By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Every year my little patch of prickly pear cactus blooms with the most delicate yellow flowers—a flaring contradiction to the plant’s spiny pins growing in protective clusters. Overshadowing the cactus patch on its east side stands a magnificent Colorado blue spruce with its
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Not until I had the photograph developed did I realize I’d caught the pattern. Look at the feet and legs, the arms, and the focus of attention in this father and son—my husband, Mike, and our son, Jake. At two years old, Jake
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer I took a couple of days off, went to a mountain retreat, and planned to write thousands and thousands of words on my next novel. No phone (when I turned it off). No chores or cooking or other life distractions. Just writing. Plain
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer I’ve often been told that the settings of my stories are almost like characters impacting the humans. That makes me smile because natural landscapes and seasonal weather situations affect how people live. Each geographic location has its unique challenges whether mountain, desert, forest,
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer If you’ve been to a rodeo, you know that the only moment of absolute silence usually follows a downed rider who fails to rise from the arena floor under his own power. Apprehension sucks the collective breath of the crowd as they wait
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Ever feel like it’s you against the world? Occupationally, relationally, or physically if it’s not one thing, it’s another – right? Just when we get our sea legs under us, a rogue wave hits, the deck rolls, and our stomachs follow. Why can’t
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer My mother taught me most of what I know, but four important lessons stand out in my memory—two don’ts and two do’s: Don’t … … push your hair behind your ears—it makes them stick out. … put your hands in your sweater pockets—it
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Last summer, grasshoppers denuded a young aspen tree I had so lovingly planted in the spring. With plague-like precision, they took it down to nothing but trunk and stems. The lady at the nursery where I bought the tree told me it wasn’t
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Do you ever want to run away? Today I did just that. I ate breakfast and lunch at the dining table rather than at my desk. (Strange, isn’t it, what we run away from.) I ate looking out the window into the back
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer “What if?” This two-word query is one of the most important questions a novelist asks while working on a project. Various answers can propel an author’s characters into riveting plot twists or brain-throbbing conflicts. But for someone seeking to live a faith-led life
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Writing a scene for a soon-to-release Western romance, I came face to face with my heroine’s memories of her mother’s favorite saying that “all things work together for good.” She was having trouble believing what her mother had taught. Bad things had happened
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer If you follow posts on my Facebook profile, you may have picked up on my love affair with morning. Pre-dawn, in particular. There is something intimate about standing outside in the dark, watching the eastern horizon begin to glow—the light grow—as the wings
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer What does our soul wait for? To be honest, wait isn’t on my list of “Fun Things to Do.” More often than not, I’ve classified wait with other (inappropriate) four-letter words. However, the image of someone watching for the sunrise lends an air
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer Transition – ugh. That space between one place and another. Like a portal or threshold between what was and what will be. Like dying. I once heard a preacher say that death itself didn’t bother him. It was the “getting dead” part he
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer When we bump up against life’s fences, do we greet them with acceptance, or do we cry out at their hindrance and resent their delays? Sometimes those fences are raised for our comfort or protection. Without boundaries, bridge-walkers could fall, cattle would stray,