Debut Author Spotlight ... Lynne Gentry

REFLECT … REINVENT … REJOICE

by Lynne Gentry

Growing up on a Kansas dairy farm meant entertainment was hard to come by. Our black and white TV antenna only got two fuzzy channels . . . if the wind wasn’t blowing, which almost never happened on the bald prairie. Out of necessity, I learned to amuse myself. While my siblings constructed secret hideouts in the bales of hay stacked in the old barn, I jabbed a stick in the cracks of the railroad-tie loading dock and pretended I stood behind a microphone. Barnyard animals and even a few stray opossums applauded my story-telling skills. As my budding imagination searched for expanded avenues of expression, I tried my yarns on the family, and before long they declared me capable of selling wind in a bag, should the unlikely need ever arise on the windswept plains.

But the best laid plans of mice and country girls, are not always those of the Lord. When He called me from the makeshift stage, I never dreamed the stint would include marrying a good-looking preacher, raising two of the best kids in the world, and spending the next twenty-five years up to my elbows in church work.

So what’s a stage-deprived wife and mother to do?

Now, this is where the Lord’s sense of humor takes a dramatic turn (which suits me, when I think about it). Eight years ago, God called me to take another stab at story-telling. But this time the story is His and the lost world is my stage.

If the words I pen change your life, then I will bask in the applause of heaven.

REINVENTING LEONA
by Lynne Gentry

Tyndale House Publishers, July 2011

Leona Harper loves being a pastor's wife. Her impressive resume touts thirty years of coaxing hot water from rusty parsonage plumbing, planning church potlucks, and standing beside her husband while members take potshots at his sermons. Except for the little tiff with her grown children, Leona feels her life is right on track with the wishes of the Almighty...until her husband drops dead in the pulpit.

When the church board decides to fill the Reverend's vacated position Leona is forced to find a paying job, mend her fractured family, and tackle her fears. With life spiraling out of control, Leona might find the church members antics comical if she weren't so completely panicked. Can the faith of an overwhelmed widow withstand the added heartache of two resentful children and several underhanded church members? If Leona can't trust God, how will she learn to trust herself?
http://www.lynnegentry.com

This debut novel is one of four launching Tyndale's DIGITAL FIRST ebook line. All four DIGITAL FIRST novels may be purchased online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, iTunes, and Mobipocket.com.

Debut Author Spotlight ... Dora Hiers

WHO NEEDS FIREWORKS?

by Dora  Hiers

Have you ever thought about the roads you’ve traveled? Bumpy, windy roads. Roads filled with potholes, forks, and turns. Up mountains. Through valleys. Quiet, country roads and bustling, noisy intersections. Have you considered how few roads are actually smooth?

I’m not one of those writers who dreamed of putting words on paper from an early age. Writing wasn’t in my career path. If I had seen it coming, I probably would have made a u-turn and headed in the opposite direction. After all, I’d spent twelve years writing and editing audit reports. Painful, excruciatingly so. You see, I’m one of those perfectionists. You know the kind. I analyze every word I write. Delete. Retype.

But, I have always wanted to read, loved to read. Had to have a book in my hands. Don’t you feel lost if you don’t have four or five books lined up ready to read? Me? I have sixteen ~ shhh, don’t tell my husband.

After I dropped out of the workforce to taxi my two sons around (and to make sure one of them actually attended school, he had a slight problem with that!), God planted the “writing” seed in my heart. “Me? Write? No way,” I scoffed. I was convinced I was wrong. God didn’t want me to do something that I didn’t enjoy, did He? Surely, I was mistaken.

The writing seed dug in, took root around my heart with the idea for Journey’s End, which germinated from a newspaper article about a mobster, finally convicted for his crimes years later. God watered the seed until it grew into a manuscript, even fertilized it with a few rejection letters and average contest results. God helped me to focus on the positive comments. One manuscript grew into two. Then, three.

