THE YEAR I BECAME A MA'AM

By Bea Tifton, guest of Laurean Brooks

So this happened. Monday I will become “A Woman of a Certain Age.” I will turn 50.

Mary Tyler Moore saw it coming. In the episode, “Today I am a Ma’am,” she was shocked to discover that had she slipped into the middle aged demographic. That evening, she went to a store and the young man respectfully called her, you guessed it, Ma’am.

Ah, yes. My first Ma’am. It happened. I remember it well. It was from, hmmm, we’ll call him Jordan.

Sigh. Jordan.

Oh, sorry. What was I saying? Oh, yes. Jordan. Sigh.

Ahem. The young man who checks me out at my favorite pet supply store. And by “Checks me out,” I mean, sadly, “Operates the cash register in a competent and friendly, albeit impersonal, manner.” 

Oh, we started out well enough, laughing and talking. I was sparkling. I was interesting. And, since I’ve been accused of being so in the past, I admit I was a little flirtatious. Suddenly, I realized that while I’m not old enough to be a cougar, I was indeed probably old enough to be his mother. This man was Too Young For Me.  

Reeling from that realization, I heard it from Jordan’s very lips. Oh, his lips. Sigh.  

Jordan, in all his innocence, said delightedly, “Oh, my God. You remind me so much of my mother.” Handing me my receipt, he switched to his official cashier voice and said, “Thank you, Ma’am. Be careful with those bags when you walk to your car.” 

What, while using my walker? Really? His, gulp, mother?

Now, I know woman our age are important. And that’s really what matters, isn’t it.  While I’m still waiting for some of the oft mentioned wisdom that comes from getting older, I have not been sitting around, numbly clutching the grocery receipt Jordan handed me and mumbling to myself.

Alas. Jordan.

Oh, sorry. What was I saying?

Turning 50 is a milestone. It really is. Not a bad thing. Not the end. Just a milestone. While, admittedly, and you know this, my dear friends, if you search your hearts, sometimes women our age are dismissed, maybe that is our superpower.

We can come out fighting and no one even saw us coming. We are smart. We are strong.  And we’ll probably live to be 100, so this IS the new middle age. We’re not even old.

We’ve seen it, done it, and most of it was before social media could plaster us all over the internet so we can deny it if we want, thank the heavens. We know our way around the system, we keep abreast of politics. We are beings of true substance.  We are the protectors of the environment, the champions for social justice, the mentors for the next generation. We are frickin’ awesome. We have romance. We have mystery. 

And whenever someone calls me Ma’am now, I know they’re really calling me, “Your Awesomeness.” You betcha, young man.

Now where’s that damn birthday cake? I’m taking on the world.

Bea Tifton majored in creative writing at TCU and won writing awards in high school and in college. She is currently working on her first book, a cozy mystery with a shot of romance and silly shenanigans. This morning, she put on her sassy pants.

Photo credits:

By CBS Television , Public domain 

Wikimedia Commons

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A Full Birthday Month for me! by Paty Jager

This is my birthday month and I feel like I should be doing something special, but I'm so far behind on my deadlines and as this post posts, I'm headed home from a 7 day trip where I did research and attended the Wild Deadwood Reads reader event in Deadwood, SD. Finding a fun birthday month thing to do... my brain can't comprehend!

I had planned to have the second book in the Silver Dollar Saloon series out this month. Lottie Mae will be coming out next month, July. That is how far I am behind on my scheduled deadlines, a month. If I want to be true to myself, I'm almost two months behind. I should be writing the next Shandra Higheagle book right now, but I'm still on the last book in line to be written.

I'm starting to see a pattern. Last year at this time I was a month or two behind my planned schedule. Does this mean I need to start giving myself more time per book? I would think so, but I want to keep my readers happy and writing in multiple genres and series, I have to get at least one book in each series out in a year.  I prefer 2-3 in the mystery series and 1-2 in the western romance series.

Because I am also writing a new series which will debut the first of 2019, I need to add that to the mix. Aii Yii!

