COTT's Laurel Award

Attention Authors!

Submissions are now open for Clash of the Titles' annual Laurel Award contest!

What makes us different? In our contest, entries are read and scored not by industry gatekeepers but by READERS.

Open to any genre of Christian fiction published in 2012, the Laurel has limited slots available and a submission window ending July 19th.

Great prizes and a low entry fee of $10 make entering the Laurel a snap. Don't miss out on this opportunity!

Submissions:

June 03, 2013-July 19, 2013 

For more details, please visit our site: http://www.clashofthetitles.com/p/the-laurel.html

Stay tuned for updates by 

subscribing to COTT's blog and “liking” our Facebook page.

The April New Releases Clash Winner!

 

Congratulations to the Clash of the Titles New Winner, Stress Test by Richard Mabry!

 

THEY MAY NOT HAVE ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO CONVICT HIM, BUT THEY HAVE ENOUGH TO RUIN HIS LIFE.

Dr. Matt Newman thought he was leaving his life as a surgeon in private practice for a better one in academic medicine. But the kidnappers who attacked him as he left the hospital at 2 a.m. have no such plans—they just want him dead. Bound and in the trunk of his car, Matt’s only thought is fleeing with his life. He does escape, but at a price: a head injury that lands him in the ICU . . . where he awakens to discover he’s being charged with murder.

Sandra Murray is a fiery, redheaded lawyer who swore she was done with doctors after her last relationship. But when Matt calls, she knows she can’t walk away from defending someone who is truly innocent.

Matt’s career is going down the drain. His freedom and perhaps his life may be next. But with the police convinced he’s a killer and the kidnappers still trying to finish what they started, finding the truth—and the faith to keep going—will be the toughest stress test Matt has ever endured.

From the Clash of the Titles Commenters 

• Fascinating storyline, Dr. Mabry!
• Stress Test looks great! Very exciting premise, and I love the cover.
• Read it! GREAT!
• Love Mabry books. Love Abingdon fiction.

What The Reviewers Are Saying 

“The plot moves along with plenty of action and empathy, and there’s suspense and suspicion enough to keep readers zipping to the last pages. For Christian suspense fans anxious to see characters who ought to have it all—doctors and lawyers—react to the pressure of false accusations and the struggle to be loyal to the truth and to one another, Mabry’s novel arrives with a positive prognosis.”  Publisher’s Weekly

"Mabry's latest provides fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat action and suspense. His medical knowledge is evident in the realistic and detailed characters and scenes."  Romantic Times Book Reviews (4 ½ stars

About Dr. Mabry   

Dr. Richard Mabry is a retired physician, past Vice-President of the American Christian Fiction Writers, and the author of six published novels of medical suspense. His books have been finalists in competitions including ACFW’s Carol Award and Romantic Times’ Inspirational Book of the Year. His novel, Lethal Remedy, won a 2012 Selah Award from the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference. Stress Test is Richard’s latest novel.

Where To Buy Stress Test: (if you go to http://rmabry.com, there are buttons at the bottom directing the reader to the sites on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBook.com, and independent publishers)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Croissants

I ran across this recipe on the internet and thought it looked really tasty.  It's one of those "pretty" desserts.  A little fancy too!   A perfect dessert for an afternoon tea time with friends, a ladies' luncheon, or a brunch.  Or just because they look amazingly good and you want one.   

Photo courtesy of. Rumbly In My Tumbly blog

I must give credit to the owner of this recipe. It's  one of her original creations.  Her name is Shannon, she lives in the state of Washington, and is the owner of  Rumbly In My Tumbly blog. 

I have not yet tried this, but I want to.  For my family, this would definitely be a special occasion recipe. Here you go....courtesy of Shannon, the amazing baker! 

A Rumbly in my Tumbly original

Ingredients:

1 package of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1/4 cup of homemade strawberry jam
4 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg + 1 tsp of water for egg wash

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Cream until there are no lumps. 

Unroll each crescent roll. On the fattest part of the triangle place 1 tsp on cream cheese mixture and one tsp of jam. Roll into a croissant shape.

Whisk together egg and water for egg wash and brush over each croissant.

Bake for 8-10 minutes until croissants are golden brown and inside is no longer doughy. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Is your mouth watering yet?  Mine is. Hmmm.  It is a delicate looking dessert, but maybe if I sling some sausage or other hearty fixins’ on the plate, I can get away with making this for Father’s Day when we have our tradition of serving breakfast in bed to hubs. 

I’m sure it will be delicious. For other scrumptious looking goodies, click on over to Shannon’s place. She sure to have more lip-smackin’ good recipes to please your palate.  

Blessings, 

Susan Hollaway

This post was simultaneously posted on Pages From Stages blog. 

COTT's Clash of April Releases!

Beach trips, mountain jaunts and lazy days in the swing on the front porch. Tis the season to enjoy a great read outdoors. Clash of the Titles’s got five brand new April releases to recommend. It’ll be difficult to choose from these three romances, a mystery with suspense, and women’s fiction. The stories tell of a woman who falls in love with an Army veteran with PTSD; a kidnapped doctor accused of murder; a woman yearning for a family; a lady with a heart attack and spiritually broken heart; and three unwed mothers from three different eras. All will tug at your heart. But please select the one you most want to get lost in. Then vote for it below.

Cindy Waymire, a college senior in search for a topic for an upcoming sociology paper, finds more than a topic when she meets Army veteran and college freshman Danny Flynn outside the student union. An undeniable attraction to this troubled veteran leads her on a difficult and winding path that brings her to a crossroads—get into a relationship with a man who has serious mental health problems or turn her back on one of the best men she’s ever met.









Dr. Matt Newman escapes from kidnappers only to land in the ICU then awaken to find the police are convinced he’s a killer, and he’s still a target. Can attorney Sandra Murray and he find the truth before it’s too late?

Terri Hayes owns a thriving Day Care but hungers for a child of her own  while  writer Steve Evans has all the family he needs. Will harsh words and sneaky plans drive them further apart, or does God have another plan?















What would you do if the one man who can help is the one man you can’t trust? A heart attack has stopped workaholic Mara Keegan in her tracks, but Mara’s heart needs to be healed in more ways than one—will Joel Ryan help her or take all she has left?

Three women from three different eras face the aftermath of unwed pregnancies, desperate for hope. Can it be found in the memoirs of Anna, who ran a home for unwed Moms in the 1890’s, or is there no link to their cries for help and their source of hope?

Skinny No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie

Recipe and Photo courtesy ofhttp://www.skinnytaste.com.

I got a hankerin’ for a dessert  this past weekend, and I wanted something that wasn’t off the charts in calories. I found this recipe on http://www.skinnytaste.com.  It was pretty tasty! Even with my few adaptations, it still wasn’t too bad on the calorie scale.

I thought I’d share it with you all as it’s a perfect recipe for a spring get-together or for just the family.

Here you go ….  super easy and fast  to put together.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel Cheese.)
• 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/3 cup Better n Peanut Butter (I used Organic Peanut Butter which has no sugar)
• 8 oz fat free frozen whipped topping, thawed
• reduced fat graham cracker pie crusts (I used an Oreo Crust I had. Sooooo good!)
• 3 tbsp Hershey’s chocolate syrup (I used Special Dark Hershey’s Syrup.)

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar together in a bowl.  Add peanut butter and blend well.  Then stir in whipped topping.

Pour in graham cracker pie crust.  The Oreo one I had on hand and used was extremely good. Enough said.

Drizzle with chocolate syrup before serving.

Nutritional Information:

Skinnytaste.com

Servings: 10 • Serving Size: 1/10 • Old Points: 5 pts • Points+: 5 pts

Calories: 216.8 • Fat: 6.4 g • Protein: 2.9 g • Carb: 32.9 g • Fiber: 1.3 g • Sugar:16.7 g
Sodium: 94.6 mgx in peanut butter until smooth.

Okay, so I just have to make note that those pre-made graham cracker (or Oreo) crusts are not huge pie crusts.  They say this is supposed to make 10 servings. Yeah, right. We cut ours in eight.

My family really enjoyed it.  I hope you will too!

Blessings,

Susan Hollaway 

2013 Laurel, Opening Soon!

Authors, take note! 

In NINE DAYS, Clash of the Titles opens its doors for submissions to the Laurel.


The Laurel is a contest available to any genre of Christian fiction published in 2012. The novels are judged by their audience—readers well-versed in Christian fiction yet not associated with the CBA industry.

Authors write for readers, so why not have readers be the judges?

With a submission fee of only $10, easy electronic submission, a bevy of prizes, and judges devoted to Christian fiction and author encouragement, the Laurel is a contest like no other.

But act quick! Slots are limited. To avoid overburdening our volunteer judges, we are limited in the number of submissions we can accept.

* All previous COTT champs whose winning novel was published in 2012 have an assured spot (fee waived) in the 2013 Laurel.

Submissions:

June 03, 2013-July 19, 2013 

For more details, please visit our site: http://www.clashofthetitles.com/p/the-laurel.html

Stay tuned for updates by 

subscribing to COTT's blog and “liking” our Facebook page.

God's Creation Never Ceases to Amaze Me

One of my daughter's past county fair pictures.

I love the beauty of all kind of flowers and plants.  I particularly like perennials, because it’s like a “surprise” every year when they make their appearance and bloom.  Sure you know they’re there, because you planted them. But you’re waiting. You’re waiting. Then shazam! There it is!  A sight to behold. And even though you know, year after year what they look like, their beauty never ceases to amaze and delight you.


If you plant annuals among the perennials, you’ll always have something blooming throughout the summer and into the fall.    Much of what you plant depends on where you live, of course.  I've always wanted a lemon tree in my yard, but living in Kansas sort of nipped that in the bud.  (I know. Pathetic pun. I  couldn’t help myself.)

I would have to say that one of my very favorite perennial plants is the mum.  It’s green throughout the summer, but then blooms in all its glory in the autumn.  Each individual little bloom is nice, but it’s the massive blooms all over the entire plant  that make it so beautiful to me.  It’s like a huge bouquet in every plant.  There’s a certain kind of mum — available in a variety of colors — that I see most often here in Kansas. I don’t even know the official name for it.  But while searching the internet for pictures,  I learned there’s a lot more varieties than I was aware of.  I love mums. Who knew there were so many kinds? Hmmm, I guess mum’s the word, eh?

God is most assuredly the  Master Gardener and Creator of the heavens and earth.  No matter what your favorite flower is, gaze upon all of His handiwork. Let the beauty fill your heart. Inhale the perfume from His flowers. And praise Him.  I love hearing the birds sing His praises every morning.  Let us not forget to do the same.
 
Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.”  Genesis 1:11-12 NASB



May you never cease to be amazed at the miracle and beauty in God’s creation.

Susan Hollaway

This post was simultaneously posted on the group blog, Pages From Stages.