WIN a Kindle or Nook!!

You are invited to a blog hop! Follow links to author blogs where you collect phrases to assemble a complete passage, and you could win:

• Your choice of a Kindle or a Nook!
• $25 worth of your choice of books!
• Other prizes along the way that individual authors offer on their blogs!

In addition, you will find recipes, gardening tips, and good books along the way.

Come on along! To enter the blog hop:

1. “Like” my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blackbirch-Woods/159482857441121
2. Then, click on the “Authors in Bloom Blog Hop” Button here:

You will spend some time hopping from blog to blog, collecting the passage phrases. Each blog will also give you a recipe, a gardening tip, or other “freebie” for participating. Be sure to check out their books—you may find a great Summer read. After completing, you could win a Kindle or a Nook!

• A gardening tip: Plantings near masonry work or concrete sometimes begin to do poorly because the soil becomes alkalinized by the presence of the lime in the concrete. If rhododendrons or azaleas are looking poorly, test the soil-- it may need acidifying by the addition of manure or coffee grounds.
• My recipe is on my recipe blog, just in time for summer: Easy Mango Ice Cream! 

• My giveaway: A free e-book version (any format) of Blackbirch Woods. The winner will be chosen at random from those who "Like" the Facebook page.

• My assigned phrases for the blog hop:

Line 88: Romance and love, birds and bees,

Line 89: It’s all about the connection.

To be eligible for the grand prize, copy each short, numbered phrase posted on each author's blog post and assimilate them into the complete passage:  “Authors in Bloom,” a vignette about a women’s personal growth and empowerment.

Here is the next author blog for you to visit:  http://morethanamealmemories.com/blog/

Have fun, best of luck, and get hopping!

Stock up on Summer Reading now!!

I have lowered the price of the e-book to just $0.99. Click the e-book link on the right and download any e-reader format from Smashwords.com.

I also lowered the price of the paperback from $8.99 to $6.99, however the price change has yet to show up on Amazon.com. You can order it for the new price from the CreateSpace e-store here: https://www.createspace.com/3571666

Enjoy!!

E-book now giveable as a gift

Smashwords.com introduced an e-book gift feature on Christmas Day. This means you can give Blackbirch Woods (and other Smashwords e-books) as a gift by clicking on the "Give as a gift" button at checkout... it will be sent to their e-mail address. The recipient need not have a Smashwords account.

I know, some of you are thinking, why not sell e-books through Amazon? While my book is available on Amazon as a paperback, they maintain propriety over their Kindle format and charge authors to make the book available as an e-book... whereas Smashwords provides the conversion service at no charge (I pay only a small service fee when the book is purchased) AND they provide the book in formats for ALL e-readers-- not just Kindle.

How more of what you spend can go to orphans....

I had forgotten to post that considerably more of what you pay for the book will go to orphans when you order through CreateSpace's e-Store rather than Amazon. For the CreateSpace e-Store link, scroll down slightly and the link is on the right sidebar, below the e-book version link.

A side note- today our Elementary School completed its Christmas Project, collecting enough cloth to clothe nearly 300 children, and flip-flops for children as well (I missed the number). Two agencies who serve orphans were represented and they brought several children who were introduced. Some had been in the orphanage more than half of their lives, yet you could see how well cared-for they were and how loved they felt receiving new clothing for Christmas in the name of Jesus. It was a really wonderful moment!!

Your Gift Can Give Twice!

For the month of December, all royalties from paperback and e-book versions of Blackbirch Woods will be donated to support AIDS orphans and widows through Mashiah Foundation. Give Blackbirch Woods as a gift, and know that it will also give to the "least of these" in Nigeria. Merry Christmas!!

Your reading friends have read everything else...

Your avid reader friends have read everything else, so why not give Blackbirch Woods as a gift? I noticed that several sellers on Amazon have reduced the price, too.

Another recommended Free e-book

Thomas A Kempis's The Imitation of Christ was written so long ago, it reminds me of the Charlie Brown comic where Linus asks, "Were there people then?"

The Imitation of Christ is not a light read, and the Moody Classics version I own says very honestly that while it is one of those books we know we "should" read, it is not as accessible as we wish. For myself, I have been reading one chapter each day for a devotional (together with the Word of Life Quiet Time Diary, which I have done for over ten years).

It continues to amaze me how honest and insightful the book is. While the book was primarily aimed at fellow scholastic monks and therefore perhaps too often advises the shunning of human company and fellowship, A Kempis's spiritual insights are still fresh and compelling. I guess people haven't changed all that much since the 1400s!