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Beauty + Joy
Today’s quote as pulled from my box is this: Beauty is whatever gives joy.Hugh Nibley One of the best things we did over the Christmas season was to attend our church’s Festival of Lessons and Carols. It was held the Friday before New Year’s Eve and consisted of 9 scripture readings and 9 carols. The service lasted one hour and took place in a beautifully decorated church filled with Christmas spirit and love. It was incredibly moving. The choir lifted the church with its voices, and the use of the handheld bells added to the Christmas spirit. There were a few songs that the choir performed and many others in…
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I Believe the “New” Scrooge Would Adore this Collaboration
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Friday Fodder: My Obsession with Letters & Journals
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, first, THANK YOU. Second, you may have read previous posts about writing letters and letter writing, because I’m obsessed with the notion of letter writing. And, you’ve probably also read many posts here about keeping a journal, most recently the one I wrote about keeping a journal during a pandemic. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Are you going to print out a text feed or email chain and save it in your memory box? The likelihood of that is slim to none. The lost art of letter writing is truly a loss of records. When someone takes…
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My Favorite Villain
The other day in class, one of my students told me that he decided to re-watch Game of Thrones. We’ve talked about this show before in class. He then told me which characters he would like to play in the show, if he ever had the opportunity. Of course, he picked some of the good guys. He almost fell out of his chair when I told him that I would want to play Cersei Lannister. “She’s my favorite character on the show.” “You’re kidding! She’s so bad!” he exclaimed, wide-eyed and surprised. “I know. Wouldn’t it be fun to play someone like that? She’s just so darn rotten.” And she…
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We Need a Little Christmas, Especially This Year
We Still Need a Little Christmas…and we desperately need Charles Dickens’ reminder to be a good human being in 2021 and beyond. Living through this pandemic and seeing what I see daily on social media convinced me (do people really need to be so nasty to others, even if you disagree on things?????) that I needed to do what I could to help promote charity and goodwill. Additionally, I’ve weathered a hip replacement and continuing SI-Joint issues that leave me in pain, and honestly, I just needed to distract myself with something pleasant. So, all summer I wrote the continuation of Ebenezer Scrooge’s story called From Humbug to Humble: The…
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Join Me for Two Dickens Events this Holiday Season
It’s not often you get to attend Dickens-related events, but how wonderful to have two upcoming events within a week of each other! I’m certain these will put us in the Christmas spirit! (And the way the world is at the moment, we need a little Christmas!) My husband and I will be wearing our Dickens-era costumes, and we’re looking forward to meeting people who share our enthusiasm for the season. A DICKENS OF A CHRISTMAS, Sat, Dec 4 CHESTERTOWN, MD, In Chestertown where the slogan is Party like it’s 1843, I’ll be signing and selling books at “A Dickens of a Christmas” on Saturday, December 4, from 10 a.m.…
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Why I Wrote From Humbug to Humble about Ebenezer Scrooge and Upcoming Events
Here is a video that tells you more about my new novella, From Humbug to Humble: The Transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge. The novella is available on Amazon.com, BN.com and exclusively at my local bookstore, Park Books & Literacy Lab. I will also be (along with my husband in Dickens-era costumes) at the annual A Dickens of A Christmas in Chestertown, MD on December 4 in London Row from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. selling my books and handmade book pages wreaths. Hope to see you there! Stephanie
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A Pep Talk on How to Use NaNoWriMo to Your Advantage
Okay, listen up writers. I’m here to kick you into gear. I’m here to tell you it can be done. I’m here to tell you not to give up. November is here, and on this 5th day, let us remember that there are many more days in the month, and they shouldn’t go to waste if you are participating in NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. Established many years ago, NaNoWriMo was created to encourage writers to complete 50,000 words of a novel or work of nonfiction by November 30. The word count of 50,000 words constitutes a short novel, or approximately 1,660 words a day. I’m here…
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ANNA IN TUSCANY: Something new I’ve published
The story I’m sharing with you was written back in May and was intended to be a part of a Valentine’s Day Anthology. As things sometimes happen, the Anthology was nixed, and I was left with a short story without a home. Taking the lead from many of my friends who are writers, I decided to publish it as a stand-alone story in the form of a novelette. It’s called ANNA IN TUSCANY, and is available via Kindle for .99 or Book Funnel for FREE. The links are below. The premise of the story is this: Travel writer Arianna (Anna) Ricci relocates from the United States to Italy for a…
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Sentimentality Run Amok
I can’t help it. It happens every time. Every single time. Even though I live and breathe baseball vicariously through my husband, who works for the ballclub, when I go to Camden Yards, it’s as if I never left. Be forewarned: take me to Camden Yards, and I get sentimental. With the pandemic seeping into every aspect of our lives, I haven’t been to the ballpark in a year and a half. On Friday night, our family enjoyed a lovely outing and got to spend time “at the yard,” as Orioles fans like to say. Luckily for us, the team had a big win Friday night over the Nats and…
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Hold Fast to Dreams: An Update!
We all dream of seeing our book go out into the world and having people enjoy reading it. I’m proud of the work I’ve accomplished as an indie author. And I will be proud of the work I produce going forward if I stay in this lane. It’s never easy, but there are tremendous rewards. Meeting people, seeing the support of your local community, and hearing from people who’ve enjoyed your books keep me motivated. My goal is to write books that offer hope and to write better and better books each time. To those of you who have followed along on my journey, THANK YOU. To those of you…
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The Truth About Grandmothers
Yesterday, as I was scrolling through Facebook checking on my friends’ latest news, I noticed a post from a dear former student of mine. She wrote a very touching message about losing her 94-year-old grandmother. I read it, and her words resonated with me. So often as a writer, I’m asked what influences my stories and where the ideas come from. I suppose anyone who writes novels or nonfiction answers this the same way—the stories typically come from people we know or stories we have heard or read about in the news. There are people and personal acquaintances that influence our storytelling. And then there are grandmothers. If you’ve read…
