Love Blooms in Winter by Lori Copeland

MY REVIEW
 
I have always enjoyed books written by Lori Copeland. She's been writing for a long time and she never fails with a good premise, good story line, and good character development. This is another winner.

Mae has been cooking for her man for six years every week, but he can't seem to come around to ask the all important question. She keeps hoping. Then there is her very sweet neighbor Pauline who is suffering from old age dementia. She can't take care of her, and her job, and her brother, too, so she finds the name of Tom Curtis in Pauline's desk and writes to him thinking he is her nephew.

Tom can't remember anything about an Aunt Pauline, but since he had no family to ask, she just might be his aunt. In response to Mae's desperate appeals, and since he worked for the railroad, he decided to pay a visit to this end-of-the-line town in North Dakota.

Thus, a tangle of romance and treachery begins. The ending isn't surprising, but is very satisfying, especially when God's providence is glorified rather than man's enterprise. The storyline is uncomplicated, and so it's a fast read for a Sunday afternoon. No nail-biting, but plenty of succinct description that gives you the exact flavor of the countryside and of the town, but not over powering so that you have to skip paragraphs or pages to get back to the story.

All in all, I give it 4 of 5 stars.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Love Blooms in Winter Harvest House Publishers (January 1, 2012) by Lori Copeland

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lori lives in the beautiful Ozarks with her husband Lance. Lance and Lori have three sons, three daughter-in-laws, and six wonderful grandchildren, and two great-granddaughters. Lance and Lori are very involved in their church, and active in supporting mission work in Mali, West Africa.

Lori began her writing career in 1982, writing for the secular book market. In 1995, after many years of writing, Lori sensed that God was calling her to use her gift of writing to honor Him. It was at that time that Lori began writing for the Christian book market. To date, she has had over 100 books published.



ABOUT THE BOOK

A romantic new book from bestselling author Lori Copeland that portrays God’s miraculous provision even when none seems possible.

1892—Mae Wilkey’s sweet next-door neighbor, Pauline, is suffering from old age and dementia and desperately needs family to come help her. But Pauline can’t recall having kin remaining. Mae searches through her desk and finds a name—Tom Curtis, who may just be the answer to their prayers.

Tom can’t remember an old aunt named Pauline, but if she thinks he’s a long-lost nephew, he very well may be. After two desperate letters from Mae, he decides to pay a visit. An engagement, a runaway train, and a town of quirky, loveable people make for more of an adventure than Tom is expecting. But it is amazing what can bloom in winter when God is in charge of things.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Love Blooms in Winter, go HERE.

Marketing: 10, 100, and 1000 Dollar Work by Randy Ingermanson

(From Randy's Ezine)

So you've got a book coming out and the marketing director at your publisher calls you up, very excited about your book.

You're excited too, until she tells you all the things she wants you to do to promote your book.

Put up a web site. Create a blog. Make a Facebook fan page and hang out there. Get active on Google Plus. Starting tweeting. Build an e-mail list. Get on Goodreads. Print bookmarks. Speak at libraries. Do book-signings. Run a contest and give away a new Kindle.

And on and on.

About now, you're probably wondering when you're supposed to find the time to do all this stuff when you have a day job AND you're trying to write your next book.

The first thing to remember is that when a marketing director gives you a laundry list like this, she
probably knows very well that it's really just a menu.

You don't go to a restaurant and order everything on the menu. You order a couple of dishes and leave the rest for next time.

By the same token, you're going to choose one or two things on your marketing director's menu to focus on. The rest, you're going to do badly or not at all.

She'll probably be very pleased if you execute even one of these really well.

She'll probably be very displeased if you make a half-hearted stab at every single suggestion and end up doing all of them badly.


How do you decide what to do and what to leave undone?

Many authors seem completely unable to answer this question. So they do whatever their instincts tell them, or they do what a friend told them to do, or they do nothing at all.

I learned a simple principle from my friend, marketing guru Perry Marshall. Perry likes to divide up all the work you COULD be doing into rough categories based on how much they earn you:

* Ten dollars per hour work
* Hundred dollars per hour work
* Thousand dollars per hour work

These are broad categories. "Ten-dollar" work is anything that earns you between three and thirty
dollars per hour.

Here's an important principle that will save you mountains of grief: If you have all the hundred-dollar work that you can handle, then don't do any ten-dollar work unless you absolutely have to (or unless you love it). Instead, hire somebody to do it for you.

Likewise, if you have plenty of ten-dollar work, then don't take on one-dollar tasks, unless you have to (or unless you REALLY love them).

Believe it or not, authors violate this principle ALL the time.


One big problem writers have is that they can't easily tell the difference between ten-dollar work and
hundred-dollar work. How do you know what your work is earning you?

