So Many Modern Blessings!

A few people have wondered if I'm ever going to blog again. My beautiful daughter and her family were here last week from California, and this week I have been in bed. Literally! For days and days and days. I have had the mother of all colds (probably the flu) and ear pain that I couldn't believe! I finally went to the Dr. yesterday and found out I have a raging ear infection in both ears. She said if I'd waited until Monday, my eardrums would have burst! And, she said that at my age it could result in permanent hearing loss. (That's so weird to keep hearing at my age. Am I really at that age?) Well, I'm on heavy duty antibiotics for the next two weeks and finally this afternoon the pressure in my ears is easing up! Yay! I may live!

This week lying in bed too sick to read or even watch TV, I thought of my Grandmother Burghardt my father's mother, who died in the great flu epidemic after World War I. She was a young mother of eight, only in her thirties. I thought a lot about the suffering she must have gone through, and especially of how broken hearted she must have been at leaving her precious children. Today, as I've finally felt like I'm coming out of this thing, I thought of her again, and wished I could have gone back in time to share some of our amazing antiobiotics with her. What blessings we have in this crazy modern world.

I also remembered all the nights of walking the floors with my babies as they suffered through their ear aches! THEY REALLY HURT! How grateful I am that I could get medical help for them. And again how grateful I am for the blessings we enjoy!

I'm Pleased to Announce the Kindle Edition of My Novel Joy Outweighs the Sorrow

In 1995 I published the novel Joy Outweighs the Sorrow. It is now available in the Kindle Store: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050VAIII for all of you that have Kindle Reader, Ipad, Iphone, Itouch, Blackberry, or Android Smart Phones. Also Kindle for PC or Mac!

While you're there take a moment and write a review! And check the stars. Thank you so much, because it is the reviews that sell books! If you have previously read my book, you can leave a review without purchasing the book. Also, check out my website for the book, just click on link on my sidebar for BONNIE HOLT AUTHOR WEBSITE!  Thanks everyone for your support!

During the time I first published my book, I was teaching two periods a day, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as a volunteer at the West Jordan Seminary after the fire that destroyed their building the year before. My teaching and writing endeavors were cut short however, by a hospital stay for a series of small strokes, which was followed by the death of my son, and then two open-heart surgeries to repair a hole in my heart.

With my heart broken in so many ways, as I recovered, I mourned the death of my son to such an extent that I didn’t write more than email, for eight years! Then in December of 2007 my daughter encouraged me to start a blog. I did! And I discovered a great satisfaction again in expressing myself. Since then, a couple of friends have asked if I thought I would ever write for publication again, and I always replied no—I don’t think so.

But when an email friend, who is an editor and many times over published author, said to me after reading one of my blog posts, “You are a writer, and writer’s need to write!” I was taken aback, because I didn’t think of myself as a writer. I’m not a writer! I’m just an insignificant little grandma blogger. I had been so lost, for so many years, that I had completely negated in my mind that, in fact, I am a published author of a few magazine articles, and a novel.

And then—I started going to a small writing group formed in our ward Relief Society, to encourage us write our personal histories. I don’t know why I went, it was very intimidating, and I did tell the group when I attended the second time with nothing to share, “I can tell you one thing for sure, I won’t be writing about my childhood. I’ve had enough of that.”

Well, as they say—famous last words. After stumbling upon the information that, out-of-print book rights revert back to the author, I decided to confirm this with my old publisher whom I was certain wouldn’t even remember me. But he did! He was enthusiastic and kind, and so I jumped in with both feet to prepare the manuscript for electronic-publishing. My sweet neighbor Sophie Rasi-Koskinen posed for the new cover! It has been so fun, that my husband commented he hasn't seen me this happy in years.