Rosanne’s daily posts throughout her first year of widowhood attracted hundreds to follow along on her journey. Her words inspired those who were not only grieving in some way, but those who wanted to build stronger relationships or live life with more intention and gratitude. It was messy. It was raw. And it was healing.
About The Collision of Grief and Gratitude: A Pursuit of Sacred Light
Day 209
“And so each day goes; the grief and the gratitude fighting for the bigger spot in my heart. The tug of war between these emotions exhausts me most days. If you see me in the grief mode, you’ll think I’m a wreck. But if you see me in gratitude mode, you’ll think I m doing well. Neither is 100 percent true. I am what I am most days, leaning toward finding more gratitude than grief as the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months.”
After the unexpected death of her husband, Rosanne Liesveld felt a desperate need to communicate gratitude to those who helped her through the shock that death left in its wake. The day of Curt’s funeral, Rosanne wrote a Facebook post expressing how, in the midst of profound grief, she found a space in her heart for gratitude. The next day, she wrote another post; then another.
Rosanne’s daily posts throughout her first year of widowhood attracted hundreds to follow along on her journey. Her words inspired those who were not only grieving in some way, but those who wanted to build stronger relationships or live life with more intention and gratitude. It was messy. It was raw. And it was healing.
Rosanne’s posts have been compiled into this 366-day journey and are accompanied by beautiful photos taken by Curt.
After the unexpected death of her husband, Curt, Rosanne Liesveld went on a year-long quest to find a glimmer of gratitude each day. She posted her daily journey on Facebook. Those posts become her book, The Collision of Grief and Gratitude: A Pursuit of Sacred Light.
As a coach and teacher for more than thirty years with the Gallup Organization, Rosanne has helped people discover and lean into their strengths. She now speaks to groups about how to build stronger relationships, and live life with more intention and gratitude.
In Circumvent, life is perfect – until all memory is erased.
About Circumvent
Life is too perfect.
Imagine living in a quaint, beach front cottage on the Hawaiian island of Maui. You have an amazing job, combined with the pleasure of working from home. Lunch breaks become a daily picnic on the sand. Dessert is always included because of your marriage to a famous pastry chef. Life could not be any better. Or so it seems.
The writer falls in love with the baker.
When French-born, Nikki Sabine Moueix travels to Hawaii for a special work assignment, her job of writing an article about a famous Swiss pastry chef generates more than a magazine piece. They fall in love, get married, and Nikki Moueix becomes Mrs. Ruggiero Delémont.
The perfection turns to panic.
When another assignment calls for Nikki to spend three weeks in France, Ruggiero’s schedule prevents him from joining her. She travels alone, advancing straight into danger. After a threatening confrontation, Nikki wakes up in a French hospital with no knowledge of her past. When she fails to check in, Ruggiero panics and pushes for an immediate investigation. But as he closes in, Nikki’s new-found friend moves her to another city. It becomes a game of hide and seek with Nikki as the prize.
My Thoughts
Nikki has the perfect life – she is married to a man who adores her and whom she loves with all of her heart. She has the job we all dream of and even better she is able to fulfill her work duties from the beaches of Hawaii! She receives a dream assignment to head back to her beloved France for several weeks but unfortunately her husband can not join her.
Despite her husband’s nervousness (he loathes using technology!), Nikki plans her assignment back to France right down to a shuttle to the airport. It was this off-chance decision to take the shuttle to the airport that alters her future. She is targeted by a ring of criminals (due to her lone female flying status) to transport something that we assume is of great value and illegal into France. This is only the beginning of the nightmare that Nikki and Ruggiero must endure.
When Nikki doesn’t respond to multiple calls and texts, Ruggiero pictures the worst possible situation and his suspicions are confirmed when all traces of Nikki have been wiped clean – no record of her on the flight out of the US, no passport usage and no arrival in France. She has literally been erased. I can’t even begin to imagine the fear Ruggiero faced – no only was he in a different country all together, no one could explain how his wife could just “disappear” from flight records when it was clear that she went on the plane. He turns to his friend in local authorities and the pressure to find Nikki ramps up.
While Ruggiero is desperately trying to discover what happened to his wife, Nikki finds herself in a hospital with no memory of who she was or how she even got there. She turns to her physician and rescuer – the only person she does have a memory of. But not everything is quite what it seems. Our rescuer may not be the knight in shining armour we are originally led to believe he is and may have some ulterior motives up his sleeves.
This was a novel that I could not put down – I had to see what happened to Nikki (does she remember, do the criminals hurt her further) and Ruggiero (can he discover what happened to Nikki and where she is, and if he does find her – can he adjust to her loss of memory). It was an intense story full of surprise, hope and love – I loved every moment of their story!
Born in the United States, S.K. Derban moved to London within the first three months, and remained in England until the age of five. Her mother was involved with the London Royal Ballet Company, and a great fan of the arts. Even after returning to the United States, S.K. Derban’s life was filled with a love of the theatre and a passion for British murder mysteries. Her personal travel and missionary adventures also help to transport readers virtually across the globe. S.K. Derban has smuggled Bibles into China, and has been to Israel on seven missionary trips. When writing, she relies on all aspects of her life, from a strong faith in the Lord, to her unique combination of professional experience. The many personal adventures of S.K. Derban are readily apparent as they shine through into her characters. Circumvent is the third mystery novel for writer S.K. Derban.
