My 4th of July Favorites

I’ve been reminiscing this Fourth of July about all the things I love most about this holiday. I have to say that at the top of my list are outdoor band concerts. My family lived near the West Point Military Academy when I was a girl and we usually attended their outdoor concerts on the Fourth of July. The academy perches on a mountaintop overlooking the Hudson River, and we would gaze out at the amazing view on warm summer evenings while the U.S. Army Band played rousing marches and all of our other favorites. After I married, my husband and I had the privilege of hearing the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform on the Fourth of July at their outdoor concert venue in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. One of my favorites was “The 1812 Overture” with real cannons booming. Nowadays, our family attends my husband’s concerts with the American Legion Band in our hometown. These patriotic concerts are performed in the city park overlooking the lake.

Of course, a close second for Fourth of July favorites are the fireworks. When I was growing up, there was always a magnificent show of fireworks at West Point following the band concert. I loved how the exploding fireworks reflected off the river and the thunderous booms echoed off the surrounding mountains, amplifying the sound. What a thrill! Today we watch the fireworks from our beach on Lake Michigan. The sun doesn’t set here until 9:30, which means it doesn’t get dark enough to enjoy the show until 10 or 10:30 at night. The fireworks explode over the lake as dozens of private boats line the lakeshore, shining their running lights and sounding their horns in applause. We walk home in the dark afterwards, using flashlights and sparklers to light our way.

Fireworks

I can’t leave out Fourth of July family picnics when naming my favorites. My grandparents always held huge potluck picnics at their home in the country, attended by all of our relatives and friends. Grandma chilled bottles of her homemade root beer in the spring-fed creek that ran through her property. There were hamburgers, hot dogs with homemade sauerkraut, and potato salad, among other family favorites. When I’m able, I like to return to the town in New York State where most of my extended family still lives for a picnic reunion just like the old days. But now I’m my grandmother’s age, and the kids running around eating hotdogs are my grandchildren. When we can’t attend the reunions, our family enjoys backyard picnics at our house followed by a marshmallow roast over our firepit. My grandkids love to run through the sprinkler just like my sisters and I used to do, and write their initials with sparklers after dark.

My parents always made sure my sisters and I knew the history behind the Fourth of July celebrations. I remember family trips to Philadelphia, where my aunt and uncle lived, and visiting all of the famous landmarks there. I especially loved hearing the story of how the Liberty Bell rang so hard to announce America’s independence and freedom that it cracked. We lived near Newburgh, NY, which was George Washington’s military headquarters during the Revolutionary War. I was amazed to think that “George Washington slept here.” We also learned the story of the giant chain that stretched across the Hudson River below West Point to stop British war ships from sailing up the river and attacking. Following my parents’ example, my husband and I took our children to Boston to walk the Freedom Trail and visit Betsy Ross’s house, where the first American flag was sewn. We saw the Old North Church where Paul Revere made his famous midnight ride, and the site of the famous Boston Tea Party. I don’t always remember important historical dates and facts, but what sticks with me are the stories. I think listening to stories is one of the best ways to learn history. It’s why I tell family stories to my grandchildren. And why I write historical fiction.

So, now it’s your turn. What do you enjoy most about the Fourth of July? What are your favorite memories and stories from the holiday?

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Summer Reading Program

When I was a girl, our village library offered a summer reading program. We were each given a chart with colorful stickers to keep track of all the books we read over the summer. There were prizes for the kid in each age group who read the most books—usually a book, of course. How I loved to see that chart filled with stickers! But I couldn’t cheat—my mother was the librarian, so she knew if I was really reading or just collecting stickers. Nowadays, I don’t just collect stickers, I collect books. As you can see, my shelves are pretty full!

I still think of summertime as reading time and I look forward to long afternoons to just relax and “do nothing” and read. I’ve been very busy these past months, writing and launching “Chasing Shadows” along with a Christmas novella, “Wish Book Christmas,” which will be out this holiday season. So I have fallen behind on reading books for pleasure. But now summer is here, and it’s time to remedy that. Here are some of my favorite places to curl up with a book:

The best place is on our beach on Lake Michigan. I love the warm sand and sunshine and the sound of the waves. This is the best place to read happy, romantic stories that end “happily-ever-after.”

