Christmas Interview ~ Deborah Raney

Deborah Raney is at work on her twentieth novel. Her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, National Readers' Choice Award, Silver Angel, and have twice been Christy Award finalists. Her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the highly acclaimed World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Her newest books, the Hanover Falls Novels, are from Howard/Simon & Schuster. Deb and her husband, Ken Raney, enjoy small-town life in Kansas. They are new empty nesters with four grown children and two precious grandsons, who all live much too far away.

We’re focusing on Christmas all this month! What do you most associate with Christmas where you live?

We always wished for a white Christmas, and often got snow at least a few days during the Christmas holidays. I also love being cozy in the house with all the lights off, and the Christmas tree twinkling and candles filling the house with a great smell.

Do you have any special family traditions you do at Christmas time?

We bake Christmas cookies, cut out snowflakes to decorate the windows, play board games and put together jigsaw puzzles, and play in the snow if we’re lucky enough to have a white Christmas. I hang mistletoe in the doorway between the laundry room and the kitchen every year, so there's a whole lot of kissing going on at our house around Christmas.

Do you have a favorite Christmas Carol and if so do you know why?

It’s one of the lesser known carols, but I’ve always thought "Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming" is a hauntingly beautiful song.

If you could spend Christmas any way you could, how would you celebrate?

Just the way we always do––with family gathered close, all tucked into our house for several days at a time. That’s especially precious, now that we’re empty-nesters and the kids all live hours away (or halfway across the world like our son in Germany).

Do you have any special memories of Christmas?

Too many to number! Christmas was always special growing up on the farm. One memory that always stands out for me is the Christmas Eve program at the little country church we attended. For many years, the front of the church was decorated with a huge mural that depicted the first Christmas night…that mural was painted from the vantage point of the shepherds, looking down from the hills onto the star shining over the stable. I could get lost in that picture and almost feel like I was present on that amazing night. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way that made me feel.

What does a typical Christmas Eve and or Christmas Day look like for you?

With our kids spread all over the world now, Christmas is the one time everybody is home at the same time. We usually go “over the river and through the woods” to each of the grandparents’ houses for part of the day, but the rest of Christmas week is spent playing games, putting puzzles together, watching movies, decorating cookies, or playing in the snow if we’re lucky enough to have any. We’re all about anything that lets us spend time together. We love having everybody home!

Do you have any Christmas movies or Christmas books you like to see or read each year?

The Raney family has always loved the movie A Christmas Story ("I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!" "No, you'll shoot your eye out.") Even better than watching the movie, is hearing Uncle Steve (my husband’s brother) tell the story in his own hilarious way!

Your Christmas Book is titled A Prairie Christmas Collection. Tell us a little about your novella in the book:

"A Circle of Blessings" is set in 1871 Dakota Territory on the campus of (fictional) St. Bartholomew’s Academy. James Collingwood meets Stella Bradford who is in need of his services as an English tutor. Recently graduated and acting as an aid in the English department, James agrees to help Stella, who sees no practicality in conjugating verbs or diagramming sentences. Instead of learning more about English, Stella falls in love. However, an indiscretion in James's past threatens to undermine their relationship.

Where did you get the idea for “A Circle of Blessings,” your story in the collection?

"A Circle of Blessings" is the only historical novella I ever wrote, but I thought it was a great vehicle for writing a story based on one of our family's Christmas traditions. (I can't tell you what that tradition is without giving away my story, so you'll just have to read it to find out!) It was also fun to use my grandmother's names for my characters in this novel.

Do you have a Christmas message for my readers?

It’s become a cliché, but I pray that in the mad rush to get everything ready for Christmas that none of us forget to remember the Reason for the season. He makes all the difference in the world!

LINKS:
http://www.deborahraney.com/
Purchase Deb’s Books here.

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Deborah is giving away a copy of her book A Prairie Christmas Collection. Be sure to stop by The Borrowed Book on Friday for your chance to win!

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Cinnamon Raisin Bread or Rolls

Ingredients:

2 1/2 tsp instant yeast

3 T sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 1/2 c Unbleached AP flour

1/4 c milk (1% for this recipe)

2 T unsalted butter, melted

1 c + 2 T warm water

2 T cinnamon mixed with 2 T sugar

1 cup raisins

Topping:

2 cups 10X sugar

Enough milk to make a nice drizzle consistency.

