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Friday, November 30, 2007

The Minor Protection Act by Jodie Cowles





It is December 1st, time for the FIRST Day Blog Tour! (Join our alliance! Click the button!) The FIRST day of every month we will feature an author and his/her latest book's FIRST chapter!

This month's feature author is:




and her book:





The Minor Protection Act

Musterion (December 1, 2005)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jodi Cowles caught the travel bug when her parents took her on her first international flight at six months of age. Since then sheís been in over 30 countries. Along the way sheís gotten locked out of her cabin on an all night train to Kiev, helped deliver a baby in Indonesia, taught English in South Korea, gone spelunking in Guam, hiked the Golan Heights and laid bricks in Zimbabwe. Her interest in politics stems from hunting Easter eggs on the south lawn of the White House as a child. For her 30th birthday she ran the LA Marathon and promised to get serious about publishing. Jodi resides in Boise, Idaho and this is her first novel.



AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:



If the politically correct set was searching for a poster couple, they would need to look no further than Erik and Roselyn Jessup. In college they lit up doobies while attending passionate speeches about legalizing marijuana and freeing Tibet. Erik was even arrested once for helping break into an animal research center. Roselyn bailed him out. After five years of dating they decided to tie the knot. Seven years later, after Roselyn had enough time to get established in her career, she gave birth to their pride and joy, Jayla Lynn Jessup.



Both had satisfying full-time jobs that left them only enough time to pour themselves into Jayla. They attended every event at school, even if it meant working overtime and paying the after school program for a few extra hours. When Jayla made the principal's list or won a spelling bee, they were cheering, and filming, from the front row.



Jayla began junior high at a brand new school with a brand new curriculum. It was being called "progressive" in the papers; the first program of its kind implemented in California with plans for a nationwide rollout over the next 10 years. Praise poured in from around the country, applauding the straight talk about sexuality and focus on tolerance.



Erik and Roselyn were thrilled to have their daughter in this groundbreaking program. Granted, it took several phone calls to district authorities to accomplish the transfer and Roselyn had to drive an extra 30 minutes each morning to drop off Jayla, but it was quite a coup to brag about in their circle of friends.



Jayla turned 13 two years into junior high. For her birthday she told her parents she wanted to order pizza and hang around the house ñ there was something she needed to tell them. Over pepperoni and Coke, Jayla calmly informed them that she'd been discussing it with her friends and teachers and had decided she was gay.



Though she had never had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend for that matter, Erik and Roselyn were quick to affirm her decision and let her know she had their full support. Roselyn applauded her daughter's honest, courageous move and told Jayla how proud she was. Erik was also supportive and went so far as to tease Jayla about her best friend Sara.



There weren't too many lesbians in her junior high and Jayla had a pretty average experience, but she attracted attention when she entered high school wearing the rainbow buttons specially purchased by her mother. Soon she was 15 and seriously involved with Carla, the 17-year-old senior who was President of the Gay Pride Club. When Erik and Roselyn saw the relationship deepening they sat Jayla down and had a heart to heart "sex talk," encouraging her to be responsible and safe, and only to have sex if she was truly in love.



She was. However, when the year ended Carla left for college on the east coast and broke off the relationship in a letter.



Jayla was heartbroken. Erik and Roselyn were quick to comfort, as any loving parents of a shattered teenager, but their answers seemed hollow to Jayla, their comfort cold. At 16 she began dabbling in drugs - a first for her.



By the time her senior year began the family bond that was once so strong had disintegrated to the degree that she seldom spoke to her parents unless it was to strike out in anger. She had not entered into another dating relationship, as much as they encouraged her in that direction. Rather, she seemed withdrawn from the world and spent endless hours either locked in her room or suspiciously absent. Finally, Roselyn had enough and took her to a doctor who prescribed an anti-depressant for teenagers that had just been released on the market.



By Christmas the medication seemed to be working. Jayla was coming around, spending more time at home. She seemed calmer and more at peace. They were even beginning to talk about college. But New Year's morning they found her dead, her anti-depressant bottle and a quart of vodka laying empty in the trash and a mass of journals and letters scattered around her in the bed.



Erik and Roselyn were devastated. Jayla had been their whole life. They dove into the letters and journals, trying to make sense of it all. What they found only served to inflame their anger. Some boy named Nick had been telling their daughter that she was a sinner, quoting Bible verses that said her sexual preference was an abomination before God. Jayla's journal was full of self-loathing, page after page about her relationship with Carla, page after page of rambling, agonizing pain. Why was she made like this if homosexuality was a sin? Why would her parents have supported her if it were an abomination? Why had she listened to the seventh grade teacher who told her experimentation was the best way to determine her sexuality? What was wrong with her?



