Weekly Links: the "My Writer Friends are Awesome" edition

My first link this week is really exciting! (to me, anyway, but to you, too, if you like good fiction!)
My friend, Ann Dominguez, has just released her first novel!

You might know Ann from the Ordinary Time chapter of "Let Us Keep the Feast". And if you do, you know she writes clear, beautiful prose that makes you happy to be alive in the world.

Well, the same is true of her fiction. I had the honor of reading one of the first drafts of this novel, and it kept my attention throughout the whole story. I love how she marries the tense, commercial form of a thriller with acute observation of the rhythm and flow of ordinary, everyday work and relationships.

Also? She's a practicing physician herself, so you can count on the medical details of the thriller being accurate. :)

Anyway, here is a link for "The Match", a medical thriller by Ann Dominguez.  Enjoy!



Okay, now on to shorter reads . . .

-And now that I've mentioned Ordinary Time and the church year, here's an interesting little post on Advent: "The War on Advent". An excerpt:

For many centuries, Advent was a season of spiritual preparation before the Feast of Christmas. It began four Sundays before Christmas. Contrary to the practice of so-called Advent in many churches, it wasn’t focused on the story of the birth of Christ and the singing of carols. That’s for the Christmas season. Instead, Advent is a time of reflection, penitence, and preparation, not of celebration.

-A piece on freelance writers and ethics: "Wil Wheaton and Why I Won't Write for the Huffington Post Anymore".


-"How to Stage Your Home for Living" - this article has such a very, very good point:

So then, in the weeks prior to our house hitting the market, we spent numerous hours "stageing our home for the sale . . . I can't help but be struck by the irony of the situation. We spend countless hours getting our home into its best possible condition, only to leave it? Most of the time while staging our home for sale, I wondered why we had never put in the effort to stage our home for living. You know, so we could have actually enjoyed it more while we called it home.

"50 Things a Man Should Be Able to Do" - I thought this was much better than most lists of its sort.


Oh, this is wonderful! It's a reprint of an old interview with J. R. R. Tolkien, and reams could be written in response to every paragraph. Lovely.  "JRR Tolkien: I never expected a money success".  The bit I keep particularly chewing over and over again in my mind is this:

Some people have criticised the Ring as lacking religion. Tolkien denies this: “Of course God is in The Lord of the Rings. The period was pre-Christian, but it was a monotheistic world.” 

Monotheistic? Then who was the One God of Middle-earth? 

Tolkien was taken aback: “The one, of course! The book is about the world that God created – the actual world of this planet.”

"Evangelicals Need to Read Richard Hooker": this article hooked me as soon as I read the phrase: Think of him as Anglicanism's John Calvin. Of course I had to read it all! And so should you. :)



Finally, this isn't a proper link, really, but this last week's collect (from the Book of Common Prayer) was amazing. I was so glad to have it as part of my daily prayers and thought you all might appreciate it, too. Here it is:

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might
destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God
and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may
purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again
with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his
eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell


This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

"Tattered and Mended", by Cynthia Ruchti

Cynthia Ruchti is more than a talented author (though she is that).

She is more than a skilled writer of flawless prose (though she is that).

She is a dear friend, a kind mentor, and a generous woman who overflows with encouraging words and the love of her Savior.

She's given of her self, her time, and her talent to me (and to so many others I know), without expecting a thing in return, and getting her latest book in the mail was a real joy.

I know this woman practices what she preaches, and that her life bears out the message of hope she shares.

Here's a bit of a blurb about this book:

In Tattered and Mended, author Cynthia Ruchti offers and invitation to think about soul-mending as a divine art form, to show us that God doesn't just heal wounded souls, he heals artfully.

