Shine the Light!

And Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness and truth. And some of us have seen his glory—the glory of the only Son of the heavenly Father! ~John 1:14 (TLB)

Oh, God, thank You for sharing Your precious Son with us. Help us to celebrate Him and to shine the light of Your love all year long, not just at Christmas. 

May your day be merry and warm, 

and overflowing with love and joy. 

Merry Christmas! 

Wishing you a joyous holiday season. 

I'll see you in 2015!

Goodreads Giveaway ends soon

Enter the giveaway here 

On My Kindle ~ Jingle Belle by Delia Latham

Purchase Link

What happens when you cross an ambitious chauvinistic Italian restaurateur with a successful ad writer? A spectacular fireworks display followed by a romance sweeter than Cannoli.

Nick Santini locks wills with jingle writer, Belle Knowles, when her catchy promo isn't up to his standard. How dare he insinuate her work isn't good enough! With her reputation on the line, Belle gets to work, determined to satisfy every customer, even one as stubborn as Nick. Each deals with different issues: Nick, lingering effects of a childhood trauma, and Belle, pride. 

Just like I'd savor a serving of lasagna, taking one delicious bite after another, the onions and tomato sauce, the cheeses and pasta melting in my mouth, I enjoyed peeling back the emotional layers of Nick and Belle, whose chemistry sparkled and danced from the very first page. 

With a playful cover and catchy title, three-dimensional characters, and an enchanting story weaved with a strong faith message, Jingle Belle is a fabulous book to curl up with over the holidays! 

Disclaimer: I purchased Jingle Belle. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I received no monetary compensation.

And the winner...

Rafflecopter picked a winner!

The WINNER of the

2014 Christmas Extravaganza postcard 
with eleven holiday-themed romance novellas is...

Robbie Pink

Congratulations, Robbie! 

Please email 

Dora(at)DoraHiers(dot)com (minus the parentheses :) )

your mailing address so that your Christmas Extravaganza postcard can be on its way!

Thanks for playing, everybody!

The few weeks between Thanksgiving until Christmas seem to blur as they zoom past. With all the shopping and holiday events, it’s difficult for me to squeeze in reading. 

What about you? 

Do you enjoy sinking back into a recliner with a great book during the holidays? Are there any particular topics or types of heroes/heroines that you like to read at Christmas? What about length? Do you prefer to read the petite novellas versus longer books? 

It's difficult to wrap my brain around this, but in January, I'll be brainstorming my 2015 Christmas novella, so I'd love for you to chime in!

Curl up with this holiday romance...

Purchase Link

Louisiana Chef Leona Buquet agrees to cook for CG Fleming Jr, movie producer at his mountain lodge in the Colorado Mountains during the Christmas holiday.

When Leona meets handsome Cameron, CG's son, she is taken by his striking good looks and warm personality, but with the glamorous actress, Marissa Madison, clamoring for his attention will he even notice Leona?

Cameron struggles with being in a career he hates only to please his father. When he meets Leona he feels he's known her all his life. He wants an opportunity to get to know her, but she keeps avoiding him. When they become stranded in a hunter's cabin, will she lower her guard and open her heart to Cameron?

Can love sizzle, along with the Cajun dishes, in subzero temperatures?

Available now with Pelican Book Group/Christmas Extravaganza ~ Buy Link

Marian Pellegrin Merritt writes stories that blend her love of the mountains with her deep Southern roots. She is an author and freelance writer with over ten years experience. Her work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, online websites, and garnered a first place award in ACFW's Genesis contest.

Marian is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Women's Fiction Writers Association.She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physical therapy and an accounting certificate from the University of South Alabama. This Louisiana native writes from the Northwest Colorado home she shares with her husband and a very spoiled Labradoodle. Connect with her through Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter

Expect Favor

Recently hubby and I were blessed to hear inspirational speaker Dr. Dave Martin at our church. With thought-provoking concepts and belly laugh humor, he preached an entire sermon focused on one verse using the acronym DARE.

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! (Eph 3:20 The Message)

Hang with me. I promise not to summarize the entire sermon or go into all of the letters, just E.

EXPECT favor. 

As in...expect favor from God, the Creator of the entire world. Who filled it with a sun that lights our days and warms our backs, and makes it rise and set without us ever having to lift a finger. He created seas that roar, rivers that trickle, and mountains that surge to the heavens. He crafted man from dust and woman from man and gifts us with precious little souls with miniature toes and fingers who grow to look just like us. He’s amazing, right? He’s able to do infinitely more than we can ever imagine, but --

Do we really expect Him to?

Martin’s philosophy is that when we recognize and celebrate His involvement with the little things, we'll begin to see an increase in the bigger things. Cool, huh? 

Pumped up with a renewed attitude, we headed straight to our favorite lunch place (translation: my fave). 