Crumb Topping (optional):

Mix up the dough, sprinkle on that cinnamon sugar, roll it, stick it in the pan. BUT, before you give it the final rise, throw together a crumb topping mix of 2 T. butter (the real stuff), brown sugar (uh, I didn’t measure, my guess is about 1/4 to 1/3 cup packed). Sprinkle in some straight-up cinnamon, about 1/2 tsp, and throw in some flour (uh, did I mention that I don’t measure?), I’ll say 1/4 - 1/3 cup.

Cut your butter into little pieces (cold butter is best), then use your fingers to combine this mix. If it’s too clumpy, add flour a little at a time until it is the consistency of crumbs. Brush the top of your

loaf with egg whites and pat-press some crumbs all along the top. If they fall down the sides, rejoice! Because after this bread rises, after it has baked into a dome of golden goodness, those cinammon-buttery-sugar crumbs melt into the sides of the bread and give the bread an awesome praline crunch.

Directions:

In a bowl of your stand mixer (you do have one, don’t you?) combine all ingredients except cinnamon sugar and raisins. I added everything and put the yeast in last, then waited 2 minutes until the yeast did a little bubbling.

Now mix until combined, cover, and let rest for 20 minutes.

Before I go any further with the this, let me explain a rest period. For dough, a rest period allows time for all the ingredients to be absorbed, in the case of breads, the ingredient you are allowing to absorb is the flour. By doing this you will use less flour as you knead (if you were doing it by hand) and have a richer, higher-rising dough. This period of rest also allows time for your gluten to rest and develop.

At the end of the 20 minutes, mix the dough on medium until well combined and the dough pulls away from the sides. Note: You can either knead by hand, or let your mixer do the work. I opted to let my mixer do the work. For eight minutes, at medium, I let my Kitchen Aid “knead” the dough until it began pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If kneading by hand, sprinkle your surface lightly with flour and grind away for the alloted eight, plus 2 more if ne

eded to make the dough elastic and smooth.

Add raisins to the dough. Stir in. Transfer the dough to a well-oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour or until noticeably puffy.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled work surface and let it rest for 5 minutes. Pat or roll the dough into an 8” x 15” rectangle and sprinkle evenly with your cinnamon sugar mixture.

Starting with the short end of the rectangle, roll the dough up and place, seam side down, into a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch bread pan. For rolls, simply cut into 2 inch pieces and place cut side up into greased round cake pan. Now it’s time for the final rise. If you would like to do the optional crumb topping, now is the time to mix it up and put it on the loaves. If not, simply let the dough rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours in a warm space, or until it’s risen about 1” over the top of the pan.

Bake in a 375 oven for 35 to 40 minutes. After the top starts to get golden brown, tent a piece of aluminum foil over the bread for the remainder of the cook time. Let the bread cool completely before drizzling. Slice and enjoy.

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Christmas Interview ~ Max Anderson

Max Elliot Anderson grew up as a struggling, reluctant reader. Using his extensive experience in the production of motion pictures, videos, and television commercials, he brings the same visual excitement and heart-pounding action to his adventure and mystery stories, written especially for boys 8 and up. Both boys and girls have reported that reading one of his books is like being in an exciting movie.

Find Max online at http://www.maxbooks.9k.com. And Check out the

Books for Boys Blog.

We’re focusing on Christmas all this month! What do you most associate with Christmas where you live?

My wife and I live in Rockford, Illinois. The city has an extensive parks system. In one of the largest of these parks, the community, businesses, and churches participated in a festival of lights. People drive their cars through the park, through tall oak trees and evergreens, to enjoy looking at all the displays. Many of the businesses tend to celebrate the season, but some, along with the church displays, make a point of celebrating Christ’s birthday.

Do you have any special family traditions you do at Christmas time?

