Guest Author: Toni Shiloh

Who are you, really?

It’s a question that we contemplate sooner or later in life. Sometimes we question our identity because we were raised by a single parent. Other times, we discover a foundational piece of information that rocks our world. Examining ourselves is often uncomfortable and something we’d rather put off.

But we can find comfort that the Great I Am knows exactly who we are. After all, God knows us.

“My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought 

in the lowest parts of the earth.”

—Psalm 139:15 NKJV

God knows us and it’s terrifying and reassuring all at once. We can’t hide from Him, but our secrets are still safe in His presence. Unlike people, we can trust God with the knowledge of us.

But that’s not always the case with other people. In my novelette, A Proxy Wedding, Carly James and Damien Nichols have to decide if they’ll share their innermost secrets with another. Can they trust the other to safeguard their secrets? Or will they be let down?

It’s a tough choice to make in life, but with God’s guidance, we can handle the decision and the aftermath, whether good or bad.

Do you feel safe with the knowledge that God knows all?

About the book

Carly James values loyalty and friendship above all. So when her best friend calls asking her to be a proxy bride, she says, ‘yes.’ How hard can it be to say ‘I do’ so that her best friend can be with the one she loves? Only, Carly never counted on the feelings that began to swirl around with the proxy groom.

Damien Nichols likes life lined up from A to Z, but when his best friend calls in a favor, disorder begins to reign. Instead of taking a quick flight to the proxy wedding, he has to take a road trip with the proxy bride. Carly’s free-spirit attitude bumps heads with his meticulous approach to life. As Damien discovers the woman underneath the carefree façade, his emotions become involved.

Will love become real at A Proxy Wedding?

About Toni

Toni Shiloh is a wife, mom, and Christian fiction writer. Once she understood the powerful saving grace, thanks to the love of Christ, she was moved to honor her Savior. She writes to bring Him glory and to learn more about His goodness.

She spends her days hanging out with her husband and their two boys. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the president of the ACFW Virginia Chapter.

Website

Purchase Link

Friendship Month: My Mother, My Friend

by Stephanie Smith

As we celebrate National Friendship month, I searched the Bible for scripture related to friendship. I came across a few, but this one stood out among the rest: "Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?" (Proverbs 20:6 NLT)

Growing up, I was always close to my mom, but I didn't think of her as a friend—let alone my best friend—until I was a mom myself and could appreciate her steadfast loyalty and unwavering reliability.

As a kid, I wanted to spend all my spare time with my best friends, having sleepovers and sharing secrets. Our dreams were grand, and life seemed full of possibilities. BFF's 4-ever was our motto and in my youth I never questioned that loyalty. But, as we got older, sleepovers were fewer and further between, replaced by boys or homework. Before long we were out of school, getting married and having babies. The same people I'd promised to be BFF's 4-ever became virtual strangers.

When I was 22, on the road to divorce with a two year old to care for, who do you think I turned to for help? Not my friends, but my mom. Being single herself, she offered to help me raise my daughter until "one of us remarries." Can't get much more loyal or reliable than that! My mom became my anchor and best friend. She allowed me to give my daughter a better life; much better than had I been forced to raise her as a truly single parent.

23 years later, my daughter is grown and on her own. As it happens, my mom and I have never remarried so our pact of living together is still firmly in place. I can't imagine our lives any other way, but if God blesses us with finding love, I pray that no matter what we will never be too far apart. Looking back, I realize she's the one person who's been there all along, patiently waiting for me to see she was and always will be the most reliable friend I'll ever have. I'm proud to call her my best friend. She is a gift from God and I love her with all my heart.

Stephanie Smith lives in the Pacific Northwest and enjoys listening to Christian rock music while she writes, spending time with her family, watching British television, or reading YA fantasy novels. After September is her first novel. Read more about Stephanie.





Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)

Friendship Month: What is a True Friend?

by Pamela S. Thibodeaux

Do you have a friend for whom you’d lay down your life?

