Francine Craft

This is the last of the immediately  excerpted chapters of S&S. The book  is fully in outline and acted-out stages and the final writing has begun.  I will fill my blog now with guest blogs, helpful tips and links to help you with your writing and encouragement with all my heart to go ahead with what you want to write.  The time has never been more opportune.  E-books are blossoming all over the map and they’re getting better and better. 

From time to time until S&S is published in either July or  October 2012,  I will excerpt other chapters that I think you’ll find engrossing.  This chapter will stay on for approximately 6 weeks. 

I certainly hope you’re with me in this.  The topics I tackle in this book are so much a part of our world today.  We sorely need to feel the love of God and His blessings in our lives.  What better then than one of the Holy Bible’s most intense and treasured love stories.  Timeless love can be ours too.

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The trip to New Orleans had been uneventful, but Sheba and Marty were both nervous.  He rapped with the door knocker on the black grilled, white  door of the redbrick  house on Gentilly Boulevard, a house  that  he had slowly passed many times when he lived In New Orleans with his great uncle Charlie Cartier, his mother’s uncle.  Marty drew a sharp breath and held Sheba’s hand tightly.

The door opened quickly and they faced a beigeskinned sixtiessomething woman with close-cropped black curly hair and an oval face.  She was very attractive, but she held her lips in a bitter line as she invited them in, her eyes never leaving their faces.

“So you made it,” she said.  “I should be civil and ask about your trip, but you’ll find I’m not the most civil of people.  Come in and sit down and tell me exactly what you want from me.  I certainly know you very well, Martin, although I’ve only spoken with you by phone, and that  lately.   And I know  you, Sheba, from your beautiful voice when I listen to Marty’s sermons.  Yes, I do listen from time to time.  And you obviously know a little about me.”

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Yes I know, I’m skipping about and all for a reason.  I want you to get the full  flavor of S&S to see if it’s your cup of tea or java as I hope it is.  This novel has many characters, but only a few can be well delineated.  Those I only touch on will have enough meat on their psychic bones to let you know where they’re coming from.  There are wonderful black, white and couples of other races, happy and unhappy – and real.  I think you’ll  like the town of Marigold, Maryland on the Eastern Shore, its multiculturism and the striving of the citizens for a good life.  Sit back and savor it.  Read the prior chapters just under this one, all the way back to what S&S is about. This will be part of a series.   Happy reading!

Early December.  Dusk with an early moon.  Sheba thought the Chesapeake Bay had never been lovelier.  Greenish and rippling in the wind, that body of water had always been one of her favorites.  It was a cloudy day, warm for December and  she turned to Marty as they stood on the deck of Mark and Marguerite’s small yacht, The Heller.  “Hey, this is living,” she told him. ” I love being alone with you, but somehow I wish, too, that the whole congregation could come with us for a while, the children who need it most anyway.”

Marty nodded.  Right now he felt he only needed his wife; they should grab more time together with just the two of them. “I guess I hadn’t realized how tired I am. Last night’s sleep leaves me rested though.  It’s a good thing I got my Mother Vangie’s genes and her energy.”  Marty always seemed thoughtful when he spoke of Vangie. Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so I last gave you Chapter 3.  Now 14?  I’m skipping about to give you the full flavor of  S&S.  This chapter is about Sheba’s grandfather Joe and his beloved wife Miss Addie Love.   You won’t get lost herein.  I think you’ll follow easily because each chapter has an explanatory note.  Happy reading!

It was a happy night at Church of the Holy Redeemer.  In one of the spacious rooms set aside for gatherings, a group called Good Marriages Forever had gathered to fete a few of the most active and devoted couples.  Everybody felt that Papa Joe Isaacs and Miss Addie Love  just about headed the list.  Still they had insisted on being the last ones honored.  Now it was their time and properly introduced, Papa Joe rose, looked around and his twinkling eyes settled on his beloved Addie, who sat in the small audience on the front seat.  He boldly threw her a kiss and she blushed.

“My speech tonight is different from the Bible’s Adam’s,” he began.  “He said ‘Lord, this woman you gave me,’ and went on to complain about Eve.  Me,  I’ve got no complaints about my mate Miss Addie. If any apples were offered for biting into, I offered one to her and she trusted me enough to bite.   She’s about as perfect as they come.  She’s been my mate, my precious bedfellow, my love,  for I won’t say for how long.  Lord, I’m  not sure I remember.  But I do remember that while the people of this time don’t talk much about saints anymore, Miss Addie is a saint sent to me directly by God.”  For a moment, he seemed to have a lot more to say, but he choked up and brushed away a few tears.  “I love her.  I need her.  I want her.  She and I will be forever together.  I just can’t talk anymore.  I’m all choked up on  love.” Read the rest of this entry »

Within the next few days, I will give you another chapter of Solomon and Sheba, a chapter from the life of the older couple,  Sheba’s grandfather Joe and his beloved wife Addie Love.  He has kept her on a pedestal, worshipping her.  What happens when she insists on falling off?

Just a reminder that while this chapter has been proofed, it is in the draft stage and is presented for your thoughts and comments.  It is  not the finshed product.  Please enjoy and comment and I look forward to your continuing to read as I write.

Marty Solomon stood on the elevated stage of Church of the Holy Redeemer looking out on the congregation eager to hear this particular sermon,  God’s Precious Gift: How Well Do We Handle it?  This was a subject dear to his heart: The sexual-sensual complex.  He spoke from a fully trained mind and heart because he had enjoyed a splendid relationship with his late wife and a like one with Sheba, his present wife. Hymns had been sung and he knew they looked forward to Sheba and Angel Voices later singing spirituals. But it was hushed now in anticipation of this sermon,  and he could imagine the many young people in his congregation saying, “Bring it on, Rev.”

He came from behind the lectern and spread his arms as if to embrace them all as the lights dimmed to a soft candlelit glow. Marty’s mellifluous baritone began.  ”Do you think of your sexual-sensual complex as one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind?”

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Note to Readers:  I neglected to tell  you that this is a work in progress and so you will find a few errors.  The final version of S&S will be relatively free of errors and will make a smoother read.  I just wanted you to get the concept of this book and invite you to offer any suggestions you wish.  I welcome them all.

“Crazy jackass!” Sheba Solomon muttered half under her breath.  She had just stared again into the malevolent eyes of Punch Motherwell and her stomach was tying itself into knots.  Had it been three years ago?

“What did you say, honey?” her  husband, Marty Solomon asked before he belatedly got her comment.  “I’m afraid I was thinking the same thing.  I guess it’s not very Christian of either one of us.” Read the rest of this entry »