History In The Making

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Deuteronomy 4:9

I apologize for the lack of blog posts over the past month, but I’ve been pursuing another venture…historical research! I’ve always been intrigued by history, especially local (Texas) history. I suppose it’s something I picked up from my dad who’s quite the history buff himself.

Dad has a way of talking about things from the past that makes history come to life. For instance, I can remember him taking me and at least one of my brothers to the capture site of Santa Anna (President of Mexico and commander of the Mexican army). This extremely significant and yet little known historical site is located next to the Pasadena Paper Mill front gate, facing the Houston Ship Channel. After I had children, Dad and Mom took them to the site…along with the San Jacinto Monument and the Battleship Texas.

When I was a young child my family went on a road trip from Houston, Texas to Destin, Florida. Along the way, my father took us through the Civil War battleground at Vicksburg, Mississippi. At the age of eight (?), I thought that was the most boring thing we ever could have done. Now that I’m…well, let’s just say I’m grown up, I wish I could remember more about it.

My love for history has encouraged me in my latest writing project. I decided to write a book series based around the Lighthouse at Point Bolivar, Texas. I’ve always been intrigued by lighthouses and this one in particular because I have a familial connection to the current owners, (who, unfortunately I’ve never met).

The first book in the series is based on a fictional family who has been called away from their home in New Orleans to man the lighthouse during the Civil War only to find when they arrive that it has been dismantled completely because of the war. The book is a romance of a forbidden nature involving a Union soldier and a southern girl. Sounds interesting, right?

Some things I’ve learned in my historic research:

1.      There was a Confederate ship Named the CSS McRae (My maiden name)

2.      During Hurricane Ike, part of the Civil War Ship Monticello washed up on the Alabama coastline

3.      The penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas was built BEFORE the outbreak of the Civil War

4.      During the Civil War the penitentiary sold more than two million yards of cotton and nearly 300,000 yards of wool to both civilians and the Confederacy. Wartime production made a profit of $800,000

I had no idea combining historical facts with a fictional account could be so much fun. Please pray for me as I pursue this exciting new endeavor.

Martha Rogers – Inspirational Writer…Inspirational Woman

When I first met Martha Rogers some five years ago, she was in full “conference-mode,” and I didn’t really get to know her. We met at First Baptist Church of Houston where she was hosting the annual Inspirational Writers Alive! conference, of which she is the State President. My first thoughts were, “Boy, this woman is a lot older than I am and she has more energy than an ADHD kid who forgot to take their meds!”

I soon learned that there was much more to know about Martha Rogers.

Martha is a retired English Composition and home-economics teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, singer, youth leader and First Place leader. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and writes a weekly devotional for the group as well as being the treasurer for the Writers on the Storm, Woodlands, Texas chapter. Martha also acts as treasurer for her local chapter of Inspirational Writers Alive! in Houston.

One of the things that is most inspirational about Martha is the fact that after trying to get published for a number of years (not counting her contribution in a novella entitled, Sugar and Grits) she finally received her first writing contract at the age of seventy-three!

Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:3

Wow! Martha tells the story that she made the mistake of telling someone that she had absolutely no stress in her life. Shortly thereafter she received a multi-book contract with Strang Publishing. Her first novel had to be turned in within four months! Her book credits include:

Sugar and Grits (Not on the Menu) 2007

Winds Across the Prairie Series

Becoming Lucy 2010

Morning for Dove 2010

Finding Becky 2010

Caroline’s Choice 201 1

To Be Announced 2011

A Riverwalk Christmas 2010

Seven Bible studies

Contributions to Compilations

By Wayne Holmes

By Karen O’Conner

By Debbie White Smith

Multiple Devotionals – Including

            Blissfully Blended, a devotional book for Step-Moms

Martha is a talented speaker as well. I recently heard her speak to a group of writers on the topic of Deep Point of View, explaining how important it is to let your reader know what’s going on inside your character’s head.

I’m delighted to have read the first book in Martha’s Winds Across the Prairie Series, Becoming Lucy. Here’s what the back cover copy says:

           

In 1896, after her parent’s deaths, seventeen-year-old heiress Lucinda Bishop is sent to Oklahoma to live with her aunt and uncle. But Oklahoma ranch life brings her more than she bargained for when she meets ranch hand Jake Starnes, a drifter who is running from his past. As her friendship with Jake grows, Lucinda faces emotions she’s never before experienced.