My second favorite is our front porch. It overlooks a bike-and-walking path, so it’s fun to watch people go by with their dogs and kids while I catch up on all my favorite magazines, (which I’ve been neglecting). The porch has rocking chairs and a swing, and is a favorite place to read books to my grandchildren when they visit.

In rainy weather, I sit inside by the front window for the same view of the bike path. This is where I pray and read and have my quiet time year-round.

We are also blessed to have a screened-in back porch with a green, leafy view of trees and the fragrance of newly-mown grass. It’s above our walk-out basement, so I feel like I’m in a treehouse. A ceiling fan adds a breeze on hot, summer nights—and this is my favorite place to read when there’s a thunderstorm.

One last place is beneath the screened porch, down by the backyard. There are lots of comfy chairs and also a hammock if I want to take a little nap. Party lights make it festive after sunset, which comes late here in Michigan in the summertime.

So now I need to take a trip to the library. Do you have any great summer reading recommendations? What are your recent favorites and the places where you like to relax and read them?

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Eating Tulips

Have you ever eaten tulip bulbs? I haven’t, and I’m guessing not many of you have, either. Unless you lived in the Netherlands during World War II, that is. A Google search lists quite a few edible flowers including pansies, nasturtiums and marigolds. Tulips aren’t listed. I ate a flower at a trendy restaurant once that looked something like an orchid. It didn’t have much taste. But the Dutch didn’t eat tulips because they were trendy or tasty. The people were starving and desperate, and tulips were the only food available. Actress Audrey Hepburn, who lived in Holland during the war, has told how she survived on tulip bulbs. She said they tasted terrible.

I learned these sad but interesting facts while researching my newest novel, “Chasing Shadows.” The launch date is tomorrow, June 8, by the way, and I am super excited! (Keep reading to find out how to win a free copy!) The novel tells the stories of three women who live through the Nazi invasion and occupation of the Netherlands during WWII and have to decide how they will cope. The easiest way to survive is to befriend the enemy and collaborate with them. The middle path is to bury your head in the sand and simply try to cope by giving in to their demands, no matter how evil. The most difficult choice—and one that many, many brave Dutch people chose—is to actively resist and fight back against everything the Nazis were doing. You’ll have to read the novel to find out which of the paths my main characters chose.

The Dutch people suffered terribly during the war. During the final year, the railroad workers went on strike to hinder the Nazis’ movements, but when the trains halted, food supplies couldn’t be distributed. The winter of 1944-45 was called the Hunger Winter. It’s estimated that 22,000 civilians starved to death. One of the few things available to eat were tulip bulbs, so the Dutch Office of Food Supply published a guide with recipes, telling people how to cook them. The most common way was to grate the dried bulbs and use it like flour to make bread.

Fortunately, most of us have never faced the hardships of warfare. But we can read novels like “Chasing Shadows” and try to put ourselves in the characters’ places, and imagine how we would have reacted to such extreme circumstances. I like to think I would have faced the enemy courageously, but I’ll never really know.

And yet . . . I do have an enemy who wants to defeat me and take me captive. I face a variety of challenges, large and small, every day, and must decide how I will react. Am I going to allow the enemy to discourage and defeat me? Will I get angry, give in, give up? Or will I allow Christ’s love and grace to shine through me regardless of the circumstances? Like the women in my novel, I must decide if I will surrender to the enemy, do nothing, or show love?

It seems like it has taken a lifetime for me to fully trust in God’s provision. Like the Israelites, I sometimes grumble and complain about the manna He provides, preferring the cuisine of captivity. Jesus said that if we ask our Heavenly Father for bread, He isn’t going to give us stones. But sometimes His answers to prayer seem pretty hard to swallow. Like tulip bulbs. Will I eat them without complaining? Will I be thankful for them, as the faithful Dutch people were? Until the enemy is fully defeated, it’s a decision I must remember to make every day.

