Sunday Salon - Donna VanLiere, Guest Blogger

It's the perfect day, week, and season to welcome guest blogger Donna VanLiere.  What better time to welcome the author of The Christmas Journey than the week I'm running a contest to give away a copy of the book?  After you read Donna's post, I'll remind you how you can enter to win a copy of the book.  Welcome, Donna!

The Journey of The Christmas Journey

Donna VanLiere

http://www.donnavanliere.com/

Nearly twenty years ago I was asked to write something for a church Christmas banquet. I had never done anything like that before and really had no idea what to do. As the time grew closer and closer I began to get more than just a little anxious because it looked as if there was going to be a big hole in the programming! One afternoon, I set the mail on the kitchen counter and began to prepare dinner. Once it was underway I opened the mail and we had received the first Christmas card of the season. There was Mary and Joseph lounging in their Calvin Klein robes looking warm and happy in that brightly lit, cozy stable surrounded by Lamb Chop and other well groomed animals. I thought, “Who wouldn’t want to give birth there? That place looks great!”

It struck me then, as it continues to do today, that we somehow romanticize the journey that Mary and Joseph took and the subsequent birth of Christ. We’ve sanitized the cave and stripped the people involved of all fear, emotion and pain. At that point, I wanted to bring the story to life and give it texture, mood, emotion and smell. I read it as a narrative at that Christmas banquet and continue to do so for any group, organization or church that invites me. My editor asked to see The Christmas Journey narrative and felt she could make a beautiful gift book out of it. It is my hope that this short read will become part of the reader’s annual Christmas Eve tradition or a small part of their day on Christmas.

I hope you and your readers have a bright Christmas and amazing New Year!

Donna

Thank you, Donna.  Your story truly does remind us what that journey was probably like, without the glitz and glamour.

If you'd like to win a copy of The Christmas Journey, email me at lholstine@yahoo.com.   Your subject line shoud read, "Win The Christmas Journey."  Your message should include your mailing address. Entrants only in the U.S., please.


This contest ends Tuesday night, Dec. 14 at 6 PM MT. The winner will be selected by random number generator. I'll notify the winner, and Donna's publicist will mail out the book. Good luck!

Donna VanLiere's website is http://www.donnavanliere.com/


The Christmas Journey by Donna VanLiere. St. Martin's Press, ©2010. ISBN 9780312613 (hardcover), 96p.

Sunday Salon - The Christmas Journey by Donna VanLiere

A Sunday during Lent is the perfect time to introduce you to Donna VanLiere's The Christmas Journey, a different view of the journey to Bethlehem undertaken by Joseph and Mary.

VanLiere acknowledges that people know Luke's account of the trip, beginning with, "In those days Caeser Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world....And everyone went to his own town to register.  So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child."  That's the account we know.

But, no one really thinks about the gritty details.  VanLiere reminds us.   "For Joseph's family it would be over seventy miles and a four-to-seven day walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem."  And, Mary was nine months pregnant, forced to ride a donkey over rocky terrain.  It also hadn't been easy for Joseph and Mary up to this point.  She was shunned and talked about in Nazareth, a small town, because she got pregnant before she was married.  How easy was it for a teenage girl to hold her head up in that community, when only she and Joseph knew the truth, as the angel had told them?

And, this wasn't an easy birth in sterile, modern facilities.  Even though Luke tells there was no room for them, and they found a place in a stable, it's VanLiere that says, this is a stable.  A stable has noisy, smelly animals, smells like manure, and isn't the cleanest, nicest place to give birth with no women helping her, no midwife, no doctor. 

VanLiere's account shows how miraculous and beautiful the journey, and the birth, actually were because she shows the reality and the details of life.  The Christmas Journey is all the more powerful once the gloss is taken off of it.   This might truly be a story to ponder in your heart.

*****

The Christmas Journey will be one of the two books offered in the final giveaway of this holiday season, beginning on Thursday, Dec. 9th, so watch for the details. 

The Lifetime Movie Network will be airing Donna VanLiere's movies in the next few weeks.  Here's the schedule, but check your local listings for your correct times.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 6

The Christmas Blessing - 6p - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

The Christmas Shoes - 8p - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

The Christmas Hope - 10p - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7

The Christmas Shoes - 12a - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14

The Christmas Blessing - 11a - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

The Christmas Shoes - 1p - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

The Christmas Hope - 3p - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19

The Christmas Hope - 10p - LIFETIME MOVIE NETWORK (LMN)

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25

The Christmas Shoes - 11a - LIFETIME

The Christmas Hope - 1p - LIFETIME

The Christmas Blessing - 3p - LIFETIME

The Christmas Shoes - 11p - LIFETIME

And, I'll be giving away two copies of The Christmas Journey, but there is a contest to win all of Donna’s Christmas books, including an autographed copy of The Christmas Journey that ends on December 14th:

http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/contest_donnavanliere_thechristmasjourney.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donna VanLiere's website is http://www.donnavanliere.com/
 
The Christmas Journey by Donna VanLiere.  St. Martin's Press, ©2010. ISBN 9780312613 (hardcover), 96p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure - Library book