My Scribbler’s Heart

Interview with Author Quenby Olson

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Although we live geographically close, I met Quenby Olson through an international Facebook group, 10 Minute Novelists. The more I read her work, the more impressed I am with her writing ability. I’m grateful she took the time to answer some questions for me!

Your published books and short story are so diverse. I get the sense both from your writer’s voice and your stylistic choices such as tense and point of view, that you read very widely. Am I correct, and what genre do you most enjoy reading?

I do read very widely! I remember in school (I was homeschooled) reading everything from Little Women to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to the latest John Grisham thriller. I also have a tendency to go through obsessive periods of reading all about a certain point in history, or the entire catalog of a single author. My favorite is probably historical, and that could be romance, non-fiction, mystery, etc. I think it’s the draw of being pulled into another time, not only another place, that I find so attractive and keeps me coming back for more. Continue reading →

#5Faves: Winter Weather

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fivefaves

Having lived in Pennsylvania my entire life, I’ve gone trick-or-treating in the snow multiple times. I remember winters when the snow was piled higher than my head and winters in which the kids didn’t get to play in the snow once. But I can’t remember a winter in which we hadn’t had more than a few sparse flurries this far into winter. While I’ve enjoyed the warmer temps and lack of snow-related mess, there are aspects of snow that I miss.

**Within one hour of writing this post, it looked like this out my back door:Light snow

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How Can You Receive If You Do Not Ask?

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I don’t take time to read the Bible as often as I should. Thank God for a four-year-old who provides me with vivid lessons to accompany the verses and stories committed to memory simply from decades of Mass attendance.

My four-year-old daughter has been extremely articulate from a very young age, but that didn’t stop her from devolving into an inarticulate, whiny hot mess recently.

She simply wanted a peacock feather on lying out of her reach on the dining room table. (Don’t ask. I’m not certain where it came from or why it was there. Last I checked, we had no peacock.)

Peacock FeathersShe groped, groaned, and moaned in frustration as she reached for the feather. It was easily within my reach. She simply needed to ask. Continue reading →

Small Success Thursday

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Small Success Thursday

I needed the small successes this week. I look around me and see major, seemingly insurmountable tasks that take more time than I have available. It’s discouraging. These little successes remind me all hope is not lost.

  1. The financial stuff caught up. Ordinarily, I sync Quicken with our online accounts each weekday. With Christmas, I got a bit behind.  Come January, I had dozens of transactions to categorize. A flurry of Amazon and PayPal purchases took hours to sift through, matching the amount with the product so that I could properly account for where our money had gone. And then there were the bills. It took a full morning, but everything is paid up and all accounts are balanced. Continue reading →

I (AM) Wants You!

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What makes a recruitment poster like the classic below effective? Personalism?
There’s no doubt that those steely eyes and that pointed figure are aimed at you.

And as easy as it is to dismiss God as a remote, disinterested overlord, His approach, too, is personalist.

Uncle Sam Army Reccruitment Poster
He wants you (and me) as you are.

As you’ve been created.

Not an automaton.

Not as His minion.

As His cherished love.

“Before I formed  you in the womb, I knew you.” Jeremiah 1:5

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

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Seven Quick Takes Friday

Quirky Christmas Tree Ornament Edition

Our tree is filled with a mishmash of unrelated ornaments from different families, different eras, and different interests. Somehow they’ve all found a home with us.

 

–1–

Chili Pepper Santa Claus

Chili Pepper Santa Claus ornament

A memento from a trip my husband and I took to San Antonio, Texas in 2001.

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The SLOW Work of Advent

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SLOW work of Advent? What’s that? It seems it was just yesterday I rooted through the closet for the Advent wreath that wasn’t there and filled the Advent calendar with chocolate kisses that were devoured posthaste by a toddler. Now all four Advent candles are lit, and I worry whether that last nub of purple, the first candle lit, will make it until Christmas.

Due to the “obligations” of Christmas, Advent often seems anything but slow, perhaps the quickest wait we ever endure. That’s why this sign outside a church I pass caught my eye:

Slow work of God

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