BLOGWORDS – 31 December 2025 – NEWSLETTER, SECOND EDITION – a little birdie told me
BLOGWORDS – 31 December 2025 – NEWSLETTER, SECOND EDITION – a little birdie told me
31 December 2025 SECOND EDITION Volume III
The Bird House Book Club
What I am / have been reading:
Echoes of a Silent Song by Amanda Wen
Quentins by Maeve Binchy
One Nine by Sara Davison
Currently reading:
Currently on unintentional ready hiatus…
What are you reading?
Friends of Authors Society
Who knows the best way to show your love for your favorite authors? (I’m one, right? Your favorite?) Besides the obvious of buying and reading my books, leaving a review on Amazon tickles their calculations and formulas and moves my books up in their ranks, which in turn means more peeps see my books, which means more peeps are likely to buy them.
There are other things you can do, as well. Suggest my books to your library or book club. Tell your friends, buy gift copies to give to your friends. Heck, tell ME how much you love ‘em!
Robin’s Readers Flock
Facebook group just for my reader friends!
I appreciate every one who has read or will read my books, and this group is for you!
“This group, as with my blog and website—and my writing—are all about community and family. It is a place to gather to chat and discuss my books, but also to become better acquainted and to encourage and pray for one another.”
I share snippets and tidbits that I don’t share elsewhere, as well as first previews of cover design. And when I’m stuck, I go to the Flock for help.
If you’re interested, gimme a holla! I’d love to have you as part of my Flock!
FourSquare, the Series
Also on unintentional hiatus from writing. I’ve immersed myself in Christmas activities—designed and printed cards, so many cards; baking, both cookies and cinnamon rolls; wrapping all the gifts; and I dove into Elf on the Shelf this year!—and I’m absolutely loving it. I’ve already started planning ahead for next year so I’m not so overwhelmed!
All that to say that rather than squeeze Double, Double, Who’s in Trouble into the midst of everything else, I will get back to it in the next couple of days, starting by outlining what I have written already and shifting some scenes around as needed. I will still release it in June, and jump right into Christmas at Blue Spruce Lodge, the next between-series novella, which will release early in December.
Here's a little snippet from Double Double
Jordan
I had joined a cycling team and was training for a race in July. That was next month. Think Tour de France only smaller. Seven hundred and fifty miles around the state of South Carolina instead of 2000. Still, we’d be riding for the better part of two weeks, 100 miles each day, give or take. And not a competition.
I was pumped. I’d always liked competition, even in mine and Jere’s pranks. We’d see who could out-prank the other. Or we’d prank a teacher or a neighbor. And then we’d challenge Gus and Drew to top it.
But I’d never done anything on this scale before.
Honestly, I had started pumping the pedals to beat the nightmares. It worked. Some of the time. The more I rode, the harder I pushed myself, the less I had them. Or at least they didn’t wake me up and I didn’t remember them.
I could always tell, though, when I’d had one, even if I didn’t remember. I’d wake up soaked in sweat with my covers all over the place. And it didn’t even feel like I’d been asleep at all; sometimes I was even more tired when I got up than when I went to bed.
While this ride wasn’t a competition, there would be medals for first, second, and third place winners. Kind of like the Olympics.
We would be riding, though, to raise money and awareness for alcoholics and addicts. Son of alcoholic parents in the 1970s, Stanley Thornton had lost two brothers and an uncle to drugs. He stayed away from drugs and alcohol, studied business in college and became extremely successful in the upstate.
In 1993, he founded the Stanley Thornton Addiction Recovery Track program, the one that Drew went to. And in 1995 Thornton expanded to a foundation and launched the Stanley Thornton Addicts and Alcoholics Ride to Recovery, or STAARR.
The ride took place the last two weeks of July every year, leaving on a Monday morning, circling the state, and returning to a banquet at the Halston Hotel in downtown Covington. This was my first year riding and already I had raised $3871 of my $5000 goal. Not too shabby.
