Guest Author LeighAnne Clifton

Thank you, LeighAnne, for sharing your story and your heart with us.

 

My name is LeighAnne Clifton, and I want to thank Kathy for inviting me to join y’all today.

Yep, I said, “y’all.” I’m a Southern girl, born and raised! Originally from the beautiful city of Ocala, Florida, I’ve called South Carolina home for many decades now. My degree is in chemical engineering, and I worked as an environmental engineer for over 30 years. Between that, two kids, and my husband, I managed to keep very busy.

In December 2020, though, I hung up my engineering hat, retired, and started truly focusing my energies on writing Christian fiction. Now, before you start thinking I’m some flighty, irresponsible, spur-of-the-moment kind of lady, just wait. I’m far from it!

The writing bug bit me when I experienced the thrill of publishing a children’s book, The Little Vessel, in 2018. I’d already been growing weary of workplace politics, and, even though our kids are grown and on their own, it became increasingly difficult to devote enough time to my writing. Then… I signed a contract for the publication of my first novel! So, after much prayer, I took the leap into retirement.

My first novel, All Your Heart, was published by Pen It! Publications in March 2021. Allow me to give you a glimpse into Alex’s world.

All Your Heart

Alex has a full scholarship, earned through her tireless work ethic, that she hopes will propel her across the country from her workaholic mother. However, a prom night incident leaves Alex pregnant, confused, and unsure of her next move. Forced to alter her well-crafted plans, she considers abortion after fleeing her small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Her trip changes course, though, when an accident strands her and she encounters Miss Matilda, care-taker and care-giver at Together for Good, a home for ladies facing a crisis pregnancy. Miss Matilda welcomes Alex, showering her with love, kindness, and Good News.

While living at the home, Alex finds a dusty old diary and reads the confidences penned within it. The secrets Alex discovers change not only her life, but also the lives of Miss Matilda and her nephew Terry, who’s become Alex’s new business partner. Alex must decide if she can let go of her own secrets, grasp the revelation of newly-discovered family, and allow her budding romance with a local businessman to fully bloom.

My Spirit-led goals in writing this book were three-fold:

1.      reach people with the gospel of Jesus,

2.      highlight the sanctity of life, and

3.      remind readers of God’s sovereignty.

As I continue to write the next books in this series, these fundamental themes recur, in addition to some other important concepts, such as forgiveness and patience.

The inspirational and foundational Scripture verse for All Your Heart is Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” So much truth is packed into those few words, and the verse has carried me through many tough times. Similarly, Alex and her friends learn how to let go of their own plans and fully trust God with everything, even when obstacles seem insurmountable. Spoiler: God’s plans are ALWAYS better (even when we don’t recognize it)!

The next novel in the Together for Good series, Ready to Forgive, is under contract, although a release date is unknown at this time. If you’d like to know more about All Your Heart and keep up with Ready to Forgive on its journey to publication, sign up for my biweekly (every other week, not twice a week) newsletter at LeighAnne Clifton Book News! | (alive-leighjourney.com) .

Readers may purchase All Your Heart and The Little Vessel (a modern-day parable about God’s perfect and unique purpose for each of us) online.

 

All Your Heart: 

https://www.amazon.com/All-Your-Heart-Leighanne-Clifton/dp/1954868073/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1778DW6V6IRPA&dchild=1&keywords=all+your+heart+clifton&qid=1624456923&sprefix=all+your+heart+%2Caps%2C172&sr=8-1

 

The Little Vessel: 

 https://www.amazon.com/Little-Vessel-Leighanne-Clifton/dp/164140485X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+little+vessel+clifton&qid=1624456971&sr=8-1 

Guest Author, Janyce Brawn

Janyce Brawn shares a little with us about her writing journey. And, her book sounds like a lot of fun.

