Fabulous Friday Feature-Janelle Mowery

Today I welcome an award winner author,
a lady who is both kind and friendly,
Janelle Mowery

Enter to win Janell's new release,
Always Remembered.
Scroll to the end of the post to see how to enter.

I met Janell through ACFW. Seems I've met so many wonderful people there. What a kind, giving, and friendly person. She immediately responded to my message asking her to visit with us and spoke to me as if we'd known each other for a long time. How awesome is that?

I asked Janell to share how God has led her writing journey. This is what she said:

God Made Me with an Extra Dash of Adventure Spirit

I believe our creator God makes every individual unique, each with our own dreams, desires, and bents. I think He made me with a slightly adventurous spirit.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved books. When I was six, I was given Alice in Wonderland, which I believe awakened in me that adventurous spirit.

My third grade teacher gave me the book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, which added to the adventure, and I learned books could be a great escape.

Yes! This is Janell, and the pic is not photoshopped.

I began to devour almost every book I could get my hands on, some of them three or four times. When my classmates moaned about the classics we had to read in English, I’d quietly rejoice and finish reading them before the next day of class. Well, most of them anyway. Some, in my opinion, were a bit odd.

I think that same adventurous spirit sent me on a journey, moving me from my home state of Minnesota to my new home in Texas. And it was that same spirit of adventure that helped me jump out of a perfectly good airplane to see what skydiving was like. But the adventure I found in books, as well as my God-given dream, is what called me to write.

My younger sister introduced me to Lori Wick’s books. After reading several, God placed within my heart a new dream, a new adventure. He made me certain that I, too, could write a book. My decision was that I would only write for Him, and my prayer was that my books would bring people to Him or give them a closer relationship with Him.

After writing four stories in 2001, I decided to see if they were good enough to be published. I attended my first conference in 2003 and received positive feedback. In 2006, I received my first contract…a mystery written with my good friend, Elizabeth Ludwig. A few years later, Harvest House contracted the first three books I’d ever written. Their choice to change the title of the first book blew me away. They titled it, When All My Dreams Come True. How perfect. (My original title was Light of Dawn.)

As I research and write each new book, I get to live a new adventure…and make yet another dream come true. Praise God!

Janelle was born and raised in southern Minnesota. She is an award-winning author who began writing inspirational stories in 2001 and has since written several historical novels as well as a mystery series, many of them receiving four stars from Romantic Times Review.

When Janelle is not writing, she loves reading, researching history, and spending time in the great outdoors. She now resides in Texas with her husband and their two sons. To learn more about Janelle, visit her website at www.janellemowery.com

To enter the contest for an autographed copy of Janelle Mowery's book:
"Always Remembered":

leave a comment (and email address)

and become a follower of this site if you aren't already.

U.S. residents only.

Winner announced on my facebook page.

Thank you, Janelle, for Joining us This Weekend!

Reader, have you been on an adventure?

I taught my young children how to ride a busy city bus. We boarded the first bus that came to the stop. The kids picked where we got off. Then the game began. What do we do next? Now that was an adventure. We actually found our way back home!

Or did you have a sibling influence what you are doing today?

Comments

Anonymous said…

Love the cover on this book and bet it is good. Congrats on getting the first books you wrote published. Thats great. One adventure I remember is taking my four children on their first train ride. They loved it. The little one was just barely tall enough to stand on a raised place by the window and see out. We went to visit both sets of the grandparents. But, when we returned just a week later, when we got to Dallas, Tx. we were told the train didn't go any further. The one that was to go to Houston had stopped going there. What a surprise. Can't believe they didn't tell us when we bought our tickets in Houston. Well, there i was in Dallas train station with four children. I had to call my husband and he had to come get us, which was about 5 hours, at least. That part wasn't so pleasant. Please enter me for this chance to win this book. I am a follower of this blog. Maxie mac262(at)me(dot)com

02:48

Janice said…

I have not done very many adventurous things in my life. I am always interested in hearing about those kinds of things others around me have done. One lady I worked with in children's Sunday School did a zip line a few years back. She was (and is) in her eighties. She was the oldest ever to do it. She is an inspiration.

When I was first starting out in the university in downtown Atlanta (I had transferred after two years at a much smaller college in a small town), I had to take the bus to get to school. I did fine getting off at the bus stop where I needed to be. When it came time to go back home, I went across the street thinking that would be where to catch the bus to go home. Well, I waited and waited, and the bus did not come. It did not go back the same way it came into the city because of one way streets, etc. I had to figure out where to go to get on the right bus going back home. Somehow I figured it out.

The most adventurous thing I have ever done was on a date when we went caving with a group. It was all day in the cave, and I loved it. I think I would have been more adventurous, but I was not in the habit of thinking like that because of my family background.