The Moses Conspiracy – A Book Review


My good friend, Susan J. Reinhardt, published her debut novel last month. I’m thrilled to present her and her latest release, The Moses Conspiracy, to you. I met Susan first at a writers’ conference and we became fast friends. She has guest-posted here on my blog in the past. Her writing is simply stellar. The Moses Conspiracy is a fast-paced Christian page-turner set in the near future.  Here’s the synopsis followed by my interview with Susan.
Here’s the synopsis:
A trip to post-terrorized Washington, D.C. in 2025 and a buggy accident in Bird-in-Hand, PA set in motion events that expose a diabolical plan to destroy the Christian community. Ellie and John Zimmerman find themselves embroiled in a life-threatening investigation, fighting a shadowy enemy.
Convinced it’s now safe to visit D.C., Ellie and her firstborn, 8-year-old Peter, travel to the nation’s capital. Both mother and child make an effort to enjoy the sights, but they’re unprepared for the challenges they face. Her nightmares come true when she and Peter are separated.
Back home, John witnesses a neighbor’s buggy accident. The suspicious circumstances and law enforcement’s refusal to take them seriously prompt him to take on the role of detective. He and a tenacious reporter band together and vow to find out what’s happening in Bird-in-Hand.
Extended family squabbles erupt when John’s sister, Annaliese, faces off with Ellie for blowing her D.C. experiences out of proportion. She’d rather ignore the warnings than deal with the growing danger.
John and Ellie can’t decide whether her trip and his involvement with the accident were such a good idea. People are getting hurt, and their own family receives ominous warnings. Turning back the clock is not an option, but going forward could initiate more violence.
The small community is shattered when the unthinkable occurs. Will family, friends, and neighbors band together or allow fear to prevent them from taking action?
Caught between strained family relationships and a faceless enemy, the couple rely on God for wisdom and protection. Little do they know that He’s working on their behalf each step of the way.
The scabs of a past tragedy get ripped open, and the truth of their second child’s death is revealed. While they may expose the culprits, will they survive the heartache it brings?
And here’s the interview with Susan:

Tell us a bit about yourself and about your other writings.
Thanks for having me on your blog today, Susan! I’m a widow, a stepmom, a daughter, and a follower of Jesus Christ. Writing is like second nature to me, but for a long time I didn’t think of myself as a “writer.” About 10 years ago, my late husband urged me to pursue publication. I’ll never forget the day when an editor asked me if I would write a devotional for her ezine. It was a total deer-in-the-headlights moment. Since then I’ve written numerous devotionals, short pieces, and been published in 3 anthologies. I’ll talk about the major shift into fiction when I answer the next question.

What inspired you to write The Moses Conspiracy, a futuristic faith-based novel?
My husband and I spent a day in Gettysburg around Christmas 2004. As we stood in the town square, surrounded by old buildings, I “heard” the voices of the forefathers, but they were fading away like distant echoes. When we arrived home, I tried to write a poem, a short article, anything, but failed. After 8 months, we were discussing the Gettysburg experience, and he said, “That’s it! That’s your book, and you’ll write it in 4 months and call it Ghosts of the Past.” I thought he was crazy, but soon caught the vision. The title changed to Echoes of the Past and later to The Moses Conspiracy. In 4 months, I had a 55,000 word manuscript. After going to a conference, I discovered my fiction skills were less than stellar, and the long process of creating something publishable began in earnest.

If The Moses Conspiracy was made into a movie, who would be your ideal choices for casting the characters?
LOL! I haven’t given it any thought at all. One thing I do know: I’d want whoever played the characters of Ellie and John to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

What is your favorite scene from the book?
I have a lot of favorites, but it’s tough picking one without creating a spoiler for the reader. Let’s see, the chapter where Ellie is in the ER was both fun and gut-wrenching to write. I drew upon my many trips to the hospital with my husband, mother, and myself over the years. I was convinced they were going to put our names on one of the cubicles and reserve it for us.  

What’s up next for you?
There are 2 more books in the trilogy that I’d like to see published. One has a working title of, “The Scent of Fear,” which features a character from, “The Moses Conspiracy.” Ellie, John, and Peter also have roles in this book. The first draft is finished, but the manuscript needs editing. The third book has a working title of, “Lost and Found.” I’m not crazy about that title, and it will probably change. Most of this book is still bouncing around my brain, begging to get out. 



