#TuesdayTreasures Guest Post by Saundra Dalton-Smith

Good Morning Friends,

As you know I always love bringing new-to-me authors to your attention and today is no exception.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is an author, speaker, and board-certified physician. She has an active medical practice in Alabama (near the Birmingham area). She received her B.S. in Biochemistry at the University of Georgia, and graduated with honors from Meharry Medical College in Nashville. She has been an adjunct faculty member at Baker College and Davenport University in Michigan teaching courses on health, nutrition, and disease progression. Dr. Dalton-Smith is a national and international media resource on the mind, body, spirit connection and has been featured in Women’s Day, Redbook, and First For Women magazine. She is the author of “Set Free to Live” and “Come Empty” (winner 2016 Golden Scroll Nonfiction Book of the Year and 2016 Illumination Award Gold medalist). She is a member of the Christian Medical and Dental Association and a repeat keynote speaker at their annual gathering. She has shared her tips on merging faith and medicine with over 16,000 health care professionals to encourage the current and next generation of doctors to treat the whole person. Find out more about Saundra at http://ichoosemybestlife.com.

Welcome Saundra! So happy to have you share something you treasure with us today....

This little gift was hand-picked by my 11-year-old son after learning about my publishing contract for Sacred Rest. It perfectly captures his love for science and his adventurous nature. His ladybug pen was an excellent reminder that God speaks through creation.  We are often just too busy rushing to enjoy the beauty around us. We don’t see the small wonders because we are so focused on the big picture.  One of the challenges from Sacred Rest is to make space in our lives to allow God to revive us through rest. I describe seven different types of rest, one of which is creative rest. I define creative rest as the experience of allowing beauty to inspire awe and liberate wonder. What better example in nature than the ladybug?

When writing, I can spend hours pouring out over my laptop, and it can quickly drain my creative reserves. This little ladybug pen would encourage me to take breaks from my word count goals. I would head outside and ask God to show me the small doses of beauty hidden in my yard. God was faithful to use those moments of rest to restore my energy and revive my creativity.

I now keep a copy of the pen on my writing desk as tangible evidence that my writing journey may happen in solitude but it is a family journey. They may not be in the room with me when I write, but they are dreaming with me and supporting me with their love and acceptance along the way.

Awww....Saundra, how sweet!  This is definitely something to treasure always! Thanks for sharing! Now tell us a little about your newest release, Sacred Rest.....

Staying busy is easy. Staying well rested— there’s a challenge.
How can you keep your energy, happiness, creativity, and relationships fresh and thriving in the midst of never-ending family demands, career pressures, and the stress of everyday life? In Sacred Rest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a board-certified internal medicine doctor, reveals why rest can no longer remain optional.

Dr. Dalton-Smith shares seven types of rest she has found lacking in the lives of those she encounters in her clinical practice and research-physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, sensory, social, creative—and why a deficiency in any one of these types of rest can have unfavorable effects on your health, happiness, relationships, creativity, and productivity. Sacred Rest combines the science of rest, the spirituality of rest, the gifts of rest, and the resulting fruit of rest. It shows rest as something sacred, valuable, and worthy of our respect.

By combining scientific research with personal stories, spiritual insight, and practical next steps, Sacred Rest gives the weary permission to embrace rest, set boundaries, and seek sanctuary without any guilt, shame, or fear.

Learn more and purchase a copy HERE.

Sounds like a book we could all benefit from reading. Thank you so much for dropping by. I pray you enjoyed today's post as much as I did and that you'll stop by often for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

#TuesdayTreasure Guest post by Kim Vogel Sawyer!

Good Morning!

Today's guest has shared thoughts with us before, but it has been a while so PLEASE welcome Kim Vogel Sawyer with something she treasures....

 

There are two shadow boxes hanging on the wall in one of our guests rooms, and those shadow boxes contain some of my most beloved possessions: my maternal grandmother’s wedding dress and a pair of brooches purchased by my paternal grandmother as gifts for my step-grandma. My step-grandma must have treasured these, because she kept them her whole life (you can see the note she wrote inside the box lid).

Both of my grandmothers died when my parents were children, long before I was born, so I never met either of them. Fortunately, I had the privilege of a loving step-grandma who had been a good friend to my grandmother, so she told me stories about Lillian. Family members on my mother’s side told me about Elizabeth.

When writing Bringing Maggie Home, especially when writing the scenes between Hazel (the grandmother) and Meghan (the granddaughter), I often thought about my grandmothers. I gave Hazel some of their characteristics—creativity, compassion, strong faith. Some of the advice Hazel gives to Meghan came from words of wisdom passed to me from my dear step-grandma. Thus, I was able to honor all three women in the story.

