Win a Book!

Thursday Thoughts on Reading and Writing

When you leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 31, 2013, you'll be entered in the DRAWING for a copy of the book I review below. If you mention in your comment that you’re a follower (see in the left column “Join This Site” and “Follow by Email”), I’ll add your name a second time in the drawing. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. You can read details about my book giveaways at Disclaimers.


The Moses Quilt by Kathi Macias      

Multiple award-winning author Kathi Macia’s nearly 35 books include this “Quilt” series, the “Freedom” series, and the “Extreme Devotion” novels for New Hope Publishers. Her devotionals reach hundreds of thousands—through the Christian Civic League, Black Christian News, Latino Christian News, Christians in Recovery, and crosswalk.com. A popular speaker, Kathi also loves outreach to prison and homeless ministries, and praying for and aiding the persecuted church globally. A mother and grandmother, Kathi and husband, Al, live in California.


From the book’s back cover:
Would she finally have the courage to say yes to Edward?

As Mazie Hartford sat down on the edge of the bed, carefully laying the folded quilt between herself and her great-grandmother, Mimi the young woman sensed that she was about to embark on a journey that could change the entire course of her life. . . .

And from the pages of history, Harriet Tubman would have just the answer she needed.

From Jo:

This novel has much historical narrative. Throughout the book Mazie’s great-grandmother, Mimi, tells Mazie and her boyfriend, Edward, a story about Harriet Tubman who escapes slavery and helps with the Underground Railroad. Mazie admittedly loves Edward but won’t accept his marriage proposal. What motivates Mimi to tell the story of Harriet Tubman to Mazie and Edward? Macias tackles racial prejudices and does a good job, her characters are realistic, and her settings along America’s northwest shoreline are great.

Remember: leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 31, 2013 and you'll be entered in the drawing for a copy of The Moses Quilt by Kathi Macias. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. Please, please remember to leave your email address so that should you be the winner I can get in touch with you for your mailing address. I’ll announce the winner in Monday’s blog.

Also remember on Mondays my posts will be interviews with characters from That Summer. An interesting way to get to know the characters' feelings as they travel through the book. If you comment on my Monday blogs, I'll give you another chance in the Thursday book giveaways. Be sure you leave your email address.

Till next time ... keep on smiling.

Meet Louisa

Monday Meanderings

I want you to get to know some of the characters of my novel That Summer. For the next few Mondays I’ll interview one of the characters and you can leave comments if you want. I think this might help you when you read my novel to know how these characters feel as they move through the story. If you leave a comment on this blog that is totally related to the interview I'll give you an extra entry in the next Thursday book drawing.

Today I’m interviewing Louisa Lynn Johnson, younger daughter of Aaron Johnson who lives on up the valley a few miles from the Callaways. She lives on a small piece of land in the Southern Appalachians in East Tennessee and her family is poorer than the Callaways. Her dad has a few animals and tries to grow a few crops.

JO: Louisa, did you grow up near Caney Creek?

LOUISA: No ma’am, I grew up in Maple Hollow, a good distance from Caney Creek and the town of Newton.

JO: Tell me a little about where you grew up, please.

LOUISA: Well, I’ve lived my whole life in Maple Hollow. Our house wasn’t much to look at but it kept us dry and a little warm in the winter. We never had much company. You see, the road we lived on was the only way up into the hollow. The road went a little past our house and then you had to turn your buggy around and come back, going by our house.

JO: You say you lived in Maple Hollow. What is a hollow?

LOUISA: Well, I’m sure you know what a valley in the mountains are—a place where the mountains dip down, form a flat stretch of valley, and then rise back to their height of a mountain. I love my home, my sister, and parents. But I wish I had lived in a valley. Things are beautiful in a valley in the spring and summer, green and crops grow well there. Branching off those pretty valleys are hollows. They are not as flat and wide as a valley, just a cut out piece of rough land that meanders up and away from the valley. We don’t see much sunlight at home.

