Exploring A Small Town Celebration

July 27th would normally be a scorching hot day in Iowa. We expect that, after years of experience. Hot temperatures go hand in hand with a summer town celebration or a county fair. Not this time. Thanks to a cold front, Canadian air fanned Iowa today. Low dark clouds hid the sun, keeping the temperature in the sixties.


My husband and I went to Dysart, Iowa, about thirty miles from us, for their Iron Days celebration. As a writer, I'm always looking for details, humorous or otherwise, that might work in a story that includes a small Midwest town. Dysart is small with many older, large homes and enough trees to be designated City of Trees.

At 9 a.m., we started by walking from an uptown parking place to the park. I noticed the thermometer near the community center said 63 degrees. The antique tractor displays were nearly all gone out of town already on a tractorcade parade. We looked at the few they left behind. One refurbished tractor, with a glossy, green paint job, had a cute sign on it. This tractor is just like the neighbor's wife. You can look but don't touch. We circled around the remaining tractors and headed toward the Craft show.

First stop was Witt's Garden and Lawn Crafts. I took pictures there to use in my blog. Witt's Crafts belongs to my husband's sister and her husband. As long as I was taking pictures, he asked if I'd email him the pictures so he could use them for advertising.

We left the craft show and walked through the park. At the other end, a car honked at us. Turned out my husband's brother had the same idea we did. We retraced our steps back to the Craft show so he could say hi to the Witts. This time we took time to look at the antique and flea market items on the other tables. After that, I was ready to go uptown and look in the shops. I always think I don't have room for anything else in my house, but I love looking. We stopped in an antique shop called Orphan Annie's. The name comes from the fact that orphan trains used to stop in Dysart as they traveled through the Midwest. There are citizens in town today that have ancestors that got off the orphan trains in Dysart and found families.

Bouquets of balloons bounced at us, tied to items on the sidewalks in front of stores to catch our attention. A woman, with a purse full of chocolate candy, stopped shoppers to ask if they would like to try a piece. We aren't big candy eaters so we said no. Later, the woman was on the other side the street asking shoppers to try the chocolate. She forgot she'd already talked to us so I asked if she had a candy making shop close. She looked puzzled as she pulled a wrapped chocolate drop from her purse to inspect it. She actually didn't know where the chocolate came from. Perhaps, it hadn't mattered as long as the candy lasted until I asked. She hustled across the street, hailing another woman down to find out what she knew about the candy she was told to promote.

We stopped in another Antique Store. Most store inventories are alike with kitchen utensils, old pictures, scared up hutches, tables and dressers. One thing I found interesting was the wine collection labels when I heard one woman ask if the Hussy Heifer was a sweet wine. I didn't hear the answer, but when I came back along I was curious enough to glance at the three bottles. The first one in line was Farmer's Daughter. Maybe a person would want to drink that bottle first and next try Hussy Heifer next. Not that I know since I don't drink wine. The other bottle was turned away from us. I couldn't get close enough to see the name. The woman and her friends were having a wine tasting party in front of the inventory, sampling a bottle of Hussy Heifer. Looked like they might be going to drain the bottle before they decided if they liked the wine.

We headed back to our pickup at eleven a.m. The thermometer registered a whole degree warmer at 64. At least the pickup felt warm when we were sheltered from the north wind.

Next we went to the county seat, Vinton, Iowa, to take in the county fair. It was almost noon so we stopped at the pork booth and had a pork loin sandwich right off the grill. Very good sandwiches. We visited with people we knew checking out the exhibits just like we were. It's fun to see all the clean, curried animals that normally would be happy in a dirty barnyard. The buildings with 4-H projects and the garden and flower exhibits are always interesting.

As soon as we exited the last building, I was ready to go home and put on the coffee pot. Wouldn't you know, as we drank our cup of coffee the sun came out of its cloud cover, warming up the late afternoon hours now that we were done exploring for the day.

A Summer Time Book Review

This is the first book in seven from my fun historical mystery series titled Amazing Gracie Mysteries. To get to know the mischievous Gracie Evans from Locked Rock, Iowa and the rest of her friends in the Moser Mansion retirement home it's best to read the books in order. Now having brought up reading I must admit there are many outside activities in the summer to take up our time instead of sitting indoors reading a book. After all, warm weather is much too short and winters in Iowa seem extra long, and this last one was stretched out by a cool, rainy spring.


However, for those who enjoy air conditioning after being out in the garden in this super hot summer time, or those that go for an early morning walk and take a break with a second cup of coffee afterwards, you need something to occupy the cool down time. Pick up a book and read a chapter or two before you go back outside.

