Staci Stallings Shares Her Impossible Dream

With God...

Author Staci Stallings

Impossible. It's is such an interesting word.  Is there another single word in the whole English lexicon that has stopped more dreams, frustrated more innovation, or quelled the quickening of more hearts?

I doubt it.                                 

However, the cool thing is, if you're a Christian, your God is a God of the impossible.

Think for just one moment about this.  God made light by saying, "Let there be light."  God made all of the earth and galaxies.  It wasn't some undefinable "big bang."  If it had been, don't you think that at some point someone would have been walking along and BANG, it would have happened again?

I mean it's a scientific fact that something that has happened once is much more likely to happen again, especially if it was completely natural. That it hasn't tells us something or Someone made it happen the first time.

The Bible tells us that "all things are possible with God."

Let me show you in a very real sense what that means.

One day, for no apparent reason, I stumbled upon an ebook about the power of setting up Internet communities that center around a common interest.  Now I already had two websites, I wasn't looking to start another one.  But as I read this book, I could see this online community that would provide a place for Christian readers and authors to meet.

Great.  But I didn't have time, nor the resources, nor frankly the skills to pull something like that off. However, every time I picked up my Kindle, there was this book, and I kept reading.  Suddenly as I was reading one day this name came into my mind--Shelley Hitz.

Shelley and I were friends. I knew she was a marketing genius.  I also knew she was incredibly busy and probably shouldn't be bothered.  But as I kept reading, her name kept coming up.  So one day, figuring she would think I was crazy, I emailed her with this vague idea of what I was seeing.

Being the wonderful person she is, Shelley gently told me that although the idea was good, she just didn't have time to do something like that.  Now I've been around God long enough to know you take the step He asks you to take, but if the door shuts, you don't bang on it trying to open it yourself.  You simply wait for Him to open it if He decides to.  So that's what I did.  I wrote back and said that was fine and good luck with what she was working on.

And I went on with my life.

Two days later I got an email... from Shelley.  Apparently a friend of hers whom I didn't even know at the time, had contacted her... with exactly the same idea I had!

Shelley is a very spiritual lady, so when her friend Heather Bixler contacted her with the same idea, she knew this wasn't random.  It was God.  She immediately contacted me and said that although it wasn't her idea, she knew God was asking us to at least talk about it.

One email led to ten, which led to a business and a site and a forum and a blog and a newsletter.  Which then led to contacting other authors and readers and bloggers.  Which led to...

the all-new

God truly is amazing because He took the three of us who each have vastly different experience and skills and put us together, knitting us as friends and then as a team to accomplish something that not one of the three of us could have ever done on our own.

Now we're here inviting you to join the conversation that God Himself started.  If you love Christian books and ebooks and blogs... If you need encouragement for your day or strength to face life's challenges... If you just want a safe online place to fellowship with other Christians, this is it!

The site officially launches Feb. 12-14, and in celebration of the launch, we're giving away 169 prizes--gift cards, ebooks, and books!  Below is the entry form, and we'd love to have you along.

However, what I most want you to know is that CrossReads is the embodiment of God literally doing the impossible.  We live in three different states, in three different time zones.  Very few of our skills duplicate each other.  We didn't even know each other prior to God whispering this to our hearts.

God truly can do the impossible.  CrossReads.com is the proof!

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Thank you, Staci!

And, Readers, you can connect with Staci with following ways:

Connect with Staci on Facebook

Follow Staci on Twitter @StaciStallings

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What's Cookin' with Bonnie Calhoun?

Today I have the pleasure of visiting with author Bonnie Calhoun. Bonnie is owner of the ChristianFiction Blog Alliance, publisher the Christian Fiction Online Magazine. She is the Northeast Zone Director for ACFW, President of Christian Authors Network, Appointment Coordinator for the Colorado Christian Writers Conference and the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference, and ACFW ‘Mentor of the Year,’ for 2011.

Bonnie also has a new book out, her debut novel, titled, Cooking the Books. Here's the blurb:

After her mother dies from a heart attack, Sloane Templeton goes from Cyber Crimes Unit to bookstore owner before she can blink. She also "inherits" a half-batty store manager; a strange bunch of little old people from the neighborhood who meet at the store once a week, but never read books, called the Granny Oakleys Book Club; and Aunt Verline, who fancies herself an Iron Chef when in reality you need a cast iron stomach to partake of her culinary disasters. And with a group like this you should never ask, “What else can go wrong?”A lot! Sloane begins to receive cyber threats. While Sloane uses her computer forensic skills to uncover the source of the threats, it is discovered someone is out to kill her. Can her life get more crazy

Bonnie is giving away a FREE book, 

so be sure to leave a comment and enter the drawing!

NOW FOR MY INTERVIEW WITH BONNIE:

1.      What genre do you write in? (Historical, contemporary, romance, etc.)

I write in a genre all my own…it’s suspense/mystery with a whole lot of humor. Actually what I do is throw in all the laughs so that my friends who are in the Big Honkin’ Chickens Club are lauging so hard that they don’t notice the dead bodies or blood lying around.

2.      How much spirituality do you weave into your story?

There’s no hard of fast rule about how much spirituality to weave into the story. Actually I don’t go about a “weaving” process. It happens organically. My leading example is the book of Ester. There is no mention of God in the book, but yet you can see His hand all over it. And that’s how I tend to create my stories.

3.      What is your general purpose as an author?

My general purpose as an author is to be an entertainer. That is the gift that the Lord gave me. Actually…He gave me several (I wasn’t being greedy, he was being generous!) and this is the one that is most relevant at this time.

4.      What message do you hope to convey to readers, either in this latest book or in all your books?

All of my stories will be about women overcoming great obstacles in their life, most of the time they are self-imposed obstacles, and I hope to show them how to build the strength to be a survivor.

5.      Do you believe there is evil in the world and, if you do, how do you portray it in your novels (or do you portray evil in your novels)?

 Of course! I believe there is great evil in this world. But I also believe that since Adam and Eve each and every one of us has been born with the sin nature, and it doesn’t even take “great evil” to bring that out in man. He can get in trouble all on his own! Yes I portray evil…because no one lives an ideal life under a rock. We are all affected by sin…or evil at some point, and our response as Christians should be praising the Lord through that trial, and then coming out the other side of the fiery furnace and not smelling like smoke! 

6.       As an author, what are your goals for the future?

My goals…well considering that all of this makes me very excited, my immediate goals…like for book signings and such, are not to fall down or throw up. Long range goals??? To be a consummate entertainer for the Lord.

 < By the way, Bonnie had her first book-signing this past weekend in New York and didn't throw up or faint. YAY!>

7.    Lastly, Bonnie, how do you deal with rejection letters or an irate reader?

That one is totally easy! They are not part of my target audience…so I wish them well and move on!