Windows

Windows

Sarah Sandlin is obsessed with genealogy and uses it to hide from life after losing her husband to cancer. To this thirty-something, auburn-haired, blue-eyed American, the world is limited to her computer, her parents who live nearby, and one best friend in another state. She takes every opportunity to dodge interruption to her self-imposed solitude so when a letter inviting her to conduct research arrives from an old and respected family in the U.K., she forgets to open it. She finds the letter buried on her desk and her natural curiosity pushes her to call its author, Thomas Smith. Something in his voice leads her to a first step out of her comfort zone and she accepts his invitation to the family’s country estate Highbridge, in North Yorkshire. A celebration of Christmas at Highbridge, a reestablishment of family tradition and the healing of Sarah’s heart begins. This book and its characters took me far from home; not just in the geographical sense but to new people, their families, countries, and history. As I wrote, each person became so familiar that I imagined their inner thoughts and appearances, and what they would do and say. I hope Sarah, Thomas, Stephen and all the others will live in your mind as they do in mine and I look forward to hearing from you, the reader, as you continue into the Windows story. From the Author...Sarah's love of life is rediscovered through a letter sent in haste. Just the sort of second chance we've all wished for at least once in our lives.Happy to write stories as they come into my head; happy to be retired with time enough to enjoy the process.May you enjoy reading this story as much as I've enjoyed telling it. LINDA J PIFER  An only child, Linda began writing stories to amuse herself at age six. Encouraged early by parents and later by her high school English Lit teacher, it seemed natural to continue writing in her spare time between school and work. During her career, she produced regular articles and was acting editor for two hospital newsletters. In 2003, one of her short stories 'The Cloverfinder' was nationally published in Country Magazine©. Encouraged, she next produced the memoir/ family history 'Ohio Girl' in 2007 which resulted more lately in a series of instruction in memoir writing for a popular British writing club. Her love of fiction gave us the short story 'Something Purple' (included in the author anthology 'Violet Hopes') and a number of other short stories for her growing fan base.  In the more recent Windows trilogy, her love of genealogical and its mystery manifests in book one with introduction to the U.K. family Smith, their country estate and the secrets it harbors. Book two 'Daniel Smith-New Zealand Passage' takes the reader back to the early 1800's in New Zealand with the family's 5th removed grandfather as he attempts to find a new life. Linda continues to practice her craft and is an encouragement to aspiring writers, feeling a special tie to those from her home State of Ohio.