Someday I will meet my grandmothers and be reunited with my step-grandma, but for now I’m grateful for the treasures in the shadow boxes.

Oh wow, Kim...definitely something to treasure! Makes me think of the shadow boxes we created after my husband's death.

Kim Vogel Sawyer is a highly acclaimed, best-selling author with more than one million books in print, in several different languages. Her titles have earned numerous accolades including the ACFW Carol Award, the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, and the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. Kim lives in central Kansas with her retired military husband Don, where she continues to write gentle stories of hope and redemption. She enjoys spending time with her three daughters and grandchildren.


Find out more about Kim at http://www.kimvogelsawyer.com/

Decades of loss, an unsolved mystery, and a rift spanning three generations

Hazel DeFord is a woman haunted by her past. While berry picking in a blackberry thicket in 1943, ten-year old Hazel momentarily turns her back on her three-year old sister Maggie and the young girl disappears.

Almost seventy years later, the mystery remains unsolved and the secret guilt Hazel carries has alienated her from her daughter Diane, who can’t understand her mother’s overprotectiveness and near paranoia. While Diane resents her mother’s inexplicable eccentricities, her daughter

Meghan—a cold case agent—cherishes her grandmother’s lavish attention and affection.
When a traffic accident forces Meghan to take a six-week leave-of-absence to recover, all three generations of DeFord women find themselves unexpectedly under the same roof. Meghan knows she will have to act as a mediator between the two headstrong and contentious women. But when they uncover Hazel’s painful secret, will Meghan also be able to use her investigative prowess to solve the family mystery and help both women recover all that’s been lost?

Learn more and purchase a copy.

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 Guest post by Lori Benton

Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Today's guest is new to me and our blog and brought to us by LitFuse Publicity, so please welcome, Lori Benton!

For the past year or so one of my treasures has been my Kodak Easy Share camera. It’s more complex than a point and shoot, but doesn’t boast all the features that some cameras do. You can’t attach lenses, but there are various settings and ISO speeds and the ability to zoom with the built-in lens. There are much bigger, faster, stronger cameras out there, so why do I love this little camera so much?

Before I became a writer in my early twenties, I was a wildlife artist. I drew and I painted. I was passionate about the visual arts. My work hung in a gallery alongside that of Robert Bateman (my all-time favorite wildlife artist). Then the writing bug bit and I allowed painting to fall by the wayside.

Writing is more demanding of me creatively than painting ever was. After about twenty years there came a season where I was feeling drained. Burned out might not be overstating matters.

Then, through a friend with a passion for photography and the outdoors, I discovered Instagram and “woke up” to the gorgeous state in which I’m blessed to live (yes, I was actually in danger of losing my awe about the Pacific Northwest as well!). I decided to learn how to use my little camera beyond treating it like a point and shoot. I studied what other landscape photographers were posting on Instagram. I grew adventurous. I discovered new trails, new mountains, new coves and beaches and waterfalls across Oregon and neighboring states.

I bought a tripod. I learned how to edit my photos and discovered that was half the fun for me. The visual artist in me had reawakened!

And, unexpectedly, my creative well started filling up again—a good and necessary thing for a writer to be sure she’s doing in the midst of the long and demanding process of bringing a novel through from concept to publication.

Check out more of my photos on Instagram.

I love taking photos too, Lori! These are beautiful and definitely something to treasure. Thanks for sharing with us. Now please tell us a little more about yourself and your new book.....

 Lori Benton was raised east of the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by early American history going back three hundred years. Her novels transport readers to the eighteenth century, where she brings to life the Colonial and early Federal periods of American history. When she isn’t writing, reading, or researching, Lori enjoys exploring and photographing the Oregon wilderness with her husband. She is the author of “Burning Sky,” recipient of three Christy Awards, “The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn,” Christy-nominee “The Wood’s Edge,” and “A Flight of Arrows.”

Find out more about Lori at http://loribenton.blogspot.com

Either she and her children would emerge from that wilderness together, or none of them would. . . .

In 1774, the Ohio-Kentucky frontier pulses with rising tension and brutal conflicts as Colonists push westward and encroach upon Native American territories. The young Inglesby family is making the perilous journey west when an accident sends Philip back to Redstone Fort for help, forcing him to leave his pregnant wife Clare and their four-year old son Jacob on a remote mountain trail.

When Philip does not return and Jacob disappears from the wagon under the cover of darkness, Clare awakens the next morning to find herself utterly alone, in labor and wondering how she can to recover her son . . . especially when her second child is moments away from being born.

