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A Life Well Lived

Pearl Towne Reece 

Mom passed away on 8-15-92, just six weeks before her 96th birthday. My younger brother said, “No one lives forever, but she almost did.”

Born on 10-9-1896, Mom’s family moved from Michigan in the early 1900s to Darrington, Washington, the small western Washington logging town where she spent most of her life. She attended a one-room, all-eight-grade school, never knowing that one day she would be teaching in one that later became our home for 34 years!

Life with three fun-loving sisters and three brothers after Mom’s father died was not easy. Yet faith in God, love for one another, and the belief that things would surely get better made wearing shoes with holes in them bearable. Highlights of Mom’s life

• trailed by a cougar on Thanksgiving Day
• going to the city when she was about 14 to get last two years of high school education
• attending Bellingham, WA “Normal School,” for two years and receiving a Life Certificate to teach
• sending most of money from first teaching job home to help out younger brothers and sister
• being offered position near Darrington and going home
• meeting Dad at his surprise farewell party before being he was scheduled to leave for military service two later and vowing, “He’s mine!” He felt the same.
• rejoicing when the Army stopped taking inductees because the Spanish Influenza struck Camp Lewis (became Fort Lewis) and WW1 ended a few weeks later
• surviving the epidemic
• married in 1923
• living in a home without electricity or running water, washing clothes on a scrub board
• losing first child on Christmas Day, having two more boy, and me\
• being chased by an enraged bull and dragging me to safety
• living through the Great Depression, WW1, WW2, the Korean conflict, and Vietnam War
• influencing kids, and later, many of their parents, for almost three decades of teaching in Darrington
• picking up life and going on after Dad passed away in 1968
• moving with me to Vancouver, WA in 1970
• moving with me to Auburn, WA in 1978 after i was called to full time writing
• becoming “Granny Pearl” to young and old at church (kids and teens loved her stories of the “olden days”).
• serving as my cheerleader, proofreader, and editor
• still looking up Scriptures for my next book the day before surgery

One of the comments at Mom’s memorial service was, “Pearl talked about the past but she didn’t live in it.” Eager anticipation for what lay ahead characterized Mom. Coming home from a 3700+ mile driving trip throughout the western states in the summer of 1991, she turned quiet. I asked what she was thinking.

“I’m just wondering where we will go next year.” She was almost 95.

Mom never considered herself old. She scorned dull colors and wore tasteful scarlet, sapphire blue, and emerald clothing. When asked why, she replied, “Th world can be drab enough without my adding to it.”

Mom in her 90s with friend from decades earlier.

On Memorial Day weekend, 1978, when we moved into the home where I still live, Mom dropped into a chair and announced, “I‘m not moving again until I go to heaven.” She kept her promise.

Me at 86

When I look in the mirror, I see much of Mom. If I can ever be half the caring, godly woman she was, I will rejoice and be glad. 

Happy Mother’s Day 

Empty Manger, Empty Tomb

Easter decorations and a manger, unusual companions.

Last week I put up Easter decorations. An outside banner proclaims, “He Is Risen,” etched against a glorious sunrise and empty tomb. A wooden cross and other Easter symbols adorn my front window. 

Across the room, an empty manger sits atop a bookcase. Gone are Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, shepherds, and Magi (who actually came to “the house where Jesus lay” some time later). A gilt star remains on the roof, but no longer does a ceramic angel hover. Even the faithful sheep, cow, and little donkey rest in their packing case and wait for next Christmas. 

Last year when I took down decorations in January, I failed to pack the rustic shelter that houses the Nativity. I decided to leave it as a reminder. The stable served its purpose on the Night of Wonder, then Jesus,His family, and visitors moved on.

Thirty-three years later, Jesus again moved on. The grave, sealed with a great stone, and carefully guarded, could not hold Him. His death and Resurrection, given out of incomparable love, opened the Way to forgiveness and eternal life for all who accept His sacrifice and follow Him.

