Instant winner!
The second reader to comment on my last Book Blast, in September, is the winner of my drawing. I usually give an ebook by another author, but since I’m celebrating the new release of Short Poppies, I’ll give that ebook away instead.
Short Poppies: New Zealand sounds more like a tourist destination than a mission field, but when Levi is thrust into a short term ministry there, things aren’t as easy as he expected.
You can see who the winner is and read more about Short Poppies at the end of this Book Blast. Even if you are not the winner, you can still read Short Poppies.
Buy it at other online stores.
How do you feel when you finish a huge project that means a lot to you?
You might be making a challenging quilt, rebuilding a classic car, or scrapbooking all your family memories. By the time you finish you’re exhausted, but you look at your labor of love and feel the satisfaction of knowing you gave your best effort. Maybe you want to show everyone, or maybe you’re private enough to want to soak in the feeling of accomplishment on your own.
That’s how I feel right now. I returned from our last furlough in the States in January 2018. I had an idea for a series of books about mission ministry. For some reason, realistic novels about people in ministry are rather hard to find. Especially if they don’t deal with moral failure or dark human issues like terrorism or child trafficking. Though Christian contemporary novels that don’t fit the romance or suspense genre can be hard to sell, this is the kind of book I’d like to read. More than that, in 2018 I felt God leading me forward.
Instead of planning, writing, and publishing Book 1 before moving to Book 2, I worked on this New Beginnings series differently. I outlined Book 1 and wrote the basic dialog and action, then did the same with Book 2 and 3. A year ago I designed the covers to all three books. Then I fleshed out the first book and am now releasing the ebook of Short Poppies. I plan to go on to finish the other two books, publish those ebooks and then publish all three as paperbacks.
So how do I feel? In one word—exhausted. Since September we’ve had extra responsibilities in our ministry. When I realized I could finish Short Poppies by Christmas, I also started working toward that goal pretty hard. But I’m also glad I wrote the basic structure of all three books before publishing the first. This allowed me to connect plot elements and concepts throughout the series and design book covers that went together. Now, as I publish Book 1, I know I’m not far away from publishing Books 2 and 3. Lord willing, I’d love to publish both of them in 2022.
I’m also excited to give birth to my new book baby, hoping that New Beginnings will give insight into church planting in a progressive country like New Zealand. This series shows a realistic view of ministry with its disappointing outcomes, encouraging signs, and light-hearted moments.
Do you love to find new Christian songs that really speak to you?
I love the song “Blueprints.” The words not only speak to my own heart, they fit the plot of Short Poppies perfectly. Lauri Lou Jones and Ben Everson, the writers of the song, gave me permission to use the lyrics in my book. You can listen to it here.
Blueprints by Lauri Lou Jones and Ben Everson
Are you ready for Christmas?
My husband and I love to give ebooks for Christmas. For the price of a greeting card you can give hours of inspiring, distinctively Christian fiction. What a great way to relax after the hectic hubbub of the holidays! Getting your fiction in a handy, ebook format gives you immediate delivery with no postage costs. This Christmas I’m offering Short Poppies at an introductory price, but the price will go up in 2022. Since it’s hard to give wrap an ebook, you can print the image below and slip into a Christmas stocking.
Here’s how:
1. Purchase the ebook.
Buy it at other online stores.
2. Copy the image below into your word processing program and enlarge it to fit a full page. (It works for letter size or A4 size paper.) Print the page and trim off the white section on the bottom.
3. Tuck it into a business size envelope. As Kiwis say, “Easy, Peasy.”
Now for the free drawing.
And the winner is … Charlene Dubose. The only thing I know about Charlene is she uses her cat’s name for her email address. Congratulations, Charlene.
Short Poppies by Deb Brammer
As the youth pastor of Victory Road Church, Levi is pumped about the growth he sees—until he gets fired. Suddenly he is pushed into six weeks of missions work in New Zealand. Equipped with 147 sermons and 793 games, he feels ready for anything. Even then, he finds working in a small mission church isn’t as easy as he thought.
MacKenzie is almost engaged to Mike, so why does a six-week mission trip draw her in a different direction? When a medical emergency changes the dynamics, Kenzie is forced to work under Levi while he tries to force big church ideas on a small mission church.
How much damage could they do in six weeks? They are about to find out when their safety net vanishes.