mentoring digital wordsmiths
“Any letters?” One of my children asks the oh-so-hopeful question almost every single day when they see me walking back from the mailbox, flipping through the mail. And oh the delight–the raptures–when an epistle has arrived from one of their pen pals! My children come by it naturally. I’ve been writing letters to my pen pals since I was a…
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Dear Friends and Family, Merry Christmas! Mommy was busy this year so I (Ruth Anne) am writing our Christmas letter. We have had a very busy year, with several remodels and the farm chores to boot! We have had an important project which has now stretched for four years. Any guesses? Our house! This year so far, Daddy’s cousin Will…
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My first mailing address was at a little white house on half an acre about a mile out of town. I still remember how grown up I felt when my parents let me cross the country road to get the mail out of our mailbox all by myself. My daddy’s youngest cousin is just six years older than I am….
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Herbert and Alma were married on September 26, 1929. Just over one month later, the stock market crashed. By the time the effects of the Great Depression were felt in Ohio, Herbert was out of work and he and his new bride had to move in with his parents, Marion and May. They hadn’t fared much better–losing their farm and…
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An unopened letter. A childhood friend. A bootlegger “cousin.” It’s 1922 in the town of Emmett, Washington. Fluffy biscuits fresh from the oven to feed to paying boarders. The love of a precocious 4-year-old girl and the friendship of a maiden sister. The white three-story boarding house should be a domestic delight to 24-year-old Grace Halstad. But she needs a…
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Sometimes, in the day to day life as a mom, I need perspective. I don’t need someone to tell me five ways to be a better mom. I don’t need another book to tell me how to keep my house perfectly clean and organized (though if there’s really a secret that works, I’d be glad to know it). I just…
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I was wasting money on books, and I didn’t even know it. When my husband and I got married and merged our book collections, we found several duplicates we had both owned that we traded in at our local used bookstore for credit to go toward—what else?—more books! We now frequent that local used bookstore on many a date night,…
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Empowered contains the stories of eleven women whose lives were shaped by God. Catherine Parks tells each one’s story in an original and enlightening way. The word “empower” is a magnificent verb meaning “to give power or authority to.” Catherine Parks explains in the introduction to Empowered: How God Shaped 11 Women’s Lives (And Can Shape Yours Too): “…God daily…
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The Printed Letter Bookshop–a bookshop, not a bookstore, mind you–is where Aunt Maddie invested everything, including the money from Uncle Pete’s life insurance. And while it may not have shown great monetary profits, the close-knit community of friends she’d made is priceless.
The debut novel had a beautiful cover. But the title tricked me into thinking it was another of those dime-a-dozen Jane Austen spin-offs that I saw every time I went to Hallmark. Emma is inimitable–why would I want to read anyone’s attempt? But then my friends started talking about this new book by Katherine Reay. And I discovered it was…
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I still remember my aunt’s phone call that summer of 2006. My cousin Brian had met a girl. I was newly married myself. And I couldn’t have been happier that my strong but tender-hearted cousin had found the girl he wanted to marry. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room the next January. Heartland’s “I Loved Her First” played…
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“Letter writing is such a heartless method of communicating. First, one has difficulty putting into words what he really feels—then he must worry for fear what is written is misunderstood—and that for a good long time, since he cannot erase once the post-box has banged shut, and then he must wait—and that is worst of all.” (Jim Elliot) Waiting is…
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