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Step Into The Light Podcast introduces listeners to people who have found their way out of the dark shadows of life and those who lead others on their journey from darkness.

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Available archived episodes currently are EP #230 – #272

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Meet seasoned authors, learn about new books and find inspiration to help you along your journey. No matter how far you’ve come or where you are going, I’d be honored to travel with you. If you like what you see, please subscribe to avoid missing updates.

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Latest Show

12/26/2024
Episode #272 - Featuring Antony Kolenc

Antony has won several book awards, is a columnist for Practical Homeschooling Magazine, and hosts The Shepherdâ€™s Pie radio show and podcast. A previous guest on Step Into the Light, Antony returns today to discuss the sixth book in his teen historical fiction Harwood Mysteries series titled The Devilâ€™s Ransom. Join us as Antony discusses The Harwood Mystery series, it's message for teens, and his plans for an innovative and intriguing adult series due to release next year.

Recent Shows

12/12/2024
Episode #271 - Featuring Pastor Joseph Misiaszek

11/28/2024
Episode #270 - Featuring TonyaAnn Pember

11/14/2024
Episode #269 - Featuring Gayle Irwin

11/4/2024
Episode #268 - Featuring Liisa Eyerly

Recent Posts

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS by CHARLENE AMSDEN
7/13/2026 11:45:00 PM BY Patti Shene

FEATURED BOOK: A Cedar Haven Christmas

AUTHOR: Charlene Amsden

PUBLISHER: self-published

GENRE: suspense

SERIES OR STAND ALONE: stand alone

TARGET AGE: 16+

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AUTHOR CHARLENE AMSDEN TO PATTI’S PORCH.CHARLENE TALKS ABOUT THE REAL MEANING OF CHRISTMAS THAT LIES BEYOND THE GLITTER AND GIFTS WE ASSOCIATE WITH THIS IMPORTANT HOLIDAY.

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS

Charlene Amsden

It is mid-July. I am knee-deep in Vacation Bible School, and somehow I’m here to talk to you about Christmas.

Fortunately, it’s one of those delightfully chilly Pacific Northwest days where the rain taps at the windows and a cup of coffee feels like a necessity instead of a luxury. If I squint a little, I can almost imagine December has arrived early.

As Christians, perhaps Christmas should never feel far away. Neither should Easter. The two are forever intertwined. Without Christmas, there would be no Easter. Without Easter, Christmas would be little more than the birthday of a remarkable man. Instead, Christmas marks the moment God stepped into our broken world.

I keep one Christmas decoration displayed all year long. It reminds me of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (KJV) Christmas isn’t about presents beneath a tree. It has always been about the greatest gift ever given. That truth became the heartbeat behind A Cedar Haven Christmas.

When I first imagined Georgie Ward, I knew she wasn't looking for romance. She was looking for safety. After years trapped in an abusive marriage, she wanted only one thing: to build a peaceful life for herself and her young son. Then Jackson Brenneman wandered into her life.

Jackson isn't flashy. He isn't trying to rescue anyone. He's simply a good man who quietly shows up, keeps his word, and chooses to stay. Sometimes that's exactly what healing looks like.

As I wrote Georgie's story, I discovered it was more personal than I'd expected. Many of my fans know I'm also a survivor of domestic violence. Although I've now spent twenty wonderful years married to a kind, gentle man who has shown me every day what love is supposed to look like, writing Georgie's journey meant revisiting memories I would much rather have left buried.

I found myself reliving pieces of my own story so I could write hers honestly. Then I had to do something equally important. I had to temper those memories. Violence isn’t the focus of A Cedar Haven Christmas. Pain may begin Georgie's story, but it doesn't define it. Grace does. Hope does. Love does.

Love is the real magic of Christmas. Not sparkling lights. Not cinnamon rolls. Not beautifully wrapped presents. Those things are wonderful, but they're only reflections of something far greater.

The miracle of Christmas is that God specializes in entering broken places. He doesn't wait for our lives to become neat and presentable. He comes into the middle of the mess and begins rebuilding from the inside out.

Sometimes that rebuilding looks miraculous. Sometimes it looks wonderfully ordinary. It looks like a frightened little boy discovering trustworthy men. It looks like friends who quietly show up with hammers and paintbrushes. It looks like forgiveness. It looks like laughter returning to a home where fear once lived. It looks like learning that dependable is far more romantic than dazzling.

And sometimes it looks like discovering that second chances aren't fairy tales after all.

