I’m exhausted. I’m trying to finish up a manuscript that an agent requested awhile back. I’ll be posting another writing-related question and topic within the next week.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Thanks so much to all who are entering the Christmas Book Giveaway. As of this morning, there are 64 comments. Somebody mentioned that they didn’t see any rules for the giveaway, but they want to be entered. In order to be entered in the giveaway, you need to leave your email address in your comment, or your email address must be accessible through your blogger ID. If you comment, without leaving an email address, and your email address is not visible on blogger, then you WON’T be entered. If there’s no email address for me to access, there would be no way for me to contact you if you do win.

Several have said that it was generous of me to purchase these books and give them away. These books are brand new, and I did purchase them, but, I also want to build up my e-mail list from doing the book giveaways. Therefore, if you enter the drawing, you’re giving me permission to add your email address to my mailing list. I only send out mass emails via Constant Contact a few times a year, so, if you enter, you won’t have to worry about being bombarded with massive amounts of email from me.

I’ve noticed there are some who entered the Christmas Book Giveaway, but have unsubscribed from my Constant Contact email list. If you’ve been on my mailing list, then unsubscribed, then want to enter this giveaway, you won’t be entered. Reason being, you have to be willing to be a part of my mailing list in order to be entered into the drawing. Since I use Constant Contact, if a person unsubscribes, I can’t resubscribe that person myself – Constant Contact won’t allow that. I’m not sure if you can try and re-subscribe on your own on Constant Contact after you’ve unsubscribed?

Final “rule” is if you win, you automatically give me the right to post your first and last name on my blog, along with your city and state of residence, announcing you as the winner. I want to keep this contest honest, so I have to annouce the winner on this blog. In the past, I’ve had a few people to get disgruntled when they see their first and last name on my blog, then they’ll ask me to remove their last name from my blog post. I’ve started stating my intentions of posting the first and last name when I post the contest. If you don’t want your first and last name posted on my blog if you win, then don’t enter the contest!

And, last thing, even if you don’t win, I wanted to tell you about how I came across these great books at a reasonable price! If you don’t win the books featured on my blog, you still might have some spare change in your wallet to purchase these! Christianbook.com has some great sets of books for a cheap price – this is where I purchased the books for my giveaway:

Set of nine Christmas books for $9.99!

Set of four Christmas books for $7.99!

Set of four Christmas books for $7.80!

Set of six Christmas books for $9.99!

Notice that some of these sets overlap, so if you order more than one set, you might want to make sure that you’re aware that you may be purchasing some books twice! No, I don’t work for or represent Christianbook.com! I’m just being a nice gal and letting you know about these great deals! I don’t think I could have afforded such a large Christmas book giveaway if I’d had to pay full price for these novels! I’m not sure how long these books will be available at this low price!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Okay, I have a couple of things to blog about! First, the winner of the October Book Giveaway is:
Michelle Tuller – Salida, CA
Michelle, I should be snail mailing your novels to you sometime this weekend!

I’ll be posting a special Christmas Book Giveaway around the first of November. Be sure to check back later for details about that, or subscribe to my blog to ensure that you don’t miss any of these great blog posts!

Also, since I occasionally purchase books from Christianbook.com, they’ll send me
e-mails about different sale items in stock. I recently found out that the following two books are selling for only 99 cents each:

Alabama by Kay Cornelius

and

A Texas Legacy Christmas by Diann Mills

You still have to pay $3.99 for postage for these books, BUT, since they are only 99-cents each, you could always order several copies and use them as Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers! Think about it! From what I can see, you can order several and still pay the same amount in postage! I’m not sure how long they’ll be for sale, but I rarely see books this size selling for less than a dollar! You can’t beat that price!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

I was talking to one of the parents at my son’s daycare today. He told me that he wanted to get his wife an e-reader and that she wanted a Kindle. However, he mentioned that Barnes And Noble just released their new e-reader today, and he wondered if he should get that for her instead.

The conversation got me to thinking…I’ve never tried an e-reader before! I love books, the feel, the smell, the look…I can’t imagine reading a book on a screen. I’m old-fashioned and I enjoy the actual, honest-to-goodness paper product in my hand. Maybe I’ll need to borrow someone’s e-reader one day just to see what all the hoopla is about!

Do any of you use an e-reader? Do you like it? Which one do you use and what are the benefits of the different e-book readers available? Do you miss the feel, smell, and look of a print book? Inquiring minds want to know!

Click on the image above to enlarge! I think it’s beautiful!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

TV Land is hosting a Brady Bunch Marathon this weekend for the 40th anniversary of the show! I’ve been having a blast of a time looking at those episodes. Although I do recall seeing them weekly in the early seventies when I was like, five or six, (I recall it coming on either on Friday or Saturday night), I really grew to love the show watching re-runs over the years. I’ve seen them so many times that I can even recite the lines on a lot of the episodes. The show is corny, but I love watching it!