We all know Jesus is such a friend and He did just that, but what about one in human form? How about one you’ve known for life?

I am blessed to have a few long-time (I’m talking since childhood) friends, some special friends I’ve known for shorter periods of time and even more blessed to have numerous acquaintances that I call ‘friend.”

Like you, Delia! :-) 

There are work relationships, writer friends, Internet friends, etc. But what is a true friend?

My mother and her best friend of 56 years passed away exactly 2 weeks apart. Made us all wonder if their souls had planned it that way. Is it possible they’d been friends before….in heaven or, if you believe in reincarnation, perhaps in another lifetime? Is it probable that, in unspoken agreement, neither cared to navigate life on earth without the other?

I don’t know for sure about any of these possibilities, but it is strange they met while working at the same place, made a connection that lasted a lifetime and left the worldly plane so closely together.

Proverbs 18:24 teaches us … “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

That’s exactly the kind of friendship Craig Harris and Scott Hensley share. Fate had them neighbors, scandal had them brothers, but the two share a friendship many of us long for. Follow these beloved characters throughout the years as love crosses the lines of age and strengthens the bonds of friendship.

Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”




Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest * Amazon Author Page * BookBub

Purchase The Tempered Series bundle


Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)

Friendship Month: What a Friend We Have in Jesus

by Tanya Hanson

When I was a little girl attending Lutheran school, the hymn What a Friend We Have in Jesus was one of our standard sing-alongs in the classroom and at chapel. Sorry, but I thought the tune was a snore even at six years old. Let me have the rousing Onward Christian Soldiers any way! Even the doleful Go to Dark Gethsemane revved me up more.

But eight elementary-school years drilled the beautiful words into my mind. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear, and what a privilege, yes, a privilege—to carry everything to Him in prayer.

I picked up on the warning of the peace we forfeit when we don’t bring Him everything in

prayer. And I got a lot of the hymn right. When I was discouraged, when I had trials and temptations, I prayed. I pleaded. Of course I prayed my eyes out during high school and

college and the start of real life. In adulthood, I prayed about big stuff, like my dad’s fatal car accident, and losing my “twin brother” Mike to cancer. I prayed about the little stuff, like a nasty headmaster or picky editor, or a rejection for a manuscript that had been pitched and requested. I got through it all.

But I wasn’t doing the rest of it. The unspoken “everything.” I didn’t thank Him enough, and worse, I didn’t simply praise Him.

Then cancer hit my household. My husband Tim.

Worse, the nightmare, the upheaval, the battle, started just one month after we lost Mike to a sudden, irrevocable cancer. Tim had grown up with Mike, and they met me in high school. Mike and I shared the same birthday and we celebrated 35 of them together. Everybody knows about my “twin brother” being dearer to me than any blood kin. Best man at my wedding. Pallbearer for my father. My son’s godfather. Ski trips at Tahoe, camping in the Sierras, my daughter’s birth, confirmations and graduations… Yes, every hill and valley of life, Mike had been at my side.

Until I needed him most. Until my husband faced surgery, chemotherapy, and complications, complications, and complications some more.

I felt angry. Alone. But I wasn’t. When I scrambled out of the initial darkness, I remembered another best friend. Jesus.

And I remembered the “everything.” On my knees, I promised my Lord and Savior I’d bring Him everything. My heart, my terror for my husband, my plea for a cure. My tears over losing Mike.

As well as the everything else. Each morning during those dreadful months of chemo and recovery, I stepped outside on the patio and prayed. But the first thing was thanksgiving, for my kids and grandkids, for the wise oncologist who gave me his home phone number in case I needed to talk, any time day or night. For neighbors who brought me food, for kind strangers on a cancer loop who got me through dark nights. Then of course, I begged for my husband’s health and life.

Those were the needful things, the expected things. The next thing I did, and sometimes I had to force it out, was simply to praise God.

It worked.

