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Thursday, November 29, 2012

A Wild Goose Chase Christmas by Jennifer AlLee

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
A Wild Goose Chase Christmas
Abingdon Press (November 2012)
by
Jennifer AlLee

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Word from Jennifer:

As I look back on my life, it's interesting to see where God's taken me, and where I took myself that God pulled me out of. I finally got back to writing, the dream of my heart. Since 1996, I've published numerous short stories, devotions and plays. I've also been active in church drama ministries, another passion of mine. My first novel, The Love of His Brother (November 2007, Five Star Publishers), was followed by The Pastor's Wife (February 2010, Abingdon Press) and The Mother Road (April 2012). A Wild Goose Chase Christmas is book two in the new Quilts of Love series.

Besides being a writer, I am a wife and mom. Living in Las Vegas, Nevada, my family has learned how to enjoy the fabulous buffets here without severely impacting our waistlines. God is good!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Upon her grandmother's death, Izzy Fontaine finds herself in possession of a Wild Goose Chase pattern quilt that supposedly leads to a great treasure.

Of course, once the rest of the family finds out about the "treasure map," they're determined to have a go at the treasure themselves. And, if that weren't enough, Max Logan, a local museum curator, contacts Izzy and says that Grandma Isabella promised him the quilt.

What is it about this quilt that makes everyone want it? Is Izzy on a wild goose chase of her own, or a journey that will lead her to the treasure her grandmother intended?

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Wild Goose Chase Christmas, go HERE.




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Book Talk with author Cindy Woodsmall

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Book Talk with author Aaron Carter

The Legend of Garison Fitch by Samuel Ben White


First Time: The Legend of Garison Fitch

"What if history didn't happen that way ... the first time?"

Garison Fitch was one of the most revered scientists in the Soviet Americas until he left fame behind to work on a secret project in his log cabin in the mountains of Marx.

But something went wrong. Instead of traveling interdimentionally, Garison has traveled through time ... twice.

Now, he's in something called "The United States of America" and a woman he's never met before is calling herself his wife. It it a hoax? Or, has he somehow changed history?

If so, can he return the world to what he believes is "normal", or must he live in this strange world he created?

Purchase

Praise:

"Sam continues to weave his magic as a storyteller. I always find myself anxious to find out what will happen next and what kind of twist will befall the adventurers. It helps to be familiar with the places that the heroines go, which adds to the story."
~Labdaddy, Texas

"I've had a few very unproductive but enjoyable days thanks to Samuel Ben White. If you haven't read Sam's books you have been missing a treat. These were funny, suspenseful, spiritual and kept you turning the pages."
~Karen S.

"Just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed your books. I have a Kindle and I have purchased all of the Garison Fitch novels. I am in Saudi Arabia and your books have really helped take me away from here."
~Scott, Saudi Arabia

Also Part of the Series:

Saving Time

Two years ago Garison Fitch traveled through time and rewrote history. An accident in the eighteenth century created a whole new world, and even gave Garison a wife he had never met before. Now, he’s got a daughter and he’s coming to enjoy this world he created. Until he’s attacked by men masquerading as Indians, and a funeral procession from out of the past enlists his help, and a tree grows from sappling to full-grown in a matter of minutes, threatening his daughter’s very life. Time itself is unraveling and Garison’s trips through time seem to be the cause. Garison must go back in time once again and keep himself from making the original trip that started the problem. But he can’t use his time machine to go back. How does one sew up a rip in time?

Lost Time

Jason Kerrigan and Brownwyn Dalmouth are pilots with the Republic of Texas Army Air Corps. A world war is going on and bombs have just brought an end to Crockett Air Field in south Texas. Jason and Bronwyn, though, are called away from the battle to be test pilots for a new aircraft that-they're told-will bring the war to an end. The experimental craft lives up to expectations in early tests, but then it lands them somewhere it never should have sent them. Another place? Another time? Another dimension? Somehow, they've taken a trip to the future and changed the past. Or did they? The answer to their change of reality may be known to a Justice of the Peace in Colorado named Garison Fitch. To figure it out, though, Garison may have to team up with his least favorite person: Bat Garrett.


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Author Samuel Ben White

Samuel Ben White (“Sam” to his friends) is the author of the national newspaper comic strip “Tuttle’s” (found at www.tuttles.net) and the on-line comic book “Burt & the I.L.S.” (found at www.destinyhelix.com). He is married and has two sons. He serves his community as both a minister at a small church and a chaplain with hospice. In addition to his time travel stories, Sam has also written and published detective novels, a western, three fantasy novels and four works of Christian fiction.