JO:  How many were in your family?

LOUISA: Four of us. There were me and my sister, Callie. Then my dad and mother. But when I was about fourteen years old, my mother died when she tried to birth her stillborn baby. We all missed her awfully bad. Callie and I were saddened and aggravated when Dad married a year after Mother died.

JO: How did you feel about another woman to take your mother’s place?

LOUISA: We didn’t like it. Mother had barely been dead a year when Dad married again. He married an old maid school teacher from town. She was nice, I guess. But she wasn’t our mother. Nobody else could take our mother’s place. We didn’t tell Dad how we felt. He didn’t seem to mind another woman in our house.

JO: Louisa, you seem unhappy living in Maple Hollow. What's wrong?

LOUISA: I’m sorry but I’m just not satisfied now. My sister, Callie, moved into town when she graduated high school. With school out for the summer, I don’t have anybody my age to talk to, to tell secrets to. Dad and Mavis, that’s my stepmother, don’t go into town much. Dad has never worked on a public job. So I’m just stuck here in a place I used to love when Callie was here.

JO: As dissatisfied as you are with Callie being gone, what can you do to remedy your situation?

LOUISA: I don’t know. I’m just trying to figure out what I can do. Callie doesn’t come home much now that she’s working in town. The next time she comes home I'll try to get Dad to let me go back and stay with her for the rest of the summer. Callie lives in a boardinghouse in Newton. I hope I can share her room and maybe she can pay for my meals there. She makes good money working at the hosiery mill. I might try to get a job there too.

JO: Callie, do you have a boyfriend you can talk to?

LOUISA: I think I have a boyfriend.

JO: You think you have a boyfriend. Why don’t you know whether you do?

LOUISA: Well, country life is not like it is in town. I’m not saying either one is better. They’re just different. Anyway, I met a boy at the county fair. He looked at me a lot and I sure looked at him. He’s handsome. We talked some. Living in the hollow like I do I can’t get out and see him again. But I think he might be my boyfriend.

Till next time … keep on smiling.

Win a Book!

When you leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 24, 2013 you'll be entered in the DRAWING for a copy of the book below. If you're the winner. If you mention in your comment that you’re a follower (see in the left column “Join This Site” and “Follow by Email”), I’ll add your name a second time in the drawing. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. You can read details about my book giveaways at Disclaimers.   

Our guest today is award-winning author, Dianna T. Benson. Dianna will give away a copy of her book, The Hidden Son, to the winner of our book drawing.

JO: Welcome, Dianna! Please tell us a little about yourself.

DIANNA: After majoring in communications and a ten-year career as a travel agent, I left the travel industry to earn my EMS degree. An EMT and a Haz-Mat and FEMA Operative since 2005, I love the adrenaline rush of responding to medical emergencies and helping people in need. My suspense novels about adventurous characters thrown into tremendous circumstances provide readers with a similar kind of rush. I live in North Carolina with my husband and our three athletic children.

I’m a 2011 Genesis Winner, a 2011 Genesis double Semi-Finalist, a 2010 Daphne de Maurier Finalist, and a 2007 Golden Palm Finalist. In 2012, I signed a nine-book contract. My first book, The Hidden Son, released March 1, 2013.

JO: What are some fun or unique things you can tell us about yourself that we don’t know?

DIANNA: I never read any of my high school required books. None of them caught my interest at all, so I read the Cliff notes and winged it. I didn’t read much as a child or a teen. I don’t even remember reading an entire novel until my senior year in high school. My freshman year in college, I found my love of reading suspense novels.

