Guest Post-Author Carey Jane Clark

Please welcome Author Carey Jane Clark to My Only Vice! Carey kindly asked me to review her first novel After The Snow Falls you can go HERE for my review which was posted yesterday. Carey is a wife, mother and author. You can check out her blog Carey Jane Clark for more information about Carey and her family.

Carey's  guest post:

First of all, I want to thank Julie for the opportunity to be a guest at My Only Vice. I'm honored. Julie asked me what my inspiration for After the Snow Falls was--basically why I would choose such a difficult topic to write about, and whether there was a personal connection to the events of the story. (For a synopsis of the story, see the review yesterday.)

 

I don't think I set out to write about a difficult topic. My desire was to write something meaningful. I think it's just as possible to write something meaningful in a quirky, light hearted way. I really enjoy authors who are able to do that--to entertain you and keep you laughing and then turn around and make you take a look at yourself in the mirror.

 

I would actually like to be able to write that kind of fiction. I wrote a short piece once for a fiction class in which I created a character named Adelia Foster who was perpetually pregnant. This is part of the description of her:

 

But Adelia Foster did not glow and she did not look beautiful. She was a giant swollen marshmallow.

 

One day, perhaps, I'll be able to explore her further. I'd like to see her come to life in a story.

 

As far as what inspired me to write After the Snow Falls, I don't know that on a conscious level I was really aware of it until someone in my critique group asked me the same question: what motivated you to write about a topic like this? And I suddenly realized I was probably trying to work out an experience I had as a young person. When I was twelve years old, a family friend died of leukemia at the age of four. That experience had a profound effect on me, and I remember thinking: couldn't there have been some other outcome?

 

For some of the medical details, when I first began researching this story, I read the entire blog of a woman whose daughter had the same diagnosis as Caleb does. I followed this little girl's fight with her disease until the last post--the announcement of her passing. The mother wrote about her daughter with courage and strength of character. That mother was the inspiration for Leigh, who befriends Celia. In many ways, she was a compass to me as I wrote the story--a way to remember to keep the balance between the realities of the situation, and the joys that life brings even in the midst of it.

 

I think Celia, the main character, by contrast doesn't always handle things with strength and dignity, but there's probably more of me in Celia. The big lesson she has to learn is forgiveness. That's something I've definitely had to live through as well.

 

I guess ultimately, life is difficult and messy and imperfect, and my characters and their lives are too, but in the midst of that difficulty, there is hope. If readers come away with one impression after putting down my book, I would want it to be that.

Thank you so much Carey for your guest post! Carey has kindly offered to give away a copy of her book to one reader for either a Kindle or Epub. Leave a comment on this post and a winner will be selected next Wednesday December 22nd. 

After The Snow Falls by Carey Jane Clark

Celia and her husband Jeff are faced with a parent’s worst nightmare. Their son Caleb is diagnosed with a brain tumor. They must enter into a world of treatment with very little hope offered for healing.

Just as Celia’s life is crumbling around her she is also faced with her father coming back into her life. Alfie abandoned Celia and her mother when Celia was a young child. Alfie claims he is a “changed man”. Adele, Celia’s mother believes him; Celia though refuses to forgive him.

How far would a parent go to find a cure for their child? Celia explores the realm of alternative medicine while denying any spiritual intervention. Alfie wishes to share his spiritual change with Celia. He is sure that through prayer and forgiveness healing can begin.

Because of the subject matter it is hard to say, “I really enjoyed this book”. But when you take it apart and examine each character you find so much to like. Chapters are alternated between Alfie and Celia. What each one is going through during this process. The author has managed to capture heart-breaking emotions of parents faced with losing their child, consequences of choices that are made and the healing power of forgiveness. So despite the subject of the book, I really did enjoy After the Snow Falls because the characters and subject captured my heart as I read. 

Come back tomorrow(Friday December 16th) for a guest post by author Carey Jane Clark and a giveaway of her book After the Snow Falls for either a Kindle or ePub.

The Christmas Bus by Melody Carlson-Kindle

Christmas Valley capitalizes on it's name all year long. Every store and restaurant is Christmas themed. This year the local pastor and his wife who also run the Bed and Breakfast will sadly be alone. Their children are unable to come home for Christmas.

Inspired by one of her husbands sermons, Edith Ryan decides to open the Bed and Breakfast up to 5 people or families in need of a place to spend Christmas. Charles had preached about being hospitable because they never know when they may be entertaining angels unaware.

Pretty soon all 5 rooms in the Bed and Breakfast are filled up. One of the guests is cantankerous Myrtle. Myrtle seems to be ancient. She is "dropped off" in Christmas Valley and intends to spend 2 weeks at the Bed and Breakfast. Myrtle doesn't seem to know boundaries. She totally ignores the sign above Edith's kitchen that states "no guests beyond this point". She makes herself right at home. Myrtle has a tendency to make people angry also. Her and one of the church members butt heads instantaneously when Myrtle offers to "help" with the traditional Christmas pageant.

