Deb’s Books Blast/Deb’s Ministry Blog

Deb’s Book Blast gives you a front row seat to what’s happening with Deb’s books. If you sign up on this email list you’ll get:

  • News about the release of Deb’s upcoming books
  • Insider information about her books
  • Notice of free and discount Kindle books by Deb and other Christian authors
  • Deb’s perspective on distinctively Christian fiction

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Deb’s Ministry Blog shares articles of interest to people in a small church or mission ministry. These are practical and encouraging articles that may be shared freely.

You’ll receive emails every month or so and you may unsubscribe at any time. Your privacy will be respected. Your name and address will not be given to anyone else for any other purpose.

KU Christian Books and Dog Church

Dear Reader Friends,

It’s great to have Kindle Unlimited and have access to so many books. Sometimes, however, too many options can make it hard to know which books to choose. From now until the end of April, I’m partnering with other Christian fiction authors to share our books which are free to KU subscribers. I haven’t read all these books, but they should all be both clean and Christian. Why not try one out and find out about a Christian author who is new to you?

My books Short Poppies and Broken Windows are both featured in this promo. Due to a mistake that can’t be corrected, it looks like Broken Windows is no longer offered, but you can still find it on Amazon KU.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/KUChristianFiction/ylvbekxdfz

Many of my books are also now offered in Kindle Unlimited. Here’s a list of them:

New Beginnings Series:

Short Poppies

Give It a Go

Pop In for a Cuppa

Art Mystery Series:

Broken Windows

Déjà Who?

I Scream

True Story and Companion Bible Study:

Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story

I Survived! :5 Bible Characters Who Survived Disasters

On a personal note, the most exciting thing that’s happened in our family since my last Book Blast is getting a new family member. Benji Barnabas Brammer is our new dog!

Since we got married 47 years ago, we’ve travelled a lot. Being missionaries meant leaving our fields of service for regular furloughs and extensive travels during those furloughs. That made owning a dog complicated. About 30 years ago, when we lived in Taiwan, we did have Muffin, a white toy poodle. Sadly, after two years, Muffin was killed in an accident. Other than those two years, we were completely dogless. By Christmas of 2024, however, we had settled down in our Iowa home for retirement. No more excuses. I really needed a dog!

Benji, a black miniature poodle puppy, became our dog! He stole our heart from the first moment. Since our two daughters currently don’t have a dog, Benji became the dog for the whole family.

While we love him dearly and can hardly keep our hands off him, we had never raised a puppy before so we weren’t quite prepared for the parenting job he would require. While human babies go through some stages of development one at a time, our puppy was going through potty training, teething (chewing), and crying (barking) through the night all at one time. Thankfully, he is mainly potty trained now and doesn’t bark much throughout the night. Whew! What a relief!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I had a great idea. “How come churches don’t allow dogs to come?” I asked. Benjie loves to meet people and dogs and I could imagine going to a church that allows dogs, showing Benji off and getting to know the dogs of my church friends.

It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Then we took Benji in for what we thought was a free nail trim at one of our local pet stores. He met a leashed dog in an aisle. Suddenly, the other dog snapped at our sweet little Benji! Another dog barked loudly from the grooming section. In the grooming area a large basset hound displayed serious signs of stress while a groomer gave him a bath. I realized then that dogs often feel stressed in unfamiliar places, especially while they are being groomed or have different restrictions they are used to. Can you imagine the pandemonium with a church full of dogs?

So much for dog church.

Spring is just around the corner, at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. May this be a joyful time for you wherever you are today. If you’re feeling stressed, I hope you have opportunity to read an uplifting Christian book.

True Thanksgiving Story

I’ve posted this story before but I’m posting it again now, especially for my new Iowa friends who are unfamiliar with this story. Mary Weaver was a godly caregiver for a baby in Eldora, Iowa. When the baby died, Mary was charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment. She was considered guilty until proven innocent and had to fight to clear her name. Steve Brennecke, her lawyer and personal friend, was convinced of her innocence and worked hard to defend her. But after her second trial, Mary found herself in prison.

This Thanksgiving story in an excerpt of the book Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story by Deb Brammer and Steve Brennecke. As I wrote this story I was continually challenged by Mary’s thankfulness in a very difficult situation. I hope this story will be a blessing to you during this Thanksgiving season.

Prison Blues: a Thanksgiving Challenge

Mary Weaver sat on her prison bunk and slipped a family photo from the pages of her Bible. It pictured her with her husband and two children, before she was sentenced to life in prison without parole. She caressed her red-headed son John and his blonde sister Catherine in the picture. For sixteen months she had only seen them once a week when her husband brought them to the prison visiting room.