Let's start with the easy things, which are writing and speaking.

Suppose you know that you can write a novel in 500 hours and your last advance was $5,000. These are typical numbers early in a writing career. Then writing a novel is worth about ten dollars per hour to you.

Later in your career, you might be earning $50,000 per book, and now writing a novel is hundred-dollar work. Nice, if you can get it!

Likewise, it's not hard to compute your hourly rate for doing public speaking. Generally, you'll get paid an honorarium for this, and you can also sell books at the back of the room. It won't take very many speaking engagements to figure out what your actual pay rate is.


But what about all those other tasks you're supposed to do? How much does hanging out on Facebook earn you? What about Twittering? Or maintaining your blog?

It's hard to say for sure, but here you can harness your good common-sense instincts. (Most authors are cheapskates, so let's put that to work.) Suppose that somebody offered to do all your Twitter work for you. How much would you be willing to pay per hour for them to do that? A dollar an hour? Five? Ten?

I suspect that very few authors would be willing to pay a hundred dollars per hour for somebody to tweet for them. I doubt many authors would pay even ten dollars an hour. I'll bet most authors wouldn't pay more than a dollar an hour.

Whatever number you'd be willing to pay, that's probably a decent estimate of its actual value to you.
If you've got the common sense of an anthill, you aren't going to overpay or underpay very much.

Suppose you decide that you couldn't possibly pay more than a dollar an hour to hire somebody to Twitter on your behalf. This means that Twittering is probably only earning you a dollar an hour.

Now here's the simple question: If you have an extra hour in your day, should you spend it Twittering or writing? If writing earns you even ten dollars an hour, then this is a no-brainer. For you, it makes more sense to write than to tweet.

One caveat: If you like to hang out on Twitter and you'd do it for free, then there's no harm in doing so when you're not working. But call it what it is -- entertainment, not work.

You may be thinking, "But what about all the intangibles of marketing? Spending time on Twitter or
Facebook keeps my name in the front of people's minds. It keeps me in the conversation. That's good."

That may be true. Those pesky intangible values may be very significant. But be honest with yourself. How much would you be willing to pay for them? That's the best indicator of their real value to you. If you think it would be worth paying somebody $1000 per hour to gain those intangibles, then do it yourself. If you wouldn't pay ten cents per hour to do the job, then why in the
world would you do it yourself?

You can apply this same kind of thinking to just about any marketing activity your marketing director throws at you. How much would you pay somebody per hour to do this task in your stead?

If that number is very much less than you'd earn from writing, then it probably makes much more sense to do the writing, not the marketing. If you can hire somebody to do the marketing for less than the rate you'd demand, then it probably makes sense to pay them to do it.

If the number is very much more than what you'd earn from your writing, then do the marketing.

You can use this principle to figure out how to say yes and how to say no on just about any required task that comes your way.

What about optional tasks? Does the same calculation apply?

Yes, but there's another decision to make for optional tasks -- the decision whether to just leave it undone. That's a simple decision.

If you can find somebody to do it for less than you're willing to pay, then hire them. Otherwise, don't worry about it because it's just not worth it to you.


There are a zillion ways to market your book. Your marketing director knows you can't do them all. Make her happy and do at least one of them really well. Make yourself happy and do only the ones that are worth it to you.

This article is reprinted by permission of the author.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the
Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing
E-zine, with more than 29,000 readers, every month. If
you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction,
AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND
have FUN doing it, visit
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing
and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

Heaven is for Real--for kids as told by Colton Burpo

MY REVIEW

This is a story that you truly need to read to your kids. It ultimately answers all those questions asked by children when someone dies in the family or the favorite pets dies. Those questions we dread to answer because it is so difficult to form words that will bring peace to our children. A person is there, and then the body remains but there is no life. Where does the life go?

Colton Burpo knows beyond any doubt what happens when you die and he remembered to tell his folks who wrote it down and then Thomas Nelson published the story. Buy the CDs, buy the book for adults first and then buy this one to read to your children. It is worthy, and I know it is true, for I know there is Heaven because God says it is so.

If you do not believe there is Heaven, then read it first. If you do not believe after reading this, then I'm sorry I won't see you when we all get to Heaven on that glorious day.


Heaven is for real, and you are going to like it!
Colton Burpo came back from his trip to heaven with a very important message: Jesus really, really loves children. In effort to reach even more families with this eternally significant story, this runaway bestseller is now told from Colton—kid to kids! Children will receive the same comfort and assurance that so many adults have received from the trade book.

