History, Real Life, and Faith
How do you react to a do-gooder? I spent many hours during the end of the last century, hunched in the dark before an antiquated machine with a big hand crank. An eye-glaring microfilm machine light shone through plastic strips with faded squibbles, throwing down shadows before me to make out. After reading microfilm for hours my eyes often hurt, but…
Read More
Let’s put a story to a face. Take a look at the woman to the left. What color is her hair? What type of woman do you think she is? Tall? Agile? Efficient? Industrious? Is she wearing glasses? Is she, perhaps, some sort of ancient librarian? When you write historical fiction, you often choose your characters based on photos–or in…
Read More
What to do with Grief?
Civil war fans often overlook Fort Delaware. It rises out of the mist of the Delaware River dividing Delaware from New Jersey. The fort is a row of granite buildings on the very slight elevation of Pea Patch Island–so named because a ship ran aground there two centuries ago and dumped a cargo of peas. The war of 1812 raised concern in…
Read More
Like many, I grew up on sanitized versions of prisoner of war (POW) camps made famous by movies such as Stalag 17 or The Great Escape, not to mention the TV program Hogan’s Heroes. But some of the heroes of my childhood included the Vietnam POWs. I wore a metal bracelet with Lt. Thomas Sima’s name on it for several…
Read More
Did John the Baptist have to choose to believe in Jesus? The man sat in the dark pit, his long hair tangled and hanging about his shoulders. He ate simple food: insects and water. Taunting prison guards probably let his friends visit; he passed a message to the outside world. He thought he knew his purpose. The man believed God…
Read More