Morgan Mandel on Life Altering Events

 Our guest today is Morgan Mandel. Morgan is a past president of Chicago-North RWA, was Library Liaison for Midwest RWA, belongs to EPIC and Sisters in Crime. She enjoys the diversity of writing mysteries, thrillers, and romances. Her current release is the thriller, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse. Her others include the romantic suspense, Killer Career, the romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams, and her debut mystery, Two Wrongs. As you might guess from the title of today's post, Morgan has offered to talk about life altering events.

Please welcome Morgan Mandel.

Life Altering Events

Both of my stories in The Corner Café: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories deal with life altering events.

In What Nice Blessings, Suze’s Dad finds a new job and her family must move from their home town. This happens right before her first day at high school. She’s stressed by the thought of leaving her best friend behind and entering a new environment amongst strangers. In the process of relocating, a more drastic event takes place, dwarfing Suze’s prior fears, and testing her mettle.

In The Closing of the Corner Café, a couple takes a huge step by starting their own business, a corner café. With no guaranty their venture will succeed; they, like many entrepreneurs, are still plucky enough to give it a try. It takes courage to invest time and money in such an enterprise.

 Each of us face countless life altering events. Ranking number one has to be being born in the first place.

On the upside, some might be: Starting school, graduating, getting or changing a job, making friends, moving to a new town, new house or apartment, meeting a life partner, getting married, having children, grandchildren, or even adopting an animal. I was born in Chicago, moved to a suburb, lived in several different apartments, before finally buying a house. I was introduced to my husband in the cafeteria at college and we’ve been married for over 39 years. Though we were never blessed with children, we’ve always shared our home with an adopted dog, the current one being Rascal.

On the downside, it’s hard to avoid any of these sad events: Death of a family member or friend, illness, unemployment, estrangement in the family or of a friend, foreclosure, unsettled weather. I’ve suffered the loss of both parents, and some good friends, have dealt with my share of illnesses, some minor, and others chronic, such as high blood pressure and thyroid issues. I lost my job, which turned into a blessing in disguise, and have since retired. Last July’s flood left seven inches of water in the basement and it was no picnic cleaning up the mess. I’m hoping that will never happen again. 

It may not be easy to deal with whatever comes our way. How we relate to the good and bad not only tests our character, but is also what life is all about.

Do you have a particular life altering event you’d like to share -- One that’s either happened to you, or someone you know, either real or fictional?
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Thank you Morgan. You're so right when you said that some of our most trying experiences can turn out to be blessings. (Giving birth came first to my mind.)

Here are some places you can click to find out more about Morgan and her books, as well as to connect with her online:
Amazon Author Central Page
Blog  
Excerpts & All Buy Links to Morgan’s novels 
Facebook
Twitter 

Remember, leave a comment about your own life altering events - or even ones that happened to someone you know or to one of your characters, if you're a writer.