✍The First Page: Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain by Marie McGaha

YOUR GHOST: A MEMOIR OF LOVE, LOSS AND THE ECHOES THAT REMAIN

By Marie McGaha

Memoir

Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain is a searing, faith-anchored memoir of love, loss, and the long road back to oneself. When Marie’s husband dies without warning, her world fractures in an instant, leaving her to navigate the brutal, unfiltered landscape of grief. In the quiet of an empty house and the chaos of a shattered heart, she wrestles with God, memory, and the haunting presence of the man she can no longer touch but cannot let go.

Told with unflinching honesty and spiritual depth, Your Ghost traces the intimate, day-by-day unraveling and rebuilding of a woman who refuses to let tragedy define the rest of her life. As she confronts guilt, loneliness, anger, and the strange moments when his nearness feels almost tangible, Marie discovers that grief is not a straight line but a sacred, winding path. What emerges is a story not only of devastation, but of resilience—a testament to enduring love, stubborn hope, and the quiet miracles that carry us forward when we think we cannot take another step.

╰┈➤Book Details

• Genre: Memoir
• Sub-genre: Survival Biographies
• Language:English
• Pages: 105
• Hardcover: 979-8252998060 

Your Ghost is available at Amazon.

 

The Night My Life Ended

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, (Psalm 116:15)

T.S. Eliot wrote, “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.” Mine ended with a heart-shattering, gut-wrenching scream that came from a place so deep and primal, I wasn’t aware it was me.

Grief is not a single moment. It is a rupture, a tearing open of the world I thought I knew. The day my husband died, the stillness of our house pressed in on me. The hospital bed in our living room, the night falling beyond the windows, the chill of November air beginning to set in. 

Inside those walls, everything I knew was ending. Twenty-three years of marriage, twenty-three years of shared laughter, arguments, plans, and dreams — gone with his last breath. The future we imagined together went up in smoke, like fog on a misty morning when the sun comes up, but today, there would be no sunrise.

Cancer is sinister. It is a thief, stealing moments, years, and dreams. It is a murderer, taking lives with no remorse. It is sadistic, tormenting the body while mocking the soul. It is raw, stripping away dignity, leaving only pain and silence.

Cancer does not simply arrive; it invades. It creeps into the corners of a home, into the rhythm of daily life, until everything revolves around its demands. It is not just a medical condition — it is a shadow that stalks, a cruel presence that reshapes love into labor and hope into survival.

At home, I became his caregiver. Our house transformed into a place of quiet battles —  pill bottles lined up on the counter, blankets folded and refolded, the rhythm of care replacing the rhythm of ordinary life.

  

Marie McGaha is an award-winning writer whose work includes clean historical romances, Christian devotionals, and heartfelt children’s books. A storyteller at her core, she weaves faith, resilience, and gentle humor through every page she writes.

She makes her home in southeast Oklahoma, in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, where life is anything but quiet. Her days are shared with four spoiled dogs, a crippled rooster with more attitude than feathers, a noisy guinea who believes it runs the place, a couple of flighty hens, and a watchful roo who keeps an eye on everything that moves. This lively little farm—equal parts sanctuary and circus—provides endless inspiration, companionship, and the kind of grounding only God’s creation can offer.

Whether she’s crafting a tender love story, guiding readers through Scripture, or bringing the Bible to life for children through animal characters, Marie writes with a voice shaped by faith, loss, healing, and the stubborn hope that refuses to let go. Her work reflects the heart of a woman who has walked through fire and come out carrying stories worth telling.

You can also join her for daily devotionals on YouTube at @HeReignsChurch, where she shares encouragement, Scripture, and the steady reminder that hope is still alive. You can contact her by email: church.hereigns@gmail.com. 

Marie’s latest book is Your Ghost: A Memoir of Love, Loss and the Echoes That Remain.

Visit her blog at authormariemcgaha.blogspot.com. 

Connect with her on social media at:

╰┈➤ Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorMarieMcGaha

╰┈➤ LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/mariemcgaha 

✍The First Page: A Heart's Journey to Forgiveness by Terese Luikens

 

 A HEART'S JOURNEY TO FORGIVENESS

By Terese Luikens

Publication Date: November 3, 2022

Memoir

For Terese Luikens, a picture-perfect childhood it was not. Frequent cross country moves, an emotionally absent mother and an alcoholic father who ends his life by suicide when Terese is just thirteen years old. 

The sixth of seven children, Terese grew up in an unstable and chaotic household–invisible to her mom yet cherished by her father. 

