Guest Post by author of Bethlehem's Baby, Book 6 of the Five-Minute Bible Story Series by Sheila Deeth

Meet the Emperor Augustus’s advisors, the quiet research student helping wise men study stars, the shepherd whose granddad keeps complaining, an Egyptian fisherboy, a Roman soldier, and more in this set of 40 5-minute read-aloud stories based around the events of the Christ Child’s birth in Bethlehem.

With the introduction of Bethlehem's Baby, Biblical author, Sheila Deeth, turns her prodigious writing talents to familiar tales from the New Testament. This Sixth Volume in the ever-popular Five Minute Bible Story Series looks the characters and events leading up to and immediately following the birth of the Christ Child...from Caesar Augustus and Herod to John the Baptist, Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and many more.

This series of 40 linked short stories is aimed at the Middle Grade Reader. Each one is chock full of insights, information, and her trademarked quirky humor, making them a joy for youngsters. Each story contain Biblical references and ends with a prayer, making them work equally well for younger children at bedtime or naptime. Like all books in the Five-Minute Bible Stories Series they'll have your children begging for “just one more.” Contain Author’s Notes.

Guest Post from the author, Sheila Deeth

“Tell me a story Mum,” said my little son. So I told him about monsters and dragons, and magical fairies, and clever little boys who always win. It wasn’t good enough though. To be a real story, small son insisted, it had to be written down. So I wrote about a boy and his cat, and drew pictures of their many adventures in a handsome glossy blue notebook. The paper was rich and creamy, smooth and soft to the touch. The pages had nicely sculpted edges. And small son learned to tell me the stories before he could read the words.

One day he took the book to school for show and tell, and lost it.

Meanwhile second son came along and didn’t really care for bedtime fiction. He didn’t talk much when he was small, but he cried plenty if I was foolish enough to try to tiptoe out the bedroom door, or if I made the slightest noise while staying by his side until he fell asleep.

And then came number three.

Somewhere in there I got too frantically busy to write, and too tired to tell consistent stories to my kids. I would start to read then feel a small hand urgently waking me up with “Mum, that’s not what it says.” I’d tell stories over board games instead, creating fictions from the pieces and cards, while smallest son made castles in the air.

That littlest son is the one who figured out computers are for writing on, so he scrawled all over the screen. Meanwhile I finally started scrawling again, or at least typing. I even sent my stories to a publisher, who rejected them. And the kids grew up.

Oldest son, once so very small, now towers over me. He talks about how things will be when his kids reach twenty, and I take comfort in the thought that maybe that means I’ll be a grandma one day. Not that any of those sons are making promises, to me or anyone else. But at least their growing up has given me time, at last, to write. I type my tales of boys and cats, of Bethlehem and babies, of Christmas trees and fairies, and dragons and monsters too, all into the computer. I compile them into books and rejoice in the fact that at last a publisher said yes!

Of course, the books, written on computers instead of paper, offer only plastic keys instead of creamy textures beneath my fingers. They’re published to be read on computers too, and I wonder if that long-ago son would have believed a story was real if I’d shown him the words on a back-lit screen.

Still, maybe I’ll fall asleep reading Bethlehem’s Baby to my grandchildren one day and a small hand will wake me with, “Grandma, that’s not what it says.”

About the author:

Sheila Deeth is an English American, Catholic Protestant, mathematician writer, mother of three, grandmother of none, likes children and animals, loves words, and prefers paperbacks to ebooks.

You can purchase Bethlehem's Baby at....
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com

More of the Five-Minute Bible StoryTM Series on the publisher’s website: http://capearagopress.com/Five-Minute.html

Connect with Sheila at...
Sheila Deeth: http://about.me/SheilaDeeth
Blog: http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheila.deeth
Fan page: https://www.facebook.com/SheilaDeethAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sheiladeeth
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2853735.Sheila_Deeth

Sharon x

   
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