Messages from Heaven

Happy Smiley Monday to y’all! As promised, I threw all the names into Random.org to find a winner for Ruth Kaiser’s The Smiley Book of Colors, currently appearing on the web in a WOW! blog tour. So if you’re not the winner, zip around and try again to win this super adorable picture book! And don’t forget, you have another chance to win if you upload any Smiley pics you may have found for the Smiley Treasure Hunt. (Don’t forget to put WOW! in that title line!)

Oops! Almost forgot to announce the winner. DORAINE! Send me your address (to cathyhall55 at hotmail dot com) and your lucky grand will be learning and laughing in no time!

AND, here’s another bit of winner news. Chicken Soup for the Soul’s Messages from Heaven is a national best-seller! I can’t say I’m surprised–and not just because my story’s in this one. All of the stories are immensely moving and so full of hope. I’ll have more news about Messages from Heaven later in the week, and an Easter surprise as well.

But for now, it’s back to work, and fingers crossed, winning! (Uh-oh. I just went all Charlie Sheen on y’all. Sorry.)

I think of myself as a pretty down-to-earth person. Well, except when I’m in my own little world, writing about wild, little imps and zombies. Possibly Bigfoot–though really, I could be right about Bigfoot. Anyway, the point is, in the real world, I’m sort of a cross between somewhat open-minded and cynical.

So I was not expecting to ever see my sorely-missed but definitely-departed friend. It was such an unusual and intense experience that I wrote down everything I could remember. And when Chicken Soup for the Soul had a call out for stories of “signs from beyond, amazing connections and love that doesn’t die,” I knew I had to send in my story.

I received my copies of Chicken Soup for the Soul Messages from Heaven in the mail last week. And the very first copy went to the husband and daughters of my sorely-missed friend. I think they liked the story, although they sounded a bit teary.

Of course, I understood completely. I can’t read that story without tearing up, even after all these months. Because sometimes, things happen that we can’t explain–and the world, and how we see it, is never quite the same.