Mailbox Monday ~ Dec. 31, 2012

 Join Mailbox Monday meme

@ The Printed Page

December's host is:
Suko's Notebook

(I will be hosting the whole month of May 2013 looking forward to hosting)

Adult Fiction

Path of Freedom by Jennifer Hudson Taylor
Flight of the Earls by Michael K. Reynolds
Doctor to the Rescue by Cheryl Wyatt

also posted @

Today I am....

Bear with me Please

Too Sweet to pass up

Teaser Tuesday - Love Finds you on Christmas Morning

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! 

Since today is Christmas morning I thought this book would be fitting to give teasers from.  It is a two-in-one so you get a bonus. Merry Christmas

Lillian felt as thought the earth had opened up and swallowed her. 

~taken from p. 104 of Love Finds you on Christmas Morning (Deck the Halls by Debby Mayne)

"I hate it when you do that." Nikki nudged her sister with her elbow. "Stop!"

~taken from p. 186  of Love Finds you on Christmas Morning ('This the Season by Trish Perry)

Lillian Pickard shifted her weight to take some of the load off her aching feet.  There always seemed to be one customer who lingered at the end of the long day, keeping Lillian from locking up Joachim's Five and Dime and going home.  She took a couple of deep breaths and tried to remain pleasant as Mrs. Gooch carried her handheld basket of odds and ends to the counter. 

~taken from Love Finds you on Christmas Morning (Deck the Halls by Debby Mayne)

"Have I ever told you why I stoe you away from Armand, Nikki?
Niclole Tronnier dusted a trace of flour off the tip of her nose and gave old Mr. Fennicle a smile.  "Of course you have, Harvey.  I amazed you with my culinary prowess and sparkling personality."   
~taken from Love Finds you on Christmas Morning ('This the Season by Trish Perry)

Merry Christmas to you and yours

Mailbox Monday ~ Dec. 24, 2012

 Join Mailbox Monday meme

@ The Printed Page

December's host is:
Suko's Notebook

(I will be hosting the whole month of May 2013 looking forward to hosting)

Adult fiction

Texas Wildflowers by Anita Higman

Ashton Park by Murray Pura

I also received this book but haven't seen it since it was taken from the envelope.  ;P  teen daughter confiscated it. 

The Shadowed Onyx by Nicole O'Dell

Adult Nonfiction

A Single Act of Infidelity-A Lifetime of Forgiveness by Marianne Evans

Don't Say I Do! by Orna Gadish

Children's fiction

Gary's Gray World by Ryan J. Cunningham

Scented Adventures of the Bouquet Sisters in Fairyland by Susan Liberty Hall

also posted @

Bible Bites by Shirley Kufeldt

Need a quick start to your day?  Bible Bites are just the thing for you then.  A brief inspirational message to kick start the day.  Keep them in your pocket, purse, glove compartment, desk draw for quick access.  Each booklet is themed with about a month of daily readings right at your finger tips.

learn more about these booklets on the tour page.

If you'd like a copy of your own.  leave a comment and I'll draw a winner from all that comment between now and next Friday, Dec. 28th.  Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you.  US residents only please.  

A copy of the Bible Bites pictured above were provided in exchange for this post by A World of Ink Network.

Why I'm AWAL today

Teaser Tuesday - The Sparkle Box

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! 

As they stopped at a traffic light, Sam noticed someone on a bench, curled up and sleeping.

~ taken from Jill Hardie's The Sparkle Box

Snowflakes swirled through the air as Sam and his mom stopped to look in the toy store window.  With Christmas only a few weeks away, Sam needed to make his Christmas list.  He tugged on his mom's sleeve and pointed to the train.  He loved the shiny red engine. 

A Christmas Kindness by C. C. Gevry with giveaway

Eight-year-old Robert is eager to share his wish list with Santa at the mall on Christmas Eve. When he meets Glenn, who has only one request for Santa, Robert is confused over what he should do. Can he cast aside what he wants and ask Santa to bring his new friend a special gift?

 Inspiration Behind A Christmas Kindness
 

How is it that children have the ability to reach out and help others in ways adults don't always think to do?

One year, our oldest daughter--then only eight--went door-to-door in our neighborhood collecting money for Toys for Tots. Coordinated by the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve, this program collects new, unwrapped toys each year and distributes them as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in our communities. This summer, my girls ran a lemonade stand so they could bring money to a local animal shelter.

Why don't I think of doing such things? I guess it's easier to write a check and send it in the mail. But what effort is involved in that? My children make it personal, and much more meaningful, by giving something of themselves.

With A Christmas Kindness, I hope to capture the generosity of a child's heart--the way they look at the world as a place of endless opportunities to make a difference.

May you be blessed this holiday season. Cheryl Malandrinos, writing as C. C. Gevry, is a children’s author and editor. She is a member of SCBWI. A Christmas Kindness is her first book with 4RV Publishing. Visit her online at http://ccgevry.com.

 

 

Pump Up Your Book and C. C. Gevry are teaming up to give you a chance to win some fabulous prizes!

 $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD

+ 

 1 COPY OF A CHRISTMAS KINDNESS

 +

1 COPY OF LITTLE SHEPHERD

ENTER TO WIN!

Each person will enter this giveaway by liking, following, subscribing and tweeting about this giveaway through the Rafflecopter form placed on blogs throughout the tour. If your blog isn’t set up to accept the form, then after they visit your blog, they are directed to where they can fill out the form to gain more entries. This promotion will run from December 17th - December 21st. The winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter, contacted by email, and announced on December 24th. Each blogger who participates is eligible to enter and win. Visit each blog stop below to gain more entries as the Rafflecopter widget will be placed on each blog for the duration of the tour. What a great way to not only win these fabulous prizes, but to gain followers and comments too! Good luck everyone!