Easter in Darrington, Washington

As a teenager in the fifties, Easter in my hometown was a time of joy and celebration. The population was only approximately 700, but we had an abundance of churches representing different denominations who often joined for special worship services.

 Easter mornings at 6:00 a.m. found a crowd at the Ski Jump area a little way above town. Bundled like Eskimos against the dawn chill, we watched the sun peek over the hill, yawn, survey the crowd of worshipers, then burst into the sky in a blaze of glory. Birdsong joined voices filling the air with hymns such as “Christ, the Lord, is Risen Today,” “He Arose,” and “The Old Rugged Cross.” Prayer and a short message followed. The half-hour or so set the tone for the rest of the day, which was filled with  church and family dinners.

If it rained or snowed (as it sometimes did!) we met in the Community Center, built with volunteer labor and donated building materials in 1954. 

When I look at the empty manger, and remember the empty tomb, I again rejoice, and give thanks that Jesus came. Because He lives, I shall one day join Him and those I love who are already singing songs of joy and shouting praises in heaven. What a day that will be.

A blessed Easter to you all,

Love,

Colleen

A long time coming

Susan K. Marlow wrote her first book (a full-length story about five children who accidentally end up on a spaceship to an alien planet) titled, The Stars Know the Way, in a blank, hard covered book her grandfather brought home from a dump. Decades passed. In the mid-1990s, the homeschooling mom needed something to do while her teenage son took night classes at a community college about 15 miles from their Enumclaw WA home. She signed up for my Creative writing class.

Susan never asked questions or read from the in-class assignments. She simply listened and learned. One evening another student invited her to a meeting of writers from my classes. She reluctantly read the first chapter of a YA novel. We were impressed. She became part of our critique group.

The rest is history: horses, adventure, and the Old West–for a total of over 180,000 copies in print.

Twelve-year-old Andrea “Andi” Carter attracts trouble the way her palomino horse attracts flies on a hot summer day. She would rather ride Taffy than attend school. When she barely escapes a life-threatening situation with her brother’s wild stallion, she takes her horse and leaves the ranch. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that “there is no place like home.” 

The setting for Susan’s first book, Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home, is the sprawling Carter ranch in the mid-1800s. The title sets the stage for six exciting series that take Andi and her family from early childhood to a home of her own. Her Goldtown books are appreciated by boys, as well as girls, and all series are especially welcomed by homeschooling families.

Circle C Beginnings 6 titles, Circle C Stepping-Stones 6 titles, Circle C Adventures 6 titles, Circle C Milestones 6 titles (books 5-6 hot off the press*), Goldtown Beginnings 6 titles, Goldtown Adventures, 4 titles

*Circle C Milestones #5, Yosemite at Last and other tales from Memory Creek Ranch. How many twists and turns can a honeymoon have? Circle C Milestones #6, Stranger in the Glade and other tales from Memory Creek Ranch. Adventures continue in Andi’s “happily-ever-after.” Read more >>

In addition to her print, Kindle, and audio books, Susan offers a wide variety of study helps, lapbooks, writing tips, contests, and much more available on her website, CircleCAdventures.com >>

You can connect with Susan here:

1. AndiCartersBlog.com >>
2. Circle C Facebook Group Page >>
3. Contact Susan by email >>

A Story to Remember

One of my all-time favorite tales is “The Vision of Sir Launfal,” (James Russell Lowell, 1848). A young knight, steward in the legendary King Arthur’s court, is eager to win glory and fame. He sets out to find the Holy Grail [said to be a dish, plate or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper]. Just outside the Fearsome Gate, he sees a leper.  Launfal shrinks from the loathsome sight, tosses the man a gold coin, and continues his quest.

Weeks become months, then years.  He continues his search, without success. At last, old and bent, clothed in rags, just before Christmas he turns his face homeward.  A leper huddles near the gate. The once-proud Launfal “parted in twain, his single crust.” He broke the ice of a nearby stream and gave the leper to eat and drink.

