Lyn Cote's Blog, page 69
April 14, 2013
New Author Connie Mann & Second Chances
My guest today is new author Connie Mann whom I met back in 2002 at a Florida Writing Conference. Imagine my delight when she popped up talking about her new book! BTW, she will be giving away a print copy of her book within the US so be sure to leave a comment! Here’s Connie:
“Second Chances by Connie Mann
I have always admired strong women. Whether famous or not, my heroes are women who roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done, without worrying about the cost to themselves. They ignore the naysayers and the timid and take action, often heading into uncharted territory armed with nothing but courage and determination.
My grandmother, Emma Guddat, was a lady like that. During WWII, she managed to keep her four children alive in East Prussia during the Red Army’s advance and the Third Reich’s retaliation. My grandfather, who served as a cook in the German army, had been taken prisoner and spent time in a POW camp in Africa. But circumstances had forced Omi (grandma, in German) to move the family several times while he was gone. She worried that Emil wouldn’t be able to find them again. So she set out to find him herself.
It was like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie. Picture a diminutive lady of 5’2”, crouched in a train station in the dead of night, counting every heartbeat as she waited for the searchlights to pass over her so she could sneak on a train to Berlin. She made it and thanks for the efforts of the Red Cross, the family was reunited. Later, they immigrated to America, grateful to have found a new start.
To purchase, click here. Angel Falls
The heroine of my new novel, Angel Falls, is another strong lady. Regina grew up on the streets of Porto Alegre, in Southern Brazil, where she and her best friend did whatever they had to do to survive. As teenagers, they were rescued from the streets and given a home, an education and a fresh start. Now Regina and her friend run an orphanage in Porto Alegre, rescuing as many of the street children as they can—just as they were rescued.
But when Regina’s best friend Irene is killed, Regina vows to protect her friend’s baby—no matter what. Even if that means she has to deal with Brooks—a big, scary former Army Ranger she’s not sure she can trust. As they flee a madman bent on killing the baby, Brooks and Regina must learn to trust each other to stay alive. Will that be enough to save them?
Tough ladies like these often have battle scars, some outward and obvious; others hidden deep in their hearts. But our God is a God of healing and He delights in giving second chances to His children. My grandmother got her fresh start in America and my story heroine, Regina, got her new beginning in Angel Falls.
When it’s dark and scary all around you and you’re not sure what to do next, keep taking one more step. God walks beside you, ready to offer hope and healing.
And a second chance.”–Connie
Bio:
Connie Mann loves stories of suspense, adventure and second chances. She offers encouragement to busy women on her blog: www.BusyWomenBigDreams.com and is an active member of Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. She’s also a USCG-licensed boat captain, so when she’s not writing, she’s usually on Central Florida’s waterways with local school children or her fabulous family. Please visit her online at: www.conniemann.com.
Janet Esteridge Won
She won because she was the only reader who left a comment. Is everybody busy doing their taxes???–Lyn
Send to Kindle
April 9, 2013
Author Angela Breidenbach & the Strength of No!
My guest today is Author Angela Breidenbach. Her publisher is offering a giveaway of her new release A Healing Heart: Quilts of Love series. So be sure to leave a comment. Angela shares something that I think plagues most women–how to handle the load of responsibilities we carry. Here’s Angela’s take:
Strength is in “No!”
As a workaholic, I’ve struggled most of my adult life to balance family and work.
Recently the Fourth Commandment convicted me. Take a Sabbath? But I have so much to do! The Holy Spirit went to work. Could I follow nine of the ten? Ouch! I took it to prayer, “I am so sorry, Lord! Help me to honor all of your commands and write them on my heart.”
I found out a really good reason for my struggles after taking a test from the book, Strengths Finder 2.0 online.
God hardwired me with a combination of talents, experiences, and personality traits that create the perfect storm for workaholism—if they’re distorted. We humans distort every good thing God meant for our good, don’t we?
The book helped me to understand my top five strengths and how they can also be a weakness. Not in any order: Achiever, Learner, Context, Futuristic, and Strategic. Looking at those words, can you already make some assumptions?
Getting educated, not only my strengths but how they can be misused, helped me understand how to better balance my life.
Because I love to learn new things and am an over-achiever and have a strategic brain, I often struggle with turning it all off. I’m constantly energized by new ideas I want to research and then strategically put into action—right now. A lot of people see this as a wish list, the level of productivity. But like Mara Keegan in my new release, A Healing Heart, I have to be intentional about time with friends and family. She gets such a sense of satisfaction related to her sense of achievement that it interferes with her personal relationships. Can you tell I wrote that part of me into her?
Have I beat workaholism? Not completely.
I’m a work in progress, pun intended. Anything can be misused, even a gift from God, according to 1 Corinthians 6: 12 (NIV), “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything…” Think about some of our cultures super stars. Some guidelines help me appreciate the strengths God wired me with and protect me from misusing those gifts and traits.
What do you do if you have these strengths that easily slip into sinful workaholism?
