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Rules of the Roadtrip:
While traversing the vast regions of the USA on a month long roadtrip in the 70s, my parents had a lot of rules of the road. You can only eat at McDonald’s, Howard Johnson’s or Burger King. My mom believed big corporations and franchises were always reliable. She had no interest in local flavor. We…
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Ghost Light
Stepping onto the darken stage, I feel the wood boards under my feet. The seeping glow of the single bulb ghost light provides very little light, but somehow I see everything clearly. There’s the full audience enthralled with every note and spoken word. Over there are the actors dancing on the stage in perfect rhythm…
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Dancing in the Rain
Growing up is tough. When you’re a cute little baby, adults think everything you say and do is a miracle. Then you get older and you’re way more awkward, trying to find your path in the middle of all the other kids trying to do the same thing. The new kid in school Emmy was…
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A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
Episode 6 – Tales from the Backseat California here we are. After three weeks navigating most of the lower half of the US and a bit of Mexico, we finally made it to the golden west coast. And as any red-blooded American family, the first place we went was DISNEYLAND. It was the mecca of small children…
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Shockwave
Author’s Note: Here is a mini sneak peek at a beginning scene from upcoming book 4 in the Timeless American Historical Romance series of books, scheduled to release May 30th and available for preorder at the cover link below. I write romance and mystery books under the name Suzanne Rudd Hamilton. This book features a…
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The First Encounter
Author’s Note: This is an exerpt from An Emerald Homecoming, an upcoming novel from A Timeless American Historical Romance Series. Each day Jackie biked to the beach alone. She sat on the sand, gazing into the infinite golden horizon, searching for the meaning of what happened with her parents’ death by looking into the clouds…
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UnHappily Ever After
You may be familiar with my story. I was a poor orphan forced into servitude, and then, with a twist of fate, fell in love with a prince to live happily ever after. That was the real story. The authors embellished it with fanciful inventions of fairy godmothers and pumpkins turning into carriages. That was…
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Darkness Within
Author’s Note: It’s hard to watch someone you love suffer, especially if you can’t do anything to help. This is from a parent’s viewpoint. The dark sky loomed, relentlessly following every step, blocking every turn. I never thought I could feel so powerless. How could the world twist so out of control that it would…
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From All the Unknown
Author’s Note: If you’ve ever been bullied or felt to feel less than… this one’s for you. You don’t really see me. You only judge what you believe. You never care to know the real me; Do I not feel? Can I have no pain? You don’t know, you just want to feel big again…
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.99 Kindle Special This Week
Growing Up is Hard! And to make it even tougher, when Katie is the first one in her class to get a bra – she finds out boys can be dumb and girls can be mean. How does she get through it? Find out by reading Diary of a 6th Grade “c” Cup this week…
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New Diary, New Year
I’m calling freshman year in high school the great awakening because I hope it will wake me up to a new life, like the dawn of a horizon with endless possibilities. My high school is a funnel of nine smaller grade schools from three towns combining into one school of nearly four thousand kids. That…
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Valentine’s Day
Author’s Note: This is an excerpt from Diary of a 6th Grade “C” Cup, a Growing UP Girls book. Dear RBG: Yesterday was Valentine’s Day at school. I was up late filling out cards for every single person in my class. That’s the rule, so no one feels bad. We have to give a card…
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It was 1 AM at night, but the sun was still out. At least it was in my mind. That night, the sun, moon and stars converged and reflected in the shine of my silver metallic 1978 Camaro Berlinetta while I was cruisin’.The first time I went cruisin’, I thought it was stupid. All night…
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Exlusive Santa Sighting
Like Superman and Clark Kent, my father and Santa Claus were never seen on Christmas Eve at the same time. Every year the drill was the same. At our annual Christmas Eve family gathering, my dad would announce to all that he ran out of film and needed to go the store. About 20 minutes…
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Friday Fright
Excited about Halloween, siblings Chris, Sarah and Nathan honored their annual haunted house tradition. Since childhood, they visited one haunted house to start the season off with a bang. Each year they choose a haunted house to fit their mood. As youngsters, they liked ones similar to a Disney theme park with bright lights and…
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A Different World
Everyone needs a Peter Pan in their life. Just as he opened up a new world to Wendy, in her own magical way, my aunt showed me a completely different way to live. When I was about 10-years-old, I started to rebel against my mother. If she said the sky was blue, I said it…
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Queen Sighting
As the airwaves are filled with stories and tidbits about Queen Elizabeth II, I’d like to add one of my own. On a 2014 London visit, I stood on a bright sunny Summer day at the gates of Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. As an American, this was a must, to…
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Trading Places
Kara said it 100 times a day. “When I grow up, I’ll stay up late.” “When I grow up, I can see what I want online and watch my movies.” “I can’t wait to grow up and do whatever I want.” She thought growing up was the ultimate utopia of unlimited freedom where she could…
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In Search of… Teen Behavior
Xena was a typical teenager on Earth 22. But on this Earth in the multiverse, teens were different. Their advanced curriculum allows them to begin their chosen occupation at the age of 16. Because of her intense curiosity toward other worlds in the multiverse, Xena started her career as a surveyor to observe other worlds…
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Bullies and Being Yourself
I write about bullying for a reason. I was bullied as a child. I was teased for things that were completely beyond my control, simply because others wanted to prop themselves up with their peers or in their own minds by stepping on me. I know many others of all ages who experienced similar things.…
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The Power of the Librarian
Since I can remember, books were my life. I read at night, I read after school. I always felt completely engrossed in the story. And now I am. When I was about 10, I took my first journey into the story of a book and was forever changed. My superpower is I can experience the…
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The Hero of Your Story
I was teased as a kid, mostly for things that were not in my control. I wasn’t good at sports. I liked to read books and watch TV. I wore glasses. And I grew fast in every place, making me the first in my class to wear a bra. That was the worst. It was…
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A Starry Night
One of the best things about being a kid is exploring and noticing the little things in life. Tyler and his friends were no different. On a warm summer night, they enjoyed a rite of passage for eleven-year-olds, the backyard tent sleepover. Tyler and his dad pitched a small pup tent in the backyard and…
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Gabby
Here I am sitting outside the principal’s office once again. It’s only the first week of school, so it didn’t take long. I’m here so often, I have my own special chair, well, at least in my mind it is. I’m not really sure why I always end up here. I have the best intentions.…
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I Left A Lot in San Francisco: Tales from the Backseat Episode 7
The difference between being a preteen and a child on a family vacation is like the comparing Mount Everest to the dirt hill kids jump their bikes over. It’s a continental divide. During my preteen years, I wanted to be cool and strived to seem grown-up. And I definitely did not want to act like…
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I Hate Green Beans!
As a kid, I had a very strict rule. I didn’t eat anything green. I was a finicky eater at best, but I just hated the awful taste in my mouth. And to make matters worse, my mother wasn’t a cook. She put everything on the table as best as she could, unfortunately, that meant…
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Growing UP Books by Suzanne Rudd 