Charles Marion Russell by Nancy J. Farrier

 

Charles Marion Russell

Charles Marion Russell, probably best known as an artist who depicted life in the Old West, also wore many other hats. He was a well-known story teller, a writer, historian, and an advocate for the Western Plains Indians. He loved the outdoors and he loved his adopted State of Montana so much that he didn’t want to leave.

Camp Cook's Troubles
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Born in 1864, in St. Louis, Missouri, Charles wanted to grow up to be a cowboy. His father partnered in a brick manufacturing business, but Charles, who struggled with book learning, wanted to go west. Just shy of his sixteenth birthday, he arrived in Montana ready to fulfill that dream. He started out learning the wilderness from a hunter and trader, Jake Hoover, spending two years with him.

The Tenderfoot
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

In 1882, he began to live his dream as a night herder for some cattle outfits. What he didn’t realize at the time, was that he would gain more than learning to wrangle cattle. He would learn firsthand how the men and animals of the west interacted. Later, he would turn those memories into paintings and sculptures so realistic they would seem to take on a life of their own.

Waiting for Chinook
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

In a depiction of a particularly brutal winter, Russell painted a watercolor of a starving cow surrounded by wolves. This picture brought him widespread recognition in 1887. By this time, he was already known locally for his story telling. He had a quiet way of speaking that kept his audience enthralled.

The Cryer
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

By 1893, Russell turned to art full time. In 1896, he married Nancy Cooper. She had a head for business and in time became his business manager. Russell painted more than 2,000 pictures, plus the many bronze sculptures he made. His artwork appeared on postcards, color reproductions and in calendars. He was considered the first “Western” artist to live most of his life in the West. 

Buccaroos
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Stories abound on the life of Charles Russell. He was known as a constant smoker. It’s said that as soon as one cigarette finished, he would stop and roll another one. This often happened when he would be telling stories to an audience. Even if he had come to a critical place in the story, he would stop talking until he’d finished rolling and lighting his next cigarette. He expected his listeners to wait and they were so caught up in the tale he’d been unravelling that they did wait for him.

To the Victor Belongs the Spoils
Courtesy Wikipedia Commons

Russell was also noted for not laughing as he told stories. He spoke in a slow, drawling narrative, is expression deadpan. Even if he had his listeners laughing aloud, he didn't smile, or change from his serious demeanor. 

I love Russell's vivid portrayal of the West. Have you ever seen any of Charles Russell's paintings or sculpture? I appreciate that he lived the life before putting it on canvas, in bronzes or in words. What other artist do you know that did this?

Nancy J Farrier is an award-winning, best-selling author who lives in Southern Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats and dog, and spend time with her family. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

Women of the Resistance: Cristina Luca Boico

During the research for my upcoming series, The Resistance Chronicles, I found countless stories of brave women who served in resistance groups around the world. Some joined groups within their native countries. Others like Cristina Luca Boica, today’s featured resister, fled their homelands and joined organizations within their new country.

Born Bianca Marcusohn on August 8, 1916 in Botosani, Romania, Cristina and her family were part of the Jewish middle-class. According to several sites, Romania is a “deeply Francophile country," with French being the language of the Romanian elite since the 18th century. At the time of her upbringing, French was a mandatory language taught in schools, and she and her sister grew up reading French literature.

While attending Carmen Sylva High School, an elite school with an excellent national reputation, Cristina experienced her first antisemitic encounter that she later described a some of the non-Jewish students “maintaining a certain distance from us.” Additionally, the school had a dorm specifically set aside for Jewish students that was often attacked by non-Jewish students. She spent quite a bit of time at the dorm, Schuller, debating the merits of communism with Zionist students. She, and many others, argued that communism could end antisemitism because it “promised a better world for all, and thereby the genuine liberation of the Jewish people, allowing for a complete flourishing of its potential, dissolving nationalities, religions, and ethnicities.”

In 1937, she was expelled from university because of her political activities, and she left Romania to

continue her schooling at the Sorbonne. Three years later she participated in the 1940 demonstrations to protest the arrest of Paul Langevin, a French physicist who was outspoken about his opposition to fascism. She was arrested but quickly released.

