PINCH ME, I’M DREAMING: BOOKSTORE DISPLAYS MY FIRST BOOK IN ITS LOCAL AUTHOR’S SECTION

I’m coming off a successful Friday delivery of BEYOND VENGEANCE TO FORGIVENESS copies for the Local Authors section at McWha Book Store in downtown Belton, Texas, where I reside. I met one of the owners, Roxanne, a delightful personality, late last week to initiate the relationship. Roxanne is a very customer-oriented manager who is interested in supporting local authors and serving her reading community. My sister, Shirley, was in town visiting for the first time. She was looking for a particular author’s books, so I invited her to visit McWha Book Store. I watched as Roxanne warmly greeted my sister and then led her right to the spot where there were several copies of the author’s works.

I patiently waited through her interactions with a few other customers. She was so cordial, so courteous and helpful. I knew for certain this was a bookstore in which I wanted my book displayed.

She was extremely interested once I told her my reasons for dropping in. “Oh, your book is about forgiveness? I’m all about that,” she declared. I heartily agreed, explaining how important forgiveness was to me. “Well, let’s get all the information into our database and get some books on our shelves,” she said. The rest, as they say, is history.

To say, I’m genuinely thrilled to have my new hometown bookstore displaying BEYOND VENGEANCE TO FORGIVENESS is an understatement. This is a work into which I’ve poured my heart and soul, and I want to get this story into as many hands as possible. Novelist and Playwright Joyce Carol Oates is quoted as saying: “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” It is so true.

For me, it is reading the Word of God (King James Version) from which I’ve heard the Voice of Jesus Christ, felt the Touch of His Hands, and curled-up in the Everlasting Arms of My Lord and Savior. I’ve felt His Healing Touch, His Gift of Forgiveness and Mercy in the form of Redemption and Salvation. Humbly, I declare I am living proof of His Existence, His Love, and Merciful Countenance to all humankind. For without Him, I really am nothing. However, in Him and to Him, I have inestimable value. Such is the status of all who receive Him as Lord & Savior. Praise the Holy Name of Jesus Christ. — FM