Cliff Ball's Blog, page 9
April 9, 2013
Book Blast: My Treasures – Four Week Mini Bible Study by Heather Bixler {4/9/13} – $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!
Title: My Treasures – Four Week Mini Bible Study (Becoming Press Mini Bible Studies)
By Heather Bixler
About the Book:
There are plenty of Christian resources out there telling us how to manage our money. From budgeting, to couponing, to saving, to investing, (there are numerous) books, courses, and blogs available for all Christians to learn how to steward their money to better honor and glorify the Lord.
I think these resources are amazing and have often used them in my own life in order to become debt free and learn how to better manage my family's finances. But one burning question always entered into my mind as I began to budget, coupon, and bring down my debt – what's the point? my heart still struggled daily with greed and fear when it came to money.
In this four week mini Bible Study, we are not going to examine how to manage our money. Instead we are going to examine our heart towards money. One thing I have learned when it comes to money is this, it's really not about HOW much money you have that will determine whether you are broke or rich, it's WHERE your heart is towards God and towards money.
If we want to be good stewards of our money and honor God with the resources He has given us, then we need to look at our heart, not JUST our budget.
Heather Bixler
Heather is a Christian Stay at home homeschooling mom of three, married to a firefighter, and a writer. She is founder of www.CSAHM.com among other websites for Christian mothers, and women. Heather is passionate about sharing God's word in a practical and loving way.
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Book Blast: A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity by Shelley Hitz {3/20/13} – $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
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April 5, 2013
New Review of Times of Trial
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging with Biblical end time prophetic themes April 5, 2013
By Valerie Caraotta
Format:Paperback
The book Times of Trial, by Cliff Ball, will interestingly allow your imagination to ponder on the future, the Government, and just how many restrictions may be placed on future Christians. Though a fictional piece, author Ball speaks about and masterfully weaves events in a way where your emotions will empathize with the believers while you see events go from bad to horrific.You will explore what a society can become as Islam rises, churches decline, and those believers left must leave their present churches and succumb to FEMA underground camp. The persecution the Jews must endure, another bible reality, is also a testament that God is Sovereign and His protection and will prevails.
Talented author Cliff Ball will keep you engaged throughout. I recommend this book to you and other works he has published as they are clear of inappropriate content and suitable to anyone above age 13.
This book was given to me as a gift from Crossreads in exchange for a fair, honest review.
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Reader Reviews for Times of Trouble
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March 20, 2013
Book Blast: A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity by Shelley Hitz {3/20/13} – $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway
Title: A Life of Gratitude: 21 Days to Overcoming Self-Pity and Negativity
By Shelley Hitz
About the Book:
During a season of transition in my life, I found myself overwhelmed with negative emotions like self-pity and a complaining spirit. It was as if a dark cloud had descended over me. I prayed and asked God for wisdom on how to overcome these negative emotions. As I did, I sensed Him leading me to do a 21 day gratitude challenge.
Over the course of the 21 days, God began to change me as I spent intentional time being grateful for all I had been given. I did this through writing in my journal each day and also sending a hand-written thank you note to someone different each day. This also led me to writing out 21 prayers of gratitude and compiling 21 stories of gratitude.
I want to share what I learned with you in the pages of this book which includes:
21 Days of Gratitude Challenge
21 Prayers of Gratitude
21 Stories of Gratitude
What to Expect On Each Day:
Read my personal stories, struggles and reflections.
Read one scripture and one quote about gratitude.
Apply one personal application step from the challenge.
Read one prayer of gratitude
Read one story of gratitude
Get Accountability and Encouragement
Along with the 21 day challenge, I also started a private Facebook group to provide accountability and encouragement for myself but also for others who decide to join me in the challenge. You will get access to this group as well. It has been amazing to see God at work in each of our lives.
Will you join me on this journey to gratitude?
Shelley Hitz
Shelley Hitz is an award-winning and international best-selling author. Her openness and vulnerability as she shares her own story of hope and healing through her books will inspire and encourage you.
Shelley has been ministering alongside her husband, CJ, since 1998. They currently travel and speak to teens and adults around the country. Shelley's main passion is to share God's truth and the freedom in Christ she has found with others. She does this through her books, websites and speaking engagements.
You can find more about Shelley at ShelleyHitz.com or invite her to speak at your event here: ChristianSpeakers.tv
Follow Shelley Hitz
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#SampleSunday – Times of Trial: an End Times novelZemanta
March 8, 2013
Government Tyranny and my End Times novels
In Times of Trouble and Times of Trial, I have the Department of Homeland Security having road-side checkpoints that the Transportation Security Administration administers to prevent Americans from just going wherever they want. I was sent a couple of links recently to articles about new checkpoints being set-up alongside roads across the country, and these articles are nearly a year old, written about the same time I was writing both novels. While I was thinking I was making stuff up when I was writing, since I just projected what might eventually happen with the TSA, since I can’t imagine the government being satisfied with just harassing Americans at airports, the DHS was actually implementing stuff I was just imagining or it could all be an innocent mistake by a lot of paranoids. Who knows?
