Introducing Memory Pages Press

My, how good it is to be back! It has taken weeks to solve the problem of finding a reliable way to notify you, dear readers, when I publish a new blog post. Over the years since I started this blog in 2009, I’ve had more than 18,000 readers subscribe to my blog. I had…

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Introducing Author Kathleen Weaver Kurtz

At long last, I am introducing to you Kathie Weaver Kurtz who recently released her memoir titled The Blistering Morning Mist. Kathie and I have been in the same writing group for more than two years, and thus we helped one another with honing the writing of our memoirs. Her writing is lyrical and poetic,…

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Updates

My dear blog readers, I have not forgotten you. My life has been full to overflowing. Let me count the ways. We’re going through lots of transitions at work as the church begins to gather in the sanctuary for worship. What makes that more difficult is that the senior pastor is on a three-month sabbatical,…

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Getting to the Other Side of the Pandemic

“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” ~ William Penn I’m certain I’m not the…

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If You Promise You Won’t Tell

This week I took a break from work for an at-home writing retreat with the aim of finishing my manuscript, developing a book proposal, and writing a query letter for my new book If You Promise You Won’t Tell. I was able to accomplish these, and now I’m in the process of looking at publishers…

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Christmas Greetings from Our Home to Yours

I recently came upon a piece by Richard Rohr about the season of Advent that made me think. I especially like this part: Remember, when we speak of Advent or preparing for Christmas, we’re not just talking about waiting for the little baby Jesus to be born. That already happened 2,000 years ago. In fact,…

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Reflections on Times Past and Present

A little while ago, I received a rare treat — a four-page handwritten letter. It came from Ruth, an elementary school pal. We first attended the same school when we were third graders, the first year an Amish school was built near us. She came from one local public school and I came from another.…

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Rainy Days

We’re having a rainy day here in the Shenandoah Valley. It’s an all-day soaker. A month ago we needed a rain like this when our lawns were turning brown in the drought we were having. We were praying for rain. Today things were already green, so we are not in need of it as much.…

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Preface of “If You Promise You Won’t Tell”

Preface of the Memoir If You Promise You Won’t Tell There are frequently irreconcilable conflicts between loyalty to our parents and being true to ourselves. —Alice Miller If You Promise You Won’t Tell replaces my first memoir, Why I Left the Amish. This revision contains mostly new material of my childhood years, although the ending…

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