Books

Books are available on Amazon:

Hope After Heartbreak, and  Dusty Roads, were penned as Sharon Palmerton.
Silver Memories, Sharon Sager.  

I may be contacted at s.sager.writer@gmail.com or sharon.d.sager@gmail.com

I wish you happy, healthy days!

  With life's continuing flow, I rest in a new journey, a new move, a fresh environment. This is stimulating, and I know the move is good, because it makes me smile.  .... I listen to my body, my thoughts, and emotions.
   It feels like I am a river now traveling through private woods, new woods. For some reason I wonder how much, if ever, a river's water travels the same route. Perhaps droplets may. Not by the journey of its flow, but perhaps in the condensation of itself to clouds above and a return within rain to a prior spot...then a recurrence of flow within the same river may occur. Just a thought...
It's more likely the well-heard saying is true--one cannot step into the same river twice. And yet we as human beings, seem to repeat patterns a multiple number of times, although we think, say, we even swear, we will not repeat the behavior or choice... and this is perhaps why I write about women making choices, differently, even if it takes a little while, because we feel we step in the same river over and over again. At times we desire change. We want to create the lives we want and dream of, instead of feeling frustrations. The frustrations are a nudging to let us know something could be different or we don't like something about what is.
   Knowing we want change is part of the equation. It may come after an insight of feeling we deserve better or whatever is the irritant is not true, not the best for us, or simply not working for us. These are good thoughts, if they  are accurate. We usually know whichever way it is--we feel it in our guts, and our hearts; we have thoughts about it. If we keep thinking and wanting better, new ideas or possible choices come to us, from within us, or somehow, sometimes in common and uncommon ways.
   It's our choice to make changes.  Thinking through our lives and circumstances can be a most spectacular journey. It is up to us.
  Our journey, our lives, are part of our rivers, going through moments each  day. I say let's keep our rivers pristine, clear, cool and refreshing, so if we have to navigate through storms, or rough water areas, we do it with strength.Or if we feel like our rivers, or lives are polluted, we can clean them up. And when we are flowing along gently, with soft warmth of the sun on our faces and cool waters embracing us, may we enjoy the moments with appreciation and love of life.
   Here's to your journeys!

  My next book will have a few librarians and occasional professors at a college on the southern east coast of America, and townsfolk, discovering more about their lives, environment and each other. It is set in the time of 1954 through the mid 1960's. I aim to have it out by autumn 2015.

 

Palmerton to SAGER :) Name change

Books 1 and 2 are listed under Sharon Palmerton.
Book 3 is  self-published under Sharon Sager.

Silver Memories, Ch 1 1st few pages

Celia

Long ago I read a woman will cut her hair as she cuts stranded emotions out of her life. Who said this, and why? Celia thought as she ran her fingers through her new haircut and yawned. She sat thinking in the quiet of a morning.

Nowhere was her hair longer than two inches—a far cry from the years of it being down to her mid back. She tapped her new red pen with black ink over the page of her journal.

Recently, Celia bought this pen. She wanted it to represent her goal—of getting to know herself better. And red and black were the colors she associated with this. She wanted her blood bright red with life somehow, and thought she could write her way to her answers if she used black ink—dark ink like an octopus uses to escape. Funny, somewhere in the thought around escaping was the finding of her answers.

She figured if she wrote her thoughts or feelings down, she’d force light on what felt darkened to her, so she bought the red pen with black ink. But it wasn’t so easy. To find answers to questions, she needed to know first what she really was questioning.

The tap-tap-tapping caught her attention more than the number forty she mindlessly scrolled. Forty years old. Her fifth decade in life started several months ago.

Am I really going anywhere? What have I done in my life?

Celia’s normal good and successful answers arose—Being married to Tony since she was eighteen, and although they married because she was pregnant, he had been her first and only love. And Celia thought of their daughter Shelby.

Celia paused and wondered if she would ever get used to not having Shelby in the house. Had it really been over four years since she left for college? And now, Shelby didn’t seem like she wanted to bring even her suitcase home.

The child has wanderlust—more than I ever had…how did she get to be the adventurous one?

 She answered her thought. “Tony is adventurous. He does what he wants, when he wants to.”

Celia thought of her third main hook in life—her job as a teacher. Was it her calling, or had she played it safe? Whichever one it was, even if it had become full of paperwork and tedious on most every day, she loved it. And teaching had become comfortable…and nice. Nice is good, she had always thought. And the rewards that came when students’ minds lit up, were unmatched.

