Roni Hall | Updates

A Little Bit About Me . . . and What I Didn’t Know

Roni Hall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The summer after high school graduation, I worked two jobs to pay for nursing school. During the midnight shift as a waitress, a charismatic young man at the counter flirted with me for hours as he consumed seven cups of coffee.

For the next month, the hot guy visited the restaurant on my shift flirting with me enough to earn warnings from my boss. At this point I began to believe that he liked the coffee but not me. Why hadn’t he asked me out?

Finally, one night about 3:30am, he shyly asked, “You don’t want to go for a motorcycle ride in the morning, do you?”

“YES!” I almost screamed in reply. Finally!

I got off work at 7am and he was to pick me up at 7:30. I flew home, changed and waited by the door.

I waited…and waited…and waited. No call, no doorbell. I had been up all night working. After an hour I went to bed. Three hours later the telephone rang. It was HIM.

“I fell asleep. I am so sorry. Can I pick you up now?”

My better judgment and pride told me to cancel but I had waited 30 days for this and I wasn’t about to miss it. My heart said yes.

Ten minutes later he was at my doorstep. White tee shirt, jeans, long hair, beard, and motorcycle. I still remember the look on my mother’s face . . . NOT GOOD!

What did my mother know? What could go wrong?

What I didn’t know

He didn’t even own a motorcycle. After I accepted his invite, he rushed to his best friend’s house and ‘borrowed’ his motorcycle.

Within minutes of picking me up, he cut off a metro city bus.

What I didn’t know

He had little motorcycle experience. He had never ridden a passenger before.

Twenty miles out of the city he pulled into a deserted wooded cemetery as my brain screamed ‘serial killer!’

What I didn’t know

His grandparents were buried there.

What I didn’t know

The weather forecast! The sky turned black and the clouds opened up with a torrential downpour as we ran out of gas on the freeway. I stayed with the motorcycle as he hiked to the nearest gas station.

What I didn’t know

Motorcycles have a reserve tank, so we weren’t really out of gas…he just didn’t know that.

I barely got home in time to dry off and get ready for a concert date with my 'boyfriend'. (Before you think me a total b#*@!, . . . our high school relationship was on the final days of breaking up and the concert tickets were bought far in advance.)

What I didn’t know

I had just spent my first day with my future best friend and husband.

Like Jamie in Montana Wild, whose insides screamed, warning her of what could happen if she traveled to Montana, I was unsure. And luckily like Jamie, I listened to my gut…and my heart. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. It was one hell of an adventurous ride that changed my life forever!

Kiss life in the face!

Roni

]]>

Encounters…of a special kind

Roni Hall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As a nurse, I encountered numerous memorable patients but there were a few that forever settled into my heart. Montana Wild is fiction, but Jacob, the patient in the story was real. In the span of a human lifetime, I knew him a very short time, but his spirit had a lasting effect on me. Jacob died decades ago but he stays with me and inspired me to write.

How is it that someone I knew for so short a time could have such a lasting effect on me?

Have you ever had a chance encounter with someone. . .a stranger, and you just clicked, even for a few minutes? I am not talking romantically, it goes deeper and more to the core than that. Age, gender, race doesn’t come into play…you just feel a connection with their spirit. In my lifetime, this has happened to me only a handful of times but I cherish each occurrence.

I was in an elevator with a group of people once when it happened…something almost magical. For those few short moments, as we traveled between floors, I felt a kinship… talking, laughing, interacting on a real level, sharing an unusually close rapport of humankind. As the routine journey stopped at every floor, packed in like sardines, we became one…sharing laughter, stories, kindness…basic human spirit.

When we finally reached our destination, I felt sadness when the doors opened and the shared warmth dissipated as we all went our separate ways. I mourned that it was over, but a deep contentment lingered as I knew I had just shared something special. Did everyone feel that same afterglow? I hope so. Why does it happen so rarely?

Jacob’s time with me was short but when a connection like that happens, one cannot measure it in time but in essence. A bit of his spirit lives on in me. It was a gift.

