Learning to Embrace Strangers is One of Marriage’s Best Lessons

Man drinking coffee — Sometimes the person who needs you the most is the one you haven’t met yet. (Photo by Neil Moralee, Flickr)

When you’re married for nineteen years, you tend to learn a thing or two from your spouse. Anyone who knows us will readily tell you that Heather is the demonstrative one in our relationship. She’s widely known for just grabbing people and giving them a hug, even if they’re a complete stranger. Although I know this now, I didn’t always, and the concept of doing this in public used to unsettle me. I’ll give you an example. Continue reading “Learning to Embrace Strangers is One of Marriage’s Best Lessons”

Jathan FinkJuly 25, 2019July 25, 20192 Comments

Books, Editorial

Brooklyn: Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor and Your Schleppers [GUEST POST]

Splashing Excitement - Park Slope, Brooklyn — Thelma Adams, author of *Bittersweet Brooklyn*, fondly remembers a lifetime growing up on the other side of the bridge. (Photo by Marco, Flickr)

There are few places I think of more fondly than Brooklyn. Having lived just off the Promenade during the early 1990s, I can still feel the crisp air on my skin as I walked up Cranberry toward High Street to get a slice. The neighborhood shimmered with red and gold foliage even as the leaves danced to the throbbing music of city traffic as it echoed around the brownstones and toward the Hudson. I loved everything about that period in my life. Yet as beloved as my time was there, my residence was short, even if my memories are still vivid twenty-five years later. Writer Thelma Adams, however, spent a lifetime there and today she stops by to tell us why she always returns to Brooklyn, literally and in her writing, and what makes it such a special place. Enjoy! —J&H Continue reading “Brooklyn: Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor and Your Schleppers [GUEST POST]”

Thelma AdamsFebruary 7, 2019February 7, 20191 Comment

Books, Editorial

A Lot of Work for a Little Snow [GUEST POST]

Wintertime at the Monastery — Sometimes the smallest detail creates the largest amount of work for an author, like trying to pick the perfect time for a setting to have snow. E.M. Powell explains in this guest post regarding her new novel, *The Monastery Murders*. (Photo by Paul R. Robinson, Flickr)

Whenever we pick up a book by one of our favorite authors, we may not realize just how much research went into writing a certain character, choosing a setting, or crafting a particular scene, especially when the author does her job as seamlessly as historical mystery author, E.M. Powell. Reading her latest novel, The Monastery Murders, she excels at luring us into the story’s disarming setting and made us ask: How did holiday traditions differ way back in 1176 and how does she utilize these details to build suspense? Thankfully she explains in today’s guest post. Enjoy! —J&H

E.M. PowellNovember 19, 2018November 20, 2018Leave a comment

Editorial, Spirit

It Takes Courage to Be Empathetic

Hug — We can’t take away the pain of the world, but we can make it more tolerable when we are empathetic. (Photo by Arwen Abenstern – KWP, Flickr)

Those of you who follow along with us on a regular basis may have realized that we frequently introduce books that celebrate people, whether real or fictitious, who make a difference in the lives of others. Three of our diamond reviewed books come immediately to mind: My Glory Was I Had Such Friends, The Trick, and our most recent volume, What Blooms from Dust. What is it that these volumes have in common? The answer is easy: empathy. Continue reading “It Takes Courage to Be Empathetic”

Jathan FinkAugust 14, 2018Leave a comment

Books, Contest, Editorial

Fiction Finds Foothold with Immigration Issues: V.C. Andrews® Ignites Dialogue with the Re-Release of Delia’s Crossing [GUEST POST]

Vestido Bonita — A young immigrant comes to America to escape a cruel fate in V.C. Andrews’ *Delia’s Crossing*. (Photo by Jonathan Emmanuel Flores Tarello, Flickr)

There is no mystery as to why the publication of Delia’s Crossing, first in a three-book Series featuring a Latino main character, has since been aptly called “The Latino Cinderella.” Delia’s Cinderella reference comes from the plot driver: a teenage Mexican girl from a small village loses her parents in a truck accident. Continue reading “Fiction Finds Foothold with Immigration Issues: V.C. Andrews® Ignites Dialogue with the Re-Release of Delia’s Crossing [GUEST POST]”