Interview & GIVEAWAY with Angela Breidenbach!

Hey y'all! It's Rebekah here. Angela Breidenbach has bravely agreed to be my first victim, uh, I mean first interview here on the Diamond Mine. I met Angela through our writing group Faith, Hope & Love. She's one of the many blessings I've found since joining FHL.

Angela is the captivating host of Grace Under Pressure Radio on iTunes, as well as a speaker and author. Angela is also the Christian Author Network's president. And yes, she's half of the comedy duo, Muse and Writer.

Angela's books include:

* The Lassoed by Marriage Collection (coming Jan. 2016)

* A Healing Heart (paperback, eBook, audio)

* Snowflake Tiara (paperback, eBook, audio coming Oct.) A book I fell in love with!

* Eleven Pipers Piping, Christmas Traditions Collection (eBook)

 

 

The GIVEAWAY:

 

Audio book of A Healing Heart

 

Leave a comment at the end of the interview to enter!

 

Rebekah:  Hey Angie! I’m so glad you’re here! Can you tell me about the genre you write and why?
Angie:  Oh boy ;) I write because I love to write…historical romance, contemporary romance, non-fiction self-help (called Christian Living in religious publishing). I also write articles, devotionals, and cat comedy with Muse and Writer.  

Rebekah:   What’s your favorite thing about your genres?
Angie:  In historical romance, I love living in history. But in self-help and the non-fiction, I love feeling like I'm helping someone through a struggle to become the very special person they want to be or cope with a tough situation. I think my fiction, non-fiction, and cat comedy does that too.

 

Rebekah:  What’s your newest releases?
Angie: Eleven Pipers Piping, Christmas Traditions Collection and my new Grace Under Pressure Radio show on iTunes ;) I'm working on a non-fiction book also to be titled, Grace Under Pressure. I'm hoping to release it late fall.

 

Rebekah:  Describe Eleven Pipers Piping in 3 separate words:

Angie:  historical, romance, newsies (boys who sold newspapers on the street in the late 1800s-early 1900s)

 

Rebekah:  If your book was made in to a movie, what actors would you cast as your main hero & heroine?
Angie: Okay, this is a trick question, right?! You know I'm working on just that now. I want to write screenplays out of all my books. But if Eleven Pipers Piping was made into a movie I'd love to see someone like Luke Benward as Evan and I could see someone like Emma Stone as Mirielle.

 

Rebekah:  How long did it take you to write this book?
Angie: A lot longer than I thought for how short it is! It took a year because it was the book I was writing when my dad passed away. Then I had another contract for Bridal Whispers (Barbour's The Lassoed by Marriage collection releasing Jan. 1, 2016) that had a more pressing deadline.

 

Rebekah: How do you balance writing with other responsibilities (job, family, etc.)?
Angie: Being an empty-nester, it's a lot easier now than when I had kids at home. I went full time writing/speaking in 2009 and haven't looked back. I've done a lot of public speaking and that takes so much time away from home. So to balance the fact that I love speaking, but I want to be home more, I've started the Grace Under Pressure Radio show on iTunes. I've been able to cut back my speaking schedule and now I'm speaking on the air instead of so many events. I think getting creative about what I love to do is helping me be more balanced, especially because I’m a workaholic. This helps me relax a little more.

 

Rebekah: When did you realize you first wanted to be a writer?
Angie: My dad taught me to read and write when I was four. I started writing and writing and writing. I guess I had a lot to say for a four-year old, lol.

 

Rebekah: Do you stick to your TBR pile or are you an impulsive book buyer?
Angie: I go by my mood, totally. I read fiction when I need a break and I read non-fiction when I want to learn.

 

Rebekah: What are you currently reading?
Angie: I usually have four or five books going at a time. They range from historical fiction to historical research to non-fiction education to self-help and I always have at least two devotionals I go between. Currently, the most consistent is going to just make you roll your eyes. But it's the Leadership Bible. I'm on a goal of growing in my leadership skills because of being the Christian Authors Network president. I want to do the best possible job I can. I feel very responsible for the people in my organization and their benefit for belonging.