Things are different now, since our children are grown and not living in the area. They do come for Christmas, and we do more adult things together. One tradition we have always had is to attend the Christmas eve service at our church, First Evangelical Free. Then we come home and have a nice dinner. After that, we gather around the Christmas tree and I usually do some sort of reading, give a fun quiz, or something like that. This year I’ll be reading my Christmas short story from the Chicken Soup book. I’ve been careful not to share it with any of the family so it will be new to them that night. We always have a fire in the fireplace, and then enjoy the rest of the evening together. When the kids were small, we used to give out one gift on Christmas Eve.

Opening of presents always happens on Christmas morning, after a big breakfast. Then, later in the day, we’ll have a Christmas dinner. People are free to do whatever they want to for the balance of the day. Then we often go to one of the holiday movies in the evening.

Do you have a favorite Christmas Carol and if so do you know why?

It would have to be Silent Night. No only do I enjoy the words of that carol, I love the story behind it http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/silent.htm

If you could spend Christmas any way you could how would you celebrate?

I think it would be great to spend Christmas in an isolated cabin, in the Rockies, snowbound, with my family, provided we had the supplies we needed including a fireplace and a Christmas tree.

Do you have any special memories of Christmas?

Aside from my own childhood, the most special memories come from when our children were old enough to understand and participate in Christmas. When they were small, they’d get up early on Christmas morning, bring out all their stuffed animals and dolls, and make an elaborate display. One year they gave a puppet show. But the most memorable, and it only happened one time, was the year that they put on a play. Our daughter played Mary, and our son was Joseph. It was very sweet, and even included Mary pregnant at first, and then the baby Jesus was born. They did this all on their own. I think our son was nine or ten at the time, and our daughter would have been seven or eight.

Do you have any Christmas movies or Christmas books you like to see or read each year?

I have a favorite book now with this new, hardbound, Chicken Soup Christmas book. It will be kept with our decorations and come out each year from now on. Instead of movies or other books, we like to play a lot of Christmas music CDs. Our schedule is so full at Christmas that we don’t have a lot of time for a special movie or other book.

Tell us a little about your book:

It’s actually two books. Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Gift of Christmas is sold exclusively by Wal-Mart and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Tales of Christmas will be sold exclusively by Barnes & Noble during the Christmas season. These are hardbound books with very attractive covers which are different for each volume. One of the books has the traditional 101 stories while the other has over 120.

Where did you get the idea for NO CHRISTMAS PRESENTS?

This is a true story that happened when I was a small boy. There were seven children in our family, so the number of presents we could expect was limited. Then, in the year of this story, a missionary came to our home and told us about the children he served who would have little or noting for Christmas. We voted to send him all of our Christmas present money which meant there would be no presents for us this year. So, the title was easy. It’s called No Presents for Christmas. What happened was nothing short of a miracle and something I will never forget. Our family still talks about it to this day. That year, we learned that it is much more blessed to give than receive.

Do you have a Christmas message for my readers?

We need to hold fast to the fact that this isn’t simply winter break from school, or a happy holiday. It’s not even a time to think about presents. This is the day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s the time when he came from heaven, was born as a child, and lived among us for 33 years, to show us how we can become a part of God’s forever family. What an amazing, free gift. Now that’s something

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Sunday Devotional

Max has learned to recognize several words, so when I say things like squeaky, ball, and chew toy, he goes into a frenzy.

“Max, go find your squeaky,” I’ll say, and he tears off across the house, searching until he finds it.

“Max, where’s your chew toy?” Within moments, Max returns with the chew toy in his mouth.

One day I decided to test just how far our little game could go. My son, Ben, was upstairs listening to his iPod. I had called his name several times to no avail. Figuring he had earplugs in his ears, I started up the stairs to get him, almost tripping over Max as I went. That’s when the idea hit me.

I stopped midway up the steps and looked down at the dog. “Hey, Max, where’s Ben?”

Max tilted his head to one side, as if considering my words.

“Max, go find Ben,” I continued.

To my surprise, he took off up the stairs, ran around the corner and disappeared inside Ben’s room. I waited. After a few minutes, Ben poked his head out, and Max ran back to me.

“Did you want me?”

I burst out laughing. “Yes. I’ve been calling you for five minutes.”

“Oh. Sorry. What did you want?”

“Never mind,” I said, waving my hand. “How did you know I needed you?”

Ben shrugged. “I didn’t. I just thought somebody was here or something.”

“Why?”

“Cuz Max wouldn’t leave me alone.”

