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Dear Reader,
Today's guest author, Cara Luecht, released her second novel, Gathered Waters, just a few months ago. Her first novel, Soul Painter was released last year.
While Cara was writing her family history, she was inspired by hope shown by her ancestors. What she wrote made me pause and took my breath away. Be sure to read her column.
Welcome to the book club, Cara...
Writing Family History
My family, like so many others, came to America in search of religious freedom. As Americans, that phrase, that reasoning, that rebellion, is a thought that carries very little weight anymore. We've heard it too many times.
But it is profound in its simplicity.
They left everything they knew, only because they wanted the ability to live as they wanted. They left family, friends, homes, and their lives, and moved to the other side of the earth. And they did it during a time when travel burdens made it nearly impossible to return. It is deeper than that, though. Not only did they leave all the comforts they knew, but also they embraced dangers they couldn't imagine.
For me, at the beginning of my research, I was cheaply impressed with the concept that they gave up so much. I was fascinated with the stories of the bad food and the horrific ship passage. It was only much later, as I dug deeper into the history, where I learned to appreciate that the sacrifices went far beyond giving things up. Their real sacrifice was in embracing the insecurity of hope.
Hope is dangerous. It leads us to risky choices. It disallows mindless contentment. It spurs us on to strive for something better. And the line between the mindset of clinging to hope, and that of dissatisfaction is a fine one, and one that people like to point to whenever someone makes a decision that appears risky to outsiders.
I learned my ancestors, our ancestors, were brave enough to step over that line and do so without apology. They were sure enough in their own convictions to stand in front of opposition and face the rejection by everyone they knew. They had the fortitude to defend their decision to leave as one that was not selfish, not foolish, they not birthed of a dissatisfied nature, but rather born of unapologetic hope, and the assurance that they were masters of their own fate.
This is what I learned, that I do not have to apologize for hope. I can dream big and I do not have to listen to people who think I reach too far. I have the right to hope. The sacrifices our ancestors made paid for that right. They stood in the face of opposition and believed they could do better for their families and through that belief, created a place where the right to hope has become a value, an ethic, a code.
And I will no longer take it for granted. Today, I will do something brave.
--Cara Luecht
Email Cara to say hello and enter her book drawing for one of five copies of Gathered Waters. She'd love to hear from you, cara.luecht@gmail.com
About Cara:
Cara Luecht lives in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin with her husband, David, and their children. In addition to freelance writing and marketing, Cara works as an English Instructor for a local college. Cara's next novel, Soul's Prisoner, is scheduled to release in December 2015.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: ONE TO GO (Thriller) by Mike Pace
Young lawyer Tom Booker texts while driving across Memorial bridge, loses control and crashes into a minivan containing five children, killing them all. One is his own daughter. A young couple appears and offers him a time "re-wind," allowing him to miss the van and save the children. All he has to do in return is kill a random stranger by a 2 week deadline for each child in a soul exchange. He agrees, all are saved. Two demons? Ridiculous. Obviously an hallucination. The first deadline passes and the van driver dies a horrible death. And the clock's ticking...
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on ONE TO GO to read more and to email author Mike Pace, you'll get a reply.
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