THE WAY IT IS

Welcome to the first issue of the MIND SONGS newsletter! Here, I will interact with you, the reader, and give you an inside view of an author's life. Please bear with me as I explore the possibilities of this new venture.
At the moment I am working full time in my daughter's Christian Montessori Day School as a secretary/ teacher, with a class of elementary and highschool students to whom I explain Creative Writing, Beginning Latin and Art. Therefore, this news letter will sometimes take second place to that.
If you like what you see, please subscribe and add your comments to the interact page.

THE WRITING BUSINESS

My second book, RACHEL'S DAUGHTERS, was released in October of 2000. It is now available at iUniverse, Barnes & Nobles, Amazon.com and, for bookstores, from the Ingram's Book Catalog. If you have a favorite Christian Book Store in your area would you please invite them to stock it?
It is an historical novel about a young woman whose first born son is killed in Herod's slaughter of the innocents. In her grief and outrage, she bitterly rejects God and tries to live her life on the outside of faith.
The book describes her journey back to faith with a surprise ending.
ANGEL WORLD TRILOGY
was released in February of 2001 and will be available from the above mentioned sites very soon.
Totally different from Rachel's Daughters, this three-in-one action adventure tells the tale of Windfallow, a world under the attack of a demon bent on its seduction. A young man from earth, Zachary Thomas, becomes involved in this struggle where he joins the Fallowfolk and the Windfallow angels to repel the demon's attacks.
SPLINTERS OF LIGHT is under construction and will be available later this year. It is a collection of poetry that includes TAPESTRY, and LOVE IN ANY SEASON, both new publications and will include a reprint of MIND SONG published in 1978.
These books have been, for the most part, already written and I've just found a way to self-publish them online. However, this summer I will endeavor to write a sequel to RACHEL'S DAUGHTERS and finish the fourth book in the Angel World series.
Each month I will share a poem or an essay here and, hopefully, introduce a guest writer.

FROM HEARTH AND HOME

John and I live in a tiny house in the Indiana woods on the edge of the Great Prairie that stretches from Western Indiana through Nebraska. John is retired from farming but works as a township trustee for Warren County. Our eldest daughter, Melynda and her husband, Jim, own and operate the Williamsport Day School, a Christian Montessori school where I work as a secretary and teach Creative Writing, beginning Greek/Latin and Art. They have two children, Leslie, 16 and David, 11. Jim farms with his brother, Mike, who is married to our second daughter, Melyssa, and they have one child, Kim, 10, who is homeschooled.
Our third daughter, Melanie, lives nearby as well with her son, Zachary, 16, who is also a student at the Day School and works at the local grocery store.
Mac, our youngest and the only son, lives on the family farm with his wife, Shelby and their two sons, Jake, 5 and Adam, 3. Mac is fighting colo-rectal cancer with a natural healing program. He was told a year after the initial surgery that with more radical surgery and chemo/radiation therapy, he had a 30% chance of survival, so he opted out of traditional medical treatment. We will keep you updated on his condition. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.
We are a close, loving family who love to get together for holidays, birthdays and any other excuse for fellowship.

MIND SHARE

A PLACE I KNOW
by Donna Swanson c.2001 from
SPLINTERS OF LIGHT

There's a place I know where love is free
and laughter echoes back to me.
A place where danger fades away
and the nearest thing to tragedy
is a broken toy or rainy day
to interrupt a world of play.
.
The citizens of that fair land have golden hearts
and warm, soft hands.
They hover near me all the while
and light my world with such a smile
as must grace the face of angels
and they never go away.
.
Yes, once I lived within this land
and marched to the tune of a fairy band.
Through summers golden and winters bright
with diamonds for snow
and velvet for night.
.
Christmas was a dazzling blend
of all the colors, friends and toys;
of all the year's most precious joys.
Thanksgiving was a symphony
of all the things home meant to me.
With cousins, grandmas, uncles bold,
cheeks to kiss and hands to hold.
All come back to the warmth of home
where love was the fire that quenched the cold.
.
My head says life was not that way
back in that simpler, younger day.
But my heart still finds it restful there
and if I choose to linger there,
and choose to remember what I will
of summers warm and winters still,
who is there to disagree
with what I choose of memory?
.
There's a place I know where love is free,
and laughter echoes back to me.