As Jake learns more about God’s love for him, he realizes he must face his past and the consequences of his actions, even if it means he will lose the one girl he loves. Will he be able to get his life together before someone else claims her hand…or even her life?

This was a wonderful book. Martha does a great job at drawing the reader into the lives and feelings of the characters she’s brilliantly created. I can’t wait to read the next installment, Morning for Dove.

I tease Martha of late telling her she’s my hero and my inspiration, and yet, I’m not really teasing. This godly woman is an inspiration to me and to everyone she comes in contact with. She has encouraged me to continue writing and has even helped me to pursue my latest writing project, a historical romance set in Civil War era Texas.

Thank you Martha for inspiring me and a whole new generation of authors yet to come.

Find out more about Martha Rogers at:

www.marthawrogers.com

www.marthasbooks.blogspot.com

All Good Things Must Come To An End

All good things must come to an end. The end of the movie. The bottom of an ice cream sundae. The season finale of your favorite television drama. The last page of a really good book. And the number one thing I hate to see come to an end…summer vacation.

Kids these days have approximately 93 days off from school. (79 if they don’t pass the State mandated achievement test) Not even close to the 104 days Phineas and Ferb so aptly proclaim in their cartoon theme song. Let’s break it down:

May 22 – June 25 These are your prime summer vacation days. This is when you take the kids to Disneyworld the beach or a classic family favorite, the cross-country road trip. The weather isn’t too hot yet. The kids are so glad to be out of school that you can get away with practically any kitschy venue you desire.

June 26 – July 31 These are the days used mostly for taking care of business, i.e. appointment time. Since you scheduled these six months ago, you had no idea your best friends were going to invite you and the kids on their trip to the water park. But you can’t go because all three kids are having their teeth cleaned and you don’t dare cancel the appointments. The only excitement to be had is watching Lois the Corpse Flower bloom (woo-hoo) and then die (boo). This is also when vacation Bible school is scheduled, and youth camp and pre-teen camp. And if the summer isn’t slipping through your fingers fast enough, the stores are advertising back-to-school sales.

August 1 – August 22 These are the dog days of summer. It’s much too hot to step outside the air-conditioned house unless you’re headed straight to the pool. The kids are so bored and antsy there’s no pleasing them. The fights are endless and escalating! And then—school starts. There was, however, one unexpected high point during those long dog days that will forever stand out in my mind…

Toward the end of the summer of 2010, God laid a plan on the hearts of a group of boys, Taylor, David and Jesse. This plan culminated in the 2010 Back To School Worship Rally. Taylor was the worship leader and played guitar. Jesse played lead guitar and David played drums. There were also three back-up singers, Hannah, Kagan, and Kyle, a pianist, Terri, a bassist, D.J. and on the organ, Casey.

Two youth preachers spoke to the crowd of well over 100 kids and adults. One of them talked about how whatever we are truly passionate about is what defines us. Weather we are passionate about the football team, our friends, education, or whatever…that passion comes out and tells everyone around us who we are. And if we are as passionate about Christ as we are about other things, we could start a revival at our school campuses. Both ministers encouraged the youth to take their faith with them to school instead of leaving it at home.

I have to admit, going to Disneyworld, watching the Corpse Flower bloom, and teaching vacation Bible school were all a lot of fun, but nothing compares to the feeling you get when students turn their hearts and lives to Christ. I can’t wait until next year to see what Taylor and his group have in store for…Back To School Worship Rally 2011!

There’s No Place For That In God’s House

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”

Matthew 23:13

Something happened at church Sunday evening that took me back twenty-five years to when my husband and I were first married…

We joined a church close to our apartment in the Aldine area of Houston. We soon learned the congregation wasn’t “local” at all. The church had re-located from a very classy part of the Houston Heights.