It all started January 22, 1993 when Mary was providing childcare for 11-month-old Melissa. Mary was putting the baby’s snowsuit on when Melissa quit breathing. Mary called 9-1-1 and performed CPR until the ambulance came, but the baby died within a day. The autopsy found a two-inch skull fracture and other severe injuries that were seven to ten days old. Some doctors ignored these older injuries and believed Melissa’s death was caused by acute injuries from shaking and possibly slamming the baby just before she quit breathing. Since Mary was with Melissa during the forty-two minutes before she quit breathing, they believed Mary must have caused the fatal injuries.

Mary had never done anything to hurt Melissa but opinion on her guilt was divided. She was eventually sent to prison for murder. Her lawyers were seeking to appeal her case, but over a year had passed and they still hadn’t been able to get a new trial. Meanwhile Mary was separated from her husband and kids who were now five and six years old.

Mary felt sure God would eventually free her and clear her name. She was a Christian and she knew God would get her through prison one day at a time. But she grieved for her children and unsaved husband. Months had passed into a year and more and her children were growing up without her. She would never get those years back.

As Mary sat in her cell worrying about her family, a guard appeared at the door. “Mrs. Weaver? You got a visitor.”

Mary set her Bible aside and preceded the guard down the prison corridor. Who could this be? As she stepped into the visitor’s room Catherine skipped up to her in a pink tutu and leotard.

“Mommy, Mommy, I’m going to my dance recital! Aunt Lisa brought me so you could fix my hair.” Catherine jumped around until Mary could hardly get a hug from her.

Mary smiled her thanks at her friend, Lisa Murphy, who had figured out this creative way to include Mary in her daughter’s special occasion.

Mary drew her daughter close. “I’d love to fix your hair. Shall we do French braids?”

“Yes, yes, yes, with pink ribbons!” Catherine bounced with every word.

Mary removed ribbons and elastic bands from Catherine’s ponytail and pulled long blonde strands into sections with her fingers.

“Hold still,” she reminded her daughter as she started one braid. Mary breathed in the fruity fragrance of the superfine hair as she began to weave the strands into identical braids on either side of her daughter’s head, then tied perfect pink bows at each end.

Catherine shook her head to feel her new hairdo. “Thank you, Mommy! I can’t wait to see myself in the mirror.”

Mary surreptitiously wiped tears with one sleeve. “You look beautiful. Can you show me your dance?”

Catherine performed several ballet steps, ending with a lopsided pirouette. Mary clapped loudly. “Good job! Just remember, when you’re in that recital today, I’m going to be thinking about you.”

Catherine gazed at her mom with pleading eyes. “I wish you could come to my recital.”

Mary blinked some tears from her eyes. “Me too, sweetheart, but Aunt Lisa will take pictures and I’ll study them carefully. Just remember that your mommy is very proud of you!”

Mary gave her daughter a quick, prison-acceptable hug and watched the two walk away. Satan whispered, “You are missing her recital and all the other important moments in her life.”

Mary lifted her chin. But God allowed me to fix her hair. God gave me that precious moment. God is good.

She thought of other ways God had allowed her to mother her children as well. God had given Mary a prison job, and her wages had been raised from thirty-eight to forty-one cents an hour. So what if it was only ten percent of minimum wage? The job made her time pass more quickly, and she could use the money in the commissary or craft store. Supporters could also add twenty dollars a week to her prison account. The activities directors had been especially kind to use this money to purchase fabric and patterns for her. Mary had been able to sew outfits for the kids, paint T-shirts, and buy presents for them.

Mary returned to her cell, sat on her bunk, opened her Bible, and prayed. Lord, help me to be thankful for what I have, not to complain about what I don’t have.

A prison sentence made it easy to slide into self-pity. Unfairness could defeat her but only if she let it. Instead she thought about The Hiding Place, a prison library book she had recently read. Corrie ten Boom had hidden Jews in Holland during World War II. The Nazis had caught her and thrown her into a bitter cold prison for four months, then a women’s extermination camp in Germany. Except for her sister, who was imprisoned with her for a time, Corrie had almost no contact with her family. She and her sister existed in overcrowded, filthy cells with little regard for sanitation and little to eat. They were allowed no exercise or fresh air.

Like Mary, Corrie was unfairly imprisoned, yet Corrie’s sister challenged her to focus on what she had. Corrie accepted the challenge. In solitary confinement she hungered for human contact, but she thanked God for an ant that crawled into her cell and provided a bit of company. In one of her prison cells, for one hour a day, she could stretch herself out tall and feel the sun shine on her head and chest. She thanked God for the sunshine. Later, at the extermination camp, she slept piled on a straw-covered platform with many other prisoners, sandwiched between other crowded platforms. Fleas infested the stinking straw, but Corrie even learned to thank God for the fleas. The tiny insects kept the guards away from the overcrowded bunk, where she hid her precious Bible.

