Issue #9 | June 2025

On-Your-Feet Fiction

​An update from Columba Booth​

The Lord upholds all who fall, and lifts up all who are bowed down (Psalm 145:14).

Our Trip to the UK

Hi Reader!

In April, Paul and I went to the UK. It was my first time back since 1986—thirty-nine years! And my first visit to my home town, Otley, since we left in 1977.

When I was a child, the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales instilled in me a lifelong love of nature. The area is gorgeous: Green, rolling hills, dotted with woodlands and backed by heather-covered moors under clear, sunny skies (sometimes!). Charming villages. Stately old homes with showy gardens. And in spring, lambs everywhere.

We visited the Bronte parsonage museum in Haworth. Emily Bronte wrote the famous Wuthering Heights, Charlotte wrote Shirley and Jane Eyre, and Anne wrote Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

All the Bronte books are in the dark Gothic genre, which isn’t surprising considering the setting—contrasting with our sunshiny visit, the moors look mysterious beneath brooding winter skies. Under storm-lashed clouds and freezing rain, the region’s stone mansions and farmhouses have a desolate, almost haunted feel.

But it wasn’t just the setting that inspired the Bronte sisters’ Gothic slant. Their family life was heartbreaking. Two older sisters died in childhood. Their mother died shortly after they moved into the parsonage. Their brother, Brandon, died in alcoholic despair. The aunt, who moved in to care for them after the mother’s passing, also died.

Emily died of tuberculosis at thirty, followed by Anne at twenty-nine. When he passed away at eighty-four, Reverend Bronte had outlived all his family.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall explores alcoholism, abuse, and domestic violence, which shocked Victorian readers. Anne likely based her exposition on her brother’s struggles, along with the story of a local woman who had left an abusive marriage. This dark novel forced awareness of the plight of abused wives, who had no legal rights or protection.

Should today’s Christian fiction explore dark themes? Of course! We must meet people in their deepest need. Addressing dark topics and sin can showcase the light of the Gospel.

Matthew Henry’s commentary on Isaiah 43 states:

Writing News

With just a few chapters to go in Sons from Afar, I’m looking ahead to publishing options. I’ve heard that novels with dark themes are a harder sell in the Christian publishing industry, and Sons from Afar deals with child trafficking—a dark theme, although I only refer to it obliquely.

Secular publishing houses don’t want overtly Christian novels. And unlike self-publishing, both secular and Christian publishing take FOREVER from signed contract to published work. Since the subject matter is currently hot, I’m leaning toward self-publishing.

My next steps are:

• Send the manuscript to those wonderful family and friends who’ve offered to beta read it. (You know who you are—thank you!)
• Have it professionally edited and proofed.
• Get a professionally designed cover (if I self-publish).
• Launch the book (if I self-publish).

Thank you so much for your prayers for this project, and for being part of my reader community. It truly does mean the world to me that you’re here!

Prayer

Please pray with me for those who struggle with today’s dark topics. For so many, these issues are not fiction but a daily reality.

Dear Father in Heaven,

We lift up those who are struggling with today’s confusing and harmful cultural messages. May Your Word guide them into the truth about Your love. Show them who You are and why they are here. Reveal Your great, redeeming purposes for their life.

Heal them from past traumas. Reconcile relationships that lies and deception have severed. Restore the damage that destructive narratives, sin, and guilt have inflicted on families and individuals.

Please bring us all from darkness into Your glorious light.

In Christ’s name,

Amen

Life-Changing Fiction

​Hope Like Wildflowers by Pepper Basham

Pepper Basham points the reader to grace and biblical values in this Appalachian story set in the early 1900s. Pepper presents a clear picture of a godly man, contrasted with an unregenerate man who is incapable of maintaining lasting love.

Kizzy McAdams has a baby out of wedlock with the son of her employer. The story begins with devastation, but Kizzy’s journey shows how God’s love and grace can redeem our mistakes and transform our lives into something beautiful, taking us from darkness to light.

You could safely recommend this book to your teenage daughter, because Pepper presents a godly man—the type you want for a son-in-law.

A Correction

In my report, The Border and the Bible, I stated that more than 13,000 illegal immigrants who crossed the border during the Biden Administration had a prior homicide record. I later learned these individuals, who were reported on ICE’s non-detained docket in 2024, entered the US illegally during the past forty years. The same applies to more than 400,000 non-detained illegal immigrants with a criminal record. My apologies! I’ve corrected the error in the report.

Nonetheless, no one knows how many criminals crossed our border illegally during the Biden Administration. Many "gotaways" remain in the country, undetected.

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Thanks for your support! God bless you, and see you next time!

In Christ,

Columba

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