When Calls the Heart

Have you been watching the Hallmark series When Calls the Heart inspired by Janette Oke's book of the same name?  My mother and I were hooked on it when it aired last year, and I'm excited that the second season will be airing this Saturday April 25th at 8/7 central!  I'm so excited that I did a drawing of the main characters Jack Thorton and Elizabeth Thatcher.

Daniel Lissing as Jack Thorton

Erin Krakow as Elizabeth Thorton

I admit, I feel like I should be adding a proper book review to go along with it, but to be honest I haven't read the book yet!  It's still on my oh too long to-be-read list.  In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy the show.  :)



Here's the website, if you want to know more about it:
http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/when-calls-the-heart

Have a great weekend!

-Monica

Taylor from Shadows of the Past by Patricia Bradley

I finally have a new post for you, and it's on an exciting contemporary thriller called Shadows of the Past that came out last year!


I’m 50/50 with this genre to be honest, for me it all depends on my mood.  When I’m feeling sad or stressed I don’t like reading thrillers or anything with a difficult subject matter.  On the flip side, when I feel good, I really get into them.  For that reason, it took me a while to read through Shadows of the Past as I had a bit of a low point part way through it, but when I was feeling less morose and picked it up again, I enjoyed finishing it and am happy to share with you about it now!

For a thriller, the pacing was great.  There was a perfect balance of action, romance, and suspense.  Every time you started to think things were safe, something unexpected would happen.  The story follows Taylor Martin, a criminal profiler & professor who’s being stalked while working to help solve several murders.  I think it was the stalker thing that really creeped me out.  That and Taylor's dreams about a clown.  Seriously, clowns can sure be creepy… just reading about a character having nightmares of clowns is enough to give me nightmares of clowns, lol!

Aside from the murders, the stalkers, and the nightmares, Taylor picks up on a personal investigation to find her father who’s been missing since she was a little girl.  As if that wasn't enough stress, Taylor continues to struggle with the feelings of abandonment she's had since his disappearance.   Remembering her father as such a loving man, the reasons for his leaving never really added up.

When Taylor gets a lead on a former student of hers possibly being connected to one of her cases she crosses paths with his brother, Nick Sinclair, and the romantic tension begins.  Nick Sinclair is quite a catch.  He's a handsome, successful novelist, but Taylor won’t give him an inch when it comes to the matter of his missing, possibly stalker brother, Scott.  Nick is convinced Scott is innocent of any crimes, but Taylor is much less trusting.

There’s a lot of action that happens as it gets increasingly dangerous for Taylor to do her job.  The closer she gets to solving the case and finding her father, the farther away the truth seems.  It’s a thoroughly entertaining journey, if not a bit intense at times!  The romance aspect helps a lot for someone like me who wants a story that’s not only exciting, but heart-felt.  Taylor’s fears and doubts about her past make her a deeply believable character.  If you like a good thriller with murder, mystery, and a touch of romance, definitely ad this one to your list of books to read!

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

-Monica

March Marching on by

I came to the realization today that March is moving on by without a single post to the blog.  Yikes!  There goes that New Year’s resolution!  My apologies, I haven’t had time yet to finish my latest character sketches and reviews.

2015 has been an interesting year so far for me.  As much as I love drawing characters from books, I’ve always wanted to create my own characters and stories in some capacity.  So, in February I attended a conference for children’s TV to pitch my animated TV series ideas!  I got to share my work with execs from Disney, PBS and several international companies.  It was quite an experience.  I pushed so hard to get ready for the conference, I’ve been exhausted catching up on all the other things I ignored while getting ready.  Hard to believe it’s taken me a whole month to feel like I’ve gained my footing again!  If you’re curious about my show ideas visit:  www. Subarashiistudio.com

I’m hoping to get back on track with posting again soon!

-Monica

Gabrielle & Alec from The Alliance of Isian by Serena Clarke

In keeping with something completely different, this time I'd like to share a fantasy story with you!

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect coming in on book 2 of this fantasy series, so I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to jump right into the world without being confused, and fully immerse myself in it.  I found myself hardly putting it down during the two days I took to read it.  I do have a bent for liking fantasy, but more than anything The Alliance of Isian is a romance, and a wonderful one at that.

The focus of the story is on the relationship of Gabrielle & Alec, royals from vastly different nations, opposites in every way, joined in marriage to secure an alliance between their countries.  Although they do find each other attractive, their differing cultures, traditions, values, and habits make turning their marriage into something real and lasting a difficult endeavor.

Gabrielle wore a veil before getting married.

One of their points of contention is Gabrielle’s use of magic, which is the most prominent fantasy element (aside from a brief visit with centaurs) in the story.  Gabrielle and her people have a history of meditating and calling on elements like wind & water, willing them to move, or cause a desired effect.  Her people see magic as a tool- something that exists which could be used for good or evil, but Alec & his people have seen too many instances of magic used for evil.  His people mistrust its use, and it’s a huge hurdle for Alec to overcome and trust a woman who uses it.

