Category Archives: Book Giveaways

Book Giveaway – YOU MUST FOLLOW THE RULES TO ENTER!

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THIS BOOK GIVEAWAY IS OVER. SEE THIS BLOG POST TO VIEW THE WINNER! STAY TUNED FOR OTHER BOOK GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCEMENTS IN THE FUTURE! 🙂

I’m hosting another book giveaway! ONE winner will receive the titles listed above. IF YOU WANT TO ENTER THE DRAWING YOU MUST DO TWO THINGS:

#1. You must join my mailing list! You can join my mailing list here:

If you’re already on my email list, then you can skip step one.

#2. You must comment on this blog post to enter and LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR BLOG POST – IF YOU DON’T LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR BLOG POST, THEN YOU WON’T BE ENTERED INTO THE CONTEST! I need an email address so that I can contact you if you win!

I’ll be drawing the winner within the next few weeks or so! 🙂

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Christmas Book Giveaway – YOU MUST FOLLOW THE RULES TO ENTER!

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! THE WINNER WAS ANNOUNCED HERE.

I’m hosting another Christmas book giveaway this year! ONE winner will win a box of Christmas books. You’ll see most of the titles that you’ll win at the beginning of this blog post. IF YOU WANT TO ENTER THE DRAWING YOU MUST DO TWO THINGS:

#1. You must join my mailing list! You can join my mailing list here:

If you’re already on my email list, then you can skip step one.

#2. You must comment on this blog post to enter and LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR BLOG POST – IF YOU DON’T LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR BLOG POST, THEN YOU WON’T BE ENTERED INTO THE CONTEST! I need an email address so that I can contact you if you win!

Also wanted to mention, that if you’re looking for some inexpensive stocking stuffers for Christmas, my novel collection, Chesapeake Weddings, is only $2.79 at Christianbook.com. Pick up a few to give to friends and family over the holidays!

I’ll be drawing the winner sometime over the next few weeks to ensure the winner gets the books in time to enjoy during the holidays! I will announce the winner’s first and last name and city and state on this blog. If you don’t want me to announce your full name, city, and state, on my blog then don’t enter the contest! I need to announce the winner publicly so that my blog readers will know that the contest is honest!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

July Book Giveaway!

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED! THE WINNER WAS ANNOUNCED ON THIS BLOG POST!














I’m giving away a box of books. You can see the titles listed above. To be entered into the drawing you must do the following TWO STEPS!

#1. You must join my email list by clicking the link below and filling out your information! If you’re already on my email list, then skip to step #2!

#2. You must leave a comment on this blog post with your email address. I need your email address so that I’ll have a way to contact you if you’re chosen as the winner. If I draw your name and you’re not on my email list, then you won’t be eligible for the drawing!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon – Book Giveaway

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THIS GIVEAWAY IS OVER – NO NEED TO LEAVE A COMMENT! THE WINNER WAS POSTED HERE.


If you want to enter the drawing, you must read Stephen Bly’s article and leave a comment about something you read in the article along with your email address! I’ll need your email address so that I can contact you to let you know if you’ve won! If you don’t refer to something in the article, then you won’t be entered into the drawing!

I’m pleased to host multi-published author Stephen Bly on my blog again! I found his article about research extremely interesting, especially the part about Research Through Memories! Stephen speaks about memories from the fifties. I fondly recall a lot of historic things that younger people don’t recall, mainly things in the seventies. Stephen has many memories for the fifties. Myself? I have many memories from the seventies. The seventies were fond times for me, filled with memories that I’d love to place into a book! 🙂

Read this very interesting article that Stephen Bly wrote, Fiction As Research:
Do They Sweat In Duke City?/Fiction As Research
By Stephen Bly
Copyright©2010

New Mexico heat blanketed Albuquerque that July like too many
covers in a stuffy cabin. . .the kind of day that you sweat from the
inside out and feel sticky dirt in places that you don’t ponder much
except in the shower.
From Cowboy For a Rainy Afternoon
Released: June 2010

Every novel’s got a place and time. That often means plenty of research. My next release, Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon, is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1954. So, I needed to know some things about a specific city, a state, and what the world was like that year.

Research Thru Travel
It’s tough, dirty work. . .but I love any time I can go to New Mexico. The only other site I’ve been that boasts similar layers of culture stacked one upon another: Rome. Yet, New Mexico’s still a cowboy state. From the Pecos River in the east to the Plains of San Agustin in the west, from the Sangre de Christo range in the north, to the “bootheel” in the south, it’s full of great ranching country. A perfect setting for a cowboy story.
My wife, Janet, and I drove up and down Historic Route 66 that runs through Albuquerque. It was known as the “Main Street of America” or the “Mother Road.” It was the primary route for those leaving the dust bowl of Oklahoma and moving to California during the Great Depression. Albuquerque was selected as a stop on the first transcontinental air route in the 1920s and Route 66 brought the first transcontinental motorists through the city.

