On Pens and Needles: February 2026 newsletter
Hello, Friends –
Happy February! Here in Tennessee in late January we had a spell of weather so warm and beautiful that the forsythia blossomed and daffodils bloomed, the Lenten roses flowered, and the hydrangeas began to bud. Now the poor things are cringing in frigid temperatures and howling winds, their early-springtime hopes wilted.
I’m excited to share with you the cover of my next novel, designed by the geniuses at Damonza Studio. Coming out in September, Soldier’s Joy is the sequel to Stones River, though I’ve written it to stand alone. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I’d like you to help me choose the coverline. To tell you a bit about the book, here’s the back cover copy:
Newly returned from the Iraq war, Avery Gowan is stunned when a ghost appears to him—one that looks disturbingly like himself. The apparition promises release from the crushing guilt of a mission that killed Avery’s three friends and left another crippled. Shaken, Avery drives the ghost away, but not before it hints that a woman Avery has just met may help him heal.
That woman is Jessie Gibbs, a young musician whose quiet strength and compassion drew Avery in when they met at the funeral of his Civil War forebear, Lemuel Sanders. Jessie had discovered Lemuel’s long-forgotten grave while camping with her Civil War–style band near the Stones River National Battlefield, leading to his identification and proper burial.
As Avery and Jessie grow closer, his trauma and self-destructive impulses threaten their fragile bond. When the ghost intervenes to save him from a near-fatal motorcycle crash, Avery hides the truth about his spectral guardian, afraid Jessie will think he’s crazy.
But Jessie is hiding something too, a secret about her true connection to Lemuel Sanders that may destroy Avery’s trust in her. Intimate and emotionally charged, Soldier’s Joy is a story of how the past refuses to stay buried, how healing demands facing it, and how love gives the courage to do so.
Here are the coverline choices. Which one is the most intriguing/appealing to you? Keep in mind that the book is romantic and targeted primarily at women readers.
#1: The placeholder that’s currently on the cover: Home from the war, in search of peace and healing, the last thing he needed was a love triangle with a ghost
#2: To help Avery heal, Jessie must win his trust—but first, she must reveal a secret that may cost her his love
Please let me know at mfjones@fieldwoodbooks.com. Thanks for your contribution!
In news of my other major creative pursuit, I spent 8 days in mid-January at a silent meditation retreat on the beautiful campus of The Ayres Center for Spiritual Development in Sewanee, Tennessee. Of course I brought my yarn and needles, with the idea of losing myself in the mindless, soul-tranquilizing rhythm of knitting an easy prayer shawl. I had made something similar before and although I didn’t have the pattern I thought I could replicate it from memory.
I soon nicknamed the project "The Cursed Prayer Shawl." Day after day—sometimes twice a day--it went wrong and I ripped it out and began again. We were encouraged to detach from our electronic devices, to deepen the restfulness of the silence, so I didn’t want to fire up my phone and search for the pattern on a knitting website.
Sitting in the common area surrounded by tangles of yarn as I undid my work yet again, I had to wonder if my fellow retreatants were eyeing me sideways (another part of the discipline was not to make direct eye contact) and puzzling at my ineptness. Or maybe they thought I had some actual purpose, like teaching myself to let go of desire and attachment, which is a goal of the meditation, in repeatedly undoing the work and beginning again.
As it turned out, I did develop that serene acceptance of my failures and do-overs. Whenever the knitting seemed to be flowing along, I rested in the soothing, repetitive motions, and when it went wrong I ripped it back with only a gentle amusement at how this simple, beginner-level project was stymieing me.
When I got home I found the pattern and now the shawl is coming along (see below). Still, every now and then the stitch count will be off, or I will forget to do a certain stitch pattern, and I’ll begin that row again. It’s analogous to the cycle of my daily meditations: starting with the desired inner stillness, experiencing the intrusion of mental chitchat, returning without judgment to stillness.
And, of course, that’s the writiing process too: trying something, realizing it’s not working out, scrapping it, doing it over, as many times as it take to get it the way I want it.
I wish you a serene February as we wait for nature’s annual do-over in the glory of Spring!
Mimi
P.S. A request: if you’ve read or listened to Stones River and enjoyed it, I’d be inexpressibly grateful for a rating and/or comment on Amazon. Positive reader responses make all the difference to us indie authors. If you'd like to order a copy, here's the link, and thank you! amazon.com/author/mimijo575
P. P. S. Future newsletters will offer discounts and giveaways for Stones River and Soldier’s Joy. Subscribe below to stay in the know!
The “Un-cursed prayer shawl”