Bring On Lemons

Greetings! We are excited to participate in two months of excitement for Mary Kelley’s book The Weeping Angel. Book Review by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto: The Weeping Angel is such a beautiful tribute to World War I France and to Hubert Williams Kelley. Mary Kelley has done such a lovely job of organizing the letters to share them with the world and future generations. History books cannot move you the way personal letters and accounts of war do. Hubert Williams Kelley's letters are moving, sometimes dark, and often raw in a way that will haunt you. I cannot imagine what would have happened had Mary Kelley not put together The Weeping Angel . This personal account would have been lost forever. This also makes me wonder how many others have boxes of letters and photos from days long gone. How many of those precious memories will never be shared? The letters in The Weeping Angel were written between 1917 and 1919 and yet, when you begin reading it feels as though you yours...

Greetings! We are excited to participate in two months of excitement for Mary Kelley’s book The Weeping Angel. Book Review by Michelle Del Ponte: Reading “The Weeping Angel” by Hubert Williams Kelley has changed my heart a bit. In the letters from Kelley, he shares vivid descriptions about the war and casualties around him. Yet, he is forbidden to give out to much information, to prevent putting anyone in danger. What got my heart, was in every letter he notes who he has heard from. In the beginning of the book he wrote many letters stating that he has not heard from home. It was heartbreaking for me to see. I think we tend to move on with our lives and forget about all the men and women risking their lives for us. WWI took approximately 11 million military deaths and 7 million civilians. It was among one of the deadliest conflicts in history. While most of us have seen movies, pictures, or reenactments where we can picture the mass causalities left around, it is not a real...

Greetings! We are excited to kick off two months of excitement for Mary Kelley’s book The Weeping Angel.   About The Weeping Angel Now, on the Centennial of World War I, Kelley’s wish is realized with the publication of The Weeping Angel, his account of the war in northern France as he lived it. Told through letters and poems, Kelley writes home to his Kansas City family with vivid descriptions of day to day life on the edge of the battlefield. Enlisting right after graduation from Central High, he claims to play the bugle in order to be accepted and proves to be a talented raconteur and observer. Although he could not play the bugle and never really learned, he became the regimental poet of Company D of the Twelfth Engineers and found his true vocation as a writer. Mary Kelley, his daughter, edited and researched this special collection of her father’s letters over the past six years. With the help of Colonel John Laird’s History of the Twelfth Engineers and research at ...

Below is a short story (the first part of my novel) that I am considering submitting for a literary contest. It is fiction. Please let me know your thoughts. I really want your feedback. It's long, so thank you in advance for taking your time to read and comment. Thanks in advance. ~Crystal Between 1880 and 1930, more than 27 million people made the journey from around the world to Ellis Island. Some were looking for work in the United States; others were trying to escape the unrest in their own country. Josephine Maurice boarded the LaTouraine steamship at the Havre with less than $100 and the clothes on her back. She was determined to leave Paris and her past behind her. She walked away from all things familiar and placed one determined foot in front of the other, forcing herself forward. One of nearly 2,000 passengers following their dreams, she wasn’t even 18 years old yet, and wasn’t sure what she was getting herself into. They were searching for dreams. She was runnin...