Friday, November 25, 2016

I'm Thankful for Christian Authors!

  From Nov 25 (that’s today!) through Nov 28th, more than 70 independent Christian books are on sale. You can find out more about it HERE!

If scanning seventy books seems like too much, but you are interested, check out this quiz that will direct you to books that might be right for you!

 A note on the Ebooks Only page. All books are listed as "Sold Out." This only refers to paperback copies of these titles. Please click onto the product pages to find descriptions and links to discounted or free ebooks. Also, some of the authors this year chose to not sell their paperbacks directly through the site. Those books are also marked "Sold Out" but if you click them open, you'll find a link to the site where they are on sale and a discount code for you to use at check out.


Thanks to http://leahegood.com Leah E. Good and http://knittedbygodsplan.blogspot.com Kendra E. Ardnek for their work organizing this sale, and Hannah Mills for her fantastic design work on the website graphics. Hannah can be contacted at hmills@omorecollege.edu for more information about her design services.

    It didn't work out for me this year to put my books in the sale, but since I'm also an independent Christian author, I'm excited about this sale! I'm sure they'll be some great books that you'll want to check out.

    On another note, I'm so very grateful for my AMAZING family who not only supports my dreams, but also love me enough to straighten me out when I'm struggling.


I know this is NOT my whole family, but I saw this picture and just wanted to say how thankful I am for sisters as well! They're the GREATEST! :):):):):):)

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Craft Show!

  A LOT has gone on since the last time I posted! In the near future, I hope to do a post with pictures from my trip to the National Bible Bee in Texas, and other things that I've been doing, but for now, I wanted to give you some information.

         November 25th and 26th in the Roseau High School, I'm going to be working at the 'Country Corn Maze Christmas Booth' during the craft and vendor show. If you're interested in buying any of the 'Adventures of Amy' series, or the Mystery at the Corn Maze book, I'll be there selling them. Mystery at the Corn Maze will be $7.50 and the individual Amy books will be $8.50. If you're interested in buying the entire 'Adventures of Amy' set, there will be a special. All four books for $28.00.  If you know someone who's read the first three 'Adventures of Amy' books and hasn't gotten the fourth one yet, it would make a great Christmas gift!


Above is a picture from our craft show table last year. This year we've got a little more space and we're looking forward to seeing you there!
If you want to look at a few of the other things Mom's been working on for it, you can check my family's blog at www.greenpasturesfarm.blogspot.com

   

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Cookie Dough Brownies :)

   For those of you who know me well, you know that if I have to make brownies, I'll probably make cookie dough brownies. It's been a family favorite for a long time!

     After a long day writing, every writer needs chocolate! So here's my favorite recipe. :)


For the brownie layer, mix the following in a bowl.

                                                  1 cup melted butter or oil
                                                  2 cups sugar
                                                  4 eggs
                                                  1 and 1/3 cups flour
                                                  1/2 cup cocoa
                                                  1 tsp. salt
                                                  1 tsp. baking powder
                                                  1 tsp. vanilla

      Mix well, and put in a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

                                Allow the brownies to cool, then mix the following together.

                                                 1/2 cup softened butter
                                                 1/4 cup brown sugar
                                                 1/4 cup sugar
                                                 
                                      Add - 
                                                 2 Tbsp. milk
                                                 1 tsp. vanilla
                                                 1 cup flour

                                Cream together, and spread on top of brownies.

         Then, melt a bag of chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp. shorting and spread on top. You can sprinkle nuts, crushed candy canes, or whatever you want for variety. 

Note - The actual brownie layer isn't what you would describe as gooey, but in order to spread the cookie dough layer on top, it needs to be slightly stiffer. If you're looking to make the brownies slightly gooier and still be able to spread the cookie dough layer on top, you can add a bit more oil/melted butter in the brownie layer, and be careful that they don't get over baked. 

Enjoy!!!:):):):):)

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

A 'not so practical' joke. . .

      Earlier this year, a certain cousin of mine showed me an AWESOME trick to play on people. :):) (I'll have a picture of it at the bottom, but if you don't like pain . . . scroll with caution:)

      That night, Mom was gone, so I texted her a picture of it. . . the problem was, she actually believed me. Looking back, it's probably NOT a good idea to try to convince your mom that you accidentally stuck a needle through your finger, when you really didn't. That was NOT a very mature thing to do. . . yet if we never tease anyone and we never tell jokes and laugh, and we're perfectly mature all the time, is that really showing maturity?