Links




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Book Blast Giveaway
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Ends 12/16/12
*You need not enter your twitter name for each entry. Simply enter it when you follow Sam then you can leave the others blank.

Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent's permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Shattered Silence by Margaret Daley

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Shattered Silence
Abingdon Press (September 2012)
by
Margaret Daley

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Margaret Daley is an award winning, multi-published author in the romance genre. One of her romantic suspense books, Hearts on the Line, won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Contest. Recently she has won the Golden Quill Contest, FHL’s Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest, Winter Rose Contest, Holt Medallion and the Barclay Gold Contest. She wrote for various secular publishers before the Lord led her to the Christian romance market. She currently writes inspirational romance and romantic suspense books for the Steeple Hill Love Inspired lines, romantic suspense for Abingdon Press and historical romance for Summerside Press. She has sold eighty-three books to date.

Margaret is currently the President for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), an organization of over 2300 members. She was one of the founding members of the first ACFW local chapter, WIN in Oklahoma. She has taught numerous classes for online groups, ACFW and RWA chapters. She enjoys mentoring other authors.

Until she retired a few years ago, she was a teacher of students with special needs for twenty-seven years and volunteered with Special Olympics as a coach. She currently is on the Outreach committee at her church, working on several projects in her community as well as serving on her church’s vestry.

On a more personal note, she has been married for over forty years to Mike and has one son and four granddaughters. She treasures her time with her family and friends.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A serial killer is targeting illegal aliens in southern Texas. Texas Ranger Cody Jackson is paired with a local police officer, Liliana Rodriguez, to investigate the murders.

While the case brings Cody and Liliana ever closer, the tension between Americans and Mexican Americans heightens. As Cody and Liliana race to discover who is behind the murders and bring peace to the area, what they uncover isn't what they expected. Will Cody and Liliana's faith and love be strong enough to survive the storm of violence?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Shattered Silence, go HERE.



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Book Talk with author Rosslyn Elliott

Teaser Tuesdays ~ Rosemary Opens Her Heart


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought I would play for fun! Just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! 


"Rosemary!" Footsteps echoed in the stairwell, and Beth Ann burst into the kitchen with Ruthie close behind her.  "Have you seen- Is Katie down here with you?"  

~taken from p.  223 of Rosemary Opens Her Heart by Naomi King





Matt Lambright slipped out of the stream of nearly two hundred wedding guests who were filing out of the house and into the front yard after his aunt Zanna's marriage to Jonny Ropp.  When he reached the pasture fence, he loosened his stiff white shirt collar.  After more than three hours of sitting in front of the crowd as a newehocker, her was ready for some fresh air. 


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Monday, November 26, 2012

Mailbox Monday ~ Nov. 26, 2012

 Join Mailbox Monday meme
@ The Printed Page

November's host is:
BermudaOnion's 
(I will be hosting the whole month of May 2013 looking forward to hosting)




also posted @

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Free From Guilt by Pat Simmons

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Free From Guilt
Lift Every Voice; New Edition edition (September 20, 2012)
by
Pat Simmons
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Pat Simmons is a self-proclaimed genealogy sleuth. She is passionate about digging up the dirt on her ancestors, then casting them in starring roles in her novels. She has been a genealogy enthusiast since her great-grandmother died at the young age of ninety-seven years old.

She has won numerous awards for her previous novels and was voted the Best Inspirational Romance for 2010. She was also a nominee for the African American Literary Award’s best Christian fiction award. Pat is best known for her Guilty series. The Jamieson Family Legacy trilogy: Guilty by Association, Guilt Trip and Free From Guilt is a continuation of first three Guilty Series books and the of the story of the much-loved Grandma B.B character and her new sidekick, Mrs. Valentine.

Pat and her husband live in Missouri and have two children.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Jamieson Family Legacy series follows the lives of the two Jamieson brothers in Boston, Kidd and Ace and their cousin Cameron from St. Louis. Kidd, the older brother, is struggling with anger and resentment issues toward his absentee father who never married his mother, but had the audacity to demand his illegitimate sons carry his last name Jamieson. Ace, on the other hand, is on a collision course with disaster as he shows how much a "chip off the old block" he is when it comes to women. Their highly educated MIT graduate cousin, Cameron Jamieson, is all about saving his family from self-destruction. Through genealogy research, Cameron's mission is to show his cousins their worth as eleventh generation descendants of a royal African tribe and give them a choice: to be angry black men or accept the challenge to become strong successful black men.

