Linda Brooks Davis's Blog, page 13

Allison Pittman. Let’s Chat! Featured Favorite

Welcome, everyone!

Oh my. Here’s another Featured Favorite author you’ll absolutely fall in love with. Allison Pittman and I have shared several levels of relationship for a decade or so now. Mentor/mentee. Friend/friend. Accomplished author/beginning author, Comedienne/adoring fan. And even sharers of the same table at book signing events. 

No matter the venue or prop, one thing remains true: I adore this uniquely talented, unabashedly outspoken, unselfishly available author/editor/teacher/mentor. She’s my “person” in the writing world. And the one I continually return to for what she does best–evaluate my creations with just the right amount of tough-love encouragement.

Visit with Allison below, and you’re entered in the drawing for one of her books.

Allison Pittman: in Her Words

Once, years ago, I went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel with a dear friend. When I paid my bill, the cashier looked at the name on my credit card. “Allison Pittman? That’s the name of one of my favorite authors!”

I about collapsed into the Raggedy Ann display. With three books published at the time, and in a moment of which I am not proud, I asked her to name one of my books just to be sure she was talking about me. I told my friend, Jennifer C–, that she’d have to stay my friend forever if only to verify this moment.

Allison and Charlie

Last week, my husband and youngest son and I went to that same Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was my first time in that restaurant since that miraculous moment (the actual restaurant is two towns over, but I had a gift card…), and I told the story to my son as we meandered through the gift shop on the way to our table.

“Does she still work here?” my son, Charlie, asked.

“I don’t know.” I craned my neck, looking around, as if I’d remember. “It was a long time ago. She’s probably moved on to another job.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Probably moved on to another favorite author, too.”

My, don’t our children have a way of keeping us humble?

By-Gone Days

I can’t imagine what it must have been like being a writer in the days before social media. How in the world did they know if they were successful or not? I’m trying to imagine Harper Lee checking her Amazon ranking, or Danielle Steel hosting a Facebook live chat with a give-away of Fine Things. (Although that would be fabulous.)

Think of what witty tweets we’d get from Erma Bombeck, the great memes from Mark Twain, the Pinterest board of Julia Child. How many Goodreads reviews would be two-star because The Thornbirds was too long?

How in the world did any author, ever, summon the courage to roll another piece of paper into the typewriter and start another novel without the confidence of knowing they’d reached the friend limit on their personal facebook?

Under what power could they tie up that bundle of pages with twine and mail it off in a manuscript box without posting it on Instagram? #amwriting #THEEND #400pages #blessed.

Try to picture Emily Bronte, hacking into a handkerchief, her ink-stained fingers penning her Tuesday morning blog.

I think we writers lose something by the sheer awareness of our place in the lives of readers. Don’t get me wrong—I love my readers! I love the messages and the emails and the tweets and the #bookstagram posts and the Goodreads reviews and the Amazon stars—all of it. But for every five-star, there’s a one-star, and I can quote lines from both camps. A brand-new author can send her very first manuscript to a publisher only to be met with questions about her social media presence. How many followers? How many subscribers?

My first novel

Ten Thousand Charms (Multnomah) came out in 2006, in the early stages of this social media phenomenon. I had a My Space page. It was terrible. It sold the way all first novels sold: word of mouth and placement in bookstores. 

My latest novel

The Seamstress (Tyndale) had a massive blog tour and social media blitz that resulted in a number of tweets and retweets numbering in the tens of thousands. As much as I love that little ten-thousand circle, I still know this: Ten Thousand Charms remains one of my most successful books. And The Seamstress will only find the same success through the same channels. Bookstores are almost gone, but books will always depend on one reader saying to another, “You have to read this …”

The Seamstress is my fourteenth novel, and yet I see over and over in social media that it is the “first” for many readers. I get just as excited seeing the phrase “This is my first Allison Pittman book” as I did when I got notes and post cards from people who loved the first Allison Pittman book. That’s the kind of encouragement that makes me brave enough to face a blank computer screen and start the next work.

One of the most rewarding aspects of being an author is that you are constantly given the opportunity to be something new. So, with every novel, I feel this huge responsibility: to be as good as the last one, and to be an impacting first one. I’m so glad I have a Savior whose mercies are new every morning. Every day. Every midnight-to-2:00 am creative burst.

In my next releases . . .

Even greater opportunites to be “new” again are waiting around the corner.

Thanksgiving 2019

I’ll have a novella in a collection with a bunch of fabulous authors—my first time to be in a novella collection, and a chance to meet a whole new audience.

Summer 2020

I’ll be releasing my first YA novel—Pudge and Prejudice which takes the iconic Jane Austen story and sets it in a small town Texas high school . . . in 1984.

Christmas 2020

My first devotional book—Keeping Christmas, will take readers through the reclamation of Ebenezer Scrooge throughout the season of Advent.

My first collection, my first YA, my first devotional . . .

Closing Thoughts

I honestly hope I never become so much of a favorite that I don’t cherish the opportunities to be new. Still, when I am an old, old woman, I’ll be sitting in a rocking chair in a porch somewhere. Meanwhile, the poor old person rocking next to me will have to hear one more time about the lunch I had in Cracker Barrel when the cashier knew my name.

In the meantime…come find me!

Facebook: Allison Pittman Author Page

Twitter: @allisonkpittman

Instagram @allisonkpittman

My website (where I blog super infrequently): allisonkpittman.com

A video by Allison about The Seamstress: https://youtu.be/Af9DUyVGjv8. 

~ ~ ~

Lord, we readers thank You for the joy words bring us. Above all, Your Word. We thank You for calling Your writers to create worlds on paper in which You are magnified. And I thank You for the beauty of the ideas and words you give Allison and also for her friendship. Please bless each word she writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Allison Pittman. Let’s Chat! Featured Favorite appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Allison Pittman. Let’s Chat!

Welcome, everyone!

Oh my. Here’s another Featured Favorite author you’ll absolutely fall in love with. Allison Pittman and I have shared several levels of relationship for a decade or so now. Mentor/mentee. Friend/friend. Accomplished author/beginning author, Comedienne/adoring fan. And even sharers of the same table at book signing events. 

No matter the venue or prop, one thing remains true: I adore this uniquely talented, unabashedly outspoken, unselfishly available author/editor/teacher/mentor. She’s my “person” in the writing world. And the one I continually return to for what she does best–evaluate my creations with just the right amount of tough-love encouragement.

Allison Pittman: in Her Words

Once, years ago, I went out to lunch at Cracker Barrel with a dear friend. When I paid my bill, the cashier looked at the name on my credit card. “Allison Pittman? That’s the name of one of my favorite authors!”

I about collapsed into the Raggedy Ann display. With three books published at the time, and in a moment of which I am not proud, I asked her to name one of my books just to be sure she was talking about me. I told my friend, Jennifer C–, that she’d have to stay my friend forever if only to verify this moment.

Allison and Charlie

Last week, my husband and youngest son and I went to that same Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was my first time in that restaurant since that miraculous moment (the actual restaurant is two towns over, but I had a gift card…), and I told the story to my son as we meandered through the gift shop on the way to our table.

“Does she still work here?” my son, Charlie, asked.

“I don’t know.” I craned my neck, looking around, as if I’d remember. “It was a long time ago. She’s probably moved on to another job.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “Probably moved on to another favorite author, too.”

My, don’t our children have a way of keeping us humble?

