Looking for your help...

Good morning! Jenna Mindel here with a question. Okay, maybe a couple of questions. As a reader, especially a reader of Love Inspired romances, what draws you to pick up the latest copy on the shelves? Is it the cover? A favorite author, or that the book is part of a series of connected stories?

I'm currently working on a proposal for a new series, and while I know what I like in a series - that connection that keeps me coming back for more books, I was wondering about other folks' preferences.
Do you look for a common setting like a small town? A family connection,or a series built around an interesting occupation. Or even an exotic place.

Let me know your thoughts!

And if you email me your name and address through my website www.jennamindel.com  you'll be entered to win a copy of my January release, Season of Redemption.  Thanks, so much!

Lyn Cote-Why Do You Read Romance?

To purchase, click here. Heartland Courtship (Love Inspired Historical\Wilderness Brides)

That’s an important question to me, a romance author.  I’m going to share my ideas and I hope you’ll share yours and tell me if I’m nuts or right! :-)

Over a decade ago I received a letter from a man in Australia. He’d just read his first Love Inspired Romance. It was Hope’s Garden my third, (2000). He said that he’d recently buried his wife of 66 years (That’s SIXTY-SIX YEARS) and that he began to read romance to remember her.

WOW. That letter was an eye-opener.

Authors know readers read fiction for emotion.
Romance readers read for a special, a specific emotion--romance.

Why?
Why do we like to read about romance?

Tell me what it is that draws you back to romance?
The Happily Ever After?
The intense conflict between hero and hero?
Experiencing the physical attraction between hero and heroine vicariously?

My latest Love Inspired Historical, Heartland Courtship, is I hope really romantic.  A frontier community, a brave independent heroine and a drifter hero with a dark past--how does that grab you???

What? Tell me. Authors want to know what you read romance to find!--Lyn

A Season of Love by Kim Watters

Kim Watters here. I'm proud to announce my newest release from Love Inspired.  A Season of Love is my fourth book with Harlequin and my second in Dynamite Creek, Arizona. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Blessings,
Kim

Blurb:

The Soldier’s Gift

Just in time for Christmas, a tall, dark and handsome Scrooge visits Holly Stanwyck’s holiday shop, threatening eviction. But once landlord Ethan Pellegrino sees the single mom’s plight, the former soldier becomes her protector instead. Suddenly he’s helping her with her struggling business and bounding with her troubled son. A wounded veteran come home to heal, Ethan is no stranger to sorrow. But something about the pretty widow fills him with hope. Will Holly be able to let go of her own painful past to see her future by his side?

Excerpt:

Ethan momentarily lost himself in Holly’s presence. Her swept back locks exposed her long, elegant neck and straight, slightly upturned nose. But it was her vulnerability that got to him.

Despite her attempts to keep it all together, he sensed just below the surface she suffered and struggled with her son, the shop, everyday life.

He should step away. Instead, when she turned her head toward him, he found himself staring into her deep green eyes that had seen so much pain. A pain he could identify with. He’d lost his father at a young age, and several of his friends in Afghanistan. But even that couldn’t compare to losing one’s partner, one’s soul mate.

He had no experience with that sort of loss, yet he felt the need to comfort. Protect. He wanted to draw Holly into his arms and absorb her pain and blend it with his own. 

For further information, check out my website at www.kimwatters.com

Hi Friends, Carrie Turansky here, writing to you today about those delicious recipes we sometimes included in our novels.

I love to cook, especially when I can share what I've made with friends and family. Descibing special recipes in my books has become a tradition for me.

And now I look for new and interesting ways to mention some of my favorite dishes in each novel. Readers have commented that they enjoy the descriptions and asked for the recipes, so I've added several of them to my website. I also like to include a recipe in each of my email newsletters.

My newest novel, A Man To Trust, just released and once again my heroine is cooking and baking her way into the hero's heart. The setting is Fairhaven, Washington, and the hero and heroine work together at Bayside Books, a Christian bookstore that includes a small cafe.

Here are some of the recipes you'll find in my books.

