Free downloads....

Hey all here are some Christmas craft  books for download free...
Click on the covers

My tree....

You'd think I'd learn to put the tree skirt on the top of the box when the tree was packed away.  My wonderful daughters got ahold of the camera.  Want to see more pictures of my house at this time?  Head over to Author Cheryl St. John's site.... I'm featured there today... well at least my tree is.  She is having her annual Great Christmas Tree tour.  ...  OK, OK I'll give you sneak preview...

 

Now head over to Cheryl's Site to see the tour.... I'm excited to see it myself.
Click here to get started.

Click here to see more of my Tree

This is also posted @

Red Ink by Kathi Macias

Kathi Macias has done it again.  She has created a story that keeps you wanting to turn the page to see what will happen next.  Her third book in the Extreme Devotion Series, Red Ink is just that a page turner.  It takes extreme devotion to stand in the time of persecution.  It takes extreme devotion to be lead of the Holy Spirit to pray for someone that has been laid on your heart that you've never met and don't know the circumstances.  Learn how Yang Zhen-Li suffers great persecution standing for her faith in Kathi's book Red Ink. Read Red Ink and find out how Yang Zhen-Li endures the unimaginable for her faith.  Though this is the third book in the series they are stand alone books.  May be read in any order.  I high recommend this book plus the other two:  No Greater Love and More than Conquerors, for that matter any of Kathi's book that I've read have been excellent. 
  

Yang Zhen-Li defies not only her Communist parents but the government as well when she marries a poor Christian peasant and converts to his faith. When she begins to distribute Christian materials, particularly to children, she is arrested and sentenced to tenRed Ink cover years of hard labor. Will her husband and son wait for her and support her throughout their long separation? Will she even survive to return to them once again? Or will the evil guard Tai Tong, who has taken a personal dislike to Zhen-Li, convince her to deny her faith? Two elderly saints halfway around the world are determined to pray her through, though they’ve never met her and don’t even know her name. God’s faithfulness in the midst of unimaginable trials will bring about an ending that could never be anticipated—but will never be forgotten.

Prologue

Yang Zhen-Li was nearing thirty but at times felt twice that old. Her back was becoming permanently bent forward from the heavy pails she carried daily, one attached on each end of the thick bamboo rod that stretched across her shoulders, mirroring the heaviness of her heart. There had been a time when she’d been acclaimed as a beauty, but she could scarcely remember why…or imagine that it would matter.

She tried to fight the encroaching darkness, tried to hold fast to what she knew was true, but the constant lies and propaganda were taking a greater toll even than the physical labor and abuse or the burning, gnawing hunger. If her situation didn’t change soon, she knew she would never live long enough to see her husband or son again. And with nearly eight years of her ten-year sentence left to serve, the possibilities of her emerging from prison alive grew dimmer by the day.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. She forced herself to focus on one of the many scripture verses she’d had opportunity to memorize between the time she accepted Zhu Yesu as her Savior and her arrest by members of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) on charges of teaching religion to children, including giving them papers containing religious writings. Even before her arrest, her parents had written to her—warned her, begged her, threatened her—and finally had her kidnapped in an attempt to convince her to go along with the government rules, especially the one limiting each family to one child. After all, she already had a healthy son. Why would she want another baby when they could scarcely afford to feed the first one? But though her abductors had forcibly aborted her second child, they had not succeeded in convincing Yang Zhen-Li to abandon the faith she had adopted before marrying her Christian husband. If anything, the ordeal had only strengthened her resolve to take a stand for the meaning of her name—Zhen-Li, “Truth,”—and spurred her to begin actively sharing the Good News of Yesu every chance she got. As a trained teacher, that quite naturally included talking with children about the gospel, a practice expressly forbidden by the government.

And now she was paying the price. Separated from her family and sentenced to ten years of hard labor and “re-education,” Zhen-Li struggled to survive against pain, exhaustion, and bitter loneliness. Worst of all were the times she felt God had abandoned her. It wasn’t enough to know in her mind that He promised never to leave or forsake her. She needed a visible reminder—soon—if she was to continue to remain faithful behind these prison walls.

Read an Author Interview and enter for a giveaway copy of this book at Author Trish Perry's site here.

(Note: this is not my giveaway so please follow the link to enter ~ Thanks)

Kathi Macias is a blogtalkradio host and an award-winning author of more than 30 books, including her popular Extreme Devotion series from New Hope Publishers and Valeria’s Cross from Abingdon Press. A wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, Kathi lives in Southern California with her husband, Al, where the two of them spend their spare time riding Al’s Harley—hence, Kathi’s “road name” of Easy Writer! Her latest release is Red Ink, the third book in her popular Extreme Devotion series.

You can find out more about Kathi and her writing/speaking at www.kathimacias.com or her blog at http://kathieasywritermacias.blogspot.com.

A copy of this book was provided for review by Virtual Book tours

Teaser Tuesday ~ Red Ink

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, f hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought I would play for un! 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!

