Why I’m Thankful To Be Alive
My fourteenth summer, twin funnels descended from the mildewed sky and barreled across the field behind our house. We didn"t know it until after we'd watched the news, but they were the same funnels that obliterated the home a quarter
Wading Through Troubled Waters
Winter 2006The picture was taken during our trip out West. I was fifteen, and my best friend Misty eighteen. It was taken the same day we thought we were going to drown. Our backdrop is my family’s ancient, dust-crusted, black
Folk Matter; They Really, Really Do
At first it seemed my UK adventure had accomplished everything I had hoped it would: I no longer obsessively checked my email to see if my beta readers had contacted me with feedback on my novel; I didn"t even care to
No Place Like Home
Our plane, en route to JFK airport, lost its weather radar and had to make an emergency landing in Detroit. Though no oxygen masks were deployed from the ceiling and no cheery attendants herded us through the side exits like
Hey, That’s MY Car!
When I was a senior in college, my parents bequeathed to me their 1998 black Jeep Cherokee, which was replete with leather interior, a CD player (gasp!), tinted windows, and a sunroof. Although the Jeep was a decade old and
Chasing My Father’s Dreams
When I was three, my family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Nashville, Tennessee, so my parents could be missionaries and so my father could find a home for the country gospel he’d jot down on scrap lumber with his carpenter’s
The Truth Behind My Fiction (Or, Why I Should’ve Been a Podiatrist)
My novel is off to readers. I’m telling you, that is one terrifying sentence to type. It's right up there with, “I’m now going to experience Chinese water torture, then have a gasless tooth extraction.” It’s the immense vulnerability that
When the Honeymoon’s Over
This week someone cut the locks to our gate and pilfered items from our land. Although the thievery could have been far worse, it still feels violating. A few days before that, my husband and I drove out to the
A Window of Borrowed Time
During the wedding reception, I stand in a corner of the room in my cinnamon-colored bridesmaid dress, remembering how everything used to be, trying to comprehend how much everything has changed. I met the bride, Madison, my freshman year in