As the holidays approach, our thoughts naturally turn to giving. This year, because of COVID-19, there is a more urgent need to reach out to the many people around the world who are impacted by this horrible pandemic. The Advancing Native Missions (ANM) organization is partnering with missionaries around the world to help meet the needs of those who so desperately need it.
As you make your shopping list this year, will you consider giving a gift that sends help and hope in Jesus’ name to people in some of the neediest places in the world? You can do so through the ANM Christmas catalog to assist missionaries in the field with helping the less fortunate.
“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better” – Plutarch
Can you relate to that quote above? What kind of friend do you like, or better still, what kind of friend are you? Do you want friends who will tell you what you like to hear, or do you want friends who tell you the truth?
The Bible says, “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ” (Ephesians 4: 15).
In In the Wilderness, book 2 of the Egypt trilogy, June shows maturity when she refuses to be part of Wendy’s wild schemes and “speaks the truth in love” to her friend who is engaging in some risky behavior. Take a look at the excerpt below:
Wendy slowed her pace. “I’m going away this weekend.”
June glanced at her. “Oh, with your parents?”
Wendy sipped her Coke then smiled. “No, I’m coming to
your house.”
June came to an abrupt halt, spilling Apple J on her white
shirt. “Look what you made me do.”
“I’m sorry.” Wendy held out a handkerchief.
June dabbed at her shirt. “You mustn’t play games like
that, Wendy.”
Wendy laughed. “It’s not a game.”
June handed the kerchief back to her. “Well, I didn’t
invite you.”
Wendy stopped and unslung her bag from her shoulder.
She opened it and took something from the front pocket. June stared with mild
curiosity at the photograph of a good-looking Spanish man probably in his late
twenties. “Who is that?”
“Daryl.”
June gave her a questioning glance.
“I’m going away
with him.”
June almost dropped her bag. She forced herself to
keep her voice low. “What do you mean? Going where?”
Wendy seemed amused. “You remember the last time you
invited me to stay with you when my parents went to Tobago? Well, I was with
Daryl.”
June opened her mouth, but no sound came. Wendy’s
mother had been very worried, looking all over San Fernando for her, and now
she was going to do it again. Only this time she was going to tell her mother
she was at June’s house?
June grabbed her arm. “No! You’re crazy. Don’t tell
your mother you’ll be at my house when …” She clapped her hand over her mouth,
suddenly realizing the implications of what Wendy was saying. She was having an
affair with this man, and she was using June to cover for her. Of all the
lowdown things to do.
“Do you know
what you’re doing? You could get pregnant!”
Wendy was unfazed. “He uses condoms.”
June put her hand to her forehead. “You’re crazy,
Wendy. You want to ruin your life? Exams are right around the corner. You
should be concentrating on that instead of —”
Wendy slipped her soft drink into the side opening of
her bag. “I’m not crazy.” Then she looked at June. “Everyone knows about the
time you ran away to live with that man, so don’t preach to me.”
June felt the blood drain from her face. That episode
with Marcus had occurred over two years ago, and June had put it behind her. An
ounce of indiscretion that had caused her a pound of shame and heartache, when,
unable to bear her sister’s controlling attitude, she had run away from home to
meet Marcus. But she’d never lived with him, never had sex with him. Could she
tell that to her friend, now staring at her with accusing eyes?
Wendy tossed her head. “I’ll tell Mummy I’m with
Sharon or Althea. I have other friends.”
June stared at the girl’s stony face. “Wendy, please
don’t do this. You’re messing up your life.”
Wendy quickened her steps and turned into a side street. June watched her for a moment, then on legs that felt like a ton, continued on her way home.
Want to learn how June’s friendship with Wendy turned out? You can get In the Wilderness when you join this promotion That’s What Friends Are For. A team of best selling authors have teamed up to bring you a fine selection of books about friendship, so make sure you get yours today.
Please invite your friends to join this promotion and subscribe to this blog so you can learn about more offers like this.