 

Rebekah: At some point an author has to torture their characters. Tell us the truth. Do you enjoy or hate it?
Angie: I used to hate it. But now I really love it because I learned how it helps me and my readers to experience failure and success. I mean, without overcoming failure or fear, there really is no success. I like my characters to show that concept too. So I call my heroines the "Grace Under Pressure" kind of gals. I like showing women overcoming fears, obstacles, and people that try to hold them back.

 

Rebekah: Who’s your number one fictional character crush OR favorite fictional couple?
Angie: I love Leota from Francine Rivers Leota's Garden. I identify with her so much because she had to work while raising her kids. There's more, but it's personal J For the favorite male character, I think it's Rhett Butler ;) I love how his character arc brings him around to adoring his daughter and how much he loved Scarlett even though she couldn't realize she loved him too.

 

Rebekah: What’s one thing readers would be surprised to know about you?
Angie: As a writer, I think it would surprise readers to learn I have the Grace Under Pressure Radio show. But I hope readers will come listen on iTunes. I was surprised, by friends and readers, when I asked if I did a podcast, what would people want to learn from me. When the answer came back that people wanted to learn how to be gracious in stressful situations, I was really stunned. I didn't see myself that way. But it was overwhelming in response.

So I went on a quest to find out why that was such a unanimous topic. I spent over a year really listening, asking questions, and discovering what and why others saw that in me when I didn't even know. I asked for a few words to help describe what they meant. Those words turned out to be: confidence, courageous, genuine, candor (meaning genuine honesty), and a phrase that summed it up, "velvet gloves in hard situations". The Grace Under Pressure Radio show, and soon to be book, came from that journey. I learned to embrace the essence of who I am and I want to help others do the same. I'm still surprised by the outcome, but I am also very honored and grateful that others took the time to help me dig deep.

Also, I've done a ton of research on religions and the various forms of belief that are called atheism, agnosticism, etc. I think people would be extremely surprised to learn how much I know about not only world religions but also denominations within Christianity. I'm certainly not a degreed scholar, but I have spent a lot of time learning about beliefs and doctrine for my personal questions so I can discuss it widely and knowledgably.

 

 

Rebekah: Angie’s latest book release, Eleven Pipers Piping, a 1890 Montana historical is available now!
  

What would you do if you were given eleven rowdy street newsies and told either you turn them into model citizens or they get sold into indenture or sent to the military? Eleven Pipers Piping is the story of a sweet music teacher and eleven boys given one chance or else! Evan Russell lost everything—his ranch, his wife, and now after trusting relatives with his young son, even the little boy is missing. How can a beautiful symphony

of the heart come from such chaos?

 

 

.99 for 8 novellas: Christmas Traditions series (Eleven Pipers Piping is in it) http://amzn.to/1E6hzWj

Eight heartwarming novellas of Christmas's gone by where the true meaning of the season warms your heart and love flows as fast as apple cider. Grab your favorite drink, no matter the temperature outside, curl up in a cozy chair and lose yourself in holiday romance.

 

Angie's having a Facebook party! Click here for the invitation link! 

 

Places you can find Angie:

Website: http://www.AngelaBreidenbach.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AngBreidenbach

Pintrest: http://www.pinterest.com/AngBreidenbach

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AngelaBreidenbachInspirationalSpeakerAuthor

iTunes: Grace Under Pressure Radio

 

 

 

 

Cheryl's Farm Fresh Wisdom~Knee Deep in Hay!

Hope you wore yer long-sleeved shirts! We're marching out to the back-forty hay field. Cheryl's out there with a touch a humor and a load of fresh straw. Go fetch yer Bible too, cause she's bringing home another of God's truths! In case haven't met her yet, here's Cheryl!

