Ada Brownell's Blog, page 43

Propaganda and Spin: Think for yourself

THINK FOR YOURSELFBy Ada BrownellAdapted from Imagine the Future YouON SALE FOR .99 HereAs children, we started thinking for ourselves when we gagged and spit out the spinach baby food and then decided which cold cereal we like best. If we were born into a poor Oriental family, we might like rice instead. If we lived in some African slums, we’d be grateful for slimy oatmeal gruel from a dirty bowl. In some parts of the world, you’d think putting live bugs between two slices of bread was a special treat, even though bugs crawled around on your fingers as you ate them. In other countries you’d eat dog and monkey. In times past, it was quite common for Americans to eat cow and pig brains and kidneys. They made “head cheese,” which was a meat jelly made from the head of a calf or pig. You can still buy pickled pig’s feet. I don’t know if they still sell head cheese but it became popular in a society that didn’t waste anything. In hard times, people also ate squirrels and turtles. You cringe. Your stomach turns. That’s because you think for yourself and form an opinion. Your head is not empty now. You learned by experience and from other people. That’s the only way we assimilate knowledge. After we learn something, we usually can recall it spontaneously. We ride a bike without thinking about how we balance. We can type, text, cook, clean, repair cars, and program computers. We balance checkbooks, do income tax, use math to buy and sell, and make chemical formulas to create medicines that save people’s lives or to invent guns, bombs, and rockets to kill them. You can store billions of information blocks in your memory. According to Kenneth Higbee, author of Your Memory and How it Works and How to Improve it,The Bible says when we have a close relationship with God, He will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Yet, you decide whether or not to post that guard, the Holy Spirit, at the door. If we listen to what our conscience and scripture tells us, 24/7, and resist, Satan and his cohorts flee in fear.
The Holy Spirit, through our conscience, convinces us of sin (so we’ll know what it is), righteousness (so we’ll understand that), and judgment (so we’ll know God will reward those who live for Him and punish those who do not).
It helps to think on things that are true, things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.©Ada Brownell 2014




Kindle version on sale for .99. Purchase a book and get the audiobook for 1.99https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell

Award-winning author talks about your Self image:

Author Bio
Born in Romania, Sylvia Bambola lived her early years in Germany. At seven she relocated with her adopted family and saw the Statue of Liberty and America for the first time. But the memory of those years in post World War Germany inspired her to write Refiner’s Fire, which won a Silver Angel Award, and was a Christy Finalist. Her frequent moves as an “army brat” gave her an opportunity to see America and fall in love with her new country. Bambola has authored seven novels, has two grown children, teaches women’s Bible studies, and is learning the guitar. 

