New Parish
The Long Wait is Over!
Have you ever heard of the Marshmallow test? It’s where you put a marshmallow in front of a little kid and tell them they can have that now, (yeah, a lot of them cram it in their mouths immediately before you can finish saying), or you can have lots more later, if you don’t eat it now, and wait a while. Life is like that test in many ways. We get so many opportunities to take instant gratification or delayed gratification. We can get a job right out of high school or go to college and work our way through that. We can buy a new car with a huge loan or save up and get one later without a loan. We can rush into many situations that will give us instant gratification, they’re not all bad, or even wrong choices. But, we usually get much more gratification when we wait that little while to get the more candy instead of eating the one in front of us…
Sarah waited, she waited and waited for the right guy to come along. She could have taken instant gratification and settled for just any old guy but she wanted more… she wanted someone to be the man she needed for always, not just for a little while.
Excerpt from New Parish:
“The cool air and busy sidewalks were almost enough to distract her mind from the pervading thoughts of how much this plural marriage thing could go wrong. She wanted to believe that things could be as wonderful as Mary said they were, but she knew how people could be, especially men… Her thoughts went to, “Maybe I should just drop the whole thing.” Then the idea of dating again entered her thoughts, which almost made her nauseous. Then the thought of giving up on her dream of having kids and a family came to her mind. A tear rolled down her face, which she quickly brushed away, that thought was the saddest one she’d ever had…
Sarah looked up at the sky and saw a plane flying west, she knew she would be on one soon… flying west. She breathed out a sigh and with a new resolve, walked back to her apartment.”
Do you want to find out for yourself what happens next?
New Parish is now available on Amazon.com
Simply search New Parish by Julie Worthington or follow the link below…
Southern Girls…
Southern girls have a uniqueness all their own. They have a soft side that is sweet… they are usually polite, and well mannered – kind, supportive, loyal, and helpful. But there’s more to them than just the sweet southern belle – They are also usually determined and will admit to a fair amount of stubbornness. They are also usually very passionate and have a good idea of what they want in life. When they face challenges that get in the way of what they want, that’s when the stubbornness and passion turn on in full force. In my book New Parish, Sarah and her sisters can be sweet southern belles but when things get challenging they show the other side of the southern girl. Their stubbornness and passion comes to the surface and others get a full on idea of what southern girls are.
When a southern girl meets a real west cowboy, who is everything she ever wanted and everything she can’t stand, things get very heated, sometimes loud, and usually in a very funny way.
I can’t wait to share their story with you!
New Parish Coming very soon!!!!!
Excerpt from New Parish:
“The next day after breakfast Sarah and Mary decided to get out and explore some of the community and enjoy the snow that had fallen. Several of Mary’s little brothers and sisters tagged along with them. They were all bundled up in coats, scarves, gloves, and boots. Sarah laughed at herself and the rest of the gang, they were definitely prepared. Sarah had already decided that the community was quite beautiful but now with a blanket of snow, it seemed like a picture postcard of a Christmas village from long ago. There was even a wooden wagon with red painted wheels going down the road, pulled by two large, chocolate brown horses – it was all very picturesque.
They walked along the freshly shoveled sidewalks happily talking and planning on building a small snowman in the park. When from behind her Sarah heard the sound of a horse trotting, she turned to look and saw the man she never wanted to see again, on his horse. She quickly looked around to see if any cows were running around, then said to Mary, “Let’s walk faster, that cowboy is back, and you know what happened the last time he was near.”
Mary laughed, “You know it wasn’t really his fault, right?”
“It was his cows,” Sarah replied avoiding the fact that she just deep down seriously didn’t want to like him, or his smile, or his beautiful eyes, or his anything.
“Yeah but they broke the fence and got out,” Mary tried to excuse the cowboy.
“Wasn’t it his fence that wasn’t strong enough to hold his cows?” asked Sarah.
“Yes, but, really that stuff happens,” Mary tried to soothe.
Sarah looked at her firmly and said, “Red punch and hot chocolate all over my brand new outfit.”
“Sorry, that was really bad,” Mary agreed.
The sounds from the horse got much closer as Max touched it’s sides to encourage it to speed up, he pulled the reins to stop where Sarah and Mary were on the sidewalk, “Howdy Mary, Ma’am,” he said in a very friendly cowboy drawl.
Sarah looked away and didn’t speak, Mary smiled and said, “Hi Max, what are you up to today?”
“Just rounding up a few strays,” he smiled back at her.
That threw Sarah into an angry frenzy, “What sort of cowboy can’t keep his cows where they’re supposed to be?!?” She looked around frantically wondering from which direction she’d be attacked. “Maybe you should get a different job!”
