My Journal
Where I share my thoughts in words.christmas crash
The calendar on the refrigerator had so many dates circled it looked like a geometry test. The kitchen sink was piled with white bowls and plates like a mouth crowded with teeth. A laundry basket in the hallway grinned mockingly, the red sock hanging over the side...
the christmas swap
In that very odd manner that train stations have, it was cozy and yet too full at the same time. To Pastor Dillingham, it was a haven. Or at least the prelude to a haven. He was on his way home for the Christmas holidays. And everything within sight fairly sparkled...
the christmas village
Marian held her breath and opened the box. She peered inside. Just as she had thought. The clinking sound was the pieces of her porcelain church – the centerpiece of her tiny Christmas village. Broken. She could hardly believe it. This village had survived four moves,...
what’s in the manger?
Deena slipped off her shoes and leaned against the side of her cahier’s cubby hole. Only fifteen minutes left on her shift. The endless cacophony of beeps from the store’s computerized sales’ machines was winding down. The shoppers who remained now were the usual...
christmas cottage
It was going to be a glorious Christmas vacation. Mara could feel it deep inside. Everything from the planning stage on had gone perfectly. And when she had stepped out of the SUV and glimpsed the clapboard cottage framed by fir trees draped with glistening snow,...
when Messiah comes
It was cold when Madeleine Rosenberg stepped out of the door of the Tallman Center for the Performing Arts. The wind grabbed the door and banged it shut behind her. She clutched her instrument case and half stepped, half skated forward on the icy sidewalk.It had been...
tell me about Christmas. . .
a month of stories for Christmas. beginning December 1
is it okay for Christians to celebrate Christmas?
We wish you a pagan Christmas. What?That's an oxymoron, right?Christmas, by its very definition, originates from the person of Christ, the name says it plainly. And doesn't that rule out paganism?The answer is more complicated that it might first appear. A couple of...
Kristallnacht
It happened tonight.79 years ago. Kristallnacht.Night of Broken GlassHere's an excerpt from my newest book:‘Where are you going?” An SA man grabbed his shoulder and stared into his face. “You need to stay here and witness the indignation of the German people...
The Tracker
(One day, thinking about the desperation frontier families might have felt when a child was kidnapped and realizing the relief they would embrace by making contact with an expert who could find the missing one. . . I wrote this introductory vignette. What would...