These days, my husband is cancer-cured, and we enjoy the blessings of our life to the fullest. Our three grandchildren including a newborn baby girl fulfill every dream we’ve ever had. Mike’s daughters will always be my beloved nieces. His wife, whom I call my sister-in-law, is coming this very weekend for some girl time even though she lives hours away. My wonderful friend and brother didn’t leave me alone, after all.

Nor did my Lord Jesus.

I still “get” the hymn. I pray, I try. I admit the “help me” and “thank you” prayers often take precedence over the downright praise, but I try. I truly do.

And my Best Friend knows.




California beach girl and country gramma Tanya Hanson lives on the Central Coast with her firefighter-husband. Close enough to their three grandchildren for a lot of spoiling, she also enjoys traveling with her personal hero and volunteering at the local horse rescue. She is multi-published in many genres, but inspirational romance always reminds her of God's great gifts of love and faith.



Contact:

Website   Petticoats & Pistols (Group Blog)


Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)

Friendship Month: A Cup of Tea Friendship

by Marilyn Leach

Do you enjoy getting little memento’s from friends?

My dear friends that live in Reading, Berkshire, England gave me a special little trinket. It now hangs by my kitchen window that looks out onto a gracious green space, home to an apple tree and blue spruce. And, I won’t soon forget the day Lillie and Andy presented the gift to me.

Weary from my overnight flight from Denver to England, customs was a blur. But, nearing the gate at Heathrow where people stand with names printed on tag boards and loved ones await, I became energized.

I stepped through the doorway in the waiting area.

“Marilyn,” was called out with devil-may-care delight. “E-E-E Marilyn.” Lillie’s smile was like a neon light. Andy was around the ropes and pulling my roller bag before I could say God Save the Queen. We shared generous hugs.

This wasn’t the first time it happened, and it hasn’t been the last.

In a flash, we were in the car, making way and chatting at the same high speed we hurled down the motorway.

Arriving at Andy and Lillie’s gracious abode felt like home away from home. The Harris Family has always made it so. From the first time I entered their door many years ago, warm hospitality bubbled. And it was no different this day. My heart danced when those special, inevitable words rang out just after I hung my coat on the peg rail. “I’ll put the kettle on.”

The long plane journey faded as laughter and chit-chat of family and events accompanied a most welcomed cup of soothing tea. Sometimes in the back garden, or the breakfast room, often in the sitting room, we drink in the flavorful brew and the joy of being with one another. And so goes the entire time we spend together. Overnight outings, visiting stately homes, riding steam trains, or simple days in, good times are always punctuated with a steaming cuppa. It’s a simple celebration of life and friendship.

This particular visit, as was habit, Lillie had a little gift bag for me. Wrapped up inside was the memento that I’m writing about now. It was a teacup-shaped ceramic tile with a little hanging ribbon. The caption engraved upon it read:

Life is like a cup of tea: to be filled to the brim
and enjoyed with friends.

Truer words were seldom spoken, a sentiment I’ll always treasure.

Now, brewing tea has become a daily occurrence in my home. And every sighting of that memento hanging near my electric kettle reminds me of pleasant memories with special friends. Thank you, Andy and Lillie.

Though Marilyn grew up in the Western United States, she became a dyed-in-the-wool British enthusiast after exploring the UK and making friends there. She has co-authored plays that have been performed in both secular and church venues. Her many devotionals have appeared in such works as The Quiet Heart, Big Dreams in Small Places, and Guideposts. In her current British mystery series with Pelican Books, Berdie Elliott is the intrepid vicar’s wife who solves crime with a little help from above. Marilyn lives in a lakeside cottage on the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

Contact:

Website   Amazon Author Page   Pre-order ENIGMA OF FIRE: A BERDIE ELLIOTT PENTECOST MYSTERY(Releases March 1st)
Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)

Friendship Month: Celebrating Sisterhood

by LoRee Peery

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. ~Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

I took notes for this post while sitting on my brand new deck listening to birds chirp, and a squirrel chatter at me from the oak tree. They’ll get used to me. I’m not an interloper, I’m a friend.

