I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Captain's Log, Stardate 09.09.2009
Unbridled Dreams
by
Stephanie Grace Whitson
Irma Friedrich has everything a girl could want. . . but she's miserable. To her, the perfect life includes horses and roundups and trick riding.
Willa Friedrich, haunted by disappointment and fear, thinks controlling her daughter's future is the only way to protect Irma from dangers Willa knows all too well.
Shep Sterling, known as King of the Cowboys, leads a life that represents all Irma desires. . . and everything her mother fears.
Something has to give when Willa's insistence on sending Irma to finishing school collides with Irma's determination to audition for Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West. And Shep Sterling is waiting in the wings.
Camy here:
This book hooked me from page one. It has moments of humor interspersed with lots of conflict and spiritual struggles.
I loved the picture of the time and setting, of the Wild West show and the social forces at work in Irma’s life.
The Wild West church struck a chord with me. It really reminded me of the River band’s ministry to the NASCAR crowds—ordinary people, saved by grace, making a place where the “prostitutes and tax collectors” would feel comfortable coming to.
People who show the love of God without the primness and structure of a formal church. People who preach the gospel unashamedly, but who can relate to the non-Christians who form the majority of the crowd.
The Wild West church was like that, and it inspired me to show the love of God that way—by just being me, letting God bring people into my life so I can love them as Jesus loved the “sinners.”
Irma is delightfully real—flawed, making mistakes, learning from them but also facing the consequences of them.
Willa was the woman I loved to hate in the beginning, but as her attitude changed and as her faith became more than just lip service, I liked her more. I never quite saw her backstory as excusing her behavior to her daughter, and the way she said “God wants this for Irma” when it was really “Willa wants this for Irma” was very grating, but she grew on me and at the end I positively liked her.
This was a fun, enthralling historical romance that I wouldn’t hesitate to give to a junior high girl or any other teen trying to understand her place in the world. It doesn’t excuse teenage rebellion against parents, and it also does encourage us to use the skills God gave us to bring Him (as opposed to us) glory.
Unbridled Dreamsby
Stephanie Grace Whitson
Irma Friedrich has everything a girl could want. . . but she's miserable. To her, the perfect life includes horses and roundups and trick riding.
Willa Friedrich, haunted by disappointment and fear, thinks controlling her daughter's future is the only way to protect Irma from dangers Willa knows all too well.
Shep Sterling, known as King of the Cowboys, leads a life that represents all Irma desires. . . and everything her mother fears.
Something has to give when Willa's insistence on sending Irma to finishing school collides with Irma's determination to audition for Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West. And Shep Sterling is waiting in the wings.
Camy here:
This book hooked me from page one. It has moments of humor interspersed with lots of conflict and spiritual struggles.
I loved the picture of the time and setting, of the Wild West show and the social forces at work in Irma’s life.
The Wild West church struck a chord with me. It really reminded me of the River band’s ministry to the NASCAR crowds—ordinary people, saved by grace, making a place where the “prostitutes and tax collectors” would feel comfortable coming to.
People who show the love of God without the primness and structure of a formal church. People who preach the gospel unashamedly, but who can relate to the non-Christians who form the majority of the crowd.
The Wild West church was like that, and it inspired me to show the love of God that way—by just being me, letting God bring people into my life so I can love them as Jesus loved the “sinners.”
Irma is delightfully real—flawed, making mistakes, learning from them but also facing the consequences of them.
Willa was the woman I loved to hate in the beginning, but as her attitude changed and as her faith became more than just lip service, I liked her more. I never quite saw her backstory as excusing her behavior to her daughter, and the way she said “God wants this for Irma” when it was really “Willa wants this for Irma” was very grating, but she grew on me and at the end I positively liked her.
This was a fun, enthralling historical romance that I wouldn’t hesitate to give to a junior high girl or any other teen trying to understand her place in the world. It doesn’t excuse teenage rebellion against parents, and it also does encourage us to use the skills God gave us to bring Him (as opposed to us) glory.
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