Thoughtful Thursdays

Musings on faith, family, & fiction

The Magic of Bookstores
I live in a rural area. There are towns here and there, but shopping in these towns is hit or miss. We haven't had a Christian bookstore anywhere in the area for decades. And even regular bookstores are few, far between, and often the size of a postage stamp. Because...
Let Peace Begin with Me
“Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” As the world greets us with new violence, new tragedy every day, this is the song that keeps popping into my mind. It sounds trite, doesn’t it? A sweet, simple melody for sweet, simple words. But those words...
What We Read
Many, many years ago, I joined an online group of other Christian writers, many of whom who were far more established than I was (they still are!), and I was amazed to learn in a conversation what kind of books all these amazing Christian novelists were reading. See,...
Musical Thoughts
What kind of music do you favor? A couple weeks ago, during one of my Tea Party Book Clubs, one of my lovely reader friends asked if I listen to a contemporary Christian music group, and I admitted that I rarely listen to modern music at all. Oh, I know a lot of the...

Though a novelist by trade, one of the trademarks of my books is the spiritual depth and exploration I includes as my characters work through what it really means to walk out their faith. Faith, in fact, is one of the things I like to ponder most. In these once-a-week articles, I gets thoughtful at the crossroads of faith, family, and fiction.

Thoughtful . . . On the Moon

My daughter has this thing. Instead of, you know, looking to see where I am, she'll call out, "Mommy! Where are you?" Now, usually I'm about two feet away, just behind her. So I'm obligated to give a silly answer, right? I mean, I can't just say, "Right here." That's...

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Thoughtful . . . About What to Write

As I near the end of a manuscript (which I'm doing now), my mind starts moving ahead to the next project. With me, there are always other projects waiting. If someone were to look in my My Docs folder, they may just shake their head. In addition to the three dozen or...

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Thoughtful . . . About Optimism

I confess. I'm an optimist. Not just a fleeting optimist, mind you, an eternal one. As the hero in my Work In Progress just said to the heroine, "You go way beyond optimist. You don’t just see the glass half full–even when it’s empty, you say, ‘Yay! Now I get to fill...

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