win two signed copies of The House on Fortune Street

One summer during college I stayed on campus and worked in a quarry from 6am to 4pm. Dusty, dirty work. I drove home one weekend to visit my family and generally refresh. On the way back I took my favorite back road, which took me winding through the countryside past creeks, abandoned farms, and tall corn fields. I slowed down somewhat to cross train tracks in the middle of nowhere. As soon as I passed I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that a train was now rushing by on those same tracks. The song playing on the radio in my ol' VW: Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

Last year I was selected to be a juror twice. I was actually looking forward to it, because I had been summoned repeatedly, but dismissed at the end of a day of sitting and waiting. Once all the jurors on the case were assembled, we discovered that another female juror shared my last name. The judge asked if we were related, (which we are not), and we looked at each other in surprise. Even more coincidental was that we both lived in the same suburb of San Diego only three blocks from each other! We ended up sharing a ride for two weeks to the trial.

I always wanted to go to BYU but went to SUUinstead. That is where I met my husband. There were many times before and while we were dating that I was thinking of going to UVU where my mother works, because I could go for free. Something always kept me in Cedar to attend SUU, eventually we ended up getting married and I think back that if I went to school somewhere else I would have never met him. We have been married 5 yes now and have 2 girls.

It is hard to tell when something is fate or coincidence. I originally enrolled and began attending Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. I became very homesick and just did not feel like that was the place for me. So, home I go to Tallahassee, FL. I started attending Florida State University and became very good friends with a girl in my major. One day she invited me to go out with her and a few friends, asking me to PLEASE go with her as an ex-boyfriend of hers was going along and if she went along it would be pairings of couple and she and her ex. So, along I go and meet a funny, burly guy who I instantly take a liking to. We started dating and it just felt right! We moved in together about a month later and have never looked back. He and I have been together for nine years, married for six and have a beautiful five year old son. I cannot imagine my life turning out any differently. Now, whether my meeting my husband is fate or coincidence is up to the you to decide. I feel it was fate as I would never have met him if I didn't move home, start attending FSU and gone into Psychology as my major (I was going to Flagler as a Secondary Education major). If it is coincidence I have a strange twist for you: my husband ended up getting his Business degree from a satellite campus of....Flagler College!

Every summer, something different happens to my mother.
One summer, she almost had a heart attack. Last summer, her appendix burst.
Each summer, I find myself back in that same hospital waiting room with my family, waiting for any news. Each summer, I find myself standing next to my mother's bed, reading and crying, telling her I love her every few seconds.
My mother is always fine. We pull through, my family. I look forward to the summers, the things that will happen, ways I will grow. I know that, if something happens to my mother, that I will be alright, in the end.
Fate, coincidence, has been on my side so far.

On the way home to DC from NYC where I'd been visiting a friend for the weekend, I snagged an aisle seat in the train and spread my stuff all over the inside seat to discourage invaders. It worked until Trenton where a guy who looked, to me anyway, like Christopher Reeve playing Clark Kent, asked politely if I'd mind if he sat next to me. He said it was the last empty seat in the car. He sat. We had the kind of open, tell-all conversation for the next several hours that I only have with people I assume I'll never see again.

Looking back through 25 years of marriage to the guy, I wonder what would have happened if there had been another empty seat?

On the flight to Seattle where I was going to visit a friend, I began reading a novel by a Norwegian author (in English translation), Jostein Gaarder. It was the first time I'd read any Norwegian writer.

In Seattle, to my surprise, my friend introduced me to a good friend of his -- who was from Norway. I pulled out the novel from my bag and brandished it before my new (and now astonished) Norwegian friend. He told me about some of the places mentioned in the book, on the south coast of Norway. It provided a flying start (which was so much faster than the flight to Seattle) to this new friendship.

Growing up, I wanted to be a cop. My dad was a cop. Whether I should connect those last two sentences with "even though" or "because" or "and" I don't really know. He always told me he liked helping and protecting people and I told him I knew girls liked men in uniforms. One day, a girl who liked men in uniforms called our house and my dad became summer vacations, but I still wanted to be a cop.