You can order the book from: Amazon, B&N, or Kobobooks.com 

Here are the links to connect with Susan on Facebook, Twitter, Blog. 

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Two Scoops of Grace – Book Review and Giveaway!

When I first met Jeanette Levellie, I’d already known her for years. We first became friends after she commented on my post and then I commented on hers and then emails followed as kindred spirits knit together. Finally  last August, we met in person at the Philly Writers Conference. Smiles and hugs abounded. I’m so happy to announce that Jen’s dream has come true. Her first book is published!

Now you can share with me the delight in reading Jen’s words. Her warmth, wit, and wisdom radiate through these pages. Jen puts a comical and spiritual spin on stories and events from everyday life. You’ll smile, sob, laugh, cry, and draw closer the One who scripts our lives.

Here’s the official blurb about Jeanette, the book, and her awesome giveaway. The contests ends at midnight May 10, 2012:

About the Book
What do drive-by diaper stores and God have in common? When is blabbing an acceptable habit? Why should you beware of moths and sligs? In her entertaining, uplifting style, award-winning author and humorist Jeanette Levellie weaves 72 amusing stories with affirming Biblical truths. These soul-nourishing examples of God’s favor and grace will help you:

  • Laugh when you find cow patties in your field instead of daisies
  • Discover the bottomless heart of God
  • Grow in your acceptance of yourself and others

Welcome a vacation from stress as you discover the sweetness of Two Scoops of Grace with Chuckles on Top.

You can buy the book here.

About the Author
A spunky pastor’s wife of thirty-plus years, Jeanette Levellie authors a bi-weekly humor/inspirational column, God is Bigger, a popular feature in the Paris Beacon News since 2001. She has published stories in Guideposts anthologies, stories in Love is a Verb Devotional with Gary Chapman, articles in Christian and secular magazines, greeting card verses, and poems for calendars.  She is also a prolific  speaker for both Christian and secular groups, and loves to make people laugh while sharing her love for God and life.

Jeanette is the mother of two grown children, three grandchildren, and servant to four cats. She lives in Paris (not the French one), IL. with her husband, Kevin. Her hobbies include dining out, talking baby talk to her cats, avoiding housework, reading, and watching old classic movies.

Visit Jeanette on her blog, On Wings of Mirth and Worth, at www.jeanettelevellie.com.

Jeanette’s Giveaways
You can win one of ten free downloads of my debut humor devotional, Two Scoops of Grace with Chuckles on Top for your eReader. Here are the very simple rules:

For each share of this post link on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog, you will receive one entry.

For each like on Jeanette’s Author Page or my Two Scoops Book Page on Facebook, or follow on my Twitter page or this blog, you will receive one entry. If you already like and/or follow me, mention that and I will count it.

Please send me ONE comment to tell me how many times you shared, liked, or followed, so I can give you the correct amount of entries. I reserve the right to verify all information given me, and disqualify anyone from the drawing who falsifies information. (Do not leave comments here to be entered, you MUST go to Jeanette’s blog post for the giveaway.)

Contest starts today and ends midnight, May 10, 2012. Jeanette will announce the winners in a blog post Sunday, May 13, 2012.

….and a $100 Gift Card Drawing~~~WOWZA!!!

After you have read/reviewed Two Scoops, check out my blog at www.jeanettelevellie.com for a contest to win a $100 gift card by answering ten easy questions about the book! After I receive your entry, your name will go into the hat for a $100 gift card to one of the following places (your choice): Amazon, Barnes and Noble, CBD, Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-A, Wal-Mart, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, or Ruby Tuesday. This giveaway will run until August 10, 2012 so there is PLENTY of time for you to enter!

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Just Too Busy

Just Too Busy is for anyone who is… well, just too busy! And since I don’t know anyone who isn’t too busy, I guess this book is for you, especially if you are the chief cook, chauffer, maid, nurse, sideline coach, and/or tutor in your household.