I explained to Ben what had happened, including the part where I’d told Max to find him.

“He actually did it?” Ben said, laughing.

“I guess so.”

And that’s when it occurred to me. My command wasn’t difficult—go, seek, find. Rather than question or hesitate, Max took off to fulfill my request the moment he understood what I wanted.

Wouldn’t it be nice if God got the same response from us? His plan, after all, is much greater than mine. And the command is very much the same—go, seek, find.

Matthew 28:16-20 (New International Version)

The Great Commission

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

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Winners!!

It's always so much fun to give away great books!! Congratulations to this week's lucky winners:

siouxrx - Yuletide Defender by Sandra Robbins

lostinbelieving - A Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts by Cathy Messecar

Winners of this week’s books, please use the button in the upper right side of this page to email me with your mailing address so I can forward your information to the authors. Then, sit back and wait for your book to arrive.

Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book and thank you, Sandra Robbins and Cathy Messecar, for your generosity in providing books!

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Weekly Drawing

Due to a glitch in our scheduler, this week's drawing failed to post on Friday. We apologize for the delay. Please post your comments today. Winner will be drawn tonight at 8:00pm(central time).

Entering our weekly drawing is easy:

1. Leave a comment on Fridays or...

2. Sign up to follow The Borrowed Book. Followers will automatically be entered for a chance to win that week's drawing!

This week, The Borrowed Book is giving away:


Yuletide Defender by Sandra Robbins ~ Is a vigilante responsible for the murders of Lake City gang members? According to reporter Rachel Long's anonymous source, yes. The goal is to trigger a gang war—and her investigations lead Rachel to the heart of the battlegrounds. Which is where she finds handsome officer Matthew Franklin. The protective cop wants her out of harm's way. But she needs the raise from a big story to secure care for her special-needs sister. Rachel won't walk away, even though the vigilante is now aiming at a determined reporter—and a tailing cop—for a showdown just in time for Christmas.


A Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts by Cathy Messecar ~ Is your December cluttered? Does Christmas leave you fretting instead of singing quot;Joy to the Worldquot;? In A Scrapbook of Christmas Firsts, discover how to bring harmony to this busy month. Tips for family traditions, connecting generations, children, gift giving, how to grow myrrh and much more. Try the scrumptious quot;Cookie Canisterquot; recipes. Read about families who experienced Christmas firsts. This is a book to help you un-complicate Christmas, rediscover the real source of joy and usher in the celebration of faith, family and a Savior. This book is written by six well-known authors: Cathy Messecar, Trish Berg, Terra Hangen, Brenda Nixon, Karen Robbins and Leslie Wilson. Trish Berg is a national speaker and author. She has been a featured speaker for MOPS International and Hearts at Home and interviewed on ABC, Focus on the Family and Midday Connection. Trish lives in Ohio with her husband, Mike and their four children. Terra Hangen's articles appear in dozens of magazines on subjects including Bible gardening, penguins, flowers and herbs, bicycle soldiers and prayer. A contributing author to Rainy Day Book and the garden columnist for Positively-Feminine.org, she and her husband live in coastal California, where she enjoys gardening while her cats nap in the sun. Cathy Messecar is a newspaper columnist, author of The Stained Glass Pickup and speaker. She lives on Leaning Tree Acres Farm with her husband, David, in Montgomery, Texas. Brenda Nixon, M.A.as the former parenting expert for Kansas City's Fox4 Noon News, she speaks to issues affecting today's families, helping parents and professionals understand child development and parenting issues. She is the author of The Birth to Five Book: Confident Childrearing Right from the Start, a speaker, media personality and educator. Karen Robbins, freelance writer and speaker, is also a world traveler, SCUBA diver, Mother of five and the grandmother of six. She writes regularly for Positively Feminine.org and Lake Erie Living Magazine and has contributed to several compilation books. Karen lives with her husband, Bob, in Independence, Ohio. Leslie Wilson pens a weekly humor column, Reality Motherhood and makes thousands laugh each year through Hearts at Home, MOPS and Early Childhood PTAs. She's a contributing author to the Groovy Chicks Road Trip series, Chicken Soup for the Mother of Preschoolers Soul and dozens of parenting magazines.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, 12/11/10.

