by Iona Morrison | Sep 10, 2018
This will be home for me for the next several weeks as we take a bit of time to travel. I’m in search of the town that I dreamed up in my head. Now, I understand that Blue Cove is a figment of my imagination, but I hope to find a few places that will inspire me to keep writing, and thinking about my characters. They need to see new things right along side of me.
We wanted to travel to Northern California up to Oregon, but there are a few too many fires in that area right now. We thought about the East Coast, but there is a hurricane on the way to the Carolinas. I wonder what that says about our trip at this point. My husband has drawn up several plans only to have to remake them. I think in the end it will be a surprise for both of us. I haven’t been out of Colorado in quite a while so I’d be happy to go and see almost anything except for fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and most natural disasters in general.
I hope you’ll settle in with me, as I blog in words and pictures over the next several weeks what it’s like to live in a house on wheels. I am excited to have the freedom to travel, and see a few sights from this great country. I’m sure there will be a learning curve, but I hope to meet some new folks along the way. Let’s put it this way, if I don’t my husband will shut off his hearing aids, and our trip might be cut short. I’m social, a bit of a chatty Kathy, and him, well, not so much.
by Iona Morrison | Aug 8, 2018
I have a new book that will be released October 17. The Final Flashpoint is book six in the Blue Cove Mystery Series. I never intended to write a series when I wrote The Harvest Club, but I enjoyed my characters, and they seemed to hang around waiting for me to write another story. Their story. They’ve become a part of me, occupying a bit of the real estate in mind, and I am still here six books later.
Those who read my books like the characters too. As a matter of fact, I’ve had people come up to me at various events and tell me not kill off the heroine or hero, Jessie and Matt or they will be mad. I have no intention of killing them. I would rather let them ride off into the sunset. I am that attached to them.
I hope you’ll pick up a copy of The Final Flashpoint it should be on Amazon for pre-orders soon. I’m excited about this book and loved it from the first scene to the last. I may say this a lot, but this one is my favorites. At least right now it is.
Revenge-The Final Flashpoint
Jessie rolled onto her side and drifted off to sleep. A swirling mist drew her to the edge of the woods. She couldn’t see anything through the dense fog, only a narrow pathway twisting around the trees. Enticing, the foggy haze seduced her to move one step closer. Jessie paused. She didn’t want to go in alone. Panicking, she started to turn back before it was too late.
“Jess,” Matt’s faint voice called out to her. He sounded wheezy and breathless, and she could hear the pain in his voice. Where was he? She glanced around, hoping to see his familiar face.
“Jess…” The call came again. She shivered. Matt was in the darkness, and death had come to play. The faces of those tortured young men danced in the mist before her. Her feet refused to move. She was paralyzed with fear. The silence around her was deafening. “
Jess,” he screamed out her name once more, trusting her to aid him. Tears filled her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. This time there was no way she could help…
by Iona Morrison | Jun 16, 2018
I was listening to a speech by a graduate with autism. He told the seniors to do the unexpected. He himself was unexpected as a speaker, and he hooked me from his first words.
It got me thinking. People who’ve known me for many years, but haven’t talked to me in a while would probably wonder what happened to me. I’ve followed an unexpected path through some of life’s hard challenges, and came out the other side different. Really different, but in an good way, I believe.
When you’ve seen everything change in your life, and the ground you’re standing on begins to shake it makes you question, and questions are never bad. They can lead to some answers, and probably a lot more questions. For the first time in my life I’m free from believing I have all the answers. I’m a student of life and I love it.
Through the process I found there were many folks asking a lot of the same questions, and suddenly my path wasn’t so lonely. What it did for me was radically change how I view my faith, my own life, and all of humanity. At least I can say I’m not afraid to listen to people with differing opinions than mine and hear what they are saying. Someone is no longer a threat to me because they look differently, think, or love differently. Basically I’ve gone from, as a friend once told me, a Sunday School Teacher to a Murder Mystery Writer, tackling subjects that have come up along my journey of getting to know the world in which I live. Listening, and observation are now as much a part of who I am, as speaking.
There are times in life when we are thrown a curve, it can look way off line, but still be called a strike. After two strikes, I went for the third curve thrown, and discovered a new place in life for me. You can teach an old dog new tricks, and believe me you’re never to old to learn.
