CROWING: Jennie Hansen's Review of "The Dragons of Alsace Farm" for Meridian Magazine

Forgive me for crowing. But this review made my week! Thank you, Jennie Hansen! 

THE DRAGONS OF ALSACE FARM by Laurie Lewis

Two adults with horrendous childhoods that have left deep scars are drawn together at Alsace Farm, a farm owned by an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s. Noah Carter was physically and emotionally abused by his father, then at eighteen eloped with a young Quaker girl who had second thoughts before morning. Upset, Noah crashes his vehicle and winds up in jail where he is beaten and molested by the other inmates. No one, not even the uncle he’d hero-worshipped all of his life comes to his rescue. For ten years he disappears into a world of substance abuse and bare existence living until the uncle, who is dying of cancer finally locates him. He returns to his uncle’s home where they make a shaky start to re-establishing their old relationship and the uncle encourages him to start a business of his own as a craftsman woodworker. He also pushes him into working for and repairing a nearby farm for an elderly widow who survived World War II as a child in France.

Tayte Donnelly is the child of two hippie artists who drifted around the country, mostly ignoring her, and caring more about drugs than for her. The happiest time of her childhood occurred when she was eight and her mother left her for two months with her grandmother. This idyllic time ended when her parents came for her and abruptly took her away, then informed her her grandmother was dead. Her own talent as an artist is beginning to garner recognition when she is notified, her parents have been killed in an accident, and her grandmother is alive, but has dementia and that as the woman’s only relative she has to see to some legal matters. Though the old woman doesn’t know who she is, Tayte decides to stay on the farm and care for her grandmother.

Agnes Devereaux Keller hides a secret in her attic. She has spent her life hiding from dragons, not living fire-breathing dragons, but powerful secrets, secrets concerning the Nazis, a daughter who ran away years ago, a man who betrayed her, her father, an old love, a spiteful, calculating woman, and so much more. If only she could remember which day it is and whether or not she fed the goats. She adores the young man who comes to help her, but wants nothing to do with the bossy young woman who cleans her house and throws away her anchors to reality.

This is a story of two injured people, picking up the fragments of their lives, and struggling to make sense of their pasts and build a much better future. It highlights the damage caused by poor, selfish parenting, and the difficulty of rising above past hurt, guilt, failures, misunderstanding, and oppression. It’s also a story of hope and determination.

Lewis has created outstanding characters who realistically portray the characteristics of the particular dragons each is fighting whether it is physical or emotional. Agnes’s dementia is very real as is the uncle’s cancer. So too, are the emotional flaws the two main characters carry from their years of physical or emotional abuse. The two young people learn a great deal about themselves and about love through the things they learn from Agnes. Love draws Agnes back from the terrible black abyss of dementia and love is the gift the uncle struggles to leave Noah, his wife, and his sons.

As four people struggle with the “dragons” in their lives, this multi-pronged story melds the plot line of each character’s story into an overall one of overcoming adversity, recognizing the worth of all individuals, and never giving up on the hope for love and belonging.

Laurie Lewis was born and raised in Maryland. She and her husband still live there where she enjoys the rich history of that region. They are the parents of four children. She has authored seven other novels, most dealing with patriotic or historical themes.

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THE DRAGONS OF ALSACE FARM by Laurie Lewis, published by Willowsport Press, 356 pages, soft cover $13.53. Also available for e-Readers.

MEET DEBUTING AUTHOR JULIE FORD

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Julie N. Ford

Author of

"The Woman He Married"

Julie N. Ford is debuting her first book, an edgy women's fiction novel that has at its center a woman struggling with disatisfaction in her roles as wife and mother. Julie N. Ford is LDS, but her debut novel is written for the national market. As a practicing marriage and family therapist, Ford injects some sobering concerns about the threats to modern family life through her lead character, Josie McClain.