By-Gone Days

I can’t imagine what it must have been like being a writer in the days before social media. How in the world did they know if they were successful or not? I’m trying to imagine Harper Lee checking her Amazon ranking, or Danielle Steel hosting a Facebook live chat with a give-away of Fine Things. (Although that would be fabulous.)

Think of what witty tweets we’d get from Erma Bombeck, the great memes from Mark Twain, the Pinterest board of Julia Child. How many Goodreads reviews would be two-star because The Thornbirds was too long?

How in the world did any author, ever, summon the courage to roll another piece of paper into the typewriter and start another novel without the confidence of knowing they’d reached the friend limit on their personal facebook?

Under what power could they tie up that bundle of pages with twine and mail it off in a manuscript box without posting it on Instagram? #amwriting #THEEND #400pages #blessed.

Try to picture Emily Bronte, hacking into a handkerchief, her ink-stained fingers penning her Tuesday morning blog.

I think we writers lose something by the sheer awareness of our place in the lives of readers. Don’t get me wrong—I love my readers! I love the messages and the emails and the tweets and the #bookstagram posts and the Goodreads reviews and the Amazon stars—all of it. But for every five-star, there’s a one-star, and I can quote lines from both camps. A brand-new author can send her very first manuscript to a publisher only to be met with questions about her social media presence. How many followers? How many subscribers?

My first novel

Ten Thousand Charms (Multnomah) came out in 2006, in the early stages of this social media phenomenon. I had a My Space page. It was terrible. It sold the way all first novels sold: word of mouth and placement in bookstores. 

My latest novel

The Seamstress (Tyndale) had a massive blog tour and social media blitz that resulted in a number of tweets and retweets numbering in the tens of thousands. As much as I love that little ten-thousand circle, I still know this: Ten Thousand Charms remains one of my most successful books. And The Seamstress will only find the same success through the same channels. Bookstores are almost gone, but books will always depend on one reader saying to another, “You have to read this …”

The Seamstress is my fourteenth novel, and yet I see over and over in social media that it is the “first” for many readers. I get just as excited seeing the phrase “This is my first Allison Pittman book” as I did when I got notes and post cards from people who loved the first Allison Pittman book. That’s the kind of encouragement that makes me brave enough to face a blank computer screen and start the next work.

One of the most rewarding aspects of being an author is that you are constantly given the opportunity to be something new. So, with every novel, I feel this huge responsibility: to be as good as the last one, and to be an impacting first one. I’m so glad I have a Savior whose mercies are new every morning. Every day. Every midnight-to-2:00 am creative burst.

In my next releases . . .

Even greater opportunites to be “new” again are waiting around the corner.

Thanksgiving 2019

I’ll have a novella in a collection with a bunch of fabulous authors—my first time to be in a novella collection, and a chance to meet a whole new audience.

Summer 2020

I’ll be releasing my first YA novel—Pudge and Prejudice which takes the iconic Jane Austen story and sets it in a small town Texas high school . . . in 1984.

Christmas 2020

My first devotional book—Keeping Christmas, will take readers through the reclamation of Ebenezer Scrooge throughout the season of Advent.

My first collection, my first YA, my first devotional . . .

Closing Thoughts

I honestly hope I never become so much of a favorite that I don’t cherish the opportunities to be new. Still, when I am an old, old woman, I’ll be sitting in a rocking chair in a porch somewhere. Meanwhile, the poor old person rocking next to me will have to hear one more time about the lunch I had in Cracker Barrel when the cashier knew my name.

In the meantime…come find me!

Facebook: Allison Pittman Author Page

Twitter: @allisonkpittman

Instagram @allisonkpittman

My website (where I blog super infrequently): allisonkpittman.com

A video by Allison about The Seamstress: https://youtu.be/Af9DUyVGjv8. 

~ ~ ~

Lord, we readers thank You for the joy words bring us. Above all, Your Word. We thank You for calling Your writers to create worlds on paper in which You are magnified. And I thank You for the beauty of the ideas and words you give Allison and also for her friendship. Please bless each word she writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Allison Pittman. Let’s Chat! appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Ann Tatlock. Let’s Chat!

Welcome, everyone!

Ann Tatlock is my current Featured Favorite. Her novels’ genres: General Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Speculative Fiction. But mainly, she’s a writer who grabs a reader’s heart and refuses to let go.

You’ll find Ann’s books at the bottom of this page. Someone who joins in the chat will receive a print copy of one of Ann’s books. Winner announced on the 20th. 

I’m tickled pink to present some of Ann’s thoughts and take a peak at her exquisite writing. I discovered her a decade ago and have been nothing short of awestruck with her inspirational premises, captivating characters, and brilliant prose.

Another famous author—Lucy Montgomery—created an unforgettable character who was often heard explaining the spelling of her name: “That’s Anne—with an e.” 

Now here’s our Ann—minus an e—in her own words, Ann Tatlock:

Introducing Ann (minus the e)

I like to tell people I went to school in a barn—which is true, but needs some explaining. While a seventh grader in the public school system, I was what people today would call “bullied.” The other kids teased me for being a “goody-goody.” I have to admit they were right—I was a good kid and wanted to be. I felt God’s eyes on me, not because he was waiting to punish me if I did something wrong, but because he was watching over me with love. Even as a child, I felt safe in him.

Ann: the Schoolgirl

Still, I shed a lot of tears that year, until my parents finally decided to send me to a private school. That was when God turned the bullying into blessing. Without the taunting of the other kids, I never would have been sent to Sanford. This school, in Hockessin, Delaware, was a private boarding school (I was a day student) but it defied all snobby prep-school stereotypes. At this school, I wasn’t bullied but was built up by the other students who became my life-long friends, and by the teachers who truly cared about me.

The campus was comprised of classroom buildings, gymnasiums and dormitories on 81 acres that had originally been farmland. The old, three-story farmhouse was at the center of campus and now housed the dining room and the music rooms. The barn had been transformed into a classroom building, the silo becoming the bathrooms. This is where I took the English classes that would define the rest of my life.

Ann: the Reader 

It was at Sanford that my love of reading and writing was nurtured. Many an English class remains clear in my memory, and I can vividly recall the books and poems we read and studied. Too, both of my Upper School English teachers applauded my efforts at writing and cheered me on. I knew there was a wordsmith somewhere deep inside of me, though I didn’t yet think of writing as a career.

On graduation day when awards were given out, I received the school’s literary award. I didn’t understand it fully at the time, but the course of my life had been set. Today, I thank God for the tears that landed me in a whole new life, where I read poetry and literature in a barn and decided the written word is the most wonderful thing in the world.

Ann Tatlock: the Writer

I eventually decided I wanted to be a journalist and write for a Christian magazine. And that’s what I did, working as an assistant editor for Billy Graham’s Decision magazine from 1987-1993. At the same time, in my 20s, I went through a series of losses, including the death of my mother. To deal with my grief, I turned to something I never thought I’d do: fiction writing. I discovered it to be not only cathartic, but a wonderful way to promote ideas, faith, truth. Before long, I set my sights on becoming a novelist.

Never having taken a creative writing course, I simply started to create worlds and characters based on what I knew from years of reading. I wrote seven novels and put each one aside. Finally, I wrote one that I felt was ready for publication. I secured an agent who got me a contract. A Room of My Own was published in 1998. Between the writing of my first novel and seeing my first book in print lay a span of 13 years. It was certainly not an overnight journey.

