READ: Review, Broken Heart on Hold by Linda W. Rooks
“I just don’t understand. Why would he walk out on everything we have? I feel as though I’ve been living a lie—a lie I still wish were true.” The young woman sat in my husband’s office, sobs wracking her swollen body. A few weeks away from delivering her third child, she now faced the pain of marital separation. Her husband said he didn’t love her—hadn’t loved her for a long time. And despite his vehement denials, she suspected he’d found someone else. Where would she go? What could she do? My husband and I counseled our young friend and her husband as best we could. We wished they weren’t the only members of our young adult Sunday School class to face this problem. We wished we had more resources for what’s become a growing concern for believers and non-believers alike: the problem of marital separation. Linda W. Rooks provides just such a resource in Broken Heart on Hold: Surviving Separation (David C. Cook, 2006). When you’re hurting, you don’t need pious platitudes or legalistic lectures. You want someone to listen. You want someone to understand. And you want someone to walk beside you on an always-painful, often-unwanted journey. The author combines a tender heart with skillful writing to transform a time of personal pain into a vehicle of healing. As she tells her story in fresh, honest language, she provides godly encouragement and practical advice for those who face similar anguish. Short, self-contained chapters allow readers who can’t devour an entire book to savor its truth a few pages at a time. I loved (and hated) the author’s transparency as she described her journey. But what I loved more was the way she went beyond personal experience to encourage readers with Scripture, heartfelt prayers, and small suggestions sure to make a big difference. Although Linda’s story has a happy ending (she and her husband have reconciled and now help others who suffer similar marital pain), she writes from a humble, fresh, and open perspective that urges readers to seek God first. I’ll keep this resource on hand for the next sobbing wife or sullen husband who shows up at our door. May God continue to use Linda’s wisdom to guide readers through a season no one desires but many encounter. If you’d like to win a copy of Broken Heart on Hold, please leave your comment below (make sure I have an email or other way to reach you) here. If your browser won’t allow you to comment, use the “contact” icon to the right to message me. Do one or the other by midnight EST this Thursday, January 27, and I’ll enter your name to win an autographed...
read morePRAY: Prayer for Those Who Need Their Love Renewed
I see the resignation in their eyes. It hasn’t changed. It won’t change. Nothing I do can change it. They feel trapped—cornered in a marriage they think should never have been. They feel angry—bitter and frustrated about things they can’t control. They feel alone. I see it because I remember. I remember the days when I allowed hurt and anger to overshadow love. I remember the days when the outlook seemed hopeless, the future a dull gray. But I pray because I know the One who redeems relationships. I hope because I’ve experienced the power of his touch. If this is you, know that someone understands, and Someone is listening. Let’s run to Him together. Father and Friend, today I come to you on behalf of those who need their love renewed. Their relationships hang by a stretched-out thread, ready to snap at the next point of stress. Or they’ve resigned themselves to a life without true intimacy, the soul-nearness you intend marriage to be. God, I lift up my friends to your care. None of them, Father, has the power to stay married. All, like me, are selfish and want their own way. None has the strength to listen to you or to do what is right. Left to themselves, they’ll say unkind words, do ugly things, and continue to hurt each other in ways that hurt you more. Grace, our Savior, is what they need. I ask for your poured-out grace to flow its sweetness in, around, and through those relationships. Lend your mercy, Lord. Give each one not only the power but the inner desire to do what is right. Reach through the pain and help them remember. Take them back to the first date, the first kiss, the first moments they realized love’s calling. And God—take them back to their first love for you as well. If they don’t know you, break through their soul-hardness. Keep pursuing, keep speaking until they listen. If they do know you, God, I ask that you use time and circumstances to draw them close, knowing this first love will guard and guide the rest. Keep them from evil. Keep them from wrong. Help my friends. Come to them in power and victory. Giver of life, breathe your life into their marriages. Let each one become a bright reflection of your love for your children. And Jesus? Help me be the wife and love-giver you made me today. Don’t let me be comfortable. Keep me seeking your best. In your precious and powerful name I...
read moreREAD: Review, Unless It Moves the Human Heart by Roger Rosenblatt
I have a secret crush. Well, maybe not-so-secret: I love books about writing. The top shelf of my office bookshelf overflows with all sorts of these volumes—from Strunk & White’s classic The Elements of Style to Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. For years, this collection remained static. Only in the last few—since I began to write and edit fulltime—has it grown in depth and wonder. My crush meant I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to receive an ARC (Advance Reading Copy) of Roger Rosenblatt’s new release Unless it Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing (Ecco Books, 2011). I’ve long admired Rosenblatt’s work. I loved the title; I needed the book. Here’s my review: I’ve reached the point in my writing career where I sometimes have the opportunity to mentor newer writers. I don’t teach in a university or any formal setting beyond writers’ conferences. Still, I write, and I teach about it. Those factors combined with my admiration for Rosenblatt’s work made me want to read this book. Award- winning essayist, novelist, and playwright Rosenblatt has effectively lived the antithesis to an old saying. In his case, Those who can, teach. He writes, and writes well. And he also teaches writing —as he has for more than forty years. In Unless It Moves, Rosenblatt takes a fresh approach to writing about writing: He presents his advice in story form. He tells the story of an imaginary (or, more accurately, composite) university writing class and allows readers to experience his students’ interaction with their professor and his material. This presentation adds layers of meaning and allows the author to present both good and bad examples without hitting readers over the head. The misunderstandings, trials, and triumphs that class members endure will most likely happen to readers who write. And the character flaws that mark and measure their writing will—at least by the end of the book—seem more familiar than otherwise. Trite device? Thinly veiled vehicle for the communication of truth? Perhaps. But I found myself turning the pages in search of both students’ questions and professor’s wisdom. I read. I learned. And lines like “There’s no purpose to writing unless you believe in significant things—right over wrong, good over evil” and “Voice is the knowledge of what you want to say” made me think—and moved me to improve my craft. Read the book and inhale the sweet fragrance of story. Reread as you savor each morsel of truth. What’s your favorite book about writing? Share its title and why you enjoy it. You may be a part of helping someone else who loves to...