They could hardly stand to finish it but they read every word. In the end their grief found relief, as it so often does, in bitterness and hatred. The day after Jayla's funeral, attended by hundreds of students from Jaylaís school, Erik and Roselyn met with the District Attorney. A year later, bitterness not yet assuaged, they went to see a lawyer. In the culture of America, where there is rarely tragedy unaccompanied by litigation, they found a willing law firm. Someone would pay.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

See what Others think of Scarlet

Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

AURALIA'S COLORS
(WaterBrook Press September 4, 2007)

by

Jeffrey Overstreet

I'll go ahead and admit that I did not receive the book and therefore have not yet read it, but I do plan on it as soon as I can find a copy. Also, I strongly suggest that you visit his blog to see what he had to say about "The Golden Compass."

<3><

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Jeffrey Overstreet lives in two worlds. By day, he writes about movies at LookingCloser.org and in notable publications like Christianity Today, Paste, and Image.

His adventures in cinema are chronicled in his book Through a Screen Darkly. By night, he composes new stories found in fictional worlds of his own. Living in Shoreline, Washington, with his wife, Anne, a poet, he is a senior staff writer for Response Magazine at Seattle Pacific University.

Auralia’s Colors is his first novel. He is now hard at work on many new stories, including three more strands of The Auralia Thread.





ABOUT THE BOOK:
As a baby, she was found in a footprint.

As a girl, she was raised by thieves in a wilderness where savages lurk.

As a young woman, she will risk her life to save the world with the only secret she knows.


When thieves find an abandoned child lying in a monster’s footprint, they have no idea that their wilderness discovery will change the course of history.

Cloaked in mystery, Auralia grows up among criminals outside the walls of House Abascar, where vicious beastmen lurk in shadow. There, she discovers an unsettling–and forbidden–talent for crafting colors that enchant all who behold them, including Abascar’s hard-hearted king, an exiled wizard, and a prince who keeps dangerous secrets.

Auralia’s gift opens doors from the palace to the dungeons, setting the stage for violent and miraculous change in the great houses of the Expanse.

Auralia’s Colors weaves literary fantasy together with poetic prose, a suspenseful plot, adrenaline-rush action, and unpredictable characters sure to enthrall ambitious imaginations.

Visit the Website especially created for the book, Auralia's Colors. On the site, you can read the first chapter and listen to jeffrey's introduction of the book, plus a lit more!

PRAISE

"Film critic and author Overstreet (Through a Screen Darkly) offers a powerful myth for his first foray into fiction. Overstreet’s writing is precise and beautiful, and the story is masterfully told. Readers will be hungry for the next installment."
--Publishers Weekly


“Through word, image, and color Jeffrey Overstreet has crafted a work of art. From first to final page this original fantasy is sure to draw readers in. Auralia's Colors sparkles.”
-–Janet Lee Carey, award-winning author of The Beast of
Noor
and Dragon's Keep


“Jeffrey Overstreet’s first fantasy, Auralia’s Colors, and its heroine’s cloak of wonders take their power from a vision of art that is auroral, looking to the return of beauty, and that intends to restore spirit and and mystery to the world. The book achieves its ends by the creation of a rich, complex universe and a series of dramatic, explosive events.”
-–Marly Youmans, author of Ingledove and The
Curse of the Raven Mocker


Monday, November 26, 2007

More on Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead

If your interest has been slightly peaked I strongly suggest that you go and read the first chapter of Scarlet. Or a preview in to Hood.

<3><

Jeffrey Overstreet's discussion on The Golden Compass

Today, I discovered a blog written by Jeffrey Overstreet on the upcoming "The Golden Compass". This does not all change my views on the film or the books, but I strongly suggest that anyone go and read his thorough discussion.