Ann Tatlock: the Blogger, Author, Editor, Lover of God

 I am currently working on a novel, but I’ve also veered back toward non-fiction writing. The Lord nudged me to start a blog called “Living a Love Story.” Over the years of my writing career, the Lord let me know that he didn’t create me so that my life could be a success story, but so that it could be a love story with him. If I were wildly successful as a novelist (which I wasn’t!) but not in love with him, then I was missing the whole point of my existence. Even if I had failed at my profession, ultimately it wouldn’t matter, because it’s his love that makes me what I am meant to be.

So I use the blog to share my thoughts on loving God, as well as to allow others to tell their stories of how God has revealed his love to them, especially in the darkest times of their lives.

I find great satisfaction in writing about the love of God, because the same love that surrounded me in childhood has remained with me faithfully right up to the present day.

Ann’s Beautiful Books




Excellence in Media “Silver Angel Award” amzn.to/2Tw5kPj


Library Journal: Best of Genre, Christian Fiction https://amzn.to/2Tw5kPj

 



Midwest Independent Publishers Association, Winner-Adult Fiction The Christy Award Winner, Contemporary Fiction Book List: “Top 10 Christian Novels” https://amzn.to/2Tw5kPj


Winner, Midwest Independent Publishers Association, First Place-General Fiction: Best of Genre – Christian Fiction: Library Journal; Crossings Book Club Selection; Best of Genre: Library Journal amzn.to/2Tee9hs




Christy Award Winner; Booklist Magazine: Top Ten Historical Novels of the year.amzn.to/2EO7vpl


Selah Award Finalist https://amzn.to/2C9zePD




Booklists: Ten 10 Christian Novels https://amzn.to/2EyF3GS


A Crossing Books Selection https://amzn.to/2HeXuTT




Selah Award Winner; Christy Award Finalist; https://amzn.to/2XBvnE1


Library Journal: Best of Genre, Christian Fiction

amzn.to/2H0Eglv

 







Christy Award Winner: Selah Award Finalist amzn.to/2tSasPC


amzn.to/2C5rRZr




https://amzn.to/2ThD9Va


amzn.to/2UrWXBX




https://amzn.to/2SLkWu6


https://amzn.to/2EyvTdd








https://amzn.to/2Cg4zjV


https://amzn.to/2TednRA




https://amzn.to/2TsQVUm


https://amzn.to/2tV32Lb








https://amzn.to/2C7DoaL


https://amzn.to/2NLifYl




Where to Find Ann Tatlock 

Email: anntatlock@yahoo.com

Website: www.anntatlock.com

Blog: https://anntatlock.blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ann.tatlock.1

~ ~ ~

Lord, You display Your glorious love all around us–in nature, relationships, human hearts, and in Your gifting of Your children. Nowhere is Your love more on display than when Your children use their gifts for the purposes You intend. We thank You for Ann, her books, and the way they touch our hearts with Your love.

Please bless every word Ann writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Ann Tatlock. Let’s Chat! appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Ann Tatlock

Welcome, everyone!

Ann Tatlock is my current Featured Favorite. Her novels’ genres: General Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Speculative Fiction. But mainly, she’s a writer who grabs a reader’s heart and refuses to let go.

You’ll find Ann’s books at the bottom of this page. Someone who joins in the chat will receive a print copy of one of Ann’s books. 

I’m tickled pink to present some of Ann’s thoughts and take a peak at her exquisite writing. I discovered her a decade ago and have been nothing short of awestruck with her inspirational premises, captivating characters, and brilliant prose.

Another famous author—Lucy Montgomery—created an unforgettable character who was often heard explaining the spelling of her name: “That’s Anne—with an e.” 

Now here’s our Ann—minus an e—in her own words, Ann Tatlock:

Introducing Ann (minus the e)

I like to tell people I went to school in a barn—which is true, but needs some explaining. While a seventh grader in the public school system, I was what people today would call “bullied.” The other kids teased me for being a “goody-goody.” I have to admit they were right—I was a good kid and wanted to be. I felt God’s eyes on me, not because he was waiting to punish me if I did something wrong, but because he was watching over me with love. Even as a child, I felt safe in him.

Ann: the Schoolgirl

Still, I shed a lot of tears that year, until my parents finally decided to send me to a private school. That was when God turned the bullying into blessing. Without the taunting of the other kids, I never would have been sent to Sanford. This school, in Hockessin, Delaware, was a private boarding school (I was a day student) but it defied all snobby prep-school stereotypes. At this school, I wasn’t bullied but was built up by the other students who became my life-long friends, and by the teachers who truly cared about me.

The campus was comprised of classroom buildings, gymnasiums and dormitories on 81 acres that had originally been farmland. The old, three-story farmhouse was at the center of campus and now housed the dining room and the music rooms. The barn had been transformed into a classroom building, the silo becoming the bathrooms. This is where I took the English classes that would define the rest of my life.

Ann: the Reader 

It was at Sanford that my love of reading and writing was nurtured. Many an English class remains clear in my memory, and I can vividly recall the books and poems we read and studied. Too, both of my Upper School English teachers applauded my efforts at writing and cheered me on. I knew there was a wordsmith somewhere deep inside of me, though I didn’t yet think of writing as a career.

On graduation day when awards were given out, I received the school’s literary award. I didn’t understand it fully at the time, but the course of my life had been set. Today, I thank God for the tears that landed me in a whole new life, where I read poetry and literature in a barn and decided the written word is the most wonderful thing in the world.

Ann Tatlock: the Writer

I eventually decided I wanted to be a journalist and write for a Christian magazine. And that’s what I did, working as an assistant editor for Billy Graham’s Decision magazine from 1987-1993. At the same time, in my 20s, I went through a series of losses, including the death of my mother. To deal with my grief, I turned to something I never thought I’d do: fiction writing. I discovered it to be not only cathartic, but a wonderful way to promote ideas, faith, truth. Before long, I set my sights on becoming a novelist.

Never having taken a creative writing course, I simply started to create worlds and characters based on what I knew from years of reading. I wrote seven novels and put each one aside. Finally, I wrote one that I felt was ready for publication. I secured an agent who got me a contract. A Room of My Own was published in 1998. Between the writing of my first novel and seeing my first book in print lay a span of 13 years. It was certainly not an overnight journey.

Ann Tatlock: the Blogger, Author, Editor, Lover of God

 I am currently working on a novel, but I’ve also veered back toward non-fiction writing. The Lord nudged me to start a blog called “Living a Love Story.” Over the years of my writing career, the Lord let me know that he didn’t create me so that my life could be a success story, but so that it could be a love story with him. If I were wildly successful as a novelist (which I wasn’t!) but not in love with him, then I was missing the whole point of my existence. Even if I had failed at my profession, ultimately it wouldn’t matter, because it’s his love that makes me what I am meant to be.

So I use the blog to share my thoughts on loving God, as well as to allow others to tell their stories of how God has revealed his love to them, especially in the darkest times of their lives.

I find great satisfaction in writing about the love of God, because the same love that surrounded me in childhood has remained with me faithfully right up to the present day.

