Blog Archives
Sitting by the Windowsill of Life With a Spiritual Friend
Sitting by the Windowsill of Life With a Spiritual Friend is a meditative work of creative nonfiction that imagines George Harrison as a spiritual companion speaking across the veil, offering comfort, correction, tenderness, and occasional impatience to the reader. The book moves through 166 short reflections on love, grief, aging, humility, nature, creativity, forgiveness, and spiritual awakening, often returning to the same radiant center: we are here to love, to shed what no longer serves us, to listen more closely, and to live with greater reverence. Britwell frames life through candles, gardens, music, rainstorms, autumn leaves, old friendships, and the quiet ache of loss, making the book feel less like a conventional tribute and more like a long conversation beside a window, where the earthly and eternal keep touching hands.
What I liked most was the sincerity of the book. It’s not coy about its beliefs, and I appreciated that. Britwell writes from a place of open-hearted devotion, and the best passages have the feeling of someone speaking softly after learning things the hard way. I felt that especially in the reflections on grief, where death is treated not as an ending but as a painful separation held inside a larger mercy. The idea that the one who has passed is “closer in spirit than we were in life” could easily have felt sentimental, but in context it lands with real emotional weight because the book has already spent so much time building its vocabulary of presence: flickering candles, wind in trees, butterfly kisses, summer sounds at an open window. I also liked the repeated insistence on simple, embodied living. When the book turns from music to gardening, imagining hands that once strummed a guitar now tending soil, the image feels quietly profound. Creation doesn’t disappear; it changes instruments.
The writing is strongest when it slows down and trusts its images. A rainy day becomes a small sanctuary for journaling and introspection. Autumn leaves become a way to think about shedding old selves. Relationships become squares in a tapestry, and the comparison to a child’s beloved blanket gives the passage a tender, almost aching clarity. Words like light, love, soul, God, and awakening appear so frequently that they can blur together, especially across the longer middle stretches. Still, there’s an earnest rhythm here that I found disarming. It feels like a mantra, or like someone returning again and again to the only truths they believe will hold.
Its ideas are simple in the way deep things often are: live gently, forgive where you can, step away from ego, care for the Earth, stop worshiping noise, and don’t forget that love is the one thing worth carrying. The closing reflections, especially the image of setting out in an old car with beat-up suitcases and no real certainty except the decision to keep going, gave the book a fitting sense of motion. I’d recommend Sitting by the Windowsill of Life With a Spiritual Friend to readers drawn to spiritual reflection, George Harrison’s contemplative legacy, grief writing, and gentle books that feel like companionship during a season of change.
Pages: 247 | ASIN : B0H4BWTGJY
Where Fear Meets Faith: Heartfelt Stories of Connection, Surviving Cancer and Living Life
Where Fear Meets Faith, by Tina Calderone-Roth, is an inspirational memoir built from short personal essays about cancer, family, faith, gratitude, healing, and legacy. Calderone-Roth writes about her 2022 cancer diagnosis, her daughter Sarah’s medical challenges, the steady love of her husband Gary, the friends and caregivers who carried her through, and the small acts of kindness that became lifelines. The book is organized around Family, Gratitude, Healing, and Legacy, and each story ends with reflection questions meant to help readers think about connection in their own lives.
I liked how personal the book feels. It doesn’t try to turn cancer into a neat lesson. Calderone-Roth lets fear sit in the room. She talks about crying in cars, shaving her head, needing food trains, leaning on prayer, and trying to be both a patient and a mother at the same time. The writing is direct and heartfelt, sometimes almost like a journal shared across a kitchen table. That closeness gives the memoir its warmth. The prose circles back to gratitude, strength, and connection, and that choice gives the book a steady emotional rhythm. Those themes become anchors throughout the memoir, reminding the reader that healing isn’t one single moment but a return, again and again, to the people, beliefs, and small acts of care that help us keep going.
I was especially drawn to the author’s choice to focus less on medical detail and more on human presence. A nurse praying in a parking lot. A friend placing a prayer in the Western Wall. A teacher making lentils. A dog resting beside her after chemotherapy. These moments could have been sentimental, but they land because they are specific. You can feel the texture of ordinary care. I also liked that the book’s faith is sincere without feeling cold or preachy. It is faith as lived support, not just belief stated on the page. The reflection questions at the end of each piece make the book feel part memoir, part devotional, and part guided journal, which fits the genre well.
I recommend Where Fear Meets Faith to readers who appreciate inspirational memoirs, cancer-survivor narratives, faith-based reflections, and short essays about resilience. It will likely speak most strongly to people who have faced illness, caregiving, grief, or a season when they had to accept help even when it felt hard. This isn’t a detached literary memoir. It’s tender, open-hearted, and deeply grateful.