Clare will face the greatest fight of her life, as she struggles to reclaim her son from the Shawnee Indians now holding him captive. But with the battle lines sharply drawn, Jacob’s life might not be the only one at stake. When frontiersman Jeremiah Ring comes to her aid, can the stranger convince Clare that recovering her son will require the very thing her anguished heart is unwilling to do—be still, wait and let God fight this battle for them?

Learn more and purchase a copy.

Wow... wishing you the best of luck and God's blessings with your new book, Lori!

Hope you enjoyed today's post friends, and that you'll check back each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

REMEMBER: The Rafflecopter Giveaway of a Kindle Fire is wrapping up soon so enter today!

Until next time take care and God Bless.
PamT

#ThursdayThoughts with DiAnn Mills!

Good Morning from Lemon Cove, CA!

I'm running late with my post so won't take too much time talking about my trip. Suffice it to say AZ & CA are Hot, Hot, HOT with temps in the triple digits!

Today's guest has a career just as hot. 

Award-winning author DiAnn Mills combines an adventuresome spirit with unforgettable characters to create action-packed novels. DiAnn’s first book was published in 1998. She currently has more than 50 books in print, which have sold more than a million and a half copies and appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists.

DiAnn also won back-to-back Christy Awards in 2010 and 2011 for Breach of Trust and Sworn to Protect, the first two books in her Call of Duty series. Her online home is www.diannmills.com.

Now let's see what DiAnn has to share....

 4 Ways the FBI Assists Other Agencies

The FBI works with local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement to investigate and share information to help solve and prevent crime. Through the following services, they are an integral federal agency dedicated to the wellbeing of the United States and global allies.

“The most effective weapon against crime is cooperation…the efforts of all law enforcement agencies with the support and understanding of the American people.”  J. Edgar Hoover

In my new series, FBI Task Force, I needed accurate information as to how the FBI assists other agencies. The following came from my friend Shauna Dunlap, Special Agent/Media Coordinator for Houston’s FBI.

1. The FBI’s national and local Joint Terrorism Task Forces. (There are JTTF’s in each of the 56 field offices.) These small groups of agents do everything required to run down leads, train, gather intel, and everything in between.
2. Under the Attorney General Guidelines, the FBI is able to assist local, state and other federal partners investigating federal crimes or threats to national security. For example, the FBI assist’s other agencies investigating violent acts or mass killings as noted in federal law: 28, USC 530c 9b) (1) (M) (i).
3. Intelligence information sharing
4. Criminal justice information services

Isn’t it good to know that trained people are working together to keep us safe?

Yes it is, DiAnn! Now tell us a little about your new book, Deep Extraction

FBI Task Force, Book 2

A pacemaker should have saved oil and gas magnate Nathan Moore’s life. Instead, it provided his killer with a seemingly perfect means of execution.

A bombing at one of Nathan’s oil rigs days earlier indicates his death could be part of a bigger conspiracy, a web Special Agent Tori Templeton must untangle. But her first order of business is separating the personal from the professional—the victim’s wife, her best friend, is one of the FBI’s prime suspects.

Clearing Sally’s name may be the biggest challenge of her career, but Tori finds an unexpected ally in the newest member of the task force, recently reinstated Deputy US Marshal Cole Jeffers. As Tori and Cole dig deeper into Nathan’s personal and business affairs, they uncover more than they bargained for. And the closer they get to finding the real killer—and to each other—the more intent someone is on silencing them for good.


Click here to read an excerpt!

Thanks, DiAnn!

Hope you enjoyed today's post friends and that you'll join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

#ThursdayThoughts Guest post by Mike Mizrahi !

Well, we've made it to June already so welcome to the first Thursday Thoughts of the month!

Today's guest is new-to-me and brought to us by Litfuse Publicity Group so please give Mike Mizrahi a great big ole Southern hello!

Create Anyway

We’ve all got the bug to create. It’s in our genes. We can resist . . . we can hide . . . we can put it off. But it’s there, gnawing at us over time. What’s the point, we say? Nobody will see it, or hear it, or read it . . . or if it’s an original dish, taste it outside of my home. And what if I don’t like my own creation?

For those of us who write, the obstacle might be writer’s bloc. Put it down, take a break, and . . . go back to creating anyway!

You’ll feel good and be energized. And you’ll get better. The first draft of my first manuscript was awful. But I did it, and proved to myself that I’m capable of writing a novel. Aristotle said, “Well begun is half done.”