Ann’s Beautiful Books




Excellence in Media “Silver Angel Award” amzn.to/2Tw5kPj


Library Journal: Best of Genre, Christian Fiction https://amzn.to/2Tw5kPj

 



Midwest Independent Publishers Association, Winner-Adult Fiction The Christy Award Winner, Contemporary Fiction Book List: “Top 10 Christian Novels” https://amzn.to/2Tw5kPj


Winner, Midwest Independent Publishers Association, First Place-General Fiction: Best of Genre – Christian Fiction: Library Journal; Crossings Book Club Selection; Best of Genre: Library Journal amzn.to/2Tee9hs




Christy Award Winner; Booklist Magazine: Top Ten Historical Novels of the year.amzn.to/2EO7vpl


Selah Award Finalist https://amzn.to/2C9zePD




Booklists: Ten 10 Christian Novels https://amzn.to/2EyF3GS


A Crossing Books Selection https://amzn.to/2HeXuTT




Selah Award Winner; Christy Award Finalist; https://amzn.to/2XBvnE1


Library Journal: Best of Genre, Christian Fiction

amzn.to/2H0Eglv

 







Christy Award Winner: Selah Award Finalist amzn.to/2tSasPC


amzn.to/2C5rRZr




https://amzn.to/2ThD9Va


amzn.to/2UrWXBX




https://amzn.to/2SLkWu6


https://amzn.to/2EyvTdd








https://amzn.to/2Cg4zjV


https://amzn.to/2TednRA




https://amzn.to/2TsQVUm


https://amzn.to/2tV32Lb








https://amzn.to/2C7DoaL


https://amzn.to/2NLifYl




Where to Find Ann Tatlock 

Email: anntatlock@yahoo.com

Website: www.anntatlock.com

Blog: https://anntatlock.blog/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ann.tatlock.1

~ ~ ~

Lord, You display Your glorious love all around us–in nature, relationships, human hearts, and in Your gifting of Your children. Nowhere is Your love more on display than when Your children use their gifts for the purposes You intend. We thank You for Ann, her books, and the way they touch our hearts with Your love.

Please bless every word Ann writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Let’s Chat! Ann Tatlock appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Women’s Rights, Then & Now

Welcome, everyone!

When I first began brainstorming about a novel set in early twentieth-century Indian Territory, the time and place of my maternal grandmother’s marriage and motherhood, the research took me again and again to the suffrage movement.

I quickly learned the first meeting of reformers for the purpose of addressing equal rights for women–including the vote–was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. This was much earlier than I would have guessed. Out of that first convention came the Declaration of Sentiments, which demanded equal social status and legal rights for women.

Frankly, the women’s movement had never interested me. My impression of suffragists? They behaved in unseemly, shameful ways, as my mother would put it. I assumed they were pagans–unbelievers at the very least–who claimed neither Jesus nor morals.

After all . . . 

Firebrands stopped traffic and defied the law.
Hellions took bats to liquor bottles in saloons.
Rabble-rousers drew crowds and instigated civil disobedience that led to arrests.
Others jeered men at voting sites, the president in the White House, and all levels of office holders, sometimes receiving ripe tomatoes or eggs in their faces as a result.
Some advocated for “free love” and abortion on demand and wouldn’t be caught dead in church
Still others used every sort of household implements as weapons to advance the cause

None of which I could square with Scripture:

1 Thessalonians 4:11 (AMP) – make it your ambition to live quietly and peacefully, and to mind your own affairs
1 Timothy 2:1-2 (AMP) – I urge that petitions (specific requests), prayers, intercessions (prayers for others) and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all people, for kings and all who are in [positions of] high authority, so that we may live a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
Ephesians 5:19-20 – Paul identifies hostility, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, and riotous behavior as part of the sinful nature. 
Ephesians 5: 22-23 – Paul highlights the fruit of the Spirit as love, joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Titus 2:3-5 – Older women similarly are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor addicted to much wine, teaching what is right and good, so that they may encourage the young women to tenderly love their husbands and their children, to be sensible, pure, makers of a home [where God is honored], good-natured, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

To make matters worse . . .
Retrieved March 1, 2019 from http://bit.ly/2T7mbJa

One of the most important leaders of the movement, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had declared the Holy Bible degraded women from first page to last. Therefore, she came up with her own version, one she revised to eliminate what she considered degradation to women. She named it The Woman’s Bible.

Some women in the movement accepted this maimed version of Holy Scripture. Fortunately, most did not. By the turn of the twentieth century, it was largely ignored. And the National American Women Suffrage Association disassociated itself from the publication. However, many believed the harm was done, as it had marginalized the cause.

How These Realities Translated to the Women of Rock Creek

Right away, I found historically significant rifts occurred among women nationwide over the methods they would utilize to achieve their goals. I began asking myself if women devoted to Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture participated in the movement. (Turned out, many devoted followers of Jesus supported the cause.) How did they reconcile their own or their cohorts’ sometimes boisterous, disruptive–even law-breaking–behaviors with Scripture? 

Enter . . . Imagination

Ella Jane McFarland was born in midst of my “brain storms” over these questions. And asking myself “what if?” questions about the original Ella Jane, my grandmother.

What if she had continued her education beyond third grade? 
Or received a college education?
What if she had been exposed to the suffrage movement, found herself smitten, and couldn’t keep her mouth closed?
Or grappled with reconciling her place as a Jesus follower with her role as a suffragist?
What if she believed she had received a calling from the Lord to teach women and girls and help them find their voices in a male-dominated world?
And what if Ella Jane McFarland found herself in the midst of a group of “rabble-rousing” women? How would she handle it?

Women’s hot-button issues have been around a long time.

Eve and Women’s Rights (Genesis 2)

Created by God (Genesis 2)

To be a helper for Adam
In tending the Garden


Lusted for wisdom (power) (Genesis 3)

Result: a double curse

pain in childbirth
her husband ruling over her





King Solomon’s Worthy Woman and Women’s Rights (Proverbs 31): 

Selected wool and flax and worked with eager hands.
Was like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
Got up while it was still night to provide food for her family and portions for her female servants.
She considered a field and bought it; out of her earnings she planted a vineyard.
She set about her work vigorously; her arms were strong for her tasks.
She saw that her trading was profitable, and her lamp did not go out at night.
In her hand she held the distaff and grasped the spindle with her fingers.
She opened her arms to the poor and extended her hands to the needy.
When it snowed, she had no fear for her household; for all of them were clothed in scarlet.
She made coverings for her bed; she was clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband was respected at the city gate, where he took his seat among the elders of the land.
She made linen garments and sold them, and supplied the merchants with sashes.
Clothed with strength and dignity, she could laugh at the days to come.
She spoke with wisdom.
Faithful instruction was on her tongue.
She watched over the affairs of her household.
She did not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arose and called her blessed; her husband also, and he praised her:
Many women did noble things, but she surpassed them all.
Charm was deceptive, and beauty was fleeting; but a woman who feared the Lord was to be praised.
She was to be honored for all that her hands had done.
Her works were to bring her praise at the city gate.

Questions About Women’s Rights:

Is a modern wife’s purpose still to be her husband’s helper?

If so, who decides how she will help?

Her husband?
Herself?
God?


If not, what is her purpose?

Who decides?

Herself?
God?
Someone else?






Is an unmarried woman’s purpose to help a man/men?

If so, which man/men?
If not, what is her purpose?

Who decides?

Herself?
God?
Someone else?







The Point: Women’s Rights 

From the mid-nineteenth century through 1920, American women demanded the vote. Now women can walk into polling sites and cast ballots unhindered because women before them . . .

Gathered in large and small groups in

living rooms
schools
office buildings
town halls
civic centers
parks


Met with

clubs
church groups
civic organizations
lawmakers


Paraded

down streets
along sidewalks
around town squares


Spoke from

wooden crates
podiums
automobiles
stages
sidewalks
street corners


Picketed as

silent sentinels
boisterous disrupters of the peace
motorists touring the country


Endured

arrests
hunger strikes
name calling
profanity
physical assaults
banishment from organizations
ostracization 
every weather condition

Did each woman participate in each demonstration without sin? I doubt it. Did some women participate without sin? I would guess so. Is it my place to examine those women’s actions through a 100-150-year-old lens? Or am I to take what they accomplished–the good and the evil–before the throne of God’s grace and apply the sacred wisdom He provides in His Word. And thereby find my place in the great stream of equal justice for all?

