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May 6, 2015

Meg Moseley, Rachel Hauck and Lenora Worth: Three Memories of Books and Moms

Posted by emily

In the spirit of their book, SPRING BRIDES: Three Novellas --- which tells three separate love stories, all set in spring --- Meg Moseley, Rachel Hauck and Lenora Worth all share a lovely memory of how their mothers instilled a lifelong love of reading. From not-so-covert reading under the covers after lights out, to nighttime reveries inspired by bedside stories, to prescient trips to the library with an older sister, it’s clear that Meg, Rachel and Lenora do not take their fondness for books --- or the women who inspired it --- for granted.
 



Meg Moseley:
My earliest book memories involve trips to the grocery store, where my mother would let me choose a Little Golden Book even when times were tough and she shouldn’t have spent that extra 29 cents. We didn’t have a lot of money, but she taught me by example that books are necessities, not luxuries.  

When I was older still, she let me walk to the library as often as I needed to, and I brought home as many books as I could carry. The children’s library was a cozy little haven in the basement of the building, and I loved it, but my parents soon gave me free rein in the “grown up” library upstairs. It was heaven to a book-hungry kid.

My mom encouraged rampant bookishness in our family. We had books everywhere --- on the furniture, under the furniture, double-stacked in bookcases and piled on the floor beside our beds. She even tolerated my habit of taking a book up a tree to the roof of our house so I could read without interruptions, and she never seemed to notice when I read under the covers with a flashlight, long past bedtime. I thought I was getting away with something. Now I realize she knew what I was doing, and she approved. I will always be grateful for the many ways in which she led me into a lifelong love of good books.

Rachel Hauck: Growing up, bedtime was fun time for us kids. We were allowed to read for a half hour (or longer if we begged) once we crawled under the covers.

This originated with my sweet mother, and to this day, my siblings and I are big readers. Reading before going to bed was where my dreams began!

I’d crawl into the covered wagon with Laura Ingalls Wilder and traverse the wide plains. I felt for the courageous heroine of PLAIN GIRL. I embraced growing up with Judy Blume’s ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET.

Reading inspired me to write. I kept diaries of my own growing up from the age of 13 to 31, and now I write novels for a living.

So thank you, Mom, for inspiring me to read and write. I’m pretty sure pieces of you show up in every one of my heroines.

Lenora Worth: One of my older sisters took me to the Carnegie Library when I was maybe eight or nine and signed me up for story time on Saturdays. I still remember the musky smell of old books, brimming with the scent of adventure. I fell in love with books instantly, and to this day I credit my sister for seeing something in me that no one else could see. She just knew. The gap in our ages made her my second mother.

In 1991, she was killed in a car wreck. I sold my first book in 1993 and then two more on my birthday the next year. Sixty or so books later, I know she is up there cheering me on. Because of her legacy, I passed on my love of books to both of my children. While grown, they still love to read, and I’m so thankful for that.