Cheryl Grey Bostrom's Blog, page 7

To a Far Country

After a few days with family next week, I’ll pretty much disappear for the next month or so, devoting my days almost exclusively to my next book.

Most of the time I’m away, I’ll shower enough to stay civilized. 

Air-dry my hair.

Forego makeup. 

Wear my PNW writing uniform: leggings, tee, fleece.

Hike outdoors and return with ideas I’ll scribble onto yellow note pads. 

With distractions at bay, I’m praying to complete 35,000 more words on my novel-in-process by May 1, which will place me exactly on target for my January 2 Tyndale deadline. 

I’ll return on May 6 with my next Saturday Letter, one of my weekly notes to you where I talk about writing and books, family and faith, nature and life. If you’d like to subscribe, please drop me a note HERE. I’ll enter you in the new book giveaway I’ll be announcing that day, too. And I’ll always answer your emails.

Godspeed, friends. See you in May.

*******

A few pics for you, both old and new:

Prairie Privy.

(Montana outhouse, circa 1950s)

“Life is not measured by how much you own.”

—Luke 12:15 NLT

*******

Feather in her cap.

*******

When love arrives in every color.

*******

Looking Glass.

“As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.”

—Proverbs 27:19

*******

Ablaze.

“The flames of love are flames of fire.”

—Song of Songs 8:6

*******

Mamas and babes.

“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.”

—Isaiah 66:13

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

When Pics Outweigh Words

They’re mixed this week, the photos—old and new. Of winter mountains and a few who live in their shadows. As you scroll, I hope you’ll breathe the rarified air. Hear the quiet, peppered with a lone goose’s honks. Rest in the peace that nothing can steal.

When you let off steam . . .

(Fumarole action on volcano Mt. Baker. See it?).

“Do not let the sun go down on your anger.”

—Ephesians 4:26

*******

Mt. Shuksan peeking (peaking?) over foothills.

.”In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.”

—Psalm 95:4

*******

Pause, after a dusting of snow.

“…in quietness and trust is your strength…”

—Isaiah 30:15

*******

Fleas on a dog’s back?

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long.”

—2 Corinthians 4:17

*******

I had just stepped out of our barn when I heard this solitary goose approaching—honking for all she was worth. Was she delayed? Escaping? Lost? Even after she passed overhead and disappeared into the distance, I could hear her calling. I wondered who missed her, who would answer her and honk, “Here we are! Land here!”

“…call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you…”

—Psalm 50:15.…

*******

When you rise above it all.

“Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”

—Psalm 61:2

*******

Fuzzy focus, but I thought you’d like to meet one of the locals.

Prairie wolf.

*******

Rhinocerous.

*******

Ahoy, mates.

“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

—Isaiah 46:4

*******

Sky breakers.

“Deep calls to deep . . .Your waves have rolled over me.”

—Psalm 42:7

*******

*******

Furnace.

*******

“If I could read your mind, love, what a tale your thoughts would tell. “

******

Bedtime.

Trumpeter swans, lagoon-bound past Mt. Baker.

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here!

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

The Work of Wolves, Reviewed (& a NEW Giveaway)

A complete shift of gears from last week’s review. This one’s about The Work of Wolves by author Kent Meyers.

I stumbled on this book while looking for other nature novels I could list as comps for my own. In the two weeks since I finished it, I have recommended it to every reader I know.

It’s exceptional.

The cover blurber compared it to Lonesome Dove and Plainsong, two books I loved. While not the bronc ride of the epic Pulitzer winner Lonesome Dove, it’s absolutely on a par—maybe better. Compared to Plainsong? I’d choose this one first, hands down.

If editing and publicity are any indicators, I wonder if publisher Harcourt took the book seriously. It has too many typos, and couldn’t have been front and center in their marketing (though it should have been). Published in 2004, I’d expect a novel of this caliber to have 154,000 reviews, not 154 (though to be fair, internet reviews weren’t then what they are now).

Still, even WITH the typos, I’d give it 7 stars out of 5.

The language is lyrical, beautiful, spare. The characterization, brilliant. The story? Well, you won’t want to put it down, and you’ll be tense sometimes—but you’re safe in this writer’s skillful hands. He carries you through.

I plan to read every book this author has written.

If you’d like to win a copy, you’ll need to subscribe to my Saturday Letters to enter the drawing. Subscribers are automatically entered in this and my future giveaways, but if you drop me a note HERE with The Work of Wolves in it somewhere, I’ll sign you up and enter you three times. This book deserves to be appreciated.

