Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Those Were the Days by Liz Flaherty

When my mind is blank, which happens more and more often these days, I usually compile a list for a blog post. I like doing that, but have to admit I've spent 20 minutes trying to think of something interesting to make a list of.

So, let's go with this. 

The day I felt like a good wife. My father-in-law and his brothers were on the TV show What's My Line? Years ago, before the internet was as big as it is now, I located an agent who had a recording of the episode. He sent it to me on a VHS tape. 

In the years since, we've put the episode on DVD and passed them out to family members and my son put it on YouTube so we can look it up, but ... oh, that first day.

The day I knew love didn't always have limits. My first child was born. That knowledge became more amazing when my second and third ones were born and I realized you could feel that way more than once. 

With the arrival of seven grandkids, I was no longer surprised by how much we could love. 

The day I felt the world open up. The very first day of first grade, when we were give reading books. I was not an extraordinary student and I hadn't learned to read before going to school, but oh, my goodness, the windows that were opened by words that had been written. 

The day I realized that "yes, I could." It wasn't a day, really, and I didn't realize it until my first book was published. In the 12 years I went to school, no teacher ever imposed limits on what I could do or what I could learn. It would have been more ideal, I guess, if I'd been able to continue my formal education, but those teachers never indicated that I should be slowed down by life's circumstances.

The worst day. A few that I keep to myself, because sharing them might open wounds that have healed--messy scars and all. 

Other worst days. The days JFK and RFK were assassinated. Nine-eleven. January 6, 2021. 

Best days. Days with family, ones with friends, ones when the guy in the other recliner and I are together in all the ways we want to be. 

The Best Writing Day. The one when I type The End.

The Other Best Writing Day: The one when I type Chapter 1

Want to share your Days with us? We'd love to hear about them!

The Girls of Tonsil Lake, my first Women's Fiction title, is on sale for 99 cents. If you haven't read it, I hope you'll give it a look.

Four women whose differences only deepen the friendship forged in a needy childhood...

They were four little girls living in ramshackle trailers beside a lake in rural Indiana. They shared everything from dreams to measles to boyfriends to more dreams. As they grew up, everything in their lives changed--except their friendship. Through weddings and divorces, births and deaths, one terrible secret has kept them close despite all the anger, betrayal, and pain. Now, forty years later, facing illness, divorce, career challenges, and even addiction, the women come together once again for a bittersweet month on an island in Maine. Staring down their fifties, they must consider the choices life is offering them now and face the pain of what happened long ago. Secrets are revealed and truths uncovered, but will their time together cement their lifelong friendship--or drive them apart forever?

 
Amazon: https://a.co/d/3NQVqLC





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