A Melodious Sonnet

Anything But Simple: Book Review and Blog Tour

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Well, here I am again with a book review of a book I think you will love! In my review of Turtle Heart, I mentioned this was an upcoming read, and let me tell you…I was not disappointed! I do wish I had had the chance to read this before Turtle Heart, simply because this gives a bit of background to that story, but I really don’t think it really matters. Both books are good, and both highly recommended.

Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links, which help support this blog at no added expense to you. Thanks! Also, the author gave me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, and all thoughts expressed here are entirely my own.

About the book:

Plain? Yes. Simple? Well…

If you live in a conservative Mennonite community, edges are sewn shut and questions have answers. So if you’ve got a saucy tongue and a roving curiosity about the world, you’ve got a story to tell.

As a schoolteacher in a small Mennonite school in rural Wisconsin, Lucinda J. Miller wears long dresses and a prayer covering. But she uses a cell phone and posts status updates on Facebook. So why would a young woman with access to all these technologies remain in a sheltered community like the Plain Mennonites? How can someone with an eye for beauty and a sometimes sardonic wit stay within a tradition that values discipline and submission and uniformity?

Anything But Simple is the stirring memoir of a young woman’s rich church tradition, lively family life, and longing for a meaningful future within her Mennonite faith.

Buy yourself a copy | Add Anything But Simple on Goodreads

My thoughts:

I was greatly impressed by Lucinda’s writing style. It’s fresh, clean, honest, and heartfelt. After getting to know her in Turtle Heart, I was excited to hear more of her story in this book—and it didn’t disappoint.

One thing I loved about this book was how Lucinda described growing up as a Mennonite. I’ve been blessed with a rich Christian heritage, and before reading this book, I thought I had a fairly good grasp on the typical Anabaptist groups, their core beliefs, and how that worked out in their own lives. My grandparents on both sides are part of the German Baptist church; my parents were raised German Baptists and later joined a non-denominational Anabaptist-influenced church, and since we moved to New Zealand when I was 11, we have always attended conservative churches here.

But what surprised me in this book was how open Lucinda was about what it means to her to be a Mennonite—and the incongruities she has found while in that church setting. Many things she mentioned felt somewhat familiar to me; other things were unexpectedly foreign. This wasn’t a treatise on “101 Reasons to Become a Mennonite”; it’s the story of a woman growing up in a loving family with a faith, understanding their faults, but ultimately loving the way both her beliefs and her family support her in her journey to love and follow the Lord more.

What I felt like this book did was take something that can feel so removed from “normal” society—a relatively small branch of the Christian faith—and put it into understandable terms that we all can relate to. Through her brilliant way of bringing us into her life, Lucinda’s “normal” can become our own for a few moments—and we can feel that, underneath everything else, none of us are really that much different from anyone else. Our labels may be different, but our hearts are the same—to seek Jesus more, and follow Him more closely.

Anything But Simple was a refreshing read, and I’ve come away with a lot of food for thought. I’m thankful I finally got to read Lucinda’s story, and I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes open for any books she may come out with in the future!

About the author:

Lucinda J Miller Kinsinger has always viewed herself as a shy little Mennonite girl, but refuses to let that stop her from pursuing what she loves—whether that’s writing with honesty and vulnerability or traveling to a remote village in China. In 2019, she married Ivan, the love of her life, and moved from the flat, tree-lined fields of her childhood home in Wisconsin to the rolling hills of Garrett County, Maryland. The couple has a baby daughter, Annalise. Since the publication of Anything but Simple, Lucinda has published a second memoir, Turtle Heart: Unlikely Friends with a Life-Changing Bond. She is columnist for Anabaptist World and blogs at lucindajkinsinger.com.

Giveaway!

To celebrate her tour, Lucinda is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book. Be sure to comment on the blog stops (below) for nine extra entries into the giveaway. Go here to enter.

The other blog stops:

Texas Book-aholic, April 2
A Reader’s Brain, April 3
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 3
Inklings and notions, April 4
Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, April 5
All-of-a-kind Mom, April 5
She Lives To Read, April 6
deb’s Book Review, April 7
Locks, Hooks and Books, April 8
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, April 9
Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 10
Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, April 10
The Avid Reader, April 11
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 11
Rebecca Tews, April 12
Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, April 12
Sodbuster Living, April 13
Boondock Ramblings, April 13
Vicky Sluiter, April 14
For Him and My Family, April 14
Spoken from the Heart, April 15

Turtle Heart: Book Review, Blog Tour, and Giveaway…

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I came across Lucinda’s blog quite a few years ago, a chance encounter that eventuated in becoming a dedicated follower because her writing blessed and intrigued me. Who was this Mennonite girl who wrote with such depth of meaning and big words? I hadn’t met many fellow Anabaptists online up to that point, so hearing her perspective was refreshing. Time came and went. She published her first book, Anything but Simple, and though the synopsis intrigued me, I never took the time to try to find a copy for myself (psst! Lord willing, I’ll be reading that one soon—so watch this space for my review!). Then her picture book came out, from a publisher we often order schoolbooks from, so I asked Mom to buy it. That was a fun read.

