Yearly Archives: 2008

Shop Until You Drop! Free Books!

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I’m giving away another round of books, however, I’m doing it a little bit different this time. I’d like for everybody to leave a comment with their opinion about shopping! I sometimes feel as if I’m one of the few women on this planet that absolutely HATES shopping! Unless I’m shopping for something fun, like books, I can’t stand going into a shopping mall or a clothing store. Really! I only shop when totally necessary and when I do, I DO NOT make it an all-day event.

How do you blog readers feel about shopping? Do you like it? Hate it? Feel indifferent? If you like it, why do you like it? What kinds of items do you enjoy buying when you shop?

If you hate it, why do you hate it? I hate it because I just don’t enjoy myself while I’m out shopping. I feel like there’s so many other things I’d rather be doing, like sitting at home and reading a book, or reading my emails, doing research on the internet, blogging, meeting an editorial deadline….anything is better than shopping! Plus, during the winter, when I go into the mall, I always get hot after walking around for awhile wearing a heavy coat. Then my arms get tired carrying those bags…I can’t stand shopping. Unless it’s for books, when I’m out shopping, all I want to do is go back home!!!

The books I’m giving away this time around are listed in the next paragraph. If interested, simply leave a comment with your opinion about shopping and a way for me to contact you so that I can let you know if you’ve won. Also, note which book you’d be interested in winning. If you’re NOT interested in winning one of these books, but still want to leave a comment with your opinion about shopping, then feel free to do so, just note on your comment that you’re not interested in entering to winning the novels. I’ve reviewed most of these novels on my blog. Simply search this blog for the book title to see my opinions about the novels.

Here’s the list:
The Pied Piper’s Bride by Myrna Mackenzie – A Silhouette Sweet Romance (please note that this is not an inspirational title.)

The Healing Place by Leigh Bale – A Love Inspired Inspirational Romance

Long Trail To Love by Pamela Griffin – A Barbour Heartsong Presents Title

Nobody by Creston Mapes – Christian Fiction Title

Web Of Lies by Brandilyn Collins – A Title From The Suspenseful HIDDEN FACES SERIES

Promises, Promises by Amber Miller – A Barbour Heartsong Presents Title

Sticks And Stones by Susan Meissner – A Rachael Flynn Mystery

A Touch Of Grace by Linda Goodnight – A Love Inspired Inspirational Romance – part of the BROTHERS BOND series

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Inspirational RITA Award Nominees!

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I’m proud to feature the RITA Award nominees for the inspirational category!

2008 RITA for Inspirational Romance Finalists

A Touch of Grace by Linda Goodnight
Harlequin Enterprises, Steeple Hill Love Inspired – (978-0-373-87426-2)
Allison Lyons, editor
Autumn Blue by Karen Harter
Center Street, – (1-931722-61-7)
Christina Boys, editor
Pursuit of Justice by Pamela Tracy
Harlequin Enterprises, Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense – (978 0 373 44236)
Krista Stroever, editor
Rainbow’s End by Irene Hannon
Harlequin Enterprises, Steeple Hill Love Inspired – (0-373-87415-4)
Melissa Endlich, editor
Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace
Random House Publishing, WaterBrook Multnomah – (9781590527474)
Julee Schwarzburg, editor
Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh
Random House Publishing, WaterBrook Multnomah – (1590529286)
Julee Schwarzburg, editor
Taming Rafe by Susan May Warren
Tyndale House Publishers, – (1414310188)
Karen Watson, editor
When the Morning Comes by Cindy Woodsmall
Random House Publishing, WaterBrook Multnomah – (9781400072934)
Shannon Hill, editor

The winner will be unveiled at the RWA San Francisco conference in July 2008!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Interesting Blog Talk Radio Interview

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This was an interesting interview with Marilynn Griffith and Sharon Ewell Foster. It’s about an hour, however, I found the information interesting enough that I listened to the entire thing! Once you access the link, it might take a little while for the interview to load. Also, I think I heard a few ads before the interview began. Here’s the link: Interview

Enjoy!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Flabbergasted By Ray Blackston

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Lad Lit– from Wikipedia: Lad-lit is genre of literature that focuses on young men in their 20s and 30s. The male equivalent to chick lit, prominent exponents are Nick Hornby and Tony Parsons.

Flabbergasted
by Ray Blackston
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Revell (May 1, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0800759095
ISBN-13: 978-0800759094
From Barnesandnoble.com
Synopsis
Ray Blackston’s novel will tickle your literary taste buds with a relational gumbo of quirky characters, stirred by the irreverent but sincere Jay Jarvis.

Jay is new in town, young and successful, and not afraid to plop down in a pew to scope out the females. What he finds is a lovely-yet-unusual missionary with a warped sense of humor and a wicked throwing arm. She and a wacky assortment of friends turn Jay’s perceptions of life upside down, launching events that leave him and those around him thoroughly Flabbergasted. By the way, when relational gumbo is on the menu, a South Carolina beach makes for great mood lighting.

