Rocky Mountain Pursuit Book Trailer

Check out my new book trailer for my February 2016 Love Inspired Suspense
release entitled, Rocky Mountain Pursuit.
Rocky Mountain Pursuit is available for preorder at Amazon

A Christmas Present For Yourself

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I'm announcing the winners of my Rocky Mountain Pursuit giveaway today. Congrats to Mary Birchwood Lawson, Trixi Oberembt, and Beth F. Ladies, if you could send me a private message with your mailing addresses, I'll put the book in the mail to you. If you didn't win and you want a chance to read the book for free, I have a Goodreads giveaway going until January 21, 2016 at:https://www.goodreads.com/.../167101-rocky-mountain-pursuit .

Thanks to dear old Santa who has kindly agreed to help me, I will be giving away three autographed advanced copies of Rocky Mountain Pursuit, my upcoming February Love Inspired Suspense release.

To enter, just go over to my blog at: http://authormaryalford.blogspot.com/ and tell me what your favorite Christmas memory is. I'll select three winners and let you know the names of the winners right here.
The contest will run through Christmas Eve. Good luck.

Standing On The Edge OF Goodbye is now available

She gave up everything in the name of love and it almost cost Kate Alexander her life. Now alone and pregnant, can Kate accept the second chance at happiness Matt Stevens is offering. Can she trust him when he tells her love isn’t supposed to hurt?  

 

After the death of his son, Matt Stevens checked out on life and God, but when Kate shows up at his doorstep desperate and sick, Matt instinctively wants to help her and in the process finds himself thinking about things he’d written out of his life. Things like love and a future with Kate and her child.

Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye - available now at Amazon    Amazon

New Cover Reveal For Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye

I'm so happy to be part of the Clean Reads Publishing Group. Their motto is "All story, no guilt."

My first inspirational romance, Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye will be released November 17th.

She gave up everything in the name of love and it almost cost Kate Alexander her life. Now alone and pregnant, can Kate accept the second chance at happiness Matt Stevens is offering. Can she trust him when he tells her love isn’t supposed to hurt?  

 

After the death of his son, Matt Stevens checked out on life and God, but when Kate shows up at his doorstep desperate and sick, Matt instinctively wants to help her and in the process finds himself thinking about things he’d written out of his life. Things like love and a future with Kate and her child.   

 

 

 

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

She  opened  her  eyes  to  a  darkness  so  intense  it  had  fused   itself  with  her  soul,  embracing  her  like  a  suffocating  blanket.  Her   head  throbbed.  Pain  sparked  from  her  left  temple  and  throughout   her  body.  It  felt  as  if  a  lightning  bolt  had  struck  her.     Kate  struggled  to  bring  her  scrambled  thoughts  into  focus.   Somewhere  in   the   distance,  a  car  horn  blared,  penetrating  the   fogginess  in  her  head.     Then  she  remembered.  He’d  made  good  on  his  promise  not   to  let  her  go.  Josh  had  taken  her  by  surprise  outside  of  the  low-­‐‑class   hotel  room  where  she’d  gone  to  escape  him,  mere  inches  away   from  freedom.     She  hadn’t  seen  his  face  before  the  blackness  descended.   There  was  no  need.  She  knew  who  had  taken  her.  The  man  of  her   nightmares.  Her  husband.     He’d  promised  to  love  and  honor  her  until  death  parted   them.  He’d  broken  that  promise  in  so  many  ways,  including  this   final  shattered  vow.  Death  wouldn’t  part  them.  She  would  be  with   him  forever,  even  to  the  end.   Kate  lifted  her  hands  and  felt  around  in  the  darkness;  her   fingers  touched  cold  metal,  above,  to  the  side.  All  around.  A  car’s   trunk?  It  made  sense.  He  wouldn’t  want  anyone  to  see  her  fear.   After  a  few  more  minutes  of  grasping,  she  recognized  matted   carpet,  a  spare  tire…and  something  far  worse.  A  shovel,  what  felt   like  plastic  bags,  and  a  tire  iron?  A  death  kit.     Her  death  kit.   The  once  distant,  blaring  horn  grew  closer.  The  car  she  was   in  swerved  on  the  road,  not  to  the  right,  but  left.  He  wasn’t  trying   to  avoid  the  accident.  He  was  deliberately  heading  into  the   oncoming  lane,  making  good  on  his  promise.  

The  impact  of  the  crash  sent  her  body  slamming  against  the   back  of  the  trunk.  What  followed  was  the  deafening  sound  of  metal   scraping  against  metal  as  the  two  cars  barreled  into  each  other  and   locked  together  like  dancers  united  in  a  macabre  dance.  Spinning,   then  sliding,  until  all  sense  of  direction  was  lost.     The  unsuspecting  vehicle  made  contact  with  something:  a   tree,  a  guardrail,  some  unknown  titan.  Josh’s  vehicle  broke  free,   accelerated,  then  propelled  onto  its  side,  plowed  across  asphalt,   sending  her  somersaulting  within  the  confines  of  the  trunk.  Her   head  bounced  against  the  top  as  the  car  came  to  rest  at  last.  Silence   followed.  Then  an  explosion  like  nothing  she’d  ever  heard.  Then   the  smell  of  acrid  smoke  as  the  tiny  car  burst  into  flames.       ****       “Ten  thousand  angels  listen  while  I  pray…”   Matt  Stevens  barely  recognized  his  own  voice  as  he  said   those  familiar  words  aloud  while  the  casket  of  the  woman  who  had   become  closer  than  a  friend  was  slowly  lowered  into  the  frozen   Colorado  ground.     He  knew  the  poem  by  heart.  In  fact,  he’d  lost  count  of  the   number  of  times  he’d  heard  it  in  the  past.  After  all,  it  was  Rachel   Bowers’  favorite  poem.  She  had  recited  those  words  to  him  so   many  times  in  the  past.  Rachel  never  got  tired  of  hearing  those   simple,  childlike  words.     But  today  she  wouldn’t  be  smiling  as  he  spoke  them  aloud   to  the  group  of  people  gathered  to  pay  their  final  respects  to  a   woman  who  had  touched  everyone  she  met,  including  Matt.   “Ten  thousand  angels  watch  over  me  through  my  days.”   Rachel  had  all  but  forced  her  way  into  his  life  and  his  heart,   and  she’d  almost  accomplished  the  impossible.   She   had  almost   convinced  him  to  start  living  again.     Almost…until  death  had  taken  her  away.   “Ten  thousand  angels  bring  God’s  smile  on  morning  rays,
Ten  thousand  angels  will  lead  me  home  and  guide  me  on  that  final
day.”  
The  stark  noise  of  chunks  of  earth  hitting  the  casket  brought   it  all  home  to  Matt  once  again.  Just  like  that  time  a  little  more  than  a   year   earlier   when  he’d   stood  over  his  son’s  grave  in  this  very   cemetery.  Death  was  final  and  lacking  in  dignity,  yet  no  one,  no   matter  how  innocent,  got  out  of  it.     This  was  it.  This  grave  was  to  be  Rachel’s  final  resting  place.   There  was  no  future  for  her  beyond  that  sound.  Just  a  few  words   said  over  a  grave.   Matt’s  mouth  twisted  into  a  bitter  smile  as  he  thought  about   how  Rachel  would  react  to  hearing  that.  He  could  almost  hear  her   arguing  with  him.  She’d  argued  about  God  and  eternity  right  up   until  the  very  end.   Yet  in  spite  of  Rachel’s  belief  in  a  loving  God  who  sent  those   angels  she  loved  so  much  to  guide  His  children  into  eternal  peace,   none  of  those  things  had  been  true  for  her.     Her  final  hours  had  been  spent  with  only  the  shell  of  the   man  Matt  had  become  to  comfort  her.  Not  even  her  granddaughter,   the  love  of  her  life  according  to  Rachel,  had  been  there  with  her  to   ease  those  final  moments.   As  much  as  he  wished  she  was  right  about  God,  in  the  end,   Rachel  had  been  wrong.  There  wasn’t  any  such  thing  as  a  loving   God,  or  eternity  for  that  matter.  There  was  only  this  life.  This  end.   Surely  the  final  proof  of  all  those  things  had  been  an  old  woman   dying  alone.     The  truth  was  that  poem,  like  all  of  Rachel’s  beliefs,  was   little  more  than  faded  words  tucked  away  in  a  worn  out  Bible  that   had  once  belonged  to  a  dead  woman.

 

An Interview With God...

Ever wish you could talk with God about life, love, the problems of the world? We'll here's your chance. This video is awesome.


https://vimeo.com/8898059

From death to life

A few years back we had a huge drought in our area that killed a lot of trees. Yesterday when I was out walking I took this picture. On the trunk of this dead tree, there are dozens of white mushrooms growing.

This reminds me of what Jesus did for us. Because of His death, burial and resurrection we have life.

God is good.


All the best...

Mary

My Mom's Cornbread Dressing and The Greatest Gift Of All

My Mom's Cornbread Dressing

 

Ingredients:

2 boxes of Krusteaz (1t ounce) box of Honey Cornbread 1 cup diced onion 4 boiled eggs diced

1 can of cream of chicken soup 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 2 -3 (this depends on taste) cans chicken broth Remember the cornbread dries the dressing so you may have to add more 1/8 pound sage sausage 2 uncooked eggs 4 teaspoon dried sage (I use a lot more but this is to fit your taste so do accordingly)

Directions:

1.	Prepare cornbread in large pan according to package directions. Cool and crumble.
2.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3.	In a large baking pan, combine cornbread, onions, soup, broth, all eggs (boiled and uncooked), sausage, sage, and mix thoroughly. I usually wait on the raw eggs until I've tasted the mix to make sure it has the correct flavor I want then I add the raw eggs.
4.	Bake in the preheated over for 30 to 45 minutes