Years went by, and one day, she announced that Turtle Heart was releasing! I vaguely remember some mentions of a person named Charlene on her blog, but never took a lot of notice of them. By that time, I’d had a little more to do with Lucinda, and knew I wanted to read it . . . so when the opportunity for participating in a blog tour came up, it wasn’t a hard decision to join in.

Turtle Heart blog tour

Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links, which help support this blog at no added expense to you. Thanks! Also, the author gave me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, and all thoughts expressed here are entirely my own.

About the book:

Turtle Heart by Lucinda J. Kinsinger

What happens when a sheltered young Mennonite befriends an ornery old Ojibwe woman in order to lead her to Christ—and finds that old woman has more to teach her about God and humanity than she ever dreamed? These two women from widely differing cultures and belief systems soon build a connection that runs deeper than their differences. Kinsinger’s memoir of friendship reads like a novel, at once riveting and introspective, timeless and surprising.

Turtle Heart: Unlikely Friends with a Life-Changing Bond invites you into the world and perspective of a young Mennonite woman who allows love to lead her beyond her comfort zone into uncharted territory.

Buy yourself a copy | Add Turtle Heart on Goodreads

My thoughts:

Turtle Heart is little like I expected it to be. Written more like a novel and less the realistic recounting of incidents than I thought, it gripped my heart and pulled me into Lucinda’s world—a world quite unlike my own, but very like it in some ways. Honest, thorough, stated as it was, I felt like I was experiencing the events along with Lucinda in her early twenties.

It takes a certain kind of bravery to write a book like this. Bravery to pull together the thoughts and conversations you’d rather forget about, despite them making up a part of the story as a whole. Bravery to state the world as you see it, without pretense or derision, or bowing to what’s currently popular. Bravery to be you, without apology.

This story is a deep dive into what it means to love someone as Jesus loves. Not always perfectly or beautifully, sometimes mixed with a heavy dose of ulterior motives, but in its purest, most beautiful sense. In a world where it feels like there is more splintering than mending, where shunning is preferred to openhearted forgiveness, where there is division instead of the acceptance that we are all in need of grace, this book is a breath of fresh air and a reminder that ultimately, we are all God’s children and we all need each other.

Honest, thoughtful, beautiful, and heartfelt. Those are a few of the many adjectives I have to describe this book. Be prepared to be challenged, blessed, and inspired by this read. I certainly was, and can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy of my own!

About the author:

Lucinda J Kinsinger has always viewed herself as a shy little Mennonite girl but refuses to let that stop her from pursuing what she loves—whether that’s writing with honesty and vulnerability or traveling to a remote village in China. She is the author of two memoirs—Turtle Heart: Unlikely Friends with a Life Changing Bond and Anything But Simple: My Life as a Mennonite, as well as a children’s book, The Arrowhead.  She writes a column for Anabaptist World Review and blogs at lucindajkinsinger.com. Lucinda lives with her farmer husband Ivan and her baby daughter Annalise in the rolling hills of Oakland, Maryland.

Giveaway!

To celebrate her tour, Lucinda is giving away the grand prize package of a 50 Amazon gift card with a copy of the book! Be sure to comment on the blog stops below for nine extra entries into the giveaway. Go here to enter.

The other blog stops:

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, March 5
Texas Book-aholic, March 7
All-of-kind Mom, March 8
Lots of Helpers, 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

What was the last memoir that blessed, challenged, or encouraged you in a profound way?

Writing Journal Day 3: Focus on the Big Rocks

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Day 3: Monday, 28 February

Current Draft: Garland of Praise
Today’s starting word count: 46,366 words (added 62 words last session)
Time worked last session: 55 minutes (total time so far: 2 hours 6 minutes)
Today’s goal: Edit for 2 hours
Goal level achieved last session: Bronze (edited for nearly an hour)

I’m back at it this afternoon, with thankfully not as long of a break in between these last two sessions.

