Chasing Liberty Trilogy Giveaway

My fellow author, Theresa Linden, is having a book giveaway. She will be giving away the complete set of her trilogy “Chasing Liberty.” You can enter through the link below.

 

 

The giveaway ends July 9th, so be sure to enter soon.

 

Liberty trilogy

A young woman named Liberty lives in a dystopian society where the earth has been elevated above man and the government controls everything. Moving from one trial to another—escapes, imprisonment, secret missions, rescues, 3D games—this action-packed trilogy follows Liberty to her final sacrifice as she learns that true freedom is within, cannot be taken away, and is worth fighting for.

 

Author bio:

Raised in a military family, Theresa Linden developed a strong patriotism and a sense of adventure. She began writing in grade school and her passion for writing has never waned. Love for faith, family, and freedom inspired her to write the Chasing Liberty trilogy, a dystopian story about a future she hopes never becomes a reality. Her other published works include award-winning Roland West, Loner, first in a series of Catholic teen fiction, Life-Changing Love, and her newest release, Battle for His Soul. A member of the Catholic Writers Guild and the International Writers Association, she balances her time between family, homeschooling, and writing. She lives in Elyria, Ohio with her husband, their three adopted boys, and a sweet old dog named Rudy.

Defining Catholic Fiction

I’m still playing catch-up and tag-a-long a little so today I’ll share my interview on Defining Catholic Fiction that is being carried on the Indie Catholic Authors Blog.

https://indiecatholicauthors.wordpress.com/2017/01/24/defining-catholic-fiction-tim-speer/ 

December – An Open Book

Now that my latest book Seventy Times Seven has been published, I have finally had a little time to do some reading. For the December “An Open Book” posting, I am posting a review of a book I just finished. It is a historical fiction novel based on the life of Mary and Joseph entitled Road To Bethlehem by E.G. Lewis.

 

Road To Bethlehem
A Prelude to The Seeds of Christianity Series
By E.G. Lewis

The Road To Bethlehem is a fictionalized account of the life of Mary and Joseph starting shortly before they met, and ending just prior to the birth of Jesus. Since the overall story is well known, there really aren’t any surprises. That said, E.G. Lewis does a good job of providing a plausible fictional account that fills in the gaps left by the biblical record. The book is well written and well researched. And despite its overall predictability, it keeps the readers interest throughout. I also like the use of biblical passages that serve as introductions to the chapters. All of that said, I feel that there are two big opportunities that the author misses. The first is not giving a more detailed account of the annunciation from Mary’s perspective, and the second is not continuing the story through the actual birth of Jesus. These are arguably the two most important and most amazing events in history. And by leaving them out, the author misses a big opportunity to fill the story with emotion and add a true sense of awe and wonderment. The only other flaw I found is that, while on the whole the Road To Bethlehem does a good job of following the biblical account, it departs slightly from the biblical record regarding the birth of Jesus.

Purpose And Success In Writing

​Today I have a blog post being carried over at Catholic Mom. Rather than repeat it here, I am posting the link. I hope all of you had a very blessed Thanksgiving and a peaceful Black Fiday. The feature picture for this post is from where I spent my Black Friday. It was taken from the top of Casa Grande in Big Bend National Park.

http://catholicmom.com/2016/11/29/purpose-success-writing/

Life In The Desert

About a month ago, I went down to Big Bend National Park. This is a place that I have been blessed to be able to visit a number of times. For those of you who are not familiar with Big Bend, it lies along the Mexican border in the far southwestern part of Texas, and is a part of the vast Chihuahuan Desert. As you might expect it is characterized by a hot, arid climate. And although the Chisos Mountains, located near the center of the park, provide for a more temperate climate, with accompanying forests and wildlife; much of the park is composed of sparsely vegetated desert. With the exception of various cacti dotting the landscape, it often appears very barren. That is not to say that it isn’t still beautiful. Numerous rugged hills and small mountains form a uniquely beautiful landscape that is different from any other place.

However, as we often discover, looks can be deceiving. The desert only looks barren, most of the time that is. Hiding within it is an abundance of life. Some of it can be seen at most any time, if one just looks closely enough. But much lays dormant, waiting for the next rain to receive its life giving water. And when the rain comes, the desert life springs forth. Grasses and other vegetation sprout out covering the valleys and hills with a lush green. Wildflowers bloom all around, dotting the landscape with all of the colors of the rainbow. It is as if the entire desert is giving praise to God for the rain that it has received.

