My inspirational romance, MARRYING MALLORY,is on sale on Christianbook. com for $3.99. Click here to buy. It was voted BOOK OF THE WEEK for the LASR WEEKLY POLL!

BLURB:
Is Mallory Harrington jinxed because her name means luckless? Things have gone wrong for Mallory since she was a small child. All she ever wanted was to have a complete family and live happily ever after. It appears she has it all when she marries Toby Harrington and they have a son. Unfortunately, their marriage ends when Toby has an affair with his law partner. After their divorce, Mallory feels guilt that she couldn’t forgive Toby for his affair. As a Christian, she should be able to forgive him for his sin.

Mallory decides to do something for herself, and get a surgical procedure that she’s always wanted. What she doesn’t expect is her instant attraction to her surgeon.

Sometimes faith is about accepting what can’t be changed and grabbing what God offers her. Life must go on.

SNIPPET FROM LASR REVIEW:
In his book, `Writing the Breakout Novel’, Donald Maas states, “God works in little ways as well as big ones, so look for small moments of magic as well as big ones.” He then asks, “Have you ever felt that something that happened to you was fated?”

Well in Diane Craver’s book, Marrying Mallory, that is the precept she has used. Link for the whole LASR REVIEW!

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Our son Bartholomew is now a Daddy!

Bartholomew, Lea and Dillon

Dillon Anthony was born last night and weighed 7 pounds and 8 ounces. His skin color looked great and Apgar score a 9 or 10. He was alert and so very sweet. I was there when Dillon made his big entry into the world. Mom Lea did an awesome job. Nurse Emily said to my daughter-in-law, “You’re a rock star. I never saw a first time mother do so well in delivery.” I’m very happy that the delivery went so well. Today my husband and Dillon’s new aunts went to the hospital to see the new parents with their little newborn. Of course, I went too.

So Amanda’s birthday will be followed each year by Dillon’s. January 2012 is starting off to being an awesome year with the birth of our first grandchild! We are so BLESSED and THANKFUL to GOD for Dillon!

Grandma or Nana (not sure which I prefer) with precious Dillon!

Grandpa Craver and Dillon

It’s so nice when a writer receives confirmation for their hard work in the way of a review, personal email, or verbally in person! It’s wonderful, too, when the comments are from other published authors. When I know another author is reading one of my books, I’m nervous because I know how it is when you read other people’s words. You can’t always turn off your editing mode while reading.

This week Markee Anderson and Linda Swift both read A CHRISTMAS GIFT. They loved it - whew! But now I’m not in an upbeat mood. I’ll share a few comments from both authors to see if that helps.

From Sue: “Great job!!! This is definitely your genre to write in…because you know how to bring the characters to life! FANTASTIC! It reminded me of Garrison Keeler’s stuff, or A Christmas Story (the movie) but deeper. You’re a great story teller!

Linda wrote, “Diane, I read A Christmas Gift last night. It is a wonderful, heartwarming story.

I haven’t written anything since I finished my Amish romance. Hopefully, I’ll get back to writing next week. I’m working on writing expenses for taxes now - not my favorite thing. I need to go shopping for Amanda’s b-day gift. Our baby will be 22 on Sunday!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The talented writer, Markee Anderson, gave me this wonderful award. Thank you, Markee! Please visit her website - she has tons of great books for the low price of 99 cents for each romance! I’ve read her stories and they are wonderful reads!

I was asked to tell seven things about myself:

1. I seem to stay at the same weight, even though I try to include exercise and watch what I eat. Okay, not always but sometimes. The only time I saw a significant drop in pounds was when I went on the Atkins Diet and lost 15 pounds in two weeks. One problem is I am not a big meat eater so Atkins is a hard diet for me, but it’s good way to jump start your weight loss.

2. I make more money from my part-time job scoring students’ tests than I do from my book royalties. I hope to change this fact in 2012. Wish me luck!

3. I’m told I talk too much but of course, that is not true. Maybe this is why I like to write dialogue the most in my books.

4. I have a hard time making decisions when I shop, which means many times I don’t buy anything. This makes my hubby happy!

5. When my husband makes a suggestion about anything, I need to think about it. My first response is that it will never be for us, but later I realize it might be a good thing to do. A recent suggestion was that we should live in Florida during the winter months. Our kids all live in the Cincinnati area plus our first grandchild is due this month so we didn’t want to do it this winter. But right now I’m thinking next year might be nice to try it for a month or two.

6. I didn’t have to dye my hair until I was 60. I started noticing more gray hairs and didn’t want any gray to show up in the wedding pictures when my son got married in November, 2009. Okay, I know you’re doing some figuring - yes, I’m 62 now - isn’t the sixties really the new fifties now.

7. My husband and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary last summer by going on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas. It was wonderful and the first cruise we took together!

I’m passing this award on to five more blogs that are fun and definitely hosted by versatile people:

1. Celia Yeary’s Blog - Romance…and a little bit of Texas
2. Romance Under The Moonlight hosted by Stephanie Burkhart
3. The Smiling Pains of Novelist Destiny Booze
4. Suspense by Anne hosted by Anne Patrick
5. Regina Andrews’s Blog