For me, this book is more than just a good read. It is the culmination of a dream of a dear friend. Joanne Kraft and I met at my first writers’ conference. We shared a lunch, a prayer, and the beginning of a cherished friendship. At that conference, a master discourager tried to convince Joanne to abandon writing her book, devastating news for any writer. After buckets of tears, hugs, prayers, and a phone call home, wise words from her husband Paul [“Remember Who told you to write this book…”] brought clarity and peace to both of us.



In her ‘day’ job, Joanne is a 911 operator, and she has saved me from disaster on more than one occasion. We may live a continent apart, but when we talk, it’s as if we’re sitting across the table from each other.
And when you read her book, it’s as if she’s sitting across the table from you, sharing her personal experience of her family’s victory over busyness. Joanne speaks and writes with sidesplitting humor. She’ll make you laugh, and make you cry, but mostly laugh.
Here’s the official blurb about her book:
  • Just Too Busy is the true story of the Kraft family’s head-on collision with busyness and the twelve-month experiment that changed their lives. When their children could recite the dollar value meals at McDonalds faster than their times-tables, they knew something was very wrong. So, instead of continuing their bad habits and fitting more into their schedules, they took a year off from all activities and learned how to be a family again. 
  • In this book, readers will laugh their way to learning the ten tell-tale signs that they are too busy and discover the symptoms for a common disorder known to moms today: A.D.D. (Activity Denial Disorder). Families will find simple ways to guard themselves from the temptation of constant distraction.

Even though my children are young adults now, I found myself relating to the busyness that Joanne describes. Overcommitment is something that I regularly have to guard against. In the first chapter, Joanne says, “even the good things in life can become the enemy of the best things in life.”
To combat what she calls the “captivity of activity,” Joanne and her family took a year-long “radical sabbatical.” They stopped almost all extracurricular activity and learned what it means to spend time together as a family. Just Too Busy takes us through their experiences, high and low, and provides insight and advice to anyone looking to simplify life. You don’t need to go on a radical sabbatical yourself to enjoy and apply the principles in this book.
Because I know you’ll love it, I’m giving away a copy of Just Too Busy! To enter the drawing, share a comment with me – either here on the blog, on facebook, or in an email reply. Let me know why you’d like to read it or share your funniest busy story.
  

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Our Witchdoctors Are Too Weak – Book Review


So I’m waiting for my car’s oil to be changed reading “Our Witchdoctors Are Too Weak,” and I have to force myself to not laugh out loud lest my fellow “waitees” think I need to be committed. I didn’t expect that from a missionary biography – one of many expectations upturned by this book.

With a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor, Davey Jank shares his 15 years of trials and tribulations among the Wilo tribe deep in the Amazon. With brief chapters, each recounting a new experience, I was led deeper and deeper into this “astonishing biography.” The pages open with Jank arriving in the jungle and lead us through his journey to learn the Wilo language and culture, and to create a written alphabet to share “God’s Talk” with a tribe for whom the concept of God and the Bible is completely foreign. Along the way, he transforms from an object of Wilo curiosity to friendship and trust, earning the right to share God’s Word with them.

The Wilo are traditionally a timid, nonaggressive people. When a tragic violent attack occurred, the tribe suspected a visitor from another village, the brother of the local medic. By medic, I mean the brothers were sons of witchdoctor. The suspect fled, and the brother and father threatened the Wilo with snake attacks and other “bad things.” Uncharacteristically, the Wilo responded, “We are not afraid.” Prodded by Davey, tribesman Yanako went on to explain, “That witchdoctor didn’t make the earth. He didn’t make the stars in the sky. … God sees everything that witchdoctor does. Only God is all-powerful…. Only God is eternal, and we want to know more about Him.” Hundreds of years of spiritual darkness and fear were being erased as people were transformed by the power of God’s Word.

This book is equally poignant and humorous, a rare delight. Easy reading, yet inspiring and impactful. I highly recommend it, and not just for lovers of missionary biographies.

I received this book free from agent Rachelle Gardner in exchange for a review. So glad I did. I would love to pass it along to you. Please leave a comment below this blogpost to be entered to win the book. You won’t be disappointed.

