I never knew there was a day to celebrate grammar, but I’m sure you can think of any topic and there’s a day for it. I don’t always pay attention to these special days, but this one caught my eye, since as an author, grammar, good grammar, is what I live by. So, I checked this article in The Write Life written by Kathryn & Ross Petras.

The article has to do with whether it’s correct to start a sentence with “because.” Since it’s something that has bothered me a little, I looked at the examples they gave us and decided to compare them with the way I use “because” in my own books.

According to The Write Life , you can start a sentence with “because” but you must do it the right way. “Because” is a subordinate conjunction, meaning it connects two clauses, a subordinate clause and the main one.

They give this example:“Because I’m confused, I’m reading about starting sentences.”   Correct, as long as you don’t split it in two. Then the first clause becomes a fragment.

Another example: You can start a sentence with “because” in dialog. “Why can’t I stay out late?” “Because I say so.”

Or if you’re using it conversationally, as happens in a lot of modern novels.

A quick search in my first novel Coming Out of Egypt revealed 41 instances of the word “because.” So,
I’ll let you be the judge. Look at my samples and see the ones you think and the ones you think may be questionable then drop me a line with your opinion.

• She’d gone to the hairdresser yesterday only because she had to look presentable for work.

• “I will give my mother only the fish broth because she can’t eat no dumplin’.”
• “Because Marva said so …”
• Because of the state of decomposition of the body, the ceremony was short.
• Some women stay with a man because they can’t do any better.

Want to know more about Coming Out of Egypt? Just click on the link or you can check out the special deal on my Smashwords page at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/angie6 and use the coupon code WK23D to get your 75% discount. To find more great deals on books go to
https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos

If you prefer, you can get Coming Out of Egypt paperback now at the reduced price of $9.95. Use this link.

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I know you are busy putting the finish touches to your Thanksgiving turkey and making sure everything is just right. But once you’re done, the visitors have left and the family is in bed, you want to whine down with your favorite cup of tea and a good book. Right? Well, do I have some offers for you.

First, there is the Holiday 99c. Sale promotion now taking place. This promotion ends in 3 days, so you must hurry if you want to take advantage of this fine selection of books, all for 99c. Among them is In the Wilderness, the second book of my Egypt trilogy. This is a gripping tale of a young girl contemplating suicide in order to spare her sister the pain of seeing her go to prison.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I have kept the price of the other two books in the trilogy, Coming Out of Egypt, book 1, and In the Promised Land, book 3 at 99c. If you have not read these books yet, I encourage you to get hold of them while they are still at this low price.

The holidays are here and you may have already begun your holiday shopping. If you are looking for a gift that is sure to please someone on your list, get her/him a paperback copy of Coming Out of Egypt. It’s sure to bless them. If you would like to have an autographed copy, you can order through Paypal by clicking the link below.

Coming Out of Egypt

As I told you some time previously, In the Wilderness is now available in paperback and will soon be in stores and libraries, but meanwhile, ordering has to be done through my site. If you want to get an autographed copy in time for Christmas, just click the link below. Shipping for both books is included.

In the Wilderness

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don’t know about you but I love to read books that have some depth, that teach me something, take me places I’ve never been. In other words, books that transform me. So when I saw an offer to join a special promotion featuring books that transform, I was intrigued. The organizer described the promotion as one that would feature books that show how God’s truth transforms the lives of the characters. I believe if it transforms the characters’ lives it can transform ours as well.

And this is why I’ve added In the Promised Land, book 3 of the Egypt trilogy, to the list. This is a book that will surely transform the way you think about family, the mistakes we make in life and how God can turn those mistakes into a message. So, from now until Oct. 22, you can get your copy for just .99c along with other clean, Christian reads for around the same price.

I also wanted to share with you some pics from my long-awaited, bucket-list visit to Israel last month. It was a dream come true. Israel is indeed the Land of the Book. It was such a joy to visit the actual places we read about in the Bible and to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. I don’t have space or time to tell you everything I saw and did. I hope these pictures will be worth “more than a thousand words.”

So there you have it. Drop me a line, ask questions and please leave a review on Amazon and let me -and other readers – know your thoughts on In the Promised Land. Until next time, remember you’re never alone when you read a book.

In the Promised Land, book 3 of the Egypt trilogy went on a virtual tour with RABT tours over the last two weeks. The book was featured on a number of websites, and two readers posted reviews.

Here’s what one of them had to say:

This is a third in a series and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each and every one of the characters Angela Joseph brought to the books. 

Joseph’s novels will have readers captivated by her characters. The characters are real and very well developed, they make it easy for you as the reader to be drawn into. This is not just true for this installment, it’s the same for all of her writings.

There was something wonderful about how simple it was. I didn’t have to overthink things. There was plenty of comic relief in it to lighten any of the deeper moments.

I’m glad I was lucky enough to spend some time with these characters over the last 3 books. – Texas Book Nook

Here’s what another reader had to say:

In the Promised Land is a captivating story of family and forbidden love. A story that captures your attention at the very beginning and holds it until the unexpected ending. In the Promised Land will take you on an emotional roller coaster that will have you laughing one minute and crying the next. A story that will stay with you long after reading. I was so drawn in that I finished reading this in one night. In the Promised Land is the perfect beach read. **I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.** – Truly Trendy

After reading those reviews, I suppose you won’t need any further encouragement to see if what those reviewers said is true. You can purchase a copy now at the discounted price of $1.99 or read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.