I worked for nearly an hour last time (over an hour, counting writing the journal entry), and that mostly involved reading through the text. I did pick up on a few textual changes to make—words to add or swap around, sentences or phrases that didn’t flow well that I could update, etc. As I read, I also tried to take notes. I wrote down a summary of what is in each scene, and I’ve also been trying to take notes on the bigger issues at play—some of the bigger plot points that I will need to pay attention to in order to deliver a better story.

Once again, as I’ve discovered when reading for other authors, I’m much more of a line editor than a plot editor! It’s easy to pick up on a few little tweaks, but looking at the big picture? That’s a different ballgame altogether! While I’m concerned that that limitation might make my task harder, I’m also cautiously optimistic. This is a good chance for me to try to hone my skills at looking for the bigger pieces first, and the fiddly bits later. Something along the lines of the big rocks and little rocks illustration. I think it may have come from Stephen Covey—get your big rocks in first, and then fit the little rocks in around it.

Anyway, building blocks. That’s what I’m trying to focus on in this round.

I’m just over one chapter into the book so far, and one of the biggest things I’ve realized already is that I need to rework one of the main antagonist’s ways of fighting against the characters in my story. Since this is a fantasy/allegory, I’ve made up all the rules for this universe, and although it made sense in my brain at the time, I’m realizing there will likely be questions in readers’ minds about how some aspects of this world work. Already I’ve got one glaring question in mind, and unfortunately, I don’t think I did a good job covering that.

It’s fine to leave the reader to fill in some of the answers themselves…but questions need to be answered.

Each scene I read through brings up more what-if or must-clarify notes. There are so many options for how this story could come together in the end!

Today, I’m planning on continuing through the read-through. It’s already fairly late in the day, so I doubt I’ll hit my stated time goal, but I’m planning to do what I can. I’ll continue taking notes and trying to focus on those big-picture things:

  • How does this push the story as a whole forward?
  • Does this tell me something more about the characters, plot, or setting, or is it extraneous fluff?
  • Is there a way I can combine the essence and purpose of this scene with another scene to create a tighter, stronger read?
  • Is this chapter/scene plausible in the story and setting?
  • Are the characters staying true to themselves and their individual (internal as well as external) goals?

That last one, especially, is a big one for me right now—I realized just a few days ago that I have NO idea what some of my characters really want out of life, and I also don’t know what they’re good or terrible at. The idea is frightening, honestly, because that means that I’ve got characters in here that are little more than puppets with a bit of emotion thrown in here and there. One thing I need to spend a lot more time on over the next while is getting to know my characters, so they shine the way they need to on the page.

Well, enough blathering on for now. I’ve got lots to think about and consider, and a story to read over.

Have you heard of the big rocks and little rocks illustration before? Where could you apply that on your own tasks?

Writing Journal: Day 2

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Day 2: Thursday, 24 February

Current draft: Garland of Praise
Today’s starting word count: 46,304 words
Time worked last session: 1 hour 10 minutes (total time so far: 1 hour 10 minutes)
Today’s goals:

  • Bronze: 1 hour editing
  • Silver: 1 1/2 hours editing
  • Gold: 2 hours editing

Goal level achieved last session: Silver (1 hour spent editing)

I had grand hopes for the last two weeks in the writing sphere. As far as I knew, they were mostly “blank” weeks—some garden work perhaps, but nothing too major. Even though it was the busiest part of summer, I thought I’d be able to squeeze a bit of time in, surely.

Well . . . that didn’t happen. We had company for a while (which I loved), and the tomato harvest started with a bang. Honestly, I’ve had to fight some discouragement over the distractions away from the computer. And the few times when I could have stolen half an hour or an hour to work on it, my brain refused to even try to cooperate. But despite the discouragement, I’m back. It wasn’t the time to be working on it then, but it is now.

On day one, I managed to find all the puzzle pieces of this story and get it compiled into one cohesive whole. I didn’t have time to go beyond that and actually start the editing process, but that will happen today, Lord willing. My plan at first—to ease myself into the editing process—is to read through the entire thing, and take as many notes as I possibly can.

This story is still little more than a short story in my mind, although judging by the word count above, it’s a full-length novella! I’ll be interested to watch that word count over the next few weeks, to get a feel for how much I add or take away from the story. If I were honest, I’d hope that it will go down. I know there’s some fluff in here—not nearly as much as in some of my other stories, thankfully, but still some. 