Power. Lust. Betrayal. Murder. Blamed for the deaths of both her parents,
Zoey Tirado is raised under the cruel control of her wealthy Uncle
Max—an obsessive narcissist whose vicious deeds scar Zoey’s
future forever. Zoey manages to escape, but feeling powerless and alone,
lets her life spiral out of control. Finally ready for help, Zoey is taken
under the wing of a champion female fighter who guides her on a journey of
transformation and empowerment by helping her strengthen both her body and
her mind. Rising above her past, Zoey focuses on her ultimate goal: exacting
the perfect revenge.
This first installment of The Perfect Revenge series sets the stage for a
sexy and thrilling saga, packed with romance, espionage, street justice, and
more. In The Dragonfly Rises, Zoey’s emotion-filled metamorphosis from
a guilt-ridden child into an inspirational success is a page-turner every
woman can relate to.
About the Author
WilD is a storyteller and longtime philanthropist who’s dedicated
generous amounts of time and money to organizations that aid women with
troubled pasts. The drastic transformations he’s witnessed have proven
to him what is possible when people are given the right support system.
Today, he’s an ardent champion of female empowerment, driven to create
a lasting legacy by furthering the cause even more.
However, WilD realized early on he was not the ideal “face” of
the women’s movement. And so, with the goal of keeping the attention on Zoey
and her message, WilD has chosen to remain anonymous. But the impetus for
his commitment to this project need not be a mystery.
Like Zoey, WilD overcame heartbreaking adversity; in fact, many story
scenes are based directly on his and his mother’s distressing
experiences. But after being told he would never amount to anything, he
became the first in his family to attend college, went on to earn a graduate
degree, and most importantly, found personal fulfillment.
Crafting Zoey’s story is WilD’s first step toward inspiring
women to reach their highest goals, even when faced with the steepest odds.
He hopes that exposing the plight of girls like Zoey will help more women
find their own voices and will encourage others to join the mission.
Have you ever found yourself doing the same thing over and over again
without realizing it? Are you spiritually stuck, wanting a deeper
relationship with God but not sure how to get there?
In The Butterfly Blueprint, Stephanie Miller uses each stage of a
butterfly-egg, caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly-to show you five ways to
grow your faith. By examining how your past shapes your perspective and
understanding of the value of authenticity and accountability in
relationships, you will learn how to identify and address your spiritual
blind spots that are hindering your growth.
Stephanie opens up her own journey of transformation while providing
practical steps you can implement to see real progress in your spiritual
life.
● Your purpose will become clearer.
● Your relationships will grow deeper.
● You will create a new perspective to share
your story with others.
You were not created to remain a caterpillar your entire life. Let God
change your perspective so He can transform you into the beautiful butterfly
He made you to be.
About the Author
Stephanie Miller, M.A., is a certified personal growth coach, writer, and
speaker. Currently living in Colorado, she is the wife of a busy Army
dentist, and mom to a strong-willed toddler and sweet baby boy. Together
they enjoy going on hiking adventures. Her ministry, Butterfly Beginnings,
specializes in helping those who are spiritually stuck by catalyzing change
through connection with the Holy Spirit. She seeks to encourage women and
challenge them to grow closer to God and in community with each other. Her
past published works include I Am Enough in Christ, a workbook and
devotional. Connect with her at www.butterflybeginnings.net.
Excerpt 1 Life is all about perspective. We hear all the time that perspective shapes our reality, but I believe our perspective is our reality; we know no other reality than this. We are subject to how our personal biases, beliefs, and emotions influence our perceptions.
In graduate school, I worked under a very well-known cognitive psychologist for my thesis. As a graduate student, I had the opportunity to learn more about cognitive psychology, the study of how our thoughts are influenced by many things and how they lead to our behaviors and actions.
The argument could be this: Do we have a choice when it comes to
our reactions or responses, or are they things that happen spontaneously and
that we cannot influence?
