Today only, October 28, 2018, $0.99 on Amazon

What a nice surprise to learn that, just for today, Amazon has selected the Kindle eBook version of The Sheep Walker’s Daughter to be part of a one-day Gold Box Deal! Special pricing, $0.99, Sunday, October 28. http://a.co/d/efRe06w

And now that I have your attention let’s talk about surprises 

SURPRISE, AZ—We’ve changed the channel from watching the chattering turkeys and mischievous black bears plunder through the oaks and pines around our mountain home. Now we’re now watching cottontail bunnies scamper among the desert plants dotting our winter home landscape. Barring a freeze, the orange and lemon trees promise a bumper crop this year. Thankfully, we had no surprises when we opened up the house this year.

Good or bad, surprises have emotional power to thrill or scare us. Last month, when I came face to face with a bear on my front porch, it was a shock . . . and a thrill. For some reason, the wonder of a close encounter with wildlife overrode the fear I might have felt. Maybe it wasn’t such a surprise, after all. Bears live in our woods. My brain must have processed his body language faster than my reason could analyze a potential threat. 

Receiving word that The Sheep Walker’s Daughter had been accepted for a Gold Box Deal was a happy surprise because I didn’t know it was under consideration. Like the bear encounter, which exercised my capacity for wonder, renewed attention to my first novel encourages my hope that more readers will enjoy my work.

A Perspective on Surprises

Good surprises raise our spirits and give us a sense of well-being. The strength in a good surprise is the unexpected blessing. But what about bad surprises; those unexpected events that blindside us? 

We know that there’s not much in life that can’t go wrong. In our parched forest, trees die and have to be cut down and hauled off at budget-busting rates. The surprise comes in the timing. The tree that needs attention now is in our yard, and we don’t notice until we are packing the car to leave the state and no one is available to do the job.  Ditto for the unpleasant tax bill or disturbing medical diagnosis; it’s always our hope it won’t happen to us, but deep inside, we know it can. 

Perhaps the real surprise is the capacity the human spirit possesses to find inspiration in the unforeseen happy moments and hope when the unexpected isn’t welcome.