White dimity curtains—with a windowpane pattern, of course—dance in the breeze at windows sporting red geraniums in boxes. At an antique spinet desk, a woman sits, her fingers flying over the keys of a Remington Rand typewriter—custom painted aqua, of course. And as her fingers do their dances, Continue Reading
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When You Root for the Wrong Team: Out of Darkness
Go… go… GO! Get the—” A hand claps over my mouth. Red faces all around me. Glares. Snickers. Angry fans who turn to give me their .02 until they realize I’m five. Yeah. I was rooting for the wrong team. You know… my brother is playing for one. We’re on “our” side of the bleachers. But Continue Reading
The Perplexing Question of the Doors: How One Life Changed
“You wake up in an unfamiliar room. Picture it—is it a living room? A bedroom? A kitchen?” The class eyed one another with a predictable combination of confusion and annoyance. Seated square in the middle of the room, Lance Pengully kept his expression bored— a move of self-preservation. But Continue Reading
What Happens When You Find Yourself in a Book?
The page turned before I realized that I’d done the turning. Another. Another. On those pages, I saw a girl I used to know—one passionate for the Lord and His people. I recognized her indignation at injustice and her inconsistencies. Another page turned. And another girl—I recognized myself Continue Reading
What Book Jumped to the Top of my 2018 Wish List?
How the conversation with myself goes when I have a book I've been dying to read. Me: Just one more chapter. Conscience: Why? You know how it’s going to play out. Me: Because it doesn’t feel like I know. Conscience: That makes no sense. Besides, you have a novella to Continue Reading
The Top 4 Things That Recharge Me When I Crash
“She’s a writing machine.” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. There’s this perception among my writerly friends that I just churn out thousands of words, one after the other--and nothing else. Just eat, sleep, breathe, and write (and as to sleeping, I apparently don't do much Continue Reading
What Happens When a Character Dreams about the Future?
A rustle below her woke Cassie. She rolled over, stretched, and banged her hand on the wall—to her right. What? Eyes open, she sat bolt upright in bed and nearly cracked it open on a low overhang above her. “Double what?” Prattle. It hadn’t been a rustle, it was prattle—childish prattle. And Continue Reading
The Hard Truth about “The Return”: My Biased Review
So what do you do when you have three books due, one to edit, a filthy house, and a year’s planning to consider when you remember that you are supposed to review a book. By tomorrow. What? You spend the evening reading a book, of course. It’s kind of natural to have one eye on the clock or Continue Reading
What Did I Think of Wounded in the Church?
We looked at each other, the Bible verses, and back at each other. Kevin sighed. I wanted to cry. And to be honest, I regretted ever diving into studying that particular theological position. If we acknowledged and embraced it. Our lives would change forever. Hours later, in the darkness of our Continue Reading
Have You Ever Wondered What Inspires a Novel?
A few years ago, I joined the “Blogging for Books” program with Multnomah. Every few weeks, I’d get an email from Liz Johnson or another gal (I want to call her Abby), offering a new book to read. And when Liz left there to become an author, she sent me (and I assume others) an email thanking me for Continue Reading
The 8 Worst Words of Homeschooling Advice & How to Avoid Them
August. The final month (for practical purposes) of those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Popsicles, dashes to the pool, watermelon—lots of delicious watermelon while it lasts. And then it hits: back to school time. But with it is back to school season with those long lists of school supplies, Continue Reading
A Day in the Life of a Weird Writer Living in a Dream World
The scent of coffee wafts from the kitchen, through the living room, across the three-foot square we call a hallway, under my door, into my fan, and blows the homey perfume into my dreams and wakes me. Stretches, a sigh. I peel off my eye mask and blink. Flinging back the covers, I jerk open the Continue Reading
