Encouragement for Writers

Check out a series of posts for encouragement in writing from a Christian Perspective
"The 5 Ps of Writing With Purpose" at http://pepperbasham.blogspot.com

Also, Siri Mitchell is my guest on my website at www.pepperbasham.wordpress.com

The Reader is Always Right

There's a great post on Seekerville about readers - and, as many of you ARE readers, I thought you might want to check it out.
visit: http://seekerville.blogspot.com to learn more.

One Lovely Blog Award

Julie at

http://onerainyafternoon.blogspot.com/

was sweet enough to give my blog an award.

Bless her heart.

Now I get to see who I can pass the blessing to next :-)

A Prisoner of Versailles

Madeleine's faith puts her at odds with an intimidating rival: King Louis XIV.Having fled their homeland of France because of the persecution by Louis XIV, the Clavell family seeks refuge in Switzerland. However, the king is not about to let the recently widowed Madeleine, his childhood sweetheart, escape that easily. He sends musketeers to kidnap her and her oldest son, Philippe, holding them captive in his opulent palace. King Louis is suspicious that Philippe could be his son, and he's enraged by the growing affection of one of his courtiers for Madeleine.

Will Madeleine escape the king with her life or lose everything that she's fought so hard to keep?

If you would like to read the first chapter of A Prisoner of Versaille , go HERE

Golden Keyes Parsons has an amazing ability to tweak the reader's emotions. I cried and felt my heart race along with Madeliene's. A definite read for anyone who enjoys authentic historical fiction. Lovely.

If I Really Knew You

I was at a writer’s conference once and started chatting with the person in line behind me. No surprise there. My dad says I could carry on a conversation with a block wall. It’s a family trait :-)

Anyway, this lady and I had a pleasant conversation about life, family, her writing, my writing. Nothing spectacular and I didn't think anything more of it than what I thought it was. A friendly moment in time.

I finished getting my food and sat at a table when one of the other guests touched my arm.

“You looked like you were having a pretty good conversation with Angie Hunt.”

Angie Hunt? Angela Hunt! Award winning author of over one-hundred books!!

So the pleasant little conversation suddenly changed to one of those shocked moments that you write down in your journal to share with all of your posterity and even devote a blog-post to it :-)

Knowing WHO she was, changed the way I saw the situation.
It wasn’t just a sweet little moment in my day. It was momentous. Knowing WHO she was made a BIG difference on my perspective.

There’s a familiar story in the Bible about Jesus calming the sea.
To paraphrase, here we go:
The disciples follow Jesus onto a boat and they head out onto the sea. A big storm whips up out of nowhere, so dangerous that the disciples start to freak out. They start crying out for help, and where is Jesus? In the middle of the howling wind, crashing waves, and pelting rain, he’s…sleeping!!
The disciples wake him up and say something like, “Don’t you care that we’re all going to die?”

So…Jesus tells the storm to hush up. And it does. Then he looks at his disciples and says, “Oh you of little faith. Why are you so afraid?”
Now some Gospels put Jesus’ rebuke before the calming of the storm and some after. Just imagine Jesus waking from his nap to the hurricane-like conditions and screaming through the wind at the disciples. “Why are you afraid?”
I can only imagine the disciples giving him a look like Jesus, have you seen the size of those waves? This is NOT a dream.

When Jesus calms the storm with his words, the disciples start to freak out in a very different way, because they suddenly were struck with the truth about WHO Jesus really was. His words brought calm to the chaos, as God- The Creator’s- words brought order to the chaos of the universe. Spectacular.

So, in one respect, Jesus is saying: If you guys really knew who I was, you’d be able to sleep through a storm too.

There are a few poignant truths in this story.
1. The storm wasn’t a shock to Jesus. He knew it was going to happen and went to sleep anyway.
2. Knowing who Jesus really is, helps us see the storms of life from a new perspective. Jesus leads us into storms sometimes to refine our faith. So the question is, how do we respond in the middle of the storm?

This was convicting to me, because if I really know Him, worry becomes obsolete and fear melts into a minor obstacle. His peace settles a heart during the most frightening storm or by streams of living water and green pastures.

