As a 29-year-old woman who has been living in America for the last five and half years, my life has been colorful and vibrant. Yet, recent days brought several bad things to our family. About half year ago, I got up as normal and prepared breakfast for my family, which is a small family with three …
Can Changing Cultures Kill You?
The book about culture lies open to the page called, "Settling In." But what if I don't? The author of Think HOME: a practical guide for Christian Internationals preparing to return home by LisaChinn quotes Dr. Clyde Austin, a psychologist known for readings on "re-entry." This term is used …
Born in South Africa, Carol shares: ECHOES of JOY from OUR LAMENT
There are some days where every little detail that occurred is embedded in your memory. So powerful is your recall that nothing can erase or wash that memory from your mind. The truth is, that each event, whether good, bad, happy or sad is part of us. Our past is an intrinsic piece of our …
Escape
When smoke filled the stairwell and slipped under the apartment doors on the third floor, the Tuktaway family was huddled in their living room on the sixth floor, high above the ice-covered city of Ulaanbaatar. The three Tuktaway children fought over who would sit closest to the heater, when the …
From Cowpoke Beans to Cassoulets
Beans don’t always get great press, but being my father’s daughter, our kitchen is never without them. Pinto, dark kidney, cannellini, garbanzo, navy, black, and refried beans are stacked two cans high and three deep in the pantry. Bags of dried adzuki, fava, flageolet, lentil, and great white …
a BOOK TO CHANGE A LIFE–to CHART A COURSE OF NO RETURN
I really can't say I read a lot of books as a child. I owned only three or four, but I read and reread the books I owned and cherished the illustrations page by page. The block prints in the book, Children of Many Lands, were vivid and sunny, and bold. Through these delightful works of art, I was …
Writing Tip #14: Writing a Good lead–the heavyweights
Open with the expanse of your setting and appeal to the senses which serves as a "first impression" that lingers for the whole text: I watched the sleeping ocean from a corner of the cockpit. In the deep darkness, blind waves broke and collapsed in rhythmic, drawn-out hisses, luring me to sleep …
Writing Tip #13: More Good Leads
Reference a world issue with humor After the Millennium turned past Y2K and the world didn't end, my friend Steve decided to leave Sydney and move to India for a while. --Ashley Hay, The Bus Stop, Creative Nonfiction, Issue 58, Winter 2016 Hook with Outstanding Data or …
Writing Tip #12: What makes a good lead?
PERSONAL, yet INTRIGUING STATEMENT Example #1) The sky has its way with me. As clouds lower their shoulder against he horizon, a warm front's humid body sides along my sin, lifting the hem of my dress to curl around my waist and stretch along my spine. --Sonya Huber, In the Grip of the Sky, …
Food is Love, in Brooklyn and Beyond
I grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Our home was three small rooms in back of our family’s linoleum store. Disadvantaged? I didn’t think so. And, now looking back over 60-plus years, I realize how truly advantaged, rich, flavorful and nurturing my world was. Our store was on 86th Street, the …