Thin Places – Book Review

Mary DeMuth uses words the way an artist uses paint, the black and white words on the page creating technicolor images in your mind and soul. Experiencing a childhood littered with neglect and sexual abuse, as a teenager, Mary was transformed by the the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

Thin Places is Mary’s memoir, a pageturner that details brokeness and pain, yet it is more about hope through Jesus’ healing and restoration. This book is required reading for anyone who has suffered abuse, but it is equally valuable to any reader.

Mary describes thin places as “snatches of time, moments really, when we sense God intersecting with our world in tangible, unmistakable ways. They are aha moments, beautiful realizations, when the Son of God bursts through the hazy fog of our monotony and shines on us afresh.” Mary shares her thin places with us, and as she does, I have memories surface of my own thin places. Her honesty is brave, and the book is a challenge to be brave myself.

Because of Mary’s passion to see others set free from their family secrets, she established a blog for readers to anonymously post their experiences. http://blog.myfamilysecrets.org/.
Her own personal blog is http://marydemuth.com/ 

Thin Places releases today and can be purchased at Amazon by clicking here. I was provided a copy of this book from the publisher, Zondervan, and I was glad to review it. Mary DeMuth is not only a gifted writer, but she spends a great deal of time encouraging other up-and-coming writers. I have been blessed by her, and I know you will be too.

Susan

A list of other bloggers participating in this blog tour can be found here.
A Christian Writer’s World
A Godly Wife on Purpose
A Musing Mom
AP Free Writing 101
Audience of One
Audrey Hebbert
Beams of Light Ministries
Becoming God’s Woman
Best Days of My Life
Book Reviews
Calling All Aspiring Writers of Non-Fiction
Carla’s Writing Cafe
Carly Bird’s Home
Carma’s Window,
Character Counts
Chatting at the Sky
Declaring His Marvelous Work
Elisabeth K. Corcoran
Eternity Cafe
Fiction for the Restless Reader
Following My King
Ginger O’Neill Ministries
God Uses Broken Vessels
Gracefull Girl
GriefWalk
Heading Home
heartfeltwords4kids
His Reading List
Iron Makeover
Jean’s Encouraging Words for Writers
Jeanette Goes to Russia (again)
Joyful Scribe
Julie Ferwerda
Karen Ehman
Kathy Howard
Life on the Wild Side
Messy Cars and Muddy Shoes
Mocha with Linda
Musings of Edwina
My Song
New Horizon Reviews
One Desert Rose
Opening Eyes, Opening Hearts
Peace of Mind
Quivering Daughters
Reflections
Rose McCauley, Christian Author
Sage Girls Ministries
Scraps of Life
Set Free Today
Sharing Sharon
Sheila Deeth
Sherri Woodbridge
Sky-High View
Terra Garden
The Gospel Writer
The Hahn Hunting Lodge
The Heart of Writing
The Journey of Writer Danica Favorite
The Stubborn Servant
The Wellspring
Thoughts from a Treasured Wretch
Walls Down
Word Vessel
Writer’s Wanderings

Fearless by Max Lucado

Fear has been a constant companion all my life. To me, it is like the threshold in a doorway. It prevents me from going further. When I was little, I remember being afraid of participating in a pillow fight my dad was having with my little sister. I stood silently at the entrance to the room, even after they invited me to join them. I still find that it is fear that prevents me from moving forward.

So when I was given the opportunity to review the new Max Lucado book, Fearless, I jumped at the chance.


We live in a world of turmoil and unrest. People everywhere are facing real fearsome situations: economic crisis, terrorism, health issues. “Every season seems to bring fresh reasons for fear.” Other people (like me) have unrealistic fears like pillow fights, phobias, worries for the sake of worry.

In Fearless, Max Lucado addresses all these issues with life stories and Biblical wisdom. He challenges us to trust more and fear less. And he provides the tools to accomplish this. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of fear including the fear of “not mattering”, the fear of worst-case scenarios, the fear of global calamity, the fear of death, the fear of disappointing God. Fearless challenges us to imagine our life without fear, wholly untouched by angst. “What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats?”


The book is such an easy read, yet with such a compelling message. It empowers me as the bride of Christ to choose to allow my Bridegroom to carry me over that threshold, past that fear, leave it behind and enter into a place of peace, living a life free of fear.

For more information on Fearless, visit Thomas Nelson Publishing.