A dear friend from Carolina Christian Writers directed me to White Rose Publishing and on New Year’s Eve in 2010, five plus years after I started down this crazy writing road, White Rose Publishing offered me a contract for Journey’s End, my first heart-racing, God-gracing book in the Marshals of Journey Creek series. Can you think of a better way to end one year and to begin another? Who needs fireworks?

Wow! Thank you, God, for not giving up on me! For walking hand-in-hand with me on this crazy exciting journey and for filling my heart with joy!

What is your own journey like? Curvy? Full of potholes? Are you facing a mountain? Whatever road you’re on, my prayer is that God blesses your journey.

JOURNEY’S END

Marshals of Journey Creek Series
by Dora Hiers

White Rose Publishing, May 2011
232 pages

Devastated after the brutal murder of her husband, Chelsea Hammond vows never to love another lawman. Intent on rebuilding her shattered life, she turns her focus to helping troubled teens. But when an angry father bent on retaliation threatens her, Chelsea must turn to the one man she never thought to trust: Deputy U.S. Marshal Trey Colten.

Trey wants only to protect Chelsea, but she blames him for her husband’s death. Trey can relate. He blames himself, also. As danger lurks, Trey begs Chelsea to heed his warnings. He let down one Hammond. He won’t let down another—especially one who now holds his heart.

When Chelsea is snatched from her home, can she put aside her fear and trust Trey with her life? Can she forgive him for destroying her past and let him help to rebuild her future?

Where one journey ends, another begins…

After a successful auditing career, Dora Hiers left the corporate world to be a stay-at-home mom to her two sons. Eventually, needing something more to fill her days, she started writing heart-racing, God-gracing books. Dora belongs to the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Carolina Christian Writers.

Dora and her husband make their home in Kannapolis, North Carolina. When she’s not writing, Dora enjoys spending time with her family, guzzling café con leche, kicking back in her recliner with a good book, teaching Sunday School, vacationing in the mountains, watching football, and walking her dog.
http://www.dorahiers.com
Facebook ~ Dora Hiers Author

WINTER eBook Winner

Congratulations to Shellie for winning an eBook copy of Keven Newsome's WINTER, compliments of Splashdown Books.

To claim your book, e-mail me at Brenda AT Brenda Anderson Books DOT com.

Debut Author Spotlight ... Meg Moseley

TAKE HEART AND TAKE NOTES

by Meg Moseley

Novels are fun and easy to read, so they must be fun and easy to write, too. Right?

Wrong. Sure, parts of the process are incredibly fun and sometimes it even feels easy—for a while—but novel-writing is hard work. Still, I wouldn’t trade this job for anything.

When I started writing, I was just a wee bit naïve. I thought it might take me six months or a year to write a novel and sell it. (Okay, stop laughing!)

Once I realized I didn’t know a thing about writing, I buckled down to learn the basics. I studied the rules and the market. I entered contests. I went to writers’ conferences and read how-to-write books. I absorbed so much advice that I didn’t have room for my instincts anymore. I lost my voice as a writer. Everything I wrote sounded like what everybody else was writing. I hated it.

So, I played Lone Ranger for a few years. I backed off from attending writers’ conferences, from reading how-to’s, and even from participating in a critique group. It was just me, my computer, and the Lord. (And the cat camping on the back of the chair.) But when I emerged from my self-imposed exile, I had a novel that I knew was better than the ones I’d written before. That novel helped me find a good agent, and it became my debut novel, When Sparrows Fall, from Multnomah Books.

Looking back, I’m glad for the time I spent learning and then un-learning the rules. Even when the hope of publication seemed to be on hold, I was growing and learning. I have more to bring to my fiction now, simply because I’ve lived a little longer. I’ve experienced more of life’s joys and sorrows, and they’ve changed me.

If you’re not published yet, you know the pre-publication wait can seem excruciatingly long, but it’s all part of the process. Living life prepares us to write about life. So, take heart—over and over—and take notes. That’s what writers do.

