title: The Touchstone Diary: The Red Thread
author:  Connie Bickman 
description: Connie Bickman has been a writer and photographer since she can remember and still has the old Brownie camera her parents gave her as a child. She says writing and photography are in her blood, referring to 15 years of owning a portrait studio and a 30-plus-year newspaper career, which began at her hometown newspaper. This includes an eleven year period where she was the co-owner/publisher/editor of Turtle River Press, a publication of spiritual and creative energy. She has been published internationally in books and magazines, and has won regional and international awards for her photography and writing. Her Tribe of Women book received the 1999 Jeanette Fair Tau State Minnesota Womens Writer Award. Connie shares that her passion for travel has brought her to over 40, mostly under-developed, countries. She packed along her journals and camera as these photojournalist-based travels brought her to far corners of the earth in search of adventure and the opportunity to document native cultures, the environment and humanitarian issues. It was through these journeys that she realized misconceptions she had about the foundation of organized religion and how oftentimes people in other countries and cultures had much different perspectives on not only Christianity and conflicting biblical translations, but also on the original concept of the Christ story itself. This began years of research and scrutiny to satisfy her own uncertainties, which brought her to disclose her findings in her novel, The Touchstone Diary, a fiction-based-on-historical-events family saga series. Book II of "The Touchstone Diary" series will also be released in 2012, and book III in 2013. Other books by Connie Bickman :  Tribe of Women, published by New World Library, focusing on the spiritual aspect of her journeys, including photography and excerpts from her journals on encounters with bush doctors in Belize, shaman in the Amazon jungles of Peru, witch doctors in Africa, and Aboriginal elders in Australia.  Through the Eyes of Children, published by Rock Bottom Books, Abdo and Daughter, a series of ten educational children's books for schools and libraries on the everyday lifestyles of children around the world, which includes photography from travels to Australia, Tanzania, Russia, Mexico, Israel, Peru, Turkey, Egypt, Nepal and Equador.
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  # Table Of Contents
  
  
  [Mary Roberts Rhinehart and Avery
  Hopwood](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos4611)
  
  >
  
  
  [CHAPTER ONE](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos4706)  
  [THE SHADOW OF THE BAT](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos4772)  
  [CHAPTER TWO](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos24075)  
  [THE INDOMITABLE MISS VAN GORDER](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos24141)  
  [CHAPTER THREE](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos48137)  
  [PISTOL PRACTICE](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos48205)  
  ["MISS DALE, FOR THE DEAR LOVE O' GOD WILL YOU MAKE HER PUT IT
  AWAY?"](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos60155)  
  [CHAPTER FOUR](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos69244)  
  [THE STORM GATHERS](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos69311)  
  [CHAPTER FIVE](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos89071)  
  [ALOPECIA AND RUBEOLA](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos89139)  
  [CHAPTER SIX](The%20Bat_split_003.html#filepos113081)  
  [DETECTIVE ANDERSON TAKES CHARGE](The%20Bat_split_003.html#file