My stories are written like the books I want to read. Recently, I published a book with a Christmas theme - Leona's Christmas Bucket List. Now I'm working on another holiday book - Christmas With Hover Hill. I must admit at the slow rate I'm going it may be Christmas before that book is done. When the weather is rainy or cold then I don't mind staying at the computer, but during this hot, dry spell, I've not been anymore creative than the summer heat.

I do sit down at the computer but with my eyes on what's going on outside. The robins are hopping about trying to figure out where the night crawlers disappeared to in the hot grass. Young barn swallows sit on the electric wires, singing their sad cheeps now that Mom has abandoned them for a new batch of babies. Whoops! The little goat is out again. He's headed for my in full bloom, red candy striped ivy geranium with the intention of grazing on the blooms. I bought the plant for its beautiful blooms not goat feed. By the time I'm out the door, bare foot no less because I didn't have time to put on my shoes, my plant has one less bloom, and he's licking another. Now you see what happens to my concentration.

That doesn't mean my readers should give up on seeing another book by author Fay Risner since we all know fall and winter will be back all too soon. What I want to share with you is the following post by a reader on Linkin. When I see a review like this, it reminds me that there are readers that like the same kind of books that I do. Mainly, the genres that makes you smile and entertains. I really appreciate being reminded of that once in awhile. It energizes me to keep writing.

Details of the Recommendation: "I have read most of Fay's books. Fay has a variety of work. Some books are full of history and detail. Other books are funny and light hearted. Fay also has a mystery series that has wonderful characters solving all sorts of crimes. She has another series about an Amish family. These books are great books for fun filled relaxation."

Service Category: Writer/Editor

Redcatcher MP 199th Light Infantry Brigade - Vietnam War

It turns out I'm not the only author in my family. Years ago, Aunt Lois in Nevada, Missouri showed me one of the spiral notebooks in which my cousin, Mike (Mickey), hand wrote his story of three tours during the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970. At the time I didn't know how to get the book published. One big drawback was the manuscript consisted of over 100,000 words that had to be typed into manuscript form before it could be sent to a publisher. I glanced inside the notebook and handed it back to my aunt to lay on the other three in her quilt chest. We covered the notebooks with quilts and I forgot about them.


A few months ago, Mickey Bright passed away. While his two sisters and I reminisced about Mike, I remembered seeing his notebooks. Whatever happened to them? Times have changed. We aren't at the mercy of publishers anymore for a year or two waiting for a rejection. Independent authors publish their own work. When the idea hit me, I was excited. Not knowing what kind of work I was getting into I offered to publish Mike's book for the family.

What a pleasant surprise it was when I started reading the first notebook. Mike had talent. That made my job easier. A few pages into the first notebook, I decided to type as I read. In no time, I was wanting to see what happened next so I read ahead in the evening and typed the next day. One of Mike's sisters sent pictures I added to the book. I'd kept letters sent from the Vietnam War by Mike. I used one of those in the front of the book. By the time I had a cover made, the book was done in about five weeks. I sent a proof to Mike's sisters for approval. They are fast readers. Didn't take them long to tell me they liked the book.

My only regret is I waited so long to ask about the book. Mike would have been so excited to see his words in a paperback book. His parents have passed, too. They would have been so proud of Mike and his book titled 199th Light Infantry Brigade Redcatcher MP by Mickey M. Bright of the 152nd MP Platoon.

Here is the back of the book

Mickey put his heart and soul into his book about his three tours in the Vietnam War. He brings to life the men he served with and treasured as friends as well as the Vietnamese people he grew to know and respect. He describes everything he saw and felt about the country in vivid detail. That includes the horrors of war as well as the men's feverish efforts to block their worries and fears in their off duty hours. Mickey's humor comes through when he writes about being invited to supper at a Vietnamese Police Officer's house and finds he's eating dog meat. Or when he becomes really nervous on patrol alone and thinks he's going to confront VC in a village cemetery only to find he's face to face with the harmless village bum.

Men felt pressure and stress all the time. They didn't know where the enemy was. There wasn't a front lines or a safe area even on base. They could never fully relax. The horrors of this war led many soldiers into a fog of drugs just to cope. Smoking marijuana was as popular as smoking a cigarette. The young men were drafted during the hippy drug era. Many of them had tried drugs, marijuana and drinking alcoholic beverages in the states. In Vietnam, drugs were cheap and very accessible. Beer was cheap at the PX and kept under the bunks by the case. Most times, it was consumed warm. The camaraderie between the men in their off time led to addictions that had to be faced when they went home. For many, drugs became a way to sleep in a stupor without fear and nightmarish images of death haunting them. The years that Mickey Bright was in Vietnam, statics show that more men went to the hospital because of their addictions than those with wounds.