Along Came Love featured Aunt Tilley's Apple Walnut Muffins and Chicken Enchiladas

Surrendered Hearts included Bill's Two Tomato Chicken Ziti

Seeking His Love featured Rachel's homemade cinnamon rolls

A Man To Trust included Adrie's Kenyan Chai, homemade pizza, and Irene's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.

All these recipes are available through links on the Books Page of my website or in my archived newsletters on the News and Awards Page. I hope you'll try one and let us know how you like it.

http://www.carrieturansky.com/readers.html

______________________________

Carrie Turansky is the award-winning author of ten novels and novellas. She lives in New Jersey with her husband Scott and loves to spend time with her children, grandchildren and friends. She enjoys connecting wtih readers on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and through her webiste: www.carrieturansky.com

Famous Secrets

Often in our LI romances, there are secrets. We readers love secret babies and such. Recently, for my church's Secret Sisters revealing party, I came up with the following questions. Go ahead, answer without Googling. See what you know.

Famous Secrets

1. Who is Spiderman?

2. This man kept his beautiful wife’s identity a secret from Pharoah.

3. This man wrote under the name of Mark Twain

4. This animal knows the secret ingredient in Bush’s Baked Beans

5. Ralphie, in The Christmas Story, received this in the mail and it helped him read a promotional message from Ovaltine.

6. Who was the secret that Miep Gies hid in an Attic?

7. Which president kept it at secret that he was unable to walk?

I have many secrets. My name isn't really Pamela Tracy.

Oh, and I'm not 29, no matter how many times I say I am.

BTW, I have a Guess the Secret Sister's Game over at the Craftie Ladies of Romance. Go on over there and try that one, too. http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/

My next release Once Upon a Christmas, a December LI, has many secrets. You'll have to read it to find out about them.

Lyn Cote Reviews Janet Tronstad's Classic A Dropped Stitches Christmas

A Dropped Stitches Christmas (Sisterhood Series #2) by Janet Tronstad

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Janet Tronstad's 2007 A Dropped Stitches Christmas surprised me. I didn't think I'd want to read a book about young women who had survived cancer. The BIG C can be depressing. But not so in this book of honesty and triumph. With the advent of ereaders, it becomes possible to resurrect books that have disappeared from store shelves. I've read Janet Tronstad's Dry Creek romances and yes, this story is definitely her flavor of romance. But I was enchanted by the first person narrative from the heroine and her friends. Chicklit may have died down but this author shows she can handle the subgenre with elegance and style. I loved her scrumptious hero and the beautiful but hesitant heroine. If you want a really touching Christmas read, this one's for you! Loved it!

AND don't forget TODAY-- Leave a comment about a Christmas story you've enjoyed or love and be entered into the drawing for my slightly used copy of Janet's book. BTW, offering an Amish Christmas book giveaway on my blog today http://bit.ly/gRCEBN--Lyn

View all my reviews

Lyn Cote here-Have you Ever Seen a Hodag?

Have you ever seen a hodag?
Probably not. The hodag is the mascot of a town I live near in Wisconsin. According to Wikipedia, and I quote: "The Hodag is a folkloric animal of the American state of Wisconsin. Its history is focused mainly around the city of Rhinelander in northern Wisconsin, where it was said to have been discovered." A folkloric animal can be fun.

And the fun started in 1893 when prankster Eugene Shepard announced the discovery and killing of the last hodag. And here's the photo to prove it!


Shepard wrote that: "It was "the fiercest, strangest, most frightening monster ever to set razor sharp claws on the earth. It became extinct after its main food source, all white bulldogs, became scarce in the area." Well, the white bulldogs probably gave a sigh of relief!!

Anyway, the folks in Rhinelander have fun with their mascot or symbol, keeping the fun spirit of Shepard alive. Here's the statue of the hodag in front of the tourist center in Rhinelander.

Rhinelander sits just to the south of the northwoods or Lakeland area where I live. Within a 50 mile radius of my home are 2300 lakes. If you fly over this area, you see more water than land. That explains part of the area's allure. Most of Chicago and Milwaukee head north to escape the heat and humidity of summer. My latest Love Inspired romance is set in a fictitious town near Rhinelander and the hodag makes its romantic debut in Building a Family.

