Romantic Reads: Mia's Gift (book)

Welcome Cindy Flores Martinez to the blog!

She's here today to share this story behind the story of her Christmas book, Mia's Gift.

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The Story Behind Mia’s Gift by Cindy Flores Martinez

My book, Mia’s Gift, is part of the Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series, which is a multi-author Christian/Inspirational Romance series about a group of secret angels. 

They became secret angels after their fellow friend, Charity Hart, left them a letter before she passed away with a check for $1,500 and a request to spend the money on something special for someone else in time for Christmas. I created the series after a lot of prayer and invited five other authors from Sweet Romance Reads to join me in writing a story.

In Mia’s Gift, my heroine Mia decides to become a secret angel for the handsome Jesse Quinn and his fifteen-year-old niece Kristi who need a miracle. Kristi’s mother has passed away, and the group home where Kristi lives is shutting down. She’ll be sent to a foster facility far away. Mia rushes to try and find a foster home for Kristi in the town she calls home.

All six stories take place in Snowflake, Colorado, a fictional small town that I made up. It’s an idyllic place with a picturesque Main Street that’s about an hour away from Denver. I’ve never visited Colorado, so I needed to research the area online, but my visits to the snowy mountain towns of Southern California where I live made me feel as if I knew what it was like to be there. We have the lovely towns of Big Bear, Wrightwood and Julian to name a few. We also have old Main Streets in the suburbs which have been preserved from the 1800s. My many visits to all these places and my fascination with them helped me bring Snowflake to life.

As in any romance, there’s someone in the story who captures Mia’s heart. Jesse Quinn is a wonderful uncle to his niece, Kristi. His sister named him as Kristi’s legal guardian in her will, and Jesse wants to provide a home for her, but he can’t because his job involves constant traveling. There’s so much Mia admires about Jesse, especially how caring he is, but although she’s attracted to him, they’re only friends. Their feelings for each other eventually turn into love.

I named Jesse after my real-life uncle who I never met. For many years, I didn’t know his name, but I found records through a genealogy website, and an ancestry DNA test connected me with his daughter. Unfortunately, my Uncle Jesse had passed away by then. Not only was I heartbroken because he was gone, but I was also devastated to learn that he had lived only ten miles away from me. I wrote about the fictional Jesse in memory of him.

Now that Christmas is almost here, it’s the perfect time to visit the town of Snowflake and get to know all the people who live there. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

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Author Bio:

Cindy Flores Martinez is a USA Today bestselling author who writes Christian Romance. 

She has an MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Screenwriting. 

Her debut novel, Mail-Order Groom, started as a screenplay and movie project, which she shopped around Hollywood, New York, and other parts of the world.

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Book Blurb for Mia's Gift (Small-Town Christmas Wishes Series Book 1):

Mia Rosa is thinking of leaving Snowflake, Colorado for good. 

Her cupcake shop on Main Street isn’t doing well, and seeing her ex-fiancé around town is awkward. When she receives a letter from her old high school friend, Charity Hart, asking her to be a secret angel, she’s convinced that she can’t go through with it. 

But Mia soon learns that handsome Jesse Quinn and his fifteen-year-old niece, Kristi, are in desperate need of a miracle. The group home where Kristi lives is shutting down, and no other foster homes are available in Snowflake. 

Will Mia be able to secretly grant Jesse and Kristi’s wish for Kristi to stay in the town she calls home? 

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Buy Mia's Gift on Amazon

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Connect with Cindy:
Website: www.cindyfloresmartinez.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cindyfloresmartinezauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorCindy

Devotionals for the Heart: A Closer Look at the birth of Jesus Christ

Where Jesus Was Born?
A devotional by Allison M. Wilson

Key Scripture: Luke 2:8-20, Genesis 35:19-21, Micah 4:8-5:2, John 1:29,
1 Peter 1:18-19, 

1 Corinthians 5:7, Revelation 5:6-14 (NASB)

I’m about to challenge you to dig into the Word of God to search for an amazing treasure that has been there all along. A pastor friend of mine taught on, “Where Was Jesus Born?” The entire teaching is linked here. There’s not enough space to do more than whet your curiosity. This made me sit back in awe, again, at Who our God is.

We’re told in Luke that an angel appeared to shepherds. Why these shepherds? They were very special. They were likely the ones who tended the Passover lambs and flock. 1 Corinthians calls Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb. Genesis talks about a “tower of Eder.” In the original Hebrew, that means “migdal eder,” or “tower of the flock.” Micah 4:8 tells us, “To you it will come—Even the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.” This tower is something special, but why?

We have “certain” shepherds, as one of the carols calls them. We have John and others referring to Jesus as the Lamb of God. We know Christ to be our Passover Lamb taking away the sins of the world. How did the shepherds know where to find Mary, Joseph, and the Christ? It wasn’t the star which led the magi. That didn’t happen until later. 

They knew where to find a “Passover lamb” because they were shepherds of that very flock! Where else would a place be prepared to accept the birth of “perfect” sheep, destined to die on an altar? What other lambs were wrapped up to keep them from harming themselves and making a blemish? Where else would perfectly cleansed swaddling be available which had to be done according to the Law for the lambs of sacrifice? They had to be kept separate from less worthy sheep. They had to be protected. They were sacred.

If you read on in the Bible book of Micah, it talks about a woman in childbirth … giving birth to the Savior! I hope you believe that there is no coincidence in the Word of God. Every word is intentional and necessary for His perfect will to be made known. This is no coincidence that a description of childbirth is given in this passage about Migdal Eder. We are given crumbs, here and there, to show us the way through the Scriptures to find truths we never saw before. It reminds us that His thoughts are so much bigger than our thoughts, and His ways immensely different than our ways.

Yes, Mary and Joseph were turned away from the inn, but there is no recorded place in Scripture that says they went to a stable. Where else would the Holy Spirit lead the Lamb of God to be born, but to the very same place that the lambs, which had fulfilled the promise as far as they were able, were born? God leaves nothing to chance. Everything in the Old Testament is a shadow of what was to come in Christ.

I think the part which hit my heart the hardest in all of this study was when I read, again, that Mary wrapped her Babe in swaddling clothing, and treasured all these things in her heart. As a mother, Mary wrapped up her sacrificial Lamb when He was born, in the place where death was assured as soon as life began for those lambs. She had no idea she would be wrapping her Son just 30 some years later, in grave cloths. A different swaddling with tears staining the material, I have no doubt.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the birth of Christ is significant enough for God to have written about it, hidden nuggets of priceless truth within the Scriptures, and rejoices when we seek them out.

Let’s Pray: Jesus, You amaze me at every turn. You hide nothing from us, but we must want to seek out these gems. Give us the desire to find more “hidden” things in Your Word that we may learn more of You. In the Name of Christ we pray, Amen. 

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Author Bio:

A very early reader and lover of the written word, Allison M. Wilson has been writing since the age of eight with the heart to impart stories and God's truth. 

She has judged countless contests for the last 25 years, reviewed for several online publications, professionally edited, and written articles and devotionals.

Wife, mother, writer, editor, teacher, mentor, and mompreneur, God keeps her busy while living in east central Florida with her family.

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Connect with Allison:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allisonmwilson
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amwilson