An Amazing Story

This isn’t St. Patrick’s Day, but, oh well…the world is pretty and green this morning, so here’s a stretch to the imagination. One soft and misty morning, on a day so fine and rare, My heart felt light as birdsong, without one single care, As I strode through the heather into a forest tall, I […]

The World Around Us

I opened my old, tattered three-ring notebook where I’ve stuffed a lot of past writing sales and found these two poems. Both were written a long time ago to two different Christian children’s magazines of widely differing beliefs. But, you know what? Both magazines’ editors liked poems. Poetry and stories sort of bring us all […]

Discarding and Keeping

Some people who are very dear to me are cleaning out their garage, deciding what to keep and what to throw away. It’s a big job but when they are finished, they’ll have room for more important things. Until then, though, those old, useless things are just taking up space. Their cluttered garage is like […]

Character Conversation

I talk to the characters in my books. They have personalities and minds of their own. Sometimes, it’s a struggle to decide which would fit best in the story I’m writing–my thoughts or my character’s. Usually, my character is right. Me: Ned, I don’t believe you would go off hunting for an Indian message tree […]

Remembering the Good Times

Last summer, my sister Helen’s three daughters and daughter-in-law drove up from Texas for a visit. What a fun day that was! We reminisced, laughed, delved into genealogy, and caught up with each other’s lives. And, we remembered some special times with Helen. They knew Helen as their mom and I knew her as my […]

As Long As They Sing

There has never been a time before this, to my knowledge,when young people have been so much under attack from so many different places. Youngsters of today have to deal with issues that hadn’t entered the minds of anyone a few years back. Now, suddenly, from many directions, they are being told this or that […]