Mary closed her eyes to shut out the conversation of the other inmates lounging right outside her cell. Her prison cell was the Ritz Carlton compared to the ones in the book. “Thank you, Lord, that my family is safe and that I can see them every week. Thank you that I have other gals to talk to. You’ve even given me a roommate who seems to be a true Christian. Thank you that I can feel safe in prison, that other inmates haven’t given me trouble, that the guards treat me with respect. Thank you that I have a Bible and I can read it openly, whenever I want. Thank you that I’ve grown closer to you in prison.”

The State had stolen her family. The first year they seized all her possessions, even her clothes. Only now they allowed her to keep a few things of her own. The State could separate her from her home and family, but they couldn’t take God away from her and they couldn’t take her away from God. She would focus on him and the things she was allowed to enjoy. Today that meant fixing her daughter’s hair for a special occasion.

Get Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story here

  • Free on Kindle Unlimited
  • $3.99 for Kindle
  • $13.95 for paperback

 Get I Survived! – the companion Bible Study here

  • Free on Kindle Unlimited
  • $ .99 for Kindle
  • $6.95 for paperback

Pop In for a Cuppa

You could win this ebook! It’s easy!

Since most of my readers don’t bother to comment or leave a reply, your chances of winning my Book Blast giveaway are much higher than winning most other contests. I’d love to hear from you.

To enter:

Simply leave a comment in the comment box below or send a comment about this blog to this email address: artdebbrammer@gmail.com.

I will choose a winner to receive a Kindle copy of Pop In for a Cuppa at random from all my Book Blast readers who comment on this post before Monday night, November 29 at 6 p.m. (Note to readers: I mistakenly gave November 18 as the date, after that date has passed. I will now extend the date to Black Friday, November 29. Thanks to those who pointed out this error.)

You may not win, but anyone can also order a copy of Pop In for a Cuppa. “Read a Sample” allows you to read the first 5 chapters before buying.

The winner of my last Book Blast drawing, for Finding Bailey by Dan Walsh is …

Vickie Waters. 

I wish you were here, dear reader. You could help me celebrate the fact that all three books in the New Beginnings series are now available in paperback, Kindle, and Kindle Unlimited.

When I launched my book I Scream, the final book of my Art Spotlight series in 2017, I celebrated with a book signing event I named an “I Scream Social.” Now I’m launching my new book, Pop In for a Cuppa, which could be the final book of my New Beginnings series. The I Scream Social was a lot of fun, so now I’m inviting readers to “Pop In for a Cuppa Cocoa.” I wish you were here to join us. I know very few of my Book Blast subscribers live in our area in Altoona, Iowa, but if you live close by and are interested in coming to this event, pop a comment into the comment box and I’ll give you details.

Chance encounters are sometimes divine appointments. This video tells about two chance encounters I had that shaped the major plotlines of my book, Pop In for a Cuppa.

Christmas is right around the corner.

When you think about it, Pop In for a Cuppa would make a nice Christmas gift for a reader in your life who enjoys distinctively Christian fiction for adults. The Kindle edition would even make a great stocking stuffer. Better yet, get the complete set at once. Order Pop In for a Cuppa now or the whole New Beginnings set in paperback, Kindle, or Kindle Unlimited.

Pop In for a Cuppa by Deb Brammer

     At fifty-two, Jennifer has never felt called to missions, but dating veteran missionary Greg Fischer makes her rethink almost every area of her life.
     In six months, Jennifer goes from being a single-but-happy widow to become a pastor’s wife in a mission church in New Zealand. Church people have filled in the gaps and Jennifer must figure out what her role will be.

     Piety vowed lifelong commitment to Gloriavale, a secretive community cult, but now her family is fracturing. Her husband, Elisha, has escaped with two of her sons, leaving her with her other five children. The leaders must never be questioned, but when they make one demand too many, Piety risks the peril of her soul to escape from the community to re-unite her family.
     Straight-talking Ngaire tests the new pastor’s wife with unreasonable expectations, daring her to fail. The church people seem nice, but will they still care about her if she makes choices they can’t accept?
No two women could be less alike than Piety and Ngaire, but Jennifer draws them together in a strange friendship. As she works to help them grow in Christ, will she harm their most vulnerable new converts?

You could win this ebook! It’s easy!

Since most readers don’t bother to comment or leave a reply, your chances of winning my Book Blast giveaway are much higher that winning most other contests. I’d love to hear from you.

To enter:

Simply leave a comment in the comment box below or send a comment about this blog or books you like to read to this email address: artdebbrammer@gmail.com.