Pages: 111 | ASIN : B0GZD3PC27
The World’s Scariest Haunted Planes, Airships, Crews, & WW2 Airfields (True Encounters With Ghosts)
The World’s Scariest Haunted Planes, Airships, Crews, & WW2 Airfields is a tour of haunted aviation stories, from doomed airships and wartime runways to modern airports and lonely museum hangars. Each chapter features a different case, like the R101 airship crash, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, the Tenerife disaster, Flight 19, the Cosford bomber, and even strange lights called “foo fighters” reported in World War II. Author Carol Nicholson mixes straight history with ghost lore, tying tragic wrecks, wartime stress, and eerie locations to reports of apparitions, phantom sounds, and odd glitches. The result reads like a mix of crash file, ghost tour, and campfire tale, all set in the sky and around airfields.
I found the ideas in the book surprisingly layered. On the surface, it’s a fun collection of spooky stories about planes that will not rest and airbases that seem to replay their worst days. Underneath, I felt a steady focus on loss, trauma, and how people try to make sense of violent events. The R101 chapter shows how pride and politics can push a project past safe limits, then moves into ghostly reports that feel like a lingering guilt hanging over the hangars. The story of Flight 401 hit me the hardest, with salvaged plane parts, haunted galleys, and a dead engineer who seems to warn crews about trouble. I liked that the book often nods toward rational explanations, then leaves space for doubt, so I could sit in that uneasy middle and decide what I wanted to believe.
The writing itself is clear, direct, and very easy to read. I could sense the author’s long history with paranormal work in the way she leans into atmosphere, with cold spots, strange footsteps, and that classic “hair standing on the back of your neck” moment. The casual, almost storyteller tone kept me turning pages. I liked how the book jumps around the world and through time, from wartime Britain to Antarctica to Denver Airport, although the quick pivots sometimes made the collection feel more like a bundle of articles than a single, flowing narrative.
I would recommend Nicholson’s book to readers who enjoy ghost stories, strange history, and aviation lore and who do not mind a blend of fact, legend, and speculation. If you like watching paranormal shows, swapping creepy stories late at night, or reading about famous crashes with an extra chill factor on top, this will feel right in your wheelhouse. Aviation buffs will enjoy the historical snapshots. I would hand this book to anyone who wants a fast, atmospheric read that they can dip into one chapter at a time.
Pages: 59 | ASIN : B0GGTWH4PN
Clarity, Self-Trust, and Intention
Queen Code is part-memoir, part-mindset guide that uses powerful archetypes and lived experience to help women stop playing the victim, rewrite inherited stories, and rule their own lives with clarity, courage, and self-trust. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I wrote Queen Code: The Book to help readers recognize the stories that are already playing out in their lives, often without them realizing it. The archetypes make those patterns relatable. When you can see the role you’re stepping into, you can also see that the story isn’t fixed. Your perspective can change, your response can change, and the outcome can change, too.
That’s where personal policies become essential. They give you something steady to come back to when emotions run high or old patterns try to take over. Through Queen Code: The Book and my signature Queen Code Mastery™ program, I offer people a way to move from reacting to leading themselves, with clarity, self-trust, and intention. When you understand the story you’re in and have personal policies to guide you, you stop feeling at the mercy of circumstances and start choosing how you show up. That’s where real change begins.
The idea of “personal policies” stood out to me. How did that framework emerge for you, and how has it changed the way you handle conflict or drama in your own life?
The idea of “personal policies” was born from a conversation about business policies. Companies, stores, and banks have standard policies that their customers and/or employees adhere to, so why shouldn’t people also have policies to guide them? From there, my signature Queen Code Mastery™ program was created along with the Queen Code Oracle Card Deck, and of course, this book.
What I realized while creating Queen Code Mastery™ and writing Queen Code: The Book is that I’ve been using personal policies my entire life to navigate challenges and avoid unnecessary drama — not always perfectly, but consistently enough for them to evolve into what they are today.
The archetypes feel playful but also true. Did any of them surprise you or evolve as you were writing the book?
There was a bit of both. In some cases, the story led to the archetype, and in others, the archetype fit the story I was telling. The stories came from my own lived experience and from what I’ve observed in the lives of people around me. As I was writing, a few of the archetypes surprised me and took shape in ways I didn’t expect. They’re playful, yes, but they’re also honest. They reflect how we actually move through life, stepping into different parts of ourselves depending on the season we’re in.
