Pamella Bowen's Blog, page 2
April 6, 2021
Pam Answers McLaren 3
This is one of a series of blogs in which I respond to some of the questions asked by Brian McLaren in his book Faith After Doubt. The book spoke to me deeply since I am living through a dark night. Heads up: my answers are personal and unfiltered. They may make you mad or disappointed with me. If you are not up for it, press delete. Here goes.
Chapter 2, question 1
1. The question that resonated with me was: “Why would I ever want to be part of a group that pressures me to say I believe things I don’t understand and can’t form an opinion about?” In early stages of becoming an Episcopalian, I asked people about what some things in the Creed mean. What is “true God from true God,” “proceeds from the father and the son”? No one could answer me. Even the contrived answers clergy gave me didn’t make sense or satisfy me. I also asked about prayer and got some shabby and contradictory replies. The rote repeating of the creed is indoctrination and brainwashing—to teach us to have some handy churchy phrases memorized so we can pull them out if we are ever questioned about what we believe. It doesn’t mean we believe or even understand them, but they are ready on the tip of our tongue. We can wave them around as signals of our virtue and our membership in the club. I hate that. And my phrases aren’t the same as those used by other so-called Christians. I remember when Amy applied to some college and was asked to sign an infallibility clause about the Bible. She offered to affirm the Nicene Creed instead. That wasn’t good enough. The phrases you wave around are only good in your chapter of the club, not in the other chapters. In fact, your phrases label you so you can be judged and rejected by the other chapters. I hate that. Where is the Love in that?
Photo by Patricia McCarty on Pexels.com
March 30, 2021
Pam Answers McLaren 2
This is one of a series of blogs in which I respond to some of the questions asked by Brian McLaren in his book Faith After Doubt. The book spoke to me deeply since I am living through a dark night. Heads up: my answers are personal and unfiltered. They may make you mad or disappointed with me. If you are not up for it, press delete. Here goes.
Chapter 2, questions 4 and 5
4. In the stages of grief (which I have read are not always sequential or fixed), I am still quite angry. I want to see all the churches fall into rubble, just to show them they can’t keep supporting the status quo and survive. Money needs not to be the foundation of faith groups. Love has to be the foundation. I am depressed because I don’t see my vision coming true. Inertia is so strong. I am not in the bargaining stage, I don’t think, because I don’t believe the church is bargainable in its monolithic inertia, and I don’t need to bargain with God because she is way above that and loves me anyway.
5. To me, doubt feels like seeing the wizard behind the curtain when Toto pulls it back.
Like reading your dad’s old letters and finding out he never loved your mom.
Like having no one show up for your party.
Like finding out you invested in a fake corporation.
Like Jesus removing his mask to reveal the devil underneath.
Like building a house on the beach and a wave washing it away.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
March 23, 2021
Pam Answers McLaren 1
Pam Answers McLaren 1
This is one of a series of blogs in which I respond to some of the questions asked by Brian McLaren in his book Faith After Doubt. The book spoke to me deeply since I am living through a dark night. Heads up: my answers are personal and unfiltered. They may make you mad or disappointed with me. If you are not up for it, press delete. Here goes.
Chapter 1, question 1:
I am currently struggling with doubt that organized religion is good. I see most of what the church and Bible teach as manipulation of a gullible population. Every appeal to fear, duty, loyalty is just to get people to obey and cough up their money to support the clergy and the institution which relies on the people’s support. If the gatekeepers offer to share power with followers, it is only to profit the gatekeepers in some way: monetarily, reputation-wise, or increasing power/easing their labor. For example, followers are tricked into thinking being on the Bishop’s Committee is a privilege when it is just unpaid work (and dead boring at that). The so-called “great commission” is a ploy to increase the power and wealth of the church. God can speak for herself in the hearts of people if she wants. She doesn’t need a bunch of greedy, pushy, threatening evangelists to give her a boost. It is all to benefit the church and the gatekeepers. I also have doubts about prayer. I don’t think our feeble prayers can manipulate God into doing our will. I have benefited from CP [centering prayer], but I would have gotten the same from meditation. Intercessory prayer is useless. Praise is unnecessary; God knows God’s value. She doesn’t need to be patted on the back. Now, the existence of God I have always doubted. I do Hope that God exists, still, and I sometimes feel God’s presence. So, I am not ready to throw God out with the bathwater, but the toxic bathwater stinks, so out it goes!
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
March 18, 2021
Odile Crosses the Pond (not Swan Lake)
Odile Travers’ name comes from St. Odile of Alsace, not the character from Swan Lake. St. Odile was born blind but got her sight when she was baptized. I think that’s a metaphor for what happens to many of us when we “find” God, and our eyes seem to be opened for the first time. That’s the idea in The Blindness of Odile, the newest novel from Pamella Bowen.
Ambitious and self-centered, Odile sets off to study in England at Cambridge University, hoping to impress enough people to make it in international relations. Her pride goes before her literal and figurative fall—into the river Cam. Enter a cast of lovable misfits who take the “lost American” into their care, guiding her to her transformation. These guardian angels include a grumpy friar, a candy-munching nun, and a ginger-haired bartender.
The story is set in 1970, where Odile is shocked by the way the English do things, like answer the phone and incinerate sanitary towels! England seems to conspire against her slick American confidence, replacing it with sterner stuff built on love and compassion.
The Blindness of Odile launches in April of 2021. Watch for updates.
February 20, 2021
Which One Grabs You?
Here are two cover designs for my next book, The Blindness of Odile, a novel of transformation set in Cambridge, England in 1970. If you saw both in a thumbnail on Amazon, would you be attracted to either of them? If so, which one? You can comment below or send me an email at info@GreenandPurplePublishing.com. Thanks for the input.