Pure nostalgia!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

I was going to post a book review today, but, I’m tired, so I’ll do it another day. The book is called What The Bayou Saw by Patti Lacy. Excellent read! I’ll be posting a full review soon!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

My hubby and I celebrated six years of marriage today! Here’s pics of the roses that he sent to me! 🙂

Since we were away for church and child activities most of the weekend, we hope to celebrate more next weekend!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Take a moment to pray for those who lost loved ones on the anniversary of this horrific day.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

I’ve got a recipe for apple cake that I’ll be sharing soon. Was gonna do it today, but, I’m tired, and don’t feel like doing a full blog post!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

SHOULD CHRISTIANS WATCH SOAP OPERAS PODCAST

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you enjoy soap operas then you should try Rocky Road Dreams by CECELIA DOWDY. Rocky Road Dreams is about a lawyer named Kyle Baxter. Kyle is on a month-long Christmas hiatus from his job. He rents a house on the Outer Banks for his extended vacation. Melanie Richards, his childhood friend, lives across the street. When they were kids, Melanie had a crush on Kyle’s identical twin brother Keith. Kyle never thought he stood a chance with Melanie since she was smitten with his brother. Keith is now married and both Kyle and Melanie are single.

Will Melanie give him a chance?

Kyle’s mom died when he was three and he barely remembers her. He’s determined to find out more about his mom. As Melanie and Kyle reconnect during the holiday season they take a long road trip during a snowstorm so that Kyle can find answers to his questions about his mother. The road trip is also something that Melanie must do so that she can save her business. See ceceliadowdy.com/books or click on the link at the end of this blog post to purchase Rocky Road Dreams. Rocky Road Dreams is available on Amazon.

***Update – 9/22/2019 – see the end of this blog post for the update

The other day, my husband sent me this link to an article stating that the soap opera, The Guiding Light, will be canceled after 72 YEARS ON THE AIR…this soap opera pre-dates television (I’m assuming it started as a radio show)! He sent me the article because he knows that I used to watch soap operas – but I’ve never watched The Guiding Light.

A few years ago, I blogged about soap operas here.

After I wrote that blog post (I was mostly talking about The Young And The Restless on that post) I stopped watching soap operas. I got into a time crunch and the soap operas didn’t make my TO DO list.

I started watching soap operas in high school because I was bored. I lived in a remote rural area. During the summertime, there was really no place to go. My mom didn’t drive, my dad was at work all day, I had no money, and I had no car to drive. I spent my summer days walking around the neighborhood, reading books, and watching soap operas! Since I read books so quickly – I practically inhaled them, I got most of my titles from the bookmobile that came to town every two weeks. I also fondly remember watching General Hospital while Luke and Laura fell in love and out of love. I recall watching All My Children when Greg and Jenny fell in love and evil forces strove to keep them apart. I also remember Jessie Hubbard and Angie getting together and falling in love. I’d get freaked out when these storybook romances would end, but watching these stories gave me something to do during those boring hot summer days. To top it off, I’d spend the rest of my day reading romance novels. It’s hard for me to get into the soaps nowadays, I guess, because the stories never end. They go on and on…imagine, a 72-year-old story like The Guiding Light?

I’ve sometimes dreamed of having a Christian soap opera on the air where people can talk about finding faith and forgiving others.

Do any of you watch soap operas now, or did you used to watch them? If so, which ones did you watch? Why do you like them? How long have you been watching the soaps? Do you think Christians should watch soap operas? I’ll start by saying I don’t see anything wrong with watching them as long as you don’t get too carried away…it’s kind of like, reading a secular novel or watching a movie. It’s entertainment and overall, soaps aren’t any better or worse than a lot of the other secular entertainment out there.

I enjoyed the soaps because they were entertaining and I’d get caught up in the characters’ lives. Sometimes they were placed in perilous situations and I just wanted them to get rescued! If they were hurt and in the hospital, I wanted them to recuperate and get better! But, if they died, it’s possible they could come back from the dead later! LOL!

Feel free to answer these questions and to throw in any other opinions you have about soap operas. I’m kind of anxious to hear what others have to say!

***Update 9/22/2019 – There have been two soap opera style shows on Hallmark Channel. These “soap operas” are clean and Christians can watch them without getting offended. The shows to which I’m referring are Chesapeake Shores and Cedar Cove (which is now off the air). 

This blog post is sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you enjoy soap operas then you should try Rocky Road Dreams by CECELIA DOWDY. Rocky Road Dreams is about a lawyer named Kyle Baxter. Kyle is on a month-long Christmas hiatus from his job. He rents a house on the Outer Banks for his extended vacation. Melanie Richards, his childhood friend, lives across the street. When they were kids, Melanie had a crush on Kyle’s identical twin brother Keith. Kyle never thought he stood a chance with Melanie since she was smitten with his brother. Keith is now married and both Kyle and Melanie are single.

Will Melanie give him a chance?

Kyle’s mom died when he was three and he barely remembers her. He’s determined to find out more about his mom. As Melanie and Kyle reconnect during the holiday season they take a long road trip during a snowstorm so that Kyle can find answers to his questions about his mother. The road trip is also something that Melanie must do so that she can save her business. See ceceliadowdy.com/books or click on the link at the end of this blog post to purchase Rocky Road Dreams. Rocky Road Dreams is available on Amazon.

SUBSCRIBE TO CECELIA DOWDY’S HALLMARK MOVIE BLOG

 Rocky Road Dreams

~Cecelia Dowdy~