Winners!!

Good morning, BB fans! Thanks to everyone who participated in our "puzzling" Friday giveaway! Keep all those facebook and Twitter notifications, coming!

This week's winner is: 
 
Kathryn Voss (kathrynlvoss@gmail.com ) - In Perfect Time by Sarah Sundin.
 
Congratulations, Kathryn! Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book.

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Sunday Devotional: Psalm 63: Better Than Life

Some days, this world feels a lot like a wilderness. Dry, desolate, uninhabited. To complicate things, you might be as David was, on the run, far from family and friends and all that was familiar.

Psalm 63 (NKJV) ... A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
² So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.

What should we do when we feel parched and needy? Press into God. Seek Him all the more fervently. Sometimes we don’t even know how dry we are.

³ Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
⁴ Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
⁵ My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.

Do we believe that—His lovingkindness, His mercy, is better than life? Do we believe it enough to make the effort to focus on Him only when all around us is dry as dust, when our own soul is famished, when all hope seems to have died? Because while we have life and breath, He is still merciful. He is still God—our God, and just the act of raising our hands to Him and praising His name can be enough to sustain us when nothing else can.

⁶ When I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
⁷ Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
⁸ My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

What beautiful imagery, the thought of God overshadowing us with wings. Anyone who has worked with big birds will tell you, wings might look delicate, but they’re strong, powerful. He has the strength and power to protect us, to uphold us.

⁹ But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
¹⁰ They shall fall by the sword;
They shall be a portion for jackals.

¹¹ But the king shall rejoice in God;
Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.

It’s vital to remember, while we’re stuck in this wilderness where everything we encounter seems designed to destroy us, that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. We may be given, as scripture also says, as sheep to the slaughter, but nothing separates us from the love of Christ. Not death, or life, or famine, or peril, or sword. Ultimately, we are held safe in His hands, and we will arrive in His presence at the appointed time.

God sees those who afflict His people, and the innocent. He hears and takes note of the lies. And their time will come to an abrupt end.

In the meantime, His lovingkindness is better than life.

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Weekly Drawing ~ Sarah Sundin

It's Fun Friday at The Borrowed Book! This week's prize is available to residents inside the continental US only.

To enter:

Leave the time it took you to complete the puzzles in the comments section as well as your email address for notifying you if you've won. Winners will be drawn from ALL of the times, so the person with the fastest time may not be the actual winner, but by leaving your time, you double your chances.

Want another entry? Tweet your puzzle time and mention The Borrowed Book, get another entry. RETWEET our Tweet, get two entries!

Post your puzzle time on BB's Facebook wall and...you guessed it...get another entry!

Post it on your OWN Facebook wall and you could get as many as FIVE entries.

It's all a way to spread the word about the great giveaways on BB. So c'mon! Help us spread the word, and have a little fun at the same time. Enter all weekend long! Winners will be announced Sunday night at midnight.

This week's puzzle feature is brought to you by Sarah Sundin and her newest release, In Perfect Time.

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An Interview with Author Sarah Sundin

Have you ever had a funny experience connected with being an author? For instance, has someone ever overheard you discussing the merits of one murder weapon over another or caught you shooting at a can of gasoline to see if you could make it explode?

Once while driving my daughter and her best friend to the high school, her friend was moaning about how her father embarrassed her so much by talking to their pet bunny. (Please read this with 15-year-old teen girl angst). My daughter said, “You think that’s bad? My mom talks to the people on her computer screen! And they aren’t even real!” Best friend said, “All right. You win.”

What do you love about being a writer, and what do you like the least?

I love almost all of it—the research, the planning, the rough draft, and even the editing. I’ve come to enjoy a lot of the publicity parts of it—especially speaking events and social media. I’m not so fond of writing nonfiction articles for publicity, but what job doesn’t have parts to it that you don’t like?

Are you a plotter, a pantser, or a combination?

Serious plotter. Verging on obsessive-compulsive. I fill out character charts, plot charts, and scene outlines. Without that road map I won’t start the journey. However, my characters have been known to lead me off my carefully laid trail, and I let them. They know best.