In Free From Guilt the third book in the Jamieson Legacy, Cameron, cousin to Kidd and Ace, has it all: the looks, money and tbrains. An MIT double degree graduate and lecturer, he is a genius. No amount of knowledge or wisdom however can convince him of the simplicity of God's love and the gift of salvation. He believes it's much more complicated than those men preaching from an outdated book lead others to believe. It's simply going to take more to make a believer out of him. And, he's not alone in this thinking.

Beatrice "Tilley" Beacon, aka Grandma BB is a seventy-something, childless widow who is young at heart and full of life. Her antics are legendary among her surrogate family, the Jamiesons, her five hundred facebook fans and the local law enforcement, to whom she is known as the neighborhood one-woman militia crime task force. The Jamieson's always thought they were a unified front to draw Grandma BB to Christ. But when Cameron, her surrogate grandson and the youngest of their clan, returns to spend time with the family in St. Louis, he immediately takes Grandma BB's position that life is to be enjoyed to the fullest. There's always time to repent ...later.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Free From Guilt, go HERE.


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Book Talk with author Cara Putman

Friday, November 23, 2012

Christmas Roses by Amanda Cabot


Christmas Roses what a delightful title for this time of the year; however, don't let the title fool ya...it isn't even about Christmas as you might think it to be.  It is a nice light read just to get away from the Christmas hoopla; one that can be read in short order.  The book has some Swedish customs woven throughout it along with a Swedish pound cake recipe in the back. A very heartwarming novella to say the least. 

“Available now at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

A copy of this book was provided in exchange for my honest review by... 





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Book Talk with author Anita Higman

Thursday, November 22, 2012

NewsFlash: This just in.....


A Message from Christian Speakers Services:

 
Now here's how to put a BANG on the end of a book tour ... this just in from Kathi Macias ...

MOST EXCITING NEWS FOR YOU ALL! It's a Thanksgiving miracle!!! You may know that we've been trying to help Mr. Willard Parker, the homeless man who so graciously posed for the cover of my Christmas book find his family. Well, I just got off the phone with his grown daughter! Someone saw the book and told her about it, she tracked it down, and sure enough, it was her long-lost daddy! Both she and her other grown sister can't wait to see him--and to introduce him to his four grandchildren. Oh, God is soooo good!!!

Don't know what it is all about well read the articles to be in the Know:



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Judge by R.J. Larson

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Judge
Bethany House Publishers (November 1, 2012)
by
R.J. Larson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

R. J. Larson is the author of numerous devotionals featured in publications such as Women's Devotional Bible and Seasons of a Woman's Heart. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with her husband and their two sons. Prophet marks her debut in the fantasy genre.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Kien Lantec, you will bear witness to my followers in ToronSea.

The last thing Kien Lantec expects on his first day of military leave is to receive marching orders from his Creator, the Infinite. Orders that don't involve destroyer-racing or courting the love of his life, Ela. Adding to Kien's frustration, his Infinite-ordained duties have little to do with his skills as a military judge-in-training. His mission? To warn the people of ToronSea against turning their backs on the Infinite to worship a new goddess.

Tell them I see they are beguiled. Tell them I seek their hearts. The wise will hear Me.

But why Kien? Isn't this the role of a true prophet, such as Ela of Parne? Seeking answers, Kien visits Ela and finds her stricken by a devastating vision of her own. Her birthplace, Parne, has forsaken their Creator and will soon suffer judgment. Pulled in separate ways, each must seek to follow the Infinite's leading...and hope He will reunite them again soon.

Child of dust, will you be My servant?

If you would like to read the first chapter of , go HERE.



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Thanksgiving wishes


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Christmas Star by Ace Collins








Robert Reed gave his life for his country in the early days of World War II. His sacrifice was honored when his widow and son were presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor. Each Christmas the final decoration Madge Reed hangs on the family’s tree is that medal. Rather than being a symbol of honor for young Jimmy Reed that shining star represents loss, pain, and suffering.
Yet a letter delivered by one of Robert’s fellow soldiers and a mystery posed in that letter put a father’s sacrifice and faith into perspective and bring new meaning to not just the star hanging on the Christmas tree but the events of the very first Christmas. Then, when least expected, a Christmas miracle turns a final bit of holiday sadness into a joy that Jimmy has never known.


Book Excerpt:

December 21, 1945 3:20 p.m.

