Monthly Archives: September 2010

Making Waves By Lorna Seilstad

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Making Waves by Lorna Seilstad

From the Back Cover
Sun, summer, and a scrumptious sailing instructor. What more could a girl want?
When spunky Marguerite Westing discovers that her family will spend the summer of 1895 at Lake Manawa, Iowa, she couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s the perfect way to escape her agonizingly boring suitor, Roger Gordon. It’s also where she stumbles upon two new loves: sailing, and sailing instructor Trip Andrews.

But this summer of fun turns to turmoil as her father’s secrets threaten to ruin the family forever. Will free-spirited Marguerite marry Roger to save her father’s name and fortune? Or will she follow her heart–even if it means hurting the family she loves?

Full of sharp wit and blossoming romance, Making Waves will whisk you away to a breezy lakeside summer holiday.

“You’ll set sail on a wonderful adventure in Lorna Seilstad’s new series. Her quick wit and captivating characters are mixed into a little-known slice of history that will keep you turning the pages and wishing for more when the story ends. Fortunately, there’s another book to follow. I can’t wait!”–Judith Miller, author, Somewhere to Belong

“Lorna Seilstad pulled me into the world she created around Lake Manawa with the lake breeze, the sailboats, and the leisure of summer days. But the love story and the characters were what made the book great. This needs to be everyone’s first choice for a vacation read, or if you just want to open the pages of a book and be transported from your recliner to the beach.”–Mary Connealy, author, Doctor in Petticoats and Wrangler in Petticoats

Lorna Seilstad is a history buff, antique collector, and freelance graphic designer. A former high school English and journalism teacher, she has won several online writing awards and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. She lives in and draws her setting from Iowa. This is her first novel.
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I’ll be honest with you, I signed up for this blog tour because I LOVED the cover! I was not familiar with this author and I just discovered before posting my review that it’s her first book. Many thanks to Baker/Revell for providing a review copy.

But it is a nice, pleasant read that I’m sure most historical book lovers would enjoy! Marguerite cannot stand her beau Roger. He’s boring, a terrible conversationalist, and he’s so puffed up with pride that he only enjoys the sound of his own voice. If she’s forced to marry Roger, Marguerite knows that she will die!

Adventurous Marguerite loves a challenge and although she knows her parents will object, she finagles a way to take sailing lessons using her little brother Mark as an accomplice.

However, her plan soon turns into a disaster that places her life in danger. Her numerous lies are catching up with her and she needs to seek the Lord’s wisdom about her future. She’s smitten with her sailing instructor, Trip Andrews, however, her mother, and later her father, feel that Roger is the best mate for her.

Meanwhile, handsome and dimpled Trip Andrews struggles to live up to his stern father’s expectations. He also finds himself falling for beautiful socialite Marguerite. However, her constant lies, which suddenly place her life in danger, causes a deep rift in their relationship. Trip doesn’t do business with liars. He’s also haunted by a past event involving his mother, are all women like his mom – willing do desert him?

As the story unfolds you’ll find that Marguerite’s family is riddled with secrets that greatly affect their lives. I learned a lot about vacationing on the lake and the scenery proved to be beautiful! I wanted to spend a nice, pleasant day on Lake Manawa myself! Making Waves is a nice mix of romance, inspiration and a small dose of suspense that I found enjoyable!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Wedding Anniversary And Conference

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We celebrated seven years of marriage today! We celebrated by pulling out our wedding video and watching it yesterday. Our son didn’t recognize a lot of the people in the video since, well, you know how it goes. Sometimes the only times you see some friends and family is at weddings and funerals. Some of the people are good friends of ours, too and these people are unfamiliar to our son! 🙁

Maybe we’ll show him the wedding video every year and make more of an effort to hook up with our friends and family members!

I’m heading out to ACFW within the next few days. I’m too tired to be excited. I’m sure the giddiness of being around all those great, wonderful people will kick in once I get there! There’s so much going on in my mind that my head feels cluttered!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Strawberry Jam!

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I made jam for the first time recently and if you’re my friend on Facebook, you may already know about my adventures in jam making! Here’s the recipe I used, followed with a commentary about all that happened when I made this jam!

Strawberry Jam

8 cups of strawberries (about 4 pints), crushed
5 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in Dutch oven. Heat to boiling over high heat, stirring frequently. Boil uncovered, stirring frequently, until translucent and jam is thick, about 25 minutes. Quickly skim off foam. Immediately pour jam into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe rim of jars. Seal as directed on jars.

