Christian Fiction Historical Society and Giveaway!

 

It is so exciting for me to have Debbie Lynne Costello here on the blog all this week to tell you about the awesome new Christian Fiction Historical Society blog where I will probably be spending a lot of my future time. If you love history and/or write during historical time periods this is going to be a favorite. I promise! Debbie collects antiques so I have spread her wealth of pictures throughout this post. Enjoy! Here’s Debbie!
Thank you for having me on your blog, Jill. I am thrilled to be here!
You had asked me to tell you a little about our new Historical blog and why I started it. I’m one of those people who are always thinking about ways to reach readers. I’d been tossing around a third blog for a while. I have my personal blog (can you link personal blog to www.theswordandspirit.blogspot.com) which is dedicated to authors. My second blog ( can you link second blog to www.fictionaddictionfix.blogspot.com) is with Kathleen Maher, my crit partner, and it is dedicated just to giveaways. The idea behind it was that we would connect readers with blogs doing giveaways. We put links to book giveaways and readers can come by and easily find free books! But even with these two blogs I kept thinking we are writers we need to connect with our readers. I knew I couldn’t take on another full time blog and that was when the inspiration hit.
Authors have fans and followers. What if we took 31 authors and gave each of them one day a month to post. Readers could come to one blog and meet 31 different historical writers. So the frame work was in motion and I just had to tweak it a bit. I wanted a blog that would really reach out to readers of historical romance and allow the readers to get to know the authors they love. And that was my answer. I sent out a call to authors and gave a short summary of what the blog was all about. Within a few days I had all the slots filled.
CHRISTIAN FICTION HISTORICAL SOCIETY was born. The month of February we each took a day to introduce ourselves to our readers. CFHS blog will always leave the reader with some historical tidbit. Our authors will be posting anything from posts filled with all kinds of his historical information to posts about their hobbies, family, vacations, or who knows what. But no matter what we write on you will glean at least a nugget of history to take away with you. And we hope by posting about things we are interested in and about our lives that readers will get to know us better.
The other very cool thing about CFHS is that we cover all history. We have authors that write as far back as ancient times and as recent as WWII. And then of course we have everything in between which makes us different from most blogs. The authors of this blog are talented, dedicated writers who want to connect with the readers of their books. This gives them the opportunity to do so. If a reader would like to see a post on a certain subject they just need to ask and one of our 31 authors will be happy do a post on it. So in a nutshell that is what CHRISTIAN FICTION HISTORICAL SOCIETY is all about. I want to invite everyone to stop by everyday this month. Each day of March one of the blogs authors will be doing a giveaway on their day. Leave a comment to be entered. Your comment will also enter you in the grand prize of a Kindle and also a 2nd place prize of a $25 Amazon gift card. If you comment on all 31 March posts you will receive 31 entries on top of being entered in each daily giveaway. So stop by www.christianfictionhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com for a chance to win over 33 prizes!
With starting another historical blog you can guess that my love lies in history. I do love anything historical, but my true love is in Charleston, SC in the late 19th century with Savannah running a close second. I’ve finished 5 full length novels, 3 of which are set in Charleston, 1 in Savannah, and one in Europe. But I’ve plotted out over a dozen with the Charleston and Savannah settings. We don’t live far from Charleston and so I love to get down there whenever we can. The city has so much wonderful history and has truly retained much of what makes Charleston the intriguing city it has always been. 

Of course to go along with my love of history is my love of antiques! If it’s old I probably will love it. I collect antique bibles and very old cookie jars. Half my house is antiques. I just bought an 1870 settee at an auction! The workmanship is just beautiful in older pieces. I also have a quilt that was made in the mid to late 1800’s. It was passed down to me from our pastor’s wife. It had been her grandmothers.

 
Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by. 
  
I’m giving away a gift basket with a handmade bracelet made from 19th century silverware. Let me know what and when your favorite setting is or just leave me a comment to be entered. If you follow Jill’s blog and CFHS blog I’ll give you 2 more entries for a total of 3. 

And don’t forget to stop by daily at CFHS!
 
 

Debbie Lynne Costello is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. She attended Heritage University, where she studied Journalism and worked in the editing department.
She has completed five full length novels set in the Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA area in the late 19th century and is now seeking homes for them.

She and her husband have four children, 2 dogs, a cat, a miniature donkey and an Arabian horse. They live in upstate South Carolina with their family. She spent thirteen years coaching cheerleading and trying to make a difference in young girls’ lives. Debbie Lynne has raised Shetland sheepdogs for seventeen years and occasionally shows them. In her spare time, she sews, paints, knits, camps (in a fifth wheel) and plays with the grandbaby.

 

94 thoughts on “Christian Fiction Historical Society and Giveaway!

  1. No need to enter me in the drawing, just wanted to stop in and say what a beautiful blog you have, Jillian, and how exciting that you’re featuring CFHS this week. Thank you! And a big thanks to Debbie Lynne for explaining how it works. Looking forward to great things with all the awesome ladies involved.
    Blessings!

    • Hi Kathleen,
      So nice of you to stop by. Glad you like the look of the blog. I love it and it suits my time period beautifully. In fact it might suit a few time periods. 🙂 I’m really excited about the CFHS blog. Awesome. I look forward to spending way too much time there. 🙂

  2. Thank you for the publicity and for your hard work on this blog, Debbie Lynne. I will have a post on, of course, the changing face of the midwife profession in the 19th century and giving away a copy of Choices of the Heart, my latest midwife book. March 15.

  3. Well, I had a post typed, but something happened and it disappeared. I hope i don’t end up with two here. I’ve really been enjoying the CFHS blog. It’s a wealth of historical info. My next day to post is the 10th, and I’ll be talking about samplers. Stop by if you can.

  4. Good morning everyone! A warm welcome to you. Make yourselves at home and enjoy the information Debbie has to share with you. I’m thrilled to have Debbie here talking about the Christian Fiction Historical Society and all the fun stuff going on there.

    • Hey Christina! And I might say along with talented writers we have writers with some other great talents like building blog sites (right Christina?) Christina slaved over our blog and made it absolutely gorgeous! Thank you Christina!!

  5. Debbie Lynne, I was so glad to find out so much more about you!!! thanks for the post, Jillian! I am now following JK’s blog, follow DL’s regular blog, and the new CH blog, too! I love that bracelet, DL! I am gonna send u email to find out where I can order one! I think u can guess my fave era, lol–colonial!!! Blessings!

  6. I have been wanting to thank those who created Fiction Addiction Fix – instead of hunting around – the giveaways are all in one spot!

    My favorite time setting would be either historical or western – I like stories from WAY, WAY back… you’re welcome to sneak a few books into the prize package too, if you wanna!

    I follow Jills blog.

    And I’ve been following the CFHS blog since I found out about it.

  7. Thank you, Jillian, for having Debbie Lynn and CFHS on your blogspot. The CFHS daily posts are fascinating and so informative. Writers and history buffs will find a mountain of nuggets for their research and reading pleasure. I’ll be adding my two cents on the 27th of each month. My March give-away for CFHS is a scarf hand-knitted from an 1898 pattern designed during the Spanish American war, plus a fun scarf from Starbella Flash yarn. Don’t forget to stop by on the 7th and see what Debbie Lynn has planned for her scrumptious historical tidbit. You won’t be disappointed.

  8. Hey Linda! Thanks for mentioning my day! I’m so excited and in awe of working with some fabulous authors. You all are an inspiration. The scarves are beautiful. If anyone wants to see what each day’s giveaway is we have them on the side bar just click on the day and it’ll show you the giveaway.

  9. My newest series is set in 1896, New York City, so of course, that is my favorite! LOL! I love history, and really, whatever I’m researching at the time quickly becomes my favorite setting.

    Beautiful blog!

    • Thanks for coming by Elizabeth! Isn’t it amazing how research can just suck you into the time and make you wish you were there? I love research. I’m always coming out and saying to who ever is home at the time, Did you know? LOL. If I could only retain it all I could be on some TV game show!

  10. Hello Debbie Lynne and Jillian,
    I love all kinds of historical fiction and read from all eras. I am more enamored with history prior to the 20th century, although I really enjoy Appalachian history in the early through mid-1900’s. I like a good mix and tend to vary my reading pattern from one book to the next. I seldom read two books in a row from the same era or setting. Thank you for the opportunity to win the lovely bracelet. I am a follower of CFHS and also of Jillians’ blog.
    may_dayzee (at) yahoo (dot) com

  11. Hi Debbie! I loved finding out more about you and of course share your love of history and antiques. Jillian, thanks for sharing the news about CFHS and thanks to Debbie for her idea for the blog. I’m thankful to be part of this blog and am awestruck by the company of great writers I share on it. My posts will be Civil War and reconstruction. Look for them on the 22nd of the month.

  12. Hey Debbie! Boy, you are everywhere, girl! I was already following your other two blogs and now I follow CFHS too! I love it over there, so many different authors with their own styles of writing. I love going over there each day to see what they have to offer….thank you for helping me to embrace and love history. Hugs and God bless!

    • Hey Debbie! Thanks for coming by. I’m so glad you enjoy all my blogs. I think CFHS is going to be the most fun! I just love mingling with other authors. And some of them are my all time favorites for reading so I’m really excited to be a part of the same blog as them! I appreciate your faithfulness to my blogs. 3 entries for you!

  13. Wonderful post, Debbie. I enjoyed learning a bit more about you. Thank you for starting this blog group. I am excited to be part of the CFHS team. I’ll be posting on the 18th of each month and love Southwest history. This month I’m giving away two books and a large tote bag. I love connecting with readers.

  14. I follow both the CFHS blog and Jill’s blog and would love to win the basket and the silver bracelet.
    Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do so.
    Janet E.
    von1janet(at)gmail(dot)com

  15. Great post Debbie, and I loved the photos. The 19th century is my favorite era, and also the one I write about. I was so excited finding a book from 1868 the other day at a local bookstore. Please enter me in the drawing.

    Blessings,
    Jodie Wolfe
    digging4pearls(at)comcast(dot)net

  16. I am a follower on Jillian’s blog and CFS blog via Google Friends Connect.

    My favorite setting is Nantucket Island. My ancestors from my mother’s side lived there and reading about it makes it become more alive.

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

  17. Great article, Debbie Lynne! I’m sooo envious of all your beautiful antiques! How I’d love to visit your home and see them in person! I’d also like a chance to win the gorgeous bracelet. Sign me up!

    • I’m signing you up! LOL and thank you! I’m glad you like it. I’d love to have you stop by the next time you’re in SC. THat was only a fraction of my antiques. One of my many favorites is a 19th century pressed back rocker and a small oak women’s secretary.

  18. Hi, Debbie Lynne and Jillian. I’m so grateful to DL for inviting me to be a part of CFHS. Right now on the 4th day of each month, I’m scratching the surface of genealogy and giving readers a chance to talk about theirs. I hope everyone enjoys my visits into the past, both in books and blogs! Louise M. Gouge

  19. I love Civil War era writing, and one of my favorite places is Gettysburg. Thank you for offering this wonderful contest!
    Nancee
    quiltcat26[at]sbcglobal[dot]net

  20. Hey Amber! Thanks for coming by. I’ve been to Mackinac Island a couple times. It is very fun but like many cool places so commercialized. We rode around the lake on bikes while we were there. OH! I’m so glad you like my settee! I was so excited when we won it. I almost felt guilty about how much it went for! Got a bargain let me just say. Thanks for being a part of CFHS!

  21. Enjoyed the blog today and especially the photos. One of my favorite places to read about is the Old West with all the historical figures of those who settled the West. thanks for introducing me to a new author and web blog.
    JFWisherd at aol dot com

    • Hey Jackie. I love the old west. We went to Tombstone two years ago and I fell in love! Then we went to Virgina city and that was great too! Last year after conference we went to Fort Worth and watched the cattle drive and walked down the old town streets. so much fun. Yep I could have fit right in in the old west!

  22. Enjoyed reading your blog. I’m new to Jill’s blog and CFHS blog. I love to read books about the pioneers that came to settle the west. They truly lived through difficult & trying times and depended on their faith. Thanks for the contest. Linda
    dmcfarl101(at)juno(dot)com

  23. Hi, Debbie. As another member of CFHS, I’m looking forward to writing in such illustrious company. I’m drooling over that settee. My goodness.

    I’ve walked in the Guernsey ruts and on a stretch of the Oregon Trail. I also climbed to the top of Independence Rock. The best inscriptions are at the top. It’s truly amazing, as you say, what the pioneers went through.

    • Hey Janalyn! Thanks for coming by! I am proud of my settee but in the humblest of ways. Is that even possible? LOL> I do love it though. How cool climbing to the top of Independence Rock! Bet you got some awesome pictures. You should write about it on CFHS!

  24. I love historical fiction, so I am definitely signing up for email updates from the Christian Fiction Historical Society! My favorite time periods are Regency, Medieval, and American Colonial.

    jafuchi7[at]hawaii[dot]edu

    • Hey! Glad to see you here! You’ve got some fun era’s as your favorite. I do love the Medieval time period. And Regency can really be fun too. Well, actually all of them are! LOL> Thanks for coming by. You have 2 entries.

  25. Great post, Debbie. I had a Shetland Sheepdog for 17 yrs. I miss him still and love that breed. I love writing about the West during the 19th Century after having lived in Colorado. It fascinates me. I loved antiques and have a few beautiful pieces in my home but no antique jewelry. Please enter me for the bracelet. It’s lovely. 🙂

    • Thank you Maggie. 17 is old for a Sheltie. They are a wonderful breed. So loyal. I have a litter that I co-own due in just 2 weeks. Nothing like adding another iron to the fire. LOL. Entering you into the giveaway. Thanks for coming by.

  26. The new group blog is a fabulous idea–and I’m so drooling over your grandmother’s steamer trunk!!

    My favorite setting…um…anything historical, LOL. I will always adore European settings, but early American has won a special place in my heart too. And of course, Biblicals are in a class all their own. 😉

    So excited for this new venture! And I love the bracelet. =)

    • Hey Roseanna! Fancy meeting you here! LOL Roseanna is a guest on my blog The Sword and Spirit this week. You know I have had that trunk for so long and had it up in my attic for probably 10 years (you should have seen me trying to get it up there!) When I redid my house to capitalize on my antiques I pulled down my great-grandmothers trunk and got some glass to use it as a table. It’s been a piece I treasure. And since then I was at a garage sale and bought one the same size for $25 and then picked up a smaller hump back for $17. I think I’m getting an addiction to trunks!

  27. What a great idea for the group blog. Congratulations!

    I love Regencies, but frankly, I enjoy just about any historical setting. It’s so nice to escape to the past for a little bit.

    The bracelet is gorgeous–I love how it was fashioned from silverware!

    Thanks for the post, Jilly!

  28. Good evening, Ms. Kent, and Ms. Debbie Lynne! 🙂

    Ms. Kent, you’ll be pleased to know that a few months ago, I decided to undertake a bit of a challenge this year, which is to pick 70 inspirational fiction authors and slowly work my way through a variety of their books, in an effort to expand my inspirational fiction reading as much as to discover wicked awesome new authors! 🙂 I was backreading “Writing for Christ”, the blog of Casey Herringshaw when I came upon the ’70’ authors I settled on — and guess what?! Your one of them! 🙂 Imagine my happy surprise when Ms. Debbie Lynne spoke to me of this giveaway on your blog!

    I am an RSS feed subscriber/follower of both your blog + CFHS!
    I am also a new newsletter subscriber for Ms. Kent as of tonight! 🙂

    Now then, I wanted to quickly say that I fell in love with antiques whilst growing up with parents whose passion for them washed over me in a positive way! I was always eager to seek out secondhand shoppes, early attic stores, as much as proper antique stores or emporiums where the amount of what is available is a bit mind bending! Auctions followed, and there is such an inertia of excitement I think! About what you can discover and what you bring home,… the stories those pieces can tell you! I love the shrouded suspense of never knowing where those items were once housed OR to whom they brought joy too! Its the same with vintage clothing,… who wore it before you!? What were their lives like!? And, of course, I love anything that involves upcycling materials into new twists of fashion or function! Hence why I’m a BIG fan of “etsy”!! 🙂

    I will definitely stop by regularly to see what is new on this blog, and I am thankful that I stopped by Ms. Herringshaw’s blog that fateful day, in order to have come across the Ravensmoore Chronicles which I will be ILL’ing from my library!

    Cheers to you both! 🙂
    And, Ms. Debbie Lynne, I think you already know how happy I am with the CFHS!!

    And, I glossed over the past posts that are showing through the RSS feeds: I am a bonefide Downton Abbey girl! It took me over a year to convince my library to order Series 1 + 2! I am hopeful it won’t take as long for Series 3 to arrive in our catalog!!! 🙂

    inkand-blogaways(at)usa.net
    // Florida

    • {postscript}

      Whoopsiedaisies! I was caught up in what I was writing to you, that I forgot to let you know which part of history or which setting gets me the most excited in a book!? The truth of it is,… I am quite eclectically enticed! Its hard to pin me down to a specific setting, either in time or country,… the ones that tend to revolve through my shelves the most are as follows:

      the Regency + Victorian eras of England {goodness, you’d think I ought to uncover a time machine, that’s how oft I’m over there!}, the Roaring Twenties in America, the World Wars, esp in America and England, the Wild West & Frontier Days of America, Revolutionary France {before, during, and after Marie Antoinette}, the Revolutionary War era of America, the Renaissance of England + Italy, the Napoleonic War era, …

      and as far as setting!? I’d love to explore Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and Ancient Rome/Egypt/Greece/Persia/Mongolia more in literature! I love to follow Laura Resau as she writes about Ecuador and Mexico — hence why I am eager to read Ms. Tyndall’s book as it goes to Brazil! I read a heap of Southern literature, which runs the full gambit of what you’ll find in small and large Southern townes/cities from as far back as the Civil War straight through til present day! 🙂 The last book I read that touched me deeply was: the House Girl by Tara Conklin! Powerfully written and historically epic in scope!

      See!? I cannot peg it down! I time travel all the time through the books I read and I am blessed to be constantly discovering writers who lyrically craft beautiful prose and enrich the lives of their readers with dynamically strong characters!! 🙂

    • LOL! Jorie you always make me smile. ;o) Now I see why you love CFHS so much. We cover it all! I have to mention the auctions you spoke of. The excitement. Oh my goodness that is so true. Hubby and I would scope out the items at the auction. Decide what we want agree on a price we were willing to pay and then wait. Then when the item went up and the bidding got fierce and then surpassed what we agreed upon, he’d look at me with those brown questioning eyes and I’d nod. He’d bid higher. LOL And sometimes when it was all over and we payed way more than we planned I’d have to wonder, ‘What just happened?’ LOL But that only happened when we really loved the item. But the excitement does play a part in all of that.

    • Jorie,
      I’m thrilled that I’m on your list. You’ll have to let me know how you like the book or books when you’re done reading. That’s quite a challenge you’ve set for yourself. Thanks for being here and following the blog.

  29. Alas, but I did not win the lovely bracelet on another blog but was encouraged to come to this one for a 2nd chance (though I’ve entered earlier)…. I try not to be selfish – but my reading travels on my missionary journeys thru Nicaragua and it would always help to smell and look pretty….

    I follow Jills blog.

    I follow the CFHS blog.

    I’ve decided I LOVE all love stories – especially western & historical!

  30. What a wonderful idea for a versatile blog! I love the idea of so many authors participating. I love historical romance – but then, I love contemporary romance…and vintage romance…lol (I’m a hopeless romantic at heart!)

    Great post!

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