The 12 Authors of Christmas – Sharon Hinck

Captain's Log, Stardate 12.21.2007

Continuing the 12 Authors of Christmas, here’s author Sharon Hinck!

View the tour, including Rachel Hauck and Tricia Goyer’s authors, here.

I have a bonus Wasabi giveaway! I’m giving away a copy of Sharon’s novel, The Restorer (The Sword of Lyric, book 1)!

Susan Mitchell needed a change--any kind of change. Nearly twenty years of marriage to her college sweetheart, Mark, had given her two teenagers and two grade-schoolers, along with miles of unmatched socks, sticky countertops, and the ever-growing hum of sheer bedlam. When had she become so . . . insignificant? Hadn't God once had a plan for her?

Well, at least Mark had a plan: for an attic hideaway free of iPods and science projects and cookie crumbs. But before Susan can finish her first journal entry, she finds herself pulled through a portal into a world grappling for its soul and waiting for a promised Restorer.

Someone does have a plan for her--one she never would have imagined.

While she struggles to adapt to a foreign culture full of unfamiliar technologies and taboos, she faces unexpected battles, mind-poisoning enemies, and a profound spiritual journey. Her adventure will forever change her family, her faith, and how she experiences love--from the One.

Blog book giveaway:

To enter to win today’s book, leave a comment on this blog post, answering the Wasabi Question at the end, giving your name, and saying you want to enter. International readers are welcome to enter!

Please leave a WORKING email address or website where I can contact you (please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail.com--or something like that to prevent spammers from trolling for your email address).

Please make sure your email address works—I’ve had several winners where my email to them bounced and I couldn’t get hold of them. It is the winner’s responsibility to check to see if you won and to email me if you haven’t yet heard from me.

You have TWO weeks to comment--I'll pick a name out of a hat on Friday, January 4th. (BTW, you can post a comment and NOT enter, too—just say so when you comment.)

About Sharon:

Sharon Hinck is the award-winning author of The Secret Life of Becky Miller, Renovating Becky Miller, The Restorer, and The Restorer's Son. She's currently considering cross-country skiing over to her publisher's office, because she heard a rumor that an early copy of her latest release, Symphony of Secrets has arrived there - but she doesn't have the car today. ARGH!

But talk about a thrilling Christmas gift!

She loves visitors, so stop by her website at www.sharonhinck.com, and be sure to check out the new book, as well as Restorer's Journey due out in February.

Tell us about your first Christmas memory.

I remember gathering around the Advent wreath, and eagerly waiting for when it was time to light "one more candle" and be that much closer to Christmas. Once my hubby and I had kids, we added a fun tradition. We have tiny boxes filled with small random items. When we have Advent devotions, the kids take turns opening a box and using the item to make up a brief parable or "object lesson" based the object.

What's a favorite Christmas tradition in your home?

Christmas preparations are scampering along in the Hinck household. One tradition we always do is a sharing gifts to Jesus - the gifts of our talents - on Christmas Eve. Everyone in the family prepares poems, songs, a piece to sing, a duet with a sibling on piano and flute, or a guitar number, or a dramatic reading of a short story. After church, dinner, and devotions around the Advent wreath on Christmas Eve, each person shares a song or other "gift" before opening EACH present. It's a wonderful long evening of music, savoring gifts slowly, being with each other.

When do you put up your tree? Describe the decorating at your house.

Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving - but this year my hubby was busy coordinating the project of the public television filming of Christmas at St. Olaf so he was gone all weekend - so we're a week late.

We have a couple boxes of tablecloths, banners, the treeskirt, and ornaments that my Granny made over the years - so that's very special (she went to heaven at the age of ninety-nine). We hang the stockings - they each have our names on them embroiders with sequins - and mine has a backwards letter N which I love, because Granny just thought it looked right backwards (she grew up in Russia).

What is your favorite Christmas song or album?

Winds Through the Olive Trees - a haunting melody and not a song that is overdone in jingly ways. I'd usually pick that one to sing as part of our "sharing gifts" on Christmas Eve.

Tell us about your Christmas setting--do you have a white Christmas?

Here in Minnesota we almost always have a white Christmas. This year there is a nice coating of snow, plus some mornings a diamond frost on all the tree branches.

Confession time. Shop on line or at the mall?

Shop? We're supposed to shop?
Tee hee!
I love to do homemade gifts - and focused on those for many years, although I confess in recent years I'm doing more and more shopping...and prefer online.

Christmas grows more and more commercial every year. Setting the hustle and bustle aside, what does Christmas really mean to you?

He came!
God with us.
From the creation, to the fall, to the history spread out across time – He is always seeking relationship with us. Relentless Love embodied Himself in a way we could understand - came to choke on the dust of August days, and shiver on December nights - came to bear the curse of sins - my sins – and conquer death forever. Knowing that love, makes me stop, like Mary, and "ponder all these things in my heart."

Have a blessed day!
Sharon Hinck

Camy here: Thanks for being here, Sharon!

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this Christmas series! I know I have. It’s fun to see how other people celebrate during the holiday season.

To enter to win this book, leave a comment with your answer to this Wasabi Question: What are your favorite Christmas traditions?