From the back cover:

As an aspiring young defense attorney, Josie McClain looked forward to taking on the injustices of the world—one case at a time. Eleven years later, she is a stay-at-home-mom battling demons that don’t require a law degree, but do demand the ability to remain insanely busy, while nursing a heavy dose of denial. Only keeping up pretenses proves more than she can bear when a bracelet that should have been hers shows up on the wrist of another woman. Now, in the midst of an Alabama judicial campaign, Josie’s marriage to candidate, John Bearden, slowly begins to unravel as an ex-lover comes back into her life. When he offers her the dreams she thought she’d lost, Josie faces one of the most difficult decisions of her life. She embarks on a journey of self-rediscovery, finding that fulfillment was unwittingly within her reach the whole time.

Question: Though "The Woman He Married" is your debut novel, I see that you have three novels ready to hit the market in 2011 and a fourth book in production. That's a prolific start. How long have you been writing?

Answer: Besides term papers and research analysis in college and grad school, I really hadn’t done any creative writing before sitting down to write this novel. I minored in English Literature so I knew that plot and character development were important but other than that I just started writing.

Question: What motivated you to start writing?

Answer: As long as I can remember I have had ideas for stories and movies playing through my mind but had never aspired to be a writer or even considered turning any of my ideas into a novel. Then, for some unknown reason the pieces of this book just started to fall into place. When the words began knocking on my brain, struggling to get out, I sat down and wrote a page. When one page turned into twenty, I asked a friend to read it and then she asked me for more. I kept writing, and she kept requesting more, until four months later, I had a manuscript.

Question: How much of this story was driven by your work as a marriage and family therapist?

Answer: I’ve only practiced as a therapist for short period of time but have notice some common threads that run though the couples I’ve treated. One being that infidelity, unless chronic, doesn’t cause divorce, lack of communication does.
With Josie and John, their problems started in the beginning when she chose to let him dictate the roles of their marriage. She sacrificed her dreams for his instead of telling him what she wanted. But then over time began resenting him while he was left wondering why she wasn’t happy. Resentment doesn’t exactly encourage productive communication.

Question: What purpose did the retreat to island serve?

Answer: As women we get so entrenched in our roles as wife and mother that what we want for ourselves turns into some distant fantasy that we don’t have the time to entertain any more. The trip to the island was a chance for Josie to get out of the familiar and rediscover the woman she had once been. Consequently, John began to see the woman he married reemerging as well.

Question: What role does today’s culture play in the demise of marriages?

Answer: Couples in today’s society seem to get so caught up in doing the “right” thing. Fathers feel compelled to build a prestigious career, provide a larger than necessary home in a safe neighborhood, expensive gas-guzzling cars, country club memberships and vacations to hip places. The pressure to provide financially is overwhelming.

Mothers feel they need to stretch themselves and their children to the limit with extra curricular activities, volunteering, social clubs, church and even a career. All the while keeping close tabs on what their kids eat and watch on TV, how they dress, and their grades. Parents get so caught up in what society says they “should” be doing that their marital relationships are forced to take a back seat.

Question: If Josie and John both loved each other the way they said they did in the beginning, why did it take almost loosing each other for them to remember?

Answer: Most couples that are in trouble can still remember why they fell in love. Navigating through all the hurt feelings and resentment to get back to that love is the hard part.

Question: At the beginning of the story your protagonist had clearly lost a certain sense of herself as she focused on meeting the needs of her husband and her children before her own. In your opinion, how do women balance the needs of their families without becoming so immersed in their role that they lose a part or most of themselves?

Answer: That’s a tough question. I had Josie go back to work, in essence go back and live the dreams/goals she thought she had sacrificed. I think all women who choose to stay home wonder if they are missing out on something more fulfilling by not having career. I mean, lets face it, anything seems more glamorous than motherhood at three in the morning when you’re cleaning up vomit. But having a career also comes with challenges of its own like office politics, deadlines, reviews and annoying co-workers. The secret to being happy is choosing the life we have.

Question: How do you feel your experience with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma affected your writing?

Answer: While I was going through chemotherapy my husband and I used to joke that when the treatments were done, it would be cool if I developed some sort of new super powers, kind of like a comic book character often will after falling into a vat of toxic waste. While I didn’t develop super powers, I did escape with my life, a heightened sense of creativity and the unrelenting desire to tell Josie’s story.