I will choose a winner to receive this ebook at random from all my Book Blast readers who comment on or before Wednesday night, July 17.

I almost lost you!

This year two of the scariest things that can ever happen to an author happened to me. Last December a power surge fried my computer at the most inconvenient time ever. Eventually, after much frustration, effort and expense, I was able to retrieve much of the data, but I lost some things that I still miss.

The other scary thing happened recently and you, dear subscriber, are part of that. Since my last Book Blast in which I gave all of my subscribers my ebook edition of Broken Windows for free, I nearly lost YOU and all my other subscribers! Due to an oversight during a time of constant change, I missed seeing notices from my email marketing service that I needed to re-subscribe to their services. I was just barely was able to recover my subscribers list, though I lost some other parts of my mailing list that I now have to recreate. This has been a MAJOR source of stress during this last month and has caused some delay in this Book Blast. If things look a bit different from normal, that’s because we’re still trying to work out issues. We leave on a 10-day trip tomorrow, and need to send this now. Sorry about that. (Feel free to pray for us!)

Now that I have you, my dear subscribers, back, I want you to know that you are important to me. Thanks for giving me the chance to offer my books to you, as well as offering the books of other Christian writers.

Maybe, like me, you’ve found a great recipe on the internet and want to print it out quickly and move on. ASAP. But the owner of the website wants you to subscribe to her blog. “Stink!” you say. “I don’t want to follow this silly blog. I just want my recipe!”

I can relate—to both sides of the subscriber issue. Now I’m the author, I’m building my subscribers’ list. Anyone can unsubscribe anytime, but so far you haven’t and I hope you won’t. You are important to me. Let me explain to you why that is.

You may have joined my list to get a free book. You feel bad unsubscribing, but you aren’t interested in my Book Blasts, so you just delete them as they come to your inbox. Actually, there’s not much difference between that and unsubscribing. It might help you to know why an author like me values subscribers like you. Contrary to what you might think, I’m not trying to trick people into buying a book they won’t like so that I can make money. Instead, I’m trying to find readers who will like my books and give them good deals so they can enjoy more of them. Because if I can’t find readers who like my books, there’s not much use in writing. Keeping an active subscriber list is part of the journey of almost every indie author.

What’s an indie author?

Indie authors, AKA independent authors, either self-publish their books or publish with a smaller indie publisher. Sometimes they do a little of both. Things have changed dramatically in Christian publishing since 1994 when I published my first book. At that time, self-publishing was for authors who weren’t good enough to be published by traditional publishers. But the rules for publishing have changed dramatically since then and they continue to change. Even writers who have sold extremely well with traditional publishers are going indie. One reason for that is indie authors get much more control over their book and its publication. They typically do their own writing but hire other professionals to help them with editing, book design, and a myriad of other essential tasks.

I started indie publishing because I wanted to write distinctively Christian books for adults, books that would appeal to more mature Christians. I wanted to write fiction about Christians who are active in ministry, involved in their churches, and seeking God’s will for their lives day by day. This took me into indie publishing where I could shape my book to say what I wanted.

I love the control I have as an indie author, but it also means I have to market my book if anyone is going to read it. One of the main ways I do this is by joining other indie authors in promotions that give away free books to readers who are willing to become a subscriber to their newsletters. This helps me find readers who like the kinds of books I write. If they enjoy a free book by me, they will probably enjoy reading other books by me.

You could be the winner of the ebook Keeping Bailey.

Remember, all you have to do to enter is simply leave a comment, any comment, in the comment box below or send a comment to this email address: artdebbrammer@gmail.com.

Dan Walsh is one of many successful traditionally-published authors who have moved to indie publishing. He writes both inspirational and suspense novels. Keeping Bailey comes from his inspirational series about dogs in rescue shelters. I haven’t been able to read a lot of fiction recently, due to a move from active ministry in New Zealand to living in America and traveling many miles to visit churches who have supported us during the last 46 years, but I enjoyed reading this book last year and have since moved in next to an Australian shepherd like the dog in the book. Keep Bailey is a sweet book that dog lovers are sure to appreciate.

Here’s my review:

Bailey’s owner is forced to give him up when the owner moves into a retirement home. Bailey is so tied to his owner that he doesn’t do well at the dog shelter. Rhonda, a volunteer at the shelter, goes the extra mile trying to get Bailey to accept living in the shelter. If Bailey doesn’t come out of her doggie depression, no one is likely to want to adopt her. This story is fairly predictable, but, if you love dogs, it will warm your heart. And the author promises at the beginning that the dog doesn’t die, so you don’t have to worry about that. Part of the plot is even told from Bailey’s point of view. There’s a bit of romance included, the people kind, but the main plot is about accepting and giving love to an older dog that still has plenty of love to give.