If you read the book, will you write and let me know what you think? Feel free to disagree, but let’s talk about it.

***There’s some cowboy language in the story with our Lord’s name used to no good purpose. Painful, but not gratuitous.

Here’s the gist:

When fourteen-year-old Carson Fielding bought his first horse from Magnus Yarborough, it became clear that the teenager was a better judge of horses than the rich landowner was of humans. Years later, Carson, now a skilled and respected horse trainer, grudgingly agrees to train Magnus’s horses and teach his wife to ride. But as Carson becomes disaffected with the power-hungry Magnus, he also grows more and more attracted to the rancher’s wife, and their relationship sets off a violent chain of events that unsettles their quiet reservation border town in South Dakota. Thrown into the drama are Earl Walks Alone, an Indian trying to study his way out of the reservation and into college, and Willi, a German exchange student confronting his family’s troubled history.

In this unforgettable story of horses, love, and life, Carson and the entire ensemble of characters learn, in very different ways, about the strong bonds that connect people to each other and to the land on which they live.

*******

An in a connected vein . . . sorta . . . these, from my archives:

Not wolves, exactly, but they can pretend.

Snow garden joy.

Bet Adam felt like this when his Friend showed up in the cool of the day.

*******

And more . . .

Old friends.

“…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

—Proverbs 18:24

*******

Hopeful friends, two days closer to spring. Sap is rising, even when all the world sees snow.

*******

Remembering the gift of this day. The miracle of it.

We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’”

—Joshua 4:6

*******

A changed mind.

*******

Hay you!

“Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory . . .”

—Psalm 33:17

*******

In the teeth of the storm, out walking between forest and pond, I thought of Frost’s poem (below) immediately.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

BY ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

.

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

.

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

—Robert Frost, 1923

*******

Migrators, here!

Puffed to maximum loft.

Welcome home, travelers.

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

P.S. The WINNER of last week’s giveaway of Lysa TerKeurst’s book Forgiving What You Can’t Forget is in this week’s Saturday Letter, too. Subscribe HERE to get my weekly letter and to be included in future giveaways.

Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: A Review, Giveaways & a New Cover Peek

Betrayal broke my friend’s heart—and her magnificent wings.

I take that back.

Betrayal itself didn’t level her. It was the pain of it—pain she wouldn’t release—that had kept her hobbling . . . for years.

But when she showed up for a country walk awhile back, I recognized a breakthrough. She was flapping, ready for liftoff. The spark I’d missed in her for a couple of decades was . . . well . . . sparking.

Thirty steps down the road, she began talking about this book: Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again by Lysa TerKeurst.

Later, I looked it up. The inside cover copy gripped me immediately:

“Staying here, blaming them, and forever defining your life by what they did will only increase the pain. The more our pain consumes us, the more it will control us. Worse, it will keep projecting out onto others. And, sadly, it’s those who deserve it the least whom our unresolved pain will hurt the most. That person or people—they’ve caused enough pain for you, for me, and for those around us. It’s time to move forward.“

She sent me a copy, I devoured it . . . and knew I had share the book with you.

Here’s the gist:

You deserve to stop suffering because of what other people have done to you.

Have you ever felt stuck in a cycle of unresolved pain, playing offenses over and over in your mind? You know you can’t go on like this, but you don’t know what to do next. Lysa TerKeurst has wrestled through this journey. But in surprising ways, she’s discovered how to let go of bound-up resentment and overcome the resistance to forgiving people who aren’t willing to make things right.

With deep empathy, therapeutic insight, and rich Bible teaching coming out of more than 1,000 hours of theological study, Lysa will help you:

Learn how to move on when the other person refuses to change and never says they’re sorry.Walk through a step-by-step process to free yourself from the hurt of your past and feel less offended today.Discover what the Bible really says about forgiveness and the peace that comes from living it out right now.Identify what’s stealing trust and vulnerability from your relationships so you can believe there is still good ahead.Disempower the triggers hijacking your emotions by embracing the two necessary parts of forgiveness.

Whether your pain stems from betrayal, abandonment, or any of a hundred ways people hurt each other (or themselves), this is a book for you. For me. For times such as these.

Fly by after you ingest it, will you? I’ll wave at you with joy.

*******

I’d love to send you a hardcover copy of Forgiving What You Can’t Forget in this week’s GIVEAWAY. Subscribers to my Saturday Letters (not found anywhere online) are automatically entered. If you’d like to join us, drop me a note here: cherylbostrom.com/contact/ and I’ll add your name to my Saturday Letters hat!