At the Intelhub.com and at Natural News.com both sites reports that what I’m sure many Americans have heard about, the sale of hollow point bullets to the government and to many of its agencies. I think I read somewhere that governments and their militaries are banned from using hollow points in battle, so what’s up with that? But, it also reports on the sale of checkpoint booths and has a link to a press release written by Shelters Direct. Now what would the DHS need with checkpoint booths? Anyone want to guess? I’m pretty sure they’re not using them for our southern border, since our government doesn’t seem to care about illegals pouring into the country. We’re also hearing about drone flights and strikes being a possibility against Americans on our own soil. So is the government being paranoid against another 9/11 or are they threatened by those of us who prefer limited government and will do whatever it takes to get their (the government’s) way?
The Atwood’s in Times of Trouble and the White’s in Times of Trial both deal with the TSA Checkpoints in different ways in the novels. In my novels, the TSA requires Americans to inform the Agency about a trip of 500 miles or more, and there’s checkpoints every thirty or forty miles on every major road. Brian Atwood is a FBI agent, so he calls up a friend to find out where there are no checkpoints, which is the back roads on his way from D.C. to Nebraska, so he and his family take the back roads. In Times of Trial, The White family decide they’re tired of being harassed by their neighbors and want to go to a community of Christians and Doomsday Preppers in Wyoming, so they travel the back roads into the Native American Reservations in Arizona to avoid the checkpoints. It takes both families over a week to get to their destinations because of the TSA Checkpoints, but they do. In Times of Trial, the government even sets up FEMA Camps for political opponents of the government and Christians. Do I think those are real? I have no idea, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
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March 7, 2013
Times of Trial featured on Karen Baney’s site
Times of Trial was featured on Karen Baney’s website yesterday and here’s the interview. Times of Trial and Times of Trouble are on sale for $.99 until Friday.
Genre: Christian End Times
Format: eBook, Paperback
Title:
Times of Trial: an End Times Thriller by Cliff Ball
Available at:
Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Smashwords iTunes
This novel is a parallel novel to Times of Trouble and can be read as a stand-alone novel.
In this Christian End Times thriller in a bleak near future, Christians suffer from persecution as the President declares himself dictator, implements the United Nations’ Agenda 21 with his own agenda attached, and begins targeting his political and spiritual enemies. Meanwhile, tensions between Israel and Iran intensifies as the apocalyptic End Times approach.
1. Welcome, Cliff. Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to do when you aren’t writing.
When I’m not writing, I like to read, mostly science fiction, but I’m currently reading a biography of Andrew Jackson and since I didn’t read them as a kid, the whole Wizard of Oz series. I’m a fan of NASCAR, I collect some sports memorabilia, I like hiking, and I’m a gamer when I’m not writing.
2. What inspired you to write this book?
What inspired me to write Times of Trial was seeing the whole world slowly edge towards the Biblical End Times, and the US, in particular, seems like it’s headed quickly towards the end itself.
3. Is there anything in your book based on real life experiences or is it purely all imagination?
There’s a chapter that’s based on a real life experience. When I was 4 and 5, my parents took in a Navajo Boy from the Window Rock Reservation in Arizona during two summers through the missions in our church, Tri-City Baptist in Tempe (now in Chandler). He didn’t get to come back after the second time because the shaman, I guess you call him, didn’t like Christians influencing him. The rest is all made up, unless there really are FEMA Camps waiting for us Christians….
4. What books have most influenced your life and why?
The Bible because I’m a Christian and I want to live my life the way God wants me to. As for writing, I’m a big history buff, and I enjoy alternate history, along with historical biographies, so I read a lot of history to get an idea of something I might possibly write that could be made into an alternate universe.
5. What are you working on now?
Currently working on a prequel to Times of Trouble, which starts in WW2 with Michael Evans’ grandfather stealing from the Nazi’s that would eventually lead to the Evans’ being the power-behind-the-scenes. Another one I’m working on is about a guy who sings in church, gets discovered by a producer of a national singing contest, the guy wins, and we follow him as he goes through his highs and lows shortly before the End Times.
6. How do you handle criticism?
By trying not to take it personal and by praying for the right attitude.
7. Do you have anything else you’d like to say to readers?
Every single one of my novels are clean reads, so I hope readers take an opportunity to try them out.
