It's Monday evening, and I just now discovered tomorrow is Giving Tuesday.

Giving Tuesday..................

The Giving Tuesday website is full of examples of how people might consider giving their time and talents.

My co-author, Sarah Walker Gorrell, and I have given our efforts to write a novel about the way Mississippi dwellers related approximately 100 years ago to wandering Travelers or Romanies (often called Gypsies).

Today on Cyber Monday, we planned to give away our novel. I made a mistake though. I failed to sign up for Cyber Monday. The only way I know how to fix the mistake is to offer it as a gift on Tuesday.

Hmm...Giving Tuesday. And we are giving it to you. We hope to give you a few hours of entertainment. In addition, we hope to give you insights into the lives of the characters we present.

Happy Giving Tuesday!

Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek

Cat Lovers' Poem Free on Cyber Monday

Cat Lovers' Poem

Mr. Bobby's Cats is a #freebie today. It's suitable for anyone who loves cats, older children, and children at heart.

Cyber Tuesday or Look What-I-Got-After-the-Sales-Ended Tuesday

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday...

What can I call Tuesday when I've left something off the list on Cyber Monday and I really meant to include this important item?

For Cyber Monday, I'm giving away a basket load of Kindle books  Go to
Mary Lou Cheatham's author page and you will see all the books that have the price of $0.00 in Kindle form today.

Sarah Walker Gorrell (my co-author) and I were planning to give away Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek, but I failed to click the right button. I didn't catch this mistake until it was too late.

The only thing I can do is offer it tomorrow. Here's the proof it will be available:

Maybe it's Better-Late-Than-Never Tuesday or Cyber Tuesday or Look What-I-Got-After-the-Sales- Ended Tuesday,

Tomorrow go to Amazon and type in Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek or  go to this link to get your #freebie of Travelers: https://www.amazon.com/Travelers-Painted-Wagons-Covington-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B01MF51PHK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1480345720&sr=8-5

On Cyber Monday--a Christmas Gift to You

Cyber Monday, 2016, I’m giving away all the Kindle books I can. Abi of Cyrene is a story of life in the first century A.D. It’s a good one to read at Christmas because Abi faces the ultimate question: how will she relate to the Messiah?

Here are some comments readers have made about Abi of Cyrene:

“I caught onto the writing style. It was a great read—even through the tears shed at the more than real description of Passover events.”

“Informative, entertaining, and inspiring...”

“A beautiful story about a young woman forced to leave her native country...”

“Excellent book—shows a lot of research into the world of that time...”

“Wonderful book...”

“A faithful and complex woman with who modern Christian women can identify...”

“It would make a great movie.” 

Please take a minute to download Abi of Cyrene, which is a Christmas gift to you. 

Abi of Cyrene, Kindle version

Cyber Monday: Gifts to You for Celebrating Christmas

A gift for you to share:

Brother Star, Sister Moon is a little fantasy for children. The star guiding the wise men asks his sister

the moon to help him brighten the path. The little book, which fascinated the youngest viewers, has innocent, happy pictures, drawn by Christie.

I’m giving you a copy on Cyber Monday so you can share it with your youngest friends and family members. In fact, I’m giving away several books on Cyber Monday. You can find the #freebies at Amazon by typing my author name, Mary Lou Cheatham, on the Amazon website.

Victoria Phelps has recorded a dramatic reading of Brother Star, Sister Moon. I have codes, which will allow you to download the book for free. I’ll give these away on a first-come, first-serve basis. Drop me a note in Facebook Messenger if you’d like one.

Christie and I have published another little Christmas book for young children On Cyber Monday, you can obtain it for free also. It is about a young boy, who helped his father take care of the sheep. I hope you enjoy Seth, the Shepherd Boy.

All I’m asking of you is that you share these with your children. If you find them a blessing, drop a few words in a review box on Amazon. Brother Star, Sister Moon is a little fantasy for children. The star guiding the wise men asks his sister the moon to help him brighten the path. The little book, which fascinated the youngest viewers, has innocent, happy pictures, drawn by Christie.

I’m giving you a copy on Cyber Monday so you can share it with your youngest friends and family members. In fact, I’m giving away several books on Cyber Monday. You can find the #freebies at Amazon by typing my author name, Mary Lou Cheatham, on the Amazon website. 

