Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

travel

There’s more to Petra than a scene from Indiana Jones

Ah, Petra.

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones never utters those words in his quest for the Holy Grail, but the stone city’s Treasury building plays prominently in the movie’s plot.

You know the place.

(courtesy Tracy Higley)

This was about all I knew of Petra until I read Petra: City in Stone by Tracy Higley. Higley is one of my new favorite authors, especially because her books open my world to times and places with which I’m unfamiliar and unknowledgeable. Hers are historical fiction set in the ancient world featuring Jewish characters and early Christians in settings of the Seven Wonders.

I haven’t disliked any of her books yet.

In Petra, a young poor woman named Cassia seeks a home for her son in the city where his father’s family lives. She and the boy travel to Petra with few clues as to how to find this family. Cassia’s expectations are shattered when she learns the truth about her son’s family and she finds herself fighting dark and powerful forces to save her son. But she doesn’t have to fight alone. Followers of The Way, an early name for Christianity, sacrifice to help Cassia rescue her son and overcome the city’s pagan worship.

If that’s not enough introduction, then check out the book trailer below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dErJ6gS1LD0&w=640&h=385]

As with most of Higley’s books, I get so caught up in the story and the setting that I can’t put the book down and when I do, I don’t want to leave the characters or the place. I’ve heard this is the key to success in novel-writing, and Higley is a master storyteller.

FAVORITES: Higley is thorough in her research, and I enjoy reading her travel journals and seeing pictures from her trips after reading the books.  My faith is strengthened by these stories, which I consider in a class of their own when it comes to historical fiction. (And I love all kinds of historical fiction!)

FAULTS: They make me want to see the world, which is not really a fault. Reading Higley’s stories infects me with a travel bug that I can’t properly feed at this time. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop reading.

IN A WORD: Enriching. My faith grows, my world opens and I’m challenged. Higley’s books are a treat for the mind and soul.

Higley has a new book releasing in late spring/early summer this year, and I, for one, can’t wait. Meanwhile, Marduk’s Tablet is available here for the Kindle for 99 cents. Pennsylvania friends, you might find her books in the library, too, because she lives here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracy started her first novel at the age of eight and has been hooked on writing ever since. After earning a B.A. in English Literature at Rowan University, she spent ten years writing drama presentations for church ministry before beginning to write fiction. A lifelong interest in history and mythology has led Tracy to extensive research into ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome and Persia, and shaped her desire to shine the light of the gospel into the cultures of the past.
She has traveled through Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Italy, researching her novels and falling into adventures.

Visit the author’s website.

Brave Old Girl in a Safe New World

Through a friend’s post, I recently was introduced to the Brave Girls Club. Check out the site. To tell you who they are and what they do and why they exist would take more words than I can write here. In joining this online community, you’re asked this question: “What does being brave mean to you?”

Simple question, right?

Not so simple answer, though I came up with something like “not being afraid to try new things and fail.”

Being brave — that’s not really my thing. Leaps of faith are rare in my life. My favorite hymn is “The Solid Rock.” Firm ground. Unchangeable truth. Solid. Safe. These are words I cling to.

The word “brave” for me evokes images of scaling a rock formation while wearing a harness or jumping out of a plane wearing a parachute or driving cross country with a map and no plan.

I’ve done a few brave things in my life. Leaving the country for a semester in college to study in England and travel in Europe was brave for a girl who hadn’t been on a plane since she was 2 and had only barely been into Canada and Mexico. I once drove myself from my hometown in northern Illinois to North Carolina to attend my first ever writer’s conference by myself without a clue as to why I was there or what I would experience. I have other similar stories. For some reason they all seem to involve travel.

That’s part of what has me thinking about bravery again. We’re about to take our first family vacation in a couple of weeks. The four of us are driving to Florida to meet my parents for a beach/Disney trip. We’ve traveled long distances in the car with the kids many times, but this will be our first trek into new territory with hotel stays and new driving routes.

I’ll admit it: I’m part excited; part scared. I’m a constant worrier about what could happen (bad) and ever fearful that I will not be able to enjoy the trip until we arrive safely in Florida and I won’t be able to really breathe and relax until we’re back home in Pennsylvania. (I would have made a terrible pioneer.)

See, I feel like I left the smidgen of “brave” I had behind when I had kids, although maybe some would say having kids is also brave. Some days, just leaving my house with two kids to run errands seems brave.

So, what’s your definition of “brave” and how has that changed?

I’d also like to compile a post of “the bravest thing I ever did” stories. Want to participate? Send me an e-mail: lmbartelt[at]gmail.com with a story about the bravest thing you’ve ever done. Put “Bravest Thing I Ever Did” in the subject line. I’ll keep your name confidential, and I’ll publish the stories in a future post.

Let’s encourage each other to do something brave.

Ready? Me, too.