Monthly Archives: August 2010

Love Finds You In Miracle Kentucky By Andrea Boeshaar

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Love Finds You In Miracle Kentucky by Andrea Boeshaar

“Anything can happen when you live in Miracle…” After her life in Chicago falls apart, Meg Jorgenson arrives in the small town of Miracle, Kentucky, with plans to start over. She moves in with a grandmother she barely knows and takes a teaching position at the local elementary school. Meg soon garners the interest of Miracle’s eligible bachelors, but it’s eight-year-old Cammy Bayer who instantly wins her heart. Cammy has spent most of her young life in a wheelchair, but she firmly believes that God will miraculously allow her to walk again someday. Although Meg admires the girl’s optimism, she pities Cammy for believing something so impossible.

Vance Bayer has always made Cammy his first priority. Though delighted by the attention his daughter receives from her pretty new teacher, the shy widower is embarrassed by Cammy’s not-so-subtle attempts to play matchmaker.

Both Meg and Vance want the best for Cammy, but will they see eye-to-eye when it comes to an experimental surgery that might grant Cammy the use of her legs? Will they open their minds to the miracle of healing and their hearts to the miracle of love?

Love Finds You™ is a series of full-length romance novels that give readers a peek into the flavor of local life across the United States. The novels are uniquely named after actual American towns with quirky, interesting names that inspire romance and are just plain fun! This means that each fictional story draws on the compelling history or unique character of a real place.

Our fresh, original love stories will feature everything from romance kindled in small towns, to old loves lost and found on the high plains, to new loves discovered at exciting vacation getaways.

This book was a charming, romantic, feel-good read. The book had great characters that you’ll grow to love, and you’ll really fall for Cammy, the little girl who is wheelchair-bound due to an accident.

Widower Vance Bayer is still grieving over the loss of his wife due to a car accident. This accident has also left his daughter bound to a wheelchair. Caring for his crippled daughter and working full time takes a toll on Vance, and Cammy’s new third-grade teacher creates an interesting twist to his busy days.

Meg Jorgenson runs away from Chicago, wanting to leave an emotionally-destructive relationship and to seek greener pastures in the small, quaint town of Miracle Kentucky. When she arrives, she finds herself getting to know her grandmother, who she’s never gotten to spend much time with over the years since her parents’ bitter divorce. Meg also finds herself getting to know the townspeople. She’s not used to staying in one place and forming personal relationships with others, however, in Miracle, she finds her life taking a turn for the better, both romantically and spiritually.

This book was a good, enjoyable read and I highly recommend it. I enjoyed and savored every page, and I’m sure you’ll probably enjoy it too.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Intervention by Terri Blackstock

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Intervention by Terri Blackstock
Barbara Covington has one more chance to save her daughter from a devastating addiction, by staging an intervention. But when eighteen-year-old Emily disappears on the way to drug treatment—and her interventionist is found dead at the airport—Barbara enters her darkest nightmare of all.

Barbara and her son set out to find Emily before Detective Kent Harlan arrests her for a crime he is sure she committed. Fearing for Emily’s life, Barbara maintains her daughter’s innocence. But does she really know her anymore? Meanwhile, Kent has questions of his own. His gut tells him that this is a case of an addict killing for drugs, but as he gets to know Barbara, he begins to hope he’s wrong about Emily.

The panic level rises as the mysteries intensify: Did Emily’s obsession with drugs lead her to commit murder—or is she another victim of a cold-blooded killer?

This book is an awesome example of motherly love. Barbara is still grieving over the loss of her husband from a couple of years ago. Her spouse’s death has caused her daughter, Emily, to “act out” and get addicted to drugs. Emily’s behavior has gotten so bad that Barbara finds that she has to stage an intervention to save her child. The interventionist arrives and Emily freaks out, not wanting to hear the letters that her mother and her brother have written about her irratic and destructive behavior. However, once Emily arrives via plane, with the interventionist at the airport where the drug recovery center is located, minutes later, the interventionist is found dead and Emily is missing.

In spite of Emily’s reputation being harmed since the press identifies her as the apparant killer, Barbara knows better. She knows her daughter would never kill, in spite of her recent drug addictions and strange behavior. Barbara is determined to find her daughter, her gut telling her that her child is still alive. Her fourteen year old son Lance also helps with trying to find his sister, not believing his sibling is capable of murder.

This book takes a strange twist as we learn about a detective’s lack of faith in God, and about a demented doctor’s quest to get revenge against the drug recovery facility that “killed” his daughter.

