Happy Monday! Look at the adorable sign my daughter bought me this week:

She definitely knows the way to her mom's heart :D

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We spent most of it with our family and loved the joy our grandson always brings. I also started on my novella project. Just in case you missed the announcement on my FB Page, I'm going to share here:

I'm beyond ECSTATIC to announce I'll be doing a novella collection with the amazing Dee Henderson and Lynette Eason called SINS OF THE PAST, which will release May 2016. I'm a so honored and humbled to be able to work on a collection with two women I so greatly admire.

My novella is titled SHADOWED: An Alaskan Courage novel. Yes, that's right. It's part of my Alaskan Courage collection with a twist. Here's a sneak peak:

Dani Pettrey returns to Yancey, Alaska, introducing readers to the parents of her beloved McKenna clan. Adventure, romance, and danger collide when a young fisherman nets the body of a open water swimming competitor and possible Russian defector. Turning to a college friend of the woman, the two begin to try and solve her death.

What excites or interests you most about the project?

Blessings,

Hi Friends, I hope you’re having a great week. It’s so hard to believe we’re into February. In fact, next week is the most romantic holiday of all—Valentine’s Day. To celebrate, I’ve joined forces with some awesome romance author friends to do a special LOVING WELL giveaway.

Today I’ll be sharing about Loving Kids Well. These can be your own children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews, or simply kids you interact with on a regular basis. Children are a blessing from the Lord and they deserved to be loved and cherished. Here are 8 Ways to Love Kids Well:

• Spend Time With Them—The number one way you can show kids you love them is by investing in their lives. We’re all so busy these days. Take time to give your child or the children in your life undivided attention.

• Listen—Kids love to talk and are very open about what’s important to them. Give them the opportunity to share and really listen to what they are saying.

• Figure Out Their Love Language—Every child has a different love language. Figure out what your child’s is and show them love in that way. See this link for more information: http://www.thrivingfamily.com/Features/Web/2010/jan/love-language.aspx

• Have Fun—Life can be busy, but it’s important to give kids time to be kids. Put on music and dance around together. Stare at clouds and see what find shapes you can find. Bake a cake. Laugh.

• Encourage—Everyone needs encouragement. Kids are no different. Find ways to encourage them each day. Leave a note for them saying they’re special in their lunch box, on the bathroom mirror in shaving cream, or on a post-it note by their bed.

• Exhibit Qualities You Want Them To Learn—Kids learn best by example. Teach your kids the Fruits of the Spirit by exhibiting them in your life. Be loving, kind, joyful, patient, faithful and gentle with them.

• Appreciate That God Made Them Unique—God made us all unique. Don’t fall into the trap of comparing your child to others, even siblings. God created each of us in our mother’s womb. He knit us together. Let your child/grandchild/niece know you’re so thankful for the special and unique person God created them to be.

• Share Jesus With Them—The most important way you can love your child well is to share Jesus with him or her. Spend time in pray, read God’s Word, tell them how much Jesus loves them.

Be sure to visit each of the Valentine’s Giveaway blog stops and you’ll be able to collect a word on each page that will add up to a ‘secret sentence’ by the final stop.  Enter the sentence into the entry box at the final stop and be entered to win a special prize.

My word is SHE.

 Upcoming Blog Hop Stops:

Feb 6th visit Rachel Hauck by clicking here

Feb 8th visit Lisa Wingate by clicking here

Feb 9th visit Katie Ganshert by clicking here

Feb 10th visit Susan May Warren by clicking here

Feb 13th visit Becky Wade by clicking here

To enter the giveaway, simply complete the form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good morning, We are supposed to get temps in the mid-50's today, which is totally unusual for our area, but I'm not complaining….As long as it turns cold and snows just in time for Christmas. LOVE a white Christmas. How about you?

Today's the last day of my week-long giveaway. I'm so grateful for your kind and encouraging comments, and I've really enjoyed spending this week together :)

Yesterday's winner was:

• Dawn Taylor

Congratulations, Dawn! Email your mailing address and choice of book (Submerged, Shattered or Stranded) to dani@danipettrey.com

Since it's the final day of the giveaway and in the spirit of giving, I've decided to pick 3 winners today. That's right…tomorrow morning there will be 3 winners announced, so keep the comments coming!