One of my good friends is a painter, and a darn good one, but there was a time when I didn’t know this. Tucked away in his home, he would recreate scenes on canvas from the photos he took on various road trips with his wife. When I saw his work, I made him share the paintings with the other men in our life group. He shows his work now at small art shows, and has sold some paintings. But that’s not why he continues. He’s a creator. It connects him with a strong creative drive in his inner being, and when he paints, it’s one of those things that make him feel alive.

Another close friend, a comedian at the sunset of a very successful career, is daring to remake himself as a movie scriptwriter. He’s a very talented man who knows his craft, and understands all too well the forces beyond his control that align to keep him from his goal. But he creates anyway! He will create until his last days because that’s how he was made. I believe he will succeed.

My spiritual mentor and I wrote and recorded songs for twenty years to lift scripture from “the pages of the Word” to the ears of the children in our church. Never sold anything, but we sure had fun doing it. Maybe it’s a new business you’ve always dreamed of . . . or the desire to learn how to play an instrument . . . or learning how to cook. Go for it. Don’t put it off another day.

We’re all too busy, I know. Find the time and space. When I embarked on writing my newly published historical novel, The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race, I almost threw in the towel. The research was painstaking. Then from somewhere, these words came to me . . .

Take it slow. Don’t give up. Create anyway.

Wow...Mike, just what I needed to hear. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Now let's hear a little more about you....

Mike Mizrahi has a master’s degree in public relations, advertising and applied communication from Boston University. After a career in corporate public affairs, he retired to pursue a deep passion: writing.

Mizrahi and his wife, Karen, led a mission trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo four years ago and were so moved by the experience, Mizrahi wrote his first novel, which he hopes will one day be published. The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race is his debut published work.

Mizrahi loves reading and writing stories about “sozo,” which means to be rescued in Greek. He and Karen are very active in their church and community and love to hike, travel and go the movies together. The Mizrahis live in Woodland Hills, California, where they raised their children who are now adults.

Learn more about The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race and Mike H. Mizrahi at www.mikehmizrahi.com or on Facebook (AuthorMikeMizrahi) and Twitter (@MikeHMiz). 

The Great Chattanooga Bicycle Race

Anna Gaines, an introverted nineteen-year-old, discovers she's a natural on the "wheel" after a visit with her aunt in Brooklyn. Upon returning home to Chattanooga, she insists on the same rights that have been given to men to cycle in public. She becomes the first woman to ride the streets of Chattanooga, clad in the risqué costume that many New York women are wearing in 1895-bloomers.

A firestorm ignites, pitting a few progressive thinkers against a city full of moralists intent on clinging to their post-Antebellum way of life. Anna, beset by insecurities born from a horseback riding accident as a pre-adolescent that leaves her with a pronounced limp, dangles in the middle of an explosive controversy she never envisioned. And she is pitted against Peter Sawyer, the Cycle Club President who silently harbors a crush for her, in a five-mile bicycle race that will decide if women have the same capabilities as men to ride. Learn more and purchase a copy.

Sounds interesting. Thanks again Mike for sharing your thoughts with us. Good luck and God's blessings with your book(s).

Hope you enjoyed today's post, friends 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

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Lisa Lloyd & Chasing Famous!

Hello Again and Welcome to the last Saturday Spotlight in May!

Yeah I know, it goes without saying that time flies by when you're having fun. Sometimes we may not feel like we're having much fun but, usually, if you stop a while and meditate, you can always find something to smile about and be grateful for.

That's my philosophy anyway.

Today's guest is brought to us by Litfuse Publicity and is new to me so please give Lisa Lloyd a great big old Southern Welcome! Let's find out a little about her then we'll check out her new book, Chasing Famous.....

Lisa Lloyd is a charismatic speaker and writer, dedicated to helping women break free of the lies that convince us we don't have a purpose, when in fact God has created us to herald His fame. She reminds women of who we are in Christ, and no matter what the world tells us, God wants to use our past mistakes, our current talents, and our future choices for His glory. Each year, Lloyd is the keynote at women's conferences and mom's groups across the country, being uniquely vulnerable in her communication, vision casting through stories, and bringing her listeners continuously back to the truths of Scripture.

Lloyd graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BFA in theater. She met her husband, Markus, when they were performing on stage together at Dallas Theater Center in the musical, Guys and Dolls. A few of her acting credits include What Would You Do?, Prison Break, The Young and the Restless, and The Bold and the Beautiful. She has performed for many theaters. You might see her on current commercials or on billboards in the Dallas area.  
The Lloyds live in McKinney, TX, and have two sons.

Keep up with Lisa Lloyd's speaking schedule, read her blog, and more by visiting www.lisalloyd.org, following her on Facebook (LisaJLloyd), or via Twitter (@LisaJLloyd).

Lisa Lloyd helps readers live the life they've always auditioned for. 