Question: And chemotherapy did all that?

Answer: Besides more precious time with my husband and children, I would like to think that I got more out of four months of having chemicals pumped into my veins besides six months of impersonating the Buddha and premature menopause.

Question: Did your illness change your perspective on life and if so how did you portray this in the book?

Answer: I definitely feel that a near death experience can change the way we view our lives and relationships, what battles we choose to fight and how we treat the people we love. The bottom line is not to let pride or hurt feelings dictate the decisions we make—to learn to forgive even the unforgivable.

Question: But don’t all the psychologists say that children are better off with happy parents even if that means their parents are no longer together?

Answer: It has become too easy for couples to say that divorcing is better for the children. Unless there is abuse or was never any love to begin with, why not learn to forgive, make changes and stay together? That solution would, I think we can all agree, be better for the kids.

Question: Besides providing some comic relief, what was Gina’s role in the story?

Answer: Gina was the voice of reason in this book. She was the one who said everything Josie needed to hear even though she may not have been ready to accept it. We all need a Gina in our lives to keep us heading in the right direction.

Question: You quote Benard Baruch, "The art of living lies less in eliminating conflicts that growing with them." What significance do his words have to Josie’s decision?

Answer: So often in life we are willing to do almost anything to avoid changing our behavior or adjusting the way we view our situation. By facing her problems and accepting responsibility for her role in the collapse of her marriage, Josie was able to find peace and purpose.

Question: The book has a somewhat PG-13 element to it. Why not clean it up and make it suitable for the Christian market?

Answer: The book is clean and contains no graphic language or sexual content. But I wrote the book from a non-LDS perspective so that the story would appeal to all readers. I think a story about a woman’s struggle to hold onto her identity while dedicating her life to the service of her family is applicable to women of all walks of life, and I didn’t want to limit my audience to only LDS readers.

Question: Being a member of the LDS church comes with its own unique challenges. Why would a book about a woman with very little faith appeal to women in a church where god is their central focus and the example they look to for guidance?

Answer: Although Josie doesn’t have a strong belief in/or understanding of God in which to draw upon, her struggle to find the right answers is not unlike any woman’s. In the end, she does turn to a higher power for guidance, thus illustrating the need we all have at times for a little divine intervention.

Question: As church members we have been taught that women fulfill the measure of their creation by becoming a wife and mother, yet in this story you have a shown a woman who is somewhat resentful of those roles.

Answer: I think a lot of women, especially those who forgo a career to stay at home and raise a family, questions at times if anyone really values or even appreciates their sacrifices—if their time and energy wouldn’t be better spent pursuing other venues. But motherhood is worth it, and thus Josie was able to find fulfillment in the very place she had thought she never would.

Question: Why give Josie a problem with alcohol?

Answer: We all have our vices that may include food, hobbies, or staying so busy we don’t give ourselves time to think—to feel. I gave Josie a problem with alcohol because, whether we want to admit it or not, we all have our own hidden demons. Simply put, I thought this one fit a politician’s wife the best.

Julie N. Ford's "The Woman He Married," published by Whiskey Creek Press, debuts this month. Look for it on Amazon.com or at Ms. Ford's web site.

IF YOU WANT SOMETHING TO LAST FOREVER, YOU TREAT IT DIFFERENTLY. . . .

I'm a visual person. Tell me a story that plants a picture in my mind, and I'll remember it--well, I'll remember the gist of it--forever. That's why I fell in love with this particular excerpt from a talk given back in 2003. It planted a vivid, metaphorical image, that of a bride's cherished silver and the care she took to protect and preserve its beauty, as a marital standard. It keeps coming back to me, like a rubric, prompting evaluation and course corection. "How am I doing on this?" it prompts us to ask ourselves, reminding us that we need to honor and cherish our unions if we want good marriages.

You could base a thesis on the principles contained within. Given by F. Burton Howard, it remains one of my favorites, and it's especially perfect today. Tom, I hope you're reading today. This one's for you, honey! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
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By F. Burton Howard, emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy:

. . .I think eternal marriage cannot be achieved without a commitment to make it work. Most of what I know about this I have learned from my companion. We have been married for almost 47 years now. From the beginning she knew what kind of marriage she wanted.