     Here at our farm, we depend on a huge stockpile of straw and hay from summer to sustain all of our many animals during the winter months. We normally cut hay three to four times throughout the spring and summer. However, after an unusually wet and cool spring, our hay fields were ready for harvest. Over-ready would be a more appropriate description really. The hay had just grown and grown, higher and thicker.

     In order to harvest our hay crop, we use a haybine that cuts the hay off at the ground level and then rolls it through a set of rollers that also crimp the stems so the moisture can escape more quickly.  Then it must lay on the ground for one to two days to dry.  After it is dry, then we use a tractor and rake to combine two rows into one large windrow. Then we bale the hay into very large sixty-six inch bales. Each bale weighs around twelve hundred pounds.

     This is a very tedious process which is all dependent upon the weather.  The equipment we use is precise, and the baler is attached to a computer.  For this reason my husband, Darrel, and I are the only ones to operate this equipment. We both have been raised driving tractors and are accustomed to the uneven fields that may result from such a wet spring. With all this unusual rainfall, the local farmers have been forced to delay the wheat harvest as well.  Darrel was cutting hay and the farmers were cutting wheat.  Everything was ripe for harvest all at once.

Luke 10:2 "He told them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the worker are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" (NIV)

     With all of the crops ready at once, the Lord gave me this scripture. He showed me that so many people are willing and ready to follow Him, but the leaders (workers) are few. We must step up and be the example of Christ to this crazy and lost world.

     Since Darrel was cutting the hay and the farmers were harvesting the wheat all at the same time, then it became my job to bale the straw.  We bale the wheat straw right behind the farmer’s combines.  It was nothing but, go, go, go!

     For many who do  not know me, I am quite short.  I will not mention that I am pretty stocky as well.  Okay, I am sort-of sort and plump!  Anyway, at barely 5’2” tall, it is a stretch for me to operate our baling tractor.  Our tractors are older and designed for taller men, not short-legged women.

To bale the straw or hay, the machine is pulled over the windrow with a tractor.  Each bale is accumulated until it reaches the proper size. Then the operator must depress the tractor’s clutch while the baler wraps the bale with net wrap.  Next, the operator must eject the bale out of the baler.  This is where I have to twist to my right and look backwards in the seat while holding the clutch in with my left foot.  I have to watch that the bale is ejected properly then pull another lever to close the baler and start this process all over again.This is a very difficult position to hold for someone so short.  So as I am baling, praying, and stretching, Prov. 4:27 pops into my head.

“Do not turn from the right or the left:  Keep your foot from evil.” (NIV)

I was barely keeping my foot on the clutch, how, I wondered, could I possibly step on evil? Obviously God has a sense of humor while trying to teach me to follow directly behind Him, step for step. Okay. Lesson learned!

     This baling process goes on and on all day long.  Did I mention that our Indiana weather had turned off hot? And I mean it was hot!  We had three days of 105 degree heat index. I can usually bale ninety to one hundred round bales of straw a day.  So you can imagine how contorted I am after baling four-hundred and fifty bales!  I was stiff in the neck and my back was suffering from muscle spasms.  After ten days straight of baling, except for church on Sunday, I was worn out.  Our tractor’s air conditioner could not keep up either, so I was blowing lukewarm air to boot.  Guess some air was better than none.

     We were, as a team, able to get all of the straw and the hay baled. I am a firm believer that, as Darrel’s wife, I was designed to be his helpmate.  After this harvest I am confident that I have fulfilled this obligation.

