I had the absolute pleasure of being the guest speaker at my church’s ladies brunch on Saturday, May 2. This is an annual event where the women of the congregation gather for brunch, fellowship, and prayer. As an author, I communicate best through the written word, so I wrote an essay to share with the group. Here’s the full text of that essay: Our story starts in everyone's favorite place: the Department of Motor Vehicles. For the past couple years, my little sister-in-law h

It wasn’t even Thanksgiving, and all the overachievers already had their Christmas decorations up. The Main Street holiday window display competition had become more cutthroat over the years, especially as fresh blood had been introduced to downtown. When Alex purchased The Melting Plot five years ago, she had only been twenty-four years old, the youngest business owner by far. But now, the owner of the salon couldn’t be more than three years out of high school, and the anti