Blog
-
Review – An Advent book and Christmas novella
Reviews of two books for this season, as published last year in the Woman Alive book club. I wasn’t sure I’d like Walking Backwards to Christmas when I picked it up. I’ve read a fair number of first-person narratives from biblical characters over the past few years as this genre has gained in popularity. Sometimes…
-
And now it’s Advent – Finding Myself in Britain
In Finding Myself in Britain, I take a through-the-year approach at life in the UK. Originally I wanted to start the book with Advent, for after all, it’s when the church calendar commences. But I took my publisher’s good advice and instead began with the start of the academic year, which marks a time of…
-
An Advent pantoum (form of poetry)
Today in my writing group video chat, I was introduced to the pantoum, a form of poetry I’d never heard of previously. With just 5 minutes of free writing, I created this, an evocative Advent poem: Here we felt accepted; here we felt affirmed; here we felt known The sky was dark We waited in…
-
Advent devotional 2: A divine passive
…Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. (Matthew 1:15b–17, NIV) What a difference a bit of grammar can make (so says Michael J. Wilkins in The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew [Zondervan, 2004]). Throughout the genealogy…
-
Heading Home by Debbie Duncan
Today’s installment in the “There’s No Place Like Home” series is Debbie Duncan, lovely author I had the privilege of working with at Authentic Media with the release of her co-authored book Life Lines, a brilliant fictionalized-but-based-in-reality look at friendship. She’s a minister’s wife and nurse who has taught at the Florence Nightingale School of…
-
Giving Thanks – Prayers for Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving! I love this holiday – a non-commercialized time to stop and breathe and give thanks. A time to join with family and friends to feast and laugh and sing and share. A time to enjoy and spread the joy. But we live in an imperfect world, and someone’s chair may be empty at our Thanksgiving…
-
Behind the Scenes: Interview with Vivian Hansen, Cover Designer for Finding Myself in Britain (Part 2)
The gifts I’ve received in the publishing process for Finding Myself in Britain have been breathtaking. Such as how the cover came about – I share the story of finding our designer, Vivian Hansen, in part one of this series. Only when I received Vivian’s email as she responded to my questions did I learn…
-
Advent devotional – A Savior for All
Advent comes next week, ready or not. So it’s timely to delve into some of Matthew’s crisp account of the story of Jesus’s birth, the lesser-recounted version (in contrast to Luke’s). Matthew’s gospel has long been the first in the New Testament canon, and it forms a bridge between the Hebrew Bible and the New…
-
The Home of my Heart by Adrianne Fitzpatrick
“There’s no place like home” – even for expats like me and Adrianne Fitzpatrick, whom I’m pleased to introduce today. Adrianne is a writer and publisher of Books to Treasure, a small independent press producing quality children’s literature, whom I met through the Association of Christian Writers. I love her passion and commitment to all…
-
Review: How to Be an Alien by George Mikes
At the end of an introduction to spirituality class at Heythrop College, one of my new friends slid me this little volume – a book published in 1946 which immediately captured my imagination, not least for the story that she recounted as she gave it to me. She said: My German grandfather was a career…