Finding Your Value in a Bargain Basement Worldby Sylvia Bambola

We have all heard that God has a plan for our lives . . . a destiny He wants us to fulfill. Powerful words, high words, true words. Words denoting our worth. And yet often this reality seems to get lost in the day to day minutia of ordinary life as we go about doing laundry, the dishes, making beds, etc. And if we are writers, this can even be exacerbated.
Writing is hard work, done alone and often unnoticed. It usually takes years to develop our craft, years of learning, practicing, and dedication. And when we finally get published, so often the sales are not what we had hoped. The book’s rank is caught in a subterranean basement somewhere. That’s when the rubber hits the road, that’s when Christian writers will often question if they have heard God at all. Was it really His voice they heard commissioning them to write? Or that huge meatball hero?
Times like this we are tempted to buy into the world’s measuring rod of value. Sales, book ranking, name recognition, number of reviews are all fine but really don’t measure value at all. And it’s especially at this time that writers must fight the feeling that they are not important. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway. And their writing, insignificant.
Now why is that? Why is it easy for us who know God, to lose our perspective about our worth? Because we live in a world with two value systems: God’s and the world’s and sometimes we blend the two. We take old ways of thinking that we haven’t yielded to God or old hurts or old prejudices, and blend them with God’s perspective. And this mixed thinking robs us of our value in our own minds.
The world values outward beauty and outward accomplishments, and this system often creates disastrous results. Consider these facts: ·         1% of all American female adolescents have anorexia—that’s 1 out of 100 girls between the ages of 10-25 who are starving themselves·         In US secular marriages 41% of 1stmarriages end in divorce; 60% of all 2nd marriages; and 73% of all 3rdmarriages·         In Christian marriages 60% of Christians who rarely attend church get divorced·         More than 1/3 of all school aged children are latchkey
On the other hand, what God considers of great price is a meek and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:3 KJ). And all our service, all our accomplishments are just so much wood, hay and stubble if done with the wrong motive. Our works should be done in obedience to God’s direction and to glorify Him—period. We are instructed to do all as unto the Lord. We are supposed to be building God’s kingdom, not ours. I had to learn this in my writing. Actually, I had to learn it more than once. God’s word tells us in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The world wants to conform us, while God wants to transform us. Remember that.
So why are we valuable? Because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Because we have been bought by the blood of Jesus, called by His name, and are joint heirs with Him, because He knows us by name and loves us and because He really does have a plan and purpose for us. Wow! Nothing beats that. And if we writers will simply obediently follow His lead in our work, and let Him do with it what He wills, the greatest prize of all awaits us, that of hearing our precious Lord tells us: “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
  Book Summary of The Salt Covenants:
“But these plans they have laid out for me like an embroidered rug, showing me where my feet must travel, is to me an awful penance for sins I did not commit.” Isabel

Spain 1493: Isabel has broken her mother’s heart by becoming a sincere convert to Christianity. But when she is noticed by Friar Alonso at La Casa Santa, the Holy House, she is forced to flee the Inquisition by entering into a loveless marriage and sailing with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. But all too soon Isabel is forced to struggle alone in her new life and new faith. With all the risks and hardships how is she to survive? And will she ever find love in this strange land? And what of the dangerous Enrique Vivar? Will his hidden agenda cost her her life?
  

DO YOU KNOW YOUR VALUE?

Author Bio
Born in Romania, Sylvia Bambola lived her early years in Germany. At seven she relocated with her adopted family and saw the Statue of Liberty and America for the first time. But the memory of those years in post World War Germany inspired her to write Refiner’s Fire, which won a Silver Angel Award, and was a Christy Finalist. Her frequent moves as an “army brat” gave her an opportunity to see America and fall in love with her new country. Bambola has authored seven novels, has two grown children, teaches women’s Bible studies, and is learning the guitar. 

Finding Your Value in a Bargain Basement Worldby Sylvia Bambola

We have all heard that God has a plan for our lives . . . a destiny He wants us to fulfill. Powerful words, high words, true words. Words denoting our worth. And yet often this reality seems to get lost in the day to day minutia of ordinary life as we go about doing laundry, the dishes, making beds, etc. And if we are writers, this can even be exacerbated.
Writing is hard work, done alone and often unnoticed. It usually takes years to develop our craft, years of learning, practicing, and dedication. And when we finally get published, so often the sales are not what we had hoped. The book’s rank is caught in a subterranean basement somewhere. That’s when the rubber hits the road, that’s when Christian writers will often question if they have heard God at all. Was it really His voice they heard commissioning them to write? Or that huge meatball hero?
Times like this we are tempted to buy into the world’s measuring rod of value. Sales, book ranking, name recognition, number of reviews are all fine but really don’t measure value at all. And it’s especially at this time that writers must fight the feeling that they are not important. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway. And their writing, insignificant.
Now why is that? Why is it easy for us who know God, to lose our perspective about our worth? Because we live in a world with two value systems: God’s and the world’s and sometimes we blend the two. We take old ways of thinking that we haven’t yielded to God or old hurts or old prejudices, and blend them with God’s perspective. And this mixed thinking robs us of our value in our own minds.
The world values outward beauty and outward accomplishments, and this system often creates disastrous results. Consider these facts: ·         1% of all American female adolescents have anorexia—that’s 1 out of 100 girls between the ages of 10-25 who are starving themselves·         In US secular marriages 41% of 1stmarriages end in divorce; 60% of all 2nd marriages; and 73% of all 3rdmarriages·         In Christian marriages 60% of Christians who rarely attend church get divorced·         More than 1/3 of all school aged children are latchkey
On the other hand, what God considers of great price is a meek and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:3 KJ). And all our service, all our accomplishments are just so much wood, hay and stubble if done with the wrong motive. Our works should be done in obedience to God’s direction and to glorify Him—period. We are instructed to do all as unto the Lord. We are supposed to be building God’s kingdom, not ours. I had to learn this in my writing. Actually, I had to learn it more than once. God’s word tells us in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The world wants to conform us, while God wants to transform us. Remember that.
So why are we valuable? Because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Because we have been bought by the blood of Jesus, called by His name, and are joint heirs with Him, because He knows us by name and loves us and because He really does have a plan and purpose for us. Wow! Nothing beats that. And if we writers will simply obediently follow His lead in our work, and let Him do with it what He wills, the greatest prize of all awaits us, that of hearing our precious Lord tells us: “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
  Book Summary of The Salt Covenants:
“But these plans they have laid out for me like an embroidered rug, showing me where my feet must travel, is to me an awful penance for sins I did not commit.” Isabel

