A Fearful Thing Cover Reveal

The cover for episode #2 in my Dalton and Dalton Mysteries series is now ready for public viewing. Yay! Covers always add a new reality-like dimension to my stories. LOVE IT!

Publication Updates

First, To Sleep No More, my novella written under my pen name, Kathleen Marks, is now available on Nook and every other e-distributor that I'm currently aware of. It is also available in paper back at several outlets. Here is the Create Space link.

Second, I am working on the next episode in the Dalton & Dalton series, so please stay tuned. This one, like next suspense novel, Betrayed, will take place in Niagara Falls.

And speaking of Betrayed, my publisher has changed its publication date. I'll let you know when I know more.

CHANGING MY BLOG

My url host has decided to cancel its blog product, so I've transferred my most important posts over the past several years to this new blog. Unfortunately, they're all listed under June 2014, but at least they're here.

MY NEW NOVELLA AND PEN NAME (KATHLEEN MARKS) By Ronda Hinrichsen

Preternatural scientist Alexandra Dalton and her estranged husband Richard Dalton, a treasure hunter join forces to unravel a mysterious "Night Hag" murder.

Hi, everyone,

Though I will continue to write contemporary and historical suspense novels under my pen name, Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen, I will also be writing and self-publishing speculative novellas, under the pen name Kathleen Marks, for ebook and print on demand. My first novella is the beginning "episode" in a romantic suspense series titled: To Sleep No More, a Dalton & Dalton Preternatural Mystery and will be released later this month. Above is the cover and a quick blurb.

I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES By Ronda Hinrichsen

(This article was originally published on Gospel Ideals).

“I know that my Redeemer lives.” Job said it. Other prophets and apostles of both the Bible and Book of Mormon have said it, and each first Sunday of every month, numerous members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, including me, testify of it in their Fast and Testimony meetings. However, even with so many testators, millions of people ask how they can personally attain a sure knowledge that Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, does in fact live.

The answer is quite simple: Heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Ghost, will reveal it to our hearts and minds when we sincerely obey and pray to Him (Moroni 10:4-5).

This truth—this promise from God—is a process that applies to all people and in all ages of their lives. For example, a friend of mine recently asked her six-year-old niece how she knew Heavenly Father loved her. She replied that she knew Heavenly Father loved her because when she kept the commandments, He helped her. She had not only obeyed Him, but she had also recognized His hand in her life.

My first steps toward my testimony of Jesus Christ began in a similar fashion when I was a child. I no longer remember all the details surrounding such events, or even all the prayers I offered, but I do remember that every time I prayed to Him about things that were important to me at the time but now seem a bit frivolous, I recognized that He had answered me anyway. I prayed to Him for things like help in finding lost items, in providing ways to stay modest when my clothes were malfunctioning, and in achieving goals I’d spent many hours working on. In every instance, God answered those prayers in the affirmative, and each time He did, I not only knew that He had done so, but my trust and belief in Him also grew. I began to know that my redeemer lives.

But affirmative answers to my prayers are not the only reason I know God lives. I, like every person on this earth, have trials that test me almost more than I think I can bear. Many of them are ongoing, and though I have prayed for relief from them, they continue. Along that path, however, God has blessed me with tender, comforting mercies that provide a touch of balm to my soul and give me the strength to carry on.

One of those loving mercies came while I was working with young women in a spiritual activity at achurch girls’ camp. All the participants were blind-folded, given an animal sound, and told we needed to find the rest of our “family” by making the assigned sound. When we found our family members, we were to hold them close to us and ultimately complete a specific task which brought us “Home.”

As luck would have it, shortly after I found my family, I lost them again, and at the end of activity, I was a lone person in the field. At that point, someone noticed I was “lost” and sent my family to retrieve me. They did so, and finally, tearfully, I returned to home base. But I wasn’t tearful because I was embarrassed I was the last one on the field (though I slightly was); I was crying because one of Christ’s parables had suddenly become alive in me; Alone in that field, I had received an answer of comfort to one of my never-ending prayers.

The parable is found in Matthew 20:1-16. It describes how a householder hired laborers for his vineyard at varying times of the day, and at the end of the day, paid all workers the same reward. Before that activity, when I’d read that parable, I’d thought as many of the earlier-hired workers in the story had, that it wasn’t fair for those who’d worked all day to receive the same wage as those who’d worked an hour. However, as I stood alone, after all I could do on my own, and was finally rescued, I realized that parable witnesses of Christ’s mercy. I learned that it doesn't matter to Him whether we make it to God’s Kingdom first or last. What matters is that we get there. And when we get there, we’ll each receive the same reward: Eternal Life.

That answered prayer, along with many others, comforted my heart and strengthened my hope in Jesus Christ. That is how I know that my redeemer lives.

PERFECT PIE CRUST HINT by Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen

Though I've made homemade pie for years, making perfect pie crusts seemed like a goal I could never reach. I'd tried many recipes and followed several bits of' advice, but in every case, I could never move my rolled crust to the pie pan without tearing it--usually in multiple places. 

Eventually, I chose a recipe I now always use, because, in part, it promised perfect pie crusts, and one day, even though I continued to do the same things over and over again, I was going to get different results. Or so I told myself.

Finally, I had a pie-making break through: roll the dough on a piece of wax paper and move the paper to the pie pan! Ta da! It finally slipped easily into the pan, and I had a perfect pie crust! 

I'm sure there are a lot of you out there who say "Of course!" to that idea. Some of you probably even have pastry sheets. But for me, a person who didn't want to purchase a pastry sheet simply for those days I made pies, it was an answer to a life-long problem. And maybe, just maybe, it'll help someone out there. Someone like me. 

KRAKOW, POLAND PICTURES

While traveling, I always meet good and interesting people and learn fascinating facts. For instance, I hadn't known dragons were not only popular there, but also legendary. My third chapter book,The Mouth of the Dragon, takes place in Krakow, Poland during WWII and refers both to a legendary dragon and to a brave man who did what he could to protect the Jews during the holocaust. Here are a few pictures from that area.