“An hour later, Gabrielle exited her dressing room to find Alec sitting in a chair drumming his finger anxiously.  When she entered the room, he looked up at her and his eyes widened.  She was covered in layers of fabric, her hair was pinned around her head in small curls, and she smelled of sweet bath oils.”

She was very upset when Alec took off her veil!

Naturally, there were a few heart-wrenching moments as Gabrielle & Alec worked at their marriage, but Serena did a beautiful job of leading the reader through those moments to a triumphant, meaningful conclusion.  It was touching that even though Gabrielle & Alec wouldn’t have picked each other on their own, they both committed to making their marriage work, and were happily rewarded.

I really hope Serena is working on more stories!  Sometime I know I will enjoy reading book 1 in the series, which is about Gabrielle’s sister who has a brief appearance in this book.

Thanks for reading!

*Special thanks to Serena's mother who provided a review copy to me :)

-Monica

P.S. If you're looking for a good read over Valentine's weekend, this would be a great choice!

Mitsuo Fuchida from Wounded Tiger by T Martin Bennett

Blessings on you this Martin Luther Kind, Jr. Day!

Today I’d like to share with you a very special book from the lesser-known genre of the Nonfiction Novel.  Different from historical fiction which uses time periods and historical events as a starting point to place fictional characters in, the nonfiction novel depicts real historical people and events keeping as close to what actually happened as possible.  Conversations may be fictitious or reconstructed, but a sincere effort for historical accuracy is made while keeping the story in a novel format.

I don’t think I’d ever read a book that falls under this genre before, and I really enjoyed it.  I love history, but have always found it difficult to read nonfiction history books because they so often try to present the information in a non-biased manner, sharing the facts with as little emotion as possible.  Not so with the nonfiction novel!  Including several people’s emotions and thoughts made the events so much more relevant and memorable than if I were reading a textbook or even a biography about them.

But enough of my extolling this genre I’ve now been exposed to… on to the story!

I was excited when I first heard about this book during its kickstarter campaign, I knew it was going to be good, and I'm happy it exceeded my expectations!  I did find it difficult to read at times, especially knowing that the events really happened, the people really lived, some went through horrible things, and some died.

Taking place during WWII, Wounded Tiger weaves a tale of lives lived on both sides of the war between America and Japan.  It took me a long time to finish, just because I had to stop at certain points and let myself emotionally recover.  There are a lot of violent events, but Martin did an eloquent job of retelling them without gory details.  I let my imagination run away with me at times, and I think it was the idea, the knowledge that these atrocities happened to real people that affected me the most.

The story bounces back and forth between several people as the war progresses chronologically.  Their stories are separate, but in the end it’s revealed how they’ve all made a powerful impact on one another and the lives of their enemies.  It’s often said that God works in mysterious ways, and with the story being told through this format, I really felt like I had a God’s eye view.  I could see how he orchestrated the lives of these special people, leading some in faith to share His love at a critical time in our history, and bringing others to faith through their testimony.

The main character, and featured on the cover, is Mitsuo Fuchida.  He was a fighter pilot, naval captain and the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  His path to faith in Christ is the heart of Wounded Tiger.

Another, Jake (Sergeant Jacob DeShazer), was a “Doolittle Raider”-one of the men who lead a daring attack bombing facilities in Japan early on in the war.  His story is also one of coming to faith, and his testimony is nothing short of amazing. 

The last I’d like to mention (although there are many others) is Peggy Covell, a woman who grew up in Japan with her missionary parents.  Her story is one of keeping the faith, and loving one’s enemies even though she had every reason to hate them.

I feel like it’s taking me a lot of words to try and describe this wonderful book.  It’s a story that needed to be told, and even if it’s not in your usual genre, I highly recommend it.  The first half was a bit difficult for me to get through since I’m not usually into war stories, but by the second half I was completely hooked, and the ending truly touched my heart.  Wounded Tiger lingers with me, it’s unforgettable.

After reading the story, I did an online search on Capt. Fuchida and I didn't have to look far to find evidence that he lived out the rest of his days proclaiming Christ's love.

Of the resources I found, here are a few of my favorites:

The Pocket Testament League’s virtual Museum entry featuring one of Capt. Fuchida’s tracts: https://www.ptl.org/museum/museumpix/decade1940s/fuchida.html

Video of Capt. Fuchida on TV in 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMe3r7bM9js

(Although Merv Griffin states at the beginning that Capt. Fuchida doesn’t speak any English, Capt. 

 Fuchida proceeds to answer in English, not speaking a single word in Japanese!)

I also found an article ( http://thinkchristian.reframemedia.com/tora-tora-tora-the-testimony-of-mitsuo-fuchida) on a comic book featuring Capt. Fuchida which I looked up, and then purchased (I just couldn’t resist).  It’s a short version of Fuchida’s testimony and since this is a blog with art, I thought it would be neat to share a few image scans from it with you. 
 
 

I know that the author, Martin, did extensive research to write Wounded Tiger, and he hopes to have it made into a film one day.  His blog is also full of wonderful information and photos.

Visit: http://fuchidafilm.blogspot.com/ & http://www.woundedtigerbook.com/


 Thanks for stopping by the blog!

- Monica