With the constant barrage of things that consume our time and energy, it is often difficult for us to steal away and take time to just be quiet. Some things we have to do and choose to do can invade the time that we would have spent just being still. So as we schedule our days why not schedule time to be in the Silence. My Ramblings in the Silence is an opportunity to build the habit of sitting in the silence and listening to the Father. I had to make myself sit in Silence because it is so easy to get caught in the busyness of the day. Even when we think that we have planned well we can look up and find that our time has been spent and we wonder where it went. This devotional challenges you to take 21 days and spend intentional time sitting in the Silence. Not asking for anything, but listening for everything that the Father would want to speak to you. The short devotions shared here are my honest musings as I contend for the Silence. I invite you to share this experience with me and journal what God is speaking to you in the Silence.
Funny how things are remembered differently by persons who share the same space, the same air and even the same pillows and blankets that are tangled and wrapped around legs, arms and bodies; my memories, like fine wine, have been sweetened with time enjoy
Thunder of Silence is set in an era where railroads dominate the travel industry and hometown newspapers still thrive. In Huron City, Michigan, a small town along the St. Clair River, mystery and deceit overlap to create a struggle between innocence and selfish passion. It is here where young Daphnia Flanders must confront a code of silence about her past that is so strong it protects secrets, which, if revealed, will forever shatter the peaceful way of life she has come to cherish. In the words of Thaddeus Flanders, "Sometimes I wonder if life doesn't just keep repeating itself until we either get it right or give up. I have come to believe that people do the same things over and over until they get their comeuppance in this world, then life just stands right up and pisses on their shoes and walks away laughing." In Thunder of Silence life travels in circles, and sometimes even angels weep for promises made which we can't keep, and footsteps follow us which we cannot hear until their silence gives way to fear.
This is the story of a young English lutenist named Peter Claire who, in 1629, arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra.
After surviving World War II by escaping the Nazi occupation, Miranda Richmond Mouillot's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the south of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. The two never saw or spoke to each other again. This is the deeply involving account of Miranda's journey to find out what happened. To discover the roots of this embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to the old stone house, now a crumbling ruin, where she immerses herself in letters and archival materials, slowly teasing stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. Along the way she finds herself learning how not only to survive, but to thrive - making a home in the village and falling in love. With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative detail, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations. Miranda Richmond Mouillot was born in North Carolina, USA but now lives in the South of France with her husband, daughter, and cat. She works as an independent translator and editor. A Fifty-Year Silence is her first book. ‘A tender portrait of a family and the inheritance—and obligation—of memory. A stunning debut.’ Kristina Olsson ‘A moving family history researched with dedication and completed with a granddaughter’s love.’ Kirkus ‘Charming, understated...A wonderful evocation of the way that the Holocaust has haunted many generations.’ Publishers Weekly ‘The corrosive effects of the Holocaust—upon those directly involved and generations thereafter—are illustrated vividly in this candid saga of familial love and misunderstanding.’ Library Journal ‘An eloquent and engrossing read...It’s a totally captivating journey that will have you rapt from start to finish.’ Australian Women's Weekly ‘Miranda’s story is moving and evocative of the times, rich in detail and with characters who come vividly to life.’ Toowoomba Chronicle ‘A skilfully written and nuanced portrait of two tough and complex individuals trying to cope with the extraordinary challenges of war.’ New Zealand Listener ‘The warmth with which Mouillot shares her experiences ensures the reader travels with her until the end in this heartbreaking insight into the last effects of the Holocaust.’ InDaily
"Private investigator and fixer Paul Samson hasn't spoken to his erstwhile friend Denis Hisami in over a year. He just has accepted a dangerous assignment searching for a missing American businessman in Russia when he receives a call from Hisami asking him for a meeting. Hisami has a bombshell to drop: a woman called Anastasia Christakos has been kidnapped, and Hisami wants Samson to find her. There's just one small problem: Anastasia left Paul for Hisami, and was the cause of their rift. Nevertheless, how can Paul refuse? It soon becomes clear that Anastasia is being held by parties with Russian connections in order to manipulate Hisami's business dealings. Is there a connection to Hisami's past as a member Kurdish special-forces and intelligence? It will take all of Samson's courage and guile to find out - and meanwhile the life of the only woman he has ever loved hangs in the balance."--Publisher description.
