Author Archives: Cecelia Dowdy

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

Winner!

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The winner of this box of books is:

Jordan Sims – Columbia, SC

Jordan, I will be mailing your books out to you later this week! Thanks for visiting my blog and for entering the contest!

~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~

Finding Jeena By Miralee Ferrell

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I mentioned this book on this blog post, but promised a review later.

I thought this book was good, and it also shows the moral that we can’t rely too much on money and finances. I know it’s easy to fall into a trap of relying on money and worldly goods during our daily lives, but, we need to learn to rely on our faith in God in order to make our lives complete.

Jeena Gregory is sitting on top of the world – or so she thinks. She has a great, new coveted job, she had a nice home, she’s financially secure. All of her material needs are met, so, why should she rely on God? Having faith in the Lord is for weaklings and she doesn’t need Jesus in her life. However, Jeena’s world slowly crumbles and her finances dwindle and there’s nothing she can do about it. She’s in trouble with the law, through no fault of her own, and she doesn’t know who to turn to. God tries to get Jeena’s attention and it takes awhile for Jeena to listen.

A good portion of this book took place at a women’s homeless shelter. I emailed the author, Miralee Ferrell, about the setting:

You did a great job creating the setting of the women’s homeless shelter. What kind of research did you have to do for that type of setting? Did you visit a shelter, or did you talk to people who were in that situation and they were able to describe what it was like in a women’s shelter?

This is the author’s response:
My sister worked for several years at a men’s shelter where they had a long term program similar to the one I depict. There was also a women’s shelter run by the same group and she put me in touch with a woman who volunteered there. I visited the men’s shelter but was unable to visit the women’s, but had several phone calls with the volunteer, who’d also lived at that same shelter before turning her life around. She lined me out on the rules the women had to follow, the class and work requirements, etc. She was much like Jeena in that she was a working woman who made some very poor choices in her life that caused her to lose not only her home, but her family and end up on the streets. She had a hard time fitting in at the shelter and only made a couple of friends, as most of the women didn’t trust her since she came from a different world than what they had known.

One reason I was drawn to this book was because the author focused on money and financial matters, a subject that I enjoy exploring in my own writing. A very good read with a slightly suspenseful thread.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Writers Conference At Washington DC’s Howard University

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I’m participating in a conference on Saturday, August 14, at Howard University’s Divinity School. Here’s a video link about the conference as well as the address:

Video Link

National Christian Writers Conference at Howard University
B. E. Mays Hall
Howard University
2400 Sixth Street NW
Washington, DC 20059
August 14, 2010

If you come, be sure to grab me and say hello!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

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