#SaturdaySpotlight is on Heidi Gray McGill & Vision of My Heart!

Good Morning and Welcome back to another episode of Saturday Spotlight! It is with great pleasure I bring Heidi back to share her new release, Vision of My Heart, a standalone Christian historical romance and the final book in the Discerning God's Best series. 

Welcome Heidi! The blog is all yours...

THANKS, Pam.

I'm not Serafina. I still have some sight left, enough to be dangerous behind a grocery cart, but nowhere near enough to have written her by imagination alone. Every scene from her point of view had to work through sound, touch, and smell. No sunsets. No knowing glances across a room. If I couldn't feel it, hear it, or smell it, it didn't belong on the page.

I closed my eyes more times than I can count while drafting this book, just to feel what a hallway or a porch step or a stranger's voice would tell me if sight weren't in the equation. It was humbling. It was also one of the most spiritually honest things I've done as a writer, because it forced me to trust, the way Sera has to trust, that there's more than one way to see clearly.

Vision of My Heart closes out a seven-book journey through Shumard Oak Bend. It asked something different of me than the other six did.

Enjoy this peek into Vision of My Heart...

Smallpox took Serafina Shankel's sight and the confidence she once wore as easily as her best dress. She meets her altered world with quiet dignity, choosing composure over complaint and refinement over pity.

Then a frontier storm strands her far from home, and Connor Finnegan finds her. The horseman's steady presence and dry humor unsettle a heart she has kept in careful order.

Connor has weathered enough loss to recognize it in others. He offers no rescue and no easy promises, only patience and a way of seeing that reaches past sight. He does not expect her strength to pull at him this hard, or how God uses their unlikely bond to wake hopes he thought long buried.

The future God offers may look nothing like the one either imagined. It may be sweeter.

Excerpt: Connor slid from the saddle and led Drum a few paces along the bank, boots sinking into damp earth. He bent to scoop water over his neck and shivered under its chill.

Then he saw them.

Boots. Small ones set neatly beside a flat rock with stockings folded atop them as if laid out for Sunday.

Bare feet rested in the moss, pale against the dark green, toes half-curled as though testing the ground for its welcome.

His first read of her was not inappropriateness. It was fragility.

He lifted his gaze to her face. She sat unmoving, face tilted toward the sun. He was just close enough to see a contented smile.

Drum snorted behind him, causing the dog to rise, hackles up at the scruff of its neck.

She turned her head directly toward him. The certainty of it made his mouth go dry. She could not see him, but she knew exactly where he stood.

"Who's there?"

Get your copy of Vision of My Heart at Amazon

Heidi Gray McGill is a Selah Award finalist and five-time NEST Award-winning author of Christian historical and contemporary fiction. Her Discerning God’s Best series has earned over 3,500 five-star reviews on Amazon, where readers describe her work as “faith-filled fiction with flawed but lovable characters.” She began her writing journey in March 2020, after retirement, proving that God’s calling has no expiration date.

A sought-after encourager in the writing community, Heidi speaks and writes on the craft of storytelling, writing with biblical conviction, and reaching readers across generational and cultural divides. She is both independently and traditionally published, and she writes despite progressive vision loss, which has only sharpened her perspective on what it means to walk by faith and not by sight.

Connect with Heidi and receive a free prequel to her bestselling series at HeidiGrayMcGill.com.

Christian Fiction. Relatable Characters. Life-changing Stories. Fusing Faith and Fiction™

Wow... such a beautiful story and series! Thanks for sharing with us today Heidi!

Friends, if you haven't yet, check out Heidi's Throwback Thursday Page and find out all about this wonderful Discerning God's Best series.

Until next time, take care, God Bless and Read Happy!

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Heidi Gray McGill and her Discerning God's Best series Book Bundle - Collection One

Good Morning from Daytona Beach, Florida! 

My daughter and I drove up Tuesday/Wednesday for NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance National Competition to watch my son's teams from Stephen F. Austin State University! I'll be sharing the results of the competition on my travel blog, Bathroom Blues next week. I hope you'll drop by there and see who won what.

Prayers appreciated for safe travels home to us and ALL the teams. - THANKS!

Now, on to our spotlight...