It was doubtful that Sharp County had ever experienced such a collective sense of euphoria. First, the Great Depression and then the war had created an atmosphere of heartache, insecurity, chaos, and turmoil, tearing up families while dashing dreams and crushing security, but now there was a hope fueled by the fact that freedom had been preserved and “Peace on Earth” was no longer just a line on a greeting card, it was a reality. Christmas was more than just a holiday this year; it was a celebration! The promise that had been offered in Bing Crosby’s hit single “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” had been realized and for almost everyone in every corner of this part of Arkansas, as well as all over the United States, it was the most wonderful time of the year, the decade, and perhaps even the century.

December twenty-first was the day everyone in the rural school district, children and teachers alike, had been looking forward to. For those spending seven hours a day behind the native stone walls of Ash Flat High 3:20 p.m. was the moment when Christmas really began. As the clock signaled that specific instant and the final bell sounded, kids poured through the old two-story school building’s large oak front door and down the well-worn concrete steps like the bulls racing through the streets of Pamplona, Spain. Their warm spirits met a cold north wind as scores of enthusiastic kids rushed across the yard and onto Calvin Jenkins’ yellow GMC school bus. Other equally ecstatic youngsters raced past the mud-splattered vehicle, up the dirt road toward downtown Ash Flat just to spy all the wonder that was waiting to be discovered in the community’s handful of stores. Smiles and laughter were everywhere, as everyone seemed caught up in holiday spirit—everyone but Jimmy Reed.

While others rushed passed at supersonic speed, Jimmy, a tall, thin, sixteen-year-old hung back at the top of the steps, a tormented look filling his deep green eyes. Dressed in a blue wool jacket that was about two sizes too small, he stuck his ungloved hands deep into the pockets of his patched jeans. In a sense, he was an outcast in a world of holiday cheer. For the boy, there was no light at Christmas, only foreboding darkness brought on by great loss. While all his friends saw Christmas as a joyous dream, to Jimmy it was a nightmare, a prison of loneliness and a day of despair. If Jimmy could erase any day from the calendar it would be December 25.

“See you in January,” Wylie Rhoads called out from behind as Jimmy slowly ambled down the steps. Glancing back over his shoulder at the short, stocky school superintendent standing in arched entry, the youth shrugged his shoulders and smirked. That expression brought an immediate response.

“Jimmy!”

“Yeah,” the boy shot back at the school administrator, his voice and body language showing great contempt and little respect.

As their eyes met, the man pointed his finger and barked, “Get the chip off your shoulder son. You’ve got two weeks to shape up that attitude. When you come back I want to see a different person. Someone with the kind of character your father had.”

“You leave my dad out of this,” Jimmy hissed.

Marching down the steps until he was face to face with the angry kid, Rhoads emphasized his threats in a firm, deliberate tone, “I can’t do anything about what happened to your father and neither can you. But you’re driving your mom to an early grave while you’re setting yourself up to end up in reform school or worse. You’ve got too much potential to waste it!”

“I haven’t done nothing that bad,” the boy hissed his green eyes never leaving the man’s.

“Not yet,” Rhoads shot back, “but it’s coming. I’ve seen it before. Starts with stuff like breaking windows, sneaking behind the fence to smoke, and going out getting drunk, but it always ends with a whole lot more. And you’re heading that way at a breakneck pace.”

Jimmy shook his head, “You don’t know nothing.”

Frustrated, Rhoads turned his back on the boy and marched back up the five steps and into the building. As he did, Jimmy leaned against the school wall and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Who cared what old Wylie thought? So what if he got kicked out of school? It was a waste of time anyway.

“James Reed, don’t you light that up on campus or anywhere else.”

Audrey Lankins was one of the few students who hadn’t given up on him. Like Jimmy, she was a junior, but while he had developed a knack for getting into trouble, she walked on the right side of the street. She was Ash Flat’s prize student, with her blonde hair, blue eyes and striking figure, she was also the prettiest girl in the county and the youth leader at the Methodist Church. She was also the ideal daughter for her banker father and the apple of everyone’s eye. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Audrey was also the one person he truly wanted to impress. Yet she couldn’t know that, not now or ever. So though he yearned to reach out to her, he delivered his reply in a machine-gun fashion he hoped would shut her up and drive her away! At this point, he couldn’t afford to have anyone close enough to know what he was planning.

“What do you care? You won’t get in trouble if I have a smoke.”