To celebrate the release of “Chasing Shadows,” (and my characters who eat tulips bulbs), I’m giving away two free copies of my book. To enter to win, simply leave a response to this blog, below. If you’d like, you can tell me about any flowers you’ve eaten. (I don’t think cauliflower counts!) Enjoy!

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Together Again

I came across these wonderful black and white photographs while researching my newest novel, “Chasing Shadows,” which takes place in the Netherlands during WWII.

The pictures clearly show the joy the Dutch people felt as they celebrated the liberation of their country after six years of war and enemy occupation. The Dutch still celebrate that day, May 15, 1945, each year.

We’ve experienced just a small taste of that darkness and uncertainty and the sense of captivity to an enemy this past year during the pandemic. And while life hasn’t quite returned to normal yet—just as life in the Netherlands wasn’t normal for many months to come—most of us are already looking forward to what we hope is “the beginning of the end.” Now that my husband and I, along with our middle son, daughter, and son-in-law have all been vaccinated, we’ve decided to celebrate with a (masked) family reunion trip to our favorite cabin near Rocky Mountain National Park. I invite you to join us through these pictures.

Here are two views from our front deck.

Being able to spend time with family again seems richer and more meaningful after so much time apart. FaceTime kept me in touch with my two granddaughters, but how wonderful it is to be able to hug each other again! This is Lyla and me, hiking one of the beautiful trails together.

I’m also savoring the freedom of being outside in the wonders of God’s creation after a year of at-home quarantine. I hope I won’t ever take the freedom to travel for granted again.

The mountains are reminding me of God’s awesome power and might. The God who created the Rockies holds all things under His sovereign control. Including pandemics. Including my life, and my loved ones’ lives.

He also knows what the future holds. Like my granddaughter, Ayla, we can set off down that road to the future, safe and secure in His love.

As I look back at this past year, I’m searching for more ways to celebrate what I’ve learned and how I’ve grown and changed. Like the Dutch people will do on May 15, we also need to reflect and remember our own challenging times. What are some of the ways you plan to remember and commemorate the pandemic year?

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Teamwork

The excitement is building. My newest novel, “Chasing Shadows,” will be releasing in just a few weeks. I would love to travel around the country to make the announcement in person and meet readers who’ve been waiting for this book. Unfortunately, that just isn’t possible with the current COVID restrictions. Instead, it’s going to take teamwork to spread the word from coast to coast, and I’m relying on my readers more than ever before to help me.

 Some of the work falls to my fabulous Launch Team—more than 100 excited, motivated book lovers who will work with my team director, Christine Bierma, to pass the news to their friends and family members via social media, word-of-mouth, and every other means possible. These team members live all across America, and even in a few foreign countries. They’ll receive a preview copy of “Chasing Shadows” ahead of the publication date so they can read it and begin spreading the word. I’m so grateful to them for their enthusiasm and hard work. 

But even if you’ve never been on an author’s launch team, you can still help your favorite authors promote their books. In fact, we rely on our faithful readers every bit as much as on our launch teams. Here are a few simple things you can do to relieve us of the happy burden of letting the world know we have a new book coming out:

Authors find it hard, sometimes, to ask our readers for their help. But we aren’t asking because we’re greedy and hope to make a lot of money. Most people would be very surprised to learn how low the average author’s yearly income is. And when you divide that income by the huge number of hours spent writing…well, I doubt if it even adds up to the minimum hourly wage. We don’t write books to get rich. We write because we believe in the message of hope and faith that the Holy Spirit inspires us to offer our readers. And so, if a novel has inspired you, please consider helping the author spread her message to everyone you know. Thank you!

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A Day of Filming

We’re getting closer! My newest novel, “Chasing Shadows,” will be released in just two more months, on June 8. So, a few days ago, my publisher, Tyndale House, sent a film crew to my home to interview me about the book. It was quite interesting to have my home transformed into a recording studio, with lights and cameras and complicated-looking equipment.

