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Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

It’s Time

Posted in Books, tagged , , , , , on July 18, 2014| 4 Comments »

Have you ever had everything suddenly fall into place? Your heartfelt, deepest dream come true? This week, I did. And I saw God’s fingerprints all over it. It brought me to my knees in tearful gratitude.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Six years ago I had a dream – write a novel and attract a well know publishing house.For five years the windows and doors slammed in my face.  I indy-pubbed one novel that has had mild success and six non-fiction works. But still, I was not recognized in the Christian publishing world.

Over the past year and a half, that dream has come true…twice!  At first the curtains quivered. Then a ray of light poured in with one email in response to a query- I was under contract for Hush in the Storm. Was it really happening? My dream slowly evolved into truth. My eyes began to adjust. Inch by inch, more light streamed into my dream, waking me into the fact this is a reality. Dare I believe it?

Then the editor-in-chief of Prism Book Group, the publishing house who contracted with me, read my novel and proclaimed it as “brilliant, just brilliant, and A+++.”  She asked if I had another WIP (work in progress), which I did.  I’d just finished the first draft of the next novel, Legitimate Lies. Within an hour I had my second contract and an editor assigned to me. Within two days, I had the cover already done!

Last week, I signed up for a book e-blast to advertise Hush in the Storm’s launch on August 6th.  I expected them to blast it across cyberspace in a few weeks when Hush in the Storm releases. Then I got an email that it was my “blast day.” My heart sunk. Oh, no. I’ve wasted my money. It’s too early. Three hours later, I got a surprise email from my publisher. My novel was on Amazon at a pre-order discount rate!

The curtains drew back, the sash flew open, and the sun poured in. God’s timing evident. I felt His warmth envelop me, His perfect love pat me on the back.”See,” I heard His soft whisper to my heart, “I’ve got this.”

Within two days, I have landed four book signings and my press release has been accepted by five local papers, which will reach 125,000 readers. Just like that. Ads for my signings will also appear the week they happen. Sash inched higher and higher. Fresh, fragrant air whiffed in, like the first spring day after a long winter.

ECover copy I don’t know if I will sell 50 or 50,000 copies. That is truly in God’s hands. All I know is when I finally hold it in paperback form next month,they are going to shake with joy as my lips quiver – just as when I first held my son moments after birth.

After all, a Christian novel is like a baby. You have long gestation period when you wonder how it is forming and if it will be okay. Then you get a contract and the heartbeats sound stronger and stronger. You feel small flutters, then kicks as it grows and evolves through the help of critique groups. Near the end, the labor pains of editing start. Finally, it happens – a new creation, orchestrated by God becomes a tangible, hold-in-your-hands reality.

.I trust in the fact He will use it to His glory and touch hearts with it’s message, just as He has planned. He already knows whose faith-walk it will encourage, and who will be respond to it’s message. It’s time…His time.

Thank you dearest Lord for honoring my dream. How undeserving I feel, and humbly blessed. I wonder what unstated dreams hiding in my soul You are waiting to bring to fruition next…

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World Blogs Tour

Posted in Books on July 8, 2014| 1 Comment »

Decades ago book signings were the vehicle to which an author became better known to the public. Today, it is social media. So, I am participating in a blog tour–and you are cordially invited to come along.

These are Christian writers all, so you will find God in their messages, and hey, you might discover a new favorite author! Their writings may be page-turners, but they will never voilate your ethics.

I was invited to participate in this blog tour by a fellow author with my publishing house, Prism Book Group. paula Her name is Paula Mowery, and actually it’s her birthday today, so a great present would be to click on the link, cruise through her blog, and take notice of her books. Oh – and leave her a comment. (You can also check out the other Christian authors on her blog tour – Delia Latham who helped me edit Hush in the Storm, Rachel James and Suzanne Purvis.)  Paula, thanks for including me in this effort.

Now, on to the questions I am to answer…

1. What am I working on?
I just finished the proofs and approved the cover design for Hush in the Storm which debuts August 6th and am beginning the editing process on Legitimate Lies with Suzanne Baganz which launches in January, 2015. I am also finishing up a week of devotionals for two pre-assigned weeks in 2015 for Good News Daily and a weeks’ worth of commentary for The Journey for 2016. Then, on to finish the second of a trilogy, a novel a called Grounded, which follows Focused (published in 2012.) Of course, I also write monthly for Truth Media’s Power to Change and quarterly for Faith-Filled Family Magazine.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?   
Well, I write across many genres. My non fiction is Biblically based and relates to real issues people encounter and how they can find God’s fingerprints on whatever life is slinging into their yard. I guess that is also true for my fiction in that each one has an underlying plot about a social issue God has called me to promote, be it surviving empty nest syndrome,grief over death, human trafficking, abortion recovery, or racial and socio-economic prejudices.
3. Why do I write what I do?
It is truly a God-thing. Six years ago when I was unemployed, I took the advice of three different friends to write for a living out of my home. I began to make an income pretty quickly, so in thanksgiving to my Lord who provides, I tithed my writing day to Him first. Even through unexpected widowhood, He sustained me with clients who’d contact me to ghost write for them. Now that I have a part time job as a church secretary, I have dropped my secular freelancing and write only for His glory.