As with Blackstock’s books, this was a suspenseful read that you won’t want to put down – a real page turner.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Rooms By James Rubart

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Rooms by James Rubart

On a rainy spring day in Seattle, young software tycoon Micah Taylor receives a cryptic, twenty-five-year-old letter from a great uncle he never knew. It claims a home awaits him on the Oregon coast that will turn his world inside out. Suspecting a prank, Micah arrives at Cannon Beach to discover a stunning brand new nine-thousand square foot house. And after meeting Sarah Sabin at a nearby ice cream shop, he has two reasons to visit the beach every weekend.

When bizarre things start happening in the rooms of the home, Micah suspects they have some connection to his enigmatic new friend, Rick, the town mechanic. But Rick will only say the house is spiritual. This unnerves Micah because his faith slipped away like the tide years ago, and he wants to keep it that way. But as he slowly discovers, the home isn’t just spiritual, it’s a physical manifestation of his soul, which God uses to heal Micah’s darkest wounds and lead him into an astonishing new destiny.

I got this book as a free Kindle download awhile ago. I don’t own a regular Kindle. I have the free Kindle for PC. Hopefully, I’ll own a Kindle by Christmas! 🙂

I found this book somewhat appealing since I’m a big fan of The Twilight Zone. This show was on before I was born and I watch reruns on New Year’s and Fourth of July almost every year.

Rooms reminded me of one long Twilight Zone episode. The book was somewhat intriguing and I wanted to see if Micah and Sarah ended up together at the end and I also wanted to see the outcome of Micah’s faith journey. This book has a great inspirational message that I believe most readers of Christian fiction would love.

Micah is shocked when rooms start appearing in the house he’s inherited from his crazy Uncle Archie. He goes to bed and wakes up and sees a room that was NOT in the house the day before! Although I thought the concept was interesting, during the first half of the book, I felt the situation was somewhat repetitious as Micah found room after room after room…the same situation over and over again. Also, when Micah talks to the mysterious voice (his own voice/alter ego), I felt it was a little bit repetitious too, hearing Micah talk and reason with himself.

Also, when the book talked about the parallel universe, it kind of reminded me of another sci-fi type book entitled Eli. I read Eli several years ago and I recall the book dealt with a parallel universe.

I was kind of puzzled about why Rooms was compared to Dekker’s and Peretti’s book House. Rooms was intriguing, the way the Twilight Zone is intriguing because you’re dealing with supernatural/unexplainable elements, but I didn’t find the book scary at all.

I wanted to see what happened in the book, but I found the writing to be corny. I felt the dialogue was somewhat clichéd and some of the situations that were supposed to be serious felt somewhat contrived to me. Also, I noticed the author used dated references like: Popeye, Foghorn Leghorn, and Candid Camera for example. I’m not sure younger readers would get the gist of what the author was talking about with the dated references.

This book does show you that you can’t rely on riches and wealth, only your faith in God, the one and only true God, to save you.

I think the story would’ve been more powerful if Micah ran a company that was distasteful to a lot of Christians, like, a porn company or an illegal company. I think the message would have come through better if Micah ran a company like that, and then learned that his ways were distasteful to the Lord? I think it was hard for me to grasp that Micah gave up his software company for God…almost making the reader feel that the author is pointing out that riches are distasteful to God, even if they are legal, like Micah’s software company.

This book was outside my regular genre of pleasure reading (romance, women’s fiction, regular suspense) but overall, Rooms was an interesting story and you’ll want to know what happens at the end.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Back To School!

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We’re getting ready to send our child to school this Monday. It’ll be his first day of kindergarten and we’ve been buying uniforms and supplies. We’re still not done with all of our purchases. If you recall, on this blog post, we grappled with sending our son to public or private school. We decided to send him to a private Christian school. I tried to talk to the public school about the curriculum and to the new kindergarten teacher….but all I got was the runaround! 🙁

I was already having trouble with the public school and our son wasn’t even enrolled yet! I couldn’t imagine what would happen once he was a student – I was already frustrated enough! 🙁

So far, I’m pleased that this school has answered my questions and has shown me their curriculum. I was satisfied with what my son would be learning during his first year of school. His first day is this Monday, August 23.

I have some books that I need to review for this blog. I’ll be doing that soon.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

AARTI WON!!

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I’ve been watching the competition for The Next Food Network Star and last night was the finale and Aarti won! I didn’t think she would win because she was riddled with a LOT of self doubt. She had more self doubt than Herb and Tom, the other finalists. I was wondering if she had more self doubt because she’s a woman? From my experience, it seems that women seem to have more self doubt then men? It appears that’s the way our culture is set up. This is just my opinion and I have nothing to back this up!

