Many authors keep in mind an avatar or ideal future reader while writing their books. Christian writing podcaster Thomas Umstattd, Jr. suggests directing our stories to a real person rather than an imaginary persona. The apostle Paul was writing for Timothy—one person—when he scribbled the biblical epistles of I and II Timothy. Yet millions of…
In my travels, I’ve made a game of snapping photos of doors and windows. I find the variety absolutely fascinating. They give me windows to the world by showcasing cultures and styles of architecture predominant in a given place. What vivid object lessons! From the exterior, you can note the size and shape of a…
Friends sometimes call me the Tin Woman because of my large collection of tins. The moniker recalls one of my favorite childhood movies, The Wizard of Oz. While it both terrified and fascinated me, it also taught me about some of life’s important values: brains, heart, and courage, embodied in the Scarecrow, the Tin Man,…
“Would you be willing to endure four months of isolation on a small rocky island if you knew you would not only survive the difficult experience but would come away from it with an unwavering core of self-confidence and spiritual awareness?” The late, great Luci Swindoll throws out this journaling prompt in her inspiring book…
Brought up near the coast of Maine, I often heard the proverb: “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” In some parts of the country, they may say “farmers” or “shepherds” rather than “sailors,” but I live in a seaside context even today, so I’ll stick with the…
From the beginning and all the way to the end of this post, I’m not sure if I wanted to write about the color blue or dishes of comfort food. But hear me out. What I’m trying to share, I think, is that this final day of our trip to the Chiloé Islands has been…
On Day 5 of our Return to Chiloé trip, we’re so far from civilization that we have practically no cell phone coverage and we had to bring cash to pay for our lodging at the Palafito Cucao. Since we plan to stay two nights here, we decide to forget the world today and just get…
Back in the decade we lived in Chile’s Chiloé Islands, a hippie sort of bookshop lay tucked between our favorite restaurant, El Sacho, and the Castro Hostería where we’ve just spent the night. The place was called Light Years, and this morning as I wake up, I still feel light years out of my comfort…
We’re heading back to the Chiloé Islands today, where the more things change, the more they stay the same. “Everything changes…” echoes a folksong I referenced in Destiny at Dolphin Bay. And I realize it’s true: You just can’t keep time in a bottle. My husband and I have spent the day in Rilán, a…
Everything’s built up. That’s what we noticed most as we left the palafito (cottage-on-stilts) where we’d lodged in Castro and headed for the village of Rilán. The landscape of the Chiloé Islands features many examples of architectural creativity, but today the road was lined with building projects. For starters, we could have arrived at the…
Have you read Destiny at Dolphin Bay yet? Though sales mean a lot, I’d love even more to connect with readers who love my books and story “universe” as much as I do. So today I’m launching us on a virtual trip to Chile’s southern islands. Like the character Melissa Travis from Desert Island Diaries,…