I do hope you are in some warm, cozy spot as you read this. It’s the perfect weekend for reading, isn’t it? I had no idea this kind of weather would coincide with my birthday, but I’m thankful it did. So, to add to your reading pleasure this weekend, I’ve discounted my latest release, In the Promised Land from $3.99 to $1.99. Now that’s a real gift. But regardless of how much you pay for this book, there are many benefits to be gained by reading it:

1. The characters are memorable
2. The plot is based on a true event
3. The message is timely and
4. The setting is exotic

Here’s the blurb:

This third book in the Egypt trilogy wraps up the lives of the characters in a neat and satisfying way, according to some readers. Like the rest of the series, the story is set in the beautiful twin- island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The two main characters, Marva and June, have come out of an abusive childhood (Egypt) and are now adults. Marva is a nun at a home for delinquent girls. Marva is known for being strict and well disciplined, but when her adoptive father is killed in a Muslim coup, the family relies on her levelheaded calm to help them get through their crisis. But little do they know that Marva has a crisis of her own, one that her discipline and her faith seem inadequate to handle.

If that is not enough to whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt:

Excerpt

Coming Out of Egypt, my debut novel and the first book in the Egypt series is at 99c. Maybe you should read this and the second one before you read the third book to get a sense of the progression of the story.

For those of you who prefer paperback you can get it here

While I appreciate you buying my books, may I ask you to go a step further and leave an honest review on Amazon? Authors depend on reviews as they help to guide readers in making their buying choices. Thank you, and stay warm!

I don’t know if it’s my imagination, or if it’s because Christmas ads and decorations began showing up way before Thanksgiving, but whatever it is, people seem to be making a bigger fuss about Christmas this year. For me, that’s a good thing. As a Christian, I love Christmas and all it signifies. As an author, I’m also noticing a lot of Christmas-themed books, and while my Egypt series is not based on Christmas, books 1 and 2 carry some Christmas scenes that will give you a glimpse of how my characters, and people in Trinidad where the story is set, spend Christmas.

Here is an excerpt from In The Wilderness: Book 2 of the Egypt series:

At last it’s Christmas Eve. Miss Lucy and her daughter have gone home, and we sit in the living-room admiring the Christmas tree and the decorations and sipping egg nog. Below the tree is an assortment of boxes wrapped in shiny gift paper and tied with pretty bows. The television shows women in beautiful frilly skirts and blouses with flowers in their hair, singing and dancing. The songs are in Spanish and they call them parang.
I’m holding Junior on my lap. June sits on the rug at my feet, her head resting against my legs. Junior tugs at her hair.
“Ouch!” She holds her head, and he squeals.
Across from us, Chrissy, seated on her father, also squeals and drops her rattle.
“Did we do this in Egypt Village?” I ask.
June turns her head. “Do what?”
“Sit around the tree and drink egg nog and watch TV.”
“I don’t think we ever had a tree. And we didn’t have a TV.”
No tree? It’s such a beautiful thing. I can’t understand why everyone wouldn’t have one. And no TV either? “We couldn’t afford it?”
June shrugs. “I don’t know.”
That’s another thing I don’t understand. She never wants to talk about our childhood and Egypt Village.
Junior takes another tug at her hair and she sidles away. “Come here, you.” She lifts him off my lap.
I turn to Miss Stewart. “Did you always do this?”
She smiles. “Yes, we did.”
I look at Mr. Bowen.
He nods. “We did, too. And you know what else we did?”
Everyone looks at him. “We sang Christmas carols and told the story of the Savior’s birth.”
“I didn’t know that,” his wife says.
He gazes at her. “Remember I came from a Christian home. When we lived in New York, we went to church on Christmas Eve night.”
“Was it snowing?” June asks.
“Sometimes, but we kids loved it. We would all bundle up in our coats, hats and gloves and sing carols while Dad drove us to church. When we came here, it took us a while before we found a church, so Mom made egg nog and we sat around and did the Christmas thing.”
“The Christmas thing?” June asks.
“Yeah. We sat around the crèche and told the Christmas story.”
That touches me. We don’t have a crèche, but maybe we can do the Christmas thing too.
Feeling shy, I ask, “Can we do that now?”
“Why not?” Miss Stewart gets up and turns off the TV. “Where do we start?”
June bounces Junior on her leg. “Let’s start with ‘Once upon a time.’”
Mr. Bowen picks up Chrissy’s rattle. “Okay, here’s how we did it. One person says a few lines of the Christmas story, then we sing a verse of a carol. Then the next person picks up the story from where the last person left off, we sing another verse and so on.”
“Sounds great,” Miss Stewart says. “I’ll go first. Once upon a time there was a man named Joseph, and he had a wife named Mary who was pregnant.”
June puts her hand up. “Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem in order to be taxed, in keeping with a decree from the emperor Cesar Augustus.”
“You forgot the song,” I say.
June slaps her forehead. “I’m sorry.” She clears her throat. “Silent night …”
We all join in the singing. When we finish the first verse, she repeats the lines she’d said, then everyone looks at me. I smile as I continue the story. “While they were there, Mary realized that it was time for the baby to be born.”
We sing another verse then Mr. Bowen continues, “Joseph tries to find a room in an inn so Mary could give birth, but he found none.”
We continue like this until Mr. Bowen ends with the angels telling the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men.”
I look down at Junior now asleep on June’s lap. I think of the Baby Jesus who came into this world as small and innocent as this baby even though He was God Himself. What a beautiful story!
June interrupts my thoughts. “Sister, I’m impressed that you remember the Christmas story so well.”
I turn to her. “Some things I’ll always remember, but the things I want to remember, I don’t.”

There you have it. Christmas with Marva, June and the Bowen’s. To read more about the Christmas celebrations with the Bowen’s, why not pick up a copy of the book on sale for only 99c. this weekend. And drop me a line and let me know how you spend Christmas at your house.