Serious Wednesdays: A Harvest of Blessing by June Foster

Welcome, June! 

A Harvest of Blessing blurb:

If there's one thing Nadia Maguire knows, Jon Maguire robbed her of a godly marriage and left her in financial ruin. The night he was killed in an accident, guilt threatened to suffocate her. She wasn't sorry he died.

When Nadia accidentally sits on a stranger's lap in the graveyard where Jon is buried, she's horrified to learn the good-looking guy with salt and pepper hair is her new boss.

Jared Abrams is a widower who longs to move on. He's intrigued by the beautiful woman who puts God first in her life. But as their friendship grows, an unexpected obstacle separates them—his daughter Sarah. No one can replace her mother. Especially not Nadia Maguire whose son harmed her in high school.

If Nadia can't find the funds to get her house ready to sell, she'll have to balance two jobs with no time left to nurture a relationship with the man she loves. Will she and Jared find a Harvest of Blessings, or a season of drought?

Here's some background information on her newest book:

Finding a cover for A Harvest of Blessings was a challenge. I needed a middle-aged couple who were involved in something they did together in the story.

I found pictures of couples biking, hiking, and partying. Since Nadia and Jared didn't do any of that in the novel, I couldn't use them.

Other pictures showed happy couples involved in different projects, but the guy and the girl weren't the right age.

Finally, persistence paid off. I found a picture of a couple painting a house. Yea! 

One Sunday afternoon, Jared rounded up some paint he'd stored in his shed and arrived at Nadia's house armed with a drop cloth, paint brushes, and the paint. Together the two of them got a few walls painted.

Only thing, their painting a couple of walls only scratched the surface on the needed repairs. One other problem: Jared had a hard time concentrating. He couldn't take his eyes off Nadia.  

About June:

June Foster is an award-winning author who began her writing career in an RV roaming around the USA with her husband, Joe. She brags about visiting a location before it becomes the setting in her contemporary romances. June's characters find themselves in precarious circumstances where only God can offer redemption and ultimately freedom. Find June at junefoster.com

Thank you, June, for sharing your newest book information with us! 

Readers, be sure to check out her book here:

https://tinyurl.com/yah8fbjr

Historical Novelist is Here: Sandra M. Hart!

It's with great pleasure that I introduce you to my friend's (Sandra M. Hart) newest book. I hope this piques your interest and you'll check out her book ASAP! 

First a YouTube video to raise that interest :): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j3JI-wECyY&feature=youtu.be

My novel is set during the famous Battle of Gettysburg. I snapped lots of photos at research trips to Gettysburg. I thought readers might enjoy seeing a few.

This is Willoughby Run, the creek near Sarah Hubbard’s solitary home outside Gettysburg. Confederate soldier, Jesse Mitchell, fights here the morning of July 1, 1863, as part of the 7^th Tennessee Infantry, Archer’s Brigade, Heth’s Division, Hill’s Corps.

On the third day of battle, Jesse waited here for orders to form a line that was part of Pickett’s Charge. A deluge of cannon fire that preceded the charge would soon soar over his head as he lay in a field. But for now, the Southerners eat breakfast, write letters to loved ones, talk in groups, and pray.

The field where so many died at Pickett’s Charge. Though peaceful now, the land has a story to tell.

I invite you to read the story that came to me

 at Gettysburg in my newest novel: 

A Rebel in My House.

Book Blurb:

When the cannons roar beside Sarah Hubbard’s home outside of Gettysburg, she despairs of escaping the war that’s come to Pennsylvania. A wounded Confederate soldier on her doorstep leaves her with a heart-wrenching decision.

Separated from his unit and with a bullet in his back, Jesse Mitchell needs help. He seeks refuge at a house beside Willoughby Run. His future lies in the hands of a woman whose sympathies lay with the North.

Jesse has promised his sister-in-law he’d bring his brother home from the war. Sarah has promised her sister that she’d stay clear of the enemy. Can the two keep their promises amid a war bent on tearing their country apart?

Excerpt:

Friday, June 26, 1863

Two miles outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

      Running feet on the dirt road outside quickened Sarah Hubbard’s heartbeat. Her fingers stiffened on her sewing machine and her back straightened.

Were they coming? Every conversation these days centered on the Confederate soldiers crossing into southern Pennsylvania.

“Miz Hubbard. Miz Hubbard, please let us in!”

