Alternative Chapter One
I cut more than 10,000 words from my first draft of Hidden Song of the Himalayas. One guiding principle for trimming was this: never let the reader get bored. As one beta reader so insightfully asked: “When are you gonna get…
The Barefoot Mile (Lyric Essay)
Being constantly confronted with poverty is difficult, especially if there is a system in place to keep people in poverty. If you’ve ever seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire you will know that there are groups in India who create and traffic beggars….
Darshika (A Poem)
Five years ago, I began a task I wasn’t sure I could finish. I had written articles and essays, but the story I had just lived through demanded more than a blog post. It needed to live in book form….
Interview with a Survivor
Above: Chantana’s husband’s name engraved on a memorial stone at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. A Rough Start Lord, please, I prayed. Bless my imperfect efforts! I knew I had to get up at 4 am to drive to the…
Read the First Chapter of My Second Book!
I’m writing a new book! It’s the true story of a man who miraculously survived a genocide by calling on a God he did not know—and then met that God in a refugee camp. Great Unsearchable Things is the story of Sovath…
5 Things I Learned as a Missionary in India
I was in my mid-twenties, newly married, and still growing up when my husband and I bought a one-way ticket to India. During our seven years in that colorful, story-rich land, we had two babies, hiked in the Himalayas, and…