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Reader Excerpt ~ Yuletide Defender by Sandra Robbins

Arriving at a murder scene before breakfast wasn't Rachel Long's idea of a good way to start the day.

She leaned against the lamppost at the corner of Ninth and Perkins and pulled her coat tighter. The December wind that whistled around the deserted storefronts and run-down apartment buildings lining the street sent a shiver down her spine. Unlike other neighborhoods in Lake City, there were no holiday decorations anywhere in sight. In fact, nothing about her surroundings gave a hint that Christmas was only a few weeks away.

A young man's lifeless body sprawled twenty feet away spoke volumes about what life was like in this part of the city. Several uniformed policemen stood to the side as crime scene investigators gathered their evidence.

Her stomach rumbled and she pressed her hand against her abdomen to suppress the hunger pains. Coffee would have to come later. As chief investigative reporter for the Lake City Daily Beacon, her job was to cover the news.

One of the policemen backed away, and Rachel caught sight of the victim's leg twisted underneath him. She made a quick note in her journal of his white canvas tennis shoe with a five-pointed star on the side—one of the identifying marks of the Vipers, the gang that boasted control of this neighborhood.

She pursed her lips and tried to mentally recall how many gang-related deaths she'd reported in the past two months. Four? No, five. This one made the sixth victim.

A car pulled to a stop across the street and Detective Matt Franklin stepped out from the driver's side. He tugged at the cuffs of a white shirt and they slipped over his wrists from underneath the sleeves of his navy blazer. Even this early in the morning he looked like he belonged in a fashion magazine spread. The wind ruffled his brown hair. He smoothed it into place as he waited for the man who climbed from the passenger side of the car.

"Matt," Rachel called out.

He stopped in the middle of the street and glanced around. Catching sight of her, he turned and walked toward her. The corners of his eyes crinkled with a smile. He stopped in front of her and tilted his head to one side. "Rachel, how did you find out about this so quickly?"

"My scanner." She glanced toward the group examining the body. "Another gang killing? "

He sighed and nodded. "Looks like it."

"I noticed the boy's tennis shoes. He's a member of the Vipers. Do you think this is the work of the Rangers?"

Matt shrugged. "It's too early to know. Some in the department think the Vipers from the north side of the city and the Rangers from the south have decided to declare open war on each other. But so far neither gang is talking."

"May I quote you on that?"

"You probably would even if I said no." His mouth curved into the lopsided smile she'd first noticed when they met two months ago at the scene of the first gang member's death.

Rachel closed the notebook she held and dropped her pen into her bag. "When I was growing up, I never thought we'd someday have two gangs in a town this size. They were in urban areas like New York and Los Angeles, not in a small city in the heart of Illinois."

Matt nodded. "No town, no matter how small, is safe from the threat of gangs. Pressure from large-city police departments is forcing many gang members from the cities into more rural areas. Once there, they recruit locals into the groups. It's a growing problem all across the country."

Rachel glanced back at the body down the street. "So now we have six kids dead. Three Rangers and three Vipers. And because of what? Their neighborhoods aren't any better because they died. In fact, now it's worse for the people who live there and want to raise their children in a safe environment." She shook her head. "What a waste."

Matt regarded her with a steady gaze. "I didn't realize you had such strong feelings about the fate of these kids."

Her eyes grew wide. "Of course I do. Most of them don't have a chance of escaping their lives of poverty. They're looking to neighborhood gangs to save them and instead they're ending up dead."

Matt's gaze flitted across her face for a moment before he responded. "Once they take that step into the gang life, though, they're also dangerous. When I saw you standing over here, I thought it might be a good time to give you a friendly warning. You've written some hard-hitting articles in the past few weeks since this string of killings started. I'd hate to see you anger the wrong people."

She shrugged. "I don't make the news. I only report it."

Matt nodded. "I know. And I don't make the crimes. I only try to solve them. All I'm saying is just don't get in over your head."

Rachel smiled. "It's nice of you to worry about my safety, but I don't think I'll have any problems. The gang members only know me as a name in the newspaper. I doubt if they even care what I think."

Matt shook his head. "I don't know about that. Your picture is right beside your byline. Someone wanting to find you wouldn't have to look far."