Victoria Phelps has recorded a dramatic reading of Brother Star, Sister Moon. I have codes, which will allow you to download the book for free. I’ll give these away on a first-come, first-serve basis. Drop me a note in Facebook Messenger if you’d like one.

Christie and I have published another little Christmas book for young children On Cyber Monday,

you can obtain it for free also. It is about a young boy, who helped his father take care of the sheep. I hope you enjoy Seth, the Shepherd Boy.

All I’m asking of you is that you share these with the children in your life. If you find them a blessing, drop a few words in a review box on Amazon.

Even if you don't know any kids to read these to, be a kid at heart and read them.

Cyber Monday, I'm giving you some of the books in The Covington Chronicles.

2016 has been a very good year for books. On Cyber Monday I want to say a big thank you by giving away all the Kindle books I can.

First there's Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek. My co-author Sarah Walker Gorrell and I are  making this book available as a #freebie for the first time. Moday, November 28, go to Amazon and get your copy.

It is the latest in the Covington Chronicles series. Jeremy Smitherlin, the boy Trudy Cameron called slimy, has grown into a young teenager, whom she finds irresistibly attractive. These two are experiencing puppy love.

Jeremy tries to live a good, pure life, but the adults around him set horrible examples with adultery, alcoholism, physical and emotional abuse--bad behavior in general. He needs help and he gets it from some Travelers (Gypsies).

Sarah and I hope you will download this book and enjoy it. I wish I could give you all the books in the series. By the way, you don't have to read them in order. Because of a contract arrangement, Secret Promise is not available for free.

The Courtship of Miss Loretta Larson is the second book in The Covington Chronicles. It is a historical romance between a thirty-something single school teacher and the man she selects. She has choices.  After several years of mourning the loss of her childhood sweetheart, she can now choose between a banker and a lawyer.

Many readers have told me they have enjoyed this book most of all, and it has been the second best seller in the series. I hope you'll download  and read it. All we ask of you is to tell your friends. Reviews on Amazon are a great blessing.

The third book in the series...the most popular one...is The Dream Bucket. It is the story of a young girl who comes of age and also of her mother who becomes a widow. It has

romance, humor, hardship, and living in a frontier environment. Several times this year it has been number one in its category.

Monday, you can get your copy free.

The fourth book, Manuela Blayne, is a poignant novella, which will pique your concern over social conditions in Mississippi in the early 1900's. It is told by Trudy, the young girl who made The Dream Bucket popular.

At the moment, I don't have any days to give you a free copy; however, I combined The Dream Bucket and Manuela Blayne in one book It will also be available Monday for a download.

Other books will also be given away Monday. Please check for these also.

Happy Cyber Monday!

Cyber Monday, Giving Back to You

Gift 1

In the year of 2016, I’ve enjoyed my friends. You have been good to me. I’ve run into some old friends and made many new friends. I want to give something back to you—books. I know I’m always giving you books, but this will be a very special day. I’m planning to give all the electronic books that I will be allowed to give.

A very delightful friend, Sarah Walker Gorrell, co-authored a novel with me. We’ve decided to show our appreciation to you by giving it free for one day, Cyber Monday. We’ve never offered this Kindle book free before. It’s the story of Jeremy, a young boy who had troubles. A family of Gypsies parked a few months on Jeremy’s father’s farm. This story entertains while it shows the joy of giving and forgiving. Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek will be free on Amazon Monday in the Kindle version.

Gift 2

Christie Marie Underwood, my daughter, has joined me in a new writing adventure. We are working together on children’s books. So far we have completed two. She is illustrating what I write. Sometimes though she changes the writing and I change the illustrations. On Monday, November 28, 2016, we are offering the Kindle version of our first book. It is called Brother Star, Sister Moon. Christie has six nieces and nephews, three are step and three are by marriage, all her beloved. We dedicated this story to them.

Victoria Phelps, an amazing dramatic reader, has recorded Brother Star, Sister Moon. I have some codes to give you a free copy of this. Contact me here on messenger or if you can, text me. I’ll send you a free code of the recorded version to go with this short Christmas book. I love Christie’s drawings, and so do the children who have seen the book.

