Kim McMahill

Guest Post by Carlene Havel : When I was a young woman, people often mistook Mom and me for sisters, something she always found more amusing than I did. Now, strangers often assume we are twins. At the memorial service for a distant relative, people kept saying how good I looked. Then--that moment when someone called me by my mother’s name--I realized everyone thought I was her. I suppose I DID look pretty good for a woman my mother’s age. No wonder I laughed when I first heard someone say, “I’m becoming my mother.” Both my mom and I are authors. However, we have very different approaches to our writing. Mom’s a planner. She works out the plot and outlines her stories extensively before she ever puts pen to paper. I am a “pantser”. I begin a book with one idea, a character, or sometimes an appealing scene and take off from there. For years we talked about collaborating on a book. Both of us had worked with a co-author from time to time, but we had serious concerns about our differe...

Guest blog post by Julie B. Cosgrove. Whodunnit? My mom used to ask us that with a hand cocked on her hip, peering into our wide-eyed faces. Naturally the blame trickled down to the youngest one, me. Being from a family with four generations of lawyers and legislators, I developed the skill of building my defense before I spoke at a young age. I had to solve the crime so I could plead my innocence.  Well, even when I wasn’t quite innocent, building my case often helped. My parents were fair judges. Sometimes I got off with a light sentence. On endless nature walks through the Texas Hill Country, Dad taught us keen observational skills. We learned to detect where a deer had traipsed in the moonlight or a beetle laid its eggs under a fern leaf. I became a keen observer of nature, and later, human nature. So sleuthing is part of my DNA.  Though I now absorb mysteries whenever I get the chance, I never could get into Nancy Drew books. I didn't want to read about her and ...

A CHRISTMAS STOLEN tells the story of Danica Jordan and her search for a missing niece. When she arrives at her sister’s house to celebrate Christmas, she finds her sister asleep and no niece. Throughout A CHRISTMAS STOLEN , Danica Jordan believes her Christmas has been stolen by circumstances she had no control over. I wonder how many of us do the same not just at Christmas but on a daily basis. We buy into the belief that if our life isn’t perfect, we can’t be happy. If we don’t have everything we want, we can’t be happy. If we don’t get what we want, we can’t be happy. I suppose that could be true for non-believers, but it should never be true for believers—especially at this special time of the year, our Savior’s birthday. Don’t let circumstances steal Christmas from you. As Danica struggles with her feelings that her kidnapped niece may never be found, she comes to a realization. Without Christmas there can be no Easter and without Easter, there can be no eternal ...

A friend and fellow author, Gay N. Lewis, has developed a delightful and fun romantic series around a true angel, Sarah. In the Sarah Series, Sarah is sent from heaven to connect couples in romance, but she's dyslexic and creates havoc before she gets her missions accomplished. For the holiday season, be sure to check out Gay’s book, Sarah Helps Santa: A Christmas Fantasy. blurb:  Nick Claus, the single son of Santa, hates cold weather. He must marry, find a southern location for the family business, and relocate the North Pole operation—all within a year! Haphazard Sarah, the bumbling angel, follows Nick from California to Florida, but discovers no mate. Can Sarah find one for Nick in Texas? Will Texas become the new North Pole? And don’t miss, Sarah and the Cowboy's Lady, which is currently on Sale for just $0.99. blurb: Sarah, the haphazard angel, returns to Texas. Her mission this time is to bring comfort to a young woman who is about to receive dev...

Thank you, Kim, for hosting me on your blog.   I’m proud to announce my 8 th book, Dream Of Me This Christmas Eve , is now available. It’s a novella, so as readers have said, it’s a bite of Christmas instead of the whole meal.   Yet, for the writer, it’s a series of small plates, for the book has to have all the elements of a full length novel 😊   Okay, how did I get off on the food analogies?   Dream Of Me This Christmas Eve is the fourth book in the Star Light ~ Star Bright bestselling and award winning series.   Each book features the star on Flagstaff mountain, and I’ve been asked why feature a man-made object. Well, first off, at night it doesn’t look man-made, it’s just magical. But more importantly as I was writing the first book Be Mine This Christmas Morn I recalled a story mom told me about it. She was at a party and one of the neighbors was grousing about the star being too Christian. Mom said she completely disagreed. That no matter yo...

