{"id":357,"date":"2018-12-31T11:55:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T11:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2018-12-31T11:55:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T11:55:36","slug":"lone-star-reviewsmichelle-newby-nbcc-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ReviewsMichelle Newby, NBCC,"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Contributing Editor<\/span><\/h1>\n
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<\/span><\/span><\/span>RECIPES
Lois Winston, editor<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019d Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

978-1940795348 Paperback, 200 pages; time-saving recipes and tips from authors, $10.29 (also available as e-book: $0.99)<\/p>\n

October 28, 2015<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Rashda Khan<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s world, time is a precious commodity for everyone.<\/span> This is even truer during the whirlwind of the holiday season. We\u2019d Rather Be Writing<\/span><\/a><\/span> provides time-saving recipes and tips that will help readers tackle house guests, parties, and everything in between with aplomb and let them focus on what is important \u2014 enjoying time with friends and family and doing what brings them joy.<\/p>\n

Editor and contributor Lois Winston<\/span> has brought together almost ninety authors, people who are used to juggling family life, writing careers, often a second job, and more, to contribute their insights. >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>FICTION<\/p>\n

Diana Finfrock Farrar<\/span><\/p>\n

The Door of the Heart<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

AuthorHouse<\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-1-4918-7124-9 (also available in hardcover and as an ebook), 425 pgs., $18.99<\/p>\n

March 2014<\/p>\n

Diana Finfrock Farrar\u2019s first novel begins with fifteen-year-old Jamie O\u2019Dell, gay and closeted,<\/span> in the principal\u2019s office at his high school, victim of chronic bullying since middle school. This time the football team\u2019s intimidation has been so blatant that school officials can\u2019t ignore the problem. The bullies have been sent to the alternative campus and banned from extracurricular activities for the remainder of the school year, but Texas Land Commissioner Ed Sloan\u2019s son, Michael, is one of the bullies and Ed won\u2019t take this punishment lying down. Tammy, Ed\u2019s wife and Michael\u2019s mother, is torn between remaining silent as she has for twenty-two years, or speaking out for what she knows is the right thing. As the controversy rages, Ed and Tammy\u2019s jeopardized marriage mirrors the polarization in the media, the community, and the schools. >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n

>> archive<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

Another Christmas romance
set in Twilight, Texas<\/h1>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/span>Twilight, Texas:<\/span> Prolific Texas romance author Lori Wilde,<\/span> with seventy-eight titles to her credit, has produced another Christmas novel from her fictional town of Twilight, Texas, loosely based on the real town of Granbury.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll Be Home for Christmas<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Avon, 2015) features runaway law student Gabi Preston, who is served a piece of chocolate cake at a Twilight coffee shop and blurts out, \u201cOh my gosh! This is better than sex!\u201d<\/p>\n

To which a deep voice responds: \u201cAs delicious as Maddie\u2019s cakes are, if you think cake is better than sex, then you\u2019ve been doin\u2019 something all wrong, darlin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabi has just encountered Joe Cheek, probably the best-looking guy in town.<\/p>\n

Other books in Wilde\u2019s hot-selling Twilight series include last fall\u2019s Christmas at Twilight<\/span> as well as The First Love Cookie Club, <\/span>which has been optioned for a TV movie. Read more at loriwilde.com.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/span>Karen Witemeyer:<\/span> The newest novel from Abilene\u2019s Karen Witemeyer,<\/span> a popular Christian historical romance author, is A Worthy Pursuit<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Bethany House, $14.99 paperback).<\/p>\n

The story, set in Texas in 1891, involves Stone Hammond, who is hired to find a wealthy man\u2019s abducted granddaughter, and Charlotte Atherton, a teacher entrusted with the little girl\u2019s care after her mother\u2019s death. All is not as it seems to either major figure in the book \u2014 the teacher on the run and the bounty hunter pursuing her. Can the two adversaries learn to trust \u2014 even love \u2014 each other?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to play with the idea of opposites attracting,\u201d Witemeyer said. \u201cSo I chose a refined, educated headmistress who doesn\u2019t trust men and paired her with a man of action and intrigue who practically walks off the pages of a dime novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Worthy Pursuit<\/span> is Witemeyer\u2019s seventh full-length historical romance; she\u2019s also had two novellas published. Read more on her web site \u2014 karenwitemeyer.com.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Max Lucado: <\/span>San Antonio minister and Christian author Max Lucado<\/span> may well be Texas\u2019s best-selling writer of all time.<\/p>\n

I say \u201cmay well be\u201d because I haven\u2019t been able to find any such listing. But with about a hundred titles and an estimated 80 to100 million copies in print, Lucado certainly ranks high on the ladder. His newest book, released this fall, is Glory Days: Living Your Promised Land Life Now<\/span><\/a><\/span> (Thomas Nelson, $26.99 hardcover), with sixteen essays or chapters or sermons inspired by the biblical book of Joshua and accompanied by a study guide.<\/p>\n

Lucado\u2019s theme is that most Christians don\u2019t fully claim all the powers and opportunities available to them. Most are content to be in the \u201cwilderness\u201d instead of moving on to the \u201cpromised land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith God\u2019s help,\u201d he writes, \u201cyou can close the gap between the person you are and the person you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole,<\/span> is co-author, with Carlton Stowers, of <\/span>101 Essential Texas Books<\/span><\/a><\/span> Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/span><\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Lit<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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