Julie Saffrin

WRITING RETREAT IN MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA

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So easy for me to put writing off and fill time with other things. Hard for me to say yes to shouting down my fears and just type. Really helps to get away and force myself to just write, without little shiny bulbs to distract me. The last weekend of October, my friend, Barbara Majchrzak and I, did just that. We got away on a writing retreat. And it was a time of great concentration, advancing my manuscript, and for Barb, celebrating a finished manuscript. Barb and I go back a long way, like I think at least twenty years.…

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HORSES, CARROTS, AND A CITY GIRL

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I’m in the Black Hills staying at my friend’s guest ranch just outside of Hill City. Barbara Majchrzak and I have each looked forward to this time set apart to do some serious writing at a cabin at the guest ranch she and her husband own. I first met Barbara 14 years ago at the Minnesota Christian Writers Guild, a wonderful organization for fellow writers in the Twin Cities area. We became friends and through the years have become each other’s cheerleaders as we each pursue our writing endeavors. Barb’s plan is get as close to finishing her next novel…

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2015, AN ALMANAC

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and suddenly you know

“Time is not even, neutral, uniform, independent of man and culture. Time is not regular ticktock time. It varies, comes loaded, heavy or light or tragic or shaking with one or other passion, be that pain or pleasure—each reflecting very human affairs. Beginnings and ends, births and deaths, critical moments of liminality. Big ends, little ends. The shock of the new, the trauma of the old. Some times come unexpected, when we are not looking, and they stun us, perhaps for ever after.  Time is not calendar or the clock, it is the almanac.”1 2015, for some, was a year of intentions…

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A full circle of gratitude

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Today I am privileged to feature a guest blog post by radio personality Gloria Plaisted. She is the founder of Faith@Work Break, a 60-second radio broadcast based out of Duluth, Minnesota. Feel free to stop by and “like” her Facebook Fan page at Faith@Work Break with Gloria Plaisted. Gloria’s story is featured in BlessBack®: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life and is a favorite among readers.  Gloria’s story begins at chapter five.  If you haven’t read the story, I urge you to download a copy of BlessBack at Amazon for $2.99 to your Kindle or download it to your Kindle Reader to…

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Irene Christiansen – An Illuminator

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They stand mostly abandoned now, these one-room country schools. But as the following story by Florence Smallfield reveals, they were places held in high esteem, where community happened and children of all ages received instruction in education and a way to go in life. Florence’s story of her family’s farm in Flandreau, South Dakota came to me through my mother. Both women attend church together. You can read her moving account of her family’s BlessBack in BlessBack: Thank Those Who Shaped Your Life by purchasing a copy of the paperback version here. Or, if you prefer, the e-book version of BlessBack is FREE for…

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A BlessBack Review From England

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Today I received a lovely review on Amazon from a thrice-published British author. I’m humbled . . . and yes, I’m going to say it, gobsmacked. Here’s what Sue Russell (writing as S. L. Russell) had to say about BlessBack: ‘BlessBack’contains a beautiful idea: that of thinking back over one’s life and thanking in a very positive way those who have had some good influence on us or done us a kindness. “Be causal,” Julie Saffrin says. Our actions can have a ripple effect beyond our expectations. The idea of happiness coming from a sense of connectedness, compassion, a desire to…

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