Posted by: lauralhile | March 6, 2010

The heart turns to travel …

Spring Break, the teacher’s best friend, will be here in two weeks. Instead of spending my Saturday writing, I’ll be hitting the open road — all 998 miles of it!

Yes, I will again be making the insane drive from Portland, Oregon to Ventura, California, to visit my parents. This time I’ll have Nathan, my middle son, whose college break coincides with mine. We’ll talk, listen to audio books, and when the driving gets tough, pop in a music CD and crank up the volume. Linkin Park and Red work well for this purpose.

The driving instructions are simple: Get on Interstate-5, drive for 16 hours, and take the Ventura exit. After about an hour, if the sun is still up (which it won’t be!) we’ll see the ocean, and we’ll be there.

Aside from the pleasure of Nathan’s company, it will be wonderful to have another driver along. And not just any driver — a competent driver! This was not always the case. How well I recall the time my oldest son came to me with an idea. Michael was at that time the proud possessor of a brand-new driving permit. Knowing what was coming, I braced myself.

“Mom,” he said, with awe in his voice, “I can drive the WHOLE THING. Or even HALF of it. Ten hours each way! That’s twenty hours!”

Oregon requires 100 hours of driving time before a minor can get a license, which is no small feat for a nervous mother. “I can HELP you,” he added, for my benefit.

I do not consider the acquisition of gray hair to be a help. I thought quickly. “But so much of the drive is in California,” I protested. “Your permit won’t work there.”

Ah, but I had reckoned without the power of the Internet.

Sometime later Micheal came running. “For the first ten days of a visit,” he proudly informed me, “California honors out-of-state permits.”

Oh, joy.

You need to know that the flow of traffic along Interstate-5 is, in many places, 75 miles per hour! And our Explorer, a smaller, sporty version, has a manual transmission. Michael’s ability to grind through the gears was, at best, limited.

By the day of our departure I had my excuses ready. At first it was too early. No self-respecting nocturne, such as my son, is awake at 5:30 am! He was content to sleep.

But as soon as the sun arose, Michael’s head came up. “It’s rush-hour,” I told him. “What about commuters driving to Salem? What about stop-and-go traffic? You’ll be stuck having to work the clutch, and I know how much you hate that.”

A couple of hours later he asked again.

“Ah, but we’re almost to Eugene. There could be a slowdown in Eugene.” He took out his book.

And so it went.

“Gee, Michael, you look thirsty. Have another Pepsi.”

“Say! I bought an extra bag of taco chips just for you! Have some taco chips!”

“You know what, these mountain roads are tricky. And have you ever seen so many trucks? You don’t want to mess with changing lanes to get around trucks, do you?”

“Would you look at that! Another car pulled over for speeding. These highway patrol cars are everywhere!”

“Those woods look awfully thick. Do you suppose there are deer here? If you hit a deer, the car will probably be totalled…”

Finally, at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, he pinned me. The highway was flat, visibility was perfect, and traffic was light. What could go wrong? Plenty of things, I thought, but a promise was a promise. I bravely surrendered the keys.

But I had not counted on the responses of my two younger sons.

Nathan sat with arms crossed, grim-faced and silent, as Michael ground through the gears. Little Ben was not as stoic. Tears streamed down his face. As we neared the end of the on-ramp, with the engine straining, he began to sob.

“We’re going to die!” he wailed. “We’re going to die!”

That did it. Michael finally found fourth gear and merged onto the highway. Through clenched teeth he muttered, “Shut UP!”

He drove for an hour and a half before he surrendered the keys. And for the rest of that week he did not ask for them again.

Ah, the joys of travel.

Sincerely,

Laura Hile

Posted by: lauralhile | February 27, 2010

Mercy’s Embrace 3

Time to do the happy dance! Mercy’s Embrace 3: The Lady Must Decide is off to the publisher at last! I tell you what, this is a tremendous relief! Now I have the freedom to, like, die or something!! Okay, so I’m kidding–there is always the sequel to write, you know? But that’s the thing about series books. One must finish them all or risk disappointing a boatload of readers. (This would include my mother, your best advocate!) The book will be available for purchase this spring.

[Update! Here is an image of the new cover I was able to scan. Eh, the top is cut off--my bad!--but you get the idea. I hope to post a better image, sent from the Wytherngate Press, soon.]

To those of you followed the online version of Mercy’s Embrace (no longer available, alas), be advised that the ending is completely new. Never a dull moment for our girl Elizabeth! And I trust the same will be true for you as you read along!

Sincerely,

Laura Hile

Posted by: Susan Kaye | February 9, 2010

I enjoy writing What-ifs involving the characters of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. My latest foray into the world of what-might-have-been is called Pleasant Days. It’s not the best of titles but I try to use phrases that Austen wrote and this is the only one that came to mind.

Pleasant Days takes place two years after Frederick Wentworth and Anne Elliot’s broken engagement. While sailing to Ireland to visit family, the Elliots encounter smugglers. It would seem that Frederick Wentworth has changed professions in hopes of gaining fortune more quickly than possible in the Royal Navy. But Anne begins to question this assumption when she must depend upon his skill and cunning to keep her alive on the rugged Irish coast.

Essentially, he’s turned to smuggling. Or has he? You can read from the beginning HERE. The latest posting is HERE.

Thanks for dropping by.

Take care–Susan Kaye

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