A light shines around them. The leper no longer crouches at Launfal’s feet, but stands before Sir Launfal, glorified.

A voice says, “Lo, it is I, be not afraid! In many climes, without avail, thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail. Behold, it is here, this cup which thou didst fill at the streamlet for Me . . .

“Not what we give, but what we share. For the gift without the giver is bare: Who gives himself with his alms feeds three–himself, his hungering neighbor, and Me.”

* * *

Sir Launfal awakens. He hangs his armor on the wall. He will take no journey to find the Holy Grail, for he has learned its real meaning just outside the Fearsome Gate: charity, the highest form of love.

* * *

As we look forward to celebrating Easter and the Resurrection, may we search for ways to bring hope and comfort to others.

March can be a capricious month. Sunshine and storms. Unexpected snow flurries. High and low temperatures. Saint Patrick’s Day. Shamrocks. Children chasing rainbows, hoping to find the pot of gold said to be found at the end. Secretly wishing there really were leprechauns, who (according to folklore) if caught, must give up their gold when captured.  

Neither rainbows nor little men in green hats lead to gold, but a new Kindle collection offers pure gold reading pleasure. There are several reasons for Christmas Gold: A Heart-warming Trilogy‘s spring debut.

• Christmas should not be limited to one day or one season.
• Inspirational stories and books are worth reading year-round.
• Unlike November and December, March offers time off.  No decorating for the holidays. No parties, special events, cooking and shopping marathons, gift wrapping, or writing cards.
• Rainy and chilly days set the stage for curling up with a blanket, sipping hot chocolate, losing ourselves in stories of past Christmases, and joyously anticipating those to come.
• A boon for those who like to get holiday shopping done and hidden away in closets long before the holiday rush.

Christmas Gold: A Heart-warming Trilogy, contains three books by popular authors Colleen L. Reece and Juie Reece-DeMarco.

Countdown to Christmas

In the midst of the holiday hustle, it’s easy to lose sight of the reason for the season. Award-winning authors Colleen L. Reece and Julie Reece-DeMarco present touching stories and suggestions for activities to bring families closer to our Lord and each other during the Advent season.

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Patchwork Christmas

Hearts are in tatters. Then, a frayed patchwork quillt arrives. One woman’s treasured blanket brings comfort to a homeless family and later to a man with shattered dreams. Will broken hearts be healed and lives pieced back together during this Patchwork Christmas?

Seasons of the Heart

A “happily-ever-after” has passed Emily Ann Carr by while she cares for family members. Her beloved aunt Carolyn has been “terminally single and proud of it” for decades. An unexpected inheritance and the loss of a coveted promotion bring changing seasons. Will they also bring autumn and winter love?

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“Love at First Sight. For Real?”

My friend, Dace Pedecis, recently asked this question on https://come-follow-my-blog.com.

I am living proof that love at first sight is real and can be enduring.

1918. One Friday night in late fall at a farmhouse a few miles out of Darrington, Washington.

Nineteen-year-old WIlliam E. Reece (Bill) wearily crept up the back stairs to his room, followed by sounds of merriment from the living room below. How had well-meaning friends and neighbors discovered he was to report for military duty on Monday? He’d only received the news today. “The last thing I need is a farewell party,” he muttered. “But not appearing would be rude. In case it was supposed to be a surprise, I won’t spoil it by dressing up.”

Slipping into jeans and a dark blue, open-necked flannel shirt, Bill stepped into the hall and started down the stairs. He stopped short. A dark-haired girl with eyes as blue as his own looked up from a couch, where she sat between with a uniformed soldier and a sailor.

Bill blinked. Swallowed hard, feeling as if lightning had struck.

Pearl Towne, home from her teaching job forty miles away, had come with her sister Vera, who taught school a little way from the Reece farm and boarded with them during the week. Pearl took one look at the man on the stairs. Who was this casually clad stranger, so in contrast with the other more formally dressed men? It doesn’t matter, her heart shouted. He’s mine. 