If you've followed me for long, you know that I LOVE hosting authors and their books in hopes that you, Dear Reader Friend, will find some new favs. Sharing a brand-new-to-me author is always the most exciting for me and today's guest is one!

Welcome Heidi, please tell us about your Discerning God's Best series and why you wrote it...

My heartfelt thanks, Pam for welcoming me to your blog and giving me the opportunity to introduce my stories to your readers!

It’s a joy to share the heart behind my Discerning God’s Best – Collection One bundle, and I’m grateful for spaces like this where faith and fiction meet to inspire and encourage.

When my world shifted—first through vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa, then through the sudden closing of the ESL program I founded and directed—I lost the platform I had used to share Christ. The ministry I loved was gone, my daily rhythms were upended, and I couldn’t see what God was doing next.

But God did.

In the quiet, He gave me stories. Stories of resilient women and steadfast men in the 1800s who, much like us today, faced detours they didn’t choose and seasons they didn’t understand. Each character wrestled with questions I knew well: Can I trust God’s timing? Does He truly see me? Is His plan still good when mine has fallen apart?

Those stories became my Discerning God’s Best series. And now, I’ve gathered the first works into one seamless collection so readers can experience them back-to-back, walking through the characters’ intertwined journeys without missing a beat.

In the collection, you’ll find Desire of My Heart, where a marriage of convenience forces two people to lean on God’s provision when their own resources fall short. 

With All My Heart is a story of forgiveness and second chances, where hearts once closed slowly begin to heal. 

In the tender Christmas novella Stitched on My Heart, a woman discovers resilience and love after loss in a land where both are hard won. 

And in the bonus short story Where Hearts Belong, a snowbound encounter changes the course of two lonely lives forever.

Read together, these stories offer more than individual adventures; they weave into a larger tapestry of hope, healing, and faith’s quiet triumph. You’ll step from one character’s world into another’s, experiencing a frontier community where lives touch, paths cross, and God’s fingerprints are everywhere.

This bundle is perfect for readers who love to binge-read without losing the thread of the journey. By the last page, my prayer is that you’ll feel as if you’ve lived alongside these characters—sharing their trials, rejoicing in their victories, and seeing your own faith strengthened.

If you’re ready for a reading experience that blends historical romance with timeless truth, I invite you to begin with the Discerning God’s Best – Collection One. Let’s walk this path together… and see where God’s best might be waiting for you.

The entire Discerning God’s Best – Collection One bundle is just $9.99—a savings of over $3.00 compared to purchasing the books individually, or you can enjoy it at no extra cost with your Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Although I am spotlighting this Collection One Bundle, the Discerning God's Best series consists of 6 books with #7 on the way! So, if you decide you love the Collection One Bundle, be sure to check out, Matters of the Heart, Healing of the Heart, Written on My Heart and Keeper of My Heart.

  

Book 7, Vision of My Heart Releases September 15th but is available for Pre-Order now!

Heidi Gray McGill is an award-winning Christian fiction author who blends historical romance with timeless faith. Legally blind from retinitis pigmentosa, she writes stories that reflect God’s grace and the beauty of His perfect timing. Her Discerning God’s Best series invites readers into richly drawn 1800s settings where love and faith triumph over life’s challenges. 

Heidi lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband of over thirty years and treasures time with her grandsons, a well-cooked meal, and a competitive game night. Learn more and download her free prequel at HeidiGrayMcGill.com. 

 

THANK You, So Much, Heidi for sharing your wonderful books with us! We certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings on all of your endeavors!

Hope you enjoyed meeting Heidi as much as I did, Friends, and that you'll check back each week for another episode of Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care, God Bless and Read Happy!

PamT

#TuesdayTreasures Guest post by Tyndale Author, Heidi Chiavaroli

Good Morning!

Last year I introduced to you a new-to-me and our blog author, Heidi, Chiavaroli with her new (at the time) book, Freedom's Ring. Today Heidi returns with her latest release, The Hidden Side so please welcome her back!

An Unexpected Treasure in The Hidden Side

Heidi Chiavaroli

One of my favorite lines in literature is said by Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. He explains to Scout that “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”
This is what the power of story gives us, and as my latest novel, The Hidden Side, is released into the world, I can’t help but dwell on the unexpected treasure it brought me.
Truth be told, I did not at first want to go to the places this story would take me. After my editors gave me the green light to write about a family torn apart by the unspeakable actions of one of its members—a teenage son who would not only bring a gun to school but use it—I was in a bit of shock. I didn’t know how I’d get through it emotionally. How would I write from the point of view of a mother whose son faced the possibility of life in prison because of his horrific actions? If I were honest, when I viewed these stories in the news, I wrote off the parents as unfit, the children as unloved. But reading the memoirs of mothers who had gone through similar situations proved that my presumptions were not always valid.
Both the research and the writing of this story stretched my humanity, my empathy, and my faith. So often I look at a situation, or a person’s actions, and judge it. And while some things are, quite simply, plain wrong, I think it’s worth peeling back the layers of things unseen . . . things we may not even want to see . . . the hidden side, the gray area of those difficult trials and the people who are enduring them.
There lies the treasure I found in The Hidden Side. This story grew my empathy and my compassion. It expanded my view of Atticus Finch’s admonition to climb in someone else’s skin. It was hard to go here, but finding this treasure was absolutely worth it.

The Hidden Side by Heidi Chiavaroli

New York, 2016
Natalie Abbott offers answers for hurting listeners on her popular radio program. But she struggles to connect with her teenagers, with her daughter in an unhealthy relationship and her son uncommunicative and isolated. When one member of the family commits an unspeakable act, Natalie is forced to uncover who she truly is under the façade of her radio persona.

New York, 1776
Mercy Howard is shocked when her fiancé, Nathan Hale, is arrested and hanged as a spy. When she’s asked to join the revolutionary spy ring in Manhattan, she sees an opportunity to avenge Nathan’s death. But keeping her true loyalties hidden grows increasingly harder as the charming Major John Andre of the King’s Army becomes more to her than a target for intelligence.

Mercy’s journals comfort Natalie from across the centuries as both women struggle with their own secrets and shame, wondering how deep God’s mercy extends. Available at Tyndale & Amazon.


*********
What a lovely testimony, Heidi. It always amazes me how God uses tough situations to grow US up spiritually. Thanks for sharing. Good luck and God's blessings to you.

Heidi Chiavaroli began writing eleven years ago, just after Jesus grabbed hold of her heart. She used her two small boys’ nap times to pursue what she thought at the time was a foolish dream. Despite a long road to publication, she hasn’t stopped writing since! Heidi won the 2014 ACFW Genesis contest in the historical category. Her debut novel, Freedom’s Ring, was a 4½-star Romantic Times Top Pick and a Booklist Top Ten Romance Debut, and her latest novel, The Hidden Side, is scheduled to release in May 2018. Heidi loves exploring places that whisper of historical secrets, especially with her family. She loves running, hiking, baking, and dates with her high-school sweetheart and husband of fourteen years. Heidi makes her home in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle.

Hope you enjoyed today's guest and that you'll drop by each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

#TuesdayTreasures with Heidi Chiavaroli

Good Morning Friends,

Today's guest is new to me and out blog and brought to us by Tyndale Publishing, so please welcome Heidi Chiavaroli....

Heidi Chiavaroli is a writer, runner, and grace-clinger who could spend hours exploring Boston’s Freedom Trail. She writes women's fiction and won the 2014 ACFW Genesis contest in the historical category. Her debut novel, Freedom’s Ring, releases from Tyndale House Publishers in August 2017. Heidi makes her home in Massachusetts with her husband, two sons, and Howie, her standard poodle. Visit her online at HeidiChiavaroli.com.

A Treasure from the Past

I stood in the funeral home, staring at the painting. It was beautiful, of a young African American girl wearing a headdress. The faint lines of brushstrokes and vivid color came alive to me, and it was here—not in the photograph of my once-young great-grandmother sitting beside the painting—that I felt the remembered presence of Great-Grammy the most. Here, in her beautiful creation, did I feel the past and present come together.

I’d grown up with Great-Grammy as my neighbor. She took care of me and my sister often. And when I became interested in drawing, she encouraged my love to create. 

There was something special about Great-Grammy. Something . . . spunky. She was gorgeous and glamorous, one of the first women in Massachusetts to wear pants (gasp!) to work. And Great-Grammy was talented—she amazed me with her gift of painting.

Now, about to enter the room where I would say my final good-byes, I lingered at the painting of the young girl, imagined my grandmother bringing her to life with skilled hands. 

That was more than a year ago. Just last month, my family celebrated a wedding. Following the reception, we went to my great-aunt’s home to continue the party. My aunt prompted us to go into her finished basement and peruse Great-Grammy’s many paintings—and to take one if we wanted.

When I looked over all the lovely paintings—each a part of my grandmother—one in particular caught my eye. To me, it was obviously the best. Why hadn’t one of my cousins or aunts or uncles taken it yet? As I scooped it up, my family affirmed how the painting suited me. And as I held it, I felt the grand orchestration of the moment. Such a small thing, but God was in it. In some ways, it was as if my grandmother—in her desire to create—had made the painting for me. A small gift, a small legacy, for me to remember her by.

In my book, Freedom’s Ring, Brad gives Annie a ring to comfort her after she is injured in the Boston Marathon bombing. When they reunite two years later, they search for the history behind the heirloom. Although Brad has had the ring for years, and is attached to it because of circumstances regarding his time in Iraq, he has never looked further until Annie inspires him to do so. 

Treasures from the past are all around us. It’s why I love hanging out at antique shops, why I can’t get enough of the Freedom Trail and other local history. Though we are often caught up in the here and now, the past holds riches we won’t see unless we look. An old ring, a dusty painting, a chipped piece of furniture. Treasure—maybe that of your own family—is all around us if we just have the eyes to see.

How beautiful! Heidi's new book. Freedom's Ring can be purchased at Tyndale.com and Amazon.com

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and will join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Angela K Couch & The Patriot & the Loyalist!

Good Morning Friends,

I'm a bit late posting today's spotlight and I apologize for that, but I'm sure you won't be disappointed in our guest.

Angela Couch shared thoughts with us last year and today we welcome her back with a brand new release from Pelican Book Group/White Rose Publishing!

Completing his three years in the Continental Army, Daniel Reid still has no desire to return home—not after losing the woman he loves to a British Captain—so he volunteers to ride south through enemy lines and deliver a message to Colonel Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. With his temper needing a release and a dark haired beauty finding her way into his broken heart, Daniel decides to join the Swamp Fox’s efforts against the British. Little does he know the British still have the upper hand.

Lydia Reynolds has learned that love comes at a price, and she refuses to pay. Better to close her heart to everything and everyone. When her brother-in-law won't grant her passage to England, where she hopes to hide from her pain, New Englander, Daniel Reid, becomes her only hope—if she can induce him to give her information about the notorious Swamp Fox and his troops. When the British grow impatient and Daniel evades her questions, Lydia must decide how far to take her charade. The poor man, already gutted by love, hasn’t grown as wise as she. Or so she supposes…

Until the truth is known, the muskets are loaded…and it is time to decide where true loyalties lie.

Excerpt:

Lydia huffed and settled back into her seat. The New Englander sat there looking all too confident and sure of himself. Nothing she hated more than an arrogant man. Except perhaps an arrogant rebel—so certain breaking with England was the only way. They were instead destroying the colonies with this war and murdering good men. Like her father.

    She lifted a corner of the thick velvet curtains. Only two and a half blocks to go. She’d suspected Wilsby of his inclinations toward the rebels for a while now. The arrival of Daniel Reid seemed only to solidify both their guilt, and if she was wise, she could use them to her advantage. “We’ll be there soon.” Lydia dropped the folds of crimson curtain.

    “Regretful.”

    She met his gaze. “Why do you say that?”

    He shook his head and looked to his cane. “No reason.”

    “I do wish you would be more forthright, Mr. Reid, before our journey comes to an end. I can help you.”

    “How, exactly?”

    She gave him a knowing smile. “Before I incriminate myself, tell me truthfully that you are a Patriot.”

    He studied her for a full minute or more, the methodical plod of hooves and the squeak of the axels marking the passage of time. He sighed and raised his hand. “All right. Now tell me how you plan to assist me?”