The following year she joined the Organisation Spéciale—Main-d’Euvre Immigrée (OS-MOI), the armed group of the Immigrant Labor Force and came up with her first nom de plume: Monique. By 1942, she’d lost her job as a translator and went to work for the OS-MOI full-time. Shortly thereafter, the organization merged with two other groups, and she changed her name one final time to Cristina Luca. Her role was extensive, and she became an intelligence officer. She selected targets for resistance attacks and collected information. Reportedly with the knowledge of her professors, she stole chemicals from the school’s lab that she gave to the partisans. With her knowledge of chemistry, she constructed Molotov cocktails for sabotage missions.

In the first six months of 1943, there were fourteen train derailments, thirty-four acts of arson or bombings, and forty-three assassinations. It is unknown how many of these activities involved Cristina. By 1944, she was assigned to combat duty and participated in several partisan attacks. During the liberation of Paris in August 1945, she was part of the revolt, and after the city’s liberation, she joined the French Army as a lieutenant.

After the war Cristina returned to Romania, eventually married, and worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Due to the change in political climate, she was dismissed from her job in 1952, and her husband was “purged from his position” a few months later. They eventually left Romania and settled in France where she passed away in 2002 at the age of 85.

_________________

Spies & Sweethearts

She wants to do her part. He’s just trying to stay out of the stockade. Will two agents deep behind enemy lines find capture… or love?

1942. Emily Strealer is tired of being told what she can’t do. Wanting to prove herself to her older sisters and do her part for the war effort, the high school French teacher joins the OSS and trains to become a covert operative. And when she completes her training, she finds herself parachuting into occupied France with her instructor to send radio signals to the Resistance.

Major Gerard Lucas has always been a rogue. Transferring to the so-called “Office of Dirty Tricks” to escape a court-martial, he poses as a husband to one of his trainees on a dangerous secret mission. But when their cover is blown after only three weeks, he has to flee with the young schoolteacher to avoid Nazi arrest.

Running for their lives, Emily clings to her mentor’s military experience during the harrowing three-hundred-mile trek to neutral Switzerland. And while Gerard can’t bear the thought of his partner falling into German hands, their forged papers might not be enough to get them over the border.

Can the fugitive pair receive God’s grace to elude the SS and discover the future He intended?

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/u/m0Od9l

Sources:
https://publicseminar.org/2016/08/antifascism-as-political-passion-in-the-life-of-cristina-luca/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Luca_Boico
https://jewishlink.news/debunking-the-sheep-to-the-slaughter-myth-resistance-heroism-marceau-and-mime-in-occupied-france/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_in_World_War_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Romania
https://bmmhs.org/romanian-military-experience-during-the-second-world-war
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/ACFAF5.pdf

Photo Credits:

Cristina Luca: By unknown - Original publication: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org

Sorbonne: Pixabay/Pexels

Resistance Members: REX Shutterstock/Roger Viollet

HMS Resolute - How a British Ghost Ship became a U.S. Presidential Desk

By Mary Dodge Allen

Did you know that the desk used in the Presidential Oval Office was made with wood from a British sailing ship? Here is the fascinating story of the HMS Resolute.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. playing under the Resolute Desk, October, 1963 (Stanley Tretick)

In 1855, Captain James Buddington was standing the the crow's nest of a whaling ship named George Henry, searching for whales in the frigid water of the North Atlantic Ocean, when he spotted a ship in the distance. The large ship appeared to be abandoned and trapped in an ice pack.

Captain James Buddington (Public Domain)

Captain Buddington ordered his crew to sail toward the ice pack. Then he sent a few crew members to investigate the mysterious ship. They crossed the ice on foot and boarded the ghost ship. 

When they entered the main cabin, they were spooked by what they saw. Glasses containing various liquors sat on the table, along with plates of half-eaten food, as if the captain and the ship's officers had just stepped out for a moment. They discovered the name of this ghost ship was the HMS Resolute.

HMS Resolute's Origin and Failed Expeditions:

Five years earlier, in February 1850, a British sailing ship named Ptarmigan was re-fitted and strengthened for Arctic exploration. This ship, renamed Resolute, was given a polar bear figurehead to signify its purpose - to search the Arctic Ocean for a missing polar expedition.

