NOVELIST DARLENE FRANKLIN WRITING FROM A NURSING HOME: MY CANDY VALENTINE

JUST AS I AM

She was quick: “You’re right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master’s table. Jesus gave in. “Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” Right then her daughter became well. . . After Jesus returned, he walked along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus’ feet to see what he would do with them. He healed them.

Matthew 15:27-30

Writers walk a tightrope between making their heroes human, with flaws, without making them unlikeable.

Few writers would make their hero act the way Jesus did in this scene. Why did the God who repeatedly reached out to people not of Jewish descent brush the Syro-Phoenician woman off? I won’t attempt to answer that question in this meditation.

What I will point out is the woman’s persistent faith. She exhibited the same kind of faith as the woman who knew she would be healed if only she touched the hem of Jesus’ garment (See Matthew 9.) A single crumb would provide all her daughter needed.

Compare her request to that of the Galileans. They brought people with all sorts of diseases and physical maladies, paraplegic, blind, mute, missing arms or legs—whatever the problem was, they “threw” the needy person at Jesus’ feet. “Perform Your magic trick, Jesus. Show us what You’ll do this time.”

The woman was brokenhearted for her daughter. She had no doubt Jesus could heal. She only feared He might say no. In the end, He did say yes—and  she went home, rejoicing.

The wording suggests the Galileans had no real concern for the ones who were ill. They tested Jesus. Their faith lasted only as long as the latest miracle. They sound like the crowd who saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11) and called for His death less than a week later.

In spite of their attitude, Jesus healed the sick. For one shining moment, the people knew God was alive among them.

Whether God seems to be saying no, or whether He is showering abundant blessings on our path, He is the same God—alive, at work, to bring the very best to His children.

(Devotional taken from A Reader’s Journey through Matthew by Darlene Franklin)

Book summary:  

A Reader’s Journey through Matthew http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Journey-through-Matthew-ebook/dp/B00T8OJ0F0/

A Reader's Journey through Matthew is written by and for avid readers and writers of literature. This seven-week devotional is perfect for a Lenten study or any time of year.

My Candy Valentine http://www.amazon.com/Candy-Valentine-Holidays-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B00SI2214K/

Gilbert Williams sweeps Catrina Jensen off her feet when he arrives in Loveland, Oklahoma, shortly after New Year’s Day 1916. When the reason for his interest in her delicious candies is revealed, her affection turns to fear. Is her hero a traitor in disguise?

Author bio: Darlene Franklin’s greatest claim to fame is that she writes full-time from a nursing home. She lives in Oklahoma, near her son and his family, and continues her interests in playing the piano and singing, books, good fellowship, and reality TV in addition to writing. She has written over thirty books and has written more than 250 devotionals. You can find Darlene online elsewhere at https://www.facebook.com/Poet.Darlene.Franklin.

A DIFFERENT TYPE OF BRAIN DAMAGE

By Ada Brownell

Adapted from the book, Imagine the Future You

On sale now for .99 here

There are different types of brain damage. More serious than a concussion, skull fracture, tumor or disease.

Ungodly things we assimilate into our brains that destroy faith in God can do things to our minds we can’t fathom.

Could be like what happened to Jones, my sister Clara’s Chihuahua, a little darling dog who did tricks for Clara’s husband, Blackie. They would put some glassless eyeglasses on Jonesy, as we called him, and he’d sit up, take his front paws, and act as if he were reading a newspaper. He’d play dead when Blackie pointed his finger and yelled, “Bang!”

Jonesy did all kinds of tricks and received his hamburgers “made to order” and a human-style cookie for dessert, not doggie treats.

But one day he coughed, sneezed, and gagged all through the night. He wouldn’t eat, and he continued coughing, sneezing, and gagging for several days.

My sis thought Jones was dying, and she couldn’t bear putting him to sleep. Her son was fighting a war, and he was attached to the dog, too.

“We can’t let Jonesy die!” she said.

After about a week of the dog not eating, Jonesy gagged and Clara noticed something in the back of his throat. A long blade of grass hung down the back of his tongue and up through his nose. She reached in and pulled it out. Jonesy immediately got a drink of water and started eating and lived for several years after that.

Sometimes a tiny amount of filth or ungodliness can give us great grief.

If we are forced to read ungodly material, we can pray as we read for God’s protection against our minds, but we can go even further. We can go to the teacher or professor and say the book offends us and ask for a substitute. Teachers usually provide something else, especially if you come with a respectful attitude and your grades show you’re not trying to get out of something.