    I knew it. She grinned and slid to the edge of her seat. “We have a British major billeted with us. And my sister’s husband is very loyal to the crown—an outspoken man. You would be surprised how often our table is laden with talk of military strategy and plans.” She tipped her head slightly to one side, feigning the look of innocence. The bait was laid for him. The question remained as to whether he would bite.

Sounds like a wonderful, Historical novel! If you've a mind to check it out, The Patriot & the Loyalist can be purchased directly from the publisher, at Barnes and Noble, and Amazon! Now let's find out a little more about Angela....

To keep from freezing in the Great White North, Angela K Couch cuddles under quilts with her laptop. Winning short story contests, being a semi-finalist in ACFW’s Genesis Contest, and a finalist in the International Digital Awards also helped warm her up. As a passionate believer in Christ, her faith permeates the stories she tells. Her martial arts training, experience with horses, and appreciation for good romance sneak in there, as well. When not writing, she stays fit (and warm) by chasing three munchkins.

You can connect with Angela at her website and on Facebook.

Well Friends, hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and that you'll join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and another Saturday Spotlight!

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

#ThursdayThoughts: Guest Post by Christine Lindsay

Good Morning and Welcome to the last Thursday Thoughts of June 2016!

Our guest today is no stranger to the blog. She was spotlighted in April and shared treasures with us in May. Today she shares some thoughts with us on personalities....

Personalities, Two Sides to the Coin -- by Christine Lindsay

Personality traits have always fascinated me. How does our early life mold our personality? How much of it is inherited? What aspects of personality affect people’s choices of work,exploits or lack of exploits.

Have you ever noticed that there is a good side and a down side to our personality traits?

I love doing tests such as the Myers’ Briggs, and on one test I found myself as a Protagonist under the heading for Diplomats. They describe this personality as:

Everything you do ripples outward and affects everyone. Your posture can shine your heart or transmit anxiety. Your breath can radiate love or muddy the room in depression. Your glance can awaken joy. Your words can inspire freedom. Your every act can open hearts and minds.

My goodness, how very flattering. This all comes in handy when I write and do the occasional speaking. The down side however, is I can also lock myself away for hours on end with my laptop. I tend to be a workaholic, and prefer my solitude a bit too much.

Enough of me.

While developing the characters for Sofi’s Bridge, I wanted to know the good side and the bad side to the personality traits of a doctor. On the site Medoholic I found certain personality traits that are predominant in medical students.

The traits of a doctor who will go beyond himself to save others. But what’s the possible downside? In the Supporter Personality tests doctors and nurses are referred to as “Supporters” with the passion to be saviors.

So, what’s happens when a healthy individual with the personality traits to make a good doctor finds himself in a personal situation that twists his passion for saving others into circumstances that will destroy him?

·         Have you ever stopped in the middle of helping your kids or a friend out of a jam, and thought, “maybe it would be better if they took their lumps and learned from their situation?”

This particular truth inspired my latest historical romance Sofi’s Bridge. The hero and the heroine in this book are both savior personality types, and put aside their own welfare to “fix” the lives of their respective siblings. In Sofi’s Bridge, both Sofi Andersson and Dr. Neil Galloway must learn the same lesson that I had to learn in my life—that we cannot save the ones we love. Only God can do that.

**********

Wow, learn something new every day! Great info Christine, thanks for sharing.

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and the explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and her use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary romance Londonderry Dreaming. Her newest release Sofi’s Bridge also features a dashing Irish hero.

Aside from being a busy writer and speaker, Christine and her husband live on the west coast of Canada. Coming August 2016 is the release of Christine’s non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads

 Read all the first chapters of Christine Lindsay’s novels for Free on her website, click HERE and go to Christine’s Books.

Hope you enjoyed Christine's thoughts as much as I did. Drop by weekly for more Thursday Thoughts, Saturday Spotlights and Tuesday Treasures.

Until next time...take care and God Bless!
PamT

#TuesdayTreasures: Guest Post by Christine Lindsay

Good Morning Friends,

It is with great pleasure I bring today's guest, Christine Lindsay to share with us somethings she treasures......