I've saved this recipe for last because it's my favorite. Pair it with milk or a good cup of coffee. It's dunking delicious.

Merry Christmas,

I hope you're all having a wonderful autumn. The view from my office window is gorgeous--tons of trees in shades of yellow, orange and red. It's hard to believe tomorrow is November 1st. I wanted to take a minute to thank you all for your amazing support of my Alaskan Courage series. Because of you my latest release, Stranded, along with my debut novel, Submerged, made the bestseller list for October. Thank you! I'm so grateful for your continued support, and I love receiving your emails. I truly treasure them. Please continue to write. I love hearing what you think of the stories and the McKenna clan. I also wanted to share a sneak peek of Silenced, which is available for pre-order now and will be released in May. Here's the cover and catalog copy. Hope you enjoy!

A relaxing day of rock climbing takes a disturbing turn when Kayden McKenna’s route leads her face to face with a dead climber. Is it a terrible accident or something sinister? When the case is handed to the overburdened sheriff, he turns to Jake Westin. With Jake’s past now revealed, he’s ready to use his talent for investigation again–but he could never prepare for where the case will take him.

Kayden and Jake soon realize that the death was no accident. And worse, it seems the killer is on to them. When strange things begin happening in Yancey, Jake is terrified that once again his world may put someone he loves in danger. But the truth is far worse than he could ever imagine.

Coming May, 2014

Happy Monday, everyone! I'm getting ready to take the rest of the week off in preparation for my daughter's wedding Saturday, but wanted to share something fun with you first.

I'm happy to officially announce SILENCED will be Jake and Kayden's story and even more exciting....here's the cover!!!

Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Hi all, Some fun news to share and a giveaway to show my thanks! I've just learned that:

• Submerged has gone to its 4th printing.
• Shattered has been chosen as The Book Club Network's Book of the Month for May. Thanks to all who voted!
• Shattered is being translated into Norwegian. My full-blooded Norwegian father is extremely excited about this :)

I have the most amazing readers! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. In deepest appreciation for your continued support and encouragement, I'm giving away the first of three Advanced Reader Copies of Stranded--my September 1st release. I'm also including a $5 Starbucks gift card so you can enjoy your favorite drink while reading Gage and Darcy's adventure.

What do you have to do to enter?

Simply leave your name and email address in the comment section below. On Monday, June 10th, I'll randomly select a winner and announce the winner right here on my blog Monday night.

Best of luck, and thank you again for your amazing support!

Blessings,

Piper and Landon's dossiers are now available on my website. Hope you'll enjoy getting a small glimpse of them before Shattered releases February 1st. Blessings,

I hope you are all having a wonderful day. A few weeks ago I attended ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) in Orlando and thought it'd be fun to share a bit about that with you all. It was my first time at ICRS and I was a bit in awe to learn that Phil Vischer and Matthew West were there, though I didn't realize that until I was on the plane flying home and actually had time to read through the convention program. Bummer.

The trip kicked off meeting my fabulous roommate and dear friend Kelli Standish. Kelli and I have worked together for a few years now, but it was the first opportunity we've had to meet in person. We met at the airport and made a midnight breakfast run to Denny's. I think we got all of four hours sleep that night and it started a trend :)

Sunday began with Books & Such brunch. It was a joy getting to meet my lovely agent in person.

Sunday night I attended the Baker dinner where I had a wonderful time reconnecting with friends and fellow Bethany House authors.

Monday I headed over the convention center and was thoroughly impressed. There were so many Christian publishers represented there along with Christian music companies, film production companies, stores, and vendors. So many people yearning to share Christ with the world. I felt like a drop in a much greater ocean. An ocean hopefully reflecting our Father's love and majesty.

I spoke at a Fiction event (hosted by the fabulous SuzyQ) alongside authors I greatly admire, and had the privilege of signing books afterwards.

Monday night I attended the Christy awards where I got to cheer on numerous Bethany House authors. I am so blessed to be part of such an amazing publishing family.

