Amazon Michelle's Home Page Amazon Target Online Category:  Inspirational Publisher: Urban Christian Books ISBN-10:  1601629486 Type: Fiction Pages: 328 Copyright: Oct 30, 2007 ISBN-13: 9781601629487 Keeping Misery Company is the tale of a religous family experiencing spiritual warfare. Keeping Misery Company is an inspirational tale about Ruth Wilcox, the only daughter of prominent Chicago minister, Reverend Isaiah Clayton and his feisty wife, Queen Esther.  Ruth has her hands full trying to cope with mounting marital problems and the onslaught of physical changes her body is going through. Lately, Ruth and her husband, Daniel, have drifted apart like two ships passing in the night; with zero visibility between them.  The two don’t even share the same bedroom anymore.  Daniel hasn’t been happy in the marriage for some time and seeks solace in the arms of his young mistress, Lenora. He oversleeps after a tryst between the sheets with Lenora, and when he arrives home, all hell breaks loose.   Keeping Misery Company is a poignant tale about a religious family in spiritual crisis. Secrets, lies, betrayal, and forgiveness are at the forefront of this story. It culminates with a triumphing of the spirit and soul.     Excerpt Chapter One Ruth Wilcox’s eyelids snapped open like a shade on a window. She stretched, then turned to her left side and peeped at the silver and black clock radio that sat on the nightstand on the right hand side of the bed. The bright red LED segued into eight o’clock AM. Darn it; I meant to get up earlier, she thought as she sat up abruptly, yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Danny!” Ruth yelled her husband’s name, short for Daniel, in a raspy, just-got-up-in-the-morning voice. She rose from the bed and walked down the gray, carpeted hallway to the spare bedroom only to find it empty. Daniel had already left for work. The man of the house was employed as a supervisor for the Chicago Transit Authority. Earlier that morning, one of his employees had called him on his cell phone and informed him that he was ill and wouldn’t be at work that day. Daniel would have to drive the No. 6 Jeffrey Bus in place of his sick employee. Ruth stood in the doorway with her hands on her wide hips. The ends of her hair stood tousled over her head like a bird’s nest. Her eyes swept over the orderly room. Daniel had opened the red mini-blinds before he left for work, allowing an anemic ray of sunlight to flood the white painted room. A red and white-checkered comforter draped the corners of the bed neatly. His black and green plaid, worn, slippers sat side-by-side at the bottom of the bed. A corner of the navy blue border wallpaper was peeling, and lay limply away from the wall. Ruth looked inside the room apprehensively, as if she expected her husband to suddenly appear out of thin air, and ask her what she was doing in his room. Danny’s personality included a private streak and he’d told Ruth many times that he hated for her to snoop through his things. She walked over to the closet, opened the door, turned on the light and riffled through the pockets of the clothing he had worn the day before. She found a book of matches from the bar that Daniel and his brother, Fred, frequented. Ruth removed a scrap of paper with a woman’s name and telephone number scratched untidily upon it. She held the paper away from her face and squinted at it. Her lips poked out angrily. Then she crushed the paper, stomped out of the closet and walked across the room to trashcan and dropped the offending items unceremoniously inside of it. As a bolt of pain shot up Ruth’s leg, she scrambled out of the room and back down the hall into the pink and black tiled bathroom that adjoined the master bedroom; Her room. She stood in front of the door length mirror and pulled her yellow and green faded, cotton nightgown over her head. Her dark eyes traveled the length of her body as she critically assessed it. Her face flushed rosily and her eyes dropped in dismay at the sight of her nakedness. Why did I let myself go like this? she wondered as her gaze fell to her pouched stomach. Ruth gathered a portion of the round flesh between her fingers. “More than an inch,” she said to herself. She sucked in her belly. Her eyes dropped to the patch of gray and black pubic hair. Her upper arms and thighs were flabby. Her salt and pepper hair, which stopped just below her ears, was in desperate need of a rinse and perm. She lifted a lock of her limp hair, dropped it, and blew a strand out of her face. Her plump, brown sugar colored face crumpled as a tear trickled down her right cheek. God, I look a mess. I need to lose at least twenty pounds. She then examined her legs. But at least my legs still look good. I don’t have varicose veins or anything. Her pear shaped breasts were no match for gravity though. That’s what I get for breast-feeding the kids. Ruth’s career since marrying Daniel Wilcox, Senior, nearly thirty-five years ago, was that of a stay-at-home mother. Her primary job was to raise her son, Daniel, Jr., nicknamed DJ, and daughters, Sarah and Naomi. She sighed heavily, because somewhere along the way, she had carelessly abandoned her role as a loving wife. Ruth turned away from the mirror and stepped into the steamy shower. Hot, gushing water washed away her tears, but not her thoughts as her mind wandered to her husband, who she was estranged from in her own house. Daniel had moved to the spare bedroom two years ago when Ms. Menopause came knocking on Ruth’s door; and she was still an unwelcome visitor. Ruth experienced many of the physical discomforts of middle-aged women, night sweats, hot flashes and weight gain. Her sex drive had also tapered to almost naught. The last few times she and Daniel had relations, as Ruth calls lovemaking, was painful. The area between her legs ached when they were done, and her breasts were sore for days. They had come perilously close to divorce when the mood swings kicked in. Daniel jokingly began calling her Ruthie, his