Carolyn Williford has authored seven books, including Jordan's Bend, Devotions for Families That Can't Sit Still, and Faith Tango, as well as numerous articles. She and her husband, Craig, live in Deerfield, Illinois, where he serves as president of Trinity International University. They have two children and four grandchildren.
ABOUT THE BOOK
It All Comes Tumbling Down
As a storm rages in the night, unwary drivers venture onto Tampa Bay’s most renowned bridge. No one sees the danger ahead. No one notices the jagged gap hidden by the darkness and rain. Yet when the bridge collapses vehicles careen into the churning waters of the bay below.
In that one catastrophic moment, three powerful stories converge: a family ravaged by their child’s heartbreaking news, a marriage threatened by its own facade, and a college student burdened by self doubt. As each story unfolds, the characters move steadily closer to that fateful moment on the bridge. And while each character searches for grace, the storms in their lives loom as large as the storm that awaits them above the bay.
When these characters intersect in Carolyn Williford’s gripping and moving volume of three novellas, they also collide with the transforming truth of Christ: Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
Marybeth Whalen is the wife of Curt and mom of six children. The family lives outside Charlotte, NC. Marybeth is a member of the Proverbs 31 Ministries writing team and a regular contributor to their daily devotions. Her first novel,The Mailbox was released in June 2010. Her next novel, She Makes It Look Easy, will be released in June 2011. Additionally, she serves as director of She Reads, Proverbs 31 Ministries' fiction division.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Ariel Baxter has just moved into the neighborhood of her dreams. The chaos of domestic life and the loneliness of motherhood, however, moved with her. Then she meets her neighbor, Justine Miller. Justine ushers Ariel into a world of clutter-free houses, fresh-baked bread, homemade crafts, neighborhood play dates, and organization techniques designed to make marriage better and parenting manageable.
Soon Ariel realizes there is hope for peace, friendship, and clean kitchen counters. But when rumors start to circulate about Justine’s real home life, Ariel must choose whether to believe the best about the friend she admires or consider the possibility that “perfection” isn’t always what it seems to be.
I couldn't resist ordering this book, as I have often wondered just HOW does one do it all (or have it all)... I seem to be missing that chromosome. :)
I am going away with my family to a trial attorney's convention until next Tuesday, and I will be happily reading by the pool while my husband attends meetings, etc.
Next week I plan on talking about some of the books I've posted, but not given a proper review... so I'm adding She Makes it Look Easy to that pile.
Elizabeth Musser, an Atlanta native, studied English and French literature at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While at Vanderbilt, I had the opportunity to spend a semester in Aix-en-Provence,
France. During her Senior year at Vanderbilt, she attended a five-day missions conference for students and discovered an amazing thing: God had missionaries in France, and she felt God calling her there. After graduation, she spent eight months training for the mission field in Chicago, Illinois and then two years serving in a tiny Protestant church in Eastern France where she met her future husband.
Elizabeth lives in southern France with her husband and their two sons. She find her work as a mother, wife, author and missionary filled with challenges and chances to see God’s hand at work daily in her life. Inspiration for her novels come both from her experiences growing up in Atlanta as well as through the people she meets in her work in France. Many conversations within her novels are inspired from real-life conversations with skeptics and seekers alike.
Her acclaimed novel, The Swan House, was a Book Sense bestseller list in the Southeast and was selected as one of the top Christian books for 2001 by Amazon's editors. Searching for Eternity is her sixth novel.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Compelling Southern Novel Explores Atlanta Society in the 1930s.
The Singleton family’s fortunes seem unaffected by the Great Depression, and Perri—along with the other girls at Atlanta’s elite Washington Seminary—lives a life of tea dances with college boys and matinees at the cinema. When tragedy strikes, Perri is confronted with a world far different from the one she has always known.
At the insistence of her parents, Mary ‘Dobbs’ Dillard, the daughter of an itinerant preacher, is sent from inner-city Chicago to live with her aunt and attend Washington Seminary. Dobbs, passionate, fiercely individualistic and deeply religious, enters Washington Seminary as a bull in a china shop and shocks the girls with her frank talk about poverty and her stories of revival on the road. Her arrival intersects at the point of Perri’s ultimate crisis, and the tragedy forges an unlikely friendship.
