Nora St. Laurent runs two book clubs near the Atlanta area and is the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Book Club Coordinator. She currently writes a Book Club Column for Christian Fiction Online Magazine. You can read author interviews on her Finding Hope Through Fiction blog, located at http://www.psalm516.blogspot.com, and reviews around the web at The Christian Pulse Mag, Title Trakk, Novel Reviews, and Suspense Zone. Nora and her husband run The Book Club Network www.bookfun.org

You may recall that in the February 2011 issue of Christian Fiction Online Magazine, we announced that Faith in Fiction book club, led by Brandi Fitzpatrick, had a recent contest. The book club received twenty-five copies of Deadly Ties by Vicki Hinze and twenty-five copies of Carmel by the Sea and Always the Baker, Never the Bride by Sandi Bricker.

Brandi and her book club helped us pick the winner of the Just Desserts contest. Out of the many entries, we narrowed it down to four for Brandi and her group to make and taste test to determine the winner.

Faith in Fiction book club picked Cherry Chip Cheesecake Bars by Marsha J. Baker as the winning recipe. Marsha was wonderfully surprised and received a $100 gift card to a high-end cooking store. She also received a copy of Deadly Ties by Vicki Hinze and Always the Baker, Never the Bride by Sandi Bricker! We want to thank Vicki Hinze for sponsoring this contest and Sandi Bricker for donating a copy of her book! Look at what Marsha brought with her gift card here; also see a picture of the winning cheesecake bars and get the recipe.

The winner of two $50 gift cards to Lifeway Christian Stores for solving the Mister Ree Book contest was Whitney Left and Judy Dudley (a tie). Thanks to B&H for sponsoring this contest and for the opportunity to promote The Book of Days by Jim Rubart.

Rachael Savage was the winner of the Wheel of Grace contest based on the Wheel of Fortune game show; it involved guessing letters until someone figured out the phrase. Rachael was quick in guessing the phrase with only a few letters given as clues. She received a $50 gift card to Lifeway Christian Stores. Thanks to B&H for sponsoring this contest and the opportunity to promote Words by Ginny Yttrup.

The Book Club Network hosted the Touched by a Miracle contest sponsored by Kathi Macias. Since Kathi’s Extreme Devotion series deals with missionaries all over the globe, we thought we would gather people’s stories of how God moved in their lives. The story that touched us deeply would win. We would donate $100 to their favorite charity. For our purposes, a miracle is anything that touched a heart and left it changed forever. We looked for something personal, heartfelt, and a true occurrence that either you witnessed or you were changed by it. After reading and rereading numerous heart-wrenching stories, the panel made their choice, though difficult because we were overwhelmed by these accounts and witnessing what God was doing in people’s lives.

Laura Winslow Sargent’s story stood out to our board. (You can read it here.) Laurie asked us to donate the $100 to World Vision and chose the Horn of Africa Food Crisis as the target for the donation. As it turned out, the donation was multiplied six times in matching funds the day we gave the gift. There were major blessings to everyone all the way around!! Thanks to Kathi Macias for sponsoring the Touched by a Miracle contest and giving Laurie a copy of her new book People of the Book.

Along with the contests, a lot of book club activity is taking place at TBCN. Faith in Fiction book club has had numerous online book club discussions with authors and a few other book clubs have done the same. Rachael Savage, book club leader of Calvary Chapel Melbourne Women’s book club, has had Liz Curtis Higgs speak at her group in March and she has pictures posted at TBCN of the event. I will be featuring Rachael’s club next month so you’ll hear more about that meeting.

Our next big contest is our Scavenger Hunt, featuring Novo Ink. We’ll be giving away $150 in gift cards in an online, interactive chat. There will be two books to give away and five $20 gift certificates to Novo Ink, as well as two $25 gift cards to Lifeway! Thanks to Novo Ink and B&H for sponsoring this contest and for the chance to promote Novo Ink authors and two new books: In the Shadow of Evil by Robin Caroll and No Safe Haven by Kimberly and Kayla Woodhouse. You’ll hear more about it in the weeks to come. The questions will be asked on our Book Club Network site. To find the answers visit these: (For No Safe Haven book and author answers, search here. For In the Shadow of Evil book and author answers, search here.)

In the month of April we will be having a contest to promote Tricia Goyer’s new Amish book Beside Still Waters. Check out The Book Club Network for book club ideas, fiction and nonfiction for book clubs, and, of course, the contests.

I’m so thankful to our sponsors and the authors I’ve gotten to know through TBCN. I can’t wait to tell you about the Scavenger Hunt contest.

Until Next Time

Until next time.

Nora St.Laurent
The Book Club Network
www.bookfun.org