About the Author
Ray Blackston of Greenville, South Carolina, worked as a buyer and a broker for eleven years before cashing in his modest 401k and leaving his corporate cubicle to write full time. He serves on the missions committee of Grace Church, has traveled to rural Ecuador on a summer missions program, and coaches his six-year-old nephew Action Jackson in T-ball.
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I purchased this book months ago from the discount bin at Barnes and Noble in North Carolina. I can honestly say that I believe this is the first book I’ve read that could be considered lad lit. I thought it was refreshing to read a book, written in first person, by a twenty-something male dating perspective. The book had some humorous moments, and as I read it, it got me to wondering: are we women really that bad when it comes to dating? I also wondered if singles rotate churches, like they do in this novel, in order to meet other singles? I’ve never heard about this practice, but I could just imagine people doing this to meet more single people. Reading this got me to reminiscing about my own single days, and the things I would do to meet guys. I did join singles ministry, placed an online Christian ad, but I never thought to rotate churches! The singles ministry in the novel had a number of male and female participants. However, the singles ministry I was involved with at my old home church, during my single days, only had about fourteen people…usually only one man showed up, sometimes there were two males, never more than that, though!

The only thing that bothered me about this novel is that Allie, Jay’s missionary love interest, has a disturbing habit of jokingly throwing food at people. This habit made me cringe because it’s so juvenile! It reminded me of something a young kid would do, or maybe a teenager, not a grown woman! She’ll throw shrimp, Fig Newtons, fruits, vegetables, whatever’s on hand! Every time I read about her throwing something, I would frown. Maybe it’s something that I just don’t get, but I have never met an adult who habitually throws food at people!

===POSSIBLE SPOILER BELOW===

Other than that, I thought the novel was an enjoyable, funny read. Jay goes to church to meet singles, but he ends up almost losing his life at one point, and questions his salvation!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Contests

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I hope everybody had a nice Easter holiday! I’m ecstatic because I’m off from my day job this entire week, and I’ll be at home, working on a manuscript to submit to an agent. This manuscript is a women’s fiction project with strong romantic elements.

I’m also a judge in ACFW’s (American Christian Fiction Writers) Genesis contest for unpublished writers. As I read through the submissions, I notice the authors are making the same mistakes in each entry, so I thought I’d discuss some things that new writers need to be aware of when submitting to the romance genre.

One of the issues I had with the submissions was that I’m reading the first few chapters of the manuscript, and the hero and heroine have not yet met. In a romance, you’ll need to have the man and woman to meet within the first few PAGES of the manuscript, if you don’t, it’s not a romance. I realize there are books out there advertised as romance where this does NOT happen, however, those are the exceptions to this rule.

Another issue I see is, which is related to the first issue, is that the author will spend the first few chapters focusing on internal thoughts or backstory for the main characters. Usually, the reader is not interested in seeing backstory or internal thoughts for the first twenty pages of a book! They want to see something to happen between the hero and heroine (if it’s a romance). Have them to meet in an exciting way, or in a major conflicting way! Does he appear at her office, trying to steal her job, her major sense of security! You need make something exciting to happen within that first page, that’ll hook the reader as well as the editor!

If your manuscript is not a romance, you don’t have to have the love interests to meet early in the story, but you still need to make those initial scenes exciting, and not bogged down with backstory and internal thoughts. You’ll need to make something exciting to happen that will capture your reader’s interest and hold it throughout the manuscript! All backstory is not bad, though. You’ll want the reader to know some things about your character’s background, however, this knowledge should be sprinkled throughout the manuscript in bits and pieces, not a huge informational dump at the beginning of the book! Believe me, with few exceptions, such dumps prove to be boring, making your reader want to fall asleep or put your book down.

If there is a major event that happens in the past that the reader needs to be aware of, then use a prologue, just be sure the prologue isn’t very long. The same rules apply to the prologue: make it exciting!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Books Are In The Mail!

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If you recently won a book on my blog, or if you’ve won my novel, First Mates, on another blog, I mailed those books out today using media mail rate.

Also, since spammers have been leaving silly messages with dumb links on my comments, I’ve decided to start moderating comments. I hate doing this because it’s something else to do with my already busy schedule, however, it was getting kind of old and cumbersome to keep going into my comments file on blogger to delete the spammer remarks.

I hope everybody has a great day!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

The Seventy (Or Seventy Two)

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Luke 10: 1, 9, 16-18 – From the New King James Version
The Seventy Sent Out
1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy (NOTE, SOME MANUSCRIPTS SAY SEVENTY-TWO) others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. 9 And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 16 He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

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This scripture made me stop and think. I didn’t know if readers wanted to read all of the verses in between, so I just copied and pasted the ones that I felt were related to what I wanted to say today. Can you imagine Jesus giving power to these 70appointees, allowing them to go from town to town, driving out demons in his name? It’s also important to note that Jesus told the 70 not to rejoice in their exorcizing abilities, but to focus on their eternal gift in heaven.

I can imagine how hard that would be. Can you envision, being able to drive out demons in Jesus’s name, and then not be exited about it? Instead of being astounded about your earthly ability, you would need to focus on living forever in heaven.

~Cecelia Dowdy~