“May I get you a glass of water?” one of her companions asked.

She nodded and he went toward the kitchen.

Bill cleared the bottom steps with a bound. He slid into the seat beside Pearl and calmly appropriated the picture album her other escort had been showing her. “I can explain it better,” he said, “since it’s my family.”

Pearl hid a gasp. This must be Bill, eldest Reece son, and soon to be a soldier. A pang went through her. Why hadn’t she met him before? And why was she so upset at the thought of him going away to fight and perhaps never returning?

The rest of the evening passed in a blur. Bill never left her side, even when the sailor returned with water and glared at him. Pearl smiled to herself, thanked the scowling man, drank the water, and secretly rejoiced. When the party ended and the guests from town donned warm coats for the five-mile walk home, the soldier eagerly asked, “May I see you home, Miss Towne?”

“No. I shall,” the sailor put in.

“That won’t be necessary.” Bill smiled. “Miss Towne is staying here with her sister tonight.”

The next day Bill and his brother walked Pearl and Vera home. Neither Bill nor Pearl ever looked at another would-be sweetheart, despite dire warnings. “Schoolteachers are high-toned,” Bill’s friends said. “She will never care for a logger like you.”

“Don’t set your cap for Bill Reece,” Pearl was advised, “Every single girl up and down the Skagit River is after him.”

They ignored the gloom-and-doom predictions. Camp Lewis stopped taking recruits before Bill had to report for duty, as the Spanish Flu hit like a hurricane. The Armistice was signed on November 11th. Bill never had to go to war. After five wonderful years of courtship, during which Pearl returned to teach near Darrington, she and Bill married. The love that began with a single look sustained them through the loss of their first child, the Great Depression, wars, and other hardships.

My two brothers and I never tired of hearing Dad and Mom’s better-than-a-fairytale story that remained strong until Dad passed away in 1968. When would-be suitors showed interest, Mom just smiled. She’d had the best.

Love at first sight? Absolutely.

What do a minister’s daughter, a B&B owner, a woman police officer, a woman with a canine posse, and a forensic accountant have in common?

All are characters in the new Small Town Mysteries Kindle collection by five popular authors. Hours of suspenseful reading.

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Surrounded by Books

I grew up surrounded by books. At night, Mom, Dad, my two brothers, and I traveled to faraway places. We met historical and fictional characters by kerosene lamplight.

The book I remember and loved best was an over-sized, fully color-illustrated Bible. By the time Mom taught me to read when I was four, I knew dozens of stories from the pictures in the well-worn Bible that became my Rule Book. At age 86, it still is.

A few years ago, I awakened filled with excitement. After dozens of fiction and nonfiction books, I would begin a retelling of the Bible stories I had loved so long, with appropriate chapter heading illustrations for the 100 entries.

Bible Stories: Creation to Revelation came out in 2017, and is now the lead book in my new 4-in-1 Kindle collection, Milestone Memories: A Path to the Past. It offers help to readers who are searching for an easily understood record of people, places, and events that shaped history–and how God’s love and mercy span the ages. Excellent source for family devotions, sermon starters, and to read aloud to young children.

Note:  Milestone Memories includes the following. All titles also available as paperback and Kindle singles.

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Going Home Again

Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again.” Colleen feels differently. She walks the path to the past in 31 of her best-loved stories of growing up relying on God’s faithfulness. Perfect for personal or family devotions.

Lamplight to Limelight

Only God could multiply by more than a hundredfold the dream of a child who learned to read by kerosene lamplight and vowed to someday write a book. This small-town logger’s daughter shares her heart-warming journey of joy on the winding (often stony) path to full-time, award-winning authorship. Valuable writing tips included.

Women of the Bible: 50 Character Sketches

What was it like to be a woman in Bible days? To trudge dusty roads, rocky mountain paths, and known as good or bad? Named and nameless, young and old, some honored, others, scorned, these women played a vital part in history and left an indelible mark from which we can learn.

