I haven’t been on Goodreads in a while because of my  health, but I went back on the other day. I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. Are you on Goodreads? Join my Goodreads group and chat with me! Tell me what you’ve been reading lately and also let me know if you have any prayer requests .

This is a light novel fantasy romance series that I absolutely LOVE and I wish it would come out with volumes sooner! The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent (Light Novel) Vol. 1 This is Not the Saint You're Looking For Could workaholic office lady Sei be a legendary Saint? Not according to the crown prince of another world who summoned her and quickly declared a different girl was the real Saint! That suits Sei just fine--she would much rather spend her days quietly helping people with her unbelievably powerful magic. But how long can Sei live her ideal life of leisure before her true nature is revealed? Camy: When I first picked this book up, it was because of a recommendation on Kobo, and I’m SO glad I did! I read the sample and was completely hooked. I bought the first book and absolutely devoured it. I then bought books 2 and 3 the same day I finished book 1. I really love how the heroine is extremely pragmatic. She’s a working women (in Japan they call them “offi...

The weather here in California has been really nice lately, although it does get a bit hot in the early afternoon. I recently started exercising again, now that my IBS is doing a little better, and I’ve been enjoying running outside in the early morning when it’s still cool. I’m listening to an audiobook, What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami. The author is a very famous writer in Japan who has won tons of awards, although to be honest I haven’t read his fiction since the more literary style of his books aren’t to my taste. But I bought the audiobook since it was about two subjects I wanted to hear, writing and running. The author apparently has been running for decades, and has run numerous marathons and even an ultra-marathon. His training methods aren’t as scientific as what I followed when I trained for the Honolulu Marathon, but his discipline is no joke. I liked the way he compared and contrasted his writing with his running. One thing t...

I’m doing a reading challenge for the month of August on the Save the Date Facebook reader group ! The challenge is to read a book with Hawaii in it, whether it’s set in Hawaii, or one of the characters is from Hawaii, or Hawaii is just mentioned in the book. Come join in the discussion !

Kari Trumbo is one of the twelve authors who participated with me in the Christian Contemporary Romance anthology, Save the Date . Kari’s novella in the anthology is titled January Hope . In celebration, I wrote a knitting pattern for the lace drawstring purse used by Kari’s heroine, Cleo. (In case you missed it, here are the links for my interview with Kari part 1 and part 2 . Tomorrow I’ll post an excerpt of one of Kari’s other books, Better Than First .) This is a pretty and practical little bag used by the heroine Cleo in Kari Trumbo’s novella, January Hope . Knit in a cotton/linen blend yarn, it’s just large enough for a cell phone and a small wallet. In the book, Cleo’s bag was a coral shade, but the bag I knit here is a chocolate brown color. The lace pattern is the Double Rose Leaf stitch pattern originally published on page 195 in The Lady's Assistant, volume 2 by Mrs. Jane Gaugain, published in 1847. ( You can download a scanned .pdf of the book from Archive....

I wanted to update my old post on Grace Livingston Hill romances because now there are tons more options for you to be able to read her books for free online! I’m a huge Grace Livingston Hill fan. Granted, not all her books resonate with me, but there are a few that I absolutely love, like The Enchanted Barn and Crimson Roses . And the best part is that she wrote over 100 books and I haven’t yet read them all! When I have time, I like to dive into a new GLH novel. I like the fact that most of them are romances, and I especially appreciate that they all have strong Christian themes. Occasionally the Christian content is a little heavy-handed for my taste, but it’s so interesting to see what the Christian faith was like in the early part of the 20th century. These books are often Cinderella-type stories or A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) type stories, which I love. And the best part is that they’re all set in the early 1900s, so the time period is absolutely fasci...