*******

In other news, Tyndale House, my novel Sugar Birds‘ new home, will release the book’s NEW COVER next week—in advance of the story’s relaunch under the Tyndale House imprint. I’m so delighted that they licensed the same photo, and, as we hoped, the front cover is almost identical! You’re the first to see it before it officially goes public!

Also . . . CONGRATULATIONS to the WINNERS of our Valentine week’s FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS GIVEAWAY!

Prize # 1 ($400 Amazon GIFT CARD): Kim Rosso

Prize #2 (A BUNDLE of BOOKS): Becky Lewis

Prize #3 (Booklover’s ACCESSORY BUNDLE): Penny LeBaron

*******

And, as always, photos and thoughts for your imagination and soul:

Age 10, you race into the house for a glass of water, and you leave the door open. Again. Your mother’s voice finds you: “Born in a barn?”

“Yes!” you shout, pretending. Wishing you’d been born in a haymow nest with them, seven weeks earlier.

*******

When you mud-wrestle breakfast.
.
Down by the pond last Sunday. 39 degrees. Pelting rain.

Baldies.

*******

Morning by morning, new mercies I see. . . ”

*******

Settled.

“No longer . . . like children . . . tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching.”

—Ephesians 4:14

*******

When your future floats in.

“In the end I will turn things around for the people.”

—Zephaniah 3:9 MSG

*******

So many pipes.

(Trumpeter swans, Dungeness Valley, WA)

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
    burst into jubilant song with music;
make music to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and the sound of singing,
with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
    shout for joy before the Lord, the King.”

—Psalm 98:4-6

*******

Amen.

“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear.”

—Isaiah 58:8

*******

Now, from a few years back . . .

Cinnamon blanket.

“He will cover you . . . “

—Psalm 91:4

*******

Wrap in ice, apply gauze, and wait.

*******

I’m memorizing your talking clouds and you, warm sea.

Carrying you home, warm land.

To keep for a snowy day.

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Ungulates, a Spit, and a GIVEAWAY

Hi Friends,

Research for my next novel took me to the Olympic Peninsula last week, where Olympic elk (a.k.a. Roosevelt elk or Roosevelt’s wapiti) browsed and slept in farm fields near Sequim, Washington. I promised you pics of these beauties.

Siesta.

Wild ungulates like these—the largest species of elk in North America—show up in the landscape of my new story, which takes place roughly between the Dungeness and Elwha River watersheds.

“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe.”
—Psalm 4:8

*******

Later, we roamed toward the Dungeness Lighthouse near Sequim, Washington.

To reach it, you’ll hike five miles up a skinny strip of beach—”the Dungeness Spit,” to locals. And the tide better be right, or you’ll be wading.

Light—in life’s chop.

“When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
    When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.”

—Isaiah 43:2 MSG

*******

And OH, the views . . .

The lighthouse is way, way out there, toward the end of that long curve. For scale, you’re looking at countless old growth logs, many the diameter of hotel hot tubs, or VW Beetles.

“, , ,granite-strength and safe-harbor-God . . .
is a safe place to be.”

—Psalm 62:7-8.

Composed of alluvial deposits from the nearby Dungeness River, the spit’s a national refuge for wildlife (including us :).

You can imagine the birds!

I’ll have more images for you as the book takes shape, so you can lodge the setting in your mind. Later you can match some of these scenes to those in the story.

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

P.S. The multi-author GIVEAWAY I told you about last week is LIVE through tomorrow—Sunday, February 19. You can still enter HERE to win one of the three prizes below.

https://kingsumo.com/g/v1i6xd/for-the-love-of-books-giveaway

A HUGE GIVEAWAY!

Hi Friends,

This week’s all about gifts—in the form of a HUGE GIVEAWAY!

A group of us authors assembled gifts worth over $800, which you can enter to win anytime from Monday, Feb 13 through Sunday, Feb 19.

Here’s the gist:

“ CALLING ALL BOOK LOVERS! 
Are you ready for the FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS GIVEAWAY?!   It’s Valentine’s Day week, and we’ve teamed up to celebrate the love of books and their authors by blessing 3 WINNERS with incredible prizes! 

As writers, we want to build up and champion other authors and let our readers know we are grateful for their faithful support. We are so thankful for YOU and to God, who is the ultimate Author of our stories. ♡

** ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY IS SIMPLE: Just click the link BELOW, and sign up with your email for a chance to win one of THREE fantastic prizes:

Prize 1: $400 Amazon Gift Card!