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February 28, 2013
#99cent sale for Times of Trouble & Times of Trial
Page for Times of Trouble to check out the blurb, reviews, etc.
Times of Trouble links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany
B&N Nook
Apple iTunes (which includes all available countries)
Kobo (and all associated stores)
Page for Times of Trial to check out the blurb, reviews, etc.
Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany
B&N Nook
Apple iTunes
Kobo
Cliff Ball - http://www.cliffball.net
February 27, 2013
A Life of Gratitude: Free Kindle Book & Giveaway
By Shelley Hitz
About the Book:
A Life of Gratitude: How to Overcome Self-Pity and Negativity
During a season of transition in my life, I found myself overwhelmed with negative emotions like self-pity and a complaining spirit. It was as if a dark cloud had descended over me. I prayed and asked God for wisdom on how to overcome these negative emotions. As I did, I sensed Him leading me to do a 21 day gratitude challenge.
Over the course of the 21 days, God began to change me as I spent intentional time being grateful for all I had been given. I did this through writing in my journal each day and also sending a hand-written thank you note to someone different each day. This also led me to writing out 21 prayers of gratitude and compiling 21 stories of gratitude.
I want to share what I learned with you in the pages of this book which includes:
21 Days of Gratitude Challenge
21 Prayers of Gratitude
21 Stories of Gratitude
What to Expect On Each Day:
Read my personal stories, struggles and reflections.
Read one scripture and one quote about gratitude.
Apply one personal application step from the challenge.
Read one prayer of gratitude
Read one story of gratitude
Get Accountability and Encouragement
Along with the 21 day challenge, I also started a private Facebook group to provide accountability and encouragement for myself but also for others who decide to join me in the challenge. You will get access to this group as well. It has been amazing to see God at work in each of our lives.
Will you join me on this journey to gratitude?
FREE on Kindle 2/27/13 & 2/28/13)
Purchase Paperback | Purchase Large Print Paperback | Purchase Audiobook
Shelley Hitz
Shelley Hitz is an award-winning and international best-selling author. Her openness and vulnerability as she shares her own story of hope and healing through her books will inspire and encourage you.
Shelley has been ministering alongside her husband, CJ, since 1998. They currently travel and speak to teens and adults around the country. Shelley's main passion is to share God's truth and the freedom in Christ she has found with others. She does this through her books, websites and speaking engagements.
Follow Shelley Hitz
Website | Facebook | Twitter
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Enter below to enter a paperback copy of "A Life of Gratitude" and a $5 Starbucks gift card, sponsored by author Shelley Hitz!
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Cliff Ball - http://www.cliffball.net
February 24, 2013
Interview by Independent Author Network
IAN. Hi Cliff. Please tell us about your latest book.
C.B. Beyond the New Frontier is a combination of the novels New Frontier and Final Frontier, this is the story of alternate timelines, partial political thriller, and time travel, in which President Kennedy is kept from being assassinated, but there are other unintended consequences as a result.
In 1976, Ronald Reagan becomes President of the United States, declares the U.S. will plant a base on the moon by 1980 and a base on Mars by 1989. The Iranian Hostage Crisis occurs, but Reagan issues a stronger response by rescuing the hostages within two weeks of it happening. As a result, Osama bin Laden rises to power earlier than he normally would have in the prime timeline. Meanwhile, The Soviet Union decides to build a starship that will travel to the stars because they want to one-up the United States. The ship launches, but soon becomes lost, while the Soviets pretend it isn't.
In the early 1990's the U.S. and the Russians join forces to find the Soviet starship, which leads the joint venture to the other side of the galaxy by means of a wormhole. When they attempt to return to Earth, they find themselves in the past, where they try to fix certain events in the past while they wait to re-route the Soviet starship and for history in general to catch up to where they launched the joint mission to begin with.
Things go wrong as events do not play out as planned and numerous cases of unintended consequences result from the multiple attempts at fixing the timeline.
IAN. What inspired you to write Beyond the New Frontier?
C.B. I’m into alternate timelines and I wanted to write a novel where the U.S. keeps going with the Moon landings and creating bases on the Moon and Mars. It really saddens me that the U.S. currently has no way of getting into space without relying on another country.
IAN. Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?
C.B. I used an outline, because I found that just winging it doesn’t work for me all that much.
IAN. How did you come up with the title?
C.B.I chose New Frontier for the separate novel because JFK talked about a “New Frontier.” When I combined New Frontier and Final Frontier, I decided to name it Beyond the New Frontier, because it sounded interesting. At first, I was going to choose “To the Stars,” but I don’t think that worked as a title.
IAN. How much of the book is realistic?
Since it’s alternate history, it’s based on stuff that happened, but I fantasize it and twist it around.
