Favorite Childhood Summers - Part 2

Water. Summer is not summer without water, whether it be a lake, an ocean, a river, a Slip-N-Slide, or a sprinkler in the backyard.

Does water play a role in your childhood summers? Tell us about your childhood summers for a chance to win the massive Beach Basket Extravaganza we're giving away. Check out the new goodies we added on Monday!

If you're playing Beach Party Bingo with us, here are this week's cards:

Week 2 - HOPE
Week 2 - JOY

We continue sharing some of our authors' childhood summers. If you missed any of the previous posts, check out the links below. We'd love for you to show your support for our authors by checking out their websites (linked below) and their books over to the right - we're having a summer sale on print and digital books, so now's a great time to stock up!

JENNIFER FROMKE - I’m switching the question around (sorry!) Best thing about summer as a child: going up north. It’s a “thing” in Michigan to go up north. Almost everybody does it at some point. Lots of people do it every weekend. My family had a place on a lake and we’d go up for weekends, playing in the water, hiking in the woods, hanging out with cousins and aunts and uncles, playing cards, picnics by the water, croquet, waterskiing, campfires, sailing, boat rides, s’mores, canoeing, swimming, and looking for Petoskey stones in the water. These are my favorite summer things from childhood.

LYNDA LEE SCHAB - All of them! We didn't have video games back then, but found ways to entertain ourselves (Can you imagine?). The best memories I have include getting the neighborhood kids together to play a mean game of Kick the Can, spending 10 hours a day in the pool, and reading under a shade tree. Oh, how I long to enjoy the lazy days of summer again!

MARIE WELLS COUTU - the summer before I went into 7th grade, when my family traveled from Kentucky to Niagara Falls, and through Canada, visiting Toronto, stopping at a so-called “ghost” town, and on to Sault Ste. Marie (I especially liked the name), Mackinac Island, Detroit, in the process seeing all 5 Great Lakes. It involved a lot of car time, but it was my first time out of the U.S., with many memorable experiences.

RUTH O'NEIL - Summers as a kid kind of all run together. Summers were always filled with camping, parades, cookouts, swimming, and playing outside all day long. We often went to my Grandparents’ summer home in PA for a weekend getaway.

MARJI LAINE - In 1976, my family went to Boston to visit my cousins. Best Fourth of July celebration ever. And their small town even had a giant cake - largest my 8-year-old self had ever seen.

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Beach Party Bingo
Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 1
Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 2
Let's Play Bingo!
Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 3
Authors' Childhood Summers - Part 1

Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 2

Print version is ready ahead of schedule
so it's available TODAY! 

Before we get started with the Beach Party Bingo, I thought I'd let you in on a little secret! Marie Wells Coutu's debut novel, For Such a Moment, is ready ahead of schedule! You can order the print version as of TODAY! The Kindle version will be here soon!

Revealing her secret could save lives … or change hers forever. In this book that re-imagines the story of Queen Esther in a contemporary setting, Ellen Neilson enjoys her comfortable life as the wife of an American CEO. Having lived in America since the age of ten, she has forsaken her mixed heritage and kept aspects of her childhood secret. Her husband has become engrossed in his job, and she believes having a child will salvage their troubled marriage. When her cousin Manuel, whom she hasn’t seen for twenty years, shows up as one of her husband’s managers, Ellen fears that her past will be revealed. The company buys a banana plantation in her native country of Guatemala, and Manuel informs her that illegal pesticides have poisoned the water. People are dying, but she doesn’t know who’s to blame for the cover-up.

Wouldn't this be a great book for the beach? Let's get back there!

As I compiled the list of all the various questions and answers, I didn't read them - just scanned. When I got ready to create this post, I realized we had TWO favorite vacations that occurred on 40th wedding anniversaries! Love that!

Readers, share with us your favorite vacations for a chance to win! Did any of your favorite vacations fall on an anniversary? 

More of our authors share their favorite vacations.

MARIE WELLS COUTU - February 2012 when we took our children and 3 grandsons on a week-long cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary (which was actually in December). We also celebrated four birthdays that actually occurred close to or during the trip.

RUTH O'NEIL - Atlantic Beach weekend with my sister. No one called me “mom” or needed me for any reason for three whole days! The sharks were a bit disturbing, but let’s be honest; I hardly ever go in the water anyway, except to pee.

PEGGY CUNNINGHAM - It was only a short get away, but memorable and just what we needed. We were on furlough and made it a point to block out two days for our 40  ^th anniversary. It was September. When we arrived at the lakeside resort hotel, it was apparent tourist season had ended. The silence in the lobby calmed our stressed mood. We had a lakeside view from our room. The misty air with the fragrance of pine trees set the mood for relaxation. For two glorious days, we listened to the rain pounding on the deck outside the sliding doors while we huddled by the crackling fire and watched movies and ate take out from the nearby restaurant. Did I mention the hotel was owned by a man from our hometown who invented the Big Mac?

LYNDA SCHAB -  Definitely the All-Inclusive resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. There's nothing like lounging by the pool with umbrella drinks, with nothing to do except read a good book.

