Two blogs is a bit too much to handle. (As evidenced by the fact that my posts here are becoming increasingly rare!) I've decided to focus on my group blog--Inkwell Inspirations. I hope you'll look me up there.

Through the next few weeks I'll be working to make the archives as navigable as possible. I'll also add labels so that past articles are more easily searched.

Blessings,

Lisa

Beloved

What is it about women that we so often don’t believe ourselves to be lovable? We crave constant affirmation. We long to be wanted, desired for who we are in our heart of hearts. And understood.

I’ve got some great news. We are!

We just don’t always realize it.

God’s love is not a feeling. It is a fact. We tend to believe we are loved only when we sense his presence. Those rare moments when all is right with our world and we lose ourselves in worship. But God’s love is no less real when the dryer’s on the fritz. His love is no less passionate when your nose is both stuffed up and runny, and everything sounds like it’s underwater. He still there in the moment when it seems your dream is dead. If your dream is dead, it’s because he’s come to replace it with a better, brighter yearning. But too often we see only the loss and cannot believe there could ever be anything more wonderful out there than to have our every longing gratified.

Believe it or not, even when it hurts, he loves us.

Perfection is not his desire. You are. If you were the only one in the world who needed him, he still would have chosen the cross.

He loves you.

When it seems like other Christians are getting away with things that you never can seem to get away with, perhaps it is merely his voice calling you closer.

You are his favorite.

The apple of his eye (Zech 2:8) and joy of his heart (Luke 15:7.) He carved your name on the palm of his hand (Isa. 49:16). What further proof could you need of his desire?

1 John 4:16-“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love...” Doubting his love means you doubt his very nature. I don’t know how to state it any stronger. He loves you. You cannot escape his love. You might as well embrace it.

A quote has been floating around for many years. “What would you risk if you knew you could not fail?”

Beloved of the Lord, what will you do with that love? What would you risk if you knew he’d be backing you the whole way? That his grace and love are sufficient to meet every need? That you cannot out love him?

Book Recommendation-Lady in the Mist

Siiigh. There’s something so satisfying about reading a good book. It’s like comfort food without the calories.

Lady in the Mist is just such a story. As the local midwife, Tabitha Eckles has unprecedented freedom for an unmarried young woman in 1809 Virginia. But with the privilege comes a host of responsibilities, including keeping other peoples’ secrets. Secrets she’d rather not know.

On the way home from a lying-in she meets handsome Englishman, Dominick Cherrett, on the beach. A beach from which American men have been disappearing, snatched from their homeland to serve the British navy.

Dominick knows about secrets too, he’s got enough to sink a British frigate. Ostensibly an indentured servant, the last thing he needs is more complications. But meeting Tabitha is just the first of many.

As the pressure mounts for both of them so does the number of missing men.

Laurie Alice does a great job of developing both the romance and the spiritual battles that her hero and heroine face. Her descriptions are crisp and her research is flawless.

I highly recommend this story to lovers of historical romance. You can find it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon or ChristianBook.com or at local retailers near you.

You can read an excerpt here.

So You Want to be a Writer

This video is awesome!

The Disappearing Diva

I thought it might be a fun exercise to honor some famous authors (and their characters) by writing short stories inspired by their style. Here’s my first attempt, and who better to honor than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s inimitable Sherlock Holmes. I hope you enjoy!

The Disappearing Diva

By Lisa Karon Richardson

“You’re certain it was Miss Harrington’s voice you heard?” Aurelia asked in her penetrating way.

I, Ilene Stadler, Aurelia’s confidant and companion, watched her as she in turn regarded the stage manager, one Mr. Durczek. He considered the question, revolving his hat over and over in his hands. “Certain? Yes. Miss ‘Arrington, she is the diva. There is no voice like hers.”

Aurelia jerked her head once in acknowledgment and bent with her magnifying glass to examine the doorknob to the diva’s dressing room.

Next to uncomfortable Mr. Durczek, dapper Viscount Lashley lounged against a post. I don’t suppose he could help it, lounging seemed to have been bred into his bones, and even now he couldn’t quite put any starch into his spine. “All sorts of people have been in and out by now, what do you think you’re going to find.”

Aurelia turned to him with a look that could have scoured brass. “I won’t know until I look, will I.”

“No. No I suppose not.”