Do you have a mascot or symbol for your hometown? What is it?

Arthur C. Clark Said:

Pamela Tracy here, running a bit late, and enjoying every minute. I've been following Arthur's advice ever since my mother purchased my first Golden book. I've figured it out. If I read a book a day, and live to be 107, I won't make it through my TBR pile.

Just in case you need a book to add to your pile, consider my August release. Once Upon a Cowboy. I got the idea during a sermon on the Prodigal son.

Organization: Gotta Love It.

Kim Watters here. After almost 19 years in the same house, I finally made the decision to move. Not an easy feat, but a necessary one. The house just wasn’t working out for our needs anymore. Do you have any idea how much stuff one can accumulate over that time period? Throw in a couple of kids and you’re looking at a mountain of stuff and a garage barely big enough to contain box after box of belongings I couldn’t part with; like the first had print my oldest child made in art when he was three, or my second child’s snippet of hair from her first haircut at a year old. And what do I do with all the old paperwork, royalty statements, contracts and such? Or the old costume jewelry I inherited from my grandmother? And-gasp-my book collection?

So many belongings, so little time to sort, and box, and label for storage. Because if I’m ever to find anything before I have a chance to unpack once I move into our newer, bigger home, I have to know where it is. You never know when you’ll have to glance through an old contract, or need to find a certain research book. I’ll be able to find it at moment’s notice and save time if I’m organized, right?

So how can you incorporate organizational skills into writing? Easily. Keep detailed spreadsheets for each manuscript. I do one for each character complete with a photograph of what they look like. One is for the all the character names, no matter how brief they appear, and how they relate to our main characters. I also keep track of local businesses and who owns them as they appear in the story and I keep a time line and an outline for each chapter along with page numbers and chapter lengths.

My newest release, Home Sweet Home, deals with renovating an old Victorian house, so I kept a chart on each room in the house and the progress of the renovations as they occurred. So each time I needed to refer back to something, it was easier to page through spreadsheets than the actual manuscript. I also created an ancestry line for my heroine to keep track of marriage, birth and death dates, which coincided with the building of the original house.

Since time is a premium for me, having everything I needed at my fingertips made me more productive with the minutes I had to write. I work full-time, have two elementary school kids and managed to write Home Sweet Home in under three months. Call me anal, but it works for me. It might just work for you, too.

Why I Love My Latest LI--Lyn Cote

Lyn Cote here. At your local Wal-Mart my latest Love Inspired, Daddy in the Making, perches on the book shelf, waving to prospective readers. At least, that's how I picture it in my mind. :-)

Daddy in the Making is one of those books I had fun writing--really. I love animals and this story features a match-making basset hound. (Don't you just LOVE those big brown sad eyes? Awww-irresistible.)

And it has two golden tabby kittens (Do you remember helping name them on my blog?)

And twin seven-year-old girls and a mom with a big heart. Not to leave out--a best friend hero, a vet who really cares about his patients and gives to them (often too much).

So what's not to like?

Though the story has lighthearted elements, both my hero Jake and my heroine Jeannie hide past wounds. The best part is their finding healing and a happy ending. Sigh.

This is the second book in my "New Friends Street" series, set in a fictional town of Hope, WI where three Habitat for Humanity houses are being built for three families. Jeannie is helping build her house #2.

BTW, has Amazon got a deal for you! The first book in this series, Shelter of Hope, is on sale, in both digital $ 1.56 and Large Print $1.64. Click here to take advantage of these marked down prices.

To read an excerpt, click here. Well, that's all I have to say. Have you read Shelter of Hope or Daddy in the Making? If you have, would you consider, writing a brief review of those on Amazon.com? I'd appreciate it!

Do you have a favorite Love Inspired? Which one?--Lyn

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If It's Tuesday It Must Be Belgium. . .

Happy September 2 from Gail Gaymer Martin at http://www.gailmartin.com/.
Many years ago, I saw a comedy film called If It's Tuesday It Must Be Beligum. The story showed typical tourists going from country to country and becoming so confused they couldn't remember where they were. Trips can be like that, and I'm afraid my summer lended itself to that kind of speed. But instead of confusion, it stimuated my mind for story ideas.