Gift 3

A little niece and a little nephew loved Brother Star, Sister Moon, so much that my daughter Christie and I decided they needed their own Christmas story. For the first time, we’re giving it away.  Seth, the Shepherd Boy, will be available as a free Kindle book on November 28, 2016.

More Gifts

All year long, so many readers have blessed me by purchasing and downloading The Dream Bucket that I’ve lost count. I never dreamed I’d receive such blessed reviews. Monday it will be free in Kindle form. So will The Dream Bucket and Manuela Blayne combined in one offering. The Courtship of Miss Loretta Larson, a romance novel several of you have told me you enjoyed, will be free in the Kindle version too.

Abi of Cyrene is a novel about the wife of Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross for Jesus. The Kindle version will be free.

The Rare Stone on a Chain, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek

The stone swinging back and forth on its chain sent beams of rainbow prisms
across the walls on the opposite side of the shop

On the back cover of Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek, a tiny picture gives a view of an intriguing piece of jewelry. What is the mystery of the necklace with its enormous stone hanging from a burnished gold chain? 

The necklace, appearing throughout the novel, has a personality of its own, as it passes from one generation to another. Something profound resides in the history of the exquisite crystalline stone cut by ancient artisans. It is one of the links between the present and ancient times of a non-nation of clever people, discriminated against...treated as trash despite their brilliance...throughout the centuries. 

How does it pass from one to another? Will a Romany always possess it? Can a Gorgio become a Romany?

Here's how the first Gypsy in Travelers acquired the necklace with the magnificent stone:  

(Quote from Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek by Sarah Walker Gorrell and Mary Lou Cheatham)

The boy and his father, none other than Lochan and Vail, performed for the Prince. Instantly the old man’s spirits surfaced from the mire of despair. He placed his hands on a burnished gold chain with an enormous cut stone mounted in a pendant. The stone chiseled in many facets emitted brilliant white light. On the Prince’s chest, it appeared to be a diamond.

He removed it and commanded a servant, “Place this around the child’s neck.” The Prince hesitated. “No, I’ll do it myself.”

“But his Excellence must not touch a Pariah.”

“I will do as I wish.” The Prince dangled the necklace. “Come closer, lad.”

Guileless, Lochan stepped forward and bowed. 

“Bless you, my child.” The old man placed the chain around the boy’s neck and pulled the youthful black hair over it in the back. 

“Thank you.” On Lochan’s chest, the stone no longer looked white. Instead, the facets emitted bold colors into the room, constantly changing. Sometimes reds, sometimes blues. Brilliance emanated from the jewel. 

“Ahh.” A sound of admiration softly spoken filled the room.

“Now, you may make one request, young man.” 

It's now.

Whatever movie comes out about something in the past at a different place is really about here and now. Whatever novel is written in a historical period is about today.  A reader of Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek commented that the book deals with the way underprivileged people were treated a little over a century ago, but it’s actually about the way we treat one another in the current time.

And there are issues discussed that involve true-to-life human conditions. Poverty, domestic abuse, child abuse, drunkenness, prejudice, deceit, adultery, care-taker’s syndrome, neglect, forgiveness—the list goes on and on. The characters in Travelers in  Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek encounter the

challenges of life, unchanged by time and place.

Sarah Walker Gorrell

Although the characters are not anybody that Sarah Walker Gorrell and I know, they are more real than people who lived during the time depicted in the novel. We hope you can find a part of something within yourself as you read our story, and we hope you lay your issues on the table so you can see how other people faced similar problems.

Mary Lou Cheatham
(Mary Cooke)

In addition to helping you see humanity in an objective way, we set out to entertain you by including quirky characters, fun-filled social occasions, and most of all the tension of wondering what will happen next.

Marguerite Gray is writing a great book she hasn't published yet!

Did you ever read half way through a book that you loved and you didn’t get to finish it? I did and I think about the book often.  Through the most unusual circumstances, I haven’t been able to finish the book. Let me tell you what happened.

Sometimes I participate in a group of online writers who critique one another’s work. It is sponsored by ACFW. A few years ago, I got to know Marguerite Martin Gray, an outstanding writer in the group. In the group, writers submit chapters of their work to be criticized by other authors in exchange for the same service. I digress. It turned out that she grew up in the town, Ruston, Louisiana, where I was living at the time, but I never knew her then. It was a coincidence.

