Today's book is
With This Ring -- Promises To Keep
by
Joanna Weaver.
You may recognize her name; Joanna is the author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (which will be reviewed here on June 17). The book is published by WaterBrook Press.
This is a beautiful book with high quality, journal-style paper. Joanna has combined the traditional wedding vows with historical information about the vows, quotes about marriage, and insightful pictures into the realities of marriage. She has included thought-provoking questions (with space to journal answers) that allow the reader to revisit the loving relationship that resulted in her marriage covenant. The examples and stories she includes in the book are wonderful glimpses into real-life marriages with their joys and struggles.
This book is perfect for new brides, but is also a wonderful walk down memory lane for those of us who have been married a LONG time!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A beautiful celebration of the promises
that bind two hearts forever.
Centered on the traditional wedding vows, this exquisite keepsake book celebrates the beauty, delight, and mystery of married love.
Soul-stirring quotes and inspiring stories illuminate the history and deeper meaning behind each aspect of the wedding ceremony, from the betrothal pledge of “Will you be mine?” to the declaration of two hearts eternally united as one. The elegant design includes space to record treasured memories, shared dreams, and meaningful reflections.
With unforgettable insights on sacred love, With This Ring creates a personal treasury of romance and devotion, perfect for anyone preparing to exchange vows, celebrating a marital milestone, or simply wanting to recapture the beauty of the promises they share as husband and wife.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joanna Weaver was voted the Most Promising New Writer of 1997 at the Mount Herman Writer’s Conference. She has authored Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and written for publications such as Focus on the Family, Home Life, Aspire, and The Evangel. A pastor’s wife for more than eighteen years, she and her husband have counseled many couples, both those approaching their wedding and those struggling in marriage. The Weavers live in Montana and have taught young married classes and spoken on the topic of marriage throughout the northwestern United States.
You can purchase this book at Amazon, and you can learn more about Joanna and her books on her blog.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
With This Ring
Thursday, May 22, 2008
TEEN FIRST: House of Dark Shadows
It's May 21st, time for the Teen FIRST blog tour!(Join our alliance! Click the button!) Every 21st, we will feature an author and his/her latest Teen fiction book's FIRST chapter!
Thomas Nelson (May 6, 2008)
Robert Liparulo is an award-winning author of over a thousand published articles and short stories. He is currently a contributing editor for New Man magazine. His work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Travel & Leisure, Modern Bride, Consumers Digest, Chief Executive, and The Arizona Daily Star, among other publications. In addition, he previously worked as a celebrity journalist, interviewing Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Charlton Heston, and others for magazines such as Rocky Road, Preview, and L.A. Weekly. He has sold or optioned three screenplays.
Robert is an avid scuba diver, swimmer, reader, traveler, and a law enforcement and military enthusiast. He lives in Colorado with his wife and four children.
Here are some of his titles:
Comes a Horseman
Germ
Deadfall
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
—Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Prologue
Thirty years ago
The walls of the house absorbed the woman’s screams, until they felt to her as muffled and pointless as yelling underwater. Still, her lungs kept pushing out cries for help. Her attacker carried her over his shoulder. The stench of his sweat filled her nostrils. He paid no heed to her frantic writhing, or the pounding of her fists on his back, or even her fingernails, which dug furrows into his flesh. He simply lumbered, as steadily as a freight train, through the corridors of the big house.
She knew where they were heading, but not where she would end up. In this house, nothing was normal, nothing as it appeared. So while she knew in advance the turns her attacker would take, which hallways and doors he would traverse, their destination was as unknowable as a faraway galaxy. And that meant her taking would be untraceable. She would be unreachable to searchers. To would-be rescuers. To her family— and that realization terrified her more than being grabbed out of her bed. More than the flashes of imagined cruelty she would suffer away from the protection of the people who loved her. More than death.
But then she saw something more terrifying: her children, scrambling to catch up, to help. Their eyes were wide, streaming. They stumbled up the narrow staircase behind her attacker, seeming far below, rising to meet her. The thought of them following her into the chasm of her fate was more than she could stand.