“I just care,” the pretty blonde assured him. “I don’t want you in trouble. That’s not who you really are. You’ve always been my best friend or at least that’s how it used to be.”

Forcing his attention on the street, he twirled the cigarette from finger to finger of his right hand, slipping it between one and then the next with the dexterity of a magician, before finally letting it slide into palm and easing it into his coat pocket. When the thirty-second show was over, he looked back at the girl, “Didn’t feel like smoking anyway. I’ll save it. But it has nothing to do with what you want. You understand?”

Audrey smiled. Clutching her black purse to her chest, she moved to the boy’s side. “You coming to the church program on Sunday night?”

“Naw, got better things to do. Got something really special planned.”

“I’m going to sing,” she added enticingly, now she was more begging than just giving him information on the program. He approved of her approach, but he still couldn’t go. There was something far more important calling him.

“And you’ll do great,” he mumbled, “but, like I said, there are things I got to do.”

“Fine,” she replied in a huff. Then her tone changing, she added, “but it would mean a lot to me if you’d come. So please try.”

He didn’t understand why she cared about him. He couldn’t grasp why she continued to reach out to him. Maybe it was true that good girls liked bad boys. Who knew? So, though he had no intention of stepping into her church or any other on Sunday night or any other day, he nodded.

“Jimmy,” Audrey’s sweet voice pulled his eyes back to hers, “even if you don’t come. You have a Merry Christmas.”

Shaking his head, Jimmy laughed, “Christmas is for kids. I don’t need it and don’t like it. I don’t care if it ever comes. Just another day and not a very good one either!”

The smile drained from her face as quickly as a solitary raindrop evaporated in the scorching August sun. Pushing her hair over the shoulders of her coat she said, “I don’t understand. Everyone likes Christmas and on top of that everyone is home this year.” The words hovered in the cool air like a dark cloud. She probably knew the moment she spoke them she’d opened a wound too painful to contemplate much less talk about. Yet words can’t be unspoken, and they rarely disappear as quickly as they were said. And so, her words hovered just out of her reach for moments too long to count.

Turning his face back toward the old school bus, Jimmy chewed on Audrey’s observation. She’d opened a large door to a place where no one would have thought him rude to lash out at the girl. If the superintendent, or a teacher, or even one of his friends had spit out what she’d just said, he’d have jumped on them. But this was Audrey, she was incapable of pouring salt in a wound. It wasn’t her nature. So, after taking a deep breath, he said, “Christmas was OK when I was a kid, but that was before the war.”

Moving two steps closer, Audrey placed her right hand delicately on his shoulder and whispered, “What I said was stupid. I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for,” he mumbled, once more digging his hands deeply into his pockets. After all, she was not the one that had changed everything. She had no part in it. Christmas had once been wonderful for him too. There were still bittersweet memories that were etched in the fabric of his mind. He and his father had always gone out into the woods to find and cut a tree, drag it into the house, and laugh about a host of different things. And they had strung popcorn while Jimmy’s mother pulled out old decorations and hung them on the tree. After their turkey dinner and a dessert of homemade pecan pie, his dad had pulled out his Gibson guitar and for more than an hour they sang every carol they knew, many three and four times. And they always ended with “Silent Night,” his dad explaining the story behind the song before they sang all the verses. Finally, just before bed, Jimmy’s mother picked up his father’s well-worn Bible and read from Luke about Jesus’ birth while Jimmy moved their hand-carved nativity scene across the coffee table to match her words. But the war changed most of that. Yes, the nativity scene was still on the table, they still cut and decorated the tree but the guitar remained propped against the wall, as did the innocent joy that had once defined those December days. And it wasn’t just Christmas it changed, though the wounds might hurt the worst on December 25, in truth the war had altered everything.

“Jimmy,” Audrey’s voice brought him back from the past to 1945. “You OK?”

“Yeah,” he said, straightening his shoulders and forcing a smile.

“Your dad,” she assured him, her hand still lingering on his shoulder, her light touch pushing through the coat and into his heart, “was a great man.”

It was funny, Jimmy had once used those same words to describe Robert Reed. He’s boasted to his friends, including Audrey, that his father would lick the Japs all by himself. Back then, he supported that bragging by quoting from long, handwritten letters he and his mother had received from the Pacific Front. When he told what was in those communications, his friends hovered around Jimmy at the lunch table awed by the fact a Marine from their small town was fighting the Japanese in places they’d never heard of.