nickname for her alter ego. Ruth was an active member of the Baptist church she belonged to and volunteered for many committees. She was the church secretary and occupied a desk outside her father’s, Reverend Isaiah Clayton, who was the pastor, maple paneled office three days a week. Initially Ruth worked without pay, but as the membership rolls swelled, the church decided to pay her a salary. But somewhere between raising children and church activities, Ruth lost sight of being Mrs. Daniel Wilcox. And the oversight had severely damaged her marriage. After Ruth showered, she dressed in a black pleated skirt and a white peter-pan collared blouse. She hastily brushed her hair into her usual mushroom hairdo, the same style she’s worn since high school. She patted her hair one last time and walked down the hall to her red and yellow kitchen. White curtains with strawberries appliqués hung brightly at the kitchen window. Red canisters gleamed on the black and white faux marble counter. A red floor mat lay in front of the kitchen sink. She put a pot of coffee on the stove to brew. Before long, the strong aroma filled the kitchen. The telephone jangled, breaking the silence. “Hello,” Ruth answered. “What’s up, Mama?” Naomi’s voice boomed loudly in Ruth’s ear. Ruth clicked on the speaker button of the white cordless Bell South telephone and set it on the table while she turned down the stove burner. “Nothing, baby girl. How are you doing? Shouldn’t you be in class or something?” “Naw, I have forty-five minutes to spare before my first class.” “And you’re up already? I remember when I had to call you at least four times before you’d get out of the bed in the morning.” Ruth and Naomi chuckled at the memory. “That was then, this is now. Although, I have been late to class a couple of times,” Naomi confessed, feeling slightly chastened. “I hope you aren’t failing any classes, Naomi Wilcox. ‘Cause your father will hit the roof,” Ruth said, sitting down at the kitchen table. “You know he was adamant against you going away to college anyway. It took me three months to convince him to let you go to SIU.” Naomi, the youngest Wilcox child, was a freshman at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Daniel felt spending money on a college education for her was a waste of time and money. Her grades and belligerent attitude towards him when she entered her teen years was tantamount to throwing away his hard earned money as far as he was concerned. The youngest member of the Wilcox family adjustment to college had been difficult. Naomi has few friends, so she and Ruth talked on the telephone at least twice a day. Daniel felt that was one time too many, which added another bone of contention between the couple and drove his point home that his wife puts their children’s needs over his. Naomi was a pretty, plump, honey colored young woman with shapely legs like her mother’s. Her hips were widely rounded and her waist small. She wore micro braid extensions in her dark wavy hair and had a standing appointment for a pedicure twice a month. Ruth would sneak and send Naomi money without Daniel’s knowledge. She spoiled the couple’s youngest child rotten, and hasn’t been able to cut the imaginary apron strings. Her rearing of Naomi produced a sometimes lazy, immature girl, but Ruth wasn’t worried about her daughter’s character. She attributed the traits to her daughter being a teenager, and assumed that in time Naomi would outgrow her character flaws. Daniel, of course, begged to differ. Ruth took a cup out of the cabinet and poured herself a cup of coffee and sipped it while she and Naomi talked. Ruth and Naomi chatted a few minutes longer on the phone before Ruth brought their conversation to an end. She didn’t want to give her daughter an excuse for being late to class. After Ruth finished her conversation with Naomi, she sat thoughtfully at the kitchen table. Her chin was propped on her left hand as she listlessly stirred the remaining coffee inside her cup. Under the florescent lights in the ceiling, the white and silver appliances sparkled brightly. Ruth became upset as she sat and thought about finding the name and number in Daniel’s room. She tried to pinpoint exactly when they had arrived at the godforsaken place they now inhabited. Originally, she thought it happened at the onset of menopause. But as her mind wandered back in time, she knew their difficulties began as far back as when Naomi was born. They had disagreed about bringing another child into the world. Ruth overruled Daniel’s wishes, and the wedge between them deepened as time elapsed. With many concessions on her part, they still managed to function as a family unit. After Naomi became thirteen years old, Daniel felt Ruth should loosen the apron strings a bit. He proclaimed that the time had come for the two of them to spend more time together, but Ruth staunchly disagreed. Naomi was experiencing self-esteem issues regarding her weight, and Ruth felt it was her job as a mother to help her child work through her problems. That caused another wall of distance to rise up between wife and husband. Then menopause struck, their lovemaking decreased, and Daniel moved into the spare bedroom. Ruth wasn’t sure how to bridge the gap between them and return to the other side. Daniel began spending more time out of the house with his single brother, Fred. And when Daniel did manage to stay home, his body was planted downstairs in the den in front of the television, which was always tuned to a sporting event. Ruth uneasily noted the change in her husband’s behavior. But instead of talking to him about her fears, she didn’t say anything, and hoped the problems they experienced would just go away. Lately, Daniel had been coming home later and later. When she asked about his activities, he’d just say he was hanging out with the fellows. If he was messing around, and the thought did cross her mind a time or two, she was one hundred percent sure that he’d never leave her and break up the family unit.

For The Love Of God
The Legacies unfolds with Chicago teens, Morgan Foster, and Noah Stevens about to embark on their first year of college in downstate Illinois. Both are trying to escape their family legacies.

Morgan has led a life of luxury, and the heiress is poised to take the reins of the family's illegal pharmaceutical business. Noah's father is optimistic that his son will join him in the pulpit. Noah and Morgan hope to become anonymous faces in the crowd. Cupid shots an arrow through the young couple's heart and they soon fall in love.

In the twinkling of an eye, four years have elapsed and it's time for Noah and Morgan to face the music. But, as their parents discovers the hard way, ala Murphy's Law, that life doesn't always go as planned.

Noah's mother perishes in a terrible automobile accident, forcing the young man to make a deathbed promise. Morgan's mother finds herself on trial after the Feds through a terrible betrayal make a strong case against the elder Daniel's woman, which climaxes in a sensational murder trial.

Family drama, greed, feuds, power plays, teem in the tale of The Legacies and most of all tell the readers how God sends angels our way to help aid us through the trials and tribulations of life.

Most of all The Legacies hammers home the fact of God's merciful redemption, and how we are all God's children regardless of our circumstances and how he helps us weather the storms of life.


The Skeletons Are Out The Closet
This has got to be one of the best Christian Urban fiction novels I have ever read. Keeping Misery Company by Michelle Larks is mind-blowing, compelling and a gripping tale, reaching such levels of intensity that I could actually feel the characters in this novel.

The storyline is great, the character development is on point, and the scenes feel like something from a Tyler Perry movie. Bishop and Queen Clayton are trying to raise a well-bred Christian family. They are running a well-founded ministry and trying to keep their families secrets just that, a secret. But it seems like time has run out for them when the prodigal son reappears, with a deadly secret of his own.

Ruth Wilcox, the daughter of the Claytons', has run into some family problems of her own, mainly the demise of her thirty-five year old marriage. Trying to keep up with the times, and not allowing menopause to slow her down, Ruth is in for a surprise when Daniel decides he has other things on his mind than reconciliation. Can this family pull together and face their adversaries? Will the walls come crumbling down on this well-loved Christian family?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this family, their struggles with their faith, love and guidance. The love that was shared throughout this story was very real, and touching, with twists and turns that made me forget it was a Christian fiction book. There is scandal in the pulpit! It did not take away from the storyline, but I would be remiss if I did not mention that I read from an advanced reading copy, and there were a few missed words, and some misspellings that I hope the editor or author catches before the book goes to final print. I would recommend this book to everyone, not just Christian fiction readers, but readers who believe in faith, praying, and blessings.

Reviewed by: Cheryl H
APOOO BookClub


Exceptional Read, Remarkable Storyline
God never put more on you than you can bear and Ruth is holding God to His Word. Ruth has lived her entire life in the shadow of her parents, Bishop and Queen Esther, as the poster child of Preachers kids. After over 30 years of marriage, she realizes that her husband was stepping out on her. Ruth woke up from the haze that had become her life to realize that life threw her a drastic curve ball.

Keep Misery Company is an exceptional read. The storyline is full of twists and turns while dealing with everyday issues - homosexuality/AIDS, forgiveness, teen pregnancy, adultery, homelessness, and drama in the church. The character development is on point as the reader can easily relate with the realistic characters. Keeping Misery Company was a combination of The Color Purple and Diary of a Mad Black Women - running the emotional gamut while illustrating God's ultimate sacrifice. Definitely one of the BEST and ORGINAL CHRISTIAN FICTION books this year!