Wednesday, December 10, 2014

BOOK EXCERPT: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Quick and Easy Recipes for Homeschooling Families: “Chocolate Éclair Dessert”






This is my traditional Christmas dessert - so yummy!



We are having our One Another (Prayer Group) Christmas party tonight and so I thought, why don't I post the dessert I am bringing. Actually, this dessert is in my "Food For Thought" book that I've linked here on Amazon, if you want to check out all the recipes. Try this one! Kids will love it and so will adults.



8 SERVINGS

3 cups plus 3 tablespoons milk
1 8-ounce container of Cool Whip
2 boxes French vanilla instant pudding
3 tablespoons butter (do not substitute margarine)
2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate (orange box)
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons corn syrup
1½ cups powdered sugar
Graham crackers


For filling: Mix milk, Cool Whip, and instant pudding. For frosting: Melt butter (do not substitute margarine) and chocolate baking squares. In a separate bowl, mix vanilla, 3 tablespoons milk, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. Combine both of the above with a mixer.

Line 9 x 13 pan with graham crackers. Add filling, then another layer of graham crackers on top of filling. Frost top layer of graham crackers with frosting mixture by pouring it over the top and using a butter knife to spread. Let cool in fridge for an hour before serving.





CHOCOLATE ÉCLAIR DESSERT

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”

Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President





Saturday, November 22, 2014

JOHN 3: 16 MARKETING NETWORK MISSIONARY TRIP TO NEPAL TO DONATE BOOKS: “Our Recent Trip - Photographs are Worth a Thousand Words,” by Lorilyn Roberts


The trip to Nepal was such an amazing trip, I wanted to share a few more photographs of the kids we met and our time spent with them. As Thanksgiving approaches, I’m reminded of how much I have to be thankful for. Even though separated by an ocean and dozens of countries and more than ten thousand miles, Nepal will always be a part of me. 

As Christians, we worship the same God, we love the same Savior, and we look forward to the same eternity. Enjoy these photographs and remember how much God loves you this Thanksgiving. Be more thankful and eat lots of turkey.

worship at church in Kathmandu


Sunday school class

Orphans with John 3:16 books



Typical street in Nepal

Taking home John 3:16 books to read


Pokhara






My daughter Joy - as a former gymnast, I felt she was safe.

Pokhara


I actually remembered how to play!



John 3:16 Bookmarks

Reading Sherrill Cannon's book, Peter and the Whimper Whineys.










Kids climb the trees to reach the fruit for dinner
Joy and I had a wonderful time!

Photo credits for this blog post: Joylin V. Roberts


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

BOOK MARKETING: "Beware Book Lovers Extraordinaire—You Are the Gatekeepers," by Lorilyn Roberts



If you love to read, relish a good story, or visit the library or bookstore frequently to satisfy your unquenchable thirst for something new and original – this blog post is for you.

If you are a Christian and love reading more than watching TV, cleaning the house, cooking dinner, or sleeping, don’t miss out on this great opportunity to discover new authors. 


Book lover beware: If you don’t want to listen to the ranting of an eccentric author, skip the next two paragraphs, but I feel led to share some thoughts that have been burning a hole in my heart. Here goes, the pent-up frustrations of an indie author.

I’m tired of indie authors getting a bad rap. I’m tired of readers and editors and authors and self-proclaimed experts bashing authors who independently publish. I’m tired of hearing those indie authors are unprofessional, have too many grammar mistakes, produce inferior quality books, don’t know how to write, and want to plug up Amazon with worthless books that are mostly given away or sold at 99 cents. I’m tired of reading “this website is for real authors (meaning those traditionally published).” I still struggle with being ignored or bullied. Some authors who have contracts with traditional publishers snub writers like me who have chosen to go indie. You’ve read their comments on blogs and in public places. Worst of all, they contaminate readers. They tell readers indie published books are no good and not to buy them. 

I want to respond to those bullies. Does God really care how books are published? You, the reader, if you take their comments to heart and believe them, are sacrificing an opportunity to discover new books by unknown authors—including me. I will never publish with a traditional publisher. A traditional publisher would have to pay me six months’ advance salary while I wrote that book, and because I make a very comfortable living providing sports captioning for television, no publisher is going to do that. 

That’s the end of my negative rant. I’ll probably never post this anywhere else on the web because I can’t help but be optimistic about the future of book publishing. The opportunities afforded to writers who are willing to work hard and follow an uncharted path are enormous. Readers deserve every opportunity to discover new authors, including this unique pre-Christmas feature offered by the John 3:16 Marketing Network. 


I lead a network of authors readers might not have heard of because I don’t advertise or promote the network. Authors find us. The John 3:16 Marketing Network includes both traditional and 
indie-published authors. Before I admit an author into the network, I check out the author’s website and make sure the prospective author is born again and believes writing is a calling from God. 

God should be at the center of everything we do. As a network of Christian authors, our passion for Jesus Christ spills out onto the pages of our books. We can’t hold back the blessing—we are simply the conduit, the voice, and the pen. Authors find their joy and fulfillment in God when they use their talents to glorify Him. As we fulfill our calling as writers, we trust God to get our books into the hands of readers.

If you want to buy books that are cutting edge, books that aren’t written just to make money, but books that define the times in which we live, that speak of redeemed lives from broken dreams or take the reader to faraway places, I ask you to go to our Christmas page and check out the books we have featured. Many authors have chosen to go indie. Others are traditionally published. We have done book comparisons that you will find nowhere else. 

