From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Dear friend, Just a quick message this week. I hope you are well. I'm neck-deep in revisions for Me, Myself, and IT. Pray for me. This week I experienced a cool interconnection of real life and fiction when my husband introduced a new song to the church congregation. Kyrie Eleison. It's so beautiful! I will record it and share it in the upcoming weeks. If you don't know, the phrase means, Lord have mercy in Greek. The...
8 days ago • 3 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Dear friend, I hope you had a great Easter. I was born on Palm Sunday, and this year Palm Sunday was a day before my birthday. It's a fun thing to have a birthday near Easter. I hope you had a chance to read Memento Mori message from last week. Get some tissues. This week begins the Theme Song Tournament.... Whisper Hope Tournament I wrote a song for the upcoming CrossFall trilogy. It's called Whisper Hope (aka Deep Calls...
15 days ago • 2 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Happy Easter Reader ! He is risen...indeed! Death Where is thy Sting? My hard-to-find novel, Tim Reynolds, Detective: The Death of Noah Black takes place in Portsmouth, Maine. The choice of location stems from a tragedy that happened there in 1798 that impacted my life permanently. It was the loss of parents Temperance and Seth Walker. I did a bunch of research when I first heard their story--and some day I have a mind to...
21 days ago • 3 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Hi again Reader ! In my daytime life, I'm a pastor's wife in Izmir, Turkey. We are in the middle of a huge building project where we are designing and renovating a building to create an outreach-ministry center. This week, when I visited its neighborhood, my friends and I discovered another curious project. On the street behind our new ministry center is a row of old Italian homes, from the Ottoman times (above) According...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Greetings and Salutations Reader-- Sometimes, when you're trying your very darndest to do well at playing the game of life--the softball hits you in the face. ⚾️ 🤷♀️ Shrug. That's the way life is. I was horrified when two beta readers pointed out a blaring plot hole in Vera's story (Me, Myself, and IT). One beta reader was so kind as to speak harsh-honestly about this. Reading his evaluation, I was so very sad. I hadn't...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Hello to March! And hello to you Reader! I have a special treat for you today--a short autobiographical story I wrote about a life-changing experience I had as a little girl in Japan. It's a bit sensitive, showing parts of my character I sure can't shake. But it was quite formative. If I hadn't survived, you wouldn't be getting this email today. Click for a free pdf download of HERUPU May you feel Gods' grace and mercy...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Hi again Reader! I'm not sure why, but I have trouble using the word "The End" at the end of a story. First of all, it should be clear that the story is over, right? The last lines of a book should already reflect an ending without those two words. But when I write a story, the character and I form a bond. Maybe the reason I have trouble ending a book with "The End" is that for me neither they nor their story is truly...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Greetings Reader! We've been in the midst of a torrent of rain here in Izmir--great for the olive trees, apricot trees, and grapevines, but terrible for the dogs. This is the second greatest rainfall in 88 years of recorded measurement. I calculated the other day to learn that there has been a total of about 1.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools full of water dumped on our farm since the beginning of the year. Wet and rainy,...
2 months ago • 2 min read
From the Desk of Darlene N. Böcek Faith-building Sci-fi Fantasy Stories Greetings Reader! Sometimes the world is confusing. News breaks our heart. I think they specifically choose what is 'news-worthy' by how it will make us feel B-A-D. I've been reading through the Psalms and Psalm 10 really impacted me in light of certain wickedness that has been recently publicly exposed. It asks, "Where are you, God, when difficulty comes on the weak and powerless?" but as it reflects on the wicked man's...
2 months ago • 5 min read