At the time, his war stories wouldn't have been wise to write about in letters to his worried family. We see the standoffs as Mickey describes them and get a feel for what his duties were like as a military policeman. Often something about Vietnam reminded him of his family and home in Nevada, Missouri. It's only when he was midway through his third tour of duty that he felt he'd had enough of this strange land and war. With new men coming in all the time, he dwelt more on the friends he lost, and the ones that went back to the world that he missed. Then there were his memories of Lei, the pretty Vietnamese girl he loved. When she was killed during a fire fight in Saigon, Mickey didn't have a reason to stay. He was ready to come home.

If you're interested in learning what it was like for a good many of the soldiers in the Vietnam War, this book will enlighten you about addictions many of them had when they went to Vietnam and struggled with when they came home.

Look on Amazon for the book and the Kindle store for the ebook. Barnes and Noble's Nook store will have the ebooks soon. Smashwords.com have the ebooks available now. As more venues open up, I'll let you know.

My Amish Books Sold On Ebay

Two of my Amish books are on ebay for a month. Check them out if you like Amish stories. You will see I've reduced the price on the first two Amish books I wrote just so I can introduce new readers to my Nurse Hal series.

Christmas Traditions wasn't meant to be part of a series, but readers ask me if I could continue Margaret Yoder's story. I did sort of. At first, I had an idea about putting a home health nurse in an Amish settlement so I was eager to start the Nurse Hal series and thought I'd forget about Margaret Yoder.

In A Promise Is A Promise, the first book in the Nurse Hal series, I saw right away Hallie Lindstrom Lapp needed one good friend to go to for advice about turning from English to Amish. John took Hal to meet their neighbor Margaret Yoder. She had been through a similar experience in Pennsylvania. She was Amish as a child, left home to be English and returned to the Amish settlement to marry the man she'd always loved. She'd had experience in both worlds. So I, as the author, moved Margaret and her son, Luke, to Iowa after Margaret's husband, Levi, died. They had lived in that area for some time before Margaret and Hallie become friends. John Lapp sees Hallie struggling with rigid Amish ways. He doesn't want to lose Hallie so he introduces her to Margaret, hoping that would help. It did.

Since this is a series, the books should be read in order. So try my books that are a reduced price on ebay for one month. See if you might like them well enough to want to read the rest of my Nurse Hal Among The Amish series. Book five was just released-Emma's Gossamer Dreams.

Check out ebay reviews from my many customers that are happy with my shipping method and signing the books for them. I put a certain number of books up for sale. I'm an Independent author so I can get new supplies of books printed when I want to order so I always have a supply on hand.

On weebly.com, you will find my bookstore www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com or people can order from me by using my email or commenting in my website store's guest book. These ways all work. My bookstore site has information about my accomplishments, book reviews and my blog. Looking through the site is a good way to get to know me.

I've become aquainted with many buyers around the country that buy from ebay. We've become good enough friends that we can email about other things besides a book order. They are eager to see what has happened next on the Lapp farm near Wickenburg, Iowa. They email me to see if I have another book about done. I love it when that happens.

Poor Defenseless Addie

Poor Defenseless Addie by Fay Risner




View all my reviews In November 2012, I entered the National November Write Month Contest better known as nanowrimo. I made it over the 50,000 word deadline so I collected my winner label for this book. Poor Defenseless Addie is the seventh in the Amazing Gracie Series. Though Gracie Evans is tired of listening to all the town gossips, she begins to worry when they talk about a stranger in town. The man is living with a friend of Gracie's, Addie Masters. Seems he is the elderly woman's son that none of the gossips knew about. When Addie stops attending church, Gracie and the other residents from Moser Mansion wonder if she's ailing. They decide to visit her. A first hand look at Addie's rude son and seeing a wicked bruise on Addie's hand gets Gracie and her friends putting two and two together. They come up with elderly abuse that they think should be reported to the law. Town Marshal Earl Bullock turns their complaint about Homer Masters over to Sheriff Ben Logan. He comes up with some disturbing information that has the sheriff and town marshal worried about Addie. They have to have proof that Homer is abusing his mother, or she has to confess which isn't going to happen. Beloved Aunt Pearlbee is suddenly taken ill and needs attention. The residents of Moser Mansion have to let Addie fend for herself. Gracie worries that by the time they get back to helping poor defenseless Addie Masters, she will be dead. This is the second time I made it over the deadline in the contest. I entered with Tread Lightly Sibby, a historical book set in Texas County, Missouri in 2011. Actually, I have used the contest's concept all along. Write as fast as you can no matter how sloppy the text looks then go back to rewrite and edit as many times as it takes. So with Poor Defenseless Addie I started November first and by February I had the finished book. Enjoy, Fay Risner