Yes, it would be a while until his strength was sufficient to pick up where he had left off in his conquering of the foolish young woman named Zhen-Li, but as soon as he was able, he would return to work and let her know of his intentions.

~taken from p. 120 of  Red Ink by Kathi Macias

Read my review of Red Ink here

Making Light of Being Heavy by Kandy Siahaya

If anyone can see the humor in being heavy it is a heavy person.  That is exactly why Kandy Siahaya is able to speak from experience.  Most of her life she has struggled with being heavy (overweight, fat)  whatever you want to call it so she can defiantly speak from experience.  In her book, Making Light of Being Heavy, Siahaya takes a lighthearted look from her own personal life.  She definitely enlightens her readers.  This book is a quick read with a bit of humor and a lot of reality.  Siahaya describers herself as naturally fat and prefers to remain postive about it.

These days everyone has a society-driven mindset and totally forget to laugh, especially at themselves. This may be cliche but the author truly believes that laughter is the best medicine and thinks everybody should laugh every day. Period. Over the years as a person blessed with the fat gene, Kandy has been in many situations where if she could not find humor she probably would end up on the couch in the psychiatrist s office. This book is about as politically incorrect as it gets for such a subject but it is also based on reality. This is a reality that many women have just like Kandy but do not think they can (or should) at times just laugh about it. Her intention when she started writing this book was to hopefully give insight to many who could never relate but at the same time perhaps provide a different perspective to women just like her. It is a point of view that has given her the strength to live her life happily and project these feelings onto everyone she comes in contact with. She has a great sense of humor and a quick wit and guarantees you will be laughing (and thinking) with each chapter of Making Light of Being Heavy.

How about that Cabbage Soup diet? Yuck. That is the kind of diet you try to get all the people in your office to try at the same time so the residual side effects (make sure your desk is near the restroom) can never be blamed on one specific person. I personally liked the Richard Simmons diet because it seemed pretty easy and you could eat whatever but you had to account for everything you ate with these demonstrative food cards. I would start out the day with a certain amount of cards allowed for the day that represented fats, dairy, starch, protein, etc. and would just move them from one side of my Deal-a-Meal folder to the other side as they were used up in the course of the day. This was like a built in food diary and was quite handy. Unfortunately, I usually didn’t make it past 11:00 a.m. on most days without all the cards being used up which meant technically I couldn’t eat any more for the rest of the day. I wasn’t expecting a McDonald’s Sausage Biscuit with Egg and Cheese and large coffee with extra cream and sugar to use up so many cards…

Kandy Siahaya was raised in a small town in Maine where she graduated from high school in 1984. She worked her way up from her first job as CSW to Manager of Kentucky Fried Chicken and ended up in Brunswick, Maine. When she decided to leave the fried chicken business at age 22, she packed up her little Chevy Chevette and moved to Florida, where she worked as a waitress and had a great time as a single girl in her 20’s. Reality hit when she was 25 years old and she went back to Maine and received her Associate’s Degree at Beal College and promptly moved back to Florida and started a career in medical transcription. In 1995 at age 29, she moved to Miami, Florida, and continued with transcription starting her own business. In 2002, Kandy left Florida and moved back to Maine with her 5-year-old son and continued medical transcription but had an unexpected decline in work which left her with a lot of time on her hands. This is when she decided to write the book, something she had been thinking about for a few years but never had the time because she was always so busy with her business. It was meant to be a quick and funny read, something to brighten the outlook of many that really do not see the light through their own tunnel vision. It was also intended to be insightful for those that could never possibly relate to this specific subject. Kandy has succeeded in doing just that with Making Light of Being Heavy.

For more information on Kandy and her book visit http://www.makinglightofbeingheavy.com


A copy of this book was provided for review by Virtual Book tours

Mailbox Monday ~ Dec 6, 2010

Join Mailbox Monday meme
@ The Printed Page

Publisher's Description

Raised among the Amish of Indiana, 18-year-old Marianna Sommer plans to get baptized into the church, marry Aaron Zook, and set up life in the only community she has ever known. But when her older brother chooses the world’s path following his rumschpringe, and a younger sibling begins showing interest in Englisch ways, Marianna’s parents move the family to Montana. Although she is also in her rumschpringe years and not obligated to move, Marianna makes the journey to dutifully help her mother who is expecting another child. Surprisingly, from strangers on the cross-country train ride to the less rigid stance of the new Montana community, many Englisch influences awaken within Marianna—and even her father—the desire to pursue a deeper kind of joy and love for God. After an accident, Marianna tells her friend Ben a defining story about the Sommer family, and his response further illumines the active relationship God seeks with His followers. In due time, she learns the move from Indiana was not about losing anything, but finding out who God really is. Despite all the shake-ups, Marianna feels a sweet peace, like still waters, in her soul. 

 

Book Description

Emily Webster, an orphan living with her grandfather, is not like the other girls her age in Deep Valley, Minnesota. After graduation, she longs to join the Crowd and go off to college—but she can't leave her grandfather alone at home. Resigning herself to a "lost winter," Emily nonetheless throws herself into a new program of study and a growing interest in the local Syrian community, and when she meets a handsome new teacher at the high school, Emily gains more than she ever dreamed possible. 