I take this privilege for granted.

I note voting sites and hours in newspapers and on the Internet and mark my calendar. But I rarely think of the women who purchased that privilege by expending their time, talent, and treasure.

Take-Away Thoughts About “The Temptation” 
Courtesy of The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, VA. https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/le...

As a Christian woman considering this powerful sketch printed in Life magazine in 1911, I ask myself the following:

Was desiring the vote in 1911 tantamount to lusting for power?
Is casting my vote a power grab today?
Is a woman more apt to lust for power than a man?
Would an artist have sketched—or a magazine or newspaper printed—this artwork if it featured a man in place of the woman?
Should this conversation matter to Christians? Why or why not?
How have times changed in regards to women’s rights 
Have God’s expectations of women changed?

The post Let’s Chat! Women’s Rights, Then & Now appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Featured Favorite: Jamie Langston Turner

Welcome, Everyone!

Jamie Langston Turner vies with a couple other authors for #1 in my hit parade.

Recently I decided I want occasionally to veer off my usual trail on “Let’s Chat!” to highlight certain authors—Featured Favorites–whose works have impacted me and my life. I love all my author friends (and lots I haven’t met), but if I must pick one for top billing today, it’s Jamie.

My favorite of Turner’s novels? No Dark Valley.

My giveaway this week: $5 Amazon gift card to someone who joins the chat below. (Winner can apply to any of Jamie’s ebooks)

Why Turner? And why No Dark Valley?

I’m drawn to any novel’s important themes. Well-drawn and memorable characters and storyline. Emotions. Beauty of the language. Take-away messages. Intrigue and/or surprise and more. I found all of this in No Dark Valley. So much so that I’m including it in the boxes of keepsakes I’m creating for my children and grandchildren.

I read all of Jamie Langston Turner’s books a few years ago and will never forget them. Call it a “soul mates” thing. Touching dim memories from my distant home and church past. Speaking to a tender place in my heart where regret and shame lurk. All of those are true. 

If mind-blowing adventure, crime, death and destruction, sex, and violence aren’t your thing . . . Rather, if you’re looking for beautifully written, touching, meaningful fiction that captures your imagination, whirls you into unexpected crevices, and thrusts you out into new landscapes with a chuckle or two, all the while leaving its mark on your heart . . .  If you’re looking for fiction that enthralls you now and stays with you always, Jamie Langston Turner is your gal.

No Dark Valley: Beyond the Remorse, Forgiveness Beckoned


A Little Something From the Front and Back Covers:

She had bolted shut the door of her heart . . . Now she held the key in her hand . . .

She had expected to feel angry. Anger was the kind of emotion that could carry you through a funeral with perfect composure. She hadn’t expected to look down at her grandmother and be flooded with this strange conglomeration of guilt, regret, curiosity, sadness . . .

Her grandmother’s funeral meant Celia Coleman must return to the small town she had hoped never to see again. The memories of that long ago home and church–and of her own behavior there–are not happy ones But now the floodgates are about to open.

Bruce Healey is struggling with guilt over his own past, and Celia wants nothing to do with this neighbor of hers. But when God lifts them each from their dark valleys of shame, their hearts could indeed be ready to give and receive love.

Excerpt from Chapter One: “The Birds Hush Their Singing” in which Celia arrives in Dunmore, GA

‘We been hoping you’d come,’ Aunt Beulah called. She stepped out onto the porch, letting the screen slam behind her. ‘Come on inside before you freeze to death. Everybody’s here eating.’ Her words came out in little white puffs. She was wearing a nubby black sweater over a navy blue dress and pink terry-cloth slippers on her feet.

Celia felt a wave of panic. So that explained all the cars parked up and down the street. If she had known about this, she would never have agreed to come. She had expected only Aunt Beulah and Uncle Taylor, not everybody. ‘Come on by the house first,’ Aunt Beulah had said over the phone. ‘We can have us a little visit before we go to the funeral home.’

‘Now, tell me again which cow this is,’ Al said as they started up the sidewalk. On the drive here Celia had told him the names of her grandmother’s five sisters–Clara, Bess, Beulah, Elsie, and Molly–to which Al had replied, ‘They sound like cows.’ He had then laughed, for what seemed to Celia a little too long, at his joke. He was right about their names, of course. And her grandmother’s name had fit right in with the rest: Sadie.

‘This one’s Aunt Beulah,’ Celia said. ‘She’s the only one of them who ever liked me.’

‘Watch out for that icy patch there!’ Aunt Beulah called. ‘Molly nearly slipped on it earlier. I got Taylor to sprinkle some salt on it, but it might have refroze.’ She shaded her eyes as she watched Celia and Al approach. ‘I’m sure glad you could come. I told them you would.’ The implication, clearly, was But nobody believed me.

Aunt Beulah stepped back and opened the door again. Behind her Celia could see a roomful of people, all jammed together with plates of food balanced on their laps. Somebody cried out, “Mercy, you’re lettin’ the cold in, Beulah!”

Celia felt her knees go weak as she started up the steps, Al at her elbow. “I don’t think I can do this,” she said to him. “These people are perfectly capable of violence. There’s no telling what they might do.” She could picture herself in the middle of Aunt Beulah’s living room, surrounded by all her Georgia kinfolk coming at her with their knives and forks.

‘Don’t worry, I’m here,’ Al said. ‘I won’t let them do anything.’ He put his hand on her back. Celia knew he was looking forward to meeting her relatives, to see for himself if they were as weird as she had claimed.

The hum of talk stopped as they entered. Celia glanced around at the cricle of faces and nodded. She didn’t actually look at the faces, but at the wall slightly above their heads. She could sense that they were all looking her up and down, that she was being weighed in the balances of their narrow minds and found severely wanting.

From Chapter 25, “One Holy Passion,” in which Bruce Healey observes Celia:

On a Sunday afternoon in late October, Bruce Healey was sitting at the patio table in the backyard trying to carve a jack-o’-lantern to surprise Madison when he saw Celia pull into the driveway next door and park her red Mustang. It still surprised him that a woman like her, so efficient, sensible, and reclusive, drove a red Mustang instead of, say, a dark brown Volvo 280.

He had already gotten all the stringy goop and seeds out of the pumpkin and was working on the second eye–a simple triangular design, which was turning out to be larger than the first eye and a little lower on the face, down toward the middle of its cheek actually. So it would be a freak, but who cared? Nobody expected perfection when it came to jack-o’-lanterns.

He paused for a moment to watch Celia get out of her car and walk to her front door. He opened his mouth to call to her but for some reason decided against it even though he had a legitimate question already framed and ready to ask: “How many trick-or-treaters usually come around this neighborhood on Halloween?”

In fact, he knew in his heart that he was sitting here in the backyard with the express hope of seeing her. But something about the brisk, beeline way she was moving toward the door kept him from speaking. Not that it was much different from the way she normally walked to the door–as if she had just remembered she’d left a cake in the oven. After watching her disappear inside her apartment, he turned his attention back to the jack-o’-lantern’s enormous misaligned eye.

Bruce Healey had met a lot of women in his life. All shapes and sizes, young and old, all kinds of dull and fascinating personalities, faces that made you look twice, others that made you wish you hadn’t. When he was in college, he used to say he could never get married because he’d always be wondering about all those other women he hadn’t had a chance to meet.