The summer flew by on a whirlwind of travel. In late June I was in St. Louis for a writer's retreat, returned home and left three days later I left for Germany where I toured with a Christian chorale singing concerts at churches all over the country. Though I have visited Germany numerous times, this trip was different. First I visited many cities in what used to be East Germany and I walked the streets where people like Bach, Wagner, and Martin Luther walked. I saw their graves and places they lived. The experience made the trip special, but the most unique part of it was singing in churches all over the country.

When we arrived home, we had three days to get ready for a handbell conference in Nashville where I played bells and heard some of the finiest handbell groups in the country. While there, I missed some workshops to do the final edits on my March 2011 novel, A Dad Of His Own. Writers can't be away for long. After being involved with two trips involving music, I asked myself why I've never written a novel focused on music. My first Steeple Hill novel, Upon A Midnight Clear, did have a music theme, but that was it. I play handbells, sing in chorales, church choir, praise team, and in a renown chorale in Detroit. So one of these days, I will dig into my thoughts and write a series focused on music.

Our granddaughter visited from Oklahoma and we took her to northern Michigan to see the Mackinac Bridge and the lovely Mackinaw Island. We took the ferry over and spent the day, enjoying the weather, the scent of fudge and watching the horses clomp past.  If you've never been there, then you should know that this island has no automobiles. People live there year-round and walk, use bikes, ride horses, or use  snowmobiles in winter.  My novel, With Christmas In His Heart, is set there, and I love the story.  So why not write another novel set on the island? I'm thinking about it.  It's one of my favorite places on earth.

After our granddaughter returned home, we enjoyed our final trip of the summer onCape Cod for a week where we celebrated our 25th anniversary. We rented a cottage which you can see behind me in this photo, and enjoyed the sun and sand. We also saw a production of Grey Gardens at the Cape Cod Playhouse, enjoyed an outdoor concert, took a day to visit Martha's Vineyard (a wonderful experience), visited glass studios, museums, lighthouses and so much more, and while I was there. . . yes, I did.  I researched the location for a novel. It's a perfect place to fall in love.

 So if you wonder where authors get their ideas, traveling is one of the best places. I keep notes of the sights, smells and sounds, collect pamphlets, maps, brochures, programs, and photographs.  If you're on Facebook, visit my profile -- Gail Gaymer Martin -- click on the photo links just below my profile picture and then go down to the sunrise photo, click on it, and you'll see lots of my Cape Cod adventure.
 

When you can see things like this on your travels -- a sunrise, lighthouses, sandy beaches, great churches of Germany, restaurants that serve wienerschnizel and spaeztel, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, the kites flying on the wind, carriages clomping past, ice cream cones and taffy, then it makes the cost worthwhile. Plus it inspires. And I defintely am inspired.

Hello everyone, Terri Reed here. Not sure what to blog about today. I find blogging rather hard at times. I mean what do I have to say that would be of interest to anyone? Yes, I write stories, so I obviously have lots to say but that's fiction. In fact, I'm working on my nineteenth book, which is due on March 30th, so maybe that's why I'm staring at the blank blog page with glassy eyes and absolutely no idea of what to say. Hmmmm. Let's see...
Spring is coming, though yesterday after a mostly sunny day it snowed last night.
This coming weekend we observe daylight savings time, which in the fall I am thankful for, gotta love an extra hour of sleep! But in the spring, we lose that extra hour we've become accustomed to. Ugh!
I watched part of the Oscars this last Sunday night. Only part because I forgot it was on. I was disappointed that in the memoriam they didn't honor Farrah Fawcett. I know, I know, she was more of a TV star than a movie star but still...
I thought Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech was very sweet and funny. I like her as an actress. I've heard that the Hurt Locker is a very well done story. One of these days I'll have to rent it. I did see Avatar, though not in 3D--I get motion sick easily. It was a fun and visually exciting movie. I enjoyed UP, though I did cry. I'm such a sap.
In two weeks the Public Library Association is having its convention here in Portland Oregon. I'll be signing in the Romance Writers of America booth on Friday the 26th, right after Christina Dodd http://www.christinadodd.com/(whom I'm a big fan of). Imagine masses of people in line for her that will all wander away when I sit down to sign. LOL.
My newest release coming up in May, COVERT PURSUIT, will be part of a promotional package that Harlequin will be sending out during May through September. I'm excited to see what they do with it.
Over at the Craftie Ladies of Suspense, http://ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com/ we are doing a St. Patrick's Day continuing mystery. Starting Monday March 8th through the 18th, each day a Love Inspired Suspense Author will post a piece of the story. Its a fun endeavor and a bit challenging. We did a Valentine's Day mystery that was well received. And over at the Craftie Ladies of Romance, http://craftieladiesofromance.blogspot.com/we'll be doing an Easter Romance. Stop on by and check us out.
Well, as I said, I'm in the throes of a deadline so I best get back to it.
Have a blessed week everyone!

