13 Reasons Why Blog Tour and Giveaway

I love being a part of tours with authors I’m friends with–and whose message I support. The choice to accept life is a message I fully support and I’m excited about Faith’s and Kaitlyn’s book supporting this message!

Guest Post

13 Reasons Why is a Netflix TV series centered around a young girl’s suicide. There’s debate about whether it promotes suicide or simply raises awareness, but the undeniable fact is that this show has persuaded others to take their own lives. Each episode explains a reason for the girl’s suicide—13 episodes, 13 reasons. Since both Freedom and Beloved deal with the topic of suicide, we decided to name our blog tour the 13 Reasons Why tour—but each day, we are giving reasons to choose life. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, loved beyond measure by our Creator. And that makes every day worth living.

About the book

Having just returned to American soil from the desert sands of the Middle East, James Greene is done with his life. ‘Double amputee’ doesn’t seem like a strong enough phrase to label the physical and emotional pain he bears. Add the lack of love and communication with his family members, the demons that haunt him day and night, and he can find nothing worth living for. Ending it all is the only way out. 

Alexandria Lorance is a not-so-ordinary physical therapist, content with aiding in her patients’ recoveries. Her work gives her fulfillment, but alone in the silence, she still endures the hidden scars of a past, unhealthy relationship. Reminding herself that true healing is found in Christ alone, she seeks to show kindness and love to everyone she meets.


When these two broken ones’ paths intersect, the spark of friendship is ignited, bringing hope and joy to both. Can they step out of the darkness of suffering and into the freedom of grace? 

A Marine, broken by war. A therapist, scarred by words. A chance meeting in a parking lot bonded them together. But can love grow in these two hurting hearts? Or are they truly too broken to ever find lasting happiness? 


About the author

Saved by God’s grace, Faith Potts is a teenage writer and homeschool graduate, living with her family and beloved yellow labs in the North Carolina mountains. When she’s not weaving stories, consuming large amounts of coffee, reading stacks of books, or studying American Sign Language, she can be found laughing harder than is healthy, daydreaming, and—of course—blowing dandelions.


About the book

Life without love is hopeless.

Foster teen Cara Richards is unloved. With nothing left and nowhere to go, she is determined to find peace, no matter the cost. But despite her intentions, she’s tossed into another foster family and this time, there’s no going back to who she used to be. To make matters worse, one of her five new foster brothers is a Jesus freak, and she refuses to believe that God actually cares.

Her world is thrown upside down in a way she never expects. Though she prides herself on a resilient heart, her mind is lost adrift among a sea of questions: Is death really the answer? Does God care about someone as unworthy as me? Can everyone truly be loved, no matter what?


About the author

Kaitlyn is a farmer’s daughter and a born-again believer in Christ with an obsession for books and music. It is these obsessions that led her to write her own stories. Psalm 46:10 gives her inspiration, her brothers make her laugh, and there’s nothing quite like the excitement of opening an unread book for the first time. Her passion is to share the steadfast love of her Savior through the writing that takes up much of her free time, whether actual writing takes place or writer’s block, in which case she’s probably browsing Pinterest.

Retellings: Sarah Holman and Vintage Jane Austen

Today, I’m excited to announce the start of a blog series of guest posts! All about… retellings!!! I have authors lined up for a few weeks, sharing about their retellings of Jane Austen, Fairytales, Biblical parables, and more! I can’t wait for you all to meet these authors and learn more about their retelling processes! Starting us off is Sarah Holman!

Meet Sarah Holman…

Sarah Holman lives in central Texas with her amazing family. When not working on her next novel, she can usually be found hanging out with her siblings, reading, or taking long walks. If there is anything adventuresome about her life, it’s because she serves a God with a destiny bigger than anything she could have imagined.



Sarah’s Retelling…

What if Jane Austen’s Emma lived in America in the year 1930?

The talk of stock market crashes and depression isn’t going to keep Emmeline Wellington down. Born to wealth and privilege, Emmeline wants nothing more than to help her new friend, Catarina, find a husband. Emmeline sets her sights on one of the town’s most eligible bachelors, but nothing seems to go right. Even her friend and neighbor Fredrick Knight seems to question her at every turn.

