The Time Is Now Challenge....

A.K.A. .... TTIN Challenge

So let us begin....

Fellow blogger, writers, readers, family and friends, I've been in a quandary for several months now. Since our last challenge ended, I've barely written. I've compiled character charts and written synopses. I've thought of story lines and tried to develop them, but...

Nothing happens. Instead of waking up with ideas for my plots, I wake up thinking about issues that surround me... things I can't change.  So, I need help to rev up my writing. I'll be working on giving my issues to God and studying His word more. I'm hoping with all of this working together, and tag on this new accoutability challenge, that I will make some headway in my new stories.

And, I really hope this challenge won't be a flop for me or for you!  But, hey, none of that talk. We're thinking positive here!

Here's the deal. There really aren't any set rules. To play, you just come to the blog regularly and give me an update on your writing progress. We'll go ahead and state our goals this week and start anew on Monday, January 17th.

We will have multiple deadlines. The First deadline is March 1. This is in place because ACFW's Genesis Contest deadline for entries is March 4. If you are actively participating in my accountability challenge, then this will give you a fair deadline and time to have the entry submitted. (Although the coordinator recommends you email the entry in the middle of February in case it gets lost in cyberspace. Very good point and do keep in mind. Bad things happen to good people, you know!)

Now, for anyone not writing Christian Fiction, but wanting to participate, I would love to have you. If you are working to submit to a contest, agent or editor, or just simply wanting to finish that book, you have a home here. Genesis Contest is simply my goal.

After March 1, we will reevaluate our goals and a new deadline will be set up. I plan to have this challenge on going as when I am not blogging about my progress, or lack there of, I find I seep into a void of non-writing and that starts to irritate me. The irritation turns into the form of me being ill and that trickles to my family who have to put up with my bad mood. Not fun for anyone...

I will state my goal in the comments section and whoever is interested can enter a comment. Today and the rest of the week, we're just setting goals. Monday, the challenge begins. If you get a head start writing this weekend, that's awesome! Come back and share, okay!

Serendipity by Cathy Marie Hake

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Serendipity Bethany House (August 1, 2010) by Cathy Marie Hake



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:





Known for surfing across the kitchen on a dropped dill pickle slice, waterskiing on sea anemone spit, and using Right Guard® as hair spray; she considers herself living proof that God does, indeed, possess a healthy sense of humor.



Cathy loves classical music, romantic getaways with her husband, and Diet Pepsi Free®. "I need chocolate to survive, love my friends, and enjoy a deep personal relationship with the Lord. Although an extrovert, I'm very conservative on a personal level."



In her writing, Cathy attempts to capture a unique glimpse of life and how a man and woman can overcome obstacles when motivated by love. In her inspirational pieces she enjoys the freedom of showing how Christ can enrich a loving couple's relationship.



Cathy Marie Hake is a registered nurse who worked for many years in an oncology unit before shifting her focus to perinatal care. The author of over twenty novels, she lives with her husband and two children in Anaheim, California.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Todd Valmer should have known better. A farmer who's been through several disasters, he travels to Virginia to fetch his widowed mother to cook and help him around his Texas farm...or that was the plan until she keels over on the train and they get kicked off.



Maggie Rose barters for a living and also makes soaps, lotions, and perfumes with a special rose recipe passed down from mother to daughter for generations. She hasn't wanted to marry...until that handsome Texan shows up.



Her heart skips a beat, and when he proposes, a hasty marriage follows. What ensues, however, is a clash of culture and a battle of wills--and it's clear they both mistook instant attraction and infatuation for love. As their marriage loses its sparkle and fills with disillusionment, Todd and Maggie must determine what is worth fighting for. He dreams of a farm. Maggie wants to fulfill the family tradition with her rose perfumes.



Todd's mother, however, has entirely different plans for her son that do not include Maggie. In light of their hasty marriage and mistaken dreams, is there any hope of recapturing their love and building a future together?



If you would like to read the first chapter of Serendipity, go HERE.

Courting Miss Amsel by Kim Vogel Sawyer

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingCourting Miss AmselBethany House (January 1, 2011)byKim Vogel Sawyer





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kim Vogel Sawyer is the author of fifteen novels, including several CBA and ECPA bestsellers. Her books have won the ACFW Book of the Year Award, the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Kim is active in her church, where she leads women's fellowship and participates in both voice and bell choirs. In her spare time, she enjoys drama, quilting, and calligraphy. Kim and her husband, Don, reside in central Kansas, and have three daughters and six grandchildren.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Edythe Amsel is delighted with her first teaching assignment: a one-room schoolhouse in Walnut Hill, Nebraska. Independent, headstrong, and a strong believer in a well-rounded education, Edythe is ready to open the world to the students in this tiny community. But is Walnut Hill ready for her?



Joel Townsend is thrilled to learn the town council hired a female teacher to replace the ruthless man who terrorized his nephews for the past two years. Having raised the boys on his own since their parents' untimely deaths, Joel believes they will benefit from a woman's influence. But he sure didn't bargain on a woman like Miss Amsel.