This heartfelt memoir documents the chain reaction of a tumultuous family history. From her stormy childhood to the far-reaching effects of her father’s suicide, Terese shares her inspiring journey to escape the shame of her past, find healing and live, learn to trust, and discover faith in a real and personal God.  

A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness is available at Amazon.

 

                     

When the COVID-19 pandemic invaded the US in the spring of 2020, it reminded me of the blizzards and ice storms that hit our region of North Idaho. During nearly every winter storm, people huddle in their homes waiting for the electricity to come back on. Schools close, and any kind of travel—car, bus, train, or plane—is canceled.

A similar phenomenon happened when COVID-19 arrived. But as of this writing, the pandemic has lasted longer than any winter storm. Social distancing, face coverings, and working from home remain the expected protocol.

When the pandemic first descended upon us, face-to-face interactions with others were limited to those who lived in the same household. Traveling even short distances to visit friends or relatives, especially across any state or county line, was prohibited.

I have six siblings living in five states: Minnesota, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. New restrictions put the kibosh on any plans we might have had to visit one another during the summer months.

But my sister Ella, who dubs herself the most “normal” one in the family because she is the middle child, came up with an idea. The seven of us could all stay connected despite travel restrictions if she were to set up weekly conference calls.

On April 15, 2020, an email arrived with details of the Macek Maverick calls, as Ella had named them. Each week, a sibling would take a turn as facilitator, coming up with a discussion-starting question and launching the call. The facilitator would also ensure everyone got a chance to answer the question, and would monitor the time. Each call would be limited to around seventy-five minutes.

 

 

Terese Luikens has been married for forty-four years to the same man, although she is on her third wedding ring, having lost one and worn out another. She lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, enjoys being mother to three grown sons and grandmother to her much-loved grandchildren. She is the author of A Heart’s Journey to Forgiveness, a Memoir of her inspiring journey of emotional healing from her father’s suicide. She facilitates retreats and workshops focusing on forgiveness, and publishes her own blog, Why Bother? 

You can visit her website at www.tereseluikens.com.

 

✍The First Page: Going There: Tales from the Riviera and Beyond by Donna Fletcher Crow

 

GOING THERE: TALES FROM THE RIVIERA AND BEYOND

By Donna Fletcher Crow

Publication Date: December 3, 2023

Memoir / Travel

In the summer of 2021 my daughter-in-law and I slipped through a brief window of sanity in a world driven mad by the Covid pandemic. Our purpose was to see my granddaughter Jane to a summer program in Monaco, then back to her ballet school in Switzerland. In spite of restrictions, protests, and nail-biting worries, the result was a marvelous experience.

I invited characters from my mystery series to join me in my imagination and have their own adventures in each setting. Their encounters are: Nice: “The Crime of Passion”; St Tropez: “The Mother Decrees”; Villefrance-sur-de-mer: “The Ghost Boy”; Monaco: “Fracas in Monaco”; The Loire Valley: “The Old Winemaker”;  Saint Gallen: “Whispers of Legend”.

The final coda is “Home Another Way” As 2 years later I return from quite a different trip aboard the Queen Mary 2 and my characters join in the celebrations as worlds coincide.

More information on the book GOING THERE: TALES FROM THE RIVIERA AND BEYOND can be found at https://www.amazon.com/Going-There-Tales-Riviera-Beyond-ebook/dp/B0CPHBRVJH?ref_=ast_author_mpb.

 

 

 

 

                     

The Beginning 

Summer 2021

Okay, I booked this trip knowing the world—and especially travel—was still in the grip of a
pandemic. Covid-19 was causing cancellations, cutbacks, and inconvenient constraints. It was, however, hardly the first international trip I had undertaken at a time of worldwide crisis.

But first, let me explain the impetus for this three-genera‐tional, ladies-only trip. Granddaughter Jane had an interval between her summer program at the Princess Grace Ballet School in Monaco and her return to her regular studies in Basel. Daughter-in-law Kelly and I were convinced she needed our chaperonage. Never mind that Jane had recently turned a very mature 19, was securely locked in during her time in
Monaco, and that she knows Central Europe far better than either one of us…

Donna Fletcher Crow, Novelist of British History, is an award-winning author who has published some 50 books in a career spanning more than 40 years. Her best-known work is Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England, a grail search epic depicting 1500 years of British history. The Celtic Cross is a 10-book series covering the history of Scotland and England from the 6th to the 20th century. 

Crow writes 3 mystery series: The Monastery Murders, contemporary clerical mysteries with clues hidden deep in the past; Lord Danvers Investigates, Victorian true-crime stories within a fictional setting; and The Elizabeth and Richard literary suspense series, featuring various literary figures. Where There is Love is a 6-book biographical novel series of leaders of the early Evangelical Anglican movement. The Daughters of Courage is a semi-autobiographical trilogy family saga of Idaho pioneers.

