Favorite Books Read in 2013

Here are my favorite books read last year, in no particular order. The lineup is pretty varied, and includes books that surprised me because they gave me more than I expected. I won't tell you which ones did that. You'll just have to investigate them. They weren't all published in 2014, and a couple are firsts in completed series I've since read or am working through now. Click on the cover to read the book's description on Amazon. Now, what shall I read in 2014?

 

 

 

 

Leftover Thanks

by Tamera Lynn Kraft

I’m still enjoying leftovers from Thanksgiving. They’re stacked in containers in my refrigerator ready to warm up after a day of putting up the Christmas tree, shopping for presents, or addressing my Christmas cards. Thanksgiving leftovers are wonderful during this busy holiday season.
  

Many times, though, there’s something else leftover from Thanksgiving Day. We spend so much time emphasizing how thankful we should be to God for the many blessings He has given us. And we should. But after Thanksgiving, the hustle and bustle of getting ready for Christmas rushes in, and we forget about thanking God. Or we give Him leftover thanks after an exhausting day of errands. We forget that it was because of His greatest blessing, sending Jesus to Earth to die on the cross so that we could be saved that we celebrate this time of the year.

   

While I’m busy with my preparations, I never want to get so caught up in everything that God gets only my leftover thanks. Thanksgiving should take place throughout the year, not just on Thanksgiving Day.

A Christmas Promise

By Tamera Lynn Kraft

A Moravian Holiday Story, Circa 1773

During colonial times, John and Anna settle in an Ohio village to become Moravian missionaries to the Lenape. When John is called away to help at another settlement two days before Christmas, he promises he’ll be back by Christmas Day. 

When he doesn’t show up, Anna works hard to not fear the worst while she provides her children with a traditional Moravian Christmas.

Through it all, she discovers a Christmas promise that will give her the peace she craves.

Available at these online stores:

AMAZON

PELICAN BOOK GROUP

CHRISTIANBOOK

TAMERA LYNN KRAFT has always loved adventures and writes Christian historical fiction set in America because there are so many adventures in American history. She is married to the love of her life, has two grown children, and lives in Akron, Ohio.

Tamera is the leader of a ministry called Revival Fire For Kids where she mentors other children’s leaders, teaches workshops, and is a children’s ministry consultant and children’s evangelist. She has curriculum published and is a recipient of the 2007 National Children’s Leaders Association Shepherd’s Cup for lifetime achievement in children’s ministry.

You can contact Tamera online at these sites:

Word Sharpeners Blog: http://tameralynnkraft.com

Revival Fire For Kids Blog: http://revivalfire4kids.com

Adventures in American History: http://tameralynnkraft.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TameraLynnKraft

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tamerakraft

Will you be home for Christmas, or is that only in your dreams? Naomi Musch (that's me!) is talking about life's uncertainties and Coming Home on Word Sharpeners today. Hop over for some words of encouragement!

 

Thanksgiving, Venison, and Writing

Thank you, Lord, for White Tail Deer! Thanksgiving celebrations may vary from home to home, but here in Wisconsin, the holiday lands smack dab in the middle of deer hunting season. That means many of us don't spend the day lounging and dining, but bundled to the hilt, stalking through the forest in pursuit of the elusive monarch of the forest, the white-tailed deer.

One of my hunters, son Beau

In our household, like so many others around the state, besides family and friends filling the house, and mountains of pies crowding the counter tops, there are also piles of blaze orange strewn everywhere! Dinner isn’t served until an hour and a half past dark, giving time for all the hunters to come in from the cold and tell their tales as they gather around the wood fire to thaw out. We LOVE it!

This is how I grew up. I couldn't imagine spending Thanksgiving any other way. Then throughout the year to follow, we thank the Lord for the good meat filling our freezer and canning jars if we are so blessed.

Hunting sometimes works its way into my books. It's one of the ways in which the writerly adage of "writing what you know" eeks out of me. I love to write about the outdoors and to help readers experience the smell of fauna or the sound of a deer crunching with delicate steps through the frozen leaf floor of the forest. I love to thrill them with the sound of soft wings as a grouse flushes and arcs through the tree tops. I love the way a chickadee will land on a branch near your head and converse, or even the pestering of a noisy squirrel chattering warnings in the woods.

There's a short, romantic hunting scene near the end of this story. YES, hunting can be very romantic! My proof is one of those writing-what-I-know incidences *eyebrow-wiggle*.

I don't like how cold I get sitting in a deer stand some mornings, but it's always a challenge and a chance to get alone with God and to let my imagination take flight.

How does your family celebrate Thanksgiving? With football and board games, or are you a family of hunters too? Whatever you do, I hope you have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

Write on!