Special Holiday Feature: Christmas Cousins by Joy DeKok

SPECIAL HOLIDAY FEATURE

"Christmas Cousins" by Joy DeKok, author of Rain Dance

I got a small doll with a high chair and other extras. My brother got a car race track. As much as we enjoyed the presents, it was the cousins that mattered most.


We were gathered at Dorothy and Lee’s house where they lived with their three boys. My cousin Sheila was there and so was our Grandma. My uncle and dad enjoyed the race track and played with it more than the boys. My brother was a cowboy that year and our cousin Scott an army guy. Sheila and I were pretend mommies and best friends.
We were allowed to stay up late and while that sounded good, I tend to get a little on the goofy side when over tired. I was nearing exhaustion, but nowhere near ready to give up unless required to do so.

As adults do when watching the kids they love, the noticed how we’d grown – we were like stair steps– Randy the oldest to Scott the youngest. Tallest to shortest.
Lining us up for a picture was a bit of a challenge. We were all agreeable and obedient, but one of us had a problem. Me. I could not stop laughing and nothing funny had happened. I was alive and happy and tired and out of control.

For a moment driven by the need to take a deep breath (and after a stern parental look) I’d been able to stop giggling. Then, it happened. I heard Randy laugh. Then Steve. Then Sheila. Well, then it was my turn again and I was worse off than before – I now had back up!

We enjoyed our family, our gifts, and the yummy food, but the best part was the line-up of laughing cousins.



Joy DeKok and her husband, Jon, live in Minnesota on thirty-five acres of woods and fields. Joy has been writing most of her life and as a popular speaker shares her heart and passion for God with women. In addition to writing novels, she has also published a devotional and several children’s books.

Visit Joy online at: www.joydekok.com, www.raindancebook.com, www.believe4kids.com and www.gettingitwrite.net.

Winners of October Book Giveaways

I would like to congratulate the winners of our October giveaways:

- tetewa won a copy of Rain Dance by DeKok

- AmandaSue will receive a copy of My Son, John by Kathi Macias

- And a copy of Stewards of the Flame by Sylvia Engdahl will be going out to Nancye

All winners have been notified by email, so we are ready to start with the November giveaways. I'll be posting about our first one shortly.

Congratulations again to all our winners and thanks to all who participated in our October giveaways. We appreciate your readership and your support. Don't forget, the books we offered as giveaways can be ordered either at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com or directly at the publishers' websites.

All October giveaways were clients of Pump Up Your Book Promotion, an online public relations firm specializing in virtual book tours. To book your tour or to become a tour host, please visit our website at http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/.

Rain Dance by Joy DeKok -- Book Giveaway!

You've read the review. You've read Joy DeKok's article titled "The Friendship Factor". Now you can enter to win your own copy of Rain Dance by Joy DeKok.


Jonica is infertile. Stacie chooses an abortion. One is prolife the other prochoice. Both are suddenly alone in misunderstanding, facing hypocrisies in their belief systems, and grieving – one the death of a dream and the other the death of her child. As their hearts break where in the world will they find healing and grace? Can shattered dreams be part of the plan?

Joy DeKok and her husband, Jon, live in Minnesota on thirty-five acres of woods and fields. Joy has been writing most of her life and as a popular speaker shares her heart and passion for God with women. In addition to writing novels, she has also published a devotional and several children’s books.

Visit Joy online at: http://www.joydekok.com/, http://www.raindancebook.com/, http://www.believe4kids.com/ and http://www.gettingitwrite.net/.


Here's how to enter:


1) Comment here with your working email address so that we can contact you if you win.

2) Get one additional entry for blogging about this contest. Leave a comment here telling us where you blogged about it.

3) Get two additional entries for tweeting about this contest. Don't forget to let us know here that you tweeted!

This giveaway will run from today until 11:59 p.m.(Eastern) on October 31st. A winner will be announced in early November.

This contest is open to all residents of the United States and Canada.

Rain Dance by Joy DeKok -- Book Review

A touching story of unexpected friendship comes to life in Rain Dance by Joy DeKok.

Jonica and her husband Ben decide to stop fertility treatments. While at the doctor's office for her final visit, Jonica meets Stacie, a young woman with a promising law career looking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. While their meeting is brief, the moments they share will change both their lives forever.

Both dealing with loss, Stacie and Jonica reach out to each other and forge an unusual friendship that could transform them, and their future.

Writing from her own experiences, DeKok puts together this engaging story of two women whose loss draws them together. As Jonica deals with giving up her dream of having children, Stacie mourns the baby whose life was abruptly ended by a procedure whose emotional repercussions she had never given thought to. Rather than using her faith to preach about the horrors of abortion, the author paints a realistic picture of what many post-abortive women experience. Rain Dance isn't about conversion, it's about healing; and that's where its power lies.

The other thing DeKok handled very well is Stacie's husband's reaction to finding out about the abortion. In a society that often instructs that it is the "woman's" right to choose, this novel provides insight into how being left out of such an important decision can impact a man.

Rain Dance is also about the difficulty in being judged by those who can't understand the pain of infertility. How is it that even people in her church suddenly doubt Jonica'a ability to nurture children solely because she'll never have a child of her own?