Author Friends
SCOTT R. REZER
God Rest Ye Merry by Scott R. Rezer, Book Six: A Festival of Carols
Released November 1, 2025
2024. Sean Montgomery, a disillusioned pastor and former Army chaplain who left the military to escape the ghosts of the past, must contend with his lost faith when a soldier he once counseled takes his life. With Christmas only weeks away, he prays for guidance and a renewal of his beliefs. And when that prayer is answered, it comes from the most unlikely place he could imagine—in the home of the soldier who took his life, and in the company of a college lecturer on Charles Dickens named Meg Calhoun, who is determined to help him heal. Christmas is a time for new beginnings and romance, especially when two people find themselves on a collision course toward love.
1843. Merry Chapman is a young widow and crusader for the poor, especially the unfortunate children on the streets of London. And, she is a ghost. Or so people call her, and those desperate souls she aids and shelters. But her life isn’t what others may believe, for Merry has a story few would ever guess, and she has lost more than most have ever experienced. And she has a secret, a gift known only to those with whom she chooses to share it. People such as beloved writer Charles Dickens. Their secret friendship will become the inspiration for his soon-to-be classic story, A Christmas Carol, as will her place within its beloved pages as the Ghost of Christmas Past.
A dual timeline story about love and friendship, and the power of letting go, especially when clinging to the past blinds you to what is possible in the future.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPDL93DX
All in the Family
My daughter was able to come over for Christmas dinner and we had a lovely time. Did I mention that I cooked Christmas dinner? Well, I did, and I loved every minute of it. We had ham (smoked and slow cooked in the crock pot) green bean casserole, squash casserole (I need a different recipe) and old fashioned mac-n-cheese, made the right way—baked!
Devotional
I share Scripture every day, and I leave you with my New Year’s verses, Revelation 4:8 & 11,
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. (NKJV) Revelation 4:8 & 11
and Psalm 51:10,
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (NKJV) Psalm 51:10
What better way to start a new year than with a clean heart and our focus on Him, and who he is.
Manifesto, Author Tag, and Bio
The manifesto short version is,
“Stories for Christians to see or remember the ugly effects of the lies of the enemy, and for unbelievers to see the beauty of the Truth of the Word of God.”
And my author tag:
“because the battle for identity is the hardest battle of all.”
“I’ve always had voices—er, stories in my head. I once said I should write them all down so someone could write them someday. I had no idea at the time that someone was me!”
My stories are deep and dark, my characters raw and real, with a healthy helping of hope and joy, humor and laughter, and abiding and sustaining faith.
My characters struggle in some way for their identity. Their stories are their journey to know who God created them to be.
There is also a strong element of friends, family, and faith in all my stories, and the difference it makes to have such a support system.
- unsavory heritage series—seven generations, from Cissy to Connie, each with their own secrets, one of which is ugly and unsavory, and initiates the curse they all bear
- Seasons series—four friends, each one struggling to know the truth of just what happened when one of them plunged into the depths of the black waters of the Edisto River
- FourSquare – Four stories about four couples who also happen to be four sets of twins.
“Maybe you have to know the darkness to truly appreciate the light.”—Madeline L’Engle
“There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask, What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” —Erin Hanson
https://robinsnest212.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Robin.E.Mason/
http://www.amazon.com/Robin-E.-Mason/e/B00MR5IQ9S
https://twitter.com/RobinEMason1
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/robin-e-mason
http://www.pinterest.com/amythyst212/
https://www.instagram.com/robinemason212/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7808042.Robin_E_Mason
Chatcha’ll next time.
Got questions? Email me at robinemason212@gmail.com.
Here endeth the Second Edition, Volume III of
Thank you for subscribing!
“because the battle for identity is the hardest battle of all”
A Little Birdie Told Me, #newslettersecondedition, FourSquare, the Series, One for the Price of Two, Double Double, Who’s in Trouble, Christmas at Blue Heron Inn, Christmas at Blue Spruce Lodge, #AUTHORFRIENDS, Devotional, Revelation 4:8 & 11, Psalm 51:10, Manifesto and Author Tag
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