Christians Read

Two weeks ago, I invited you to take a journey with me to learn about Herman Melville and his epic novel, Moby Dick. We’ll have to postpone the next step in that journey because I’d forgotten I wanted to tell you about an exciting event my family participates in each January: The Central Florida Scottish Highland Games. Those Games take place this coming weekend! Three generations of Gouges/Reeses/Santiagos have been working the games for over a dozen years. Here’s part of our family picture at the Games kickoff dinner.

No doubt you remember that those Scots were a rowdy bunch and often fought amongst themselves, as well as fighting the English. But the annual Games are a wonderful way to celebrate all the best of Scottish culture without any of the crazy stuff that makes up every people group. As for the food, oh, mercy, bring your appetite! They have authentic Scottish fare. And yes, I love haggis, a unique Scottish culinary delight, which I suspect American Scots have adapted to our more tender (squeamish?) appetites.

Here are some of the events you can observe and/or take part in: Caber tossing, Sheep dogs herding sheep, Highland dancing competition, stone-carrying competition, ax-throwing competition, archery contest, children’s activities and competitions, and Quiddich.

You can also thrill to twenty or so magnificent drum and bagpipe bands. Nothing stirs the Scottish soul quite like a bagpipe. Imagine a hundred of them piping their tunes across the moors.

Visit the Scottish clan tents and learn amazing historical information about each clan. At the Scottish Heritage Tent, you can find your own Scottish roots through our databases.

Spend a little or a lot of money with the vendors who carry Celtic and Renaissance clothes and memorabilia.

Here’s a picture of my husband and me wearing the plaid and celebrating our Scottish heritage. On the right is a picture of my dear hubby in his U. S. Army tartan kilt and a chest full of his medals from service in Vietnam.

So how did we get started with our involvement in these annual Games? Some years ago, my younger son became interested in his Scottish heritage, having married a lovely lassie whose father is actually from Scotland. (Her father has that charming accent and even plays bagpipes!) Along with her daughter, they became involved with the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games, eventually pulling my husband and me into the fun. Now my daughter and grandchildren have joined the fun.

Timothy and Heidi Gouge at the Central Florida Scottish Highland Games kickoff dinner.

I don’t have a great deal of information to go on to learn more about my Scottish heritage except that my paternal grandmother’s maiden name was MacCaskill. Like many Scottish surnames, this spelling is just one of many, but most of them seem to refer to a “sept” of the Clan MacLeod of Lewis. (There’s also a MacLeod of Harris.) Historically in Scotland, a sept was a smaller clan (family) that attached itself to a greater clan for protection and shared resources.

Being a smaller sept didn’t mean the MacCaskills were considered inferior. One William MacCaskill led the entire MacLeod clan against a fleet at Clanranald at Eynot. No doubt he was chosen to lead because the MacCaskills were skilled seamen and sailors. In the mid-nineteenth century, a certain Angus MacAskill (note different spelling, but same family) grew to be 7 feet 9 inches tall. Naturally, he was called The Giant. At right is the MacLeod of Lewis crest.

Below right is a picture of the Clan MacLeod family seat at Dunvegan Castle (for over 800 years), the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Great Britain. Rather romantic looking, don’t you think? Visit http://www.dunvegancastle.com/the-estate/clan-macleod/ Official site of Clan MacLeod of Lewis. Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

The photo below is by Neil Aitkenhead, with the attribution-share alike. I’m hoping this means it’s okay to post it. Sure would hate to be sued for a simple, non-commercial blog!

Around the United States, numerous Scottish heritage societies host Highland Games similar to ours. For a day of family fun, great food, and exciting entertainment, check out these events. You’ll be glad you did.

Do you have a Scottish connection? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

With just 9 days in to 2018, I still can’t believe it’s another brand new year.

This is a time when we reflect back over the passing year and look forward to what 2018 will bring.

For me, 2017 was a year filled with mostly good things and some not so good, but through it all I can say I was truly blessed.

What will 2018 bring? Only God knows. We have a brand new clean slate and anything can happen.

Happy New Year!

This January, I have a brand new romantic comedy out entitled, Heart Of Texas. It’s about one woman’s struggle to leave behind a traumatic event in her life and try to find a better future.

Laney Winters gets the biggest shock of her life when she learns she’s pregnant…on the same day she finds her husband in bed with his secretary. With her blissful life exposed as fraud, and her husband wanting nothing to do with raising a child, Laney faces divorce and her greatest fear–moving back home to live with her two eccentric old-maid aunts.Hiding the demise of her marriage and helping to manage the family diner should be uneventful, but a new man in town has the gossips speculating. Laney’s two aunts create an exciting mystery around the stranger, and Laney is sucked into an entertaining game of “Save Jake Montgomery from Aunt Thelma.” When her aunts’ latest victim turns out to be the town’s new family doctor, Laney must entrust him with her secrets, and along the way, discover that when your life flips upside down it’s God’s way of giving you a different perspective…and a fresh start.