If a reader could embody just one of your principles for the next year, which would you hope it is?
If a reader embodied The Sovereign for the next year, they would be choosing self-leadership and personal responsibility — the starting point and the foundation everything else is built on. Leading yourself first is both a radical choice and freeing. When you stop getting pulled into drama and live by your personal policies, everything shifts. Self-leadership isn’t about perfection, but it requires honesty and consistency. When you stop abandoning yourself in the little things, clarity starts to show up. Relationships improve, decisions come easier, and life feels more peaceful.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Redeeming the Post-Affair Divorce: Heal Your Life, Restore Your Faith After Infidelity Breaks Up Your Marriage
Redeeming the Post-Affair Divorce by Linda J. MacDonald is a faith-forward recovery guide for people who got hit with a one-two punch. Infidelity, then an unwanted divorce. MacDonald maps a healing path in seven big steps, starting with naming the damage and shame, then digging into what drives cheating, then calling out the lies and the mental spin, then rebuilding faith, then working through anger and forgiveness, and ending with a push toward a new life with purpose.
I felt genuinely cared for as I read. The voice is tender and steady. It also feels gutsy. She puts her own story on the page as a hand on your shoulder. I respected that mix of memoir and guidance. It kept things relatable. It kept things real. I also liked her insistence on community and support, not lone wolf grit.
‘SECTION III: Revealing the Source’ resonated with me personally. It made me stop blaming myself on reflex. I have done that for too long. I kept replaying old scenes, hunting for my “part.” This section told me to look under the surface. It flat-out says infidelity rarely happens in a vacuum. I felt relief, then anger, then this weird calm. The whole ‘pull back the curtain’ idea felt true to my experience, and it helped the story make sense. The lines “You were not the cause. You were caught in the fallout” felt like someone seeing me, and removing weight from my shoulders.
The ideas land with force. Some sections were really emotional for me. The book does not play cute with the pain. It names the fallout as huge and lasting, and it refuses to shame the reader for still feeling wrecked. The forgiveness material stood out to me. It pushes forgiveness as a way to get free, not a way to fake peace or invite more harm. I found that framing both brave and sane.
I would recommend this book to Christian readers who feel spiritually rattled after betrayal and divorce, and who want guidance with both heart and backbone. It also fits helpers, pastors, and close friends who want to understand the mess without tossing out cheesy lines. It is not a light read. It is a solid companion for hard days, tearful nights, and the long slog back to yourself.
Pages: 414 | ASIN : B0FTTHJBZZ
Conflict & Peace: At Home with Jesus
When I first opened Conflict & Peace: At Home with Jesus, I expected a familiar retelling of biblical stories, but instead I found something far richer and more layered. The book walks through twelve figures ranging from Matthew and Mark to Constantine and Luther and explores how each shaped, struggled with, or even fractured the Christian story. Eric D. Hovee doesn’t shy away from pointing out contradictions, tensions, and the uneasy balance between faith and evidence. What emerges is less a polished theology and more a raw chronicle of pioneers wrestling with belief, doubt, politics, and power. The book argues that Christianity has always lived at the crossroads of conflict and peace, heresy and orthodoxy, struggle and hope.
The writing style surprised me. It’s not slick or overly academic, and that’s what makes it work. Hovee mixes scholarship with a kind of candid storytelling that feels personal and searching. He admits where his own faith has faltered, where scholarship has raised more questions than answers, and where interpretations may lean too heavily in one direction. I appreciated this honesty. The detail can be overwhelming at times, with deep dives into language debates or church history that slow down the flow, but even then, I never felt the effort was wasted. It gave weight to his central claim that truth isn’t always clean or easy.
What I liked most, though, was the emotional undercurrent. This isn’t just about doctrine, it’s about Hovee’s father, about legacy, about the ache of wanting faith to feel real in a world of contradictions. I felt that ache with him. When he points out Matthew’s overreach on prophecy, or the way Constantine’s empire-building warped Christianity, I didn’t just learn facts, I felt the tension of a man trying to reconcile devotion with doubt. The book left me inspired. It made me look at my own beliefs with sharper eyes and a softer heart.
I think Hovee’s work is best for readers who want faith that is not easy, neat, or dogmatic. It’s for Christians wrestling with the weight of history, skeptics curious about the roots of belief, and anyone who values honesty over certainty. If you want a book that stirs you, challenges you, and leaves you thinking long after you close it, then Conflict & Peace: At Home with Jesus is well worth the read.