4. How does my writing process work?
I truly write the first draft in the style of “never lifting my pen.” As I write, I am often amazed where God leads me. Inevitably, it is for someone else needs to hear that devo that day, or it inspires a a plot thickening that is makes my novel so much more intriguing. Then I backtrack, research, run it through my critique group, Write 4 Him, self-edit several times… all the while praying and asking others to pray for me during this creative process. In Legitimate Lies, I knew I wanted to continue the story about the characters in Hush in the Storm, but just wasn’t getting “into it”, until I prayed about it for several weeks. Faithfully, God showed me the social issue He wanted me to promote. After researching that, words flew off my keyboard.

For this blog, I ask God to help me discover ways He is speaking to me daily so I can relate that to others. It has opened my faith eyes further to His hand in my life, and I hope in doing so, it inspires others to look closer as well.

Well, that’s a bit about me. Now please return on JULY 15th and click on these three authors” blogs or websites below. You will learn a bit about them and their works as well. Isn’t this fun? It’s like a cyberspace authors’ party.

 

diane DiAne Gates – DiAne is an amazing wordsmith, and her blog, Moving Ancient Boundaries,  always touch hearts as well as pointing to ways we can live out our Christianity in a broken world. She is definitely someone to “follow”.

 

 

 

leannLeann Harris, who is a fellow member of the DFW chapter for American Christian Fiction Writers, is an amazing  Inspirational Romance author with many novels under her belt. Her recently launched eBook, Last Lie, promises to be a real page turner. I definitely have it at the top of my “have to read” list. Download it from B&N or Amazon.

 

 

 

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALee Carver also writes for Prism Book group and is president of the DFW Chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers. She has written several novels and has two about to launch within the year!  If you like history/adventures flavored with a little romance, watch for her books releasing soon.

 

 

         Through cyberspace, we can co-promote His works, and each other who are faithful to write and read them. Please join in this effort. 

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Clouded View

Posted in Books, Devotional, tagged , , , , , on February 25, 2014| 1 Comment »

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the
mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud
covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the
midst of the cloud.  Exodus 24:14

dreamstime_m_18038487.jpgGod told Moses to wait… and he did. For six days he was encased in a deep fog – he probably couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Zero visibility. Six days…waiting.

I can relate to Moses’s experience in Exodus 24. There have been times when I have been in a spiritual fog for a while. I’d lost my sense of direction. I couldn’t see where to go. I couldn’t determine if I took a few steps to the left or the right would that plummet me off a cliff? So I didn’t move at all. And it seemed like the fog lasted for an eternity.

It is an eerie feeling when you are waiting on the Lord.  I admit I had waves of anxiousness and doubts. “Why am I here? Why can’t I vision You in my life right now, Lord?” Then, as frustartion mounts, “Why can’t I see a way out of this? What lessons are You trying to teach me?”  And with a trembling lip, “You aren’t mad at me are you?”, as if God was an angry parent who’d put me in time-out.

But, somehow I knew God’s glory was in that cloudiness with me, just as His glory was with Moses.  Which is why I kept praying to Him even though I could not sense His presence.. And eventually, God’s voice led me out of the midst of the clouds. Just as He did with Moses.

We cannot always see God’s working in our lives. But in the meantime. like Moses, we need to wait, watch and worship. God has not abandoned us. He has us where we are for a reason. Trust in that. You can find Him today, even if you can’t find anything else.

 

for more on the In-between times and why God puts us there, consider the Bible Study Between the Window and the Door. Thanks.

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The Manner Worthy

Posted in Books, Devotional, tagged , on February 24, 2014| 2 Comments »

MP900444553[1]     I’ve heard horror stories. I have seen residual pain in the eyes of those who came back from the battle front and told their tale…of how their novel just went through the layered editing process.

My latest baby, Hush in the Storm,  is being dissected, prodded, and critiqued by the editors with Prism Book Group. It is a worthy and necessary process. But, when my content editor emailed me and told me she hoped I had “alligator skin”, my heart crunched in my chest. All week, with fear and trembling, I have emailed my writer friends/prayer warriors to lift me, and my editor, up in prayer. After all, she stated she is doing this for the glory of God, and that is why I wrote it as well. I know her intentions are only to make it the best it can be. I hang on her words that if the publisher accepted it under contract, it must already be good.