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
In a Boy on the Beach, a strange twist of events threatens to destroy Andrew’s dreams, but as he searches for answers, a sudden revelation offers hope of a future he never imagined.
About Boy on the Beach
Andrew Foster, a real estate developer in San Diego, is a man suddenly haunted by his past. Memories, like specters from his former life of sex, drugs and rock and roll have come crashing into his current world of business in this sunny coastal city. The ominous, repeated appearance of a black SUV at the beach where he meets his sister each week, has triggered fears that it’s payback time for a bad choice he made years ago.
To add to his frustrations, his hopes of a big breakthrough in the San Diego real estate market haven’t come to pass. He’s starting to wonder if his visions of success will ever come true when an investor offers to finance his dream project. Soon things start to fall into place for Andrew in business, life, and even love. He starts dating the beautiful and business-savvy Nicole but even with her at his side he can’t seem to shake the ghosts of his past. As the relationship with Nicole deepens, Andrew opens up to her about the many loves and adventures that have taken him from the crazy days of living in Big Sur and Joshua Tree to business success in San Diego. Her wise insights help him face the character flaws that have caused him to fail in his past relationships.
Rounding out his social life is his once-a-week task of assisting his sister with her nanny job watching a young boy named Chandler. They build sand castles on the beach and enjoy the beauty of nature together. But the now ominous weekly appearance of a strange car at the beach has awakened Andrew’s fears. Is the boy in danger? Or worse, has an enemy from Andrew’s past come seeking revenge and now Chandler’s caught in the middle?
A strange twist of events threatens to destroy Andrew’s dreams, but as he searches for answers, a sudden revelation offers hope of a future he never imagined.
My Thoughts
Boy on the Beach takes an interesting angle of both past and present and how our past actions can sometimes come back to haunt us.
Andrew had a very interesting and unique past, with the carefree lifestyle of casual sex and drugs. At that point in his life he was selfish and at times uncaring. His actions were done in the moment with little thought to the future and to others. While at times, this served him well he did make a few enemies this way. One in the form of the woman he had thought he was going to marry at one point and the other in the form of a man who claimed he had spiritual powers and could lay curses on others.
In our present view of Andrew, we see a man who has struggled with his personal business and the demons that haunt him from his past. He has made a few business deals but not enough in the building industry to make a name for himself. When the dream job lands at his feet, he is cautious at first but throws that all to the wind for the chance to complete his dream job. What he didn’t know were the lies, betrayal and revenge that were hidden behind this dream job that left me as the reader reeling.
This was an intense story of betrayal and revenge. As we flip from his past to his present, we are presented with a complete story of how Andrew made it to where he was and we find out more about why someone would want to hurt him with his business. When we find out the connections between our characters, my mind was blown – I never saw it coming! While it was a shock, the ending left me with a sense of hope and maybe some peace for Andrew. That he could finally forgive his own actions and move forward, making better choices for his future and those who he loves.
R.D. Maddux has story telling in his blood. Since he was young he’s always loved a good tale. He’s been writing seriously since he was in high school and college. His novels range from Mystery and Intrigue to Sci-fi/fantasy. With Boy On The Beach he’s set the story in modern America, to be exact, on the West Coast of California. He’s a native of the golden state and has been a resident of San Diego since 1987. Before that he grew up in northern California and lived in the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area with sojourns in some of the beautiful parts of our state.
Living in California for over 60 years he couldn’t help but watch the way things have changed in our culture and the impact this coast makes on the rest of America and the world. So even though Boy On The Beach is fiction, like most serious novels, it is not without a context and comment on issues we all face in our changing world. It takes place in real locations that are very familiar to him and its characters, which are fictional, no doubt have their counterparts in the real world. Boy On The Beach is a story of intrigue, suspense, revenge, love and redemption with flashbacks to the era when sex, drugs and rock and roll set our culture on it’s inevitable journey to our present day. This idea has been rattling around in his heart and mind for a decade and it’s finally coming to the page.
Turn the pages of Love Beneath the Mighty Dome and discover what happens to those confronted by just this dilemma, how it affects their lives, their ability to function, their ability to love.
About Love Beneath the Mighty Dome
What if you felt that Almighty God had called you personally to devote your life exclusively to His service only to discover that those in charge of your training were people not worthy of your respect? Would you stubbornly stick to your path? Would you rebel and try to change the institution from within? Would you begin to doubt yourself and your own integrity? Or would you question whether the institution itself was actually what its founder, Jesus of Nazareth, had intended so many hundreds of generations before you?
Turn the pages of Love Beneath the Mighty Dome and discover what happens to those confronted by just this dilemma, how it affects their lives, their ability to function, their ability to love.
Ronald J. Wichers was born in Lake Ronkonkoma New York in 1947. He attended Catholic School until 1965, studied History and literature at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas until being drafted into the United States Army in 1970. He was assigned to a rifle company in the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam and, after sustaining severe wounds in a gun battle, including the loss of his left am, was awarded the Purple Heart Medal, the Army Commendation Medal for Heroism and the Bronze Star Medal.
He later studied theology full time at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley California. He has published several short stories about the Vietnam war. The Fear of Being Eaten/A Biography of the Heart is his fifth novel.
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