Autumn's Going Strong--and GIVEAWAY!

Do you love the fall? What's your favorite season?

We've lived in Ohio for 19 years. For most of those years I've looked forward to September since it was always my favorite month, weather-wise. 

I now realize that October in Ohio equals September on Long Island. (It only took me a decade and a half to get it!) But now I know. My favorite month, weather-wise, is  OCTOBER. 

How about you?  Leave a comment telling me your favorite season or month and why, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a free DVD, "Becoming Jane." (Christmas season doesn't count--we're talking weather-wise--unless that season's weather is your favorite.) For a bonus entry, send a friend to the blog! When she/he mentions you, you'll get another entry. 

DRAWING ENDS NOVEMBER 9

"Becoming Jane" stars Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy, and I found it delightful. I don't necessarily like it when filmmakers play with Jane Austen's life, but this flick works. It's both intelligent and joyful. 

Unlike "Miss Austen Regrets"--another film supposedly about Jane's life--this script did well at capturing Jane's sense of fun as well as her sharp wit. "Miss Austen Regrets" missed the mark, showing Jane as a bitter spinster, when in fact, her letters and even her books do not convey a sense of personal bitterness. 

Admittedly, there are letters we've never seen, as Jane's sister destroyed many of them. But Jane was writing until only a few months before her death, and I just don't get a sense of bitterness in what she left us. 

This is a great DVD to have in one's collection of period flicks!  

  But first, enjoy another Autumn poem.

 Bits and Pieces

By Joan Leotta

Cool, crisp air and its brilliant

fire hues

are hard to find where

heat simmers until well

into December.

Here, long still-hot

days of October and November

allow early darkness to eat

out the green,

leaving mottled brown

arrayed on branches until

storms wash them

down onto my lawn.

Yet, now and again,

bits and pieces of

autumn glory appear—

a vine, a baby tree hiding

in my palmetto grass,

burst into red

or bright yellow,

defying heat,

                                                                    proclaiming, 

“Fall is here.”

Joan Leotta is an award-winning writer and spoken word performer who lives on the North Carolina coast. Her chapbook, Languid Lusciousness with Lemon is available on Amazon. Please check out her blog, What Editors Want You to Know at www,JoanLeotta.wordpress.com

"Bits and Pieces" originally published in RPG Digest; used by courtesy of E.B.(Gene) Alston, and the author. 

Don't forget to leave a comment to enter the drawing! 

AVAILABLE NOW: The Pulse Effex Box Set!

SAVE 50% OFF THE PRICE OF INDIVIDUAL BOOKS

Please note: Due to mailing costs, giveaway is for US residents only, sorry. International commenters can win an ebook, choosing from any of my books.  

How Kids Think

WE HAVE A WINNER  Did you enter the drawing for the beautiful romantic cupcake set I'm giving away? If so, the winner announcement follows this post, so read on!

How Kids Think

Any mom knows how tough it is to keep the whole family happy when it comes to food on the table, or even in the cupboards, for that matter. I try my darndest not to run out of the staples my husband cares most about, such as eggs, milk and cream for coffee.  But keeping the offspring happy can be tricky.

For instance, anyone following this blog knows how I've reformed my eating habits. I eat mostly organic, fresh foods, and have drastically decreased consumption of processed foods for the family. If anything, it raises the challenge of keeping happy campers because the kids need to re-learn healthy habits, too.

Kids are supposed to learn quickly, aren't they? Ha--witness the list I found on the fridge this morning: 

Older child put up the list. Youngest child added items 2 and 3: "Junk Food" and "Maccoronie"(sic)"

 The youngest knows it would be fruitless to say to me, "Mom, we need junk food!" but apparently putting it on a list is different. (I'm surprised she didn't add "Thou Shalt Buy," before her items.)

Just so you know, I sometimes DO buy food I consider "junk" because it's my fault I've raised junkies, and I don't want their transformation to healthy eating to cause withdrawal pains! (Some people consider sugar to be a drug, by the way. Sally Fallon includes information about this in Nourishing Traditions, a book I've spoken about before here on the blog. Dr. Mercola also warns about sugar as being drug-like; check out his post called "Is Sugar More Addictive than Cocaine?")