 

Hello, my name is Janyce Brawn. I live in NWPA with my husband and our “nosey” Boston Terrier, Gracie. Our three grown sons’ pranks and struggles over the years have inspired my writing and illustrating. Life in general has a way of sharpening your outlook and honing your skills. I’ve written and illustrated books since I used crayons for the pictures of the stories that my twin sister and I wrote in elementary school. We would make up plays of our understanding of Romeo and Juliet and add goofy lines for the neighborhood kids to laugh at. We let our imaginations soar, the sillier, and improbable, the better. My sister and I devoured Nancy Drew and any other mystery books we could get our hands on growing up. Often we would pretend to be explorers and go into the woods and nearby creek pretending to be Nancy Drew and her girlfriends. We discovered our own “secret place” under pine trees, and a “witch tree” that had a long, low branch that we would climb on and bounce up and down as if we were on a magical ride.

Madeline L’Engel and her book, A Wrinkle in Time, fascinated me with her unique names of characters, mystery, connected and disconnected family elements, and wonderful possibilities that all stoked my imagination. My own stories then took on an other worldly aspect.

In college, I studied art, Spanish and English as a second language and then taught for over 25 years, retiring to finally write and illustrate. I have illustrated for the Time of Singing Poetry magazine, one issue of 12-15 pen and ink illustrations each, for over 20 years. My creative works have always nurtured my spirit.  After my husband and I put our young sons in bed, and had our story time, I’d make jewelry as something feminine to balance all the maleness in my life.  My creativity grew to encompass poetry, inspirational articles, illustrations, and illustrated prayers in the Penned From The Heart anthologies, and with illustrating the chapter books Angels in the Forest, and Compassion in the City- Amish stories by Tim Moriarity.

 I love to explore imaginary worlds where I can create unique, fun characters in unusual situations. This is true in my new middle grade fantasy novel, David and the Drainosaurs. This story evolved from an exercise I did with one of my English as a Second Language students. We picked an alphabet letter (D) then opened a dictionary to the d section and closed our eyes and picked 3 words. We chose: drain, dinosaur and diamond. My student wrote his story and I wrote mine. My simple paragraph evolved from a paragraph to a picture book to a novel after winning a writing contest. The judge, an editor, told me it was a fun story but should be developed into a novel. So, my journey began, with my critique groups helping me hone the story and conferences feeding my knowledge of the craft of writing.

Likewise, my main character, David is also on a journey. He accidentally drops his mother’s diamond ring down the kitchen sink drain. In a struggle with a dinosaur-like creature, Princess Doris Drainosaurus, who thinks it’s her kingdom’s missing crown, David shrinks and falls down into Drainovia. He has three days to find the real missing crown to exchange for his mother’s ring or be stuck forever in a land where doors fly, hats teleport and treachery abounds.

In the story, David’s character goes from a basically selfish boy who wants to do only ‘his’ thing. He has to learn to put others’ needs before his before he can have any success in his quest. This parallels life too. When we serve others, we are rewarded more than we can imagine.

I hope you read my book. I’m working on a companion coloring book to go with it. Books 2 and 3 are in the works with coloring books also. You can follow me as Janyce Brawn on Facebook and you can write me at: janyce@janycebrawn.com.

Thank you for allowing me to share a bit about my writing and life. 

Guest Author, Sherri Stewart

I’ve always been interested in stories about World War II, and I thank Sherri for being here today to tell us about her new book.

 

Goedemorgen. That’s Dutch for good morning. I’m Sherri Stewart. I’m not from the Netherlands but my newest book takes place there, so I’ve been immersing myself in the country and the language. I love writing clean novels, sprinkled with romance and a strong message that hopefully challenges your faith. I spend my working hours with books—either editing others’ manuscripts or writing my own. My passion is traveling to the settings of my books, sampling the food and visiting the sites. My trip to the Netherlands to research this book was everything and more than I could have dreamed of. I’m a recent widow and live in the Orlando area with my lazy dog, Lily, and my son, Joshua, who can fix anything. I share recipes, tidbits of my books’ locations, and pix in my monthly newsletters. Subscribe at http://eepurl.com/gZ-mv9

 