Will she help Catarina find the man of her dreams? Why is her father acting so strangely? Will the downturn affect her life, despite her best efforts?

Working Together to Retell Stories
A Note from Sarah…

Retelling a story can be challenging. I’ve written my own short-story versions of three fairy-tales (Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow Queen). However, when a friend inspired me to start a series retelling Jane Austen’s novels, I knew this was going to be a whole different kind of project.

Having wanted to try to do a group project for a long time, I invited some friends to each take a novel. We each picked one of Jane Austen’s famous stories, wrote a novel, and promoted them together. I learned a lot along the way. Today, I thought I would share some of the important things I learned and some things I got right. I’ll also share some fun things about the series!

What Went Right
I came up with a couple of things to tie the series of novels together. First, all the books would be set in the 1930’s (different years, same decade). No major plot points from the original book would be changed (No Lizzie and Mr. Collins getting married). And we had one character who made a cameo appearance in each story based loosely on Jane Austen herself. Having this in common, we moved forward.

Having a time in history we were all researching together was very helpful. We would post interesting things we found out and ask questions of each other. The burden of the research being shared was such a blessing. No one had to do a crazy amount of research, everyone did some.
We created a Facebook group. Where we discussed our books, research, and hashed everything out. We also continue to use it to plan promotional events and the like. Having a group is such a great way to stay connected.

We were very blessed to have someone who was excited about the project who helped set us up a website. Having one website to send people to for a multi-author project was such a blessing.
Lessons Learned
I think the biggest lesson I learned was that many expectations have to be spelled out. Because of the authors I chose, I figured we were all on the same page when it came to the standards of the content of our books. While that was mostly true, some things that seemed obvious to some of the authors weren’t to others. I learned to spell out expectations for what is and isn’t allowed as well as the tone of each story.

Group projects where you’re working together to build a series can be difficult for new writers or designers, as there’s a lot of pressure and time constraints. While obviously not a hard rule, I think experience is something to take into account.

One other thing I’ve learned is to make sure you have the costs spelled out the members upfront. It will cost something for cover and such, make sure that (as much as you can) you have those numbers to give to people upfront. Surprising people is not a good idea.
How it All Turned Out
I still get so excited when I see people read one of our books! We all worked together and when anyone succeeds, it feels like a victory for all of us! I loved seeing how each author took the story, adapted it, and made me love it all over again. Yes, I like some of the stories better then others, but that’s to be expected.

I loved revisiting an old favorite and taking the characters to a new setting. We all had to admit that transferring the stories to the 1930’s was relatively easy.  Many aspects of the story fit well into this historical setting.

Doing this project has made me want to do more group projects. In fact, I’m working with a group to do a special Christmas novella collection. I also have a couple other ideas for some group projects in the works. If you want to keep up with that, you can join my newsletter.

GIVEAWAY!
Now, I’d like to share my retellings with some of you! I’m giving away an audiobook bundle to one person and three other people will get some of them too! Enjoy!

Tales of Faith Giveaway | 3 Month Tour Conclusion

In conclusion to the 3 Month Tour, I’m giving away a complete Tales of Faith paperback series (U.S. addresses only, sorry)!!

But before I get to that, I did draw the winners for last week’s release tour. Congratulations to…

P. Knapp for the paperback series!!
Lissa L. for the eBook series!!

I’ll be emailing both of you. 😀

Now for this giveaway…

To enter, it’s going to take some serious blog-hopping, so I’ll warn you: be prepared. 😉

How this works

– Visit a 3 Month Tour post.

– Comment.

– Check the box for the blog/month you commented on this form.

– Repeat.

– Bonus: share this blog post.

The more blogs you comment on, the more entries you have.
GIVEAWAY ENDS SEPTEMBER 7, 2019.

BLOG POSTS

JUNE POSTS (feating Befriending the Beast)

JULY POSTS (featuring The Secret Slipper)

AUGUST POSTS (featuring Protecting the Poor)