This week Keli Gwyn, Jocelyn Green, Cheri Cowell and Margaret Brownley

Congratulations to Diana for winning Beth Shriver’s Annie’s Truth, to Merry for winning Trish Perry’s Labor of Love in the Midwife’s Legacy, to Karen for winning Maureen Lang’s Bees in the Butterfuly Garden, and to Maxie for winning Kim Watters’ And Father Makes Three.

This week I’m hosting Keli Gwyn with A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California, Jocelyn Green with Wedded to War, Cheri Cowell with Parables and Word Pictures from the New Testament (I will forward the entries to the publicist for a 3 basket giveaway. The winners will be contacted by her.) and Margaret Brownley with Dawn Comes Early. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (July  8th) evening.

Bio for Keli Gwyn:

Keli Gwyn writes stories that transport readers to the 1800s, where she brings historic towns to life, peoples them with colorful characters, and adds a hint of humor. A California native, she lives in the Gold Rush-era town of Placerville at the foot of the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains. Her debut novel, A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California, set in the heart of the Gold Country where she lives, will be released in July 2012.

When Keli’s fingers aren’t hovering over the keyboard of her newfangled laptop, she enjoys strolling past stately Victorian houses in her historic town, burying her nose in reference books as she unearths interesting facts to include in her stories, and interacting with other romance readers. Her favorite places to visit are her fictional worlds, the Coach factory outlet store, and Taco Bell.

Widow Elenora Watkins heads to California with her nine-year-old daughter, Tildy, eager to become a partner in a mercantile. When the mulish owner withdraws his offer because she’s a woman, she opens her own shop. She’s determined to prove herself capable of running a successful business without the help of anyone—including her controlling father, her seemingly distant heavenly Father, and one Miles Rutledge.

Widower Miles Rutledge is not about to get involved with another willful woman like his late wife, especially when she’s his competition. But the beautiful Elenora may be too hard to resist. When another man appears out to claim Elenora’s heart, Miles searches for a way to win her back. . .while putting her out of business.

Meanwhile, Maude Rutledge, Miles’s meddling mother, longs to see her son make a good match. And Tildy is just as bent on gaining a loving papa.

The battle of wills begins, but can anyone win when the competition is more than they bargained for?

Bio for Jocelyn Green:

Jocelyn Green is an award-winning author and freelance writer. A former military wife, she authored, along with contributing writers, Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives and Faith Deployed . . . Again: More Daily Encouragement for Military Wives. Jocelyn also co-authored of Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq & Afghanistan, which won the Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of America in 2010, and Stories of Faith and Courage from the Home Front, which inspired her first novel: Wedded to War.

Book blurb for Wedded to War by Jocelyn Green:
When war erupted, she traded a life of privilege for a life of significance.

In Wedded to War, tending the Union army’s sick and wounded would mean leaving Phineas Hastings, the man Charlotte Waverly’s mother, Caroline, approved of, for an existence Caroline could not understand. To honor the father she lost to Cholera, Charlotte chose a life of service over privilege—just as her childhood friend, Caleb Lansing, had when he became a military doctor. She quickly discovers that she’s combating more than just the Rebellion by working in the hospitals. Would the two men who love her stand by and watch as she fights her own battles? Or would their desire for her wage war on her desire to serve God?

She fought to get her place, and she fought even harder to keep it.

Bio for Cheri Cowell:

Author, speaker, and sidewalk theologian, Cheri Cowell is passionate about discipleship and challenging the body of Christ to holiness of heart and life. As the author of Direction: Discernment for the Decisions of Your Life (Beacon Hill, 2007) and over 300 articles, Cheri’s love of story and the Holy Word shines through in her writing and teaching. In 2009 she was one of six journalists chosen for a tour of the Holy Land by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, a blessing that only deepened the love of the parables Jesus told. Cheri is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary where she learned the Inductive Bible study method used in this study to encourage, challenge, and equip the body of Christ to live story-shaped lives. 

Preferred Ordering Link: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Testament-Parables-Pictures-Following/dp/0899573495/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335897377&sr=8-1

Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffcY35Vw2gE

Blurb for Parables and Word Pictures from the New Testament by Cheri Cowell:

Parables and Word Pictures from the New Testament is a 13-week workbook-style study of 118 parables from Jesus, Paul, and the apostles. This comprehensive look at the New Testament parables will help readers develop an ear for the message they convey—that the Kingdom of God is both here and near. Through the study readers will be challenged to live faithful and holy “Kingdom lives” in a broken and unholy world. 

Of the thirteen weeks, the first nine explore the parables of Jesus in the four gospels; the next three look at the parables in Acts and those from Paul and the apostles. The study culminates in a look at what the author calls living parables,

with Jesus as the Parable of all parables. Through Him we come to know God the Father, and through Jesus we come to live as living parables in a world begging to “see God.” Living story-shaped lives allows others to see God in us—this is Kingdom living.

The workbook includes a chart of parables in chronological order, a chart of parables alphabetically arranged in the four gospels, a chart showing the locations in Israel where the parables were taught, and an index of scriptures to make finding parables quick and easy. A Leader’s Guide is available.

 Bio for Margaret Brownley:

Thrills, mystery, suspense, romance: Margaret penned it all. Nothing wrong with this—except Margaret happened to be writing for the church newsletter. After making the church picnic read like a Grisham novel, her former pastor took her aside and said, “Maybe God’s calling you to write fiction.”

So that’s what Margaret did. She’s now a New York Times bestselling author and a Romance Writers of America RITA finalist with more than 25 novels to her credit  The first book in her Brides of Last Chance Ranch series “Dawn Comes Early” is available now and will be followed by Waiting for Morning.

Margaret’s also excited to announce that her non-fiction book “Grieving God’s Way: The Path to Hope and Healing” will be published in July—not bad for someone who flunked 8^th grade English.  Just don’t ask her to diagram a sentence.

Blurb for Dawn Comes Early by Margaret Brownley:

Heiress Wanted

Looking for hard-working, professional woman

of good character and pleasant disposition

willing to learn the ranching business in Arizona Territory.

Must be single and prepared to remain so now and forever more.

1895

Her latest dime novel banned, twenty-nine-year old KATE TENNEY finds herself without a publisher or other means of support. An advertisement for a woman willing to learn the ranching business seems like the perfect solution for a displaced western writer who has no intention of getting married—ever. 

Trouble begins the moment she steps foot in Arizona Territory. The west is nothing like she wrote about in her books. Not only does she have to deal with a hard-nosed ranch owner, and nefarious outlaw, but a traitorous heart.  Deserted as a child by her father, grandfather and others—even God— Kate does not trust men and has no intention of falling for LUKE ADAMS’S charm.  She’s determined to learn the ranching business and prove to the doubting ranch owner that she’s up to the task—if it kills her.  If only she could stay away from a certain handsome blacksmith and his two matchmaking aunts.