Archive for June 2013
Sunday Inspiration: “Literacy is a bridge…”
“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural…
Read MoreSomewhere Between Luck and Trust: Georgia Ferguson
For an author, part of the fun of a series is choosing which characters to feature in upcoming books. With the Goddesses Anonymous series (debuting in 2012 with One Mountain Away) a handful of women are introduced in book one, each to theoretically have her own story as time passes. Almost immediately after One Mountain…
Read MoreSomewhere Between Luck and Trust: Lucas Ramsey’s Pasta e Fagioli with Shrimp
Lucas Ramsey, a major character in Somewhere Between Luck and Trust, is a gourmet cook and the author of a mystery series featuring Zenzo, a police detective whose cooking rivals Lucas’s own. Lucas invites Georgia to share a simple meal, pasta e fagioli with shrimp, which he has devised and hopes to use in a…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Kwan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy
If you’re just beginning my Goddesses Anonymous series, you might wonder where the title “Goddesses Anonymous” comes from. In One Mountain Away, the first book of the series, Charlotte Hale, the major character, tells her minister Analiese Wagner how meaningful the legend of the Buddhist goddess Kwan Yin has become to her. In Somewhere Between Luck…
Read MoreSomewhere Between Luck and Trust: What’s It All About?
Where Luck Meets Trust, Miracles Can Happen Cristy Haviland served eight months in prison, giving birth behind bars to the child of the man who put her there and might yet destroy her. Now she’s free again, but what does that mean? As smart as she is, she has never learned to read. And that’s…
Read MoreHow I Spend My Summer Vacation: The Joys of Chautauqua Institution
Some of you have asked about the place where I spend my summers, so today a photo essay. Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, NY,was founded in 1874 as the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, an experiment in out-of-school learning. Although the Assembly was founded by Methodists, other denominations participated from the beginning. Now the Institution is an…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Let Us Praise
A Father’s Day Prayer Rev. Kirk Loadman-Copeland Let us praise those fathers who have striven to balance the demands of work, marriage, and children with an honest awareness of both joy and sacrifice. Let us praise those fathers who, lacking a good model for a father, have worked to become a good father. Let us…
Read MoreAnd How’s The Weather Treating You?
The Write Way: Writing Under Difficult Conditions. Can It Be Done?
“A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” E. B. White Right now I’m sitting in my study listening to a generator in the house about 10 yards behind me. The generator is for the benefit of the roofers who are pounding away outside…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Serenity
God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Reinhold Niebuhr There is such deep wisdom in this simple prayer. Participants in Alcoholics Anonymous have used these words for many years…
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