Beautifully illustrated, under Colton's direction, this book is uniquely written from a child for a child. Colton tells of his experiences in first person and comments on things that will be important to kids. A letter to parents is included to guide them in talking to their children about heaven. Scripture along with Q&A section with answers from the Bible are also included in the book.

Branding Obamessiah by Dr. Mark E. Taylor

An amazing book.

I first thought this book would be extolling all the unique qualities and so-called perfectness of Obama. Nothing could be further from the truth of this insightful book.

Taylor has concisely boiled down all the elements of the political arena such as American culture and advertising, and he helps the Average Joe to understand all the subtle nuance of this man-created, supposed savior of America. Taylor exposes some of the lies with simple eyewitness accounts such as someone from Obama's high school having  a completely different set of memories than offered by Obama in his writings. (Several classmates remember he actually did not take part in discussions of racial prejudice in high school.)

"Obama's criticism of 'white folks' did not seem justified by his own personal experience. The irony is palpable" (p. 99) points out Taylor. The man and the message do not make a whole truth, but variations and subtle colorings of truth (pun intended).

If you take a hard look at the photo on the cover, you'll see the kind of subliminal messages the campaign presented to unsuspecting voters. The whole message designed by Obama and the Democrats was so ingenious that even conservative radio host Mark Levin noted, "I can't help but observe that even some conservatives are caught in the moment as their attempts at explaining their support for Barack Obama are unpersuasive and even illogical" (p. 166). Taylor, through intensive research exposes all the tricks and idiosyncrasies of a political campaign that is filled to over flowing, shaken and packed down with religious fervor of the wrong kind.

If you weren't watching, Obama's rallies were organized like ole-timey tent revivals complete with the greeting, "Hello, Believers!" and the Q & A type of motivational, preaching. "You hear what I'm saying?" "Oh, yeah, brother, oh yeah!" There were even some who were "slain in the Obama-spirit", fainting as if on cue for the cameras. Taylor doesn't stop an one documented example but gives the reader ten accounts then asks the question were these eyewitness reports of "slain" devotees legitimate? Excellent question.

This isn't necessarily an expose' of Obama or Democrat tactics, but more an expose' of how the religion of politics has evolved. (Another excellent book which exposes this kind of political/media shuffle is Sarah Palin's Going Rogue.)

This book receives five of five stars. I highly recommend it, and beg you to read it before this presidential election proceeds any farther.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Edward Taylor (PhD, Northwestern University Graduate School; ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a native Chicagoan who has long followed Windy City politics, culture, and religion. While teaching college courses on communication and culture, he discovered that Barack Obama’s US presidential campaign was becoming a dramatic story of quasi-religious persuasion and belief. Mark immersed himself in the unfolding political drama. Using his skills in theology and rhetorical criticism, Mark dedicated five years to capturing the story behind Obama’s ascension from backroom Chicago politics to the heavenly realm of a presidential American idol—Obamessiah.

Read more about Mark, including why he wrote the book, in the online author Q&A and in the introduction to the book.

God, Am I A Nobody? by Sheryl Young

MY REVIEW

I had the opportunity to read this wonderful devotional by Sheryl Young. You might have read my review of her last book, What Every Christian Should Know About The Jewish People. If not, click on the link because it is a great book.

Sheryl is offering something a bit different in that you have a daily dose of Christ-like wisdom about things we face as we work for the Lord:

In today’s world, personal accomplishment gets all the accolades. Economic stability seems elusive or unsatisfying. It’s hard for us to put God’s will before worldly success. Sometimes:

-God doesn’t let us do something, so we try to do it ourselves.

-There’s a mountaintop experience when we least expect it.

-And sometimes we “labor in obscurity… while He lets others get the credit.”

This last quoted statement is from nineteenth century missionary Hudson Taylor’s sermonette, A Higher Calling. Taylor, an Englishman, devoted his life to serving the people of China and challenging other Christians to put the Lord first.

While everyone has these moments, not everyone has the wisdom to overcome Satan's tug toward worldly desires and fleshly appetites. I have often written about the ability we Christians have to make idols of church, church work, our families and other Church Lady things. Take for instance Chapter Thirteen...

O God, Behold our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand (Psalm 84:9-10a).

How often have we used church work as an excuse for not meeting with God? If you are honest, you'll look back and note at least once this has happened. If you haven't done this, then you will so don't be so smug :)

Sheryl points out the story of Martha always in the kitchen while Mary sits at Jesus' feet. Jesus does chide Martha just a bit, and we can see why for Jesus wasn't long on this earth in His physical body. Mary certainly chose the thing I crave the most, sitting at His feet and learning from His own lips. As the priest told Romeo, "There shalt thou be happy."

You can purchase this book...