A Song for Her Enemies is my first attempt at a World War II romance. My faith hero has always been Corrie ten Boom, so when my publisher asked us to pick a female hero and write a fictional account of the person from another’s point of view, I jumped at the chance. Little did I know that the book would consume me for two years. It took on a life of its own. Corrie passed away in the 80s, and many of the survivors of the holocaust have left us, but I don’t want them to be forgotten. I want people to know what happened over there—to learn from it, or we’ll make the same mistakes again.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with Corrie, I’ll tell you a bit about her. She was a middle-aged watchmaker who lived with her father and her older sister, Betsie. Her family had a heart for the Jewish people in her Haarlem neighborhood, so when families started disappearing and Nazis looted shops and houses, Corrie opened her home to Jewish refugees. My story is told from the point of view of a young Jewish singer named Tamar, who sought refuge in her house. I couldn’t get permission from the ten Boom estate to write a fictional account about Corrie, so I wrote about violinist Neelie Visser instead. Since she’s made up, I don’t need to get permission from her estate.

 

Here’s a bit about the book. After Nazi soldiers close the opera and destroy Tamar Kaplan’s dream of becoming a professional singer, she joins the Dutch Resistance, her fair coloring concealing her Jewish heritage. Tamar partners with Dr. Daniel Feldman, and they risk their lives to help escaping refugees. When they are forced to flee themselves, violinist Neelie Visser takes them into hiding.

Tamar’s love for Daniel flowers in hardship, but she struggles with the paradox that a loving God would allow the atrocities around her. When Tamar resists the advances of a Third Reich officer, he exacts his revenge by betraying the secrets hidden behind the walls of Neelie’s house. From a prison hospital to a Nazi celebration to a concentration camp, will the three of them survive to tell the world the secrets behind barbed wire?  

A Song for Her Enemies is the story of a talented young opera singer and the bittersweet love that grows amid the tyranny and fear of World War II. Set against the backdrop of neighbors willing to risk their lives in the German-occupied, war-torn Netherlands, A Song for Her Enemies is an inspiring and beautiful novel celebrating the resilience of the human spirit and the determination of Christians in the face of persecution. It is a novel for everyone seeking to understand the pain of the past and be inspired to embrace hope for the future.

Although atrocities occurred during this shameful period of history, I believe it is possible to tell the story without being graphic or maudlin. God promised Jews and Christians a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. (Isaiah 61:3) https://amzn.to/2PoCxMV

 

 

 

  

Guest Author, Carol McClain

I'm glad Carol has joined us this morning. This book sounds delightful. And hopeful.

 

JOY COMES IN THE MORNING

BUT UNTIL IT DOES …?

SIN’S NOT ALL IT’S CRACKED UP TO BE—BUT AFTER SORROW, COMES JOY.

 

Numbers 14:18 and similar scriptures always caused me to stumble.

“The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation” Numbers 14:18, KJV. (emphasis mine).

 Of course, it wasn’t the fact that God is longsuffering and of great mercy that gave me pause.

That he forgives me and brings me joy.

But why would he hurt the offspring of the iniquitous? They didn’t cause the sin of their parents.

I’ve come to see in my life how this happens. My parents had been alcoholics (past tense—forgiven and forgotten). However, my siblings and I mimicked their pattern of behavior. I won’t reveal the foibles of my siblings or the specifics of my own. I had dabbled in alcohol and drugs. Then, I accepted Jesus and swore off anything bringing inebriation.

Throughout my life, though, I’ve battled the consequences of my youthful foibles.

In similar patterns, we see children of abuse, abusing their children. Offspring of cheaters, cheat. Even as they despise what happened to them, these individuals repeat the process, unless something breaks the cycle.

Recently, I moved to a county which, at one time, had the third-highest opioid use in the nation. I involved myself with mentoring and sadly watched so many fervent individuals relapse into addiction.

Why? Patterns learned enthrall us. And, sin has consequences.

Oh, aren’t you glad you’re reading this blog?

Here comes the good part.

SALVATION AND MENTORING WORK.

Through my time working and mentoring addicts, I heard many horror stories of those who have been conquered by sin. Despite overwhelming odds, I’ve rejoiced with many who had conquered their past.

From this, Borrowed Lives was born. From this, I know the issues confronting people and the wonderful way they’ve conquered them—whether it be from drugs or human cruelty. (You’ve never faced a miserable human, have you? I didn’t think so. Although I believe most people are good-hearted, miserable humans thrive. Surprise!).

