In our house the two go hand in hand. In fact, my husband requests “Funny Cake” for every possible celebration—Father’s Day, his birthday, and any other person’s birthday, assuming he can sway them from their own favorite and convince them of the virtues of that Pennsylvania Dutch treat. The original recipe came to me via my mother-in-law, along with a …
Transformational Fiction Fans
A new Face Book Group has launched: Transformational Fiction Fans. Conceived by award-winning author Nikki Arana, author of the newly released The Next Target, Transformational Fiction Fans is a site for readers and writers to connect and talk books that have made or are making a strong impact on their lives—including those with hot button topics. We share news and …
June Roses and Tussie-Mussies
While researching wonderful varieties of flowers and roses and herbs for Promise Me This, I revisited gardens I love—and took up their language, the language of flowers. Accordingly, in the world of tussie-mussies, I am wealthy beyond measure, for today my yard is covered in golden buttercups, the flower symbolizing riches! My riches are rivaled only by coquetry, evidenced by …
“In Flanders Fields”
In the midst of WWI, while all the earth round Ypres lay ripped and torn, trees blown to kindling and men to less, a young Canadian soldier noticed clusters of blood-red poppies in full bloom, sprung from ground freshly turned for burials of his comrades. John McCrae penned a poem that has become synonymous with WWI, and with our call …
Rattling Bones
I just returned from a family reunion—the first time this branch of my family has gathered in nearly 30 years. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to reconnect, or to bear witness while the old guard, our parents’ generation of wise mentors, walk among us. But what I learned shook me to my core. As in every family, we have …
The Writing Road–Detours Aplenty
My husband has a saying that begins our every road trip, “When we’re lost, enjoy the scenery.” That used to drive my let’s-just-drive-from-Point-A-to-Point-B nature crazy, but I’ve come to see that I can either embrace the journey that is—with all its twists and turns—or make myself miserable by wishing everything was different, shorter, clearer. I think that’s true for writers, …
Chuck Colson
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship, was ushered home this week. Knowing that a man so practical, so no-nonsense and down to earth, aware of the deep needs of others and of society at large has gone before, the veil between this world and eternity seems more thinly drawn. We’ve a glimpse over Jordan of a man walking on (maybe …
NEVER AGAIN
“Confronted with the persecution and murder of Europe’s Jews, witnesses had a choice of whether or not to intervene.” –from The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s article, “CHOOSING TO ACT: STORIES OF RESCUE.” Conflicting testimonies abound regarding how much everyday citizens who lived during the years of the Holocaust knew—here, in Germany, Poland, France, England, and more. Some have claimed, “We …
A Novel Disaster
The story’s resemblance to the Titanic tragedy was uncanny. Some called it “prophetic.” Fourteen years before the “ship of dreams” foundered, Morgan Robertson published a novella, Futility or The Wreck of the Titan (1898). The thrilling fictional story, with its palatial and virtually “unsinkable ship” of a similar sounding name, its shortage of lifeboats, its fateful April collision with a …
Holy Week in Southampton 1912
When the services of Holy Week were held 100 years ago in Southampton, England, port of launch for Titanic’s maiden voyage, sea-going men and women had no idea that it would likely be their last Holy Week—let alone their last full week—with their families. Saturday, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, was the designated day for crew to sign aboard …