Research Thru Study
Duke City is a nickname for Albuquerque, because it was named after Viceroy Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva, the Duke of Alburquerque. Later the spelling was changed because some influential person couldn’t pronounce the “R” in Alburquerque.
The cowboys in my story retire in Albuquerque, not Santa Fe, because even in 1954 the latter was becoming the artsy, celebrity spot it is today. These guys needed a cheap hotel and city amenities. So, Albuquerque suited them fine. Before there were retirement communities and senior citizen housing, some elderly lived in old downtown hotels. Well past their prime in attracting overnight guests, they catered to senior citizens who scraped by on something fairly new in the fifties: Social Security.
One of my favorite governors hails from New Mexico. Governor Lew Wallace authored the novel Ben-Hur (a movie made in 1959, starring Charleton Heston) and he also tried to negotiate with the notorious Billy the Kid. What an eclectic group of folks tramped the Old West.
A piece of historical tidbit. . .a hard thing for some readers to realize: in 1954 no one considered cigars or cigarettes or their second-hand smoke in any way harmful. That’s why you see so many actors and actresses lighting up in the movies of that period. Cowboys often carried peppermints, which were tasty, portable, and covered up the smell of such vices, at least so they thought.

Research Thru Learning the Language
The main challenge of fiction: the rhythm of the dialogue. I had to sit very still and listen to each character speak in order to get the timing right, along with the vocabulary.
Every era boasts its own unique language. Every region develops a dialect. For the writer, both can be learned through research and careful study. But tone, timing, and cadence can’t easily be taught. It’s better to be in your bones. A writer’s challenge is to develop instinct for tune as well as lyrics of speech. There has to be a natural flow.
To know the right lingo steps up a novel’s authenticity. In Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon I got to use a lot of the classic cowboy terms that got lost over the years. I tried to stick an interior explanation to explain a few that might confuse.
For instance, a McGee is cowboy slang for a 4-strand rope made of a maguey (century) plant.
A phrase often used on a cattle drive or roundup was “man at the pot.” That meant someone was at the coffee pot for a refill and that shout-out indicated the guy was to fill everyone’s cup.
To old cowboys, ‘nobby’ signified fine, expensive boots.
Pop/Grandpa would “do to ride the river with.” That’s the ultimate compliment for a cowboy. Crossing wild rivers with great herds of cattle exposed dangers for man and beast. Not a time to trust your safety to some rookie just learning the ropes.
“You never know the luck of a lousy calf”. . . one of my favorite cowboy sayings. Big, healthy, sturdy calves seem to fall of cliffs or get attacked by wolves. It’s the scrawny, worthless ones that live forever.
I’ve often wondered why we stopped using colorful words like ‘footpad.’ So called because of guys who pulled off their boots and snuck around in stocking feet, so no one would hear them.

Research Thru Memories
In 1954 an old man’s vision of feminine loveliness would be Bow, Grable, Monroe or Kelly. Grace Kelly in High Noon stole my own ten-year-old heart. However, I figured she wasn’t too smart because she couldn’t understand why Will Cane had to turn back. But I did. Shoot, that’s in a cowboy’s bones. But, my oh my, she surely was purdy.
My bedroom was stacked with White Owl cigar boxes, my granddad’s favorite cigar. He didn’t smoke them much; mainly he chewed them. And because I lived across the road from him, I got many of his boxes. Lots of childhood treasures can be stored in a cigar box.
I listened to Sergeant Preston on the radio. What memories. How I wanted to be a mountie and own a dog like King.
TV was a brand new technology in 1954. We hadn’t learned to sit comatose in front of one. . .yet.
One of the advantages of modern autos. . .they run so smooth there’s seldom a backfire. But those random air-shattering blasts from the old rigs added adventure to an otherwise ordinary, routine day. Me and my young pals surmised the sound as a gun blast from a bank robber making his get-away, even though my hometown had no bank. That fact didn’t darken my vivid 10-year-old imagination.
The summer of 1954, in Albuquerque, a 10-year-old boy becomes A Cowboy For a Rainy Afternoon.
Maybe I wasn’t born 100 years too late.

Stephen Bly
http://www.BlyBooks.com
http://www.twitter.com/BlyBooks.com

Available Now: Creede of Old Montana (hardback, Center Point)
Coming June 2010: Cowboy For A Rainy Afternoon (hardback, Center Point)
Find these books at www.Amazon.com or www.BlyBooks.com

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Interview And Book Giveaway For Author Sherryle Kiser Jackson!

