Hello, dear friend. It's Laura, author of The Fralsningdor Chronicles.

Join me for a cup of tea at my writing nook in Wyoming!

📝 Writing updates

Operation Chatterbox's first draft is at 50% 🥳

I am definitely feeling the nitpicky urdge to go back and edit everything right now. I usually get about halfway through a book, then lose my grounding and start back at the beginning to reorient myself.

But this manuscript (with all its dictation flaws) is a mess, which is forcing me to forge ahead.

It's making me a little crazy. But also, you're welcome, because it means the book is getting done way faster!

📚 God planned us a book club

Jane Austen, King Solomon, and the Holy Spirit walk into a coffee shop...

My Wednesday Bible study is made up of some of my very favorite people in the world.

We study hard, we play hard, and we are involved in every single thing happening in each other's lives in the best way. We are similar in all the things that matter (theology, schooling philosophy, and unhinged humor), and very different in everything else. It makes for a blend of voices that both hypes you up and pushes back, encouraging and laughing and calling out sin in equal measure.

Wednesday nights are some of my favorite nights.

In the winter, we go verse by verse through books of scripture, and have been known to set timers for ourselves because a couple of verses might take us — no joke — four hours to discuss. My friends and family know that, barring an emergency, I am unavailable on Wednesday nights from 6:30pm until... honestly, it could be 10:30pm or it could be 1:30am. We meet at an adorable coffee shop owned by one of the gals at our church, and only leave once we can't keep our eyes open anymore. This is the way.

But summertime is breezy and loose and everyone is popping in and out as we all take turns going on vacation. So in the summertime, we take it easy. (Still late nights, but we approach study in a way that would be slightly less frightening to strangers.)

And this summer? God planned us a book club. Let me explain.

My friend Cailin has been asking the girls to read Persuasion by Jane Austen, for... ever, probably? As women who largely educate our children via classical literature, you'd think we all would have read it already. You’d be wrong.

But this summer, we decided to read it together.

Twenty-four chapters. Two chapters a week. Just right for June–August.

But obviously, we still needed a book of scripture to discuss! This is still Bible Study after all.

We'd done Psalms and minor prophets and 1 Corinthians and Proverbs and 1 John and The Screwtape Letters (not scripture, but WOW I cannot reccomend it enough — Lewis really puts a magnifying glass over your sin). And in church we'd recently studied Genesis and Colossians and 1 Peter and Zechariah. Hmmm... what to choose. 🤔

So I did what all serious scholars do — I suggested we look up how many chapters are in each book of the Bible. Maybe we could find one with twenty-four chapters. Or twelve? Something that would line up with our Persuasion reading schedule.

I know, I KNOW! 🫣

It feels cringe, maybe even a little sacrilegious. Especially because the chapter and verse breaks aren't even original to the text. But you guys — it's the BIBLE. The infallible word of God in ink on paper. It's not like you can pick a bad book to read.

And then, there it was. Ecclesiastes. Twelve chapters of angsty, delicious, biblical philosophy.

SOLD.

So we ordered our copies of Persuasion and eagerly waited for summer while we finished working through our biblical archeology study.

Finally it was time.

We studied Ecclesiastes on our own at home, then met and read it in person, popcorning all over the chapter as we discussed and debated various verses and their implications.

Vanity, everything is vanity. (Fun fact, the Hebrew word more literally means something like "vapor," which I find fascinating.)

Then we opened Persuasion to read the first two chapters out loud together (with various girls assigned to voice different characters because we are nothing if not whimsical).

AND YOU GUYS.

The opening chapters of Persuasion are all about vanity. We were delighted and gobsmacked — even those who had read Persuasion and studied Ecclesiastes before hadn't made the connection of how perfectly they're paired.

I swear the Holy Spirit was probably waiting like this for weeks until we noticed what He'd done.

What I've learned from this is three-fold:

1. Jane Austen totally could have used Ecclesiastes as a comp title if that was a thing back then.
2. If you want to host a classical literature X Bible book club — which I would highly reccomend — start with Persuasion by Jane Austin and Ecclesiastes by King Solomon.
3. God actually, genuinely, truly delights in being part of the little things in our lives. He knows my Wednesday study loves classical literature. He knows we're all a little burnt out by June from homeschooling our kids, and could really use a strong dose of fun. So when His bookish daughters decided they wanted to have book club for the summer, I like to think He smiled. Becuase He certainly planned us one.

📜 The Hidden Scroll cover reveal

Today I have an extra special treat for all you mamas out there — and really for anyone who loves a gripping, Christian, middle grade, portal fantasy adventure!

I am so excited to join in on the cover reveal for The Hidden Scroll: Of Ink and Fire by J.T. Harris, releasing September 22, 2026.

I had the absolute pleasure of reading this book early, and YOU GUYS. 🤯 It is absolutely amazing. So amazing that I want to secure airship passage to Fabella right away!

The Hidden Scroll is the first in a series, and will be releasing in ebook, paperback, and hardcover. Ebook preorders are coming soon!

And now, without further ado...

Come to Fabella, where words may be the deadliest weapons of all.

After her family mysteriously went missing, fourteen-year-old Keziah was left alone with no other relatives except her aunt. The only clues to her family’s disappearance are in the journal hidden within her father’s old desk. Keziah is desperate to find her missing family, and her father’s notebook hints at another place–a realm world. She’s convinced her missing family is in that otherworld and is searching for a way to get there. When her aunt declares she’s selling her family’s bookshop, Keziah’s world comes crashing around her, until one day she collides with Nash and they are plunged into the foreign realm of Fabella.

In a place that shouldn’t exist, Keziah and Nash are arrested as runaway pirates. After convincing their captors they aren’t criminals, Keziah and Nash are discovered to be part of the remnant to find the hidden scrolls, as foretold by the script. Now they must be protected at all costs, agreeing to be escorted from the realm by a ragtag airship crew.

They are on the run from the empire mercenaries and forced into a treacherous labyrinth where ruthless airship pirates await, seeking a poetic key locked in Keziah’s mind. The only clues on how to use the hidden words lay coded in her father’s notebook. The words wait deep inside Keziah, words that could either bring power or disaster to those around her. But Nash has his own set of secrets, too.

The truth could mean life or death–and the lurking shadows are closing in.

Until next time! Yours from the trenches of drafting,

💚 Laura

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