Becky Wade's Blog, page 30

Book Settings – The Inexpensive Travel Agency

Every year I host a Reading Challenge in my Posse group on Facebook where each month hosts a different theme. Some themes center around the covers, some on the authors, but I do my best to include at least one theme each year that centers on settings.

One of my favorite things about reading is having a story transport me to another place and time. To experience the culture of the characters and to either learn something about a place I’ve never been or to experience the nostalgia of revisiting a place where I have traveled.

That second option is where our reading challenge is focused this month. Our challenge is to read a book that is set in either a country or state where we have visited.

I’ve already started my first read for the challenge.

I’m reading Pepper Basham’s The Juliet Code which is set in Venice, Italy. I haven’t been to Venice, but I have been to Rome, so this counts as a country (Italy) that I’ve visited. I’ve loved all the Freddie & Grace mysteries, so I was thrilled to have an excuse to pull this out of my TBR pile to read.

If I have time for a second read this month, I plan to travel to Colorado with my good friend Kimberley Woodhouse.

I love the mountains, and I’ve been fortunate enough to visit Colorado several times, the most recent trip coming last year when we stopped in Colorado Springs on our way to South Dakota. We visited the Gardon of the Gods and had high tea at Glen Eyrie Castle. We didn’t do any digging for dinosaur fossils, but I look forward to joining Kim’s paleontologist heroine to experience that thrill.

Is there a state or country you have visited in real life that you would love to visit again in the pages of a novel?

Two 80th Birthdays

We spent last week celebrating two new octogenarians! 

My mom turned 80 on August 28. We celebrated big in July, with much of the family enjoying Park City, Utah, for a few days. But Mom was quick to remind us during that vacation that she wasn’t 80 yet! 

On her actual birthday, we gathered a few of the grandchildren who were unable to make it to Utah as well as all three of her great-grandchildren for dinner and a low-key celebration of the actual day. We thought the bouquet of cookies turned out well! As you can see, she enjoyed the evening. 

The next morning, we boarded a plane to Pennsylvania. Jeff’s dad turned 80 that Saturday, but when he arrived at my sister-in-law’s house in Reading on Friday, he got the surprise of us being there! A few hours later, another surprise—our daughter had driven down from Boston for the weekend, too! 

We had fun celebrating him on Saturday with lots of food and decorations and yummy cupcakes made by our niece. 

Needless to say, it’s been a whirlwind of activity for the past week! And lest you think that now I get to rest (or even write!), I am off to New Orleans tomorrow to attend the ACFW Conference. I never imagined I’d live such an on-the-go life! 

Do you have any trips planned for this fall? 

Are you a recipe fanatic?

Scrolling through recipe videos, watching cooking shows, and even reading cookbooks is a favorite past time. I especially love revisiting my Mom’s cookbooks with all her markings and notations. Talk about a treasure.

I made Mom’s banana pudding yesterday for Labor Day, which—I discovered while searching through recipes—is almost identical to Ina Garten’s, aka The Barefoot Contessa. How on earth did Ina get Mom’s recipe!!

I wish I’d taken a pic of mine, but alas, things were a tad crazy and we all just dove in head first. While certainly not a “traditional” or old fashioned banana pudding, it’s delicious! And comes together in a flash, which is what I needed yesterday.

I also made a pot of pinto beans with ham hock (to go with Smash Burgers). Again, so easy. Just put them on and let them cook. While I’ve made these forever, I still appreciate learning what other cooks do. Like Grandbaby Cakes. Jocelyn has a fun site, and she’s got some great recipes!

The next three recipes are ones in my own personal text thread (does anyone else do that? Send themselves texts to remember things?) I have saved to try when time permits.

Anyone else have these recipes saved or follow these cooks?

Olive Garden Dressing Chicken Pasta by the Food Hussy

Cinnamon Breakfast Muffins by RecipeTin Eats (with the brilliant and adorable Nagi)

Easy One Pan Mexican Dinner

So does anyone else have these same or similar internet recipes saved to make? Do you love pursuing recipes? And If you save recipes you run across on the internet, please share ones on your list. Lastly, does anyone else text themselves notes and messages and URLs to remember? (If not, try it. It’s so handy!)

Blessings on this Tuesday which finds me GramTam-ing—and loving it! (What are you up to today?)

