Our church was packed Sunday morning. Communion Sundays aren’t typically that well-attended, for a variety of reasons, but today the sanctuary overflowed. I sat there during the Prelude, mentally listing the possible reasons people would gather en masse the Sunday after several area schools have been closed and students encouraged not to congregate due to a few confirmed cases of …
A Strong Woman Named Mono
To celebrate the release of Murder at Eagle Summit, I was recently invited to post on author Lyn Cote’s blog about a strong woman in my life. It’s hard to pick just one strong woman to write about, because I come from a family of them. We’re from the south, and southern women are known for their inner strength, well-hidden …
Revelation – a Book for Today!
My Bible study group is neck-deep in the book of Revelation. Funny, in the weeks leading up to the beginning of this study, the apprehension in the group was palpable. Only a few of us had ever read Revelation before, and one lady said she had stayed away from it her whole life out of fear. But on the very …
Humphrey Bogart Rides Again!
Okay, not really Bogie, but if you enjoyed movies like The Matarese Circle and Casablanca, you absolutely need to read Miss Match, by Sara Mills. Set in 1947, the story takes Allie Fortune (who made her first appearance in Mills’ debut novel, Miss Fortune) from the streets of New York City all the way to Berlin. In 1947, that’s not …
A Great Weekend
It’s been a terrific weekend! I flew back to Kentucky last week, and have enjoyed a whirlwind of activity since. The family is all doing well. The house is still standing. (Though a tree suffered major damage from the ice storm earlier this year and will have to come down. Bummer!) On Saturday I rode with author Ann H. Gabhard …
Fools – April and Otherwise
I’m speaking at a couple of churches this week, and the topic, appropriately enough, is Fools. I’ve had a blast doing Fool Research, looking at anything the Internet has to offer on Fools and April Fool’s Day. PranksI found a bunch of really good ones, but here are a couple of notable pranks: In 1957, the BBC announced that, thanks …
Naughty or Nice?
I came across a fascinating article the other day. The Yale University Infant Cognition team conducted a study that proves human beings prefer kindness over meanness. They created a roller-coaster-like contraption, and put a little wooden toy with human-like eyes on it to climb laboriously up the hills. As babies between 6 and 10 months old watched, other toys came …
Read Any Good Books Lately?
I have, and I want to tell you about a few of them. The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner was named EPCA’s Book of the Year in the fiction category just recently, and I know why. It’s an awesome book, beautifully written and thoroughly captivating. When 19-yr-old Lauren takes a part time job transcribing a centuries-old diary for an …
Hugs from God’s Arms
Did you ever have one of those times when your outlook on life is just plain gloomy? I’m there lately, for a variety of reasons that I won’t list. Because I know the Source of joy, I’ve been praying for an extra dose of comfort. The other day my morning prayer time was full of complaints like, “I can’t hear …
The Value of Friends and Writers Conferences
Writing is a solitary profession. Writers spend long hours practicing our craft in the confines of our offices, often going for months without seeing anyone else in our industry. This is hard, especially for novelists who, by nature, like people. In fact, the solitude was one of the most difficult adjustments I had to make when I left the corporate …