The Solid Rock | Cover Reveal, Giveaway, and Interview

You’ve seen Faith Blum on my blog before, and here she is again! 🙂 I was privileged to read The Solid Rock as a beta reader and it sure is full of excitement! Do you want to see the cover? Oh wait…you must gather all fifteen clues first! 

About the Book

Joshua woke with a quiet groan. As his senses woke up one at a time, he cracked his eyelids open. Sure enough, there was a silhouetted form standing at the foot of the bed. From the smell, the person was either from the brothel down the street or had recently left one.

He forced himself to breathe evenly and reached for the knife in his thigh holster. With as tough and evil a voice as he could imitate, he spoke, “State your intentions.”

Pinkerton detective, Joshua Brookings, is sent on a job that seems simple on the surface. His fellow detective has been kidnapped and his boss, William Pinkerton senses foul play. Joshua is sent to investigate Edward’s case in hopes of finding the kidnapped detective and helping solve the case that has taken over ten years to investigate.

Arriving in Cheyenne, Joshua finds much more than a simple kidnapping. Yet again, he must go undercover, something he made his boss promise never to make him do again. The only Christian in the outlaw group, Joshua falters and almost loses faith in God’s providence. Will he stand on the solid Rock or drown in the sinking sand?

About the Author

PictureFaith Blum started writing at an early age. She started even before she could read! She even thought she could write better than Dr. Seuss. (The picture doesn’t show it well, but there are scribblings on the page of Green Eggs and Ham). Now that she’s grown up a little more, she knows she will probably never reach the success of Dr. Seuss, but that doesn’t stop her from trying.

When she isn’t writing, Faith enjoys doing many right-brained activities such as reading, crafting, writing, playing piano, and playing games with her family. One of her dreams is to visit Castle City, Montana someday to see the ghost town she chose for her characters to live in. She currently lives on a hobby farm with her family in Wisconsin.

Clues

In order to gain access to the blog page that has the full cover on it, you need to hop over to the __ other blogs to gather the clues. Each blogger will have a clue number and one character of the clue. Each clue is either a number, letter, or symbol. What you need to do is gather the clues and put them in the correct order. Once this is done, type in the password (no spaces) on the protected page (found here) and you will find the full cover in all its glory.

Here’s clue #14

Visit these other blogs to get the other clues! While you’re on each blog, be sure to read the excerpts and I’m sure each blogger would appreciate a comment. Happy sleuthing!

Giveaway

All the books in the giveaway are either Christian, Mystery, or Western. I have not read all of them, so I cannot vouch for what they are like inside. There will only be one winner (sorry), and since they are all ebooks, we can open the giveaway up internationally as well! Here is the list of the ebooks. To find out more about each book, please click on the title and read the Amazon description.

Enter Giveaway: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/991224809/

Dangerous Illusions by Barb Goss
A Box of Dreams by James DiBenedetto
Heartfelt Cases by Julie C. Gilbert
Pride and Butterflies by Franky A. Brown
Guardian (Guardian Trilogy #1) by Robin Helm
SoulFire (Guardian Trilogy #1) by Robin Helm
Legacy (Guardian Trilogy #1) by Robin Helm
Finding Hope by Elizabeth Diaz
Lily of the Valley by Faith Blum
Life and Salvation by Faith Blum

Special
To celebrate the cover reveal, Faith also has the third book in her series on sale! It will be $0.99 through 11am tomorrow and then will go up to $1.99 until Monday evening when it will be back at full price. Here’s a short description of Amazing Grace: A doubting man agrees to wed a widowed mail-order bride, but he struggles with whether or not he can be a father to the woman’s daughter who desperately wants a father’s love. 
You can purchase this book here: getBook.at/AmazingGrace.


Interview
Me: How long have you known that “The Solid Rock” would be a part of the Hymns of the West series?
Faith: This is a great question! I haven’t always know the title or the exact plot of The Solid Rock, but the first inklings of the idea came when one of my beta-readers for A Mighty Fortressasked if there would be a sequel. My immediate response was, “I wasn’t planning on one.” But then my brain started working and I came up with an idea that Joshua, the main character in both books, becomes a Pinkerton detective and solves some sort of crime. Then I got ideas for the other three books and the timeline worked best to put this book off for last.

Me: What lesson do you most hope and pray readers will be able to learn from “The Solid Rock?”

Faith: No matter what is happening in your life, or how far away God seems, God is always with you and will always be there for you to lean on if you’ll just let Him be your rock and foundation.
Faith: It’s kind of nice and kind of strange at the same time. I’m sad to leave the characters, but I’m also excited about the next series I’m working on. And since the next series will have some of the characters from the Hymns of the West series, I’m not completely leaving them behind. I’m looking forward to where God leads me next.


Street Team Giveaway 3/10/16

ENTRY 3/10 – FB PARTY

In just four days, Journey to Love will release and I’m hitting it off with a big, fun party on FaceBook! If you have the evening free, I’d love to see you there–hit “Going” or “Interested!” If you can’t come, then invite some reader friends. (note: you have to PM me for an invite as I accidentally made the party private–or, if you’re going, then YOU have to invite a friend) https://www.facebook.com/events/1015374818535154/

Don’t do FB Parties? Add any of my short stories to your Goodreads list.https://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard

Enter your points here:https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/483ac2ab10/

Word Wednesday #97

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 
Acts 17:11
They listened with a ready mind and compared the message they heard to God’s Word. Today, we have many people who listen–yes, with a ready mind–but they fail to compare the message with Scripture. For this reason, false doctrine reigns in the multitudes of Americans. Am I studying God’s Word for myself?