All Good Gifts

As we approach Thanksgiving, I can't help by reflect on the multitude of blessings the Lord has given to me and my family. We have good health, our home, love, a great church family with lots of outreach to the community and world, wonderful music activities which our family loves, and we have God's gift of love and Salvation. Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect on the blessings in our lives even though we sometimes face difficulties and disappointments. But in between the bads and the goods, we can find some wonderful gifts that deserve remembering.





One of my blessings the the Steeple Hill Love Inspired editors who continue to contract my novels. This past year I've enjoyed writing the Man's Best Friend Series, and I'm grateful that my editors loved the series as well. The first book, DAD IN TRAINING, was released in September (actually hit the stores in mid-August. The series imcludes three novels about three woman who are involved with a dog shelter. The first book is Molly's story as she reaches her dream of owning a dog shelter and running her Teacher's Pet program. This program is a real middle-school program in Waterford Michigan, and Molly is a fictionalized version of a young woman named Amy Johnson. I've enjoyed the reader mail and emails telling me how much they enjoyed the first book. Each book is complete but the characters reappear in the other novels so readers can follow what's happening in their lives.






The second book in the series, GROOM IN TRAINING relesed in February 2010 but available in stores in mid-January, is Steph and her dog Fred's stories. Steph is Molly's best friend and runs a doggie day care in Molly's building that houses the shelter - Time for Paws.

I completed book three, BRIDE IN TRAINING, and it will be released in July, 2010, available in mid-June. This story is Emily's, a part-time employee at Time for Paws, and the hero will be a surprise for those who are reading the series.


I hope you enjoy this series, dedicated to our daughter who died three years ago from ovarian cancer. She taught obedience training and fostered dogs, as well as owning two border collies who were involved with agility and flyball. Brenda loved animals and I wanted to honor her with these books.

My First Christmas Book!

I'm so excited to tell you my new release, my very first Christmas story, is on the shelves now! If you're a member of the book club, and get all 6 books each month, then you received yours back in September. But for those who didn't get it from the book club, I hope you'll look for it now at any store that carries Love Inspired Books (and is carrying all 6 books).

If you can't find it, see if your local bookseller will order it for you. Or check for it online. If you visit my website, http://www.missytippens.com/, you can find links.

I actually started writing this book last December. And the idea came to me as I was writing a blog post for a new blog with a theme of The Twelve Days of Christmas. So I was already in the holiday spirit, and soon after starting it had Christmas decorations and all the trimming surrounding me.

I wonder how it would be to write one in the middle of July! :) But I guess it's pretty easy to catch the Christmas spirit any time of the year.

Here's the back cover blurb of A Forever Christmas:

Sarah Radcliffe’s quiet Christmas back in her hometown will be lost if she agrees to direct the church’s Christmas pageant. But when she meets two little boys determined to gain their father’s attention, Sarah agrees to help. Then she discovers that the dad in question is Gregory Jones, the man she loved and lost. The single dad is working himself to the bone to give his boys the Christmas of their dreams, when all they want is some family time. Time that includes a new mommy. If Sarah can learn to open her heart, she may receive the most wonderful present of all—a family of her own.

