Happy September! I’ve kept my promise and given my blog a summer break. Now summer is all but over—hard to believe but that’s what the calendar and the shrinking hours of daylight say—and it’s back to more regular posts here. I’ll try for weekly. Though the summer was a quiet one due to continuing Covid… Continue reading Welcome September!
The Road to Happenstance by Janice L. DickMy rating: 5 of 5 stars“Happenstance: A chance happening or event” (Dictionary.com)That is what Matthew Sadler’s (aka Matthew Smith’s) arrival at the town by that name seems to be at first—a chance event. But the town’s welcoming vibe and quirky inhabitants cast a spell over the fleeing-from-demons teacher,… Continue reading The Road to Happenstance – review
A few weeks ago an acquaintance sent me a newly published book of her poems. They were simple but beautiful in their first-person expression of praise, love, and gratitude to God—a collection of modern psalms. I reacted to that book like I have to other similar ones, asking myself, why don’t I write more overtly… Continue reading Vicarious (Spiritual Journey Thursday)
Road to Nowhere by Paul Robertson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Genre: Literary, contemporary murder mystery. Worldview: Christian. Plot in brief: A proposed highway connecting tony Gold Valley to petrified Wardsville galvanizes Jefferson County residents and has everyone taking sides for and against. Who’s really behind it? How will it impact Wardsville’s quaint image… Continue reading Road to Nowhere (review)
Other Side of the River by Janice L. Dick. My rating: 5 of 5 stars Luise Letkemann and Daniel Martens have been sweethearts for almost as long as they can remember. Luise expects they will marry soon. But the spring of 1926 is not a time life goes along according to expectation for the lovers… Continue reading Other Side of the River (review)
Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe by Max Lucado My rating: 5 of 5 stars After Chelsea Chambers discovers that her NFL husband Sawyer has been cheating on her, inheriting the family café and coffee shop in San Antonia is the perfect out. She, with 12-year-old Hancock and six-year-old Emily move into the upper floor… Continue reading Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe (review)
Twenty-One Candles: Stories for Christmas by Mike Mason My rating: 5 of 5 stars Mike Mason (Canadian author of The Mystery of Marriage, Champagne for the Soul and the Blue Umbrella fantasy series for kids) has a personal tradition of writing a Christmas story every year. This book is 21 of those stories, collected into… Continue reading Twenty-One Candles (review)
Life Behind the Wall: Candy Bombers, Beetle Bunker, and Smuggler's Treasure by Robert Elmer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Life Behind the Wall is a collection of three novella-length stories for the YA crowd. Each is set in part of Berlin in a different time period between 1948 and 1989. Book One, Candy Bomber,… Continue reading Life Behind the Wall (review)
"Are you going to write another book?" I've heard that question a lot since publishing my novel in 2012. I suppose it's a question writers inevitably face after finishing a first book. My plan, when I published Destiny's Hands (a biblical fiction exploring the life of the Bible character Bezalel from when he was a… Continue reading Hiking around in a wilderness odyssey
Though I enjoy being swept away in a good biography and love the way poetry transports to realms of emotion, sometimes evokes a belly-laugh, and even the urge to toe-tap along, my biggest pleasure as a reader is to get lost in great adult fiction. Adult fiction is also my biggest challenge as a writer.… Continue reading My favorite genre
Violet Nesdoly 