Prize 2: Bookie Bundle featuring 17 books for hours of reading! (worth $200+)

Prize 3: Book Lover Accessory Bundle featuring various book lover necessities including a $15 Starbucks card, blanket, pens, highlighters, journal, reading light, candle, tea, mug, socks, and more… all for creating a comfortable and cozy reading time! (worth $200+)

SIGN UP HERE! :

https://kingsumo.com/g/v1i6xd/for-the-love-of-books-giveaway

Meet the wonderful author friends who donated all this . You’ll have a chance to connect with them directly when you enter, if you choose.

Hope to see your name in the hat! Thanks for stopping by. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

EARLY ACCESS to a HUGE GIVEAWAY!

Hi Friends,

This week’s all about gifts—in the form of a HUGE GIVEAWAY!

A group of us authors assembled gifts worth over $800, which you can enter to win anytime from Monday, Feb 13 through Sunday, Feb 19.

But if you subscribe by email to my Saturday Letters, you’ll get EARLY ACCESS—and more chances to win. Drop me a note HERE to sign up, and I’ll send you the giveaway link and more info right away!

Here’s the gist:

“ CALLING ALL BOOK LOVERS! 
Are you ready for the FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS GIVEAWAY?!   It’s Valentine’s Day week, and we’ve teamed up to celebrate the love of books and their authors by blessing 3 WINNERS with incredible prizes! 

As writers, we want to build up and champion other authors and let our readers know we are grateful for their faithful support. We are so thankful for YOU and to God, who is the ultimate Author of our stories. ♡

** ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY IS SIMPLE – Sign up with your email for a chance to win one of THREE fantastic prizes:

Prize 1: $400 Amazon Gift Card!

Prize 2: Bookie Bundle featuring 17 books for hours of reading! (worth $200+)

Prize 3: Book Lover Accessory Bundle featuring various book lover necessities including a $15 Starbucks card, blanket, pens, highlighters, journal, reading light, candle, tea, mug, socks, and more… all for creating a comfortable and cozy reading time! (worth $200+)

Meet the wonderful author friends who donated all this . You’ll have a chance to connect with them directly when you enter, if you choose.

Hope to see your name in the hat! Thanks for stopping by. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Mossy

Memories grow moss, you know, and sometimes a writer must scrape them to find what she’s looking for, to uncover what she hopes to mine for the story taking shape in her head.

So . . . I’m on a research trip, this time for a new novel that’s set in the area where I grew up: the Olympic Peninsula in far NW Washington State.

If you’d like to follow along as I write this new tale (slated to publish through Tyndale House in 2025), join me, will you? Send me your email address → HERE ← , and I’ll write you an old-school letter each Saturday. In it, I’ll include my word counts, writerly musings, and personal life stuff you won’t find online. You’ll be automatically entered in lots of book giveaways, too.

These letters are brief. Quick reads for you. And if you reply, I’ll always write back.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep posting here—always nature photos and sometimes book reviews. I’ll link this blog to the bottom of my Saturday Letters, so you won’t miss a thing.

I’d love to bring you with me.

Day 1: Mt. Angeles Road climbs out of Port Angeles and into the Olympic Mountains toward Hurricane Ridge. The Beaumonts built this cabin in the foothills in 1887.

Homesteaders, they lived here nearly 40 years.

The cabin then sat empty for another thirty years, until historians moved it a mile south.

Roof, walls, stones, generations of life echoes . . . all mossy.

Characters will do more than scrape moss in this new story of mine. But how much more? What will it take to unearth a memory and drain its power to take captives?

******

Day 2: Dawn in Sequim—twenty minutes east of Port Angeles.

Good morning sky.

Good morning Olympic Mountains.

Good morning wild, luminous Dungeness River.

Welcome to the story.

*******

When crows are roosters.

(Find the birds, then the barn. You’ll recognize both in the novel.)

*******

Enough book concepts for now.:)

By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way home again, back to the place where I shot these next pics.

Megaphone.
(Sunrise over Church Mountain, North Cascades.)
.
“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight.”
—Matthew 10:27

*******

Last summer Blake ALMOST drove the tractor and brush hog over the entrance. He saw the yellow jackets streaming in and out of the hole in the ground seconds before he would have crossed it.

Whew.

Those stingers died in the fall, like they always do, so we all went digging.

Ever have a run-in with a ground nest?

*******

Clinging.