Spain 1493: Isabel has broken her mother’s heart by becoming a sincere convert to Christianity. But when she is noticed by Friar Alonso at La Casa Santa, the Holy House, she is forced to flee the Inquisition by entering into a loveless marriage and sailing with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World. But all too soon Isabel is forced to struggle alone in her new life and new faith. With all the risks and hardships how is she to survive? And will she ever find love in this strange land? And what of the dangerous Enrique Vivar? Will his hidden agenda cost her her life?
  Author Bio
Born in Romania, Sylvia Bambola lived her early years in Germany. At seven she relocated with her adopted family and saw the Statue of Liberty and America for the first time. But the memory of those years in post World War Germany inspired her to write Refiner’s Fire, which won a Silver Angel Award, and was a Christy Finalist. Her frequent moves as an “army brat” gave her an opportunity to see Americaand fall in love with her new country. Bambola has authored seven novels, has two grown children, teaches women’s Bible studies, and is learning the guitar. 

SUFFERING SISTER BLESSED

Ada Brownell February newsletter:
“I loved The Lady Fugitive. I read it in two days. It made me laugh. I couldn’t wait until the end. It was so much fun!”

The reader was my sister.  I gave her the book because she needed an uplift—something to distract her from the excruciating constant pain she suffers from her back, a hip she’s broken twice, and a leg that shingles damaged down into the nerves.  She also has congestive heart failure. What a pleasure to gift her with a squeaky clean book filled with suspense, interesting characters, humor, romance and spiritual encouragement.

Not all books labeled “Christian” give the reader an uplift. Do you, a friend or relative need to escape from your problems for a while, laugh, and be spiritually encouraged? William’s favorite song is “The Ninety and Nine” that uses the scripture about the one lost sheep God will leave the flock for in order to find and save the one that is lost. Jenny, the fugitive in the book, needs assurance God is concerned about her. She escapes lots of trouble and finally finds that confidence.

 I write to bless others. My brand is “Stick to Your Soul Encouragement.” Swallowed by Life is an Amazon bestseller and many have been blessed by it. My books are written to increase faith, and Imagine the Future You will do that as well as motivate toward success.   Readers love the novel The Castle and the Catapult, and are inspired by Confessions of a Pentecostal. The Lady Fugitive has more than 30 reviews on Amazon. You can read a sample chapter or purchase it here
Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal , an Amazon best seller, draws on the author’s experience as a medical reporter and years of biblical study. It is written for support groups, religion classes, people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or are curious about it, the grieving and those who give them counsel. Check it out and order here
Imagine the Future You, e-book, is on sale for .99. It’s a Bible study to help youth (and parents or grandparents so they can teach) discover evidences for faith; how to look and be their best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into the  brain you can spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and for eternity. All this is mingled with true stories that can make readers smile. Check it out and order hereImagine the Future You also is available in audio and is free with an www.audible.comtrial membership; or $1.99 with purchase of the Kindle or paperback versions of Imagine the Future You.
Review of Imagine the Future You:  How I would have loved to sit at Mrs. Brownell's knee when I was a teen. This wholesome book resounds with sage, godly advice and could be picked up again and again as needs arise. Worthwhile for parents too. Much fodder for family discussion!
See a sample and order here
Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult is a teen novel also enjoyed by adults. Enter an area where people are missing and radicals want to obliterate Christianity from the earth. Joe Baker’s parents also disappeared and he finds himself with someone after him. No fantasy. No wizard, but suspense. Christian payload.Reviewer: “A.B. Brownell weaves a tale of intrigue and faith which captures the reader from the opening page.”