“Go back,” she said, but by this time her throat was raw, her voice weak.
The man reached the landing and turned into another corridor.
Temporarily out of sight, her son yelled, “Mom!” His seven-year-old voice was almost lost in the shrillness of his panic. He appeared on the landing. His socked feet slipped on the hardwood floor and he went down. Behind him, his little sister stopped. She was frightened and confused, too young to do anything more than follow her brother. He clambered up and started to run again.
A hand gripped his shoulder, jarring him back.
The boy’s father had something in his fist: the lamp from his nightstand! He past the boy in the hallway. His bare feet gave him traction.
Thank God, she thought.
He reached her in seconds. With the lamp raised over his head, he grabbed her wrist. He pulled, tried to anchor himself to the floor, to the carpeted runner now covering the wood planks. But the brute under her walked on, tugging him with them. The man yanked on her arm. Pain flared in her shoulder. He might as well have tried pulling her from a car as it sped passed.
She caught a glimpse of the bizarrely shaped light fixtures on the corridor walls—mostly carved faces with glowing eyes. The bulbs flickered in time with her racing heart. She could not remember any of the lights doing that before. It was as though the electrical current running through the wires was responding to a disruption in the way things were supposed to be, a glitch in reality.
“Henry,” she said, pleading, hopeful.
His grip tightened as he stumbled along behind them. He brought the lamp’s heavy base down on her assailant. If the man carrying her flinched, she did not feel it. If he grunted or yelled out, she did not hear it.
What he did was stop. He spun around so quickly, the woman’s husband lost his grip on her. And now facing the other direction, she lost sight of him. Being suddenly denied her husband’s visage felt like getting the wind knocked out of her. She realized he was face to face with the man who’d taken her, and that felt like watching him step off a cliff.
“Nooo!” she screamed, her voice finding some volume. “Henry!”
His hand gripped her ankle, then broke free. The man under her moved in a violent dance, jostling her wildly. He spun again and her head struck the wall.
The lights went out completely . . . . but no, not the lights . . . her consciousness. It came back to her slowly, like the warmth of fire on a blistery day.
She tasted blood. She’d bitten her tongue. She opened her eyes. Henry was crumpled on the floor, receding as she was carried away. The children stood over him, touching him, calling him. Her son’s eyes found hers again. Determination hardened his jaw, pushed away the fear . . . at least a measure of it. He stepped over his father’s legs, coming to her rescue. Henry raised his head, weary, stunned. He reached for the boy, but missed.
Over the huffing breath of the man, the soft patter of her son’s feet reached her ears. How she’d loved that sound, knowing it was bringing him to her. Now she wanted it to carry him away, away from this danger. Her husband called to him in a croaking, strained voice. The boy kept coming.
She spread her arms. Her left hand clutched at open air, but the right one touched a wall. She clawed at it. Her nails snagged the wallpaper. One nail peeled back from her finger and snapped off.
Her assailant turned again, into a room—one of the small antechambers, like a mud room before the real room. He strode straight toward the next threshold.
Her son reached the first door, catching it as it was closing.
“Mom!” Panic etched old-man lines into his young face. His eyes appeared as wide as his mouth. He banged his shoulder on the jamb, trying to hurry in.
“Stay!” she said. She showed him her palms in a “stop” gesture, hoping he would understand, hoping he would obey. She took in his face, as a diver takes in a deep breath before plunging into the depths. He was fully in the antechamber now, reaching for her with both arms, but her captor had already opened the second door and was stepping through. The door was swinging shut behind him.
The light they were stepping into was bright. It swept around her, through the opening, and made pinpoints of the boy’s irises. His blue eyes dazzled. His cheeks glistened with tears. He wore his favorite pajamas—little R2D2s and C3P0s all over them, becoming threadbare and too small for him.