Whether you're a Jonica or a Stacie, or know one, this is a powerful, touching, and captivating story of an uncommon friendship, and how one woman uses her faith to deal with the loss of her dream and find a way to use that loss to glorify and honor God.


Title: Rain Dance
Author: Joy DeKok
Publisher: Sheaf House
ISBN: 9678-0-979485-9-2
SRP: $12.99 (U.S.)

The Friendship Factor by Joy DeKok

Today's guest blogger is Joy DeKok, author of the contemporary women's fiction novel, Rain Dance.

Jonica is infertile. Stacie chooses an abortion. One is prolife the other prochoice. Both are suddenly alone in misunderstanding, facing hypocrisies in their belief systems, and grieving – one the death of a dream and the other the death of her child. As their hearts break where in the world will they find healing and grace? Can shattered dreams be part of the plan?

The Friendship Factor by Joy DeKok

Writing an issue based book is difficult when the writer is able to keep her distance. When the author and her friends are intimately involved, it’s painful. It also labels the author as a rule breaker. Author intrusion is not encouraged.

When I started to write Rain Dance my main concern was how the character who is most like me would come across to readers. When I tried to make Jonica more heroic, she annoyed me so I had to let her be herself. Her struggles mirrored mine and so I walked through the hurt again.

Then came Stacie. She startled me with her beauty, determination, and pain. While she is not modeled after one of my friends, she is a combination of several. Her pain is also theirs.

Writers are often asked what they’re working on. When I’m with people who are genuinely interested, I’ll tell them. I have a short description ready. During the writing of Rain Dance I’d answer, “A novel about two women. One is infertile and the other chooses an abortion. They’re both grieving.” Every time I said these words at least one friend in hearing distance would contact me later to tell me they knew Stacie’s story intimately. Friends. Women I knew well who kept this choice in their lives a secret shrouded in shame.

Sitting in my living room I told an especially close friend about my current writing project. That evening I was on a bit of a high – the characters were coming together and I felt like the story had a life of its own – I was simply the messenger. I was on a bit of a verbal roll when she quietly said, “I had an abortion a long time ago.” Who knew a writer’s passion would make it safe? Not me. I listened as she told me her story.

And, it continued through the whole writing process – everywhere I went women opened their hearts to me. I watched in wonder as they spoke. Although regret lingered, they shed the chrysalis of their shame as they released their story into my life.

These brave and generous friends became the heart beat of the book and then they did more. They encouraged me when I was ready to give up. They cheered when I wrote over a hump or through a slump. They listened to my pain as I shared Jonica’s and prayed for me as I did my best to represent theirs to our future readers. Ours. Theirs and mine.

Along the way, I discovered the simple truth: while our experiences and choices were vastly different, our pain was surprisingly similar. We had more in common than our gender and faith. We were sisters in sorrow.

A reader who is neither a Jonica or a Stacie recently wrote, “Rain Dance is so real I felt like I was reading a biography of two women.”

I grinned realizing that while I’d broken one writing rule (I fully intruded), I obeyed perhaps the most common one taught: Write what you know. I could only do that when I was able to factor in my friend’s stories. If Rain Dance is a success, it is ours to share – mine and theirs.



Joy DeKok and her husband, Jon, live in Minnesota on thirty-five acres of woods and fields. Joy has been writing most of her life and as a popular speaker shares her heart and passion for God with women. In addition to writing novels, she has also published a devotional and several children’s books.

Visit Joy online at: http://www.joydekok.com/, http://www.raindancebook.com/, http://www.believe4kids.com/ and http://www.gettingitwrite.net/.

To see where Joy stops next on her virtual book tour, please visit http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/.

Rain Dance Virtual Book Tour October 2009

Author Joy DeKok travels the blogosphere in October 2009 on her first virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion Public Relations to discuss her contemporary novel, Rain Dance.

Jonica is infertile. Stacie chooses an abortion. One is prolife the other prochoice. Both are suddenly alone in misunderstanding, facing hypocrisies in their belief systems, and grieving – one the death of a dream and the other the death of her child. As their hearts break where in the world will they find healing and grace? Can shattered dreams be part of the plan?

Praise for Rain Dance:

“This book is a must read for all women. Although it is a fictional story the author has brilliantly captured the many issues that women struggle with and offers hope that can only be found in Jesus. She also shows how looking beyond our own circumstances can bring blessings into our lives and the lives of others. I’ve ministered to broken women for over twenty years and I’m thankful for resources like ‘Rain Dance’ that will reach women who are hurting and give them hope.” -- Sue Liljenberg, International Director, Healing Hearts Ministries International


Joy DeKok and her husband, Jon, live in Minnesota on thirty-five acres of woods and fields. Joy has been writing most of her life and as a popular speaker shares her heart and passion for God with women. In addition to writing novels, she has also published a devotional and several children’s books.

Visit Joy online at: www.joydekok.com, www.raindancebook.com, www.believe4kids.com and www.gettingitwrite.net.

If you would like to follow Joy on her virtual book tour, visit the official Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tour site at http://virtualbooktours.wordpress.com/.

Joy’s virtual book tour is brought to you by Pump Up Your Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours, a virtual book tour agency for authors who want quality service for an affordable price. More information can be found on their website at http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com. Sign up for our 12 Days of Christmas Tour Special! Deadline to register is October 30, 2009.