Get The Castle and The Catapult here


Confessions of a Pentecostal is a glimpse inside another person’s faith as the author tells about her family’s conversions one by one and her own spiritual journey. This book is especially enjoyed by older Pentecostal Christians. It was listed many years on The Library Thing among most popular books on Pentecostalism. Because it is out of print, Confessions of a Pentecostal in paperback is only available from the author, but e-books are sold on Amazon. HEREAll the books except Confessions of a Pentecostal are also available in paperback on Amazon and some bookstores..
Some titles in paperback are available at BarnesandNoble.com and probably could be ordered from the stores. My publisher tells me The Lady Fugitive should be in bookstores everywhere soon and should be available at Barnes and Noble now.
MEET ADA BROWNELLAda Brownell is the author of five books, about 300 stories and articles in Christian publications, and she spent a large chunk of her life as a reporter, mostly for The Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado. She and her husband L.C., have five children, one of them in heaven, nine wonderful grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Amazon Ada Brownell author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AdaBrownellWritingMinistriesTwitter: @AdaBrownell
Blog: http://inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com Stick-to-Your-Soul Encouragement
RECIPE: STRAWBERRY FLUFF FROSTING
I’ve had this recipe for years and I don’t remember eating it anywhere but my house. I think I got it out of a Pillsbury booklet. The frosting is one of my favorites. Use it on a purchased angel-food cake or one you make from a mix. This will cover an 8x8 cake. Double it for the large cake.1 egg white, unbeaten½ cup sugarDash of salt2/3 cup sliced strawberriesCombine egg white, sugar, salt and  1/3 cup strawberries in the top of double boiler. Use rotary beater to mix.Place over rapidly boiling water. Beat with electric mixer for four minutes or until mixture stands in peaks. Remove from boiling water. Fold in remaining strawberries.


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NOVELIST DARLENE FRANKLIN WRITING FROM A NURSING HOME: MY CANDY VALENTINE

JUST AS I AM
She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table. Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well. . . After Jesus returned, he walked along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus’ feet to see what he would do with them. He healed them. Matthew 15:27-30
Writers walk a tightrope between making their heroes human, with flaws, without making them unlikeable.Few writers would make their hero act the way Jesus did in this scene. Why did the God who repeatedly reached out to people not of Jewish descent brush the Syro-Phoenician woman off? I won’t attempt to answer that question in this meditation. What I will point out is the woman’s persistent faith. She exhibited the same kind of faith as the woman who knew she would be healed if only she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment (See Matthew 9.) A single crumb would provide all her daughter needed.Compare her request to that of the Galileans. They brought people with all sorts of diseases and physical maladies, paraplegic, blind, mute, missing arms or legs—whatever the problem was, they “threw” the needy person at Jesus’ feet. “Perform Your magic trick, Jesus. Show us what You’ll do this time.”The woman was brokenhearted for her daughter.
She had no doubt Jesus could heal. She only feared He might say no. In the end, He did say yes—and she went home, rejoicing.

The wording suggests the Galileans had no real concern for the ones who were ill. They tested Jesus. Their faith lasted only as long as the latest miracle. They sound like the crowd who saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11) and called for His death less than a week later.In spite of their attitude, Jesus healed the sick. For one shining moment, the people knew God was alive among them.Whether God seems to be saying no, or whether He is showering abundant blessings on our path, He is the same God—alive, at work, to bring the very best to His children.