Tammy

The Bible is not Fiction

As you may know, I’m currently writing what is known as “biblical fiction” (the term makes me cringe, because if it’s biblical, the biblical part shouldn’t be fiction). My current book is about Sarah. Nearly every story in it either came from the Bible or from The Book of Jasher, an ancient text that is not considered inspired, but boy, is it interesting!

Nearly all of the biblical novelists I know take great pains not to ever contradict Scripture because we believe it is completely accurate in the original manuscripts. We feel free to add texture, thoughts, dialogue, and actions that are in line (i.e., not implausible) according to the biblical account. But we freely admit that our contributions are the fiction that comprises biblical fiction.

These days I read a lot of opinions that the Bible is a nice collection of myths and stories, but it’s not historic or scientific, and therefore it’s not trustworthy.

But it IS.

The Bible claims to be the word of God. Over forty different men who came from all walks of life wrote the sixty-six books of the Bible. But since those men were human and humans aren’t perfect, how do we know the Bible is trustworthy? Isn’t it possible that somehow, in some way, it contains a few mistakes? 

Let’s think about it. God cannot lie and he cannot make mistakes. Since the Bible is his word, the Bible cannot contain mistakes. The belief that God’s word is perfect, true, and without mistakes in the original manuscripts is called inerrancy. 

The men who wrote the Bible knew God could not lie: 

“For you are God, O Sovereign Lord. Your words are truth . . .” (2 Samuel 7:28). 

“This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began” (Titus 1:2). 

The Bible itself promises that its words are true: 

“The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over” (Psalm 12:6). 

“Your eternal word, O Lord, stands firm in heaven” (Ps. 119:89).

Jesus said, “Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth” (John 17:17). 

The Bible is not an encyclopedia; it does not tell us everything about everything. But in everything it does teach, it is trustworthy. Before you start to think of possible exceptions, let’s back up and review a few considerations: 

·  Sometimes the writers of the Bible use poetic speech. For instance, I could say, “The Lord is my shepherd” without meaning that I’m an actual sheep, complete with wooly coat and four legs. That’s poetic language in which I’m saying that I’m like a sheep and the Lord is like a shepherd because he guides me and protects me. Just because I’m not a real lamb doesn’t mean the Bible is untrue. 

·  Sometimes the Bible writers used round numbers. For instance, in Genesis 15:13 God told Abraham that the children of Israel would be strangers in a foreign land for 400 years. He was using a round number. In Exodus 12:40 we learn that the “people of Israel had lived in Egypt and Canaan for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the Lord’s forces left the land.” In this passage, Moses was being very specific, down to the day. So just because a number is rounded off in one passage doesn’t mean it’s not true in another. 

Why do some Bibles use different words than others? Because the Bible has been translated into many different languages and many different styles. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic; the New Testament was written in Greek. Since you read and speak English, you need to read an English Bible. So whether you read the King James Version, the New Living Translation, the Message, the Tree of Life version, or something else, you should realize that you are not reading the Bible as it was originally written. 

So how can we be sure the Bible in our hand is worthy of our trust? 

People who translate Bibles are usually extremely careful to get it right—they respect the word of God and do not want to make a mistake. However, because people are human, mistakes do sometimes creep in—for instance, in one King James Version the verse “let the children be filled” was printed “let the children be killed.” (I’ll bet they did a quick reprinting when they discovered that mistake!) That’s why it’s a good idea to consult several different Bibles if you have a question about a particular verse. 

Why do people keep printing different versions of the Bible? Different versions are published because language is constantly changing. You know what the web is, what it means to DM someone, and what it means to be Googled, but a few years ago Google and DM meant nothing, and “the web” applied only to spiders! The King James Version of the Bible is lovely and poetic, but it was written in Shakespeare’s day . . . modern people don’t use words like “verily” and “trow.” 

Let’s say that Elvis Presley once wrote a song on a napkin. Just for fun, let’s say he gave the napkin to a man who spoke Spanish, and this man went throughout Mexico singing this song in Spanish. The song became such a hit, in fact, that other people sang it, too—in French and Italian, Japanese and Greek. It would sound different in all those languages, right? But no matter how many times you translated it, you could never change the words Elvis wrote on the napkin. They would always remain perfect and complete, just the way he wrote them. However, occasionally a translator might make a mistake. 

