And the winner is...

Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Ours was very nice and very quiet...well as quiet as a house with three little ones can be. ;-)

Now that I have all my decorations up and gifts wrapped... (Please don't throw rotten tomatoes at the screen! It's self-preservation and protection of all mankind that I do not go into a Mall during the holidays.)

I'm kicking off December by giving some cool stuff away.

First up is Rachel Hauck's blog tour book Lost in NashVegas. Deborah was the blessed and happy winner of Rachel's new book.

We'll be doing more blog tours in the coming months, so keep checking back for those.

Next up are some fun Defenders of Hope items that we're giving away monthly and then some will be included in the Grand Prizes that will be given away in February on my website and in April at my book launch party.

We just ordered these way cool puzzles with the Ransomed Dreams full cover on them. Talk about amazing what they can do with a puzzle. We now have some yummy chocolate bars with a Ransomed Dreams wrapper, and those are over the top cool! My incredible web designer had a blast working on the wrappers with some fun stats on the back. The third DOH item is a Ransomed Dreams mug with a hard-for-me-to-give-away Starbucks gift card inside.

So how do you put your hands on these things???

Come visit the Defenders of Hope website and the Heart Chocolate site and sign up for the DOH newsletter.

Okay, now I'm done with the self-promotion stuff. Those of you who know me know how yucky it feels for me to say, "Hey, go buy my book!" At the same time, I hope you all know some of the why behind it. If not, here it is in a nutshell...

I write because God gave me the stories and nudged me little by little down this particular path. That's the (sometimes) easy part. It's the promotion that's far harder because so much seems like hawking wares. But the reality is my publisher, a Christian business, took a chance on me because they believed in the story I had to tell. The story I believe in or I wouldn't have told it in the first place.

So for me, promotion is my way of giving back to a publisher I believe in too. They will spend upwards of $50,000 just putting one novel out there. I want to be a good steward of both God and my publisher's money and their belief in me.

I also want to see Ransomed Dreams do well because God changed me in the writing of it and I pray He will use the reading of it to draw hearts closer to Him.

Do I hope to make money in promotion? I'd be lying if I said no. Yes, I would love to earn royalties and see Ransomed Dreams sell well so that I'll be offered another contract. But another reality of working in Christian industry is that I won't be earning money for exotic vacations or to have towel warmers in my bathroom (people really have those, but I'm not one of them). More like I'll put braces on my kids without going into debt, help my husband go back to school for his Masters, save for three little ones' college education, and help keep our used cars repaired and running.

Even after all that reality, my goal is that there are other winners in the promotion game. Who?

My hope and prayer is it's you all.

Deep down the reason I keep coming back to in why I do what I do is sheer obedience and the heart desire that God use me to serve and encourage you.

Please pray that I hit that mark with a bull’s-eye. Because in doing so, that brings glory to our loving heavenly Daddy.

And in the end, that’s what it’s all about.