“God, Am I Nobody” at the publisher in paperback or e-book:

God, Am I Nobody -- publisher

or at Amazon Kindle 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Sheryl Young has been freelance writing for magazines, newspapers and the internet since 1997. Her special interests are Politics, U.S. Government, Society and Education as they intersect with biblical faith. Her articles and stories have been seen in such venues as: Yahoo News, The Christian Post, Chicken Soup for the Soul, the Florida Baptist Witness Newspaper, VISTA National Sunday School Curriculum; Light & Life Magazine and Better Nutrition Magazine. She’s been a Community Columnist for the Tampa Tribune Newspaper, Florida Spokesperson for Concerned Women for America, and the recipient of a First Place “Roaring Lambs” National Writing Award from the Amy Foundation.

In connection with being a Jewish believer in Jesus, Sheryl wrote the previous book, “What Every Christian Should Know about the Jewish People” (2008, Pleasant Word/Wine Press). (here: https://www.winepressbooks.com/product.asp?pid=1852&search=sheryl+young&select=Keywords&ss=1, or at Amazon and most online booksellers).

You can see her blogsite at http://20-20faithsight.blogspot.com, where she posts some of her articles and also spotlights other Christian small-press and self-published authors.

Randy Ingermanson interviews James Scott Bell

4) Marketing: An Industry Pro Goes E


The e-book revolution is roaring in even faster than predicted by e-enthusiasts. A few facts will make clear what I mean:


A-list novelist David Morrell recently self-published his novel THE NAKED EDGE on Amazon, in Kindle and audio formats only.

A-list marketing guru Seth Godin is due today, March 1, 2011, to self-publish his next book, POKE THE BOX, simultaneously in hardcover and e-format.

In January of this year, self-published e-novelist Amanda Hocking sold a reputed 450,000 copies of her books on Amazon. She is 26 years old. Less than a year ago, she posted her first novel on Amazon. Now, she's a superstar.


In view of these, I wasn't surprised when one of my writing buddies, Jim Bell, recently self-published a new e-book, COVER YOUR BACK. The book contains a novella and three short stories. If the words "film noir" and "femme fatale" ring your bells, then COVER YOUR BACK might well be a book you'd enjoy.

Jim has not abandoned the world of traditional publishing. His venture into e-books simply allows him to do things that he couldn't have done with a paper-and-ink publisher that thinks a year is a short period of time.

I asked Jim to tell me about his venture in an interview for this e-zine. Here's a blurb about him and his writing:


JAMES SCOTT BELL is a bestselling thriller author and served as the fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine. He has written three popular craft books for Writers Digest Books: Plot & Structure, Revision & Self-Editing and The Art of War for Writers. Jim has taught writing at Pepperdine University and numerous writers conferences. On June 4th and 5th he is teaching a seminar in Los Angeles for novelists and screenwriters. Information can be found at http://www.jamesscottbell.com


On to the interview. Let's see what motivated Jim to take the e-plunge.


Randy: You recently self-published your first e-book, after more than a decade of publishing paper books with a number of traditional royalty-paying publishers.
What prompted you to take the plunge into the e-book market?

Jim: Because there is absolutely no downside to it, and plenty of upside. The e-market is exploding and I had several stories and a novella that didn't have a home.
E-book publishing allows me to bring new material to my readers, and introduce me to others. I've always admired the old pulp writers of the mid 20th century, who had to write a lot for a penny a word, but created some of the best suspense ever. That's what I always wanted to be able to do, and now can via e-publishing.

The nice thing is that the royalty for these works is great and I get paid every month.


Randy: Let's talk a bit about the process.  You decided to write a novella and three short stories.  You wrote them in Microsoft Word just as you normally do.  Then what happened?  How did you take the book from a Word document to its final published form on Amazon and the other online retailers?

Jim: I hired a person to do the conversion for me.
There are many people out there who will do this, and the cost is relatively low. You should be able to find someone for between $50 - $100. It may be a bit more if the document needs more work. I toyed with the idea of doing it myself, but was advised by others to let a professional handle it. So I provided the Word document and the person I hired converted into a format for Kindle, for Nook, and for Smashwords, should I expand to that.


Randy:  Many fiction contracts have "non-compete"
clauses in them.  Tell us about those and what they mean for the already-published author who wants to venture into the electronic self-publishing world but doesn't want to alienate his publisher.

Jim: Well, publishers are investing money in writers and trying to build them. So a standard publishing contract has a clause that says the writer cannot sell a book that might compete with the one they're publishing. Usually there's language about potential "harm" to the sales of the contracted book. That could mean that a self-published e-book, at a low price point, could be viewed as competition with the published e-book, which might have a higher price point.