The great thing is – he wants us to get to know him better. Not just about him, but the person of Jesus.
Psalm 62:1 reads: “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.”
Psalm 119:1: Blessed are they that keep his statutes and seek him with all their hearts.”
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

When we know WHO holds us, who loves us, who guides us through the storm – then our perspective on the power of the storm changes.

Deuteronomy 33:27 “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Fit To Be Tied with Robin Lee Hatcher

Cleo Arlington knows how to handle stubborn horses. She's been breaking them on her father's ranch ever since she was a little girl, and doesn't plan on going too far away from home. Life is good, only a little romance from a local country boy could make it better.

Sherwood Statham, wounded WWI solider and British aristocrat, is sent to live in the states as punishment for his life of ill-repute. It's either a year in America or a loss of his inheritance, so he enters Cleo's life penniless, broken, and determined to prove himself.

Tossing the two of these characters together ends in an explosion of misunderstandings, humor, and...you guessed it, romance. Sherwood, who is used to 'proper' ladies, is shocked to find himself warming to this blue-eyed, freckled-faced tomboy. Though scarred on the outside, his greatest scars are within, and as Sherwood (or Woody) learns from Cleo's family about God's love, his deepset wounds begin to heal. He finds hope.

Cleo never thought she'd need to be rescued, and never expected the fancy-pants Brit to do it, but when he swoops in twice to protect her, she realizes she's misjudged Woody. Is she willing to risk her heart for a man who will only take her away from the life she loves?
Just when it seems they're 'fit to be tied' will love break the string?
What do I think?

Go! Buy the book. Now.

Robin Lee Hatcher's second book in the Sister's of Bethlehem Springs is even better than its' predecessor, A Vote of Confidence. I literally read it in two hours and laughed...often.

Fit To Be Tied is about a young lady who is confident in herself, even though she doesn't fit into the typical 'lady' mold, and about a man who must learn to believe in himself again.

I have never felt drawn to a hero so quickly in a story. I think it was his obvious vulnerability. By page two, my heart went out to Sherwood Statham and I couldn't wait to see how Hatcher would rescue him from his situation. She's an excellent rescuer, by sending Woody exactly what he needs: acceptance, humor, confidence, and...Cleo.

It takes some time for us to find Cleo's 'weakness', because she appears so confident and composed, but Sherwood has his time to shine and begins to break through Cleo's preconceived notions to win her heart.

Robin, I don't see how you can make Daphne's story any better than Cleo's, but I can't wait to find out.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Fit to Be Tied , go HERE.

To read a short interview with Robin, check out this link: http://pepperbasham.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/whos-got-character-with-robin-lee-hatcher/

The Swiss Courier

What happens when your allegiance to the truth might cost your life?

Gabi Mueller isn’t only good at being a code transcriptionist, but she has a special talent for cracking safes as well. Hired to assist the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Switzerland during WWII, Gabi is only partially aware of the dangerous course she’s begun for her life. War blurs the line between who to believe and who will betray, so she must rely on the only truth: her faith.

Jean-Pierre is an undercover agent hired to protect Gabi Mueller and investigate a possible traitor among the OSS. Stealth and skill are not his only weapons of defense, his faith and honor keep him alive and help him to protect the innocent.

When Gabi is asked to sneak into Germany, defenseless, to safely ‘courier’ a German scientist to Switzerland, her world collides with the ruthless Gestapo and Bruno Kassler. Can Jean-Pierre protect her from those who will stop at nothing to collect the scientist and his secrets for the construction of the atomic bomb? Will Jean-Pierre lose the woman he loves before he has a chance to tell her?

From the first page to the last, get ready for a nonstop journey into the dangerous and devious realm of WWII espionage. Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey make a marvelous team to spin-off the excitement and intensity of this novel.

Despite the lovely story-line between Gabi and…er…the man she loves (if I say more, I’ll spoil the wonderful twists and turns) and the thrilling narrative of her involvement in OSS, the scene which impacted me most is the one where the Christian prisoner is shot.

Also memorable, is the risk people like Gabi, Jean-Pierre, and so many others took because of the truth. They offered their safety, their lives, for strangers. One excellent moral to remember throughout this book is that loyalty, faith, and love cross over barriers and risks to make amazing things possible.

The bad guys are horribly bad, the good guys are daringly good, and the truth prevails. My kind of story.

Thank you for all those people, past and present, who risked their lives for my freedom and the truth.

Available October 2009 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.