NaPoWriMo Wrap Up & Poem – Stony Silence

Hello! I’m back after a week’s break with my final post about NaPoWriMo… As you are probably aware, we are currently 4 days into May. Which means that NaPoWriMo is officially done! How did I do? Well…

Despite having a full school work load because #Seniorlife…

Despite working an insane 30 hr work week…

Despite hitting up 5 different countries in the last week of the month…

Somehow I still managed to write the 30 poems and complete NaPoWriMo 2019! 

Hehe I’m slightly in shock at myself… Who knew it was possible to consistently write almost every day for that long? I guess my competitive streak really did come out this month – although I wasn’t exactly competing against anyone. 😀

But really, this challenge was a huge boost for my writing life. Previously I generally waited until I was ‘inspired’ to start writing poetry, which mean that my writing was often quite sporadic. But this past month, because I had to write, I did! And even though some of the poems I came out with were absolute rubbish less than satisfactory, I still was getting words out consistently, which I count as an accomplishment. 😀 

I wrote a total of 6965 words worth of poetry. I tried out quite a few different styles… Rhyming, free verse, short, long, based on Biblical characters, based on Pinterest prompts, based on day to day experiences, based on scenery we were passing on our road trip… you get the picture. 😀 And most importantly, I had a ton of fun! This challenge got my creative juices running and made me write – both things I count as pretty important to me as a writer. 

So, would you like to read one of the poems I wrote during my last week of NaPoWriMo? The one I’m going to share is called Stony Silence. I wrote it during our two day stop in Wittenberg – the home city of the great reformer, Martin Luther. Wittenberg is an absolutely beautiful city, brimming with charm and history. I loved it, and wrote this poem as a sort of response to the incredible amount of history that is stuffed into this city’s streets and buildings. It’s a crazy feeling to be walking on the same streets that Luther walked on over 500 years ago, to go stand next to his grave, to be surrounded by thousands of stones that are worth their weight in historically significant gold. (did that make any sense at all?) Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this poem! 

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What stories do you hold so tightly in your aged memories –

You firm and ancient stones?

Neither the warmth of sun and wild wind,

Nor the cold of rain and silent snow,

Can cajole the secrets from your stony breast and mute lips

That sit so still through the eons of time.

 

Won’t you whisper a word or two

To the traveller passing by?

Just a warning or a word of wisdom gleaned

From your years of watching and waiting?

Surely you must have something worth saying,

Some story that burns to be told,

Some secret that longs to be set free?

 

In hope I press my eager ear

To the cracks and crevices of your cool façade

Straining to hear a whisper from the past…

But I hear nothing –

Nothing but silence in these firm and ancient stones,

Watching and waiting as the years pass by –

The silent, stony guardians of stories long forgotten.

~

And that just about wraps up my NaPoWriMo blog post series! I hope you’ve enjoyed following along on this writing challenge with me this past month. 🙂

Did you do NaPoWriMo in April? How did you find it? And have you ever been to a city that inspires you with it’s history? Let’s chat in the comments! 

Book Review – The Heart Changer

Greetings and salutations! I’m super excited for today’s blog post, as I’m going to be reviewing a very hot off the press book for y’all! Like so hot off the press it literally came out yesterday… 😀 (For those wondering, I’ll share my last NaPoWriMo post next week). So let’s get onto the review…!

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First, some stats….

Number of Pages: 112

Published in: April, 2019

Genre: Middle Grade Historical Fiction

Back Cover Blurb: 

Can an Israelite captive, wrenched from all she loves, serve the very man who destroyed her village?

Miriam is asked to do the impossible: serve the wife of Naaman, commander of the Syrian army. Clinging to treasured memories of home and faith, Miriam faces captivity with worry and bitterness. Little does she know the Heart Changer is wooing and preparing her for a greater mission—far beyond what she could imagine.

This middle-grade historical novel reflects the heartache and angst of a young refugee in a foreign land where all hope seems lost.

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So, what did I think of The Heart Changer…….. 

I really liked it! 

Now obviously I’m not a middle grade reader, but I still do have a fondness for middle grade books (as shown here :D). Throw in the fact that I’m a huge historical fiction fan, plus the fact that I also really enjoy Biblical fiction- and bam! You potentially have a winning book on your hands! And this was one such book… 

Mrs Del Boccio’s writing style is very accessible, but also vivid and just well put together. It is obvious that she has put a lot of time and effort in to researching the history and culture behind this story. As a huge lover of history, I really appreciate this, as it’s always rewarding to read books that actually feel (and are!) historically accurate! 😀 The setting of the story was very vivid, and as the reader, I could really picture the busy Syrian cities and harsh lands that Miriam travelled through. The different settings that she found herself in throughout the story were well written and it was easy to step into her story and see things through her eyes. 

