Romantic Reads: Chasing Her Dream

The Story Behind Jennifer Slattery’s story Chasing Her Dream:

In the spring of 2019, landowners across Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota experienced perhaps the worst devastation of their lives. Ranches that had been in their families for generations, destroyed. Cattle swept away. Homes desolated. Decades of investments, consumed, leaving many wondering if they’d find the resources to rebuild.

But as hard as all that was to see, those things aren’t what stand out most in my mind. When I think back on the floods, I most remember the every day heroes that stood beside their neighbors. The hours upon hours that volunteers invested, digging through the rubble, praying with the hurting, or simply sitting beside them as they processed it all.

During times of crisis, that’s often when the best of humanity rises up to offer a hand, a kind word, a gentle smile. To offer themselves.

That was the spirit I wanted to capture, and perhaps even inspire, in my latest novel, Chasing Her Dream. I wrote the first draft while parts of my state remained inundated, while articles still circulated of extreme kindness and generosity. Of community members shouldering one another’s burdens in tangible, memorable ways.

I wanted to portray, and perhaps even inspire, that depth of care in my latest novel, Chasing Her Dream. Through the sacrificial actions of Rheanna Stone, the single mom who opens her already struggling Texas ranch to a large number of abused and neglected horses. Through Dave Brewster who risks losing his flooded Wyoming ranch aside to help her. And through the community that sacrificially and steadfastly come alongside them.

Demonstrating the beauty and healing that can occur when we seek to love one another.

We’ve probably all heard the phrase, “It takes a village.” Admirable words, right? Inspiring?

But may that catchy slogan do more than inspire. May it motivate and mobilize us all to find little ways to spread joy, offer a hand, and be the friend that our neighbors, coworkers, and fellow residents need.

And I’m speaking to myself here, because it’s all too easy for me to remain tucked in my office, oblivious to the world, the struggle, occurring without me. I experience joy and intense fulfillment, however, and the pleasure of God, when I widen my view.

~*~
Author Bio:

Jennifer Slattery is a writer and international speaker who’s addressed women’s groups, church groups, Bible studies, and other writers across the nation. 

She’s the author of six contemporary novels maintains a devotional blog found at http://jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.

She has a passion for helping women discover, embrace, and live out who they are in Christ. As the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries, she and her team partner with churches to facilitate events designed to help women rest in their true worth and live with maximum impact. 

She is also the host of the podcast Faith Over Fear, which you can listen to at LifeAudio.com.

~*~
Blurb for Jennifer's book, Chasing Her Dream:  

She needs his help…

But can she trust him again?

After she inherits her uncle’s mismanaged ranch, single mom Rheanna Stone’s not sure she can also handle saving abused horses from a nearby property. 

So when rancher Dave Brewster offers to stay in town to help, she can’t say no—even if he left her once before. 

As they grow closer, old secrets are uncovered…but can they heal past heartbreak to give themselves a new beginning?

~*~
Buy Jennifer's book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target or Walmart

Romantic Reads: A Dance in Donegal

The Story Behind the story A Dance in Donegal by Jennifer Deibel

In 2004, we had just moved back to the United States after two years living in remote, wild Donegal. Those two years were amazing…and hard…and life changing.

After we returned, I was struggling to process all we’d experienced in those long-but-brief two years. My faith had been stretched. I’d questioned my identity. And God’s sanity. I’d wondered about my place in the world, and how I could ever impact the darkness that seems to surround this world. And in His way and time, God was faithful. But there was still a lot to sift through.

Then one day, after reading a book about a quilting circle, this idea struck me for a story about a young Irish-American teacher who moves to her mother’s home village in Ireland to teach. Having suffered through a somewhat traumatic first year of teaching before moving overseas, it was easy for me to imagine what it might be like for a first-year teacher to start her career in a completely foreign environment, culture, and language. Thus, the baby idea for A Dance in Donegal took root.

I started writing right away, but was also expecting our first baby. Once she came along, the story sat. And sat. For years. Through that time, God continued to work on my heart and help me grow. We moved back to Ireland, and I learned even more about this amazing country, culture, and amazing, beautiful people. After another two and a half years back in Ireland, I picked the story back up, finding that it needed to be much different. Because I was different.

I’d learned more about the writing craft, the art of story, and I’d lived more of my faith. And some of my most favorite elements of the story came to life—the mystery element materialized, Moira’s main conflict and crisis of faith came to life, and secondary characters became like old friends.

There is so very much of my own heart and experiences bled onto the pages of A Dance in Donegal. And yet, Moira and Sean and Colm and Peg and all the others are their own people, with their own journeys. God showed me more of Himself and His grace as I wrote. And that is my prayer for all those who read it—that God would challenge and encourage them in their own faith journeys, no matter where on the spectrum of belief they start on.

And while they are fictional characters…figments of my own imagination…God used them to teach me more about faith, grace, and loyalty than if I’d never endeavored to write.