Let me give an analogy. If a new restaurant opens up in town and no one goes to that restaurant to “check it out,” is that restaurant going to stay in business? If readers want the options that indie authors offer, I ask that book socialites support us. The opportunity readers don’t want to miss is right here. I hope everyone will check out these wonderful Christian books, many published in the last year.

I spent hours compiling these comparisons to help readers choose books they might enjoy. The books featured on the left side are well-known books, many of which are secular, best-selling books on Amazon and the New York Times. We are giving readers a Christian alternative on the right side of the page (This comparison was in the orginal post on the John 3:16 Marketing Network blog, but I removed it because many of the links were no longer active).  

While you can give presents for Christmas that will make great gifts, I challenge you to give a gift that will last a lifetime—the gift of reading. Give your mother, your father, your daughter, your son, your best friend, your teacher, or your boss a book waiting to be filled with memories. You can sign the book and personalize it. Most recipients of signed books keep those books in a special place on their bookshelf. 

When I think of what’s survived the last few thousand years, the written word has outlasted almost everything. We treasure those relics, we use books to rebuild the past, we cherish the books we read, and we long to enjoy another good story that will touch our souls and become a part of us. Take this opportunity to make future memories for you and your loved ones. Check out the link below and discover new books. You never know what blessing you might be missing if you don’t take a peek. 

All of the books by John 3:16 authors are highly rated. Help us to keep writing books you want to read by supporting John 3:16 Authors. 


Saturday, November 8, 2014

BOOK EXCERPT: CHILDREN OF DREAMS: Chapter 8: “Ask the Animals, and They Will Teach You”




...ask the animals, and they will teach you

Job 12:7


(Excerpt from Children of Dreams, Chapter 8)





My mind flashed back to when I was young.

I was awakened by a big white dog licking me in my face and jumping all over my bed. As I tried to open my eyes from what I thought was a dream, my mother said, “This is Gypsy. We are going to keep her.”

Gypsy was the friend I longed for but didn’t have. When I came home from school, she would greet me at the door with her tail wagging. I walked her, fed her, and played with her. After we returned from each walk, I would announce how many times she had used the bathroom, both number one and number two, as if to validate I was the best dog walker in the world. I even cleaned up after her when she threw up so nobody would know.

Gypsy was a stray. The night before she jumped on me in bed she had snuck into the house with my dad. She was God’s gift to me. We were inseparable.

One afternoon I arrived home from school and knew something was wrong. She didn't greet me at the door like she usually did and I ran through the house frantically looking for her.  

“She's gone,” my mother and father told me. “She won’t be back. The manager of the apartment came and took her away.”

“Where did they take her?”  I cried.

“The manager said they would dump her off on the road somewhere far from here. You know the apartment complex doesn’t allow dogs.”

I ran out of the room and up the stairs to my bedroom. My mind was flooded with memories of the most important thing in my little world. My heart was broken, confused, and hurting. Gypsy was gone.

That night bolts of thunder crashed outside my bedroom. Lightning pierced through the window shades. I imagined Gypsy in the darkness. I could feel her white warm fur against my skin and see her dark, brown eyes pleading for me to come to get her. I cried into my pillow as peels of thunder bounced off the walls. If Gypsy ever found her way back, I vowed to run away with her. I would never let anybody take her from me again.

But the next day came and went and she didn’t return. I went to school each day hoping for the impossible, that somehow she could find her way back from wherever they dumped her.

It was Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. We were packing things up to go visit my new father’s family in North Carolina. My mother had recently remarried. I kept looking up the hill in front of the apartment, imagining that she would come running down the street any minute. I knew it would be impossible, but still, I hoped. I made one last trip to my bedroom. The car was loaded and we were ready to leave. I picked up my pillow and thought of the first morning she licked me on the face in bed.

“Please, Gypsy, come back to me. You need a home and someone to love you. I need you.”

I walked out the door of our apartment to get into the car. I glanced one last time up the hill. Out of nowhere, suddenly, there was something white. Was it, could it be—I dropped my pillow and started running up the hill. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, my mind racing to think what seemed like the impossible. It couldn’t be—but it was.

Gypsy ran frantically toward me, tattered, dirty, and exhausted. Somehow she had miraculously found her way home through the raging storm. After being lost for days in the cold November nights, miles from our home, Gypsy had done the impossible. She had found her way back to me.

“Gypsy!” I cried. I crouched down to grab her as she jumped into my arms, holding her tightly around the neck, crying and rejoicing all at the same time. My dog was lost, but now she was found.

“I will never let go of you,” I promised. She squealed with delight and licked my face. For the first time in my young life, I knew there had to be a God.

📘📘📘📘📘

The picture above is one of only three pictures I have of my beloved dog. She died of kidney failure when I was fifteen, and as we were burying her, another huge storm came up, with thunder and lightning, completely out of nowhere. It was a beautiful day. We had to rush to get her buried. 

I truly believe there was something supernatural about Gypsy. God gave her to me to show me God existed and loved me. I promised Gypsy that someday everybody would know who she was, that I would tell the world about her. 

I didn't have any idea how that would happen when I was fifteen, in the dinosaur age before the internet and all the other technology that exists today, but I didn’t doubt that I would. It was a promise I made to her, and I’m thankful that I kept my promise. It was as if I made that promise to God. Dog is God spelled backward, and God revealed Himself to me in a dog that loved me, and for that, I will always be thankful.