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Dear Reader,
Never say never...
Today's guest author Beth K. Vogt is a nonfiction writer who said she'd never write fiction. After saying she'd never marry a doctor or anyone in the military, she is now happily married to a former Air Force family physician. An established magazine writer and editor, she now writes inspirational contemporary romance because she believes there is more to happily ever after than the fairy tales tell us. Her latest book is Almost Like Being in Love.
Please say hello to Beth at beth@bethvogt.com When you say hello, your email is also entered in a drawing for a copy of her book Almost Like Being in Love. Beth has 10 copies waiting to send to lucky readers.
Welcome to the book club Beth K. Vogt...
Walking on the beach is one of my favorite ways to relax. But when you consider how traumatic one summer visit to the shore was for me when I was eight years old, it's surprising I'd ever want to set bare feet on the sand.
A trip to the beach was fun for my twin sister, younger sister, two brothers, and me. (Count 'em: five kids total.) But it was an exhausting exercise in parental lifeguard duty for my mom and dad.
On this occasion when one of my parents said, "Let's take the kids to the beach," and the other one didn't talk them out of it, we ended up at the Maryland shore. The day was hot and humid--a typical east coast summer day. Of course, this was long before the era of "Wear sunscreen" warnings, so we tumbled out of the car in all our unprotected skin naivete to brave the waves.
At some point, I decided to walk along the beach. Two older boys were standing near the waves, picking something up with two long sticks and then tossing it aside. They repeated the process several times as I approached. Just as I passed behind them, they tossed whatever they'd picked up over their shoulders--and it landed on me and slithered down inside my bathing suit.
Within seconds, something began stinging my skin. I started screaming. The boys turned around, looked at me--and then they started hollering as they ran off. I ran after them, still yelling at the top of my lungs.
This is the sight my Mother saw as she sat on the blanket with my youngest sister: Two unknown boys running away from me, screaming, and me "chasing" them, also screaming and crying.
My mother joined the chase and caught up with me. And that's when she discovered that the "somethings" the boys had been tossing around were big jellyfish that had washed up on shore. The boys hadn't seen me behind them and had thrown one over their shoulders--and right onto me.
My beach fun was over. I spent the rest of the day stretched out on the backseat of the car, my body slathered in some sort of white medicated cream to ease my stings.
Despite such a distressing memory, I still love the ocean. But now if I even think I see jellyfish, I abandon the water and retreat to the safety of my beach towel.
--Beth K. Vogt
Beth is waiting to answer your mail: beth@bethvogt.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS by Eugene Sue. Start reading now and enter to win a Penguin tote bag:
http://www.supportlibrary.com/bc/v.cfm?L=drclassqqxqZ1AFE3FA7F25&c=CLASSICS
AUTHORBUZZ: THE PUNISHMENTS (Thriller) by JB Winsor
Enormous shifts threaten our way of life--artificial intelligence, robotics, surveillance, human relations, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, and the rise of American religious extremism. A novel about the heart-pounding struggle of one family after voters unwittingly elect a demagogue President and a fundamentalist Congress. The novel's characters battle to hold on to friendship, love, and faith as they are thrust into the center of the largely unreported debate raging beneath the surface of Christianity and identity politics.
Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader click on THE PUNISHMENTS to find out more about the book and the author, JB Winsor. Send him an email, he'd love to hear from you.
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