I got about 7 half pints of jam from this recipe. I didn’t crush the berries, I just sliced them. I made the mistake of using the JAM setting on my bread machine instead of using the dutch oven since I don’t have a dutch oven. The jam setting didn’t cook the mixture enough. When I poured it into the hot, sterilized jars, it was watery – like strawberry water. I went ahead and sealed the jars anyway, thinking it would thicken later. Several hours later, it was still watery. I figured that it didn’t cook long enough on the JAM setting on the bread machine, even though it went through the whole cycle for JAM on the bread machine. Feeling upset about all the wasted time and effort, I opened the sealed jars and poured the strawberry water into a big pot and cooked it until it thickened on the stove. I stirred frequently and it took about 25 minutes for it to thicken. I then re-sterilized the jars and poured the thicken jam into the jars and resealed them. I then placed the sealed jars into hot water so that they could re-seal.

I called my mom and she informed me that since I’d already sealed the strawberry water earlier, I couldn’t re-use the lids since the seal was now broken. By this time, it was nine o’clock at night and I wasn’t going out to buy new lids. I ended up leaving the jars out to cool, with the lids on and the next day I placed them into the refrigerator, just to be safe.

The day after Labor Day, once we’d returned from work, I opened a jar of jam and found that it had sealed! 🙂

I made some toast and we spread butter and jelly on the toast and IT WAS GOOD! Our five-year-old son stated: “Mmmm! Mommy, this is good!”

It was so delicious and we ate a whole jar within a couple of days! 🙂

Do any of you can regularly? I do have a question if you do? You know the lids for the jars? Are you supposed to sterilze both parts of the lids before you place them onto the filled jars? I’d think if you sterilized that middle part of the lid, the one with the seal, that it being in the boiling water would break the seal before you screwed it on the lid?

I plan on doing this again, but not anytime soon! I’ll probably do it in the spring or summer. I’ll probably make peach preserves next! Doesn’t that sound yummy!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Love Finds You In Homestead Iowa

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Love Finds You In Homestead Iowa by Melanie Dobson
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Summerside Press (March 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1935416669

Times are hard in 1894. Desperate for work, former banker Jacob Hirsch rides the rails west from Chicago with his four-year-old daughter, Cassie. When a life-threatening illness strands the pair in Homestead, Iowa, the local Amana villagers welcome the father and daughter into their peaceful society. Liesel, a young Amana woman, nurses Cassie back to health, and the Homestead elders offer Jacob work. But Jacob’s growing interest in Liesel complicates his position in the Amanas. Will he fight to stay in the only place that feels like home, even if it means giving up the woman he loves? Or will Liesel leave her beloved community to face the outside world with Jacob and Cassie at her side?

I really enjoyed this book. I’d never heard of the Amanas until I read this novel. Jacob has fallen on hard times and he’s desperate to find a way to care for his ill daughter, Cassie. When he hops on a train and then randomly gets off at the Amanas, he finds someone who can help his daughter to heal from a dreadful disease. However, although Jacob’s physical health is in danger, his spiritual health is a bit weak, too. He finds himself smitten with Liesel, one of the Amana people. When the couple are quarantined together, they talk and Liesel discovers that she has deeper feelings for Jacob than she has for her fiancé (who happens to to be the baker in their community). However, Liesel can’t fall in love and be with an outsider, and try as hard as she can, she just can’t shake these deep feelings she’s developing for Jacob and his young daughter Cassie.

There was also a slightly suspenseful side story involving stolen money and Jacob’s old employer at the bank that I found intriguing.

I especially liked the fact that I learned a lot about the Amanas! They’re a Plain sect of people that no longer exist. They lived apart from the world and were pretty self-sufficient. They didn’t get paid for their labors. All of their work went back into the community and from what I understand, they would get ration coupons to purchase personal goods from the general store. Land, homes, buildings, etc. were all owned by the Society and there were only some personal items that each person might own. This way of life sounded a bit stifling, but I thought it was intriguing, too. I felt more comfortable reading about the Amanas than the Shakers. I found the Amanas sect was more Biblically based than the Shakers and I could actually imagine myself living among them for awhile…unlike the Shakers!

If you want to learn something new and you like intriguing, emotionally-charged stories, then this book is for you!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Discovery Channel Gunman

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My sister works at the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring and I was worried, shocked, and horrified and I found out about an armed man, James Lee, had entered the building and had fired a few shots and took hostages. It also appeared that he was strapped with bombs. My sister called me quietly from her office, leaving me a voicemail stating that they were in lockdown. My heart was beating hard and I was sweating hard as I prayed and called people that I knew. I was relieved when she called me about ten minutes later and said that they’d exited the building.

I’m glad the whole situation is over. It was just a bit too close to home for me! 🙁

~Cecelia Dowdy~