Here’s what I’m working on:
1. Learn to say, “No!”
2. Schedule time in your calendar for relationships. Really. Grab your day timer.
3. Focus on how what you do affect others.
4. When the underside of a trait becomes evident take it immediately to prayer.
5. Give a friend permission to speak the truth in love.
6. Be transparent. Don’t hide your struggle.
7. Share God’s blessings by sharing work. Don’t steal a blessing from someone else.”–Angela
Thanks, Angela for sharing so openly. With this amount of commitment, I’m sure with God’s help you will conquer your workaholism.”–Lyn
About Angela’s Book:
To puchase, click here. A Healing Heart: Quilts of Love Series
Mara Keegan is an uber-successful mother and a widow of three years. She’s been chasing success and all the “good things in life” for her family to make up for the cruel whim God played on them by taking her husband. In an effort to be the perfect mom, she decides to make a photo memory quilt, a graduation present for her daughter, Cadence. She’s not yet finished when she experiences a heart attack. While Mara recuperates, she revisits the choices she’s made that led to this physically and spiritually broken heart. The memory quilt must be finished in time for Cadence’s big day, but Mara struggles with her burgeoning feelings for the man who must keep Mara’s business going during her recovery, Joel Ryan. Can Joel find his way into Mara’s heart and onto Cadence’s quilt?
BIO: Angela Breidenbach is a speaker, coach, and author of A Healing Heart, April 2013 from Abingdon Press in the Quilts of Love series. She is certified in mentor/peer counseling as a CTA life coach, as a Stephen Minister, and a weight loss/nutrition coach. Angela serves as an assisting minister (worship/prayer leader) for her congregation in Missoula, MT.
April 7, 2013
April 2, 2013
March 31, 2013
Author Maureen Lang Tackles Frail Sisters?
My guest today is Author Maureen Lang, a frequent and welcome guest here. She is offereing a free ebook to EVERYONE (GOOD ONLY ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY APRIL 1 & 2) and a print copy of her latest book (see below) to one person who leaves a comment. So DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!
Today she’s going to tackle a difficult subject–what used to be called a the problem of the FRAIL SISTER. Here’s Maureen.
“Frail Sister? I don’t think so.
For my latest book, All In Good Time, I researched what’s often called “the world’s oldest profession” — prostitution. Such women have been called many names through the years, and believe it or not, Frail Sister used to be one of them. It was meant as a derogatory term for a woman who was frail in the morality department if she chose such a life.
But these women—particularly women on the low end of the profession—were anything but frail. I came across many tragic stories of young women whose families had cast them out for one reason or another, either because they couldn’t afford to feed them or because they’d made the fatal mistake of letting their reputation be ruined.
Prostitution was big business out west,
particularly once the Gold Rush lured so many men out there alone. What many men found rather than gold was long hours of work that led to little or no reward, and loneliness. Perhaps it was no wonder there were few laws against the love-for-rent district, at least in mining camps, tent cities and boom towns that had yet to welcome many families—or respectability—into their fold.
I saw these women through the eyes of my story’s heroine, Dessa Caldwell, whose goal was to help fallen women find a way out. But offering such women an alternative wasn’t easy. Living in an age when polite society would have nothing to do with them and forgiveness was rare certainly added to the trapped feeling many prostitutes lived with. As one woman I read about said: there are only two ways out of this profession: death or disease, and the latter always leads to the former.
March 26, 2013
Author Christine Lindsay With a Different Kind of Heroine
My guest today Author Christien Lindsay writes about an unusual setting and unusual stories. I like that! And I love it when she is my guest because I learn so much about a culture that fascinates me. AND DON’T MISS THE BOOK TRAILER AT THE END! Here’s Christine:
A TRUE INDIAN CHRISTIAN HEROINE—by Christine Lindsay
Two extraordinary true-life heroines were the inspiration behind the Award-winning Shadowed in Silk and in my recently released Captured by Moonlight.
Today I will tell you about one—the inspiration behind my oh-so-integral Indian character, Eshana.
In both books, Eshana is a young Indian woman who is a former child Hindu widow. After Eshana is rescued from a Hindu ashram for widows by my fictional Miriam, she puts her faith in Christ as Miriam teaches her about the Lord Jesus. After Eshana’s conversion, she follows in her mentor’s footsteps, going about rescuing other abused and abandoned women and children, and helping to run a small clinic and orphanage.
The inspiration behind my fictional Eshana is the real Pandita Ramabai.
This brilliant Indian woman died in 1922, but she had done so much for women and children in India that England awarded her the Kaisar-I-Hind Gold Medal. India has since issued a commemorative stamp in Ramabai’s honor, and she was given the honorary acclaim of ‘Pandita’ in Hindu tradition, meaning ‘learned master’.
Born into a high caste Hindu family, Ramabai’s father broke with tradition and taught her to read. This was the beginning of my heroine’s search for enlightenment. As a family they walked the length of India. Ramabai’s eyes were opened to the incredible suffering of Indian women and children at a time when child marriages were common. Often these little girl widows were abused—and continue to be abused today—and lived a life of misery. If their husbands died, they were considered a curse and abandoned.
After her parents and siblings died, Ramabai broke with tradition and married a lawyer of a lower Hindu caste, but he died of a cholera leaving her alone with a tiny daughter.