(Devotional taken from A Reader’s Journey through Matthew by Darlene Franklin)



Book summary:   A Reader’s Journey through Matthew http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Journey...
A Reader's Journey through Matthew is written by and for avid readers and writers of literature. This seven-week devotional is perfect for a Lenten study or any time of year.
My Candy Valentine http://www.amazon.com/Candy-Valentine...Gilbert Williams sweeps Catrina Jensen off her feet when he arrives in Loveland, Oklahoma, shortly after New Year’s Day 1916. When the reason for his interest in her delicious candies is revealed, her affection turns to fear. Is her hero a traitor in disguise?
Author bio: Darlene Franklin’s greatest claim to fame is that she writes full-time from a nursing home. She lives in Oklahoma, near her son and his family, and continues her interests in playing the piano and singing, books, good fellowship, and reality TV in addition to writing

A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BRAIN DAMAGE

By Ada Brownell
Adapted from the book, Imagine the Future YouOn sale now for .99 hereThere are different types of brain damage. More serious than a concussion, skull fracture, tumor or disease.Ungodly things we assimilate into our brains that destroy faith in God can do things to our minds we can’t fathom. Could be like what happened to Jones, my sister Clara’s Chihuahua, a little darling dog who did tricks for Clara’s husband, Blackie. They would put some glassless eyeglasses on Jonesy, as we called him, and he’d sit up, take his front paws, and act as if he were reading a newspaper. He’d play dead when Blackie pointed his finger and yelled, “Bang!” Jonesy did all kinds of tricks and received his hamburgers “made to order” and a human-style cookie for dessert, not doggie treats. But one day he coughed, sneezed, and gagged all through the night. He wouldn’t eat, and he continued coughing, sneezing, and gagging for several days. My sis thought Jones was dying, and she couldn’t bear putting him to sleep. Her son was fighting a war, and he was attached to the dog, too. “We can’t let Jonesy die!” she said. After about a week of the dog not eating, Jonesy gagged and Clara noticed something in the back of his throat. A long blade of grass hung down the back of his tongue and up through his nose. She reached in and pulled it out. Jonesy immediately got a drink of water and started eating and lived for several years after that. Sometimes a tiny amount of filth or ungodliness can give us great grief. If we are forced to read ungodly material, we can pray as we read for God’s protection against our minds, but we can go even further. We can go to the teacher or professor and say the book offends us and ask for a substitute. Teachers usually provide something else, especially if you come with a respectful attitude and your grades show you’re not trying to get out of something. I obtained a substitute book in college when Playboy empire founder Hugh Hefner’s biography was required reading. I didn’t want that stuff in my brain. When I overheard another student say, “That’s really a raunchy book!” I knew it wasn’t for me. A more serious problem with our brains arises that’s more difficult to talk about. Yes, we should respect those over us, but we also need to be aware there is some brainwashing going on. IMAGINE A THIEF AT THE DOOR I am a graduate of a secular college and saw brainwashing firsthand. Secular college professors often want to “reprogram” students who have faith in a personal God. I encountered anti-God teaching in psychology classes, a course on the environment, and even in music history class (a monkey invented an instrument and came down out of tree and played it). Mass communications classes seemed to be saturated with obscenity and we spent most of our time in the media law class studying obscenity law. If you are a science major, changing your belief systems is a top priority in a secular college. In secular learning institutions, Christians often are ridiculed, discriminated against, and even given lower grades or flunked if they don’t embrace the theology of secularism.Most secular colleges and universities promote a one-world government, teach against freedom and capitalism, and work to make secularism everyone’s religion and the earth their God. Today, the progressive (progressing toward socialism) political system and secularists, and even other religions, are inserting anti-Christian and ungodly doctrines into public school education to brainwash Christian teaching implanted by the church and parents. You make up your mind whether to reject it.IMAGINE RECALL One thing we learn about our brain is once we put something into it, it’s there for recall. Sometimes the things you try the hardest to forget are the ones that stick.
That’s why we need to be careful what we put into our heads.
Read more in this motivational Bible study on sale now for .99 here

DO YOU THINK FOR YOURSELF?