At the same time, I believe our penchant for preferring sweets is a God-given thing, so it's not all bad. Fortunately, I'm seeing my older daughter making more and  more healthy desserts, with no prodding on my part. (I'll share some of those recipes eventually.) She benefits in two ways: learning the ropes in the kitchen, (as she experiments with substituting healthy sweeteners for empty calories in white sugar) AND by discovering that eating healthy can be satisfying and yes--even sweet!

Are you trying to re-educate the youngsters in your life? How is that going for you? Maybe you're still trying to educate yourself--aren't we all! Share a comment and you'll be entered in my new drawing for the following:

  
Inspiring Women of the Faith--Stories about Sojourner Truth, Florence Nightingale, Corrie Ten Boom and many others. This is the sort of book I like my daughters to read; books that show women have always had gumption--courage--and used it for God. Recently I noticed in the Book of Chronicles, for instance, that there was a woman named Sheera who is credited with building three cities! A woman--in ancient Israel--BUILT three cities. (I'm not saying she was the actual brick-layer, but she WAS the mastermind, the architect, the visionary and director. I call THAT inspiring.)


Leave a comment and you're in the drawing for the book.

AND NOW: WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JUNE GIVEAWAY:

   

 The winner of this lovely set (left) is MELODY, "Missionwife." 
Congratulations, Melody! Perhaps you'll find a healthy dessert recipe here or somewhere else (like Wellness Mama) so that you eat well while eating beautifully. :)
 

Purposeful Reading

(Mary Cassatt is one of my favorite impressionists)

How do you choose the books you read? Do you have a method, or just happen upon books that appeal to you and dig in? Most people probably do a little of both, but I find that being purposeful about my reading not only helps me read more than I otherwise might, but has great rewards in terms of benefits gained from good books!

As a devoted "planner" I do plan books on a monthly basis, though sometimes I add new books that come to my attention mid-month, and find myself pushing others back.  My goal is a minimum of four per month, which sometimes I surpass and occasionally I don't meet. In general, however, I choose various categories of books to purposefully move my life forward. What do I mean by that?

Specifically, choosing books that aren't just random picks, but which I select according to areas I want or need to grow in. This works out to the following, more or less:

One book on Spiritual Growth/ Spirituality/ Devotions

One on Time Management/ Efficiency/ Organizing

One on craft (for me, that's writing related)

One fiction, or miscellaneous, for reading pleasure

And one or more for novel research,. (But I don't usually read research tomes cover to cover. Usually, I skim and read portions that address the topic I'm researching at the time.)  

In addition, I always have going my Bible reading, as well as one or more daily devotionals. Since I homeschool, I give myself and my girls the luxury of not starting school at the crack of dawn, which gives me time to do all my daily readings! They get to sleep in while mom reads and prays. I sometimes get them started on their school tasks first, if I'm running late, say, but I love the quiet in the house when I let them sleep. (I have a few older ones who follow their own work and school schedules, but generally, mornings are pretty quiet.)

To do my non-devotional fiction and non-fiction reading, I go to bed about an hour or more earlier than I want to turn out the lights, and read then. Of course, I love to read!

My picks for this month are:

1. In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Believe in Creation (Spirituality; Apologetics) (Really interesting; but a carryover unfinished from last month)
2. A Praying Life (Christian Growth)
3. The Story Template (Craft)
4. Austenland, by Shannon Hale (Fiction.)
5. The Enchanted April (A 2nd fiction selection since I finished Austenland. Trying to read more old classics.) 
5. A non-fiction book that was an add-in
6. A manuscript of a completed novel by a friend (the name of which I can't give since it isn't published, yet. And I hope it will be published, since it was a page-turner! I read it practically non-stop.)
7. An Ebook on organizing

I also quickly read a daily selection from A Jane Austen Devotional, and  The One Year Daily Insights with Zig Ziglar. 