I obtained a substitute book in college when Playboy empire founder Hugh Hefner’s biography was required reading. I didn’t want that stuff in my brain. When I overheard another student say, “That’s really a raunchy book!” I knew it wasn’t for me.

A more serious problem with our brains arises that’s more difficult to talk about. Yes, we should respect those over us, but we also need to be aware there is some brainwashing going on.

IMAGINE A THIEF AT THE DOOR

 I am a graduate of a secular college and saw brainwashing firsthand. Secular college professors often want to “reprogram” students who have faith in a personal God. I encountered anti-God teaching in psychology classes, a course on the environment, and even in music history class (a monkey invented an instrument and came down out of tree and played it). Mass communications classes seemed to be saturated with obscenity and we spent most of our time in the media law class studying obscenity law.

If you are a science major, changing your belief systems is a top priority in a secular college. In secular learning institutions, Christians often are ridiculed, discriminated against, and even given lower grades or flunked if they don’t embrace the theology of secularism.

Most secular colleges and universities promote a one-world government, teach against freedom and capitalism, and work to make secularism everyone’s religion and the earth their God. Today, the progressive (progressing toward socialism) political system and secularists, and even other religions, are inserting anti-Christian and ungodly doctrines into public school education to brainwash Christian teaching implanted by the church and parents. You make up your mind whether to reject it.

IMAGINE RECALL

 One thing we learn about our brain is once we put something into it, it’s there for recall. Sometimes the things you try the hardest to forget are the ones that stick.

That’s why we need to be careful what we put into our heads.

Read more in this motivational Bible study on sale now for .99 here

DO YOU THINK FOR YOURSELF?

THINK FOR YOURSELF

By Ada Brownell

Adapted from her book. Imagine the Future You

As children, we started thinking for ourselves when we gagged and spit out the spinach baby food and then decided which cold cereal we like best. If we were born into a poor Oriental family, we might like rice instead. If we lived in some African slums, we’d be grateful for slimy oatmeal gruel from a dirty bowl.

In some parts of the world, you’d think putting live bugs between two slices of bread was a special treat, even though bugs crawled around on your fingers as you ate them. In other countries you’d eat dog and monkey.

 In times past, it was quite common for Americans to eat cow and pig brains

and kidneys. They made “head cheese,” which was a meat jelly made from the head of a calf or pig. You can still buy pickled pig’s feet. I don’t know if they still sell head cheese but it became popular in a society that didn’t waste anything. In hard times, people also ate squirrels and turtles.

You cringe. Your stomach turns. That’s because you think for yourself and form an opinion.

Your head is not empty now. You learned by experience and from other people. That’s the only way we assimilate knowledge.

After we learn something, we usually can recall it spontaneously. We ride a bike without thinking about how we balance. We can type, text, cook, clean, repair cars, and program computers. We balance checkbooks, do income tax, use math to buy and sell, and make chemical formulas to create medicines that save people’s lives or to invent guns, bombs, and rockets to kill them. You can store billions of information blocks in your memory.

According to Kenneth Higbee, author of Your Memory and How it Works and How to Improve it,[1] your two-pound brain can store more than today’s most advanced computers.

 Everything you put into your mind, especially what you experience, changes you. You study to learn or pick up information from your friends, your parents, or through the media, and you are affected.

IMAGINE BEING ON GUARD

I am choosy about what goes into my brain and hope you are, too.

The Bible says when we have a close relationship with God, He will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7). Yet, you decide whether or not to post that guard, the Holy Spirit, at the door. If we listen to what our conscience and scripture tells us, 24/7, and resist, Satan and his cohorts flee in fear.

The Holy Spirit, through our conscience, convinces us of sin (so we’ll know what it is), righteousness (so we’ll understand that), and judgment (so we’ll know God will reward those who live for Him and punish those who do not).

It helps to think on things that are true, things that are honorable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.[2] That means we are careful about what we read, what we watch on television, the movies we go to or rent, and what activities we practice. We pray for God’s wisdom and knowledge and actively reject smut, lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, the pride of life, vulgar language, gossip, backbiting, and wrong attitudes.

We also are able to put some beautiful things in our brains: God’s Word, good music, good information, a willingness to learn, a willingness to work, a determination to love, a determination to help, a determination to make heaven our home.

We can pray for God to help with the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts that they would be acceptable in His sight. That’s what David did. He’d sinned and knew his vulnerabilities.