Marguerite made some great suggestions on two books I was working on at the same time, The Dream Bucket and The Courtship of Miss Loretta Larson. In the meantime, I started reading her book, Promises of Purity. It’s the one I have not yet had the privilege of finishing. This book haunts me, and I cannot wait to finish it, even though it’s been two years since I read the first half of it.

Marguerite, a brilliant historian, can take her readers back three or four hundred years. Since she knows the events and customs of England in the 1600’s and the American colonies during the 1700’s, she is comfortable telling her stories without giving the reader the feeling she’s groping for details. She can depict convincing stories on either side of the Atlantic.

Promises of Purity took place mostly in 1681 in Sinclair Bakery, with deep insight into the struggle of the Roundheads with King Charles. One of my favorite scenes involved the King’s pet dogs. The romance in this novel is outstanding.

In the meantime, Marguerite has published two books about life in South Carolina during the 1700’s. They are good, but I still await Promise of Purity. Her first book, Hold Me Close, is a tender love story about a young woman, who (I suspect) is Marguerite’s ancestor. The second one, Surround Me,is new. I’ve just finished it,  and I highly recommend it.

(Jonquils at the Blacksmith Shop, Jonquil Jubilee in Gibsland)

Did you ever hope to meet a writer whose work you enjoyed? My husband and I met her, along with her family at a book signing at Jonquil Jubilee in March 2016.  

I wanted Marguerite to read Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek, but I wasn’t sure what she’d think. Marguerite writes of lace gloves, fancy cups of tea, and characters who play Bach on the pianoforte. I was afraid of what she would think of the new book by Sarah Walker Gorrell and me about clans of Travelers living close to the earth and playing their music on fiddles and accordions. 

Despite my shyness, I asked Marguerite to read it, and here is what she said: 

This review is from: Travelers in Painted Wagons: On Cohay Creek (Covington Chronicles) (Volume 5) (Paperback) 

Travelers in Painted Wagons gives a realistic, earthy view of life in the early 1900's in Mississippi. The story follows a time when gypsies roamed from place to place in the States cultivating friendships and spurring enemies to action. I enjoyed learning a bit of history through the lives of the gypsies and the common citizens. (5 stars)

My Redneckness

Having grown up in south Smith County, Mississippi, north of Cohay Creek where it flows through Hot Coffee, down in north Covington County...in the land between Sullivan’s Holler and Soso, Mississippi... in what my sister always called the sticks, I have redneckness that cannot be denied.

Certain gestures I’d like to remove from my existence, but in all the decades of my life, I’ve failed. One of them gets on my own nerves big time.  It’s sheer indelicate behavior. When I sip a mouth full of delightful Community Coffee, I have to (must or should) let out a big sigh. The same sigh emits from my lungs and mouth when I drink cool water or diet Coke. I think about it one second after I do it, and I say out loud, “This has to stop.”

The other night, I mean evening, my sweet husband took me out to eat supper, I mean dinner, to a place where the food was delicious, even though the fish was broiled instead of fried.  All dressed up, I wore my newest shoes. I’m so proud of these shoes, Isotoner Women’s Cable Knit Bridget Clog Slippers. I’ve always wanted some Isotoners, but he said they looked good except for the faux fur trim. That gave it away that they were house shoes. I disagree, but I see his point. He loves me with all his heart, but he doesn’t like to have me looking like a redneck. On a more sophisticated woman, they would have looked elegant.

He has a little redneck in him too, and we’re working on it. Today he decided we should eat our sardines and saltines on plates in front of the television. I brought a tiny piece of cheese from the grocery store (supermarket). The cheese cost $2.50, and it was very tiny.  So we drained the oil off our sardines, and he placed his can on his plate. Then he looked over at me and saw I’d poured mine onto the plate. He said, “What an interesting innovation!”

One of the advantages about being a Scots-Irish south Mississippi redneck woman is that I speak the language. So does my friend, Sarah Walker Gorrell, who lives on the edge of the Cohay swamp. Not that I’d ever say she’s a redneck...she’s a proper woman...but she understands redneck ways and redneck jargon. She and I had so much fun writing Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek that it should have been against the law.  

Oops, I just had a sip of coffee and I did it again.  

Here’s our Travelers. In addition to the Romany Travelers, we have depicted Rednecks in their more primitive state, as they lived about a century ago. Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek