Review of A Wedding Invitation by Alice J Wisler

A Wedding Invitation

Alice J Wisler
c. 2011
Bethany House
ISBN: 9780764207334
$14.99
Contemporary Fiction

Past and present collide after Samantha attends what she thinks is her former roommate’s wedding. While visiting her esoteric aunt at a butterfly launch during a memorial service, a former student from the refugee camp where she worked several years ago invites her to a meal and destiny.

Wisler’s story of a quiet young woman with a broken heart and living in a rut is a sweet tale of misunderstanding, mistaken identity, judgment and forgiveness. Set in the early nineteen-nineties, with flashbacks to the mid-eighties, the tale is woven between Samantha’s experiences teaching American customs to Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines, awaiting placement after the end of the conflict. Samantha gives her heart to a fellow teacher, Carson, who’d promised his college sweetheart he’d remain faithful. When Sam realizes Carson means to keep his promise, she forgets about a future filled with plans to become a teacher, goes home and works for her emotionally reticent widowed mother.

After the chance encounter with her former student who is delighted to let her know that Carson lives nearby and would like to see her again, she eventually and reluctantly meets him. Their stories gradually come out and the misunderstandings are laid to rest. Even the wrongly accused student doesn’t hold Sam’s accusations of theft all those years ago against her, and asks for help finding the mother who gave her up for adoption.

Told in first person, A Wedding Invitation is an upbeat message that happiness and love involves risk, faith, and trust, and that helping others can revive even the dampest of spirits. Readers who enjoy the music and sounds of life at the end of the twentieth century, the news, the songs, the food and fun of the era, will enjoy this tale of a quirky aunt, mom, and shy young lady ready to come out of her shell.

The Measure of Katie Calloway

The Measure of Katie Calloway

By Serena Miller

c. October 2011

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

ISBN: 9780800719982

14.99

Historical Fiction

Miller’s story about an antebellum abused wife fleeing north to Michigan timber country and winds up as a cook in a rough and tumble lumber camp is a satisfying step back in time.

Katie Calloway, young and naïve Pennsylvania minister’s daughter, marries her brother’s West Point friend and moves south to become mistress of a slave-run plantation. Not only does she enter the strange and confusing world of ownership of other humans, the War Between the States becomes a reality and she is left alone when her husband goes to fight. The story begins a couple of years after the conclusion of the war, when all that’s left to Katie and her young orphaned brother is her pride. Realizing that her husband does more than just despise her, she takes Ned and runs.

Blessed with jumping into the right place at the right time, Katie meets Robert Foster, owner of a lumber camp, who is in need of a cook. At the camp filled with rough lumbermen for a winter of work, Katie is thrust into an experience that will either make her stronger or break her spirit for good. Getting along with the wounded camp cook who is supposed to help her is only the first bump in the road. Falling in love with the wounded widower, Robert, and his children, and keeping her secret, is compounded when a former slave of her husband’s shows up to work at the camp. And when her brutal husband eventually tracks her down, will anyone come to her rescue?

Miller’s use of shanty song refrains to open each chapter is a delight, and adds just the right nuance to each section. I could hear the singing and fiddle playing, smell the pine trees and the flapjacks during her wonderfully smooth narrative. Characters that capture your heart, from the surly trickster Jigger, to the gentle carver Cletus, to Moon Song and her baby, to Skypilot, the once-upon-a-time preacher, readers of historical romantic inspirational fiction will escape to the years immediately following the Civil War in the boom time of Michigan with this lovely read. Reminiscent of other great reads, like Naomi Musch’s Empire in Pine series.

Serena Miller is the author of Love Finds You in Sugarcreek, Ohio, as well as numerous articles for periodicals such as Woman's World, Guideposts, Reader's Digest, Focus on the Family, Christian Woman, and more. She lives on a farm in southern Ohio.

Available October 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

New Edition of Multi Award-Winning Book Released

Thousands Expected to Dig for Nuggets

Novelist, poet, and book marketer Carolyn Howard-Johnson releases the second edition of the first book in her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter.

Among those supporting Howard-Johnson’s book are self publishing gurus Dan Poynter and Shelley Hitz, book marketers Dana Lynn Smith, Patricia Fry, D’vorah Lansky, and Aggie Villaneuva and even some fun stuff like a full book of poetry from Magdalena Ball and advice on feng shui from Anna Maria Prezio, Ph.D. Leading the charge is Amazon and book launch expert Denise Cassino.

$9.95 for The Frugal Book Promoter in its Kindle iteration (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkProKindle) or $12.82 (discounted from $17.95) for the paperback on Amazon (www.budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo).

Howard-Johnson, an instructor for nearly a decade at UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program, chose to have the new edition published in both e-book format and paperback in order to give her struggling students and clients affordable and convenient choices.

Whichever format a reader chooses, The Frugal Book Promoter assures an author’s book the best possible start in life. Full of nitty-gritty how-tos for getting nearly free publicity, the author shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. A former journalist and publicist (she wrote media releases for fashion designers like Christian Dior), she tells authors how to do what their publishers can’t or won’t and why authors can often do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

Howard-Johnson even assigned a new subtitle to this edition of her book to reflect its appeal to a broader array of authors. It is now The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or partnering with your publisher. She says, "With the advances in Internet marketing and the role social media plays in communicating, it was high time even writers who had the first edition had access to my frugal (frugal of both time and money!) ideas for new networking opportunities." The big, fat book (416 pages) also has money-saving ads in the back and an amazing new cover—the epitome of “frugalness”—by Chaz DeSimone, www.chazdesimone.com.

Howard-Johnson is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, her community’s Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of 14 women of “San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen.” She has worked for Good Housekeeping Magazine and as a journalist for several newspapers and has been a popular presenter at writers’ conferences nationwide like the one at San Diego State University and the Sinclair Lewis Writers’ Conference. She is also a novelist and poet, which informs the advice she gives to authors of those genres.

Learn more about Howard-Johnson at http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com and http://carolynhoward-johnson.com.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Instructor for the renowned UCLA Extension Writers' Program

Author of the multi award-winning series of HowToDoItFrugally books:

The Frugal Book Promoter

The Frugal Editor

The Great First Impression Book Proposal

Great Little Last-Minute Edits

E-mail: HoJoNews@aol.com
Web site: http://www.howtodoitfrugally.com

Review: Annette Irby's Husband Material

Husband Material

By Annette M. Irby

c. 2011

eBook, White Rose Publishing  $.99

Pelican Book Group

Romance Novella

This sweet little read from Annette Irby will satisfy that need for time-constrained readers who long for a whole story in a short byte.

Restaurant-owner Lara meets recent widower Wyatt at the grocery store. From the moment she empathizes with Wyatt in front of the Valentine’s Day display she prays for him without knowing the reason for his sadness. Later, he eats alone at her restaurant and we understand that this year is different. Wyatt’s two-year-old grief has morphed into loneliness.

The mutual attraction and concern for each other sparks early.

Irby does a good job setting her characters and scenes, using the senses to tickle with reader and draw him or her into the conversation as these two people get to know each other.

Wyatt, the businessman, appreciates what Lara, a businesswoman in her own right, goes through to earn a living. He’s ready to move on and Lara feels like a natural fit. They’re both in their early thirties, unattached, but Lara is recovering from a broken relationship and, besides, could use his help. She doesn’t mix business and pleasure, even if the business embodies the perfect husband material.

When Wyatt trades food for his consulting fees, Lara accepts reluctantly, sticking to her pride and principles, even when she knows he’s interested in more than that from her. It doesn’t take long for Wyatt to come up with a plan to get past her principles, but can he get past the hurt in her life?

Irby’s great characters, honest dialogue, and rounded settings will make this novella a favorite romantic read.

Book Review: Fingerprints

Fingerprints

By Chantal Obasare

c. 2010

Xlibris Publishing

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4535-5316-9

Softcover 978-1-4535-5315-2

$15.99

Ebook 978-1-4535-5317-6

$7.69

Chantal Obasare shares lovingly crafted poetry that reads like a cry from her heart on an intimate walk of faith with Christ. From the closing refrain of the opening song, “The Grand Climax,” “Then no other will I see, But my Jesus Christ,” to the poignant black and white photographic illustrations reflecting a number of the poems, the reader will share a piece of the author’s soul.

Obasare uses short phrases and rhyming or wrenched rhyming lines in her quatrains.

The simple beauty of worship in her poem “Beyond the Veil” reminds us that the things of this world are changeable pictures while God is real.

You gave me breath

You gave me life

And endless hope

Amidst trying times

I enjoyed Obasare’s word pictures like “Where ‘parents’ is not a fraction” in “Somewhere” and “When my eyes refuse to stop flooding” in “It’s not you…it’s me.”

The poetry showcases her passion for love and family as well. “I Was Made For You” is lovely marriage talk.

Obasare changes pace a bit with “Jamaica: Land We Love.” Octets describe the pain of crime and hurt in a land of beauty and the need for faith to remember God’s blessing.  “Missing” could be anyone, anywhere, as the poetess decries today’s lack of morals. “Where was God?” is a question most of us ask at some point in our lives. Obasare replies in the voice of Job.

“Lovely” reads like an undulating ocean wave, each line a declaration of “I love you” followed by no matter what. Obasare’s end piece, “Pieces of Me,” is like sitting down to a cup of tea with a friend.

Nicely done! Readers of spiritual folksy poetry will enjoy this book—Fingerprints will leave its mark.

Gold Earrings by Diane E. Tatum Daughter of a bordello madame and an Italian captain of the seas, Angelina Mercy longs for a new life, free from the condemnation associated with her mother's home in Boston. A former navy man, Jonathan Thomson, has accepted God's call and become a minister of a small congregation. Adrift from his Yankee heritage in the Missouri plains, Jonathan longs for a family of his own. Pursuing Alice, the daughter of the town's wealthy patron, Jonathan believes he can tame her wild ways. Can Jonathan ignore Angelina's Gold Earrings, a constant reminder of the implications of her less than pristine parentage? The resilient heroine will inspire you in this touching tale of love against the odds.

Diane was born in Louisville, KY, raised, married, and had 2 sons in north St. Louis County, MO. Her young family relocated to Newport News, VA, so her aerospace engineer husband could work at NASA-Langley. In 1997, Diane received her Masters and teaching certificate just a month before moving to Tullahoma, TN, when her husband began a new job at AEDC facilities. Diane has been a consultant for AP/College Board leading conferences for teachers with Pre-AP (middle school) students to prepare their students to take AP classes in high school. She has also been a consultant concerning youth Sunday School for the Southern Baptist Convention, the Tennessee Baptist Convention, the Baptist General Assembly of Virginia, and the Peninsula Baptist Association. Check out Gold Earrings Fan Page Website  Blog Twitter: @DianeTatum What Others Are Saying Diane your book is so good I truly believe that Hallmark should use it for one of there movies Thanks so much for sharing your story with us and I cannot wait for you next book to come out. --Juanita Petty Holmes, fan I really enjoyed this book. The characters are all real and struggle in their walk with God and his will for their lives. Plus, I really liked that the main character in this book overcame her family background. This book teaches tolerance and every person is responsible for their own walk with God. --Kristy Gaddis, fan Theme The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)

Tomorrow Had Come by Jessica Kirkland In every season of life, the Enemy would whisper the lie that I would “never make it” to the next. I believed it. Time and time again, I thought his words held power. As a young child, I never thought I would live to see my school years. Once I entered school, I never thought I would live to see the next day, next grade, or milestone in life. I listened to a very real enemy, even though I didn’t want to. Even though I came from a strong, Christian family, I felt powerless to stop the lies. Fear gripped me, stole from me, and taunted every careful step I took. I gave my heart to Christ at six years old, yet fear still held me tight. Though I had renewed hope, the whispers and lies continued to flow and drown out truth through every season. When, I heard the words that burned a hole straight through, I was nose-to-nose with what appeared to be the sum of all my fears. “Mrs. Kirkland, you have congestive heart failure. If your babies are born now, they will probably not live or be severely impaired.” I was twenty-six weeks pregnant with triplets. In the beginning, I had been pregnant with quads, but had lost one child at 14 weeks. I never imagined we might all go meet Jesus on the same day. I mourned the thought of my husband walking through life alone. I grieved for the children that would either die, be disabled on this earth, or grow up motherless. And I burned with anger, not just because of the oxygen mask strapped to my face as I struggled for breath and life, but for twenty-five years of allowing Satan to tell me that I would never make it to tomorrow. Tomorrow had come. As nurses whirled around me, I prayed Acts 17:25 out loud, “…You give life and breath to everything, and satisfy every need.” I pleaded with the God I personally knew through a relationship with His Son, Jesus. I knew He had a plan for my life that was good according to Jeremiah 29:11. In my humanity, I struggled with the thought that death might be His plan for us on that day. Today, we are parents to three healthy five-year-olds. You would never know they were born nine weeks premature. The joy that Satan has stolen from me in 30 years, through a spirit of fear, is great. I imagine if you strung each lying sentence end-to-end, they might wrap the globe. Yet, I have promised to tell others of God’s miracles in my life and do my part in setting captives free. Tomorrow had come, but so had Jesus, and it is He who has defeated the grave. “For God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 Author Bio

Jessica Kirkland Jessica Kirkland lives in Southeast Texas with her husband, Robb, and five-year-old triplets. She is an author and speaker whose greatest passion in life is to see young families grow deeper in their walk with God. Jessica's newest adventure includes launching Christian Apps 4 Kids, which seeks to draw kids closer to Christ one app at a time. A recent release is a book app that addresses fear and scary nighttime sounds called The Sounds of Night, designed for kids ages 2-8. It is currently available on iPad, iPhone and all Android devices. When Jessica isn't writing, you can find her cheering her boys on at the soccer field, or watching her little girl at the dance studio.

To find out more about her current writing projects, connect with her at: http://www.christianapps4kids.com or on her personal blog: http://www.jessicakirkland.com To purchase The Sounds of Night at iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-sounds-of-night/id456046823?mt=8 To purchase The Sounds of Night in the Android Market: https://market.android.com/details?id=pro.roar.thesoundsofnight&feature=search_result