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Share a verse that God has given you today or copy the button if you’d like to join in Word Wednesdays with your blog! Did you post on your blog? I’d love to see — share your link in a comment!

 
 

Scripture Memory Osmosis

I am guilty of wishing that Scripture memory came through osmosis. You know, just go to church and keep up with daily Bible reading, and the Scripture will be there, perfectly memorized for whenever it’s needed.
Wrong.
Scripture memory takes work. Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” If I am to hide something, does that mean I’m just going to toss it somewhere haphazardly? Nope. If I’m really intent on hiding something, I’m going to spend time and do it correctly. Hiding God’s Word in my heart will take action, time, and determination on my part.

I’ll admit, this past year, my memory efforts have faltered. It’s not that I didn’t know how to memorize God’s Word. I just didn’t do it. I let busyness and other “priorities” take precedence over God’s Word. This year, though, I am determined to work on my Scripture memory on a regular basis again, with God’s help.
There are three steps that I have found to be the foundation in my Scripture memory:
1) Pray
This is a step not to be forgotten. My memory is not very good (you can ask my family, friends, and music students). And sometimes, I come to a verse that just throws me for a loop. So, I have found that the first, most important part, is to pray. Pray that God will give me the desire to memorize His Word, pray that He will help me to memorize His Word.
2) Work
As I already mentioned, memory takes work. I can’t just read through a verse five times and have it memorized (if you can, good for you! I’m slightly jealous of you…). I have to choose to put aside 10 minutes to memorize. I have to choose to prop my phone up on the windowsill to work on memory while I’m washing dishes. I have to choose to work on it.
3) Review
Once I memorize Scripture, I can easily forget it the next week (like I said, my memory’s not the best). So, I have my Scripture review cards on which I write the references for all of my memory verses. Every day, I work through one of these cards and it has helped tremendously. I can still quote verses that I first memorized five years ago.
Next week, Lord willing, I’ll share some ways that I vary up the process of Scripture memory.
Here is the verse I’m working on this week. What verse are you memorizing?

Biblically Speaking – The Way of the Wicked

Part 18 in my study on what is abomination in the sight of God.
Recap:

Many believers have fallen into accepting that which is abomination in the sight of God. Unless we study God’s Word to learn His Mind on what is abominable, how will we know to purge ourselves from abomination? Lord willing, I will be posting the fruits of my study on the word “abomination,” but feel free to leap ahead of me and study it for yourself. What is an abomination to God?

The Way of the Wicked
Proverbs 15:9 – The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.
This verse debunks the modern thought that “God loves me how I am.” God cannot love us “how we are” if we are living a lifestyle that He loathes, a lifestyle that refuses to acknowledge God’s higher ways and His righteousness.
One Justifying the Wicked
Proverbs 17:15 – He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.

Not only does God loathe those walking wickedly, He also loathes those who justify the wicked. Here is where many Christians are falling today. Am I trying to “soften” the sins of others? Am I trying to make others believe that “God accepts you as you are” when the Bible clearly contradicts that lifestyle (the Bible defines the lifestyle as wicked)? Am I standing on the Word of God firmly, or am I beginning to sway to the world’s thinking? Oh Christian, be careful of justifying what God calls abomination!

Improving Your Photography

We’ve all heard it: “Practice makes perfect.” But it’s easier to quote this than to actually do it.
Some aspiring photographers complain because all they have is a “cat or dog” as their subject. Whether you have subjects ready at hand or stationary objects, you can still practice and accomplish much.
1) Know your camera
I’ll confess: it still shocks me how many people buy a DSLR, brag about a fancy camera, but have no clue how to use it. Read your camera’s manual (sorry Nikons, I’ve heard that their manual is hard to understand). Play with your settings (you can always revert back to factory settings, so you’re not going to mess something up). Take it out and use it.
What you practice willhelp you. I’m not a nature photographer, but I learned a lot about my camera by shooting nature when people weren’t available. The first time I really understood about aperture was when I randomized my f-stop. I noticed that the smaller the number (f-2.8), the blurrier the background. The larger the number (f-14), the clearer the background. Later, I read about this in a book…but I first learned it by playing with my camera settings.
Some pictures from when I really learned the value of the f-stop (these are completely unedited):


2) Be a “Nobody” Photographer
By this, I mean to be willing to use your camera at small events, when you’re not paid, when you don’t necessarily have to. This will help you in two areas: you will gain confidence, and you will learn the beauty of “capturing the moment.”

I took hundreds of portraits of my sisters “just for fun.” Not only did this actually provide me business (“I saw that picture you took…would you do our family’s pictures?”), it gave me great practice. Another example, I side-shot at least five weddings “just for fun.” For most of these I was in the audience; for one of them, I was the big “third photographer.” But tell you what, I was super glad I did that when I was asked to be solo photographerat a wedding

What days will you be working on photography this week?
What tips would you add to this?