Rachel had never thought of that, and her skin tingled with a rush of fear. "Don't try to scare me, Matt. I can't back off my job. Good reporters follow the facts and print them."

Matt's dark eyes clouded. "I know what these gangs are like, Rachel. I deal with them on a daily basis. As a friend, I thought I should warn you. Just be careful."

She nodded. "I will be. And don't forget to read my story." She glanced around at the local residents, some in their pajamas and robes, standing along the sidewalk. "I think I'll try to get some quotes from a few of the people who live around here. Of course they'll refuse to give their names, but you can't blame them. They're afraid of retaliation from the people who control their streets."

"We run into that problem all the time. It sure makes catching a killer harder." Matt glanced over his shoulder at the crime scene. "Well, I'd better get busy. I just wanted to pass along my concern." He turned to leave but then he faced her again. "By the way, I saw you at church last Sunday with your friend Mindy. You left before I could speak to you."

Rachel smiled at how surprised she'd been to see Matt there. That day he was dressed in jeans and a knit shirt as he played the drums in the praise band for the worship service. He'd looked so relaxed and completely absorbed in the music. Today he was every inch the professional policeman.

"Mindy has been after me to go with her, so I did."

"Maybe you'd like to come to our Singles Bible Study. We meet tonight."

She shrugged. "Maybe. If I have time. My job keeps me busy."

He looked back at the crime scene. "Mine does, too. I'd better get to work. See you later."

Rachel watched as Matt jogged back to the officers still beside the body. She'd liked Matt the first time they'd met. Perhaps it was the sorrow she saw in his eyes as he gazed down at the young victim who'd died alone on a dark street. And now a sixth person had also met his end.

She turned her attention to the small crowd of onlookers who'd gathered in front of an apartment building across the street. At the edge of the cluster of residents, a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties gripped the hand of a young boy beside her.

As Rachel watched, the woman spoke to the boy who stared into her face. The child didn't move as the woman accented her words with gestures toward the body across the street.

Fascinated by the exchange between the two, Rachel ambled toward them until she stood in front of the woman. She smiled. "Good morning, my name is Rachel Long. I'm a reporter for the Lake City Daily Beacon, and I noticed you standing here. I wondered if I might speak with you."

Suspicion flashed in the woman's eyes and she gripped the boy's hand tighter. "What about?"

Rachel glanced at the boy. "Is this your son?"

The woman straightened her shoulders. "Yes."

"I couldn't help but notice that you were talking to him as if you really wanted to impress something on him. It reminded me of how my mother used to talk with me."

The woman pointed across the street. "I was tellin' him that he's all I got in this world, and I don't aim to see him end up dead on no street corner. That's what gangs do for you. Promise all kinds of things but they ain't true."

Rachel nodded. "You're a very wise woman. I know it isn't easy living in a neighborhood where gangs roam the streets."

The woman's eyes grew wide and her mouth pulled into a grim line. "Easy? There ain't nothing easy 'bout life around here, and these hoodlums with their drugs and guns just make it harder for folks like us who workin' to get by."

"Do you have something you'd like to say to the people of Lake City or to the police about what the gangs are doing to our city?"

She started to speak but stopped. Fear flashed in her eyes. "You ain't gonna use my name or tell where I live, are you?"

Rachel shook her head. "I'll just quote you as a concerned mother."

"Well, then I guess I'd say to the folks who live in the nice neighborhoods, you ain't got no idea what it's like to be afraid of where you live. My son can't play outside 'cause I'm scared a stray bullet gonna hit him. We don't get out after dark, just stay inside with all the curtains pulled. And we stay away from the windows. I can't afford to move nowhere else, so I'm stuck here. When is somebody gonna help us clean up the filth that's turned what used to be a good neighborhood into a battlefield?"

Rachel had promised herself when she became a reporter that she would keep her personal feelings under control when she was interviewing someone. The anguish in this mother's eyes, though, made her forget that intention.

Her heart pricked at the predicament of this woman and her child. She blinked back the moisture in her eyes and smiled down at the boy. "You have a smart...
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Sandra is giving away a copy of her book Yuletide Defender. Be sure to stop by The Borrowed Book on Friday for your chance to win.

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