“I—“ she started, meaning to say she loved him, but the brute bounded downward, driving his shoulder into her stomach. Air rushed from her, unformed by vocal chords, tongue, lips. Just air.
“Moooom!” her son screamed. Full of despair. Reaching. Almost to the door.
“Mo—“
The door closed, separating her from her family forever.
1
Now
Saturday, 4:55 P.M.
“Nothing but trees,” the bear said in Xander’s voice. It repeated itself: “Nothing but trees.”
Xander King turned away from the car window and stared into the smiling furry face, with its shiny half-bead eyes and stitched-on nose. He said, “I mean it, Toria. Get that thing out of my face. And turn it off.”
His sister’s hands moved quickly over the teddy bear’s paws, all the while keeping it suspended three inches in front of Xander. The bear said, “I mean it, Toria. Get that—”
At fifteen years old, Xander was too old to be messing around with little-kid toys. He seized the bear, squeezing the paw that silenced it.
“Mom!” Toria yelled. ”Make him give Wuzzy back!” She grabbed for it.
Xander turned away from her, tucking Wuzzy between his body and the car door. Outside his window, nothing but trees—as he had said and Wuzzy had agreed. It reminded him of a movie, as almost everything did. This time, it was The Edge, about a bear intent on eating Anthony Hopkins. An opening shot of the wilderness where it was filmed showed miles and miles of lush forest. Nothing but trees.
A month ago, his dad had announced that he had accepted a position as principal of a school six hundred miles away, and the whole King family had to move from the only home Xander had ever known. It was a place he had never even heard of: Pinedale, almost straight north from their home in Pasadena. Still in California, but barely. Pinedale. The name itself said “hick,” “small,” and “If you don’t die here, you’ll wish you had.” Of course, he had screamed, begged, sulked, and threatened to run away. But in the end here he was, wedged in the back seat with his nine-year-old sister and twelve-year-old brother.
The longer they drove, the thicker the woods grew and the more miserable he became. It was bad enough, leaving his friends, his school—everything!—but to be leaving them for hicksville, in the middle of nowhere, was a stake through his heart.
“Mom!” Toria yelled again, reaching for the bear.
Xander squeezed closer to the door, away from her. He must have put pressure on the bear in the wrong place: It began chanting in Toria’s whiny voice: “Mom! Mom! Mom!”
He frantically squeezed Wuzzy’s paws, but could not make it stop.
“Mom! Mom! Mom!”
The controls in the bear’s arms weren’t working. Frustrated by its continuous one-word poking at his brain—and a little concerned he had broken it and would have to buy her a new one—he looked to his sister for help.
She wasn’t grabbing for it anymore. Just grinning. One of those see-what-happens-when-you-mess-with-me smiles.
“Mom! Mom! Mom!”
Xander was about to show her what happened when you messed with him—the possibilities ranged from a display of his superior vocal volume to ripping Mr. Wuzzy’s arms right off—when the absurdity of it struck him. He cracked up.
“I mean it,” he laughed. “This thing is driving me crazy.” He shook the bear at her. It continued yelling for their mother.
His brother David, who was sitting on the other side of Toria and who had been doing a good job of staying out of the fight, started laughing too. He mimicked the bear, who was mimicking their sister: “Mom! Mom! Mom!”
Mrs. King shifted around in the front passenger seat. She was smiling, but her eyes were curious.
“Xander broke Wuzzy!” Toria whined. “He won’t turn off.” She pulled the bear out of Xander’s hands.
The furry beast stopped talking: “Mo—” Then, blessed silence.
Toria looked from brother to brother and they laugh again.
Xander shrugged. “I guess he just doesn’t like me.”
“He only likes me,” Toria said, hugging it.
“Oh, brother,” David said. He went back to the PSP game that had kept him occupied most of the drive.
Mom raised her eyebrows at Xander and said, “Be nice.”
Xander rolled his eyes. He adjusted his shoulders and wiggled his behind, nudging Toria. “It’s too cramped back here. It may be an SUV, but it isn’t big enough for us anymore.”
