When the weather’s so cold you have frost on the windows, it’s time to curl up indoors with a fuzzy blanket, burning candle, and a good book for a good, long afternoon. Check out these great reads—and enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway at the end! Four books, four winners!
Author: Sharlene McLaren
Book Giveaway: Their Daring Hearts
Levi Albright rebelled against his Quaker roots to fight for abolition in the Union army in the first year of the Civil War.Two years later, 19-year-old destitute orphan Josephine Winters, with chopped hair, boy’s clothes, and new name, “Gordon Snipp,” enlists in the Union army out of sheer desperation. Just over five feet tall and barely weighing as much as a newborn calf, Snipp seems to Levi to be barely old enough to hold “his” gun. But despite being teased by the regiment, Snipp quickly earns admiration for skill with a musket and unequaled bravery. When Levi explains one night that he is a Quaker leading a regiment, it leads to a late-night discussion of faith and a developing friendship. But Snipp’s secret can only be hidden for so long. After an injury forces Josie to reveal her real identity, Levi is angered by her deception. Worse, Josie is marched out of the company without a chance to explain—or even say goodbye. Will their friendship survive? Or will the hatred saturating the war-torn nation affect even the heart of a peace-loving Quaker?
About Sharlene:Born and raised in west Michigan, Sharlene attended Spring Arbor University. Upon graduating with an education degree in 1971, she taught second grade for two years then accepted an invitation to travel internationally for a year with a singing ensemble. In 1975, she married her childhood sweetheart. Together they raised two lovely, wonderful daughters, both of whom are now happily married and enjoying their own families. Retired in 2003 from 31-years of teaching, “Shar” loves to read, sing, travel, and spend time with her family, in particular, her wonderful, adorable grandchildren!
A Christian for 45+ years, and a lover of the English language, Shar has always enjoyed dabbling in writing–poetry, fiction, various essays, and freelancing for periodicals and newspapers. Her favored genre, however, has always been romance. She remembers well the short stories she wrote in high school and watching them circulate from girl to girl during government and civics classes. “Psst,” someone would whisper from two rows over, and always with the teacher’s back to the class, “Pass me the next page.”In recent years, Shar felt God’s call upon her heart to take her writing pleasures a step further and in 2006 signed a contract for her first faith-based novel; thereby, launching her writing career with Through Every Storm. With a dozen books now gracing store shelves nationwide, she daily gives God all the praise and glory for her accomplishments.
Shar has done numerous countrywide book signings, television and radio appearances, and countless interviews. She loves to speak for women’s organizations, libraries, church groups, women’s retreats, and banquets. She is involved in Apples of Gold, a mentoring program for young wives and/or mothers, and is active in her church as well as two weekly Bible studies. She and her husband, Cecil, live in Spring Lake, Michigan with their beautiful white collie, Peyton and their rag doll cat named Blue.
Visit her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharmaclaren
Visit her website: http://www.sharlenemaclaren.com
What is your 2018 goal?
We were just discussing this on my Facebook page the other day. My 2018 goal is to dig deeper into my daily Bible reading. Too often, out of busyness and my sometimes hectic life, my Bible reading becomes more of a task than a treat. I do too much “surface” reading and not enough “in depth”. I want to read it more for content and truly understand what I’m ready through study and concentration. I’m praying the Lord will guide me in this because I tend to get distracted by so many other things that vie for my attention.
Author: Joyce Valdois Smith
Book Giveaway: Grandpa Forgot My Name (a children’s book) paperbackJoyce also has a new-release: Romance Along the Rails releases January 23, 2018. It will be available for pre-order on Kindle this week, and you may purchase it here:
What is your 2018 goal?
My favorite thing about the Christmas Holiday was spending time with family and friends. We had Christmas dinner at our house with two of our daughters and their families including six grandchildren, then we traveled to Columbia, SC to spend a week with our son and his family, two more granddaughters.
About Joyce:
Joyce Valdois Smith is the wife of Bob, mother to four married children and grandmother to twelve amazing grandchildren. She is a retired public health and school nurse Writing has been her longtime passion. Joyce is an author of Christian historical and contemporary fiction as well as children’s books. She is active in her church. She lives with her husband and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Lady Catherine (Katie), in Southwest Missouri.
Author: Daisy Townsend
Book Giveaway: Sarah’s Legacy, an e-book
Blurb: Exuberant, 18-year-old Polly Dye is torn between wanting to please her mother and wanting to please Garrett, the man she is dating. To add to Polly’s unsettled feelings, she and her family move into a house that evokes a chilling sensation as she steps over the threshold. Polly can’t decide whether this disturbing feeling means that something bad has happened here or that something bad is going to happen.
Soon Polly discovers the diary of the original owner of the house, Sarah Davis. She hopes that by reading it, her questions about the apprehensive feelings she has in the house will be answered. Instead, she finds herself wrestling with the many losses that Sarah experienced while still maintaining her faith in God. What good is a God who doesn’t protect one from pain, Polly’s utmost goal in life?
As Polly experiences losses of her own and learns through the mistakes that Sarah made, Polly realizes it’s not enough for her to have faith in her mother’s faith. Will Sarah’s legacy enable Polly to make that faith her own and will her questions about the house be answered?
