P.J. MacLayne

There are certain moments that define our lives and become part of our culture. The Kennedy assassinations, Kent State, Mount Saint Helens, the Challenger exploding, and of course, the events of September 11, 2001.

I’m not going to post any pictures for this entry. We’ve all seen them, and for those of us who lived through the day, they’re burned into our brain. Each time I see them, the terror  and sorrow of the day rushes back.

I was working in a small branch of a law-enforcement related agency. It was a fairly normal, busy day, with scads of paperwork to get down for the courts. I’m not sure which on my co-workers first alerted the rest of the office to the first plane crashing, but soon the word spread.

A TV was set up in an office so we could keep track of what was going on while continuing to work. We tried to keep things going normally—we had clients in and out of the office—but it wasn’t easy. When the second plane flew into the Towers, none of us could believe it.

I think the tears started flowing when the towers collapsed. 

When the plane plowed into the Pentagon, it  get personal. I have a brother who lived and worked in the Washington DC area, and although he didn’t work for the military, I was worried about him. I was also worrying about my sister, who sometimes—but rarely—went into New York for her job.  

About the time we heard the first reports of a plane flying around Pennsylvania, the building was evacuated. No one could imagine our little office would be a target for anyone, but no one could imagine any of the day’s events. I was freaking out, because most of my family lived in Pennsylvania—my parents in particular because they lived in rural are in the western portion of the state— and suddenly we were cut off from the news. There we were, standing in the hot Florida sun, watching the skies, while I worried about about my parents and my siblings. 

I didn’t even have a cell phone to call them. Luckily, a few of my co-workers did, and one let me use hers to try to reach my parents. It took too long to get through. The lines were overloaded and it took too many tries before I was able to establish a connection. Finally, I got ringing at the other end, and my mother picked up.

At that point, most of my brothers and sisters had checked in. Everyone was safe. The only sibling that hadn’t reached  out to my parents was in a location that appeared to be safe.

Eventually, we were allowed back inside and we went back to work. Not that anything went back to normal. 

One of the weirdest things over the next couple of days was the absence of planes in the skies overhead. There were always planes in the sky, no matter one time of the day or night as we lived along several major plane routes. To look around and see no contrails, and hear nothing but traffic and birds, felt like a scene out of a sci-fi flick.


And that’s my personal remembrance of 9/11. If you’d like to share yours, you can do it in the comments.

To read about the experiences of others in our hop, check out the links below. One of them is Kelly Williams. Here’s a direct link to her blog. Blue Honor

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We’re doing something different this week for the blog hop. We’re each reviewing a book of our choosing. The book I picked is Designing Samantha’s Love  by PJ Fiala.


Samantha–Sam–Powell has denied her emotions for too long. After a marriage gone wrong, ended by the death of her husband, she struggles with mixed feelings of loneliness and guilt. 


Grayson Kinkaide, owner of Kinkaide Architects, hasn’t fared well in matters of the heart. He believes he’s squandered his chance at true love somewhere along the way. When he and Sam have a chance meeting, they’re immediately attracted to each other.


But second chances don’t always come easy. Someone is determined to keep the two apart. Can Sam and Gray survive he threats long enough to give love a chance?


In Designing Samantha’s Love, PJ Fiala has given us a touching story of two people struggling to recreate themselves,  and at the same time,trying find a way to create a happily ever after.

PJ Fiala is  a wife of thirty years, a mother of four grown children and the grandmother of three lovely grandchildren. When not writing a new story,she can be found riding her motorcycle and exploring this fabulous country of ours. Her writing revolves around people anyone would love to spend time with. No self-absorbed billionaires for her.

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Welcome to another week of Meet The Author Open Book Blog Hop. This week’s theme is: What your secret passion/guilty pleasure?


When I wrote my first book, I didn’t tell anyone what I was doing, including my dearly beloved. I thought that I’d write one and get it out of my system. It didn’t work out that way and I have more ideas for books than I have time to write.  I was nearly done with my second book before I shared what I was up to with him. He thought I was reading or playing games on the computer.


And I didn’t share it with my coworkers until I worked up the courage to indie-release my fourth book. (Yes, there are three books I might go back to someday, see if I can whip them into shape and put them out there.) I took quite a bit of teasing about my writing because they couldn’t quite wrap their heads around the fact that this old lady wrote a paranormal romance. Now that I’ve released three the teasing has mostly died down.


But writing books was not my first venture into writing. My true passion for many years was poetry. In fact, I’ve been published internationally. I don’t claim to be great, but I think some of my poems are pretty darned good.


I’ll share just one with you, my favorite. P.J. Fiala, you might recognize the inspiration.