read moreWRITE: Interview with C.J. Darlington
C. J. Darlington won the 2008 Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest with her first novel, Thicker than Blood. She has been in the antiquarian bookselling business for more than twelve years, scouting for stores similar to the ones described in her novels, before coufounding her own online bookstore. In 2006 C. J. started the Christian entertainment Web site www.TitleTrakk.com with her sister, Tracy, and has been actively promoting Christian fiction through book reviews and author interviews. A homeschool graduate, she makes her home in Pennsylvania with her family and their menagerie of dogs and cats. Visit her Web site at www.cjdarlington.com. Earlier this week, I posted a READ review of C.J. Darlington’s latest novel, Bound by Guilt, which releases March 1. I know you’ll enjoy my Q & A with her below. 1. For readers who haven’t yet met you, can you share a bit of your background as a writer? I’ve enjoyed creative writing ever since I was a kid writing stories on my dad’s old word processor. It wasn’t until I was a teen that I wanted to be a writer. I dreamed of someday having a novel published and used to tell my sister, “Someday you’re gonna see one of my books on a bookshelf.” It took fifteen years of learning the craft, but it finally happened. God has really blessed me. 2. As an author and a bookseller, how do you feel about the digital publishing trend? Nothing can replace holding an actual book in your hands, but if digital publishing allows more people to read, then I’m all for it. I see e-books as just another arm of publishing, like audio books in a way. Granted, e-books have taken off more than audio books, but think about this—paperback books didn’t come in vogue until the 40s and 50s. As a bookseller, I will admit it’s hard to see books only being released in electronic format. 3. Both this novel (Bound by Guilt) and your first flout some traditional CBA (Christian Booksellers’ Association) norms by presenting characters that drink, smoke, and make other mistakes—sometimes small, sometimes huge. Can you share about your decision to create characters like these? The overarching message that flows through my stories is that no one has ever fallen too far from grace. Maybe that’s why it upsets me when I see Christians judge others based on outward appearance and try to clean up the outside of someone before the inside. Writing these characters is kind of my way of addressing that issue. In Bound by Guilt, especially, the story is about how we can be the hands and feet of Christ by loving the not so loveable. It’s always been my goal to write realistically, and I think that comes into play with the characters I create. In some ways it’s a conscious decision to not shy away from hard issues, and thus hard characters, but I usually don’t come at it thinking, “I want to create a character here who bucks the CBA norms.” I’m just naturally drawn to flawed characters. 4. Roxi Gold, the protagonist of Bound by Guilt, has experienced the pain of parental abandonment and the failure of the foster care system. How did you research her experience and feelings? Stories...
read moreREAD: Review, Bound by Guilt by C.J. Darlington
The sophomore slump. In the publishing world, this term refers to the phenomenon of an author’s second novel that fails to live up to the standards of the first. Like baseball players and filmmakers, authors dread it. As a reader, I dreaded it, too. I enjoyed C.J. Darlington’s Thicker than Blood, winner of the 2008 Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel award. I admired the author—a young homeschool graduate—as much as her work. In fact, I took time to interview her for Homeschooling Today magazine. (Read that four-part interview here). So, although we’ve never met, C.J. and I have a history. That’s why I opened the advance reading copy of Bound by Guilt (Tyndale, March 1, 2011) with some trepidation. She took years to develop her first novel. How could this one match it? The truth: Bound by Guilt doesn’t match the writing skill or reading quality of C.J.’s first novel. Instead, this offering exceeds the first at multiple points. In her new book, C.J.’s strength in creating believable characters shines as does her plotting ability. But the true power of Bound by Guilt lies not in the plot or characters but in its warm portrayal of God’s redemptive love. Life’s dealt young Roxi Gold a tough hand. Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother, she bounced in and out of multiple foster homes before landing with her mom’s cousin, Irene. Problems solved? No, multiplied. Irene’s self-centered perspective extends to her career: stealing and reselling rare books. She trains both her son and Roxi to serve as her accomplices. Despite Roxi’s misgivings, it seems like a great scheme—until the night things go horribly, terribly wrong. Police officer Abby Dawson has an anger problem. Wounds from the past (including a controlling father and an attorney ex-husband who limits her access to her only child) combine to make her dedicated but dangerous. Abby’s pain blurs the line between legal and illegal, right and wrong. When her hurt intersects with Roxi’s, they both need a miracle. Roxi and Abby are fearfully and wonderfully made. They’re also deeply loved. Will they discover these truths in time? Will they believe them when—and if—they do? Author Darlington uses her bookselling expertise (she’s worked in the antiquarian book business for more than ten years) to provide both foundation and supportive details for her characters and their crimes. I enjoyed learning more about the book business which, along with several shared characters, also appears in Thicker than Blood. But what I loved most about the sparkling prose of Bound by Guilt was its portrait of God as Father, Redeemer, and Lover of our souls. Read Bound by Guilt for the story. Weep at the ways it reveals God’s grace. And join me in eager anticipation of Book #3. Watch for a WRITE blog that features a brand-new interview with author C.J. Darlington later this week. For now, what novels have you read that reveal God’s redemptive nature? Please share your recommendations....
read moreWelcome
I've asked God to use my writing and speaking to count for eternity. I'm passionate about relationships and creativity.