“Oh, no Ma’am,” Max tried to explain his previous comment, “I’m not rounding up cows. The cows are all safely in the pasture, don’t worry. I’m looking for some of my kids that are supposed to be home doing chores their mothers told them to do.”
Sarah didn’t reply to his explanation, she wanted to put as much distance between him and her as possible, “Let’s go,” she said to Mary.
Mary shrugged to Max and said, “Okay,” to Sarah.
“Wait, Ma’am,” Max’s horse suddenly stepped in front of Sarah’s group. “I think we got off on the wrong foot, let me make it up to you.”
Sarah with as much control as she could muster looked him in the eye and said, “Move your horse. Now!”
“Look, Ma’am…” Max started.
“Stop calling me ma’am!” Sarah shouted, “Move your horse and leave me alone! You paramecium brained, macho sh…”
Sarah didn’t get to finish her verbal assault on Max because Mary put her hand over Sarah’s mouth and sweetly said, “Children are present.”
“Ah!” shouted Sarah, “Okay, fine.”
Max took this cue and tipping his hat to her, said, “Ma’am,” and rode away.
Mary raised her eyebrows and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine as long as he isn’t around, rounding up anything,” Sarah said with anger still in her voice.”
Colorful Characters
In life we meet many people, some stand out, others blend in. Colorful characters are ones we always remember, they don’t necessarily have to be bold and flamboyant, but often are very memorable in some way. Throughout my life I’ve met many people who have been memorable, some I’ve met in person, some I’ve met through other mediums such as literature, film, or stories told by people I know. I think the ones that have been memorable to me are the ones who I can connect with on some level, be that level humor, or emotion, or like circumstances. No matter what brings that memorable connection we all find colorful characters in our lives. In my book New Parish, there are a few memorable characters that I’ve connected with, I hope all of you will too when you read the book – very soon!
One of my favorite characters in New Parish is Uncle Alex. He’s definitely a colorful character in this book and plays a very large role in the next book, Return to New Parish. He’s one of those people when you meet him you never quite forget him for many reasons. He’s got a lot of depth that isn’t always available at first sight. He’s a person who lives life full on, come heck or high water he’s going to be himself whether anyone likes it or not.
New Parish Coming Very Soon!!!
Excerpt from New Parish:
“Mary shrugged an ‘I have no clue shrug’ and said, “Hey do you want to go on the hayride? Looks like they’re getting the first one ready.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Sarah said, “I’ve never been on a hayride before.”
“I love them!” Mary said excitedly as they both sat their plates down for later and quickly walked toward the barn where people were climbing onboard the wagon.
When they reached the wagon a very jovial voice said, “Well, hello there little Mary!”
“Hi, Uncle Alex!” Mary returned smiling brightly at the man.
“Who’s this pretty little filly with you?” asked Uncle Alex.
Mary laughed and said, “This is my friend Sarah.”
“Howdy ma’am,” Uncle Alex stretched out his hand to Sarah smiling broadly beneath his mustache.
Sarah smiled back and took his hand, “Hi.” She mentally flushed the instant thoughts of the other cowboy that came to her mind when she heard Uncle Alex say ‘howdy ma’am and did her best to not let that interfere with her meeting this cowboy, and the impending fun.
“You sure are a pretty little thing,” he smiled at her looking her up and down.
Sarah blushed a bit, but recovered quickly, “Thank you, you’re not so bad yourself,” she returned the tease, looking him up and down. He was tall and slender, wearing a brown leather jacket with fringe, jeans, a leather belt with a large silver and turquoise buckle, a black cowboy hat with a silver and turquoise band, and black cowboy boots. He had 70/40 silver hair ratio with blue eyes that somehow reminded her of that cowboy she was trying very hard not to think of.
Uncle Alex laughed loudly and said, “I like you.””
Letter to a Friend
Dear Friend,
I’d like to tell you about my new book, New Parish. It’s a literary fiction, romantic comedy, about a young southern woman, Sarah, who feels like life is passing her by – well the life she wants to have.
Sarah is of course full of southern sass, spunk, and moxie, which comes out often throughout the story. Her independent nature has her living in the big city of Atlanta, working in her dream job, and doing volunteer work at a children’s center. She has almost everything she wants, she’s near enough to go visit her family whenever she wants – in Savannah, she loves kids and gets to play with them on a regular basis – at the children’s center, her dream job is as a graphic artist for a large publishing company – working on children’s books, lets her work from home. What she doesn’t have is a wonderful husband, and awesome children of her own… this becomes more and more of a bother to her as she gets into her later 20’s.
She’s dated, a lot! But hasn’t been able to find a decent guy to spend her life with… yet. She gave up on a knight in shining armor riding in on a white horse to rescue her long ago. She just wants someone nice, genuine, and not afraid to commit to a long term relationship.
Any who… her new friend Mary tells her about an option she hadn’t thought of before. Sarah goes from wondering if this new option is something she could really consider to wondering about her sanity for even thinking about it.
Hope you like my book… hope to hear from you soon…
Julie
P.S. Only about 3 more weeks till the book will be available!
Excerpt from New Parish:
From Chapter 5 – The Storm
“Stepping out onto the sidewalk made her feel alive and in control, she was a kid again going out to have fun, she loved feeling this excitement. The burdens she’d been carrying were slowly abating and she was finding a calm happy place inside.
She chose a table near the front of the very familiar restaurant and ordered the crab cake sandwich, which was what she always ordered there and quickly inhaled it. Being near the ocean always made her hungry. From her table she could see the beach and ocean beyond, something inside her longed to be there and feel the sand beneath her feet, so she didn’t linger at the restaurant.
Before stepping from the pavement to the sand she removed her shoes so that she could enjoy every second of the experience. Tying the strings of her canvas sneakers together she hung them over the strap to her backpack which she slung over one shoulder. Her oversized blue denim shirt was perfect for this time and place. There were a few white puffy clouds in the sky of brilliant blue, the sun was shining down warming her face with its touch. The light cool breeze from the ocean fanned her long white boho skirt that hung down around her ankles. She took a deep breath and stepped out onto the sand to begin her journey toward the decision that would affect the rest of her life.
Sarah had the beach mostly to herself, she could see a few sage gentlemen standing iconically on the pier fishing, but other than that she was alone with her thoughts and her decision.
The white sand made a slight scrunching sound beneath her feet and she couldn’t resist digging her toes in it as she walked. The waves gently embracing the shore carried her thoughts to a place where there was no ocean – New Parish…
Sarah sighed, “Living there would be so different, just the climate with its dry arid environment would be a challenge,” she thought. “I had to use loads more lotion when I was out there for just a few days. I could get used to that, and invest in tons of lip balm.” She pondered over the mountains and mesas of the surrounding areas of New Parish. She stopped her walk and stared out at the ocean waves in the far distance, some were creating little white caps. “It would be so far away from my family,” she thought. “I’m not one of those girls that needs to be near their mom, but living in Atlanta is near enough to go home any time I want.” Sarah sighed again, the “girl talk” session from her last night in New Parish came into her thoughts, “What if I get into a mess like some of those girls?” She walked on down the beach with her thoughts, feeling very heavy and worrisome now.”
Wednesday Morning…
Have you ever wondered what a writer does? Sometimes, of course, they write, other times you may see them staring off into space, this is called plotting….
Whether you’re a writer or not, I hope everyone plots out a wonderful day today 😊
Oh, yeah… New Parish Coming Very Soon!!!
Happily Ever After… Maybe
Our own happily ever after, is something we all want. It seems like some people find their happily ever after, easily, while for some of us it’s illusive and not so easy to obtain – we know what we want, but not quite how to get there, and no matter how hard we work for it, it seems just out of our reach.
From childhood up, we’ve all strived to achieve that Disney version of happily ever after, you know the one where everything works out for our good, even if it’s not what we envisioned for our lives. Our happily ever after can be love, or family, or wealth, or a dream job… Happily ever after is different for everyone.
Even though some happily ever afters can work out just the way we thought they would, with everything we thought we’d have – sometimes happily ever afters can take us on a different path that we have to find the courage and strength to be able to accomplish… they may even demand that we go across the country and live very differently, for our happily ever after to come true…
In my book New Parish, Sarah has to dig deep to find the courage she needs to give her happily ever after a chance to come true.
New Parish Coming Very Soon!!!
Excerpt from New Parish:
“The cool air and busy sidewalks were almost enough to distract her mind from the pervading thoughts of how much this plural marriage thing could go wrong. She wanted to believe that things could be as wonderful as Mary said they were, but she knew how people could be, especially men… her thoughts went to, “Maybe I should just drop the whole thing,” then the idea of dating again entered her thoughts which almost made her nauseous. Then the thought of giving up on her dream of having kids and a family came to her mind. A tear rolled down her face, which she quickly brushed away, that thought was the saddest one she’d ever had…
Sarah looked up at the sky and saw a plane flying west, she knew she would be on one soon… flying west. She breathed out a sigh and with a new resolve walked back to her apartment.”
When a Plan Comes Together
Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? In life sometimes, it feels like we spend most of our time waiting for something to happen, (yes, I just wrote about waiting), but when it all starts happening it gets exciting.
My book New Parish will be ready in a couple of weeks, and so will the first issue of my magazine! I didn’t plan it that way, but I’m glad its worked out the way it has. Its been a long wait and a lot of work! But it’s finally coming together…
In my book New Parish Sarah feels the same way when things finally start working out for her, she waited a long time and worked hard to make her dreams come true. Things didn’t happen exactly the way she’d planned, but dreams are funny like that.