British Admiral John Franklin, 1828 portrait by Thomas Phillips

The Franklin Expedition:

In 1845, British Admiral John Franklin and his 128 member crew sailed from England in two ships to explore the Arctic Ocean in search of the fabled North West Passage - a shorter shipping route from Europe to Asia. They had been missing for five years.

First Search: During 1850-51, the Resolute was part of a four-ship Arctic search expedition. They found no sign of Franklin's ships or crew.

Second Search: In April 1852, the Resolute was part of another, larger Arctic search expedition. This time, traces of timber from Franklin's abandoned winter camp were found on Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. 

During 1853-54, the expedition ships split up to search a larger area of the icy Arctic Ocean, hoping to discover the fate of Franklin and his crew.

Sketch of HMS Resolute frozen in the ice as her crew abandons her. (Public Domain)

Unfortunately, most of the ships, including HMS Resolute, became trapped in ice packs. Crews were forced to abandon these ships. Some were rescued by other expedition ships, while others made hard marches across the ice to the rendezvous point at Beechey Island in the Arctic Archipelago. Finally, in August 1854, this search was called off, and the officers and crews sailed back to England on overcrowded relief ships.

Rescue of the HMS Resolute:

Captain Buddington, an experienced whaler, had been on his way back to his home port - New London, Connecticut - after an unsuccessful whaling trip. As soon as he spotted the large ship trapped in the ice pack, he saw an opportunity.

HMS Resolute had miraculously survived several months in the Arctic ice with no major damage. Captain Buddington decided to turn his failed whaling trip into a successful salvage operation. He figured that he and his crew could make a profit if they sailed the Resolute back to New London, where it could be sold for salvage.

After making the Resolute seaworthy and releasing it from the ice, Captain Buddington and a portion of his whaling crew sailed it back to New London. The rest of his crew sailed the whaler George Henry back to New London, under the command of Buddington's first mate, John Quayle.

Captain Buddington wrote about the difficult voyage aboard HMS Resolute:

"After a stormy passage of 64 days, having in the time a succession of gales, and being driven as far south as Bermuda, we at last reached the port New London... on Sunday, December 23, 1855."

Salvage Rights Dispute:

The British government asserted its ownership of HMS Resolute. But the U.S. whaling firm, Perkins and Smith argued that since their employee, Captain Buddington had rescued the Resolute, they now owned the salvage rights.

Perkins and Smith enlisted the help of Henry Grinnell, an American businessman who was an expert on British and American salvage rights. Grinnell agreed to serve as a negotiator with the British government.

British salvage law: Rights belong to the Captain who recovered the salvaged ship.

American salvage law: Rights belong to the Ship Owners who recovered the salvaged ship.

In 1856, the British government agreed to award the salvage rights to the U.S. firm, Perkins and Smith. But this action only added to the ongoing political tensions between America and Britain.

To ease political tensions, Henry Grinnell urged Congress to pass a bill to fully repair and restore the HMS Resolute and return her to Britain, as a goodwill gesture. The bill passed in 1856, and Congress purchased the HMS Resolute for $40,000.

After the HMS Resolute was expertly re-fitted, it sailed to Britain and was presented to Queen Victoria on December 13, 1856. She boarded the ship to inspect it on December 16, 1856.

Illustration of Queen Victoria boarding the HMS Resolute on December 16, 1856 (Public Domain)

Who Received the $40,000 Salvage Profit?

Traditionally, the salvage rights owners, Perkins and Smith, would divide the profit between its investors, the captain and the crew.

But Perkins and Smith had sold their whaling assets to the firm of Williams and Haven, who now owned the salvage rights. 

This new firm stubbornly refused to split any salvage profit with Captain Buddington or his crew. The firm argued that Captain Buddington had broken his contract when he left the whaler George Henry and sailed the HMS Resolute back to New London.

Captain Buddington sued the firm of Williams and Haven. The court eventually awarded a portion of the salvage money to his crew, but it upheld the ruling that the captain did, indeed, break his contract. As a result, Captain Buddington never received any portion of the salvage profit.