                     Beartooth Mountain Pass


I stand at the edge of eternity


Where the mountains and sky mingle
In a curious cacophony of watercolors
Where granite boulders,
With a furious freedom, defy gravity,
Hang in precarious unbalalnce
And do not fall
Where winter snows linger
Alongside short lived summer flowers

Where the world falls away from my feet
I teach myself to breathe again
12000 feet high

And that’s my not so secret passion. What’s yours? Tell us in the comments. And as always, if there’s anything you want to find out about us, let us know.


Before you leave, Have you checked out Lela Markham’s books yet? You can find her author page on Amazon HERE  

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Welcome to this week’s version of the Open Book Blog Hop, where you can find out more about our merry gang of authors. This week, we’re talking about our bucket lists. If there’s anything in particular you’d like us share, please let us know in the comments.

I’m a live-each-day-as-it-comes kind of person, so I’ve never had a bucket list.The way my life has played out, I’ve had the opportunity to do things that I’m guessing other people would envy.


I’ve played on Florida’s beaches from Jacksonville and all the way  along the coast to Panama Beach.  Not all in one trip, but over the years too-many I lived in that state. Some were impressive, others not so much. I certainly didn’t see all of them, but I walked on quite a few.

I’ve lived on both the East and West Coasts. I’ve traveled across the continental United States for work, and have been in almost every state. But I was working, so I didn’t have the chance to do much exploring. Still, I can claim I was there.


I’ve changed careers several times. I say I didn’t find what I wanted to do with my life until I was over 40 years old. And although I love what I do, I make no promises I won’t change jobs again.


But there are still a few things I’d like to do.


I’d like to make a mini-tour in tribute to John Denver. There will be only a couple of stops on that trip—Red Rocks near Denver where the John Denver tribute statue is located, the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, and of course Aspen, Colorado. 

I’d like to write a best seller. Maybe that’s more of a pipe dream than a bucket list item, but hey, I can dream, can’t I? I’m working in it, anyway. Maybe my next book. I can imagine walking into a book store and seeing a whole shelf of my books. And If I had Photoshop, I could make it happen!

Someday, I’d like to travel to Ireland, where my mother’s ancestors originated. The land has always held a certain attraction for me. Probably because I believe in magic and Ireland holds a mystical charm.

So do you have a bucket list? Tell us about it in the comments.


Before you click on another link and head over to another blog, don’t forget to check out Lela Markham’s books. You can find them on Amazon HERE. I wonder if Ireland is on her bucket list too. 

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Welcome everyone, no matter where you came from! 

This week’s topic: Tell us three things about you. What makes you unique? How would people describe you? Tell us something we don’t know about you.

You’d think for a writer answering these questions would be easy. After all, we spend hours building characters and trying to make them believable to for our readers.  But I’m an introvert (Aha! Number 1!) and I don’t like to talk about myself. Plus I’m a private person and am very selective I’ve what I share about myself. So these questions are actually tough for me to answer.

I like to think of myself as a bundle of contradictions. You’ll see what I mean.

Let’s start with something easy. I didn’t touch my first computer until I was over 30 years old. Now I earn my living sitting in front of a computer screen as a systems analyst. But I also did a stint as a computer tech, repairing computers and supporting users. (Yes, I was Help Desk. That’s a double contradiction—an older woman doing a job normally held by young guys.) And when I’m home, I’m sitting in front of a computer, writing!

To make it it even more complicated, I’m an old hippie chick. No, I didn’t make it to Woodstock or San Francisco. But I did make skirts out of my old blue jeans, I grew my own food and canned or froze the harvest. I’ve sewn shirts completely by hand, and decorated them with colorful embroidery. I’ve even been known to wear tie-die shirts and headbands.I tried to teach myself to play guitar, but I never learned more than a couple of songs.

Whew, that’s three things,right? What, the introvert thing doesn’t count? Sigh. All right, one more. This one related to my writing.

I never imagined myself writing a paranormal romance. Heck, I wrote poetry, not books. But when the stories started coming, there was no way to put a stop to them. So I wrote Wolves’ Pawn, figured I got the paranormal thing out of my system and started writing mysteries. But no, Tasha, one of the minor characters in Wolves’ Pawn, DEMANDED I write her story. So I am. My next book will be Wolves’ Knight, Tasha’s Tale. I’m hoping for an October release date. Then maybe I’ll be able to get back to Harmony Duprie and her adventures. (Want to see my books? Check out the My Books link.)

If there’s anything you’d like to our authors to answer, leave a comment. We’re always looking for fresh topics.

And before you take off to read what another author has to say about this week’s topic, don’t forget to check out Christine Ardigo’s books. You can find them HERE

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THEME THIS WEEK: Let’s talk fun. What do you consider fun? Drinks with friends, camping, music, shooting pool, picnics, watching television. Show us your fun times.