Seattle: Life can be compared to a series of auditions. Regardless of who we are, we are constantly auditioning for a part: to be the most loving spouse, attentive parent or amazing employee. It is human nature to want to be loved, affirmed and accepted. Whether it is conscious or not, all these desires focus inwardly. In Chasing Famous: Living the Life You've Always Auditioned For (New Hope Press/April 3, 2017/ISBN: 978-1-62591-517-7/$14.99), Lisa Lloyd helps readers shift the focus outwardly and back on God and His glory.

Lloyd, a professional actress who readily admits she is the most self-centered person she knows, provides practical and often-humorous examples of scriptural truth that will help readers discover the role God created for them. It's a role they don't have to audition for because it's one in which they have already been cast.

"In an audition, I'm hoping to be enough - pretty, quirky, talented, funny and fashionable, enough - to be the one chosen," Lloyd shares. "In life, I'm constantly walking around hoping the people making the decisions will like me, choose me, approve me, select me. I want to be enough for them. However it's only when we realize we've already been selected by God that we find peace. Then we can live a life of security, knowing our job is not to be selected but to point people still seeking approval to the One who gives it unconditionally."

Chasing Famous challenges readers to take an honest look at where they're seeking fulfillment, examine their own self-seeking propensities and wrestle with the messy questions of Why am I here? What does God really want from me? Is there more to life than this? Once these issues have been mastered, readers will discover how turning the spotlight on God frees them to live their lives as God intended.

Written with the theme of the audition carried throughout, Chasing Famous uses terms from "the business" to relate to everyday circumstances. The unique structure adds richness and depth to Lloyd's own testimony as she reveals why every person was created to make God famous. "The Bible is clear," Lloyd offers. "God wants to use the story of our lives to radiate His fame. He doesn't point His finger at our mistakes and screw-ups. Rather He points us to the stage so we can share with the world how truly glorious He is."

Lloyd encourages readers to abandon the pain of comparison to leave their own unique stamp on the world and break free from the guilt and shame of the past to embrace God's unconditional love. Ultimately she hopes to empower readers to step bravely into the role God has for them: to stand center stage and proclaim His renown to all who will listen.

View the book trailer for Chasing Famous and learn more about Lisa Lloyd at chasingfamousbook.com, on Facebook (LisaJLloyd), and via Twitter (@LisaJLloyd).


Advance Praise

"After a speaking event, I asked two young girls what they dreamed of doing one day. They both said they dreamed of 'being famous.' My heart sank. This desire for fame is an ageless epidemic perpetuated by a deep desire to be valued, needed, important. Lisa speaks right to the heart of this epidemic in a creative and engaging way through both personal reflection and God's Word. I am so thankful God made it clear to Lisa that this is her purpose . . . to use the story God has written in her life to bring Him fame."

~ Jenn Sprinkle, cofounder of The Well Studio

"The overwhelming need for validation drives the performer in every single one of us! 'See me, love me, affirm me,' is our constant cry on social media, at church on Sundays, even as we send our Christmas cards out each sacred December. Whether you're a stage actress or a stay-at-home-mom, Lisa Lloyd carries us all along on her journey in the spotlight so that we might learn to purposefully live our lives turning that same beam of light on Jesus. After all, He is the Light of the World . . . and all the world's His stage! Packed full of Scripture truth and resonating examples of biblical characters who lived their unique stories for such a time as this, Chasing Famous inspires each reader to offer up their own personal narrative for God's ultimate glory! Inspiring, challenging, and such an important read for each of us living in this digital age that lauds applause on Christian fame."

~ Wendy Speake, actress, speaker, and author of Life Creative and Triggers

To request a review copy of Chasing Famous, to schedule an interview with Lisa Lloyd, or for more information, please contact Audra Jennings, audra@litfusegroup.com.

Sounds like a great book, Lisa, thanks for shining in our spotlight today and thank you, friends for stopping by!

Hope you will join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts, and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

#TuesdayTreasures Guest Post by Cynthia Ruchti

Hello Again!

I pray your weekend was blessed.

Today's guest has shared treasures with us before so please welcome author Cynthi Ruchti back to our blog....

Little Treasures

When I watch HGTV renovations, I’m drawn to the minimalist décor ideas—crisp, clean, open shelves with lots of white space. What I live with—on the other hand—is a mix of minimalist and collector.

The little treasures I collect are either related to sweet memories with family, or they relate to the books I write. I try to find at least one iconic item to remind me of the process my heart went through when writing each book, some heart connection to the story or the research trip or the setting.

