Believe it or not, Turtle Heart turns 1 year old today. I don’t think I could have thought of a better birthday gift for her than winning a Golden Scroll award. She took third place in the memoir category.

I want you to buy a copy of Turtle Heart. Not because she won an award, but because I want to start honest discussions among God’s people about subjects we are often reluctant to talk about. I want to open a door to nonbelievers to think about who God is and where he is, which is not far from every one of us.

A few people have told me Turtle Heart gave them insight on sharing Jesus with others. Others said it made them uncomfortable, but in a good way–that it opened their eyes to their own prejudices.

From Turtle Heart, you will gain:

• Deepened understanding of Mennonite and Ojibwa cultures.
• Courage to ask the hard questions and to think unconventionally.
• The sense that a simple faith in God is more powerful than any religious dogma.
• Insight on how to share Jesus and grace to SEE Jesus in OTHERS.
• Hope, in a fractured world, that love can span gaps and heal wounds.
• A story of two flawed and beautiful women—of confusion and revelation, hairpins and hangovers, separated seating and nunny-bunny schools—that will settle in your memory for a lifetime.

You can buy a copy of Turtle Heart on Amazon for $15. OR, in honor of Turtle Heart’s birthday, you can buy 2 autographed copies from me, one for you and one to give to a friend, for $20. Maybe that friend you get into deep discussions with. Maybe that friend you want to show Jesus.

This offer ends Thursday, August 18.

As always, shipping when you buy from me is $2/book. (I can’t offer free shipping like Amazon, but I do defray the cost). U.S. addresses only.

Send $24 to my PayPal account (lucindajkinsinger@gmail.com) Be sure to tell me your address!

OR put a check in the mail to Lucinda Kinsinger, 8018 Garrett Hwy, Oakland, MD 21550, along with a note to my email (lucindajkinsinger@gmail.com) that your check is on the way.

I will send you two books with a grateful heart.

Let’s keep talking about the hard things, and let’s keep sharing Jesus.

The post 1-Day Birthday Sale appeared first on Lucinda J Kinsinger.

Today Turtle Heart goes on tour. (She’s just heading out the door in the photo above.) You can read reviews at the blog stops I’ve posted below from today through March 18 and if you like, join the giveaway over at Celebrate Lit.

Please consider sharing this opportunity with your friends and social media followers, either by sharing individual reviews or by sharing the link to Turtle Heart Celebration Tour page over at Celebrate Lit.

This might be a good time to thank all of you who took time to leave reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. Those reviews are so important! I am grateful.

Also, I rejoice to tell you that Turtle Heart is a finalist in the 2022 Selah Awards. There were 440 entries split among various categories this year–more than in any previous year–so I am doubly grateful to be among the four finalists for memoir.

Blog Stops

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 5

A Reader’s Brain, March 6

Texas Book-aholic, March 7

All-of-kind Mom, March 8

Lots of Helpers, March 9

A Melodious Sonnet, March 9

Inklings and notions, March 10

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 11

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, March 12

deb’s Book Review, March 13

Locks, Hooks and Books, March 14

For Him and My Family, March 15

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, March 16

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, March 17

Mary Hake, March 17

By the Book, March 18

The post Turtle Heart celebration Tour Announcement! appeared first on Lucinda J Kinsinger.

I finished my second-to-last class toward completing my communications degree and won’t take the final class until May. In the meantime, I am working again at a 7th-10th grade creative writing curriculum for Christian Light Publications. Most recently, our team has been privileged to work with Kyle and Claudia Lehman on the poetry unit. You may know Claudia as the author of Under a Silent Sky and several other books. Both have published poetry at The Curator.

Mid-January, I did a podcast discussion on Turtle Heart with Asher Witmer, which you can watch on YouTube or listen to via podcast if you’re interested. Asher has links to both on his blog. Both fortunately and unfortunately for me, I did not realize a video as well as audio version of our discussion would be published. Fortunately, because I was not stressed out at all, thinking I had been there, done that, with Dru. Unfortunately, because I no doubt had some odd moments on camera. I remember one moment in particular when Ivan walked in and put a sweet note on the table beside me, and I read the note and got this huge smile on my face that had nothing to do with what Asher was saying. Plus, I looked down a lot and scribbled wise things on a sheet of notepaper (Just kidding, actually it was stick people, stars, and smiley faces.) Maybe, just maybe, Asher’s smoothed out the kinks like Dru did. I haven’t watched it to know.

