The Power of Laughter by Ane Mulligan

I'm excited to introduce you dear readers to the amazing [and hilarious] Ane Mulligan! I've had the pleasure of chatting with her several times at the ACFW conferences and she's truly an amazing woman! I know this post, and her book, will bring you a smile. 

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I love to laugh. Even more, I love to make other people laugh. The Bible tells us a merry heart is good medicine, Prov 17:22. And a merry heart comes from laughing.

Hubs and I just celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. I'm not sure how that happened, since I'm only 35. Hubs is a Brit, long on dry humor and short on romance. But it's the laughter—not the romance—that I remember when I look back of all these years.

Besides, laughing and smiling use fewer muscles than frowning. Laugh lines are softer than frown lines.

From HelpGuid.org:

Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body.

The Mayo Clinic tells us:

When it comes to relieving stress, more giggles and guffaws are just what the doctor ordered.

So, for the sake of your readers' health, I'm offering the Gift of Laughter as the perfect Valentine's Day gift!

Chapel Springs Revival

With a friend like Claire, you'll need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel.

Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It's impossible not to, what with Claire's zany antics and Patsy's self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is their marriages. Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives.

#3 in Debut Christian Fiction in 2014 on Goodreads Listopia, readers report:

• Claire and Patsy make you laugh out loud at them.

• Looking for a down-home, fun-loving, sometimes slapstick hilarious read? Go ahead and visit Chapel Springs.

• Real life drama, hurt, pains and disappointment combined with laugh-out-loud humor made me lose myself in the pleasure of its pages.

• Southern Serving of Belly Laughs!! I love books that make me break out in deep belly laughs every few minutes.

• Get your giggle-box oiled up and ready to rumble, 'cause Chapel Springs Revival is going to put it to good use.

See? You really can give the gift of laughter to someone this Valentine's Day!

Run over to Amazon and purchase: Chapel Springs Revival
{p.s. The kindle edition is only $0.99 right now!!!}

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, bestselling novelist Ane Mulligan has worn many: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband, her chef son, and two dogs of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Spread the Christmas Joy and Giveaway | Day 2

Joy from Patty Hall

Every mother worries about their baby at one time or another, especially if that child is born prematurely or had problems at birth. I was no different. Our oldest daughter, Jennifer arrived seven weeks early and extremely ill from an infection, making Danny and I wonder if she’d live or die. So when we got her home, I was more cautious than most, greeting visitors to our home with a thermometer sleeved in plastic. I took medical histories of anyone who dared cough within ten feet of my baby and demanded hand washing from anyone who made a request to hold her. I watched Jennifer like a hawk, keeping a detailed record of her milestones, my nerves grated if she lagged behind for even a day.

Which was what we faced Christmas, 1986. At a little over two months, Jennifer hadn’t laughed, not even a giggle. The nurse in me knew that I was being ridiculous, that with her early birth, Jennifer should have been only a month old. But the mother in me didn’t understand that logic. Every one of my friends’s babies were laughing--was Jennifer missing her funny bone? So we did our best to get her giggling by putting twinkling lights all over the house, stacking mountains of presents under the tree. Her daddy even made up silly Christmas songs with funny faces and sang them to her, but Jennifer didn’t crack a smile. By Christmas Eve, Danny and I were ready to give up. Something was wrong with our baby, we just knew it.

That night, we went to our annual family Christmas get together. Danny and I had been tag-teaming through dinner since Jennifer’s arrival so my dad volunteered to hold her while we enjoyed our dessert. A small package was delivered to Daddy--the great aunts brought little gifts for the kids every year--who held it in front of Jennifer.

“You want me to open it for you, sweetheart?” Daddy asked, already tearing into the paper. A couple of tugs at the wrapping revealed a Raggedy Andy doll with his red-yarn hair and crooked smile. “Well, look at that, Jennifer. Isn’t he funny looking?”

Jennifer’s eyes widened, and for a moment or two, I thought she might cry. But then I heard it, this tiny bubble of laughter. Her lips spread out into a toothless grin at the sound, and she giggled again, this time louder until it filled the air around us. Our baby was laughing so we joined in.

That Christmas was the first of many Christmases with first Jennifer, then her younger sister, Carly, each one as unique as our daughters themselves. They’ve given us more joy than we could’ve imagined since that first Christmas as parents over twenty-seven years ago.

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Patty Smith Hall has been making up stories to keep herself occupied since her parents forced her on boring Sunday drives into the Georgia countryside when she was too young to stay home by herself. Now she's happy to share her wild imagination and love of history with others, including her husband of 29 years, Danny, two smart and gorgeous daughters, and a yorkie that she spoils like a grandbaby until someone decides to actually give her one. She resides in North Georgia. 

You can purchase her novel The Doctor's Bride [here]

For today's giveaway I'm excited to show off these amazing wooden ornaments! They are tiny and light, perfect for the top of a tree. Their intricate detail and special scenes/images are what I was first drawn to. Rules to enter the giveaway are explained below. Don't forget, there are 11 more items coming up in these next few weeks so check back often!

**Giveaway rules: To enter, comment on each the post (or posts) in the month of December that offer giveaway items you wish to win. One entry per person per giveaway item is permitted. All winners will be drawn in January (after the holiday craziness) and will be notified shortly thereafter.