And click here to read an excerpt at e-harlequin.com!

Thanks for celebrating a new release with me today! I'd love to hear what you think about Christmas stories. If you had a copy of A Forever Christmas, would you read it now, or would you save it for closer to Christmas?? :)

Lyn Cote Comes Clean About The Preacher's Daughter

I have something to confess. Nothing too serious but a little no-no.

This month my two-book series: Finally Home-Finally Found is being re-released on September 8th. I am really happy that Steeple Hill is re-issuing our earlier Love Inspired Romances since many readers want new copies of books they missed. Our readership has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade and many want to read all our backlist books.

Now for my confession. I am often "orphaned." This means that my editors (lovely women all) insisted on getting married, having twins or moving with their husbands to new cities. This is what "orphans" me. How inconsiderate of them. What were these editors thinking?

Anyway, I had finished these two books which were really only the first two books in a series about 3 sisters who are trying to locate their mother's birth parents. They are doing this because their mom who has leukemia has just gone into remission. But they want to find her birth family in case she needs a bone marrow transplant. None of them were a match and they can't stand the thought that their mom would need a transplant and have no match.

So my editor left--orphaned again. While they were hiring a replacement, I was assigned an interim editor. I told her that I wanted to write the third book and she said, "No, it's been too long since the first two books came out." I was not happy because I knew that my readers would ask--so what about the third sister? Doesn't she get a handsome hero and a happily ever after?

So when my newly hired editor called and asked if I had a new story in mind, I said, "yes!" I gave her a brief rundown of the story and she liked it. I did not come clean and tell her that this was the third in the series. And I even changed the name of my heroine and her family members.

Later I did come clean with her and she said that I should have told her. She didn't think that the time between books would have been a problem. So if you read Finally Home-Finally Found and want to read about the third sister, look for The Preacher's Daughter. Fortunately, it was picked up by the Large Print publisher, Thorndike-Gale. So it's probably in the Large Print area of your local library or you can still buy it on Amazon.


The third sister Doree is named Lucie in The Preacher's Daughter and her mom's name changed from Ethel to Dorothy. The names changed but Lucie is still definitely Doree. GRIN

Now if you want a chance to win an autographed copy of Finally Home-Finally Found, drop by my personal blog, "Strong Women, Brave Stories" and post a comment. During the month of a new release, I have a weekly drawing for a free copy. Just leave a comment and you'll be entered.

So there you are--my true confession!
PS-BTW, don't you think the cover model on TPD looks like our own Lenora Worth?

Back from my first conference

Barbara Phinney here.

I've never seen so many women in one place. 2,000, maybe more, all loving romance, all wanting to advance their careers, and advance on the buffet.

I loved it. It was wonderful to meet my Love Inspired sister authors. We were able to talk about such things as our line, and where it's going, but also the Love Inspired Suspense series coming out in January. I really needed to see that these women faced the same challenges I faced with it. Well, maybe not as much as a scatter-brain like me, but you get the drift.

My main complaint was all the desserts I had to eat. (Well, I had to eat them! My parents taught me to clean my plate. And the dessert sitting next to me at the empty seat, too, but that's a moot point!)

I'm not used to such rich food. By Saturday, I had a wee bit of the old heartburn, not to mention ankles swelling like sausages in a pan of water. But I needed to soldier on, to show those conference veterans that I can schmooze and confer with the best of them. I'm proud to say I did just that.

I also discovered that I have a generic face. I look like someone they all have seen before. I got that plenty of times throughout the week, although it was my first conference. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe they'll remember Love Inspired a bit more.

I've returned to not only my son cleaning his room, and hubby making the bed so tight, you could bounce a quarter off it, but also to be told my next suspense story will be coming out in June 2010, a month after my contribution to the new continuity series due out next year.

Good news all round. And I'm glad you stopped by one this lazy summer day to visit. Please leave a comment! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Importance of Mentoring

Today I was thinking about how many aspiring novelists there are out there. I have gotten several reader letters lately from people who express interest in writing. When they ask my advice on how to get started, I easily recall days not so long ago when I was in the place of longing that they are. I hope and pray that my advice to them is as solid and sound as the advice I received.