We started as poor college students, but her vision for our marriage was exemplified by a set of silverware. As is common today, when we married she registered with a local department store. Instead of listing all the pots and pans and appliances we needed and hoped to receive, she chose another course. She asked for silverware. She chose a pattern and the number of place settings and listed knives, forks, and spoons on the wedding registry and nothing else. No towels, no toasters, no television—just knives, forks, and spoons.

The wedding came and went. Our friends and our parents’ friends gave gifts. We departed for a brief honeymoon and decided to open the presents when we returned. When we did so, we were shocked. There was not a single knife or fork in the lot. We joked about it and went on with our lives.

Two children came along while we were in law school. We had no money to spare. But when my wife worked as a part-time election judge or when someone gave her a few dollars for her birthday, she would quietly set it aside, and when she had enough she would go to town to buy a fork or a spoon. It took us several years to accumulate enough pieces to use them. When we finally had service for four, we began to invite some of our friends for dinner.

Before they came, we would have a little discussion in the kitchen. Which utensils would we use, the battered and mismatched stainless or the special silverware? In those early days I would often vote for the stainless. It was easier. You could just throw it in the dishwasher after the meal, and it took care of itself. The silver, on the other hand, was a lot of work. My wife had it hidden away under the bed where it could not be found easily by a burglar. She had insisted that I buy a tarnish-free cloth to wrap it in. Each piece was in a separate pocket, and it was no easy task to assemble all the pieces. When the silver was used, it had to be hand washed and dried so that it would not spot, and put back in the pockets so it would not tarnish, and wrapped up and carefully hidden again so it would not get stolen. If any tarnish was discovered, I was sent to buy silver polish, and together we carefully rubbed the stains away.

Over the years we added to the set, and I watched with amazement how she cared for the silver. My wife was never one to get angry easily. However, I remember the day when one of our children somehow got hold of one of the silver forks and wanted to use it to dig up the backyard. That attempt was met with a fiery glare and a warning not to even think about it. Ever!

I noticed that the silverware never went to the many ward dinners she cooked, or never accompanied the many meals she made and sent to others who were sick or needy. It never went on picnics and never went camping. In fact it never went anywhere; and, as time went by, it didn’t even come to the table very often. Some of our friends were weighed in the balance, found wanting, and didn’t even know it. They got the stainless when they came to dinner.

The time came when we were called to go on a mission. I arrived home one day and was told that I had to rent a safe-deposit box for the silver. She didn’t want to take it with us. She didn’t want to leave it behind. And she didn’t want to lose it.

For years I thought she was just a little bit eccentric, and then one day I realized that she had known for a long time something that I was just beginning to understand. If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently. You shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary. If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by.

Eternal marriage is just like that. We need to treat it just that way. I pray that we may see it for the priceless gift that it is, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

THE WRONG WEDDING RING

There's an old movie whose premise has long fascinated me. For the life of me, I can't remember the title, or the actors, but I clearly remember the message.

Set in the 60's, it involved a French-born mother whose only daughter was preparing for her upcoming nuptials. Recognizing that her parents have what seems to be the perfect marriage, the bride-to-be asks her mother to share the secret of her success. Reluctantly, the mother reveals the Holy Grail of marital bliss. It is a book. And not any book. Certainly not a book you'd expect. It's title? "How To Train Your Dog".

Interestingly enough, the irreverent topic comes full circle. Amy Sutherland, renowned animal trainer, behaviorist and author, had a 2008 release of a book titled, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers. In it, Sutherland explains how she used animal training techniques to improve her marriage and modify her husband's behavior.

As demeaning as the idea may sound on the surface, there are some great lessons to be harvested from this field, and both the movie and the book hit the point solidly. It is positive reinforcement that creates the desired change in a pet, and Sutherland notes that similar rewards of kindness, patience and affection improved her marriage.

