The Library

The Crone's List

Two older women say what others will not.

By Sheralynn Ries & Vivian McDermott

Marie and Joan have been best friends since they were 16. Through dating, marriage, and parenting, they have been there for each other. Now in their 60s, they call themselves wise and helpful Crones.

Their new mission is to help Marie's granddaughter Samantha. Samantha is starting college, but her plan is to find Mr. Right, get married, and drop out.

So the Crones start sending care packages and letters filled with stories and advice. Soon they become a hit in the dorm. What begins as letters turns into video chats with Samantha and her friends, where two older women share what they have learned about love.

Crazy Quilt Family

For Liz Baxter, high school graduation should be the beginning of everything. She will marry Drew, move to his family farm, and live happily ever after.

Then news of the draft comes to Shelby, Montana. Drew is called to serve in World War II. Afraid he will not come home, he breaks it off and tells her not to wait for him.

Now Drew is gone, and Liz is facing an even bigger truth. She is expecting a baby. Unable to tell Drew or his parents, she must make difficult choices that will shape her life and the future of her child.

A wartime goodbye and a secret she cannot keep.

By Vivian McDermott

Kate's Path

By Vivian McDermott

When life falls apart, she builds a new kind of family.

Kate's life crumbles when her husband Charlie dies in a tragic accident. In her grief, she learns she is pregnant. She packs up and moves home with her parents.

Just before her daughter Karly turns two, Kate moves to the city to finish school. There she meets Amanda, another single mother looking for support. They make a plan that sounds crazy. They will team up and raise their two baby girls together as one household. For twenty years, it works.

Now their daughters are moving out and Amanda is engaged. Facing an empty nest, Kate sets out on a bike trip across Montana. Along the way she meets new people and must face her past, including the in-laws she lost when she lost Charlie.

Adventures of a VIP

Diana has spent most of her life feeling like something is not right, and worrying that the problem might be her. She struggles to tell colors apart, trips over curbs and small children, and does not always recognize people and places she knows well. Fashion mistakes, bike accidents, and car accidents make her worry even more.

Friends and family tell her to get her eyes checked again. The eye doctor says her prescription has not changed. She is just near sighted. She tries harder to pay attention, but still feels clumsy and inattentive.

Based on the author's own life, this is the story of one Montana woman navigating the world before and after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at age 56.

She thought she was clumsy. The truth was in her eyes.

By Vivian McDermott

Hope for a VIP

By Vivian McDermott

Told there was no cure, she went looking for hope.

At 56, Diana was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. The doctor said there was no cure. Her own research confirmed it.

She tried to adjust with a good attitude. Sometimes she went weeks without searching for a cure. Then one day she found something new. Not a cure, but a treatment.

A treatment was better than nothing. And so began her journey of hope.

The Virus and the VIP

Diana Tucker has retinitis pigmentosa. Doctors told her there was no treatment or cure. She found a clinic in New Jersey that had treated vision issues with acupuncture for over twenty years. The treatment helped her. Her plan was to travel from Montana to New Jersey twice a year to keep the vision she had left.

Then the pandemic came and everything changed. People died and everyone was afraid. Experts could not agree on what to do. Travel was restricted and businesses shut down. Those in power made the rules but did not always follow them.

Diana had to use courage, common sense, and faith to find her way through the confusion.

When the world shut down, she still had to save her sight.

By Vivian McDermott