The Treasure Trove of Ancestors – by Christine Lindsay

Life has been a rollercoaster for me, the good, the bad, even the ugly at times. But what a treasure trove it is to dip into old family history when I need inspiration for a book.

Thanks to the Irish oral tradition of handing stories down through the generations, I have used my great-grandfather’s and my grandfather’s trade as riveters in the Belfast shipyard for Sofi’s Bridge, my latest historical romance, although I switched the riveters to that of bridges instead of ships. My grandfather was only 14 years old as an apprentice on his very first ship, the RMS Titanic.

I used my maternal great, great-grandfather’s military career as a solider in India to create my hero Major Geoff Richards in Shadowed in Silk.

My own travels in India during a missionary trip painted the exotic tropical setting for Captured by Moonlight.

My great-uncle Eddie Roberts who was a soldier in the British Cavalry between the two world wars, and who also served in India during the time of Lord Louis Mountbatten as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Asian theater during WW2 became the inspiration for my hero Captain Cam Fraser in Veiled at Midnight. Thank you Uncle Eddie.

Again, my own travels in Ireland created the backdrop of Londonderry Dreaming, especially the majestic and rugged Irish coastline and the world famous Giant’s Causeway, where I had my hero a music therapist kiss the heroine, an artist. Those two characters had trouble communicating with words, but did just fine with other types of communication.

Living close to the Cascade Mountains and the Canadian Rockies was the inspiration for my short Christmas story Heavenly Haven where I had fun creating an avalanche.

And my own life, with all its heartaches and joys as a woman who relinquished her child to adoption, and to our reunion 20 years later was the truth behind Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story which will be released August. 15, 2016.

As far as the ugly is concerned, those memories are few and far between. And if someone just happened to hurt my feelings, well they’re in my books, but they would never recognize themselves. Ah, the life of an author, and the treasure troves we dip into.

Wow...Ireland. One day I'm going to visit there!

ABOUT CHRISTINE LINDSAY

Christine Lindsay is the author of multi-award-winning Christian fiction. Tales of her Irish ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in Colonial India inspired her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj, Book 1 Shadowed in Silk, Book 2 Captured by Moonlight, and the explosive finale Veiled at Midnight.

Christine’s Irish wit and her use of setting as a character is evident in her contemporary romance Londonderry Dreaming. Her newest release Sofi’s Bridge also features a dashing Irish hero.

Aside from being a busy writer and speaker, Christine and her husband live on the west coast of Canada. Coming August 2016 is the release of Christine’s non-fiction book Finding Sarah—Finding Me: A Birthmother’s Story.

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and  Goodreads

Read all the first chapters of Christine Lindsay’s novels for Free on her website, click HERE and go to Christine’s Books.

Purchase Sofi's Bridge at AMAZON.com and Pelican Book Group

Hope you enjoyed today's Treasures and I hope you'll come back weekly for Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!

Until next time...take care and God bless.

PamT

#ThursdayThoughts: Special Guest Post by Angela Couch!

Good Morning Friends,

Today I'm happy to introduce you to a brand new (to me and our blog) author, Angela K Couch who will share some thoughts with us.....

I was twelve years old when a youth leader gave me a poem that has stayed with me for the past two decades. It spoke of a rose bud, no beauty, but full of potential. The last stanza brought that rose, or me, into bloom—radiant, lovely, and everything God had intended it to become. As I years pass and I experience more and more of this life, I see how many different types and colors of roses there are…and an equally vast number of growing conditions and seasons.

I am leaning how important it is to embrace who the Lord has made you and the season he has placed you in.  I love the quote by Henry David Thoreau when he talked about his desire “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” To do this we must find a way to appreciate all aspects of life. A friend once told me, “There are trials and pain, mostly physical pain, that are exclusive to this life, and someday we will look back and perhaps even treasure these hardships as a unique part of this mortal experience.”

So whatever you might be facing in life, it is my prayer we might be able to cultivate an “attitude of gratitude.” Don’t forget we are all roses. All beautiful. All God’s.

~ ~ ~

So true Angela! This reminds me of my devotional Love is a Rose in which I state...we are called to be roses in the jungle of life. (I LOVE Yellow Roses btw!)

Amazing....