Shortly thereafter, my sophomore American Lit teacher convinced me that I wanted to be a writer. I should write, study writers, study writing and enroll in college to access teachers of writing and other people who wanted to be writers, she said.

I wanted to go to college. Dad wanted me to be a cop, like him. He offered to help pay for college only if I majored in Criminal Justice so I could help victims (and maybe wear a uniform). Why not? He'll never know which classes I enroll in. So, I told him I wanted to be a cop. Tuition bills for the first two years of general study were paid and transcript records were cared less about.

During the same summer which I officially declared my major as "English" and subsequently enrolled in a majority of poetry and fiction workshops, some type of funding for college tuition became available through the township police department that my dad worked for. To get these monies, documents had to be furnished which proved a course of study related, even remotely, to law enforcement. Dad contacted the university for my enrollement history, and the rest is history. I told him I didn't want to be a cop, anymore.

Among the few pictures I keep of my dad is a black and white one of him walking the beat in downtown Canton with his parter. The picture is taken facing them. They are in full dress uniform, full stride, stone-faced, ready to help and protect. I glance at it every now and then and try to know my father better, but I can't. I don't know how I'll feel when he's dead. I hope I can tell him before that I wanted to be a writer.

I think that fate or destiny or coincidence has played a big part in my life, from my meeting my husband, to deciding on the name of our youngest two children. You see I had broken up with my husband to be and I was actually seeing another guy. He wanted me to be with him and to move off with him. But I said I didn't know why but I knew that my husband and I were meant to be together, and one day we would be together again. That same day my husband to be came back into town and the rest is history. We have been together from that day forth. I know too many of the advantages I've had in life were do to be in the right place at exactly the right time. If I had been there earlier or later I would have missed out.

I never will forget this year. My parents decided to separate during my last year of high school. This had really taken a toll on me. I slowly went from going to school everyday to maybe only 3 days out the week. When my dad left there was more pressure on my mom. She had to pay her bills and my dad's since he stopped paying, the lawyer fees, she was more than ready for a divorce by then, and also buying groceries for our house. Eventually her hours got cut until she was soon laid off. I graduated high school that same month. The next month i was able to hold a summer job for a month. I was so proud to help out around the house and to lessen the stress off of my mom. I am 18 and two months ago i got back with the boy who gave me my first kiss when we were 11. My mom,my brothers, and i are trying to start our own bussinesses. My mom has court for the divorce in a week or two. We are also planning to move very soon. Since my dad stop paying on the house, our current house is in foreclosure. Everyday i feel like my family is going to make it through. We went through so many unexpected things. We are waiting for so much better to come in our future. I have a gut feeling about this. Wish us luck ; )

I never will forget this year. My parents decided to separate during my last year of high school. This had really taken a toll on me. I slowly went from going to school everyday to maybe only 3 days out the week. When my dad left there was more pressure on my mom. She had to pay her bills and my dad's since he stopped paying, the lawyer fees, she was more than ready for a divorce by then, and also buying groceries for our house. Eventually her hours got cut until she was soon laid off. I graduated high school that same month. The next month i was able to hold a summer job for a month. I was so proud to help out around the house and to lessen the stress off of my mom. I am 18 and two months ago i got back with the boy who gave me my first kiss when we were 11. My mom,my brothers, and i are trying to start our own bussinesses. My mom has court for the divorce in a week or two. We are also planning to move very soon. Since my dad stop paying on the house, our current house is in foreclosure. Everyday i feel like my family is going to make it through. We went through so many unexpected things. We are waiting for so much better to come in our future. I have a gut feeling about this. Wish us luck ; )

Up until the divorce, I thought I was in control of my life and had actually made real choices. This experience showed me I wasn't. Suddenly there were lawyers and a judge who were in control of my fate. I looked at my whole life and found I had been delusional. I never did have the range of control I had thought. Everything, from what I wore to what I ate and what car I drove, were mostly in the hands of others. The life lesson, in the aftermath, was to find a balance. I can't control everything about my fate, but I can exert more direction.