Tuesday I taped a video interview with Ray Sadler (super fun guy!) for LifeWay Christian Stores, I did a signing in the Bethany House booth next to Davis Bunn (I so admire him), and wrapped up the afternoon sitting on a panel about Christian Fiction's Impact on Faith and Culture. Quite an interesting discussion. It was such an honor to be on the same panel as Colleen Coble, Rachel Hauck, and Kim Vogel Sawyer.

ICRS was a wonderful experience. Great food. Time with fellow writers and even more importantly, fellow believers in Christ. But it was good to return home to my tiny office, to quiet time with the Lord, to focusing on the story He's laid on my heart. To shift the focus off of me and onto Him because it's all for His glory. I'm just so thankful He provides opportunities for story lovers to group together from time to time (like at ICRS and ACFW), and incredibly grateful that He's always guiding us through this journey He's called us to.

Praying you feel God's leading on your life and your journey.

Blessings,

Today you're in for a treat. An interview with Nora St. Laurent of The Book Club Network. Let's jump right in. 

What inspired you start TBCN?

The Book Club Network was born out of a desire to share Christian Fiction authors with other book clubs, share book club ideas with other leaders and to encourage the authors who are writing such amazing books. The economy has been really tough for a few years and people are not parting with money like they used to. Through TBCN they can take their time and find the right book or win it. We have give away opportunities each month. ALL of our contests are from the 19^th – 21^st of the month.

I run two face-to-face book clubs, one at the Christian Book Store I work at and the other at the church I attend. It’s a position I never imagined I’d be in since I didn’t read for pleasure much before I started working in a Christian book store 11 years ago.

But since I love talking with people and the main thing to talk about in a book store is books I started reading Christian Fiction (publishers sent ARC copies to our store and I started checking them out) The first book that rocked my world and got me hooked in Christian Fiction was a book by Linda Nichols called Not a Sparrow Falls her next book did me in and I couldn’t stop talking about it, At the Scent of Water was her next book that prompted me to contact the author and let her know how much her book touched my spirit.

After reading these two books and telling customers about these reads I had a reason to read.  These books spoke to me because I wasn’t expecting it. It reminded me of the stories in the bible. Jesus is the greatest story teller and He knew a story could change a life or prick our spirit and move us in a direction we never thought we’d be in.

I tell you all that to say I’m dyslexic and I have not been a fan of reading. Movies were more my thing. I could watch a movie of a book and have a lot more fun. Reading Christian Fiction changed my life in more ways than one.  I wanted to tell everyone about the greatest book I read, and I’d do that at the book store.  It was possible to talk about the new book I read and loved for about a month or more but when At the Scent of Water and Not a Sparrow Falls were not on the shelf anymore, I had to find some other books to talk about at work.  I’m not a very fast reader so; discovering the next new book was a challenge. Would I get the book read before it disappeared from the shelf?  How long do books live on a book shelf? The shelf life of a book was a mystery to me and still is.

I was whining to my husband Fred about my problem. How can I get the word out about great books for a very long period of time??? Being a man who likes to face challenges head we began to talk about how we could do this and the fact that I can’t read books fast enough to keep up with it’s shelf life at the store.

I also told him as a book club leader I wanted to promote great books and share them with other groups. Not everyone has the advantage of working at a book store and see what new books hit the shelves each week. Another struggle I had was if I had an author speaking at my book club I wanted to share them with other book clubs in the area. How could I do that? Where are book clubs meeting?

Our answer to many of these questions and more was the birth of The Book Club Network - TBCN. Connecting authors to book clubs and readers to their books; it’s also a network of book clubs as they post what they’ve read and how the meeting turned out.

It’s a place to find where a book club is located. We have a member map where you can find a book club near you. Message them and see if they are accepting new members. I envision it to be similar to the Weight Watchers program (don’t laugh-Grin) you can go to a meeting anywhere in the country right? All you have to do is look on line and get connected. This is my hope for the future of TBCN.

That is so exciting, Nora. Have there been any surprises for you @TBCN? What benefits have you seen by bringing readers and authors together?

I’ve been encouraged and fascinated by our growth. I can see there were other people out there like me wanting to connect with other book club members.

I’ll tell you what has surprised me is the author/reader interaction each month. This is something I didn’t foresee as I’ve watch the authors are having a blast interacting with the readers and visa/versa. The beauty of this discussion is it’s there forever for all to read no matter when you join TBCN.

