News in my email box this morning reminds me of how fortunate I am and prompts me to do something I have never done before—use this blog space to brag about it. It’s fair, I think. After all, this website relates to my memoir, In Borrowed Houses, and so does the news, indirectly.
Aliki Barnstone has been named poet laureate of Missouri. Born in New Haven, Conn., to Greek parents, a poet father and an artist mother, Aliki has published seven books of poetry, the first when she was only twelve. She is not only a writer, but professor of English at the University of Missouri, a wife, a proud mother, and an outspoken citizen, always taking a compassionate position on political issues. She is a deeply spiritual Christian.
Let me take a moment to say “Congratulations!” to Aliki and to the state of Missouri.
Now I can point out to you that Aliki is one of seven obvious reasons to read In Borrowed Houses and recommend it to others.
- Aliki Barnstone is one of the people who wrote a pre-publication endorsement of my book. It appears just inside the front cover. Among other things, Aliki, said in her endorsement that I am “a marvelous and compelling storyteller.”
Before I buy a book by an author I don’t know, I check to see who endorsed it, simply because people with knowledge and reputations don’t put their names on shabby work. If I did not know somebody named Frances Fuller, I would trust a book endorsed by the seven outstanding people, who bothered to commend mine to readers. Aliki is one.
- Another is Jeanne Larsen, who has taught writing for 36 years at Hollins University, in one of the most famous writing programs in America. Larsen is both a novelist and a poet, author of the Silk Road trilogy and a book of poems, Why We Make Gardens. She wrote that my book is “wise, honest, sensitive, funny, heart-wrenching and compelling.”
- Then there is Colin Chapman, who lived in Beirut for years and was director of InterVarsity as well as lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology. He is the author of Whose Promised Land? which is an informative and objective view of the Arab-Israeli conflict and one of the most prominent books available on the subject. About In Borrowed Houses, Colin said that “western Christians and Middle Eastern Christians need to read this story which is full of remarkable perceptiveness and genuine hope.”
- Larry Brook is a world traveler and experienced trainer who has taught writing internationally, under the sponsorship of the David C. Cook publishing company and now in behalf of Learning on the Edge. He is well acquainted with the Middle East and with Christian publishing around the world. Larry called In Borrowed Houses “a pearl of great price.”
- Pat Alexander is a former editor of Lion Publishing in England, which has produced some of the most outstanding Christian literature of my lifetime. Some of their work, such as the Lion Handbook to the Bible is published in the U.S. by Zondervan. Pat claimed that my book is “beautifully written, the pages infused with love.”
- Bob Klausmeier is a skilled former editor of Ausgburg Fortress, a man who knows a good story when he reads it. I happen to know that he was Jan Karon’s editor and encourager before most of us knew who she was. About In Borrowed Houses, Bob said, “In these stories, Frances Fuller’s writing comes vividly alive, and we come to know Lebanon and see its grandeur and the strength and faith of its people.”
- Add to all these, Robert Reekie, co-founder and first president of Media Associates International, Inc., who wrote the foreword. It is possible that Bob Reekie knows more about Christian publishing abroad than anybody else in the world. By such simple gifts as encouragement and training he has had a powerful impact on the development of Christian literature in multiple languages and regions. Bob has visited Lebanon many times and testifies that the stories in my book “take us behind the scenes into the heart of a region of which we in the West have so little knowledge or understanding.’
This list of people and their words give me some bragging rights. Poets, editors, teachers, published authors, consultants, together they are knowledgeable about: good literature, the Middle East and its culture, editing, publishing, the Christian faith and even me and my work in Lebanon. And they all put their names on my book.
This gives me confidence to say that if you didn’t yet get your copy of In Borrowed Houses, a true story of love and faith amidst war in Lebanon, it’s time to do that.
I give to refugee relief 10% of all income on purchases made from any of the purchase sites on this website. Also you may order from me by email, frances0516@att.net. I mail signed copies for $20 plus postage.