The most recent that comes to mind,& really freaked me out at the time, happened a few weeks ago. I left the house early, a momentous departure from usual, for an appointment. There were not one but two car accidents on the route I traveled just moments after i passed. I heard the sirens as I arrived at my destination. Several other people were detoured way around them & arrived rather late for their appointments. Fate definitely played a hand for all of us that day, especially those involved in the accident.

I moved to Arkansas from Arizona in 2002 to get married. That didn't work out well for me. But 2 yrs later I met my current husband. I think God brought me to Arkansas to meet him..my soulmate....here's my story!
Three years ago.
We met at a coffee house. I stood next to my car as I watched him pull in. These dating sites don’t give near enough information I thought in frustration. He got out of his truck and walked over and said hello with a southern twang that would make even the most seasoned southerner wince. I sighed. Not my type I thought, but I’m here so I’ll at least go in and get a cup of coffee with him. After all, he did take the time to meet me. I’ll be out in 30 minutes tops I thought to myself and at least I’m not home alone with the dog and TV again!
Four hours later we walked out together. Wow! What an impression he made on me. We hugged goodnight and got in our separate vehicles.
Driving home I wondered if he would call me. Probably not I thought. Way too nice for me. I never get the nice guys. I don’t have that kind of radar.
The next day was full of meetings and I didn’t get a chance to look at my cell until late afternoon. First thing I noticed was that there was a message. Could it be from him?
My fingers kind of tingled as I pressed the buttons on the phone. Sure enough it was from him. Telling me he had a good time last night and would like to go out again and how about dinner Saturday night? His voice was confident yet tentative at the same time. Why he’s a nervous as I am, I thought. Why did that twang suddenly seem so unimportant?
I called him back and we met for dinner that Saturday night. I look back now and smile to myself. He was so sweet. So nice. So polite. I so enjoyed myself.
The kids liked him. The dog liked him. My friends liked him. I loved him.
We had a beautiful Christmas wedding. When he said I do his voice was like music to my ears.
Present time.
We have now been married 8 months and I love him more each day.
Not a bad ending to “he’s not my type”.

I moved to Arkansas from Arizona in 2002 to get married. That didn't work out well for me. However after being divorced for 2 years I met my current husband. I believe that God brought me to Arkansas to meet him...my soulmate. Here's my story of how we met.

My career began as a volunteer through Girl Scouts. I worked 2 hours a week, assisting a Girl Scout troop of deaf girls. 40 years later, I retired after from a career dedicated to deaf and hard of hearing students. It all started because I wanted to earn a service bar.

I believe that our lives are fragile but we don't quite realize that fragility until fate throws it in our faces and makes us stop! I've lost 3 children due to miscarriages. I've carried one baby to term....and I loved him like crazy the moment he was born. He was perfect in my eyes and I guess I took for granted that his health was perfect as well. Fate stepped in and reminded me very quickly not to take anything for granted, especially not my newborn sons health. At five weeks old, Logan had surgery for Pyloric Stenosis. Now, he is a wonderfully healthy, active, and imaginative 2 yr old. I see his scar every night at bathtime and every morning when I get him dressed. It serves as a reminder for me that nothing is forever, and to take nothing for granted. I could have lost my beautiful son, but fate had other plans for us!

I had never been fired from a job until 1995 - that year, just one week after separating from my husband and signing a new lease for me and my two toddler daughters I was fired. I was also shocked and scared. But I got another job within days and 2 years later at this new job I met my then future husband. We have been married for 8 years and have a 5 year old son - so I think that fate had a hand in me losing my job as I was "comfortable" and with the other changes in my life would not have made a move to a new job - and would never have met my wonderful husband!

I wasn't looking for a relationship when I went to California for a business meeting - - but I found it. We've been married 39 years!

Fate has stepped in a number of times. When I was getting very comfortable as a college Sophomore and feeling very important, My brother died delivering blood on a mercy mission in Vietnam; When I was settling into my new married life, my father died unexpectedly; when my husband & I were preparing a visit from all of our sons for the holidays, my oldest brother died of cancer much earlier than expected.
Now as my husband and I prepared to enjoy our golden years and plan for retirement, I was laid off after 12 years with my employer. You could say, we should not make any plans!