Doesn't the space look festive and neighborish? :) My go-to dish is a chicken salad loaded with bacon and pecans and topped with a crisp apple cider vinaigrette...is it lunchtime yet? No? Bummer. lol. When the temperatures plummet, their Chili Nachos tempt me to veer from my usual, but on this particular day, the special was Chicken Mac and Cheese. Oohlala! What to do....what to do??

Hubby came up with the perfect solution. Why not order both the Nachos and the Mac and Cheese and we'd split everything? What a win! When I thanked hubby for suggesting this and God for granting me favor, this sparked a lively discussion on what favor really meant. How about weighing in? Maybe you can help settle the matter. :)

Does favor mean something that's given to us or an unexpected blessing in any form? What's your opinion? Do you live every day expecting favor?

Spreading some holiday cheer, er...reading!

11 Christmas Extravaganza Romance Novellas
by some of your favorite Pelican Book Group Authors

To celebrate my two most recent releases and in the spirit of giving, I'm GIVING AWAY a 
2014 Christmas Extravaganza postcard 
with eleven holiday-themed romance novellas, including Christmas in the Rink. 
The postcard comes with a redeemable code to enjoy these eleven (yes, that's right, friends, 11!) e-books on your preferred electronic reader.

The 4 x 6 1/2 inch size makes this a perfect stocking stuffer for the romance reader on your holiday list! Or perhaps you'd like to unwind from the stress of the season by curling up in the evenings in front of a glowing fireplace to read some short stories bursting with family and laughter, sprinkled with grace and forgiveness, and weaved with reclaimed joy and rekindled faith? If so, here's your chance! Just a few clicks and you could win these eleven delicious romances!

The winner will be announced here on Monday, 12/15/14, so make sure you come back by.

Oops, almost forgot! I'm also spreading some holiday cheer on Goodreads by giving away a print copy of 
When Love Triumphs. You can enter that giveaway here. :)

Wishing you a joyous holiday season! And Happy Reading!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Little Recipe Love and Sweet Freedom a la Mode by Jennifer Hallmark

Don't you just love recipes passed down through the generations? I do, and I'm thrilled that Jennifer Hallmark was willing to share this recipe today. Check out...Halupki or Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

One of my favorite dishes Mom makes for the family is halupki. It was passed down from her mother. When Mom was a child, her mother, Lena, would rise early, cooking for a houseful of children. She would go to the slaughterhouse for fresh ground beef. As Grandma mixed the ground beef and rice, Grandpa would sneak bites of the raw beef mixture, certainly not recommended today. Grandma harvested cabbage from her garden across the road from the house. Enjoy!

Halupki or Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Yield: Serves 8

2 ½ pounds lean ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1 pound bacon, cut small

1 pound cooked rice

Salt, pepper, Nature Seasoning, to taste

Sauce

1 can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons vinegar

Wash rice, cook only ten minutes. Drain excess water, rinse, then set aside. Fry bacon and onion until golden brown. Drain excess oil.

Put rice in large mixing bowl. Mix in ground beef, bacon and onions and mix well; add seasonings. Set aside.

Cut cabbage, core out about two inches deep and place head of cabbage in boiling water to steam until leaves can be removed easily. Repeat until you remove all cabbage leaves that are big enough to roll. Line the bottom of a large pot with leaves you don’t use.

Scoop filling and place in leave, tucking in ends and rolling. Pack stuffed cabbage in pot, then fill with sauce, adding hot water until barely covered. Place a plate on top, weighted down to keep stuffed cabbage from floating. Cook on medium low for an hour. Good served with hot sauce or ketchup.

****

Sweet Freedom a la mode

Sweet Freedom a La Mode

For some, the fourth of July is a celebration of freedom; for others it is a reminder of bondage. Of pain. Of fear. Of hopelessness. But there is a hope that is deeper, a love that is truer, and a freedom that no one can ever snatch away. 

These pages contain numerous stories: a woman longing to start again but bound by the failures of her past; a young man who, upon reaching adulthood, must face his fears of death; a woman offered a chance of true love but held back by crippling insecurities. 

Is God even there? Does He care…enough to reach down and pull these men and women from the messes they’ve landed in, some of them by their own hand? 
Freedom. Peace-saturated, joy-infusing freedom. 

Jennifer Hallmark

Meet Jennifer Hallmark: writer by nature, artist at heart, and daughter of God by His grace. She loves to read detective fiction from the Golden Age, watch movies like LOTR, and play with her two precious granddaughters. At times, she writes. Jennifer and her husband, Danny, have spent their married life in Alabama and have a basset hound, Max.

Links
http://www.jenniferhallmark.com
http://jenniferhallmark.wordpress.com
http://writingpromptsthoughtsideas.wordpress.com
https://www.facebook.com/jenniferhallmark
https://www.facebook.com/authorjenniferhallmark
https://twitter.com/JenHwrites