Excerpt 2 When we operate under a false understanding of ourselves, we act according
to that belief. If we believe we are worthless, not good enough, or unlovable,
we will act that way. Sometimes, we know we are acting in a way that shows how
we feel about ourselves, but more often than not, we are searching for things
that match our viewpoint of ourselves. We strive to have our reality match our
perception (even if it is a skewed, wrong, and horribly inaccurate perception).
So in pursuit of confirming what we believe to be true, we often create the
chaos ourselves. That is an example of what happens when we focus too much on
the wrong things and let the fallen ways of the world influence us. It would be
like a caterpillar eating all the wrong things in preparation to enter the
cocoon. Filling ourselves up with the wrong ideas and false teachings will lead
to these false perceptions of ourselves.
Historical Fiction
Date Published: October 6, 2020
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Based on a true story about fighting fascism in 1930s New Jersey, Newark Minutemen tells an unforgettable tale about forbidden love, intrigue and a courageous man’s search for avenge….
During the Great Depression, Jewish boxer Yael Newman meets Krista Brecht, daughter of the German-American Nazi high command. When his affections turn real, his friends warn him against crossing the line. When Krista leaves for American Nazi summer camp in Long Island, New York, he swears to rescue her. But his mission becomes much more when he’s recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the Jewish mob and FBI to go undercover and fight the American Nazis who are taking over America.
Amazon best-selling author, Leslie K. Barry is most recently a screenwriter, author, and executive producer. Her previous professional work includes executive positions with major entertainment companies including Turner Broadcasting, Hasbro/Parker Brothers, Mattel, and Mindscape Video Games. Other areas of business include executive for the first e-shopping platform called eShop and marketing for Lotus Development, the US Post Office, and AOL. She was an Alpha Sigma Tau at JMU (James Madison University) in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley and attended a grad program at Harvard. She has spent the last twenty-five years with her husband, Doug Barry, in Tiburon, CA raising their four kids, Zachary, Brittany, Shaya, and Jackson, and their dog, Kona. On the side, she’s devoted to genealogy where she has uncovered many ideas for developing untold stories that help us appreciate the context of history, preserve lessons of the past, and honor memories through family storybooks. For fun, she likes to travel, ski in Sun Valley, Idaho, play tennis, and visit her family in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, where she most enjoys Maryland hard crabs and hush puppies, Ledo’s pizza, and chocolate horns. You can visit her website at NewarkMinutemen.com.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away a few days ago, was best known for her forceful stance on women’s rights, particularly abortion rights, and equal treatment of women under the law. Her name is usually linked with the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade that made abortion legal in the United States, although some sources revealed that Justice Ginsburg did have some reservations on the way the decision was structured.
Now that she has passed away, there is a lot of concern about the future of Roe v Wade and abortion rights. Far be it from me to attempt any legal or political discourse on the matter. I am not a lawyer nor a politician, but as a woman and a writer of women’s fiction, I understand the reasoning behind the passage of Roe v Wade.
In my debut novel Coming Out of Egypt, the protagonist Marva and her sister June Garcia were both sexually abused by their father. Marva became pregnant and her father instructed her mother to perform an abortion on her. In a scene following her birthday party, Marva recounts to June what happened:
“I had to have an abortion because of Daddy. He made Mama do it to me. The pain was so bad he gave me a shot of gin to dull the pain. And it helped. That was my first drink. After that, I dropped out of school. I knew the teachers were talking about me. It was horrible. I don’t want the same thing happening to you. I don’t want anything to stop you from finishing your education and making something of yourself.”
In another scene where she is being questioned by a police officer:
“Marva, years ago you had an abortion, didn’t you?”
She sprang up from her chair. “Who told you about that?” She turned her back and folded her arms in a show of defiance. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then it’s true. You did have an abortion.”
Seconds passed before she replied, “Yes, I had an abortion, and I don’t want to talk about it.” She paused. “I never had so much pain in my life.”