Still… a nagging muscle tension has been building up in my shoulders and a slight fog has clouded my brain. I’ve noticed I have to concentrate on inhaling more deeply. My sleep has not been as sound. I hold my breath as I check the emails – has she found anything horrid yet? Is she wondering if this should even be published? How much will she bleed all over my manuscript with her red corrections and comment bubbles?

Then the Lord quietly pops up this verse of the day onto my Smart phone:

I therefore , a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing each other in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesian 4:1-3

I fell to my knees – thank you, Lord Jesus. Contriteness cloaked over my anxieties. God has called me to write- for Him not myself. Once again, I escape from the pride monster  who has been clenching me and chain myself instead to God’s grace, right next to this wonderful editor He has provided..

As she and I journey down this road to make my novel shine for Him, will you pray this off and on for us as well over the next month or so? 

I found God today on my cell phone. Where will He reveal Himself to you?

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Squeeze God In

Posted in Books, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , on September 12, 2013| 3 Comments »

MP900444553[1]If your day is like most of us, you barely have time to breathe, much less find time to spend with God. Right?

Wrong –

Even though technology is sucking time away from us by making us available 24/7, ( how many of you have been awakened in the middle of the night by that text “bling” on your phone and wondered if you should get up and check it or roll back over?) we can find time for God if we realize that God is always present- in the present.

He is the great IAM, not the I was a second ago, or I will be in a moment.

Brother Lawrence, a Medieval monk who penned Practicing the Presence of God had it right – My set times for prayer are exactly like the rest of the day to me. They are but a continuation of the same exercise of being in God’s presence.

So, to squeeze more God-tIme into our day , maybe we should think about how to squeeze more of our day into our time with God.

He will help you with that.  Just ask Him to show you how.

Our Lord wants to hang out with you so much, He hung on the cross so He could.

christ

 
for more thoughts on how to squeeze more God-Time Into Your day, click on the picture below

Squeeze cover

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This is the day You have made? Really?

Posted in Books, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , on August 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I dashed in, my stomach growling. I had to be NPO (no food after midnight) for my blood work to be drawn.

MP900444553[1]The day was not going well so far. I’d jabbed my eye with my mascara wand, blinking dark streaks half way down my face.  My garage door had decided to be in one of its finicky moods. It took three tries to get it to close. Then, a slow-moving truck insisted on being in my lane.  I was 10 minutes late.

As I signed in, it hit me. The doctor’s orders were still on my desk.  I caught one of the nurse’s eye. With profound apologies, I rushed back out, got in my car, clicked the belt and gunned the accelerator. Of course, I hit every red light there and back again.  Out of breath with my pulse in my ears, I sat back down in the waiting room, orders in hand, chiding myself for my stupidity. now 28 minutes late. “Why me, Lord?”

Another nurse called my name.  I followed her into the cubicle filled with vials and the distinctive chair where you lay your arm. As she clicked my name into her compute,r with her back to me, she asked, “and how is your day going?”

I huffed into my bangs. “it is the day the Lord has made, so I will…”

She turned, “rejoice and be glad in it.” Her expression darkened as she turned back to the computer. “I wish I felt more like that, ” she sighed. “I know I need to get closer to Him, but I don’t know how. I am not sure He is listening to my prayers.”

That familiar quiet nudge, the one you know it not from your brain, said to me, “Show her your card of your new book, Squeeze More God-time into Your Day.”

I am not a bold marketer when it comes to my writing. I hesitated, “Now, Lord? Really?”

But I knew that voice was spirit-filled.  I reached into my wallet and swallowed my pride. “Here. It’s my new book. Maybe it will help.”

She took it, then looked at the cover and the by-line printed onto the business card. She nodded, “I need this.” She put the card in her lab jacket pocket. Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

“Tell me,” I whispered back, my hand on her arm.

As she drew the blood she sobbed out her story.  After the vials were filled and the gauze secured onto the inside bend of my elbow, I rose, draped my arm around her and said, “May I pray for you?”

Afterwards, she smiled. “God sent you to me.”

I now knew why I was delayed – why I’d stabbed the mascara wand in my eye, why I’d left the paperwork behind and encountered all those red lights.  So I’d get her as my phlebotomist.  I told her so.

“I guess He is listening,” she sniffled.

Humility flooded my soul. I prayed for God to forgive my anxiousness and frustration and thanked Him for using me, unworthy as I am, as His vessel.

That night went I got home, a thank you email was in my inbox from this sweet stranger, now a friend in Christ.  She’d gotten it off my website.

