The ‘fruit’ of our labor: what happens when we give up too soon
A couple weeks ago, we invited our neighbors over for dinner and I tackled a new dessert recipe. I realized that was risky business, especially if it flopped, with the nearest store a minimum of 1½-2 hours roundtrip. Although I encountered a couple glitches, I’m grateful I improvised because it ultimately received raving reviews. I…
Summer blog series: extending hope by giving back
Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up. ~ Colin Powell Thank you for joining me for week no. 6 and the last installment of my summer blog series. Although I’ve barely made a dent in the number of ways to extend hope, I hope the posts have inspired you. Click here to catch…
Love as sweet as honey: real-life makes the best stories
My latest five-minute romance—Love as sweet as honey—appears in Woman’s World Aug. 28 issue, available at retailers and online. The story opens when a single mom playing tourist in her hometown meets a handsome stranger over soft-serve—his charming company a reminder of how lonely she often gets—but a business deal might just lead to a…
Summer blog series: extending hope through connection (recipe included!)
Thanks for joining me for week no. 5 of my summer blog series. You can click here to catch up. When was the last time you connected with someone and the experience lifted your spirits? What drew the two of you together—a common love of reading, a mutual focus on nutrition or fitness, a similar…
Choosing better over bitter: the tests within the testimonies
On Aug. 19, 2004, my family’s life was forever changed. Nineteen years ago, a drunk driver slammed into my husband, Bob’s vehicle. Yet despite his chronic pain—and the deficits caused by a traumatic brain injury and broken bones—Bob’s story doesn’t end there. It lives on each year I climb atop my soapbox. It lives on…
Summer blog series: extending hope through happy endings
You can’t just hope for happy endings. You have to believe in them. ~ Nora Roberts Welcome to week no. 4 of my summer blog series! In case you missed the first three posts, I talk about how we can extend hope through words of encouragement, acts of service and the gift of laughter. Another…
Summer blog series: extending hope through the gift of laughter
Humor is hope’s companion in arms. ~ Ogden Nash Welcome to week no. 3 of my summer blog series! In the first two posts, I talked about extending hope through words of encouragement and acts of service. Today, I share how humor produced hope after my husband, Bob’s near-fatal car accident. As many readers know,…
Summer blog series: extending hope through acts of service
Sometimes it’s easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again. ~ Randa Abdel-Fattah Welcome to week no. 2 of my summer blog series! In my first post (click here if you missed it), I discussed extending hope through words of encouragement. We…
Summer blog series: extending hope through words of encouragement
Welcome to my summer blog series! If you’ve been following me for a while, then you know I believe it’s always the write time for hope for new beginnings, humor in the messy middle and heart for happy endings. I’m kicking off the series with a focus on hope—and how it relates to The Letter…
Work hard, play hard: refueling our ‘output’ with ‘input’
I don’t think of work as work and play as play. It’s all living. ~ Richard Branson I was in the middle of a major household move, COVID and life in a new community when I wrote and submitted my debut Love Inspired novel (“A Father’s Vow,” April 2024 release) in August 2022—celebrating with a…
Guilty pleasures: nothing to prove, everything to gain
I heard a story about a woman who was feeling guilty for binge-watching a “stupid” TV show. A friend then asked her if she’d enjoyed herself, to which the woman replied, “I really did.” I’ve contemplated that conversation many times—mostly when I’m engaging in my own “decadent” pastimes, whether reclining on the sofa with a…
Head vs. heart: identifying the space from which you operate
A couple weeks ago, a writing podcast I listen to focused on “MerPeople.” The host of the podcast mentioned a documentary she viewed on Netflix about these professional mermaids, and how she could easily discern when a particular mermaid named Mermaid Sparkles would be operating out of her head space during a performance opposed to…