“Don’t start that,” his father warned from behind the wheel. He angled the rearview mirror to see his son.
“What?” Xander said, acting innocent.
“I did the same thing with my father,” Dad said. “The car’s too small . . . it uses too much gas . . . it’s too run down . . . ”
Xander smiled. “Well, it is.”
“And if we get a new car, what should we do with this one?”
“Well . . . .” Xander said. “You know. It’d be a safe car for me.” A ten-year-old Toyota 4Runner wasn’t his idea of cool wheels, but it was transportation.
Dad nodded. “Getting you a car is something we can talk about, okay? Let’s see how you do.”
“I have my driver’s permit. You know I’m a good driver.”
“He is,” Toria chimed in.
David added, “And then he can drive us to school.”
“I didn’t mean just the driving,” Dad said. He paused, catching Xander’s eyes in the mirror. “I mean with all of this, the move and everything.”
Xander stared out the window again. He mumbled, “Guess I’ll never get a car, then.”
“Xander?” Dad said. “I didn’t hear that.”
“Nothing.”
“He said he’ll never get a car,” Toria said.
Silence. David’s thumbs clicked furiously over the PSP buttons. Xander was aware of his mom watching him. If he looked, her eyes would be all sad-like, and she would be frowning in sympathy for him. He thought maybe his dad was looking too, but only for an opportunity to explain himself again. Xander didn’t want to hear it. Nothing his old man said would make this okay, would make ripping him out of his world less awful than it was.
“Dad, is the school’s soccer team good? Did they place?” David asked. Xander knew his brother wasn’t happy about the move either, but jumping right into the sport he was so obsessed about went a long way toward making the change something he could handle. Maybe Xander was like that three years ago, just rolling with the punches. He couldn’t remember. But now he had things in his life David didn’t: friends who truly mattered, ones he thought he’d spend the rest of his life with. Kids didn’t think that way. Friends could come and go and they adjusted. True, Xander had known his current friends for years, but they hadn’t become like blood until the last year or so.
That got him thinking about Danielle. He pulled his mobile phone from his shirt pocket and checked it. No text messages from her. No calls. She hadn’t replied to the last text he’d sent. He keyed in another: “Forget me already? JK.” But he wasn’t Just Kidding. He knew the score: Out of sight, out of mind. She had said all the right things, like We’ll talk on the phone all the time; You come down and see me and I’ll come up to see you, okay? and I’ll wait for you.
Yeah, sure you will, he thought. Even during the past week, he’d sensed a coldness in her, an emotional distancing. When he’d told his best friend, Dean had shrugged. Trying to sound world-wise, he’d said, “Forget her, dude. She’s a hot young babe. She’s gotta move on. You too. Not like you’re married, right?” Dean had never liked Danielle.
Xander tried to convince himself she was just another friend he was forced to leave behind. But there was a different kind of ache in his chest when he thought about her. A heavy weight in his stomach.
Stop it! he told himself. He flipped his phone closed.
On his mental list of the reasons to hate the move to Pinedale, he moved on to the one titled “career.” He had just started making short films with his buddies, and was pretty sure it was something he would eventually do for a living. They weren’t much, just short skits he and his friends acted out. He and Dean wrote the scripts, did the filming, used computer software to edit an hour of video into five-minute films, and laid music over them. They had six already on YouTube—with an average rating of four-and-a-half stars and a boatload of praise. Xander had dreams of getting a short film into the festival circuit, which of course would lead to offers to do music videos and commercials, probably an Oscar and onto feature movies starring Russell Crowe and Jim Carrey. Pasadena was right next to Hollywood, a twenty-minute drive. You couldn’t ask for a better place to live if you were the next Steven Spielberg. What in God’s creation would he find to film in Pinedale? Trees, he thought glumly, watching them fly past his window.
Dad, addressing David’s soccer concern, said, “We’ll talk about it later.”
Mom reached through the seatbacks to shake Xander’s knee. “It’ll work out,” she whispered.