Starting in February 2012, for thirteen weeks I had a pending contract offer from one of the largest traditional print publishing houses. The entire editorial staff and the entire leadership team loved my writing, but the leadership team decided their suspense list is already too full. During this thirteen week time frame, my agent and the senior acquisitions editor thought it was just a matter of time before my contract finalized, so my agent understandably let go of all the other interest in my writing. Soon after those thirteen weeks with that publishing house, Ellechor Publishing House, a small traditional print house, contacted me and asked me to submit my 2011 Genesis Winner, Illusion of Safety. Days after I did so, they offered me a nine-book contract (three trilogies).  After I lost the contract with the large traditional print house and before Ellechor contacted me, I was accepted into Penn State’s psychology program to earn my Master’s degree to become a social worker (my body, especially my back, can’t lift patients too much longer). So, I wondered if the publishing industry wasn’t God’s plan for me. But Ellechor Publishing House reminded I need to spend most of my time writing for Him.        

JO: Please describe yourself with three words.

DIANNA: Diligent, compassionate, overachiever

JO: What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

DIANNA: I work part time as an EMT. I’m a life-long athlete and an outdoor enthusiast. I love to spend time in God’s nature doing anything active and adventurous. When I’m not writing or reading, I’m climbing, running, skiing, camping, scuba diving, cycling or traveling the world. If I’m not doing a sport myself, I’m watching my oldest daughter swim for Virginia Tech, my son play goalie for the Jr. Hurricanes, or my youngest daughter play soccer for her travel team.  Spending time with my family and friends is a joy to me, especially my husband of twenty-three years.     

JO: How did you become involved in writing?

DIANNA: When I was in fifth grade, I realized I’m a writer. For those details, read the On Writing page on my website: www.diannatbenson.com

JO: Where do you write? Do you have a dedicated office or a corner or nook in a room?

DIANNA: My office is our bonus room (the room over our two-car garage).  During the polishing process, I definitely need all that space since I print the entire 400 page novel out, read through every word, and make changes as necessary, so I have paper all over the place. 

JO: Do you always know the title of your books before you write them?  

DIANNA: The title just pops into my mind typically within the first twenty pages of writing the first draft.

JO: Please tell us about The Hidden Son.

DIANNA: The first book in the Cayman Islands Trilogy:

The Hidden Son

When U.S. DEA Special Agent Lelisa Desmond refuses to follow an order to bury evidence in a high profile case, her superior hires a hit man to kill her deep in the ocean off Grand Cayman Island. Lelisa survives the first attempt on her life, but someone close to her is mistakenly murdered in her place.

With no one to trust, Lelisa enlists Inspector Alec Dyer for help but learns she's his number one suspect in the scuba diving homicide. She sets off on a daring mission to bring down the man who ordered her execution. A man in a high position, with power friends. A man who will stop at nothing to silence her forever in order to hide his son’s crimes.

JO: What takeaway value do you hope your readers receive after reading this book?

DIANNA: In The Hidden Son (and in all my books), I want readers to be inspired by how my characters don’t try the impossible: “Get over” the difficult stuff in life and move on; instead, they accept the pain difficult events in their lives cause and they move forward with a renewed sense of understanding in themselves, in life, and in God.

JO: Where did you get the idea for your book?

DIANNA: I’ve been a scuba diver for nearly twenty-five years. I think the Cayman Islands are one of the world’s best diving locations. Since I’ve dove in Cayman countless times, the opening of The Hidden Son just popped into my head. I’m a pantser (not a plotter); meaning I write by the seat of my pants, so I just allow my writer brain free rein.

JO: Did you have to do any research for this book?

DIANNA: Since I’m an EMT and a haz-mat and FEMA Operative, my firsthand emergency medical and rescue experience and knowledge is automatically in my mind for me. However, for all those details I don’t know, to make things outside my expertise authentic, I turn to my various professional experts: Firefighters, law enforcers, attorneys, MDs, etc.    

JO: How long have you been writing? When did you sell your first book?

DIANNA: In 1993, I started writing my first suspense novel. After completing three novels, I started querying agents in 2000; all of them requested a partial. After I completed my fourth novel, I queried agents again, and this time all of them requested a full after reading a partial.

