July is The Blue Enchantress month!

In honor of the release of my next book, The Blue Enchantress, I'll be giving away 2 free copies of the book for the next four weeks! (That's 10 copies!) Each week, I'll be posting something about the story or the characters, etc... and everyone who enters a comment will be entered to win. I hope to post on Wednesdays if my schedule permits so look for the first post next Wednesday. In addition, I'm giving away a gift basket you see below. It's what I call my seafaring basket.

• My pirate trilogy (The Redemption, The Reliance, The Restitution)
• The Red Siren
• The Blue Enchantress
• Ile de Tahiti Moana Body wash (Coconut Vanilla)
• Ile de Tahiti Bora Bora sand scrub
• An ocean-scented candle
• Echoes of Nature CD - Ocean Waves
• A rubber ducky

So if you need to escape to a tropical paradise this summer, and can't afford to go to the Caribbean, this is your ticket. Just step into your warm bath, scrub yourself with some coconut vanilla body wash, light your candle, turn on your ocean wave CD, and read one of my books!

Everytime you enter a comment on any Blue Enchantress post, your name will go into a basket and I'll draw a winner from there on July 31st.

So, tell all your friends to drop by my blog this month and check it out.

And I hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th!! We live in a great country founded on Godly principles taken from Scriptures. But we live in an age when those values and liberties are being stripped away from us. I pray that we all take some time on Saturday to humble ourselves before God and repent and ask His blessing to fall once again on this great nation!

The Fire at my house and my trip to Monterey

Last week a neighbor pounded on my door in a panic to alert me to a fire burning in a field just across from my house. We have a real fear of fires here in California in the summertime because we don't get a drop of rain from May-September and things get quite dry. So, I rushed out to keep an eye on things. Because I was in a panic, I neglected to take any pictures of the fire when it was burning, but I did get a couple of photos of the burnt area. Thankfully, and thanks to God, the Firemen showed up pretty quickly and put it out. Here's a picture of my street. We live on a cul-de-sac and my house is on the left out of the picture, and the field that burned is on the right. You can see the dark brown mark where the fire was just above the car.

Here's a closer picture of that car (which happens to be my son's girlfriend's car)

I took a day off last week and went to Monterey, California with my husband and his 2 sisters who were visiting from Washington State. Monterey is about an hour from our house and sits right on the Pacific coast. We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which in my opinion is one of the best in the country. Here's some pictures from our fun day!

Here's what they call Bird rock, right outside the Aquarium.

A school of Anchovies

A shark

Some absolutely gorgeous jelly fish!

Believe it or not, this is a sea horse.

And last but not least, I found a friend. I'm givin' him me best Argggggg.

The biggest problem with most people

What is the biggest problem in today's world? The Iran crisis, the economy, health-care crisis, war, cancer? What is the biggest problem with most people? Greed, selfishness, fear, hatred? Jesus nailed the issue on the head in Mark 12:24 when he answered a group of "worldly" people who came to test him about the ressurection of the dead. You see these people (Sadducees as they were called) didn't believe in anything spiritual. They typlified the thinkers of our day, the scientists, the logicians, the people who don't believe in anything they can't see. They asked Jesus a specific question about the ressurection of the dead, thinking they would trap him, trick him into admitted there was no ressurection. Instead, Jesus answered them by pinpointing their exact problem. He said.

Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God"

He then went on to answer their specific question and to prove to them through the Scriptures that there is indeed life after death.

But I got to thinking about this one statement. How true it is! Think about all the problems people have. Every single one of them would be solved by knowing the Scriptures and believing in God's power. It's not enough to know the Bible. Many scholars know the Bible. But you must also believe in the power of God. You must believe He is who He says He is in the Bible. Otherwise it's just a bunch of words in a book.

I've seen countless Christians struggle with problem after problem in their lives. They lead a defeated life, always under some new tragedy. I'm not talking about persecution from the world or the struggles God sends our way to teach us. I'm talking about problems people bring on themselves or problems they continually deal with because they truly, deep in their hearts, don't believe God can help them.

How different the world would be if even the people who call themselves Christians would spend time in the Scriptures everyday and then believe what they are reading! I believe we could change the world. Why? Because then the world would see a people who not only talk the talk, but walk the walk.