This Christmas trip home will be different from all the rest.  She has the cents, he the horse sense. Can they put aside their differences long enough to save the ranch? And will her fiancé let her stay in the Hill Country or drag her back to society Dallas? Check out this quick read novella from an award-winning author. 99 cents on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/2zEilLA   

Author Carlene Havel grew up in Texas and married a military man.   Courtesy of the US Air Force, she has since lived in seven US states, the Republic of the Philippines, and Turkey.   Her husband loves to travel, and the two of them have had lots of fun satisfying his wanderlust.   Although Carlene prefers peaceful mountain forests, her husband enjoys big cities, exotic locales, and archeological sites. They still laugh about an adventure in a Parisian coin operated laundry, and most likely some French housewives do, too.   The Havels now live in Texas, in the midst of a big, extended family.   Carlene had no interest in writing until 2005, when she became a believer in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world.   Along with everything else that changed, she developed a passion for writing.   Carlene loves Bible study, normally devoting most of one day each week delving into the scriptures with a small focus group.   She also enjoys sewing,...

Carlene Havel writes historical stories set in Biblical times.  Today she’s sharing some background on the creation of her latest release, “ Song of the Shepard Woman ”. One of the questions I’m asked most often about writing books is, “Where do you get your ideas?”  The short answer is I don’t know. Thoughts bubble and coalesce around a theme, and the plot for another story begins to form—at least that’s the process for me.  My latest release, “Song of the Shepherd Woman” began at Christmastime, although it’s not a Christmas story per se. As I read through the familiar verses from the second chapter of Luke, the shepherds abiding in the fields captured my imagination.  How amazed they were to receive Christ’s birth announcement from an angelic choir.  What joy and hope they must have felt as they ran to the stable in Bethlehem. How did others react to their story afterwards? Was it possible people thought the shepherds drank too much wine? Or simply fabr...

Here’s the last of my blog posts featuring the fabulous final four of Gay N. Lewis’s Sarah series. I hope you found a respite from the madness in these delightful happily-ever-after tales of romance and mischief. Sarah and the Double Wedding Woes Available in eBook A double wedding? Was it possible?   The Superiors want Jessica and Robert to marry, but they throw in a twist--while seeing to their wedding, Sarah, Heaven’s Little Love Angel, must also find a mate for Bonnie, Jessica’s mom. Her orders are to bring about the two weddings simultaneously.   Can Sarah pull it off? Or will her clumsiness destroy two romances in one shot? Sarah and a Family Affair Available in print.  This book takes the two novellas, Date for Mackenzie and Family Affair and combines them. Again, these two books contain the same characters but they are both stand alone. Sarah and the Cowboy’s Lady Available in eBook   Sarah, the haphazard ang...

As promised, here are blurbs from four more of Gay N. Lewis’s Sarah series. I hope your enjoying these divine treats. Sarah and the Scary Ferris Wheel Available in eBook Sarah is given a new mission—to link Robert Johnson and Brittany Lee—two people she encountered while trying to bring a couple together on that irksome computer Internet dating service. Oh sure, she’d done it. Not without trial and a lot of error, but with this fresh assignment, trouble would come…she was positive. If she hadn’t grumbled about the computer, perhaps the Lieutenant wouldn’t have ordered her to ride the Galveston Ferris wheel. She’d seen the huge rotation device built over the Gulf of Mexico, and the very thought of a ride on that monster made her nauseous.   What if she threw up on the humans?   Oh merciful heavens! Why did the Superiors give such tasks to bumbling angels anyway? Sarah and a Dad for Mandy Available in eBook The Superiors left Sarah, “Heaven’s Little ...

There is one thing I imagine we can all agree on right now no matter what our political views are or what our religious, cultural, and other differences might be. There is too much sadness, tragedy, anger, and hate dominating our country and the news. I hope this is a temporary condition that will soon see a correction, but in the mean time we all need more smiles and pleasant escapes. With this conclusion in mind I contacted a writer friend of mine, Gay N. Lewis, and asked her if I could showcase her Sarah series on my blog. The series is about a dyslexic Angel, Sarah, who gets into all sorts of amusing predicaments while playing matchmaker. She’ll stop at nothing in her attempts to bring romance into the lives of her charges. I’ve read a number of books in the series and just downloaded, Sarah Does It Again , which I’m anxious to start reading. Gay’s books are feel-good stories without the tears, and you just can’t help but smile. I have to confess that I lost track of just how...