Not soldiers but friends. Sarah’s body sagged at Elsie Craig’s voice, but why did she yell? Sarah dropped the gingham dress she’d been sewing and ran to throw open the front door. Alarmed at the fear lining Elsie’s dark face and eyes as she clutched the hand of her four-year-old daughter, Mae, Sarah scanned the horizon for Confederate soldiers. “Hurry inside.”

Elsie needed no second bidding. She guided Mae over the threshold and closed the door. “Miz Hubbard, you gotta hide us.” Her tall, thin body leaned against the door. “The Rebs are in town gathering up all the colored folks they can find. Someone said they’ll be taking them south as slaves and that they’re warning folks not to hide us.”

Sarah gasped. “Why do such a terrible thing?”

“Don’t make sense, does it? Some of us have lived in Gettysburg for years. Others like me have always been free, but it don’t seem to matter to the Southern army.” A long loaf of bread peeked out among jars and clothing in a well-laden basket Elsie set on the rug. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around her trembling child. “I had to leave my house and most of my possessions, but I’ve got the most important thing right here.” She looked up at Sarah as she patted Mae’s shoulder. “Last week my Sam left for Pine Hill, the settlement up near Biglerville. With it being two miles off the main road to Carlisle, the Rebs won’t find him there. Sam never expected the army to come after women and children or he’d never have left us. I miss him something fierce. We’ll go to him when the soldiers get out of town.”

Tears etched tracks in a smudge on Mae’s cheek, tugging at Sarah’s heart as much as Elsie’s wide eyes and trembling hands. Sarah rushed to an open window and pushed aside the curtain a few inches. The Pennsylvania governor, Andrew Curtin, had declared a state of emergency two weeks earlier and called for local militia. Where was their help?

BUY her book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Rebel-House-Sandra-Merville-Hart/dp/1941103383/

About Sandra Merville Hart:

Sandra Merville Hart, Assistant Editor for DevoKids.com, loves to find unusual or little-known facts inMy n her historical research to use in her stories. Her debut Civil War romance, A Stranger On My Land, was an IRCA Finalist 2015. Her second Civil War romance novel, A Rebel in My House, is set during the Battle of Gettysburg. It released on July 15, 2017. Visit Sandra on her blog at https://sandramervillehart.wordpress.com/.

Connect with Sandy here:

Sandra’s Blog, Historical Nibbles: https://sandramervillehart.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandra.m.hart.7

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sandra_M_Hart

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sandramhart7/

Sandra's Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8445068.Sandra_Merville_Hart

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100329215443000389705/posts

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Sandra-Merville-Hart/e/B00OBSJ3PU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Thanks for joining me here today, Sandy. 

Readers, do check out Sandy's newest book! 

Blessings!

The Palm Tree by Rebecca W. Waters

It's with great pleasure that I introduce you to my author friend, Rebecca W. Waters. She's a fun and friendly, intelligent and serious author. Today, she's sharing a story that happened soon after her husband's death which may encourage you. 

But be sure to check out her books and links at the end of the article and also her personal links. 

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, the will flourish in the courts of our God. They will bear fruit in old age. They will stay fresh and green. Psalm 92-12-14

A few weeks after my husband died, a woman from a counseling group prayed with my oldest daughter and me. This woman we didn’t know began whispering prayers of God’s tender mercy over us. She prayed for our healing. She prayed for our family. She prayed we would feel God’s presence and power wash over us as we went through the grieving process. Alli and I held tightly to each other’s hands.

Then this stranger left all of the familiar rhetoric behind. She prayed that whenever we were torn or hurting or when a painful memory threatened our trust in God to waiver, that He would bring to our mind “the image of a…uh…” she struggled here. “The image of a …uh…a palm tree,” she finally said.  A palm tree? Really?

With the final “Amen” the kind woman hugged us and wished us well. “I have to tell you,” she said. “I don’t know where that palm tree image came from. Is there any significance?”

Alli and I looked at each other. “Well,” I began. “We’re from Florida and Tom loved the beach.” It was
weak. We all knew it.

As we climbed in the car to head home Alli and I started to laugh. “A palm tree? What was that about?” I’ve never been big on “signs.” We shared the story with my two other daughters and that Christmas my children covered my Christmas tree with palm tree ornaments.

But palm trees seemed to pop up everywhere; in paintings, on buildings, in books.  Then, one Sunday our preacher talked about having a palm tree kind of faith.

