Pennies for River to Redemption E-Book

It’s always fun when one of my books goes on sale for a really low price. That’s happening right now for River to Redemption. You can grab it on most of your favorite e-book sites for either 79 or 99 cents, but it’s one of those flash sales. It will only last a very few days. So, if you’d like an e-copy, grab it now. You can access some buy links here.

When I autograph books, I try to come up with a Scripture reference and a short message that relates to the story to add to my signature. For River to Redemption, I like to put “Pray believing!” because that’s what Louis says often in the story. Then I put the Scripture reference of Mark 11:24.

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” (NKJ)

People often ask me my favorite book, and I usually hem and haw a while and then admit that Angel Sister probably is because of how I used Mom’s growing up memories to flesh out the 1930’s background. But River to Redemption is right there among my favorites too, simply because I was inspired to write the story by a true life story about a man named Louis, a slave, who so selflessly served his town during the 1833 cholera epidemic. He cared for the sick and dug graves and buried 5o plus victims of cholera. Later, when it appeared Louis might be sold after his owner died, the town of Springfield, in gratitude for what Louis did, took up money to buy his freedom. My story is a fictional account around that nugget of truth about how that might have happened.

I let Louis find and help my young character, Adria.

Here’s a bit of the scene where Louis finds seven-year-old Adria in her house after her parents and little brother die of cholera and carries her to the hotel where he lived.

“I prayed,” Adria said. “Did God send you to my house?” That wasn’t what she’d prayed for, but she heard the preacher say once that sometimes the Lord knew what you needed better than you did.

“That could be.” The man’s chest rumbled under Adria’s ear as he chuckled at her words. “I reckon the good Lord has his ways of makin’ things happen, but fact is, the doctor’s wife told me you’d been there to get the doctor.”

“She wouldn’t let him come.”

“Well, he couldn’t rightly make it, child. The cholera has done laid him low too. Could be he’ll make it through, but he can’t be no use to nobody else till he does.” The man’s voice was soft and deep, with nothing scary about it.

“Are you an angel?” Adria had never thought about angels having black skin and smelling sweaty. She always thought about them floating around with wings and white robes, but could be that was all wrong.

The man’s chest rumbled again. “That’s somethin’ I never expected anybody to say about me. But no, missy, I ain’t no angel. I reckon I should’ve tol’ you who I is to rest yo’r mind a bit. I’m Louis Sanderson, Mr. George Sanderson’s man. He owns the hotel here on Main Street, and when the cholera come to call, he give me his keys and told me to carry on with things best I could. He aimed to get as far from the cholera as he could and I’m supposin’ he did.”

“Daddy wanted Mama to go, but Eddie got sick and then she got sick too.”

“The cholera is a terrible thing.”

“Why didn’t you go too?”

“There’s some wonderin’ ’bout that, but whilst I ain’t no angel, the good Lord had a job here for me to do. Folks to take care of.”

If you’ve read River to Redemption, thank you. If you haven’t and like to e-read, I hope you’ll grab it while it’s on sale and give the story a try.

Do you think we sometimes forget to “pray believing?”

P.S. Be sure to come back next Sunday when I will have a special guest here who will tell you about being an avid reader and you’ll see how she helps the authors of the books she reads.