After I completed five novels, I signed with my agent in 2007. Six agents offered me representation that spring; it was difficult to turn down the other five since all of them are top-notch agents. In the fall of 2007, a film agent requested a screenplay of The Hidden Son after reading the book. Just days before I completed the script, I learned the film agent suddenly and recently retired due to health issues. I never pursued anything further with the script.

In 2009 I received a four-book publishing contract, but soon after that my husband was diagnosed with cancer, so I turned that contract down to focus on our young family of five.

In 2012 I signed a nine-book contract with Ellechor Publishing House, a small traditional print publisher.   

JO: What advice would you give to writers who have been writing a few years but still haven’t interested an agent or publisher in their novel?

DIANNA: If you want to be a published author, don’t listen to anyone say your writing isn’t good enough. Even if you’ve spent years submitting with no offers of agent representation and no publishing contract offers, don’t ever give-up. Keep writing. Keep submitting. Always believe in yourself as a writer. Above all, if you love to write, then never stop writing. God gave you a passion to write, so spend time on your passion and enjoy yourself, even if your writing is for your eyes only (plus a few select others).

JO: What are you working on now?

DIANNA: The second book in the Cayman Islands Trilogy:

Persephone's Fugitive 

Paramedic Reyanne Cooper finds herself under gunpoint by her patient, Jason Keegan, an injured prison inmate. A standoff ensues between Keegan and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service.  

As his hostage, Reyanne fights to save herself before Keegan blows them both up, a threat he made to the Cayman police since he'd rather die than live life in a prison cell. However, he's determined to escape Grand Cayman and disappear forever off radar.  

JO: What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

DIANNA: Read a ton of books in the genre you want to write. Watch a bunch of movies in the genre you want to write. Watch TV shows with strong characterization. Watch not good TV shows and not good movies on what not to do as a writer. Write, write, write. Read, read, read. Revise, revise, revise.  Don’t focus on the writing “rules” you hear about, and ignore any negativity about the publishing industry. Just write from your heart, and God will lead you on the correct path for you and your writing. Every person is different; every writer is different. Find your way. Don’t listen to anyone say your writing isn’t good enough. 

JO: Please tell our readers where they can get your book.

DIANNA:

The Hidden Son is available:

1) Barnes and Noble 
2) Ellechor Publishing 

3) Google Books 

4) Amazon.com 

5) Books-A-Million 

6) Christianbook.com

7) http://buy.christianbookstoday.org/product.asp?itemid=50

JO: Please tell our readers where they can find you online.

DIANNA: www.diannatbenson.com

Thanks for hosting me, Jo!

Dianna

JO:  Thank you for the interesting interview. Dianna will give away a copy of The Hidden Son to the winner of the book drawing Sunday evening.

Remember: leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 24, 2013 and you'll be entered in the drawing for a copy of The Hidden Son by Dianna T. Benson. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. Please, please remember to leave your email address so that should you be the winner I can get in touch with you for your mailing address. I’ll announce the winner in Monday’s blog.

Don't forget to check into my Monday blogs where I have interviews with characters of my novel, That Summer. When you leave a comment on my Monday blog that is specifically about the interview, I'll give you an extra entry when you comment on Thursday's blog.

Till next time ... keep on smiling.

Meet the Characters

Monday Meanderings

I want you to get to know some of the characters of my novel That Summer. For the next few Mondays I’ll interview one of the characters and you can leave a comment if you want.  I think this might help you when you read my novel to know how these characters feel as they move through the story. If you leave a comment on this blog that is totally related to the interview I'll give you an extra chance in the next Thursday book drawing.

Today I’m interviewing Jim Callaway, oldest of John Lee Callaway’s children. He lives on a farm in the Southern Appalachians of East Tennessee and is poor.

JO: Hello, Jim. Are you the young man who doesn’t enjoy growing up on a farm?

JIM: Yes, ma’am, that’s me.

JO: What’s so bad about growing up on a farm?

