Monthly Archives: November 2010

Sins Of The Mother By Victoria Christopher Murray

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Sins Of The Mother by Victoria Christopher Murray

**Note, although this book has an inspirational message, it’s a mainstream title.

Have the sins of the mother come upon the daughter?

Jasmine Larson Bush is finally living a drama-free life. She’s left her lying, cheating, stealing stripper days behind and is standing by her husband’s side as the first lady of one of the largest churches in New York City. The Bushes have been blessed with the best of everything—including two lovely children.

But just when Jasmine has committed her life completely to God, her daughter Jacqueline is kidnapped from a mall the day after Thanksgiving. The police and the church community join in the frantic search to find the four-year-old. As the days pass without any sign of her daughter, Jasmine begins to crack under the strain and turns to Brian Lewis, Jacqueline’s biological father, for solace.

Has Jasmine’s past finally caught up to her? Will her daughter be found or will Jasmine pay the ultimate price?

==
This book was kind of hard for me to read since I’m a mom. I wondered how I would react if someone took my child (who is five) away, and I don’t know where he is for weeks? I think I’d react much like the character, Jasmine, in Sins Of The Mother.

Jasmine has lived a sin-filled life. Going through previous VCM books, you’ll see that she’s slept with her best friend’s husband. She’s lied continuously, cheated, whored…a whole assortment of things and now she wonders if God is seeking vengeance
against her by allowing her daughter to be kidnapped.

Jasmine turns to her daughter, Jacquie’s, biological father, Brian Lewis for comfort. Brian looks just like Jacquie and being around Brian settles Jasmine’s mood a bit.

Meanwhile, Hosea, Jasmine’s husband, wonders about the attraction that Jasmine now harbors for Brian. Also, Brian is dealing with his own troubles. He’s desperate to win back Alexis, his ex-wife. His marriage folded because of his sexual addiction, and now that he’s cured, he’s determined to win Alexis back.

This book was a real page-turner. You’ll get through this book quickly as you read about the characters getting through the issues and drama in their lives. It was a very enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to VCM’s next book.

I also wanted to point out that if you like VCM then you should try Rhonda McKnight’s books. Victoria’s page-turning style reminded me of the books that I’d read by Rhonda Mcknight.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Question From A Writer

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Photo courtesy of Luigi Diamanti

Maria wrote to me with the following question:

Dear Cecelia,

I have written a Christian novel for children (middle graders), and I would greatly appreciate your advise on how to get commercially published. I am currently an unpublished author. My manuscript has been professionally edited, but I am new to the writing arena and don’t know much about how to get noticed by a publisher.
I’d appreciate any advice you can give me.

Maria, you’re off to a good start since you had your manuscript professionally edited. I did this for the FIRST TIME myself. Although I’m a commercially published novelist, and had to go through the editorial process with a publisher, I recently paid for editorial services on an unpublished manuscript and it improved my story a lot, and I’ll probably go through the same process with future manuscripts. I blogged about my experience briefly here.

From what I’ve heard, breaking into the YA market is harder than adult fiction. Why? I’ve heard that they don’t publish as many YA books as adult books. The first thing I’d do if I were you is go to a bookstore and see what publishers are publishing YA fiction. I’d then search for those publishers online to see what their submission guidelines are. Make sure your book would be a good fit for their YA imprint, though. You don’t want to send a sweet romantic YA novel to a publisher that appears to publish only YA suspense titles. You might also want to see which authors are published with the YA publisher that you’re targeting and see if they have any information on their website/blog about how they got published, or contact them to see what they say.

Find out if the publishers that you want to target will be attending any writers conferences. If they are, you might want to go and meet the editor to see if they may be interested in your story. Having a personal connection with the editor helps when you’re submitting your manuscript.

Also, pray about it! 🙂 Ask God to help you find a home for your work and listen and weigh the advice from other writers! Also, join a writers group in your area. Look online to see if there are any groups that specialize in YA fiction – or just fiction. The two groups that have helped me are Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. Being part of a professional organization can help put you in contact with published novelists, editors, and agents!

Hope my information helps!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Leviathan!

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Thanks so much to Charity, a respondant from this blog post, for sharing this scripture with me. Although I recall reading the book of Job, somehow, I forgot about the Leviathan chapter. Also, the Leviathan is mentioned in the following scriptures, too:
Psalm 74
Isaiah 27:1
Job 41

Job 41 – I’m only emphasizing a few verses. You should read the entire chapter!
1 “Can you draw out Leviathan[a] with a hook,
Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?
….
… 14 Who can open the doors of his face,
With his terrible teeth all around?
… 18 His sneezings flash forth light,
And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
19 Out of his mouth go burning lights;
Sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke goes out of his nostrils,
As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
21 His breath kindles coals,
And a flame goes out of his mouth.

It sounds like he’s a large, scaly, frightful dragon-like sea creature. My question is, did this creature really exist or is he just mentioned for symbolic reasons? Charity mentioned that this creature sounds like a dinosaur, and I have to agree with her.