Maud Hart Lovelace's only young adult stand-alone novel, Emily of Deep Valley is considered by fans of her beloved Betsy-Tacy series to be one of the author's finest works.

Publisher's Description

Experience Christmas on the historical American Great Plains as retold by nine different multi-published authors, including Tracie Peterson and Deborah Raney. Follow pioneers, immigrants, and orphans through their adventures, heartaches, challenges, victories, and romances. You are sure to find more than one favorite among the nine holiday romances in this unique collection to warm your heart and inspire your faith.

Struggles...

I just thought today I'd direct you all to my brother-in-law's blog.  Their 17 year old son was in bad car wreck on Wed. night.  you can read all about their past few days of watching and waiting and praying (click here to go to main blog page).  However, he wrote a nice little piece on Struggles. 

As I sit in his room late this night, I see my son struggling.  Struggling to breath on his own, struggling to awaken so that he can see those around him. I see him struggle to be comfortable with wires coming out of places in his body that they were not meant to be.  I see him struggle, and I struggle..... (read the rest of the article here.)

Christmas/Winter Picture Books from A-Z....

Check out Brimful Curiosities post on A-Z Christmas reading challenge.  What a clever idea.
Here's just brief part of her post.

Do you like our picture book tree skirt? I gathered up all of our winter and Christmas titles so that we can start reading some of the books together every night in December. Someday I'd love to make an Advent calendar out of books, like the one on the Jolly Mom blog. However, this year we will count down to Christmas by reading holiday and winter themed books from A-Z (1-25). This is not meant as a "best of" list. All the titles in my list are from our home library (some I purchased and some are copies received for review). I have a few empty letter entries, so if you have any suggestions for those letters, please let me know. I'll need to make a trip to the library if we hope to complete our A-Z Christmas book challenge!...(click here to continue reading the rest of this post.)

Authors Join Forces...

Show Details:

Tune in to Cec And Me every Tuesday evening, 7-8 CT/8-9 ET at http://toginet.com/shows/cecandme/

The call-in number is 877-864-4869.

All shows archived for your listening pleasure.

Bestselling Authors Join Forces Again

Call-Ins Welcome

Don Piper

Getting to Heaven: 
Departing Instructions for Your Life Now,

by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey

is set to release on March 1.

(Bettendorf, IA) — Name that title. This book is now in its fifth year on the New York Times' bestseller list. It's sold more than five million copies and has been translated into 40+ languages. A feature film is in the works. The book? 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey.

Piper will join Murphey on the new Toginet online radio show, Cec And Me on Tuesday, December 7th. Tune in to learn how the authors connected—the birth of a multi-book project and their mutually-respected relationship.

Listeners are welcome to call in with questions or comments, with opportunities to win free books. Piper and Murphey offer comfort and wisdom from their vast source of life experience with heartache, pain and loss. These men live out the phrase, “I feel your pain.” This show is certain to deliver grace-filled strength.

More about The Cec And Me Show:
Billed as a delightful, thoughtful, serious, and not so serious call-in show with Cecil (Cec) Murphey and Twila Belk, the show promises a blend of fun and a variety of topics, including tough issues such as cancer, caregiving, and sexual abuse, as well as lighter topics such as writing and Christmas miracles.

The far-reaching, refreshing, faith-based, shared conversation and call-in show offers:

* An inside look at the “Man Behind the Words.” This patriarch in the publishing industry shares from his life of words—over 100 books and going strong.

* Special guests who've been impacted by Cec in some way—people who in turn impact others—authors, speakers, pastors, ministry leaders and more.

* A wide range of topics—tough issues, practical helps, encouragement, inspiration, hope, and some fun thrown in for good measure.

* The opportunity to call in with your questions and comments.

Cecil Murphey

Sign up for a monthly newsletter 
or learn more about Cec at 

www.cecilmurphey.com

About Cecil (Cec) Murphey
Murphey is an international speaker and bestselling author who has written or co-written more than 100 books, including Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (with Dr. Ben Carson). His books have sold millions and have given hope and encouragement to countless people around the world. Many writers claim Murphey as their mentor or the father of their writing.

Twila Belk

More information can be found at 

www.gottatellsomebody.com

About Twila Belk

Belk is a writer, inspirational speaker, and conference director who also works fulltime with Murphey as his manager and personal assistant. She serves as the show’s host.

Check out this clip for more details of Cec And Me:

Gratitude Winner

to

Whatcha Reading ~ Red Ink

This is how "Whatcha Reading Wednesdays" works this week...

Go to page 1 type in the first sentence. If it is a spoiler at all be sure to put **Spoiler Alert** at the top of your comment (like if the selection announces the death of an integral character or something).

Link up over at Busy Moms Who Love to Read

Zhou Chi, affectionately known by fellow members of their modest house church as Brother Zhou, struggled withing himself each time he left his four-year-old son, Ahou Chan, with his older sister, Zhou Ming.