This wasn't supposed to be a blog about my writing woes! Sorry!

I'm excited about the Wild Deadwood Tales anthology that is available in print and ebook and all the proceeds go to the Western Sports Foundation. I'll give you a run down on how our signings went at the rodeos in Deadwood in next month's post. All the stories in this anthology are great!

Another exciting thing for me but not all the authors who were in Debra Holland's Montana Sky Kindle World, is that Amazon is phasing out the Kindle Worlds. This means I get my rights back to  Isaac: Letters of Fate book. I have to go through and take out all of the Montana Sky elements that were in it, but I will finally have book 2 in the Letters of Fate trilogy to put in a box set with the other two. I'm excited because Isaac was my favorite book in the series.

And the last amazing thing to happen is my book, Haunting Corpse in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series is a finalist in the Daphne du Maurier contest through Romance Writers of America. I'm excited that my mystery has been valued good enough to be a finalist. While readers have been telling me how much they love the series, to have a book do well in a contest is icing on the cake.

And if you are another June baby, Happy Birthday this month to you!

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 32 novels, 6 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. This is what Mysteries Etc says about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.”
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Top photo: Depositphotos

Milestones by Suzanne Rossi

Hello everyone.

Here in West Tennessee autumn is slowing closing in on us. We've closed the pool, and while most of the leaves are still on the trees, more and more are dotting the lawn--not to mention clogging our gutters. I'm about to face my second winter in a colder climate than what I lived in for twenty years. Hope I can survive without too many layers of clothes.

So my first year in Germantown has passed and I'm happy. This is a milestone I can live with. I get to see my son, his wife, and the grandkids on a regular basis, which is why we moved in the first place.

There are other milestones in my life--some good, some not so noteworthy.

My birthday is next month. I will turn seventy. Damn, that seems old. Maybe because it is? I didn't have much of a problem with thirty. I still looked and felt young. Forty was a big milestone. I don't remember how I felt, but with kids and activities galore, I doubt if I gave it much thought--although I do recall having a dream in which my recently deceased mother appeared at the foot of the bed to wish me a happy birthday. To this day, I'm still not certain it was a dream.

When I turned fifty, I paused to reflect that I had most likely lived over half of my lifespan. I began to think about death, dying, and all I still wanted to do in life. I didn't like my sixtieth birthday. It signaled I was nearing that milestone no one likes to think about--retirement. I also had to realize that things I used to do without a care had suddenly become harder--like driving at night, my vision (hello, bifocals), and not having the stamina to go full steam with projects.

Sixty-five brought home the fact that according to the government, I was now a senior citizen. I could collect social security and apply for Medicare. I was bummed for months.

And now I am approaching seventy. I've accepted the bifocals, and only drive at night if I know the route well. I've also acknowledged that I need help with doing things that were once a breeze, like cleaning the house. We broke down and now have a maid service in every two weeks. My son does a lot of repair work my husband can no longer manage.

Thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, sixty-five, seventy--all milestones in my life.

And this is another milestone--my sixteenth book, Point of View, the sequel to Through My Eyes is now officially available in both paperback and e-formats from www.thewildrosepress.com and over at www.amazon.com.

Here's a description and the cover.

Psychic Sasha Bellwood and her former fiance, Detective Reed McIntyre are once again thrown together to find a killer before he strikes. In the past two years, Sasha's psychic abilities have strengthened and now she works with the Memphis police to solve crimes. However, not all is well within the department. Her boss is being replaced with a skeptical detective who feels he's been demoted. Sasha is under pressure to produce, but her emotional state has deteriorated creating self-doubt regarding her ability to interpret the nightmares and visions. Then the new detective is murdered. And Sasha's vision of the killing is not clear. Reed, concerned for her, agrees to help. But the two quickly discover that their love has not diminished, and when Sasha becomes the target of the killer, their worlds are changed forever.

That's all for this month. See you then, and may everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Suzanne