Read Part 1 here. When we reached the Window Rock monument, I climbed out of the car to follow my Navajo host, while his wife stayed in the car to write an anniversary card for their son and his wife. The two of us surveyed the Code Talker memorial, where he showed me the […]
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To Ask Forgiveness, Part 1
The warm desert wind whipped my hair across my face and snapped the flags above me, flags of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and the Navajo Nation waving beside the Stars and Stripes. I gazed up at the towering red rocks, the round hole to the clear blue sky, above the Window Rock Veterans Memorial. Below […]
Stories in Real Life
I bent forward over the lamplit table, following the fingers of my Navajo host as he sketched out words for me in my little notebook, repeating them aloud for me to try at pronouncing. Ya’at’eeh abini—the morning greeting Hagoóne’—the way to say farewell, a kind of blessing as you leave someone Again and again I […]
Trust II
Trust…it’s been coming at me from all directions lately, especially in books. Trusting God seems to be a lesson He never tires of, or at least one I need to learn over and over again. …In One-Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, which I am slowly nibbling my way through bit by bit. Her observation that lack […]
Out of Focus
During one of our early dress rehearsals for Cinderella, I determined to get some good photos to post on facebook, in order to better promote the show. So I dutifully clambered around the seats in the auditorium—empty but for a few mothers sewing costumes and younger children watching—to get the best angles, and clicked away. […]
To Be Not Afraid
Lately I’ve been discovering the heroine of my novel-in-progress and I have something in common: fear. Perhaps it’s our protective, big-sister natures—perhaps it’s from experiences in our past—perhaps it’s just our own sinful frailty. But we both struggle to let go of our fears and worries, to truly place people and situations close to our hearts […]
For Sinners Such as I
In a newly formed ACFW online group I’ve joined, we’ve been talking lately about how we want to write stories “with a purpose,” with the aim to not just entertain but help transform readers lives. Stories can affect us deeply–sometimes, at least for me, even more than a sermon or nonfiction inspirational writing, though the […]
The Yada Yada Prayer Group
When one of my critique partners recommended The Yada Yada Prayer Group to me, I expected it would be good. But I didn’t know I’d fall in love with it by Chapter 2. I’d never read a novel quite like it. In some ways the story reminds me of my critique group: a group of […]
Mount Hermon Highlights
Little did I know when I arrived at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference a year ago, slightly terrified of pitching to editors and agents—and of meeting and being mentored by one of my favorite authors, Lauraine Snelling—that I would gain not only incredible knowledge and connections, but a critique group who would become some […]
Blogging Daze
Happy February, everyone! Am I the only one who always has to think about the spelling of this month? Or am I the only one who doesn’t tend to pronounce that first “r”? 🙂 Well, I’ve officially missed my Tuesday blog for this week. Sometimes life just happens–or I just forget. So, I thought today […]