The Sweetest Thing tells the story of two remarkable young women—opposites in every way—fighting for the same goal: surviving tumultuous change. Just as the Great Depression collides disastrously with Perri's well-ordered life, friendship blossoms--a friendship that will be tested by jealousy, betrayal, and family secrets...
Some thoughts from me!
I must confess; I can't wait to read this book!
I will be traveling to Boston tomorrow morning to visit my family. My Uncle George's life seems to be coming to an end here on earth, and I am so blessed to be able to fly out to say good-bye, or as my Grandmother used to say- so long.
In a way that's what reading does for me; it takes me on a journey, making friends along the way, and then bidding a fond farewell- until we meet again.
I will keep you in my heart as I read The Sweetest Thing. I have a feeling that, as so often happens while reading, this will be the right book at the right time.
A research librarian and associate professor, Elizabeth Camden has a master’s in history from the University of Virginia and a master’s in library science from Indiana University. She has published several articles for academic publications and is the author of four nonfiction history books. Her ongoing fascination with history and love of literature have led her to write inspirational fiction. Elizabeth lives with her husband in central Florida.
A word from Elizabeth: I am a college librarian in central Florida by day, but by night I can be found pounding out inspirational historical novels the moment the sun goes down. I love writing books about fiercely intelligent people who are confronted with profound challenges. As a rather introverted person, I have found that writing is the best way for me to share my faith and a sense of resilience with others.
As for who I am? I love old Hitchcock films, the hour before sunset, a long, sweaty run through the Florida countryside, and a glass of good wine. After spending my entire adult life on a college campus (either as a student or a librarian) I have finally been able to pursue my ultimate goal of writing professionally.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Female journalists are rare in 1879, but American-born Clara Endicott has finally made a name for herself with her provocative articles championing London's poor. When the backlash from her work forces a return home to Baltimore, Clara finds herself face-to-face with a childhood sweetheart who is no longer the impoverished factory worker she once knew. In her absence, Daniel Tremain has become a powerful industry giant and Clara finds him as enigmatic as ever. However, Daniel's success is fueled by resentment from past wounds and Clara's deeply-held beliefs about God's grace force Daniel to confront his own motives. When Clara's very life is endangered by one of Daniel's adversaries, they must face a reckoning neither of them ever could have foreseen.
When Clara Endicott and Daniel Tremain's worlds collide after twelve years apart, the spark that was once between them immediately reignites into a romance neither of them thought possible.
But time has changed them both.
Daniel is an industrial titan with powerful enemies. Clara is an idealistic journalist determined to defend underprivileged workers.
Can they withstand the cost of their convictions while their hearts, and lives, hang in the balance?
Don't you love that feeling that happens when you read the last page of a book, close it up, and sigh, still remaining for a moment in the cloud of that in place between the world of the story and real life? (This is usually where my family looks at me cross-eyed.)
Well, I just finished Hope Rekindled by Tracie Peterson and "it" happened. What is a mystery to me, is that I didn't totally looove the book or bond with any one character. In fact, the closest I came to a kindred spirit was Euphanel, the MOTHER of the heroine. (Gasp.)
The story takes place in Texas, in 1887, in a tiny mill town. The time frame encompasses the "after the war" growing pains, and the soul of the nation is up for grabs. Laws can be changed but hearts are not always willing. Men take the law into their own hands by establishing yet another blight upon our country's conscience, creating organizations such as the one in Tracie's novel called The White Hand of God, a negro hating group which really only served their thirst for spilling blood and lust for power- even the name makes me cringe. They play a part in the suffering of the little town, but the real villain is a man named Stuart Albright, a man who could be caricatured as a Snidely Whiplash type, but really has an evil streak just because he is a cruel person, and he likes it that way.
I have actually encountered that kind of person in real life. (My husband served in the Missouri Legislature for twelve years...)
Snidely, I mean Stuart, will stop at nothing to financially ruin the Vandermark family and destroy the town. If the laws he twists seem improbable, I assure you, they were real. My husband, David, changed the fifty/fifty per cent ownership law in Missouri when he was in the legislature, (which made some people angry)- so Tracie wasn't making this stuff up.