Translators of the Bible have made occasional mistakes, too. The good news is that we have more ancient manuscript copies of the Bible than of any other book in the ancient world. Comparisons of our modern Bibles and those ancient manuscripts have demonstrated that our modern English Bible is accurate. No original manuscript has ever been found with a mistake in it. Furthermore, the mistakes that have been found in copies are small things that are often corrected in another place in Scripture. 

For instance: in your Bible, 2 Chronicles 9:25 says that Solomon had 4,000 horse stalls, but 1 Kings 4:26 may say (depending upon which Bible version you have) he had 40,000 horse stalls . . . and 12,000 horses. Obviously, one passage has a typo. Most modern Bibles have corrected these small errors either in the text or in footnotes. 

Thousands of men and women over the years have given their lives to the study and preservation of the Holy Scriptures. God Himself has watched over His Word, and his people have guarded it, even given their lives for it so that others could read the truth about God and his love for them. The Bible is completely trustworthy. You can stake your life on it. 

So that’s why I prefer to say I write “historical fiction based on biblical characters.” Because they are real. They lived. And God did miraculous things with their lives.

Have a great week!

~Angie

Inspired by Scripture

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A Sister’s Love

I’m the oldest of three sisters and so it feels like an honor to tell you a story today about a sister’s love.

My history with Stacy Simmons began seven years ago when Lynne Gentry and I felt led to mentor a group of Dallas-area aspiring authors of Christian fiction. Stacy was one of the women who attended our meetings right from the start.

Our writers group! Going clockwise from me on the bottom left, Deborah Clack, Kay Learned, Shelli Littleton, Sherrinda Ketchersid, Stacy Simmons, Kelly Scott, Lynne Gentry.

We met for YEARS. In fact, about half of these women still come to my house for monthly meetings. Stacy was such a wonderful part of our circle. Kind. Quick to laugh. Self deprecating and funny. Most of all, she was enormously supportive of every group member. Unfailingly generous with her encouragement. A cheerleader for all. The photograph above was snapped in August of 2022. At afternoon tea that day, Stacy told us about her upcoming surgery.

In October, she had the surgery. Everything went as planned and she was released from the hospital to recuperate. Stacy’s husband and her sister Beth were at home with her when she began to experience unexpected complications from surgery. She passed away suddenly. Which came as an awful shock to her family and friends.

I met Beth at Stacy’s funeral.

L to R: Beth and Stacy. The sisters were 20 months apart in age.Stacy and Beth in 2004 with their mother + Stacy’s daughters and Beth’s sons.Stacy and Beth on a trip to New Orleans shortly before Stacy’s death.

Like so many people I’ve met over the years, Stacy had a dream to write and publish books. Writing them is hard. Finding a publisher for your books is even harder. Stacy persevered for years before eventually receiving the wonderful news that Celebrate Lit had offered her an opportunity to publish with them. She entered into a contract for her three-book Briar Creek Love series.

It was a dream come true for Stacy when her debut novel, A Promise for Faith, released in January of 2022. At that time, only God knew the events that were coming around the corner for Stacy that fall. I’m so thankful that, in His generosity, He enabled her to experience the joy of seeing her Christian romance published.

When Stacy passed away, her second book, A Journey for Hope, was done and in the publishing pipeline. It came out after Stacy’s death in January of 2023. Beth stepped in to do everything she could to promote that release.

Stacy’s third book, the final in the series and on the contract, was left as an unfinished manuscript. Beth is an attorney. She’d never written fiction before. Yet, on top of her job and family responsibilities, she stepped in to finish her sister’s final book. She was able to access the manuscript and Stacy’s notes about the book on Stacy’s computer. Beth gave herself a crash course in fiction writing, then poured out a great deal of time completing the manuscript in a way that stayed true to Stacy’s vision for the story.

Look what just released . . . .

With A Season for Grace, Stacy’s series is now complete.

“I learned so much through this process, but most of all, I have an entirely new level of respect for my sister’s accomplishments. The amount of time she spent writing, publicizing her books (and others), serving as president of American Christian Fiction Writers-Dallas, working as a teacher, and being a wife and mother . . . I had no idea my sweet sister was such a star! Finishing A Season for Grace was truly a labor of love, and I hope I did Stacy’s memory justice.” -Beth

Beth, you absolutely did. Thank you for reminding us what sacrificial love and loyalty can accomplish. God bless you.