Do yourself a favor today. Make a deal with God to study His Word daily and ask Him to increase your faith. But, be careful, your life will be transformed and you'll experience things other people only dream about!

Winner of Forever Richard by Sue Dent is ....

Kalisse!!


Thank you all for entering! For those of you who didn't win, I encourage you to go online and purchase Forever Richard.

Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy time with your family, friends, and don't forget to spend time with your heavenly Father.

List of reasons people put a book down

I thought you might be interested to see the list of responses to my question about what makes you put a book down.

Lots of long paragraphs of description
Don't care about or can't relate to the main character
Slow moving
Too much detail
Unbelievable happenings or circumtances
Bad language
Not hooked by page 50
Insulting the reader's intelligence
Boring plot that doesn't move forward
Can't relate to characters
Villian is stupid or one-dimensional
Poor writing

So for us authors I should assume that what makes a good book for a reader is

Fast paced, interesting plot that has a point
Deep fascinating characters (including the villain)
Just enough description to make you feel as though you're there, but not too much
Main characters that are human with human desires and flaws that people can relate to
A story grounded in reality (unless it's a Sci Fi!)
Don't tell the reader. Let the reader see what's going on

And I would add
A solid theme that is interwoven throughout the story
The main character should have a main goal he or she is trying to achieve
Conflict--there should be conflict and tension on every page

Now, can you think of books you have read that have all these elements? Please don't list mine. I'm not looking for accolades. But I'm really interested in hearing from you what books you consider your all time favorites.

The Fear of Man

What is the fear of man? It is when we care more about what people think of us than anything else. It is worrying about what people will say about what we wear, say, the way we act, the things we like. It is living your life in such a way to win the approval of people.

Let's face it, everyone wants to be liked by others. That's a natural desire. But it becomes an unhealthy obsession if you change your behavior or try to become someone you're not just to make a friend or be popular, if everything you do is aimed at gaining the accolades, the approval of others.

Jesus warned against trying to seek the approval of man:

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full Matt 6:5

I have to admit I was very much like this in High School. I wanted to be in the popular crowd so badly, I would have done anything. This desire to be popular followed me around most of my life and caused me to do things I would have never done, just to fit in.

As God says: The fear of man brings a snare,But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted. Prov 29:25

You know what I discovered? The crowd is fickle. One minute they'll like you and the next, they're onto someone else. You can never please all of them, you can never do enough, be nice enough, be pretty enough. It's an illusive dream. And even if you do make it to the top, even if you are the most popular kid at school or the most popular person at your work or you have a million friends, then what? What does it mean? Does it give you value as a person? If that's how you get your value, then what will happen when your friends abandon you? or when they speak bad things about you, as inevitably they will?

When I finally stopped trying to be popular and fit in, when I finally turned my life over to the Lord and received my value from Him, that's when I found true peace. I can't say that I don't care at all what people think of me any more, but I'm well on my way. And it is so freeing. Love people as God commands but don't try to impress them. Instead try to impress God. He's the only one that matters.

And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. Romans 2:29

Win a free copy of The Red Siren tomorrow!

as well as tons of other books at the



Remember to Visit http://www.thechristianpulse.com/ tomorrow on June 23, 2009 for a chance to win a free autographed copy of my book The Red Siren.

The Great Escape Summer Reading Contest - 22 books, 22 reviews, 22 winners, weekdays during the month of June exclusively at http://www.thechristianpulse.com/.

The Great Escape Summer Reading Contest provides you the opportunity to explore Christian authors from a variety of genres including non-fiction, fiction, romance, and suspense. Authors featured have won a variety of awards including the 2008 Christy Award, 2008 IWA Writer of the Year, 2008 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and the 2008 Winter Rose Contest.

HOW TO ENTER: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. To enter, send an email to
contests@thechristianpulse.com on each day you want to participate in the contest. The email subject line should be the book title for the day you are entering. Include your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number in the body of your email entry. All entries must be completed and received on or by the closing date announced for each contest. Incomplete entries will be disqualified. All entries shall become the property of TheChristianPulse.com. TCP is not responsible for lost, misdirected or delayed entries. Entries received by telephone, fax, courier or personal delivery will not be accepted.