“I really enjoyed reading Scarecrow. I found it an interesting take on the ups and downs of relationship trauma. The author does a great job showing her character Nora, maneuvering through grief in ways we can relate to with its trials and tribulations. What I enjoyed most was how the main character handled complications of starting a new life after grief. The author’s descriptions are timely, the conversations crisp and believable, of two people working out the kinks of new togetherness with humor and their separate families. I kept turning pages to see what would happen next. A very good read!”  Jan Swart The above review is of Scarecrow, my e-book novella, available on Amazon, and is part of a series—Fortunes, Love and Fate, written by multiple authors. Visit my Amazon author page, amazon.com/author/ingridsampo. Or check out my website, ingridandersonsampo.com  

Writing Presentations I am sharing about my writing journey, my novels, and short stories, plus a humorous reading from a short story, Power to the Sixties: Rosemount Seniors Monthly Luncheon, July 5, 11:30 a.m., at the Steeple Center, Assembly Hall, 14375 S Robert Trail, Rosemount, MN 55068. Reservations required, 651-322-6000. Burnsville Senior Programs, Fun and Friendship event, 11 a.m., at the Burnsville Senior Center, 200 W. Burnsville Parkway, Burnsville, MN 55337. Reservations required, 952-707-4120.

For all those longing to tap into their creativity, I highly recommend The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. Her book is helpful to all creative sorts from artists to writers to musicians. The book is part 12-step-like principles applied to the creative life and part motivational-style pep talk helping creative persons stand against their demons of self-doubt that attempt to snuff out creativity. Her work inspires and challenges readers to respond to their muse and create. The result: productivity, fulfillment and personal success in one’s area of creativity. Some of Cameron’s ideas can be encapsulated into sound byte quotes, short enough to post on your refrigerator door or bathroom mirror. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the creator’s creativity within us and our lives. Creativity is God’s gift to us. Using …

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A Woman to Reckon With: Priscilla of the Early Church is a novel I have written about Priscilla named in the New Testament Book of Acts and who was a major leader in the early Christian Church. The book is to be published. Spiritual meets supernatural when Priscilla is called to ministry in a dream and when the Risen Christ appears to encourage her to rise above gender bias, self-doubt and danger. Relying on her God, Priscilla breaks through the First Century glass ceiling, even as she is freed from insecurities rooted in memories of a harsh father. More challenges lie ahead. Her passion to evangelize is threatened along with her life, time and time again. Danger is real, from Roman soldiers and from many members of ancient religions frustrated by loss of members to the Way (Christianity). Yet she perseveres, thanks to her God, her husband Aquila and Paul, fellow tentmaker and evangelist. Victory …

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A Book Worth Your Read Stephanie Landsem’s The Tomb: A Novel of Martha, is a unique and interesting take on Mary and Martha’s story from the New Testament. Lazarus, their brother, was the recipient of Jesus’ must stellar miracle of all—raising Lazarus from the dead. Landsem brings a sense of reality into the variables of Martha’s hectic and troubled life and her longing to be once again with her true love. Martha’s lost love has left. It turns out he became the demon-possessed man on the southern shores of Galilee (recounted in the New Testament), seemingly forever entrapped in his own emotional prison until he encounters Jesus. Martha finds the greatest love when her faith in Christ is born. The book’s inside cover information indicates that Landsem does not seek to “recount the historical events that took place in Bethany.” Rather the story is a “re-imagining of how Martha… might have been transformed into the …

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