Awards
MAY 25, 2018: “Pizza With Jesus (No Black Olives)” was named an Award Winning Finalist in the Religion: Christian Inspirational category of the 2018 International Book Awards. There were over 2,000 entries, which makes this quite an honor.
APRIL 25, 2018: “Pizza With Jesus (No Black Olives)” was named the winner of the 2018 Christian Indie Awards Christian Living category. The winning titles can be viewed at https://www.christianaward.com/2018winners/. The Christian Indie Awards is sponsored by Christian Small Publishers Association (CSPA). A total of 189 titles were nominated for the award categories.
MARCH 10, 2018: “Pizza With Jesus (No Black Olives)” made it to the shortlist for the Instructional & Insightful Non-Fiction Book Awards, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards.
Reviews
Chanticleer Book Reviews
“Hope, healing, and devotion amidst grief, disappointment and loss elevates this memoir into a comforting, compassionate spiritual journey.”
Kirkus Reviews
“A wrenching but ultimately heartwarming memoir of how one woman’s faith softened her grief.”
Amazon Reviews (all 5-Star)
November 20, 2018
by Judge, 26th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
Author writes with an excellent conversational tone, and we are drawn in at the start with the pursuit of Bootsie made all the more real through superb setting and sensory details (‘a starry, damp-cold October night.’) Author paced the pursuit well, and added dialogue to this scene masterfully. (‘Come on, buddy…’) I loved how the author engaged us with that scene, then brought the story full circle with the end-book mention of Bootsie, and the analogy of the dog’s fear turning to trust. Very well done. We are all like Bootsie at some point in our life, and it’s a terrific gift to use this story at the start of the book. Author writes settings very well, and excels at illustrating movement. Realism is achieved through the author’s great instinct to layer each scene with the sensory, movement, analogies, and reflection. Author uses Scripture very well, and I was pleased to see such a nice departure from often-used verses. Author has put great effort into populating this book with such refreshing inclusions. Some gorgeous phrasing in this book, such as ‘loss is as varied as a fingerprint,’ which I found to work well with the previous section on how there is no comparing one person’s grief to another. Very well done. Author’s use of placement and call-back to prior segments is stellar. Prayers enrich the book with another facet of usefulness, and they also serve to help us craft our own prayers when needed. Very well done. The prayer on page 111 is an especially good example of the kind of tone and feeling that may retool our prayer life. Beautiful insights throughout, and the reassuring image of God as a rescuer is most appreciated and resonant here. Very well done. Author is a true talent.
October 25, 2018
by J.E. Helm, The Sooner Catholic
News
Consumer Health Digest
11/1/17
Christian Post
11/21/2017
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11/21/17
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06/04/2018
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Pizza with Jesus (No Black Olives) 