I also really appreciated how Mrs Del Boccio tackled the story… Obviously this is based on an actual Biblical account, and there are certain facts you have to deal with. It’s not exactly an easy story to retell for MG readers… I mean a girl is captured and exiled from her home, alone, not knowing if any of her family is alive, then forced to serve a pagan family, the father of which then deals with a horrible skin disease… There is a lot of potential red flags in the story, but Mrs Del Boccio deals with them in a gracious and thoughtful manner. I thought that the story content was extremely well done for a MG audience – real enough for them to feel the reality of the pain and suffering, but at the same time not too overwhelming for their age. I also thought that the whole theme of a refugees  is a very appropriate one in this day and age where refugees are such a hot topic… I really found it interesting to look at this topic through this Biblical story in a new light. 

I also found all the underlying themes woven throughout the story very encouraging… There is a lot of talk about bitterness, anger and sorrow, and how it can affect your heart. In Miriam’s case, she went through a long process to deal with all the emotions that were brought up through her capture… It is emphasized that in the end the only thing that can make the true change in someone’s heart is God. He is the ultimate and only true Heart Changer, and his work is very needed in everyone’s heart. I really appreciated the gentle, but persistent way that Mrs Del Boccio underlined this fact. I think that MG readers can really benefit from learning these important truths through this story… That’s one of the reasons I love fiction so much! You can learn so many integral life lessons through the medium of story… After all, story is so very powerful…

All in all, I really enjoyed this book! It’s a meaningful story for all ages, with a style that I think will appeal very well to MG readers.  So if you know any people that would appreciate a MG historical fiction book – point them to The Heart Changer! And make sure to order your copy soon. 😉 You can find it on Amazon here.

Make sure to check out The Heart Changer book trailer here.

And if you want to learn more about the book in general and Mrs Del Boccio’s other writings definitely check out her website.

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So that wraps up today’s blog post! I hope you enjoyed the review! 🙂

Let’s chat in the comments! Have you ever come across any MG Biblical/Historical fiction before? Are you planning to read The Heart Changer?

A Chosen Life – Part 4

Greetings, and happy February to you all! My weekend so far has been full of snow… A ‘snow bomb’ hit the area where I live on Thursday evening, and dumped about 7 inches on us. Since then we’ve been revelling in this rather unusual cold white stuff. Long snowy walks, igloo-making, sledding and lots of fun and laughter have comprised the past 48 hours. It’s been such a lovely way to start off the new month!

I captured this photo in a field at sunset yesterday after it finally stopped snowing… Such beauty!

Anyways, let’s move on from cold and snowy England back to our story set in the black of an ancient Egyptian night… If you haven’t read part 3 of A Chosen Life, you can do so here. Now onto part 4! 

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A scream tore through the air, ripping me from my memories.

Elah was writhing in the grasp of Puah and Aram, her body taut with pain. “Elah, listen,” I spoke forcefully. “Listen to me.” She gasped in distress and then went limp as the pain passed. “Elah, look at me.” She looked down at me, pain and weariness spilling from her eyes. She struggled to catch her breath, tears pooling in her dark eyes. “Elah, when the next pain comes, push. Push with all you have. You must deliver this child. Don’t scream, just push.”

She nodded weakly in assent. I had seen the look in her eyes in others before. It was a look of ultimate weariness, of growing despair, of extreme pain. I had seen it in hundreds of other women before. I had felt it in myself, years before. But I knew it was a sign that the end was near – when a woman looked like that, the child was near to drawing its first breath.

Watching her breathe raggedly, I felt a sudden kinship to this woman. We were so different – she Hebrew, I Egyptian. Our people were divided – one the slave, the other the conqueror. And yet, we were so alike… We worshipped the same God. And we both had lived through the immeasurable pain of an empty womb.

I had too failed to produce a living child. It was a nightmarish stigma – for a woman to fail to conceive and bring to fruit a child was a failure to fully live. This was my reality. This was her reality.

In my pain, I had chosen to become a midwife – chosen to replace bringing my own children into the world with the responsibility of bringing hundreds of other children into the world. But this woman…

This was her reality.

The pain.