Reviewers routinely praise the quality of her writing and the depth of her research. Crow says she tries never to write about a place she hasn’t visited and one of her goals in writing is to give her readers a you-are-there experience.

Donna and her husband of 60 years live in Boise, Idaho. They have 4 children and 15 grandchildren, and she is an avid gardener.

Author Links  

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

✍The First Page: Being Present: The Gift of Experiencing Life As It Happens by Keith Sykes

 

 Being Present: The Gift of Experiencing Life As It Happens

Keith Sykes

Being Present details my life growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of 8 children. It gives the reader an intimate look at the relationship between me, my parents, and my siblings. It discusses life and death, joy and pain, and strength and perseverance. The book talks about love and loss and is an optimistic look at overcoming the obstacles of life.

Being Present talks about how I dealt with life after my parent’s death and how joining the military completely changed my life. It gives a glimpse into how the military inspired my love for travel and the many places that I was able to visit as a result. Read about my life after the military and the challenges I faced that shaped the man I am today. Lastly, the book will provide samples of my photography and discuss how it was inspired by my travel.

Release Date: ‎ January 5, 2023 

Publisher: Chosen Pen Publishing

Kindle: ASIN: ‎ B0BRT7CRWH; eBook $1.99 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3jWFLpw

 

 

 

 

                    

My earliest memories of growing up in the St. Bernard housing projects in the 7^th ward of New Orleans, Louisiana, were playing outside for hours. I remember when I would go in the house after doing whatever I was doing, my mom would always say, “Keeto! Go take a bath. You smell just like outside.” I’m sure you’re familiar with exactly what that smell is. It was nothing for me to play outside for most of the day on weekends, many times without eating. My mom would yell out, “Keeto! Come in here and eat. You’re gonna disappear.” Obviously, she was referring to the fact that if I continued not eating, I would shrivel up from malnutrition. Times were so different back then. Interactions were more intentional. There were fewer distractions than now, but we understood the importance of quality time spent and being in the moment.

I was very sociable as a kid but extremely shy. You could always find me around the girls, because, let’s face it, I was cute. Well, I was. With a nickname like Keeto, how could I not be? I got that nickname from my sister Kim, who is ten years older than me. Her nickname as a kid was Kimbo, and she and I were the closest of the eight siblings. I remember always hearing how spoiled I was. I was the youngest of eight, and that came with its perks and pitfalls. I recall stories of how bad my brothers and sisters had it growing up in the house with my father. I never had a relationship with him because he was sick when I was born, and he died from complications of diabetes when I was 11. One thing I never lacked as a kid was love and affection. It mostly came from my mother and sisters, but my brothers expressed themselves primarily through gift-giving and spending quality time with me. However, I remember them expressing themselves verbally a few times, but it didn’t happen quite often. 

Keith Sykes grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana with his 7 siblings; he is the youngest of 8. Keith attended Xavier University of Louisiana where he studied Computer Information Systems and Graphic Design. He lost both parents by the age of 20 and joined the United States Army in 1990 where he completed 20 years of active military service. He continues to serve as a Department of Defense civilian where he works as a Health Systems Specialist at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He is a freelance writer, photographer and event planner and is heavily involved in the community. Keith is a cancer survivor as of February 2022 and attributes his positive attitude in dealing with the condition to his mother Violet who succumbed to cancer in January 1990. He loves exploring nature and traveling. Some of his most memorable trips have been to Egypt, Belize, and Cuba.

You can visit his website at https://kasykes.com/ or connect with him at Facebook at www.facebook.com/ikreate4u.

✍The First Page: I Sang That by Sally Stevens

 

 I SANG THAT

by Sally Stevens

 

Memoir

This book is a personal journey behind the scenes into the world of music-makers who created the film scores, television music, sound recordings, commercials and concert evenings over the last sixty years.

 It’s about a long singing career that began in 1960 with concert tours – Ray Conniff, Nat King Cole, and later, solo work in concert with Burt Bacharach – to thirty years of vocals and main titles for The Simpsons, vocals for Family Guy…vocals on hundreds of film & television scores & sound recordings, plus twenty-two years as Choral Director for the Oscars. It’s also the personal story of growing up in a “his, hers and theirs” family in the forties and fifties, and how a shy little girl became a second-generation singer in the ever-evolving music business of Hollywood.