It seemed like there was a lot going on around me as I sat there smiling and talking and answering questions. It was hard not to get distracted as I described the novel, which takes place in The Netherlands during World War II. I talked about the inspiration for the book, and described my three main characters, Lena de Vries, her daughter Ans de Vries, and Miriam Jacobs, a Jewish refugee.

When the interview ended, we switched gears and moved to an outdoor setting. I live in Holland, Michigan, which originally was settled by Dutch immigrants, and our town just happens to have a beautiful park with a 250-year-old windmill imported from the real Holland. It’s the only authentic, working Dutch windmill in the United States. There’s a windmill in “Chasing Shadows” but you’ll have to read the book to find out more about it. My town of Holland also has millions of tulips, which are just beginning to bloom in time for the annual Tulip Time Festival in May.

I will announce the links to the finished interview when the film is completed and edited. But in the meantime, I’m giving away an autographed copy of my novel “Waves of Mercy,” which I wrote a few years ago. It tells the story of the Dutch immigrants who settled Holland, Michigan in 1857. The area was still a wilderness, but the settlers were escaping religious persecution in the Netherlands and were happy to be here. Simply leave a comment below and I will randomly choose a winner. Happy Springtime!

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Bikes and More Bikes!

If you’ve read my blogs before, you’ll know that I’m an avid bicyclist. That’s why I’m thrilled with the cover of my newest book, “Chasing Shadows,” which releases June 8. The windmill reveals the novel’s setting in The Netherlands. The low-flying airplanes, the model’s clothing, and her concerned expression hint that it takes place during World War II when the Nazis invaded that peace-loving country. But best of all, in my opinion, is the bicycle!

I have loved cycling since I was a girl. I still remember my first bike, a clunky, secondhand single-speed with coaster brakes that I repainted red. My sisters and I would ride into the countryside in rural New York State where we grew up, or to the ice cream stand in a neighboring village, three miles away. And my love of biking has only increased with my age. One of the deciding factors in choosing our new house was the bike trail right at the end of our driveway. It goes for miles and miles in both directions. It’s an easy six-mile ride into town to go to the library or the farmer’s market or for lunch with friends. And only 1 ½ miles to the beach on Lake Michigan.

Our vacations are chosen with biking in mind. We spent the month of February in Florida where we accumulated 400 miles. Ken and I bought new bikes last August and already maxed-out the odometers at 1,000 miles. In 2019 we joined friends from church on a cycling tour around Lake Constance, traveling through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. My most memorable day was in the Austrian Alps where we ferried our bikes up Mt. Pfander in a gondola, then cycled back down the nearly 3,500-foot mountain. It was equal parts thrilling and terrifying! Of course, I want to do it again.

The Netherlands, where “Chasing Shadows” takes place, is filled with bike-loving people like me. The first time my Dutch publisher invited me on a book tour there, I was astonished to see how many bicycles there are in that tiny country. A huge tangle of them greeted me outside every bookstore, their owners all waiting inside to hear me speak.  Bicycles whizzed through every village and city, often at breakneck speed. Dutch bike paths even had traffic circles at busy intersections to keep people from crashing into each other.

I’m told that there are more bikes in Holland than people, and I believe it! It’s a common sight to see professional men and women commuting with briefcases strapped to their bikes. Thousands of bikes are parked at every train station, some perched in double-decker bike racks to conserve space. I can’t imagine how people ever find their own bike again at the end of the day.

Naturally, bicycles play an important role in “Chasing Shadows.” Lena de Vries relies on her bicycle to travel from her farm to the nearby village, often with children perched on the handlebars and rear fender in true Dutch fashion. Her daughter Ans rides home from her townhouse in Leiden to visit her family. Later, Ans uses her bike for her dangerous work with the Dutch Resistance. I traveled to The Netherlands to research this book, and my husband and I rented bikes in Leiden to ride out into the countryside like Ans would have done so I could research settings for the de Vries family farm.