This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice with me and be glad in it.  

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Are You Like a Clock?

Posted in Books on July 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I grew up with a wall clock my father brought back from Germany in WWII. It had a brass pendulum and wind-up gears. When it started to not keep as accurate of time as it should, my father would stop the pendulum for twenty-four hours, then he’d rewind the clock, reset the hands, and start the sway of the pendulum again.

God designed us like that clock—to stop the pendulum every now and then so we can be re-set. We need to give our gears a repose. Our bodies need to readjust, restore and regroup. So do our minds. We need a day to pray, be refueled with His Word, and reconnect with His faithful. We need more than to just rest, we need to rest in Him.

Our Creator requires that we spend one of those seven days He created as a week resting in Him. He designed our bodies and minds as well as our souls for that very purpose.

“There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.”  Leviticus 23:3
excerpt from my new book – available from my website

Squeeze More God-Time Into Your Day.Squeeze cover

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Listen Blog Talk Radio

Posted in Books, Christian, tagged , , on June 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Listen Up!

http://bit.ly/12nNojC

 

blogtalkradio_logoWeds, June 26th 4pm CT   Blog Talk Radio Christian Communicators features Julie B Cosgrove on Blessings in Hardships

 

listen in, call in.

 

thanks!!

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In an attempt to promote other Christian authors?

Posted in Books on March 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Peggy Sue Wells at The NEXT BIG THING http://peggysuewells.com/2013/02/24/what-is-the-next-best-thing/ asked me to participate in this, so here goes: – oh- and you should check out her books!!!

What is your working title of your book (or story)?  FOCUSEDFocused-1-1
Where did the idea come from for the book? I READ A STAT THAT SAYS 80% OF DIVORCES (AFTER FIVE OR MORE YEARS OF MARRIAGE) OCCUR WITHIN TWO YEARS OF THE DEATH OF A PARENT OR THE NEST EMPTYING. I WANTED TO WRITE A FICTION SHOWING A COUPLE WHO GOES THROUGH (FROM BOTH PERSPECTIVES) THIS  CHANGE AND, OVER A PERIOD OF A FEW SOUL SEARCHING MONTHS, DECIDES TO STAY MARRIED – AND I WANTED TO  MAKE THE STRUGGLE  HEART-FELT, AT TIMES HUMOROUS, REAL LIFE, AND FAITH BASED.
What genre does your book fall under? CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S FICTION
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? UNKNOWN ONES- SO THAY CAN GET A SHOT AT GETTING NOTICED, JUST LIKE ME
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? HOW WILL CHRISTINA FOCUS AFTER HER PARENTS HAVE PASSED, HER SON HAS FLOWN THE NEST, AND HER HUSBAND, JEFF, SEEMS TO NEVER BE AROUND  ANYMORE-EVEN WHEN HE IS IN HIS FAVORITE RECLINER?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? IT IS INDY PUBBED THRU AMAZON
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? SIX MONTHS
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  GOOD QUESTION. IT IS IN THE SAME VEIN AS JAN CARON’S FATHER TIM BOOKS, EVEN THOUGH THE CHARACTER IS NOT A PASTOR. BUT LIKE MANY SMALL CONGREGATIONS WHO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE, THE CHURCH FOLK DO GET INVOLVED-THAT’S PART OF THE HUMOR.
Who or what inspired you to write this book? SEE THE FIRST QUESTION
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? THE OVERALL MESSAGE IS WE CAN FIND GOD IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR EMPTY NESTS OR EMPTY HEARTS. WE ALL GO THROUGH CHANGE- LIFE IS CHANGE. BUT GOD CAN PURPOSE THAT AND HELP US THORUGH IT. DON’T GIVE UP.

So, now I invite five other Christian authors  who have blogs to step forward and do this as well.

Gail Morris- www.GodGirlGail.com

Robi Ley – http://www.rwley.com/

Joy Brooks – http://www.prayerforfreedom.com/

Leann Harris – http://leannharris.blogspot.com/

DiAn Gates http://dianegates.wordpress.com/

Also Lynn Hobbs, Janice Olson, Leana Nelson Dooley

Mention me and my blog as your inviter and spread the word! Here are the instructions:

1. You write a blog answering the ten questions and post it on your week,
March 3, and include links to the blogs of the five writers you invite. You
also credit me as your inviter and include a link to the blog I post.
https://wheredidyoufindgodtoday.com/2013/03/05/in-an-attempt-…istian-
2. The five writers you invite answer the questions; each one puts that
blog up the week after yours goes up, and each one credits you as the
inviter and includes a link to your blog.

3. They, in turn, tag five other writers, and the cycle continues.

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