We never felt welcomed into the church. The new member’s class we were put in consisted of an eighty plus year old teacher, several mature singles, and a few couples who could have been our parent’s age. Needless to say, there was no class unity.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back happened when a visiting missionary was asked to take the stage and speak. He stepping up to the pulpit, scanned the audience, tugged at the collar of his plaid shirt and proclaimed, “Man, I’ve been away so long I forgot you can’t wear jeans on a Sunday morning.” I looked down at my precious husband’s Levi jeans…the nicest thing he owned. His eyes told me how he felt. We didn’t return and subsequently didn’t bother finding another church home.

Skip ahead twenty-five years. We’ve attended the perfect church for fourteen years. It’s the middle of summer and my darling husband decides to wears a pair of cargo shorts to Sunday evening service. This decision earns him the ridicule of not one, but two of the more “mature” male members of the church.

Hubby let it roll off his back…but I can’t. You see my husband wasn’t going to evening church in the first place because he had work he needed to get done before Monday morning. But he did it for me; and his reward…abuse from a couple modern day Pharisees!

What about you? Is there a Pharisee in your church? Or perhaps it’s you. Are your closed minded, old fashioned ideas causing someone to stay home from service, skip a week because their finest clothes are at the cleaners, or just stay away from church all together? There’s just no place for that stuff in God’s house.

Thankfully my husband is grounded enough in his faith that codgerly comments don’t affect him. I can’t help but think that it might have been a different story had the comments been made to a brand new baby Christian. I think there’s something in the Bible about causing new Christian’s to stumble. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be that guy.

Summer Chills! By Guest Blogger: Casey O'Hare

Ahhhhh Summer. Clear skies, refreshing swims in the pool, and MURDER?!?!?! That’s right: it’s Summer Chills from Alley Theatre. Other than The Nutcracker, I had never been to a play before, so Mom decided it was time that she took me to see Wicked, but it was sold out, so we looked to see what else was showing this summer when we stumbled across a play written by an author we both knew, and loved, and bought tickets for Saturday the 24^th. Finally the day arrived; we put on the Ritz and headed for Houston. Our show was being performed on the Patricia Peckinpaugh Hubbard stage, which seats a little more than 800 people in elegant, red velvet covered seats which I’m sure will either raise your IQ or your social standings just by sitting in them, or at least that’s what it felt like. So what is this play we decided to go see you ask? It was the Alley Theater’s rendition of the longest continuously running play in London’s West End, since it first opened in 1952: The Mousetrap, from the third ranked bestselling author: (behind The Bible and Shakespeare) Agatha Christie!

The Mousetrap takes place during winter at Monkswell Manor Guest House in the English countryside just outside of London, owned by newlyweds: Mollie and Giles Ralston (played by Elizabeth Bunch and Chris Hutchison). Trouble begins when a woman is murdered in London, with a note left saying that she was only the first of the three blind mice to die. The only other clue is a note book that was left which included only two things, the address where the first murder took place, and the address of Monkswell Manor! Agatha Christie sticks to her usual motive of twists and turns which always keeps the audience guessing to the end. The Mousetrap is running in the Alley Theater till August 8^th, and I highly recommend you see it before it’s too late!

Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run, see how they run. They’ve all gone after the farmer’s wife. She chopped off their tails with a carving knife. Have you ever seen such a sight in your life as three blind mice?

Disneyworld 2010 By: Connor O'Hare

Hook, Line And Believer welcomes guest blogger, Connor O'Hare, age 9.

Well, the summer of 2010 has been pretty good so far. I got back from Disneyworld three weeks ago. It was only my third plane ride ever. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort. It was beautiful! Our room had two beds and had three sumo belts ordered into Disney Mickey ears. (They were really towels arranged on the bed.)

The first park we went to was the Magic Kingdom. We visited Stitch’s Great Escape and then we headed to our first mountain…SPACE MOUNTAIN! I loved it. They had video games at the 1,000,000,000 mile long line but it was worth the wait. It was very cool and at one point my heart skipped some beats. They had like planets above us and even the Death Star! Then we did the frightening Haunted Mansion ride…it was way too scary. My favorite part is when two paintings of guys with rifles facing opposite directions turned to face each other and shot the rifles at each other.