Viscount Lashley and the perspiring stage manager had appeared at our lodgings less than an hour ago with one of the strangest tales I’d ever heard. Miss Sarah Harrington had taken London by storm over the last three weeks. Everyone seemed to be talking of the previously unknown genius. During this evening’s performance she had retired to her dressing room for the intermission as usual. This room was under observation by various workers the entire time. The stage manager had made the rounds and knocked on her door with the three-minute warning. The diva had sung out that she’d be right there. The curtain had gone up on schedule, but when her cue came, she didn’t appear. After an awkward pause the curtain had been lowered and a frantic search instituted. Her door was locked from the inside and the producer had finally ordered it broken open. The room had no windows and only the one door. The ventilation shafts were too small for anything larger than a puppy to wriggle through. During the few minutes in question the door had been under continuous observation and no one had gone in or come out.

And yet the fact remained that the opera star had disappeared.

Aurelia pushed open the door to reveal a small, cluttered dressing room. A vanity stood directly opposite covered in jars of creams and lotions. A screen was covered over with discarded costumes. Behind the screen the singer’s street clothing still hung neatly on a hook in the wall. Almost immediately behind the door a table held a phonograph, its needle still resting on a record.

Aurelia surveyed the room with the air of one totting up a row of sums. At last she stepped out into the hallway. “I should like to speak to everyone who observed her door during the intermission.”

Mr. Durczek motioned toward a man repainting a tired looking bit of scenery. “This is Patrick O’Fallon.” The stagehand glanced up from his work.

Aurelia tucked her magnifying glass back into its pouch. “Mr. O’Fallon, please tell me what you witnessed.”

“Didn’t see a thing.”

“Have you been working on this scenery all evening?”

He sighed. “Mostly.”

“Then you must have seen something. Was there anything odd?”

“Everyone around here is odd.”

“Then tell me everything you saw during the intermission.”

“No use. No one even came close to the door but Mr. Durczek.”

“Were you here when the door was broken in?”

“Yeah.”

“Who entered the room first?”

“I’m not sure.” He frowned. “Maybe Mr. Durczek or the producer. Does it matter? No one could have smuggled her out past me I’d have seen. I was right there.”

Aurelia sucked in her cheeks ever so slightly, a gesture she made before springing a trap on some unwary soul. “Pray tell me how you came to have your attention so fixed upon Miss Harrington’s door?”

A scarlet flush swept up his neck. “I was taking my break and happened to have a good view.”

“Balderdash. The intermission is timed for a change of scenery. No stagehand would take a break at such a time.”

His adam’s apple bobbed. “I—“

“Be very careful what you say, Mr. O’Fallon.”

His shoulders slumped. “Sarah and I were going to marry before he came along.” He cast a venomous glare at the Viscount.

From one of the myriad corridors came the crash of something falling and a howl of protest. An instant later a fashionable, white-haired lady rounded the corner. Here was the type of woman Carroll must have had in mind when he installed the Queen of Hearts in Alice’s Wonderland. She marched up to the viscount. “Harold it’s time to go.”

For once he straightened nearly all the way up. “No, Mother. My fiancée has been abducted. I’m not going anywhere.”

Any response she might have made was cut off by the arrival of a workman, all but hauling a red-faced, balding man behind him. “There she is. That’s the one.” The workman pointed at the viscount’s mother.

The red-faced gentleman waved the workman off and took the woman’s hand in his, lifting it to his lips. “Lady Marchmont, it’s so kind of you to visit. How may I be of assistance?”

Mr. Durczek jerked his thumb toward the little balding fellow and whispered an explanation. “The producer.”

“Hello, Mr. Grundy.” Lady Marchmont removed her hand from the vicinity of his lips with the expression of one who has inadvertently touched a slug. “I don’t imagine a producer can help me a jot unless you can convince my son to remember his duty rather than chasing after chorus girls.”

“She’s not a chorus girl, Mother.”

O’Fallon, the jilted lover, furrowed his brow and looked Lady Marchmont up and down. “You were here for the show.”

She sniffed and glanced over at him. “Of course I was here. I learned of this ridiculous engagement today and came to see this... this woman perform.”

The ugly red tide returned to O’Fallon’s features. “No, I mean you were here. Backstage.”

“Don’t be silly.” She looked at each of the people in the gathering crowd as if waiting for someone to vouchsafe her denial.