Here’s a sneak-peek at the Dutch version of the cover. Naturally, it also features a bicycle.

I doubt if my bicycling hobby will ever coincide so perfectly with my novel-writing research again, but it certainly worked out nicely for this book. I hope you’ll enjoy journeying into the past in “Chasing Shadows” and visiting the bike-loving Netherlands. And watch for a great deal on pre-orders, coming very soon!

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A Milestone

I reached a milestone last week.

As you can see from my odometer, I have now biked 1,000 miles on my new bicycle.  Ken and I purchased the new bikes in late August—a present to ourselves to make up for all the restrictions and disappointments in 2020. We have a lovely bike trail right outside our front door, so we put on 600 miles before the weather grew too cold.

But this past month we’ve been vacationing in Florida where we finally reached the 1000 mile mark.  Some of the trails took us through an alligator habitat where I made a new friend.

We’re home now, and my bike will get a rest for the next few months. But as soon as the snow is gone and the bike trails are clear, I’ll be looking forward to the next 1,000 miles.

What milestones are you looking forward to this spring?

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Fact, Fiction, and a D-I-Y Life

by Jane Rubietta

My husband stood beside me, our fingers clutching the frozen fencing. The unexpected ice storm shut down many roads in Tennessee, but we slid up to this gateway to my grandparents’ farm. Though the acreage sold 20 years prior, I hadn’t returned. My husband creaked open the unlocked gate and, in our station wagon with three small kids, we inched along the icy lane to the old farmhouse.

 Smaller than my memories, and decrepit in its presentation, still, the house contained poignant history. We peeked through the windows to peeling wallpaper and sagging ceilings. I grieved the loss of place, the lack of love and respect for such an antique beauty.

A decade slipped past. This time I steered a rental while on a Tennessee book tour. An internal map guided me straight to the farm, this time without a gate—or ice and snow. Cotton fluffs dotted the dark soil, reminiscent of last year’s harvest. I crept over in my dress clothes and heels to collect a few wisps.

Then I noticed. The sycamores lining the lane…gone. Fields rolled straight to the gravel’s edge. But surely soon I’d see the barn and tractor shed and the old gas pump. And the house.

Except, no. In their places, dirt and more dirt. I crawled from the car again, rooted at the edge of the house’s memorial site. So many stories, collapsed with the walls, the memories of hope and laughter, hardship and hard work. The scents of buttermilk biscuits and the smoke house with the best cured ham and bacon anywhere in the country.  

That day, a novel began to stir. About a woman who, wounded by her family, evacuates her past, and creates her own Do-It-Yourself life far from the fertile fields and painful memories. 

When everything she’s built threatens to collapse, Evelyn Lewis returns to liquidate her inherited farm. If only it were that easy. That’s no fun. Under the roasting southern sun, Evie realizes she must excavate her past in order to build her future. 

Is it biographical? No. But geographical, you bet. Though the farmhouse is larger in the novel than in real life, and waits in dire need of a kind hand when Evie reaches the cattle guard before the short driveway. 

The Forgotten Life of Evelyn Lewis is filled with laughter, sweet tea, healing, hope, lots of hammers, reclamation, and the surprising gift of friendship. 

No one, perhaps, is more surprised than me (well, except my family) that from so many fingers-clutching-fences places, I’ve become an author and speaker. Twenty of my books are non-fiction; with Evie, I wanted to experiment with real people working through the very real issues I write about. While it was a finalist for a couple of national book awards, the real blessing, to me, about The Forgotten Life of Evelyn Lewis comes when someone says, “It felt so good to laugh.” “I will never look again at another person with the same lens. People carry so much inside; I want to honor that.” Or, “Evie’s journey helped me heal.” 

It’s been a harsh year. I hope t The Forgotten Life of Evelyn Lewis will continue to help us laugh and love and heal. Meanwhile, last summer, in the spirit of reclamation and rebuilding, I published Brilliance: Finding Light in Dark Places.Six weeks of readings lead us in both our present and past realities, and invite us out of the shadows to the One who said, “I’m the Light of the world.” 

