| |
|
|
In castles, this large room with bookshelves and long tables is where writing and study took place. Browse as long as you like. Here you will find: BOOKS | OTHER WRITINGS | PROJECTS UNDERWAY | SCHEDULE Inspirational
Nonfiction
Paperback Book 192 pages
Cultivate your "inner
garden" . . . and live more abundantly for God.
Readers have said:
Paperback Book 128 pages
**This book is now out of print and available only from Debbonnaire, for just $5 and shipping.** Relax . . . reflect . . . and rejoice! Draw closer to Jesus than you ever dreamed possible through devotional retreats--a method of meditating on scripture that will make the stories of the Bible spring to life in your own imagination. Author Debbonnaire Kovacs provides solid information about the purpose and joy of Christian meditation, and how it differs from the modern counterfeit. Along with the physical and mental benefits of Christian meditation, you can experience a greater awareness of God and His continual, loving presence in your daily life by using your five senses in the study of God's Word. From creation to the crossing of the Red Sea, from Calvary to the Second Coming, walk through the Bible with Devotional Retreats, and meet the One who loves you for all time and eternity. Readers have said:
Paperback: 96 pages **This book is out of print and no longer available, but will be re-released under a new title within the next year. Debbonnaire will still speak to your group on this topic, and may make manuscripts available to the audience for a small fee.** Writer Debbonnaire Kovacs shows you how to reword the commandments in positive language, so they will "take on a richness that fits your own life in a very personal way." In a light, conversational style, the author shares profound insights, Scriptural commentary, and special study guides to help you discover all 10 promises. You'll learn to look at the commandments in a whole new way. For personal or small group study, this positive approach to the Ten Commandments can revolutionize your Christian walk. For too many people, the Ten Commandments are just a list of DON'Ts. Things "thou shalt not" do. But what if . . . instead of impossible rules, the commandments were really a list of God's beautiful promises? Things the Lord is already doing in your heart and life, just because He loves you? Debbonnaire is available for campmeetings, workshops, conventions, churches, seminars and women's retreats. Her specialty is making Bible study and the devotional life real. Readers have said:
Elementary Bible Textbooks My largest and most humbling contracts have been to write Bible textbooks for use in elementary church schools. These were not planned with homeschoolers in mind, but they were written by a longtime homeschooler, so I tried to write them in a way that would be useful in that context. I know of a couple of homeschooling families that have used them with success. The complete series from first through eighth grade is available through the textbooks link on www.pacificpress.com. Here's a bit about the ones I wrote: Each one of the primary series may be used with all four primary grades. They have activity books of differing levels, and the stories are written to be equally useful for reading to younger students, or being read by older ones. They are so complete and intense that each one has two different teacher editions, one for the first semester, and one for the second. Each series goes through the entire Bible from Genesis to the Second Coming, but with a different theme. (Just so you know: Ninety percent of the material in the teacher's editions and student texts was written by me, but the worktexts were done by a committee which included my input, and there are also all kinds of bulletin board materials and other extras in which I had no hand.) Series I is called Belonging to His Family. This takes the student from the family of God in heaven (Trinity, angels) to the new family He created on earth, through the family of Abraham, all the way to the reunited family of God in heaven. For example, the emphasis in the story of the Exodus is that these are the children of Abraham, who have been promised a homeland, but the ten plagues are only sketched. The emphasis of Jesus' life is the heavenly family He left, the earthly family He joined, the disciples and early church who become His family, and miracles are only touched on in that light. Series II, Exploring His Power, begins again at Genesis, but emphasizes the power of God. So this time the power of each of the six days of Creation is described, as is the power of the miracles God did to get the Israelites out of Egypt, the power of Jesus' miracles, etc. Series III, Accepting His Plan, and IV, Following His Way, were written by RosAnne C. Tetz. I have been told that our styles match marvelously and the continuity