The fear and hope mingled with tears.

The endless waiting.

The sorrow hidden by darkness.

A final chance.

And was I to crush all hope?

Desires waged war in my heart as I waited, the life of a child resting in my hands. If I feared the king, I would obey him. If I feared the God I followed, I would obey him. Oh Great God, grant me wisdom!

The next pain wracked the woman’s body, and she pushed as I mechanically instructed her. Looking up from my squatting position I saw the three faces above me – Aram’s tight with worry, Elah’s lined with pain, and Puah’s all calm as she murmured encouragement to Elah. I felt again for the child, and this time I brushed its head with my fingertips.

“Now, Elah! Push!”

The woman bore down again, channelling her pain into a strength greater than one would’ve supposed she could give, given her fatigue. I had seen it time and time again – the incredible pain, the despair, the exhaustion, followed by a leonine effort to bring the awaited child into the world. It never ceased to amaze me. Where did such strength come from?

The fear almost choked me. The moment of reckoning was nearly here. If this child was a son… A son. How could I kill any child, much less the only child of a barren woman? The decision I faced overwhelmed me, and my brain raced in circles.

Kill the sons, spare the daughters.

I have had three others, all born dead…

Oh God, grant me wisdom.

The people of Israel are too many and too mighty.

I beg of you, grant mercy upon my household.

Is this decree clear, midwives of Egypt?

I beseech you to grant me wisdom!

Suddenly the child’s head bulged into my hands. Elah gasped in pain and her body shook with a violent trembling. “Oh God!” She whispered. “Grant mercy!” In that moment, a life suspended in my hands, my heart echoed her prayer.

Oh God, grant mercy.

And then… peace.

In the brief moments before the child’s body was delivered, the room was silent. All the fear passed from me, leaving me feeling strangely light. It was as if a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders. In that instant I knew that the mercy of the God I followed was greater than any fear that the king could instil in me.

I knew what I was here for. To grant life.

I feared the God of Goshen, the God of the people of Israel. The fear of the King’s wrath was nothing compared to the reverence I held towards the God of the Hebrews. I was at peace.

~

Come back next week for the finale of A Chosen Life! 

Let’s chat in the comments: How have you enjoyed the story so far? Do you think Shiphrah has come to the right decision? Do you think the baby will be alright?

 

A Chosen Life – Part 3

Happy Saturday to you! 🙂 Yes, we have a Saturday once a week, but surely it’s a day to celebrate… The end of a week, a tiny break in the rush of life to chill or in my case frantically work on a million different projects that are suddenly all due very soon – it’s all good! So yes, I do think that Saturday is a rather nice day, and today especially because we’re going to go over the 1/2 way mark of A Chosen Life! 3 parts down, 2 to go… I hope you’re enjoying this story! Click here to read the last part if you haven’t already. And now for the next instalment…

*Note: This part has a flash back scene in it that is identified by italics. Just thought I’d give y’all a heads up so you aren’t confused by the change of scene. 😉

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Soon enough, Puah had the wide bricks situated at the edge of the bed and a pot of broth warming over a charcoal brazier. I helped Elah off the bed and into a squatting position on the bricks. I hoped that her labour was far along enough for this position to help the child move down and out.

“Aram, come here.” I said. “There is no other woman to help, so you must. Hold Elah like this” – I demonstrated sitting on the edge of the bed with the weight of the woman resting sidelong against me, her arm draped around my shoulder. “Don’t let her fall. Let her rest on you.” Aram took my place just in time, as Elah began to groan once more. I squatted down in front of her and felt for the child. Nothing yet. “Puah, is the broth ready?”

“Nearly” Came the answer.

I gave a distracted nod in reply and tried to focus my thoughts on the woman in front of me. My brain was swirling – swirling with memories of marble halls and a gold-encrusted rod and flail and most of all… fear. Oh Great God, show me the way out of this fear.

The waiting time had begun. Minutes passed as Elah groaned in pain and then fell silent, then again, then again. Puah held the warmed broth to her lips and let her drink. Then she sat down on the other side of Elah and held her up with Aram. I squatted in front of her, murmuring comfort during the pauses between pains.

Light flickered, pains came and went, and again memories flooded in…

I shift uncomfortably, my knees digging into the marble floor, feeling very out of place in this large, gold inlaid chamber. I hear the soft sound of water tinkling and the far-off sound of children’s laughter. The air is warm and scented with fruity perfumes.

I have been summoned to the King.

