The trilogy The Winslow Breed serves as a prequel to the author’s highly successful House of Winslow series. As the Sparks Fly Upward is the final book in the trilogy. Young Colin Winslow grows up feeling altogether different from the rest of his family. Not bold and rough like his charismatic brother, Adam, or headstrong and spoiled like his sister, Adara, he is a gentle soul with a special love for natural things. His interest in animals, medicine, and healing brings him in contact with a strange woman who lives in the woods, Meg Caradoc. She teaches him the fine art of using a variety of herbs to quell sickness and pain. When Colin studies at Oxford, an eccentric but brilliant professor, Dr. Phineas Teague, guides the young man to a career in medicine. The formal knowledge Professor Teague imparts, combined with knowledge of Meg's herbal remedies, make Colin an insightful and successful doctor—one with the approving eye of Queen Elizabeth on him. Colin’s skill quickly earns him many patients, some highly placed in the courts of both his queen and her sister Mary Queen of Scots. This once shy and uncertain young man finds himself in the midst of court intrigue and a key player in quelling assassination plots and passing vital information to the queen’s court. When Colin faces his most difficult case—curing the wounds his brave brother suffered in battle—he must confront his attraction to Adam’s wife, his unsteady faith in God, and his command of medicine: will he abandon his noble role and succumb to temptation, or will he take his place as the new hero of the Breed of Winslow?

Few of those Philippa loves in London return her affection. Not the love of her life, who has a new bride. Not even her widowed mother, Makepeace Burke. So Philippa decides on a marriage of convenience to a prudish, if kind, man. Across the Channel in France, the Reign of Terror is causing the beheading of thousands from the French nobility. Among those in danger is Philippa's friend, the Marquis de Condorcet. Not only has Philippa the means of rescuing him from the guillotine, she's got the courage. And as fate would have it, Philippa will find love where she least expects it-while staring death in the face.

A young man finds his calling as a doctor in Queen Elizabeth’s court in this Christian historical trilogy finale—a prequel to the House of Winslow series. Neither bold and rough like his brother, Adam, nor headstrong and spoiled like his sister, Adara, young Colin Winslow is a gentle soul with a special love for natural things. His interest in animals and healing brings him in contact with Meg Caradoc, a strange woman who lives in the woods, and teaches him the fine art of herbal medicine. At Oxford, an eccentric but brilliant professor, Dr. Phineas Teague, guides Colin toward a medical career. This formal training, combined with Meg’s herbal remedies, makes Colin an insightful and successful doctor—one with the approving eye of Queen Elizabeth. Colin’s skill quickly earns him many patients, some highly placed in the courts of both his queen and her sister, Mary Queen of Scots. Soon, this once shy young man finds himself amid court intrigue, acting covertly on the queen’s behalf. When Colin faces his most difficult case—curing the wounds his brave brother suffered in battle—he must confront his attraction to Adam’s wife, his unsteady faith in God, and the limits of his ability to heal.

When on our path we experience suffering and pain, trials and temptations, and all the other worldly and spiritual tornadoes and calamities, how do we keep calm, carry on, and trust in God to keep us steady? And how do we walk in faith when we face doubts about unanswered prayers and delays in God’s will? In As Sparks Fly Upwards: Weathering the Storms of Life, author and pastor Michael Carr invites his fellow believers to have faith in the provision of God in necessity, in the peace of God in perplexity, in the praise of God in adversity, and in the purity of God amidst iniquity. Writing from the pain and suffering of nursing his sick wife for forty-seven years—a woman whose life was a miracle of longevity—he has gathered together his writings and sermons during those five decades where he dealt with and explained what weathering the storms of life really means for a Christian—handling the hard task of life joyfully and with praise to God. By walking in faith and being undergirded by omnipotence, we can prevail over circumstances that we think are too great, too deep, and too challenging—“for greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” Life in God should not be more than we can handle, but it should be all that we can handle and that is the right handle to grasp.

Literature from mainstream and alternative American periodicals, including fiction, nonfiction, screenplays, television writing, and alternative comics.