THINK FOR YOURSELFBy Ada BrownellAdapted from her book. Imagine the Future YouAs children, we started thinking for ourselves when we gagged and spit out the spinach baby food and then decided which cold cereal we like best. If we were born into a poor Oriental family, we might like rice instead. If we lived in some African slums, we’d be grateful for slimy oatmeal gruel from a dirty bowl. In some parts of the world, you’d think putting live bugs between two slices of bread was a special treat, even though bugs crawled around on your fingers as you ate them. In other countries you’d eat dog and monkey. In times past, it was quite common for Americans to eat cow and pig brains and kidneys. They made “head cheese,” which was a meat jelly made from the head of a calf or pig. You can still buy pickled pig’s feet. I don’t know if they still sell head cheese but it became popular in a society that didn’t waste anything. In hard times, people also ate squirrels and turtles.
You cringe. Your stomach turns. That’s because you think for yourself and form an opinion. Your head is not empty now. You learned by experience and from other people. That’s the only way we assimilate knowledge. After we learn something, we usually can recall it spontaneously. We ride a bike without thinking about how we balance. We can type, text, cook, clean, repair cars, and program computers. We balance checkbooks, do income tax, use math to buy and sell, and make chemical formulas to create medicines that save people’s lives or to invent guns, bombs, and rockets to kill them. You can store billions of information blocks in your memory. According to Kenneth Higbee, author of Your Memory and How it Works and How to Improve it,The Bible says when we have a close relationship with God, He will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Yet, you decide whether or not to post that guard, the Holy Spirit, at the door. If we listen to what our conscience and scripture tells us, 24/7, and resist, Satan and his cohorts flee in fear.
The Holy Spirit, through our conscience, convinces us of sin (so we’ll know what it is), righteousness (so we’ll understand that), and judgment (so we’ll know God will reward those who live for Him and punish those who do not).
It helps to think on things that are true, things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.©Ada Brownell 2014






THIS MOTIVATIONAL BIBLE STUDY FOR YOUTH IS ON SALE here UNTIL FEB. 14 FOR .99

IS YOUR FUTURE CONNECTED TO WHAT YOU THINK?

THIS MOTIVATIONAL BIBLE STUDY FOR YOUTH IS ON SALE UNTIL FEB. 14 FOR .99
THINK FOR YOURSELFBy Ada BrownellAdapted from her book. Imagine the Future YouAs children, we started thinking for ourselves when we gagged and spit out the spinach baby food and then decided which cold cereal we like best. If we were born into a poor Oriental family, we might like rice instead. If we lived in some African slums, we’d be grateful for slimy oatmeal gruel from a dirty bowl. In some parts of the world, you’d think putting live bugs between two slices of bread was a special treat, even though bugs crawled around on your fingers as you ate them. In other countries you’d eat dog and monkey. In times past, it was quite common for Americans to eat cow and pig brains and kidneys. They made “head cheese,” which was a meat jelly made from the head of a calf or pig. You can still buy pickled pig’s feet. I don’t know if they still sell head cheese but it became popular in a society that didn’t waste anything. In hard times, people also ate squirrels and turtles.
You cringe. Your stomach turns. That’s because you think for yourself and form an opinion. Your head is not empty now. You learned by experience and from other people. That’s the only way we assimilate knowledge. After we learn something, we usually can recall it spontaneously. We ride a bike without thinking about how we balance. We can type, text, cook, clean, repair cars, and program computers. We balance checkbooks, do income tax, use math to buy and sell, and make chemical formulas to create medicines that save people’s lives or to invent guns, bombs, and rockets to kill them. You can store billions of information blocks in your memory. According to Kenneth Higbee, author of Your Memory and How it Works and How to Improve it,The Bible says when we have a close relationship with God, He will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Yet, you decide whether or not to post that guard, the Holy Spirit, at the door. If we listen to what our conscience and scripture tells us, 24/7, and resist, Satan and his cohorts flee in fear.
The Holy Spirit, through our conscience, convinces us of sin (so we’ll know what it is), righteousness (so we’ll understand that), and judgment (so we’ll know God will reward those who live for Him and punish those who do not).
It helps to think on things that are true, things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.©Ada Brownell 2014


Philippians 4:18 

ANE MULLIGAN SHOWS THE HUMOROUS SIDE OF ROMANCE

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, novelist Ane Mulligan has worn many: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband, her chef son, and two dogs of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.

