Final Contest: Forgiveness

This is the final contest for The Month of Forgiveness. 


After this you have until June 12th to enter every contest and mini-challenge. I'll make it easy for you and link them all at the end of this.

So, what is the final contest to win a signed copy of either Forgiven, or Faithful, by Janet Fox?

Tell me what Forgiveness is in one sentence.

Please leave me your GFC name, your e-mail address and your sentence in the comments below. 

As for my answer, well, many of you won't like it, but here we go. 

What is Forgiveness?

Jesus Christ. 

What is my evidence? Ephesians 1:7

In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. 

I'll let you in on a secret, this whole event was inspired by Him. After all, he was the first to say, "Let the little children come to me," when his apostles tried to turn them away. Let's let the little children come unto us, let's not live every day forgetting that the world we live in is twice as harsh to a parent less child.

Let's not suffer from Depraved Indifference any longer, let's forgive those who do:




Comment on this post and Janet Fox will donate a dollar per comment!

Mini-Challenge One: What Janet Has To Say


Contest One: NCfMAEC

Mini-Challenge: Foster Children

Interpret Forgiveness

Contest: Remembering the Forgotten

Month of Forgiveness: Remembering the Forgotten

Mini-Challenge: Please reflect on those who are Forgotten.






To win a mini-chapter sampler of Janet Fox's Forgiven, along with some pretty bookmarks, please leave a meaningful comment below along with your e-mail address.





Links to use:


Danita's Children
His Little Feet
Visiting Orphans
All God's Children International

BEA or BUST!!!!!!

Come Follow us on Twitter!

IMM (32) Wish me luck...

In which I time travel...

For Review:

Happy Birthday To Me by Brian Rowe

Pretty Bad Things by C. J. Skuse

Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott

Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury

Frost by Wendy Delsol

Thank you to Simon & Shuster, Scholastic and to Candlewick!

Traded For:

Outside In by Maria Snyder

Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Bought:

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak

The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse

The Encyclopedia of Saints

Mini-Challenge: Interpret Forgiveness

Today's mini-challenge for a signed chapter-sampler of Janet Fox's book Forgiven, along with some gorgeous signed bookmarks is:

Illustrate Forgiveness

I don't know how you want to do that, by picture, video, song, book, quote, poetry, a drawing you decide. 

Write a post (or get creative) that includes your illustration and link it below. 

This is me, interpreting Forgiveness. 

Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

Guest Blog with Janet Fox on Characters

 Today I am incredibly honored to welcome Janet Fox, author of the Faithful series, to speak on her characters and how they live and breath for her. 

Janet Fox, Author of Faithful and Forgiven

My second YA novel, Forgiven, follows the path of Kula, who is a secondary character in my first YA, Faithful. All my work begins with character, so I thought it might be fun to talk about that aspect of my writing.

 When I start to work on a new project, the idea of it – the germ, seed, inspiration, what-have-you – that idea can come from the most random of places. For example, I was involved in a relaxing conversation over dinner with friends not long ago when someone mentioned something they’d read about what’ll happen when Earth goes to pieces, and the next thing I knew I was jotting down notes (fyi: upcoming dystopian YA set in space.) But once the idea forms, the next thing I have to discover is my main character.

 Usually I hear her voice in my head. She starts by telling me how she feels, what she wants. I hear her voice in its entirety – her accent, slang, mannerisms. (Yup. I hear voices in my head.) And that’s how it starts: the seed is planted, and then the character begins to live in that garden, to make it her own, to take charge of it.
That’s what happened with Kula and Forgiven. I’d known for a long time that I wanted to write about the great earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco. But I didn’t know I’d make it Kula’s story until I was halfway through Faithful. Kula’s character came out of nowhere. One minute I was writing a scene about Maggie and the next thing I knew this obnoxious girl barged in, wrinkling Maggie’s clothes and trying to steal Maggie’s limelight. I had to suppress her by promising myself, and her, that some day I’d devote a story to her.

 She was so insistent about getting out there that I wrote her story in record time – about six months. She’s tough and feisty with a huge chip on her shoulder. If she was around today, I bet she’d be sporting piercings and tattoos. She’s absolutely nothing like me, which made it easier for me to hear her speak: her language use and sharp tongue are so different from mine. I love Kula like I love a friend who is my opposite and who can throw up a mirror to show me my own flaws.

Janet Fox at Ol' Faithful

 And there’s the heart of the matter. I must love my character in order to write him or her out. I must love her with a passion, be willing to bleed for her, because a lot of writing is bleeding onto the page, putting your true self out there, opening a vein. I must be willing to die for that character. Conversely, I must be willing to put her through hell and to let her suffer, because (as any parent will tell you) it’s only by first-hand experience that we learn, and every good character must learn and grow during the course of a novel.

 Kula is very much alive for me. I hope that when you read her story, you’ll find that she lives for you, too.

Contest: Foster Children

Today's mini-challenge for a signed copy of Janet Fox's book Faithful, or Forgiven has to do with a website, and a cause, that I believe in. 

Adopt-us-kids is a website devoted entirely to foster children, giving them a voice, a face and a biography, occasionally a video, something that separates them from the term that has become a black mark on national adoption.

Foster Kids get a bad rap, it's true, and sometimes it's warranted, all children, including those with two parents and a stable home make mistakes and have behavioral problems. You must evaluate child by child, not make a sweeping statement about every foster child in the USA today.

In case you were wondering on September 30, 2008, there were an estimated 463,000 children in foster care. That is 463,000 children who have no permanent home, possibly no emotional support and a lot of questions as to how they ended up where they are.

Every month I try to visit the site and "pick" a child in my state to pray for. I pray until they are permanently adopted, then I pray for their happiness and choose a new child.

Most recently I've been praying for a little girl that I would have taken in a heartbeat if I were not in College and unmarried. She is a musical prodigy and a freckle-faced red-head. Not a statistic, not unlovable. Her name is Ashley.

For this mini-challenge I ask you all visit the Adopt-Us-Kids site, spend a few minutes looking around and then search for foster kids in your area. You can do this by clicking the "Meet the Kids" tab at the top of the page. Then choose your state and scroll through, reading the little bios until you find a child who shares your interests.

Come back and comment with the name of your child and something that you have in common. For privacy reasons please do not include your state.

Contest: NCfMaEC

I hope you are enjoying the Month Of Forgiveness so far! I sure am.

Today's Contest is for a Signed copy of either Faithful, or Forgiven, Janet Fox's first two books in the Faithful series.

To win you must visit the official website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and find the answers to the following questions.

This foundation is one that Janet has chosen to donate 15% of her book sales profit to and a dollar for every comment on this post. 

If you want a clue as to where you can find the information please highlight the gray areas.

Question One: Who is the child who most recently went missing in your state? (Home Page)

Question Two: What is the toll-free number you can use to report a child sighting? (Report a Sighting)

Question Three: In what year did Congress create a grant for the Exploited Children Division of the NCfMaEC? (Sexual Exploitation)

Question Four: Did you sign up to Stay Informed on this page? Remember, this is on your honor.

Please leave your GFC name, your e-mail address and the answers to the questions in the comments.

You get one entry for every right answer.

IMM (31) Candor

In which I make happy noises...

A GAWgeous Divergent "sticker" from PitchDark books a la HarperTeen

For Review~

The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin

The Murderer's Daughter by Randy Susan Meyers

I Bought~

Wings & Spells by Aprilynne Pike

The Girl Who Was On Fire from SmartPop Books

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

I Traded For~

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Please comment on this post! Every comment becomes a donation from author Janet Fox to a wonderful cause. 

You can win books all month during The Month of Forgiveness. 

I am participating in this month's RAK. 


You can find my RAK-list here. And you can find out more about Random Acts of Kindness here. This is my first month and already I have found two people to RAK. 

What Janet has to say, Mini-Challenge One

 I want to warn you right now: this blog post contains information that is deeply disturbing. But please bear with me.

When I set out to write my second YA novel, FORGIVEN, I began my research knowing a little about San Francisco in the early 1900s. I’d heard about the Barbary Coast; and of course I knew Chinatown. But I didn’t expect to uncover a dark world of child trafficking, and what I learned broke my heart.

From the mid-1800s on, girls as young as six were sold by their impoverished families in China to dealers who then transported them across the Pacific to San Francisco, a wild seaport and hub of the gold rush. Sometimes the girls were deluded into thinking they were bound for marriage, but those notions were dispelled once the children arrived and were sold to slave holders for as little as $100 (for a one-year-old girl) or as much as $2800 for a fourteen-year-old (this transaction took place in 1898). Most of the slaves were confined to “cribs” – tiny kennel-size enclosures just below street level – and then sold for 25 cents a visit. Few lived longer than six years; many were tortured; many were left to die of starvation if they were sick or pregnant.

We’ll never know how many were buried or burned alive in the San Francisco earthquake.

They had no voice.

As I write these words, my hands are shaking.

They shake because I cannot imagine the horror that these girls must have experienced in their short and miserable lives. They shake because this kind of abuse still exists worldwide.

As many as 1.2 million children are trafficked every year. Mexican agencies report that more than 16,000 children work as prostitutes. In southeast Asia, 35% of prostitutes are children.

What can we do?

There are a number of agencies that actively fight the exploitation and trafficking of children. I urge you to check them out and become involved. Some seek volunteer help; some sponsor awareness campaigns; some need donations.

But please don’t close your eyes.

Here are three agencies I recommend:

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Unicef

Stop Child Trafficking

Thank you, Janet, thank you. 


Mini-Challenge: 


Please go to all three sites and look around, then come back and share a meaningful comment for your chance to win a signed chapter sample of Janet's second work, Forgiven, as well as some beautiful signed bookmarks!


Rules:


Please be a GFC follower and please spend time on each site, it is so important that you do. 

Forgiven (ARC) Faithful Series

Forgiven

Author: Janet Fox

Publisher: Speak (An imprint of Penguin)

Pages: 288

Read Time: Three Sittings

Rating (1-5): 5

Tag Words: Historical Fiction, The Faithful Series, strong female, the San Francisco Earthquake, falling in love, helping victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking

My Summary:

Kula Baker doesn’t cry, she doesn’t show emotion, or get attached. Kula Baker doesn’t get her heart broken.

Kula Baker thought she had it all figured out until she finds herself navigating the society of San Francisco, the bedlam streets of Chinatown and the path to love. When disaster strikes she finds how much she has that is worth the heartbreak, and that through the rubble Forgiveness is waiting for her embrace.

My Review:

I Love this series. It is so amazing and it personally feeds my heart.

In my review of Fox’s debut, Faithful, I stated that though this book is exactly my cup-of-coffee-with-a-biscotti-and-a- handsome-barista I don’t believe everyone will find that same satisfaction between the pages. I will still try and convince you to pick it up.

Fox’s writing is such a breath of fresh air. It’s raw and honest, without being dramatic and advantageous. She paints portraits of the scenic wilderness in Montana as skillfully as she illustrates the hectic streets of San Francisco. She writes characters with fallacies and passion who have to come across life lessons the hard way. She writes love stories that are the reward of leaning on something greater, rather than overwhelming the plot in angst. I love it all!

I cannot wait to read books three and four as well as future works by Janet Fox, who has graciously sought to donate part of her authors proceeds from the sales of Forgiven to The National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, because the 1906 San Fran earthquake did not rid the world of the travesty of sexual trade involving children and minors. San Francisco in 1906 is only a taste of what the worlds sex-trafficking rings look like in the present day and I am so glad Kula’s path led her to give her life to the girls who suffered abuse; it was an amazing way to Forgiveness.

Notes on the Names:

I really loved the characters names in this one, we have:

Nat and Kula Baker

David and Ty Wong

Phillipa Everts

Will Henderson

Josiah Wilkie

and my very favorite name, which just sounds like an artists name, Sebastian Gable.

Thoughts on the Cover:

Such a gorgeous cover! I am very glad that the model looked right, as I had some issues with the “Maggie” on the cover of Faithful.

I love that the designers have continued the trend of using the dresses Fox imagines on the models.

Parental Book Review *spoilers*

Sexual Content:

Mild.

Kissing without much detail.

Language:

None.

Violence:

Moderate

The book revolves around the fact that wicked men are importing young Chinese girls to become child prostitutes.

David dies by gun shot, there is blood, but no gore.

Other Notables:

I would highly recommend this to any Clean Reader.

The Month of Forgiveness

Welcome, to the Month of Forgiveness. 

What does that mean? Something quite simple, and yet so hard to bare. 

Dictionary.com describes it as:

1. the act of forgiving or the state of being forgiven

2. willingness to forgive

Doesn't seem all that definitive, does it?

In the Bible Jesus says to forgive your brother not seven times, but seventy-seven times, which means that forgiveness is not a thing limited by our own emotions and ideals.

Matthew 18:22

 He didn't want us to keep a record, and He didn't want us to to throw the offences out the window, He wanted us to Forgive and live in that forgiveness. 

But what does it mean, to forgive? What does it mean? 

Want to find out? So do I; please come with me on this month-long journey, inspired by Janet Fox's second book, Forgiven, Kula Baker's story in the Faithful series.

So what does this mean for The Mod Podge Bookshelf?


It means I am abstaining from reviews, guest blogs, interviews, etc. expect for those that have to do with Forgiven, and the cause of raising awareness for NCfMEC, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 


This does not me there will be a lack of content. On the contrary, in nearly every post this month you will have the chance to win prizes! You will also be getting an education, hearing from the author, and hearing from myself.

We will return to our regularly scheduled program come June first. In fact on June first I have a huge announcement to share with all of you concerning The Mod Podge Bookshelf! I am really jazzed, btw, it's good news!

I am so grateful for all of the support I've been given in this hare-brained venture, I now pray you give the same devotion to this cause and this book. They both deserve it. 

In the end I hope we can all answer the question:

What is Forgiveness?

Let's start here, with a give away, something you neednt forgive me for!:

Janet will be donating one dollar for every comment on this post to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

The Lust List (May)

Books out this May that I am lusting over!

What Happened To Goodbye by Sarah Dessen from Penguin

Why: You you really need ask? It's S.D.!

But I Love Him by Amanda Grace from Flux

Why: Amanda Grace is the pen-name for Mandy Hubbard as she forays into a more serious subject, abusive relationships.

I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler from SourceBooks Fire

Why: Originally called The Weight of Bones and baring a more creep-tastic cover, this debut has been compared to My Sisters Keeper.

Siren by Tricia Rayburn from EgmontUSA

Why: I cannot get over my love for this paperback cover! It's incredible, look at it! COVER LUST! Plus, hello, Siren's, these singers are my kind of paranormal creature.

Sparrow Road by Sheila O'Connor from Penguin

Why: This book just seems infectious to me.

The Pull of Gravity by Gae Polisner

Why: I have been hearing remarkable things about this one. Can't say I love the cover though, so it'll have to have a great personality. ; )

Blog Updates!

I know, I know, I just promised not to post anything but Forgiven stuff, but I can't help but tell you all about some of this cool stuff:

1) Kim Culberston's first novel, Songs for a Teenage Nomad will be available for free download from today, May 3rd, until May 9th. Simply click this link.  

2) PlumWillow, an amazing site full of Book-worming Fashionista's let me in on the scoop, there is an outrageously cool contest going on over at there site where you can design a spread of clothes that you think would look fab on MC Amanda Valentino from the book series: The Amanda Project, by Melissa Kantor. I already designed my outfit, called "Modern Audrey" and you can check it out and "Love it" by following this link here. To enter your own outfit in this outrageously cool contest follow this link and read all about the amazing prizes! 

3) Have you read about The Month of Forgiveness yet? Well, then click the link, or click the Cover of Janet Fox's book, Forgiven, in my sidebar and learn how your comment can be turned into a donation!

4) Was I suppose to announce anything else...oh! Have you guys seen this new book trailer yet?! It is the bomb-dot-com for shizz! I cannot believe I just said that, but watch it, it's brilliant! One of the best book trailers I've ever seen and it's for Entwined by Heather Dixon, a book I've been dying to get to on the mass-multiplying TBR shelf.
 And this other one just debuted as I wrote this, The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton
 










  

The House of Mirrors

Why, hello! You've arrived at the House of Mirrors and how lucky for you!

I think it's time for a little... reflection, don't you? So for this challenge I ask you grab the book you are currently reading and flip to page 33. There yet? Good, very good.

Please read carefully, find your very favorite words and fill in this sentence in the comments for your chance to win a Swag Pack of Epic Proportions!

When I went to ____ I met ____ who showed me the most amazing _____. I don't think I will ever forget the way we _____ and _____. That was the most _____ way to spend the day. Don't you wish you had a/n ____, as well? 

Rules (You best read them, or else you may never leave):

I know how I would fill in that sentence, and trust me, it is in no way dirty, profane etc. and any use of inappropriate words will cause you to be out of the running. That is the way we roll over here at The Mod Podge Bookshelf.

You may use more than one word in each allotted space, because really, I'm just looking for a good chuckle.

You must be a GFC follower of this blog to enter. 

In your comment you must list the name of the book along with your sentence. Any comment that does not include the title, your GFC name and an e-mail address where I can reach you will be disqualified.

You have one week to enter, from May 2nd to May 9th.

The winner will be chosen at my discretion.

The winner's swag will be made-up at my discretion, but if you want to add another fill-in-the-blank to your comment you can tell me your ultimate Swag wish. I wish I had a/n ____. It has to be something I might have, people, no wishing for Genie's, or True Love. ; ) Wish I could give everyone that last one, though!

And check out my other Carnival Giveaway by clicking the link!

Spring Blog Carnival

It's time for the Spring Blog Carnival! Hooray!

Some information for you:

This is only my post for my Linky List giveaway.

I will also being hosting a daily challenge on May 2nd where you can win a Swag Pack of pretty epic proportions.

 On May 2nd you'll be able to click right here and the link will take you to that post. I was originally suppose to giveaway some of my original prints a la Messenger Photography, but as it is with the moving and the inability to function as a proper human being whilst writing my own novel that idea fell through.

I am giving away a finish copy of:

Shift by Jeri Smith-Ready

To Win:

You MUST be a GFC follower of my blog to win. 

Please leave me a comment telling me your GFC name, as well as your e-mail address. 

Come back on May 2nd for a chance at that swag pack! 

Thank you to the following people for hosting:

Candace’s Book Blog http://www.candacesbookblog/

Reading Angel http://www.readingangel.com/

Pure Imagination http://www.pureimaginationblog.com/

The Book Swarm http://www.bookswarm.blogspot.com/