Dancing through Life Series

What do you do when life knocks you off balance? Sara, a senior at Michigan State University, is looking forward to graduation and starting her life with her fiancé when he breaks off the engagement. Joy, a ballet instructor, is happily married and expecting her third child when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Esther is planning on continuing at her current place of employment until retirement when she finds herself unemployed with few job skills. Each needs to find a "new normal" and regain their balance on this high wire we call life.   Dancing on a High Wire will show you how three women manage this rebalancing act. Their stories will inspire you and help you with your own struggle to maintain a balance in this crazy world in which we live.

“Healing is a slow process. It’s a slow waltz. It can’t be rushed. But it can help if you have others by your side,” Pastor Joe tells Ava. It’s been over a year and yet Dale still feels numb, like he is only half alive. Meanwhile Ava is running away from her past and Kathleen struggles to keep the dance studio, Joy’s legacy, alive amidst mounting bills. The road to healing from loss is a slow one, sometimes going backward and sideways before going forward. Sometimes the biggest barrier to healing lies within us. Join Dale, Kathleen, Ava and others as they journey through the road to forgiveness and healing. A book for anyone in need of healing from life’s hurts.

Some phone calls we love, others we hate, like the ones Pastor Joe receives from his daughter's school. Or the one Dale received at work, letting him know his wife, Joy, had fallen and was in route to the hospital by ambulance. Less than two years ago, while pregnant with their third child, Joy had a cancerous lump on her breast. After a tumultuous year including surgery, chemo, radiation and the birth of Grace, she has been cancer free. Could her cancer be back? Despite all of her struggles, Joy continues to dance amidst the hardships of life. Share in one family’s struggle with cancer and how it challenges their faith in the sequel to Dancing on a High Wire, volume II of Dancing Through Life Series.

The Irish slip jig is set in 9/8 signature time, unusual and a little off balance, like life! Kathleen didn't know about the slip jig, but she knew about slipping up. It seems her life was one long slip step! As was Chloe's, whose life was knocked off balance when her dancing career was side-lined by an unplanned pregnancy. And then there was that fiery red-head, Mary Helen, who fell in love with an American soldier. Was it a slip-step or one of life's fortuitous missteps that brought them precisely where they were meant to be? An Irish Slip Step is the story of a young Irish lass and her American GI who found each other in Northern Ireland at the end of WWII. Separated by miles of water, would they ever be able to be together? The fourth book in the Dancing through Life Series, it is a tender love story that will speak to your heart.

Some secrets you just have to keep to yourself because they are so delicious. They melt like chocolate in your mouth on a hot summer day. You want to hold them for as long as possible, never giving away to the need to swallow.            Other secrets are too good to keep to yourself. They beg to be shared, taunting you, "tell me, tell me!" And then there are those we wish we had never found out. Pastor Joe's church secretary retired a year ago. Since then he has struggled to find the right person to fill this position. Enter Marcie, a twenty-something college dropout, trying to find her way in the world. A church secretary was the last job she would have chosen, but she makes the best of it by entertaining herself with real and imagined secrets about church members, until she stumbles upon a secret she would rather not know. Once known, there was no turning back. Book five of the Dancing through Life Series, it is a great summer read, entertaining and engaging. Join Marcie as she finds the purpose she sought for her life. Patricia M. Robertson is the author of fiction and non-fiction books as well as numerous articles all related to spirituality of everyday life.  She currently resides in Jackson, Michigan, where she continues to unlock the extraordinary out of the ordinary.

Some questions are so big, they can take a lifetime to answer. They are big enough for you to live in, walk around in them, taste them, touch them, and test them. These are not questions to be taken lightly. They are beautiful questions. Gwen, at 21, was no closer to knowing what she wanted to do with her life than when she started college four years ago. She had more questions than she had answers. What she did know was that she wanted out of Cascade Falls and as far away from her mother as possible. And if that meant working as a secretary at her church to gain money to make this happen ... so be it. Meanwhile, Pastor Joe is asking Kathleen, "Where is this relationship going?" Book six of Dancing through Life Series, Beautiful Questions invites you to explore unanswered questions and maybe raise a few new ones. Join Gwen as she struggles to break free from negative influences from her past, find direction for her life, and forge a new relationship with her mother. 

Lyrical Dance – a dance choreographed to a song about overcoming obstacles What do you do when all you've ever known about yourself, what gave your life meaning, is wiped away? How do you get it back? All of her life Esther has taken care of others. How can she let others take care of her? Will she ever be herself again? Meanwhile, Kathleen struggles to understand what it is to be a pastor's wife. Who is she now that she's married? Is it possible to grieve over the loss of a dream she didn't even know she had? Book seven of the Dancing through Life Series, Lyrical Dance explores the question of suffering in this life. Why do good people suffer? How do we go on in the face of suffering? Join Esther, Kathleen and other members of the Reese family as they continue to deal with life's challenges and find ways not only to survive, but to thrive.

All of her life, Letty has struggled to fit in. There is the middle-class world of her parents, the white middle-class world of her friends, and the poverty-stricken world of her cousins. Letty's five years in New York with the Alvin Ailey dance troupe challenged her to grow not just as a dancer, but as an African American, claiming her heritage. Now she couldn't wait to get this cast off her foot and back to dancing barefoot with Alvin Alley. But an unexpected opportunity may keep her in Michigan. Will she ever find her place in the world? Ashley also struggles to find her place. At sixteen, she continues to assert her independence and upset the family dynamics as she challenges beliefs and paves her own path. Book eight of the Dancing Through Life Series, Freedom Dance is a celebration of freedom—freedom to choose whom we marry, our profession, where we live. Freedom is bought at a price, Letty realizes as she learns about her ancestors, runaway slaves who came to Michigan by way of the Underground Railroad.

If you love Christmas and stories (and who doesn't?), you will love Christmas in Cascade Falls, small town Michigan.  Travel back in time to the Underground Railroad and Civil War period. Venture across the Atlantic and across time to celebrate Christmas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during 1935. Explore the wonderful "What Ifs" of life and join two star-crossed lovers as they try to make their relationship work. Enjoy Christmas through a dog's eyes and the eyes of the animals in a stable. This and more await you.  While these stories are an addition to the Dancing Through Life series, you need not have read the series to enjoy these stories of life, light and love, all set around Christmas. So, pour yourself some hot cocoa or cider, munch on some Christmas cookies, prop up your feet, relax, and enjoy.    Patricia M. Robertson is the author of fiction and non-fiction books as well as numerous articles all related to spirituality of everyday life. She currently resides in Jackson, Michigan, where she continues to unlock the extraordinary out of the ordinary.