Third baby. Birthing Center. A cold, May night. While I labored, breathing through each contraction, a favorite book played out on the TV. I couldn’t believe it. Anne of Green Gables—as a movie. Brilliant movie… or so it seemed between contractions that never seemed to let up. The world’s most Continue Reading
“Bringing in the May” ~a FREE May Day Short Story
I remember her voice... soft, eager. Mom was always as steady as Gibralter, but occasionally, I knew something really meant a lot to her because her voice would get that special quality to it. "We'll just put these flowers in this like this..." She tucked white alyssum in the little plastic Continue Reading
What Makes Presumption & Partiality So Great, Anyway?
“We’re doing retellings of Austen’s works but set in America during the Depression.” Over Facebook messenger, Rebekah Jones told me how she’d been given Pride and Prejudice as her inspiration. All I could think of was, When’ll it be done? I’ve got to read this! “I think I’ll make Darcy part Continue Reading
Have I Ever Mentioned How Much I Hate Cancer?
The old-style letter came disguised as an email. But despite the digital delivery, the contents could have been handwritten with a fountain pen or dip quill. The subject, simple. Thank you for your books. I get a lot of emails—dozens, often hundreds—every day. The quick answers I usually zip Continue Reading
So, Why Guide Your Mind & Guard Your Heart?
The first wince came. Because I have a gift (or curse—depending on your perspective. Just call me Monk) for being able to see both sides of an issue, I decided to assume it meant what wasn’t actually stated. Because, as we all know, Christianese sometimes uses phrases that are metaphoric. You Continue Reading
What I Thought of The Tempering Agent
Victorville. 1981. My parents and I went to the movies just a few weeks before I turned eleven. They wanted to see Clash of the Titans. It sounded boring to me. I opted, instead, to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. Mom and Dad thought it sounded ridiculous. So, when we met up again outside the Continue Reading
Which of These 12 Killer Authors Will I Read First?
After months of figuring out ambiguous clues in Fine Print, deciding they were too obscure, adding a bit more clarity, removing clarity, and adding a bit more in again, you’d think the last thing I’d want is a new mystery to read. Yeah. Not hardly. I found myself digging through page after page Continue Reading
3 Compelling (if Ridiculous) Reasons to Avoid This Author
So Wednesday morning, at o’dark-thirty, I got horrible news. The day only got worse from there. What began with a publishing mess morphed into a missed deadline, compounded into wasted time, and finally ended with a helpful reminder email.You’ve got a book review due.Drat!If it didn’t mean Continue Reading
How to Ruin a Great Book Review in 5 Simple Steps
The review burned holes into my eyes. On my youth adventure fantasy novel, Shadows & Secrets the insanely short, 1-star review mortified me. I can’t even bring myself to go look it up again, so I’m going on memory with my best recollection of the one-line review. “It was okay, but there was too Continue Reading
“Time, Time!” She’ll Cry, but There Is No Time!
“Where’s Madeline? I’m going crazy!!!” It’s encouraging when you get emails from readers who saw you say somewhere that you planned to release a book on February 20, 2018 and then they can’t find it anywhere. Add to this the fact that I have a blog tour for this book beginning… um… tomorrow, and Continue Reading
Important Thoughts on Faith, Fellowship, and Mirrors
A few years ago, I saw something happening in homeschooling circles. I saw people excluding others because they weren’t “godly enough.” I saw people withdrawing more and more from the world around them until they became isolated mini-clusters. Look. It’s appealing to people like me. I like being Continue Reading
3 Delightful Things You’ll Love about Phoebe’s Light
“I’m a Quaker.” To be honest, I hadn’t thought of people being Quakers anymore, but there she was, a girl from my town walking to school talking about being a Quaker right then in 1986! I tended to think of Quakers as historical figures. William Penn. Dolly Madison. Then I thought of Benjamin Continue Reading