Bargains Galore. More multi-book Kindle collections.

hBuy Amazo

If everyone lit a candle, what a bright world it would be.

Two years ago, life as we know it changed. The pandemic sent fear into our hearts and minds. It turned us into hermits and deprived us of the companionship of family and friends. Although social distancing, wearing masks, and vaccinations have helped, we continue to feel as if we are walking under scowling skies, not knowing what the future holds.

The Psalmist David wrote from the depths of despair, “How long, Lord? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?” (Psalm 13:2, NIV). Like David, we search to find light while groping in darkness.

Award-winning authors Colleen L. Reece and Julie Reece-DeMarco (two million of their co-authored books sold) offer their favorite “candles” to help readers find light in darkness, joy, love, peace, and encouragement. This 4-book Kindle collection contains: 

Doorways and Windowsills. Don’t waste time staring at closed doors. Search for open windows and new opportunities. Inspiring stories of those who overcame tremendous obstacles.

The Heirloom. The most priceless gift is the one given away. A caring minister’s sacrifice changes lives.

Joy to the World. A treasury of true and “could be true” holiday stories to brighten the season.

Walking with the Master: Celebrating a lifetime of God’s protection and provision of light in darkness.

A Gift of Love: FInding Light in Darkness

Between the covers of a book is a lovely place to be.

• A Family in Danger. Will moving to an isolated mountain cabin with no modern conveniences solve the Clarks’ problems? Or make them worse?
• Best Friends Forever. WW2 is over, but conflict won’t end for Pat Kelly until her BFF comes home.
• Colleen’s Classics. Treasured Tales for the Young and Young at Heart. Thirty-six true and based-on-truth short stories.
• The “Remembrance” Book Laura Ingalls Wilder, wrote, “If I had a remembrance book, I’d write about Pa and Mr. Hanson. How they walked and looked and talked and how we wondered what they said.” Two of Colleen’s special “remembrances.”
• Storybook House. Timeless Tales for Fun-loving Families. Twenty-one true stories.

Much of my writing income comes from selling reprints. Friends call me The Recycle Queen. Most of my 170+ original published books have also been reissued, some more than once. It’s exciting to have old favorites back in print or as electronic editions, edited and revised, with brand-new covers.

Note: Once a book is out of print, you must get a cancellation of contract/ return of copyright from the publisher before offering it to another company.

Multiple Sales Make Money. Rules for Resales.

Only a few hundred of my approximately 1300+ magazine sales are originals. Here are some fast facts about rights.

• All rights. Just that. You no longer own the work.
• First rights. You cannot sell a manuscript anywhere else until it is actually published.
• First publication rights (e.g., First North American Serial Rights). You can resell the same story or article to another publication, without any changes, as long as you do not allow another publication to actually publish the piece “first.” (Some magazines now include a contract clause that specifies how soon after publication you can resell a piece.)
• One-time rights. The magazine purchases the right to publish once, date unspecified. This worked great when I was writing short pieces for Christian story papers and magazines because they were non-competing markets. Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, etc. and secular magazines are read by different groups. Mark manuscript “One-time rights to non-competing magazines.” Warning: Don’t send to an adult magazine and a children’s or teen magazine of the same denomination. They can end up in the same homes.
• Reprint rights. Mark “Reprint rights to non-competing magazines.”

Bundling Up for Bargains

Combining two or more titles that target a specific audience (such as families) into printed or electronic collections, offers readers more bang for their buck and more exposure to our work. 

 Winged Publications has reprinted dozens of my titles in the last seven years, including many print series and Kindle collections. Among the most popular are the Juli Scott Mysteries (7 titles, YA), Shepherd of Love Hospital series (5 titles, medical romance-mystery), and Romance Quartet (4 western romance novels).

Buy Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Colleen-L.-Reece/e/B001H9PAYY

Other recent Kindle collections

 Cherished Brides .

Obstacles block paths to “happily-ever-after” in 10 Cherished Romance novels.

Northern Brides.

Romance and high adventure in the Far North.