Do you write full time, or do you work it in alongside a full-time job?

I do write full time, but I also work one day a week as a hospital pharmacist—which pays way better than writing! And we have college-age kids.

What do your kids think about your being a writer?

Our daughter (18) thinks it’s kind of weird. She won’t read my books because it’s icky to think of your mom writing kissing scenes. I do understand. I would have thought the same thing when I was her age. However, our sons (16 and 21) think it’s cool and love reading my books. Our youngest son served as my assistant last month when I was researching my next series in Boston. My husband couldn’t take much time off work, but he sweetly offered to let me stay several extra days to research—and Matthew volunteered to stay with me and help. During the trip the truth came out. Matthew said, “I was afraid you’d get caught up in your research and get lost.” So he stayed to protect me! Isn’t that sweet?

What do you do to get past writer’s block?

I usually get a running start. First I review my outline for the chapter. Then I read the chapter or two beforehand to get in the right frame of mind. And then I write. I give myself complete permission to write nonsense, knowing I can always delete or edit it later. When I find myself truly procrastinating, it often stems from a niggling sense that something is wrong with the story. Then I take some time (I’m not writing anyway) to evaluate that section of the novel. Why is it not working? Too much chit-chat and not enough action? Too much research and not enough emotion? Is my heroine acting out of character, and I need to back off from my outline and let her take over? Usually something pops up, I rework my outline, and back to work I go.

Do you have any pets? Do you own them, or they you?

We have a sweet but skittish cat named Janie, and a yellow lab named Daisy. Daisy is six years old but still acts like a puppy, and she still does not understand why on earth I want to type on that box thingie all day when I could be playing with her! So she eats random household objects and steals my slippers. She owns us.

Bio:

Sarah Sundin is the author of six historical novels, including In Perfect Time (Revell, August 2014). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. Sarah lives in northern California with her husband and three children, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies.

Social media links

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sarahsundin

Make sure to stop by tomorrow, when you can enter to win a free copy of In Perfect Time!

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Did You Know? ~ Whooping Cough Treatment from 1935

As far as I know, this is from a vintage poster
 and in the public realm.

Before the advent of vaccinations, whopping cough was a common occurance. For historical writers, and those who are interested in the history of medicine, I thought I'd post an excerpt from an article about how to treat the disease from an April 1935 issue of The Farmer's Wife. 

Excerpt:

Whooping cough, like measles, is one of the most dangerous affections of infant and children. Its seriousness is underrated by most parents.

Like measles, whooping cough is most contagious during the early stages, often before the condition is recognized. Whooping cough is due to a germ and the infection is spread in the spray which comes from the throat during a fit of coughing.

During the first, or catarrhal stage, which lasts a week or more, the attacks of coughing sound somewhat like an ordinary laryngitis. There is usually the difference, however, that the attacks in whooping cough come with intervals between. The attacks increase in severity, and the thing which makes the diagnosis practically certain is the characteristic "whoop" which comes when the child inhales after a numer of coughs. The whoop is caused by the narrowing of the opening of the windpipe due to a spasm of the muscles.

In severe cases the face becomes very red and eyes look as if they might pop from their sockets. In some of these cases there are hemorrhages around the eyes and small hemorrhages or congestion in the brain, causing dizziness and a staggering gait.

Vomiting of food is a common and stressing symptom accompanying the cough. This is often so persistent that the nutrition suffers. For this condition it is well to give concentrated liquid food in the form of milk, soups, gruels, eggnogs--a cup or a glass every three hours, allowing longer intervals at night. Avoid large meals of solid food.

Severed bronchitis and pneumonia are rather common and dangerous complications of whooping cough. So are heart troubles, caused by the extreme strain of the coughing. The most dangerous complication of all, however, and the one responsible for many deaths in infants under two years, is convulsions.

. . .Because of serious complications in young children, try to keep your children from catching whooping cough until they are five years old, at least. The contagious period usually lasts about three weeks, but to avoid all risk it is well to protect infants for a much longer time.