The leviathan sounds more like a dinosaur than the nephilim, which another blog reader speculated about, stating that she thought nephilim were dinosaurs, but I’ve already stated that I totally disagree with that line of thought.

So, blog readers, what do you think? Did this fire/smoke breathing dragon-like sea creature really exist in the deep dark depths of the ocean?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Dinosaurs In The Bible?

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Sharon recently posted the following comment on this blog post about the Nephilim (these big people are still crossing my mind):

Hi Cecelia, I am so glad you posted this question. I have been wondering about the Nephilim myself. My pastor just jumps over it and says he doesn’t know.

But we do know for a fact that dinosaurs lived on the earth. They are not mentioned as dinosaurs in Genesis, but it is possible that the Nephilim were dinosaurs. I can imagine ancient people finding these huge bones and thinking they were giant people or even thinking they were
“gods from Mount Olympus”, thus providing the ideas that started Greek mythology.

Whether or not they were dinosaurs, it does make sense that they were not big enough for Noah’s Ark. Getting rid of giants would be a big favor to mankind, and God could have choosen the flood to get rid of these creatures.

My response?
I highly doubt that the Nephilim were dinosaurs. Why? Because if you read my post for the following day, you’ll see that I did some further research and that these giant people (Nephilim/Raphaites/etc. – they were known by various names) were actually very tall people. The giants/Nephilim pop up again later on in scripture and one of them was the last in a line of kings and the Bible describes the bed this giant slept on – I doubt a dinosaur would be crowned king. I have heard the alien theory (I believe somebody else commented about that on this post or on the next one). Also, I heard an author speak a long time ago. His name was Pat (can’t recall his last name), but he mentioned the Greek god theory during his speech, and I thought he sounded a bit ludicrous!

If anybody knows anything else about the Nephilim, feel free to post!

Also, wanted to mention that Christianbook.com has lowered the price again on my book! It’s now only $1.99! 🙂 Buy lots of copies for your friends and family members – you can use them as cheap stocking stuffers over the holidays! 🙂

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Christmas At Harrington’s By Melody Carlson

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Christmas At Harrington’s by Melody Carlson
Just in time for the holidays, comes Christmas at Harrington’s, a tender story about fresh starts from Melody Carlson, the bestselling author of The Christmas Bus.

In Carlson’s latest tale that will charm readers, Christmas is approaching, and Lena Markham finds herself penniless, friendless, and nearly hopeless. She is trying to restart her life after false accusations landed her in prison, but job opportunities are practically nonexistent.

When a secondhand red coat unexpectedly lands her a job as Mrs. Santa at a department store, Lena finally thinks her luck is changing. But can she keep her past a secret?

Full of redemption and true holiday spirit, Christmas at Harrington’s will be readers’ newest Christmas tradition.
Christmas at Harrington’s
by Melody Carlson
ISBN: 978-0-8007-1925-8
Available Oct. 2010; $15.99

I highly recommend this novel as a nice Christmas treat. I read it in one evening – even stayed up late to finish since I was enjoying the story so much.

After serving a prison term for a crime she didn’t commit, Lena Markham is now back in the world, and she’s about to make a fresh start in a new town. She lives in a boarding house where she befriends a single mother and her child. Thinking she has a job at a department store, she finds herself going to work, only to discover there’s some mix-up, and she ends up being hired as a Mrs. Claus.

Mrs. Claus ends up being a big hit at Harrington’s department store, and Lena is glad to have employment and she enjoys seeing the kids each day. However, how long can she keep her secret hidden – if people found out about her prison background, will it affect her whole future? Also, can she let go of the pain and bitterness that she harbors against her former husband and learn to accept God’s grace and forgiveness?

This is a heartwarming tale that involves a falsely accused woman, a little girl (Jemima), and an older woman, Moira, who seeks friendship with Lena and has the uncanny sense of knowing that Lena’s been through a lot of heartbreak. I highly recommend this book if you want a good Christian story to read during the holidays.

The only concern I had about this story is that I felt that there were a few loose ends that were left hanging with some of the secondary characters. But this is minor, and doesn’t affect the story overall.

Many thanks to Baker/Revell for providing me with a review copy!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Turkey Poll

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I was mentioning on Facebook that I’ve never cooked a turkey before. I’m not doing one this year either because we’re going away for Thanksgiving (as we always do). Since there’s only three of us in this house, we feel that an entire turkey would be too much food for us.

I thought it’d be fun for my blog readers to tell me what they’re doing, food-wise, for Thanksgiving? Are you baking a turkey? Do you have a favorite turkey recipe? Care to share it in the comments? What are you baking for side dishes and desserts? Are you having people over to your house or are you going away?

I’ll go first – we’re going away and I’m not making any food items for Thanksgiving! There will be plenty of food when we get there!

~Cecelia Dowdy~