On the Threshold Releases!

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Infrequent, Humorous Newsletter

Motto: Infrequent and humorous, but never infrequently humorous.


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May 2013 (Issue #14)

Time for the age-old question: What should you get your mother for Mother's Day?

It doesn’t matter if you like her or not, we have the perfect answer for you—

On the Threshold, which released

YESTERDAY, May 1^st!

Yes, it’s been fourteen years since we came up with the idea of writing together, and now we are pleased to be able to offer the book to you finally. It is already available on the Kindle for only $4.99. It should release on the Nook, Sony Reader, and in every other e-format within days. You can find the appropriate files here at Smashwords if you’d rather not wait.

This contemporary Christian novel about a mother and daughter, written by a mother and daughter, is the perfect gift for Mother’s Day! If your mom doesn’t use an e-reader, wait just a few more days and you can buy it through every major retailer in print form or download Kindle for PC and you can read any Kindle book on your computer. Which we know you have, as we sent you this! Let us know if you’d like us to mail a signed copy directly to her.

So what’s the book about?

Suzanne Corbin and her daughter, Beth Harris, live a seemingly easy life. Suzanne has distanced herself from her past, replacing pain with fulfillment as a wife and mother, while Beth savors her husband’s love and anticipates the birth of their child. But all that is about to change.

Like a sandcastle buffeted by ocean waves, Suzanne’s façade crumbles when her perfect life is swept away. Tragedy strikes, and police officer Tony Barnett intersects with the lives of both women as he tries to discover the truth. Left adrift and drowning in guilt long ignored, Suzanne spirals downward into paralyzing depression. Beth, dealing with her own grief, must face the challenge of forgiveness. Can these two women learn to trust each other again? Will they find the power of God’s grace in their lives?

Suzanne ~ a mother with a long-held secret
Tony ~ a police officer with something to prove
Beth ~ a daughter with a storybook future

When all you love is lost, what’s worth living for?

Okay, this is where we need help from all of you. Some of you have been reading this newsletter from its very first edition back in November of 2006. Others have recently signed up for it. Wherever you fall on the continuum, you’re important to us.

Important enough to win a Kindle* loaded with our book, On the Threshold, and Christina’s award-winning The Familiar Stranger!

If you help get the word out, you can earn different points for each thing** you do, and every point represents an entry in the contest.

Say, for example, you name your next child “Threshold” in honor of our book. You would earn 100 points (entries), which would greatly increase your likelihood of winning.


Fine print to be read as quickly as those medical side effects are glossed over on TV: A certified copy of the birth certificate must be sent to Ashberry Lane proving the child was born between now and when the contest ends on June 3rd at 10 PM, PDT. Some restrictions apply, such as you must also promise not to change the child’s name to anything else for at least the next fifteen years. You are, however, allowed to use “Thresh” as his or her first name, and “Hold” as the middle.

If that seems like we’re asking a little too much, there are other ways for you to enter the contest.

~ Forward this Infrequent, Humorous Newsletter, you get ONE point per recipient.

~ Post about On the Threshold on Twitter or LinkedIn, or share the cover on Instagram or Pinterest, and you’ve doubled your points to TWO.

~ Refer someone to sign up for the newsletter. If he or she notes you as referrer, guess what? You just earned THREE points.

~ Blog about it and reap FOUR points. (We’re also available for blog interviews.)

~ And for those who buy the book (e-book or print copy), you will gain FIVE points.

~ Leave a review—positive or negative—on a retailing site after reading the book, and TEN points to you!

All you have to do to enter is drop us an email at Christina@ashberrylane.net with a description of what you did. We trust you.

Here is a sample email:


Dear Sherrie and Christina,

Fortunately, my last name is Hold, so when my triplets were born yesterday, all I had to do was name them "On," "The," and "Threshold." I also got the cover of On the Threshold tattooed on my arm, took a picture of it, and posted it on every possible social media site, including Facebook, though I understand I don't get points for anything done on there. Next, I forwarded the Infrequent, Humorous Newsletter to a few of my friends and ALL of my enemies. After reading the book in two hours, I posted an honest review on three different retail sites. Please enter my name 349 times.

Love,
Your #1 Fan

On Saturday, June 3^rd, Sherrie’s birthday, a random-number generator will determine our winner. We have a pet hamster training like crazy to be able to turn his exercise wheel to make sure the numbers are well mixed. (Don’t worry, we’re avoiding getting in trouble with PETA by having a gerbil spell him off. No animals will be harmed in the selection of the winner.)

We hope you get half as much enjoyment reading On the Threshold as we did writing and editing and editing and editing it. Peace, out!


If you were forwarded the email and you actually are still reading all the way to this spot, please sign up for the newsletter yourself.

*The type of Kindle depends on the number of entrants. The minimum prize is a normal Kindle; the maximum prize is a Kindle Fire HD.

**Any actions taken on Facebook such as sharing the cover or posting the link to the book, while highly encouraged, are not allowable as entries into any contest according to Facebook’s rules and regulations.

