A Chat with Author Julie Lavender

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Greetings from Marti Pieper in Seneca, South Carolina, where I’m rediscovering the wonder and beauty of fall after spending the past twelve-plus years in Florida! I’m excited today to introduce a new CAN member who also happens to be a longtime friend. Many years ago now, Julie Lavender and I were both young homeschooling moms who shared not only a church home (my husband was her family’s pastor for several years) but many family adventures and lots of laughter (please don’t ask her about the time we nearly lost each other in downtown Los Angeles). Welcome to the CAN blog,…

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Compassion Fatigue

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Compassion Fatigue By Janet Holm McHenry The Lord is a refuge to his people. –Joel 3:16 (ESV) From a recent training for local teachers on social-emotional learning I learned a new term: compassion fatigue. As teachers have doubled up duties to teach both in an in-person setting and in a distance learning model, they have also encountered countless cases of students and parents and peers in emotional distress, while also trying to manage their own families’ needs and their own. Compassion fatigue is real. I have experienced this often over the last 22 years as I’ve prayer-walked the streets of…

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Book Review: I Love You to the Stars – When Grandma Forgets, Love Remembers

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I Love You to the Stars — When Grandma Forgets, Love Remembers is a new picture book published by Kregel Publishing. Inspired by a true story, a young boy enjoys having his grandma and her dog live with them. Soon Grandma gets forgetful and needs to live in another home, but the love they have for each other remains the same.   And here’s a review reprinted with permission from Xochitl Dixon: In Crystal Bowman’s I Love You to the Stars, readers are introduced to a close-knit family facing the heart-breaking decline of a loved one who suffers from dementia. Bowman’s gentle tone…

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What’s In A Name?

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I’m fascinated with names. Maybe all of us writers are. I like creative names and creative spellings. I’m intrigued with old-fashioned names that come back in style, and I like unique names I’ve never heard of. I’ve chuckled at names, like one of my college friends, whose first name was “Holly” and she married a gentleman with the surname “Wood.” She said she had trouble cashing checks with the signature “Holly Wood,” so she eventually stuck her maiden-name initial between the two words. My brother had a friend named William Williams, but at least he went by the name “Bill.”…

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A Chat with Author Kimberly Rose Johnson

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Greetings from Sarah Sundin in California! Today I have the joy of interviewing Kimberly Rose Johnson, a multi-published novelist whose stories have won the Faith, Hope, and Love Reader’s Choice Award and been a finalist for the Selah Award! Please tell us about your book Certain Threat. The co-owner of Protection Inc. has one thing on his mind for the week of Christmas—rest and relaxation, but when his favorite neighbor needs his help, he calls in his team. Unable to turn their backs on someone Frank clearly has feelings for, the co-owners agree to help out Katrina.

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Who Are We?

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  On the first day of a class I was teaching on how gender is expressed in the home, church, and society, I thought through the material I planned to cover. And honestly, I feared that some of what I’d prepared was too elementary for seminary students. Did they really need to hear again that both male and female were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26–27)? Yet despite my doubts, I determined to cover even the basics. So, as I taught, I repeated what I assumed they all knew. But sure enough, a woman sitting on the front…

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Book Review: Miss Tavistock’s Mistake

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Looking for a sweet and clean Regency romance? Wit and humor abound in Miss Tavistock’s Mistake as a young woman in Regency England engages in a subterfuge while trying to assess the character of the man she’s betrothed to by arrangement.  As she falls in love, her troubles increase until she sees no way out of the lie. How could such an honorable man ever forgive her deceit?   * * *   And here’s a great review reprinted by permission from The BookLife Prize: Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10 Originality: 9 out of 10 Prose: 9 out of 10 Character/Execution: 8 out of…

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A Chat with Author Sandra Glahn

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Greetings from Sarah Sundin in California! Today I have the honor of interviewing Sandra Glahn, an acclaimed speaker and author—of both nonfiction and fiction. Today, Sandra’s sharing with us about her new book, which covers topics of vital interest in our society. Sandra, please tell us about your book, Sanctified Sexuality: Valuing Sex in an Oversexed World. Bringing together twenty-five experts, co-editors Sandra Glahn and Gary Barnes address issues of sexuality Christians face, such as the theology of the body; male and female in God’s design; abortion; celibacy; marital intimacy; contraception; infertility; cohabitation; divorce; same-sex attraction; and gender dysphoria. A…

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Discerning the Times

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  Sometimes it’s so hard to discern what’s going on in your life emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually. Something is off-kilter, but you just can’t put your hands on it. You’re not quite yourself. You’re edgy. You’re frustrated. You’re tense. Or your relationships aren’t quite right. You’re distant. Distracted. Touchy. And then it hits you. It’s been days since you’ve prayed or spent quality time with God. Or maybe you’ve gotten hooked on a television show or a novel that’s not good for your soul. Or perhaps you’ve been hanging out with a friend who loves to gossip or spew negativity…

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The Writer Who Almost Wasn’t

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Proof of God’s power and sense of humor are both evident in my story of getting published.    Readers would probably be surprised to learn that despite majoring in English Literature and graduating magna cum laude, I was too afraid to take a Creative Writing class. It wasn’t that I didn’t have story ideas—I just lacked the confidence and, I believed, the time, to write them.  (I worked full time and was convinced it would take an enormous amount of time to do it well, if I could indeed even do it.) But story ideas wouldn’t go away. And after waiting…

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