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Today I’m hosting author Sherryle Kiser Jackson on my blog! After you’ve read the interview and book summary, leave a comment to be entered into the drawing for her book! I’m giving away two copies!However, you must make a comment about something you read in Sherryle’s interview or in the book summary to be entered! If you don’t, I won’t enter your name into the drawing! I met Sherryle about a year and a half ago at a booksigning event in Baltimore and she’s a nice person and I’m glad to feature her on my blog today!

1. Your book deals with the issue of a single mother raising her teenaged son alone. Do you see this situation a lot within the school system? Did you choose this conflict because it affects so many women today?

My characters, and the circumstances they find themselves in were very real for me. I tried to portray a busy, hardworking single mother who must look for resources within the “village” to help raise her teenaged son. She has been “holding it down”, but like many mothers she began to loose touch in the hustle and bustle of life. Deidre, my main character, like many mothers, gets that inevitable wake up call when her son starts to get in trouble in and out of school.

If it takes a village to raise a child, ideally the father should be fall among that village. I think I also show the very vital part the father plays in the life of his child even though he and the mother may no longer be together.

2. Can you share your publication journey with us? How long were you writing before you secured a contract with Urban Christian and did you have to obtain a literary agent before submitting?

My first novel, Soon And Very Soon was published in 2007 by Urban Christian, but it took over ten years to get it to publication. At that time, it was a shell of what it is now. In my zeal to get it published I shopped it around to traditional publishing houses. I knew nothing about target markets or the genre of Christian Fiction. I received a lot of rejection letters. Some I still have to this day. In retrospect, I know I was blessed in that process. I have some of the best rejection letters! Some said the narrative was flawed, characters were underdevolped, but most said the storyline itself, about two pastors that marry and combine churches, was promising. After licking my wounds for awhile, I had a trail of breadcrumbs to follow, especially when I bought a book called, Temptation by Victoria Christopher Murray. I knew that there was a market for my book. I joined a fabulous workshop of writers that met twice a month at Sisterspace And Books when it was located on U Street in D.C. and I got to work on the story. I sent it off again around 2003 and signed with a major publishing house that held up the book for two years then dropped it from its’ roster before publication. Finally a friend of mine attended the Hurston Wright Conference in DC and in her networking found out information about a new imprint devoted to Christian Fiction under the Urban Books umbrella. She gave me the information in 2006, and I submitted my manuscript. Shortly thereafter, I signed a two book deal for Urban Books/Urban Christian/Kensington.

Wow! I can certainly understand all that you went through! I also read Temptation by VCM and it’s a great book! It’s hard for writers to deal with rejection, especially when it appears that a contract is being granted by a publishing house, and then it falls through! I kind of know what that’s like because I had a similiar experience years ago!

3. You are a teacher who is married with children. How do you balance your writing time and working hours with your family duties?

Do I balance it? It is crrrrraaaaaaazzzy! Despite my “day job” and family, I am in that place where one book is on the shelf that you want to move and publicize, one book is set to come out in less than 6 months that you have to ramp up, and one book is in my Brain that the editor is waiting for me to get down in electronic format. I don’t know if you ever balance it. It is daily prioritizing because multi tasking is an illusion for me. I don’t do that well. I have to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Tell me about it! I can certainly understand how hard it is to prioritize your book publishing duties along with your work and family! It’s hard!

4. Who are some of your favorite authors?

Victoria Christopher Murray writes fiction with a beatiful mix of inspiration and pure entertainment.
Pearl Cleage writes so intelligently. Her characters are intelligent and introspective and real. Sometimes writer’s create fantasy characters on the extremes of life. She writes from the SOUL.
Terry McMillian set it off for me. No one writes dialogue like she does. The voice in her pieces have their own cadence, fast pace, gritty and real.
Eric Jerome Dickey writes hot, blood-coarsing, page turning adrenaline.

Yes, I’ve read all of those authors except for Pearl Cleage (I’ll be sure to check her out.) I also believe Terry McMillian set the stage for more African-American authors to get published!

5. What’s your favorite scripture?

Wow, there are so many. I am so thankful for my home training in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School because verses will come to me when I am writing and I go back and study. Romans 8, the whole chapter, is particularly special to me. Like John 3:16, it reminds me of how special I am to God. It reminds us that we are joint heirs with Christ and that he predestined, called and justified us for a purpose. Read it; it’s good stuff!

Yes, John 3:16 is one of my personal favorites, too! Okay, here’s some information about Sherryle’s book! Read it and then leave a comment to be entered into the drawing!

The Manual by Sherryle Kiser Jackson

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Urban Books; Original edition (October 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1601629354
ISBN-13: 978-1601629357

Need a manual on raising children and having healthy relationships? Refer to the Bible. That’s what Deidre Collins’ inner spirit is telling her to do now that Andre, her son’s father, is back in town after deserting them eight years ago.

