Since the Kindle Exclusive “Gone Live” moment of Return to Audubon Springs, I have been overwhelmed in the best way ever from the love and support showered upon me by family and friends and the writing community.

Mom & Dad, 1988

I have shared before that the prevailing theme of my writing is home and family. I was blessed to grow up in a household with a loving mother and father. I have carried this photo taken of  them taken at a Valentine’s Day Dinner ever since I left there home. It reminds me of the example I had growing up of a couple in love, dedicated to one another and their family.   This is why I should not have been surprised by the shot of love right to my heart in the form of gift package from my mother.

My parents were always my biggest fans. Back in my theatre days you’d find them in the front row for every performance with their state of the art camera and the telephoto lens purchased when the theatre bug bit me. They have since cheered loudly for every one of my endeavors, and I mean everything…all the show, when I found and married the love of my life, when I became a new mother and so on. Now, with dad gone, mom is cheering loud enough for two. Below is a picture of the gift, a Pandora bracelet.

Wearing my Writer’s Essence on my sleeve

I’ve never owned anything quite like this. The beauty of the Pandora is in the stories told by the charms. Mom designed this bracelet to tell the story of my writing journey with the focus in the center portion for this first release, every charm symbolizing something important to the story. The remaining two sections are to be filled in (per mom’s instructions!) to tell the story of the other two books in the Brothers of Audubon Springs series upon each release.

While I won’t write word for word everything she wrote in the letter to accompany the bracelet, I will say that she touched upon many things I’ve written over the past year in my Writer’s Journey blog posts. The sunburst clips are to symbolize my rising “star” and to remind me to live in my Writers’ Essence. Wearing the bracelet will always remind me to do just that.

For those of you who have read Return to Audubon Springs, this gives you a bit of insight as to the inspiration for the Matriarch of the Iluiano Clan!

Since I’ve been blogging several commenters have shared how cute they think it is to see my mom in the comments. Most of her comments are followed by a response from me that usually sounds something like this.

AWWW…Thank you, Mama! I LOVE YOU! 🙂  

And I do. I really do. Thank you.

Don’t forget, I’m randomly selecting one commenter over the past week of posts to win a $5 Amazon gift card. Winner to be announced Wednesday. So, comment away! Love and praise for mom is welcome!