However, if I'm reading a pick that is boring or in any way inferior, I'm quick to ditch it. Life is too short to waste on poorly written books! Do you fall into the trap of, "I started it, I gotta finish it?" Once upon a time, that was me. NOT ANY MORE.

What about you? Do you plan your reading? Do you need to? I keep a list of each month's books in my day-timer on a page at the beginning of each month, and this way nothing falls through the cracks.

  

Contest Winner, New Giveaway & More

The winner of a new stack of (5) books is:
Debbie Mitchell! 

Congratulations, Debbie!
You've won the following five books:

1. Flight of Fancy- Laurie Alice Eakes
2. The Red Siren--MaryLu Tyndall
3. A Simple Winter (Hardcover with dustjacket)--Rosalind Lauer
4. The Ultimate Guide to Darcy Carter--Teresa Slack
5. The House in Grosvenor Square (Hardcover with dustjacket)--Linore Rose Burkard,  Autographed by moi, of course.  

More Books

I've just finished Flight of Fancy, by Laurie Alice Eakes (one of the books in the prize for last week's contest winner). Isn't the cover pretty?

Since many of you have read and enjoyed my regency trilogy, I wanted to mention Laurie's book since it also an Inspirational Regency Romance.

 Flight of Fancy is a lighthearted, fast-moving romp that fans of the traditional regency will enjoy.  As a bonus, you'll learn lots about the erstwhile science of ballooning and how they managed to lift these huge balloons into the skies back then. I enjoyed the main character and I hope Laurie will write a sequel for the delightful younger sister.  Click the book cover to learn more about the book from Amazon.
I didn't want to underline my copy since I knew the book would be included in the giveaway, but there were a few turns of phrase I just adored. LAE is a writer worth watching.

"'Head of the house' did not mean that our father barked out orders, threw his weight around, and demanded submission from his wife. It simply meant that he was the one finally responsible." Elisabeth Elliot

 Another book I'm reading as a devotional is A Woman After God's Own Heart, by Elizabeth George.
 
This is a good book to take in small pieces, underlining as you go. It isn't new on the market, (guess I should mention that) but it's certainly relevant for any woman of faith.
Here's a recent bit I found meditation worthy:

 Speaking of the difficult issue of submission within marriage, Ms. George quotes Elisabeth Elliot (one of my heroes of the faith):
She says, "'Head of the house' did not mean that our father barked out orders, threw his weight around, and demanded submission from his wife. It simply meant that he was the one finally responsible."  Ms. George goes on to explain that headship is not something a husband can demand or enforce by any means of control. True headship occurs only when it is given as a gift, by the wife.
She asks,  "Are you giving the gift of headship to your husband through your heart attitude of submission? Are you experiencing the rightness that comes from a decision to follow God's plan for marriage?"

If you're a woman of faith who doesn't always leave the reins of leadership to your husband, well, join the crowd! Then, join me in striving to submit in a godly fashion as women of God.

You might want to start out with this book. It isn't only about the marriage relationship, but all areas of life.

New Book Giveaway!

What about you? Got a good book to recommend to me and my readers? Leave a comment with your top recommendation and I'll enter you in a drawing for a good read. This week's book prize?

THE ROAD TO CANA, by Anne Rice

(*Yes, Anne Rice is the author of all those vampire books. After her conversion to Christ, she stopped writing vampire stuff and now writes books that are actually edifying. Isn't it wonderful?) 

So--leave a comment and recommend a book you found inspiring or just plain wonderful. Fiction or non-fiction. You'll be entered in the drawing to win THE ROAD TO CANA.

Warmest Blessings,

Linore
http://www.LinoreBurkard.com/calendar.html
(Click through this link to see the newest regency-era illustrations at the bottom of my calendar)
 

ACT FAST--GET THESE FREE!

Thought I'd quickly share a batch of Kindle books I just picked up for free on Amazon. Some free books are there for a long time and the price doesn't change, but many are only available free for a day or a few days. If any of the following interest you, pick 'em up quick!

(And remember, you can get a free Kindle app for your pc or iphone, etc. if you don't have a Kindle. If you use a Nook, check Nook Books for the same titles. Chances are if they're free on Kindle, then they'll be free on Nook, too.)

