CFBA Presents ONCE IN A BLUE MOON by Leanna Ellis

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Once in a Blue Moon(B&H Books - March 1, 2010)
byLeanna Ellis



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leanna's sister recommended that she write, since she ‘wrote in her journal all the time.’ The idea took root and began to grow. So after five years of teaching, she quit and started writing, with no clue about the book business. Ignorance is bliss. If she’d known the odds against her, she might not have ever started writing.

For about three years, she wrote with a collaborator, but because she had so many ideas she began to write more stories on her own. She suffered numerous rejections. Deservedly so. But she was growing as a writer and learning. She went to as many conferences as she could manage. During that time, she met her future husband, fell in love and became engaged. She also began to final in contests and then actually began to win! The contests helped her get noticed by editors and agents. In March, the year Braveheart won the Best Picture Oscar, Victor/Victoria opened on Broadway, she sold her first book. It was her Cinderella year. She sold her book, got married and won RWA’s Golden Heart Award in Hawaii.

She wrote six books between her first baby’s birth and when the second baby turned one. Then she hit a wall. Not literally. But creatively. It’s not that she didn’t have any ideas, but her ideas didn’t fit the romance market. These new characters, random and weird as they were, began to take over the part of her brain that wasn’t domesticated. These stories were about all types of women, and so she began to let her writing grow in new and different ways.

Leanna Ellis sold more than 1.3 million romantic novels writing as Leanna Wilson, winning a Readers’ Choice award and the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award for her work. Elvis Takes a Back Seat is the first book published under her married name, marking a new creative direction in her writing. Like Francine Rivers before her, Leanna has left behind a successful career as an author of secular romances to write novels of faith that glorify God. A former schoolteacher, Leanna is now a homeschool mom and lives with her husband and children in Keller, Texas.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Bryn Seymour was nine years old when her mother died under mysterious circumstances on the same day Apollo 11 made its historic lunar landing. Forty years later—divorced, working as an obituary writer, and duly cynical—she meets Howard, a conspiracy theorist who knew her mom and believes a small Texas town may hold clues to what really fueled her demise. Seeking closure, Bryn goes along for this men-in-black ride. But upon meeting Howard’s son Sam, an outspoken Christian, she can’t decide whose beliefs are more pie-in-the-sky.

The gravity of life has pulled Bryn down for decades. But a perfect love could be her first step to soaring. It only happens once in a blue moon.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Once in a Blue Moon, go HERE

Watch the book trailer:




JEN'S THOUGHTS

I just got Once in a Blue Moon a few days ago, so I haven't finished reading it yet. But what I have read, I love! There are some books you pick up simply because of the author, and for me, Leanna Ellis is one of those authors. Her stories of quirky characters in unusual circumstances never fail to entertain and move me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do...

Dreaming with Julie Carobini

Dreaming Through
the Dark Times
by
Julie Carobini

I’ve been through divorce, brain surgery, and serious financial hardship. Probably not the way a post about dreams should begin. The reality is, though, that many of us go through times so tough that dreams seem both vaporous and unattainable.

Unless we know the ‘lifter of our heads’.

During many of those dark days, I found myself standing at the water’s edge, pleading with God. Sometimes I lived close enough to walk. Other times I had to get into my car and drive an hour just to stand in front of the vast sea and cast my cares upon the One who created them.

Since then, I’ve experienced many bright days too. New love, a family, healings, fresh joys…and still through the years, I have often taken to the sea to talk to God. At one particular point, I remember worrying that the beach had become my idol, and promising God that I would give it up, if that’s what he wanted. (I even made myself stay away, an endeavor that lasted all of two weeks.)

Instead, he gave me a writing career. He took all the lows and highs in my life and created something new with them. Believe me when I tell you that I had no plans of my own to write beach-themed novels one day. I just kept praying and writing and seeking until an idea popped into my head. I followed that idea, and now find myself writing my fifth novel filled with ‘waves of grace’, as I’ve come to think of these stories.

So what does this all have to do with dreams? Plenty. Has God given you a dream? Does it seem outlandish—maybe even to you? Don’t be quick to discount it. Instead, be patient. Pray over your idea until you know that it is absolutely not from him—or perhaps that it absolutely is!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie Carobini writes beach-themed novels for the ‘young at heart.’ Sweet Waters, the story of a woman whose fairytale turns out to be a soap opera, is available now (B&H Publishing Group). Visit her at http://www.juliecarobini.com/ ~ Julie would love to hear from you!


ABOUT THE BOOK - Sweet Waters

What happens when the fairytale turns out to be a soap opera?

Tara Sweet is nothing if not sensible. Usually. But her engagement is off, and her mother—yes, mother—is newly married and gallivanting around Europe.

It’s time for a change. So she convinces her sisters to honor their father’s final wish and rediscover the fairy-tale life they knew in Otter Bay, California. But Tara discovers fairy tales are fragile—and truth is often one ugly layer after another of secrets, accusation, rumor, and a past an entire church wants to forget.

Firefighter Josh Adams knows all about battling personal demons. He’s been doing so ever since a woman nearly died in his arms. Actually, long before . . .

As the turbulence in their lives grows, Tara and Josh find themselves at odds with their families, their faith, the townspeople of Otter Bay—and each other.

Only in facing the lies from the past can they find the truth.


WIN THE BOOK

If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Sweet Waters, just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on September 15th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) Good luck!