A Christmas Kindness Book Blast Schedule

Monday, December 17th

Carpinello’s Writing Pages

Celtic Connexions

WV Stitcher

Seasons of Opportunities

The Busy Mom’s Daily

The Book Connection

The Children’s and Teens’ Book Connection

George Beddingfield

Margay Leah Justice

The Story of a Writer

Janet K. Brown

Bluebell Books

Paperback Writer

Hollywood Daze

Writing Daze

Maureen’s Musings

Coffee & A Keyboard

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If the form doesn't work, you can enter at: http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2012/12/13/pump-up-your-book-presents-a-christmas-kindness-book-blast-25-amazon-gc-free-books/

The Christian Alphabet book by Tracy Sands

In 1999, the Lord inspired me at a church choir event. As I sat in the back pew, listening to the awesome Christian music, an incredible urge to draw came over me. Being an art teacher, I had experienced this feeling, but never with such intensity. I had a pen in my pocket, but the only paper available was the program I received at the door. In the empty space of that program, I sketched like crazy. I felt as though I would pop if I didn’t get the ideas out of my brain immediately.
I will never forget that experience. I felt peaceful yet energized. God was just getting started with me. Over the next nine months, God and I created this alphabet.

The concept and message of the book is wonderful. Getting your kids to learn the Christian ABC and what they stand for; however, I thought the images and symbols leaned toward Catholic faith. The book is more of a teaching a lesson book than recreational story book to set down and leisurely read me a story.  Each letter has a Christian word, symbol, and Bible verse associated with it.  You'll find lesson tips and activities to go along with and a closing prayer.   Each letter covers two pages.  There are pages in the back that explain the different symbols and their meaning.  I really love the song (listen here and get the lyrics)  A very effective way for teaching children.  A fun teaching resource. 

Visit the Christian Alphabet web site here where you'll find information about the book, the Christian ABC song (that goes with the book), and gifts to order. 

Tracy Sands is from Peachtree City, Georgia, where she lives with her husband, Albert, and their three sons, Chase, Gabe, and Adam. Tracy taught art and “church school” to all ages for many years. She now spends her time caring for her active family and working on The Christian Alphabet™.

To find out more, please visit her at www.thechristianalphabet.com

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

The Heart’s Journey by Barbara Cameron

Naomi knows she should be excited about her upcoming wedding but she remains unmoved. Not only are her feelings for her fiance lackluster but she believes he may see her more as a servant than a partner. And he’s so controlling. Is it too late to back out of the marriage? While praying for God’s guidance, Naomi takes a break from her duties as a quilter and travels with her grandmother to Pinecraft, Florida. Along the way Naomi finds herself becoming attracted to Nick, their Englisch driver and friend, and the two begin to fall in love. The journey soon becomes one in which Naomi explores her most secret dream for love. But can she veer off the “safe” path she’d envisioned for her life to marry Nick?

She should be the happiest young woman in Paradise.
But Naomi dreaded being asked about her upcoming wedding. She feared she’d scream if one more person asked her about it.

Marriage in her Amish community was more traditional than an Englisch marriage, to be sure. But she’d never thought she’d have to change so much to please the man she would
soon marry.
Sighing, she set her quilting aside, got up, and walked over to look out the front window. Business had been brisk that morning at Stitches in Time, the shop where she worked with
her grandmother and two cousins.
Stitches in time . . . and place: she and her two cousins were working together as they had played and studied together all their lives. Their wise grandmother had bought this place and they’d all fixed it up, and now they created items for sale. Naomi quilted, Mary Katherine was a master weaver, Anna knitted, and their grandmother, Leah, created little Amish dolls and other crafts. They were two generations of Amish women who were bound by strong threads to each other as well as to their creativity and their community.
Here in this shop crowded with colorful quilts and handknitted items, with fabrics galore and every single thing you could ever need to quilt or knit or sew . . . well, she should feel like she was in heaven—working on a quilt and helping customers at this very successful shop, with family members who loved her.
Instead, she felt more and more false, covering up how she felt, wearing a mask each day.
“Looking for someone?” her grandmother asked, smiling as she looked up from tallying the day’s receipts. “Is John coming to pick you up after work?”
Everyone thought it was a sign of his attachment, his devotion to her, that he came for her nearly every day after work. In fact, it was a way of keeping track of her, of making certain
that she didn’t make other plans.
She’d become so cynical. It was It was enough to make her sigh but she noticed her grandmother was still watching her.

Barbara Cameron is CBD, CBA and ECPA bestselling author of 35 books (including an exciting new series Stitches in Time for Abingdon Press) including fiction and nonfiction books for Abingdon Press, Thomas Nelson, Harlequin, and other publishers.

Barbara has sold three films to HBO/Cinemax and is the first winner of the Romance Writers of American Golden Heart Award.

Her two novellas won 2nd and 3rd place in the Inspirational Readers Choice Contest from the Faith, Love and Hope chapter of RWA.  Both were finalists for the novella category of the Carol Award of the American Christian Writers Award (ACFW).

Her latest book is the Amish fiction, The Heart's Journey.
Visit Barbara on the web at www.BarbaraCameron.com.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out The Heart’s Journey Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule here for other blogs hosting Barbara and a book giveaway