Heart of Texas – Available now at Amazon

All the best…

Mary Alford

Are you one of those people who starts out the new year with resolutions or goals or even one word you believe God has for you?

I confess that I belong to all of those groups.

Let me tell you why.

I LOVE new beginnings! That’s my perspective on the new year. It’s a fresh start. Maybe you’re in the middle of something big and the new year doesn’t feel like anything but the passing of time much too quickly, but you CAN make it a fresh start.

For most of us, those resolutions go to the side of the road within a week or two as we make our journey through life. Well, we tried. It was a start, a dream. But not something we could hold onto or make a reality.

Something I’ve learned through experience is that if I write it down, it has a better chance of happening. I’m a huge fan of keeping a to do list. Every single book idea I’ve written on my to do list has eventually come into this world as a book baby—ahem—a published novel on sale at stores. That’s true for most everything else on my to do list. (Only book ideas become book babies, I’m talking about everything else.)

So that’s one suggestion, my tip, for you on how to make a few things become reality.

As for the “word for the year”—what I believe God is speaking to me—it’s not something I usually pray about or think about too hard. It’s something I just know. After all, that word is probably something He’s been speaking to me for quite a while so I already know what it is, as should you.

For me,  this coming year (and for the last few months actually) that word is simply “be.” Or if you prefer a phrase–Just Be. Imagine my delight when I came across this post from Ann Voskamp about “Plan Be”. http://annvoskamp.com/2017/12/how-having-a-little-charlie-brown-christmas-gets-you-into-the-best-christmas-spirit-of-all-about-fears-heartbreak-hard-families-at-christmas/

In the post, she said,

Let go of Plan A — Go with “Plan Be.”

Love it!

I’m always so busy making sure things on my to do list get done, and my mind is flitting around in a thousand directions and lingering on future possibilities, that I’ve forgotten how to live in the moment. To just “be.”

So I ordered her wonderful book: The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life, and I continue to read snippets every day and let those snippets soak in and give me ideas about how I can be the gift. In other words, there is action involved in “just being.”

Most importantly, she nails it in this post: http://annvoskamp.com/2018/01/why-you-need-a-plan-be-for-your-bible-reading-this-year/ 

When she says . . .

I find this very helpful advice for reading the Bible: As you read, do your best to be there.

I couldn’t agree more! This chaotic world fights for our attention, holds our minds captive as we try to do even the simplest of things like read the Bible.

I want to go deeper with Him this year, deeper than ever before, but in order to do that I need to be deliberate about many things and not let life—the “cares of this world” as Jesus put it—drag me away from what should be the most important thing—my relationship with Him.

So in being deliberate about that one thing–I need to be present in this moment, and let His presence soak in, so I can BE Christ, BE the gift for others . . .

I pray that you, too, can be deliberate about that one thing–And you know what it is.

********

P.S. My latest release, Thread of Revenge, releases in February!

COAST GUARD PROTECTOR

Marine biologist Sadie Strand is back in her coastal hometown to prove her best friend was murdered—but searching for evidence almost costs Sadie her life. Abducted, drugged and left for dead on a sinking boat, she’s barely rescued in time by Coast Guard Investigative Service special agent Gage Sessions, an old friend. Assigned to protect Sadie and connect three complicated cases, Gage risks his life time and again to make sure the woman he once loved survives. But although the handsome, guarded agent vows to protect her, someone will keep killing to ensure the truth never rises to the surface.

Pre-Order your copy today!

Does it ever boggle your mind to think about the vast amount of information that’s available to us today through an internet search? No matter what the subject, we can learn all sorts of interesting facts. Of course we have to be careful in choosing our sources. And we authors have to be diligent when we’re researching our stories because we want our fiction writing to be taken seriously. Nothing pulls a reader out of a story faster than mistakes about a subject he/she knows well. Academics also must take special care to be sure their sources are accurate and trustworthy or risk losing credibility with colleagues and students alike.

Still, many a subject can be studied from the comfort of one’s home or dormitory room, resulting in excellent papers and compelling novels. Anyone over the age of thirty knows this easy research wasn’t always available. As recently as 1999, when I was writing my master’s thesis on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, I didn’t have such an easy time of it. Scouring the card catalogues, viewing the new and incomplete computer files, and perusing the stacks at Rollins College (See a picture of Rollins campus above)), I couldn’t find everything I needed to know about both the author and the book. It took a spring break trip to snowy New Bedford and Nantucket, MA, to find everything I needed in the libraries and historical societies. I also found a key piece of information in the library of Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. Not that I disliked traveling, mind you, but it was time-consuming and expensive when I needed to be doing some actual writing to complete my thesis on time.

