Sunday Inspiration: A Prayer for Mothers
Mother’s Day Sunday Let us pray for: The mothers too tired to enter or too busy to care. This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at soccer games Friday night instead of watching from cars, so that when their kids asked, “Did you see my goal?” they could…
Read MoreBook Clubs: Asking Questions to Deepen Understanding
When I decided to offer fifteen copies of Iron Lace (along with a king cake and phone interview) to raise money for diabetes research, I made my decision with the full knowledge that Iron Lace is one of my most popular novels for book discussion groups. Later I went back to my own website to…
Read MoreThe Setting We Never Got to See
Today I’m sharing some photos of my trip to Guatemala, all from our visit to the Chichicastenango in the Highlands on market day. Last week I explained that the trip was research for Endless Chain–just reissued–book two of the Shenandoah Album series. The trip was a bit unusual since I traveled there after the book…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: Your task is not to seek for love
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (more often known simply as Rumi) was born in Persia in a village which is most likely in modern day Tajikistan and lived from 1207 to 1293. He was a poet, jurist, theologian and Sufi mystic. In 2007 he was said to be the most popular poet in America, and his…
Read MoreDiabetes Research, King Cake, and Iron Lace. What Do They Have in Common?
Author Brenda Novak’s annual auction to raise money for diabetes research in now in full swing. This year I’ve donated 15 autographed copies of Iron Lace for your favorite book club to read and discuss, a new Orleans King Cake to eat during the discussion–shipped directly to you from a New Orleans bakery–and a phone…
Read MoreGuatemala: An Endless Chain of Repression and Liberation
If you’ve been keeping up with the saga of my Shenandoah Album novels, you know that Endless Chain is being re-released today, this time in a lovely trade paper version, at a bargain price. Right now the book is $8.99 at Amazon. And it won’t be more than $9.99 anywhere else. To celebrate the re-release of…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration: “My wish for you…”
“Here is my wish for you and every other child, woman, and man on the face of the earth: Spend one week saying only kind, caring things to yourself. Say thank you at least ten times an hour, direct five toward yourself and five to the world… at large. Compliment yourself (and others) each time…
Read MoreThe Most Truthful Part of a Newspaper
“The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.” Thomas Jefferson. Need more TJ to start your morning? He also said: “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.” With all respect for President Jefferson–in most matters not relating to slavery, anyway–I…
Read MoreSunday Inspiration:
From the Dalai Lama XIV: “There is a saying in Tibetan: ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.” Our hearts are broken — again — by the tragedy in Boston, but it is heartening…
Read MoreThe Write Way: The Hornets or the Alligator?
Let me tell you a story. A devoted father takes his four children out for a pontoon boat cruise on one of Florida’s wild and scenic rivers. The oldest son is nearly twelve. The youngest is only 18 months. The trip is lovely, but somewhat uneventful, so he lets the oldest pilot the boat. Then…
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