I started writing while on bedrest with a pregnancy. That's also the season in my life when I stumbled upon the Steeple Hill message boards. I had seen the Web site advertized in one of the Steeple Hill books that I'd read. I was thrilled to find a community of other aspiring authors just like me. AND, when the authors I'd been reading for months or years started extending encouragment and mentoring moments with me, I knew THIS was the publisher I wanted to write for.

Many of those authors who aspired with me, and who I met online, then later at an www.acfw.com American Christian Fiction Writers conference, become some of my closest friends. Camy Tang, Cynthia Hawkins, Danica Favorite-McDonald to name a few. Margaret Daley not only befriended and encouraged me, she mentored me for years...and she's still there when I need to brainstorm or when I have questions. Others who helped were my now-good friend Ginny Aiken, Marta Perry, Mae Nunn, Lenora Worth, Debra Clopton, Allie Pleiter, Janet Tronstad, Janet Spaeth (Barbour author), Lena Nelson Dooley (Heartsong and Summerside author) and others I'm SURE I'm forgetting.

These women live the faith you find in their stories.

Today's post is dedicated to thanking them. I hope to be able to help other aspirings' the way these ladies have helped me...often more than they know or realize. But I know that God knows and I've prayed He blesses their writing because of it.

I hope you have women mentoring you in your life and I hope you're mentoring others. Whether it's in your field of work, in your giftings and talents or spiritual mentoring.

I'd love to hear about mentors who've meant the most in your life. Please share!

Warmly,

Cheryl

Meet Me in Magnolia, Georgia!

Missy Tippens, here. And I’m excited to announce my new Love Inspired book, His Forever Love, is on the shelves now! Here’s a little bit about it…

In Magnolia, Georgia, local legend says that a couple who holds hands around the “forever” tree will have an unending love. Even so, Bill Wellington held Lindsay Jones’s hands around that tree years ago...and then left her behind. He chose the big city, and now he wants to bring his grandmother there. But to his amazement, he finds that Granny has a boyfriend—and a vibrant life. A life that includes Lindsay, Granny’s caregiver. Bill never thought he’d want to come home, yet Magnolia clearly has its charms. As does Lindsay, who makes him long for a second chance at forever love.

I hope you’ll take the time to visit my fictional town of Magnolia, Georgia, and meet some folks I’ve gotten attached to (yes, we get to know our characters and kind of hate to see them leave when the book is over!). :)

I thought I’d share a couple of photos of beautiful magnolia trees with you. They were blooming in May when I chaperoned a group of 8th graders on a 3-day trip to Savannah, Georgia. I hope you can see the blooms. Enjoy!



And now, I'd love to hear about your town. Do you live in a small town like Magnolia? Or are you in a city?

Missy
http://www.missytippens.com/

Help Me Solve a Mystery by Missy Tippens

Missy here. And I need your help. I'm not a gardener at all. I usually only manage to fill the pots on my porch, and maybe put out a tomato plant or two. But every year at this time, I see these gorgeous bushes around town that look like some sort of rose. And I've always wondered what type they are. I snapped these photos at the bank yesterday on my phone. Can you help me figure out what they are?

Help me solve the mystery and I'll enter your name in a drawing for my new book, His Forever Love, coming out June 1! You don't have to be correct to be entered. Just give me your best guess. I'm hoping that most of you will know and I'll be able to look into planting some of these amazing bushes! I'll do the drawing on Sunday and announce the winner under the comments section. So either leave a contact email address or be sure to check back! Thanks for your help!

Missy

Life Lessons with Max Lucado

I've been studying the book of James with Max Lucado's Bible study guide. He has a whole series where he goes through various books of the Bible. He breaks the chapters down into smaller sections then asks some thought-provoking questions and also gives little vignette stories for inspiration. This is my second study guide that I've done of this series and have really enjoyed seeing the Bible from this perspective.
http://www.nelsonministryservices.com/nms/dept.asp?dept_id=504
Here's a link to the Lucado's series publisher where you can find and buy any of the series studies.