Next week, I’ll sit there with my two adult daughters for coffee. We‘ll chatter so much we won’t hear the creek burbling over its mini waterfall. I celebrate the fact we are friends as well as family.

Oh, what friends I’ve been blessed with over the years through the sisterhood of Bible study groups, and the sisterhood of writers. Romance Writers Sisterhood was the title of the very first blog I wrote after my first published novella. I’ve been asked how I can consider authors I’ve only met online as friends. Let me tell you, I love Delia, and countless other Christian writers I’ve yet to meet face to face.

We’re friends because of our interaction through published stories and email messages. We’ve prayed for one another. We have common bonds as lovers of Jesus and lovers of writing.

I imagine certain words create particular pictures in the minds of readers or listeners. Try it on to see what picture comes forth. Daughter. Friend. Sister. Mother. Grandmother. Grandchild. Sisterhood. Writer. Church goer.

Years ago, a friend and I created Lincoln Word Weavers, a Christian group that crossed all genres. I think it lasted a couple years. To my knowledge, no one published as a result of that critique group. However, we created deeper friendships.

I joined Romance Writers of America in 2002 and learned more about writing and publishing in six months than I had in the ten years prior. I realized immediately that I had a bond with anyone I came in contact with. The local chapter I'm part of now is Prairieland Romance Writers. We writers have a common passion (or compulsion), a synergy, that binds us together. From a local chapter to the wider American Christian Fiction Writers, I can still be amazed at the camaraderie and generosity of individuals. Whether those writers are unpublished or have a hundred best sellers under their belt, they share whatever they can for the common good.

The sisterhood of writers recognizes individual voice as one that cannot be duplicated. Romance writers tell the happily-ever-after with familiar themes; but always with unique qualities of that writer’s distinctive voice. Another sisterhood (and brotherhood) I cherish is the Pelican Book Group Publishing family.

Do you belong to a group where you have a like-minded bond? Sometimes, that group equals two. If you don’t share a sisterhood, pray about it, and seek out a friend to share National Friendship Month with.

May I make a last suggestion? “What a Friend We have in Jesus” was my mother’s favorite hymn. How about taking a few moments and sing it as a prayer to the best Friend any of us could ever have.

Inspirational romance author LoRee Peery strives to remember the Lord’s redeeming grace each day when she surveys her sense of place in Him and where He has placed her. She clings to I John 5:4 and prays her blended family and dozen grandchildren see that faith. Her Frivolities Series and other publications are available at Pelican Book Group and Amazon author page.

Touches of Time Amazon link


Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)

Friendship Month: Forever Friends

by Gail Kittleson

Those friendships that last and last, unstained and unstrained by the decades, mean so much to us. A woman I know in her nineties cherishes two of these relationships from far in the past. She and four or five other girls grew up together in a tiny Iowa town and remained forever friends. One by one, these women pass from this world, but their memory lives on in the friends they leave behind.

What has held them together in spite of long absences, illness, marriage (and broken marriages)? I think it’s that oft-used phrase coined by Anne of Green Gables. They’re kindred spirits. Most of us recognize that unique bond, and long for it to be repeated often throughout our lives as we meet people. Because kindred spirits are very difficult to tear asunder.

Come what may, we stick together. So many types of relating have opened up to us, with the world becoming smaller and smaller. Possibilities to make acquaintances, almost-friends and true comrades abound. Sometimes, though, circumstances and attitudes stand in the way. After six decades of relating with people, I believe that true friendship qualifies as a modern-day miracle. Willa Cather wrote, Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Ah, yes. Thinking about lasting friendships brings two of my characters to mind. Addie Bledsoe and Kate Isaacs, friends from elementary school on, lived in the World War II era, a time when many lost dear friends and loved ones to the war.

Perhaps that fact heightened their commitment to one another, but Addie, a young Iowa farm wife whose husband didn’t like Kate at all, stuck to their friendship when Kate boarded a Red Cross ship to search for her husband in England. An RAF pilot, he was downed in a crash and taken to an undisclosed location in London, so Kate determined to find him.

