Blog
Story Inspiration
The first question folks often ask a novelist is about their book’s inspirations. How did you come up with the idea? Is this a true story about you? What inspired the book? Often I tell people a fictional story is a compilation of truth and made up…
Reaction Videos and Book Releases
I learned something new yesterday. I’ve never heard about Reaction videos on YouTube before. (Thanks, Joel!) My first reaction was to be dumbfounded people spend time watching how others react to their favorite movies or songs. Don’t they just want to…
When Your Main Character Hijacks Your Blog
Photo by Jake Thacker on Unsplash My name is Eva Gordon, and I may have memory loss, but I can still read. And I’ve read all those harsh words people have used to describe me in that book: cantankerous, hard-edged, stubborn, irascible, unpleasant. At least one…
Encircled By Friends
Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash An excerpt from my article on friendship in The Redbud Post. We were in a heavy conversation about career frustrations and disappointment and the way life’s planned path sometimes jumps the rails. My son was expressing pent…
An Instrument of Peace
I still own the same sewing machine that once belonged to my grandmother and great grandmother. The small black Singer machine assisted me with making childhood clothes, my wedding dress, and curtains hanging today in one of our rooms. In the past, when people saw my…
The Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus
Photo by Brian Ho on Unsplash Several years ago, I was deeply influenced by a biography I read with a friend about German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I am now a lifelong admirer of the man. When I heard about Laura Fabrycky’s new book, The Keys to…
We’ve Been Here Before
I’ve been quiet during this stay-at-home pandemic season, working out my thoughts, reading many articles and posts written by others. Connecting with people online has been a source of comfort and pleasure, hearing about their experiences, giving and receiving support…
Novel Beginnings
I’m getting to know some new folks these days. I’m feeling them out, watching them in their private moments, wondering why they do what they do. They’re a little hard to read and sometimes they act inconsistently. They change their clothes a lot and make awkward hand…
Finding Purpose in Jail
Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.” Fyodor Dostoevski My husband and I go to jail weekly. One night a week we enter a maximum-security facility, get searched and patted down, and led deep…
A New Madeleine L’Engle Biography
Many years ago during my season as a young mother, I felt a deep longing for older women mentors. If those mentors were writers, all the better. Unfortunately, I didn’t know other wordsmiths at the time and felt isolated by my longing for people who could speak to me…
Required Viewing: “Won’t You be My Neighbor”
Thirty or forty years ago, you never would’ve convinced me I’d be sitting in a movie theater in 2018 weeping about Mister Rogers’ life. But there I was last week, sitting with family, tears flowing down my face while “Won’t you be My Neighbor?” played on the screen. I…
My Ditzy Self
prateek-katyal-_YzGQvASeMk-unsplash.jpg I have a ditzy side. I like to think it’s endearing, but maybe it’s just annoying to certain people close to me. In this high-tech world, many opportunities arise for ditzy people like me to make mistakes. Several times I…