The name Bethany means “bright city set on a hill.” Bethany hopes her writing will be just that-her words of hope and beauty a bright gathering place and her words of longing a signpost to Heaven’s future glories.

She started the Wild Rose Journal with a vision to encourage hurting and broken people to open their eyes to the beauty in life, the hope in Heaven, and the little joys filling the space between.

Bethany is seventeen and lives in a Minnesotan paradise, where she enjoys winter with her Great Pyrenees, thirty-some chickens, and an ever-changing amount of cats. Her family does not all share her enthusiasm for snow, but they all live happily together (many healthy snacks being the unchallenged secret to eternal familial peace.)

For the last five years, Bethany has fought several debilitating chronic illnesses, which forced her to limit schoolwork, social gatherings, and physical activity. A few years ago, she was finally appropriately diagnosed with Lyme’s disease and multiple coinfections, complications, and side effects. Through this time she has suffered deeply, at one point despairing of life and fighting severe depression. Yet God taught her deep truths as she wandered through the wasteland, and she is grateful for the opportunity to share the lessons she’s learned.

Bethany is currently enjoying her last year of high school. She is very grateful to her mother-and-teacher who purchased books enough to fill a small library and in so doing, fostered Bethany’s love of words.

Bethany loves holing up in her nook to pen stories, essays, and poems galore. When she isn’t there, she can be found covered in insect repellent in the woods, singing as she washes dishes, bakes, gardens, draws, folds laundry, (or just about anything-Bethany sings too much.)

Three things Bethany used to detest: poetry, schedules, and piano. Now she named her piano Elizabeth, reads poetry voraciously, and attempts to schedule her life.

Bethany is currently outlining her first full-length novel and preparing an ebook of essays and poems. She keeps in touch with fellow sufferers and beauty-lovers via her email newsletter. Become her email friend here: http://eepurl.com/c3MrqP You’ll recieve free ebooks, prayer requests and updates about writing, and exclusive content. But most of all, you’ll join a family who supports her writing.