This story burned in my soul, and even though I was tempted to quit many times along the way because it was over 15 years from the time I started writing to when I signed the contract to publish it, I felt called to continue. And with that, I want to encourage you, dear reader, to keep on keeping on. If God has called you to it, He will equip you for it, and carry you through it, dark times and all.

~*~
Author Bio:

Jennifer Deibel is a middle school teacher whose work has appeared on (in)courage, on The Better Mom, in Missions Mosaic magazine, and others. 

With firsthand immersive experience abroad, Jennifer writes stories that help redefine home through the lens of culture, history, and family. 

After nearly a decade of living in Ireland and Austria, she now lives in Arizona with her husband and their three children.

Her debut novel, A Dance in Donegal, is available wherever books are sold! Her second novel, The Lady of Galway Manor, is available for pre-order and is set to release February 1, 2022.

~*~
Book Blurb for A Dance in Donegal:

After the loss of her Irish mother in the summer of 1920, Moira Doherty decides to fulfill her mother’s wish for her to leave Boston and teach in her mother’s home village of Ballymann in Donegal, Ireland.

Though a few locals offer a warm welcome, others are distanced by superstition and suspicion. Rumors about a scandalous family reputation abound and threaten not only her new position but also her life.

Moira must rely on the kindness of a handful of unlikely friends including Sean, a handsome thatcher, to help her clear her family name before it’s too late. As she seeks to navigate her new life in Ireland, she may find that this is truly the life she was always meant to live.

Historical romance fans will embrace this lyrical tale of family and relish the cultural nuances, the rich history and the beautiful setting imbedded in the pages of A Dance in Donegal.

~*~
Buy Jennifer’s book:
Baker Book House ~ ChristianBook.com ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Target ~ Books-A-Million ~ IndieBound ~ Walmart ~ Lifeway

~*~
Connect with Jennifer:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferdeibel_author
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenniferdeibelauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20391683.Jennifer_Deibel
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jennifer-deibel

Devotionals for the Heart: Women of God and Mother's Day

Beyond ‘Mom’: Celebrating Women of God
A devotional by Jessica Brodie

This Sunday (May 13) is Mother’s Day, a day that used to have one meaning for me: an opportunity to make my mom feel loved and cherished in gratitude for enduring a twelve-hour labor with no pain medication and then raising me, a precocious, bookish girl, to maturity.

But like so many things over the years, this day has evolved. Today, not only do I celebrate my own mother, but also my equally outstanding mother-in-law, my sister and sister-in-law, my stepmother, my aunt, and my grandmothers (here on earth and in heaven). And, of course, my husband and four kiddos—two biological, two “bonus” courtesy of our blended family—celebrate me, too, which always seems entirely unnecessary but very, very sweet to experience as they gather homemade cards and crafts in my honor.

And yet I can’t stop there, for I also celebrate the other women in our world… my children’s stepmom and my stepchildren’s mom, both loving, strong people who adore those kids and help shape them into the great people they are becoming. I also embrace and appreciate all the other women who influence my kids right along with me. I might carry the title “mom,” but we all work together in this: their brilliant and compassionate teachers, their ministry leaders at our church, the moms in our small group Bible study who pray for our flock daily, my other mom-friends in our neighborhood who take turns with me in caring and loving on all our kids for playdates, carpooling, and sleepovers.

They say it takes a village; I say they’re right.

While I’m blessed to have a wonderful biological mother who is a Christian, many of my friends have mothers who have already passed on—and others have it far worse: Their mothers are not women of faith. Some are addicts, driven by a demon and looking to fill the proverbial hole with anything but God. Some, whether from fear or circumstance, have left their children behind. Some are in prison. Some they haven’t talked to in years.

Sadly, I also have friends who are adoptive and foster moms but not fully comfortable with their role; they feel like “false moms” (they most certainly are not!). Others struggle with infertility, like I once did, or have decided for a variety of reasons that birthing children is not something they intend to do, yet the holiday still haunts them.

Where I live, there’s a place, Epworth Children’s Home, that has chosen not to celebrate “Mother’s Day” at all but rather “Women’s Day.” Their director said Mother’s Day at Epworth does not bring smiles and pleasant memories but is often a reminder of broken promises and shattered dreams. So instead, they focus on what it means to be a woman in the eyes of God.

Here’s the thing: “Mother” is not an identity. And while it’s a lovely thing to take a day to celebrate the woman who birthed us or the women who helped shape us, in reality, our children are not “ours” but God’s—and we are not “mothers” first but rather “children of God.”

In fact, as a Christian, if I’m truly honoring my Savior, I’d do well to keep that open-ended concept of family in mind.

In Matthew 12, Jesus was teaching God’s word to a large crowd when someone told Him that His mother and brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to Him.

“(Jesus) replied to him, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother’” (Matthew 12:48-50, NIV).