JIM: To begin with, our house and everythin' belongs to a Mr. Thomas. We’re sharecroppers I guess you would call it. As I understand it, when Poppa settled on livin' on Mr. Thomas’s land, the owner wanted rent money, not a share of the crops we grew. That way, Mr. Thomas gets his money whether the crops make good or not.

JO: How many are in your family?

JIM: I have two brothers, who are twins, and two sisters. And there’s Momma and Poppa.

JO: Tell me about your house.

JIM: The house is pretty crowded. We just have two small bedrooms. One, Momma and Poppa use and then in the other bedroom we have two beds, one for my two sisters and the other for me and my two brothers. We have a little kitchen and a room big enough to put a round oak table where we can all sit down and eat together. Then we have a small livin' room, I guess you’d call it, where we have a fire grate. The fire in the livin' room and in Momma’s cook stove in the kitchen is all the heat we have in the winter. And in the summer we just open our windows to try to get cooled down. The only chairs we have to sit in are wooden straight-backed chairs, some with cane bottoms. We use them to sit in the livin' room and carry them to the eatin' table to use there too.

JO: What are your happiest memories of living with your family?

JIM:  Well…I guess I can’t think of too many. I can remember when I was a little boy, Poppa would play with us. He would cross his long legs and let me sit on his foot. He would swing his foot up and down and we’d play “ride the horsey.” For a while now there’s been no playin' with Poppa. He’s turned mean. Nothin' any of us do is the way he wants it done. He’s mighty hard on me and the twins. My older sister, Shirley Ann, is even afraid to be around him now. He spews out his anger at whoever stands nearest to him and his anger is usually unfair.

JO: What can you do about this situation with your poppa?

JIM: Well, not a whole lot. Just try to stay out of his reach. Momma just takes it, says the Bible tells her to be submissive to Poppa. I don’t think the Bible means she should be submissive to a man that treats his family as harsh as Poppa does. But I know what I’d like to do.

JO: What would you like to do, Jim?

JIM: I’m the oldest, I’m seventeen, and I want to move to town. I want to get a job and have me some money, meet some girls, and make my own choices. That way, I wouldn’t have to listen to Poppa’s rantin' and ravin' every day.

JO: But the Bible tells us to honor our fathers and mothers.

JIM: Yes, ma’am, it does. But do you think that means we’re just supposed to be treated no better than the farm animals? If Poppa has his way me and the twins would stay here forever and he’d work us on the farm. But I’ve got to get away from all this. I’ll hate to leave Momma but she won’t even talk about leavin'. And my sisters and brothers will get their chance to leave as they get older. I’ve just got to get away. Someday I will.

The winner of last Thursday's blog post for a copy of Love Comes to Paradise by Mary Ellis is Cheryl. I'll email you to get your mailing address and get the book out to you. Thanks all for commenting. Watch for more book giveaways

Till next time ... keep on smiling.

Win a Book!

Thursday Thoughts on Reading and Writing

When you leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 17, 2013 you'll be entered in the DRAWING for a copy of the book I review below. If you mention in your comment that you’re a follower (see in the left column “Join This Site” and “Follow by Email”), I’ll add your name a second time in the drawing. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. You can read details about my book giveaways at Disclaimers.   

Love Comes to Paradise by Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis is the bestselling author of many books, including A Widow’s Hope, An Amish Family Reunion, and Living in Harmony. She and her husband live in central Ohio, where they try to live a simpler style of life.

From the book’s back cover:

Nora King is a woman in love. When Elam Detweiler leaves the ultraconservative Amish district of Harmony, Maine, and moves to Paradise, Missouri, Nora boldly follows soon after. But is she in love with the man or the independence and freethinking he represents? Though she soon finds work she enjoys and a new best friend in Paradise, Nora can’t decide whether she wants to capture Elam’s Englisch-leaning heart or commit finally to her Amish faith.

