Last month, we celebrated the Feast of Sukkot with our Jewish friends and family members. One of my favorite things about the holiday is building and decorating a Sukkah or booth on our back deck. First, we constructed a frame out of two-by-fours then enclosed three of the sides using tarps. Next comes the fun part—decorating it with natural materials such as cornstalks, cat-tails, and pine … [Read more...]

I’m not a tech-savvy person. I like to sit down at my computer and write without having to figure out a bunch of new features and updates. When I can’t find what I need quickly, I get crabby. That’s when I take a deep breath and look up at my office bookshelves where I have two items that help me keep things in perspective. The first is this antique typewriter: I began writing my first novel on a … [Read more...]

The fun began this week. Last Friday I got to leave my lonely office and travel to four different bookstores to meet with some of my readers. I was very excited to present my newest book, “Waves of Mercy” to them. The novel is based on the true story of the Dutch immigrants who left the Netherlands in 1846 to settle the town of Holland in the wilderness of Western Michigan. I even bought a new … [Read more...]

Have you ever prayed about a decision but when you followed through on where God was leading, everything went wrong? You probably asked, “Did I really hear from God? How could He allow this to happen?” My newest novel, “Waves of Mercy,” (which releases on October 4) tells the true story of the Dutch immigrants who settled the town of Holland, Michigan in 1846. These faithful Christian men and … [Read more...]

How I hate typing those words: Goodbye to summer. It seems like summer just got here! I decided to take a peek through my vacation photographs and recall all of the reasons why I’m thankful for the Summer of 2016. Vacation time started in June with a family trip to Colorado. We rented a cabin near Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked in the woods and mountains every day. The beautiful … [Read more...]