After I do the full read-through, I’ll probably take some time to go over all my brainstorming notes, and see if there’s anything I missed—anything that needs to be put back in here. But that time will come.

For now, I’ve been given the precious gift of a few hours this afternoon to get some work done on this long-overdue project, and I’m grateful. Two weeks off or no, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

An Entry in my Writing Journal

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A number of years ago, I mentioned following along with Shawn Smucker’s The Making of a Story. I found his encouragement and honesty refreshing, and it inspired me in my own writing journey. This year, he’s doing something similar—but this time in video format. Again, I’m inspired.

Over the years, I’ve written a lot. Starting with short stories in my school years, I soon progressed to novels, and although I haven’t gotten a huge number of those under my belt (I think I’m up around five by now, including a collection of short stories), I feel like I’ve learned some of the necessary rules around how to write. How to take what’s in my head and put it onto paper, how to figure out my stories, and string them together to make some sense, and, perhaps, something about how to plan them. I’ve got heaps to learn there, but as far as writing goes—as far as getting the first draft down—I feel like I’ve made good progress learning the craft.

But editing. Oh, editing is my nemesis. Some people love it, and hate the first draft experience—give me a first draft any day, and I’ll happily plug away at that for months, or years, if need be!

So . . . I’ve decided to try to tackle this enemy of mine. I’m joining the Author Olympics again this year. They’ve been going for several years, and this group of writers is super encouraging and inspiring! My goal for these next two weeks is to try to make a significant dent in one of my first drafts.

Yesterday, I pulled out an old draft to begin working on it. And today, I thought it would be fun to share with you my writing journal entry from yesterday. Welcome to this writer’s life!

This picture was part of my inspiration for the story I’m now working on editing. Photo courtesy of Khanh Steven on Unsplash.

Monday, 8 February – Day 1

Current Draft: Garland of Praise
Starting word count: 46,304 words
Today’s Author Olympics Goals:

  • Bronze: spend 30 min. editing
  • Silver: spend 1 hr. editing (finished with silver)
  • Gold: spend 1 1/2 hr. editing

Up to this point, I have learned how to successfully write stories—what it takes to sit down, chase the muse, and find a way to put what’s in my head onto the page.

Today, and for the next month, I am attempting to do the opposite with God’s help—I will be practicing taking what has already been written, and polishing it up into something worthy of sharing with others.

To be honest, it’s a daunting process. I’m planning on only giving myself one day at a time to look at it—one moment at a time, if need be, otherwise I will get too bogged down in details and fear of what might happen if I don’t get it right. “There’s always a third and fourth draft,” I tell myself frequently. “You don’t have to get it absolutely perfect the first time.”

I think one thing I dread is getting to the point where I’ve seen other writers—ones who have not published much—get mired in drafts 16 or 17 layers deep. That seems like the worst of all possibilities to me. I don’t want to go there.

But I also dread not doing enough. Lord, give me wisdom.

Today, I’m going to be pulling all the old writings out of my folders, and compiling them into a new file dedicated to the project. Once done, I’ll update the current word count number at the top of this entry. While that isn’t a direct indication of what’s going on in the draft, in the longrung, I think it will be a helpful metric to see how I’m doing overall.

This story was written over a longer period than I remembered initially. I started writing in September 2018 and finished in July 2019. My impression of the work was that it took 3-4 months to complete, but obviously, I was wrong. I also believe this is one of the most-brainstormed stories I have ever written. Aside from perhaps my most recent novel, this short story had several weeks of preparation before I ever started writing the first draft. Due to the length of time from start to finish, and the fact that I typically wrote only 1-200 words per day on the project, I’m sure I’ll find plenty of loopholes, missing information, and scenes that don’t need to be there.

After collating all the different bits of this story, I’m planning to read through it in its entirety, taking notes as I go as to what I think needs to be done to it. If I have any ideas for how to improve or tighten the story, I’ll jot those down too. I’m expecting this process to take several days in and of itself.

So far, I’m feeling optimistic. From my memory, this is one of the better stories I’ve written—keeping my attention up until I got to the end—and it’s also one of the tighter ones I’ve done. We’ll see if memory holds true! If it does, this may not require as much work as some of the other drafts!

Well, we’ll see how it goes from here. I was hoping to get to editing today—and expected I would yesterday—but several unexpected things happened today, so that didn’t happen. And tomorrow, I’ve got work, with company coming in the evening, so we’ll see if I can squeeze any time in.

What creative pursuits are you trying to incorporate more into your life? What could you deliberately be working on practicing now, even if it’s hard?