Aurelia stepped toward her. “Others will have seen you, Lady Marchmont. The police will prove it easily.”

“And who might you be?”

“Aurelia Peale. I’m investigating this matter.”

The woman shot her a glance designed to melt a person into a quivering jelly. “You would be better employed finding yourself a husband.”

Aurelia tilted her head. “Possibly. But at the moment I’m employed in finding a kidnapper. You must see that it’s easier to explain your presence here among friends, than down at Scotland Yard.”

Lady Marchmont nearly rolled her eyes in an uncouth manner, but caught herself in time. “I came to talk to the wretched girl.”

“Miss Harington?”

“I thought she could be reasoned with.”

Aurelia crossed her arms. “You meant to offer her money if she would break off her engagement with your son.”

Lady Marchmont glanced at the viscount. “Yes. But once I got down here, I became lost. I never even saw the girl, before I heard she’d gone missing.”

“Mr. Grundy I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” The fluting American voice made them all turn. A robust young woman with a glorious mane of tawny hair stood eyeing the producer. “I heard you’re thinking about canceling tomorrow’s show.”

“Yes, Miss Boxer. I’m afraid that without Sarah—”

“But what’s an understudy for if not to sing when the lead is… indisposed?”

He held his hands up. “Miss Boxer, until we find the reason for Miss Harrington’s disappearance, it could be dangerous for you to go on.”

The girl stepped closer and pushed a fleshy finger into his chest. “Sarah Harrington didn’t have a patch on my voice. I’ve told you that before. Well now’s my big chance and I’ve got a contract. So you just better rethink your idea of cancelling the show.” With a showy swirl of skirts Miss Boxer turned and marched away.

Aurelia turned to the viscount. “Miss Stadler and I will continue our investigations. Why don’t you go home? I know your mother will feel better for the companionship.”

“Are you sure? I—I could stay. I want to find Sarah.”

“That’s not necessary. I assure you that I’ll find Miss Harrington. And I don’t believe she’ll have been harmed.”

“Then she did run off, just as I supposed,” said Lady Marchmont.

“Pray, Madam do not put words in my mouth. I never suggested anything of the sort.” Aurelia turned her back to the woman and motioned for me to follow her.

She went all through the theatre, no detail too small to secure her attention. Every workman and chorus girl she found was interviewed. Most saw nothing of any interest whatsoever. A few confirmed that Miss Harrington had not been seen leaving her dressing room during the intermission.

At last, Aurelia declared our labors at an end. “Come along, Ilene. It’s past time we should be home and enjoying a cup of tea before bed. We’ll return tomorrow to unmask the culprit.”

***

The next morning Aurelia and I were breakfasting on kippers and toast when urgent banging sounded at the front door. I dropped my uneaten toast and we scrambled to stand at the top of the stairs. Our landlady opened the door and the stage manager, Mr. Durczek barreled into the hall.

He saw us and whipped off his hat. “Please. Miss Boxer has been hurt.”

It took but a moment to learn that the understudy had been practicing on the stage when one of the heavy sandbags had fallen and struck her. She was now in hospital.

“Let us get our things,” Aurelia said. A moment later we were clambering into the hackney Mr. Durczek had waiting.

When we arrived at the opera house we found Lady Marchmont, and her son the Viscount Lashley awaiting us, along with the stagehand, Patrick O’Fallon and Mr. Grundy, the producer.

“If you will all follow me, for purposes of demonstration I believe this meeting would best be conducted in Miss Harrington’s dressing room.”

It was a tight fit getting us all inside.

“Have you discovered how she was removed from here?” asked the viscount.

“No. And for a very simple reason. She wasn’t removed from here. She never entered.”

“Impossible,” sputtered Mr. Durczek. “I heard her.”

“You believed you heard her, but in fact, you heard this.” She gestured at the phonograph. With a twist of the handle she wound it and reset the arm.

Immediately a woman’s voice emerged. “I’ll be right there.”

A gasp went up from everyone, even me.

“But how did you know?” asked the viscount.

“Very simple. If it were impossible for Miss Harrington to have left the room, then she didn’t. Either she was still in the room, or she had never entered. A thorough search made it eminently clear that she was not in the room, therefore only the second option remained. At that point the question became how could someone make it sound as if she were in the room.”

Lady Marchmont leaned forward, interested in spite of herself. “How could that contraption have been started at the appropriate moment?”