“Wait a minute,” David said, understanding Dad-talk as well as Xander did. “Are you saying they suck—or that they don’t have a soccer team? You told me they did!”
“I said later, Dae.” His nickname came from Toria’s inability as a toddler to say David. She had also called Xander Xan, but it hadn’t stuck.
David slumped down in his seat.
Xander let the full extent of his misery show on his face for his mother.
She gave his knee a shake, sharing his misery. She was good that way. “Give it some time,” she whispered. “You’ll make new friends and find new things to do. Wait and see.”
Broken Angel
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sigmund Brouwer is the author of eighteen best-selling novels for children and adults. His newest book is Fuse of Armageddon and his novel The Last Disciple was featured in Time magazine and on ABC’s Good Morning America. A champion of literacy, he teaches writing workshops for students in schools from the Arctic Circle to inner city Los Angeles. Sigmund is married to Christian recording artist Cindy Morgan, and they and their two daughters divide their time between homes in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada and Nashville, Tennessee.ABOUT THE BOOK
Her birth was shrouded in mystery and tragedy.Her destiny is beyond comprehension.
Her pursuers long to see her broken.
She fights to soar.
A father's love for his daughter…a decision that would change both their lives forever. But who is she really─and why must she now run for her life?
Caitlin's body has made her an outcast, a freak, and the target of vicious bounty hunters. As she begins a perilous journey, she is forced to seek answers for her father's betrayal in the only things she can carry with her─a letter he passes her before forcing her to run, and their shared memories together.
Being hunted forces Caitlyn to partner with two equally lonely companions, one longing to escape the horror of factory life in Appalachia and the others, an unexpected fugitive. Together the three will fight to reach a mysterious group that might be friend or foe, where Caitlyn hopes to uncover the secrets of her past...and the destiny she must fulfill.
In the rough, shadowy hills of Appalachia, a nation carved from the United States following years of government infighting, Caitlyn and her companions are the prey in a terrifying hunt. They must outwit the relentless bounty hunters, skirt an oppressive, ever-watchful society, and find passage over the walls of Appalachia to reveal the dark secrets behind Caitlyn’s existence–and understand her father’s betrayal.
Prepare yourself to experience a chilling America of the very near future, as you discover the unforgettable secret of the Broken Angel.
In this engrossing, lightning-paced story with a post-apocalyptic edge, best-selling author Sigmund Brouwer weaves a heroic, harrowing journey through the path of a treacherous culture only one or two steps removed from our own.
If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Embrace Me!
Lisa Samson is a Christy Award-winning author of 19 books, including the Women of the Faith Novel of the Year, Quaker Summer. Lisa has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as "a talented novelist who isn't afraid to take risks."In Embrace Me, the latest novel by acclaimed author Lisa Samson, readers are privy to the realization that regardless of outward appearances…hideous, attractive, or even ordinary…persons are all looking for the same things: love, forgiveness, and redemption.
This story explores a world that is neither comfortable nor safe, a world that people like Valentine know all too well. Masterfully crafted by Samson and populated by her most compelling cast of characters yet. It is a tale of forgiveness that extends into all spheres of life: forgiving others, forgiving oneself, forgiving the past.
She lives in Lexinton, Kentucky, with her husband and three kids.
Biting and gentle, hard-edged and hopeful...a beautiful fable of love and power, hiding and seeking, woundedness and redemption.When a "lizard woman," a self-mutilating preacher, a tattooed monk, and a sleazy lobbyist find themselves in the same North Carolina town one winter, their lives are edging precariously close to disaster...and improbably close to grace.
Valentine, due to her own drastic self-disfigurement, ahs very few friends in this world and, it appears as if she may be destined to spend the rest of her life practically alone. But life gives her one good friend, Lella, whose own handicap puts her in the same freakish category as Valentine. As part of Roland's Wayfaring Marvel and Oddities Show, a traveling band of misfits, they seem to have found their niches in an often curiously cruel world.