Pages: 401 | ASIN : B0F5641XR1
Two Divergent Souls
Land Without Shame follows an iconic film star whose plane crashes on a dormant volcanic island, where he winds up on a mission to rescue children being used as slave laborers in a clandestine gold-mining operation. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Honestly, I have no definitive answer. In book one of this series, Cody Musket, a former Marine and now a famous major league baseball icon, has formed a covert paramilitary organization to rescue trafficked children in third-world countries. The story in Land Without Shame takes place more than twenty years later, with Cody Musket Jr., age 22, at the helm, carrying on the Muskets’ child rescue operations into the next generation. This story was a natural outgrowth of the family’s covert enterprise history. I never intended to write Land Without Shame because I thought the Musket story was finished after book 3. Go figure.
Was the character’s backstory something you always had, or did it develop as you were writing?
This question caused me to reflect deeply upon how I put together this messy, unlikely, but clean love story involving two divergent souls whose relationship defied all odds. Diamond Casper, the spoiled but broken film star whose only ambition was to make movies and live in Malibu, and Cody Musket Jr., a dedicated Christian from a conservative background who repeatedly put himself in harm’s way to rescue kids–somehow this story gripped me from the beginning. To this day, I have no idea exactly why or when the story invaded my mind, but once it came, it grew and grew. After that happened in the middle of the story, I realized that my child trafficking novel had exploded into a tale of redemption, love, and second chances.
How did you balance the action scenes with the story elements and still keep a fast pace in the story?
This is a hard one to answer. Candidly, I seem to do everything at a fast pace, so maybe I just stumbled naturally into this balance that you mentioned. Sometimes I feel like an accidental author who wrote an accidental book series. (smiling)
What is the next book that you’re working on, and when can your fans expect it out?
I am delighted that you asked. The sequel to Land Without Shame is now live on Amazon and Goodreads. The title is Black Pearl. It is the finale of the series and follows Cody Jr. and Diamond as they begin their lives together and rejoin the entire Musket family in this final episode. This one is a political thriller that introduces Cody’s older brother Raymond, a US Marine whose codename is “Ghost,” and who has become the president’s right-hand man. This story is about betrayal, insurrection, high-tech terrorism, and politics in 2041 AD. Maggie and Kennedy, the Muskets’ adoptive daughters, ages 13 and 12, have heroic roles, and you can read a more complete description at this link.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Amazon
A clean story of first love, second chances, rescue, and redemption, with futuristic sci-fi in the mix.
The year is 2041. Cody Musket Jr. and iconic film star Diamond Casper, strangers, are marooned on a dormant volcanic island after their commuter flight crashes. The uncharted island is home to a clandestine gold-mining operation which uses child slave laborers. When the volcano suddenly erupts, they must team-up against all odds to rescue 60 captive children and escape the explosive island. A solid romantic thriller!
KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM: SUBLIME THOUGHTS TO ELEVATE YOUR LIFE
Knowledge and Wisdom: Sublime Thoughts to Elevate Your Life is a pocket-sized collection of over 300 quotations arranged alphabetically by subject, compiled by Nges Elmer. It draws from a wide range of historical and contemporary figures like philosophers, writers, leaders, and anonymous voices alike. The book presents bite-sized pieces of wisdom meant to inspire reflection, action, and growth in everyday life. Topics range from ambition and change to prayer and resilience, with each quote centered around themes such as education, love, forgiveness, success, and character. Designed to be carried easily, it’s positioned as both a spiritual and practical companion for personal development and social living.
Reading this book felt like walking through a garden of timeless truths. Some quotes struck me deeply, like William Wordsworth’s musing on the value of small acts of kindness or Emerson’s call to greet each day afresh. I appreciated that Elmer included reflections from diverse cultures and centuries, making the book feel universal in its intent. It’s not a narrative journey but a mosaic of ideas. I sometimes longed for more context or commentary to link them together, but maybe that’s the point: let the reader draw their own connections.
Stylistically, the book leans heavily on structure over storytelling, but it does what it sets out to do. Elmer’s choices are thoughtful, occasionally surprising, and clearly personal. I liked how he mixed sacred and secular wisdom without pushing an agenda. There’s a gentle, humble spirit throughout the compilation that makes it feel like advice from a wise friend rather than a lofty lecture. While not every quote felt equally strong or relevant, I found myself pausing to reflect more often than I expected.
Sublime Thoughts is a book I’d recommend for readers who like to sit with an idea and turn it over in their mind. It’s perfect for morning meditation, journaling prompts, or just flipping through when life feels noisy. Teachers, preachers, and writers looking for inspiration will likely find this a handy resource.
Pages: 114 | ASIN : B09JWRVMLK