On the other hand, a low priced, self-published e-book can be seen as a marketing tool for the other books.
This should all be discussed with the publisher, and a written understanding hammered out.


Randy: Any predictions on the near-term future of publishing?  As we speak, Borders is circling the drain and Barnes & Noble is battling to reinvent itself, while dozens of previously unknown writers are earning thousands of dollars per month.  Where do you see the world of publishing going in 2011? What are your plans to deal with the massive change?

Jim: I do think the traditional publishing model is undergoing great stress now. There are fewer distributions points, less revenue coming in as consumers turn to lower priced e-books. The old guard will have to be experimenting with new ways of doing things, but that's hard for a big, established business to do.

Meantime, there will be a veritable tsunami of original material self-published. Most of it will be bad. A writer still needs to sweat and strain and get better.
The old model provided a filtering system. But for those who learn to write well, the self-publishing avenue has great potential.

I don't think anyone can predict what the landscape will look like in five  years. I have been surprised at the rapid rise in e-readers (as was predicted by one Randall Ingermanson). As a writer I'm taking advantage of the opportunity. Others will do the same. And word of mouth will continue to help the best works get the attention they deserve.


Randy: You probably couldn't have traditionally published your novella WATCH YOUR BACK and you almost certainly couldn't have published your short stories in paper format.  Tell us a bit about those stories and why you wrote them.  Isn't it enough to be a successful novelist?

Jim: I love the short story and novella form. It used to be we had a thriving short story market in this country, lots of pulp and slick magazines. But that all dried up except for a couple of little magazines, through which it is impossible to make a living. And yes, short story collections are rarely published in print form.

So, here is a way for me to write short form suspense fiction and publish it. As I said, there's just no downside to that. I can provide entertainment for readers at a low cost, and everyone's happy.


Randy: I bought COVER YOUR BACK last week and read through it in a day. Great read! Lots of fun for those who like darkish fiction. What advice do you have for someone contemplating writing exclusively for the self-publishing market?

Jim: First, always be about getting better as a writer.
That should never stop. I started in this business 20 years ago and have kept on studying the craft all that time.

Second, be sure to have your story vetted by several "beta" readers, and even consider paying a freelance editor to go over the manuscript. Readers do notice if the text is sloppy.

Third, hire a good cover designer. You have to make a good first impression with your book cover.

Finally, make some long term plans. What kind of writing will be your specialty, your "brand"? As you build readers, they are going to expect some continuity in your work. That's not to say you can't be flexible and try new things, but an audience is grown largely by coming to rely on the type of story you produce. Think of Stephen King and John Grisham. Even they did not deviate from their genres until they were well established in them.


Randy: Great advice, as always. Thanks for telling us about your adventures on Planet E, Jim!

Permission to reprint granted by author.
Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 24,000 readers, every month. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.


March 1, 2011
Volume 7, Number 3
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com
 http://www.Ingermanson.com

The 13th Demon by Bruce Hennigan

MY REVIEW

This will be a short review. I found this book very disturbing. Blood is everywhere, and that is rather sickening. Although, I have complete confidence that Satan is more than capable of committing the evil acts described in this book. I'm not sure that it would be as overtly physical, but entirely plausible covertly.

If you don't mind all the blood (and there is plenty of it), then this is a page-turner suspense. Just beware this is not for the faint-hearted.

3 of 5 stars 

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The 13th Demon Realms (October 4, 2011) by Bruce Hennigan

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bruce Hennigan was born and raised in the isolated countryside of Shreveport, La., a place full of possibilities for the active mind of a young boy. The fertile imagination he cultivated while playing deep in the Louisiana woods would lead to a lifelong love of creative writing.

In 2006, Hennigan pursued the Certified Apologetic Instructor Certificate from the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He has become a frequent speaker at regional and state events on apologetics and his strong point is in making these sometimes hard to understand issues easily approachable for the average Christian. Hennigan’s experience in apologetics inspired him to write his new novel, The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye, a supernatural Christian thriller that combines science and faith. Now, combining his love for apologetics and his love for the art of writing, Hennigan is pursuing a career as the “Michael Crichton” of Christian fiction building powerful, fast paced stories around the truths of Christian apologetics.

Hennigan currently resides in Shreveport with his wife and daughter. He continues to write and to practice radiology at the Willis Knighton Health Care System. He has secured Jeff Jernigan of Hidden Value Group (www.hiddenvaluegroup.com) as his literary agent and has signed a five book deal with the Realms imprint of Charisma Media for “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Jonathan Steel wakes up on a beach in a raging thunderstorm, naked, beaten, and bleeding, he has no idea who he is or how he got there. But just as he starts to make progress in his slow journey to recovery, tragedy strikes again, taking everything in his new life that he has come to love and rely on.
Filled with rage and a thirst for revenge, he searches the countryside for the entity responsible—an entity called only the Thirteenth Demon. His quest brings him to Lakeside, Louisiana, and a small country church where evil is in control and strange writing on the walls, blood-soaked floors, and red-eyed spiders have appeared in the sanctuary.

