January 7, 2024

#HappyNewYear #food #foodie #cooking #stutter #stutterer #romance #romancenovels #Christianfiction #CeceliaDowdy

I hope all of you had a wonderful New Year!

As mentioned in my last newsletter, we had cornbread, black-eyed peas, greens, and chicken for New Year’s.

Here’s a picture of our meal! It was delicious! I had purchased a huge bag of greens from the store. The bag was about twice the size of what I’d normally purchase. I don’t think I’ve ever made such a big pot of greens in my life! We were eating greens for days. They were delicious!

We cooked the chicken in the air fryer.

Now that Christmas is over, and winter is here, many of you may have time to settle down and read a good book during the cold winter months!

I wanted to share how I came up with the premise for my novella Sugar and Spice.

Have you ever known anybody who stutters? Do you know what they did to overcome their stutter?

When my son was young, between the ages of 3-7, he suffered from stuttering. His stutter was quite strong, and we had to go to speech therapy for years. We ended up seeing three different therapists for long blocks of time.

When my son was having sessions with his last therapist, I was speaking with her. I asked her if she’d ever had any male adult patients who stuttered. She told me that she had one. She said that this man had stuttered his entire life. The only reason he was seeking help was because he had a high-level corporate job and they required that he get help for his stutter. I believe she said he had to speak to many people, and his stutter caused issues.

Of course, she didn’t tell me the identity of this person. She may not have been at liberty to share the details outlined above.

After our conversation, I thought about it. I thought, how terrible for this poor man! What if he wanted to go out on a date with someone? What if he stuttered so badly that he couldn’t even ask a woman out?

That thought stayed planted in the background of my mind for years. Sometimes, I might get a kernel of an idea and it’s rooted into my head for a long time. I might not even realize I’m actually thinking of a story until years later.

My one conversation with my son’s speech therapist grew into Sugar and Spice. In Sugar and Spice, Mason is a stutterer. He’s also an identical twin. Here are more details about this amazing love story:

Sheila Parks is stunned when Mason Smith, the identical twin brother of her ex-boyfriend Reese, moves to Blue Spring and opens a bakery. Reese’s cruel breakup still bothers her and seeing somebody who looks just like him is a painful reminder of her predicament. Unemployed, Sheila needs financial help and it appears that Mason can assist her with her problem. Can she learn to trust a man who looks just like her ex?

Mason is stunned when Sheila storms into his bakery, mistakenly thinking that he’s Reese. Mason is used to comforting his womanizing brother’s ex-girlfriends. A stutterer, Mason has always had a hard time socializing with others. However, he finds himself smitten with beautiful Sheila. Can he control his stutter so that he can ask Sheila to be his date to his grandmother’s Christmas birthday party?

Both Sheila and Mason deal with past pains as they work together during the Christmas season.

Sugar and Spice is a sweet, emotional Christmas romance that you will always remember! Download now! This is a nice treat for you and all of your friends!

Have you ever known anybody who stutters? Do you know what they did to overcome their stutter?