Residing in a world where masks are mandatory, Valentine has a hard time removing hers, because of her disfigured face but more so because of her damaged soul. It is much easier for her to listen endlessly to different versions of a favorite song, Embraceable You, and escape reality. Yet, life has more in store for her when she meets Augustine, replete with the tattoos, dreadlocks, and his own secrets. With his arrival, Valentine's soul takes a turn.
If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE
Friday, May 16, 2008
Flame From Within -- Interview
Check out the interview below, conducted by a special 'guest' reporter!
OVERVIEW
Before the reader begins reading Flame from Within, she may think it is simply a Civil War Romance but what is really happening is a war going on in Aimée’s heart. Readers may at first think Aimée appears rather callous, self-centered, perhaps even too spoiled. There is a reason for that.
Many people who have come from dysfunctional or troubled homes, where there has been abuse, whether spoken or unspoken will later vent out in various ways that are not pleasing to others. Sometimes, in fact, a person will grow up trying to mask the trait of her true character. Eventually she will no longer know who she is, or she won’t know how to respond to others. Sometimes she will seem harsh, especially if she doesn’t have a relationship with the Lord.
This is the case with Aimée. The pain and suffering she feels inside has grown deep and it shows right from the beginning of the story. It is because she has no God to call upon.
Perhaps you know someone like that. This is my story Flame from Within.
Although you might not read the exact specifics of what happened in her life, it will show between the pages. Aimée’s emotional sufferings of her abusive past, deepens and builds into bitterness when she loses her home and family. By the time her papa who she adores is gone she blames her feelings of hate and bitterness on the war. Life is so often like that where a person will look for anything they can to blame their convictions on the wrong reason.
People, like Amethyst Rose, in my story, who have lived in darkness, quickly become filled with hidden emotions just waiting to come alive. Maybe you can think of some you have known with an abusive past or perhaps it hits close to home--abused many ways just by being neglected. Coming from a dysfunctional families--so much more common than we realize.
Will Aimée Lebrún, my heroine find her way to healing and discover a way out of her difficult life of bitterness? You will have to read the story to find out.
Perhaps, like Amethyst Rose or her sister, there will be someone who needs to someday read the book who can learn to find her way out of her own inner darkness. My prayer is that every reader can sit still and hear the voice of God maybe some, for the first time.
God wants to speak to all our hearts between the lines. God wants to spark that Flame From Within every heart that reads the book. That’s my greatest desire.
Are you ready to do a little reading? You can purchase the book here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shirley presently lives in Brookings, Oregon with her husband Tom. The two of them have served in the ministry
in some capacity for over 25 years and have three grown children. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Shirley
states she began attempting her writing career early. Although her creative imagination and love for make-believe keep her
active as an historical fiction writer, she also wears other hats penning devotionals, teaching, and speaking at women's retreats.
Also a lover of research, Shirley keeps her books as true to life as possible, lacing them gently with inspiration to draw both
the believer and seeker to her pages. She focuses her light-hearted devotionals on simple everyday living as books of encouragement
for women of all ages. Check out her website here.
Now, as promised, the interview! In this case the heroine of the book, Amethyst (aka Aimee) interviews her creator, Shirley.
1. Why did you select this particular era for my life? Why couldn't I have at least had indoor plumbing?
Ever since my husband, Tom and I lived and worked on the east coast at the United States Military Academy (West Point) and had an opportunity to learn more about the history of the Deep South I fell in love with this era, Aimee. You, where you lived, and your character became very real to my mind. Besides, I knew about you years ago because I worked with young girls so much like you. It was easy to flesh you out in my story. The plumbing would have been difficult in the 1860s dear, since they didn't have it in underground tunnels during the war!
2. If you could travel back in time, where and in which era would you like to go?
Hmm. I think it would be Victorian era but only for a little while...you know just after the era of Jane Austen? And where I could sit down and write my poetry. I have a parlor and bath that are decorated Victorian and I love to read my classics and have my afternoon tea with my lady friends. I love to research that era. I love when gentlemen were gentlemen and ladies were still ladies. Gone are those days in so many places. But, again, I repeat, I could only do it for a little while. I would have to come back to earth pretty quickly. I have to admit--I do love my laptop. What I would do without it? Know what I mean?