Release Date: October 25, 2022

Publisher: Atmosphere Press

Soft Cover: 978-1639885510; 390 pages

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3GmcBJD

 

It is early spring, 2016, and I am driving down the busy main street of Studio City, California, in pouring rain, the beginning of what was projected to become and in fact did become the most severe storm to hit Los Angeles in twenty years. I am on my way to meet a friend for lunch. The local NPR station is playing on the car radio, and I hear the wrap-up of an interview recorded a few years earlier with a woman jazz pianist and singer who has just passed away on this day at the age of ninety-two. Naturally, that catches my attention.

Hmmm. Ninety-two. I, myself, on the day of this broadcast, am seventy-seven. In fifteen years, if I am lucky, I will be ninety- two. And if the next fifteen years fly by as quickly as the last fifteen, they will be over in an instant. Fuck, I say to myself. (I can talk that way when I’m driving alone in my car.) And I say it because I think, wow. I can actually admit that there will be a time when I no longer exist.

It’s hard to think about death. It’s hard to even be realistic about time, about one’s age, about the appropriateness of one’s life at any particular age. What will I do with the gift of those next fifteen years? Age seems to dictate so much, especially in the business I’ve been part of all these years. Age has proven to be, in most cases, famously restrictive in our business.

 

Sally Stevens is a singer/lyricist/choral director who has worked in film, television, concert, commercials and sound recording in Hollywood since 1960. She sings the main titles for The Simpsons and Family Guy and her voice can be heard on hundreds of film and television scores.  She has put together choirs for John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and many others for film scores, and was choral director for The Oscars for 22 years. In the earlier years she toured with Ray Conniff, Nat King Cole and Burt Bachrach, and she has also written lyrics for Burt Bacharach, Don Ellis, Dominic Frontiere, Dave Grusin, and others.

Her short fiction, poetry and essays have been included in Mockingheart Review, The OffBeat, Raven’s Perch, Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal, Los Angeles Press, The Voices Project, and Between the Lines Anthology: Fairy Tales & Folklore Re-imagined.

Along with singing and writing, her other passion is photography, and her black & white photographs of film composers have been included in exhibitions at the Association of Motion Picture & Television Producers headquarters in Los Angeles, and at Cite de la Musique in Paris, France.

Website:  https://www.sallystevenswriter.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sallytwitshere

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sally.stevens.14

 

✍The First Page & Interview: THROUGH DANGEROUS DOORS by Robert Charles Lee

  

THROUGH DANGEROUS DOORS

by Robert Charles Lee

In a life defined by risk, Robert Charles Lee experiences a poor and free-ranging childhood in the racist South of the 1960s. After his father dies, the family grows dysfunctional. As a result, teen-age Robert seeks sanity and solace by rock climbing solo and driving cars fast. He wins a scholarship and graduates from university, but still seeks to escape the South.

Moving to Alaska and the Western US, Robert works in a series of dangerous and brutal jobs. He meets and marries Linda, who enjoys climbing and skiing difficult mountains as much as he does. Simultaneously, Robert trains in the science of risk to become a respected professional risk scientist.

Robert shares his remarkable story as he guides the reader through a series of dangerous but rewarding doors, culminating in a vivid journey of adventure and risk.

 

 

The horse gallops across our range of a few acres. I’m exhilarated and barely hanging on, but my father, Charles, is watching. I go hunting with him, and he guffaws when I’m almost knocked flat by the recoil of my first deafening discharge of a twelve-gauge. I explore the copperhead-snake, wasp, hornet, tick, chigger, and poison ivy infested hardwood forest on our property. My feet and legs are bare much of the year. However, I tread carefully. The door to the outdoors opens. I’m six or seven years old, but I eagerly enter.

***

I was serious about managing risk, even as a kid. Life began as a late Boomer and a Fallout Boy. A B-52 bomber broke up over my home state in 1961, releasing two nuclear bombs. Above-ground nuclear weapons tests were conducted in the United States West, creating radioactive dust clouds. These events perhaps foretold a career steeped in radiation.

My family is of working-class, British and Scots-Irish ancestry; the original hillbillies in the Appalachians and Piedmont. My birthplace and time were subject to systemic White racism, resulting in the designation “Klansville, USA.” We lived near Salisbury in rural Granite Quarry, North Carolina, about a mile from the gated compound of Bob Jones, a powerful Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon. Jones was kicked out of the Navy for refusing to salute a Black officer, proclaiming, “I won’t salute no nigger.” Jones helped expand the North Carolina KKK to over ten-thousand members. A friend and I once snuck over to watch a cross-burning near his property.