On a narrow wall between the front door and the largest window in my office, I’ve hung sketches and photos and artwork representing books already written or still in progress. A stone stagecoach inn from Cedarburg, WI, the setting for the novella collection, Cedar Creek Seasons. Next to it, a photograph-turned-notecard of the woolen mill along Cedar Creek. Above it, a page from a calendar, representing one of my early novels—When the Morning Glory Blooms. In the middle, a gift from a friend—an image of Door County cherries after an ice storm (from the novella collection, A Door County Christmas). The sketch above the cherries is of a stone cottage on historic Shake Rag street in Mineral Point, WI, the setting of a book yet to be birthed. Tucked above that is a notecard made from a friend’s photograph of the area around Madeline Island, WI—the setting of As Waters Gone By.

Along the low window ledge next to my desk is a collection of small treasures that either remind me of friends or of other books. Because I write stories-hemmed-in-hope, readers or friends will often send me hope reminders, like the bookmark in this image. Tucked behind the rock (it’s as close to granite countertops as I’ll ever get) is a small wooden canoe, a reminder of my debut novel—They Almost Always Come Home.

The Sea Glass Hunter’s book was a gift from my sister after we’d spent a week beachcombing and came home without a single discovery. In front of the book are two pieces of sea glass I found on a subsequent trip—both of them white, and poignant reminders of a book proposal now under consideration. The little ceramic building is a yarn shop, part of my lit Christmas village collection and a reminder of “Maybe Us,” my story in the Cedar Creek Seasons novella.

On the ledge just beneath the etched glass in that same window is another collection, which includes morning glory seeds reminiscent of

When the Morning Glory Blooms, a notecard with a watercolor image of the Oceanside, California waterfront which was the setting for All My Belongings, a photo of my Marine dad holding a Korean orphan during the Korean conflict which helped inform my writing in When the Morning Glory Blooms.

The “Hope lives here” chalkboard showed up in a meaningful scene in As Waters Gone By. I’m getting ready to add a photo of the stunning boardwalk along the shore in Algoma, WI—the setting for Restoring Christmas, and a picture of the ancient walking bridge in Stillwater, MN—the setting for An Endless Christmas. The musical note ribbon is a reminder of the book Song of Silence.

And the hearts of handmade paper embedded with flower seeds reminds me of my newest release—A Fragile Hope.

A Fragile Hope

Hope grows when seeds are planted—even in the muddy middle of life.

Josiah Chamberlain’s life’s work revolves around repairing other people’s marriages. When his own is threatened by his wife’s unexplained distance, and then threatened further when she’s unexpectedly plunged into an unending fog, Josiah finds his expertise, quick wit and clever quips are no match for a relationship that is clearly broken.

Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equipped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love. Love seems to have failed him. Will what’s left of his faith fail him, too? Or will it be the one thing that holds him together and sears through the impenetrable wall that separates them?

Learn more and purchase a copy.

Cynthia Ruchti tells stories hemmed in hope through her novels, novellas, nonfiction books, articles and devotionals.

Her latest release is the novel A Fragile Hope. One of Ruchti’s greatest joys is helping other writers grow in their craft. To that end, she has with the Write-to-Publish conference and American Christian Fiction Writers. She and her husband live in the heart of Wisconsin. Learn more at www.cynthiaruchti.com.

Thank you so much, Cynthia for sharing your treasures with us!

I certainly hope you, friends, enjoyed today's post as much as I did and that you'll join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time take care and God bless.

PamT

#TuesdayTreasures: Guest Post by Sarah Sundin

Good Morning!

I pray your Memorial Day weekend was blessed and in the  midst of your relaxation, you took a moment to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday.

With that in mind I am pleased to bring you today's Treasure with author, Sarah Sundin....

More Than a Letter Opener

Most people wouldn’t notice my letter opener, but it’s rich in meaning to me. 

When my grandfather, Fred Stewart, retired from a long career in business, he wanted a new hobby. He took woodcarving classes, discovered he had a gift, and soon began winning awards. More importantly, he enjoyed the work and the joy it brought to others.

When I started pharmacy school, my grandfather was tickled. During World War II, he’d served as a pharmacist’s mate (medic) in the US Navy in the Pacific. He’d always been fascinated by medicine and was delighted that his granddaughter shared his interest. 

One Christmas he carved me this letter opener with the pharmacy symbol. I treasured it from the beginning.

My grandfather passed away in 1992, eight years before I began writing, but he is one of the main reasons I write novels set in World War II. You see, Fred Stewart was a storyteller. While so many veterans didn’t talk about their wartime experiences—for good reason—my grandfather did. He told harrowing stories. He told heartbreaking stories. And he told hilarious stories. My grandfather loved to laugh and he loved to make others laugh.

