This N That
Salve for Souls
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Friday, January 12, 2024
AN AMAZING STORYTELLER
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Check out the latest 5-Star review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story! Flora is an amazing storyteller! Drama trauma, family, friendship and God are woven into a compelling story. Hope A. Dougherty https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0785FWH5P?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Three Friends, Three Dreams, But One Dangerous Secret
The friends, their husbands and children attend the popular Bible study and their faith is deepening. A resident agnostic keeps the discussion lively but friendly.
Things are moving forward until an unkempt young woman wanders from the woods and into the study with a baby in her arms and deadly secrets in her heart. When she disappears as abruptly as she appeared, troubles begin.
Cover by Mark Miller of MillerWords Books. Visit them on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MillerWords
Monday, November 13, 2023
THE OLD FARMHOUSE REVEALS ITS SECRETS: Parts 1 & 2
The old farmhouse is a major setting in my inspirational thriller, Bibles and Bones in the Forest, coming soon from Miller Words. https://www.facebook.com/MillerWords
Until then, Join the home tour and move step by step, room by room, floor by floor, closer to the secret in the attic.
https://florareigada.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-old-farmhouse-yields-its-secrets.html
https://florareigada.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-old-farmhouse-reveals-its-secrets.html
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
THE OLD FARMHOUSE REVEALS ITS SECRETS: Part 2
This vintage, grand stairway picture was taken in the Victorian home where I grew up. I modeled the old farm- house grand stairway after it. |
Stella gave a little laugh. “My dad taught her how to use tools and build things. Now she can’t stop.”
A room visible through an archway contained toys and a child’s table and chairs.
“Tyler’s playroom,”
“It may have once served as a place to dry clothes when it was too cold outside, and they would freeze on the line,” Laura added.
She pointed to a narrow stairway that led upstairs from the kitchen.
“Some people call them the maid’s stairs, but we never had a maid,”
Raúl led everyone through the rest of the first floor, stopping to point things out or answer questions.
“Yes, the ceilings are ten feet high, and yes, we use all the downstairs fireplaces, but mostly the one in the foyer since the heat rises up the stairway. Note the smoke stains on the ceilings.”
“Do you know who built the house or lived here previously?” someone asked.
Laura answered. “A man in his nineties told our parents it was built by a farmer and his wife, who had ten kids and parents living with them. They lived here for generations, but the place had long been empty when our parents bought it for almost nothing. They made repairs when they could, but it was a never-ending job.”
“Yup,” Raul agreed. “It requires almost constant maintenance.”
Bob could not stop admiring the home’s amenities. “But look at the glass doorknobs and antique light fixtures. The place is amazing.”
Josh agreed, still running his hand along the wall, occasionally tapping it.
“Are those pipes sticking from the wall old gas lights?” Bob asked as they moved on.
Raúl nodded. “That they are.”
He motioned everyone to the foot of the grand stairway, broad at its base, then tapering up along a wall to a landing, from which a shorter stairway rose to the second-floor corridor. A picture window stretched along the stairway.
Its railing, the decorative newel post at its base, and the ascending row of balustrade posts gleamed with fresh varnish.
“Stella polished them,” Raúl gestured to his wife.
When the group applauded, Stella dipped into a well-practiced ballerina curtsy. It was as if she was on stage. She pranced up a few steps.
Only one more floor to go until they discover the secret.
Monday, October 23, 2023
THE OLD FARMHOUSE REVEALS ITS SECRETS: Part 1
THE OLD HOUSE REVEALS ITS SECRETS
“Hey! You guys wearing combat
boots?” Carla called to other twenty-somethings in the young couples Bible study
as they clomped single-file down the worn, wooden cellar stairs.
Many had bombarded Raul and
Stella with questions about their rambling old farmhouse, where the group met
that day. To satisfy everyone’s curiosity, the couple had invited them on a
tour from the cellar up.
Raul spoke over the crowd.
“My sister, Laura, right here with her husband, Chris, will help explain things. Most of you know we both grew up in this amazing house.”
She pointed to an overflowing laundry basket beneath a chute.
“There’s the laundry chute I was talking about. In the old days, it used gravity to get dirty clothes and linens from bedrooms to washtubs.”
"But of course, my lovely bride has a washer and dryer,” Raul added, his eyes drinking in his wife’s beauty.
The toned ballerina stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
Tiffany, the Bible study teacher’s
wife, shivered and pulled her sweater tighter.
“It’s cold in this cellar—just
like it’s always cold here in the Adirondack Mountains.”
The Florida native was having
trouble adjusting to the recent move.
Raul motioned to an old, rusted
chain.
“It’s a heavy chain, likely
used to hoist hay into a hayloft in the old barn. My Papa dug the chain from
the ground, where a barn burned long before we moved here.”
Off to the side, Josh, a
building contractor, was running his hand along the stone wall,
“These
walls feel sturdy. How thick are they?”
“Our
father said at least two feet,” Raul answered.
ow th
Laura
nodded. “They’re strong and sturdy but always damp.”
The
tour continued through the cellar, which was quite extensive.
Raúl
pointed out a discarded pot-bellied stove and a long-abandoned wine cellar
strewn with empty glass bottles.
“Is there a way out of here other than the stairs?” someone asked.
Laura
led the group to a worn door made of vertical wood planks. She unlocked and
opened it, pointing up stone steps leading outside. The cool night air blew in.
As
everyone headed back upstairs, Carla proclaimed with a good-natured laugh that
the cellar had all the charm of a dungeon.
The
others laughed and gathered for the next leg of the tour.
“Three floors and fourteen rooms to go,” Laura said, motioning everyone onward.
Each step takes them closer to uncovering the secret that will change all their lives.
--------------------------------------------
** A fictional setting in my inspirationl thriller, Bibles and Bones in the Forest," coming soon from MillerWords, the old farmhouse combines an actual farmhouse in rural Virginia with the Victorian home on Staten Island, New York, where I grew up.
Watch for the book: MillerWords, https://www.facebook.com/
Saturday, June 10, 2023
STEVEN IS OUT TO GET EVEN
LOVE'S SWEETEST DELIVERANCE: BOOK 2 IN THE CASTLE IN THE SUN, ROMANCE/MYSTERY SERIES.
In Book 2, Liz and Carlos gather with family and friends for a festive, holiday feast. Liz's best friend, Rosa
Even though Liz's ex-husband, Steve, had left with another woman, he just cannot bear to see Liz happy. |