Our souls are the same way. When we ignore God, our souls lie dormant and barren. But when we turn towards God, and accept the love and forgiveness that Jesus gave us on the cross, we are filled with the Holy Spirit and our soul springs to life. For those of you who have experienced this, you know that it is a feeling unlike any other. For those who haven’t, I pray that you soon do. And how do you recognize those who have? Just look around, they are the ones walking with a spring in their step, often humming or whistling as they go. They are the ones greeting others cheerfully as they pass, and helping those they meet who are in need. For just like the desert, when the life giving rains come, you can’t keep it in.

 

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. 

To Have Nothing

What do you do when you have nothing? Let’s say you have nothing but the clothes on your back. What do you do? And what, if in such a position, do you do if you are then faced with a task so monumental that a thousand people would be hard pressed to handle it? But you are faced with having to take on the task completely by yourself. What do you do? Do you give up? Say it is too much to handle?

I ask this question not just rhetorically. I ask it, because that is what Mother Teresa was faced with when she first left the Loreto convent in Calcutta, India. She went out completely on her own, without help, without anything but her white sari and a few medical supplies to help the poor, the sick, and the dying. And the task, she says that was given to her by God, was to take care of the poorest of the poor. In slums so destitute, that most of us can’t even imagine what they were truly like.

So what did Mother Teresa do? She did exactly what she could. Helping whomever she could, however she could, one person at a time. In her words, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Mother Teresa worked this way for over a year before she was joined by about a dozen young women who, under her leadership, would ultimately form the Missionaries of Charity.

By 2012, the Missionaries of Charity had grown to over 4,500 sisters and was active in 133 countries. All because, when having nothing and facing an insurmountable task, rather than giving up, Mother Teresa went to work doing what she could. Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta was canonized this last Sunday.

Looking For Love

It seems like too often in life we seem to be searching for happiness, but never really finding it. I think the main reason for this is that, just as the Johnny Lee song says, we are looking in all the wrong places, looking in too many faces. In reality, there is only one place that we need to search, and that is with God. And the only face that we need to look into is that of Jesus Christ.

We end up unhappy because we try to find happiness purely in earthly things. Sure, there are things here on earth that can help to make us happy, but without God, we will always have a void that earthly things can never fill. As for looking at faces, take some time and look at the face of Jesus on the cross. And think about the fact that his love for you is so great that he was willing to be scourged, tortured, and hung on the cross to die for you. Just think, the God who created the entire universe loves you. Loves you so much that he was willing to come down and die for you. Now can you really be all that unhappy. And all it takes is to look in the right place, to look in the right face.

 

An Open Book Posting for July

It’s time for July’s posting of “An Open Book”. For this month I am posting my review of Cast Me Not Away – A Saga of a Child’s Survival by Zara Heritage. This book carries a very strong pro-life message, a cause I have great interest in. As such, I hope it reaches those who might be persuaded away from abortion and the support of abortion. At the same time, I think it is important for those of us who are pro-life to support books and authors like this as much as possible and I urge you to do so. Purchasing and reading the book certainly helps, but what helps the most is posting reviews for the book on Amazon and Goodreads. This will help authors such as Zara Heritage to reach a wider audience, hopefully those who it might influence. So consider this not just a review, but a call to action. After all, if your reading this book and posting a review could end up saving just one life, wouldn’t that be more than worth it. And it very well could. We never know when our writing or actions will end up affecting someone else. I was reminded of this just a few days ago when, due to some of my postings, someone unexpectedly reached out to me wanting to learn more about Christianity.

 

 

Cast Me Not Away- A Saga of a Child’s Survival

By: Zara Heritage

            Cast Me Not Away is a story of a dystopian society where, in addition to abortion being legal, children up to four years of age can be taken to be disposed of in Facilities For the Useless (FFU). In a society where life, particularly that of the young, has little value Cast Me Not Away follows the story of young Robbie Wilson, who is rescued from a FFU by an underground movement.

            One would like to think that the society portrayed in Cast Me Not Away could never exist, yet many of the societal aspects portrayed in this story are already starting to occur. Cast Me Not Away is a well written book that holds the reader’s interest from beginning to end. But more than that, it will make you take a harder look at the direction our society is heading.

 

The Perfect Day

Once again I have been AWOL from my blog posts. This time, as has been the case several times in the past, travel has been one of the reasons. We spent almost two weeks in Alaska, taking a cruise from Vancouver to Whittier, and then spending several extra days up in Alaska before returning home.