Think about it. Compare the enthusiasm with which most people greet their pets at the end of a day to the anemic welcome home greeting most spouses receive. Now consider the appreciation poured out upon a pet for performing a task versus the attaboys our mates get when they complete an item on our honey-do lists? Do we rub their ears and wrap our arms around their neck before telling them how wonderful they are in that mushy voice reserved for Fido? Are we cringing yet?

If the topic seems ludicrous or disrespectful, well, it is. And that makes the point even more critical. Because no matter how uncomfortable it makes us to admit it, too often in too many homes, our pets are getting better treatment than we're giving our husbands or wives.

So the next time our husband replaces a light bulb, or after the next well-prepared meal your wife prepares, (or vice versa for that matter), share the puppy-love. A lot of spouses might consider the dog's treatment a step up.

MAKING A CASE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

The airwaves and Internet are filled with comments by those inflamed by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi's recent comments regarding a specific portion of her plan to balance the budget. Rightly so.

In her Sunday morning ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos, Ms. Pelosi defended a plan to address the budget problem in part, by increasing funding for contraceptives and abortions. As quoted from that interview between Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Stephanopoulos:

"The family planning services reduce cost," Pelosi said, "One of the elements of this package is assistance to the states. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

"So no apologies for that?" (Stephanopoulos) asked her.

"No apologies. No," Pelosi said. "And this is a, to stimulate the economy, is an economic recovery package and as we put it forth we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy. Food stamps, unemployment insurance, some of the initiatives you just mentioned. Believe it or not, they're the right thing to do but they also stimulate the economy."

In essence, the idea is that we reduce the cost of services to children by reducing the number of children.

As appalling as that thinking is, I am at least energized by how outraged people are over it. Finally, a sign that the dying, or at least sleeping giant of American values is still capable of being revived! I hope everyone of us raises such a din of objection to this mode of thinking, (the same thinking that sent President Obama off the cameras and away from the limelight of a paparazzi-like press to covertly overturn the Mexico City bill, authorizing the funding of abortions and contraceptives in foreign countries), that we shake the halls of Congress and the White House. I hope they remember that they serve us at our pleasure, and see that we do not want our budget balanced at the expense of, nor the elimination of children.

Yes, children are costly. But they're not the problem. The problem is that we've lost our vision of the essential nature of the family and the home. Mothers and fathers were intended to bear the responsibility for their children. But look at how we've undermined these roles.

And it's not just government. Look at the media's perception of marriage and the family. How many current shows can you name that have stable married parents? Now ask yourself how many of those have parents who work as equal, responsible partners as heads of their homes? The current trend in media is to paint women as overbearing matriarchs who spend as much time parenting their husband as they do their kids. And look at the portrayal of fathers. Most are buffoons whose kids are brighter than they, or the really cool ones--the detectives and doctors and secret agents? They're generally divorced or unaware of they even have children. And how are they regarded? As sensitive, misunderstood, a work in progress. Great. . .

Now add to these aberrations of family life the media's obsession with break-ups, hook-ups and the ensuing custody battles over the poor children, and then ask yourself, "is it any wonder that the Hollywood royal duo who openly shun marriage despite their every-growing number of children, gets named the 'Couple of the Year'?"

Hollywood and the media may plead the fifth and say that this is just entertainment, and such programs don't shape youth's ideas regarding marriage and families. Oh really? Well, the network marketing people sure prepared a hundred items for launch into your neighborhood stores because they anticipated that little girls would watch Hannah Montana and High School Musical and they'd want to be just like them. Then they have to also know that images of weak, dysfunctional families leave their marks as well. Hollywood can't have it both ways. Imprinting is occurring, and we need to up the quality of the images we portray.

Perhaps government will recognize what many of us have always known--the correlation between strong families and a strong nation. Ms. Pelosi does realize that we have a crisis here. But her view is skewed, as if seen through a kaleidoscope. Madame Speaker, when the family fails, the burden of rearing the children does fall to government. So instead of blaming the children, please help America strengthen her families.

