Nicole Seitz - Author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass and Trouble the Water

To sign my guestbook, please send me a note on the Contact page.

Thanks!
Nicole

~Julie A Powers , OH~ April 17, 2008

I just finished reading Trouble the Water and enjoyed it very much! I am going to be a student in the fall and enjoy writing very much. Could you suggest classes or a degree that would help me to atain my goal (writer)? Thank you for your time. Debbie

~Debbie Jerantowski , IL~ April 16, 2008

I was first attracted to your book by the cover and after reading a few pages, I knew this book was for me. It was very difficult to let the characters and I found myself thinking about them long after I finished the book. This book will definitely be recommended to my book club. I look forward to The Spirit of Sweetgrass.

~Carolyn Thompson , IL~ April 9, 2008

Nicole, just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed Trouble the Water! I'm enclosing my CFBA review for you. Thanks for a beautiful story!

"Wade in the water. God's gonna trouble the water. If you should get there before I do, God's gonna trouble the water." - Negro Spiritual

In John chapter 5, the Bible tells the story of the pool of Bethesda and the healing that would take place in the life of the first person to enter the pool after the angel would come down and trouble the water. There was a lame man lying among the sick at the pool's side unable to get into the water when the angel touched it, and it was Christ alone who could make him whole.

Honor and Alice, two of the main character's in Nicole Seitz' book Trouble the Water, are much like this lame man - unable to accept or reach out to God for healing because of the events that took place in their childhood - evil events beyond their control. Their spirits were wounded and paralyzed, unable to move toward healing and wholeness. So, in their brokenness, they go through life making a series of wrong choices suffering more and more with each passing mistreatment. The women of St. Anne's island, Dutchess, Blondell and the many Gullah women become the feet and hands that bring Honor and Alice into the life and wholeness they have longed for all of their lives.

This is a story that will haunt you long after you finish reading it. It is a story about many events in the lives of many people with seemingly very little in common. What you find out as the story progresses is that all of us are experienced one way or another with suffering, and all of us are in need of the healing that only Christ can give. However, some among us are so wounded they have to be brought to His healing through sometimes extreme and unusual circumstances.

Nicole Seitz creates characters that all but leap off the page. Her story is much like a poem to me - beautiful passages to be slowly savored mingled with funny, sad and painful passages that blend to form a beautiful picture of life, death and all the events that come between those beginning and ending points. The women in this book are like the beautiful shells that the ocean casts upon the shore: "Life, the ocean beats the cream out of them, and the ones that survive are totally remarkable." (page, 166)

Come to St Anne's island and wade into the story. God will trouble the water before you get there, and you will emerge changed.

~Kim , AL~ April 9, 2008

Our days are numbered like the seconds on a clock and when they pass, we store them away, along with the problems and grief that they held. But we are created by an artist who uses all of these days of our lives these colors, to create his masterpiece. Patiently, he waits to use these colors on his canvas, and all too often we hide them away from everyone. When we finally allow these colors to be used, or he chooses to use them despite us, he stirs them up as you would an old can of paint.

Trouble the Water catches God mid-stroke as old wounds are healed and new life begins. It is masterful storytelling that will touch anyone who has ever truly loved another.

~David , SC~ April 7, 2008

Nicole,
I did not win the contest, but I truly was waiting to read your second book. So, I went to get it from the public library. It was better than I had hoped. After three years I am still grieving the loss of my son,Tom. I have come to knoow many angels who have come into my life and continue to walk with me. I liked the symbolism of the seashells and the sand dollar. I wasn't aware of before. One of the symbols of hope that helps me is the story of the dragonfly by Walter Dudley Cavert. "The fact that we cannot see our loved ones or communicate with tem after the transformation, which we call death, is no proof that they cease to exist." I see my son's transformation in the dragonfly, my symbol of hope that we will reunite in time. Diane

~Diane Smith , WI~ April 7, 2008