August 1, my debut novel, An Anchor on Her Heart, releases for distribution. For the next several weeks I’ll be offering insights into what prompted the story and why I wrote what I did. The story behind the story— When my college graduate son landed a job as an observer biologist with the National Marine […]
Faith Matters
Abba Father
This week I attended a memorial service for a young man who died too soon. He had once been a six-year-old in the Bible club where I was a leader. I remembered him as ambitious, who always tried to have his Bible verses ready to recite each week. Now thirteen years later, he was gone. […]
Summer Anyone?
As I stood at my kitchen window this week and watched rain pelt my patio and the wind whip the trees, I struggled to remember that the summer solstice is a mere eleven days away. Dubbed the wettest Oregon spring in one hundred years, I marveled at how this season differed from last year. The […]
Good Summer Reading
When someone mentions Amish fiction to you, how do you react? Do you yearn for a simpler lifestyle, where farm animals factor into your life, and a slower pace fills your days? Or does the word evoke something else in you, an overdone retelling of a life that most […]
Mother’s Day Beginnings
Mother’s Day means many things to different people. Most of us view the date as a way to show honor to our mothers, often bestowing gifts and sentiments to them. But, originally, the day began for a very different reason. The observance grew out of a movement known as the Mothers’ Day Work Clubs, designed […]
Launching A Book–Part 3
Edits. Track Changes. Copy Edits. Proofreading copy. More edits. Deadlines. Deadlines. Deadlines. Launching a book is not the process I thought it would be when I first signed my contract. These past few weeks I put the finishing touches on the final proofread of book one before […]
The Saddest, Gladdest Day
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the […]
Hosanna Procession
A friend entered eternity this week. She’d been an inspiration to me, her attitude toward life one of positive assurance that God would take care of her. She’d reared three children after her husband left to find other women, had worked as a fraternity cook for nearly three decades, and had walked the cancer journey […]
The Dogwood Has Bloomed
The dogwood has bloomed. The tree sits on a corner along the street I follow to get to my bank. Every year I anticipate the arrival of the flowers, waiting for the splash of white blossoms to stir my heart as I hurry down the thoroughfare. Not only is the sight breathtaking, it reminds me […]
Carrying Another’s Burdens
I thought I was going to slip out of winter this year without being hit by one of the inevitable viruses that seem to affect most who reside in the wet and cold Willamette Valley. But not to be left out, I developed a persistent cough two days before “spring” arrived and began the downward […]