Replace worry with prayer. Make the decision to pray whenever you catch yourself worrying.

It's one thing to have a goal, but it's quite another thing to actually accept the challenge, develop a strategy to press for the goal, make the sacrifices, pay the price to move forward, and blessing of blessing, to realize some part of it.

I don't think anyone could write about another culture and get it 100 percent accurate.

Everything in our lives," she said quietly, "leads to everything else in our lives. So a moment in the present has a reference point, both in the past and in the future. I want you to know that you--as you are right now and as you ever will be--are fully enough for this moment . . .

It is the job of the novelist to touch the reader.

The Pacific Northwest, and particularly Whidbey Island, is extremely suited to be a location in a novel.

Joy is a sure sign of the presence of God in your life.