Fast forward twenty years, and I can easily find all that I need to know online. Well, I do have a personal library of print books that help me along, but how much easier it is to “google” a topic and quickly find resources from credible sources. Sure does save time and money, and frees me up to write my books.

While the technology has been a boon to me as a writer, I still prefer to live in the past. What I mean by that tongue-in-cheek statement is that I love to write and read historical fiction. When planning my thesis, I asked my faculty advisor if I could write it as a novel rather than an academic paper. Dr. Cohen graciously permitted me to do so. Thus, Ahab’s Bride was born, a sequel to Melville’s Moby Dick. (These public domain pictures above inspired me as I wrote. At right is the cover for the first edition of Ahab’s Bride, published in 2004 by David C. Cook.)

Over the next month or so, every other Thursday, I will be writing about my journey to research and write this book. I hope you’ll stay tuned and enjoy taking the journey with me.

We spend weeks, if not longer, preparing for this special holiday and then it all comes down to one day. It goes by too fast. Yet hopefully, the spirit of Christmas will live in our hearts the whole year long.

By now, the presents have all been unwrapped. The meal has been served. Family is gone. Christmas is over. But Christmas isn’t the ending, it’s just the beginning. That little Baby in the manager didn’t stay a Baby. He grew up. Preformed so many miracles. Changed many lives, and then died on a cross. Then three days later, He rose from that grave to insure that those who put their trust in Him will see Him again in heaven. What an amazing gift.

So, as the New Year begins and the decorations are all put away, don’t forget, while Christmas may be over, it really is just the beginning.

All the best…

Mary Alford

www.maryalford.net

A Gift That Keeps on Giving

By Margaret Daley

It’s the Christmas season, and if you are like me, you have to decide what to give people on your Christmas list. Sometimes that can be a difficult task, especially for people who have “everything.” I have a gift that can go across all generations and it covers a wide area of interest: a book.

A book can either be fiction, non-fiction or a combination of both. You can discover what a person likes to read, and then you can find a Christian book that covers that subject or genre. If a friend or family member is dealing with a difficult situation, you can give them a book that deals with the same type of problem. It can be a non-fiction book concerning the subject–like grief. But that same subject can be in a fiction book where the story shows how the characters handle their grief, what problems they encounter and how they go through the stages of grieving.

At American Christian Fiction Writer’s FictionFinder.com website, you can put in a subject, geographical area, a time period, and/or a social issue and search for fiction books that cover them. For instance, my book, Shattered Silence, is about bullying. If you are looking for a book about dealing with bullies, you could check the list of social issues for all the books on the site that deal with bullying.

Another way to get a specific book on a subject or genre for a person you want to buy a gift for is to talk with a salesperson at a Christian bookstore. The staff will often know what others have been reading, recommending and saying about certain books. The staff can be a great resource to help you pick the right book for a gift for someone on your list.

Why give a Christian book for a present? It is a personal gift, one you’ve put thought into. There is an array of topics that have books covering them whether fiction or non-fiction. Books can be given to all ages, male and female. A book whether purely entertaining or informational gives something to the reader–spiritual depth, affirmation of his faith, enjoyment and knowledge. Giving a Christian book is an extension of your stewardship, a way for you to spread the Word. What a great gift to give a person you care about, not just at Christmas but also throughout the year.

I’ve been writing for over thirty years. In 2000 I was led to write for the Lord, but I resisted at first because I didn’t think I had what it took to write a story with a faith element in it–to help others with their faith. But God had other ideas. He kept giving me stories perfect for the Christian fiction market–stories about forgiveness, redemption, trusting the Lord, hope and many other themes involving faith. I want to leave the reader uplifted. My writing is my ministry, and from letters I have received, I’ve helped people with some of their problems but also entertained them in the process. That is the power of a book.

Come join me with giving books for this Christmas to your loved ones and friends. I have been buying some throughout the year to give. With four granddaughters, I especially want to give them books to read. I’ve gained so much enjoyment from reading over the years. It’s important for me to pass it on to my granddaughters and what better books than Christian ones–clean, well written and faith based.

So make out a shopping list of types of books you can get for different people on your Christmas list and head for your nearest Christian bookstore. You can’t go wrong. Books are the gifts that keep on giving. They can be shared and reread. Have a merry Christmas.