Kissing Adrien [Kindle Edition] $0.00 (This one's by Siri Mitchell! How neat that it's free--get it while it lasts.)
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Desires of My Heart - Meditation on Psalm 37:4 [Kindle Edition] $0.00
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Promise Me This [Kindle Edition] $0.00
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism [Kindle Edition] $0.00
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Live Organic (52 Brilliant Ideas) [Kindle Edition] $0.00
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Growing Up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl [Kindle Edition] $0.00
Sold By: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

An interesting thing about the availability of free books is that it doesn't stop me from buying a book when I decide I want it. What about you? Do you get the freebies, and if so, has it resulted in your spending less on books? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks, and don't forget there's a book giveaway going on right here right now--just scroll down to the last post and leave a comment. You could win a romantic suspense novel by Dora Hiers.

Until next time,

Linore
website: www.LinoreBurkard.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/LinoreRose
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AuthorNewsfromLinore/

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Susan Meissner

and the book:

Lady In Waiting

WaterBrook Press; Original edition (September 7, 2010)

***Special thanks to Cindy Brovsky of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc., for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Susan Meissner has spent her lifetime as a writer, starting with her first poem at the age of four. She is the award-winning author of The Shape of Mercy, White Picket Fences, and many other novels. When she’s not writing, she directs the small groups and connection ministries at her San Diego church. She and her pastor husband are the parents of four young adults.


Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press; Original edition (September 7, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307458830
ISBN-13: 978-0307458834

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Jane

Upper West Side, Manhattan

ONE

The mantle clock was exquisite even though its hands rested in silence at twenty minutes past two.

Carved—near as I could tell—from a single piece of mahogany, its glimmering patina looked warm to the touch. Rosebuds etched into the swirls of wood grain flanked the sides like two bronzed bridal bouquets. The clock’s top was rounded and smooth like the draped head of a Madonna. I ran my palm across the polished surface and it was like touching warm water.

Legend was this clock originally belonged to the young wife of a Southampton doctor and that it stopped keeping time in 1912, the very moment the Titanic sank and its owner became a widow. The grieving woman’s only consolation was the clock’s apparent prescience of her husband’s horrible fate and its kinship with the pain that left her inert in sorrow. She never remarried and she never had the clock fixed.

I bought it sight unseen for my great aunt’s antique store, like so many of the items I’d found for the display cases. In the year and half I’d been in charge of the inventory, the best pieces had come from the obscure estate sales that my British friend Emma Downing came upon while tooling around the southeast of England looking for oddities for her costume shop. She found the clock at an estate sale in Felixstowe and the auctioneer, so she told me, had been unimpressed with the clock’s sad history. Emma said he’d read the accompanying note about the clock as if reading the rules for rugby.

My mother watched now as I positioned the clock on the lacquered black mantle that rose above a marble fireplace. She held a lead crystal vase of silk daffodils in her hands.

“It should be ticking.” She frowned. “People will wonder why it’s not ticking.” She set the vase down on the hearth and stepped back. Her heels made a clicking sound on the parquet floor beneath our feet. “You know, you probably would’ve sold it by now if it was working. Did Wilson even look at it? You told me he could fix anything.”

I flicked a wisp of fuzz off the clock’s face. I hadn’t asked the shop’s resident and unofficial repairman to fix it. “It wouldn’t be the same clock if it was fixed.”

“It would be a clock that did what it was supposed to do.” My mother leaned in and straightened one of the daffodil blooms.

“This isn’t just any clock, Mom.” I took a step back too.

My mother folded her arms across the front of her Ann Taylor suit. Pale blue, the color of baby blankets and robins’ eggs. Her signature color. “Look, I get all that about the Titanic and the young widow, but you can’t prove any of it, Jane,” she said. “You could never sell it on that story.”

A flicker of sadness wobbled inside me at the thought of parting with the clock. This happens when you work in retail. Sometimes you have a hard time selling what you bought to sell.

“I’m thinking maybe I’ll keep it.”

