This Week's Best Cover

A Whisper of Peace

by Kim Vogel Sawyer

This cover is beautiful for many reasons. The scenery, the model, the pose, and the colors all combine to create anticipation for a story that promises to be rustic, romantic, maybe even dangerous. This book has been on my TBR list for a long time now. Released the first of last month, here's the blurb via Amazon.com for Kim Vogel Sawyer's A Whisper of Peace.

Ostracized by her tribe because of her white father, Lizzie Dawson lives alone in the mountains of Alaska, practicing the ways of her people even as she resides in the small cabin her father built for her mother. She dreams of reconciling with her grandparents to fulfill her mother's dying request, but she has not yet found a way to bridge the gap that separate her from her tribe.

Clay Selby has always wanted to be like his father, a missionary who holds a great love for the native people and has brought many to God. Clay and his stepsister, Vivian, arrive in Alaska to set up a church and school among the Athbascan people. Clay is totally focused on this goal...until he meets a young, independent Indian woman with the most striking blue eyes he's ever seen.

But Lizzie is clearly not part of the tribe, and befriending her might have dire consequences for his mission. Will Clay be forced to choose between his desire to minister to the natives and the quiet nudging of his heart?

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Dear Blog...

October 1, 2011

Dear Blog,

It has been a long time. Somewhere in the spinning hands of the clock, you have gotten buried beneath dirty dishes, laundry, jobs, school work, errands, moving, and dare I add “stress” in general?

Please do not be mad at me, as I will try to find more time for you—maybe even multiple postings a week! (Maybe).

To make up for such a short post, here are a couple pictures, and poem, in honor of autumn (though it’s raining here right now!), for inspiration.

Shades of Autumn

Judith A. Lindberg

A tangerine and russet cascade
Of kaleidoscopic leaves
Creates a tapestry of autumn magic
Upon the emerald carpet of fading summer.

The golden memories of sunsets and twilight
Hover in the backdrop of the peek-a-boo patch
Of silver skylight.

This Week's Best Cover

This Week's Best Cover is

The Lightkeeper's Bride

by Colleen Coble

This book exudes mystery and intrigue. Romance. It's on my list of books to read, too. I've read the first book in the series The Lightkeeper's Daughter, and it is very good. There is also a third book in the series (also with a beautiful cover), so I have some catching up to do.

Also, here is a great link to a web site called Cover Cafe. It has a lot of good information, as well as giving readers, writers, and artists the chance to nominate and vote for their favorite cover art. Miss Nancy sent me the link and I am still exploring the web site! Happy viewing. : )

This Week's Best Cover

This Week's Best Cover is

A River to Cross by Yvonne Harris

This week's best cover is actually a pre-order, available August 1st on amazon.com. This cover makes me think of Zane Grey: strong cowboys with tender hearts, awesome horses, a value for women, and the knowledge that right always overcomes wrong.

Recipe for a Character

I got up the other morning with my mind on using the pre-afternoon hours to bake. At my house, we love home-made, whole wheat muffins, and I find myself whipping up a few batches and freezing them every few weeks.

It is a labor of love, making me think of the pioneer women who cooked all day, slaving over the stove, proud of the perfect biscuits they pulled from the oven after hours of work, only for them to be gone; eaten up by their husbands and several children.

Anyway, I was wondering about a recipe for a character. Or even a recipe for plot, motive, back story. How do you make a good character? This list may need tweaking according to your story, setting, historical era, etc: an extra teaspoon of pride or one part cornhusk eyes, two parts manly swagger.

For one of my current stories (that is another post in itself, as I begin just about all of my story ideas in hopes of one day successfully and satisfactorily ending them), the recipe might look a little like this for my hero and heroine:

For One Wyoming Hero, Approximately Six Feet Tall, MIX:

1 cup stubbornness

¾ cup tender heart

½ cup well tanned, defined muscled cowboy

Sprinkle of green eyes, flecked with gold

Dash of mystery

Pinch of denial sifted together with broken heart

3 Tbsp. faith

One pinch plaid shirt

One dollop cocky grin

For One Adventurous Nomadic Heroine, Approximately Five Foot Seven Inches Tall, MIX:

½ cup broken heart

¾ cup adventurous spirit

¼ cup searching soul

½ cup wild-raven-haired-beauty

½ cup stubbornness

2 heaping tbsp. faith

Interesting exercise, n’est-ce pa? What’s the recipe for your work in progress -or one of them, if you’re like me?

Mix two recipes together, let rest in refrigerator overnight, knead and bake at 400 degrees for 2 hours. When timer goes off, remove from oven and set on cooling racks for fifteen minutes. When you return, you will have this:

This might look A LOT like Andrew McCarthy in a sweet movie called Straight from the Heart, but it’s really Mitch Brent, one of my work in progress’ heroes.

And this—well, this might look A LOT like a picture I found while surfing the net sometime ago and saved it because it just begged to be a character in a story, though I can’t remember where I stumbled across it now, BUT it’s really Jessica Kinsley, Mitch’s heroine.

Don’t be shy. Share your recipes here at Recipes-For-Jam-Up-Good-Characters also known as Recipes-For-Characters-That-Are-Lip-Smackin’-Good.

A Mother's Love...

I remember my mother's prayers
and they have always followed me. 
They have clung to me all my life. 
~Abraham Lincoln

One good mother is worth

a hundred schoolmasters. 

~George Herbert

A little girl,

asked where her home was, replied,

 "where mother is." 

~Keith L. Brooks

 As is the mother, so is her daughter.
-Ezekiel 16:44

The tie which links mother and child

 is of such pure and immaculate

strength as to be never violated. 

~Washington Irving

Being a full-time mother

is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field,

since the payment is pure love. 

~Mildred B. Vermont

A mother is a person who
seeing there are only four pieces of pie
for five people, promptly announces
she never did care for pie. 
~Tenneva Jordan

 

I love you, Mom!

This Week's Best Cover

This Week's Best Cover is

The Gathering Storm

by Bodie and Brock Thoene

From the first time I saw this cover, I loved it. They use this cover for this book as it portrays a story in itself. Adventure, romance, intrigue, danger, a cause: they all come through in this image. I love how the woman is curled up in that super handsome guy's arms; his cheeks against her head, his nose in her hair. An emotion-packed cover to draw a reader in.