At fourteen years old, her son, DeAndre, is struggling with his own issues peer pressure, problems at school, and fi guring out how to navigate his first crush. When DeAndre gets suspended from school for ten days, Andre sees it as the perfect opportunity to get to know his son—and to get closer to Deidre. Can this couple overcome the past for the sake of their son’s future?

It was nice having you on my blog, Sherryle, and everybody, don’t forget to leave a comment for the book drawing! You also need to leave an email address so that I can contact you if you win!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

March Book Giveaway!

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***This giveaway is now closed! I’ve announced the winner here.

First, I’d like to mention that my book will be released in a few weeks! You can still pre-order your copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christianbook.com(it’s $2.00 cheaper here), as well as other online bookstores!

Now, onto the book giveaway! I’ll be giving away the following books for the month of March!

1. The Country House Courtship by Linore Rose Burkand ***Note, I will be posting a review for this book later this month!
Linore Burkard’s fans devoured her first two Regency novels Before the Season Ends and The House in Grosvenor Square. Now, as her third novel opens, the year is 1818 and Miss Beatrice Forsythe is determined to marry well. After all, her sister, Ariana, married The Paragon, Mr. Phillip Mornay, five years earlier–which all but guarantees that she, Beatrice, can also make a famous match to a wealthy man.

But her sister and husband have disappeared from high society as they raise a family at their country estate. Can Beatrice persuade them to chaperone her in London? And what about Beatrice’s business with the curate, Mr. O’Brien, whom she rashly promised to marry years earlier. At seventeen now, she has no wish to marry a mere clergyman—despite his agreeable countenance and gentle, understanding ways.

When Mr. Tristan Barton becomes the tenant of the Manor House, Beatrice’s hopes seem to have found their object. But when Ariana falls gravely ill, secrets come to light, motives are revealed, and the pretenses that are easy to keep up in the darkness begin to crumble. Hearts are bared, truths uncovered, and when all is said and done, a country house courtship like no other has occurred!

As always, Linore Burkard delivers “spirited romance for the Jane Austen soul.”

2.
Once A Thief by Frances Devine ***Note, I will be posting a review for this book later this month!When an unscrupulous man offers Danielle Grayson shelter and food for her and her brother, she sees no other option, even though it means joining Sutton in his crimes. But a stroke of good fortune provides Danielle refuge with a wealthy Christian family. Sutton doesn’t mind as long as she steals from them. Danielle must choose between betraying those who helped her or seeing her brother harmed. When her deception surfaces, will Danielle return to crime or will she turn to Blake Nelson -and God-for rescue?

3. Until Tomorrow by Jeri Odell
As a famous model, Alexandria Eastridge seems to have it all, but it took more than hard work for her to make it in the modeling world. Lexi has given up her body, her morals, and her heart. Will fleeing LA and going home to her grandparents in Lake Tahoe help her find her true self again? Fireman Cody Cooper has never met Lexi, but he’s pretty sure he’s in love with her. As he’s grown close to his elderly neighbors, he’s learned all about their beloved granddaughter. How could he help but fall for the beautiful Christian girl they describe? Surely the tabloid stories about her are just sensationalism. But once Cody actually meets Lexi, he begins to think the tabloids might be true. Then an arsonist strikes his peaceful community and all evidence points to Lexi. What was Cody ever thinking falling for this girl?

4.
Secrets And Lies by Rhonda Mcknight ***Note, I will be posting a review for this book within the next day or so!

Faith Morgan is struggling with her faith. Years of poor communication and neglect leave her doubting that God will ever fix her marriage. When a coworker accuses her husband, Jonah, of the unthinkable, Faith begins to wonder if she really knows him at all, and if it’s truly in God’s will for them to stay married.
Pediatric cardiologist Jonah Morgan is obsessed with one thing: his work. A childhood incident cemented his desire to heal children at any cost, even his family, but now he finds himself at a crossroads in his life. Will he continue to allow the past to haunt him, or find healing and peace in a God he shut out long ago?

In her debut novel, Secrets and Lies, Rhonda McKnight delivers unforgettable characters and page-turning drama about a couple whose troubled marriage is pushed to its limits amidst secrets, lies, and an enemy set on revenge.

5. Dreams That Won’t Let Go by Stacy Hawkins Adams

6. Katy’s New World by Kim Vogel Sawyer

You must leave your email address in your comment in order to be entered into the drawing! Also, as usual, by entering the contest, you agree to be a part of my mailing list! I don’t send mass emails very frequently, so you won’t have to worry about receiving too much correspondence from me!

~Cecelia Dowdy~