Starting Saturday, Turtle Heart embarks on a blog tour with Celebrate Lit. I am excited about that and will post a list of the blog reviewers come Saturday. There’s also a giveaway you are welcome to join…check back for the announcement Saturday.

I read a blog post recently, “What I Love about You, Small Boy.” The blogger is Trish, who lives and works in the immigrant community in Andalusia, Spain, far from her own Illinois family. This post is not her most recent, but it’s one that I loved. If you are interested in cultures, relationships, and reading moments in a life that feel close enough touch, you will enjoy her blog.

That’s all for this short update. Sometime soon, maybe next week or the week after, I want to write about performance: maybe performance as it relates to marriage or maybe just performance. Performance and me are buddies, you see. We have a kind of unhealthy, codependent relationship that I would like to break.

Do any of you have thoughts or insights on performance? If so, I’d like to hear from you. Comment below.

The post The Days Behind and Just Ahead appeared first on Lucinda J Kinsinger.

During a visit to my family in Rusk County, Wisconsin, I plan to participate in several book events promoting Turtle Heart. I look forward to talking about my friendship with Charlene in the place where both of us grew up and to connecting with the rich and supportive community of readers in Rusk County.

If you live in or near Rusk County, please come by!

Book Talk and Signing at the Toad House

Thursday, November 18, from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Come by the Toad House in Ladysmith the evening of Thursday, November 18, and enjoy a reading and discussion of Turtle Heart. Book signing to follow, with an opportunity to buy a copy if you like. Treats and hot cider provided by Toad House.

Open House at Miller’s Country Bookstore

Friday, November 19, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Come to Miller’s Country Bookstore on Marshall Road the afternoon of Friday, November 19, for snacks, a chance to chat, and the opportunity to purchase a discounted copy of Turtle Heart. This is my parents’ bookstore, and they always offer all their books at a 15% discount, so it’s a great place to buy books in general.

Hope to see you in Rusk County!

And I’ll give you one more picture, just for fun. THIS is the little miss I get to show off to my family a week from now. She’s taken to playing with her toes and even holds her little bottom up for me, one fist yanking up each foot, when I change her diaper.

P.S. If you haven’t read Turtle Heart yet, remember, you can order on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or get an autographed copy directly from me by contacting my email address at lucindajkinsinger@gmail.com.

If you have read Turtle Heart, please leave an honest rating or review on Amazon or Goodreads. I would greatly appreciate it!

The post Come to these Book Events in Rusk County, Wisconsin appeared first on Lucinda J Kinsinger.

One of my sisters, after reading Turtle Heart, commented on how her own perspective of some things we experienced together was very different than the perspective I revealed. For example, I write about feeling scared of my dad as a child. To her, Dad was the fun parent, and she never thought of feeling scared of him, though we both respected him deeply.

Mom met an acquaintance in town the other day who had just finished reading Turtle Heart. The acquaintance, who is around the same age as Mom and grew up in the same church, commented on how Turtle Heart had shown her a very different perspective of the conservative Mennonites than she’d experienced. For example, my parents and I had Bible studies with an old Indian woman (my friend Charlene). “If I had experienced things like that growing up,” she said, “I would have stayed Mennonite.”

Both Mom and I were surprised. We thought Bible studies with old ladies was the kind of thing Christians did, Mennonite or not.

I wonder sometimes how people who are in the same place at nearly the same time can experience it so differently. I wonder this a lot, writing about Mennonites. My experience of Mennonites has been that they are flawed but sincere about their faith. Good-hearted, I would say. Flawed or no–and all people are flawed–I love their basic simple doctrine of following Jesus as a disciple, their emphasis on service and on taking the Sermon on the Mount literally.

Other people have had very different experiences. Some people who attended the same church I did. Why?

***

Annalise of the Week

The post Perspectives appeared first on Lucinda J Kinsinger.