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Category: My Scribbler’s Heart

#5Faves: Kitchen Stuff

fivefaves

There is little I like about our kitchen itself. So, to find the joy in the kitchen, I have to look to gadgets and other “fun” stuff. These are five of my current kitchen faves.

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Banana Hanger

I often wonder if I’m raising a troop of monkeys. Poo flinging, nitpicking, and other monkey action aside, the sheer number of bananas consumed is staggering some weeks. Finally, instead of multiple bunches littering our limited counter space, they hang above it. I don’t know whether it has any effect on their ripening or shelf life, but it’s a space saver.

Banana Hanger
Also keeps small monkeys from snatching fruit from the counter.
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Author Interview with Stephanie Landsem

The Well, the first book in The Living Water Series, is a spectacular debut novel. I don’t cry easily while reading, but the book’s portrayal of sacrificial love left me with tears streaming down my cheeks. How did you come to fiction writing and how long was The Well brewing (or bubbling), so to speak, before its publication?

The Well by Stephanie LandsemThank you so much, Carolyn. I am truly happiest when I’ve made my readers cry. ☺

As for my writing journey, I can see now that I was inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. When I decided to write historical fiction, I had no idea what or whom or when I wanted to write about. After about a year of no ideas, I was ready to give up. Then, one day at Mass not long before Easter, I heard the Gospel account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman. Sitting in my pew, I began to wonder about her—who was she? Who was her family? And most of all, what happened to her after she met Jesus?

By the time I got home, I knew that it was her story that I wanted to write. I even had a rough idea of Mara’s character and that of her mother, Nava. Since that day, I find my best inspiration at Mass or at our perpetual adoration chapel.

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Seven Quick Takes

Seven Quick Takes Friday

Useful Free iPhone Apps Edition

I still feel like a neophyte with my iPhone since I only upgraded from a flip phone last summer. I love my phone and use it most heavily for social media: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Goodreads are used multiple times daily. Aside from social media and email, these are my best-loved apps. (You may also want to check out this list of top free apps for 2016.)

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Feedly

Feedly is my go-to source for keeping up with blogs, websites, and news I track. When our local daily newspaper switched to publishing only three times a week, I eventually lost interest. I don’t watch local news or TV. (Typing that actually makes me cringe being that I studied broadcast journalism, but it’s the truth.) That leaves the Internet as my main news source. (Yikes!) With Feedly, I can follow the feeds of national or local publications, magazines and blogs. I can easily see the latest news sorted by category, scroll through headlines, save for later reading, or share.

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Small Success Thursday

Small Success Thursday

Why small success? Because that’s the only kind I know! Even the big ones come in small steps. Here’s my paltry offering for the week:

  1. Scheduled Vacation/Summer plans – Maybe it’s the balmy weather we’ve had here the last couple of days, but although spring has not yet sprung, I’m thinking about summer. I updated our various calendars and began completing registrations and reservations for camps and vacations. Among our plans is an overdue visit to Shenandoah National Park.
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The Wearin’ O’ the Green: Envy

Envy is ugly. And selfish.

I should know.

Last week a simple social media post written by a lovely, young Christian woman sent me into a pit of envy for the better part of an afternoon.

If wasn’t her post, of course, which I assume was meant to be innocuous and helpful. It was me. My pride. My discouragement. My envy that lay at fault.

Green with envy.
Green with envy.

I’ll refrain from reposting what she shared – though my envious self made sure to screen capture it so I could mull over the ways in which it got under my skin. In sum, it was a simple shot of a basket of books, an open daily planner, and a mug of coffee. Sounds pretty harmless, doesn’t it? A day later, my over-reaction stupefied me.

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An Open Book

An Open BookWelcome to the inaugural An Open Book Link-Up! Let’s get started.


Aftermath Chuck WendigMy husband is reading a couple of Star Wars books: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig and The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Of the former, he says it’s taken him way too long to read because “he can’t stand it.” I’ve never heard him complain about writing  before, but apparently the author’s style does not agree with him. At all. I think it has something to do with a multitude of sentence fragments. He’s not alone. With more than 2,000 Amazon reviews, it’s rating is 2.6 of 5 stars. More than a third of the reviews are 1 star.

I imagine writing for a rabid fan base like that of the Star Wars franchise would be a challenge for most anyone. I’ve not glanced at Aftermath (which takes place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens), but I’ve read some of Chuck Wendig’s often-salty writing posts.  Perhaps he’s an acquired taste.

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Take Up Your Cross, Whether Leap Day or Monday

I hadn’t planned on writing about crosses today. Sometime around the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14), I’d snapped a picture of the old hymn “Take Up Your Cross” (below) with the idea that I’d return to it. Maybe meditate on crosses and the words of the hymn. (Or spend ten uninterrupted seconds considering, which is what passes for meditation in my life these days.)

Take Up Your Cross hymn

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