She made a pact to correspond with Addie, who had her own battles to fight with her cantankerous husband Harold on their Iowa farm. These two fast friends’ letters back and forth across the Atlantic bound them together even more powerfully, testifying to the incredible efficacy of the written word.

Both girls maintained a Christian worldview, although life’s trials and the war certainly caused them to question things. But having a trusted pal with whom to share their questions made all the difference in the world.

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24, New Living Translation

  Addie and Kate’s friendship certainly proved this scripture. Their story is told in In Times Like These and released in April of 2016. Their mutual commitment stood the test of time, so much so that it required a couple of sequels, one of which releases next February with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.

  Here’s to faithful alliances that endure!

About Gail Kittleson:

Late blooming women's fiction author Gail Kittleson writes mostly WWII stories of overcoming fear and finding one's voice. She and her husband enjoy family in northern Iowa and the Arizona Ponderosa pine forest in winter. Gail taught college expository writing and facilitates memoir writing and fiction workshops.


Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)

National Friendship Month: Friends are Kisses

Did you know September is National Friendship Month?

This month on Chirp ‘N Chatter, it's a celebration of friends. We'll call it the Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship Shindig. I’ve invited several authors to join the fun and help me bring you at least two posts on friendship each week during September.

The only thing missing from this party is YOU! You know you love friends, so go on…grab a couple of yours and join us for a friendship bash. (That means share our web address with your friends and invite them to the party!) Those of you who visit and leave a comment on every Friendship post this month will be entered into a drawing for a virtual "gift basket" packed with gifts from various authors. To help keep you on track, I'm posting the schedule in the right sidebar of this page. More authors may be added during the month, so keep an eye on that schedule and make sure you don't miss a date. You'll want to be eligible to win that gift basket! :)

Below is my Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship Shindig post.

FRIENDS ARE KISSES

by Delia Latham

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.—Author Unknown

Everyone needs at least one friend she can share her heart with, no matter how painful, embarrassing, or uncomfortable the subject. Someone she can laugh with when things are wonderful, and who will cry with her when life brings tears.

Having one such friend is indeed a blessing. The person who has more than one friend of the heart…that person is wealthy beyond imagination.

I have little in the way of monetary riches, but I'm wealthy nonetheless. I am blessed with friends I’ve known from childhood, as well as new friends who fit so well into my life that they feel as though I’ve known them that long.

These friends are like rich, delicious chocolate kisses sprinkled along the path of my life!

To all of my friends—and you know who you are—thank you! Thank you for being a friend. Thank you for knowing me, and loving me anyway. Thank you for caring and sharing, for laughing and crying, for being there through thick and thin...and then some. Thank you for kissing my life with your friendship.

Here’s what some folks who are better known (and certainly smarter than me) have to say on the subject:

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have,

and one of the best things you can be.

—Douglas Pagels

Only your real friends will tell you

when your face is dirty.

—Sicilian Proverb

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes

when they're not so good,

and sympathizes with your problems

when they're not so bad.

—Arnold H. Glasgow

A true friend never gets in your way

unless you happen to be going down.

—Arnold H. Glasgow

The most beautiful discovery

true friends make is that they can

grow separately without growing apart.

—Elisabeth Foley

A friend knows the song in my heart

and sings it to me when my memory fails.

—Donna Roberts

Friendship is unnecessary,

like philosophy, like art....

It has no survival value;

rather it is one of those things

that give value to survival.

—C.S. Lewis

The best kind of friend is

the one you could sit on a porch with,

never saying a word,

and walk away feeling like that was

the best conversation you've had.

—Author Unknown

Great stuff, isn’t it? :) I do love my friends, and I’m so grateful that they’ve honored me by accepting me into their circles of life.

Above all, I’m thankful that I have a friend in Jesus…He’s everything to me!

James 2:23 (KJV)— And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.


Leave a comment on every Chirp 'N Chatter Friendship post in September for a chance to win the fantastic virtual gift basket! (See the 09/01/2016 Gift Basket post.)