One of the best parts of being a writer is meeting so many people with a shared passion. As varied and interesting as the books they write, every one is unique. Today, I’m visiting with an author who has traveled the world, and now splits her time between the upper Midwest and the warmer southern regions. As a lifelong educator, she finds endless opportunities for learning, and her books reflect that passion.
Delores Topliff is the author of one of my favorite Christmas books. Christmas Tree Wars uses a Hatfields and McCoy motif centering around two family-owned Christmas tree operations. Now is the perfect time to grab a copy and curl up next to your own tree for a holiday treat.
This particular author has so much to share with us. Today, I’m talking with her about a non-fiction book that is very timely, given the current situation in Israel. Let’s welcome her and learn more about this one-of-a-kind travelogue.
Jenny: Delores, I’m so excited you are here. Your new nonfiction book sounds like nothing I’ve heard of before. We’d love to know the inspiration behind this project.
Delores: A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel: Adventures, Wit, and Wisdom, is available in print, eBook, and audio. The seed for the project was planted while I was teaching in a good, small Christian college and volunteered to create a Biblical Archaeology course. I had no materials so was starting from scratch. Three weeks later, a retired biblical archaeologist unexpectedly visited our campus. Our director suggested I tell Bob Allen about my project, but I was too embarrassed. However, once he found out, he insisted on mailing me articles, books, slides, replicas, and even several genuine artifacts. When I taught the course, he flew back to attend and then insisted on giving our college $3,000 if I’d use it to spend time in Israel learning archaeology hands-on. That all happened.
Grateful to spend lengthy time there when others could not, I compiled major notes of contacts, places, and loved the experience so much I worked and saved to send myself back on eight more trips during 39 years totaling 135 days in the country. Many people asked me to plan their trips. Others asked me to share enough details of the place and people so they could feel they have also been there.
In these days when travel isn’t advisable, whether you’ve wanted to visit Israel and been unable, or been but long to return, my book’s detailed portrait lets you breathe the atmosphere and experience the facets I love most about a place and people that have changed my life—and may change yours.
Jenny: Beside traveling, what activities do you enjoy when you’re not busy writing?
Delores: I stay busy teaching online college classes and enjoying Amish friends near our Minnesota farm and genteel Southern friends when I’m in Mississippi.
Jenny: That’s an interesting contrast in lifestyles. I know all of your friends are happy to know you. What is your favorite feedback from your readers?
Delores: From a young woman who was part of my 2023 trip AND read the book, that she is determined to return one day, and that her trip there was life-changing.
Jenny: I am sure that trip would be amazing, and your book would be a great way to keep the memories alive. Back at home, what’s the most amazing thing you’ve seen in the past few days?
Delores: A congenial handyman was already scraping and repainting a bedroom ceiling when a galvanized pipe burst under my house. It turns out, he also knows plumbing so crawled under my house through mud, bought the right parts, and fixed everything within a few hours. The bedroom painting took another day but now I call Greg “St. Gregory!”
Jenny: It’s so good to have folks around who know what to do in a given situation. Thanks so much for being here today. Do you have any parting words for our readers?
Delores: If you read or listen to A Traveling Grandma’s Guide to Israel… I’d love to hear your responses. I’m so thankful for the times I’ve been able to visit Israel. I stay in close touch with longstanding Christian friends there via WhatsApp, Zoom, email, and letters. They are standing strong and shining bright in an impossibly difficult situation. I’m proud of and praying for them all.
Jenny: It’s so hard to imagine what the people in Israel are going through right now. I know I speak for my readers when I say we join with you in prayer for the people of Israel, and for their friends and families here in the U.S.
Read on to learn more about Delores. You’ll want to stay in touch, so you can read her current and future books.
Delores Topliff grew up in Washington state but married a Canadian so enjoys dual citizenship. She teaches online in a Christian university, travels, and published four children’s books and many non-fiction testimony stories before finding her stride writing four historic novels. Books Afloat, Christmas Tree Wars, Wilderness Wife, and Strong Currents have all been published since January 2021. Delores loves her two doctor sons and five grandchildren and divides her year between a central Minnesota family farm and the gentle climate and people of Northeastern Mississippi. I used to make fun of migrating snowbirds, and now I am one. 😊
Website: https://delorestopliff.com
Blog: https://delorestopliff.com/blog/
Email delores@delorestopliff.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DETopliff
Twitter: @delorestopliff
Instagram: delorese.topliff
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