From Sailing Ship to Presidential Desk:

Portrait of Queen Victoria (Public Domain)

HMS Resolute remained in the British Navy for the following 23 years and served as a symbol of friendship between the U.S. and Britain. In 1879, Queen Victoria had the ship decommissioned and salvaged for timber.

Four desks were made with these timbers. One of them, a large partner's desk, was presented to U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, as a gesture of gratitude for the return of HMS Resolute. It became known as the Resolute Desk.

The Resolute Desk in the Yellow Oval Room, 1886, during the Grover Cleveland presidency. (Wikipedia)

From that time forward, the Resolute Desk has been used by every U.S. President, except Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

(After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson - at Jackie Kennedy's request - allowed the Resolute Desk to be exhibited on a three-year world tour, to raise funds for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.)

In 1966, the Resolute Desk went on display at the Smithsonian, until President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back into the Oval Office in 1977. Since then, it has continued to be used by each U.S. President.

Here are a few photos of the Resolute Desk in use:

President Jimmy Carter at the Resolute Desk, 1977. (Public Domain)

President Ronald Reagan at the Resolute Desk, 1985. (Wikipedia)

President Barack Obama sitting at the Resolute Desk, 2009. (Wikipedia)

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Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers. 

Website: www.marydodgeallen.com

Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides

Mary's story, entitled: A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need. 

Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608

Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.

Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com:

Hunt For A Hometown Killer: A Novel: Allen, Mary Dodge: 9781952369704: Amazon.com: Books

Link to Mary's Spotlight Interview:   Mary Dodge Allen Author Spotlight EA Book

When Workhouses in Nineteenth Century Ireland and Britain Punished the Poor

By Donna Wichelman

Though you may never have read Charles Dickens’ famous 1843 novella A Christmas Carol or seen the movie or theatrical production based on the book, you have no doubt heard the phrase humbug and know about the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge. He was a miserly man of wealth in Victorian England who disparaged anything related to charity or goodwill. So, when two portly gentlemen approach Scrooge, raising funds to help the poor and destitute, Scrooge is not impressed with their desire to provide for the hundreds of thousands “… in want of common comforts …”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I am very glad to hear it.”

In the course of the rest of the dialogue, the gentleman tells Scrooge that those who are told they must go to the workhouses would rather die than be sent there, and Scrooge, in his miserly manner, says they had better do so, as it would decrease the surplus population.

Cover of the Classic Novel

In a recent trip to Kilkenny, Ireland, I had the opportunity to walk the hallways of a former workhouse-turned-shopping-mall. The irony was not lost on me as I contemplated the streams of local holiday shoppers buying up their baubles and toys, and wondered if any of them heard the echoes of extreme depravity that once shuffled through there. Unfortunately, the back-street tours were closed for the Christmas season, but remnants are there if you look for them.

The lid of a Wooden Travel Trunk Displayed at the Shopping Mall: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

Actual Trunk on Display at the Mall: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

A Stop On One of the Back-street Tours: Kilkenny Shopping Mall: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

A Former Courtyard Where Workhouse "Inmates" Would Gather, now an Outdoor Food Court. The Stone Walls of the Workhouse Seen in the Background: Donna's Gallery, December 2025

Why would a pauper say that he'd rather die than be sent to one of the workhouses?

In my historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, my protagonist Anna reflects on her life as a young child in Ireland during the famine years, “possessing only vague, watery impressions of hunger that never ceased to gnaw at her stomach and a dank, dingy workhouse her parents had called the pathway to the dead. As it was, her older brother Ryan died of dysentery in the wretched conditions. The resounding consequences had left Da impoverished in mind and spirit, and Ma picking up the pieces of a broken and fettered man.”

Ireland had been under British rule since the sixteenth century, including the English Poor Laws, a system of poor relief in England and Wales that had developed from late Medieval law (see Wikipedia: English Poor Laws). The idea of the workhouse emerged as early as the fourteenth century, during the Black Death, to address labor shortages. But it wasn’t until much later, and after several iterations of the Poor Laws over the centuries, that the concept of the workhouse took shape.

By the nineteenth century, several factors converged to bring about the English New Poor Law of 1834. The end of the Napoleonic Wars saw mass unemployment, new technologies replaced agricultural workers, and a series of bad harvests brought about an economic decline. This made the old system of poor relief untenable. Thus, the New Poor Law was designed to reverse the economic trend by discouraging the provision of relief to anyone who refused to enter a workhouse. By 1838, the same law had been enacted in Ireland.

