Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

My Favorite Tech Tools (at this moment)

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I’ve loved the lists we’ve been seeing on this blog lately, so I thought I would jump in with my own version. These are in no particular order. Just as they came to me. 1) I am an Apple fan. Period. I left the Windows world behind in early 2006 and never looked back. So no surprise that the first item on my list of favorites is my 13” MacBook Pro. I also love my 27” iMac that’s in my office … [Read more...]

How to Write Historical Christian Fiction

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I've been asked by a public library in northern Minnesota to teach a 2-hour class on "How to Write Historical Christian Fiction." Apparently, their patrons requested such a class after an inspiring visit from beloved historical fiction author, Lauraine Snelling. Lauraine lives in California, so they sought out a local author instead—me. A joy shared is a double joy. A burden shared is half a … [Read more...]

Memories for a Lifetime

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If you follow me on Facebook, you might know that for the past ten days I've been traveling with my husband's family, visiting the beautiful islands of Hawaii! It's a trip I never thought we'd be able to take, but Ken's mother treated all five of her kids and their spouses to this trip of a lifetime. It's not easy to coordinate the work and family schedules of 10 people—including two of us who … [Read more...]

Public Library Association Conference

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Greetings from Philadelphia! I left Dallas on Tuesday to fly to the City of Brotherly Love for the Public Library Association conference.  Here's my view of Dallas from the air on the first day of spring: And here's my view of Philadelphia from the air on the first day of spring: What a marked difference!  A nor'easter arrived at the same time that we did, so this Texan and her … [Read more...]

A Perspective Change

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Last week, I was in Jordan. The one across the ocean. The one that required an 11 hour nonstop flight from Chicago to reach. It was an amazing and surreal experience--surreal in the sense that it was my first time to the Middle East. Notice the use of the word first. It's very intentional. [Tweet "Travel can change our perspectives. @Cara_Putman shares about her #trip to #Jordan. … [Read more...]

Spring is a good time to do some renewal and restoration

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Hello. I'm so happy that spring is finally here. Even though it's windy here in Florida, at least it's not horribly cold. I pray the rest of the country will soon have some spring weather, too. Those continuing snow storms have caused enough trouble. My prayers go out to all of you who have been hit by these storms. Life does throw storms our way at times. This is a bittersweet post for me … [Read more...]

Ten things I’m loving right now!

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I love having my furniture back in my house. Joe and I recently downsized from a house—to a townhouse. I'm tellin' ya, downsizing at this stage of life is not for the faint of heart. Still, we're loving our new place! But we left the house staged with our furniture until the house sold (which it did!), so it's completely lovely to have our "things" back. Amazing what creatures of habit we are. … [Read more...]

A First for Me

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They say “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but I learned a new one this past year. After writing twenty-four novels, I just completed a sequel to one of my stand-alone books. The sequel wasn’t planned. In fact, I wrote and published a completely different book, “Where We Belong,” in between the original and the sequel. I had believed that the story I told in “Waves of Mercy” was finished. … [Read more...]

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