February 18, 2021
Pray for the World Is Back—in new dress
Take a look at the new cover of Pray for the World. The original cover from 2018, based on a painting by my friend and mentor Shelley Hitz, we designed ourselves. This year, we decided to spring for a new one designed by Pixel Studio. It’s brighter and sends a clearer message about the book, intended for kids aged 8 to 12.
A how-to-pray book, it teaches kids how to pray silently in their hearts or with words, using a simple format.
The highlight, however, is a collection of art by twenty-one global artists from a range of countries: Sri Lanka to Pakistan, Venezuela to Latvia. Meeting artists from other lands encourages young readers to pray for faraway neighbors, not just their own or their families’ needs.
The second edition of Pray for the World is available on Amazon now.
February 9, 2021
Meet Magdalena, Jesus’ Wife
Announcing the release of Magdalena’s Demons, a mystical romance, based loosely on New Testament scripture, in which you get to know Magdalena, disciple, lover, and wife of Jesus of Nazareth, who led the early church along with the master. How did she relate to the male disciples who saw her as a threat? How did she understand her husband’s teachings differently? How did she make his off-beat ideas accessible to the women followers?
And what happened to her, the first witness to the Resurrection, after Jesus ascended? In the absence of facts, I let my imagination fill in the gaps as she flees to Italia, Gaul, and even Brittania, with Mother Mary and Joseph of Arimathea in tow.
Set aside your preconceptions and open your heart to a new view of Mary Magdalene as she stays true to her understanding of Jesus’ message and passes it on. Like the rest of us, she struggles to keep her exorcised demons at bay. Jesus may have healed her, but she is not perfect, especially when it comes to raising her very special daughter.
Spoiler Alert: Love wins.
February 4, 2021
The Fun of New Covers
When we started on our self-publishing hobby, we tried to design our own book covers (Pray for the World, Jesus in Jeans Journal), or we used the cover design tool at Kindle Direct Publishing (A Doubter’s Devotional 1 & 2). They were serviceable but not exciting.
Now that we’ve been locked in for a year, not spending money on movies, concerts, cruises, even restaurants, we can afford to pay for professionally made covers. Our designer of choice is Pixel Studio on Fiverr.com. For $44 I get a full paperback cover, an e-book cover, and a 3D mock-up to use for promotions.
I choose a photo, illustration, graphic, or background from depositphotos.com and Bojan from Pixel Studio and his team work their magic with colors and fonts. (Bombs, Betty, and Bed-counts, Magdalena’s Demons). All this art appears in my inbox in about three days. An email with the subject line “Consider It Done!” starts my heart pounding as I tremblingly click the file open to see the face of my next book. What fun!
Click here to order the current titles, some with amazing covers:
December 31, 2020
Subtitle Blues
My new novel, Magdalena’s Demons, is coming soon. Unlike nonfiction books, which often have subtitles, a novel doesn’t need one. It’s pretty common, though, to see book covers that say “a novel” after the title. I did some research, and apparently this moniker is called a “reading line,” not a subtitle. Its purpose is controversial, and it is more common in the US than in the UK. Some say it is a snooty way of making your book look literary, as if to say, “This is a classy novel, not pulp fiction.” In my struggle over the question of including a “reading line,” my goal is only to give potential readers some guidance on the book’s content.
Magdalena’s Demons is not a horror novel, though “demons” might suggest it is. It’s a historical novel set during the first century in Palestine. My main character is usually called Mary Magdalene, but she calls herself Magdalena in my book. It tells the love story of Magdalena and Jesus, whom she calls Yeshua. Therefore, it is a romance novel. Since it follows the main character on a spiritual journey and contains mystical elements such as visions and supernatural happenings, I could call it a spiritual or mystical novel. My beta-reader exclaimed about the love story in it, so basically the romance is paramount, and word on the street says that romance is the best selling genre. Better stick with “romance” then.
Maybe I should call it Magdalena’s Demons: a mystical romance. But is “a mystical romance” a subtitle or a reading line? Does anybody care?
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com
December 15, 2020
Free Books
As I look toward closing Green and Purple Publishing in 2021, I want to thank all of you who have subscribed to my blog for your support and encouragement. If there are any of my books you have not been able to purchase, I would like to bring you a signed copy of those you missed. If you live near me in Temecula, CA, I will drop them on your porch, contact free. If you live in the surrounding areas, maybe we could meet somewhere half-way. If you live far away, I can mail them to you if you pay the postage.
Please email me at pambowen909@gmail.com with your requests. When supplies are gone, all these titles are still live on Amazon.com for you to purchase.
Here are the titles available:
Destiny Fair, a historical novel set during the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, based on the true story of Joan Neidig’s grandparents. (18 copies)
Bombs, Betty, and Bed-counts, the memoir of my father Donald K. McKnight, telling about his childhood in Pomona, CA, his military service in the Pacific theater, and his career at Chino prison. (10 copies)
Labyrinth Wakening: a spiritual journey novel, set in a fictional version of Temecula valley. It traces the transformation of a selfish young woman, with the help of the mystical labyrinth. (5 copies)
Play to God: rediscover childlike joy, part devotional, part self-help, it encourages grown-ups to play more. (13 copies).
Old Vine and Little Branch, an illustrated parable set in wine country. (8 copies)
Vid Viejo y Ramita, Spanish translation of Old Vine and Little Branch. (13 copies)
A Doubter’s Devotional, 1 & 2, reflection questions based on songs, poems, and essays by me. (3 copies)
Folding Memory: an Alzheimer’s story, illustrated book for children about a difficult topic. (6 copies)
I look forward to hearing from you, and Merry Christmas!