"The Golden Compass" - Questions asked and answered...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead


First off, let me tell you about Hood by Stephen Lawhead, then I'll tell you about the sequel Scarlet. This book, Hood, was really enjoyable. It was my first Lawhead book and I think I will always look for the sequels and possible other series of his as well. Every once in a while there was a monologue of a character's thoughts on their past and I hated it and love it at the same time. Part of me would just want to get past it so I could get back to the action and events in the story, while at the same time it was interesting and fairly important to understanding the character, the events, and to find empathy. This is a more realistic version of the fantasy Robin Hood than most others you find and I love it. I really enjoyed how it was not dumbed down to perfection and happily ever after. There is strife, and religion, and ignorance, and love, and family, and happiness goals. I was taken aback at the setting at first because it does not have many of the places and names that I'm familiar with, but in the end of the book, after the novel, it has his explanation of why, and it is fabulous. I'm a history buff and to get this short history lesson on the true tales of Robin Hood was fascinating to me. I really enjoyed this book.

Will Scarlet has always been my favorite Robin Hood character for as long as I can remember knowing different versions of the historical tales. This book does not change that at all. This is Will Scarlet in more depth than any book or film has ever shown him. Everything you ever once thought of him or wanted to know is given in a wonderfully melodio
us tone by Stephen Lawhead and your imagination can soar. I was thoroughly impressed by Hood, but so much more by Scarlet yet in different ways. I recommend this book to anyone who loves celtic, Britons, old english, Robin Hood, medieval, knights, and chivalry... as well as just good old adventure. There is nothing "tasteless" in this novel as you find in many books these days... meaning there is moral delimma with characters that are just out right evil. But you do not find the protagonists as lust filled murders. It is just plain good stories twisted together to keep you up hours into the night reading until there is no more. So sad that I have to wait until 2009 for the Trilogy end Tuck... but I am fairly certain it will be worth it.

Oh, and there are other Lawhead books that I've read that didn't "hook" me, but these King Raven Trilogy books are really to die for. And in addition to Lawhead's King Raven Trilogy if you want a similar story but from the eyes of Maid Marian/Merian check out my past blog on Elsa Watson's Maid Marian.

<3><

New to Technorati

Shepard's Fold Quilt in progress



Remember the one sheep a while back? Well now there are others. Here, look see at my progress...

<3><

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Tamera Alexander's Rekindled, Revealed & Remembered

I just finished reading Tamera Alexander's current Trilogy. It was thoroughly enjoyable, it was better with every new twist and turn.

Rekindled/Revealed/Remembered (Fountain Creek Chronicles 1-3)

by Tamera Alexander
1517935-m-1184602518
published 2007 by Bethany House Publishers
binding Paperback
isbn 0764283464 (isbn13: 9780764283468)
pages 1024
description This popular three-book series features a different romance in each novel. In the late 1860s, Colorado Territory is a wild and untamed land. Nestled ...more






bookshelves: read, christianfiction

About Book One Rekindled.
I read this all in one day in two sittings. Well to be honest, it's now 5:22am... so just over one day. :) If you liked Francine Rivers' Redeeming Love or Tracie Peterson's Yukon Quest then you are sure to love this little novel. Heartbreaking struggle from both ends of a marriage to make things work in the best of times and worst of times with a second chance is just fabulous. A great read!
About Book Two Revealed.
This book is completely about forgiveness. It is a sequel, but is about a completely different character and could stand on it's own. Everyone has a past, but more importantly everyone has a future. Here the author has made two very different people come to an understanding of each and it is beautiful to see God working in people's hearts and souls. I strongly recommend this book to anyone in particular, but especially to someone who is holding a grudge that they just cannot let go of, either to someone else, or more importantly to themselves. I know I can find a way to relate. I'm sure you can too.
About Book Three Remembered.
This book was the best of the trilogy. Really in this series, each book was better and better. A companion whose only thing she has ever lacked was a father goes in a forced search to find him when it seems all else is lost to her. She finds everything that she was meant to find, even when she did not realize that is what she was looking for. This story tells of patience, learning God's will and His timing, love, loss, friendship, fears, and the gift of giving. It is all around a great read.

The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out by Neta Jackon

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Book Organizers

Ever since I can remember I have enjoyed reading. For years I have been a book-junkie, book-a-hol-ic you name it. But it is only recently that I have discovered the online tools for book organization. The ones that I have discovered so far are as follows:

Goodreads.com
Shelfari
LibraryThing

Goodreads.com is by far my favorite. It is the easiest to work with and has great groups for discussion, etc. Finding books is not difficult and changing them from one shelf to another is as easy as a click. I strongly recommend this one. I was invited to Goodreads by my brother's God-sister and am completely hooked. Plus their widgets are better.

my 'currently-reading' shelf:





Widget_logo



Shelfari is great too... my second favorite I would say. Upon learning and being enthralled with Goodreads.com I invited my oldest sister to join. She said she did not have time, something about four kids under the age of five to look after, but that she has seen something like it before called Shelfari. So the good little book-junkie that I am, I looked it up. Shelfari is colorful and has many more types of groups and specifics to choose from, but changing thing around on your shelves, or adding books is a little like pulling teeth. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I stay on that site purely for the community that it provides and in hopes that it will improve.

