Happy Wednesday morning! I hope you are all having a great week.
A couple of announcements to share (including a couple of freebies at the end of this post!)…
Today is the last day to have a chance to win a copy of McKenzie on Amada Chavez’s awesome blog at http://ascphotosanddesigns.blogspot.com/2013/02/interview-and-giveaway.html. Amada interviewed me and asked some fantastic questions about the writing life, including how I started writing, where I write, and how I came up with the idea for McKenzie. So…if you didn’t have a chance to download McKenzie while it was free on Kindle last week, here’s another chance for you to get your hands on a copy!
Secondly, anyone who has read my books will notice that I’m a huge supporter of adoption. As such, when my fellow writing friend Jessie Gunderson told me of the dream she and her husband have of adopting two precious children from Ethiopia, I knew I had to help.
Jessie and her husband are attempting to raise $1,800 to begin their dossier to bring their children home. She is offering everyone who makes a donation a chance to be entered to win a first place prize of Disney Tickets. There is also a second place prize – a choice of one of any of five of my books (paperback form of McKenzie, Kaydie, Hailee, 77 Ways Your Family Can Make a Difference, or Hollyhocks). All of the details are at Jessie’s blog. Please consider a donation of any size to assist in giving two children their forever home.
Third, don’t miss the awesome birthday celebration! My fellow author friend, Kelly Hagen, is celebrating the two-year anniversary of her delightful children’s book Jake & Jesus and you’re invited! When you purchase her book, you will have a chance to win an autographed copy of Kaydie, book #2 in my Montana Skies Historical Romance Series. You’ll also receive valuable savings off Amanda Beth’s books You Can Have a Happy Family and The Love Walk (both books I would highly recommend!) and a discount off JBAM Candles. All of the details are at Kelly’s blog.
If you’d like to read the review I wrote of Jake & Jesus, you can find it here. The review I wrote for Amanda Beth’s You Can Have a Happy Family can be found here.
You Can Have a Happy Family is also free on Kindle today and tomorrow. The Love Walk is free tomorrow for Valentine’s Day.
Lastly, join me in the coming weeks for a revamped blog, including some changes on my Movie Monday postings. I’m looking forward to sharing some more fantastic movie reviews with you and some hilarious and inspirational posts. Stay tuned! In the meantime, feel free to check out my Mom-Approved Movie Listings for some fantastic ideas for your next family night.
Planning on a get-together? Find out how to host your own Sisters in Christ Community Girls Night Out.
Have a fantabulous rest of your week and join me later today for my annual Valentine’s Day post.
Fresh out of a Pennsylvania penitentiary armed with a marketing degree, Kate Neilson heads to Wyoming anticipating an anonymous new beginning as a guest-ranch employee. A typical twenty-five-year-old woman might be looking to lasso a cowboy, but her only desire is to get on with life on the outside—despite her growing interest in the ranch owner. When she discovers a violent ex-lover followed her west, she fears the past she hoped to hide will trail as close as a shadow and imprison her once again.
Since we’re on the topic, what is your favorite book of the Bible? Wow, choosing a favorite book of the Bible is tough! Maybe I’ll narrow it down to Esther in the Old Testament and Philippians in the New Testament. I love the story aspect of Esther, the intrigue, the twists and turns, the astounding miracles, and God’s invisible presence behind every line. Philippians is short and simple yet contains so much wisdom and guidance. I rely on many of the verses for daily living, like 4:6 – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” and 4:13 – “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Verse six of chapter one provided hope and power to endure through an especially difficult birth process: “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Cole shares poignant anecdotes with accompanying Scripture, tracing her life journey beginning with the details of her first conversation with her birth mother. Despite the horrifying details of her conception, Cole describes how she was eventually led to forgiveness and to accept a second family into her heart. As she retraces her complex life and reveals her unique problem solving strategies, Cole details how she learned to rely on not only her faith, but also her inner strength as she bravely faced widowhood and the terrifying thought of raising seven children on her own,. 
That’s one of the things I admire most about you Marriott – your strong faith in our Lord. You are such an inspiration and testimony of God’s faithfulness. Speaking of the Lord, do you have a favorite book of the Bible? Proverbs is my favorite book. When it is the first of the month, I read Proverbs 1, the second day, Proverbs 2, and so on. I feel that I have become a wiser Christian and have more of an ability to do the right thing based on the wisdom I have garnered from Proverbs, which was mostly written by the wisest man in the world, King Solomon, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The LOVE Walk is a fifteen week devotional created to encourage and support you in your love walk. Each devotional focuses on a different characteristic of love as described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
I love that! Isn’t it awesome how we, as authors, can imagine our characters and then create them on paper? Switching topics now – what is one silly thing about you that most people probably don’t know? I’m not sure if this qualifies as silly. It might be considered weird, surprising, or downright un-American, but I don’t like pie. Apple, pumpkin, lemon meringue? Nope. No pie, no matter what kind it is. I do, however, like piecrust, which is probably why I like shortbread so much.