Borrowed Lives

Tragedy broke Meredith Jaynes, then she found three abandoned children.

 

This novel creates a world where things aren’t perfect, even for devoted Christians. As sin is overcome and as we walk in God, we may not get our “happily ever after.” With dependence on Christ and His ways, we will live happily.

SO, WHY SHOULD YOU READ THIS NOVEL?

1.    Humor. Even when I’m not trying to be funny, I am. I can’t help it. Move over Carol Burnett. This Carol’s taking over.

2.    Spiritual truth. Even when I’m entertaining, I’m guided by Scripture. By now it’s in the very fabric of my being.

3.    Local color. I’m still enamored of my new home in Tennessee, so I set the book in Jacksboro—my new hometown. Hopefully, you can see Tennessee’s beauty.

 

Borrowed Lives:

God Only Lends Us Those We Love for a Season 

Distraught from recent tragedy, Meredith Jaynes takes pity on a young girl who steals from her. Meredith discovers “Bean” lives in a hovel mothering her two younger sisters. The three appear to have been abandoned. With no other homes available, Social Services will separate the siblings. To keep them together, Meredith agrees to foster them on a temporary basis.

Balancing life as a soap maker raising goats in rural Tennessee proved difficult enough before the siblings came into her care. Without Bean’s help, she’d never be able to nurture these children warped by drugs and neglect—let alone manage her goats that possess the talents of Houdini. Harder still is keeping her eccentric family at bay.

Social worker Parker Snow struggles to overcome the breakup with his fiancée. Burdened by his inability to find stable homes for so many children who need love, he believes placing the abandoned girls with Meredith Jaynes is the right decision. Though his world doesn’t promise tomorrow, he hopes Meredith’s does.

But she knows she’s too broken.

 

This is available on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-Lives-Carol-McClain-ebook/dp/B08Z3HL2FZ/ref

Keep up with all the latest news at: carolmcclain.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.Carol.McClain

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/carol-mcclain

Instagram and Twitter: @carol_mcclain

  

Guest Author, Sherri Stewart

Welcome my guest, Sherri Stewart. Her book, A Friend in High Places, sounds like a delightful, surprising read.

 

Hi, I’m Sherri Stewart. I love writing clean novels, sprinkled with romance and a strong message that challenges your faith. I spend my working hours with books—either editing others’ manuscripts or writing my own. My passion is traveling to the settings of my books, sampling the food and visiting the sites. Sadly, my trip to Pasadena was cancelled due to COVID. I’m a recent widow and live in the Orlando area with my lazy dog, Lily, and my son, Joshua, who can fix anything. I share recipes, tidbits of my books’ locations, and pix in my monthly newsletters. Subscribe at http://eepurl.com/gZ-mv9

 

 

A Friend in High Places is my first attempt at time travel romance, which is a new genre for me. I usually write romantic suspense or historical romance. Once a year, my publisher asks for volunteers for different novella collections, so this year I signed up for a genre outside my comfort zone. And surprise, I really enjoyed writing it. And no, it isn’t sci fi, fantasy, or hocus pocus. The book is about a niece who has to clean out her aunt’s attic and discovers things about her aunt’s past that both surprise and sadden her. All the characters in the book are named after the members of my cousin, Claudia’s family. Of course, I asked for permission ahead of time.

 

A bit about the plot. Kelly Thomas must settle her Aunt Claudia’s estate. She stays in her aunt’s Pasadena bungalow while she plans the funeral and goes through her favorite aunt’s things. During the burial service, she notices an elderly gentleman standing next to a tall red-headed man away from the crowd of mourners, so she approaches them to introduce herself. What she discovers about the old man’s identity rocks her world apart. Aunt Claudia has always been her hero, and Kelly has modeled her life after her independent aunt. Now she’s confused. She thought her aunt’s husband had died in the war decades before. Kelly enlists the help of Chris, the young man with Mr. Collins at the cemetery, to help find the truth. They discover that a simple misunderstanding decades before led to the demise of a beautiful romance. If only she could go back to the sixties to fix it.