Life is amazing and sometimes we waste so much time doing what someone else expects us to do. With the help of a curve ball I did the unexpected and followed my own path to a new life waiting in the middle of my old one. I may seem a tad unconventional how I live my faith now, but it’s alive and burning in my heart.
by Iona Morrison | May 13, 2018
I have been pushed through a rough patch in life lately. It seems when things happen they come in a clumps; never in ones or twos, but in several, leaving me feeling numb and slightly overwhelmed. I am not complaining because I know I am not the only one in the world to face a time of sorrow and loss. It has however given me a fresh perspective as I face things happening around me. I try hard to stay out of politics. To be sure, I know what I think, but how I do. may not be how you do, and I don’t want to risk friendships over politics by any means. So this note comes with a warning if you feel differently about what I am about to write I am only stating something from the sadness I feel inside of me and it’s not meant to tell you what to think, but what I’m thinking.
I almost cried when I heard that our country is thinking of separating children from their parents at the border as a deterrent. Life separates us too soon as it is. I yearn for more time with those who I have recently lost. One last look at their face, a few more kind words spoken in loving ways. And listening to them, really listening to what they are saying. The trauma of separation is a lot to handle as a reasoning adult, but is so much harder for a child. Ask my husband who lost his father at an early age.
I can still remember the photos of children that I saw walking through the Holocaust Memorial who had been separated from their parents one or both, facing certain death. I cried photo after photo. Children should be protected, but never taken from parents who care for them and love them. A foster home is for a child in need of loving attention not for children who have parents who would risk all in their love for them.
Life is tough enough without adding more to the load humanity is carrying. I guess I believe in my heart like he said that if I show mercy, mercy will be shown to me. I remember when I held my first child in my arms and the overwhelming love and sense of fear I felt at the same time. I would have done anything for him and my others as they came along. Much like my Irish and Scottish ancestors I would have left my own country to give them a better life if necessary. (No, they didn’t all come here legally.)
I read this from a letter / Life Lesson by David Weismann: “I don’t try to distinguish the authentic needy person from the phony. I don’t worry about enabling alcoholics and drug addicts or about being scammed or hoodwinked. Of everyone with a hard luck story or an outstretched arm, I assume the best, not the worst.
Are there times when the people I give money to are phonies? I’m sure there are. But who am I to second-guess the truth of another human being’s circumstances? What if I’m wrong in my assessment and the person really is hungry or really has no place to live or really can’t find a job and is unable to pay the rent or doesn’t have the money to pay the fare to visit a sick parent?
I consider myself very fortunate. I live quite well. I’ve been blessed. I’ve really never known what it is to not have enough food to eat or not to have a roof over my head or not to enjoy many physical comforts of life. God has been good to me. But I also recognize that there but for the grace of God go I. And I don’t know how I would manage if I went to bed hungry every night or had no place to live,”
Thankfully, I have never known true hunger or want nor have my children. I want to keep my arms open wide to bless others in the manner I have been blessed. I will err on the side of compassion and want to believe that others would do the same for me.
by Iona Morrison | Apr 21, 2018
Life is filled with beginnings and endings; ebbs and flows, and ups and downs. It sounds so philosophical and wise. Unless, of course, I’m the one in an ending and don’t see a beginning close at hand, or I’m in a down that sees no up in sight. I’ve told myself many times this to shall pass and it usually does. But, sometimes it means saying goodbye to what I’ve known, and heading down a path that is new and foreign to me. Goodbyes are never easy. I find them hard to do even in the best of circumstances.
Over the years I’ve had to face my comfortable beliefs being challenged by new ideas, and change. Thankfully, I didn’t freeze in time. I’ve seen my faith reduced to its simplest form, to Love, which is one of the hardest things to do, and yet the greatest. I have had to say goodbye to friends, to a way of life that was familiar, and to start over again.
And so it begins again, another goodbye. A little over a week ago my big brother passed away. Anyone who has ever lost someone they love, knows how hard it is to say goodbye to them. A big brother is someone special to have on your side. Eight years older than this pesky sister I followed him around whenever he was home. On more than one occasion I would sneak downstairs to watch him and his friends dance. He loved to dance and was often found among the dancers on Denver Bandstand back in the day. I was his greatest fan. He was my handsome big brother and I loved to be around him. He played the guitar, sang, and was in a band when he was young.
My brother was an Eagle Scout, had a photographic memory, and was a coach. He was a husband, father, and grandfather. He was witty and fun to be around. Somehow I must find the way to say goodbye and I’m not ready to. I want to have one more conversation, and see him one more time. I want to hear another one of his witty comebacks. I have a hope of seeing him again, but it’s the here and now that hurts like crazy. I have to figure out how to do life without a big brother and I’m not sure I like the idea. Rest in peace big brother you will be missed.