Angela K Couch is an award-winning author for her short stories, and a semi-finalist in ACFW's Genesis Contest. As a passionate believer in Christ, her faith permeates the stories she tells. Her martial arts training, experience with horses, and appreciation for good romance sneak in there, as well. Angela lives in Alberta, Canada with her "hero" and three munchkins.

Find and follow Angela on her Website, Face Book, Twitter @AngelaKCouch and Good Reads.

Her new book, Mail Order Revenge is available now at Amazon in Paperback and for Kindle!

I hope you enjoyed today's guest post as much as I did! Check back weekly for more Thursday Thoughts, Tuesday Treasures and Saturday Spotlights.

Until later.... Take care and God Bless.

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight: Linda Rondeau & Fiddler's Fling

Good Morning!

Today our guest is a fellow Pelican Book Group author with her latest non-PBG release, Fiddler's Fling.

Restoration and reconciliation are recurring themes in RONDEAU’s literary works. Although currently residing in Jacksonville Florida, the author spent thirty years in the Adirondack region during her long career in human services. 

When not writing, she enjoys theater, hiking, golfing, and is considering taking up a new hobby: biking. 

Readers may visit her web site at www.lindarondeau.com, her blog, Salt and Light, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus and Goodreads.  

Engaged to a wealthy rising political star, a driven social worker returns to her small-town roots.

With her wedding to Robert Ashworth weeks away, Jolene Murdock receives a call from Dwight Etting, her estranged father’s junior partner and her former boyfriend. The business is crumbling and her father is dying.

Compelled to visit in spite of Robert’s objections, Jolene wonders if reconciliation is possible given her father’s hatred of all things Ashworth. And there was Dwight. How could she work side-by-side with him and not reveal her secret sin?

To complicate matters her father wants her to play a duet with him in the upcoming Essex County Fiddlers Fling; however, her fiddle was among the many things she left behind when she abandoned Brookside.    

More than a romance.

Set in the beautiful Adirondack Mountains, Fiddlers Fling depicts the struggle of the human spirit to find absolution in good deeds rather than accept the unconditional forgiveness God offers the repentant heart. 

EXCERPT: 

PROLOGUE

Jolene Murdock hopped around her room like a two-year-old at Christmas. No small thing to be offered a job at the most prestigious law firm in Albany. The cell slipped from her grasp. “Oh, spinach,” she shrieked, emulating how Eleanor Roosevelt might have said it. She caught her lifeline, the portal to her world, a split-second before it met a watery end in her fish tank.

On the other end, Robert Ashworth clicked impatience. “I sense you have reservations?”

“No. Not at all.” Calm down, girl. “Tell me more.”

“You’ll head up our charitable foundation, oversee our donations, arrange fundraisers for recipients, and be an ambassador of good will. Your social-work degree will be an asset.”

“I’m not a certified social worker…yet. I only have my bachelor’s degree.”

“You can get your Master’s in Albany. My father’s firm will pay for your tuition. Take a few seconds if you need to.”

She’d already made her decision. Instead of revealing her giddiness, she took the allowed few seconds to examine the downs, if there were any besides the fact her father would never approve. The strangeness of it all should be considered. Why did Robert’s father want to hire her, Jolene Murdock, a simple girl from Brookside? Granted, she’d graduated with honors from Vassar, no small feat. And she was the daughter of the Democratic Chair for Essex County. She’d been a protégé of Robert’s mother since the summer following high school graduation—a woman who bolstered Jolene’s confidence like the mother Jolene never had. So…why not her? Maybe she really was the perfect choice for the position.

But what about Robert? Did he want Jolene to be hired, or had his mother put him up to it? He was three years older than she, and they’d been an item her freshman year, in spite of her father’s insistence she not date older boys. Daddy needn’t have worried. Once Robert took off for Harvard, she saw him only a few times, generally at some political function and always with his mother.  

The silence grew awkward, and the sounds of drumming fingers carried over Robert’s phone into Jolene’s ear. “I need an answer. What do I tell my father?”

“Tell him I accept.”

“Then pack your bags and get on the train to Albany tomorrow. You start Monday.”

Fiddler's Fling can be purchased at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Hope you enjoyed the spotlight, see ya next week for Tuesday Treasure, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until then...take care and God Bless.

PamT