 

Each of my main characters has a bit of me in them. They are believers, but there is some issue they’re dealing with, such as grief, envy, guilt, unforgiveness, or lack of self-confidence. In this book, Kelly has grown up resenting being her parents’ second-best love. They are missionaries, working with Aids children in Nigeria. She knows they are doing God’s work, but she wants a more normal life, like that of her Aunt Claudia, with whom Kelly spent her summers in Pasadena, California, while her parents were overseas. As a child she loved going to the studio with her aunt, who worked as an assistant producer.

 

As a former teacher and principal at a Christian school, I often taught missionary kids (mk’s) and pastor’s kids (pk’s). Not all but many of them had issues that the other kids didn’t have to deal with—having to behave a certain way, being socially ostracized, and being left alone a lot because their parents were busy with the church. My son was the principal’s kid, so you can imagine what that was like!

 

 

I’m what’s called a plantser. That means I write a rough summary of the book beforehand, and then I write by the seat of my pants. Sometimes the book takes a glorious detour. It was a God moment when  the #MeToo movement came to mind. What if Hollywood actresses and studio workers of the sixties were warned about their so-called auditions ahead of time? What if the producers were also warned about what could happen if they didn’t treat women with proper respect?

 

Here is the purchase link for A Friend in High Places:

 

https://amzn.to/3syemu2

Guest Author: Valerie Goree

Author Valerie Goree tells of her journey as a writer and introduces her latest story, which is placed in a fascinating setting.

 

Forever Under Blue Skies

Valerie Goree

 

My latest novel, Forever Under Blue Skies, is very close to my heart. It is based on the first novel I ever wrote, way back before everyone had a computer. Not to give away my age, but I bought a word processor back then and decided to write a story using details of my mother’s family roots in Australia.

 

I don’t remember how long it took since I was teaching fulltime and had two teenaged kids at the time. Although I had participated in a few mini workshops, I didn’t attend a full-fledged conference until my book was finished. I chose Mt. Hermon Writers Conference as the venue to present my masterpiece.

 

Well, the multi-published author who gave me a critique said I had the bones of a good story, but I needed to learn a whole lot more about the craft of writing. My first sentence had three adjectives describing the weather. Reminded me of Rudyard Kipling’s description of a river that forms the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. In his book The Elephant’s Child, Mr. Kipling called the river the ‘Great Grey-Green Greasy Limpopo River’. I grew up in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and crossed the Limpopo River many times to visit South Africa. The river is great during the rainy season, it is grey-green, but it is definitely not greasy!

 

Back to the basics. I set aside that novel, but kept on writing and attended as many workshops as I could. I also joined American Christian Fiction Writers, probably my best writing related decision.

 

After publishing five novels, I decided to go back to my first. Oh, my. I read my printed copy and was embarrassed at my purple prose, head hopping etc., and understood why the novel was not an instant hit at Mt. Hermon. But I stuck with the basic premise and found that my original research from library books was spot-on as compared to recent internet information and details gathered when my husband and I visited Australia.

 

I relied on details from my great-great-grandparents’ family tree for my story, even to using the town of Bendigo. Now, my family never lived on a sheep station, but that’s where the fiction part came in.

 

What was life like on a sheep station in 1983? Follow Marlow’s journey to find out.

 

“Travel to Australia to solve a family mystery? Sure, Marlow could do that. But she didn’t take into consideration the vast outback, nor the owner of the sheep station. Widower, Jake Barclay, is everything her late husband was not—honorable, considerate, a pure gentleman. She came prepared with sunscreen, but hadn’t built a high enough screen around her heart.

 

Jake was dubious about Marlow’s reason for visiting his station and thwarts her plan at every turn. Until he sees how she interacts with his vulnerable, young daughter.

 

If they solve the coded message, can Marlow return to Texas, or will Jake offer her a forever home in the outback?”

Contact:

 

https://www.facebook.com/ValerieMasseyGoree/

 

www.valeriegoreeauthor.com

 

 

 

Purchase link:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Under-Skies-Valerie-Goree-ebook/dp/B08MCF2QYB/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=forever+under+blue+skies&qid=1604269515&sr=8-2