The Authorized Version

I know, we haven't had Thanksgiving yet. But Halloween is over, although our neighbor's ghost is still blowing in the tree outside my window along with all the lovely autumn leaves. Still, it really is time to start thinking about your Christmas shopping— there's nothing worse than leaving that until the last minute.

So I've invited my friend Kathi Macias to help us out with a suggestion for the booklovers on your gift list. Kathi, tell us about your latest, A CHRISTMAS JOURNEY HOME.

Thank you, Donna. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to tell your readers about my first-ever Christmas novel. I've always thought it would be fun to write one, and now I've actually done it. In addition, I've contracted for another one for next Christmas and have plans to make this an annual event.

A Christmas Journey Home, however, is not your usual Christmas fair, in that it's woven around a rather heavy and even controversial topic: the illegal immigration issue. Yet it is told in the context of a "miracle in a manger." Here is the summary of the story:

During Isabella Alcantara's seventh month of pregnancy, her parents and siblings are murdered in gang- and drug-related violence, simply because their home in Ensenada, Mexico, was targeted by mistake. Isabella knows she was spared only because she now lives in a different location, but she knows too that the same thing could easily happen to her and her husband, Francisco. When her grandfather offers to hire a "coyote" to bring them across the border to America, she agrees. But Francisco and Isabella are abandoned by the coyote and left to die. Francisco then valiantly sacrifices himself to get Isabella to safety. Homeless, nearly penniless, pregnant, and alone, Isabella determines to find a way to honor her promise to her beloved husband.

Living on one of the smaller spreads along the Arizona border, Miriam Nelson becomes furious with God and turns from her faith when her border patrol agent husband, David, is killed in a skirmish with drug smugglers. Though her mother and young son do their best to woo her back from the anger and bitterness that have overtaken her, they make little headway.

Two widows-one driven by fear and a promise, the other by bitterness and revenge-must make their journeys along different pathways, but with the same destination: a barn full of animals that stands waiting for them on Christmas Eve. Forced to face their personal demons, Isabella and Miriam soon discover a common yearning that will bind them together in a most miraculous way.

In addition, here are just a few of the things people are saying about this unique Christmas story:

"In A Christmas Journey Home, Macias melds a poignant Nativity story with life's gritty reality to portray Christ's hope even in the most desperate situations. A must for your Christmas list!" -Patti Lacy, author of The Rhythm of Secrets, What the Bayou Saw, and Reclaiming Lily

"Suspenseful and bittersweet, with A Christmas Journey Home Kathi Macias has given us a new kind of Christmas story taken straight from the headlines, a poignant and compelling reminder that it took a baby in a manger to show us how to truly love our neighbors as we love ourselves." -Athol Dickson, Christy and Audie Award-winning author of Lost Mission and The Opposite of Art

"Kathi Macias has earned a reputation for crafting stories that feature believable characters who face true-to-life situations, and she does it again in A Christmas Journey Home. Readers will quickly identify with Isabella and Miriam-very different women, forever changed by heartache and loss-and find themselves forever changed by Macias's powerful, spirit-charged story. Definitely a keeper!" -Loree Lough, award-winning author of 80 books, including Ashes to Honor

"Kathi Macias has written a stirring story of sacrifice, loss, and grace, found in her beautiful new novel A Christmas Journey Home. Miriam and Isabella, women as different from one another as night and day, separately and together discover the true meaning of Christ's birth through a shared experience of love given and received." -Karen O'Connor, award-winning author of 70 published books, including The Upside of Downsizing

To watch the video for A Christmas Journey Home go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeI-m0X2Osw, or to order a copy go to http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Journey-Home-Miracle-Understanding/dp/1596693282/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319490854&sr=1-5. Or if you'd just like to learn more about me or my books, I'd love to have you stop by www.kathimacias.com. If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me by clicking on the "contact" tab on the top right-hand side of the homepage.

Thanks so much for spending a few minutes learning about my first "Christmas baby," A Christmas Journey Home. I truly look forward to hearing from you!