Aurelia smiled. “I imagine the kidnapper put the arm in place beforehand then attached a weighted string to the handle. He left the key in the lock and balanced the weight on the end. When Mr. Durczek gave his usual hearty knock, the weight was dislodged and the crank given a sharp turn. It must have been someone with ample access to the entire theatre. Someone no one would question entering the diva’s room earlier in the performance.”

I shook my head. Once more she’d pulled an answer from the jaws of the impossible.

“But who’s responsible!” Patrick O’Fallon slapped his hat against his knee.

“Again it’s a matter of looking at the evidence as it is, and not as we should like it to be.”

Smiling like the proverbial Cheshire cat, Aurelia paced before us, hands clasped behind her back. “Mr. O’Fallon was the first to rouse suspicion. Avowals of love can upon occasion mask a darker emotion, particularly when the object of affection has spurned that love.”

“I didn’t have a thing to do—”

“I soon concluded the same, Mr. O’Fallon. You were quite adamant about not seeing anyone go in or out, whereas if you had been behind the disappearance it would have been in your interests to say you saw her leaving of her own will.”

O’Fallon nodded.

“Of course jealousy can affect more than the lower classes. There was the possibility that Viscount Lashley feared Sarah was experiencing a change of heart and determined to remove her from Mr. O’Fallon influence.”

“How dare you, Miss—”

Aurelia whirled to face Lady Marchmont. “I dare, because someone must. You were also seen backstage in suspicious circumstances. However, since you had just learned of the engagement there was little time to arrange elaborate schemes, nor were you familiar with the layout of the theatre. While it’s possible, the proposition is less likely. Besides it seems more keeping with your character that you’d try to buy cooperation before resorting to more desperate measures.

“The next most likely suspect was the understudy. She was intensely envious of Miss Harrington’s position and talent. And yet a simple accident or bout of food poisoning that prevented Miss Harrington from performing would have been easier to engineer, and much less likely to draw unwanted attention from the police. And now Miss Boxer herself has been injured.”

“But who does that leave?” I asked, unable to leash my curiosity longer.

Again that knowing smile. “Why the culprit of course, Miss Stadler. Someone who enjoys engineering complicated schemes.” She pinned the producer to the wall with her gaze. “Isn’t that correct, Mr. Grundy?”

“P-pardon me?” The little man’s eyes widened.

“I thought it odd you did not accompany Viscount Lashley to retain my services. A producer typically stands to lose a great deal if his show folds. And yet you made no move to secure your investment.”

“I have confidence in the fine officers of Scotland Yard,” he said stiffly.

“In addition, the kidnapper had to be familiar with the routines and practices backstage. And also required access. By all accounts you were there when this door was broken down, and most of the hands I talked to identified you as the first man in the room, giving you the opportunity to quickly remove the string and weight from your improvised device. A matter of only a second with your back to the wall, while everything around was confusion.”

“Absurd! Why should I want to ruin my own show?”

“An interesting question. Yesterday, Miss Boxer had to argue vehemently against closing down the show, even though doing so should mean a financial disaster for you. And now she is injured. I suspect it’s because you didn’t want the show to be a success. One of the oldest schemes in theatre is to raise more money than necessary to put on a show, and then ensure it fails, thus guaranteeing the investors won’t come clamoring for their money. But what’s a producer to do if he stages an unexpectedly popular show?”

The little man collapsed on to the couch, dropping his head into his hands. “If I had known it would be a success I could have made a mint.”

O’Fallon closed in on the hunched figure. “Where is she?”

“I didn’t hurt her, just kept her dosed with laudanum. She’s in the spare bedroom of my flat. I was going to release her without her ever knowing where she’d been kept. The show just had to close first.”

“Instead, the curtain is coming down on your plotting for good.” Aurelia adjusted her hat. “Come Ilene, I believe our work here is finished.”

Review-Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

Katie Converse, a seventeen-year-old senate page is home on break when she disappears while walking her dog. Enter the Triple Threat Club. Allison Pierce is a federal prosecutor, Nicole Hedges is a special agent with the FBI, and Cassidy Shaw is a TV news reporter. These three friends are drawn to the case from the moment they hear of the disappearance. Each uses their distinct resources and point-of-view to pursue the case. Each has their own reasons for becoming so passionately involved in finding justice for this particular girl.

