Hitting the Books

The Hope of Refuge (An Ada’s House Novel)

Cindy Woodsmall

Publisher’s Summary: Raised in foster care and now the widowed mother of a little girl, Cara Moore struggles against poverty, fear, and a relentless stalker. When a trail of memories leads Cara and Lori out of New York City toward an Amish community, she follows every lead, eager for answers and a fresh start. She discovers that long-held secrets about her family history ripple beneath the surface of Dry Lake, Pennsylvania, and it’s no place for an outsider. But one Amish man, Ephraim Mast, dares to fulfill the command he believes that he received from God–“Be me to her”– despite how it threatens his way of life.

Completely opposite of the hard, untrusting Cara, Ephraim’s sister Deborah also finds her dreams crumbling when the man she has pledged to build a life with begins withdrawing from Deborah and his community, including his mother, Ada Stoltzfus. Can the run-down house that Ada envisions transforming unite them toward a common purpose–or push Mahlon away forever? While Ephraim is trying to do what he believes is right, will he be shunned and lose everything–including the guarded single mother who simply longs for a better life?

Click here to see options from Random House’s online catalog.

Click here or on the image to order the book from Amazon.com.

This is the first in a new series of books by the author of When the Heart Cries, When the Morning Comes, and When the Soul Mends.

Bottom line? I liked it. Very much. And I usually don’t like this type of book. Which says a lot. I definitely recommend reading it.

I apologize for the short review–I’d love to write more, since, as I said, I really enjoyed the book. However, we now have a 5-week-old puppy in the house (as of Monday evening) and life has gotten very hectic.

While doing some searches related to an upcoming book review, I stumbled across (or was led to) The Christian Guide to Fantasy. It’s been around for ten years now, but this was the first time for me. While it is mostly inactive, the archived material is great.

I’ve struggled with these issues for a long time, trying to reconcile my desire to write fantasy with a Christian worldview (and to avoid writing the in-your-face pap that unfortunately is what most modern Christian fantasy is). Often, all I had to hold on to was ‘Tolkien and Lewis were devout Christians. If they can, why can’t I?’ This essay puts my reasoning into words. And the explanation of magic was right what I needed to hear.

The stress level in our house sky-rocketed yesterday when I realized somewhere between Georgetown and the Smithsonian that my wallet was AWOL. Talk about a whirlwind of activity. My wonderful hubby came home early from work (the Punkin and I were still on the train coming home) and started calling everybody. Thank God he did that, since I can’t even remember everything that was in the wallet, let alone calling up and canceling cards, reporting them missing, etc. How long will it take for this chaos to settle down to “normal’ again? And when will my brain stop pretending it’s a bowl of pudding?

Should writers blog?

Back in 2005, when I first started up this blog, I had a relatively regular schedule for posts. However, as the Punkin got older and more demanding, and as I branched off into the world of quilting/sewing, my posts appeared less and less often. I’d look at the site guiltily every day, but be unable to sit down long enough to post on something interesting.

Added to my problem was this: To have a successful blog requires not only good content, but also good comments on other people’s blogs. I used to spend hours reading other blogs, then even more time commenting on what I read. You know, that whole interaction/traffic thing. So by the time I was done my nightly surfing, my eyes were crossing, my yawns were splitting my head, and all I could think of was bed (I get little enough sleep as it is–my doctor has actually ordered me to get more). Worst of all, my own writing was sitting there untouched.

I eventually took a sabbatical from all blogging, writing and reading, in order to focus on finishing my first novel. That finished, I tried to get back into blogging, and instead got side-swiped by NaNoWriMo. Then sewing projects one right after the other. Until recently, working my way back into the thick of the blogsphere has been near impossible.

I now have two blogs that I attempt to post to on a semi-regular schedule, without much success. This one gets new posts only when I’ve a book review to post. Hitting the Blocks gets new content only when I finish a project. And I’ve got the insane idea of adding a third to chronicle my attempts at homeschooling. I’d love to get my blogs up to the level they were that first year, but somehow I just don’t see that happening. But when to add all this content? The small amounts of time I do have for writing (usually from about 11pm to 1am), I now hoard for working on my books.

So I ask again–should writers blog? Yes, it can be a wonderful place to trade thoughts, receive criticism and support, and find new ideas. But it can also be a terrible time-suck. In the time it’s taken me to write this one post, I could have gotten two or three pages of my book(s) written (possibly more, since it’s still early and I’m relatively coherent).

That being said, I’m off to work on a skirt. And then to write. Hopefully.

What I’ve been up to the past month.