STEPHANIE CRAIG - After three long and tiring years of a pediatric cancer battle for my son, we were fortunate enough to go to a resort called "Give Kids the World" in Kissimmee, Florida.  It's a place exclusively for wish kids (from organizations like Make-A-Wish) and their families.  They gave us tickets to all the major attractions in the area.  But the resort itself was amazing.  It had a pool with the best splash pad we've ever seen.  The playground area was a life-sized game of Candy Land.  It had a magical Castle with a merry-go-round for the kids.  Every day, they left gifts for the kids and every night they had a themed party such as Christmas, Pirates and Princesses, or Candy Land night.  Plus they had so much more.  Any family would be thrilled to stay at a resort like that, but after spending years in treatment and in and out of the hospital, it was absolute paradise.  It was the first time we really were able to dream about what life could be like after treatment. 

[Ed. Note: Shannon Vannatter is running a special series all month long on her Inkslinger blog with the authors of Heart Bouquets. Be sure to check it out - I know they're giving away some prizes!]

DIANNE E. BUTTS - Hmm. Hard to pick a favorite.

Maybe it was last year in 2012 when we drove from Colorado to Orlando and got to see a large part of the U.S. we hadn't seen before. In Orlando we visited the Holy Land Experience, which was very awesome and memorable. Then also rode a bunch of rides at Universal Resorts and spent a day on the beach at Cocoa Beach. Or my favorite might have been in 2010 when I spent two weeks in Los Angeles at the Act One: Writing for Hollywood seminar. That was definitely the longest trip (time-wise) I've ever been gone from home, but was more work than vacation. But then my husband drove out and picked me up and we took a vacation. We spent some time on a beach near Malibu.

If you haven't picked up your copy of Destiny Defied - grab it now! The Kindle version is FREE through tomorrow!


Answer this question in the comments for your chance to win!

Bingo cards aren't quite ready - I'll post them and the rules to that portion of the game on Friday!


Readers, share with us your favorite vacations for a chance to win! Did any of your favorite vacations fall on an anniversary? 





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Read More:

Beach Party Bingo
Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 1
Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 2
Let's Play Bingo!
Authors' Favorite Vacations - Part 3

Today's Special Valentine: Lynda Lee Schab

We continue to celebrate the release of Heart Bouquets, and today's Special Valentine is author Lynda Lee Schab.

(Today's the last day Heart Bouquets will be FREE, so get it while you can!)


Being such a foodie myself, Lynda said something I'd never considered before when we asked her favorite romantic meal. "I guess I've never thought of a meal as being romantic. It's more about the atmosphere for me."

But then she said, "For some reason, nothing whispers romance more than fondue - cheese, marinade, and, of course, chocolate!" So awesome. So we found a great site that teaches all about fondue, and provides plenty of recipes.





Today's also Marji Laine's last day of the PINK PARTY - what a great week she's had with lots of fun things going on. 
Heart Bouquets author Peggy Cunningham shares her Top 5 Romantic Movies today, too. If you missed posts earlier this week, you'll find Top 5 Romantic Destinations from Jennifer Fromke, Top 5 Romantic Comedies from Lynda Schab, Top 5 Romantic Gifts on a Budget from Traci Tyne Hilton, and Top 5 Romantic Couples from Marji Laine.
Be sure to come back Monday - we're still introducing you to our Special Valentines - the authors of Heart Bouquets. 
If you missed the other Special Valentines, check them out here: Marji Laine, Jennifer Fromke. 

Today's Special Valentine: Marji Laine

This week, we're doing something fun to celebrate the release of our latest book, Heart Bouquets, a collection of six romantic short stories. Each weekday through next Wednesday, we'll feature one of the authors as our Special Valentine of the Day.

(As an added bonus, Heart Bouquets will be FREE this week only, Wednesday to Friday, so grab your copy NOW!)

Today, our Special Valentine is author Marji Laine. She's one of our bestselling authors in The Christmas Tree Treasure Hunt that released in December.

All this week over on Marji's blog, she's having a "Pink Party" and I have it on good authority, she's not NORMALLY a pink person, but romance is in the air, so you'll have to check out all the fun things going on there. Today, she's sharing a list of Top 5 Romantic Couples.

We asked the authors to answer two questions, and this week we'll share the answers in a variety of ways.

Marji's favorite romantic meal:

Roasted Cornish Hen, fresh strawberries, and spinach artichoke dip. We dug up some recipes, and have linked a couple of them for you, if you want to make some of these foods for your own romantic meal. There were so many good recipes, it was hard to choose, but I chose ones I might try myself. Hope they'll meet Marji's approval! (On the Cornish hen recipe - this one had me at SAGE. The other ones scared me off with rosemary - I'm not a fan.)

Marji's favorite love song:




Be sure to check out the blog of another Heart Bouquets author - Lynda Schab is sharing her Top 5 Romantic Comedies today!

Tomorrow, we'll feature another author, so we hope to see you here.

More about Marji Laine:

Marji is a home-schooling mom of four with the oldest at UT Dallas. When she can't indulge in her passion for story-telling, she's transporting teenage volleyball players, teaching writing classes at a local co-op, and directing the children’s music program at her church. She loves acting in musical comedy, has directed many stage productions, leads a worship team, sings in her church choir, coordinates high school classes for a large home-school group, scrap-books, crochets, and designs Love Story books for newlyweds. She invites readers to unravel their inspiration, seeking a deeper knowledge of the Lord’s Great Mystery that invites us all.