New Year Giveaway Hop

2012 New Year Giveaway Hop!

Enter to win a Kindle copy of my newest books!

Two winners will win both books!

To enter, please leave a comment at the 

bottom of this post with your email address!

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LIZZIE BARLOW is running from her past and present mistakes. Not knowing which direction to go, she finds herself hiding out in the same Amish community in which she grew up. With her ten-year-old daughter Abby, in tow, she fears her secrets will catch up to her.

When ABBY discovers her real father may be living just down the road from where they are staying, she sets off on an adventure to meet him. What she doesn't know are the many secrets that her mother never shared with her--the same secrets that will turn her life upside down.

JACOB YODER is a young, Amish widower, trying to raise his ten-year-old son, when his past shows up on his doorstep unexpectedly, threatening to change his life forever.

Will life ever be the same for Lizzie and Jacob? Or will their mistakes change everything?

Look for Book Two: Amish Winter Wonderland, coming January, 2012. 

LOGAN FISHER arrives in Tombstone Arizona in the spring of 1885 to bury his estranged father after he was gunned down during a robbery of the Wells Fargo stage.

An experienced bounty hunter, Logan is determined to join the posse that will help bring the outlaws responsible to justice.  But when the lovely school teacher becomes a distraction, Logan begins to rethink his commitment to the cause.

DAISY MAE PINKERTON is the beautiful school teacher (and the Preacher’s daughter) who turns Logan's head and reminds him of his faith-inspired upbringing, hoping it will melt the ice that's formed over his heart, and convince him to give up his gun-slinging ways. But does she want more from him?

Writing with Dyslexia

WRITING WITH DYSLEXIA

My mother used to tease me and say I didn’t know my right from my left. She was partially correct. And unfortunately, I didn’t find out why until I became an adult.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know my right from my left; it was that my brain couldn’t process which was which unless I looked at my hands and remembered which hand I wrote with. Thank God I’m not ambidextrous!

Typing is also very difficult for me, even though I took typing classes and I know where the keys are. But when I type, my mind puts the letters in the wrong order. For example: instead of typing “the” for the, it comes out “hte” nearly every time, but when I look at it, it seems normal to me. Some days, it seems I spend more time with my spell check and the backspace key, than I do getting the book down on the page. If not for spell check I wouldn’t get very far…but I’ve discovered a flaw in the spell/grammar check recently when I posted my new Amish Romance, Jacob’s Daughter. An acquaintance on FB informed me after reading the book that there were two separate spots where I used the word “trails”, when I meant for it to say “trials”. Because “trails” is a recognized word, my spell check did not pick it up! I have since then fixed the error, despite the fact that several hundred copies had already been sold containing the error…to those who have that version…I apologize heartily.

  

How can I write like this, you ask? Well since I type so fast, and I cheat and put the spell-check on automatic, I can get a major portion of my writing done fairly quickly despite my dyslexic fingers—or is it all in my head? As a matter of fact, it has to do with vision, and how our minds interpret words, and for some, numbers too. I, unfortunately have trouble with numbers as well. So as a defense mechanism, I would memorize numbers, such as phone numbers, locker combinations (yes, I still remember my phone number that we had when I was a kid, and my locker combination from school). Nowadays, it’s addresses, license plate numbers, etc. But ask me to count cards to play poker, and that’s something I can’t do!

Being a writer, I have tons of books in my head—memorized—getting them onto the computer is the difficult part. Some days, I find myself spelling the words out loud as I type to ensure I’m getting the words down correctly. That method doesn’t work when I’m tired.

Since writing is my passion, I thank God for the technology that we have today that allows me to pursue my dream. It takes a lot of patience and hard work to write with dyslexia, but with persistence and dedication to mastering the skill, I’ve discovered a whole new way to use my talents for good instead of mischief—through the written word. 

http://www.amazon.com/Jacobs-Daughter-Christian-Romance-ebook/dp/B006LMNBL6/ref=sr_1_60?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323974991&sr=1-60

Winners Have been chosen!

Congratulations!

Julie Brown

Starbucks, iTunes

Kantu Reads

Amazon, Starbucks

June Manning

Amazon only

Thank you to all who entered. See you in two weeks for the New Year's Blog Hop Giveaway!

Winners chosen using Random.org

Gift Card Giveaway Hop

THREE winners will get to mix or match their 

choice of TWO gift cards worth $10 each!

iTunes

Starbucks

Amazon.com

McDonald's

To enter, you must follow this blog!

**Bonus entry worth 3 entries: 

Join my Facebook group: 

Samantha's Reading Entourage HERE

25 days of Christmas DONATIONS

In this season of giving, I'd like to challenge my readers to think about those who are less fortunate than we are. I find that around the holidays, most people are willing to give some assistance to others in need. 

But...I have often wondered what would happen if we extended that giving nature of ours to somehow spread that good-cheer throughout every day instead of saving it for the end of the year. Would it become a way of life, and would the world operate just a little more peacefully? Or would it become so commonplace that we should lose sight of the value that those gifts of generosity that we hold dear at Christmas time can be for the giver as well as the receiver?

For most of us who give what we can, when we can, the true treasure lies in knowing that we have benefited our fellow man in a positive way. That is why we cherish our giving season: to give back to society or to change a life.

However, when the year changes over and we promise ourselves a better year ahead, let us decide to hold true to our well-meant resolutions to make our world a better place and to be more generous of ourselves and our financial advantages. By doing so, it might just be our own lives that we end up improving.

PLEASE JOIN ME in raising money for the less fortunate during this Christmas by donating what you can to the online Salvation Army. The money we raise together will provide meals for hungry families, and gifts to CHILDREN who might not get a gift this Christmas without our generous donations. My goal is to raise TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ($10,000)! Please HELP me reach that goal...

GO HERE TO DONATE NOW:

http://www.onlineredkettle.org/SamanthaBayarr?ch=1&frmfaf=1