Margaret Philbrick spent many summers playing tag in the cherry and apple orchards of northern Wisconsin. Her friend Julie grew up on one of those orchards and her life experiences of harvest and loss inspired this story. ******* Like most things it started with one. Grandma could never throw anything out. Like every Grandma in…
I’ve always loved a good story. I lived in my head a lot when I was younger, always forging stories about mysteries or romance or faraway places. From the time I was in middle school I knew that I wanted to write some of those stories. And then life interfered and, although I majored in…
Tomoe /toe-MOE-eh/ Hasegawa is an eleven-year-old girl in seventeenth-century Japan who aspires to be courageous like the samurai. After Christianity is banned and persecutions intensify, Tomoe’s Catholic community flees to a remote island. They are pursued by the regional deputy who wishes to protect the nation from the corruption of foreign ideas. Tomoe’s many attempts…
Can You See Anything Now?, a debut novel, follows a year in the small town of Trinity where the tragedy and humility of a few reveal the reality of people’s motivations and desires. ******* Chapter 1 Margie: early in the morning Of all of the ways that Margie Nethercott could kill herself, she found it…
When an old friend unexpectedly reappears, what is she to do? The chances of this happening were none. After years apart, Jordan Shaw runs into the one person she didn’t expect to see again. During college, he was the one whose friendship meant the most to her, but differences forced them to part ways. Now…
Fifteen-year-old Adriana Nicu lives in the sheltered world of Bucharest, Romania, in the year 1987. Under the rule of Communist president Nicolae Ceaușescu, citizens of Bucharest live with the eyes and ears of the government ever present. Adriana’s future, which will involve becoming an engineer, is locked in against her will. During a visit to…
Charlotte is a successful romance novelist who escapes city life and moves to the small town of Crispens Point in Blackberry County. She immediately connects with some of the quirky but friendly residents and begins to feel at home right away. When a friend invites her to attend a local community church, Charlotte is attracted…
Sugar Birds: A Novel is an evocative coming-of-age story about personal wilderness, trust, and the search for forgiveness. In this selection from the book, ten-year-old Aggie—angry with her unpredictable mother—has accidentally lit a tragic fire that drives her into the rugged Pacific Northwest forest, where suffering will compel her to grapple with the character of…
The past paralyzes, and the future is unknown. My calendar captures future events as my “to-do” list increases with things I should have done yesterday. In the meantime, social media drags me down in the game of “what if”: The world will come to an end if democrats win, and the world will go to…
Your rolling and stretching had grown quiet that stormy winter night, but no labor came as it should. A long ten days overdue post-Christmas, you clung to amnion and womb, not yet ready to emerge. Then the northeast wind blew more wicked and the snow flew horizontal, landing in drifting piles, the country roads impassable,…
“I want to keep it handy in case I need it,” she said, matter-of-factly. She wasn’t talking about a flashlight. Not a package of tissues. Not a cell phone—they hadn’t been invented in 1978. She was talking about Isaiah 55. “I liked it,” she went on. “So I memorized it.” “Come, all you who are…
Courage whispered the autumn leaf He, born of spring’s budding hope commissioned for summer’s verdancy yet most glorious in decline Courage urged the autumn leaf As he, in trust and gratitude…
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What do we see when we look at others’ faces? We notice the outward appearance, whether we wish to or not. Skin color, eye color, clothing, and so on, are apparent features that are obvious and difficult to pretend we do not see. What we cannot see or know from the outward appearance is a…
In the month of December, the Christmas story often stands alone, lifted with huge parentheses out of the New Testament—maybe delivered in Linus’s hushed boy soprano, and then tucked away with the durable resin Nativity set and the twinkly white lights until next year. It’s a great story, so it’s easy to see why authors of…