As he faces the final confrontation with an evil presence that has pursued him all of his life, he must choose between helping the people he loves or destroying the thirteenth demon.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The 13th Demon, go HERE.

MY REVIEW

Usually Deeanne Gist has an excellent storyline, great character developing and some suspense within the love story.

This novel is a little different incorporating a "Gentleman Jack" type of villain within the storyline in which the real hero, a Texas Ranger, finds it difficult to "get" his criminal because the people think the villain is some type of Robin Hood. It is quite interesting how Gist weaves this story. However...

I was only into the third chapter and was thoroughly disgusted with the bird thing that Georgie has... I'm quite sure all the bird hat and clothing decoration information is quite true because Gist does an excellent job with research. It's just the bird-loving goes overboard for me. What could have been a personality quirk actually becomes an overwhelming character flaw, in my opinion. It reminds me of some eco-environment "persuasions" that some writers indulge in which is annoying to say the least. Frankly, there is nothing between the two "love birds" that explains why the two fall in love. It is rather after the old-fashioned, from the eighties, iron-sharpening-iron kind of love story. It is merely physical attraction after all disguised as "love".

I give this on 3 out of 5 stars. I liked it, but it could have been so much better.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Love on the Line Bethany House (October 1, 2011) by Deeanne Gist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

After a short career in elementary education, Deeanne Gist retired to raise her four children. Over the course of the next fifteen years, she ran a home accessory and antique business, became a member of the press, wrote freelance journalism for national publications such as People, Parents, Parenting, Family Fun, Houston Chronicle and Orlando Sentinel, and acted as CFO for her husband’s small engineering firm--all from the comforts of home.

Squeezed betwixt-and-between all this, she read romance novels by the truckload and even wrote a couple of her own. While those unpublished manuscripts rested on the shelf, she founded a publishing corporation for the purpose of developing, producing and marketing products that would reinforce family values, teach children responsibility and provide character building activities.

After a few short months of running her publishing company, Gist quickly discovered being a "corporate executive" was not where her gifts and talents lie. In answer to Gist’s fervent prayers, God sent a mainstream publisher to her door who licensed her parenting I Did It!® product line and committed to publish the next generation of her system, thus freeing Gist to return to her writing.

Eight months later, she sold A Bride Most Begrudging to Bethany House Publishers. Since that debut, her very original, very fun romances have rocketed up the bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere. Add to this two consecutive Christy Awards, three RITA nominations, rave reviews, and a growing loyal fan base, and you’ve got one recipe for success.

Her latest releases, Beguiled, Maid To Match, and Love on the Line are now available.

Gist lives in Texas with her husband of twenty-eight years and their border collie. They have four grown children. Click here to find out the most up-to-the-minute news about Dee.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Rural switchboard operator Georgie Gail is proud of her independence in a man's world ... which makes it twice as vexing when the telephone company sends a man to look over her shoulder.

Dashing Luke Palmer is more than he appears though. He's a Texas Ranger working undercover to infiltrate a notorious gang of train robbers. Repairing telephones and tangling with this tempestuous woman is the last thing he wants to do. But when his stakeout puts Georgie in peril, he realizes more than his job is on the line.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Love on the Line, go HERE.

Teens and Their Supernatural Pursuits

(Editor's note: This is a guest post for October by Melody Carlson)

By Melody Carlson

Have you even wondered why some teens are drawn toward things like Ouija boards or psychics? Or why séances are still popular at sleepovers? Does it just have to do with Halloween and that spine-chilling need for a good scare? Or could it be something more? And, as a Christian, should you be concerned?
    Those questions, as well as some confused reader letters, prompted me to tackle the “supernatural” in one of my teen novels (Moon White, TrueColors, Nav Press). And whenever I write an issues-based novel, I’m forced to research—and often in some dark places. So I began scouring websites, learning more about Wicca and the occult, trying to grasp what was really going on with today’s teens—and how I could write about it in a helpful and relevant way.

