Last week’s winner for Candy Kisses is Danette and for Evidence of Grace is Tori. Congratulations!
My author this week on the blog is Lena Nelson Dooley. Check out her website. Our drawing this week will be for Carolina Carpenter Brides. Please email me at Mdaley50@aol.com if you would like to be entered in the drawing. It will end next Sunday night. I will post her interview on Wednesday.
Lena Nelson Dooley
. . .is a multi-published author of Christian fiction. Four of her novels published by Heartsong Presents, the romance division of Barbour Publishing, were voted top ten favorites in Heartsong’s annual readers’ poll. One of her novels received a second place award in the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year contest at the 2004 national convention. The Scraps of Love novella anthology, also published by Barbour Publishing spent five months on the CBD fiction bestseller list. She recently found out that three of her books—Pirate’s Prize, Minnesota Brothers, and Gerda’s Lawman—are on a Christian bestseller list in the UK. Pirate’s Prize went to #1 on that list. Spinster Brides of Cactus Corner, an April 2007 release was on the CBD fiction bestseller list within two weeks. In 2005, Lena was voted one of the top ten favorite authors in the Heartsong readers’ poll.
Mrs. Dooley writes about characters who grip your heart. Some of the issues covered in her books are low self-esteem, unforgiveness, a root of bitterness, and the inability to really trust God. She often receives reader feedback that tells how a book has helped readers deal with similar problems in their own lives.
A member of American Christian Fiction Writers, she has been a speaker on both the regional and national level. In 2006, she received the prestigious Mentor of the Year Award at their national conference. She also teaches writing seminars and speaks at writers’ groups. Besides speaking for writing events, she has spoken for women’s groups and women’s retreats both in the US and internationally. She leads a Create Writing Group at her church.
Mrs. Dooley and her husband James will celebrate their 43rd anniversary in 2007. They live in Hurst, Texas, and are involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren.
Before she started writing full time, she worked as a video scriptwriter for Accelerated Christian Education’s School of Tomorrow. She was also on retainer from Paradigm Alternate Centers where she headed a writing team that produced a two-year American History course for at-risk students. She has completed major curriculum projects for three different denominations. For over five years, she served on the support staff of a church, serving both as a pastor’s administrative assistant and an assistant in the children’s department.