The Country Life Mentioned In Amish Books

The following is a post from a community discussion on Amish books I found several years ago and took to heart when I write my Nurse Hal Amish series. THIS is the kind of SIMPLE, AMISH reading that I'm talking about. I want to read about living, working, growing up, BEING --AMISH!!! Tell me (in detail) about collecting the eggs from the hen house and the chickens come chasing after you (this happened to ME on my grandpa's farm), talk about making friendship bread and how that's passed down (LITERALLY) from family to family or friendship to friendship. THIS is stuff I want to read about. Sure, a love story is fine, hardships are fine, but make it FIRST be ABOUT the AMISH! I'm not alone in this, either. I got the ladies group in my church reading Amish a few years back (and pass on each new book I get), but we're starving for more AMISH stories. We're going to go and actually visit the Amish here, locally, and are so excited to get to be a part of what we've read with so much interest. We'd like to find more authors that share THAT thrill! I read the post after I had written my first Nurse Hal book - A Promise Is A Promise, and I agree with the person who wrote the post. One way to identify an Amish story as Amish is the setting and mentioning of their every day life. Every day can be different on a diversified farm such as the Amish have, and there is always details that make the story real. In A Promise Is A Promise, I wrote about Nurse Hal helping the children get the pigs back in the pen. She rescued Daniel from a charging bull and helped the children have a burial for their dog. Nurse Hal was raised on a dairy farm and was comfortable helping with chores. Emma showed her how to butcher chickens, and that took some getting used to for Nurse Hal. She was determined to gain Emma's approval of her so when Emma asked her to go catch a rooster to butcher for lunch Hal set out to do just that. She caught the first rooster that came close to her, and found out after it was too late, she'd killed Emma's pet rooster. How do I come up with these details? I was raised much like the Amish on a farm in Missouri. Taking care of animals and chickens came natural, because it was my family's simple way of life just like an Amish family. The rest of my life, I've lived in the country and had livestock and chickens. I can identify with anyone who knows about gathering eggs. I've been pecked many times by a hen that didn't want to give up her egg, and multiple times, I've been flogged by a mean rooster that chased me to the house. So I did take to heart the post, and I've made sure there is plenty of every day life in my Amish books. Emma's roosters haven't turned mean yet but stick around. That may happen soon. In my latest book, Emma's Gossamer Dreams, Emma becomes the school teacher and Nurse Hal struggles as she learns to become a homemaker. She's good at nursing but terrible at cooking which adds humor but compassion if we remember our days as new cooks. Mingled in the story, Daniel brings home a baby raccoon for a pet that causes all kinds of problems like catching Emma's hens. This is book five in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish series. If you haven't read one of the books you really should start at the beginning with book one A Promise Is A Promise so you are properly introduced to the Lapp family and Nurse Hallie Lindstrom Lapp. I promise you will have to read the rest of the series to see what happens next.

All my ebooks are now listed on bookhitch.com

Emma's Gossamer Dreams the latest in the Nurse Hal Among The Amish series is just one of all my books are listed as ebooks and linked to websites to buy them and my paperbacks from on bookhitch.com I'm always looking for another website to advertise my books and ebooks on. Bookhitch.com turned out to be an easy site to download my books information. Of course, I used the free download which doesn't afford me as much the one I'd have to pay for. I directed those interested to smashwords.com where the ebooks are located. With my information, you will find the places to go to buy my paperback books at Amazon and my bookstore http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com. Buyers that choose a book from my bookstore will have the book signed by me. Another place I've just downloaded my Amish series ebooks - Nurse Hal Among The Amish is on Kobo Writing Life. Take a look at that sight if you're interested. I love westerns so I shared four of them on bookhitch.com along with my mystery and Amish series. My two books on Alzheimer's disease can be downloaded from smashwords.com by linking from the bookhitch.com site, too. I stay busy working on new books to be released soon. Next will be seven in my Amazing Gracie Mystery series - Poor Defenseless Abby. This is the book I wrote for the National November Writing Month contest which I succeeded in making the deadline by writing over 50,000 words in November. The weather had been bad here all week. We've had ice, dense fog, pouring rain, five inches of snow, white out conditions, bitter cold and now that we are about ready to start above freezing days I'm ready for spring. Can we trust the ground hog prediction?