But, as usual, when I write a teen book, I go back to my own adolescence...trying to connect with my inner teen...and I suddenly remembered a short era when a friend and I got very interested in witchcraft. I had honestly forgotten about this time and was fascinated to recall how we scoured some witchcraft stores on a local campus—I think we even purchased a few things. Fortunately, this interest was short-lived and I became a Christian not long afterward.
    However, as I reconnected with my inner teen, I had to ask myself—why had I looked into witchcraft back then? Why do teens dabble with it now? Suddenly the answer became crystal clear. I was searching. I’d been calling myself an atheist for several years by then, but I was spiritually hungry—starving in fact. Consequently I was looking for spiritual answers—something that would fill that empty void within me. I wanted a supernatural force in my life and I didn’t even care where it came from. I needed something bigger than me, more powerful than me, something to hold onto. I had no idea at the time that I was really searching for God.
    This realization changed the way I viewed my research. Instead of feeling disgusted and dismayed by the witchcraft/Wicca sites (which are not particularly enjoyable) I began to recognize that these people (mostly girls) were simply searching too. They wanted a power source in their lives just like I wanted one in mine. They just hadn’t found God yet.
    This led to another discovery. A girl who’s attracted to a religion like Wicca is usually seeking to gain some control over her life. Something is wrong and she wants to change it. To do so, she’s often enticed to purchase something—like “magical herbs”—to create a potion that will give her some control over her situation. Unfortunately, she doesn’t even realize she’s being tricked.
    But think about it, wouldn’t you love to have control over a bad situation sometimes? Wouldn’t you love to be able to change the circumstances that make your life unpleasant? So what if someone offered you the “power” to do just that? Perhaps if you’re fifteen, you wouldn’t see that person as a charlatan and you would fall for it.
    Which brings me to another important factor in understanding this generation’s attraction to the supernatural. Follow the money. The more I researched, the more it became painfully obvious that Wicca and witchcraft and the occult are money-making enterprises. Thanks to the internet, these savvy distributors sell anything imaginable—and many things you can’t. That leads to some serious motivation—these marketers want to hook their unsuspecting young customers and reel them in. Of course, these potions and trinkets and how-to books don’t come with a money back guaranty. Nor are they approved by the FDA. Yet they are a multi-million dollar industry.
    So, in a way, it’s a perfect storm. Teens that are insecure, lost, unhappy, and searching...meet up with an unregulated industry that offers supernatural answers and power and control...for a price. And, oh yeah, I never even mentioned how this opens a door for Satan to slip in and wreak havoc. For that...you’ll have to read the book.
   

House of Secrets by Tracie Peterson

MY REVIEW
 
Another great read from Tracie Peterson. I have always found her books to be quite satisfying. She always manages to write into the heart of a matter. This is an interesting topic, too.

Bailey is the eldest of three sisters, and with an often absent father she felt the need to mother here sisters setting her own wants and desires to the side. Actually, it wasn't the absent father but the memory of what happened when her mother was so ill and died 15 years before that caused her to question true commitment. Which is good for Mark because he happens to be in love with her and will follow her anywhere to make sure she understands that. Plus, he has a great desire for her to get to know the true Father whom she thought had abandoned her as a child.

This is the stuff that really good character stories are made of. A worthy read.

4 of 5 stars

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing House of Secrets Bethany House (October 1, 2011) by Tracie Peterson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tracie Peterson is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 85 novels.
She received her first book contract in November, 1992 and saw A Place To Belong published in February 1993 with Barbour Publishings' Heartsong Presents. She wrote exclusively with Heartsong for the next two years, receiving their readership's vote for Favorite Author of the Year for three years in a row.

In December, 1995 she signed a contract with Bethany House Publishers to co-write a series with author Judith Pella. Tracie now writes exclusively for Bethany House Publishers.

She teaches writing workshops at a variety of conferences on subjects such as inspirational romance and historical research.

Tracie was awarded the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for 2007 Inspirational Fiction and her books have won numerous awards for favorite books in a variety of contests.

Making her home in Montana, this Kansas native enjoys spending time with family--especially her three grandchildren--Rainy, Fox and Max. She's active in her church as the Director of Women's Ministries, coordinates a yearly writer's retreat for published authors, and travels, as time permits, to research her books.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When her father orchestrates a surprise trip to the summer house of her childhood, Bailee Cooper is unprepared for what follows. What is intended to be a happy reunion for Bailee and her sisters, Geena and Piper, quickly becomes shrouded by memories from the past.

Together again, the three sisters sift through their recollections of fifteen years ago...of an ill mother, and of their father making a desperate choice. They vowed, as children, to be silent--but one sister believes the truth must now be revealed. Yet can they trust their memories?

Mark Delahunt arrives in the wake of this emotional turmoil. Determined to win Bailee's affection, Mark becomes the strong fortress for her in this time of confusion, and what was once a tentative promise begins to take root and grow. Caught between the past and an uncertain future, can Bailee let God guide her to heal the past and ultimately to embrace love?

If you would like to read the first chapter of House of Secrets, go HERE.