Have You Ever Lived Through "That Summer"?

That Summer
Book #1 in the Caney Creek Series
by Jo Huddleston
Released December8
A Southern historical novel

LEAVE A COMMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A COPY!!

The Great Depression brings devastation to The Southern Appalachians, but love’s triangle survives.

To escape his poppa’s physical abuse and their dirt-poor farm life, Jim flees to an imagined prosperous city life where he can make his own choices, ignoring God patiently knocking on his heart’s door. Settled in town, Jim strays from God and the way of faith his momma taught him.
He meets a girl and loses his heart … and meets another girl and loses his willpower. Jim wrestles with social and moral dilemmas as he makes a choice beside Caney Creek that will alter the lives of five people.

[Christina here now:] I read Jo's book for endorsement a little while ago. First, I'll tell you what I thought of the book, then I'll let you hear from the author how it came about.

As surely as Caney Creek runs through the town, the story of That Summer swept me back to the pre-depression era, a time of hope and opportunity. Following Jim's ambitions, this book examines the effects of following self versus following God and the sometimes maddening,sometimes inspiring results.
~Christina Berry, award-winning author of The Familiar Stranger

How That Summer Came To Be:

The setting of That Summer is the Southern Appalachians of East Tennessee where my ancestors and I were raised. I’ve listened to the older generations tell their stories at family reunions about time before telephones and automobiles. Their stories fascinated me and caused me to want to write about a time before I was born.

This story percolated in my mind in the late 1990s. I’m what writers call a panster type of writer. I don’t outline my plot on paper. My entire plot and characters simmer in my mind before I write a word. Many times I don’t know the ending but I know how to get there. Of course, sometimes characters surprise me by going this way when I intended them to go another way. I love how my stories many times work themselves out as I write.

While this story still rumbled around in my mind, in 2001 I received a life altering health diagnosis with a negative prognosis. My first symptom was the loss of penmanship that nobody, even I, could read. Then I began to have involuntary muscle spasms that prevented me from holding my fingers on the home keys of a keyboard. I couldn’t write and couldn’t type—this was before speak-to-type.

I thought my writing career had vanished. I cleaned out my files—even trashed all my rejection letters I’d been saving. Now I wish I’d kept them to prove that I really am a writer. I gave away most of my writing craft books.

My mind was still intact but my body wouldn’t do what it was told. My balance while walking started to diminish and I quit going to writing conferences. My doctor advised me not to drive. I was dependent on my family to even get to my doctor’s appointments and still am.

In 2008, I began to improve. My hands were steadier and I could get my story started. The biggest aggravation when I write anything is the time I have to leave my story to research the facts. When the story starts pouring out of my mind I want to write. I write continuously, not indicating chapters but I do indicate scene and POV changes. After I finish that first draft I go back and do those things.

I have outlived my doctor’s prognosis by over a year and a half. I’m writing the second of a 3-book contract and feel fine other than fatigue when I don’t stop to rest now and then. Fatigue does bring on more unsteadiness in my hands and legs.

From 2001 to 2008 I had a lot of time to meditate. A relative marvels that I’ve never questioned God, why me? I have not become bitter because of the health issues. I think God just gave me time to understand a lot of things when I was inactive. I’m a more peaceful, patient, and faithful me.

  

This is the way That Summer came to be: hibernated for seven years, and then became a story on paper.

(Jo's publisher will sell her novel, That Summer, at a discounted price through this month of December only. You can buy the book for $9.99 if you click on this link  http://donaldjamesparker.com/sosproducts.aspx?p=473&c=5

No limit to number of books purchased, but only discounted through December, 2012. The Kindle and Nook books should be online this week. Paperback will be on Amazon, B&N, and CBD whenever they put them on their websites.)

Courting Cate Wins My Heart

I read the most delightful book the other day. And in one day, too! Never had I been so thankful to be stuck in a lobby while a mechanic repaired my car. :)

Leslie Gould has always been one of my favorite writers, but she's hit a new stride lately with her Amish novels. I've always said I don't read Amish, but--as I've found with all other genres I say I don't read--what I love is a well-told story. She does it again with her new release, Courting Cate, the first in The Courtships of Lancaster County series.

I have a degree in Literature--and one in Math, though that doesn't seem too important to mention right now--so I studied almost everything Shakespeare. Knowing this was a retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, I found myself giggling, searching, flipping through pages to find out how Leslie would tie the theme and plot points of such a complicated story into a book about a "simple" people. It was a delightful book in the truest sense of the word--each page, each twist, filled me with delight and put a smile on my face.

Which isn't to say it was a light or fluffy read. By the end, I had reexamined the way I treat the people I love and vowed to be an even better wife to my wonderful husband. I highly recommend this book. Buy your copy now, as I bet this will go on your keeper shelf!

Print Version

Kindle Version

The Odd Life of Lili Berry

Though we're soon to leave on a BIG trip to Disneyworld, Dave and I had a date-night Sharing Spree Certificate to use before we left. My sweet husband, however, has been working himself to the bone to prepare for vacation and couldn't get home in time. That left Lili and me to go to a movie alone.