Feel free to leave a note for Beth in the comments!

The British Are Coming Box Set

Since today is not a regular blogging day for any of our authors, I thought I would let readers know about my BookBub Featured Deal running this week. The first two books in the British Are Coming series are in a box set, and it is on sale for the Kindle/Kindle app for only 99¢ until Saturday the 31st. So if you love historical romance, this may be the time for your to grab these two-books-in-one.

Get the Deal

~robin

The Power of Words

Happy Wednesday, friends! 

As authors, we deal with words, and I’d venture to say we’re enthralled with them—striving to use just the right words to convey what we want to say. I listened to a sermon the other day. It was about Caleb, his hope and finishing strong. The Israelites in the wilderness were the opposite. I don’t know about you, but I want to be like Caleb. Trusting in God in difficult times, never losing hope, and running the race strong until the end. All of this got me thinking aa about sharing a very specific word that I believe holds so much encouragement. 

The word is xerarch! Yep, it really is a word. I triple-checked. LOL! In fact, it’s a wonderful word full of deep meaning. 

The definition of xerarch is a form of plant succession starting in bare ground that is very dry or limited by water availability and eventually culminating in a mature forest. Such communities usually originate from extremely dry environments, such as rock deserts and sand dunes.

It is a mature forest that’s grown from the smallest of beginnings—a single seed. Not only that, it has to grow in the driest, arid environments.

I love the image of an empty, barren place with a plant blooming in it. A lone xerarch flower blooming in the desert is a mighty display of God’s reminder that the most beautiful things can come from the hardest of circumstances, and if we don’t give up, as Caleb didn’t give up, we can grow strong and mature. If He’s planted you in a dry place, trust that He’ll bring you to bloom.

If you are struggling to grow in a dry, hard place, trust that God is at work, and when you mature into full bloom, you will be a glorious reflection of Him to behold.

Here is a song that has spoken to me so much over the years when I’ve been in dry places. I hope it speaks to your heart today as well.

Reader Question:

What song is speaking to you right now? Are there any that fill you with hope whenever you listen to it? I’d love it if you’d share.

Office Switcheroos

We’ve had some pretty major changes at our house recently and I’m loving it! It all started when Ken volunteered to move his office so that we could turn part of our basement into a little apartment for our grandson while he attends college near us. The big day came and our two oldest grandsons and their mama came with muscle power and helped us move furniture.

One of Ken’s giant bookcases got moved to his new office and even though his new digs are just down the hall from the apartment (still in the basement), that bookcase had to go out the basement door, up the hill, in through the front door, and back down the main floor staircase. It was quite a production and one we would rather not repeat! But it worked and now our grandson has a pretty great apartment.

As a desk, Ken had been using a round oak table that his parents refinished for us almost 50 years ago. It was our dining room table while we raised our kids, and doubled as my writing desk while the kids were at school. (Yes, every morning after the kids were off to school, I would clear off the table, plop my computer and reference books on the table and write all day. Then before they got home, I cleared all my office stuff away and got the table ready for snacks and supper.

Ken’s new office needed a desk, so I happily traded him my office desk (which was also a Raney family piece) and I now get that round table in my office. I’ve come full circle and I love it!

Ken’s new office at the bottom of the stairs (where a guest room used to be) is serving him well too. We’re all calling it a win/win/win!

Even though we’re trying hard to “pretend” that our grandson is just a random renter and let him have his space (and that means Mimi isn’t cooking for him or doing his laundry ), we are loving having him closer. He’s even gone garage sale-ing with us the last couple of weeks, and has found some good stuff he needed for his apartment.

If you know me, you won’t be surprised to know that I’ve already rearranged my office, putting my new table/desk in one corner. I think this round table will give me lots of options to rearrange, something that seems to get my creative juices flowing. Which is a good thing because I have a book to finish!

Inspired by Scripture

This Sunday feature is brought to you by ClashVerseoftheDay.com. You may sign up to receive a beautiful photo with Scripture in your inbox each morning or view the verse each day online.