Deborah Vogts's Blog, page 114

Autumn Has Arrived

Autumn is my favorite season, and I welcome it's arrival with wholeheartedness!   
Cooler temperatures.

The rich, warm colors in the grass and on the trees. 

There's a distinct scent in the air when fall arrives.

Welcome

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Enjoy your weekend! 
Philly Steak Sandwiches
Baked Beef and Black Bean Flautas
Oven Baked Fries
and Tamera Alexanders' Black Bean Salsa Recipe

FREE Concert Ticket Giveaway

Exciting News! We have TWO PAIRS of concert tickets to give away FREE. 

KENTUCKY 31 and THE VOGTS SISTERS BLUEGRASS CONCERTPARSONS KS MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUMSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 20127:00 PM

That means TWO lucky individuals will receive a PAIR of FREE tickets to attend this delightful night of entertainment! Plus there are THREE easy ways to enter, tripling your chances to win! 
Visit The Vogts Sisters Website to view entry details. 

Book Preview ~ Unending Devotion

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingUnending DevotionBethany House Publishers (September 1, 2012)byJody Hedlund
Jody has written novels for the last 20 years (with a hiatus when her children were young). After many years of writing and honing her skills, she finally garnered national attention with her double final in the Genesis Contest, a fiction-writing contest for unpublished writers through ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers).

Her first published book, The Preacher’s Bride (2010 Bethany House Publishers), became a best seller and has won multiple awards. Her second book, The Doctor’s Lady, released in September of 2011, and her third book, Unending Devotion, is out now. She’s currently busy researching and writing another book!

Jody has been married for twenty years to her college sweetheart. Jody has five children ranging in ages from 15 to 6, with a set of twin daughters in the mix to make things more lively.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
High-Stakes Drama Meets High-Tension Romance

In 1883 Michigan, Lily Young is on a mission to save her lost sister, or die trying. Heedless of the danger, her searches of logging camps lead her to Harrison and into the sights of Connell McCormick, a man doing his best to add to the hard-earned fortunes of his lumber baron father.

Posing during the day as a photographer's assistant, Lily can't understand why any God-fearing citizen would allow evil to persist and why men like Connell McCormick turn a blind eye to the crime rampant in the town. But Connell is boss-man of three of his father's lumber camps in the area, and like most of the other men, he's interested in clearing the pine and earning a profit. He figures as long as he's living an upright life, that's what matters.

Lily challenges everything he thought he knew, and together they work not only to save her sister but to put an end to the corruption that's dominated Harrison for so long. If you would like to read the first chapter of Unending Devotion, go HERE.

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Enjoy your weekend!
Flour Tortillas
Banana Nut Bread
Cheesy Corn and Macaroni Casserole 

Book Preview ~ The Bridesmaid

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingThe BridesmaidBethany House Publishers (September 11, 2012)byBeverly Lewis
Beverly's first venture into adult fiction is the best-selling trilogy, The Heritage of Lancaster County, including The Shunning, a suspenseful saga of Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman drawn to the modern world by secrets from her past. The book is loosely based on the author's maternal grandmother, Ada Ranck Buchwalter, who left her Old Order Mennonite upbringing to marry a Bible College student. One Amish-country newspaper claimed Beverly's work to be "a primer on Lancaster County folklore" and offers "an insider's view of Amish life."

Booksellers across the country, and around the world, have spread the word of Beverly's tender tales of Plain country life. A clerk in a Virginia bookstore wrote, "Beverly's books have a compelling freshness and spark. You just don't run across writing like that every day. I hope she'll keep writing stories about the Plain people for a long, long time."

A member of the National League of American Pen Women, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of Evangel University, Lewis has written over 80 books for children, youth, and adults, many of them award-winning. She and her husband, David, make their home in Colorado, where they enjoy hiking, biking, and spending time with their family. They are also avid musicians and fiction "book worms."

ABOUT THE BOOK
The Latest in Chart-Topping Amish Fiction from Beverly Lewis

Twenty-seven-year-old Joanna Kurtz has made several trips to the altar, but never as a bride. The single young Amishwoman is a closet writer with a longing to be published something practically unheard of in her Lancaster County community. Yet Joanna's stories aren't her only secret. She also has a beau who is courting her from afar, unbeknownst even to her sister, Cora, who, though younger, seems to have suitors to spare.