From the creators of the New York Times bestselling Wildwood Chronicles comes an original, humorous, and fast-paced middle grade novel about a band of child pickpockets—imagine The Invention of Hugo Cabret meets Oliver Twist. It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks. Yet Charlie is less alarmed than intrigued. This is the most thrilling thing that’s happened to him since he came to France with his father, an American diplomat. So instead of reporting the thieves, Charlie defends one of their cannons, Amir, to the police, under one condition: he teach Charlie the tricks of the trade. What starts off as a lesson on pinches, kicks, and chumps soon turns into an invitation for Charlie to join the secret world of the whiz mob, an international band of child thieves who trained at the mysterious School of Seven Bells. The whiz mob are independent and incredibly skilled and make their own way in the world—they are everything Charlie yearns to be. But what at first seemed like a (relatively) harmless new pastime draws him into a dangerous adventure with global stakes greater than he could have ever imagined.
Thousands of years ago, the mad emperor Lokan controlled the Nightsword--and imposed his twisted desires on all that lived. Then Lokan mysteriously vanished behind the Maelstrom Wall, into the quantum chaos of the galactic core. But legend says that somewhere behind the Wall, the Nightsword is hidden, its awesome energies waiting to be used again . . . for good or evil. When Earther astronaut Jeremy Griffiths donned the Mantle of Kendis-Dai and became blessed--and perhaps cursed--with infinite knowledge, he learned the exact direction of Lokan's ill-fated route. And now the secrets stored in his head have made him the target of everyone who has ever coveted the Nightsword for their own ends. Griffiths wants only to get his crew safely home to Earth--and to impress the bewitching, bewildering Merinda Neskat. Yet he is caught firmly in the middle of galactic agendas beyond his control, and this new quest will prove to be the challenge of a lifetime . . .
"Henrietha" A troubled Jamaican woman of many woesome years and with a history of compulsive abuse, marries into misery as wife to male chauvinist and philanderer Demian Browne who in his treachery around the right to ownership of Henrietha's flesh earnestly evinces- "If I can't have you then no other man will." 'She's white so she doesn't understand my plight as a black woman'. So thinks Henrietha Browne about Joanna White who she met at a Caribana event. "Henrietha Browne is a 'story source' that will feed me the meat of my magazine article on strong women'." "Joe, my ex husband moved in with the biggest bimbo I've ever seen. I suspect they met when I was laid up with a terrible flu." "Waiting..." "Ruby, keeps on insisting she's a sistah when she knows darn well she isn't...!" Such is the conviction of Susan Ottawa a black Canadian lawyer with a staunch belief in self: the will to self-empower without any need for the Almighty God. She draws strength instead from her 'god' Johnny Cochrane as if she 'had caught the hem of his coat as he was leaving this world. "I can see the White House burning back then. I can see Martin Luther King Jr...I see Marvin Gaye." So says Anita Kingsley, an educated Jamaican woman who transitions across the chasm between the physical and the 'spirit' worlds. Through relatable characters "Henrietha"'s two novellas layer the politics of love, hate, race, and sensibility over religion and the paranormal. The storytelling is an unusual, edgy, hopscotch of enticing voyeurism. Questions arise while thoughts kindle around kinship and one's own self-awareness in the breadth of this human experience. It urges the surrender of disbelief as truth entwines fiction like life's pretzel of fantasy superimposing the thought- provoking-roller-coaster dynamic of reality. "This is truly a work of hope and conquest. The beginning is good and it gets better. The flashbacks engaged my mind on a travel through time on what was a journey at the tip of my fingers, and at the edge of my imagination. The young Henrietha is a beam of strength and inspiration for women of abuse."Barbara Mills, Social Activist-Sisters in Solidarity "Great reading ..the Be warned! "Henrietha" is a tear jerker. "Waiting for the World to Change" is a thrill with its rhythm and insightful message"Damian Andre, Musician "I sure look forward to adapting the material into a play and then the screen. It has guts and all 'oomph' of really worthy and watchable material.."D.Haughton, Play-/Screen-Writer
Four girls with the power to control the elements and save the world from a terrible evil must come together in the first epic novel in a brand-new series. When Phantoms--massive beasts made from nightmares and darkness--suddenly appeared and began terrorizing the world, four girls, the Effigies, each gained a unique power to control one of the classical elements: earth, air, fire, and water. Since then, four girls across the world have continually fought against the Phantoms, fulfilling their cosmic duty. And when one Effigy dies, another girl gains her power as a replacement. But now, with technologies in place to protect the world's major cities from Phantom attacks, the Effigies have stopped defending humanity and, instead, have become international celebrities, with their heroic feats ranked, televised, and talked about in online fandoms. Until the day that New York City's protection against the Phantoms fails, a man seems to be able to control them by sheer force of will, and Maia, a high school student, unexpectedly becomes the Fire Effigy. Now Maia has been thrown into battle with three girls who want nothing to do with one another. But with the first human villain that the girls have ever faced, and an army of Phantoms preparing for attack, there isn't much time for the Effigies to learn how to work together. Can the girls take control of their destinies before the world is destroyed forever?