       My theory is this . . . Maturity is knowing when you're allowed to be immature. :) So trying to convince an adult that you're hurt . . . well, it's not a very mature thing to do. (Remember the little boy who cried wolf?)




       All that being said, I have to share with you the 'illusion' that I was shown. Just don't go and use it on the wrong person . . .



    It's actually two pieces of pencil led, (like you might get out of a mechanical pencil) pressed on either side of my finger until they were stuck. A drop of food coloring, and the lighting that made it look swollen and . . . presto . . . you have a semi-convincing needle-through-the-finger look.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

When did I start writing?

      This is one of those questions that I get asked quite often so I decided to do a post about it for your benefit!
      I actually don't remember starting to write. I've loved writing for as long as I can remember and, from different papers I have around, I guess I started writing as soon as Mom taught me how!


Yes, believe it or not, that's me doing handwriting! As you can see from the 'short story' below that I wrote, (which by the way isn't true) I needed help in handwriting! (I still do actually.)


When I was little, I enjoyed writing, but I was TERRIFIED that someone would read what I had written, so I went to desperate measures!


Have you ever been told you couldn't do something and it made you want to do it even more? Well, let's just say that my threat note didn't stop any of my siblings from trying to 'kidnap' my notebook. So I went through more desperate measures. . . See the tape on the spine? Well, I ruined the original spine from standing on it while doing dishes . . . and since I wear shoes all the time for arch support after my arches fell when I was nine . . . to put it mildly, it was hard on the spine. I also sat on it at meal time, and all kinds of other ridiculous things! Then, one day, I found out that if you don't react to siblings teasing, they won't tease you as much, and so when I stopped caring if people read my notebooks, people stopped wanting to read my notebooks. Of course I still protect them some but . . . Anyway, I started in notebooks with pencils.


I don't know why this picture is turned like this but . . . it gets the point across.


I started wearing out notebooks and pencils and I had a dozen half finished stories and even more half filled notebooks. I remember sitting in one of my cousins' vans with my little purple notebook when I was really little and telling my cousin that I was going to write a book. That notebook had a story about a missionary to Africa in it. As I wrote more and more, I began liking it more and more.

Then one day, I was bragging about how I was going to get a book published, and one of my brothers told me that it would never happen. Now that may seem like a mean thing to say to a twelve year old girl who's trying to write a book but, in my case, that was the comment that lit a fire under me. If for no other reason than to prove him wrong, I had to write a book.

Then, Mom bought me the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum for school when I was thirteen. I wasn't excited about doing a high-school writing curriculum, but once I started, I fell in love with it!


I started what is now known as the 'Adventures of Amy' in these two notebooks. I mostly used a silver glitter pencil that one of my cousins gave me. When I finished it, I typed it out onto our old computer in the attic. . .  The one as big as a wheelbarrow . . . the one that took three minutes to move the mouse across the page. . . the one that would occasionally not save my work. . . the one that I learned to type on. Then I switched the document over to one of my brothers' old laptops and re-wrote the entire thing. I eventually got my own laptop and tried moving the document from the old laptop to the new one. Only problem was, the old file wasn't compatible with my new program so, it showed up as gibberish. My oldest brother happened to hear about my problem and although I have no idea what he did, he somehow got it to show up in English. I still had a bunch of re-writing to do to change the format to the way I wanted it but it was there on this laptop.


So I put my old red notebooks away, and the truck sized computer and the thick-as-a-bread-loaf laptop and sat down with my new computer to keep writing.


I was seventeen before I finished that first book and written the two after it. I began editing and thinking about publishing. It was somewhere in there that I learned about writing for God. My motives had been really wrong and after an 'argument' with God, I finally yielded my writing to Him. I had to come to the place where I could say that even if I never wrote or published a book it would be okay with me.

After that point, things just seemed to fall in place. I learned that prayer was a huge part of successful writing and I began to go on spiritual journeys with my characters. 

At this point, I'm nineteen, and I have five books self-published, I'm working with a publisher on my next book, and I have many short stories saved away in files all over my computer.
I thank God for the incredible writing journey He's led me on and, although I don't know when He'll call me to stop writing, I know that I want to be in His will wherever that may be. So my challenge to you is, what areas of your life are you doing for yourself and not for God? Are there things in your life that you're holding onto? Give them to God. He may take it away from you, or He may turn it into something WAY more amazing than you could ever imagine, but He will do the RIGHT thing and you'll never regret having given Him your dreams.