From an email written by a reader from Dover, PA:

Thank you for sharing your gift with us. Thank you for allowing God to speak through your words. Your work has blessed me abundantly.

Ditto from me! 

Jamie’s Books






















How to Find Jamie Langston Turner

Website

Facebook

Jamie Langston Turner was born and raised in the South—Mississippi and Kentucky. She has lived in South Carolina for 45 years and in 2016 retired from teaching creative writing at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC.

She began freelance writing in the early 1980s, and over the next ten years she wrote short stories, articles, plays, and poems for a variety of magazines as well as material for reading, science, history, music, and literature textbooks.



In 1992 she received a phone call from an editor of Moody Magazine, who had read two of her short stories and urged her to consider writing a novel. Within weeks she started her first novel, Suncatchers, which was published in 1995 by Thomas Nelson. Then she published her second novel, Some Wildflower in My Heart, with Bethany House in 1998. Thereafter, five others, also with Bethany: By the Light of a Thousand Stars (1999), A Garden to Keep (2001), No Dark Valley (2004), Winter Birds (2006), and Sometimes a Light Surprises (2009). Her eighth novel, To See the Moon Again, was released by Penguin/​Berkley in September 2014.

Awards

Four of her novels have been finalists for the Christy Award, and two were named winners of the award in the category of contemporary fiction––A Garden to Keep in 2002 and Winter Birds in 2007. Also, Winter Birds was named as a best book for the year 2006 by both Christianity Today and Publishers Weekly. 

Jamie has been married for 47 years to Daniel Turner, who is on the music faculty at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, and they have a son, Jess, who is a composer living in Indiana, and two wonderful grandchildren, Carolyn Svana, 9, and Charles Kjell, 5.

` ~ ~ ~

What wonderful gifts You give, Lord. And when the recipients of Your gift of writing like Jamie use them as You intend, what glory they bring to You and encouragement they provide to readers.

We pray You’ll bless each word Jamie writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Let’s Chat! Featured Favorite: Jamie Langston Turner appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Featured Favorite: Jamie Langston Turner, Part One

Welcome, Everyone!

Jamie Langston Turner vies with a couple other authors for #1 in my hit parade.

Recently I decided I want occasionally to veer off my usual trail on “Let’s Chat!” to highlight certain authors—Featured Favorites–whose works have impacted me and my life. I love all my author friends (and lots I haven’t met), but if I must pick one for top billing today, it’s Jamie.

My favorite of Turner’s novels? No Dark Valley.

My giveaway this week: $5 Amazon gift card to someone who joins the chat below. (Winner can apply to any of Jamie’s ebooks)

Why Turner? And why No Dark Valley?

I’m drawn to any novel’s important themes. Well-drawn and memorable characters and storyline. Emotions. Beauty of the language. Take-away messages. Intrigue and/or surprise and more. I found all of this in No Dark Valley. So much so that I’m including it in the boxes of keepsakes I’m creating for my children and grandchildren.

I read all of Jamie Langston Turner’s books a few years ago and will never forget them. Call it a “soul mates” thing. Touching dim memories from my distant home and church past. Speaking to a tender place in my heart where regret and shame lurk. All of those are true. 

If mind-blowing adventure, crime, death and destruction, sex, and violence aren’t your thing . . . Rather, if you’re looking for beautifully written, touching, meaningful fiction that captures your imagination, whirls you into unexpected crevices, and thrusts you out into new landscapes with a chuckle or two, all the while leaving its mark on your heart . . .  If you’re looking for fiction that enthralls you now and stays with you always, Jamie Langston Turner is your gal.

No Dark Valley: Beyond the Remorse, Forgiveness Beckoned


A Little Something From the Front and Back Covers:

She had bolted shut the door of her heart . . . Now she held the key in her hand . . .

She had expected to feel angry. Anger was the kind of emotion that could carry you through a funeral with perfect composure. She hadn’t expected to look down at her grandmother and be flooded with this strange conglomeration of guilt, regret, curiosity, sadness . . .

Her grandmother’s funeral meant Celia Coleman must return to the small town she had hoped never to see again. The memories of that long ago home and church–and of her own behavior there–are not happy ones But now the floodgates are about to open.

Bruce Healey is struggling with guilt over his own past, and Celia wants nothing to do with this neighbor of hers. But when God lifts them each from their dark valleys of shame, their hearts could indeed be ready to give and receive love.

Excerpt from Chapter One: “The Birds Hush Their Singing” in which Celia arrives in Dunmore, GA

‘We been hoping you’d come,’ Aunt Beulah called. She stepped out onto the porch, letting the screen slam behind her. ‘Come on inside before you freeze to death. Everybody’s here eating.’ Her words came out in little white puffs. She was wearing a nubby black sweater over a navy blue dress and pink terry-cloth slippers on her feet.

Celia felt a wave of panic. So that explained all the cars parked up and down the street. If she had known about this, she would never have agreed to come. She had expected only Aunt Beulah and Uncle Taylor, not everybody. ‘Come on by the house first,’ Aunt Beulah had said over the phone. ‘We can have us a little visit before we go to the funeral home.’

‘Now, tell me again which cow this is,’ Al said as they started up the sidewalk. On the drive here Celia had told him the names of her grandmother’s five sisters–Clara, Bess, Beulah, Elsie, and Molly–to which Al had replied, ‘They sound like cows.’ He had then laughed, for what seemed to Celia a little too long, at his joke. He was right about their names, of course. And her grandmother’s name had fit right in with the rest: Sadie.

‘This one’s Aunt Beulah,’ Celia said. ‘She’s the only one of them who ever liked me.’

‘Watch out for that icy patch there!’ Aunt Beulah called. ‘Molly nearly slipped on it earlier. I got Taylor to sprinkle some salt on it, but it might have refroze.’ She shaded her eyes as she watched Celia and Al approach. ‘I’m sure glad you could come. I told them you would.’ The implication, clearly, was But nobody believed me.

Aunt Beulah stepped back and opened the door again. Behind her Celia could see a roomful of people, all jammed together with plates of food balanced on their laps. Somebody cried out, “Mercy, you’re lettin’ the cold in, Beulah!”

Celia felt her knees go weak as she started up the steps, Al at her elbow. “I don’t think I can do this,” she said to him. “These people are perfectly capable of violence. There’s no telling what they might do.” She could picture herself in the middle of Aunt Beulah’s living room, surrounded by all her Georgia kinfolk coming at her with their knives and forks.

‘Don’t worry, I’m here,’ Al said. ‘I won’t let them do anything.’ He put his hand on her back. Celia knew he was looking forward to meeting her relatives, to see for himself if they were as weird as she had claimed.

The hum of talk stopped as they entered. Celia glanced around at the cricle of faces and nodded. She didn’t actually look at the faces, but at the wall slightly above their heads. She could sense that they were all looking her up and down, that she was being weighed in the balances of their narrow minds and found severely wanting.

From Chapter 25, “One Holy Passion,” in which Bruce Healey observes Celia:

On a Sunday afternoon in late October, Bruce Healey was sitting at the patio table in the backyard trying to carve a jack-o’-lantern to surprise Madison when he saw Celia pull into the driveway next door and park her red Mustang. It still surprised him that a woman like her, so efficient, sensible, and reclusive, drove a red Mustang instead of, say, a dark brown Volvo 280.