“You don’t make a profit by hanging onto the inventory.” My mother whispered this, but I heard her. She intended for me to hear her. This was her way of saying what she wanted to about her aunt’s shop—which she’d inherit when Great Aunt Thea passed—without coming across as interfering.

My mother thinks she tries very hard not to interfere. But it is one of her talents. Interfering when she thinks she’s not. It drives my younger sister Leslie nuts.

“Do you want me to take it back to the store?” I asked.

“No! It’s perfect for this place. I just wish it were ticking.” She nearly pouted.

I reached for the box at my feet that I brought the clock in along with a set of Shakespeare’s works, a pair of pewter candlesticks, and a Wedgwood vase. “You could always get a CD of sound effects and run a loop of a ticking clock,” I joked.

She turned to me, childlike determination in her eyes. “I wonder how hard it would be to find a CD like that!”

“I was kidding, Mom! Look what you have to work with.” I pointed to the simulated stereo system she’d placed into a polished entertainment center behind us. My mother never used real electronics in the houses she staged, although with the clientele she usually worked with—affluent real estate brokers and equally well-off buyers and sellers—she certainly could.

“So I’ll bring in a portable player and hide it in the hearth pillows.” She shrugged and then turned to the adjoining dining room. A gleaming black dining table had been set with white bone china, pale yellow linen napkins, and mounds of fake chicken salad, mauvey rubber grapes, and plastic croissants and petit fours. An arrangement of pussy willows graced the center of the table. “Do you think the pussy willows are too rustic?” she asked.

She wanted me to say yes so I did.

“I think so, too,” she said. “I think we should swap these out for that vase of Gerbera daisies you have on that escritoire in the shop’s front window. I don’t know what I was thinking when I brought these.” She reached for the unlucky pussy willows. “We can put these on the entry table with our business cards.”

She turned to me. “You did bring yours this time, didn’t you? It’s silly for you to go to all this work and then not get any customers out of it.” My mother made her way to the entryway with the pussy willows in her hands and intention in her step. I followed her.

This was only the second house I’d helped her stage, and I didn’t bring business cards the first time because she hadn’t invited me to until we were about to leave. She’d promptly told me then to never go anywhere without business cards. Not even to the ladies room. She’d said it and then waited, like she expected me to take out my BlackBerry and make a note of it.

“I have them right here.” I reached into the front pocket of my capris and pulled out a handful of glossy business cards emblazoned with Amsterdam Avenue Antiques and its logo—three As entwined like a Celtic eternity knot. I handed them to her and she placed them in a silver dish next to her own. Sophia Keller Interior Design and Home Staging. The pussy willows actually looked wonderful against the tall jute-colored wall.

“There. That looks better!” she exclaimed as if reading my thoughts. She turned to survey the main floor of the townhouse. The owners had relocated to the Hamptons and were selling off their Manhattan properties to fund a cushy retirement. Half the décor—the books, the vases, the prints—were on loan from Aunt Thea’s shop. My mother, who’d been staging real estate for two years, brought me in a few months earlier when she discovered a stately home filled with charming and authentic antiques sold faster than the same home filled with reproductions.

“You and Brad should get out of that teensy apartment on the West Side and buy this place. The owners are practically giving it away.”

Her tone suggested she didn’t expect me to respond. I easily let the comment evaporate into the sunbeams caressing us. It was a comment for which I had had no response.

My mother’s gaze swept across the two large rooms she’d furnished and she frowned when her eyes reached the mantle and the silent clock.

“Well, I’ll just have to come back later today,” she spoke into the silence. “It’s being shown first thing in the morning.” She swung back around. “Come on. I’ll take you back.”

We stepped out into the April sunshine and to her Lexus parked across the street along a line of townhouses just like the one we’d left. As we began to drive away, the stillness in the car thickened, and I fished my cell phone out of my purse to see if I’d missed any calls while we were finishing the house. On the drive over I had a purposeful conversation with Emma about a box of old books she found at a jumble sale in Oxfordshire. That lengthy conversation filled the entire commute from the store on the seven-hundred block of Amsterdam to the townhouse on East Ninth, and I found myself wishing I could somehow repeat that providential circumstance. My mother would ask about Brad if the silence continued. There was no missed call, and I started to probe my brain for something to talk about. I suddenly remembered I hadn’t told my mother I’d found a new assistant. I opened my mouth to tell her about Stacy but I was too late.

