Observing Death

As I've mentioned here before (probably too often; sorry!), my book ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE is coming out in June, published by Covenant Communications. It's unusual for me because it's written from four different viewpoints. This excerpt comes from the viewpoint probably closest to my own, that of family mom Karen Burnett. Here she narrates her recollection of the hours after the passing of her husband's grandmother, Granny Adelaide.

I poured glasses full of chilled lemonade, moving strictly on autopilot. We had put away all the food that Emily and I had prepared for dinner because no one felt like eating, yet we all knew we needed something. I warmed some of the sourdough rolls leftover from last night’s dinner and asked Steph to whip up some lemonade. Tom said a quick blessing and we all began to eat, silently, everyone moving as if caught in slow motion.

The scene at the hospital was surreal. Since I became the president of our church Relief Society a couple of years ago, I’d seen death, yet it never failed to amaze me. When we visited with Granny that afternoon, she had looked about as ill as anyone I’ve ever seen. Then when we went back to the hospital that evening, she was no longer there. No, they hadn’t yet removed Granny’s body, but Granny was no longer there. I don’t know how anyone, especially any health professional, could see that change over and over and over again and still have any doubt that there is an eternal spirit, a life source that departs when death comes. The body didn’t even look much like Granny anymore. Still I felt her warmth, her humor, and I knew she wasn’t far away. I hoped she wasn’t getting too big a kick out of her final joke on us.

Susan Aylworth is the author of eight published novels, all currently available in digital form for various e-readers. Her ninth book, ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE, is coming from Covenant Communications in June. Her tenth novel, RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK, will soon be available as an original e-book, the seventh in the Rainbow Rock series. Find Susan at www.susanaylworth.com or follow her @SusanAylworth.

Differing Perspectives

My ninth published novel answers the question, "What kind of recipe do you need to mend a broken family?" Now titled ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE, it will be released this June by Covenant Communications. For me it marks a departure from the sorts of novels I've written in the past and a dip into a different form of writing. ZUCCHINI PIE is a family story, written from the points of view of four different primary characters.


The story begins when century-old Granny Adelaide is taken to the hospital. The scene below is told in the perspective of Emily Burnett, the sixteen-year-old youngest child in the Burnett family.

I was humming to myself as I finished dressing the slaw and warming the peas. That was when the phone rang. I answered it and a business-like voice on the other end asked for Mr. Thomas Burnett. I knocked on the door of the office.

“Daddy?”

Mom opened the door. “What is it, Em?”

“There’s a phone call for Dad. It sounds important.”

Mom turned back into the office, a worried look on her face. There was some murmuring and then she asked me, “Do you know who it is?”

I shook my head.

From inside the office, I heard Dad say, “I’ll take it.”

I went back into the kitchen to hang up the phone, but before I put it down, I held the receiver to my ear, just to be sure Dad had answered before I hung it up, and that’s when I heard him say, “Oh no. When?”

I felt my heart jolt, but I couldn’t stop listening. “Just a few minutes ago,” the voice on the other end answered. “Would you or your family like to see her before we call the funeral home?”

Funeral home. My hands shook as I dropped the phone and I heard an awful noise. It took me a second to realize I was the one making it, and in that moment, it occurred to me that there were worse things than having my family miss my concert.

I had never known anyone who died before.

Susan Aylworth is the author of eight published novels, all currently available in digital form for various e-readers. Her ninth book, ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE, is coming from Covenant Communications in June. Her tenth novel, RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK, will soon be available as an original e-book, the seventh in the Rainbow Rock series. Find Susan at www.susanaylworth.com or follow her @SusanAylworth.

Old Route 66

Today's excerpt is from RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK, which is both the literal return for Marcie Carmody, whom readers met in Book 4, and a metaphorical return for me; this is the first Rainbow Rock book in...um...a few years. In this segment, Marcie is driving around the area, showing Holbrook, Arizona and its environs to Ryan Fields, a new attorney to the area who will soon be her direct supervisor. Ryan is speaking:

"Why don’t you show me a little of where Old Route 66 used to run and we’ll call it done.” 

“You’ve already seen part of it,” Marcie said. “You know Interstate 40 follows fairly close to the same path…” 

“Right. I just want to see what’s left of Route 66 in this area.” 

“Sure. Turn left here and I’ll give you the Route 66 tour—for a few miles, anyway.” 

“Left it is.” 

Marcie watched him carefully as he made the turn. She couldn’t help noticing the flex of his forearms, the strength in his biceps, the smooth curve of his cheek just waiting for her touch… Get a grip, Marcie, she chided herself. The man is off-limits. 

The little voice inside her argued, Shouldn’t he know that, too? The fact he had just made a second date for two days from now suggested he was having as much trouble remembering that as she was. Marcie, old girl, you’re going to have to watch yourself. You are already in deep tapioca here. She sighed and turned her attention back to Old Route 66. 

Susan Aylworth is the author of eight published novels, all currently available in digital form for various e-readers. Her ninth book, ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE, is coming from Covenant Communications in June. RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK will soon be available as an original e-book, the seventh in the Rainbow Rock series. Find Susan at www.susanaylworth.com or follow her @SusanAylworth.

Here's the cover for my newest, coming in June from Covenant. The book tries to answer the question, "What is the recipe for healing a broken family?" And for the curious, yes: it has recipes, too. In case you can't read it, the title is ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE. It's taken some time to get this one from my brain into print, so I'm thrilled to see it. 

You can't go home again

You can't ever go home again, or so Thomas Wolfe tells us. Just as you never step in the same river twice, the swirl of events and changes will make your "home" a different place from the one you remember. Maybe that's one reason why our first impressions are so important.

In this excerpt from my current Work in Progress, Marcie and Ryan have just met (the day before, when she mistook him for a burglar and called the police.) Now she is showing him around the area. They have toured Holbrook, driven a stretch of Old Route 66, and are now coming into Rainbow Rock, Marcie's home throughout her high school years.

Here is Ryan's first introduction to the town from RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK.

He took the left and drove northeast toward the Navajo Nation. Another turn, just north of the airport, and a few short miles of two-lane highway, took him into the questionable center of Rainbow Rock. “So this is it, huh?”

Marcie smiled. “Yep, and I won’t blame you if you want to launch into a chorus of ‘Is That All There Is?’ This place isn’t much, but it’s home.”

“Is there even a high school here?”

“No, there isn’t. Kids go to school here through eighth grade. Then the bus carries them into Holbrook for high school. It’s only about a ten to twelve-minute ride, but I used to do much of my homework on the bus, coming and going.”

“Smart kid, huh?”

She adopted a pensive look. “Not nearly smart enough.”

Ryan chose to let that go. Instead he looked around at the small scattering of homes with  a few public buildings. “I don’t understand why there’s a town here at all.”

“It surprises many of us,” Marcie answered wryly.

Can Marcie, or any of us, go home again? Or do we make new homes in old places? Stay tuned for more excerpts.

Susan Aylworth is the author of eight published novels, all currently available in digital form for various e-readers. Her ninth book, ZUCCHINI PIE: GRANNY'S RECIPE FOR LIFE, is coming from Covenant Communications in June. RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK will soon be available as an original e-book, the seventh in the Rainbow Rock series. Find Susan at www.susanaylworth.com or follow her @SusanAylworth.