And then, unexpectedly, Lewis Miller comes from Harmony to offer Nora what every woman hopes for—a lifetime of unconditional love. As Lewis attempts to claim her affections, Elam’s interest piques. Suddenly, Nora is irresistible to him. Wooed by two such different men, will Nora come to her senses before Elam’s thoughtless choices ruin her reputation beyond repair? Will Lewis’s pursuit survive the challenge?

From Jo:

When Elam Detweiler leaves Nora King's overly conservative Amish district of Harmony, Maine, Nora follows him. Is she really expecting sparks to fly when Elam knows she's in Paradise, Missouri? She corresponds with Lewis Miller whom she knew in Harmony. With Lewis's appearance Elam's interest in Nora increases. Ellis writes the Amish stories with feelings and facts. She draws her characters so we feel we know them and their dilemmas. Nora must choose between bad-boy Elam and her Amish faith with Lewis.

Remember on Mondays my posts will be interviews with characters from That Summer. An interesting way to get to know the characters' feelings as they travel through the book. If you comment on my Monday blogs, I'll give you another chance in the Thursday book giveaways. Be sure you leave your email address.

Remember: leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 17, 2013 and you'll be entered in the drawing for a copy of Love Comes to Paradise by Mary Ellis. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. Please, please remember to leave your email address so that should you be the winner I can get in touch with you for your mailing address. I’ll announce the winner in Monday’s blog.

Till next time … keep on smiling.

Meet the Characters

Monday Meanderings

I want you to get to know some of the characters of my novel That Summer. For the next few Mondays I’ll interview one of the characters and you can leave comments if you want. I think this might help you when you read my novel to know how these characters feel as they move through the story.

Today I’m interviewing John Lee Callaway who is the father of the Callaway family of his wife and five children. It's 1928, they live on a farm in the Southern Appalachians of East Tennessee, and are poor.

JO: Hello, John Lee. Thank you for talking with me today.

JOHN LEE:  Glad to be here.

JO: We’d like to get to know a little about you. Can you share with us something good in your life?

JOHN LEE: Well, uh, there’s not much good about my life right now. Me and my family are havin’ a hard time with the farm—the crops didn’t make like they ought to. And I can see fear in the children’s eyes whenever I come around. My life’s pretty messed up right now.

JO: Go on, John Lee. I’m here to listen and maybe help you see things better.

JOHN LEE: I don’t know anything else to tell you about.

JO:  John Lee, do you know why your children have fear in their eyes when they see you?

JOHN LEE: I guess it’s because I’ve been pretty mean to the boys and seein’ how I treat them, it makes the girls even afraid of me now. But, you know, I don’t want them afraid of me. I love my children and Elizabeth, my wife. But somethin’ inside of me has a hold on me and I can’t do no better.

JO: What do you think has a hold on you?

JOHN LEE: I don’t really know but I can feel it deep inside of me. Whatever it is makes me be mean to the family. I act like a mean man most of the time. I wish I could shake the feelin’ down inside of me and maybe everythin’ would be good again.

JO: Can you put a name on that feeling inside you?

JOHN LEE: My brother says it’s the devil. My brother says the devil can twist people every which way until they do things they don’t mean to do. My brother says the devil is workin’ on me with some awful sin I keep hidden inside me.

JO: Do you think you have some hidden sin in your life?

JOHN LEE:  What do you think? I reckon I could have. You know I really don’t like God at all. In fact I’ve hated him for a long time. Could that be a hidden sin?

JO: Yes, it could. Do you know why you hate God?

JOHN LEE: I reckon I sure do.

JO: John Lee, could you share it with me?

JOHN LEE: I’ve never told nobody before. I just keep it to myself.

JO:  Keeping it to yourself is probably the worst thing you could do. If you could share your sin with God I’m sure he would forgive you. That sure would lift a burden off you that you have carried around for so long.

JOHN LEE: Well, I don’t know about that … You want me to speak it out loud?

JO: Whatever way you want to do it will be fine.

