The Geranium Story: What's it all about, anyway?

So what's this "Geranium Story" all about, anyway?

 

It's about Lillian Picoletti...

At fifteen, she's become adept at hiding her wretched home-life - at not getting too close to anyone outside her family - at bearing up under the tremendous emotional strain her papa puts on their family. She desperately presses to finish high school and escape the gutter in which she was born.

 

It's about her mother, Sarah...

Trapped by religious and social constraints in an abusive, loveless marriage, she can't understand why her daughter Lillian won't submit to the lot in which she's placed. Yet Sarah, too, yearns for the peace and rest of which the radio preacher speaks.

 

It's about their neighbor, Emmeline...

And of how the loss of her own deepest desire opens verdant pathways into the lives of those around her.

 

 

Told from multiple perspectives, this 1930s-era coming-of-age novel tells the story of heart-wrenching sorrows alchemized by the Heavenly Father's redeeming grace.

 

Does it sound interesting? I'm so excited to share it with you - hopefully in mid-November {final release date to be determined}!

 

If you would like to join my Launch Team for this novel, I still have a couple of spaces open! Check out the link for more info: CLICK HERE.

 

 

Prospective readers, take note: This novel contains realistic {though not graphic} depictions of natural childbirth. It also contains {but does not condone} non-graphic depictions of physical abuse, adulterous relationships, and gambling. Intended for ages 15+.  This novel is written from a Christian worldview.

This post may be shared with:
Strangers and Pilgrims, The Modest Mom, What Joy is Mine, Yes They Are All Ours, Missional Call, A Mama's Story, Mom's the Word, Rich Faith Rising, Time Warp Wife, Cornerstone Confessions, Mom's Morning Coffee, So Much at Home, Raising Homemakers, Hope in Every Season, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, Woman to Woman Ministries, Whole-Hearted Home, A Soft Gentle Voice, My Daily Walk in His Grace, Messy Marriage, My Teacher's Name is Mama, The Charm of Home, Graced Simplicity, Children Are A Blessing, Mittenstate Sheep and Wool, Imparting Grace, Homestead Lady, Deborah Jean's Dandelion House, Preparedness Mama, A Look at the Book, Essential Thing Devotions, Count My Blessings, Beauty Observed, Christian Mommy Blogger, Serenity You, Renewed Daily, Sunday Stillness, The Beauty in His Grip, Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom

I Love You More Than...

"Many waters cannot quench love,

Nor can the floods drown it.

If a man would give for love

All the wealth of his house,

It would be utterly despised."

Song of Solomon 8:7 {nkjv}

 

 

It really comes down to love in the end.

 

This week, I swept, swept, swept up the stray wisps of pug fur and tracked-in dirt and thought about it -

 

Thought about the particular area of my life in which I feel the Holy Spirit giving the gentle nudge to change - to do differently than I have always done.

 

Which will cause me to be differently {yes, I'm using that as an adverb}.

 

I've felt His nudge in this area before - heard His voice tell me that, as Corrie Ten Boom says, He will walk with me over the fearful, unknown bridge of obedience in this thing.

 

I believe obeying is right - that God speaks Truth when He tells us that He rewards obedience.

 

But I love my disobedience and its perceived benefits.

 

I rationalize it: It isn't sin.

 

"Just" disobedience to the Holy Spirit.

 

So I hesitate - hesitate - hesitate... putting one foot on the bridge, then taking it off again.

 

And I think, "Why is it so hard for me to obey in this area?"

 

I'm Looking for a Few Good Women {or Men} - Launch Team!

Would you like to receive my latest book - the "Geranium story" I've been talking about - for FREE... BEFORE it's released?

Does it sound too good to be true?

It's not!

Read on to find out how YOU can be a part of my "LAUNCH TEAM."

HOW DOES A LAUNCH TEAM WORK?

Here's What I Do:

• Several weeks before I release my new book, I'll send you a digital copy via e-mail for free. You can choose between mobi {Kindle} or PDF format. These are called "advanced reader copies," or "ARCs."

Here's What You Do:

• You read the book before its official release date and post your honest review of the book {or a link to that review} on Amazon.com, as well as on any other social media and/or review sites you enjoy: Goodreads, Twitter, your blog, Pinterest, etc. I'll give you more details how you do this when I send you the book. Don't worry if you've never done it before; it's very easy!

That's it!

Why Do I Want to Give Away Books?

Why do I want to give away books, you might ask? Well, reviews help other readers make a decision about whether or not they should purchase a book, and it's a big help to have some in place before or on the official "launch day!"

 

Who Should Join the Launch Team?

Anyone who enjoys reading realistic, God-centered fiction written from a Christian world-view AND who enjoy sharing that experience with others through blogging, pinning, reviewing, sharing, etc. If you've read The House of Mercy, you know that I strive to write real-to-life, multi-perspective fiction that doesn't shy away from sensitive topics and that looks to Scripture as the final Word.

 

How Many People Can Join the Team?

Right now, I have room for a few more good folk on the Launch Team for "the Geranium story"!  {I'm so excited to share this story with you, by the way!}

 

How Should You Go About Joining?

If you'd like to be a part of my Launch Team, please use the CONTACT FORM on the right side of the home page of this blog. I'll get back to you promptly, letting you know if I have any spaces left on my team.

"Almost Glad that I Had Sinned:" A Reason for Regret and a Reason for Cheer

On a popular {food} blog I sometimes read, the writer mentioned that she had made many {non-food-related} "mistakes" in her life ... and that she was sorry for none of them. They made her, she claimed, into the person she has become, a person of whom she is very proud.

I blinked at the screen a few times and re-read the paragraph, wanting to ascertain that I'd read that correctly. She was proud of her mistakes? She regretted none of them?

Wow.

Well, I'll speak for myself only - I regret my "mistakes."

Yes, unfortunately, they have left their stamp on my life and person. And I'm not proud of them. I regret them. I regret my faithlessness when I haven't trusted God's perfect will for me, when I have believed the lie that He is not sufficient, when I have turned to my own paths and means, giving reason for those outside the fold to jeer and think less of the God whom I serve.

And yet...

Yet I am glad for the means of mercy which my errors have been. A stream through which our Heavenly Father could pour His redeeming love, a canvas upon which He could paint a picture of His unconditional faithfulness.

I am sorry for my mistakes - for my sins. I look at them and sigh.

And then I look at Christ. At His perfect beauty. At His supreme goodness. At His great love for sinners. At His passion to make them holy.

Sinners such as I am. "Mistakers" such as I. "Regreters" such as I.

It is the kind of mercy that, as George MacDonald says in Phantastes, "makes me almost glad that I had sinned," that I might be forgiven.

My musically-inclined husband has tattoos on his shoulders: treble clefs indelibly printed on his skin. He isn't proud of them; they remind him of his days of darkness, before he met his Savior. People have tried to be helpful and mentioned to me that tattoos can be removed... yet I prefer that my husband keeps them. They're a continual visual reminder of God's grace to my husband and to me, in giving me a godly man who has turned his face away from his past sins.

And perhaps, perhaps, perhaps... I wonder is that how we - how I - must come to regard all those things we regret ...?

Not as badges of honor because they've "made us into the people we are..."

But humbly, with gratitude that He works all things together for good... as evidence of His very magnificent grace?

"Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old."

Micah 7:18-20 {nkjv}