There is an old adage that says, "When man wants to change the world, he sends armies. When God wants to change the world, He sends a child. Children are our hope, not our burden. We need every one of them. We just need them to be reared by mothers and fathers leading stable homes.

Now that's an economic stimulus plan we can support.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

I was searching through my files the other day and I came across a page of notes I had typed up several years ago after watching a seminar on improving relationships. Noted LDS speaker John Lund, (no relation to Gerald), specializes in the field of Communications and Interpersonal Relationships. His books and tapes on these subjects are favorites and he is a frequent presenter at Education Week.

Whenever one of Brother Lund’s children marries he starts their new union off right by giving them the seven steps presented below. I was so impressed by his simple but profound exercises, cleverly titled "The Magnificent Seven", that I passed the advice along to each of my children through our family newsletter.

Knowing that financial stresses often take their toll on marriages, I thought now might be a good time to dust these tips off and recommit myself, and perhaps inspire others to recommit to working harder at showing love in our marriages. Try doing each step every day for a solid week with your spouse or intended. Evaluate and then continue to commit to doing the ones that work best for you.

The Magnificent Seven

1. 1 verbal “I Love You” with eye contact.
2. A 5 second kiss
3. 10 second expression of appreciation ( can be a phone call)
4. 15 minute “Honey-do” (can be “banked within 1 week only for a 1 ¾ hour “honey-do”.)
5. 2o second hug
6. 25 second written expression of appreciation
7. 30 Minute Talk Time (This is real, focused, concentrated Talk Time which can be broken up, i.e. 5 minutes when you first get home, 10 minutes at dinner, 15 minutes at bedtime).


Good luck!

Review of "THE LOVE LETTERS OF JOSEPH AND EMMA" by Angela Eschler, featuring portraits by Liz Lemon Swindle

THE LOVE LETTERS OF JOSEPH AND EMMA


The extraordinary love story of Joseph and Emma Hale Smith is tenderly portrayed in a unique new Covenant release entitled, Of One Heart: The Love Letters of Joseph and Emma, by Angela Eschler.

As an editor at Covenant, Angela Eschler has long exercised her writing and editing talents to improve the works of other authors, including my own. In Of One Heart: The Love Letters of Joseph and Emma, Mrs. Eschler’s first authored work, her exceptional writing skills and knowledge of the Prophet and Emma is evident. Punctuated by the emotional artwork of Liz Lemon Swindle, Eschler has carefully selected poignant excerpts from the Smith’s private correspondence and wrapped them in beautifully crafted historical content and corroborating scripture.

The Love Letters of Joseph and Emma is divided into five concise chapters, each one correlating to a period in Joseph and Emma’s marriage-- Love and Devotion, Sorrow and Separation, Consolation in Companionship, Faith in Adversity, Reunion and Peace. As a historical examination, “Love Letters” illuminates the great love that succored Joseph and Emma through the too frequent separations, the exquisite sorrows and the sweetness of the joys that defined their lives.

But there is much more here for the reader. From Mrs. Eschler’s intimate Dedication, which is drawn from the example of Joseph’s ministrations to Emma, to the triumphal promises of eternal reunion expressed in the closing scriptures from the Doctrine and Covenants, this book is a delicately crafted celebration of the power of marriage and love.

Counseled as we are to seek for “patterns” in our lives, Of One Heart: The Love Letters of Joseph and Emma, provides readers with a unique vantage point from which to observe the Smiths’ enduring love. From the secret elopement to Joseph, to which Emma consented saying, “she preferred ‘to marry him more than anyone [else she] knew,’” through seventeen turbulent years, theirs was a marriage imbued with loyalty, tenderness and faith. Being perhaps the ultimate example of enduring love under fire, Joseph and Emma may therefore provide the ultimate pattern for building a strong marriage.

In Of One Heart: The of Joseph and Emma, by combining the power of Angela Eschler’s beautiful writing with samples from Liz Lemon Swindle’s evocative portraits of the Smiths, Covenant has produced a work that reaches deep into the hearts of readers, personalizing the Prophet and Emma to a rising generation of Saints who may confidently draw upon their example of marital love and loyalty.