The Winner of Connie Sokol's Motherhood Matters is . . .

. . .  Bethany!  I know who you are, Sedromom, so I'll get the book off to you. 

    Stay tuned. I'm going to do another book giveaway the end of May so check back.

Liz is giving away a copy of Connie E. Sokol's Motherhood Matters

I promised to do this on the 21st, and I've been feeling good that I was so on top of this, that I was right on schedule. Then I thought, no, wait--I taught a writing class at the Upper Skagit Library on the 21st, and that was yesterday.  Today is the 22nd.

But that doesn't matter, does it?  What matters is that you get a chance to get a copy of Connie Sokol's gem of a book just in time to give it to someone for Mother's Day. 

I'll press Jens into service again and we'll do the drawing Thursday the 26th.  That's not very long, so get your name in the pot--and I speak literally, because I use an old chamber pot for the drawing.

All you have to do is become a follower of this blog and leave a comment to say you've done so and you want your name entered. If you're already a follower, then let me know.

To read my review of Motherhood Matters, scroll down past my UFO sighting and Jens drawing the name for the Caller ID giveaway, and you'll find it.

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My UFO Sighting

Notice I didn’t call this my ET sighting. I don’t necessarily think extra-terrestrials had anything to do with what I saw in the sky back in 1959, but I do know that I had never seen anything like it before.


Luckily, I wasn’t alone. In fact, my companion, my then-roommate, Roberta Uzelac (now Nelson), asked me just a few months ago if I remembered the incident. The hair stood up on the back of my neck just thinking about it. Yes, I remembered.



Highway between Kanab UT and Page AZ



We were on our way to Page, Arizona from Provo, Utah. It must have been a Friday night, probably about eleven o’clock. I don’t know why my brother Ron wasn’t with us. Usually we’d have him and a couple other people in the car, but this time it was just Roberta and I.

We had talked ourselves out long before we reached the Cock’s Comb, a sandstone formation between Kanab, UT and Page, AZ. Coming through the cut in the hill, we looked forward to the last leg: a flat, relatively straight, uninhabited, fifty-mile stretch of two-lane highway. A dark, sparsely traveled, lonely . . . you get the idea.

It wasn’t long after the Cock’s Comb that we noticed a large, bright light in the sky. It traveled from right to left in front of us. Years later, when my husband was flying out of general aviation airports, I thought that landing lights on small planes as they were coming straight at you were similar to that light we saw in the sky. Only it wasn’t coming straight at us. It was crossing in front of us. Even at that, one could have made the case that what we saw was a light on a general aviation aircraft, except that its last maneuver was something no aircraft I ever saw could do.

The light had crossed in front of us, as I said, from right to left, going at a speed that we could ascribe to a known aircraft. Suddenly it changed directions, zipping up and to the right, crossing in front of us again, in an arc so fast that it seemed it must be a shooting star. And then, like a shooting star, it disappeared.

We were left in the dark, alone, on that uninhabited road with fifty miles still to go before we reached the cozy safety of my house and my daddy’s protection. My knuckles were still white when we got there.

I was so grateful that I had my roommate with me to corroborate my story. However, a few years later when I mentioned the sighting to Addy, our neighbor across the street, she said she had seen something very similar on that same stretch of road late at night.

Here’s how she described it to me a month or so ago when I asked her about it again:

In the early 70's, I was driving with a friend one night from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona on a lonely strip of highway in the high desert. As I reached the top of a hill I saw a large glowing ball hovering over the desert to my left. The light could be described as hot pink or light red. My passenger and I both exclaimed, "What is that?" We watched for several seconds and then it quickly disappeared. We wondered if it could have been an oncoming car's headlights, but there was no road in that vicinity and it definitely was the wrong color of light. I still remember it vividly, though it remains a mystery.

So, there you have it. I still hear the Twilight Zone theme song deedle-deedle-ing in my mind when I think about it. It was over 50 years ago. My hair is gray now, and I didn’t want to leave this world without documenting it—my gift to UFO research.

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Winner of Rachelle Christensen's Caller ID

My grandson Jens obliged me by drawing the winning name to receive a copy of Rachelle Christensen's book Caller ID.   You can see from the second picture that the winner is Bonnie. Congratulations!