If the neighborhood White men weren’t pickin’ and grinnin’, drinking and playing guitars and banjos on their porches on a Saturday night, they were hanging out with their bros in the local men’s Klub. I don’t recall any lynchings, but harassment and violence were common. The county sheriff was a Klan member, and wore a Western cowboy hat on his bald head and a patch over one dead eye. Chain-gangs broke rocks in the steaming South- ern heat under the squinty eyes of shotgun-toting overseers on horseback. Most of the Black people in the area lived in segregation in the equivalent of a shanty town. Schools, churches, and most activities were segregated.

My family is purported to be related to the slaveowner and traitor General Robert E. Lee, but I’ve not been able to verify this. If true, I’m appalled in a moral sense, but there’s nothing I can do about it aside from trying to be an anti-racist and a good citizen. At least I don’t have the same middle name. I do indeed have a red neck, but solely due to years of outdoor activity. 

Welcome! The first page is perhaps one of the most important pages in the whole book. It’s what draws the reader into the story. Why did you choose to begin your book this way?

The book is about my risky life, so I thought I’d start from the beginning. My father was no stranger to risk, and he was an influence in this respect. I grew up in a rural US environment in the 1950s and 60s, which was inherently risky and quite different than most American kids experience these days. I was also immersed in a virulently racist Southern culture, but I was lucky that my parents weren’t racist.

The first page sets the stage for the rest of the book, which tells stories about a variety of both voluntary and involuntary risks I’ve experienced throughout my life.  The first paragraph is in present tense. I begin each chapter with a similar present-tense account to set the stage for each “dangerous door” I chose to enter. I thought this was an interesting device, and the content editor agreed.

In the course of writing your book, how many times would you say that first page changed and for what reasons?

I don’t think it changed substantially. As I had little physical record of the early years, I gave my siblings a copy of the first chapter early in the process to ensure my memory was accurate. They all confirmed my memories. Of course, once it was accepted for publication and the editors got ahold of it there were changes, but the spirit of the text was retained.

Having said that, there’s also a one-page preface. The original manuscript had a long preface, but the content editor suggested that it’s better to just “launch into the story”. I agreed, but considered a short preface necessary because it might not be clear otherwise that the book is about my risky life, not my life in general. I also included a disclaimer and a warning that many of the activities described in the book can be life-threatening. One advance-copy reviewer thought this was interesting, and wrote: “This is a memoir like few others, in that the author is intent on beseeching his readers not to follow the example of his own life. The story he tells shows that this is very good advice indeed, but nevertheless his tale of improbable escapes from one looming disaster after another is both instructive and entertaining”.

Was there ever a time after the book was published that you wished you had changed something on the first page?

No. By the time it was published, the words were, in my opinion, as good as I could get them.

What advice can you give to aspiring authors to stress how important the first page is?

As you say, the first page is “what draws the reader into the story”. I’d say the same of the cover. I’ve read plenty of good books without good first pages or covers, but I might be more patient than some readers. There’s no downside to crafting a good first page, and designing a good cover. Having said that, I find it highly irritating to read a book with a promising beginning and great chapters, but a lame ending!

 

Robert Charles Lee is a retired risk scientist with over twenty-five years of academic and applied risk analysis, decision analysis, and risk management experience in a wide variety of contexts. He has authored over one hundred peer-reviewed scientific works, as well as over one hundred technical reports for industry and government agencies. Prior to the professional risk work he worked in laboratories a bit, but otherwise was a manual laborer until he reckoned that he could use his brain for a living.

Robert has a BS in Botany, a BS in Science Education, an MS in Environmental Health, and a Certificate in Integrated Business Administration. He is ABD (all but dissertation) in a Toxicology PhD program. He is an ordained Minister and has an honorary Doctorate of Metaphysics from the Universal Life Church and is a Member of the Nova Scotia L’Ordre du Bon Temps, or Order of the Good Time.

He was born in North Carolina and lived there for over twenty years, but has since lived in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Alberta. He was also homeless for a time while a laborer in the Western United States. He currently resides in Colorado.

Robert and his wife Linda have climbed hundreds of technical and non-technical mountain, rock, ice, and canyon routes, hiked thousands of miles in several countries, and skied many miles of vertical feet at resorts and in the backcountry.

Robert is an avid amateur photographer, largely of outdoor subjects. He is a musician who plays hand, stick, and mallet percussion, and who can sing, but rarely does for unclear reasons. He is an amateur sound engineer and producer and has recorded more than a thousand written and improvisational instrumental pieces with other musicians to date. He was trying to learn to relax in retirement, but then he discovered non-technical writing. He has written a memoir and a poetry collection and is working on short stories.

Through Dangerous Doors is his latest book.

Visit his website at https://robertcharleslee.com or follow him on Goodreads.