New Parish Coming Very Soon!!!!
Excerpt from New Parish:
“Sarah emerged from her thoughts about an hour away from Atlanta, “Call Brother Michael,” she instructed her cell phone. It obeyed, and she could hear the phone ringing almost immediately.
After the third ring she heard the familiar voice of Brother Michael, “Hello, Sarah. How are you this fine day?”
She laughed at his wonderful, friendly, charming voice, “I’m doing great! How are you?”
“Always awesome!” he replied.
Sarah laughed again, he was like a breath of fresh air after the weekend she’d spent and the conversation she’d had with her parents.
“I’ve made my decision,” she said very seriously, the laughter had stopped now, Brother Michael was silent on the other end of the line waiting for her to continue. “I’m coming back out there, I want to do plural marriage,” she finished and waited for him to reply.
“Are you sure? Did you pray about this?” he asked her with a very somber tone to his voice.
“Yes, and yes,” Sarah said earnestly. “I’ve struggled with this decision since I left New Parish. I went to the beach this weekend to think about it without any distractions so I could make my decision. I’ve made it now, I don’t have any doubts, I’m ready to do this.”
“Okay, then,” Brother Michael’s voice lightened a bit, “What’s your plan on getting out here?””
Book Cover!!!
The book cover is finally here! It won’t be much longer till I can share New Parish with everyone!
The old saying that, “a picture says a thousand words” is true… enjoy!
Waiting…
It seems sometimes that we spend our lives waiting… waiting for things to change, or waiting for things to get better, or waiting for the book cover to arrive… oh wait that’s probably just me. Anyways, waiting is part of our lives, maybe the part that we like least. In my book New Parish Sarah finds herself waiting for her dreams to come true and seeing them move further and further out of her reach.
What can we do when we get tasked with the dreaded waiting issue in our lives? I suppose we all have our different ways of dealing with it, trying to stay busy doing something, trying not to think about it, checking status… oh, wait that’s just me again.
There are times when our waiting brings us great joy, after the waiting is done – there are other times it simply brings relief that the waiting is over. Will Sarah find great joy, or the simple relief? Find out in New Parish…
New Parish Coming Soon!!!!!!
Excerpt from New Parish:
“That night, Thanksgiving Eve, as they were putting things in the fridge, doing the final clean up, and getting ready for the final stretch of food prep in the morning before the feast, Sarah’s mom said, “You know Sarah, Donnie’s back from Europe, he’s not married yet. He’d be a good catch.”
“Eeew, Mom,” was Sarah’s instant reply, while Hannah giggled at her from the sink.
“What’s wrong with him?” her mom asked in surprise.
“Besides the fact that he’s completely self absorbed, thinks he’s the most intelligent person on the planet, lives in his parent’s basement and will never move out, is very condescending and talks down to everyone, and is a jerk – nothing really,” Sarah listed.
“Okay, okay,” conceded her mom. “But, I’m sure if you give it some effort, you could find a really good guy. Have you tried some of those online things?”
“Yes, I have,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “They’re not bad really, but online people can lie just as easily as they can in person, maybe even easier. I’m tired of “putting in effort” on guys who aren’t worth it.”
“All men take work, even the really good ones,” advised Sarah’s mom. “They’re usually oblivious, forgetful, and have no clue, until a good woman works on them.”
Sarah and Hannah both burst out laughing to hear their mom talking about men like that.
Later that night there was a knock on Sarah’s bedroom door, “Come in,” she said, but Hannah had already opened the door and was entering the room.
“Hey,” she said tentatively.
“Hey,” Sarah replied curiously.
“So, tell me about this New Parish place and plural marriage,” Hannah said, as she plopped down at the end of Sarah’s bed and sat with her legs crossed like an Indian – just like she used to do when they were kids.
“What do you want to know?” Sarah inquired with surprise.
“You’re not the only one who’s had “dating” experiences with guys who aren’t who you want to spend your life with. If this is a good thing, I might think about considering it too,” explained Hannah.
“Oh,” Sarah said, now in complete surprise. “Okay, well, what I’ve learned so far is that they have the same beliefs we were taught growing up in the church, except, they still have everything that was restored and didn’t give anything up, back in the day.”
“Okay, so how do they do it?” Hannah urged her sister on.
“They use an old traditional matchmaking system, but no dowries, the girls have freedom to choose and get out of the marriage if it’s not working out. Brother Michael, the church leader is so funny…”
Sarah spent over two hours explaining what she’d learned to Hannah. When Hannah finally left her room, Sarah felt like she somehow understood the whole thing better. As she lay there drifting off to sleep she thought, “Maybe explaining to Hannah clarified things in my own mind.” She felt very much at peace with things, and hoped she could stay that way.”
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