The Vandermarks refuse to give up and continue to trust in God in spite of the turbulent times.
Tracie Peterson is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 85 novels. She received her first book contract in November, 1992 and saw A Place To Belong published in February 1993 with Barbour Publishings' Heartsong Presents. She wrote exclusively with Heartsong for the next two years, receiving their readership's vote for Favorite Author of the Year for three years in a row.
In December, 1995 she signed a contract with Bethany House Publishers to co-write a series with author Judith Pella. Tracie now writes exclusively for Bethany House Publishers.
She teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research.
Tracie was awarded the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for 2007 Inspirational Fiction and her books have won numerous awards for favorite books in a variety of contests.
Making her home in Montana, this Kansas native enjoys spending time with family--especially her three grandchildren--Rainy, Fox and Max. She's active in her church as the Director of Women's Ministries, coordinates a yearly writer's retreat for published authors, and travels, as time permits, to research her books
ABOUT THE BOOK
Will Love Escape Her Grasp?
Life seems to be falling into place for Deborah Vandermark. On the cusp of finally marrying Christopher, the man who claimed her heart, she is devastated when he receives an urgent telegram. Bound to his family obligations, Christopher travels to Kansas City, uncertain of what he will find there.
You can tell from the cover of Darkness Follows by Mike Dellosso that it's going to be dark and scary. And it is.
This is a psychological, paranormal, and horror book all rolled into one. Kind of an "It's a Wonderful Life" on acid.
Sam Travis is the brain injured husband of Molly, and father of six year old Eva. He is suffering from hallucinations, where a portal of evil connects the past and has a very real demonic power in the present.
So what does a character from the Civil War have in common with Sam and why is he being contacted by this person's journal entries- posted in Sam's own writing? Who is the maniacal killer? (Even HE doesn't know.)
For some reason this book was hard for me to handle: murder, mental illness, animal torture, and a recovering Democrat political candidate... I really wanted Molly, the mom, to take little Eva seriously when she said that she had a shimmery friend named Jacob, who wanted them to pray for Daddy.
I think the book would have had more power if somebody actually said a prayer out loud. When much evil is shown, much good is required to fight it. So rather than just a "yes honey, I'm praying for Daddy", I wanted it to happen.
Mike Dellosso is a really good writer. His forward and afterwards helped me get to know him a bit and I liked him.
Excuse me while I go set up my therapy session.
You will want to read the information following...
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Mike now lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Jen, and their three daughters. He writes a monthly column for Writer . . .Interrupted, was a newspaper correspondent/columnist for over three years, has published several articles for The Candle of Prayer inspirational booklets, and has edited and contributed to numerous Christian-themed Web sites and e-newsletters. Mike is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance, the Relief Writer's Network, the International Christian Writers, and International Thriller Writers. His short stories have appeared with Amazon Shorts and in Coach's Midnight Diner genre anthology. He received his BA degree in sports exercise and medicine from Messiah College and his MBS degree in theology from Master's Graduate School of Divinity.
Mike Dellosso writes novels of suspense for both the mind and the soul. He writes to both entertain and challenge. In addition to his novels, Mike is also an adjunct professor at Lancaster Bible College and a faculty member at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writer's Conference.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Sam Travis lives in a Civil War era farmhouse in Gettysburg, PA, where he awakens one morning to find an old journal with an entry by a Union soldier, Lt. Whiting…written in Sam’s own handwriting. When this happens several more times, both at night and during waking “trances,” Sam begins to question his own sanity while becoming obsessed with Lt. Whiting and his bone-chilling journal entries. As the entries begin to mimic Sam’s own life, he is drawn into an evil plot that could cost many lives, including his own.
Can the unconditional love of Sam's daughter, Eva, break through his hardened heart before a killer on the loose catches up with them and Sam’s past spurs him to do the unthinkable?
If you would like to read the Prologue and first chapter of Darkness Follows, go HERE
I love fabric,jigsaw puzzles,art supplies, beads and bangles. It is the delight of the collection. The joy is in the journey. The sparkle. The possibilities. Welcome to Writing Remnants- my life in pieces.