Although the Lord’s covenant is etched into our hearts, we still need to study good things that “Ca-ching!” profitable character. We’re told in the book of Timothy to study to show ourselves approved unto God, so we will rightly interpret the Word of Truth.

But even if we memorize the Ten Commandments, such as “thou shall not lie” or “thou shall not steal,” and “do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” we don’t automatically reject it when Satan tempts.

If we use our excellent knowledge of good things, our character and integrity grow. Our will becomes stronger. It’s like seeing a growing baby every day. He looks the same size if we see him often, but if we wait six months or a year, we see a big difference! And you and others will see a change in you when you put positive things you learn into action.

When we make good decisions, we become more mature, more trustworthy, more dependable, and our potential for doing great things increases.

©Ada Brownell 2014

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[1] Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc.,1977

[2] Philippians 4:18

THIS MOTIVATIONAL BIBLE STUDY FOR YOUTH IS ON SALE here UNTIL FEB. 14 FOR .99

ANE MULLIGAN SHOWS THE HUMOROUS SIDE OF ROMANCE

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, novelist Ane Mulligan has worn many: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband, her chef son, and two dogs of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.

By Ane Mulligan

Hubs and I just celebrated our 44^th anniversary. I still can't figure that out, since I'm only 35. But through the years, it's the laughter I remember the more than anything. You see, my Brit is from a working class family in a small in northern England.

Now, when I think February, I think Valentine's Day. When I think of Valentine's Day, I think of lovers. When I think of lovers—stay with me here, I do have a point to this—I think of romantic heroes from books. But where do these amorous men come from? Don't try to tell me real life. So, do they all come from our imaginations? Maybe the better word would be our fantasies—but I won't go there for obvious reasons.

My Hubs is a Brit. But don't conjure up images of Hugh Grant. Believe me...not all Brits are romantic like him. I know. Don't get me wrong; my Brit tries, but somehow he's not the model for a novel hero.

What? You think I'm mean? No way. I'm just realistic. You want proof you say? All right ... here's what happened when my dear husband tried to plan a romantic Valentine's Day.

He decided we'd take our boat out for a Valentine's Day cruise. The Aney Lea (okay, I'll give him that one; it was romantic to name the boat after me) bordered on small craft but was a respectable 25-foot and slept six. We had a lovely time as long as he stood with his eyes on the horizon to avoid getting seasick.

Don't even ask why a man who gets seasick owned a boat. But as I was saying, we had a lovely time … that is until we came back.

At the end of a cruise, my job as first mate was to climb over the side of the bow rail and perch on the edge of the bow, hanging on to the railing. As we approached the dock, I'd wait until we were about three feet away then push off, leaping backwards onto the dock and keep us from crashing into it. The channel where our slip resided had a good current—a good strong current. That ran at a 45-degree angle to the dock, necessitating stellar mariner skills.

That evening as we pulled into the slip, the current was a bit stronger than normal. A storm was gathering in the Pacific, churning up the waters in between Catalina and Long Beach Harbor, where we kept our boat. An unexpected surge in the current caught the boat threw it in a swift collision course with the side of the dock.

To avoid a crash and possible hole in the side of the boat, my husband threw the boat into reverse.

Just as I made my leap.

I missed the dock.

Making a frantic grab for the railing, I managed by the grace of God to catch it. I hung there, legs swinging in a blind search for solid ground—the dock—and connecting with nothing but air and a little water.

Seeing my hands firmly welded to the bow rail, and because the present danger had been averted, my dear husband laughed himself silly. Are you beginning to see my point?

Fortunately for my Brit's sake, a gentleman strolling along the dock and obviously not a Brit, saw my dilemma. Heroically—I'm sure his hair was blowing provocatively in the wind—he managed to reach my ankles and pulled me, and the boat, to safe mooring. All the time my husband's laughter could be heard coming from the fly deck.

With my feet back on terra firma, I seriously entertained thoughts of murder and mayhem.

So you see, my dear husband is not the romantic hero of novels ... unless perhaps, you wrote murder mysteries.

Oh, and just in case any of you are worried about the state of our marriage, this was, to ease your minds, four decades ago. My Brit still breathes.

Very carefully if we're around boats.

Chapel Springs Revival

With a friend like Claire, you need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel.

Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It's impossible not to, what with Claire's zany antics and Patsy's self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is their marriages.

With their personal lives in as much disarray as the town, Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives. That is if they can convince their husbands and the town council, led by two curmudgeons who would prefer to see Chapel Springs left in the fifties and closed to traffic.

Is baking the way to a man's heart?