“My whole being clings to you; your strong hand upholds me.” —Psalm 63:8

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here!

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Winter Edition: God and Nature Magazine

If you visit here regularly, you’ve seen this magazine—the American Scientific Affiliation’s God and Nature. I post a link to it quarterly, ever grateful that my photography has found a home here.

From this Winter 2023 edition, I’m sharing the editors’ letter, and encourage you to spend a while browsing the array of articles that follow, all connecting wonders of science with the Lord who designed them. Whatever your perspective, you’ll find fodder for lively discussion—and worship.

Enjoy!

*******

GOD AND NATURE MAGAZINE: WINTER 2023

Letter from the Editors

By Sy Garte and Aniko Albert

Welcome to the first issue of God and Nature for this (hopefully) happy new year of 2023! Fresh from the ASA Winter Symposium, you can now unwind by the fire with this winter issue.

We lead off with an essay from a newcomer to the magazine, Kathleen Braden, who offers a thoughtful theological perspective on our relationship to animals. The next article, by yours truly (Sy), reports on an intriguing paper with potentially breakthrough implications. Pastor Terry Defoe presents an inspiring sermon on Psalm 19 (often called the “scientist’s psalm”), and Jeff Greenberg gives a scientific and theological tour of the nature of chemical and other kinds of bonding. Chris Barrigar presents a thoughtful video about agape love, which can be watched directly from the magazine or by a link to YouTube.

Our three columnists have each contributed stellar (or in one case, lunar) material. Cheryl Grey Bostrom lifts her eyes and camera towards the heavens this time and brings us photos of the moon, accompanied by words from Psalm 139. Doug Phillippy continues his explorations of mathematical concepts such as infinity and paradoxes, and Mike Clifford reports on ongoing efforts at his university, including his own project, to create more diverse and inclusive curricula.

Please enjoy this issue, keep warm, and remember that spring is not far away—there is just enough time to get your essay, poem, story, or letter ready to submit to God and Nature for the spring issue!

Sy Garte, Ph.D. Biochemistry, is Editor-in-Chief of God and Nature, and the author of The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith. He has been a Professor of Public Health and Environmental Health Sciences at three universities, and was an Associate Director at the Center for Scientific Review at the NIH. He blogs at The Book of Works, and his website is sygarte.com.  Sy is Vice President of the Washington DC ASA Chapter, and a fellow of the ASA. 
​
Anikó Albert grew up in Budapest, Hungary, and is a graduate of Eötvös Loránd University. A serial migrant, she taught English as a Foreign Language in her hometown, high-school Spanish in Kingston, Jamaica, and English and various subjects in Alameda, California. She is currently the Managing Editor of God and Nature, and Chair of Rockville Help, an emergency assistance charitable organization in Rockville, Maryland. ​

God & Nature magazine is a publication of the American Scientific Affiliation, an international network of Christians in science: http://www.asa3.org

*******

And, as always, a few more photos and musings for you . . .

Garden, waiting.
.
“It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.”
—1 Corinthians 3:7

*******

Economies of biblical scale.

*******

Good morning, Beauty.

(Mt. Baker, North Cascades)

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”

—Psalm 143:8

*******

Stay . . . or go?

(Palouse mulies.)

“The prudent see danger and take cover…”
—Proverbs 22:3

*******

Cloudworks.

“When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.”

—Jeremiah 10:13

*******

And a throwback from four years ago:

Look closely. There’s an inverted landscape in every drop.

“The God . . . who creates new things out of nothing.”

—Romans 4:17

*******

Thanks for stopping by, friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks.

Winter and Nesters

A new week of photos for you from far northwest Washington State: shots of snow and foggy winter mornings—and of those who nest smack in the heart of the cold, certain that even here, even now, spring’s coming.

Through a glass, darkly.

“All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

—1 Corinthians 13:12

*******

Ibuprofen for the soul.

*******

Meet our NEW NEIGHBORS! A fuzzy phone shot from my Saturday walk, but I couldn’t wait to show you!

******

The lovebirds on a foggy morning . . . hanging out at our place.

*******

Welcome, new subscribers! Pics for you from four years ago this week:

Barn swallow snowbirds.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”

—Ecclesiastes 3:1

*******

Snow otter.

*******

First pages of the understory.

My new novel’s budding—this time on the Olympic Peninsula:). Want to track it, start to finish? DM me with your email address.

*******

A sherbet morning.

*******

Thanks for stopping by friends. So glad you’re here.

Watching Nature, Seeing Life: Through His Creation, God Speaks