3. Why in the world do I have to be stubborn? What were you thinking?
Well, I don't have to tell you that, now, do I, really, Amethyst Rose, honey. You know the secrets of your past life, even though they aren't brought out that openly in the book. I hint at them all the way through. The reader gets a pretty good inkling at why you act the way you act, and why you respond the way you respond to your sister, to men and to so many others just by reading between the lines. You had an unfortunate past. But to tell you the truth, Aimee, your life is not unlike many others who have come from dysfunctional families. There are many reasons why God needs to reach your heart and your soul, darlin'. The reader will have to pick up the book to discover why. So, I'd best not answer that, okay?
4. What was your favorite book as a child and why? For that matter, what was MY favorite book?
My favorite book as a child was The Bobsee Twins books, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drews' books also all Beverly Cleary's books. You loved Jane Eyre and The Scarlet Letter Aimee
5. If we had the opportunity to spend a day together, what would we do?
If we didn't work on our samplers I would be teaching you harmony on the pianoforte or you would be off with Lulu. You seem to enjoy being with her more than me. You are a private person, Aimee, but that's okay. So am I.
Intrigued? Find out more about Shirley at her website, and buy the book on Amazon!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Healing Promises
This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducing
Healing Promises
(Multnomah Publishers - April 15, 2008)
by
Amy Wallace
ABOUT THE BOOK
Facing a new threat.
When FBI Agent Clint Rollins takes a bullet during a standoff, it might just save his life. But not even the ugly things he’s seen during his years working in the Crimes Against Children Unit could prepare him for the overwhelming powerlessness of hospital tests revealing an unexpected diagnosis. If only Sara weren’t retreating into doctor mode…he needs his wife now more than ever.
Frozen in fear.
Sara Rollins is an oncologist with a mission–beating cancer when she can, easing her patients’ suffering at the very least. Now the life of her tall Texan husband is at stake. She never let the odds steal her hope before, but in this case, the question of God’s healing promises is personal. Can she hold on to the truth she claimed to believe?
Faith under fire.
As Clint continues to track down a serial kidnapper despite his illness, former investigations haunt his nightmares, pushing him beyond solving the case into risking his life and career. Clint struggles to believe God is still the God of miracles. Especially when he needs not one, but two. Everything in his life is reduced to one all-important question: Can God be trusted?
If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE
MY THOUGHTS:
This book was really intriguing. While I hate the thought of children being kidnapped by serial killers, Amy does a good job of providing a portrait of those who are actively protecting and doing everything possible to save our children. There were many story lines occuring in the book, but it was pretty easy to keep track of them. I have to admit I got a little confused in the beginning because she alternately refers to people by their first or last names. It took me about a chapter and a few back tracks to get it straight. You might not have this problem if you read the first book in the series.
While I hadn't read the first book, I quickly got a feel for that story and how Healing Promises takes it forward, so I didn't feel too lost. The book causes you to think about the impact of illness on our life roles and how God is always good -- regardless of the circumstances of our lives. I'm definitely going to go back and read the first book, Ransomed Dreams, and I'm looking forward to the release of the next one in the series!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amy Wallace is the author of Ransomed Dreams, a homeschool mom, and a self-confessed chocoholic. She is a graduate of the Gwinnett County Citizens Police Academy and a contributing author of several books, including God Answers Moms’ Prayers and Chicken Soup for the Soul Healthy Living Series: Diabetes. She lives with her husband and three children in Georgia.
To purchase this book, go to Amazon.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
A Whisper of Freedom - Contest!