Face of Betrayal is fast-paced and well written. The chapters are short and entice you to keep reading just one more before you stop. I also enjoyed the information about the senate page program, since it was something I was not at all familiar with. The authors wrote about the protagonists’ jobs with a good deal of authority and I enjoyed ‘learning’ some of the behind the scenes details of those professions.

Some Christian readers may find some of the scenes to be a bit edgier than they’re used to. There is no graphic detail, but there is an ‘after the fact’ bedroom scene between an unmarried couple and also some scenes with one or more of the protagonists drinking.

I think the endorsement on the cover from Suspense Magazine made me expect a suspense, but this is a straight mystery because there is no personal danger to the protagonists because of their pursuit of this case, nor is there any sense of the ticking clock. I checked the back cover and Thomas Nelson did classify the book as a mystery so it was my own fault for simply assuming it was a suspense. So a word to the wise, don’t assume, because we all know what that makes out of ‘u’ and me.

Despite the good pacing and craft, I did have a few issues with the story itself. I found three or four flaws in logic that made me roll my eyes a bit. I would share, but I don’t want to post a spoiler. Secondly a couple of the red herrings were so fishy that I could smell them a mile off. It was like watching an episode of CSI or some other crime show. You know without a doubt that the suspect in question isn’t the culprit because there’s too much airtime left to fill. Fewer of those would have left more room to develop the characters more fully.

My biggest quibble with the story was that the solution was based on a coincidence. It’s a pet peeve with me, but I want the heroes and heroines in the books I read to employ actual skill in solving the case. The ending also involves a leap of faith that I wasn’t quite able to complete. The authors managed to also hit on my other pet peeve in that the culprit who has managed to get away with murder for weeks now, confesses to the crime before they’ve even been accused. The entire wrap-up was, in my opinion, rushed and contrived.

Overall I found Face of Betrayal to be okay. A different ending would have probably made it a good or maybe even a great read for me. But as always, your mileage may vary.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of review.

The Pastor's Wife by Jennifer AlLee

There are a few friendships in life that supersede distance and difficulties. I've been blessed with one of those forever friends in Jen AlLee. We met at the ACFW conference in Dallas. It was the first time either of us had been at a big writer's conference like that. For introverts, conferences are like volunteering to put your finger in a light socket. Not once, but over and over again. Nerve wracking! I was longing to sneak away to my room where it was quiet and I didn't have to be 'on'. I had one problem, I'd volunteered to help in the conference bookstore. Sigh. I made my way down there, learned what needed to be done.

It was a quiet night. Most everyone already knew other people and were out hanging with their friends. Or at least that's what it felt like. Then I got to talking with the woman sharing bookstore duty with me. Her day had been way worse than mine. But she had a quirky sense of humor and gamely listened as I rambled on about the story I was pitching. We just clicked and found ourselves hightailing to a nearby food court for supper. We chatted long after the McDonald's had closed.

God orchestrated that meeting between Jen AlLee and I. She is my best friend even though we live time zones apart. The more I get to know this funny, wise, amazing woman, the more I know how blessed I am to have her in my life, if only so I can listen to her stories. And now I get the great privilege of introducing her next book to you.

Blurb:
Maura Sullivan never intended to set foot in Granger, Ohio, again. But when circumstances force her to return, she must face all the disappointments she tried so hard to leave behind: a husband who ignored her, a congregation she couldn’t please, and a God who took away everything she loved.

Nick Shepherd had put the past behind him. At least he thought he had, until the day his estranged wife walked back into town. Intending only to help Maura through her crisis of faith, Nick finds his feelings for her never died. Now, he must face the mistakes he made and find a way to give and receive forgiveness.

As God works in both their lives, Nick and Maura believe they can repair their broken relationship and reunite as man and wife. But Maura has something to tell Nick before they can move forward. It’s what ultimately drove her to leave six years earlier, and the one thing that can destroy the fragile trust they’ve begun to rebuild.

I feel like a proud Auntie about this book. I in no way can claim credit for the product, but I'm as happy as if I could. Believe me, this book is one you will want to get. The characters are so relatable and the conflict so universal. We have all felt hemmed in by other people's expectations at times.

You can order The Pastor's Wife through Amazon, Cokesbury, and Christianbook.com or at a brick and mortar bookstores near you.