Winners!!

Happy Saturday, 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 - Give Us This Day by June Foster

Congratulations, Lisa! Please use the button in the upper right side of this page to email me with your email address. Then, sit back and wait for your book to arrive.

Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book!

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Weekly Drawing

It's fun Friday at The Borrowed Book, and you have several chances to win. Here's how - instead of leaving a comment, leave the time it took you to complete the puzzle in the comments section. 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. :-)

This week's puzzle feature is brought to you by June Foster and her newest release, Give Us This Day.

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June Foster Interview

I am delighted to have June Foster as a guest on The Borrowed Book today. June is a retired school teacher with a BA in Education and an  MA in Counseling. She’s the mother of two adult daughters and ten grandchildren. Her writing career began when she told her daughter about a story that had been lurking in the back of her mind for several years. Her daughter suggested she write it down.  That was the spark the Lord used to nudge June into writing stories about Christian people who overcome sin and temptation in their lives by the power of God and His Word. June travels full time in her RV with her husband Joe and has a writing desk and file cabinets where the couch used to be. She is a member of ACFW and two scribes groups through the organization. She wants nothing more than to serve the Lord through her stories.

Welcome, June. Your book Give Us This Day just released. Please give us a short blurb about it.

When Jess Colton walks away from his past, he leaves alcohol behind but replaces it with a food addiction, yet nothing Holly Harrison does will allow her to escape from her mistakes. Can their romance survive the obstacles from their former lives?

That sounds intriguing. Your heroine is suffering from some traumatic experiences in her past. Tell us how these have affected the person she is today.

Holly lived a wild life in college. She saw nothing wrong with sleeping with her boyfriend, and when she rode on the back of his motorcycle the day of the accident, she was pregnant. She lost her leg and her unborn baby that night in the hospital. After that, at a low point in her life, she received God's forgiveness and salvation through Jesus Christ. However, she never came to a point where she could forgive herself. She thinks no Christian man would want to marry a woman with her past and certainly no man would want a woman who's missing half a leg. She struggles with her insecurities about how God could forgive her and has no hope of a husband or family.

Your hero also has his own problems. Tell us more about him.

Jess gave up drinking after he became a Christian because alcohol lowers his inhibitions as well as the fact drunkenness is a sin. But since he came from a dysfunctional family with a controlling father and doting mother, he trades addictions. Alcohol for food. Now he's a hopeless obese diabetic.

What made you choose these two characters who are suffering from such problems in their lives?

Jess is a computer guru. I figured he wouldn't get much exercise if he's sitting at a computer all day, so that would tend to promote his weight gain. Too, he's too busy to exercise. Holly is a dental hygienist because I know quite a bit about that profession since I have to see a hygienist four times a year!

What do you want readers to take away from your book?

I would like readers to know that there is hope despite the situation he/she finds himself/herself in. Though Jess thought he could never escape his addiction, he found freedom through god's Word and the counsel of a godly friend. With my character Holly, I'd like for readers to see God is willing to forgive us when we ask Him.

Your book is published by Desert Breeze Publishing. Where can readers purchase it?

This book is available for download at Desert Breeze Publishing Company, Amazon, Kindle, and Barnes and Noble.

What other books have you written, and what are you working on now?

I have contracts for three other books with Desert Breeze. A Hometown Fourth of July-July 12, 2012, then the two other books in the Bellewood Series-As We Forgive-September 1, 2012, and Deliver Us-April 1, 2013.

I have another finished book, Ryan's Father, which I'd love to see get into print. Right now I'm working on the first of another trilogy, The Way Home of the Almond Tree Series.

It sounds like you're a busy lady. What message of hope would you like to leave with our readers who may be facing problems like those of your characters?

Place your faith in the Lord and His Word. There is no problem on earth that God cannot heal. He's bigger than any obstacle in your life. My other books deal with such topics as anger, healing after a parent abandons you, suffering the guilt of abortion, healing from drug addiction, and finding freedom from same sex attraction. In each of these books, the characters triumph over the sins in their lives by the power of God.

Thank you so much for dropping by The Borrowed Book today, June. We wish you well with your upcoming books, and we hope you'll stay safe out there on the highway in your RV.

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Field Trip Feature ~ Fancy Footwork

Okay, show of hands...how many NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) fans do we have out there? Yeah, me either. LOL! I mean, it's just DRIVING, right?

Wrong!

I stumbled across this video while researching, and it gave me a whole new respect for the men and women in this high-speed sport. Notice the driver's split-second heel/toe action, and impressive way he manages to control the brake, clutch, and gas, all while steering through some pretty nasty turns! It's a short video, but it was certainly long enough to make me want to sit down to write a novel about a race car driver...someday.

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Inspire a Fire

I love quotes that inspire me, don't you? As a writer, it's easy to feel isolated and uninspired. The motivation for those who are self-employed (authors) has to come from within, which is why, when the writing blues hit, I turn to quotes or pictures of beauty, to help stoke the fires of my fiction-forming creativity. So for today, a short list of my fans:

If you have a favorite quote, leave it in comments to inspire others!

For links to other inspiring quotes check out my board at Pinterest. 

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Creativity and Cover Candy

It never hurts to use alliteration for a post title, right? But this post could also be titled: What Writers Can Learn from Author Anne Elisabeth Stengl. If you haven't heard of her, I'd be glad to introduce you!

Anne is the author of Heartless, Veiled Rose, and Moonblood (releasing this April!) - Christian fantasy that is both meaningful and engaging! She has an amazing love story of her own (check out this interview from 2010, and then this post on Anne's blog - so sweet!!), and she is a great role model for writers. Why do I say that?

She is creative!! And not only that, but she has such a positive attitude. Wonder what I'm talking about? Visit Chronicles of the Evil One - her blog from her cat's perspective. If I'm in need of a smile, Minerva Louise never seems to run out of great stories to tell! (Plus, the pictures - and most recently a delightful theme song - add so much humor!)

As for Anne's author blog, Tales of Goldstone Wood, she does a great job of interacting with readers and coming up with relevant post series. Her blog seems to allow her to explore themes (like dragons!) that she's interested in (generally pertaining to her books), gain input from her readers, and answer questions that her readers might have. (Pilgrim's Progress - that enduring classic - includes an "apology" declaring the author's intent, so perhaps Anne is on to something with blogs serving as great venues for modern-day author "apologies" for books in a fantasy/allegorical genre.)

Anne Elisabeth Stengl lets her creativity shine in order to bless others. And I believe that's a great thing for any writer to do.

P.S. I simply have to take this occasion to post the book cover for her October 2012 release!

If you want to join the discussion on my personal blog regarding book covers (and see a bit more cover candy!), click HERE.

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Winners!!

Happy Saturday, 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:

Cathy - Shattered Identity by Sandra Robbins

Congratulations, Cathy! Please use the button in the upper right side of this page to email me with your email address. Then, sit back and wait for your book to arrive.

Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book!

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