(Mom note-this morning we went back to MK and rode Thunder Mtn. RR and Splash Mtn.)
The next day, day two we went to Hollywood Studios. First we rode Star Tours. It was pretty cool. It was like you were in a spaceship circling the death star. After that we went and saw Muppet Vision 3D. THEY TRICK YOU BECAUSE IT’S REALLY 4D. But it was very funny. And then we saw Indiana Jones live! The best part was explosives…TNT! I loved the very first thing best which was the old rolling ten ton boulder. After the show, Casey and Dad went on the Aerosmith Rockin Rollercoaster. Me and Mom went to Toy Story Mania 3D. Oh, what’s that? Who won in Toy Story Mania? Moi! By the way, moi means me.) After that we went to the Great Movie Ride. It was pretty cool. It had animatronics to show the movies.

Day three we went to Epcot. We ate lunch first—Chinese, it was yummy! Then we went to Ellen’s Energy Adventure, but it’s not TRRRRUUUUEEEEEE! The entire universe wasn’t created by an explosion, it was created by God!!!! Next we went to the thrilling, the chilling, the amazingly cool Test Track! They tested the cars for ice and then in a totally heated room and the brakes and my favorite, speed…woohoo!!! That was super fun. After that we went to Soarin’. We saw another 1,000,000,000 mile long line, but they had big televisions on the wall so everyone could play games like ‘train ride’, ‘you’re a bird’, and stuff like that. But it was just another movie ride aaahhhhhhh! Then we went to Finding Nemo and got eaten by a clam! (Just kidding that’s what the ride cart was.) Then we stayed Nemo-style by eating at the Nemo Café. Then, Spaceship Earth, woohoo. It was telling you all these things that happened through time and one was about the Egyptians discovering paper. (They took our picture) At the end I looked funny in my review.

Thursday, day four is the day we went to Animal Kingdom. First we had to take the bus. That’s the only way to get to Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did was It’s Tough To Be A Bug—Scarrrrrryyyyyyyy!!! 4D, woohoo…couldn’t stand it! After that we went to dino-land to ride Dinosaur. Can you believe the fiercest dino you’ll never see is mutated (Mom note-evolved) into the chicken…Mom doesn’t buy it! It had so many dinos, I don’t want to talk about it! After that I took the challenge of Expedition Everest. It was a pretty long line but nothing I couldn’t handle. It had a huge drop going through mines and the mountain of Everest. At one point the rails broke and you go backwards! And when you’re going backwards, in the corner A GIANT YETTI POPS OUT AT YOU!!! And I was the only one who saw it too. Well that’s pretty much what we did at Disneyworld.

It Had To Be You - By: Janice Thompson

Each time my husband or I pass by this book by Janice Thompson we have to sing a couple lines of the catchy Frank Sinatra tune. My nine year old son has even caught on to the act when he hears the song. “Mom, Dad saw the book again!” I write this review with a heavy heart as this is the last in the Weddings by Bella series.

Bella Rossi, wedding planner and owner of Club-Wed, furiously plans the most important wedding in her young career for her precious Uncle Laz and Aunt Rosa. She is anxious to be done with the wedding because she knows the next wedding in line is her own. Family visits from Italy to attend Laz and Rosa’s wedding as well as an ex-mob boss and an overzealous swing band, making for an exciting pre-wedding blitz.

Major conflict for Bella happens when some other family members decide to plan their weddings very close to her own. Bella is stressed even more when she is ousted permanently from her lifelong bedroom for a construction project to house Laz and Rosa. The icing on the cake for Bella comes when she is forced to room with her sister who insists on talking into the night about her own wedding plans. Bella hits a figurative wall and is forced to slow down. During her down time, she is pampered by her loving family and she is able to re-connect with God which is always a good thing.

Thompson outdoes herself, humorously tying up loose ends in the book. She beautifully illustrates how we shouldn’t judge people by how they look and to not lash out at people when they severely get on your nerves…even if they are your sister.

If I had to say something bad about the book the only thing I could say would be the cover art. By the looks of things, the female cover model seems to have unfortunately wrenched her shoulders out of joint. The male model isn’t at all what I would picture to be a Texas cowboy and I would know. He isn’t even wearing cowboy boots. This is of course no fault of the author who wonderfully portrayed the Tex-Italian characters in the book. Kudos to you, Janice Thompson.