Hard Winter Tales At Local Café Every rural café from northern Idaho to southern Arizona, California to the eastern slope of the Rockies, you’ll find a back booth, special table, or counter reserved for the Hard Winter Bunch. I stopped by the Eat Here & Die café the other day. After I slipped across the […]
Happy Jack Light by Stephen Bly Happy Jack lighting came to mind recently. I sat at the kitchen table next to the wood stove, straining to read the newspaper, and I realized a couple bulbs in the lamp above me burned out. Then I regretted not buying lightbulbs the last time I traveled to town. […]
Prophet Elijah and the Widow* King Ahab of Israel married Jezebel who brought pagan, immoral idol worship to the land. It got so bad, God sent a severe drought with no rain or crops. Meanwhile, the Lord took care of the prophet Elijah, comfy in the wilderness living by a brook. He’s dug in for […]
Branding & The Christian Seal Many believe the Spanish explorer Conquistador Cortez brought the first cattle to North America. His mark of three Latin crosses brought the first cow branding of hides in the New World. Every year since, someone’s been burning hair and leaving their mark on cows, calves, steers and bulls. And brands […]
Tips For Standing in the Gap For Others The gap exists everywhere. We’re surrounded by imperfection. Places, projects and people don’t always live up to our expectations. They’ve got holes, like the wall construction project in Nehemiah’s time (see Nehemiah 4:6ff). Basic Gap Principles — A gap is the difference between what something or someone […]
Which is Best, Hackamore or Metal Bit? A cowboy’s Spanish produces a rather humorous language. Take the good Spanish word jáquima, meaning headstall, that leather halter you slip over the head of your horse. This word derived from the Old Spanish xaquima. From the Americanized pronunciation of jaquima, the spelling of hackamore entered the written […]
WORKING LIKE A COWBOY by Stephen Bly Everyone wants to be like a cowboy, it seems. Or to know a cowboy. Even in other countries, to be like a cowboy seems popular. I know this because of writing westerns and the responses I get. Such as the Austin-Stoner Series. I can’t count how many letters […]
Legends & Lies Try to pronounce Hassayampa, a legendary old time cowboy word. Some good words like that can’t be let go, even if you don’t know the definition. Cowboys might forget the original source by giving a word a new meaning. For instance, down in Arizona you’ll find a stream named by the Indians […]
Horse Thieves Beware! A friend drove me to a conference in a large eastern city where I would speak. Even though security guards patrolled the parking lot at the event facility, I discovered crowbar looking devices bolted across vehicle steering wheels. “To protect from theft,” my friend explained. In the Old West days, most everyone […]
A Touch of Paradise at Winchester Lake State Park For over thirty years, we lived across the road from Winchester Lake State Park in north-central Idaho. What a privilege to hike to and through and three miles around this high mountain vacation spot any time we wanted, any season of the year. You’ve got to […]
In the frame short story in this anthology, Ben and Marnie Pearson never intended to start a jewelry collection. But when they were given a box of leftover jewelry at an estate sale, they were intrigued by the colorful contents . . .
The sparkling jewels featured in this collection may have been passed down through generations or discovered accidentally, but each has its own unique short story. From diamonds to emeralds, opals to rubies, these stones have witnessed it all.
Here in The Jeweler's Heart are their fascinating tales told by seventeen of the talented novel writers of ChiLibris. For fans of inspirational fiction and heartwarming tales, The Jeweler's Heart is a treasure.
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