a side of Jane Austen I wanted to know more about.

And, since I might have some compulsive tendencies, when I noted that there are 31 devotions AND 31 days in October, I jumped into the book last week. The verdict? It’s DELIGHTFUL. Dodge does a lovely job of parsing the prayers as she weaves in scripture and snippets from Austen’s stories. All while consoling, inspiring, and encouraging me to examine my own faith.

I’m so delighted to share with you about Praying With Jane. Even though I’m only eight days in, I can already heartily recommend the book for yourself or as a gift for your favorite Jane-ite. It’s a treasure.

Appalachian Thursday – Fleeting Summer

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Filed under Appalachian, Hiking, Nature, Poetry

I’ve loved Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold Can Stay since I first saw The Outsiders movie. I think that’s the hardest I’ve ever cried at a movie. The poem is so gorgeously bittersweet. To me, it’s always spoken of that moment in autumn when nature is at it’s most perfect. You just want to seize the instant and somehow preserve it. Well, Robert Frost did and every time I read his words my throat tightens and my eyes mist.

I love autumn in the mountains. The temperatures cool; the lush, summer green of the woods begins to thin; leaves change color; sunset comes earlier; and you wear sweaters even when it’s too warm for them.

And the flowers fade . . .

If you follow my author page on Facebook, you’ve likely seen my Wildflower Wednesday posts. I’m such a wildflower fanatic, I take pictures all summer. But there are fewer flowers as summer wanes. So, I thought I’d take a moment to look back at a summer’s worth of nature’s glory before we step fully into another Appalachian autumn.

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Nature’s first green is gold, 
Her hardest hue to hold. 
Her early leaf’s a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day. 
Nothing gold can stay. 

-Robert Frost

The Christmas Heirloom – Release Day Eve

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Filed under Friends, holidays, Writing
four authors

Bethany House authors – That’s Karen front center with Kristi to the right. Becky is on the left in the back and I’m three from the right. Man, we need a picture of the four of us!

Tomorrow is the official release day for The Christmas Heirloom: Four Holiday Novellas of Love Through the Generations. (Click on the image to the right if you want to order it!)

Release days have that first-day-of-school feeling. Did I pick the right outfit? Will I like my teachers? Is this the year I get to sit with the cool kids?

I liked school, but first days were always nerve-wracking no matter how ready I hoped I was. But this launch day is different because I’m not on my own. This time I have the privilege of walking into the first day of school arm-in-arm with three outstanding authors.

I’ve had a story included in a novella collection before (With All My Heart Romance Collection). But that was where our publisher simply gathered five ebook novellas with common themes and did a print edition. This time I had the pleasure of collaborating with Kristi, Karen, and Becky and tying our stories together with a piece of heirloom jewelry.

I’m still experiencing launch day butterflies, but knowing I have friends to sit with at lunch . . . well, that’s priceless.

And here’s an early review to help give me some extra encouragement:

I love the idea behind this novella collection! Four authors who each write in very different styles and equally different time periods joined together to write one story that spans generations. The execution was flawless and each author took special care in making sure her story blend well into the next. – JenGalaxy4 Christian Book Reviews

 

Appalachian Thursday – Firearms

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Filed under Appalachian, Family, Memories
Going Hunting

Wherever I got the gun stuff right, it was Dad and Daniel’s fault!

My latest novella–A Shot at Love–releases next Tuesday. It’s part of The Christmas Heirloom, a collection of stories that follows a piece of jewelry from Regency England to modern-day America.

Now, these are romances–sweet stories of finding true love. But when you write Appalachian fiction true love doesn’t have to come wrapped in hearts and flowers. It can come by way of a turkey shoot and a rogue blue jay.

My heroine–Fleeta Brady–is a crack shot who isn’t the least bit interested in finding love. But then she meets Hank Chapin, a gun collector from South Carolina who admires more than Fleeta’s way with a .22 rifle.

I grew up around all sorts of guns and learned to respect firearms from birth as best I can remember. Treat every gun like it’s loaded. Never point a gun at a person. Don’t shoot an animal unless you’re sure of a kill.

We knew where the key to the gun cabinet was, but would never have considered fetching it down without Dad’s permission. I didn’t hunt but I certainly helped to “process” plenty of wild game growing up. Guns were simply part of life on the farm. And I could hit a walnut with a .22 for all the good that did me!

Don’t worry, Fleeta mostly shoots targets in my story. But it was fun to research and write about rifles and then to get Dad and my brother Daniel to check behind me to make sure I’d gotten it all right. Peep sites and scopes. Shotguns and thirty-ought sixes. Learning what, exactly, an over and under is. Fine tuning words I’d been hearing all my life. It made me feel closer to the hunters I know and love.

Yes, my story is a romance, but it’s more than that. It’s yet another love letter to the people and the places nearest and dearest to my heart. Because when you love someone, you learn their language.

EXCERPT:
Fleeta noticed a second man catching up to Judd. He was shorter and thicker—though not heavy by any means. His hair was sandy—almost blond, but not quite. More the color of honeycomb. Fleeta thought he looked pleasant enough and started to smile. Then she froze as she got a good look at the rifle slung over his shoulder. It was a Woodmaster—a Remington 740 and a .30-06 caliber. And if she wasn’t mistaken, the gun was brand new. Her breath caught in her throat, and she forgot to blink. It was the finest rifle she’d ever seen and a semi-automatic at that. She wanted to reach out and touch it so bad she could almost feel the silk of the wood and the ice of the steel.