If A Cedar Haven Christmas leaves readers with anything, I hope it's this: No matter what you've survived, your story isn't over. The God who came as a tiny baby in Bethlehem is still in the business of transforming lives. He still brings beauty from ashes. He still replaces fear with hope. And He still writes endings far better than we could ever imagine for ourselves.

That has always been the true magic of Christmas.

Blurb for A Cedar Haven Christmas

When waitress Georgie Ward finds a note on her shattered windshield that reads, You’re next, she knows her violent ex-husband has returned to Cedar Haven. The police can’t locate him, and anonymous calls keep coming. All Georgie wants is to protect her ten-year-old son and survive Christmas in one piece.

She doesn’t expect Jackson Brenneman, the quiet man in booth seven, to become her safest place.

Jackson came to town to oversee construction on a movie star’s mansion—not to get involved with the locals. But when Georgie’s past turns deadly, he steps in with steady hands, fierce protectiveness, and a faith he thought he’d lost.

Just when their fragile connection deepens, Hollywood glamour swoops in and Jackson’s old scars convince him Georgie deserves someone shinier.

But grace doesn’t replace broken things—it rebuilds them.

This Christmas, love, danger, and second chances will test them both… and lead them toward the family neither expected to find.

(A Cedar Haven Christmas is a stand-alone novel in the True North Brotherhood universe.)

Charlene Amsden is a Christian fiction author who writes suspenseful stories of faith, hope, and second chances. A former teacher and children’s ministry leader, she now calls a small island in the Pacific Northwest home—where her neighbors include orcas, bald eagles, and the occasional black fox. When she’s not writing, she’s serving her church, sipping coffee, or dreaming up her next page-turner.

WHEN GOD SAYS WAIT by SHARON WILHARM
7/2/2026 11:45:00 PM BY patti Shene

FEATURED BOOK: The Amazing Crab Alley Revival

AUTHOR: Sharon Wilharm

PUBLISHER: Elk Lake Publishing

GENRE: Southern Historical Fiction

SERIES OR STAND ALONE: Stand Alone

TARGET AGE: All

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AUTHOR SHARON WILHARM TO THE OVER FIFTY WRITER. SHARON TALKS ABOUT WHAT GOD HAS TAUGH HER THROUGH HER WRITING JOURNEY AND A LONG SEASON OF WAITING.

WHEN GOD SAYS WAIT

Sharon Wilharm

Next week, The Amazing Crab Alley Revival, my debut novel, releases to the world. The week after that, I turn sixty. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. You see, I’ve been writing for most of my life, with my ultimate goal being to write novels. But God had other plans. God wanted me to wait.

I wrote my first novel in the early 2000’s. Leastwise, I think I wrote a whole novel. It may have been just a partial story. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t full length. I know it had a lot of issues and wasn’t ready to submit anywhere. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to make it work.

So God, in His graciousness, redirected me down other paths. He had me homeschooling, creating curriculum, writing and directing movies with my filmmaker husband.

Time passed.

I made a few more attempts to write a novel. None of them got past the initial planning or research. Each time I’d get to a certain point, God would gently make it clear that it wasn’t time yet.

I wasn’t ready.

My daughter graduated, got married, moved away. We released our last movie. I began writing in earnest—learning the craft—but none of my efforts ended up going anywhere.

Covid hit.

I started a podcast. Which turned into a radio show. I wrote a Bible study. I concentrated all my efforts on writing and speaking about women in the Bible.

Then, after I’d given up on my dream of being a novelist, God finally gave me the green-light. The book I’d started in 2018 came together, got accepted by the publisher who’d published my Bible study, and now it’s finally releasing to the world.

The response so far from reviewers and early readers has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s been very much worth the wait.

The Amazing Crab Alley Revival is a story about an older woman who’s gone through the motions all her life and feels there’s got to be more. She longs to do something great for the Lord but worries it’s too late. Hers is a story of encouragement for anyone in a season of waiting.

If you’re feeling tired and weary today, wondering if you’ve passed your age of usefulness, please know that the best things in life are worth the wait. Look at all the waiting women in the Bible had to go through—Sarah waiting for her promised child, the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years until God finally led them into the Promised Land, Hannah praying for a son, Anna waiting for the Christ, the bleeding woman waiting for healing …

The list goes on. If you’re a woman in waiting, you’re in good company. If you’re a woman feeling past your prime, you’re not alone.

As long as we’re here on earth, God has work for us. We need to be serving Him however we can up until the day He leads us to our new home in Heaven.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jeremiah 29:11(NKJV).