Because of my grandfather, I decided to focus on the Navy for my third World War II series, Waves of Freedom. The heroine in Anchor in the Storm is a pharmacist, and she unravels a mystery—the pharmacist’s mate on the hero’s ship may or may not be involved. I like to think my grandfather would be tickled.

The letter opener on my desk reminds me of the grandpa I adored as a man of integrity who loved his family. It reminds me of my chosen profession. And it reminds of why I write novels set in World War II—to honor the real-life heroes who served.

Awww, Sarah your letter opener is definitely something to treasure!

 Sarah Sundin is the author of eight historical novels, including Anchor in the Storm. Her novel Through Waters Deep was named to Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years,” and her novella “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” in Where Treetops Glisten was a finalist for the 2015 Carol Award. A mother of three, Sarah lives in California, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school. http://www.sarahsundin.com

Here's a sneak peek into Sarah's latest novel, Anchor in the Storm!

 For plucky Lillian Avery, America’s entry into World War II means a chance to prove herself as a pharmacist in Boston. She loves the wartime challenges of her new job but spurns the attention of society boy Ens. Archer Vandenberg. As Arch’s destroyer battles U-boats along the East Coast, Lillian uncovers a black market drug ring. Arch and Lillian work together on the investigation, but can he ever earn her trust and affection?

Anchor in the Storm can be purchased at Amazon in Hardcover, Paperback and for Kindle.

Hope you enjoyed today's Treasure! Tune in each week for more Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

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

PamT

#TuesdayTreasures: Special Guest post by Terri Blackstock

Hello There!

I hope you had a Blessed weekend and that this week has started out beautifully for you.

Today I am pleased to have NYT Best Selling Author, Terri Blackstock returning to our blog to share with us something she treasures....

Meet my latest little treasure, my new grandson Paxton, just four days old when this picture was taken. He’s been a distraction from writing (a good one), but treasures like him (and the other precious toddlers I delight in) always make my writing deeper. I guess all life experiences do that. These wonderful little people in my life make me want to do my part to make the world a better place.

Terri Blackstock is a New York Times best-seller, with over seven million copies sold worldwide. She is the winner of two Carol Awards, a Christian Retailers Choice Award, and a Romantic Times Book Reviews Career Achievement Award, among others. Her most recent suspense novel is If I Run, about a young female fugitive whose being accused of a heinous murder.  Other books include Truth Stained Lies (the Moonlighters Series), Intervention (the Intervention Series), and Last Light (the Restoration Series). See the complete list of Terri’s books at www.terriblackstock.com/books. Join her at Facebook (www.facebook.com/tblackstock) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/TerriBlackstock). 

Terri's latest book, If I Run published by Zondervan can be found at Amazon in Paperback, Hardcover, Kindle and Audible and Mp3/CD.

Thank you so much Terri, for sharing your newest book and beautiful new grandson...those grand-babies are certainly something to treasure.

Hope you join us again soon for another Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!

Until later...Have a Blessed Day Friends!

Pamela S Thibodeaux

"Inspirational with an Edge!" ™

#ThursdayThoughts: Special Guest Post by JA Myhre!

Good Morning Friends,

I'm a little late getting this up this morning but I think you'll be blessed by our guest today....

A Chameleon, A Boy, and a Quest

As a doctor and a mom, I admit that I tend to think that “actions speak louder than words,” unconsciously valuing the tangible and practical.  When a baby is struggling to breathe or a toddler is burning with fever, I respect the importance of decisive efforts.  Hands on, listening, prodding, dosing, reviving.  And as a public-health practitioner in Africa for more than two decades, I am grateful for the very palpable service of dairy goats and corn-soy-mix, the cups and spoons, the antibiotics and the seeds.  Real help for real bodies. 

Thoughts, by contrast, can sound ethereal, on a Thursday or any other day.

But one thing I learned in my public health training was that all action proceeds from belief.  Thoughts determine who decides to bring their malnourished child for help.  Thoughts prompt one set of parents to send their daughter to nursing school, so there is someone to notice that the orange hair and scaling skin signal danger.  Thoughts went into the budget of an NGO to prioritize the purchase of a weighing scale or a bag of grain.  Thoughts, in other words, precede any of the concrete actions that spell rescue.

This means that choosing life requires a wrestling with thoughts first, a subtle shift in assumptions about what is possible and what is good.