Unfortunately, making entering a workhouse compulsory to receive relief spawned unethical practices among owners of for-profit institutions, like using workers as slave labor for back-breaking jobs and putting them in dangerous situations. But one’s refusal to enter the workhouse indicated that he or she could support oneself. Thus, as the potato famine struck Ireland and people were starving, many had little choice but to enter the workhouses.

A common layout of workhouses resembled a prison, with four three-story buildings surrounded by an outer wall and four separate courtyards. The “inmates” were segregated into four distinct groups—the aged and impotent, children, able-bodied males, and able-bodied females, thus separating families from one another. Separating them out this way during the famine would supposedly direct treatment to those who needed it most, prevent the spread of disease (mental and physical), and provide a deterrent from pauperism.

Workhouse Design

Architect Sampson Kempthorne (1809–1873), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In practice, the workhouses were like prisons for the poor, with cold and dank sub-standard living conditions and providing poor-quality food, leaving residents bereft of nutrition and a substantive ability to fight off diseases. Statistics show that most workhouses were ill-equipped to meet the demands placed on them, and one-quarter of all famine mortality occurred within their walls.

Eventually, as the century came to a close, workhouses became places for the elderly and the sick rather than the able-bodied poor. Legislation was passed in 1929, allowing local authorities to convert workhouses into municipal hospitals. But it wasn’t until 1948, with the passage of the National Assistance Act, that the Poor Law finally disappeared and with it the last of the wretched workhouses.

In an excerpt from an article in the Current Archaeology Magazine, The Kilknenny Workhouse Mass Burials: an archaeology of the Irish Potato Famine, April 4, 2013, the author quotes Frenchman Gustave de Beaumont's statement in 1835: I have seen the Indian in his forests, and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiable condition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I did not then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland … In all countries, more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland.’  See the entire article in the Current Archaeology Magazine. 

Donna is an Angel-award-winning author of Historical fiction for A Song of Deliverance. Book Two in the Silver Singing Mine series, Rhythms of the Heart, was released in November 2025. Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before becoming a full-time writer. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. She has two indie-published romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. 

Donna and her husband of forty-one years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.

Vital to the Justice System, Court Reporters have been Around for Centuries

Please welcome guest blogger, Janette Johnson Melson, author of Underneath the Ficus Tree.

With eyes weaving back and forth from speaker to speaker, the woman whispers into the mask covering her mouth. Her words identify not only what is being said and done in the courtroom but also who is doing it. Providing an accurate transcript of the proceedings is her job. She may sit off to the side and blend into the backdrop, but her role is important. She is the court reporter.

Many are not familiar with this type of court reporter, known as a voice writer, but the technology has been around since Horace Webb invented it in the 1940s. A pen shorthand court reporter, Webb was frustrated by the difficulty of keeping up with fast talkers and complex terminology and with the double work of the transcription process. At that time, most reporters dictated their shorthand notes to be typewritten later. However, if the proceedings could be dictated while they were happening, there would be no need for dictation later or for schooling to learn shorthand. Webb’s idea was a good one, but how could a reporter repeat everything being said without disturbing the testimony? What he needed was a microphone inside a sound-insulated container that would record his voice without his voice being heard outside the device. Unfortunately, nothing like that existed, which sent Webb to the drawing board.

After months of unsuccessful trial and errors with cigar boxes, tomato cans, and other

household items,Webb finally hit upon a coffee pot. Stuffed to muffle the sound and fitted with a rubber facepiece, which had been originally designed for the Air Force, the Stenomask came into being. By placing the mask over his mouth and nose, he could whisper into the microphone inside the pot, and his voice was recorded onto analog cassette tapes to be transcribed later.

By the 1990s, the masks were smaller and lighter, and the device recorded onto a dual-track cassette tape—one track for an open mike that recorded the actual proceedings and a second track for the reporter’s whispers. Nowadays, the mask covers only the mouth, and the dictation feeds directly into a computer with speech-recognition software that instantly converts it into real-time text.