Blurb for The Amazing Crab Alley Revival

In 1897 Florida, a widowed woman searching for purpose finds herself drawn into an unexpected friendship—and a revival that will transform an entire town.

Wealthy widow Lydia Culpepper is evaluating her mundane existence. For sixty-three years, she’s faithfully gone through the motions of fulfilling everyone else’s expectations for her life, but nothing she does is ever enough. She longs for something more.

When a young boy comes to her house in search of his missing coon dog, she gets her wish. She meets Emily Reed, a young finishing school instructor, and Opal Jackson, an Irish single mother, and the three women join together on a mission that turns the First Baptist Church on its head.

Suddenly, the town is in an uproar as lives are being changed. When Yellow Fever hits, it looks like their efforts may have been in vain, but the epidemic isn’t enough to thwart the fruits of the Crab Alley Revival.

Sharon Wilharm is an author, speaker, Bible teacher, podcaster, radio host, and former filmmaker. The common thread of all her activities is women and storytelling. She loves to tell stories that inspire and encourage women in their walk with the Lord.

Sharon is the author of Women of Prayer, a 10-week Bible study about praying women in the Bible, and The Amazing Crab Alley Revival, a Southern historical retelling of Lydia in the Bible. She’s also the host of All God’s Women podcast and syndicated radio show heard daily on Moody Radio Network and Faith Radio Network.

Learn more about Sharon at SharonWilharm.com.

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SHARING THE HOPE OF JESUS by GAIL PALLOTTA
6/22/2026 11:45:00 PM BY Patti Shene

FEATURED BOOK: Dangerous Shadows

AUTHOR: Gail Pallotta

PUBLISHER: Winged Publications

GENRE: Christian Romantic Suspense

SERIES OR STAND ALONE: Book 3 in the Discipleship Series

TARGET AGE: Adult

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AUTHOR GAIL PALLOTTA TO PATTI’S PORCH. GAIL TALKS ABOUT WHERE AND HOW WE CAN FIND HOPE.

SHARING THE HOPE OF JESUS

Gail Pallotta

Hope lifts our spirits. It’s the spark that ignites our dreams. It’s the tiny flame that still flickers inside us when all else is gone. When it compels us to reach beyond ourselves for something more and we find it, hope becomes reality.

For Christians, Christ is our hope, our reality. Sometimes we feel His presence. On occasion He speaks to us through others. Because He lives in all of us who accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we can hear and see His Gospel of love in our world when we witness an amazing act of faith, grace or kindness.

In the Bible Jesus instructs his apostles to “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Today, we are his disciples.

While we all aren’t ordained ministers or priests, when we bring the hope, love or peace of Jesus to someone by something we say or do, we’re doing what Jesus asks of us. Sometimes it’s difficult to recognize when we should tell others about Jesus. We’re hesitant because we want to say the words to bring love, peace and hope, not antagonize someone or make them angry because we’re busy bodies. An incident someone relayed to me comes to mind. A young woman saw another young woman crying in the doctor’s office and offered her a tissue.

The weeping person said, “Thank you for caring.”

If we were in such a situation, we could say we do care and mention how Jesus cares for all of us, then follow the lead of the person we’re speaking to. The little deeds that speak of Jesus’ Gospel are especially meaningful in these times. The need for them was my inspiration for writing the Discipleship series. Dangerous Shadows is Book 3.

Book Cover Blurb for Dangerous Shadows:

Shaken from an assault in the library parking lot at Hilltop College in Western North Carolina, crime reporter Emily Hanover contacts her ex-fiancé, private investigator Nick Lancaster. When the college hires Nick to recover quartz and ancient maps stolen from the library, Nick insists there’s a connection between the theft and Emily’s attack. As Nick and Emily face danger from an elusive stalker, their romance rekindles. Nick’s sidekick, Hucklesford, spots two suspects, so he and Nick go undercover. While Nick’s surveillance points to illegal gambling and murder, Hucklesford’s investigation leads him to the college cross-country team.

Can Nick and Hucklesford, along with Emily, connect the stalker, theft, college student, and gambler’s murder to solve this baffling mystery?

Will Nick and Emily find true love?

Buy link

Gail Pallotta is a wife, Mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. A 2013 Grace Awards finalist, she’s a Reader’s Favorite 2017 Book Award winner and a TopShelf 2020 Book Awards Finalist. She’s published nine books, short stories and several hundred articles. Some of her articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums. She loves to connect with readers and is excited about the new foreign language copies of the Discipleship Series for U.S readers, available on her Amazon page.

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