Which brings us to the importance of narratives, reading, dreaming, imagination, and story.  Our earliest thoughts about how the world fits together begin to form and make sense around the stories we know and love.  For parents who have lost other children from inevitable hunger, or for young women who never dreamed of going to school, a story of something different or better might prompt them to seek a new way.  For donors in a country far removed from these realities, a story might generate generosity.  The best books enable us to see life through new eyes, to realize the narrowness of our experience and the wonder of the world. 

This month I had the fun of publishing my first young-adult novel, A Chameleon, A Boy, and A Quest.  This event celebrates thought on two levels.  First, in the book the protagonist is a young boy named Mu, without a lot of hope for change in a life that most of us would consider pretty dismal.  But a message delivered by a mysterious chameleon starts to challenge his thoughts about his identity, and slowly he grasps onto a bigger story that gives him hope.  Without a change in thoughts, he would not have sought a change in his difficult position.  Secondly, the first readers of the book were my own kids, who drank in a story that made some sense of their own world as they grew up in an African border town.  So the book works on the thoughts of readers as well, to build empathy and expand their horizons.

This Thursday, take note of what thoughts motivate your actions, and feed those thoughts with a good book!

What wonderful advice from Ms. Myhre....

A Chameleon, A Boy, and a Quest can be purchased at Amazon.

J.A. Myhre serves as a doctor with Serge in East Africa where she has worked alongside her husband, Dr. Scott Myhre, for more than two decades. She earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric training at Northwestern University’s Children’s Memorial Hospital. She also received a Master’s in Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Myhre works in the AIC Kijabe Hospital, which provides healthcare in the name of Jesus to the vulnerable people of East Africa. She has given a special focus in her work to HIV prevention and nutrition and has invested heavily in training emerging indigenous leaders. Myhre is currently spending one year living and traveling in the U.S., telling others about her work in Africa. She and her husband have four children, all of whom attend university in the States.

#TuesdayTreasure: Special Guest Post by Beth K Vogt!

Good Morning from Nacogdoches, TX!

I drove up yesterday to spend a few days with my son who is the Spirit Coordinator/Dance Coach for Stephen F Austin State University. He's busier than I am, LOL!

But never too busy for a special guest to share with us something she treasures....

The Treasure of Home

“There’s no place like home…”

In the movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy whispers this phrase to herself as she taps together three times the heels of those magical ruby slippers. She repeats the phrase when she returns from the Land of Oz saying, “Oh, Auntie Em – there’s no place like home!”

That fictional Kansas farm girl was right. There is no place like home.

And yet, home – returning home, being home, finding home – can be a complicated process.

You’ve probably also heard the phrase, “You can’t go home again.” It comes from the title of a novel by Thomas Wolfe, and in part, the book deals with how the passing of time prevents the author from going home again.

Not being able to go home again – that struggle is true for a lot of people. Sometimes they’ve been uprooted so many times – like the heroine in my novel, Crazy Little Thing Called Love – there is no “home” to point to. Maybe home disintegrated because of divorce or death. Or maybe their childhood home was a place of pain. Why would they want to go back?

Right now, I have to accept that I can’t go home again. Unforeseen circumstances have separated me from my family of origin. I never imagined this heart-pummeling heartache. I have to trust that God knows what’s going on right this moment – and that He also knows how things might change for the better in the future.

I am thankful that, even as I face the unwanted reality barring me from that one sense of home, He has provided me home here and now – with my husband and our family.

This home is where I belong. There’s no need for pretense or defense. This is where the comfy clothes go on and masks are to be left outside. 

I bought this wooden sign a couple of years ago. It hangs on a wall in my home in the midst of family photos. It describes home best:

In this home …

We do second chances.

We do grace.

We do fun.

We do mistakes.

We do I’m sorrys.

We do loud really well.

We do hugs.

We do family.

WE DO LOVE.

There is no other place like this home in my life. No matter where I go, coming home is the best part of any trip. Walking through the front door, I whisper, “I’m home.”

And all is well.

Beth K. Vogt is a non-fiction author who said she’d never write fiction, the wife of an Air Force physician who said she’d never marry anyone in the military and a mom of four who said she’d never have kids. Vogt believes God’s best often waits behind the doors marked “never.” A 2015 RITA® Finalist and a 2015 and 2014 Carol Award finalist, her 2014 novel, Somebody Like You, was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Best Books of 2014. She lives in Colorado with her husband, Rob, and their youngest daughter.

For more information about Beth, visit her website, become a fan on Facebook or follow her on Twitter and Pinterest.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love can be purchased at Amazon for Kindle, in Hardcover and Paperback.

Sounds like the perfect read and so appropriate since I am not at home right now LOL!

Here's wishing YOU a Blessed day!

Check back often for Thursday Thoughts, Saturday Spotlights and more Tuesday Treasures.

PamT