By Ane Mulligan
Hubs and I just celebrated our 44th anniversary. I still can't figure that out, since I'm only 35. But through the years, it's the laughter I remember the more than anything. You see, my Brit is from a working class family in a small in northern England.
Now, when I think February, I think Valentine's Day. When I think of Valentine's Day, I think of lovers. When I think of lovers—stay with me here, I do have a point to this—I think of romantic heroes from books. But where do these amorous men come from? Don't try to tell me real life. So, do they all come from our imaginations? Maybe the better word would be our fantasies—but I won't go there for obvious reasons.
My Hubs is a Brit. But don't conjure up images of Hugh Grant. Believe me...not all Brits are romantic like him. I know. Don't get me wrong; my Brit tries, but somehow he's not the model for a novel hero.
What? You think I'm mean? No way. I'm just realistic. You want proof you say? All right ... here's what happened when my dear husband tried to plan a romantic Valentine's Day.
He decided we'd take our boat out for a Valentine's Day cruise. The Aney Lea (okay, I'll give him that one; it was romantic to name the boat after me) bordered on small craft but was a respectable 25-foot and slept six. We had a lovely time as long as he stood with his eyes on the horizon to avoid getting seasick.

Don't even ask why a man who gets seasick owned a boat. But as I was saying, we had a lovely time … that is until we came back.
At the end of a cruise, my job as first mate was to climb over the side of the bow rail and perch on the edge of the bow, hanging on to the railing. As we approached the dock, I'd wait until we were about three feet away then push off, leaping backwards onto the dock and keep us from crashing into it. The channel where our slip resided had a good current—a good strong current. That ran at a 45-degree angle to the dock, necessitating stellar mariner skills.
That evening as we pulled into the slip, the current was a bit stronger than normal. A storm was gathering in the Pacific, churning up the waters in between Catalina and Long Beach Harbor, where we kept our boat. An unexpected surge in the current caught the boat threw it in a swift collision course with the side of the dock.
To avoid a crash and possible hole in the side of the boat, my husband threw the boat into reverse.
Just as I made my leap.
I missed the dock.
Making a frantic grab for the railing, I managed by the grace of God to catch it. I hung there, legs swinging in a blind search for solid ground—the dock—and connecting with nothing but air and a little water.
Seeing my hands firmly welded to the bow rail, and because the present danger had been averted, my dear husband laughed himself silly. Are you beginning to see my point?
Fortunately for my Brit's sake, a gentleman strolling along the dock and obviously not a Brit, saw my dilemma. Heroically—I'm sure his hair was blowing provocatively in the wind—he managed to reach my ankles and pulled me, and the boat, to safe mooring. All the time my husband's laughter could be heard coming from the fly deck.
With my feet back on terra firma, I seriously entertained thoughts of murder and mayhem.
So you see, my dear husband is not the romantic hero of novels ... unless perhaps, you wrote murder mysteries.
Oh, and just in case any of you are worried about the state of our marriage, this was, to ease your minds, four decades ago. My Brit still breathes.
Very carefully if we're around boats.
Chapel Springs Revival
With a friend like Claire, you need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel.
Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It's impossible not to, what with Claire's zany antics and Patsy's self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is their marriages.
With their personal lives in as much disarray as the town, Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives. That is if they can convince their husbands and the town council, led by two curmudgeons who would prefer to see Chapel Springs left in the fifties and closed to traffic.

Is baking the way to a man's heart?