Those of you who have reading my blog entries probably think you know where I’m headed this week. Chances are you’re right. But I’m going to make a quick stop before we get there.

I love to read. Always have, even as a kid. I used to take a book out of the elementary school library each afternoon before hopping on the bus to head home, and return it the next morning. Yes, I’d read a book a night.

When I got into high school, the demands of school work slowed my reading down—somewhat. I probably only read three of four books a week. Of course, they were also thicker and more complex. As an adult, I’d “binge read.” I’d got through periods where I read constantly, and other times when I didn’t have time to read at all. Now that I’ve started writing myself, my time to read has shrunk even more. Which reminds me, I need to make a trip to the library.

You can go pack top my post about crafty stuff to read about my love of needlecraft. I’ll  give you one picture to entice you if you haven’t already read it.

And now to where you knew where I was going. Every chance I get, I head to the mountains. Sometimes it’s a day trip, and when time allows, it’s more. I’ve always loved camping. I grew up in the country, and many summer nights we’d drag a few blankets out to the front porch and sleep outside. When I was in the Girl Scouts, I looked forward to our camping trips. When I got a bit older, I volunteered to help with the summer camps. One summer, I worked as a camp counselor and lived in a tent for the whole summer.

Luckily, I married a guy who likes to camp almost as much as I do, and we’ve lived in places where the camping was plentiful and the people weren’t. Nothing better then being in the wilderness with no one else around, sitting by a campfire on a clear night and watching the stars. It’s amazing how many more stars you can see in the night sky when you’re somewhere high in the mountains. Throw in a little background music courtesy of John Denver (or at least a recording of him) and you’ve got the makings of a perfect night. And that’s my idea of fun!

And now it’s time to pimp another of our authors. Because remember, reading is first on my list of ways to have fun!  So if you haven’t checked out Stevie Turner’s books teey, now’s your chance. You can find them at Stevie Turner

To find out what other authors are saying, head over to PJ Fiala’s blog http://pjfiala.com/blog

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Welcome everyone! If you came here by way of Lela Markham’s   blog, thanks for making the hop.  Hope you took a minute to check out her books. If not, it’s not to late. You can check out her author page on Amazon HERE.

I think you can already see where I’m going with this post. I’m into needlecraft. Everything on this post is my work. (Except the book covers!) Sure, most of the ones I’ve posted are from kits, but that’s because I’ve given away a lot of things I’ve made to special people in my life that were not kit-based. And I didn’t keep pictures of them.


Oh, you thought those were paintings? Nope. They are all done with yarn. Well, the ones you’ve seen so far are.If you zoom in you can see the individual stitches.Several different techniques were used in these samples of my work.


The lion is done with a technique known as longstitch. It’s done on a fabric canvas, and one stitch can cover several squares. It’s done in a vertical fashion, unlike the next project. That’s traditional needlepoint, and the stitches are made in a diagonal pattern. (Continental stitch) It’s also done on a fabric canvas, and each stitch covers one of the “intersections” of the canvas threads. Yes, folks, that’s a lot of stitching in that project. Also a lot of variations of the colors used. I had to make sure I worked that one in good lighting so I didn’t mess up the shading.

The eagle and the two pillows are a different style of needlecraft known as crewel embroidery. It’s done with yarn on a special cotton fabric. You can create different effects by using different of kinds of stitches. The eagle only used about four kinds of stitches, but the pillow below used about a dozen. There are many different kinds of stitches you can use—there are entire books filled with the instructions for how do the numerous variations.

Let’s move on to another category, one that perhaps people are more familiar with. Embroidery. It’s done with special thread (floss) on cloth. You’ve all seen items that are machine embroidered, but I do my stitching by hand. What you see below is one corner of a very large tablecloth. Large enough that if I tried to fit it into a picture, you’d lose the sense of detail. It took me five years to complete this project. Yes, five. Granted, I did some smaller projects during that five years when I got tired of this one, but I never gave up on it.

This is my most recent project—a baby quilt I embroidered for my grandson. It’s done in cross-stitch—stamped, not counted. The request for the quilt was the second thing out of my daughter’s mouth when she told me she was pregnant. I’d made one for each of my kids, as well as several nieces and nephews, and there was no way possible she wasn’t going to get one for her baby.She didn’t even need to ask. It only took me about five months to do. I’d allowed myself more time than that, but he came early and I put aside my writing to get it done before he came home from the hospital.

I’m not working on anything right now so I can’t show you any works in progress. I’ve been concentrating on my writing as my creative outlet. But if you want to know more about these crafts, there are lots of books available.If you know how to thread a needle, you can buy a basic kit and start there. The kit will include instructions.

Find out what author T.L. Clark does besides write. Check out her post at T.L. Clark.  Don’t forget to check out her books while you’re there!