Tricia Goyer has a fun tour for her new book, A Whisper of Freedom. This is the third book in her Chronicles of the Spanish War series. As I've mentioned before, Tricia has become one of my favorite authors. She has a knack for creating such intriguing stories and characters that you forget where you are! She brings Spain to life in a vivid, realistic way in this series. If you like historical novels, this series is a must read, and this is one series that you need to read in order, so be sure to read A Valley of Betrayal and A Shadow of Treason first.
Each person posting a review of the book has been asked to answer several MEME questions (below). Check out the answers others gave on their blogs. The tour schedule and links can be found here.
1. List three things you would do with a chest full of gold (assuming you got to keep it!) Gosh, it depends on what form the gold was in! If it was ancient jewelry, I might keep one or two special pieces and then give the rest to a museum. If it was in the form of coins or bars, I would cash it in. First I would tithe, then I would want to pay off my parents' homes and maybe do a little remodeling or take a vacation. I'm not exactly sure where I would donate the rest (presuming it's a LOT!), but I would want to try to set up a foundation that would be able to invest it and create a long term stream of income for organizations that help foster children, job training and life skills for adults, and maybe someplace like Homes for Humanity.
2. List three charities/missions/organizations you support (and why). We support a local organization, TEAM, that provides food and supplies to families in crisis; Christ in Youth missions trips/conferences for teens in our church, and a couple of special Christian colleges. Why? Each of these organizations touch peoples lives and help them make it in the world while they share the love of Christ.
3. List three ways you have volunteered your time/services.
- help out in classroom at our local school
- provide financial and job search counseling for people in our church
- work at our church by supporting MOPS, Women's Ministry, and our Sunday school class.
4. List three things you keep "hidden" when company comes over.
- Does the upstairs count (since I try not to let people go upstairs when they visit)???? How about dirty clothes, our laundry room, and often our children's rooms
5. List the last three things you've lost.
Oh, goodness! I have a horrible tendancy to carry things with me as I walk around the house and leave them somewhere along the way. The last three things were scissors, my watch, and a book I was reading.
6. List the last three things you've found.
the three things in #5!
During the tour, you can enter to win one of FIVE signed copies of A Whisper of Freedom by signing up for Tricia's newsletter here!
Three brave "players" will be selected at random to win their own lost gold 
(Gourmet chocolate coins and all three books in the Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War series). To enter all you have to do is answer the MEME on your blog and then leave a comment on Tricia’s blog tour post here http://triciagoyer.blogspot.com/2008/03/whisper-of-freedom-meme-sticky-post.html that you’ve posted your MEME. Easy.
About the book: 
Battles heat up…not only those being waged by the soldiers on both sides fighting for Spain, but in the hearts and minds of the men and women who must sacrifice more than their dreams to save the lives of their loved ones.
In this meticulously researched novel, brave and idealistic Sophie, Philip, Jose, and Deion realize their only hope for freedom is escaping Spain 's borders.
By continuing the story of this band of volunteers during the Spanish Civil War, A Whisper of Freedom proves that there are whispers of hope and liberty that resonate through even the darkest night.
About Tricia: 
Tricia Goyer is the author of twelve books including From Dust and Ashes, My Life UnScripted, and the children's book, 10 Minutes to Showtime. She won Historical Novel of the Year in 2005 and 2006 from ACFW, and was honored with the Writer of the Year award from Mt. Hermon Writer's Conference in 2003. Tricia's book Life Interrupted was a finalist for the Gold Medallion in 2005. In addition to her novels, Tricia writes non-fiction books and magazine articles for publications like Today's Christian Woman and Focus on the Family. Tricia is a regular speaker at conventions and conferences, and has been a workshop presenter at the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International Conventions. She and her family make their home in the mountains of Montana .
Links:
Book excerpt: http://triciagoyer.com/cmsdocuments/WhisperCh1.doc
Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Freedom-Chronicles-Spanish-Civil
Watch the series trailer: http://cg.creativenuclei.com/wip/TriciaGoyer/cscw.html
Tricia’s website: http://triciagoyer.com
Tricia’s Blogs: http://triciagoyer.com/blogs.html