JOHN LEE:  Well, then…I guess I could talk it out loud. Might ease my mind. You won’t tell my family? I wouldn’t want them to feel bad about me talkin’ to you like this.

JO:  I won’t tell them.

JOHN LEE:  Well, you see, this started a long time ago. Me and my little brother was in the back of the wagon and Mama and Daddy was up front. We was crossing the Big Stone River in a narrow and shallow place when one of the wagon wheels got stuck up on a big rock in the river bed. Daddy had the mules go up and back trying to get the wagon to go over the rock. When he finally got the wagon wheel to go all the way over the rock, the wagon leaned to the side real quick like and Momma fell into the water. The Big Stone was really rollin’ that day and the water got ahold of Mama’s long dress and weighed her down. Daddy told me to grab ahold of her while he righted the mules. I was holdin’ her hand but it was mighty tough against the rushin’ water. I wasn’t about to turn loose of Mama’s hand and Daddy reached for me just as I was about to go into the water with her. When Daddy grabbed my leg her hand slid out of mine. The waters took her down the river and out of our sight. The men found her the next day hung up in some tree limbs hangin’ low over the water.

JO:  John Lee that must have been awful for you to see.

JOHN LEE: Sure was. Now you tell me how I should love a God that took away my momma right before my eyes. Tell me. That’s been a burr under my saddle all these years. Tell me why that happened? Can you?

JO: No, I can’t. I can tell you this—you need to have a personal talk with God and tell him how you’ve felt for all this time. If you’ll listen to God he’ll help you get this thing settled. He’ll wash you sins away and then you will be a better man to your family. But you have to go to God and lay it all out there. Can you do that, John Lee?

~ ~ ~

The winner of last Thursday's blog post for a copy of Key Witness by Christy Barritt is Katie. I'll email you to get your mailing address and get the book out to you. Thanks all for commenting. Watch for more book giveaways.

Till next time … keep on smiling.

Win a Book!

When you leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 10, 2013 you'll be entered in the DRAWING for a copy of the book I review below. If you mention in your comment that you’re a follower (see in the left column “Join This Site” and “Follow by Email”), I’ll add your name a second time in the drawing. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. You can read details about my book giveaways at Disclaimers.    

Key Witness by Christy Barritt

When she’s not working on books, Christy writes articles for various publications. She’s also a weekly feature writer for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, the worship leader at her church and a frequent speaker at various writers’ groups, women’s luncheons and church event. She’s married to Scott, a teacher and funny man extraordinaire. They have two sons, two dogs and a houseplant named Martha. To learn more about her, visit her website, www.christybarritt.com.

From the book’s back cover:

When Elle Philips witnesses an armed robbery while standing in line at the bank, she sets into motion a deadly game of cat and mouse. Mark Denton, a security contractor and former navy SEAL, also witnesses the robbery, and is hired by Elle’s father to keep his daughter safe following the incident. And while Denton’s desire to protect Elle goes beyond professional bounds, he cannot let personal desires cloud his judgment—judgment he’ll have to rely on when the robbers’ true motives are revealed…and Elle becomes a target in the ultimate plot of revenge.

From Jo:

Christy Barritt writes perfect suspense. This book will keep you on your toes, even if you’re not trying to figure out who the bad guy is. Every page is riveted with twists and turns and that kept me turning pages. As the back cover reads, it’s “a deadly game of cat and mouse.”

Remember: leave a comment on THIS post by 6 p.m. CT Sunday, March 10, 2013 and you'll be entered in the drawing for a copy of Key Witness by Christy Barritt. You must be eighteen, have a U.S. mailing address, void where prohibited. Please, please remember to leave your email address so that should you be the winner I can get in touch with you for your mailing address. I’ll announce the winner in Monday’s blog.

Beginning next Monday my Monday posts will be interviews with characters from That Summer. An interesting way to get to know the characters' feelings as they travel through the book.


Till next time ... keep on smiling.