Family isn’t mere biology or bloodlines. When we toss aside the mantle of the world and instead choose to follow Christ, we not only gain a new life, but also a new family. We are no longer daughters and sons of flesh and blood but children of the Risen God. Our parent is God, and our siblings are all who walk alongside us in faith.

Happy Mother’s Day, then, and Happy Women’s Day…to God, to my mom, and to women of faith everywhere.

~*~
Author Bio: 

Jessica Brodie is a Christian author, journalist, editor, blogger, and writing coach. 

She is the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate (AdvocateSC.org), the oldest continuously published newspaper in Methodism. 

Learn more about her fiction and read her blog at http://jessicabrodie.com/.

Cozy Christmas Reads: June's story

The Real Christmas at Raccoon Creek
A guest post by June Foster

A couple of years back, I got a contract to join with some other authors in writing a Christmas novella. The editor chose a theme—each story would center around a Christmas snow globe. Since I write contemporary romance, I fully expected my story to be in that genre. It is. With a twist.

I asked myself what if a young nurse, Emily Eason, who lives in her grandmother's fifties-style home buys a snow globe at the drug store in her tiny town of Raccoon Creek? What if she brings it home and falls asleep while gazing at the little village, the snowmen, and falling snowflakes then wakes up. Nothing looks different at first, but then she discovers her computer is missing and in its place is an old free-standing TV like from years ago. Her phone rings with the old timey ring tone, but when she looks for her cell phone, she discovers a black dial phone making the noise. Could that really happen? Well, yes, in my imagination.

Since we lived in Locust Fork, Alabama, population 750, I envisioned the story taking place in our town. Emily's 50's house I based on memories of my childhood home. Yes, I grew up in the fifties. I patterned the layout of Raccoon Creek after Locust Fork's time honored streets.

The 1950's drug store where the hero, Lance Hardwicke, is a pharmacist, is like the one in the middle of our little Alabama town. Only the present day store is updated for modern times but sells a few items one might find in shops five or six decades ago: old fashioned greeting cards, colorful plastic bracelets, fun sunglasses, jewelry items, and painted coffee mugs among others.

Though the imaginary Raccoon Creek is a bit larger than Locust Fork, the terrain around the town is the same. Well, I did add a little river near Emily's house. The real one, the Locust Fork River, is farther in the forest. The same evergreens grow in and around town. Emily and Lance experience a snow storm just like the one we had the first winter in our house.

This magical Christmas story was one of my favorites to write. It sent me on a sentimental trip to my childhood. How fun it was when some of my friends from Locust Fork and our church who read the story said they could actually picture present day Locust Fork as they read.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope you enjoy all the Christmas stories featured on Alexis's blog.

~*~
Author Bio: An award-winning author, June Foster is a retired teacher with a BA in education and MA in counseling. June's book Give Us This Day was a finalist in EPIC's eBook awards and a finalist in the National Readers Choice Awards for best first book. Ryan's Father was one of three finalists in the published contemporary fiction category of the Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Writing Contest and Awards. Deliver Us was a finalist in COTT's Laurel Awards. 

June has written four novels for Desert Breeze Publishing. The Bellewood Series, Give Us This Day, As We Forgive, and Deliver Us, and Hometown Fourth of July. Ryan's Father is published by WhiteFire Publishing. Red and the Wolf, a modern day retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, is available from Amazon.com. The Almond Tree series, For All Eternity, Echoes From the Past, What God Knew, and Almond Street Mission are available at Amazon.com.

June enjoys writing stories about characters who overcome the circumstances in their lives by the power of God and His Word. Recently June has seen publication of Christmas at Raccoon Creek, Lavender Fields Inn, Misty Hollow, Restoration of the Heart, Letting Go, and Prescription for Romance. Visit June at junefoster.com.

~*~
Blurb for June's book:  

Emily Eason wants to distance herself from her parents' opulent lifestyle in Birmingham, Alabama, and enjoy life in the rural village of Raccoon Creek and her fifties-style home. But after gazing into the little snow globe she purchased from Hardwicke's Drugs and Gifts, she finds herself transported to another time—her grandmother's era. 

Lance Hardwicke is the pharmacist and owner of Hardwicke's Drugs. Four years of pharmacy school didn't allow for much of a social life. Gorgeous Emily Eason, nurse and resident of Raccoon Creek, has captured his attention. The next time she comes in the store, he's determined to ask her out. Maybe take her to Birmingham to see the Christmas lights in his brand new orange and white '53 Pontiac Pathfinder.

Can love span the fifty-year gap standing between them?

~*~
Buy June's book on Amazon 

~*~
Connect with June:
Website - http://www.junefoster.com
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/author/junefoster
Twitter -  https://twitter.com/vjifoster
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/authorjunefoster

~*~

Enter this book giveaway contest for your chance to WIN a copy of this book by filling out the entry form on the Rafflecopter widget below: 

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSavea Rafflecopter giveaway