Because even though life feels a lot like a D-I-Y project, it really isn’t. As Evie ultimately figured out, it’s a “Come to Me” journey, where we collect others along the way. Although laughter and sweet tea help a whole lot.

Jane Rubietta is a platform coach and speaks internationally (well, pre-pandemic she did) and writes stirring and deep works, both fiction and non-fiction. Her Tennessee roots appear via an occasional drawl, or a masterful pitcher of sweet tea. She’s never figured out buttermilk biscuits, and has found that words are powerful tools for rebuilding a life and a world. Find out more at LifeLaunchMe.com and JaneRubietta.com
 
oninGuest Writer
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Piecing Life Together With Slow Stitching

by Cleo Lampos

My mom seldom had empty hands. When she finished pressing dough into loaves, feeding the chickens, or ironing heavy cotton, her fingers picked up scraps of fabrics left over from the feed sack clothing she designed and stitched for my sister and me. From these bits of cloth, postage stamp quilts emerged. Cozy coverings for an uninsulated home in central Iowa farmland. Frugal living with a needle and thread.

 These images impressed upon my mind at an early age translated into the historical fiction that I have written. In A Mother’s Song, the novel that highlights the orphan train, an entire chapter is dedicated to the history of frontier quilt patterns. One of the characters is buried with her favorite comforter wrapped around her, a custom of many pioneers. The novel binds family, home and second chances with love.

Another historical novel, Riding the Rails to Home: A Newsie Rides the Orphan Train, includes the quilt square that Stephen carries as a reminder of his mother, who dies of cholera. At the end of the book, the Nebraska patchwork of wheat fields yield homesteaders who sew a Hugs and Kisses quilt to welcome this adopted son to the community.

The most personal of the stories based in history is Dust Between the Stitches. After reading my mother’s diary of her early marriage to my father in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, my fascination with Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam with their feed sack creations sparked a story of a Depression era teacher who quilts. At the beginning of each chapter, a typical 1930’s piecing pattern is highlighted. The appendix to the book presents a brief description of each design.

But the most compelling part of quilt making is the quilters themselves. After joining a quilting guild, I found myself talking with the sew-ers more than actually constructing a fabric masterpiece. Their stories intrigued me and spurred my imagination. Eventually, researching every movement in quilting from pioneer stitchers to Gees Bends needle crafters filled many hours. The alliance of Amish and Hmong to produce high quality quilts inspired me. Learning how a therapist who works with anorexia patients has used the soft curves of fabric to heal their souls brought tears to my eyes. These and many more historic and personal accounts encouraged me to share the ways that quilting provides therapy, creativity, functionality and community to so many women. Piecing Fabrics: Mending Livesis the first compilation of narratives about needle work.

This month, the second book brings more stories to inspire and encourage stitchers.  Creating Comfort-ers: The History, Philosophy and Ingenuity of Quilters chronicles the women who used their threads and needles to fight in WWII. Deaf quilters are introduced. Even baking projects with a needle crafter’s touch are explored among the crazy quilt of topics covered within the pages of this nonfiction book. The hopes and despair of real women create the masterpieces that give snuggly comfort.

Slow stitching allows time to meditate. To ponder the thread of creativity that flows like a running stitch through the fabric. To think about the women who find their lives richer from the creations of their hands.

 Hands like my mother’s.

Cleo Lampos is an educator, writer and speaker who desires to equip parents and professionals to maximize the potential in every child. Lampos’ compassion for students who suffer from poverty, broken homes or foster care is based on her own experiences as a child. Her father died when she was three, and her step-father moved the family from state to state. Born in Colorado, but raised in Iowa and Wisconsin, Lampos attended nine schools before beginning high school. Her personal philosophy in life is that “broken lives can be healed when the pieces are given to the Creator.” In all her speaking, teaching and writing, the hope and the grace of the gospel shines through. Learn more about Cleo’s books on her blog http://cleolampos.com

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