About the Book
Name of book: 21 Days of Christmas: A Fiction Lover’s Devotional
Author: Kathy Ide
Genre: Christian Fiction Devotional
Release Date: September 1, 2015
Christmas is more than just a holiday. It is a time to recapture the joy and wonder of God’s greatest gift: His Son, Jesus.
21 Days of Christmas will warm your heart with stories about giving, loving, and family. These engaging tales celebrate the hope and joy that make this blessed season unique. At the end of each story you’ll find an insightful message that will help you discover anew the true meaning of this special time of year. So grab a cup of hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick, curl up in your favorite chair beside a picture window overlooking a serene spot, and savor the true meaning of Christmas through these inspirational and encouraging stories.
Click here to purchase your copy.
More About Kathy Ide
Kathy is the editor/compiler of the Fiction Lover’s Devotional series (www.FictionDevo.com) and author of Proofreading Secrets of Best-Selling Authors (http://secretsofbestsellingauthors.com). She has also written numerous articles, short stories, devotionals, play scripts, and Sunday school curriculum. She has ghostwritten ten nonfiction books and a five-book novel series.
She is also a full-time freelance editor, working with aspiring, new, and experienced authors as well as publishers.
Kathy speaks at writers’ conferences across the country.
She is the founder and coordinator of The Christian PEN: Proofreaders and Editors Network (www.TheChristianPEN.com) and the Christian Editor Connection (www.ChristianEditor.com).
For more about Kathy, visit http://www.KathyIde.com.
My Impressions:
For someone who loves a good story and is looking for a way to focus on the real reason for the season, 21 Days of Christmas (A Fiction Lover’s Devotional) is a perfect choice. This unique collection has 21 short stories ranging from contemporary to historical settings revolving around some aspect of Christmas. In Star Light, Star Bright the reader sees the momentous birth through the eyes of Jesus’ earthly father, Joseph. In Camouflaged Christmas we see a young mother struggling to celebrate while her husband is deployed. And in The Last Ember we see a how a kind gesture speaks volumes to a despairing woman. And those are just a few of the wonderful tales shared by twenty-one different authors as they present their take on the real message of Christmas — hope, love, joy, and peace through the birth of the Savior. I liked that all the characters in the various stories were real and relatable, with struggles and doubts, hopes and dreams, just like you and me. At the end of each story a short Life Application is shared making each relevant for the reader. 21 Days of Christmas will make the perfect pre-Christmas gift for the bookworm in your life. Or pick a copy up for yourself and kickstart your day by focusing on what is truly important this Christmas.
Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(Thanks to Celebrate Lit for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Guest Post from Kathy Ide
Looking for a great Christmas gift for friends and family who love fiction … or devotionals? You can give them both in one book!
21 Days of Christmas: Stories that Celebrate God’s Greatest Gift is book two in the Fiction Lover’s Devotional series. It’s a collection of 21 fiction stories, each written by a different author—including well-known novelists such as Lena Nelson Dooley, Joanne Bischof, Jan Cline, and Lynn Kinnaman. Some stories are about the first Christmas, when Mary and Joseph brought God’s Son into the world. Others are about how we celebrate that history-changing event today. Each story is followed by a brief Life Application written by the author of that story.
The first chapter starts out with an amusing tale of a modern-day couple in the front seat of a car, on Christmas Eve, traveling to see relatives for the holiday. They’re griping about the hassles of the season, and hollering at the the kids, who are playing with the foil on Mom’s Jell-O salad in the backseat. Then we break from that to a scene of Mary and Joseph entering Bethlehem, about to bring God’s Son into the world. It contrasts the modern-day wife, not wanting to go into a sleazy diner because it’s the only place open on Christmas Eve, with Mary hesitating to go into a smelly barnyard to give birth. When the modern-day couple decide to tell their children the Christmas story—complete with snow and a little drummer boy—the contrasts become both highly funny and very poignant.
I wrote one of the chapters in the book. It’s about the first Christmas, from the perspective of Joseph. What he must have thought and felt when Mary was giving birth to Jesus, knowing that he had been personally given the divine responsibility to teach God’s Son about God. Based on the Old Testament teachings he’d been raised with, what did Joseph think Jesus would be like when He was born, and how did reality clash with those expectations?
This book makes a great gift for family and friends, with its beautiful debossed hardback cover, full-color interior, and a ribbon page marker. With stories about the Nativity as well as tales of modern-day people celebrating that event, almost anyone would enjoy receiving a copy and reading it—even those who don’t believe in Christ as their Savior. It’s small enough to be a stocking stuffer (or tucked into the pocket of a Christmas-themed pot holder!) and inexpensive enough to be a practical gift for those people you’re not sure will reciprocate, or who may feel uncomfortable if they didn’t get you anything.
This devotional would also be ideal to incorporate into an individual’s or a family’s advent celebration, reading one chapter a day during the three weeks leading up to Christmas.
Each chapter takes only about ten minutes to read, which makes it ideal for the hectic holiday season. And since each chapter stands alone, it doesn’t matter whether you read one or two stories, half the book, or the whole thing.
Other books in the Fiction Lover’s Devotional series are:
21 Days of Grace: Stories that Celebrate God’s Unconditional Love
21 Days of Love: Stories that Celebrate Treasured Relationships
21 Days of Joy: Stories that Celebrate Motherhood
Blog Stops
Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses, November 21
Reflections From My Bookshelves, November 21
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, November 22
Reader’s Cozy Corner, November 22
Blossoms and Blessings, November 23
Carpe Diem, November 23
Chas Ray’s Book Nerd Corner, November 24
Multifarious, November 25
A Reader’s Brain, November 25
A Greater Yes, November 26
Lane Hill House, November 26
Texas Book -aholic, November 27
Jeanette’s Thoughts, November 27
Karen Sue Hadley, November 28
By The Book, November 29
Seasons of Opportunities, November 29
Mary Hake, November 30
Have A Wonderful Day, December 1
Remebrancy, December 2
God’s Little Bookworm, December 3
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 4
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Kathy is giving away a grand prize of a set of 21 days devotional books!!
Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries! https://promosimple.com/ps/c3c2
Tags: Christmas, devotional guide, Kathy Ide
When she receives the news in late 1944 that her baby’s father was shot down in the South Pacific, Amelia Richards loses hope. Jobless and broke, she has nowhere to turn for help but her infant’s paternal grandparents. The only problem is, they don’t know that she — or their grandson — exists. When Amelia discovers that the family is wealthy and influential, dare she disclose the truth of her relationship with their son? Or could the celebration of the arrival of another unexpected baby nearly two thousand years ago be the answer to her dilemma?
Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books (with sales around 6.5 million) for teens, women and children. That’s a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a “storyteller”. Her novels range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors, etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She’s won a number of awards (including Romantic Time’s Career Achievement Award, the Rita and the Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog. To find out more about Melody Carlson, visit her website at 
An unexpected surprise brings the Mitchell family of Savannah a chance to experience the Christmas trip of their dreams. An unexpected disappointment threatens to turn it into the worst Christmas of their lives. John Finch and his friend Alfred live in the woods. Been doing it for decades. He likes wintering in Florida, but this year’s been particularly harsh. Between the cold, freezing rain and terrifying lightning storms, John’s starting to wonder how much more of this lifestyle he can take. A new friend enters the picture and changes everything. Kim Harper, the dog trainer introduced in Rescuing Finley, is contacted by a billionaire philanthropist seeking her help with a new dog training project that will help the homeless. Is he for real? And is her co-worker right? Does this rich, handsome man’s interest in Kim go much deeper than her dog-training skills?
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