But all the bragging abruptly stopped in May 1942. Jimmy had just gotten home from school and was headed out to gather the eggs when he noted the dusty black truck pull into their long dirt lane. An old man he’d never seen, dressed in a dark blue uniform, got out of the vehicle and marched past Jimmy without saying a word or even acknowledging his existence. The stranger paused for a moment at the base of the porch, taking off his hat and smoothing his gray hair, then slowly, as if he was carrying a back-breaking load, climbed the three steps to the home’s landing, and, only after taking a deep breath, knocked lightly on the weathered front door. A few moments later, Jimmy’s mother, dressed in a blue flower print dress half-covered by a yellow apron, appeared. It seemed strange she said nothing or even smiled; rather she simply stepped out and nodded as if she knew what the visitor wanted. He didn’t speak either. Instead, he just pushed a shaky hand clutching a light brown envelope toward the woman. That simple action was just like turning the sound knob down on a radio; everything was suddenly tomb quiet. Marge Reed studied that envelope for almost thirty seconds, then, after wiping her hands on her apron, finally took it. No, now as he recalled those moments he realized she really didn’t take it; it was more as if she accepted it, because she knew she had no choice.

Jimmy stood mute and confused as his mother pushed her auburn hair back off her forehead and took a seat in the porch swing. She stared off toward the pond for several minutes, long enough for the Western Union representative to start his old Ford truck and head back down the Reed’s quarter-mile lane to U.S. Highway 62. It was only after the vehicle had disappeared over the hill in the direction of Agnos that she finally took a deep breath and gently tore open the communication. The thirty-year-old woman studied the message on the yellow paper briefly before setting it carefully down on the swing. Showing no emotion, she resolutely pulled herself to her feet and silently walked back through the front door, closing it gently behind her. It was only when Jimmy heard her rattling the pots on the stove that he stole from the yard, climbed up onto the porch, and moved quietly over to the swing. Picking up the telegram, he glanced at the message. It began simply enough, “We regret to inform you . . .” Those words were all that was needed for an adult to know how the story ended, but it was not enough for a thirteen-year-old boy. So he read on, “. . . that Private Robert J. Reed was killed in action while fighting in the Philippines.” He read no more before dropping the telegram onto the porch’s wooden planks and racing off into the woods. He would stay there, tears burning his eyes and streaming down his face, until the sun went down and he came home a much different person than he had been just hours before.

That news changed everything. From that day forward there would be no more letters from overseas and there was suddenly no pride in being the son of a Marine. The news of the war, which had once drawn him like a moth to a flame, was now avoided.
* * * * *

Bestselling author Ace Collins has written more than fifty books including novels Farraday Road, Swope’s Ridge and Words of the Father, as well as the nonfiction Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, grAttitudes, and Lassie A Dog’s Life. His books have become movies and network television specials. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the NBC Nightly News and The Today Show and has been featured in the Distinguished Lecture Series at the National Archives in Washington D.C. Ace Collins has sold more than 1.5 million books during his career.

His latest book is the Christian holiday fiction, The Christmas Star.

You can visit Ace on the web at www.acecollins.com.



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Check out the The Christmas Star Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule here for more blogs hosting giveaways for this book.








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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Starflower
Bethany House Publishers (November 1, 2012)
by
Anne Elisabeth Stengl

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Anne Elisabeth Stengl makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she enjoys her profession as an art teacher, giving private lessons from her personal studio, and teaching group classes at the Apex Learning Center. She is married to the handsome man she met at fencing class and lives with him and a gaggle of cats. She studied illustration at Grace College and English literature at Campbell University. Heartless is her debut novel.

Anne Elisabeth is also the author of the Tales of Goldstone Wood, a series of fantasy adventure novels told in the classic Fairy Tale style.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Black Dogs Are on the Hunt, But Who Is Their Prey?

When a cursed dragon-witch kidnaps fairest Lady Gleamdren, the Bard Eanrin sets boldly forth on a rescue mission...and a race against his rival for Gleamdren's favor. Intent upon his quest, the last thing the immortal Faerie needs is to become mixed up with the troubles of an insignificant mortal.

But when he stumbles upon a maiden trapped in an enchanted sleep, he cannot leave her alone in the dangerous Wood Between. One waking kiss later, Eanrin suddenly finds his story entangled with that of young Starflower. A strange link exists between this mortal girl and the dragon-witch. Will Starflower prove the key to Lady Gleamdren's rescue? Or will the dark power from which she flees destroy both her and her rescuer?

If you would like to read the first chapter of Starflower, go HERE.


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