Eben Troyer is a responsible young Amishman who hopes to make Joanna Kurtz his bride--if he can ever leave his parents' farm in Shipshewana, Indiana. Yet with his only brother off in the English world, intent on a military career, Eben's hopes for building a life with his dear Joanna are dimming, and patience is wearing thin. Will Joanna ever be more than a bridesmaid? If you would like to read the first chapter of The Bridesmaid, go HERE.

Sunflowers

I love sunflowers.
Every late summer to autumn we see them along the roadside or in our pastures, the various varieties of sunflowers native to our state.
Tall, coarse and hairy, with stout stems, and a brown center surrounded by yellow rays of petals, their bright faces known for chasing the sun across the sky.
I love that Kansas's state flower is the sunflower. Bright, hopeful, and always ready to follow the Son.

This Week's Recipes

Here are this week's new additions at Country at Heart Recipes. Have a great weekend! 
 Chocolate Sheet Cake
Squash Braid
Mexican Rice
and Featured Author, Lisa Carter's recipe for Hula Pie. Stop by and be sure to say hello! 

CD Album Covers

The last few days we've been taking a poll on possible album covers for our girls' upcoming CD. Hard decisions. We wanted to use pictures taken at the Brown Mansion and plan to use two of the railroad pictures for the inside insert. If you'd care to join in and cast your vote, we'd love the input. You may vote on our Facebook pages, HERE and HERE. Or leave a comment below. 
 Staircase Image
Mirror Image
Pillar Image
If you'd like to learn more about The Vogts Sisters and their music, take a moment and check out their new site HERE. 

Book Preview ~ Her Good Name

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingHer Good NameRiver North; New Edition edition (July 24, 2012)byRuth Axtell
Ruth knew she wanted to be a writer ever since she wrote her first story--a spy thriller--at the age of twelve. She studied comparative literature at Smith College, spending her junior year at the Sorbonne in Paris. After college, she taught English in the Canary Islands then worked in international development in Miami, Florida, before moving to the Netherlands, where for the next several years, she juggled both writing and raising her three children.

In 1994, her second manuscript was a finalist in Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart competition. In 2002, her sixth manuscript took second place in the Laurie Contest of RWA's Smoky Mountain chapter. The final judge requested her full manuscript and this became her first published book, Winter Is Past, which was spotlighted in Christian Retailing magazine. Since then, Ruth has gone on to publish thirteen historical romances and one novella. Her books have been translated into Dutch, Italian, Polish and Afrikaans . Her second historical, Wild Rose, was chosen by Booklist as a "Top Ten Christian Fiction" selection in 2005. Ruth lives on the coast of Maine where she enjoys gardening, walking, reading romances and gazing at the ocean plotting her next romance.

ABOUT THE BOOK
In the 1890 thriving coastal town of Holliston, Maine, the leading lumber baron's son, Warren Brentwood, III, returns from his years away at college and traveling to take up his position as heir apparent to his father's business empire.

Esperanza Estrada, daughter of a Portuguese immigrant fisherman and a local woman, lives on the wrong side of town, surrounded by a brood of brothers and sisters and a careworn mother. She is unable to pretend she is anything but "one of those Estradas." When she overhears of a position to clean house at a local high school teacher's home on Elm Street, she jumps at the opportunity--to be able to run into Warren Brentwood now and again, but also to imbibe of the culture and intellectual atmosphere of the Stocktons.

When rumors about Espy and her respected employer begin to circulate, the entire church congregation and then the community pronounce judgment on her behavior. Warren believes the lie and his loss of faith in her causes Espy to give up without a fight. She leaves her family and hometown for the nearest city with little money and no acquaintances and is forced to spend the night on the street.  A man who heads a mission for the homeless finds Espy and offers her shelter. Espy finds the true love of God while working at the mission. Will she be able to forgive the townspeople and return home? If you would like to read the first chapter excerpt of Her Good Name, go