Motherhood Matters by Connie E. Sokol, a Review

The blurb on the back cover of Motherhood Matters says, "This delightful little volume, filled with wit and wisdom, presents a straightforward look at the divinity, reality, and rewards of being a mother. With clarity and concision, Connie E. Sokol shares inspirational messages that will fit families everywhere on the road to a better way of life."

Well, I'm in my senior years, with active mothering growing smaller in the rearview mirror, and I thought, as I picked up the book, what is this book going to tell ME about divinity, reality and rewards?

Quite a little bit, actually.

I shouldn't have been surprised. I saw a clip of Connie Sokol doing an interview on a TV show, and I was amazed at how her warmth and assurance reached out over the internet and grabbed me. She has a persuasiveness about her that exists in her prose as well as her persona. When she says mothering is divine, you believe her.  She gives you opportunities to connect in every section of her book.  She doesn't preach, she reminds you of what you knew already.

This would be a great Mother's Day present for a mother figure in your life.  It's not sticky sweet. More like warm bread, or a thoughtful surprise that no one else would have remembered.

You can find Motherhood Matters at Amazon. To find out more about the author, go to Connie Sokol's web site.

I'll be posting a contest to win a copy of Motherhood Matters a little closer to Mother's Day. I'll post it on April 21 and award it on April 26, so stay tuned.

Caller ID by Rachelle J. Christensen, a Review

All right, Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m pulling you into Rachelle Christensen’s blog tour for her new release, Caller ID. I’ll tell you how you can win a copy here on my blog in a minute.


Here’s a blurb from the publisher:

From the author who brought you Wrong Number comes another story featuring Agent Jason Edwards that will keep you on the edge of your seat.


When twenty-three-year-old Courtney Beckham is abducted near her home, the search turns up more than just a kidnapping crime. FBI agent Jason Edwards investigates the ten-million-dollar ransom and stumbles upon something he wasn’t meant to find. And when Courtney catches a glimpse of the caller ID in her kidnapper’s home, what she sees turns her world upside down.


I didn’t read Rachelle’s first Jason Edwards book, but not to worry if you didn’t either. This book stands alone. In fact, you will probably be as invested in Courtney as you are in Jason Edwards, so it won’t matter that you haven’t met him in another book.

Before I review this book, I need to state that I received a free copy from the publisher. However, that had no bearing on the kind of  review I gave.

What worked for me: Rachelle has a nice plot going for her in this book, with several twists that I didn't see coming. She does such a good job of portraying Utah in high summer that she had me reaching for the chapstick and trying to stay hydrated. Courtney is likeable, as is Jason, and the villain even has flashes that signal ‘redeemable.’

What didn’t work: Hmm. I’m ambivalent about the multiple points of view Rachelle used, though I don’t know that she could have unfolded the plot without them.  I think I feel that I would have had a stronger bond with either Courtney or Jason if I saw the whole thing through only one pair of eyes. But, I'm ready to be convinced otherwise. What do you think?

In any event, don’t let that deter you from trying this book. It would be a great light summer read.

You can win a copy of Caller ID here on my blog. Become a follower by clicking on the ‘join this blog’ button on the left and leave me a comment that says you’ve done so. If you’re already a follower, leave a comment saying that.

The thing is, giving away the book is a shameless bid for followers. We all acknowledge that. Followers who leave a comment here on my blog will be entered in a drawing. On Monday, April 9, I’ll have my grandson Jens draw from the hundreds of comments I’ve received—or from the three or four—and I’ll announce the award of the book on that day and make arrangements for getting contact information so I can send it out.

Okay. That’s taken care of.

Now, on to Rachelle’s contest. She’s offering an awesome prize. Here’s what the announcement says:

To celebrate the release of CALLER ID, Rachelle is hosting a contest for a new Ultra Flip Video Camcorder (4GB memory, Records 120 minutes Value $149.99) and other great prizes. You can enter to win between now and April 14, 2012. Winners will be announced and notified April 16, 2012.

Click on this link to enter for the Ultra Flip Video Camcorder.

Rachelle’s website is http://www.rachellejchristensen.com/  You can purchase Caller ID at Amazon.

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And...be sure you don't miss out on the next recipe, review, scrap of wisdom or pithy thought. Become a follower on this blog by clicking on the Join this Site button on the sidebar. Check out my books behind the Liz's Books tab at the top, or read reviews of my latest book under the Reviews tab.