Although Webb was a pen shorthand reporter when he invented the Stenomask, another form of shorthand reporting already existed and had been around since 1877. Miles Bartholomew invented the first stenotype machine, a ten-key device that used dots and dashes to represent letter combinations. Then in 1906, Ward Stone Ireland invented the prototype for the modern stenotype machine, and it is still in use today. Resembling a typewriter, it combines the qualities of shorthand and the ease of typing to allow the reporter, also known as a stenographer, to record the proceedings. It writes numbers and letters phonetically, which uses fewer strokes than a typewriter. A stenographer is the type of court reporter that most are familiar with.

However, court reporting itself has been around for centuries, dating back at least to 450 BC when people used cuneiform, similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, to group sounds together and then assign symbols to those sounds. Pictures were then assigned to these symbols.

Since the earliest days of Adam and Eve, people have committed crimes and been involved in disputes which had to be judged. And within those judgment proceedings, someone had to be recording them. Regardless of the way those people do their job, they are vital to the justice system. They are the court reporters.

For more information about Horace Webb and his Stenomask, read this story. 

Janette Johnson Melson spent seven years as a voice writer court reporter, during which she gained the knowledge and experience to write her debut novel and prequel novella, Underneath the Ficus Tree. But her dream of becoming a writer happened long before, after she penned her first poem at the age of six. A degree in English/journalism helped her to realize that dream, and she worked as a print journalist until a move to another state required a new career path as a court reporter. Through the years, her writing has garnered recognition and awards, most recently receiving an Honorable Mention in the 2025 ACFW KidLit Contest. She has also been named a finalist in the 2021 Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Contest and 2021 Florida West Coast Writers, Inc., Contest. When not writing, she teaches piano and enjoys living in a lake house in Georgia with her husband and their rescue pup. She is also blessed with a daughter, son-in-law, son, daughter-in-law, and two grand girls. She can be reached on her website (jjmelson.com), author Facebook page (JanetteJohnsonMelson.Author), or by email janette@jjmelson.com.

Underneath the Ficus Tree

Because of her Christian conviction to save herself for marriage, voice writer court reporter Edie Randolph often feels like a mythical creature in today’s broken world. She’s hesitant about dating but finds a potential partner in her own klutzy way. Tripping over a potted ficus, she literally falls for legal clerk Matt McConnell, a man of similar values but more experience. Intimidated by his past, she wonders if she can learn to cope with it.

Matt hasn’t dated since recommitting his body to Christ. When he meets Edie, a lovely woman with a strong faith, he feels an immediate bond. However, a misunderstanding leaves him feeling judged by her, and he fears his past may hinder them from having a future.

With the baggage each of them carries, will they be unable to navigate a path going forward? Or will they find their way back to each other underneath the ficus tree?

Click the picture of the book to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a free copy of the e-book, Underneath the Ficus Tree.

 

History of the Times Square Ball

Blogger: Amber Lemus

7th Times Square Ball
Photo Credit: Jtalvy, CC0, CC

 The dropping of the ball in Times Square has become a New Years icon. This year will make new history for the Times Square Ball, because it will drop twice. The second time in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. 

Since we have new history being made with the ball drop, I thought it would be fun to explore the origins of the celebration that has become so well-known across the globe as a symbol of New York City and the USA.

The New Years celebration in Times Square had begun in 1904 as a way to celebrate and promote the newly finished headquarters of the New York Times newspaper building. The festivities were a hit, but after a few years of fireworks celebrations, the owner of the New York Times, Adolph Ochs, decided he wanted something bigger. It was the idea of the company's chief electrician to build a "time ball" after seeing one used elsewhere. In 1907, Ochs commissioned the Artkraft Strauss company to construct the ball. A young Russian immigrant by the name of Jacob Starr, built the ball out of iron and wood, then adorned it with one hundred 25-watt bulbs. The finished ball was five feet in diameter and weighed a whopping seven hundred pounds. It thrilled the spectators at the 1907-1908 New Years festivities in Times Square. 

Since then, the ball has been lowered every year, except for 1942 and 1943 due to WWII blackouts.

The Millennial Ball (2000)
Photo by: Hunter Kahn (Public Domain) 

In total, there have been nine versions of the ball:

• The original, built in 1907. 
  
