History, Real Life, and Faith
Where do you get your story ideas? Are they based on real people and real events? In my latest book, Bridging Two Hearts, the answer, like always, is “sort of.” 1. From real people’s characters This is Ben. He’s in the Navy and his experience trying to become a SEAL prompted me to think about the difficulties of being a…
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The kindness of Navy SEALS is the first thing that surprised me. It’s tricky to get first-hand information about Navy SEALs, so I read everything about them I could find while writing my novel Bridging Two Hearts. I examined histories, novels and memoirs, as well as The Official United States Navy Seal Workout, revised edition. (I couldn’t do anything in…
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Kindness and Navy Seals are not always words that go together in most people’s minds. But it did make a difference to my daughter. My daughter had the good fortune to spend her pre-school years living on the shores of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. She grew brown and healthy in the warm island sun, knew the sweetness of plumeria on…
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My mother got her first passport as a newborn and left her homeland at six-weeks old. Her father was a “swallow,” a Sicilian man who left his family behind while he went to the new world to earn money for what they hoped would be a better future. Antonio first came to America in 1908 to lay the brick streets…
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We all found passion in 2010 Italy. While visiting our godson in Rome, we were treated to the “best gelateria” in the Eternal City. Located just a couple blocks north of the Pantheon, Giolitti sold gelato, candy and other Italian treats. Devin, who worked for the UN, waved to a bank of gelato flavors–more than 100–and advised us to select…
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Have you seen Les Miz? Do you know the stories, the quotes, from the actual book? “People are ignorant of things they ought to know, and know things of which they ought to be ignorant. They are crude and impious.” ~Victor Hugo, Les Miserables What to make of the stage and film productions of Les Miserables? I’ve pondered that question…
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