By Cecelia Toomer

I’ve always loved baking. When I was a kid, I didn’t cook much, except for scrambled eggs and French toast. However, I baked: cookies, cakes, pies. I transferred my love for baking into my Bakery Romance Series.
I’ve never worked in a bakery, so, I had to do research. Since I already have a love for baking, I knew how to make sweet treats and breads from scratch.
My research included watching a LOT of television shows on the Food Network. The shows mentioned below are reality-type shows, based upon real food businesses that were in financial trouble.
My first research show was Save My Bakery: http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/save-my-bakery.html
It focuses on helping failing bakeries. The host/food expert visits the bakery, giving the baker(s) advice about what needs to be done to save their businesses. This program gives background about how a bakery is run every day. The program also gives examples of task(s) that the baker(s) were doing which hindered their establishments.  I also love to watch Chef Robert Irvine’s show, Restaurant Impossible:http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/restaurant-impossible.html
This show does not focus on bakeries. Instead, it focuses on restaurants that are failing. The restaurants then call upon Robert to help them save their business before they go bankrupt. 
Watching both of these shows enabled me to see just how hard it is to run a food business, and these programs also made me realize just how stubborn business owners can be when they are given suggestions to change their means of livelihood. These shows also made me realize that often, a restaurant/bakery financial problem is linked to personal problems that the business owner(s) are facing, like family difficulties, problems with friends, etc. These issues could then spill over into the business, clouding the owner’s judgment. 
To continue my research, I visited a small bakery in my town of Greenbelt, MD, Chef Lou’s Desserts: http://ltmwebs.com/cheflou/
I’ve ordered several birthday and anniversary cakes from Chef Lou over the years and he showed me around his small bakery,  demonstrating some of his baking techniques for me. He even showed me how he frosted a cake, and then placed his distinctive script icing over the frosted layers! We even talked about recipes, but, he didn’t share his recipes with me, he just vaguely told me the ingredients in his desserts, not sharing the measurements. I suppose he has his secrets! His carrot cake is so good, so moist and delicious and that cream cheese frosting is heavenly! 
For baking breads and pastries, I had a lot of questions. I found a pastry chef online and he was kind enough to answer my questions via email. George Geary has worked as a pastry chef at Walt Disney World and he’s written several books:https://www.cookstr.com/users/george-geary/profile

Raspberry Kisses Summary:
Facing eviction, Rhea Morrison, a young grieving widow, must save her failing bakery. Her 
recently-injured twin sister, Raven, loans her money – stipulating Rhea attend a singles retreat to spy on Martin Lane, Raven’s new love interest. Disgruntled, Rhea attends the retreat and is attracted to Martin. She discovers that Martin can help save her bakery. 

Pastor Martin laments over his secret, traumatic past mistakes. He’s destined to lead his father’s church, despite blatant rejection. He can’t love Rhea - he’s yet to forgive himself for his past, and if Rhea knew how he used to be, she would have no interest in pursuing a relationship with him. In spite of their shared attraction, he helps Rhea form a plan to save her business. Martin, a former successful bakery owner, can expertly create delicious pastry recipes. 

Rhea feels torn about her attraction to Martin – he’s a pastor, and after her husband’s death, she vowed to never get involved with another pastor. Plus, her twin sister, Raven, has strong feelings for Martin. Can Rhea let herself have romantic feelings for Martin – knowing it would hurt her sister? 

Can Martin and Rhea overcome their past so that they’re free to love again? 


Amazon: http://amzn.to/1CvfE8i
Nook: http://bit.ly/1sFZSHt
Ibooks: http://bit.ly/1wfSVrQ
Kobo: http://bit.ly/14HOVtn
Scribd: http://bit.ly/12z3gs7


MEET THE AUTHOR

While pursuing a business degree in college one of her professors tried to convince her to get an English degree since he felt she was a great writer. Years later, after receiving her BS in Finance, she took her former teacher's advice, and started pursuing her literary career.

She loves to read, write, and bake delicious desserts during her spare time. Traveling is another favorite hobby, and she's been to various countries around the world, including Germany, France, England, Tahiti, New Zealand, Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Santo Domingo. She enjoys listening to old tunes with her husband on Saturday nights. Currently she resides with her spouse and young son in Maryland.