Her show sounds interesting. I’m looking forward to watching it.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Nobody Knows The Day Or The Hour…

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I read Jason Boyett’s blog regularly, and this blog post brought back memories. I’ve talked about my Jehovah’s Witness upbringing a little bit on my blog. I was raised a JW, had to stop attending when I was twelve. I recall when I was a freshman in college, I started to study with the JWs again and the person who studied with me told me that: “I was wasting all of my time on my education and I wouldn’t get a chance to use it.” After all The New Order (A JW term for an apocolyptic event) was coming, we needed to be prepared for this. The generation of 1914 would not pass away before this big event happened, and I was not even ready – I hadn’t dedicated my life to Jehovah (their term for baptism) and I wasn’t doing enough works for my Eternal Life On Paradise Earth (another JW term).

At the time, the JW philosophy was that higher education was not necessary and that it was a waste of time and not recommended. I was eighteen, and told that I needed to put more time in in order to gain my Eternal Life. It boiled down to: stop spending so much time in school and start knocking on doors and help us to gain new members. I was glad I didn’t take their advice. My life would have taken a deep dive if I had. It was also disheartening that the JWs didn’t share the fact with new converts that they’d had false prophesies in the past and the current 1914 generation prophecy was part of this pattern. I had to discover this myself reading literature about the JWs that they wouldn’t approve of my reading. (JWs don’t like for their members to read other literature about them. They only want you to read their literature published through the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society). Sometimes, when members leave or get kicked out of the organization, they publish what the current JWs call apostate literature. A current JW is forbidden from reading the writings of a former member. The apostate literature will sometimes tell of the past false predictions that the current JWs don’t want new converts to know about.

Anyway, it makes me sad when people try to predict Christ’s coming. For the false prophets that scour the earth – I just wish they’d stop with the prophesying because they’re not very good at it and they’re always WRONG!! After all, the scriptures state:

Matthew 24:36-44

The Day and Hour Unknown
36″No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42″Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

I just wish the false prophets would remember that scripture before they attempt their next prediction!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Final Touch By Brandilyn And Amberly Collins

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I mentioned this book a few days ago. I’d promised to provide a review later. Well, I finished the book and I really enjoyed it. It’s a quick suspenseful read and I think most young adults will be able to finish the book in a day or so.

In this final book of the Rayne Tour Series, on her parents’ wedding day, young Shaley O’Connor finds herself kidnapped by a much-older, unattractive man. She figures everything will work out because her parents will just pay the ransom. However, her kidnapper stresses that he didn’t do this for money – he’s starting a cult and Shaley will be his bride. Talk about sickening! If somebody had delivered that news to be if I were a young woman, I think I’d be terrified and physically ill!

This book was a page-turner as police, Shaley’s best friend, and Shaley’s parents try to find her. The story also takes you on the journey that Shaley and her kidnapper take, on their way to the new location of the cult.

If you like YA, suspenseful fiction, then you don’t want to miss this book!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Questions From A Writer

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Brianna sent me the following questions:
I have a few questions about getting published commercially. First do I need an agent? Second what is the process?

I answered this question last June on this blog post. Read that post, word for word. Also, be sure to study the market. What kinds of books do you like to read? What are publishers putting out on the bookshelves? Getting commercially published takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Sometimes, when I meet people who say they want to commercially publish a book, they’re not really serious about it. I’ve even noticed this at some writers’ conferences I’ve attended over the years. I’ve met writers who attend every year, yet, they never finish writing a book, they never submit anything to publishing houses. I’ve even given unpublished writers my advice to join a writers group that focuses on the type of fiction that they’d like to get published – to help them glean a contract from a commercial publisher. I’ve had a few to state that those writers groups were not helpful when they’d joined, and after some gentle probing, I discovered that the unpublished writer had never submitted anything…ANYWHERE! This proved to me that the writer was not really serious about pursuing publication if they’d joined the group, said the group was not helpful, and then never submitted. How would you know if the advice given by these groups is not helpful if you’re not even submitting your material? It’s a process and a writer can’t land a contract unless they’re submitting to editors, to agents….to somebody!

Also, it’s somewhat unsettling to meet those who say they want to publish a book, but they don’t read very much. In my opinion, people like this are not real authors. If a writer is serious about pursuing commercial publication, then that person is an avid reader. For example, since I can recall, I’ve spent a great deal of my spare time with my nose in a book. Reading is always (with few exceptions) one of the favored past-times of those who commercially publish, and for those who are seriously pursuing commercial publication. An acquiring editor or agent would frown upon someone submitting a novel for publication only to discover that this person doesn’t read. Also, I’d think the writing would be somewhat sub-par and sub-standard – how would you manage to write a good novel if you don’t even read them? Read a lot and write a lot. I saw this video of Stephen King awhile back and he gives the same advice.

Brianna also asked:
Lastly do you know how to submit material for a movie?

My response?
I have NO IDEA, and if you find out how to successfully submit material for a movie AND actually land a deal that gets your story onto the silver screen, then you let ME know! LOL!

~Cecelia Dowdy~