Hot Apple Cider

A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider is here, and it's a great book!

Yes, there is a sequel to the popular first book, Hot Apple Cider!

A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider: Words to Stir the Mind and Delight the Spirit, is made up of more than 50 articles, short stories, and poems written by 37 Canadian writers.

I co-edited it with Wendy Nelles, who also worked on the first book with me.

I have one piece in this book, a short story called Twenty-Five Years Later.  It's about a 47-year-old woman who's headed for a weekend with three other women she hasn't seen since shortly after they graduated from college twenty-five years before.

Nervous? You bet she's nervous. It's been years since she heard those voices in her head telling her she isn't good enough and warning her that she'll make a fool of herself. But she's hearing them now, in surround-sound.

Check out A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider at hotapplecider.ca

In 2008, I had the privilege of being the creator, co-editor, and publisher of a terrific book called Hot Apple Cider: Words to Stir the Heart and Warm the Soul.

This book includes articles, stories and poems from 30 Canadian authors who all write from a Christian faith perspective.

With over 45,000 copies in print, Hot Apple Cider is a Canadian bestseller. 30,000 copies were given out through World Vision Canada's Girls Night Out program, and the rest have largely been sold through retail.

In addition to being the co-editor of Hot Apple Cider, I had two pieces in it. Between them, they won three awards.

The is is the opening to the first of  two pieces that I wrote for this book:

The other guests at the birthday party appeared to be having a wonderful time. I was counting the minutes until I could go home and read a book or design more clothes for my paper dolls. As soon as we’d eaten the birthday cake, I said I had to leave early. Dressed in my best party dress and my white sandals, carrying a little basket of candy and trinkets, I fought to hold back the tears that started the moment I closed the door.

Our house was on the outskirts of town, and to reach it I had to cross a set of railway tracks. I stopped and walked along the rails. By now, I was sobbing in earnest, and I didn’t want my parents to see—didn’t want them to worry. I also was trying to figure out why I wasn’t like other people. For a moment, I thought it might be a huge relief if a train would come along and erase the pain.

It was 1955, and I was seven years old.

To read the rest of "The Diamond Ring," which won two awards from The Word Guild, or to learn more about Hot Apple Cider,  and A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider, go to hotapplecider.ca.