Taking the Plunge ~ Darlene Jones!

As some of you may know, my partner and I are taking the plunge (I hope, not literally) and swapping our house for a luxury live-aboard narrowboat and a less stressful existence – depending on whether we give our various offspring our mooring location.

While at the boring stage, selling the house and selecting the hull, I thought it might be fun to invite other people to join me to talk about their own life-changing events, major decisions or physical activities they might have had to psyche themselves up for.

Without further ado, I would therefore like to welcome Loveahappending.com featured author, Darlene Jones, who judging by her profile pic is certainly not someone to back away from a challenge.

Over to Darlene ~ Getting to Grips with The Great Wave:

We're not baby boomers. We’re baby zoomers. Like the Mazda ad says, “Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.” We zoom on a moving highway also known as the great wave.

I’ve been a life-long non-athlete, so what was I doing out in the ocean, body board in hand, with those huge waves pounding mercilessly towards the shore and me!? It was all at the urging of friends who said enthusiastically, and with entirely too much good cheer for my liking, “Try it. It’s fun. You’ll love it.”

“Yeah, sure, right, whatever you say.” I’d been in the ocean a few times. I knew how small I felt up to my neck in the water, the waves looming on the horizon. I knew how scared I was as they crashed over me. I knew how wildly I scrambled for shore, abandoning the water for the gentler, not to mention safer, pursuit of sea glass hunting. But, I persisted, and with the patient and cheerful coaching of my friends, learned to body board.

“Way to go,” they shouted, with each successful ride. “Way to go,” I echoed with the thrill of the second and third push that whipped me into shore. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.

“Why aren’t you catching the waves?” my friends asked as we stood in the water with our boards a few weeks later.

“They’re not big enough.” Laughter erupted around me. I laughed with them.

The cool exhilaration of boarding—an incredible gift from my friends.

About the Author

A long time ago, I lived in Mali. Every single day, I wished I could wave a magic wand to relieve the heart wrenching poverty. My experiences there led to the writing of this story. Some aspects of EMBATTLED reflect my desire to wave that wand and make the world a better place—if only wishes could come true. And of course, every novel needs its love story, so along with the sci-fi magic, I’ve added the requisite romance. Initially, I intended to write “a” novel. The story and characters took over and the ending of EMBATTLED demanded another. EMPOWERED is that “other.”

I've always believed we can't be the only beings existing in the vastness of the universe, There must be others “out there somewhere” and I'd like to believe they're not all that different from us. Those beliefs are reflected in my writing. My novels stay, for the most part, within the realities of our world, but I've found that I love the magic the sci-fi element of other beings could bring to a story. And no, the story is not quite finished. Watch for BOOK 3 -- EMBRACED coming this fall.

You can find Buy Links for Darlene's books at: www.emandyves.com

Find Darlene on Twitter: @darlenejones47 and Facebook