Within the first week, she has the entire town up in arms over her outlandish teaching methods, which include collecting leaves, catching bugs, making snow angels, and stringing ropes in strange patterns all over the schoolyard. Joel can't help but notice that she's also mighty pretty with her rosy lips, fashionable clothes, and fancy way of speaking.



When Edythe decides to take her pupils to hear Miss Susan Anthony speak on the women's suffrage amendment, the town's outcry reaches new heights. Even Joel isn't sure he can support her newfangled ideas any longer. And if he can't trust her to know how to teach the boys, how can he trust her with his heart?



If you would like to read the first chapter of Courting Miss Amsel, go HERE.

The Time Is Now

A writing challenge is about to begin here on my blog... read more about it on FAITH today.

The Girl in the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingThe Girl in the GatehouseBethany House (January 1, 2011)byJulie Klassen



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Julie says: My background is in advertising and marketing, but I am blessed with a dream job—working as an editor of Christian fiction. I have been writing since childhood, but Lady of Milkweed Manor was my first novel. It was a finalist for a Christy Award and won second place in the Inspirational Reader's Choice Awards. My second novel, The Apothecary's Daughter, was a finalist in the ACFW Book of the Year awards. I am currently writing one novel a year.



I graduated from the University of Illinois and enjoy travel, research, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps, and coffee with friends.



My husband and I have two sons and live near St. Paul, Minnesota.







ABOUT THE BOOK

Miss Mariah Aubrey, banished after a scandal, hides herself away in a long-abandoned gatehouse on the far edge of a distant relative's estate. There, she supports herself and her loyal servant the only way she knows how--by writing novels in secret.



Captain Matthew Bryant, returning to England successful and wealthy after the Napoleonic wars, leases an impressive estate from a cash-poor nobleman, determined to show the society beauty who once rejected him what a colossal mistake she made.



When he discovers an old gatehouse on the property, he is immediately intrigued by its striking young inhabitant and sets out to uncover her identity, and her past. But the more he learns about her, the more he realizes he must distance himself. Falling in love with an outcast would ruin his well-laid plans. The old gatehouse holds secrets of its own. Can Mariah and Captain Bryant uncover them before the cunning heir to the estate buries them forever?



If you would like to read the first chapter of The Girl in the Gatehouse, go HERE

Paradise Valley by Dale Cramer

This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingParadise ValleyBethany House (January 1, 2011)byDale Cramer





ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dale Cramer was the second of four children born to a runaway Amishman turned soldier and a south Georgia sharecropper's daughter. His formative years were divided between far-flung military bases, but he inherited his mother's sense of place—



He took on small construction projects at night to help make ends meet— "and to preserve the remainder of my sanity," he says. While building an office in the basement of a communications consultant, a debate over labor/management relations turned into an article on mutualism which found its way into an international business magazine. It was Dale's first published article, and he liked the feel of it. He bought books, studied technique, and began participating in an online writers' forum, writing during the boys' naps and after they went to bed at night. Before long he was publishing short stories in literary magazines and thinking about writing a book.



Three storylines vied for Dale's attention when he finally decided to write a novel. His first two choices were commercially viable secular stories, and a distant third appeared to be some kind of Christian saga about a broken-down biker. The process of determining which novel to write was settled by a remarkable encounter with his youngest son, a lost set of keys, and God. His sense of direction was suddenly clarified. In 1997, Dale began work on Sutter's Cross, which was eventually published in 2003.



His second novel, Bad Ground (July 2004), while it is not autobiographical, contains a great deal of material drawn from his own experience as a construction electrician.



He and his wife and two sons make their home in northern Georgia.





ABOUT THE BOOK

An Amish settlement in Ohio has run afoul of a law requiring their children to attend public school. Caleb Bender and his neighbors are arrested for neglect, with the state ordering the children be placed in an institution. Among them are Caleb's teenage daughter, Rachel, and the boy she has her eye on, Jake Weaver. Romance blooms between the two when Rachel helps Jake escape the childrens home.



Searching for a place to relocate his family where no such laws apply, Caleb learns there's inexpensive land for sale in Mexico, a place called Paradise Valley. Despite rumors of instability in the wake of the Mexican revolution, the Amish community decides this is their answer. And since it was Caleb's idea, he and his family will be the pioneers. They will send for the others once he's established a foothold and assessed the situation.


Caleb's daughters are thrown into turmoil. Rachel doesn't want to leave Jake. Her sister, Emma, who has been courting Levi Mullet, fears her dreams of marriage will be dashed. Miriam has never had a beau and is acutely aware there will be no prospects in Mexico.


Once there, they meet Domingo, a young man and guide who takes a liking to Miriam, something her father would never approve. While Paradise Valley is everything they'd hoped it would be, it isn't long before the bandits start giving them trouble, threatening to upset the fledgling Amish settlement, even putting their lives in danger. Thankfully no one has been harmed so far, anyway.


If you would like to read the first chapter of Paradise Valley, go HERE.

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Friends, I am in the process of reading this book... and will return in a few days with a review.

Christy

What Is Your Purpose? Part 2

Do you know your purpose? Come see me on FAITH today where I delve into why we write and what our purpose is!