As you read the book, you will see that this traumatic event left a long and lasting effect on Marva, as I believe it does on a lot of women. Years ago in college, I chose abortion as the topic for my persuasive speech in Speech class. After a lot of research, I discovered that few women have an abortion for frivolous reasons. Many of them are either persuaded to do so by their boyfriends or even husbands.
From my biology class, I learned that life does begin at conception, that by the time a woman realizes she is pregnant, the fetus (or blob of blood as some like to call it) already has a heartbeat. All this information solidified my Christian belief that women should not have abortions. I guess my speech was so convincing I received the highest honors in all the speech classes in my year.
So what I’m going to say next may shock you. I don’t think a woman should have an abortion unless her life is at risk, however I also believe she does have the right to choose whether she wishes to keep her baby or not. If she could look herself in the mirror and decide she wants to have an abortion, that’s between her and God. She and she alone will have to answer to Him when the time comes.
I know I’ll receive a lot of flak for this but I believe there’s a lot more to being a Christian than just being against abortion. There’s no big sin and little sin where God is concerned. I believe women should not have to suffer the way Marva and countless other women suffered long ago and some still do today. ‘Nuff said.
To learn more about Marva and June, go to my author page where you will see the other books in the Egypt series. The first book Coming Out of Egypt is just 99c. and you can read the other two books free on Kindle Unlimited.
In the introduction to his book Take Back Your Life, Levi Lusko states, “Too many times to count, I’ve made the mistake of doing the right thing the wrong way.” Can you relate? You put the kettle on the burner but do not turn it on. You begin to wash your hair only to realize you are using conditioner and not shampoo. I’m sure you can add some more.
Take Back Your Life is an insightful, interactive journey that helps you do the right thing the right way, or as Levi would say, get rid of the mosquitoes that are causing your illness and not the ants. He teaches us to act with faith, to recognize the greatness that lies within us and how to use our speech to create the kind of life God intended us to have.
One of the most touching chapters of the book is where Levi speaks of his daughter’s death. He doesn’t try to sugar coat his feelings. In his words, “It hurt like hell.” In the midst of his pain and grief, Levi experienced God’s presence giving him the peace, the hope, the strength he needed to help him make it through that dark night.
I hope you enjoyed this review of Take Back Your Life. This is a book that should be in the home of anyone who feels like life is slipping by and you might be going the wrong way. The Breathe, Think, Live sections at the end of every chapter will help you to get in touch with God and have Him speak to you in a brand new way. I highly recommend this book.
The distributors of this book have developed a free resource for parents and kids: Take Back Your Life Guide for Kids. You can get it here: https://bit.ly/takebackdevo
The above heading is probably not the best one for this post, but I couldn’t think of any other way to express what I’m feeling right now. I don’t know of anyone who has not been impacted in some way by 19 in 2020. I hope by the time 2021 rolls around we won’t still be talking about 19.
I hope you and your family are staying healthy and doing your best to keep a positive attitude. Following all the guidelines given us by the authorities may keep us healthy, but staying positive in light of all that is going on around us may be somewhat challenging.
Still, I try to immerse myself in prayer and gospel music and talking to friends and family on the phone. This lifts my spirits and helps me take my mind off things. My writing has slowed a bit since my husband had hip surgery, but I’m beginning to pick up the pieces again and am close to completing the last edits of my WIP, Love, Lies, and Grace. More about this in another post.
Meanwhile, I would like you to take part in this Clean/ Wholesome Reads promotion going on now through Sept. 30. This promotion is for general fiction/women’s fiction, and sweet, clean, contemporary romance. Sorry, no erotica.
I daresay, this selection of books is just what you need to help you overcome any feelings of depression or melancholy you may be experiencing as a result of COVID-19. Two of my books, In the Wilderness and In the Promised Land, books 2 and 3 of the Egypt trilogy, are among the list.
If you belong to Kindle Unlimited, you can now read these two books for FREE.
You can grab an armload of books by clicking on this link: https://books.bookfunnel.com/cleanromancereads/88j155t14t
And please remember to leave an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads after you have read these books. You can invite your friends to sign up for my mailing list to receive updates on special offers like these.