He had already gotten all the stringy goop and seeds out of the pumpkin and was working on the second eye–a simple triangular design, which was turning out to be larger than the first eye and a little lower on the face, down toward the middle of its cheek actually. So it would be a freak, but who cared? Nobody expected perfection when it came to jack-o’-lanterns.

He paused for a moment to watch Celia get out of her car and walk to her front door. He opened his mouth to call to her but for some reason decided against it even though he had a legitimate question already framed and ready to ask: “How many trick-or-treaters usually come around this neighborhood on Halloween?”

In fact, he knew in his heart that he was sitting here in the backyard with the express hope of seeing her. But something about the brisk, beeline way she was moving toward the door kept him from speaking. Not that it was much different from the way she normally walked to the door–as if she had just remembered she’d left a cake in the oven. After watching her disappear inside her apartment, he turned his attention back to the jack-o’-lantern’s enormous misaligned eye.

Bruce Healey had met a lot of women in his life. All shapes and sizes, young and old, all kinds of dull and fascinating personalities, faces that made you look twice, others that made you wish you hadn’t. When he was in college, he used to say he could never get married because he’d always be wondering about all those other women he hadn’t had a chance to meet.

From an email written by a reader from Dover, PA:

Thank you for sharing your gift with us. Thank you for allowing God to speak through your words. Your work has blessed me abundantly.

Ditto from me! 

Jamie’s Books






















How to Find Jamie Langston Turner

Website

Facebook

Jamie Langston Turner was born and raised in the South—Mississippi and Kentucky. She has lived in South Carolina for 45 years and in 2016 retired from teaching creative writing at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC.

She began freelance writing in the early 1980s, and over the next ten years she wrote short stories, articles, plays, and poems for a variety of magazines as well as material for reading, science, history, music, and literature textbooks.



In 1992 she received a phone call from an editor of Moody Magazine, who had read two of her short stories and urged her to consider writing a novel. Within weeks she started her first novel, Suncatchers, which was published in 1995 by Thomas Nelson. Then she published her second novel, Some Wildflower in My Heart, with Bethany House in 1998. Thereafter, five others, also with Bethany: By the Light of a Thousand Stars (1999), A Garden to Keep (2001), No Dark Valley (2004), Winter Birds (2006), and Sometimes a Light Surprises (2009). Her eighth novel, To See the Moon Again, was released by Penguin/​Berkley in September 2014.

Awards

Four of her novels have been finalists for the Christy Award, and two were named winners of the award in the category of contemporary fiction––A Garden to Keep in 2002 and Winter Birds in 2007. Also, Winter Birds was named as a best book for the year 2006 by both Christianity Today and Publishers Weekly. 

Jamie has been married for 47 years to Daniel Turner, who is on the music faculty at Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC, and they have a son, Jess, who is a composer living in Indiana, and two wonderful grandchildren, Carolyn Svana, 9, and Charles Kjell, 5.

` ~ ~ ~

What wonderful gifts You give, Lord. And when the recipients of Your gift of writing like Jamie use them as You intend, what glory they bring to You and encouragement they provide to readers.

We pray You’ll bless each word Jamie writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Let’s Chat! Featured Favorite: Jamie Langston Turner, Part One appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Chloe S. Flanagan

Welcome, Everyone!

Chloe S. Flanagan is our honored guest this week. Chloe, a young author with wisdom beyond her years, writes Christian Romantic Suspense.

Chloe is offering BOTH her books in digital format. Is that an offer or what!

Here’s Chloe in her own words.

Chloe S. Flanagan: Before Authorship

First of all, I’m a hopeless bookworm and have been for most of my life. When I was growing up, my family lived in several different places, including Oklahoma, Texas, Atlanta, the Gulf Coast, and Hawaii. All that moving provided some wonderful experiences, and yet it could also be lonely at times. But books were the friends I had with me no matter where I went.

It’s probably not a surprise, then, that when I first went to college at New York University, I wanted to study English and one day write fiction. But a bad economy at the time prompted me to switch to a major I thought would be more practical. Not long afterwards, though, multiple family crises required me to leave school for several years.

A Time to Listen

In the wake of these crises, I went through a period of depression. I stopped reading, and my writer’s voice fell silent because I didn’t believe I had anything worthwhile to say.

During this season, I spent a lot of time struggling to figure out what God was doing in my life and what He wanted me to do. That was a question that, sadly, I hadn’t asked as much as I should have.

A Time to Explore

At one of the gloomiest points of my struggle, I discovered a number of Christian fiction authors that I had never read before. One of the first of these was Jamie Langston Turner. Her books impressed me so much, that I decided to write her an email to express my appreciation. I was thrilled when she actually responded to my message. She thanked me and told me a little bit more about her books. She closed her note by telling me that my email was so well written, that I could be an author myself.

Ms. Turner’s response touched and humbled me, of course, but her kind words also stunned me. Reading them was like receiving a visit from an old dream—a dream that I thought had died.

A Time to Write

Not long after that email exchange, God began pulling me back into writing. I was finally in college again, researching and composing papers. Next, I received numerous freelance writing opportunities that led to me getting a job as a technical writer in the aerospace industry.

Now that I was back in the habit of writing, I decided to document some of the struggles and joys of my faith journey by starting my own blog, The Candid Corinthian. The blog brought a wonderful opportunity to connect with other believers for honest, loving conversations about God and the faith community.

Chloe S. Flanagan, Author

Finally, around eighteen months ago, I began work on my first novel, a Christian Romantic Suspense novel called Forward to What Lies Ahead. I self-published it in November 2017 and released its sequel, A Time For Every Matter, in August of 2018. These two books, along with a third that I’m currently working on, form the “An Offer of Grace Series.” Each story features characters that accept a unique opportunity that causes them to encounter God’s grace in a new way. Consequently, my characters learn, as I have learned, that God has a loving purpose for all of us, and He often reveals it in life’s darkest moments.

Looking Ahead

Once I’ve completed my current series, I have several contemporary and historical fiction projects on the horizon. In the meantime, Lord willing, I will continue to share thoughts and dialogue on The Candid Corinthian blog.

A Gift from Chloe

I want to thank you, Linda, for creating a space for other Christian authors to discuss their writing journey. I’m so grateful to be included. To show my appreciation, I’d like to offer one commenter a digital copy of both of my books, Forward to What Lies Ahead and A Time For Every Matter.

How to Find Chloe and Her Books

Here are my websites:

https://chloesflanagan.weebly.com

https://candidcorinthian.blogspot.com

Here are my social media pages:

https://www.goodreads.com/chloeflan

https://www.facebook.com/candidcorinthian/

https://twitter.com/candidcorinth

https://www.instagram.com/candid_corinthian

~ ~ ~

Lord, we come to you in gratitude and praise for Your kind hand of blessing. We thank You for calling writers like Chloe to create stories that bring honor to You name. Thank You for readers who are looking for stories such as these. Bless each word readers of Christian fiction store in their hearts. And bless each word Chloe writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Let’s Chat! Chloe S. Flanagan appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Given Hoffman

Welcome, everyone!

Given Hoffman is our honored guest this week.

I’m just thrilled to introduce you to this writer I met at a Christian Writers Guild’s Craftsman retreat in 2012. We divided into groups, and I found myself delighted and blessed by the young women in my circle. Although I was the eldest (by far), I came away wondering where young women like Given come by such wisdom. What a credit she is to her parents.

I so respect Given. I believe you’ll agree.

Given Hoffman in her own Words

Hi, Everybody!