One day, looking through her husband’s papers, Ramabai found a Bible, and found fulfillment to her spiritual search in the person of Jesus Christ. This prompted her to translate the Bible into her local language.
To name just a few of Ramabai’s accomplishments—she started the first Braille School in India, promoted the need for female medical doctors, and was the founder of the Ramabai Mukti Mission, a home for sexually abused Hindu widows and children. In that home she created schools where young Indian women were given an education.
That mission is still in existence today. It is also a joy for me to have my true-life birthdaughter, Sarah,—the child I relinquished to adoption many years ago—working with the Ramabai Mukti Mission in India through Global Aid Network.
Click cover to purchase
The extraordinary Ramabai is showcased in my fictional novel Captured by Moonlight. This book is currently available as an Ebook at the purchase links below. The printed book version will be available on the same sites as of May. You can pre-order from these sites at this time though.
Christine Lindsay
Newest Release, Feb. 15, 2013: Captured by Moonlight ~ Book 2 in the Twilight of the British Raj series—-Click here to view
March 24, 2013
Author Christa Allan And a Daughter’s Journey
My guest today is Author Christa Allan. She is offering two copies in her GIVEAWAY so be sure to leave a comment to enter the drawing for one of the two. Here’s Christa:
“Andrae and my daughter Erin were first married in January of 2000 by Andrae’s uncle, one of the most amazing pastors I’ve ever met.
After their son Bailey, my first grandchild, went to heaven just thirty days after God blessed us with him, Erin and Andrae faced extraordinary challenges.
They divorced. Erin went on to earn her paralegal certification, and Andrae eventually wound up working in Kuwait. But God had determined that would only be a chapter in the story of their lives, not the end.
Seven years later, I stood in her father’s backyard and heard Pastor Edwards repeat the words that had, once before, united them as husband and wife. As I heard the fervent “Amen” and “Praise Jesus” echoed by Andrae’s family during the ceremony, I smiled remembering how constipated I felt in my Christianity all those years ago hearing the congregational participation of Andrae’s church.
So, at the end, when Pastor introduced us to the couple God has once again brought together, I heard myself actually speak out loud, my own “Amen.” Perhaps, in those same seven years, I’ve come to terms with my weaknesses, my faults, my spiritual dumbness. But God showed me on Saturday, life is full of second chances. Life is full of “Amens” just waiting for us.
And I am certain Bailey in heaven is “Amen” rejoicing along with his parents.”–Christa
To purchase, click here. Threads of Hope: Quilts of Love Series (Quilts of Love (Unnumbered))
BLURB:
While Nina O”Malley, the heroine in Threads of Hope, did not have these same experiences, the thread that connects us is second chances. When the story opens, Nina is a woman eager to succeed and yet hesitant to speak the truth. She’s devastated when she discovers the man and the job opportunity she wanted belong to someone else.
What Nina doesn’t know, her spiritual “dumbness,” is that we serve a God of second chances for whom nothing is impossible. She learns, though, that sometimes the gifts we want are not always in the wrapping we expect.
What a wonderful ending to a sad story, Christa! I wish your daughter and sil all the joy that the Lord gives. If you’d like to be entered in this week’s drawing, visit her
March 21, 2013
Are You in the Mood for an Easter Egg Hunt with Real Prizes???
Author Deborah Hale has organized this second annual event at GoodReads Love Inspired Historical Group, but anyone can attend! Here’s Deb:
Hi Everyone! We had so much fun with our Easter Egg Hunt last year that we decided to do it again.
It will run from March 21st until March 28th, with two hunts on each of the weekdays. As with last year, you will be hunting for three pieces of information about our featured authors on their websites or other social media. You’ll be given an email address where you can send your entries. The next day the authors will do a random draw from among all correct entries for a giveaway.
The featured authors will also be dropping by each day to give hints about their hunt if needed and chat about our Easter preparations and celebrations.
Hope to see you there!
Here’s the line up of authors who are offering prizes:
Thursday March 21st: Winnie Griggs and Christine Johnson
Friday, March 22nd: Janet Tronstad and Deborah Hale
Monday, March 25th: Noelle Marchand and Louise Gouge
Tuesday March 26th: Mary Moore and Renee Ryan
Wednesday March 27th: Regina Scott and Dorothy Clark
Thursday March 28th: Lyn Cote and Karen Kirst
March 20, 2013
How Much Do You Know About Your Family?
Lyn here, Pat Simmons post on Monday got me thinking about family history. Pat is doing a lot of research into her forebears. And I’ve done almost none on my own.
My husband’s cousin has done A LOT of research into the genealogy of the Cote family. My husband’s ancestor was Jean Cote who immigrated from France to Quebec in the 1600′s. Evidently Jean was a prolific father and there are A LOT of Cotes.
I recently heard from another Lyn Cote–who like me married a Cote.
My mother’s family was German on her mother’s side and Scot on her father’s side.
My father’s family was from Texas and Oklahoma and supposedly Irish and Cherokee. But who knows?
As a born storyteller, I was always fascinated by family stories. But how to know if they were true or not?
I’d love to take time to research my family history but I always so busy researching history and making up people and their stories that I haven’t had time.