If you are the mother of a teenage girl, there may be times when you wring your hands and wish you had a magic wand to wave over your daughter and make all your parenting woes disappear. Sadly, that won’t happen.
Kari Kampakis, mother of four girls, knows this and this is why she wrote Love Her Well, a manual chock full of realistic and optimistic advice for mothers of teenage girls. This is a book I wish I had when my daughter was a teenager, and which I intend to pass on to her so she can turn to it for help with her soon-to-be teenage daughter.
Every mother would love to have a good relationship with her daughter, but it’s not always easy during the teenage years. In Love Her Well, Kari advises mothers, among other things, to
give their daughter space
tell her what you love about her
protect her privacy
own up to your flaws
make her a priority
If you are the mother of a teenage girl, or one who is soon to be a teenager, or you have a friend who is the mother of a teenager, you need to get your hands on this book. It will bless you and your daughter and she will thank you for many years to come.
Have you ever found yourself in a tough life situation and couldn’t find a
way to get out of it?
Have you ever wondered what your true capabilities are and how to reveal
your full potential?
Or maybe, you are seeking a tool that would boost up your motivation and
teach you valuable life lessons?
I think this book will definitely make a shift in your life, so keep
reading…
“THIS IS YOUR SHIFTING SEASON” – a book that is going to
change your perception about your true inner power, teach you valuable
life lessons and show what is possible with dedication and the right
strategies.
We all had good and bad times in our life, we all made mistakes, and we all
have regrets. And it doesn’t matter what those times, mistakes or regrets
are. If you are still living on this planet, you have the right to get
better and move forward, just like I did…
Being lost for about 22 years, I finally found my life path, discovered
strategies, and rules that led me out of the very bottom of my life. Years
spent in and out jails, drug and alcohol addictions are now my past. I even
managed to get them out of my brain. After so many years of darkness, I
decided to dedicate my life to help others to find their own life
path.
Here is just a short brief of what you are going to learn:
How to find your purpose in life?
RULES OF MANUAL TRANSMISSION – learn how to accelerate your
life
Find your real destination. What is truly important?
The best way to start your SHIFTING SEASON
What is your real potential – a self-identification guide
Much much more…
And it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not, you are 20 years
old or 60 years old, male or female, the strategies and rule inside this
book will help you as much as it helped others.
Now it is your turn to make a decision, to take the first step, and turn on
your unlimited life engine.
About the Author
Michael Mickey Williams Jr. an Atlantic City New Jersey native was once
homeless, eating food out of trash cans, suicidal, addicted to heroin, and
crack cocaine. He spent 22 years of his life in-and-out of jails and
rehabilitation centers since he was a teenager. Nowadays, however, he’s
married, a substance abuse counselor, a minister, and a ten-time published
author with titles like “Pushed out the Crack House into God’s house,
My Purpose is Greater than my struggles, and I’m a Giant Killer to name a
few, he’s also one of the Co-founders of The Minor Adjustments Program which
is dedicated to preventing and reducing crimes, their primary purpose is to
teach men and women how to make the “Minor Adjustments” that are
necessary for their lives, Their motto is “Anywhere but backward”
Mr. Williams is a dedicated advocate for those who are struggling with
addictions or criminal lifestyles, mainly because he struggled with those
same barriers.
Beyond the Minor Adjustments Program, It is said that he was named
“Preacher Boy” by his beautiful wife Lernell Apple Williams, his
style of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes it easy for him to
communicate to both the common people and the religious, his stated that he
tries to use everyday language already familiar to his culture, with a
purpose to always try to touch individual personal needs at the same time
communicate spiritual truth.
As a father of seven, with four grandkids he credits his parents as the
source of his perseverance and sense of self-reliance. After 22 years of
being in bondage to addiction, Mr. Williams continues to be one of today’s
most inspirational, encouraging, and influential men today.
