How is it November?
Dear ,
It feels like I blinked, and this year is almost over. Although, I think my nose appreciates the fact we're in the last month of spring--hay fever is not nice. But my eyes will miss the pretty roses in my garden, the butterfly which landed on the path by my doorstep one day, and the Rosella which stole the show at dinner the other day when we all kept watching him wandering around the lawn eating the grass seeds.
Speaking of gardens, I finished reading through the Bible, and I'm back at the beginning again with the Garden of Eden. This time I decided to create a timeline. I've done this before, but I went even farther this time through the family tree.
I figured out that Adam (if I did my maths right) met everyone in the family tree except Noah and his sons. Which made me realize that he would have seen quite a lot of the world's descent into 'only evil continually'. Yes, the flood technically happened about 700 odd years after Adam died (which is about a 2/3 of Adam's lifespan), but he was still alive when Noah's dad was born. Which kind of boggles my mind and made me a little sad.
What a heavy burden that must have been for Adam to watch all his children, and children's children turn to sin.
Yet on the flip side, Adam was alive and got to see Enoch walking with God, although Adam died about 50ish years before Enoch walked with God and was no more. But I wonder what that felt like? Pride, joy, and sadness maybe? Because once Adam had walked with God like that. It must have given him both pleasure and pain to see Enoch sharing that closeness with God that Adam once had.
And yet, so few of Adam's children walked with God at all.
I remember my dad talking once about David's burden after his sin with Bathsheba. Although David repented of his sin, the consequences of what he did destroyed his house. So much sin entered into his family because of what he did.
Sometimes, I think we can assume that one little choice won't affect that much, and while we may say that David's sin wasn't 'little', Adam's sin by comparison does seem little. He just ate the forbidden fruit, but look what happened to the world because of that one not-so-little-after-all choice!
I mean my son decided to swing his arm like a pinwheel the other day and accidently overloaded his hand with blood. Many of the capillaries in his skin broke, and he almost had like an allergic reaction thing going on. His hand was stiff and red. He could barely close it. Within half an hour, it was much improved and almost back to normal. Within an hour, the over-all colour was fine and movement no longer restricted, but the bright red dots from the broken blood vessels remained for days.
One "little" choice.
So, yes, I've been pondering the power of a choice. And I've been making a lot of choices in the last month. Both with my next story and my personal life. So, without further ado, let's get talking about what's going on with my stories.
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Your Vote - RESULTS
Last month, I asked if you wanted me to write a Christmas novella next year, and you said... YES!
It was a landslide vote for me to write The Captains' Christmas Surprise. So, I'll continue writing Celeste's story for now, and then I'll also write the Christmas novella sometime next year. If you missed it, this was the premise of the Christmas novella:
The Captains' Christmas Surprise
She gave up the love of her life to save a little boy. He sacrificed his home, his livelihood, his reputation, and any chance of a future with her to help.
33 years later, they aren't the daring youths they once were, but is there one more miracle left this Dutch Christmas of 1815 to give them a second chance at a happily ever after?
The Captains' Christmas Surprise will be coming either late October or early November next year, Lord willing. Thank you for voting!
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Celeste's story - Pick the hero's horse
Speaking of voting on things... I have been neck-deep in research and absolutely enjoying myself. And FYI, I am learning things I never noticed in school! Some of those things will make it into my 'Catching the Past' segments in time, but for now, let's just say that I've found my family. I know who my hero is. I'm still tracking down his history and his culture. And I'm still working out the story for the secondary characters because I have 2 romances going on in this book. :)
I also found a place that tells me what the weather was like during my storyline, and there were some significant weather events in the winter of 1795, which I'm totally going to use for the story. But before we get too far, I need to know what the hero's horse looks like.
Our hero's horse is a Highland pony, but the hero would have called it a garron. It's smaller than a normal horse and stockier, but it's usually bigger than what we might picture a pony today. FYI, it was possible for an adult to ride garrons most of the time. It just depended on the horse, and obviously, my hero's horse will be ridable. Just a very distinctive, odd-looking horse to those in London.
It also has some peculiar needs for its breed, which I plan to use in the story too. But this is what I want you guys to decide. What colour is his horse?
Your choices are:
A - Black
B - Dun
C - Grey
D - Seal Brown
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Writers with Dienece - Allyson Koekhoven
On the blog I didn't fully spill the beans about how Allyson's book connects to mine, but I will say this to you guys: If you've read my book, do you remember the leopard attack and the kid John saved? Well, little Hennie grew up, kept the leopard's tooth, had kids, and you'll read about his descendants and the family heirloom of the leopard's tooth in The Doctor's Burden!
