Skip to content

Category: My Scribbler’s Heart

Interview with Modern Christian Romance Author Tammy L. Gray

Published by CAstfalk on 09/21/2015

I’m happy to share this interview with one of my favorite authors, Tammy L. Gray. I’ve had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of her new book Sell Out, and it’s a fantastic read. I highly recommend it.

In conjunction with the interview, Tammy is giving away an electronic copy of Sell Out. To enter the giveaway, click on the book cover for Sell Out on the side bar or simply click here. [Giveaway over.]

I read Shattered Rose (which is now permanently free on ebook!) more than two years ago and quickly became hooked on the Winsor Series. Avery’s college experience struck me as authentic. What inspired you to share her story, one I think many young women can relate to?

Tammy L. Gray
Tammy L. Gray

Shattered Rose is honestly a love story to anyone who has struggled with an addiction. It’s about allowing yourself to experience the love of Christ despite mistakes that you make.

For me, I became a Christian as an adult, so much of the college experience I put in there was my own. I think so often, the Christian community wants to close their eyes to the challenges that face our youth. They want to believe their kids would never do such things. But they do. And there’s a reason our teenagers are leaving the faith in droves. They want authenticity. They crave it.

My goal in every book I write is to show God’s incredible glory by showcasing what He can do with flawed people. And despite the masks that we wear, all of us can relate to flawed characters.

Continue readingInterview with Modern Christian Romance Author Tammy L. Gray
9 Comments

Small Success Thursday

Published by CAstfalk on 09/17/2015

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. Back-to-School Paperwork Conquered – I survived the beginning-of-the-school-year-paperwork flurry. After filling out umpteen forms replete with multiple emergency contacts with multiple contact phone numbers for multiple children and a range of other forms requiring my signature, I thought my work was done. Then a second round of papers hit at back-to-school night. I think I’ve completed every necessary form and attached every necessary payment without letting things fall through the cracks. I think. 
    Continue readingSmall Success Thursday
6 Comments

Beneath the Cover of Your Kindle, How Hot Is Too Hot?

Published by CAstfalk on 09/14/2015

Sometime during high school, I read Nathaniel by John Saul. Roughly twenty-five years later, I can tell you nothing about the plot. Nothing. Not. A. Thing. However, the book contained a single sex scene, observed by a teen from a barn with a bedroom view. I can recall that scene in detail.

Woman Reading

I’ve heard of people who can skim and skip explicit scenes in novels. The vast majority of times, such details can be passed over without diminishing the reader’s knowledge of the plot. In other words, they are gratuitous.

Continue readingBeneath the Cover of Your Kindle, How Hot Is Too Hot?
1 Comment

Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Reasons I Love My Kindle

Published by CAstfalk on 09/08/2015

When my husband surprised me with a Kindle for Christmas four years ago, I wasn’t sure that I’d like it. I enjoy holding a book in my hands, examining the color cover, and feeling the pages glide between my fingers. But, grateful for his thoughtful gift, I tested it out. And I became hooked. Here’s what I love about my Kindle.

  1. The dictionary feature. I love the ability to look up a word with a single tap. I don’t need to set my book down and go for the dictionary–either in hardcover or online. It’s  undoubtedly helped expand my vocabulary and enabled me to grasp the precise meaning of words.
  2. The ability to prop it on a window sill. I carefully prop my Kindle on the window sill above the kitchen sink, which allows me to read while washing dishes. With six people, no automatic dishwasher, and  meals cooked from scratch, I often have a double sink filled with dishes. Reading makes the task more pleasant.reader with bookends
    3. Continue readingTop 10 Tuesday: 10 Reasons I Love My Kindle
2 Comments

Nature’s Calling. Are You Listening?

Published by CAstfalk on 09/07/2015

Man has endured work since Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden:

To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it,
Cursed is the ground because of you!
In toil you shall eat its yield
all the days of your life. (Gen 3:17)

Yet “work is for man, not man for work.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2428) So, this Labor Day and throughout the year, what can you do bring a bit of genuine leisure to your life? To cultivate a sabbath or respite?

One of the simplest, most beneficial, FREE things you can do is get out into nature. In the weeks before school began, I crammed in some last-minute opportunities to get myself and my children outside. We visited a grotto, gardens, nature trails, and a nature sanctuary.

Wildwood Park1
Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Continue readingNature’s Calling. Are You Listening?
7 Comments

Seven Quick Takes Friday

Published by CAstfalk on 09/04/2015

Seven Quick Takes Friday

Lovin’ Our CSA Share Edition

(Also known as my slow descent into hippiedom.)

For the past decade at least (I’ve lost count of the years), we’ve purchased a share in a local CSA – Community Supported Agriculture. From April through November, I visit a local pickup site each week and bring home a bounty of locally-grown organic produce. (We receive our produce from Spiral Path Farm.)

These are seven ways in which it’s been good for our family.

–1–

Color and Beauty

In late summer especially, you can’t look at this harvest and not simply admire its beauty. God gives us a feast for the eyes as well as for the stomach.

Peppers
Color and beauty. Add some blueberries, and you’ve got a rainbow.
Continue readingSeven Quick Takes Friday
9 Comments

How Do You Celebrate the Lives of Those You Love?

Published by CAstfalk on 08/31/2015

September brings with it an end of summer, a start of another school year, and in our family, two birthdays: mine and my youngest daughter’s. (There’s also the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8), which provides yet another excuse for us to devour birthday cake!)

In a culture that devalues life, celebrating a birthday says, “I’m glad you were born.  I’m blessed to know you. I enjoy spending time with you.”

My parents welcomed me in their mid-to-late forties, more than a decade after the younger of my two brothers. My brothers welcomed me as well, despite the fact it meant that eventually they had to share a room. I say eventually, because I think I slept in a crib in my parents’ room until I was five. (Maybe that’s the subconscious reason I’ve never used a crib with our kids.  Hmmm . . . )

Jeremiah 1:5

Continue readingHow Do You Celebrate the Lives of Those You Love?
6 Comments