Thank you Jacob.

]]>

Talk About Opposites!

Roni Hall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Question - What could make a born and bred New Yorker leave the city she loves for the mountains and wilderness of Montana?

Before I answer, let’s think about this….

Born and raised in Michigan, I had the opportunity to experience life both in a metropolitan area and (as Michiganders say) ‘up north’, in a more rural setting surrounded by forests and lakes. While this gives me a taste of two diverse settings, neither are the extreme.

I don’t think anyone would argue that New York City is the ultimate urban setting. It is home to over eight million people, not counting tourists and visitors. Wow! Imagine all the stories there. Reaching far to the other side of the spectrum is Montana with a population of just over one million…in the whole state!

We often tend to think of city dwellers as soft because of the many creature comforts a large urban area provides. True, civilization and big cities offer many conveniences but, to survive in NYC, you can’t be a cream puff. Contrary to what many believe, New Yorkers are outside…a lot. Walking to and from subway stops in blustery wind and blowing snow, fierce downpours or hot humid windless days…they need to be tough.

Cement sidewalks, granite curbs and endless stairs in the subway provide a daily work out…all while carrying commuter packs and groceries along with their cup of latte. But New Yorkers love it…they thrive on the hustle bustle. Sidewalks are crammed with people laughing, arguing, deep in conversation or silently immersed in their thoughts. It is a people place.

Montana wilderness, on the other hand, is a land of wide open spaces that offer vistas of tree topped mountains, ice cold rivers and of course, Big Sky. It is rugged country and their people are too. They are hard workers who have a slice of heaven and know it. A giant herd of elk crossing the road is the only time you’ll get stuck in traffic. It’s been said that the whole state is just one big small town.

Imagine as a New Yorker, trading in your sky scrapers for majestic pines. Instead of bumping shoulders on the crowded street you walk alone on dirt paths leading up a mountain side. Rather than inhaling exhaust fumes, your lungs are greeted with crisp, pine scented air. In place of blaring taxi horns, your ears are filled with nature’s symphony of birds singing to the tune of tree branches swaying in the wind.

If you are a city dweller, would you welcome the paradox world of Montana or find fault in it? Would you struggle like a fish out of water or welcome the flip-side of life?

In Montana Wild, Jamie the protagonist, struggles with guilt as she falls in love with Montana. New York City is her home…her first and only love and she has become unfaithful. While New York is still her heart, Montana has opened up a new chamber that she didn’t know existed. Blindsided by the rush of new experiences, emotions and wildlife, she tries to deny the change within. She is conflicted…should she resist or give in to the transformation?

Personally I love both worlds and would have a tough time choosing. I’ve always wondered if I am tough enough to live in NYC full time, 365 days a year, surrounded by millions every day. Or could I survive a Montana winter in the mountains, as Mother Nature blankets the state with an often brutal wintery wonderland.

It couldn’t be the physical environment alone that would cause me to pull up my roots and move. Certainly there were factors swaying Jamie’s decision. What were her reasons? What would push her over the edge?

Answer –

a) the bond she shares with her co-rescuer after cheating death while rescuing a child

b) a surreal encounter with a divine spirit

c) befriending a volatile stallion

d) having the perfect man pursue you

e) majestic mountains

f) all of the above

What about you? What would it take for you to pick up and impulsively move to an opposite world?

]]>

New Book Covers!

Roni Hall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

My NY publisher, Soul Mate Publishing, has closed. The silver lining is that both my books, Montana Wild and Third Man on the Left have undergone face lifts with new covers!

Same intriguing adventure/suspense stories have been republished and are now available on Amazon.

Embedded Youtube video removed, see original post to watch.
Embedded Youtube video removed, see original post to watch.

]]>

Winner!

Roni Hall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Third Man on the Left was voted Favorite Mystery/Thriller 2024 for the prestigious Raven Awards of UncagedBooks.com!

]]>

Runner Up!

Roni Hall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

2022 Runner-Up Reward of Novel Excellence for Suspense/Thriller by InD'tale Magazine

]]>