Oh, and I read her book in less than 24 hours. It was SOOO good. It's Women's Fiction, but there is also a little bit of romance. :) I really felt like I was driving down the road with the girl in the opening chapter and for every chapter after that. It was a special read.
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Writers with Dienece - Jilly du Plessis
Jilly du Plessis writes romantic comedy, and after laughing so much through my interview with her, I know exactly why she does! She's hilarious, and I had such a blast.
I just finished reading her book on Tuesday, and there is a beautiful scene where she includes a letter that John and Anneke's son Herbert wrote to his wife when he was on a business trip. The couple from Jilly's book find it while looking through an old trunk in the historic Smit Homestead's attic. It was just so beautiful!!!! And Jilly hadn't told me that she planned to put that in there, so it was such a sweet easter egg to find!
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Public breakfasts
Did you know that Georgians could go out to eat for breakfast? And I don't mean at a pub or the coffeehouse (although they could do those).
I'm talking about a full-on, public event where one attends to see and be seen either in a public garden or by special invitation to someone's house.
What did they eat at these breakfasts? From the snippets of first-hand accounts I've read in blogs, it seems those who attended (particularly Sydney Gardens) ate a lot of carbs, including cakes and rolls with preserves and butter. The breakfast party at someone's private home could include a good selection of cold meats as well as ices and fruit.
Now, here's an interesting bit. According to Donna Fletcher Crow, breakfast was the meal most people went out for in the Regency period! And here I've only read about dinner parties in books, so that was news to me.
Jane Austen said the Sydney Gardens across the street from their Bath lodging in 1801 had a breakfast every morning. I can't quite pin down when people might attend this public breakfast, although it's possible that it wasn't a set time. Just whenever you wanted to go.
There was one blog that talked about a particular 'public' breakfast thrown by a Duke and Duchess. FYI, it was not public at all and strictly by invitation only, but it began around 10am and lasted until 4pm on a Sunday. The fact it was held on a Sunday really intrigued me as there were some very strict rules about what you could and could not do on a Sunday, although royalty were excluded from these rules. I'll include a link down below for that breakfast party.
Anyway, I found that all rather fascinating as I'd never read about public breakfasts before, and Donna attended such a breakfast in Bath (although in a private home rather than the Sydney Gardens). She shared pictures of the event too. A link to her blog is at the end of this, I highly recommend you check it out for the photos and info!
Unfortunately, I didn't get to borrow Jane Austen's Letters from the library to read that bit myself, but here are a few links to people who've done a bit more study on this then I have:
Donna's 'public' breakfast experience: https://donnafletchercrow.com/p/538/Day-8-Starting-the-Day-right-with-A-Very-Private-Public-Breakfast
This one is about Syndey Gardens: https://janeausten.co.uk/blogs/regency-history/sydney-gardens-bath
The Duke and Duchess's breakfasts is here: https://historyofparliament.com/2026/09/03/chiswick-house/
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that. Did you know that people could go out for breakfast in the Georgian and Regency Eras?
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Oh, and just before we finish today. I didn't stop creating a timeline with Adam in Genesis. I crunched a few other things and realized that Noah was alive when the Tower of Babel happened. And if I did my maths right, Abraham was 56 years old when Noah died. They might have met, and I wonder if Noah lived in Ur? Because it was 15ish years after Noah's death that God called Abraham out of Ur.
Shem was born after God told Noah to build the Ark, so he spent his whole life with the world thinking his dad was a nutjob. Can you imagine that? According to the ages given in the records, that was almost 100 years.
Anyway, I just find it interesting sometimes to do the math and figure out who could have potentially met whom, and who saw what in their lifetime in the Bible.
But we're finishing up today. So, I'd better let you go. :)
FYI, this may be the end of this newsletter, but it's NOT THE END for this month. I have a special surprise happening at the end of the month. So, please, keep an eye on your inbox. There will be another time sensitive newsletter you won't want to miss coming on the 27th!
Until next time, have fun reading!
God Bless,
Dienece Darling
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Books with Dienece
Looking for something to read?
Check out these clean and Christian romances!
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Congrats Linnae on your debut release!
The Spark of Brindle Brackenhue is part of the Ember and Vine anthology which just released on November 3rd. I haven't read the full anthology, but I did read this short story. I liked how the issue got resolved in the end. I thought Linnae came up with a fun way to resolve it!
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Would you like to win this original watercolour?
Coming up later this month (during that other surprise I mentioned before), there will be an opportunity for someone to win this gorgeous original artwork by Deryn van der Tang. You'll need to be on Facebook and a member of the Our House Reader's Group. Then keep an eye out for the giveaway post from Nov. 27th-29th.
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Books by Dienece
Hearts Unknown (Clarence and Edith)
A Heart to Treasure (Obadiah and Eliza)
The Enemy's Sister (John and Anneke)
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