“So what do you hear from Brad?” she asked cheerfully.

“He’s doing fine.” The answer flew out of my mouth as if I’d rehearsed it. She looked away from the traffic ahead, blinked at me, and then turned her attention back to the road. A taxi pulled in front of her, and she laid on the horn, pronouncing a curse on all taxi drivers.

“Idiot.” She turned to me. “How much longer do you think he will stay in New Hampshire?” Her brow was creased. “You aren’t going to try to keep two households going forever, are you?”

I exhaled heavily. “It’s a really good job, Mom. And he likes the change of pace and the new responsibilities. It’s only been two months.”

“Yes, but the inconvenience has to be wearing on you both. It must be quite a hassle maintaining two residences, not to mention the expense, and then all that time away from each other.” She paused but only for a moment. “I just don’t see why he couldn’t have found something similar right here in New York. I mean, don’t all big hospitals have the same jobs in radiology? That’s what your father told me. And he should know.”

“Just because there are similar jobs doesn’t mean there are similar vacancies, Mom.”

She tapped the steering wheel. “Yes, but your father said . . .”

“I know Dad thinks he might’ve been able to help Brad find something on Long Island but Brad wanted this job. And no offense, Mom, but the head of environmental services doesn’t hire radiologists.”

She bristled. I shouldn’t have said it. She would repeat that comment to my dad, not to hurt him but to vent her frustration at not having been able to convince me she was right and I was wrong. But it would hurt him anyway.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” I added. “Don’t tell him I said that, okay? I just really don’t want to rehash this again.”

But she wasn’t done. “Your father has been at that hospital for twenty-seven years. He knows a lot of people.” She emphasized the last four words with a pointed stare in my direction.

“I know he does. That’s really not what I meant. It’s just Brad has always wanted this kind of job. He’s working with cancer patients. This really matters to him.”

“But the job’s in New Hampshire!”

“Well, Connor is in New Hampshire!” It sounded irrelevant even to me to mention the current location of Brad’s and my college-age son. Connor had nothing to do with any of this. And he was an hour away from where Brad was anyway.

“And you are here,” my mother said evenly. “If Brad wanted out of the city, there are plenty of quieter hospitals right around here. And plenty of sick people for that matter.”

There was an undercurrent in her tone, subtle and yet obvious, that assured me we really weren’t talking about sick people and hospitals and the miles between Manhattan and Manchester. It was as if she’d guessed what I’d tried to keep from my parents the last eight weeks.

My husband didn’t want out of the city.

He just wanted out.

***************************************************************************

Kindle Freebies

Last night I got carried away when I was browsing titles available for Kindle.
As a writer, I love old books, and there were many "new" old titles available--and almost all of them were free. (How could I resist?)

It occurred to me that many of these books would be of interest to some of you. Lots of my readers are writers also, or mothers, homeschoolers, etc. (I have such smart women readers!) So, here's the list I picked up: Books are free unless otherwise noted: (If you don't have a Kindle, take a title that interests you and check Project Gutenberg for it. Most older books that are free in one place will also be available there, and you can download the books as a pdf. In addition, unlike the Kindle versions, Project Gutenberg offers books WITH illustrations intact. That's my biggest complaint with Kindle--illustrations are often missing.)