My name is Given Hoffman. I am a young adult suspense novelist from Minnesota. My parents always encouraged me and my four siblings to use the skills God gave us in whatever way God directed. I was homeschooled through high school, and when people asked me what my favorite subject was, I would always somewhat sheepishly say: reading.

My mother read historical fiction to us at lunch and I read fiction on my own, but I didn’t much like any other subjects.I was good with kids though, and over the years I spent a lot of time babysitting, camp counseling, volunteering with youth groups, nannying, and mentoring young people. I didn’t have a clue how much this would play into where God would eventually lead me.

How Authorship Developed for Given Hoffman

I did not grow up writing stories. My one and only childhood attempt at story writing was around age nine. I started a typical girl and her horse story, but I abandoned it in less than forty-eight hours.

First Came Inspiration

So how in the world did I become a young adult suspense novelist? Well, I’ve always had trouble falling asleep. One night somewhere mid high school, I got this one scene stuck in my head. In months that scene snowballed into the plot of a contemporary suspense novel. I couldn’t help myself. I started writing a book. My mother, realizing how seriously I was, took me to a meeting of the Minnesota Christian Writers Guild. For the first time people spoke my language.

I came away so inspired yet also still totally naive about what it took to be a good writer. I didn’t mess around though, I had a book I was determined to see completed. By seventeen, I finished my novel which was 180,000 words long (I guess actually at that length you could say I finished two novels).

Then Came Learning

Later at writers conferences, I heard over and over how beginner writers shouldn’t start with a novel but with short stories to learn the craft. Since I had already finished my first novel it was a bit too late, but I gained a lot of appreciation for the concept of starting with something smaller when it came to editing my first book.

Right in there, I attended my first writers conference and attempted to market my book to a publisher. The editor was wonderfully kind and explained the basics to me, like that most novels are 75k-95k words long not 180k and what a proposal was. I didn’t even know my novel’s word count. I had brought my whole manuscript and plunked it down in front of him (I laugh now thinking about it). It’s totally not what you are supposed to do, but I didn’t know any better. Needless to say, he didn’t take my manuscript.

And Sticking Her Neck Out

Despite my disappointment, I was still determined to see that book published. I went home with the entire conference on MP3 and listened to every session, learning writing, pitching, querying, and writing proposals.

I attended the next year’s conference and the next, and I took fiction writing classes through The Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild. Every conference following that first year, I had at least one publisher like my book proposal and request my manuscript. Again and again I nervously sent it out and waited the typical three months to hear back. Nothing ever came of that first novel, but I was invested now in writing. I started my second book. One reason publishers said they weren’t interested in my first novel was because they didn’t think a teenager could market a book to adults. So I wrote my next book with teenage protagonists.

Growing

Once I did, I encountered the reality that many Christian publishers don’t publish books for young adults or else publish very few. Most publishers consider the young adult audience, particularly teen boys, too narrow of a market. Ministering and mentoring teens showed me how often teens are overlooked and marginalized. Encountering this reality in the publishing world made me that much more passionate about giving teens worthwhile YA fiction that is both God honoring and engaging.

And Releasing a Debut Novel

My debut novel, The Eighth Ransom, is a contemporary young adult suspense novel about eight young people who are all kidnapped. By working together, they escape their kidnappers and prevent their ransoms from being used in a plot against the U.S.

Currently, I am working on a young adult suspense period medieval trilogy. I also have several stand alone young adult contemporary suspense novels already brainstormed that I’m planning to write after that trilogy.

How to Find Given Hoffman

You can find out more about me and The Eighth Ransom on my website. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Pinterest. I also post weekly on my blog about practical Christianity.

Website   

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube 

Pinterest

Blog

~ ~ ~

Oh my, Lord, how faithful You are. Given’s parents poured You into her, and now she’s pouring You into her writing. I continue to be amazed by Given’s maturity, wisdom, and skills. And I pray You’ll bless every single word she writes for You.

~ For Jesus’ sake

The post Let’s Chat! Given Hoffman appeared first on Linda Brooks Davis.

Let’s Chat! Donna L.H. Smith

Welcome, everyone!

Donna L.H. Smith is our honored author guest this week. Donna writes historical western romance and is one of the dearest of the dear. I met this wonderful Christian writer at a retreat in North Carolina a few years ago and was immediately smitten. 

Donna is offering a print copy of one of her books to someone who joins our circle. That’s a terrific opportunity, so join in the conversation below, and you might win the drawing. Winner announced here on the blog and on Facebook Wednesday morning, February 6. 

Here’s author Donna L.H. Smith in her own words.

Pre-Author Life of Donna L.H. Smith

I was born and raised in Newton, Kansas. I have two college degrees in mass communications. I’ve been everything from secretary, to a radio reporter, to a certified balloon decorating artist, to a marketing assistant to a freelance writer of magazine and newspaper articles.

A Debut for Donna L.H. Smith

Well, you know a bit of the story about my first book, Meghan’s Choice. We were both semi-finalists in the last Operation First Novel — and then you WON IT! We were both students of DiAnn Mills in the CWG Craftsman program, except you completed it first. I was in the last Craftsman class DiAnn mentored.

I’ve had a couple of weird rejections (which I blogged about) from an agent and a contest I’d entered. For those wanting the gory details, they can go to my blog: “Writing Emotional Pain—Without Bleeding Too Much on Your Readers” and “Please—Get Your Facts Straight.” Writing about those experiences healed me quicker.

An Agent for Donna L.H. Smith

But I will tell you my God story — of how I got my agent. As you know, DiAnn Mills started our Facebook group—ANN. She asked me to ask Cyle Young. Then a couple months later, he started a website called Almost an Author. He recruited me to be a part of A3 — and now I’m the managing editor! And the website is only 3-1/2 years old!

A few months after A3 started, in the fall, we were all at the Advanced Novelist Retreat in Asheville. I saw Cyle in intense discussions with Diana Flegal—you know, the kind you don’t interrupt. Later, he announced to all his A3 columnists, “I’m being recruited to be an agent! What do you all think of that? We’re all like: YAY! He signed me a week later.

Book One: Meghan’s Choice by Donna L.H. Smith

It’s through a special Amazon program because I have an agent, that I’m published. It’s called Amazon White Glove. I’d given up being published and was ready to throw Meghan in the trash can. But another Hartline client encouraged me to ask them about White Glove. I received word two years ago, while having the flu, that Meghan’s Choice would be published.

Book Two: Rose’s Redemption by Donna L.H. Smith

There’s nothing like getting those books in your hands for the first time. When I got my second book a couple months ago, I couldn’t wait to put Rose’s Redemption side by side with Meghan’s Choice. Now I can’t wait to get Hannah’s Hope done, so that later this year I can put all three together!

What’s up With Donna L.H. Smith now?

I’m currently writing Hannah’s Hope, serving as Managing Editor of A3, and taking classes on inner healing so that I can help people overcome emotional issues that could hold them back from God’s plan—in the form of weekend retreats. I may be retirement age, (yikes, I’ll be 65 this summer), but I’m just gettin’ started! And I’ve got so many more stories to write!

How to Find Donna L.H. Smith (She’s not in Kansas anymore)

Website

Facebook: Donna L.H. Smith—Stories Are My Passion

Twitter: @donnalshmith

Meghan’s Choice links: Kindle or  Paperback

Rose’s Redemption link:  Kindle and Paperback 

FYI: Meghan’s Choice released as a paperback through CreateSpace before it joined with KDP. So there’s a kindle link and a paperback link. Rose’s Redemption is through KDP, and they also printed the paperback.