of the series is seamless. I also wrote Series V, The Fruit of the Spirit, a set of lessons for grade five that are based on the fruits as listed in Galatians 5, and Series VI, Christ Our Life, a set of lessons for sixth grade on various godly qualities shown in Jesus' life, and how we can learn to let God reflect these qualities in our own lives. To order or learn more about these textbooks, go to: www.pacificpress.com Historical Fiction/Living History The first books I ever had published were what is known in the industry as "work for hire". In other words, I was hired by The Roscoe Village Foundation, the central Ohio living history village for which I worked at the time, to write them and and all proceeds go to the village. I didn't make much money, but had a great time writing both of these. You can obtain them by calling 800-877-1830 and asking for the John Dredge Bookstore. Learn more about Roscoe Village and its work at www.roscoevillage.com. Eliza
Johnson's Kitchen Book My boss said to me one
day, "I have a writing project for you." Naturally, I jumped
up and down with glee. Then she said it was a cookbook. I don't even like
cookbooks! So I figured out a way to make it more exciting, at least to
me. I was what is known as a first-person interpreter, playing the part
of Eliza Johnson, the wife of Roscoe's beloved nineteenth century physician,
Dr. Maro Johnson. I wrote the book as if it were Eliza's journal - even
writing out the entire first draft in long hand Spencerian script just
to put myself in the right mindset. Each month contains a couple of entries
intended to show what it might have been like to be a thinking woman in
the Roscoe of the 1830s, as well as genuine recipes from The Frugal Housewife
or other antique books we had at Roscoe. Being a Collection of Receipts for Cookery and Useful and Interesting Information Concerning Housewifery, Economy, the Duties of the Family, and Touching Somewhat on Religion and Politicks; along with Selected Portions from the 1842 Journal of a Young Housewife as Eliza might have written it Isn't that a great subtitle? Please note especially the "might have" in the last line. This is fiction! I have learned that some people, skipping the preface, have taken these writings to actually be those of Eliza Johnson. They're not. I made them up. Here's the preface, just so you won't make the same mistake: Eliza Johnson would probably laugh. My six-year-old daughter gazed around the 1830s kitchen where I portray the character of Eliza and asked solemnly, "Mommy, after you're dead will people pretend they are you?" I had to laugh, but her words struck me rather forcibly. Who, after all, was Eliza Johnson? Just a housewife. If she had not lived in Roscoe, if she had not married Roscoe's beloved Dr. Maro Johnson, if Roscoe had not been preserved for future generations, you and I would never have heard of her. As it is, we know much more about the rest of the family than of Eliza herself. No photograph or portrait survives, no description, no record of her daily life, feelings, or opinions. She even lies in an unmarked grave in Roscoe's cemetary. We do know one fact with absolute certainty -- she did not write this book! Her father's Bible states that Eliza was born April 12, 1819, married November 15, 1838, and died May 21, 1853. For the rest, I have tried to extrapolate as wisely as possible. For example, we know that Roscoe and Dr. Johnson were staunchly abolitionist, and that Eliza's grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. So I have assumed Eliza to be Presbyterian and abolitionist. We know Dr. Johnson's strong beliefs concerning education -- even of females -- and that Eliza's family were involved in local education. So it's safe to assume she was educated. As an only child, she may have been sent to the highly regarded Female Seminary in Steubenville. We have not been able to discover on which day in October Sarah, the daughter of Eliza and Maro, was born, so I chose at random. This book grew out of the need to follow up Roscoe's very popular Hearth Recipes with another cookbook. It is that, but also more -- the record of what it might have been like to be a thinking woman in Roscoe, Ohio, in 1842. I hope Eliza would laugh and forgive me. Debbonnaire Christopher (By the way, I did not choose exactly at random for Sarah's birthdate - I chose the birthday of my own daughter, whose words provided such a great lead-in for this preface!) I have received one piece of mail which I treasure concerning this little book written in five frantic weeks in the fall of 1991. In it a woman from New South Wales, Australia, told me that she had visited Roscoe Village and picked up my book. She loved the book so much she kept it on her bedside table to read as a devotional! This illustrates an exciting and important fact for a Christian writer. Writing