By Cecelia Toomer

I’ve always loved baking. When I was a kid, I didn’t cook much, except for scrambled eggs and French toast. However, I baked: cookies, cakes, pies. I transferred my love for baking into my Bakery Romance Series.

I’ve never worked in a bakery, so, I had to do research. Since I already have a love for baking, I knew how to make sweet treats and breads from scratch.

My research included watching a LOT of television shows on the Food Network. The shows mentioned below are reality-type shows, based upon real food businesses that were in financial trouble.

My first research show was Save My Bakery: http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/save-my-bakery.html

It focuses on helping failing bakeries. The host/food expert visits the bakery, giving the baker(s) advice about what needs to be done to save their businesses. This program gives background about how a bakery is run every day. The program also gives examples of task(s) that the baker(s) were doing which hindered their establishments.

 

I also love to watch Chef Robert Irvine’s show, Restaurant Impossible:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/restaurant-impossible.html

This show does not focus on bakeries. Instead, it focuses on restaurants that are failing. The restaurants then call upon Robert to help them save their business before they go bankrupt. 

Watching both of these shows enabled me to see just how hard it is to run a food business, and these programs also made me realize just how stubborn business owners can be when they are given suggestions to change their means of livelihood. These shows also made me realize that often, a restaurant/bakery financial problem is linked to personal problems that the business owner(s) are facing, like family difficulties, problems with friends, etc. These issues could then spill over into the business, clouding the owner’s judgment. 

To continue my research, I visited a small bakery in my town of Greenbelt, MD, Chef Lou’s Desserts: http://ltmwebs.com/cheflou/

I’ve ordered several birthday and anniversary cakes from Chef Lou over the years and he showed me around his small bakery,  demonstrating some of his baking techniques for me. He even showed me how he frosted a cake, and then placed his distinctive script icing over the frosted layers! We even talked about recipes, but, he didn’t share his recipes with me, he just vaguely told me the ingredients in his desserts, not sharing the measurements. I suppose he has his secrets! His carrot cake is so good, so moist and delicious and that cream cheese frosting is heavenly! 

For baking breads and pastries, I had a lot of questions. I found a pastry chef online and he was kind enough to answer my questions via email. George Geary has worked as a pastry chef at Walt Disney World and he’s written several books:

https://www.cookstr.com/users/george-geary/profile

That’s about all that I did for bakery research! It was fun and exciting and I hope you’ll enjoy the fruits of my research labor by reading my new novel, Raspberry Kisses! 

Raspberry Kisses Summary:

Facing eviction, Rhea Morrison, a young grieving widow, must save her failing bakery. Her 
recently-injured twin sister, Raven, loans her money – stipulating Rhea attend a singles retreat to spy on Martin Lane, Raven’s new love interest. Disgruntled, Rhea attends the retreat and is attracted to Martin. She discovers that Martin can help save her bakery. 

Pastor Martin laments over his secret, traumatic past mistakes. He’s destined to lead his father’s church, despite blatant rejection. He can’t love Rhea - he’s yet to forgive himself for his past, and if Rhea knew how he used to be, she would have no interest in pursuing a relationship with him. In spite of their shared attraction, he helps Rhea form a plan to save her business. Martin, a former successful bakery owner, can expertly create delicious pastry recipes. 

Rhea feels torn about her attraction to Martin – he’s a pastor, and after her husband’s death, she vowed to never get involved with another pastor. Plus, her twin sister, Raven, has strong feelings for Martin. Can Rhea let herself have romantic feelings for Martin – knowing it would hurt her sister? 

Can Martin and Rhea overcome their past so that they’re free to love again? 

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1CvfE8i

Nook: http://bit.ly/1sFZSHt

Ibooks: http://bit.ly/1wfSVrQ

Kobo: http://bit.ly/14HOVtn

Scribd: http://bit.ly/12z3gs7

MEET THE AUTHOR

Cecelia Dowdy has been an avid reader since she learned to string letters together to form words. 

While pursuing a business degree in college one of her professors tried to convince her to get an English degree since he felt she was a great writer. Years later, after receiving her BS in Finance, she took her former teacher's advice, and started pursuing her literary career.

She loves to read, write, and bake delicious desserts during her spare time. Traveling is another favorite hobby, and she's been to various countries around the world, including Germany, France, England, Tahiti, New Zealand, Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, and Santo Domingo. She enjoys listening to old tunes with her husband on Saturday nights. Currently she resides with her spouse and young son in Maryland.