IAN. What book are you reading now?
C.B. I’m currently reading three books at the same time: reading a biography of Andrew Jackson, trying to get through 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and catching up on the Wizard of Oz series because I didn’t read them as a kid.
IAN. Are there any new authors that have caught your interest?
C.B. There’s a lot of indie authors I’ve read that I would’ve never heard of before if we didn’t have the opportunity to publish ourselves. Authors like K.C. May, M.R. Mathias, JC Phelps, to name a few.
IAN. Do you see writing as a career?
C.B. In this economy, I’m kind of stuck with writing as a career.
IAN. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
C.B. My parents bought me a lot of books as a kid, most of them were young adult and above when it came to reading comprehension, and I thought I could do it too one of these days, so I began writing random stories when I was ten.
IAN. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
C.B. Writing dialogue that doesn’t seem stiff and stilted.
IAN. Is Beyond the New Frontier published in print, e-book or both?
C.B. Both, but only on Amazon since Beyond the New Frontier is in KDP Select
IAN. Where can we go to buy Beyond the New Frontier? (links)
C.B. Please follow this link to Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009NVH76M
IAN. Tell us about your next book or a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?
C.B. I actually have two works in progress. One is a prequel to Times of Trouble, which explores the Evans family and how they came to power, while a secondary storyline is about the Atwood’s, who come into contact with the Evans’ in the early 1970’s, and then the story will go until around the beginning of Times of Trouble. The other work in progress is about a young Christian who sings only in church, gets discovered by a producer of a national talent show, he wins, and we see him go through the ups and downs as a result of the consequences of wanting to be rich and famous. This is also set in the same period as Times of Trouble and Times of Trial, but won’t be political in nature.
Cliff Ball - http://www.cliffball.net
February 22, 2013
Transferring to new site
Hi all. I’ve been working on a WordPress hosted site with my domain name that will have more flexibility than what I’m using now for this WordPress.com site, plus it’ll have my author website attached to it (Weebly was a good platform, but the mobile version was horrible) so that people won’t have to go to a couple of different places. It will be all in one spot. I’ll have my ebooks available to buy from there (when I figure out how to use the plug-in). I exported this site and then imported the blog itself along with the comments to the new site so I don’t have to start completely from scratch. I used the Jetpack plug-in to duplicate certain areas of this blog, so it should work the same when you post a comment or whatever on the new site.
If you want to, please sign up at the new site, but I’ll continue to post here for another month or two.
Thanks!
February 19, 2013
Book Blast: The Missing Piece (Inspirational Love Story) by Carol McCormick – Plus $25 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway!
Title: The Missing Piece (Inspirational Love Story)
By Carol McCormick
About the Book:
“Fresh dialogue, realistic characters, a powerful message,” The Romance Readers Connection
How does a man pick up the pieces when his world crashes around him? Misplaced priorities shattered his marriage. Problems almost crushed him. Love motivated him to mend the damage, once he found all the pieces.
After only a few months of marriage, Lorraine left Dylan on a wintry night after he’d spent one too many nights out with the guys. Unable to cope with the loss, Dylan escapes the painful feelings by drinking them away. This decision costs him a year-and-a-half of his life after he stops in a little mountain town and ends up in the local jail. When he’s released, he returns home in search of a job to get his life–and his wife back.
THE MISSING PIECE is not only a love story about a man who loves a woman, but is also a love story about a merciful God who loves mankind, even when he falls. The novel is an emotionally-charged journey of hope and redemption with a touch of spunk, a hint of humor, and a few twists along the way.
“Inspiring and encouraging. Anyone who desires a restoration to their spirit should read THE MISSING PIECE,” Myshelf.com
“A wonderful, heartwarming Christian romance. This is definitely a story that I recommend to all lovers of Christian romance,” Escape to Romance
Download on Kindle | Purchase Paperback
Carol McCormick ![e77606749f110a7e9d9a7b.L._SX750_SY470_[1]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1381787263i/5300082.jpg)
Carol began writing years ago after reading a ten-page story her grandmother wrote about growing up in the early 1900s. It was then that she began to write down her own stories to share with her daughters someday.
Later, she began to write as a way to draw herself and other people closer to the Lord. Carol writes for Christians to encourage them in their faith. She also writes for those who are unaware of God’s grace, to show them how to connect to Him in order to experience His love and goodness. Her writing is applicable to life with its direct, yet sensitive, and oftentimes humorous messages and lessons.
Carol has been a speaker for Christian Women’s Connection (Stonecroft Ministries International) for over fifteen years. She is also an international bestselling author who has appeared on regional and Christian television programs and has been a guest on over fifty Christian and secular radio stations.
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