He sits on a golden throne under a sumptuous canopy, slaves with peacock fans and richly dressed attendants arrayed around him in an opulent display. His face is like flint under his double crown, his eyes as cold as steel. I hear Puah breathing nervously beside me and feel my heart pounding hammer-like within me.

“Fear not, good midwives,” The voice of the King sends a chill down my spine. “Comply with my decree and all will be well.” We rise slowly and stand, hands clasped in front of us in the traditional sign of respect and submission.

 “Behold, listen to the words of the great god, the King of Egypt, the mighty one!” comes the shrill voice of the scribe who stands to the side of the king, holding a scroll in front of himself. “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land. Midwives of Egypt hear the decree of the king. When you serve as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, you shall let it live. These are the words of the great god, the King of Egypt, the mighty one. Heed and obey!”

The words sink slowly at first, and then I grasp the meaning. Kill the sons, spare the daughters. Shock paralyzes my brain, I stand numb.

“Is this decree clear, Midwives of Egypt?” The King’s steely voice breaks into my shocked stupor. Puah and I both nod, slowly, and then more emphatically. We can do nothing else. “Good. The kingdom of Egypt will not be overcome by this foreign people.” The King waves his hand. We are dismissed.

Together, we turn and walk silently away. Kill the sons, spare the daughters. Horror pulses through my veins. I am a woman of life, not a bringer of death. I live to bring life into the world. Am I now to purposefully bring death?

We walk through marble halls, feet slapping in unison. Pictures of the King and his family line the walls, colour bleeding into marble, painting a picture of power and might and supremacy.

The King is to be feared – it has been drilled into me since I was a child.

The King is a god to be obeyed – my mother had told me this as I sat on her knee.

The King’s word is law – to disobey means certain and instant death

 But the king does not know my heart… Puah and I – we are followers of the God of the people of Israel, who dwell in the land of Goshen. Are we to betray our faith in him?

Fear snakes around my heart, squeezing it with a deathly grip. If I disobey the king, I will be killed. No one has ever ignored a decree of the king and lived to tell of it. But I am a midwife. I bring life into this world. How can I turn from bringing life to bringing death? The Hebrews’ God is my God. How can I betray his people? But how can I not?

Oh God of Goshen, what am I to do? How can I live with the blood of a people on my hands? How can I live if I disobey this decree?

I am faced with two impossibles, and I do not know what to do. Fear grows and wages a war within me. I know I have little time to make up my mind. I will soon be called to a Hebrew house. I will hold life in my hands. And I will have to choose. The blood of a nation shed, or my own life blood spilled? How can I choose?

Oh Great God of Goshen, I beseech you to grant me wisdom…

~

See you here next Saturday for part 4. 🙂

Any guesses to what is going to happen next? Now that you know what Shiphrah is facing, what do you think she is going to do? Let’s chat in the comments!

What I’ve Been Reading – School Edition

Well hello there! I’m so glad to be back with another blog post! My past week has been full with finishing school off for the year. I’m so close to being done, and I’m super excited to have my Junior year done and dusted! 😀 I thought that this week I would share some reviews of a few books that I read recently for school. (It’s sort of a spin on this blog post I did back in February.) In history I’ve been studying a lot about the wars of the 20th century – starting with WWI and going right on up to the War on Terrorism. I’ve found it fascinating, and I’ve read some very interesting books that correspond to this time period. So here are my reviews of three of the books I’ve read recently – I hope you enjoy! 🙂

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When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Judith Kerr

When you are nine, things happening in the outside world shouldn’t bother you, right? Yes, grownups fret and worry, but you are a child, so you don’t. That is how it should be. But that is not how it was for nine year old Anna, in 1933. All of a sudden, that strange grownup world of worry and fear tore into her safe childhood bubble. There was a strange name on everyone’s lips – Hitler, and there were far too many secrets and whispered conversations. Anna’s world as she had known it for her whole life began to fall apart at the seams, and with one train ride, it fell apart, never to be the same again.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is actually quite an interesting book. Most books about WWII focus in on the action – the fighting, the spying, the concentration camps, the Jews. But not this one. This story never goes into fighting territory, it never visits the concentration camps. Instead, it moves away from the conflict, focusing instead on the upheaval in Anna’s personal life. It zooms in on the tension surrounding one family’s heritage, and follows them as they move from country to country, in search of safe refuge from Hitler’s wide and wild reach. I think this is a pretty unique approach to WWII, I can’t remember having read anything that is like it before. I enjoyed the story – is well written and I felt like I connected well with Anna, the main character.