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Keeping Secrets: The Power of Secrets in Your Characters’ Lives by Author Sarah Sundin

“Want to hear a secret?” Those words make ears perk up from elementary school playgrounds to high school cafeterias to corporate offices. Secrets fascinate us.

Secrets can be powerful tools in fiction. When readers sense a secret is in play, their ears perk up, and they’re drawn into the story to ferret out that secret—and to watch the consequences.

Almost all characters keep a secret. Your job as a novelist is to know why she keeps that secret, to decide when and how to reveal it, how to conceal it beforehand, and what the consequences of revelation will be.

Why a Secret?

Why does your character keep her secret concealed? Perhaps she fears physical consequences, such as being arrested for a crime she committed. Perhaps she is ashamed of something she’s done and doesn’t want people to think less of her. Perhaps she’s hurt or betrayed someone and doesn’t want that person to know. Perhaps she thinks she’s moved past it and would rather forget about it, thank you very much. In In Perfect Time, World War II flight nurse Lt. Kay Jobson comes across as bold and confident. If her secret were revealed, she’d be seen as weak and vulnerable, everything she’s worked hard to overcome. So she doesn’t reveal her past to even her closest friends—and she rarely broods on it.

When to Reveal?

When do you want the secret revealed to the reader or to other characters? These may or may not be the same moments. The most powerful times to reveal secrets are at the turning point between Acts I and II, the crisis moment in the exact middle of the novel, the turning point between Acts II and III, and at the climax. The revelation of the secret can drive one of those crucial moments or the secret can be revealed by those events. You may also choose to reveal a secret at other times, particularly when the revelation serves to build relationships. In In Perfect Time, Kay reveals her secret at the end of Act I. However, the hero, C-47 pilot Lt. Roger Cooper, reveals his secret to Kay in a quieter friendship-building scene early in Act II—but Kay’s knowledge of that secret drives the novel’s midpoint crisis.

A Slow Revelation

Sometimes the reader knows the secret from the beginning. But when the character conceals her secret from the reader, clues need to be dropped to build the mystery. When the secret comes out, you don’t want the reader to feel cheated and say, “What? How could that be?” But you also don’t want them to say, “Duh. Saw that a mile away.” Instead, you want them to say, “Ah ha. Now I understand.” Carefully spaced, carefully worded clues intrigue the reader. Sometimes I list or highlight all those clues in the manuscript and examine them. Do they tell enough? Too much? Should I pare them back? Or do I need more? The best time to drop clues is when the character is unguarded, due to stress, grief, anger, or intimacy.

How to Reveal?

Sometimes secrets are wrested out into the open against the character’s will. Sometimes they are revealed by trauma, when the character’s defenses fall and she spills her heart. Sometimes characters deliberately reveal their secrets to shock or repel people. And sometimes characters reveal their secrets in sweet moments of trust and friendship. What works best for your story?

The Consequences

Now her secret is out. Does this bring utter devastation as her world falls apart? Does it drive away her friends and loved ones? Does it bring closeness and deeper friendship? Remember, different people respond in different ways. The same secret may lead one person to reject her and another to embrace her. Ultimately, if you are writing a story about hope and honesty and faith, the long-term consequences of the revelation should bring healing for the character.

Do you like to use secrets in your novels? Do you have any tips to share?

Bio:

Sarah Sundin is the author of six historical novels, including In Perfect Time (Revell, August 2014). Her novel On Distant Shores was a double finalist for the 2014 Golden Scroll Awards. Sarah lives in northern California with her husband and three children, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school and women’s Bible studies.

Social media links

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com

Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin 

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sarahsundin 

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Winners!!

Good morning, BB fans! Thanks to everyone who participated in our "puzzling" Friday giveaway! Keep all those facebook and Twitter notifications, coming!

This week's winner is: 
  
Lisa Nelson (storyreader617(at)yahoo(dot)com) - Atonement for Emily Adams by Susan Lawrence.
 
Congratulations, Lisa! Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book.

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