Congratulations on your new release, Cynthia!  I can't wait to read it all.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


p.s. Okay, I have to add this: there's a story of mine in this book! Not "a story" like a short story, but just a little bit of my life that I shared with Cynthia. I told her about a special needlework project I did - repairing an old wedding gift for a friend - and she took that simple story and drew the most amazing meaning out of it about mending tattered souls. If you want to take a peek at that part of the book, it starts on page 96.  :)

Cynthia & me at a retreat last fall

Weekly Links: Rejection, Pluto, Achilles, and more!

My weekly round-up of interesting links from around the Web!


"Ranks of the Rejected: Josh Vogt": I've been enjoying the Rejectomancy blog for awhile now, but I particularly liked this quotation from his interview with Josh Vogt:

[My first rejection letter] didn’t surprise me at all. It acted like a milestone in my fledgling writing career because it meant I was actually doing what I needed to do: write stories and submit them to publications.

"The Full Armor of Achilles to Withstand Odysseus (Eph. 6)":

Because as Paul wrote these ideas down in Greek, it’s very likely that the Greek classics were part of his specifically literary equipment. Lines of Homer were so pervasive in elementary education in the Greco-Roman world that children would practice their letters by writing Homeric sentences. And once you pick up on the way Homer describes warfare, you notice some particular expressions and conventions that help explain some of Ephesians 6’s peculiar phrasing.

"A Philosophy of Internet Safety":

The main line of defense against cyber bullying is not to avoid the internet, but to be in control of your identity on it.

"New, Gorgeous, Pictures of Pluto":  The title pretty much says it all!


And, finally, some exciting news from Ranee, a longtime friend of this blog: her knitting pattern "Saint Catherine of Alexandria" has just been released in "One-Skein Wonders for Babies: 101 Knitting Projects for Infants and Toddlers."

Congratulations, Ranee!  The pattern is so cute!  (You can see several pictures of it if you head over to Ranee's blog.)


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

a happy day years in the making

I got a book in the mail this week.

But not just ANY book.

You see, six years ago, I connected with a lovely woman named Susanne Dietze through the ACFW email loop. We both loved historical romance, and we also discovered that not only were we both Anglicans, but we both lived in California!

On the strength of these similarities, we exchanged our WIPs (works-in-progress) and gave each other critiques.

And we both went back to writing and revising.

But we've kept in contact all these long years*, and the book I got in the mail today?

It has Susanne's name on the cover!

I'm so excited. Congratulations, Susie!  I cannot wait to read it!


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell



*Here's an interview I conducted with Susanne here on my blog back in 2012.


This post contains an Amazon affiliate link; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

Links: just . . . lots and lots of links

Inspirational Romance Ratings - Naomi Rawling's new review blog - looks like a great place to find new books!

"How J.K. Rowling was exposed as Robert Galbraith": fascinating!

"Time heals all wounds . . . or something": really good advice for helping a grieving friend.

"Blessing Your Blessings":

Happily, as Christians, we know we're not just turning them out into the void. When they leave us, we can turn them over to Someone. And in a way, it's actually a relief for us to remember that our children's spiritual success and strength doesn't depend completely on us. We do the best we can, but after a certain point, our kids make the decision whether they are going to be open to God's grace or not. We should pray for them every day, we should pray with them as much as possible, and it's a great idea to also pray over them.

"Elisabeth Leseur's 'A Little Essay on the Christian Life' for her nephew: III, the active adult life":

Approach our Savior without anxiety as the friend he is, able to understand and share everything, with whom you can talk about your joys and sorrows, your temptations, and even the doubts that he can remove, your human plans and spiritual desires.

The nine circles of Hell from Dante's Inferno recreated in Lego - wow!

"Quick Takes for Married People": Good stuff.

"Enlighten Me Not":

The problem with the Enlightenment was that it was over-simple. Human beings just aren’t that neat (neither is the universe, as we’ve learned since). Human beings, and the universe, are like Doctor Who’s Tardis, bigger inside than outside. As you go deeper in, you discover new levels of complexity.

What interesting things are you finding 'round the Web?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell