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by BJ Robinson

Last July I was in the hospital and given no hope that I would be alive this year, but God is in control. My Not long ago, I had a checkup with my cardiologist. He told me God and my medicine are keeping me alive. I praise and thank God for each day He allows me to be with my husband, children, grandchildren, and pets.

Hi I am BJ Robinson, and I’m a morning writer who enjoys writing about the places I love and the people I love as well as my beloved pets. As an author, a visual would be a woman with a golden retriever on one side of her feet, a cocker spaniel on the other, a cat curled up near the computer, and a cup of coffee in my favorite red bird cup striking keys at wee hours in the morning. Last, I gained Cherokee a husky who doesn’t let me out of her sight. These are my writing companions.

What was the very first thing you remember writing? In the third grade, I wrote a story about my pet dog, and it was published in the local newspaper. This encouraged me to continue writing, and I won first prize for a short story I wrote in college. It was published in their literary magazine. I also had my first English essay published in a local paper in college. I’ve been writing ever since.

Where do you draw your inspiration?  

Inspiration comes from the people and animals I love and the places I’ve visited on vacations or tours. There have been times I’ve had dreams and have written about them.

Tell us about your hometown as a child.  

I’m from a small town in the South and tend to write about the South in most of my work. Beautiful rivers, woods, and nature inspired my writing, and small-town, ordinary people influenced it. Some of those ordinary people were bigger than life for me and have found their way into my heart and my writing. My hometown holds an annual Strawberry Festival, and I worked in the berries as a child, so the fruit also blossoms into my writing.

Why do you write?

 I write because I can’t not write. It’s a passion, and I love it. As a child, I loved and devoured books because they took me to other words. As an adult, I love creating those other worlds with fiction and traveling through them. My family could never afford vacations when I was growing up, but that didn’t stop me from taking my own through a good book. I traveled to Grand Isle, Louisiana, in a book about a young girl who had an imaginary friend on the beach there many years before I visited the place as an adult.

Who is your hero, and why?

My father because of the quality time he spent with me in the few short years I knew him. I lost him when I was four on Christmas Day, but his memories live on in my heart and I cherish the time we had together. He walked me to the store, holding my hand and singing songs to me, some he made up just for me. He took me fishing. He rocked me to sleep. He always made me feel special.

Do you have a writing routine? 

Mornings with two dogs, a cat, and a cup of coffee, actually three cups. I have several spots and ways I enjoy writing. At times I sit outside and write longhand in a spiral notebook. Other times, I key into the computer as I write.

What work-in-progress (WIP) are you writing now and what type of novel is it? 

When Azaleas Bloom is a Civil War romance novel that will be coming soon. Below is a sneak preview of part of Chapter One.

When Azaleas Bloom

Charles Ryker Armstrong maneuvered around trampled-down bushes, mashing them further into the mud. He plunged deeper into the thick Alabama woods attempting to hide from a band of Confederate soldiers. They were on their way home from the ending of the Civil War in the spring of 1865 just as he was. Many held hate in their hearts for anyone in a Union uniform. He still wore his torn, ragged one, but there was no mistaking it as Union blue.

“Pop-pop” guns fired. They were after him. Ryker jumped a narrow creek and headed further into a thicket. Time was running out. He had to find a place to hide. His eyes darted furiously seeking such a spot. On the grounds of a large plantation with huge azalea bushes bursting in pink blooms, he didn’t have time to enjoy such a beautiful sight with a fearsome one overtaking him. How could the flowers blossom so lovely when he was about to die?

A twig snapped, and he dove underneath a huge flowering bush with braches so low they gracefully touched the ground as the musket ball ground into his body. He slumped to the grass and covered himself beneath the low-hanging bushes. Pain radiated and burned from his shoulder through his arm and to his chest. His right arm hung as his rifle dropped beneath the bush next to him. 

Ryker gazed at the green leaves of the plant that served as his shelter. He hoped they’d think him dead if they found him and lost track of time as he grew cold with dusk dark. Men tromped through nearby woods. They were coming He stayed as still and quit as a dead man.

He needed rest. So tired. Drained as his lifeblood bled and made him grow even colder. So cold. So thirsty. Severe pain stole sleep, and he shifted position curling into a ball to keep warm as possible.

*****

Most things didn’t bother Olivia Grace Addison before the war, but things were different since. She peeked out the back-kitchen door and glanced around. She’d heard the pop of gunfire last evening right before dark and didn’t want to encounter any soldiers returning home from war. She knew only to well about the bands of Rebel ones looking for trouble because they were upset over losing. 

Birds sang in the early-morning sunshine. The lovely day tempted and beckoned her to enjoy it. Azaleas blossomed, and she wanted some of the lovely pink blooms to grace her dining room table. She strolled to the huge, flowering bushes in the back of the plantation near the woods and began picking. Just as her basket grew full, her foot struck something, and she cast her eyes downward, jumping back, fearing a snake.

Bio:

B. J. Robinson loves reading and penning Civil War era historical romance as well as various other genres to provide choice for readers. She also enjoys writing devotionals. She’s an Amazon best-selling author and has written over twenty books. Blessed with children, grandchildren, and pets, her dogs are part of the family. Visit her at http://www.amazon.com/B.-J.-Robinson/e/B007DNJIKU.