A young couple arrives in Christmas Valley. They are driving a broken down, very colorful bus. They are told to get it off the street. They try to get a room at the Bed and Breakfast but there are no more rooms left. Charles and Edith allow them to park their bus in front of the B&B for the night, little knowing that it will be for more than one night since the bus just broke down. Amy and Collin are so young and seem to be in desperate need of help. Not only has their bus broken down, but Amy is very pregnant.

Between Myrtle's shenanigans and worry over Amy and Collin, Edith and Charles have their hands full. Will they be able to make this Christmas special for their guests along with "entertaining an angel unaware"?

I thought this was a sweet Christmas read. It was entertaining as well as thought-provoking. I love the message of being hospitable to all because we may not know when we are entertaining angels unaware. Edith and Charles were perfect examples of two people caring for others no matter their circumstances. I may have to put this on my annual Christmas "read" list.

Christian Fiction Book Club last meeting December 17th

Renee at Black 'n Gold Girl's Book Spot will be hosting our last book club meeting this year. Meet at her blog on December 17th. We will be discussing She Walks In Beauty by Siri Mitchell. There's still time to get the book and join us for the discussion! Discussion questions are located at the end of the book.

O Little Town : A Novel by Don Reid-Kindle

Mt. Jefferson in the 1950's was your typical small town where everyone seems to know each other and their lives are intertwined.

It is Christmas 1958 and the story opens with a local pastor's daughter being caught shoplifting in the local department store. Not wanting to raise too big of a scene the manager of the store attempts to keep the news from getting out. Unfortunately he has to call Buddy the Chief of Police in.

Buddy is having problems of his own. He has just found out that his 16 year old daughter is pregnant. The baby's father is the son of a well-known doctor in town. Louis Wayne wants to do the right thing and marry Buddy's daughter. 

Walter is in the hospital. His daughters Doris and Colleen are two very different women. Doris has always tried to win her father's love even though she already had his love. She is a strong personality. And she is married to a doctor. Colleen has always been the favored daughter, but something is bothering her that she cannot figure out. Things just don't seem right between her husband Milton(the manager of Macalbee's department store) and herself.

When Buddy brings Pastor Franklin's daughter home he and his wife Dove are both disappointed in their daughter's behavior. Millie seems to have no remorse for what she has been caught doing. Dove decides to march up to the store and defend her daughter. She has been wanting to move from Mt. Jefferson for a long time. There is one temptation that she wants to flee.

Another story is woven into the main story. That is Walter's story from his youth. It is about the tragic loss of his first love. 

Everyone gathers Christmas eve for service at Pastor Franklin's church. He delivers a message on forgiveness. Hearts and lives are touched and healing can begin for so many.

I enjoyed this story very much. Everyone's lives interwoven together and the ultimate gift of forgiveness shines through.

Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos-NetGalley

Night of the Living Dead Christian:

One Man's Ferociously Funny Quest to Discover What It Means to Be Truly Transformed

 

 The author Matt Mikalatos plays a part in his story of a man trying to find what it means to be truly transformed. As "Matt" is out doing his Neighborhood watch duty one night he runs into a mad scientist(Culbetron) and his robot(Hibbs 3000). Pretty soon zombies arrive on the scene. Then his neighbor turns out to be a werewolf. 

 

Matt's werewolf neighbor is having trouble taming the beast within. His wife has now left him and taken his daughter with her. Matt, Culbetron and Hibbs decide to help Luther(werewolf) find a way of transforming himself from a beast to an acceptable citizen.

 

From a church full of zombies following a man and his rules instead of the Bible, to finally confronting his father, this is the journey of Luther who wants to be a better man yet instead of yielding his life to Christ like he should, is determined  to fix himself his own way.

 

One of the characters that I liked was a vampire. She represented a "transformed" life but still struggling with the "old" self and desires of her flesh. Matt Mikalatos has written a story that is thought-provoking and challenging along with being fun and a bit irreverent. He did wax preachy a couple of times, but brought us back into the story once more. 

 

I received my copy of Night of the Living Dead Christian from NetGalley and Tyndale House publishers. 

Dead Reckoning by Ronie Kendig(Kindle)

Shiloh's world is shattered when she is on a dive in India. Her best friend is shot and men are trying to kill her.

Reece is amazed at Shiloh's ability to get away from the men sent to kill her. He is trying to gain her trust and protect her while also protecting his heart from ever again falling in love with a strong-headed woman.

Shiloh doesn't know who to trust. Her best friend Khalid has just proposed marriage to her but she is unable to return his feelings. Shiloh has been estranged from her father for 15 years. She has no intentions of ever trusting a man in her life again. Why then, when she doesn't even know him, does Reece garner such trust from her?

Forced to be a player in a game she never wanted to be put in again, Shiloh must learn to forgive and open her heart once more to a faith that she abandoned many years before.

Ronie Kendig knows how to write a fast-paced, action-packed novel! I enjoyed this one from the very beginning.