Anyway, here's my list of my latest and greatest free ebooks:

1.Tillie, A Mennonite Maid: A Story of the Pennsylvania Dutch
2. Woman's Life in Colonial Days
3. The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions
4. The Paradise of Children (From, "A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys")
5. Under the Lilacs (Penny Books) (This one cost $1.00)
6. The Betrothed (Penny Books) (Also $1.00)
7. A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes
8. Woman's Institute Library of Cookery: Various Volumes (I got three)
9. Directions for Cookery, In Its Various Branches
10.Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled During Her Visit Among the Pennsylvania Germans
11.The Homeplace (Singing River Series #1) (This won't be on Gutenberg)
12.Stopping Time, Part One
13. Stopping Time, Part Two
14. A Gift of Grace (Kauffmann Amish Bakery Series#1)(won't be on Gutenberg)
15.The Twelve Sacred Traditions of Magnificent Mothers-in-Law (I can't wait to see this one! HA.)
16. Publish on Amazon Kindle With the Digital Text Platform (this may help with a workshop I teach on self-publishing.)
17. The Grey Fairy Book (Also the Brown, Blue, and Lilac are available.)These are the classic books that Dover puts out, too.
18. Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations
19. Familiar Quotations
20.The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes,Historical, Literary and Humorous: A New Selection
21. The World's Greatest Books, Volume Two: Fiction (I'm trying this one out. What the heck--it's free.)

Now you know why I love my Kindle! Every so often I go on a book "buying" frenzy and it costs me practically nothing. Actually, the real reason I love it is because it's truly helping me read more. I no longer have to annoy my husband with my reading light because the Kindle light is way less obtrusive to others in a room. He gets to sleep while I get to read!

I've had other book-gathering frenzies for my Kindle, which I'll share another time. But use this list to take advantage of freebies while they last if you have a Kindle, or check Project Gutenberg.

Happy Reading!!

A Merry December Deal!

It's finally here! December: the "most wonderful," the blessed, the busy, the exciting, exasperating, merry time of year.
I love it.

Even though this is a devotional blog, I'm going to do something different and share my first promotion of the month here. I'm an author as well as a daughter of God, wife, mother and friend; so it is a part of my life that I run promotions now and then on my books. And it only makes sense, now that I've given it some thought, to include that here.

Like anything else in life, you can ignore this if it doesn't interest you--though I hope it does!
If you have readers on your gift list, I'm simply offering an incentive for you to consider giving my regency series as a gift to them. I'm going to randomly choose five people to get a FREE copy of Country House Courtship from among those who participate.

If you've already pre-ordered Country House Courtship, and you win a copy, you can go on and give it away as a gift, too.
FOR FULL DETAILS, see the "Latest News" area on the my website HERE. It's right on the lower right-hand portion of the home page.

Not only will you give a gift that has delighted thousands of readers, but you'll be helping ME out, AND you might win a free book as well. Of course I'll sign the books for the winners. But EVERY PARTICIPANT will get something from me in the mail. I guarantee it. You might get a signed poster of one of my book covers, a stack of postcards with my books on them (which I hope you'll share), a personal note from me with a card, etc. (WARNING: GIFTS ARE LIKELY TO INCLUDE CHOCOLATE!)

If you choose to take part, I look forward to sending something to YOU!
Warmest Blessings,

Linore
Full details, again, are HERE: http://www.LinoreBurkard.com

A Chat with Sara

A Chat with Sara

T'was an eventful time last night. Scott went home on American Idol & some 'precious' students left a toilet on our lawn. Ah, well. It's a new day, am I right?

Today I'd like to introduce you to writer, Sara Mills, author of the Allie Fortune Mystery Series.

Booklist had this to say about her current release, Miss Match: Full of adventure and suspense, and thick with intrigue, this book is impossible to put down. The sense of danger that permeates the work, especially in the bleak European setting, gives the book a film noir feeling.

Friend and author, Cara Putman recently interviewed Sara about her unique series. Let's listen in...

Miss Fortune and Miss Match are delightful books set in NYC in 1947. Tell us how you got the idea for Allie and these books...

I got the idea for Miss Fortune in the middle of the night, when all good ideas come to me: One sleepless night I was watching The Maltese Falcon and I started to wonder how different the story would be if Sam Spade had been a woman. She'd never have fallen for Miss Wunderly's charms and lies. She'd have been smart and tough and she would have solved the case in half the time it took Sam because she wouldn't spend all of her time smoking cigarettes and calling her secretary Precious.

The thought of a hard-boiled female detective got my mind whirling.

