It’s a brand new day. How will you choose to spend it? We all are familiar with this drill: A small child rides in the backseat of the car and his constant chatter is a distraction—and sometimes an irritation—to the driver. Again and again, he asks, “Are we there yet?” Eager to arrive at the […]
Expectations vs. Reality
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about the difference between expectations and reality. It seems like the biggest struggles I’ve faced in my life spiritually boil down to a discrepancy between my plans and expectations and reality. When my husband and I had been married for a couple of years, we decided […]
Romance, Hope & Gratitude.
Hola, Jolene Navarro here. As romance authors, I believe we have the power to make the world a better place one book at a time. We do it with gratitude, hope and love. In my October 15th release The Texan’s Surprise Return Selena De La Rosa, the heroine gets her greatest Christmas gift. She is […]
Real Life Struggles
For years, since before I was published, I’ve had a blog entitled A Bed of Roses… Thorns Included. I’ve changed it a little since then to Finding faith when your bed of roses includes thorns, but the idea is the same. We all WANT our lives to be full of beauty and happiness (the roses), […]
Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu… ending a book series
I love writing books in series. I love seeing characters reappear in other stories. I love that characters who may not play a huge role in one book get to shine in their own. I love being able to have a series story thread that links books together. I love creating as many connections as […]
What’s Your Superpower?
by: Staci Stallings I’m elbow-deep in The Imagination Series—writing Book 8 now. Book 7 is on preorder. Book 6 just released. So I’ve been thinking a lot about superpowers. In the series, there are six main-ish characters. They are friends from high school. Each one has a superpower, and the idea of the series is […]
Wisdom for Life…Or Things I’ve Learned from My Chickens
Some of you may know that my husband and I recently relocated to a mini-farm in the foothills of East TN. One of my dreams has always been to raise chickens. Well, with the beautiful coop we inherited with the property, I got right to it. And I quickly discovered there are a lot of […]
Shades of Grace
When I was a child growing up in a staunch Mennonite home, life was quite clear. There were wrongs — we called them ‘sins’ — and there were rights. The goal was to avoid the sins and do the right thing. Black versus white. I attended a Christian high school (boarding school) with very conservative […]
A Dog’s Love (+ a Giveaway)
Do you love dogs? I know there are cat lovers out there too, but in my experience there’s really nothing that quite compares with the love of a dog! As I was growing up, my family had several dogs. My parents got Goldie when I was a baby so she and I grew up […]
My Trip to the US Open Tennis Championships by Merrillee Whren
As some of you may know, I’m an avid tennis player and fan. I play tennis at least three times a week, often more. Here’s a photo of one of my USTA teams that is headed to sectional playoffs in December. I’m the first one on the left in the front row. I’ve been to […]