ONE YARD TO GO IN THE SUPERBOWL

By Ada Brownell

Sunday night the Seattle Seahawks knocked on the goal line, with only one yard to go. They were down by four with 26 seconds left in the game.

Football fan that I used to be when I lived in Bronco Territory, I expected a quarterback sneak like John Elway would have done in his glory days.

 Yet I’m told Seattle had the best running back in the game, especially in short yardage, and others expected a running play. No. On 2nd-and-1 with one time out left, Seattle called a pass play, and quarterback Russell Wilson's slant pass to Ricardo Lockette was intercepted by New England’s Malcolm Butler.

The cheering and screaming Seahawks fans in our crowd quieted. Already cold sober because we don’t indulge in intoxicating beverages, we were even more sober now. A pass? We were shocked.

The game was over. Decision made, and for this moment it wasn’t the correct one, according to some.

Have you ever been in that spot? Close to doing something great and it slipped through your fingers? Or thinking a decision you made was perfect, and then everything blew up?

As a writer, I’ve worked through a few books and articles that ended up like that. My enthusiasm and expectancy grew and grew, and then close to the goal, I discovered that book wasn’t going anywhere.

Or, more important, have you almost decided to give your life to Jesus, but then something drew you back into sin that you knew would send you to hell? Now your life is messed up. It looks like the game is over.

But then in your game you hear a whistle from heaven. There’s a flag on the play. Satan’s team was called for holding and unnecessary roughness. You get another four downs and a chance to make it across the goal.

In Christianity, that’s called redemption. God offering to forgive your sins, make you a new creature, and be with you and never forsake you.

It takes gumption and strength to accept your need of a Savior, to confess sins, and be baptized—and get across that goal line. But be as the Apostle Paul who said “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Yes, a Super Bowl win, the trophy and ring are big deals. But they are nothing compared to the glory we’ll know here and the crown of life we’ll receive later because we have been redeemed and sing and rejoice around God’s throne.

Note: Discover the power of faith. Imagine the Future You by Ada Brownell. Get it here

CHANGE YOUR DESTINY--INTERVIEW WITH NOVELIST ANITA HIGMAN

Ada Brownell interview with Award-winning author Anita Higman about  "Destiny"

How do we create and change our destiny?

Anita Higman: I guess one could say that in order to fulfill our calling—or our destiny—it’s a matter of going to God and asking Him to guide us every step of the way. It would be perilous to travel this earthly journey without Him.

I’d like to hear your personal account of how you became a best-selling, award-winning writer, and whether you ever imagined that happening.

Anita: I guess I figured that after writing for 30 years I should have a certain amount of success. So, in that way, I guess I expected it. How did it happen? A lot of bone-tiring, relentless effort. But it was worth it.

Give us the low-down on your main character looking at the angle of destiny,

Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Lucy O’Brien lives this motto, but when she is given ten million dollars because of a heroic deed, she has to suddenly grapple with all sorts of issues she’s never faced before. Hopefully, Lucy can learn to deal with wealth without losing all the wonderful personality traits that make her so beloved.

   

A Question of Destiny

By

Anita Higman

Lucy O’Brien is about to be given ten millions dollars.

Multi-millionaire, Ian Chalmers, has decided to give a portion of his wealth to Lucy because of her courageous and self-sacrificing lifestyle. With these sudden riches, Lucy is given a chance to rise above her meagre income and enter a whirling and glittering world of comfort and privilege. Since Ian is concerned that Lucy may struggle with this unexpected change in fortune, he hires his assistant—the solitary and stony Andrew Whitfield—to watch over Lucy as she adapts to her new way of life.

Will this windfall be Lucy’s undoing, or can she rise above the temptations within Houston’s high society and choose to be a nobler version of herself? And will Andrew Whitfield cause her to close the door on her dreams, or is he the key that opens the rest of Lucy’s destiny?

MEET ANITA HIGMAN

Best-selling and award-winning author, Anita Higman, has forty books published. She’s been a Barnes & Noble “Author of the Month” for Houston and has a BA in the combined fields of speech communication, psychology, and art. Anita loves good movies, traveling to exotic places, and brunch with her friends.

Please check out Anita’s latest novel on Amazon, A Question of Destiny. Feel free to drop by her website at www.anitahigman.com or connect with her on her Facebook Reader Page at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAnitaHigman. She would love to hear from you!


http://www.amazon.com/Question-Destiny-Anita-Higman-ebook/dp/B00P0FINPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422888097&sr=8-1&keywords=Anita+Higman