However, this book didn’t make a huge impression on me – looking back on it a few weeks after reading it, I only remember it as a story of a girl and her family trying to find home in a war-torn continent. But the clincher is that they never encounter the war on a face to face level, they always seem to be one or two steps ahead of it. I’m pretty familiar with the history of WWII, and so this book didn’t teach me much I didn’t already know in that area. There is also the slight issue in that I am rather above the projected audience of this book, so I suspect I found it unremarkable because I’m older and have had quite a bit of experience in reading about WWII. But if you are looking to find a good introduction to the impact that WWII had on normal citizens of Europe, then this book will be a good one for you. The story is sweet, and I really appreciated the emphasis on the importance of a strong family unit. I’m giving this book 6* out of 10 and recommending it for ages 11+.

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Year of Impossible Goodbyes – Sook Nyul Choi

When your world is falling apart and your freedom is stripped away, how do you go on living? This is the question that 10-year-old Sookan is faced with daily. Her beloved homeland of Korea has been invaded by the Japanese, and she is forced to adapt to a new, harsh life. Dignity has been torn from the Korean peoples’ grasp, leaving nothing but hard labour and a thin shred of hope remaining. Sookan’s family struggles to survive every day, with Japanese soldiers, labour camps and starvation lurking around every corner. Then, for a short time, hope seems to be reborn, with the invasion of Russia. But then it too is cruelly crushed to pieces, as the Russians prove to be no better than the Japanese, with their strictly enforced Communist rules. Liberty and hope lies trampled in the dust, and Sookan must cling to her family like she has never before.

I found The Year of Impossible Goodbyes a very captivating read. Before this year, I knew next to nothing about the Korean war and the occupation of the Japanese and Russians. This book was definitely an eye opener, giving a vivid picture into Korea’s tragic past. I appreciated how this book focused on the strong unit of the family, as well as the theme of never giving up hope even when all seems lost. However, the strong emphasis on Buddhist religion and the Catholic faith did dampen this read for me. As a protestant Christian, seeing my faith being mixed up with other religions just doesn’t sit very well with me! It’s sad seeing how the people in such hopeless situations were trying to find hope in a religion that could not give them what they desired. I just wanted to reach into the story and share the true hope of the gospel with them! I also feel that I did not connect as well as I could have with the story, given my age. I think this book was probably written with younger readers in mind, so as a 17 year old I found it a bit beneath my reading level. But overall I did enjoy this book. I learnt a lot about a time in history I knew hardly anything about, and the underlying themes in the story were encouraging. I’m giving this book 6* out of 10 and recommending it for ages 12+

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The Wave – Todd Strasser

It is easy to look back over the course of history and point out all the things that went wrong while saying ‘man I can’t believe they did that. We would never do that these days’. From our lofty, technology-savvy positions in the 21st century, it is easy to point the accusing finger at ages past, while deftly shielding ourselves from any criticism. But this shifting of the blame and certainty of our innocence is not all it may look. The desire to be one of the crowd, the desire to blend in and not draw any undue attention to yourselves – that desire is one that has been true for all of history. That desire is what led the Germans to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that the Nazi party committed during WWII. And if we aren’t careful, that desire could lead us 21st century ‘confident in our innocence’ people down the exact same row. It is far easier to influence a people to blind obedience than you think. Are you still sceptical? Well The Wave might just convince you.

The Wave is a sobering and fascinating true life account of a classroom experiment that went wrong. It all started in a high school history classroom in Palo Alto, California, in 1969. The students were struggling to see how something as evil as Nazism could’ve been condoned by the German citizens. Mr Ross, the teacher, decided to try an experiment out that he hoped would teach the students a lesson. Uniting his students under the motto “Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action” Mr Ross led his students on a journey they would never forget.

This book is scary. It paints a picture that you hope you would never actually see in a western, civilized country. It tells a story that jolts you awake from whatever dream of idealism you might be in. Because, no matter how much we protest, the reality is there – we are far too easily led astray. It is very easy for ideologies to come creeping into our belief systems, and before we know it, we are on a path we never dreamed we could be on. This book is a wake-up call to all who think that ‘it could never happen now’. It could, and it does. I’m giving this book a very solid 9* out of 10 and recommending it for ages 13+

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That’s all for this week! Have you been reading any interesting historical books recently? I’d love to hear about them – tell me in the comments below! 🙂