This week we welcome Rachelle McCalla to Author Memories.
As far back as the fourth grade, Rachelle McCalla knew she wanted to be an astronaut. Her best friend wanted to be an author, and so they argued about whose chosen profession was better. Rachelle soon discovered she had no aptitude for science, math or weightlessness. She’s been writing ever since. When she’s not writing, Rachelle spends most of her time working on her servant’s heart with her four children as relentless but adorable taskmasters. In her free time, she is an overly-creative cook, a distracted reader, and an avid gardener whose black thumb of death strikes fear into plants everywhere.
Sights on Memory Lane
by Rachelle McCalla
My grandparents moved off their acreage when I was twelve. All my childhood memories of visits to their house are located on that parcel of land—picking chokecherries for chokecherry jelly, baling hay with pitchforks, tossing split watermelons to the chickens.
Other families have since come and gone from that acreage and it has fallen into disrepair along with much of the village of Oakdale. I didn’t realize how much the town had deteriorated until we made a point of passing through with our kids this summer. As we drove past the city park, across the bridge that spanned the creek, and up the road past the old house, I related my memories to my children in hopes that they’d understand a little bit about their family roots and where we’d come from.
Other families have since come and gone from that acreage and it has fallen into disrepair along with much of the village of Oakdale. I didn’t realize how much the town had deteriorated until we made a point of passing through with our kids this summer. As we drove past the city park, across the bridge that spanned the creek, and up the road past the old house, I related my memories to my children in hopes that they’d understand a little bit about their family roots and where we’d come from.
When we passed by the dilapidated church building in this picture, my eight-year-old son voiced a theory, “I think the skeleton of the last pastor is still in there, standing over the Bible with cobwebs.”
So much for Memory Lane.
Perhaps my family heritage has more to do with our penchant for spinning stories than it does a few falling down buildings. Our identities may be more clearly seen in the fruit of the new branches, than the long-buried roots returning to the dust from which they came. I can see my grandparents more clearly in the smiles of my children than the abandoned streets of a ghost town.
We left Oakdale behind. Instead of looking back, I pointed my face forward to the memories I can help make for my children. And some day, when their children tell my great-grandchildren stories about me, I want to be listening in to hear what they have to say. Something tells me, they won’t be the same stories I tried to pass on. They’ll likely be a lot more interesting.
So much for Memory Lane.
Perhaps my family heritage has more to do with our penchant for spinning stories than it does a few falling down buildings. Our identities may be more clearly seen in the fruit of the new branches, than the long-buried roots returning to the dust from which they came. I can see my grandparents more clearly in the smiles of my children than the abandoned streets of a ghost town.
We left Oakdale behind. Instead of looking back, I pointed my face forward to the memories I can help make for my children. And some day, when their children tell my great-grandchildren stories about me, I want to be listening in to hear what they have to say. Something tells me, they won’t be the same stories I tried to pass on. They’ll likely be a lot more interesting.
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Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, Sep 25th
if you want to be entered to win a copy of Rachelle's novel,
Princess in Peril.
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Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, Sep 25th
if you want to be entered to win a copy of Rachelle's novel,
Princess in Peril.
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Princess in Peril, Love Inspired Suspense, Oct 2011
Back of the Book Blurb
When insurgents attack the king's motorcade, scattering the royal family, bodyguard Levi Granaldo has one goal—to protect the princess. Even though he knows Princess Isabelle distrusts him. On the run together, they flee to New York, to the shelter of a sanctuary established by Levi's father. But their safety can't last. After a surprise attack divides the pair, Isabelle is forced to face some hard truths. The danger she's in is getting deadlier by the day…and she'll never be able to face it without Levi by her side.
Read Excerpt
When insurgents attack the king's motorcade, scattering the royal family, bodyguard Levi Granaldo has one goal—to protect the princess. Even though he knows Princess Isabelle distrusts him. On the run together, they flee to New York, to the shelter of a sanctuary established by Levi's father. But their safety can't last. After a surprise attack divides the pair, Isabelle is forced to face some hard truths. The danger she's in is getting deadlier by the day…and she'll never be able to face it without Levi by her side.
Read Excerpt
Reclaiming the Crown series:
Princess in Peril, Oct 2011
Protecting the Princess, Feb 2012
Prince Incognito, June 2012
The Missing Monarch, Sep 2012
Princess in Peril, Oct 2011
Protecting the Princess, Feb 2012
Prince Incognito, June 2012
The Missing Monarch, Sep 2012
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Rachelle's Free Online Read at Harlequin.com :
Royal Peril by Rachelle McCalla (Love Inspired Suspense)
About the Story:
Arianna Raff opens the backpack at her feet, expecting to find her clothes and travel documents. Instead she finds guns. Too late she realizes her mistake—she opened the bag of the thugs at the table next to hers. And now they aren't just going to let her go.
Because Arianna has stumbled into a dangerous plot.
The men are more than thugs—they are assassins.
Arianna's only ally is Sergio Cana, a soldier from the neighboring country of Lydia.
With their pursuers just a breath behind them, Arianna and Sergio race across the Albanian countryside, desperate to deliver their warning…before it's too late.
Royal Peril by Rachelle McCalla (Love Inspired Suspense)
About the Story:
Arianna Raff opens the backpack at her feet, expecting to find her clothes and travel documents. Instead she finds guns. Too late she realizes her mistake—she opened the bag of the thugs at the table next to hers. And now they aren't just going to let her go.
Because Arianna has stumbled into a dangerous plot.
The men are more than thugs—they are assassins.
Arianna's only ally is Sergio Cana, a soldier from the neighboring country of Lydia.
With their pursuers just a breath behind them, Arianna and Sergio race across the Albanian countryside, desperate to deliver their warning…before it's too late.
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