  
• A version made entirely of wrought iron with replaced the original in 1920. 
  
  
• A lighter version made of aluminum replaced the four-hundred pound wrought iron ball in 1950. This version weighed only one-hundred-fifty pounds and remained until the 1980's.
   
• In the 80's, the "I Love New York" advertising campaign had launched, so a new ball with red lights and a green stem to look like an apple was installed and remained from 1981-1988.   
  
  
• After 1988, a more traditional ball with the white lights returned. 
  
  
• In 1995, technological updates were made to the ball to include an aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes and computer controls. 
  
  
• The birth of a new century in 1999-2000 demanded a new ball. It was completely redesigned, this time a crystal ball with the very latest lighting technology combined with traditional materials. 
  
  
• 2007 brought the 100 year anniversary of the New York Times ball drop, so again, updates were made to the ball. The incandescent bulbs were replaced with LED, which gave the ball color capabilities and increased brightness. This one is known as the Centennial Ball. 
  
  
• The owners of One Times Square were inspired by the beauty of the Centennial Ball to create a permanent one that was visible year-round. This new, permanent version is known as the Big Ball and is made of crystal triangles and over thirty-two-thousand LEDs. It weighs nearly six tons.

The most recent Times Square Ball
Photo By Alex Lozupone - Own work, CC

However, on New Year's Eve, a NEW version of the ball will be revealed, celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States. If the celebration's reputation continues, it will be a spectacle to be seen. 

The notoriety of the ball drop has inspired many kinds of "drops" around the world. Sometimes balls, like in Times Square, and other times cultural objects such as the Bermuda onion. To read more about this, you can check out the Wikipedia page here. 

Have you ever been to the Ball Drop in NYC? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

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Two-time winner of the Christian Indie Award, Amber Lemus writes enthralling non-fiction for children and adults alike. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior, so her writing is centered around faith, family and history.

She lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains with her prince charming and two boys. Between enjoying life as a boy mom, and spinning stories out of soap bubbles, Amber loves to connect with readers and hang out on Goodreads with other bookish peoples.

Amber is a proud member of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association. Visit her online at www.AmberLemus.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!

Echoes of the Ancient New Testament Cities: Philippi

Matthew James Elliott

Happy New Year!

The days after Christmas are always a bit more low‑key, but they also carry a sense of quiet anticipation. This is a feeling that leaves all of us waiting for the unexpected. And yes, you probably knew I’d circle back to that theme at some point. I’m referring to my previous series on this blog, Unexpected Legacies. Only this time, it’s not about any particular person. It’s about an ancient New Testament city: Philippi. But that will come in a moment… or two…

As I write this, I’ve spent a great deal of time reflecting on the past year, and here in the final days of 2025, I find myself doing that again. Christmas has come and gone. The wrapping paper no longer hides the expectations the holiday brought. Everything that was kept secret from my family has now been revealed, and the house has settled into those still, quiet moments of joy as we await the new year. Well… other than the six‑week‑old puppy named Peppermint we surprised our kids with on Christmas morning, who is disrupting everything. Even then, the moments are still there.

These moments are natural, but the time off work has also given me space to think about what 2026 might hold. I’ve held on to moments like these before, and here we are again. By the time this post goes live, we’ll be in the new year, and doors may already be opening. The arrival of Paul and his companions in Philippi was one of those doors. It was a moment that opened the way for the message of the early church. The city wasn’t just another stop on Paul’s second missionary journey.

When a handful of everyday people stepped into unexpected roles, a seed was planted that would grow into one of the most joyful and generous churches in the New Testament. Archaeological excavations have revealed many of the mysteries behind this community. Philippi was a significant place in history. Acts 16:12 tells us that the city was a “Roman colony and the leading city of the district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.” 

This year, I had the privilege of reading and reviewing an advanced reader copy of a book by Jenifer Jennings called Leading Philippi that provided a lot of detail about this. Her portrayal of the early believers reminded me that new beginnings rarely start with a huge foundation. Rather, they begin with quiet obedience, open hearts, and the courage to say yes. That is what the city of Philippi began as: a small group of people trusting in the unexpected arrival of Paul and his companions, and it changed everything. 

