Welcome to my Substack!

I’ve got a book written!

It’s called Praying with the Psalmists: Open Your Heart Using Patterns from Psalms in Your Prayers, and it’s a complete study of Psalms, made personal.

After all, sometimes you need a Lament. Praying with the Psalmists shows you how to pray Laments, Wisdom Psalms, Thanksgiving Psalms, and seven other types of Psalms by following the examples of the psalmists.

I have memorized the entire book of Psalms, beginning in childhood, so Psalms have been the soundtrack of my life.  When I needed to put my life back together in a new place after my husband left me, Psalms of Trust helped me cope.  When I lost the librarian job I’d recently landed after getting my Master’s in Library Science, Laments helped me pray.  When my adult transgender daughter had her life threatened simply walking around her neighborhood, Messianic Psalms helped me see the big picture.  And years later, when I could see how God worked things out beautifully over time and I got to serve on the Newbery Medal Selection Committee, Salvation History Psalms helped me praise God with a new perspective.  In each chapter, I tell part of my story, encouraging readers to turn to Psalms with their own trials and triumphs.

I am still seeking a publisher for this book, and I’ve been told it would be good to increase my platform. I’ve been writing Christian material online for years, but it’s scattered in three places:

My main website, Sonderbooks.com, features more than 3,000 book reviews, with more than 100 of them Christian nonfiction.

On my Sonderquotes blog, I’ve got inspirational quotations, taken mostly from reading Christian nonfiction.

And on my Sonderjourneys blog, I’ve got more in-depth writings, including many prayers written using patterns from Psalms, a series about why churches should welcome and affirm transgender people, a series called A Universalist Looks at the New Testament, devotional thoughts, and my life story as told when I was 52 years old in Project 52.

Now that Substack has a notes feature, which may be a good substitute for my old Twitter addiction, I’ve decided to pull my Christian writings into one place and post links here.

So in the future, when I post Christian content on my Sonderbooks website in one of those places, I’ll post a link here. If you think you might be interested in my book on that future day when it gets published, you can come with me on my journey to get there by subscribing to this substack. And read some thoughts on faith along the way.

I’m going to keep subscriptions free - I do work full-time and am currently serving on an award committee, so I’ll post when I’m able. I will be super happy to get my words and thoughts out there to a wider community, and I do hope that many of you will talk back and interact with me.

So, here’s to the adventure, and the launching of Sondermusings!

PS: Sonder is a German prefix meaning “special.” I was delighted when I discovered this. I’m still not sure if I’ve hit on the right Substack name, but I’m already using Sonderjourneys.

PPS: Today (7/1/2023) I made an Info page on Sonderbooks for navigating all my content from 22 years of writing. Take a look!