By teaching second to third grades, she could also watch the children’s natures blossom. Celia had always been touched by their sense of curiosity. Privately she wished she could be as open to living while not even seeing change coming,..... 

A review on Hope After Heartbreak

fr/Scottie-ann Murphy:


"I laughed and cried for Danielle.  This story tells it like it is about going through a break-up and starting over.  The author showed how Danielle not only started a new life but she began this new life in the Big Apple. I cheered and shed tears for the heroine through the ups and downs she faced during her transformation from heartbreak to hope and happiness.  The author provided a wonderful insight in the meaning of the night dreams of her main character.  For anyone going through a relationship break-up this book is a must read. It does show that after heartbreak there is hope, you just need to make it happen"

novella descriptions

Brief book notes:

Dusty Roads:  
  We think we are creating our lives with choices we make. Yet mixed with who we are at our cores, are colorful past experiences and memories that may distort our ability to choose more wisely. Why we behave the way we do can come from fear as well as happiness. Knowledge of both experiences lies within.
  In Dusty Roads, as Jane's salary shrinks to commissions only, she returns to live on the family's country homestead. In the attic, she finds her grandmother's diary; its words allow her deeper understanding of life's river of experiences, as her past hidden fears begin to ebb up for resolution. Life and her heart press her forward as she chooses to feel strength, understanding, and perhaps love.

                                                                      *

Hope After Heartbreak:
  The darkness of night gives rest to some and restless dreams to others.
                           
  Twenty-five year old Danielle flees her small hometown and moves to New York City after her heart feels broken-again. Her goal is unclear.  Will she lose herself, as her pain chooses death.  Or choose life again?
  She struggles as a small voice of hope within encourages her to think and try. She has to choose sides between the opposing senses--determination and encouragement, or pain and fear.
  Her life begins to change after a dream shows her the wolf who helps her spirit feel hope and strength to live. Other dreams reveal her pain and progress, and allow her to think through what she wants.

  Life is a choice, and the signs are all around to help. One just has to listen, feel, and explore. 

Silver Memories:
    A beautiful part of living is being present with those you love. But what happens if what you thought was love becomes realized as only companionship without depth, and there is a lack of dedication to self?  Do you stay? Or leave?  
And what happens if a relationship of known love is lost? How may one heal?
                                                                   
Forty-year-old Celia has choices to make. Her marriage to her teenage sweetheart for over twenty years feels lifeless to her. She has rolled gently within the years, but now is finding she wants more. She wonders what she has done with her life, outside her comfortable roles of wife, mother, and teacher.
She wonders whether to stay, or leave and explore her life.

Life does not give Celia clear pathways...In the midst of her changes, she experiences other events which bring sadness and tragedy to overcome. How she survives and learns to thrive again with Life's different pulls is in a journey of moments and decisions.

Hope After Heartbreak, Ch 1

Chapter 1

Pain

Within its natural rhythm, night’s darkness came and stillness joined. On this night, twenty-five year old Danielle felt both within her heart, and upon her cheeks, dried tears left a passionate trail of sorrow.

An old 1987 Camaro below her window pulled her mind temporarily away from thoughts, as its engine rumbled and occupants’ laughter spilled out. The lightness of life met Danielle’s sadness, and part of her heart felt thankful someone enjoyed being alive. The sounds faded as the vehicle left the neighborhood. She pulled her sleeves lower to cover her hands and feel more protected against the cold.

An owl sounded. Its mysterious calling made Danielle think of flying away to flee from the earlier pain.

After all our words of love spoken to each other, we still broke up.

Danielle felt another pain…a different heartache. Does anything good last?

Silence met her thought.

I can’t stay here this time.

She lay in her twin bed and planned her move. It would be a move to get lost in and heal…or not. The pain felt too deep, and she felt dry and vulnerable.

Her small New Hampshire town held secrets for no one. All would look at her with pity once more. Being orphaned years ago taught her what having love and losing it felt like. Since then, loves of different kinds had been lost, yet somehow were sensed similar. And any love loss is heartache.

Danielle turned her focus from her felt-broken self, to one large, familiar suitcase. It had held all her possessions when she was nine years old. Now twenty-five, she was determined to shed her things to fit within it again, move out of her boarding room with a note, and leave tomorrow for New York City.

I’ll be like one stone in a mountain and blend in, or maybe get crushed...does it matter?

Immediately after this thought, a tender voice of hope sounded to her weeping heart. To find and love yourself again, Danielle.

Danielle didn’t know what to do with this time when she heard a voice from within. In other years, it had carried her into the positive. However, now, she didn’t know. This time felt different. She didn’t care. Something inside her was too numb.