The authors have done a great job coming up with questions for reader to answer that give them a peek into their book – create interest and then the discussion helps book club leaders connect with the author. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the amount of authors that want to be featured @The Book Club Network. It’s been a great thing.

The interaction with the authors is almost like having a book club meeting on line. It’s a huge benefit for both the authors who’ve wanted to ask clubs questions and readers who want to get to know authors. The authors are catching on. Our sponsors have loved the interaction as well. Members have told me that they love the author interaction from the 19^th-21^st as much as having a chance to win all these books. It’s hard to know if a book will be a fit for your group so these interaction times are helpful for that and so much more. Another thing I love about TBCN members is the fact they are not afraid to share what they think in a good way. I’ve learned so much and laughed out loud in some discussion where the questions lead to sharing funny moments.

My hope is that book club leaders and/or members participate in the discussions and make that book connection with the author and their book. I want TBCN to be a tool for them in picking out their books. Maybe invite the author to speak to their book club on the phone. It’s my hope. The discussion will be there forever. No worries about a books shelf live here @TBCN. So, everyone has time to get to know each other!! It’s a beautiful thing!

How can readers join in the anniversary celebrations?

It’s easy to sign up to be a member of TBCN.  We ask a few questions for you to answer and for other information that helps us keep spammers and other information seekers out of the network. It’s also FREE. You have opportunities to win lots of books. For our BIRTHDAY BASH we are giving away 10 books a day and announcing winners once a week. You’ll have all week to enter the daily featured contests.

Do you have any other comments for my readers?

If you are avid reader this is the place for you to learn about the latest in Christian Fiction and interact with the author each month.

Are you a book club leader? Well this is the place for you to find your next book club pick. We’d also love for you to set up your Book club page at our site for others to see. It’s a place to share your latest featured book. Post pictures of your club and the field trips you’ve taken. The authors you’ve met and the book fun you’ve had. Learn from other book clubs that have already set up their pages.

Want to start a book club but felt it was too overwhelming? You can learn from other experienced book club leaders, and you can start right away making your book club list!

Do you like to win books? This is the place for you. You’ll have a chance to get to know the authors and their books and read genre’s you normally wouldn’t. We’ve been giving away about 100 books a month and for our birthday bash it’s going to be 10 books every day; starting August first. Winners are picked weekly and announced each weekly.

THANK YOU! You’ve been a grand host to have me here and let me talk about The Book Club Network and our Birthday Bash!! I hope to see you there @TBCN www.bookfun.org

You are a Blessing!!

Nora :o)

Nora, it was a blessing having you here. I love The Book Club Network and am always excited to help spread the word.

A little about Nora:  

Nora is the CEO of The Book Club Network Incorporated. Nora and her husband run The Book Club Network www.bookfun.org She runs two book clubs near Atlanta, Ga., Former ACFW On-Line Book Club. Nora currently writes a Book Club column for the Christian Fiction OnLine Magazine and is a Book Club Talk Columnist for Novel Rocket. You can read author interviews on her Finding Hope Through Fiction blog, located at http://www.psalm516.blogspot.com, and reviews around the web at The Christian Pulse Mag, Title Trakk, Novel Reviews, and Suspense Zone.

Hope you've enjoyed today's interview, and I hope you have fun checking out TBCN.

Blessings,

Yes. That's right. Today is the official release date of my debut novel Submerged. What does that mean exactly? It means that as of today Submerged is available in stores, online and for download on your e-reader of choice. It's such an exciting day and I'm looking forward to celebrating with my family tonight.

I have been especially blessed to enjoy this debut experience with three very talented authors:

Beth Vogt

Olivia Newport

Katie Ganshert (Katie's debut will officially release May 8th)

Join us on May 15 for our Debutantes’ Story Soiree: a live, worldwide online party to celebrate our debuts and also learn more about Heart of the Bride, a nonprofit ministry devoted to meeting the needs of orphans worldwide.

Also celebrating a release today is fellow Bethany House author Becky Wade. Yay, Becky!  I feel so very blessed to be surrounded by such lovely women.