He Said, She Said by Eddie Jones and Cindy Sproles

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  He Said, She Said  Lighthouse Publishing (February 14, 2011)
  by  Eddie Jones and Cindy Sproles   

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Eddie Jones and Cindy Sproles are the cofounders of Christian Devotions Ministries. Their He Said, She Said devotions are syndicated in a number of newspapers across the eastern seaboard and they host the weekly He Said, She Said Radio, Friday nights at 6:00 p.m. est. on Blog Talk Radio. Eddie and Cindy are popular speakers and teachers at Writers Conferences across the country.

Eddie is the author of five non-fiction books and his newest fiction release, The Curse of Captain LaFoote, a middle grade book. While Cindy is the author of one non-fiction and two compilations.

Together they teach writing with WritersCoach.us. Eddie and Cindy have been writing the He Said, She Said devotions since 2008, taking one scripture weekly and looking at it from two perspectives--His and Hers, with the idea that learning more about scripture from two perspectives helps one to delve deeper in God's word and know Him better.


ABOUT THE BOOK   

He Said, She Said: A Devotional Guide to Cultivating a Life of Passion, or How Newlyweds, Couples and Singles Can Draw Closer to God and Their Mate Through Daily Devotions

Do you sense something vital missing from you relationship with your spouse, children, and God? Are you easily distracted by the busyness of life and left feeling drained, bored, and discouraged? Do you sense you were meant to enjoy the richness of life, but spend your days feasting on crumbs? This heart-warming collection of stories (54 in all) will inspire you to reach for the true source of joy: a life lived for and through God.

These deeply personal (and sometimes humorous) devotions offer biblical insights and spiritual truths from the unique perspective of one man and one woman. Learn to cultivate a life of passion. Perfect for your quiet time, these moments of meditative reflection illustrate the importance of allowing God to work within you and speak through you. No matter if you are newlyweds or newly retired, this book of devotions will help you put the spark back into your love life and explore the precious relationships God desires for you. He Said, She Said touches the heart, tickles the funny bone and brings you to your knees in worship.


If you would like to read an excerpt from He Said, She Said, go HERE.


Watch the book video:

Cindy and Eddie are not only good friends of mine, but a regular source of my spiritual renewal. It's a great idea, the he-said/she-said concept and I always enjoy their devotionals. Both are not only grounded spiritually, and super nice people but they both keep me laughing. It's that humor and heart that makes the spiritual more relatable in the most practical sense.

~Gina Holmes, author of Crossing Oceans~

I've know Eddie Jones and Cindy Sproles for a few years. Each has a way of tickling my funny bone, so I wondered what a devotional book by them would be. I can heartily recommend it. The humor is there, but it's coupled with deep truths that go straight to the heart of the problem. You'll find a path that winds closer to God through He Said, She Said.

~Ane Mulligan, Editor of Novel Journey~

Margie's comments: I've known Eddie and Cindy for several years now through the Colorado and Greater Philadelphia writers conferences. And I've been privileged to sit in on a few of their Friday evening He Said/She Said radio show when they've broadcasted from the east lobby of the Reusch Auditorium at the YMCA of the Rockies where CCWC is held. Their humor aids in getting out the biblical message of their talks and devotions. So I looked forward to the release of the He Said/She Said devotionals in book form. They have challenged me to think through some preconceived notions, like can I fail God. They don't sugarcoat life as a Christian with their humor. Instead the laughter is of joy in spite of difficult circumstances, allowing the message of God's Word bring healing and peace. I highly recommend this devotional book to those who like looking at life from both male and female perspectives.

Verse of the Day

Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ. Wake up from your sleep, climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light! So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! (Ephesians 5:11–16 MSG)

My First Fiction Sale!!!!!!!

Yep. You read that right. Wow! What a long journey it's been with all the interruptions and other directions the Lord has led me in—a journey of over 27 years. For you aspiring writers out there, don't let that discourage you! This is my journey, not yours. I know plenty of authors whose journeys to publication were much shorter. 

Anyway, I got the news Thursday, April 7. I was working (proofreading) when I noticed in my e-mail notification window that I had an e-mail from my agent. The subject line was: New Novella contract for Margie Vawter.

Needless to say I clicked over to my e-mail program right away, not really trusting that my eyes had read right. When I opened the e-mail, a contract was attached with the title of the collection, Sundays in Fredericksburg.

Then I started squealing, "Oh my word, oh my word," over and over again. Hubby, who is still unemployed, came running upstairs asking what was wrong. 

"Nothing's wrong! I just sold my first fiction book!" I could feel the grin stretching across my face. 

He looked a little unsure, but then said, "Oh, I thought it was a spider or something."

LOLLOLLOL!!!!

So began the phone calls and squealing with the other authors in the collection. E-mails were flying in and out of my Entourage. And almost two weeks later, I'm still riding high. The contract is signed, the cover art is already set in motion. 

And now I have to write a 20,000 word novella before March 1, 2012. The book will release in the fall of 2012. Publishing, even after a sale, is not a fast process. 

Our stories are set in Fredericksburg, Texas. The hill country. That area was settled by German immigrants looking for good farmland. They would come into town on Saturdays to get supplies, and since the distance was too far for them to return home and come back the next day for church, they built small one-room shelters with lofts to stay in overnight. Over the years these Sunday houses were used for various reasons, especially when transportation and other factors made their original purpose unnecessary.