“God designed a palm tree with the interlocking kind of cable work that goes all the way up and deep in the ground.” He talked about how the palm will withstand hurricane force winds and never break.

I know. I’m from Florida. I’ve see palm trees bend nearly to the ground in tropical storms without breaking or becoming uprooted. Unwittingly, I think that woman who prayed with us that November evening was praying for the same thing. A deep-rooted faith…a trust in God that is flexible enough to bend and not break when the storms of life come at us with gale force winds.

Two years after my husband died, my youngest daughter, Kay, sat in the kitchen of a friend. A painting of a beautiful palm tree hung above the table. Kay shared our story. She talked with her friend about resiliency and deep-rooted faith.

Kay’s friend had a “rocky past” and as my daughter Kay spoke of her own relationship with Christ, tears slid down her friend’s face.

“How incredible the odd mention of a palm tree could lead to deep conversations about trust in God who I’m able to see as good despite losing a dad I loved dearly,” Kay told me.

How incredible indeed. But then, so is the God we serve. May your faith be deeply rooted and when you’re faced with crisis, may God bring to you the image of… a palm tree.

ABOUT  BECKY:

Rebecca Waters’ freelance work has resulted in articles for Chicken Soup for the Soul, the Lookout Magazine, The Christian Communicator, Church Libraries, and Home Health Aide Digest. Prior to publishing her first novel, Breathing on Her Own, Rebecca was a college professor and speaker on the Ohio Writing Project circuit.

Here are the full  links:

Breathing on Her Own

Amazon

Designing a Business Plan for Your Writing

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Business-Plan-Writing-Publish-ebook/dp/B01NBQ0U97/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

My blog, A Novel Creation can be found on my website www.WatersWords.com

Thank you, Becky, for sharing your book with us today! 

Don't Give Up by Guest Blogger Tamera Kraft

Tamera and I have something in common; we don't give up. I posted on her blog recently (http://tameralynnkraft.com/CaroleBrown-Never,NeverGiveUp) about never giving up and receiving my first book contract for The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman. NOW she is seeing the results for never giving up. Hurray, Tamera!

Read on to hear a little about her writing journey:

Don’t Give Up!
“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill gave this speech at a college graduation. It was his entire speech. He knew what he was talking about. During World War II, the German Blitzkrieg on London was having a devastating effect. Great Britain, the last hope of Europe, was losing the war. That’s when Churchill gave another speech that inspired his nation.

“... we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Winston Churchill

Any writer who becomes successful has to have a similar motto. In fact, any person who has a dream or vision worth fighting for can never give up. Many times, it is not the best writers who become well known authors but the most persistent. I know a little about that.

I have always wanted to be a writer, but I started pursuing it in earnest six years ago. My first step was to write a full novel. Some of you are involved in that process and are ready to throw your book through the window. Keep writing, and you’ll finish it.

After I wrote my novel, I found out I didn’t know that much about writing. I thought I did, but as I submitted my work to agents and critique partners, they gently, and sometimes not so gently, showed me what I was doing wrong. I read books, studied other authors, attended conferences, and edited my novel using the knowledge I’d learned.

I still didn’t find a home for it. It was a western with very little romance. I found out that some genres are almost impossible to sell. At this point, I could have thrown my hands in the air and called it quits. But I didn’t.

Instead, I wrote other novels and novellas. I started a series of three novels set around the Civil War about women who graduated college at a time when most women didn’t finish school. I’ve finished two of them – still working on the third.

After I wrote the first of this series, I began looking for an agent. I think I may hold the record for rejections, but the rejections were getting better. Instead of standard “no thank-you” form letters, agents were sending me suggestions. Then came the rejections that said my writing was great, but they weren’t interested for various reasons. One agent rejected my novel because she hurt her back reaching for a sweater while reading my submission and, after being in traction for weeks, couldn’t take any more clients.

Finally, an agent asked for a full read. I was so excited. We went back and forth during that time while he tried to decide whether to represent me. It seemed to take forever. It always does. This is where the story gets interesting. Another agent contacted me. I’d never submitted the novel to her, but an agent I did submit to left the agency. The proposal ended up on her desk a year later, and she wanted a full read. After I sent it, she offered representation within a few days. Linda Glaz from Hartline has been my agent ever since, and I couldn’t ask for a better one.

You might think this would be the end of my struggle, but it wasn’t. Linda’s had a hard time placing my Civil War series. So I decided to write some other things while I was waiting. I wrote a Christmas novella about the Moravians in Ohio during the 1770s. I’m also in the process of writing a post-World War II spy romance with another author. I kept writing, and I didn’t give up.

