Two books and a birthday--Lenora Worth

Hello, sunshine. I love the month of April because it means spring is on the way, Easter is close and Elnora gets to have another birthday. I don't like getting older but I don't mind birthdays. This month, I'm especially blessed to have two books out. While neither is a Love Inspired, I'm proud of both of them. The first one is actually a novella from Zondervan. An April Bride is one of the "A Year of Weddings" e-book novellas by twelve different authors. I enjoyed writing this spring book about a soldier and his bride. The second book I have out this month is a big Superromance  called "That Wild Cowboy." This story is more secular and a bit rowdy but it still has a lot of heart. But I haven't forgotten my beloved Love Inspired. I'll have a June LIS--Forced Alliance (Connor Randall's story). He showed up in In Pursuit of a Princess, which was out last year. And this summer I'll be working on another LI and the sixth book of an exciting suspense continuity. So while April showers might bring May flowers, I'll be busy writing stories for all the imprints I love.

Happy Spring and Happy Easter. I hope you have a great year. I'll be back in a few days to talk about finding treasures. (Of the personal kind.)

 

 

 

Belated Easter Greetings

Hi, all! Charlotte Carter here. Yes, I know Easter has passed and we’re working up to Memorial Day. Even so, I wanted to share a special Easter tradition with you.

My daughter and her family are active members of Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Rolling Hills, CA. This church produces an incredible Easter program each year — Pageant of Our Lord. (It’s much like Pageant of the Masters produced in Laguna Beach but with a Biblical message.)

Accompanied by a talented orchestra and superb choir, life-size master paintings and sculptures are revealed on the stage. The catch is that the characters in the painting or sculpture are REAL people. With special lighting and appropriate body makeup, it’s impossible to tell which part of a painting is a ‘real’ person and which is not. The characters are so still, they don’t even breathe.

This year my daughter directed portions of the show and her husband and oldest son were characters on stage for an incredible SEVENTEEN performances over the course of three weeks.

The church doesn’t allow photography of the show, but there is a video of the 2010 performance I think you will enjoy:

http://www.rollinghillscovenant.com/pageant-of-our-lord

The depiction of the Lord’s Supper is the highlight of the program.

What special Easter activity do you enjoy at your church?

Books that leave you smiling from Love Inspired:

Big Sky Reunion, available now

Big Sky Family, 11/2011

www.CharlotteCarter.com

Thoughts of Spring

by Debby Giusti

Daffodils are blooming in my garden, and the sun is shining today. The weatherman predicts heavy rain and dropping temperatures in the afternoon, but this morning feels like spring. After a cold winter, the first warm days renew me and fill me with the promise of a new beginning. The worst of winter has passed, and the world is preparing to be reborn in glory.

Once again, I am reminded of Christ's message of salvation, which will be celebrated anew on Easter. That Paschal Mystery of birth, death and resurrection is as much a part of life as winter moving into spring. I must plant seeds to see them grow tall. I must be pruned in order to grow strong. I must look for the good that comes from every situation, no matter how difficult. In my writing life, I must begin anew with each manuscript, pulling together bits and pieces from my world to create characters that blossom into fully developed heroes, hopefully worthy of my readers' interest.

Today, I'm giving thanks for sunshine and flowers, for the words that fill my mind and beg to be written and, most especially, for a God who loves us all.

Wishing you abundant blessings,

Debby Giusti

Visit me at http://www.ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com/ to read The Irish Mystery, presented each day in segments by the Craftie Ladies of Suspense.

KILLER HEADLINE-Book Two in the Protecting the Witnesses Continuity Series-still available!

Mary, Mary

Easter is coming. And we are going to get together with our children to remember and to celebrate this highest of holy holidays. We will be together as a family, but this Easter I'm seeing things from a different perspective.

A few weeks ago, I was Mary the mother of Jesus. During the past few weeks of Lent, each Sunday different people did a monologue from the point of view of some of the main characters in the Easter Story. Judas one week, Mary Magdalene, Pontius Pilate, Mary the mother of Jesus and Peter. I did the monologue for Mary. It was a full page of text and it seemed daunting. I can barely remember a phone number or my grocery list and now I was going to recite an entire page in front of our congregation? I felt my responsibility keenly and went over and over this monologue, memorizing it piece by piece, reciting it in my mind when I went on walks, when I was baking, cleaning house and then I finally felt I had a handle on them.

The monologue deals with Mary calling God to account for letting her son die this horrible death. And Mary then thinks back over her life with her son, puzzling over the fact that the God who sent an angel to tell her the news of her son's birth, who blessed Elizabeth with a child after years of barrenness, who sent angels to shepherds, sent wise men to worship her son, who gave her a son who was such a blessing - could stand by and watch her son die.

I wanted this to be meaningful and as I recited the words, stumbling over mistakes and starting over again, I prayed. Prayed that they words would become meaningful to me and to my audience. Then, slowly, as the words became a part of me I saw Mary from another light. This was a woman who had to watch her son die a horrible death. A woman who had heard her son cry out to God in anguish and had received nothing in response. A woman who wondered how the God who had given her this blessed son, who had given her such joy could take that son away so cold, hard and cruelly. She didn't know how the story ended. On Good Friday, she only knew that she had lost her son. I never fully appreciated the sorry and anguish she faced until I did that monologue and became Mary, if only for a few moments. And as I spoke her words of sorrow, imagining my own son up there on the cross, they became the words of any mother who has lost her son.

We of this time and age, know how the story ended and, after a few days, so did Mary. And over time, she also came to realize how necessary this death was and what was accomplished with it. The victory and the power of it.

However, I know that there are many mothers out there, this Easter season, whose sons are not home. Who will not be celebrating, but who will be grieving the loss of a son as hard as Mary grieved the loss of hers. For these mothers and parents, the story is ongoing and the sorrow will fade but always be there. The victory is not as easily seen and the reason is not always understood.

This Easter season I want to remember those mothers who have lost sons and daughters. Family's who are missing someone around their table and I pray that they may find comfort in the knowledge that Jesus promises us so much more than this world can offer. And that though it may be Friday now, Sunday is coming!

Homecoming Blessings

As I prepared to write this blog, I decided that the title of my April book, HOMECOMING BLESSINGS, is a good subject for a blog.

The heroine of HOMECOMING BLESSINGS, Ashley Hiatt, has to leave her mission work because of unrest in the country where she is serving. She doesn't know what God plans for her now or how she will fit into her father's world. She faces a homecoming that is filled with uncertainty, but she eventually learns that God has filled her homecoming with the blessings of service and love.

When I think of "homecoming," I think of going home to be with family. When I was younger that meant going to my parents' home, but now that I'm an adult, "homecoming" means having my kids return home. Homecomings have special blessings these days for me because I have a new granddaughter, Katelyn. Here she is, sporting her new sunglasses, ready for her Easter trip to sunny Florida.



We can have joyous homecomings here on earth, but I'm looking forward to the best homecoming of all—the homecoming for God's children that we read about in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

¹⁶"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

Tell us about your special homecomings.

Merrillee