About Daisy Townsend:
Daisy Beiler Townsend has been published in magazines and periodicals more than eighty times. Researching the history of their home in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania, in 1998 led to beginning a historical novel inspired by the lives of former residents of their home in the late 19th – early 20th century. In 2014 Daisy published her first book, Homespun Faith, an autobiographical devotional, and then completed Sarah’s Legacy. She and her husband, Donn, live in Pennsylvania and have three children and six grandchildren.
Follow Daisy on social media:
https://twitter.com/DaisyDonaisy
https://www.instagram.com/daisybeilertownsend/
https://www.facebook.com/DaisyBeilerTownsend/
What is your 2018 goal:
My 2018 goal is to finish the first draft of the second book in the Sarah’s Legacy series. That’s what I’m working on now.
Buy Links for Daisy’s Books:
ttps://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sarahs-legacy-daisy-l-townsend/1127572697?ean=9780692989555
Author: Pegg Thomas
Book Giveaway:
A Bouquet of Brides Collection (my story being “In Sheep’s Clothing”) I’d be happy to give away the winner’s choice of paper or ebook—but to U.S. residents only. If outside the U.S., an ebook.What is your 2018 goal?
About Pegg:
Pegg Thomas lives on a hobby farm in Northern Michigan with Michael, her husband of *mumble* years. They raise sheep and chickens, keep a few barn cats, and Murphy the spoiled rotten dog. A life-long history geek, she writes “History with a Touch of Humor.” Pegg is published in the Barbour historical romance collections. In March 2017, Pegg took on the mantle of Managing Editor of Smitten Historical Romance, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. When not working or writing, Pegg can be found in her barn, her garden, her kitchen, or sitting at her spinning wheel creating yarn to turn into her signature wool shawls.Website: PeggThomas.com
Purchase Pegg’s Books:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bouquet-Brides-Romance-Collection-Bachelors/dp/1683223810/
CBD: https://www.christianbook.com/bouquet-brides-collection-bachelors-happily-after/mary-davis/9781683223818/
Follow Pegg’s Adventures on: ColonialQuills and NovelPASTimes
Giveaway Details!
Runs from Friday, January 19, 2018, to midnight CST Thursday, January 25, 2018.
Ebooks open to lower 48 US and worldwide. Print books only open to lower 48 US states.
Winners will be announced the following Friday.
No purchase necessary to enter, but if you like what you see, we’d appreciate a few follows and likes on our social media pages!
Click link below:
In the News:: Coming up next Friday: interview with the characters from WWII author Liz Tolsma’s latest novel, The Melody of the Soul! — and includes a giveaway!
Be sure to come back next week!
A Season to Dance, paperback
Patricia Beal writes contemporary Christian fiction and is represented by Leslie Stobbe of the Leslie H. Stobbe Literary Agency. Her debut novel, 
Mackinac Island Christmas – ebook
Multi-award-winner and bestselling novelist, Gail Gaymer Martin has 78 published novels with over 4 million books sold. She is the author of Writers Digest, Writing the Christian Romance and is a presenter at writing workshop and keynote speaker at a variety of women’s event. Gail worked as a counselor and later a university instructor in Michigan. She now lives in Sedona. AZ.
RETURN to Mackinac Island, in 1895 
Loving the Horseman, ebook
Davalynn Spencer writes heart-tugging, cowboy romance set along the Front Range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. She is the wife and mother of professional rodeo bullfighters and an award-winning rodeo journalist and former crime-beat reporter who caters to Blue the Cowdog and mouse detectors Annie and Oakley. Connect with her at 
Bleak Landing, choice of paperback or ebook
Terrie Todd’s novels include Bleak Landing, Maggie’s War, and The Silver Suitcase. She’s a published playwright, Chicken Soup for the Soul contributor, newspaper columnist, and blogger. An Administrative Assistant for the city of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Terrie and her husband Jon live on the Canadian prairies where her stories are set. They are the parents of three grown children and grandparents of five boys.
Incidentally, Ace uses model Alison J. as the inspiration for FBI agent Helen Meeker, the no-nonsense heroine of In the President’s Service series. She’s pictured here with a Screen Guide from July, 1942. Carole Landis is on the cover.
An author should learn with each new project … the research demands it. In this case, reading old newspapers, magazines, watching newsreels, and listening to vintage radio broadcasts is giving me a new window to World War II. By using these sources I view reporting as it happened, not filtered by historians who have the advantage of knowing how things turned out. We often forget that in the early years of the war we didn’t know who was going to win.
Rick Cox was an editor I had in my feature writing days who honed my work and taught me how to think like a writer. I had two English teachers in high school that pushed me to write and a college professor, Ann Miller, who told me I had the talent and imagination to be an author. On top of those, my Arkansas grandparents fueled my interest in storytelling because they were master front-porch storytellers.
Citing his Arkansas heritage, Christy Award winner Ace Collins defines himself as a storyteller. In that capacity, Collins has authored more than eighty books for 25 different publishers that have sold more than 2.5 million copies. His catalog includes novels, biographies, children’s works as well as books on history, culture and faith. Collins’ hobbies include sports, restoring classic cars, Wurlitzer jukeboxes and running. He is married to, Dr. Kathy Collins, the Chair of the Department of Education at Ouachita Baptist University. The couple lives in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and has two grown sons.