Dangerous Mercy by Kathy Herman

I rarely ever do this, but I have not had time to read the book because I just received it this past Friday, so I'm posting what it is about and I'm just saying that it sure begins good. This is the second in a trilogy. The first one was quite good. However, there were some parts of the Creole/Cajun speech patterns as well as nuances that didn't quite hit the mark. I only say this for my Cajun friends following this blog. I grew up in Louisiana, lived in South Louisiana for more than 26 years, working with and talking to Cajuns, my best friend being one, all that time. If you aren't from that part of the country, you'll never notice it, so don't let that stop you from buying this book!

Happy reading!

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Dangerous Mercy David C. Cook (October 1, 2011) by Kathy Herman

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Suspense novelist Kathy Herman is very much at home in the Christian book industry, having worked five years on staff at the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and eleven years at Better Books Christian Center in Tyler, Texas, as product buyer/manager for the children’s department, and eventually as director of human resources.

She has conducted numerous educational seminars on children’s books at CBA Conventions in the U.S. and Canada, served a preliminary judge for the Gold Medallion Book Awards of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association , and worked as an independent product/marketing consultant to the CBA market.

Since her first novel, Tested by Fire, debuted in 2001 as a CBA national bestseller, she's added sixteen more titles to her credit, including four bestsellers: All Things Hidden, The Real Enemy, The Last Word, and The Right Call.

Kathy's husband Paul is her manager and most ardent supporter, and the former manager of the LifeWay Christian Store in Tyler, Texas. They have three grown children, five almost-perfect grandchildren, a cat named Samantha. They enjoy cruising, deep sea fishing, and birdwatching—sometimes incorporating these hobbies into one big adventure.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. —Matthew 5:7

When eighty-five-year-old Adele Woodmore moves to Les Barbes to be near the Broussards—and her namesake, their daughter—she wants nothing more than a comfortable, quiet life. Employing men from Father Vince’s halfway house for the homeless to do odd jobs and landscaping, she delights in the casual conversation she has with them, the fledgling friendships, and the idea that she is helping them get back on their feet.

A series of murders in Les Barbes has cast a pall over the town and, in fact, one of Adele’s handymen becomes a person of interest to the police. But Adele cares for these young men, she knows them, and continues to show them kindness in spite of her friends’ concern. And then one day a murderer walks through Adele’s defenses, sits down at her kitchen table...and they begin to talk...

If you would like to read the first chapter of Dangerous Mercy, go HERE.

Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald

MY REVIEW...
Gordon MacDonald begins with asking the question, "What does a deep person look like?"  Then he enumerates several qualities that describe deep people:

• Quiet but noticeably living, people who exude all the fruit of the Spirit as well as grace and wisdom
• People who know what their motivational gift is and who operate within that gift.

If a church were populated with a whole congregation of such deep people, there would be no power on earth great enough to stop their ministry.

Enter an unchurched friend who suddenly ask the 40+ year pastor, "What's your church's elevator story?" The pastor has this doe-in-the-headlights look. "What's an elevator story?

Thus a wonderful journey begins. With some very simple, yet powerful changes in church leadership meetings, injecting fun as mandatory, and understanding people's gifts, MacDonald takes this church into new heights of power. Miracles happen, and a church is deepened with the power of Christ Jesus.

An absolute must read for every pastor who deeply desires his church family to make a difference in the community doing exactly what God has intended His church to do. An amazing, and very readable book.

Five out of Five Stars.

 ABOUT THE BOOK...
The future of the Christian faith will not be determined by the number of people who fill the pews but by the spiritual depth of those people.
Pastor Gordon MacDonald revisits the fictional New England congregation of his critically acclaimed book Who Stole My Church to deal with a new dilemma: What's his church's story? What is it doing that justifies its existence? The importance of these questions is anything but fiction.

Through a series of e-mails and discussions with friends and parishioners, Pastor Gordon's search for their story leads him to realize that the future of the Christian faith, and thus the church, is at risk. As MacDonald says, "We seem to know how to get unchurched people to visit our buildings. We even seem to know how to draw them across the line into a declaration of personal faith in Jesus. But what we do not seem to know is how to cultivate spiritually deep people. Tomorrow's church could be headed for trouble."

Deep people. People who possess spiritual awareness and maturity, people with solid, grounded, life-altering faith. MacDonald shows that the church needs people with a passion for God's presence and a desperate hunger to seek him above all things.
Join Pastor MacDonald and his congregation on their quest to cultivate spiritual depth and grow into a community of believers whose hearts and minds are truly focused on God.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR...

Dr. Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor and author for more than fifty years. He serves as chancellor at Denver Seminary, editor-at-large for Leadership Journal, and speaker at leadership conferences around the world.