The stories begin in the late 1800s and carry on through time to the present. My story is the second and is set right after World War 1.

Here's the blurb for A Shelter in the Storm:

Mildred Zimmermann, a nurse in World War I Europe, returns to Fredericksburg, Texas, which is dealing with an outbreak of Spanish influenza. Drawn into the hometown battle, Mildred opens her family’s Sunday house as an overflow to the small, overcrowded clinic. Death seems to plague those she loves, and she is determined not to allow herself to fall in love, afraid that man, too, would die. Nelson Winters, a newcomer to Fredericksburg and the protégé of the town’s doctor, succumbs to the flu, and he is placed in Mildred’s care. The war hero, rejected by his fiancée because he returned from the war crippled, both challenges and disturbs Mildred as she nurses him back to health. In order for them to have a future together, they must learn to accept their humanness and allow God to make them whole.

(My family will recognize the first names as those belonging to my paternal grandparents. But other than that, very little is based on their love story.)

I'm so grateful to Barbour Publishing and Becky Germany (our editor) for accepting these novellas. And of course all praise goes to the Lord who even made it possible! I truly was okay with never being published in fiction if that was His purpose for me. But He is so good to give His children the desires of their hearts. This is a childhood dream come true!

Verse of the Day

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, . . . and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19–23)

Verse of the Day

For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.] (Romans 11:29 AMP)

Verse of the Day

Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders. Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek the LORD be glad. Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face continually. Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth. . . . He is the LORD our God. (Psalm 105:1–7)

The Blood of the Prodigal by P. L. Gaus

This week, the  Christian Fiction Blog Alliance  is introducing  Blood of the Prodigal  Plume; Reprint edition (September 28, 2010)  by  P.L. Gaus   
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paul took an interest in writing fiction in 1993, and with the advice and encouragement of author Tony Hillerman, he began writing mystery novels set among the Amish in Holmes County, Ohio. The first of Gaus's mysteries, Blood of the Prodigal, An Ohio Amish Mystery, was published by Ohio University Press in June of 1999, and a total of six novels have appeared in this series: Broken English, 2000, Clouds Without Rain, 2001, Cast a Blue Shadow, 2003, A Prayer for the Night, 2006, and Separate from the World, 2008.  A seventh novel in the series is in preparation.

All of Paul's stories have now been republished by Plume (a division of Penguin Group USA) as The Amish-Country Mysteries, and these editions have been embraced by Christian retailers such as CBD.com, Family Christian Stores, and LifeWay.  Future mysteries in the series will still first be published in hard cover editions, as The Amish-Country Mysteries by Ohio University Press, with Plume bringing out the soft cover editions some time later.

Paul and his wife Madonna still travel frequently in Holmes County.  He lectures widely about Amish culture at libraries, bookstores, literary societies, and the like, and his books have been featured at Book Expo America and similar professional shows around the country. Paul's novels have been reviewed in prominent journals and newspapers, for instance, Kirkus Reviews, ForeWord Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, Ohioana Quarterly, and the New York Times Book Review. 


ABOUT THE BOOK  

For Jonah Miller, shunned by his Old Order sect and cast into the wider world, the summer begins with his decision to kidnap his ten-year-old son from the home of the bishop who had exiled Miller a decade earlier.  In his desperation to retrieve the boy, the bishop appeals for help to the only "English" men the sect would ever approve.

Professor Michael Branden and Pastor Caleb Troyer had been looking forward to the kind of sleepy rural summer they had enjoyed as boyhood friends growing up in the small college town of Millersburg.  Instead, they plunge into the normally closed Amish culture to find the boy.  When the kidnapping leads to murder, they can no longer keep the case from the law.  Working sometimes at cross purposes with his friend Sheriff Bruce Robertson, Professor Branden digs through the past to uncover truths that many would prefer to leave undisturbed.  Little does he suspect that even the anguished bishop, torn by an insoluble moral dilemma, tragically does not tell everything he knows about the case.  Suddenly the vast tangle of Amish and Mennonite settlements that sprawl among several thousand small farms and homesteads seems less bucolic than unknowable and impenetrable.

As they inquire delicately among the peaceful ones, Branden and Troyer learn that the troubles of Jonah Miller began far earlier than the kidnapping, with his Rumschpringe - the customary wild year before taking Amish vows.  But his grand Rumschpringe had exploded into a decade of drugs, whiskey, and women, in the company of people no Amish person should meet.

In the tradition of Tony Hillerman, P. L. Gaus depicts a culture that successfully stands outside the mainstream yet interacts with it in complex and fascinating ways, a culture that is every bit as susceptible to the undertow of the human spirit as any we might know.


If you would like to read the first chapter of Blood of the Prodigal, go HERE


Margie's Comments: So I had a few hours of "free" time, and I chose to spend it reading The Blood of the Prodigal. In a tightly woven tale set in the middle of an Old Order Amish community in Ohio, the author has written a mystery that is plausible and heart-provoking. The "sleuths" are not exactly what you would expect in a traditional mystery, but they are real and likable. It's definitely not a romance, though there is a touch of it in the air. But it is refreshingly different from the plethora of "bonnet" books in the CBA marketplace. I definitely will be on the lookout for more books in this series as they come available in the paperback form. Highly recommended.

Verse of the Day

The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. (Lamentations 3:22–25)

Verse of the Day

Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice. (Isaiah 41:10 AMP)

Verse of the Day

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. (Psalm 141:3)