     I’m thanking God we are finished for now and all of the hay and straw was harvested with no rain.  We finally go all of the bales out of the field and stacked in rows for winter.  And God said, “Be still and know that I am God.” Psalms 46:10

I can honestly say: 2 Timothy 4:7 

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (NIV)

Love and Smiles,

Cheryl

GUEST BLOGGER! Farm Fresh Wisdom with Cheryl~When you Sink in Miry Clay

Peggy: Y'all know where I'm going with this. Done got my fiddle out to play a few rounds of There's a Hole in the Bucket Ole' Liza, Ole' Liza. Only my farm neighbor, Cheryl, had a much better rendition. And she's at the bottom of one humdinger of a hole. Sit down on that there bucket, aim at the spittoon in the corner while keepin' yer boots downwind, and take a listen. 

 Cheryl: Living in a remote area adjacent to a coal mine can be very challenging.  We do not have city water. We get our water from the roof top of the garage behind our home.  The water goes into the gutters and is transported into our cistern, coal mine dust, dirt, and all. A cistern is a large cavity which is dug into the ground about twelve to fourteen feet deep.  Usually the bottom is made of clay or sandstone that is a natural layer in the earth.  From this sandstone the walls are shaped with bricks and mortar up and up to the top until the cistern is in the shape of a vessel; narrow at the top and spreading out at the bottom. The shape is much like an upside down wine glass.  The top of the cistern has a square of concrete about five feet square with a smaller concrete lid that measures two foot square.  The base of this cistern is about ten to twelve foot in diameter. We do not drink or cook with the cistern water.  We use this water for all baths, laundry, and cleaning. We buy our drinking water.

     About two weeks prior to Easter, I began to notice a strange smell in our water, especially the hot water. I was hosting Easter for my whole family. So my husband, Darrel, suggested I put bleach in it.  This remedy worked until the next rain and so on. Rain/bleach/rain/bleach. I was almost to my breaking point when the smell developed into a complete stench! I could not stand it. So my husband and I resolved to pump the cistern dry to find the problem.  Sure enough, we found it!  We were getting so much rain that the ground surface water was also going into our cistern. The heating process made the algae and bacteria bloom and—wow, stink, stink!

     Once the water was mostly out, one of us had to get in and fill the bucket while the other lugged the rope and bucket full of mud up and out.  In I went.  Down into the mud-filled, smelly cave of a pit.  One shovel at a time I stooped this black slime out.  But as I worked, I remembered God’s word.

Psalm 40:2. (NIV)

           “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock            and gave me a firm place to stand.”

     Without my ladder I was hopelessly trapped in a pit that I had knowingly entered. Isn't it just like Jesus to remind me of how many times I willingly jumped into a pit that only He could get me out of? I began to realize how many time Jesus had done this for me—the exact thing I was doing in the cistern. Bit by Bit, scoop by scoop, layer of dirt and filth by layer, He carefully and deliberately lifted me out of the pit. He cleaned me from the inside out. The stench of my carnal nature fell off. The slime and mud I had created began to be replaced with the fruit of His Spirit which bloomed in me.

     

     Galatians 5:22 tells us about His fruits. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  He took my filthy vessel, cleaned it out and replaced it with clean things that please Him and grow His kingdom!

      After the whole afternoon of cleaning, scrubbing, rinsing, and pumping, our cistern was, at last, clean.  We ordered water from a local water hauler, and inch by inch our source of life-giving water was restored to a state of cleanliness.  We have since installed a gutter diverter device on our flow system to better control what type and how much water is allowed in our cistern.

     I would encourage you also to put a trash diverter device on your life to protect your soul.  If you are constantly exposing yourself to situations that will cause toxicity and filth in your life, have God’s Word as your armor.  Be ready, because if you fall into a huge pit, it is very hard to get out.  Call upon Jesus.  He will help you!

Peggy:  If'n ya got a shortage of sludge, give Cheryl a call. She's got plenty. On second thought, scratch that. Nobody needs that kind of filth, especially in you soul! If ya ain't done did it yet, and Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and be your Savior!

Can't resist adding a little newfangled music that blends Psalms 40 right in. One of my fav's.

 40 by Ginny Owens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_pQ7H7Xia4

Let us know about the miry clay and how Jesus Christ cleansed it away!