Sunsets at St. Katharine's have always been beautiful.  But this June, ours have been on the East side of the campus!  Glad I caught this when I did!!

 This is Renwick Mansion, part of the old St. Katharine's School campus.  It is now a Bed and Breakfast/Event location for weddings and receptions, reunions and meetings.  We are entertained by DJ's and live bands in the summer months and it has been very busy here this month.  The Zac Brown Band played for four hours last Saturday!

My friend, David Hass, composer and fabulous musician, sent me this card of Henri Nouween at Easter this year.  I thought it appropriate to have it framed and displayed in my living room.  A simple frame for a very beautiful, simple man. He was such a blessing to the faith community.

This is my living room by the fireplace.  The "painting" of Our Lady and Baby Jesus was done by my mother, Dorothy Ficke and is actually a needlepoint and not a photograph or painting.  She bought the canvas and yarn in Hawaii and it took her ten years to complete, taking it on trips in the car, vacations and wherever she wanted to relax to make this gorgeous tapestry.  In early evening, it has an ultra high definition quality to it.  Quite remarkable.

This photo is hysterical.  This year for Red Nose Day, one of the ministries I am involved with decided to raise funds for children's charities, so we all wore red noses.  They are definitely NOT comfortable but they do make for a funny photo!!!

The books are still in process, but I seem to have dumped myself into writer's block - too many story lines at one time makes for confusion!  So, I've decided to make one book of three stories - Miss Lulabelle Lavinia Lafontaine's life before she passed away in the tornado!  Since her character seems to have become larger than life, it's only fitting to add more details of her life with her accomplishments, friendships and experiences - all of which made her the enigmatic personality she was written to be!  Perhaps Miss Lula has become my alter ego and expresses herself in ways I probably wouldn't (but would like to), so in my parallel universe, Lulabelle would be front and center!

Keep checking back, as I promise to keep updating the blog and web site.  More details on Miss Lula's stories are forthcoming later this summer.  And come over to Smashwords.com for all my books!

"Come to the Water" - a grief recovery and healing ministry, has taken the summer off.  We will resume in September, but this year there is a difference.  Our location will now be in a private home and a second ministry will be for Our Lady of Lourdes in Bettendorf.  The locations will be advertised as we get closer to resuming.  The Diocese has a Ministry Fair at St. Ambrose University in Davenport at the end of July and Come to the Water will have a booth, plus we will break off into small groups to explain the program.  Come to the Water is going Diocese wide soon, so everyone will have a chance to experience the healing and support of Christ's love for us.

Enjoy your summer.  Stay cool and check in with the blog to see the updates!!

Coming in 2016.....New Books

Book News:

Coming this Summer is Book 11.  I know, hard to believe.  But this will be my first book published in two years.  I didn't take time off (well, sort of), and I will have four books coming to Smashwords.com before the end of the year, with "Three Doors of Time" published later this Summer.  This will have three stories, including the first one with Miss Lulabelle Lavinia LaFontaine getting up to tricks with her Senior Detective Agency!!  I think we will be seeing more of her in the years to come.  I'm not about to kill her off now that she's become so famous!

Next will be the three books in my Sanderson Series, "Death Across the Pond", "The 'Ghost' in Bolton Hall" and "Murder and Pasta Don't Mix" bringing up the fourth book.  The first novel in the series, "Northwoods Forest Mystery" has already been made into an eBook (available on Smashwords.com) and all four are still available through Amazon.com in paperback format if you are interested.

Then, " A Window in Time: The Marlinspike Murders" will finally get published.  My aim is to get it finished by the end of 2017, as there is a TON of research to do, as this is also an historical novel and details must be correct.  Do you like 1779 and Whitby, England?  Good, because you are going to see them in this book.

So, if you are so inclined, wander through my books on Smashwords.com and pick up one or all of them.  They aren't expensive, but I'd sure love it if you did!!!  And...you can read them on your eReader, your laptop or computer...even your phone.  Fun, huh??

Come to the Water Update

St. Paul the Apostle Church in Davenport, Iowa, began a Grief Recovery and Healing Ministry called Come to the Water in the Spring of 2015.  It was designed by Robert Wamer, as his Master's Thesis at St. Ambrose University, but it turned into much more than something on paper.  Our first ten-week program went beautifully and now we have started our next series with some of the first participants coming back, along with new people.  It meets on Thursday evenings at 6:00 PM for about 90 minutes and is a welcoming, safe, loving Christian environment to help all of us deal with a loss, whether that be the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job or a relationship, the loss of health or something similar.  All are welcome to join us for the ten weeks.  This is a Scriptural-based program, but the denomination doesn't matter.  Please come if you are interested or send me a message at OldAuthor65@aol.com

An update:  We have successfully completed our Fifth Session with many of our original participants coming back.  It has been an amazing journey so far and it keeps getting better.  Many of us had never been exposed to some of the suffering folks deal with, especially suicide and more specifically, teenage suicide.  This is something which is pervasive in society today and for most of us, it has never touched our lives.  Now we know much more about it and it enables us to be more understanding, more empathetic to those whose lives this tragedy this has impacted.

Now we see so many hearts healed of the pain of grief and the inability to cope with such a heavy burden.  This ministry is humbling - and healing, not just for the participants but also for those of us who are companions on their journey.  We are, after all, Wounded Healers, as author Henri Nouwen has expressed in his book, "The Wounded Healer."  We have all suffered loss in some form and sometimes we have found it difficult to cope.  Often there has been no one to talk with about it, no one to listen.  And we need that to heal.  Through this program, even we have learned more about our own healing and our ability to listen, understand and feel.  We have learned how much God loves us and is here for us even through the darkest hours of our lives.  And we have truly become a family - someone who is there to listen, to support and even to have a laugh with.  And a family who does not judge or condone - a family who lets you talk and cry, then cry some more (as we cry with you).  We are here for the healing to begin.

It is said 'it is better to give than to receive' but in this case, I think we receive much more in the bargain, even though we aren't looking to receive anything.  Simply knowing we have been on this journey, listening to the hurts of our brothers and sisters and perhaps helping them work through often deep seated feelings, even from years of pain and anguish over the loss of someone or something - we find they are blessings upon blessings we never expected.

Please join us.  Bring a friend who might be hurting as well.  We are here to listen and to let you express your grief in whatever way you need to.  Christ is in our midst and He shows us how much He loves us.