And we were meant to go together.

Never have I taken my youngest daughter to the movies alone, and never could I have planned a better first time. We watched The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Not giving away anything the previews don't reveal, I can say this movie is about a unique kind of adoption, a magical placement. A young boy turns up in a couple's life and he is most definitely meant for them. He also happens to have leaves growing out of his legs.

Yes, it was a heart-warming, meaningful story with great life lessons, so I was already tenderhearted as the movie neared the close, but in the last minute of the movie something happened that had me sobbing at the end.

As the credits were rolling, I lean over to the couple next to me. "This is my adopted daughter and her name is Lili."

The crying woman wipes her cheeks. "Our youngest is adopted too."

Together we marvel at the amazing gift of being given a child to raise and Lili and I trot off to the bathroom. (Yes, I'm pretty sure it was a trot, but it could have been a canter ...) In the stall, I sob again, overwhelmed and in awe that God blessed our family with the gift of Lili. She was not mine. Then she was. The enormity of the whole thing settles on me again.

Lo and behold, the woman comes in the bathroom too, and I ask--once I'm out of the stall-- "How old is your daughter?"

"Six."

I'm still crying. "Lili is six, too."

She leans closer. "What really got me about that movie is that our daughter has a physical difference, too." (I want to protect the family's privacy, so I won't say what she said it was, but it has to do with a hand.)

My heart expands, knowing that God had us in the same theater on the same night watching the same movie so we could meet. "My daughter was severely burned on her hand. Though it's healed amazingly, it still looks different."

And from there I meet her husband and we find out that our lives intersect in many other ways. As we go out the door of Cinetopia, I ask, "What is your daughter's name?"

She answers.

I move from the butter-flavored air into the summer night full of God's love, praising Him for His gift of grace.

Because GRACE is their daughter's middle name.

And that's my daughter's middle name.

And we all can have the gift of Grace.

Am I Really THAT Old??

I like to weird my kids out by telling them how different certain things were when I was a kid. For instance, all three Berry children had dental appointments today.

In the middle of the cleanings, I started in, using a drawling, Texas accent for some reason. "When I was a kid, we only had mint tooth polish. And we got all excited when the bubble gum flavor came along."

Ya know, that kind of thing. Well, that pales in comparison to what just happened. Andrea came in to talk to me about a lady she's cleaning house for as I was getting ready for bed.

"Mom, do you think I could call her at 8, or would that be too early?"

I grabbed my PJs from the closet shelf. "I think that would be fine."

"Oh." Andrea's shoulders relaxed. "I just remembered she keeps her phone right by her when she sleeps. Mom." She gets right in front me, eyes wide. "She has THREE phones," -- she holds up three fingers to emphasize this -- "three home phones and they are all connected. Like if one rings by me, she can answer a phone in another room and it will stop ringing."

I about dropped my clothes I was laughing so hard. "Andrea, that's how all phones used to be!"

I'm not THAT old, am I?

A Couple of Good Links

One of my writing friends, Dianne Price, just launched a website. This lady is a dear and I think you'll fall in love with her just from spending a little time there. I've had the pleasure of reading five of her soon-to-be published novels and I love her writing. Her characters, I'm convinced, are alive on a small island off Scotland. Drop in and leave her an encouraging comment.

Someday, when I get the chance, I'll post a video of her and me from last year's Oregon Christian Writer's conference. We almost get in a tussle ... and did I mention she'd a few decades older than I? :)

Also, though I've tweeted/facebooked/looped the news, I have not yet blogged about the short romance story contest I entered. It was a challenge to write a complete story idea in 1,000 words, but as soon as I started thinking about some health scares I went through a month or more ago, I knew what my story would be about. Come read "Miss Me No More" on the Family Fiction site.

There are many other good stories on there. The good news is that you can vote for as many as you'd like. The better news is that you, too, can enter!

Big Family Tip #1

When we first married and combined our five kids into that wonderful thing called a blended family, we all had to get used to living with more people. Specifically, to sharing a bathroom with more people. In the case of the kids, a LOT more people. (All five children share one bathroom.)

Though we did our best--we thought--by sending them up in waves, there were still numerous low-key conflicts in the bedtime routine.

"He won't give me the toothpaste!"

"Her wet toothbrush just touched my arm!"

"I don't have any floss!"

"He spit swish in my hair!"

Only a few months in, I finally got smart and found a solution: we gave each child a little bin labeled with his or her name to hold flossers, toothpaste, and fluoride rinse (which we call swish) or mouthwash. Not only is there no more fighting over toothpaste, but they don't share their germs as everything is separated! It's also very easy to pull the interconnected bins out and wash them in the kitchen sink when they get a little nasty.

 As I share these big family tips, I hope others who are looking for ways to make their lives less stressful can adapt them and find inspiration. Yes, even in the dried-out spit trails of a kids' bathroom sink. :)