I heard about Murray Pura’s Cry of Freedom Civil War Anthology, and I was intrigued. With all the research I’ve done about the Ohio Seventh Regiment for my second Civil War era novel, I decided to write a Civil War novella. Murray Pura contacted me about it recently and liked the premise. I now have a contract with Helping Hands Press. My novella will be released in e-book format on November 1^st.

This is my first contract, and I still have two full reads out for other novels. I know this is only the beginning. But only because I Never Gave Up!

ABOUT: Soldier’s Heart: A Civil War Novella from the Cry of Freedom Anthology

To Be Released November 1, 2013
After returning home from the Civil War, will his soldier’s heart come between them!

Noah Andrew, a soldier with the Ohio Seventh Regiment can’t wait to get home now that his three year enlistment is coming to an end. He plans to start a new life with his young wife. Molly was only sixteen when she married her hero husband. She prayed every day for him to return home safe and take over the burden of running a farm.

But they can’t keep the war from following Noah home. Can they build a life together when his soldier’s heart comes between them?

Bio:
Tamera Lynn Kraft has always loved adventures. She loves to write historical fiction because there are so many stories in history. Her first novella is set to be released November 1, 2013.

Tamera has recently celebrated her thirty-fourth anniversary with her loving husband. She has two grown and married children and four grandchildren.

Tamera has been a children’s pastor for over 20 years. She is the leader of a ministry called Revival Fire For Kids where she mentors other children’s leaders, teaches workshops, and is a children’s ministry consultant and children’s evangelist. She is also a writer and has curriculum published including Kid Konnection 5: Kids Entering the Presence of God published by Pathway Press. She is a recipient of the 2007 National Children’s Leaders Association Shepherd’s Cup for lifetime achievement in children’s ministry.

Connect with Tamera here:

Word Sharpeners Blog
www.tameralynnkraft.com

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/tamera.kraft

Twitter
@tamerakraft



Thank you, Tamera, for visiting my blog! May God bless your continued writing journey.

Blessings!

　

Vespers: Guest post from Penelope J. Stokes

I read this on Penelope's blog and enjoyed it so much, I asked her if I could repost it here. Enjoy!

Seven Sacred Pauses 6: Vespers

 

Originally posted on April 10, 2013 by P. J. Stokes at: http://sacredjourney2013.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/seven-sacred-pauses-vespers/

 

Sixth Hour: Vespers
Vespers.
Evening.
The liminal time when daylight fades into darkness.

Those transitional moments—the turning of day to night, the changing of seasons, the thresholds and passages that mark significant shifts in our lives—are often perceived as “thin places” in the fabric of the universe, opportunities to catch a glimpse of the world beyond the veil.

Celtic spirituality holds that the universe is full of thin places, specific geographical locations where we can sense more intensely the presence of the divine, and the world beyond our own. I don’t doubt that such places exist. One such place, for me, was the standing stones at Avebury, England, when I visited with my family many years ago. Unlike Stonehenge, Avebury Henge is accessible to visitors, and as I walked among the stones and stood with the grazing sheep in the early light of morning, I felt a sense of connection with God and the universe that shook me to my core.

I’m a believer in thin places.

But even more important than particular geographical locations are the thin places in our own souls. The times and circumstances when we draw near to holiness, and are most susceptible to spiritual transformation. Those fleeting moments when we feel as if we can almost. . .almost. . .reach out and touch the feathered edges of Divinity.

It’s Mystery. It’s Miracle. I can’t explain it. I can’t tell you why it happens, or how, or when. I only know that my part is to stay awake, keep my eyes open, and be still. And then, sometimes when I least expect it, the awareness of God lights upon me like a small bird upon a branch.

Quietly. Very quietly.

And I am changed.

Vespers: Evening
Now is the thin time,
the sunset hour
when from the edges of my vision
I see a shimmering truth,
half-formed,
half-understood,
translucent, real,
though just beyond my reach.
Now my soul halts
on the farther threshold of the day
and waits to be shown
a glimpse of the world beyond.
Here is the only wisdom
I have been given:
that day turns to night
and night to day;
that every new adventure
is richer than what came before;
that forgiveness is gift,
and love is gift,
and all gifts must be held,
like a fragile bird,
with an open hand.

©2012 Penelope J. Stokes
All rights reserved