I paused the movie and sat in my darkened living room thinking about how much fun a female Sam Spade could be. Intrigued but not yet ready to dash to my computer, I changed disks and put on Casablanca (my all time favorite movie ever). The sweeping love story, a tale full of hard choices and sacrifice was what finally made the whole idea click in my mind. If I could just combine the P.I. detective story of the Maltese Falcon with the love story from Casablanca, and make Sam Spade more of a Samantha, I could have the best of all worlds.

These books are so good, I wish I'd written them. How did you set the stage to capture that gritty PI feel without being dark?

I find that a lot of PI stories are gritty and dark, focusing on the worst of the humanity, and while I wanted the Allie Fortune mysteries to be exciting and tension-filled I didn’t want them to be stark and hopeless.

One of the things I tried to do to counteract the darkness was to give Allie a multi-layered life. She has cases, relationships, friends and family, all of which I hope combine to make the stories textured, rich and full of life.

Allie is a character I'd love to have coffee with. What did she teach you while you wrote these books?

Allie was a great character to write. One of the things I learned from her was that human relationships (man/woman, mother/daughter, friends) are complicated and full of unspoken rules and expectations. Allie is a rule-breaker at heart and it complicates her life on a regular basis. One of the storylines I loved most is Allie’s relationship with her mother and how it grows and changes and how it’s shaped her.

Another dimension of Allie’s character that really taught me a lot was her willingness to do whatever was needed to help those she loves. There is no price on that kind of friendship and it’s a characteristic I’d like to see more of in myself. Okay I admit it, I’ve got a bit of a friend-crush on Allie. LOL.

One last question: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would that be and who would you take with you?

If I could go anywhere right now I’d head to Monterey, California (I’m writing a book set there right now) and I’d plant myself on the beach with a notebook, writing my story as the waves crashed. Sounds like my idea of heaven on earth. There’s something about the wind-shaped Cypress trees and the crash of the surf in Monterey that calls to me. I don’t know why, it just is.

(Julie here: We’re kindred spirits, Sara...that’s my kind of trip…!)

Here's a bit more about Sara's books:

Miss Fortune, Allie Fortune Mystery Series #1
By Sara Mills / Moody Publishers

In 1947 Allie Fortune is the only female private investigator in New York City, but she's kept awake at night by a mystery of her own: her fianci disappeared in the war and no one knows if he's still alive. Until Allie finds out, she will have no peace. When there's a knock on her office door at four in the morning, Allie suspects trouble as usual, and Mary Gordon is no exception. Mary claims someone is following her, that her apartment has been ransacked, and that she's been shot at, but she has no idea why any of this is happening. Allie takes the case, and in the process discovers an international mystery that puts her own life in danger.
Meanwhile, the FBI is working the case as well, and she is partnered up with an attractive, single agent who would be perfect for her under other circumstances-if only she knew whether her fiance was still alive.

Miss Match, Allie Fortune Mystery Series #2

FBI agent Jack O'Connor receives a letter from Maggie, a woman he used to love, saying she's in trouble in Berlin. The FBI refuses to get involved, so Jack asks Allie Fortune to help him investigate. Allie and Jack pose as a missionary couple who want to bring orphans back to the United States.
A child finds important documents that everyone in the city - Soviets and allies alike - want for themselves. Maggie refuses to tell Jack what the documents are, saying if things go wrong, they are better off not knowing. Through the course of the search, Allie's past is brought back to her, half a world away from home.

You can visit Sara at www.saramillsbooks.com

I have been meeting so many fabulous writers of faith--other women who love God and, like me, have felt his call on their life to write. Since the sequel to my first novel (The House in Grosvenor Square ) has yet to appear in bookstores (not until 2009, through Harvest House Publishers), I am pleased to be able to share other great fiction with you. Books that are out now, and which you can trust to be uplifting as well as riveting, and just in time for your summer reading pleasure. I'll also be sharing great links to the sites of other writers where you can read and learn more about lots of other wonderful fiction waiting for you. Stay tuned....!
Blessings,

Linore