One of our top priorities is that we attend weekly Mass. Even when we travel, we always try to find somewhere to go to Mass. However, as we boarded the ship on Saturday, and were sailing all day Sunday, we were not able to make Mass the first weekend. This is not to say that God was forgotten. In fact, the scenery was a constant reminder of God’s love and His great works. To me, being out in nature is a great way of communing with God. And the near constant immersion we had of being surrounded by majestic scenery, along with frequent prayer – something that I was able to do, kept me close to God and constantly aware of his presence.

Needless to say, we had a great week. And as I mentioned, got to see some truly fantastic scenery. Yet I wouldn’t call it perfect. First, as is always the case, nothing truly goes perfectly. However the biggest thing that kept it from being perfect was what I missed that first weekend, the true communion with Christ that comes through receiving the Eucharist. Nature and prayer can bring me very close, but nothing can bring one as close to Christ as actually receiving his Body, Soul, and Divinity through the Eucharist.

The next Saturday came, and with it the end of the cruise. Fortunately for us, we still had several days left on our overall trip. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny morning in which everything seemed to go perfectly. We were off the ship and at the rental car place shortly after 8:00 a.m. when it opened. That got us to the one-way tunnel that connects Whittier with the rest of Alaska shortly after 8:30, in plenty of time for the 9:00 a.m. opening for traffic leaving Whittier. (Missing this would have meant waiting until 10:00 a.m. to be able to go through the tunnel). The first stop past the tunnel was Portage Glacier and the accompanying Portage Lake. A beautiful lake made even more beautiful by the calm water and the sunlight that shone just right in order make the lake act as a mirror reflecting the surrounding mountains. From there it was a lunch stop at Anchorage and then on to Denali National Park.

Our first full view of Mount Denali came from about fifty miles away. Mount Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) is the tallest mountain in North America, standing at just over 20,000 feet in elevation. They say that, due to frequent cloud cover, the chance of seeing Mount Denali on any given day is about 30%. The chance of seeing the mountain completely unobstructed by clouds is around 10%. From our first good vantage point, we were treated to a fantastic view of the full mountain. There is no way to describe how magnificent such a view is. Nor can it be adequately captured in a picture. It is one of those sights that you just have to see with your own eyes to fully appreciate. The views we were able to get of Mount Denali were a true blessing on what, so far, had been as perfect of a day as we could have hoped for.

After a couple of stops to view Mount Denali, we made our way to Denali National Park. I had researched ahead of time and learned that a nearby church held Saturday evening Mass at the Nature Center, located near the entrance to the park. While we ended up with not too much time to spare, we did make it in time to spend a few minutes in prayer before Mass began. And then, once again, I was able to be fully reunited with Christ through the receiving of the Eucharist. It was truly a perfect day.

Friday The 13th

Since last Friday morning, yes Friday the 13th, found me sitting at the funeral of a friends father, you might chalk it up to another unlucky Friday the 13th. Yet, last Friday was far from the worst day of the week for me. For me, last week proved to be a week of distractions. A week where some of those modern conveniences we have come to rely on so much did nothing but cause me trouble. It was a week where once again, I didn’t get to my blog post, along with several other things that I had wanted to get done.

The first distraction was related to an online purchase of a new camera lens that turned out not to work. So I quickly re-discovered how much of a hassle that “convenient” on-line shopping can be when things go wrong. Then on Wednesday my phone stopped working. This led to me having to spend time first trying to fix it, then ultimately having to decide on, and purchase a new phone. Shelling out money that I really would have rather spent on other things, especially since I had been perfectly happy with my old phone. When it was still working that is.

Finally Friday came, and with it the funeral. More than anything, attending the funeral reminded me of what was really important in life. For instance, I noticed that during the Homily the priest didn’t once mention what type of phone my friends father had, or whether or not he had a fancy camera. He did talk about some of the achievements that he had accomplished during his life. But most of all, he talked about his character, and his love for his family. And he talked about God’s promise of eternal life.

As I walked down the isle to receive communion, I found myself looking up at Jesus on the crucifix. And I suddenly realized that none of what I had been through that week was important. What was important was God’s love for me, and the sacrifice that His Son, Jesus, made for me. And the most valuable thing I could possess, was the Eucharist that I was about to receive. As it turned out, Friday the 13th was very good day for me.