for a public foundation, naturally I could not write anything particularly religious. What little creeps in is through the eyes of the Presbyterian Eliza as I imagined her. Yet I have always striven to make every word I write be to the glory of God, and I was amazed and honored that it came through in the Kitchen Book to that kind of extent, at least for one reader. The Day the Ohio Canal Turned Erie It was only supposed to be a field trip.... Matt and Jenny thought they were just taking a trip to Historice Roscoe Village. They certainly didn't expect to slip through a secret time warp and end up living and working with a canal boat family of 150 years ago! Will they make it back to the 20th century? Or are they trapped forever where today is yesterday and tomorrow may never come? Paperback: 28 pp This little work should more properly be termed a booklet. It was written for children, particularly for the thousands of school children who come through Roscoe Village on field trips. In it, two children on a field trip are taking the canal boat ride when they are magically transported back in time to spend the day with two children who live on a canal boat in the 1830s. At the end of the book are activities and discussion questions, as well as a short glossary of historic terms. I also illustrated this one, though the title page notice saying so was left out. Beside enjoying myself tremendously, I learned a very valuable lesson. I have heard many an author bemoan the fact that the illustrator "clearly didn't read the book!" I've even been guilty of the same complaint when an illustrator committed what I considered a faux pas in the artwork. Well, what was my excuse? I wrote the thing! And in it I said that Matt tied his ticket to his glasses frames. So why, pray tell, does Matt have no glasses in any of the pictures? Let that be a lesson to us all not to come down so hard on our fellow mortals! One of my minor goals in life is to bring back old-fashioned serial fiction. I've had three stories printed serially in my local newspaper; a Christmas story called "The Christmas Dollar," a short romance called "Forever Again," and a bit of Biblical fiction called "The Innkeeper's Story." No, it's not the innkeeper you're thinking of, it's an unsung hero of the Bible, in my opinion. I thought it would be fun if we have serial stories right here, for free, now and then. Email me if you want to know the imagination, the whole imagination, and nothing but the imagination of . . .the Real Truth Behind the Innkeeper's Story! I have written various articles and stories, both for adults and children, over the years. One of my most popular stories for adults is called The Power of a Parent's Prayer. It speaks to the issue of why, if God loves our children more than we ever could, we need to pray for them. In this story, we peek into the inner sanctum of God's throne room, center of the universe. This story has been printed in:
I have written a year's worth (52) of children's stories to go with certain Bible lessons. These were first published during 2004 in Primary Treasure, a Seventh-day Adventist take-home paper for children ages six through ten, and they will be released every 4th year thereafter for the foreseeable future. You can get more information at www.primarytreasure.com. Click on "This week's story" to read the story of the week. There is also subscription information if you know of a child who might like the magazine. Since I was a little girl and first started writing stories, I've loved a good love story. (My idea of what that is has changed somewhat during the intervening decades. . .) But my heart is still in inspirational fiction, so I'm now taking a deep breath, gathering up my courage, and trying to jump into full-length women's and romantic fiction. So far, I have two complete first drafts. If you were an editor or agent, would you jump on these? GAELA'S
GARDENS SEACLIFFE I have spoken at churches, state-wide church conferences, women's retreats, libraries and smaller gatherings. I learned through years of homeschooling, as well as through my public speaking, that people learn in different ways, and it is essential for speakers to be also show-ers and doers. So I've made the commitment that all my presentations will include, as far as I am able, audial, visual, and kinesthetic (touch, or doing) learning. I also find humor goes a long way toward making the mind hold onto what it's learned. You will see reference to some of these things in the testimonials below. To schedule me for your group, email me at debbonnaire@debbonnaire.com. Testimonials about speaking:
|
||||||
Content Copyright © Debbonnaire Kovacs
Gardens
of the Soul: Cultivating a Devotional Life with God
Devotional
Retreats: Biblical Meditation to open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit
God
Said "I Promise"