The Bible Odyssey website provides some thought-provoking findings that state Philippi was proud of its Roman identity. Veterans retired there. Latin found a home in the civic and administrative life of the city. Loyalty to Caesar was the foundation of everything. It wasn’t the kind of place you’d expect a spiritual revolution to take root. But something changed when Paul, and others, arrived. There were no synagogues. Instead, they found a group of women praying by the river. (Acts 16:13). It was their yes that would open that door I mentioned earlier. 

AI Generation of Lydia

Many of us know the story of Lydia. She remains one of the most compelling figures in Philippian history. As a dealer in purple cloth, she was already a woman of influence and independence, but she was also a spiritual matriarch to the early believers. She wasn’t waiting for someone to bring her truth; she was already seeking God. Her story in Acts teaches us about wholehearted faith. The kind of faith that transforms hearts. When her household was baptized by Paul, her home became the first recorded gathering place for believers in Macedonia, as Acts 16 confirms.

The Philippian Jailer – Paul F.M. Zahl

While Lydia’s story is filled with confident obedience, another story in Acts 16 is anything but. It’s the story of a jailer whose introduction to the gospel came through a literal earthquake. One moment, he was simply doing his job; the next, he believed he had lost everything in the rubble. In that moment of fear, Paul, who had been arrested with Silas (someone from my Unexpected Legacy series), called out to him, assuring him that everyone was still there. And in the next breath, this man was on his way to becoming another influential leader in the Philippian church.

His story reminds us that new beginnings aren’t always gentle. Sometimes they come in the form of little puppies like the one currently running around our house. And sometimes life‑altering events open the most unexpected opportunities. What began with Lydia and the unnamed jailer grew into a church that became one of Paul’s most faithful supporters. In a letter he later wrote from prison in Rome, Paul calls them his partners in the gospel (Phil. 1:3-5 & 4:15–16; 2 Cor. 11:9).

Ruins of Philippi

Philippi was one of the most unlikely places for the early church to expand its mission. With Rome’s influence and the presence of various deities shaping the lives of those who lived there, it’s not surprising that things began the way they did, but it is also something unexpected. I believe that is a message worth remembering.  

What Philippi teaches us is that even the smallest yes can transform entire communities. As we enter the new year, perhaps the best thing I can leave you with is this: look for those open doors. Pay attention to what you find along the way, and ask yourself, Is this my new beginning? Who knows what could happen?

See you in the pages,

M.J.E.

PS (Up next month is Thessalonica, one of the two cities that Paul wrote to twice.)

~ Biography ~

Matthew James Elliott (M.J. Elliott) is a passionate writer who loves to encourage and inspire others. He served in various ministry roles for over 15 years, which gave him a unique perspective on people and Biblical History. Matthew holds a degree in Biblical Studies from Oklahoma Wesleyan University, with a focus on Pastoral Care, Christian Education, and Worship.

Matthew is married and has three wonderful children who bring him immense joy and inspiration. One of his favorite things to do with them is to share stories they can someday learn from. When writing a story, he aspires to minister to others with love, equip them with encouragement, and use the gift God has given him as a writer to help readers experience God in a real and meaningful way.

Find Matthew on Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, BookBub, and His Website. He has written Devotionals, An Episodic Series, Novellas, and even Commentaries for The Gospel Daily.

~ Highlighted Release ~

My Newest Biblical Fiction Novel, The Hope of Inheritance, came out on Father's Day and has received a ChristLit Book Award for excellence in Christian Literature. Grab it via Amazon. If you enjoy it, please let me know by posting a review.

One Story Still Untold. Four Unlikely Authors.

Together, their Message will speak to Many.

The city of Rome was a vast and beautiful place-- on the surface. That is, until a great fire burned and destroyed most of it. Deep in a world hidden from those who would strike against them, four unlikely men work together to share a message of truth. This truth was spoken by those who were cut down because of the calling to go forth and preach. 

The message has always been clear: The hope of our inheritance is Christ living within each of us. In the echoes of persecution, sorrow, and even death, this message still reigns supreme, but will the people listen? Only time will tell, but before anything, these four men must come together and unite a church separated by fear and suffering.