[More info added on Shelfari a few hours later... Oooooo... Shelfari has been bad. Read the following two blogs: thingology and Otis. Also, just google it or look for Shelfari data in the news... Ouch. BOOK NETWORKING USERS BEWARE!!!!]



LibraryThing... I found this one googling around and the impression that I have been given is that it was the first in the category of online networking book organizers. But the kick to the gut was once you reach 200 books you have to buy a membership to add any more. HELLO? All my money goes to buying books, so why would I pay for an organizer when I have access to two others for free that are fabulous? Definitely not. But the cool thing they did have was the scanner. Scan any book ISBN barcode and it's found and added to your library. Now that is just cool.

Just wanted to share... Oh and feel free to come and join me on any of the sites. :)

<3 MJ

Friday, November 16, 2007

Fall Into Reading 2007



So I'm a little late in joining, but right there with the desire and passion. Fall Into Reading 2007 Here's my list:

Admission by Travis Thrasher*
Quilter's Complete Guide by Marianne Fons & Porter*
Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts by Mary Hickey*
Consciously Female by Tracy Gaudet
The Great Physician's Rx for Health and Wellness by Jordan Rubin*
The Great Physician's Rx for Weight Loss by Jordan Rubin*
The Great Physician's Rx for Women's Health by Jordan & Nicki Rubin*
South Beach Diet by Arthur Agatston, MD*
Baptized in Blood by Charles Reagan Wilson*
The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch*
Generous Orthodoxy by Brian D. McLaren*
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson*
Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them by Liz Curtis Higgs
The Pumpkin Patch Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs*
Thorn in My Heart by Liz Curtis Higgs*
Fair is the Rose by Liz Curtis Higgs*
Whence Came a Prince by Liz Curtis Higgs*
Grace in Thine Eyes by Liz Curtis Higgs*
Sanctuary by Beverly Lewis*
Designing Your Own Classic Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist*
Skin Deep by Cathy Hapka*
Time for Bed by Mem Fox*
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown*
Bonsoir Lune by Margaret Wise Brown*
Miss Potter by Richard Maltby Jr*
Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field*
The Maiden of Mayfair by Lawana Blackwell*
Hood by Stephen Lawhead*
Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead*
Maid Marian by Elsa Watson*
Two of A Kind? by Greg Cox*
The Long Road Home by Lori Wick*
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery*
Anne of Windy Populars by L.M. Montgomery*
Quilts! Quilts! Quilts! by Diana McClun*
A Gathering of Memories by Lori Wick*
A Bride Most Begrudging by Deeanne Gist*
A Garden in Paris by Stephanie Grace Whitson*
Rekindled by Tamera Alexander*
Troublesome Creek by Jan Watson*
When the Heart Cries by Cindy Woodsmall*
Revealed by Tamera Alexander*
Amish Crib Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman
Remembered by Tamera Alexander
A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman
Wedding Bell Blues by Linda Windsor
Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet
Try Dying by James Scott Bell
The Return by Austin Boyd
Crimson Eve by Brandilyn Collins
Informed Consent by Sandra Glahn
My Life Unscripted by Tricia Goyer
For Parents Only by Shaunti Feldhahn
The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out by Neta Jackson
Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh
After The Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart
To Love Anew by Bonnie Leon
Torrent Falls by Jan Watson
Ransomed Dreams by Amy Wallace
Glastonbury Tor by LeAnne Hardy
A Hilltop in Tuscany by Stephanie Grace Whitson
Shadows in the Mirror by Linda Hall
Pajo by Karl L. Kruger
Searching for Eternity by Elizabeth Musser
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
Surrender Bay by Denise Hunter
An Old Fashioned Christmas by Colleen L. Reece
Song of the Highlands by Sharon Gillenwater
A Lady of High Regard by Tracie Peterson
Beloved Leah by Cynthia Davis
Courting Trouble by Deeanna Gist
An Untamed Land by Lauraine Snelling
Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke
Novel Crimes by Susan May Warren
Bad Ground by Dale W. Cramer
When the Morning Comes by Cindy Woodsmall
Sutters Cross by Dale W. Cramer
Illuminated by Matt Bronleewe
Breaking Free by Lauraine Snelling
Bygones by Kim Sawyer
Then Came Faith by Louise Gouge
Quilting Makes the Quilt by Lee Cleland*
The Veritas Conflict by Shaunti Feldhahn
The Restorer by Sharon Hinck
Simeon's Gift by Julie Andrews Edwards*
Deirdre by Linda Windsor
Brides O' the Emerald Isle by Pamela Griffin
The Mark of Salvation by Carol Umberger
The Measure of A Lady by DEeanne Gist
The Belgarid by David Eddings
DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul
Ashes of Remembrance by Brock & Bodie Theone
Brink of Death by Brandilyn Collins
Steal Away by Linda Hall
When Breaks the Daw by Janette Oke
The Paradise War by Stephen Lawhead
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Catching Katie by Robin Lee Hatcher
Devil's Island by John Hagee
New Mexico Sunrise by Tracie Peterson
A Clearing in the Wild by Jane Kirkpatrick
A Tendering in the Storm by Jane Kirkpatrick
Angels to Watch Over Me by various authors
Willow Springs by Jan Watson
Boston Jane: Wilderness by Jennifer Holm
Boston Jane: The Claim by Jennifer Holm
Mark's Story by Tim Lahaye & Jerry B. Jenkins
Chosen by Ginger Garrett
Bluegrass Peril by Virginia Smith
What Lies Within by Karen Ball
the Begotten by Lisa Bergern
Hope by Lori Copeland
Yellow Rose Bride by Lori Copeland
The Sunroom by Beverly Lewis
Come Spring by Tim Lahaye
Minor Protection Act by Jodi Cowles
Hollywood Nobody by Lisa Samson
The Bible by Karen Armstrong
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Queen Margot by Alexandre Dumas
Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury

* means I've already read it...

:-) MJ <><

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

My sanctuary space

This is my space. My little apartment bedroom library/office/sewing room. <3><








Try Dying by James Scott Bell



This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing


TRY DYING

(Center Street October 24, 2007)

by

James Scott Bell



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Scott Bell is a former trial lawyer who now writes full time. He is also the fiction columnist for Writers Digest magazine and adjunct professor of writing at Pepperdine University.

His book on writing, Plot and Structure is one of the most popular writing books available today. The national bestselling author of several novels of suspense, he grew up and still lives in Los Angeles, where he is at work on his next Buchanan thriller.




ABOUT THE BOOK:

On a wet Tuesday morning in December, Ernesto Bonilla, twenty-eight, shot his twenty-three-year-old wife, Alejandra, in the backyard of their West 45th Street home in South Los Angeles. As Alejandra lay bleeding to death, Ernesto drove their Ford Explorer to the westbound Century Freeway connector where it crossed over the Harbor Freeway and pulled to a stop on the shoulder.

Bonilla stepped around the back of the SUV, ignoring the rain and the afternoon drivers on their way to LAX and the west side, placed the barrel of his .38 caliber pistol into his mouth, and fired.

His body fell over the shoulder and plunged one hundred feet, hitting the roof of a Toyota Camry heading northbound on the harbor Freeway. The impact crushed the roof of the Camry. The driver, Jacqueline Dwyer, twenty-seven, an elementary schoolteacher from Reseda, died at the scene.

This would have been simply another dark and strange coincidence, the sort of thing that shows up for a two-minute report on the local news--with live remote from the scene--and maybe gets a follow-up the next day. Eventually the story would go away, fading from the city's collective memory.

But this story did not go away. Not for me. Because Jacqueline Dwyer was the woman I was going to marry.

In Try Dying, this fast-paced thriller, lawyer Ty Buchanan must enter a world of evil to uncover the cause of his fiancee's death--even if hie has to kill for the truth.
"Bell is one of the best writers out there...he creates characters readers care about...a story worth telling."
~Library Review~

Monday, November 12, 2007

Email Icon

To get your own: http://services.nexodyne.com/email/

Friday, November 9, 2007

Turning Twenty and He Loves Me




Honest opinion? Is that too long for a quilt name? Because I'm kinda stuck on it and I like it... So, this is an almost finished quilt top that I have been working on for a while now, but worked all day to get it where it is. It is almost finished, just missing the borders. I'll post another picture when it is fully complete.





Au reviour.

Matthew 6:34 Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.