WHEN SPARROWS FALL
by Meg Moseley

Waterbrook Multnomah, May 2011
352 pages

A widow and mother of six, Miranda Hanford leads a quiet, private life. When the pastor of her close-knit church announces his plans to move the entire congregation to another state, Miranda jumps at the opportunity to dissolve ties with Mason Chandler and his controlling method of ruling his flock. But then Mason threatens to unearth secrets from her past, and Miranda feels trapped, terrified she’ll be unable to protect her children.

College professor Jack Hanford is more than surprised when he gets a call from his estranged sister-in-law’s oldest son, Timothy, informing him that Miranda has taken a serious fall and he has been named legal guardian of her children while she recovers. Quickly charmed by Miranda’s children, Jack brings some much-needed life into the sheltered household. But his constant challenging of the family’s conservative lifestyle makes the recovering mother uneasy and defensive—despite Jack’s unnerving appeal.

As Jack tries to make sense of the mysterious Miranda and the secrets she holds so tightly, Mason’s pressure on her increases. With her emotions stirring and freedom calling, can Miranda find a way to unshackle her family without losing everything?

Meg Moseley is a Californian at heart although she’s lived more than half her life in other states. She formerly wrote human-interest columns for a suburban section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and home schooled for more than twenty years. Meg enjoys reading books, traveling, gardening, her three grown children, and motorcycle rides with her husband Jon. They make their home in northern Georgia.
http://www.megmoseley.com

THE CRYSTAL PORTAL eBook Winner

Congratulations to Jessica Thomas for winning an eBook copy of Travis Perry's and Mike Lynch's THE CRYSTAL PORTAL, compliments of Splashdown Books.

To claim your book, e-mail me at Brenda AT Brenda Anderson Books DOT com.

Much Ado About ... Susannah

Christian fiction frequently comes under fire for its avoidance of (Dare I say it?) ... sex. Just Google the topic and you'll come up with pages of bloggers complaining that Christian authors are afraid to be real, and that readers don't want to go anywhere near the bedroom door even when it involves a married couple. Case in point, check out this recent blog post by Mike Duran and read through the discussion: Christian Fiction's "Non-Erogenous Zone".

Once upon a time, I'm certain peeking beyond the bedroom door was forbidden, but as a voracious reader of Christian fiction, in all genres, I find that's no longer true.

The book that precipated the discussion on Duran's blog, Spring for Susannah by Catherine Richmond, is a fair example. It's true, if you glance through the reviews on Amazon, you'll find a minority who are aghast at the sexual content of the book and claim teens shouldn't read it, nor should unmarried women. Wow. It obviously has some explicit passages, right?

Well, of course, I had to check it out for myself and purchased the book. (As an author, can you think of a better marketing tool than controversy?) I read through it in one day searching for what had these readers upset enough to encourage keeping the book away from teens and unwed women.

I failed to find anything.

Yes, the story told us that this newlywed couple had sex, quite frequently even. Richmond wrote about undoing buttons, and reading Song of Solomon, and the characters even talked about how they enjoyed sex, but explicit? Hardly. Keep it away from the kids or unmarried women? That's plain silly. Do these reviewers have any clue what their teens are required to read in high school? I read a few of the "racier" passages of Susannah to my unmarried 19 year old daughter, and she agreed that it's very mild.

Besides that, Spring for Susannah, which is written by a debut author, made July's Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's (ECPA) bestselling fiction list. Not an easy feat for any author, much less a debut author. On Amazon, of 106 customer reviews, 90 of them are 4 and 5 star. Hmm, it doesn't sound like the reading public is complaining. As a matter of fact, I think they're enjoying this book. They also enjoy other authors who like to bend the sexual boundaries: Julie Lessman, Deeanne Gist, and even Francine Rivers and Karen Kingsbury to name a few. Try Lisa Samson's The Passion of Mary-Margaret or Christa Parrish's Watch Over Me. No, we're not getting a bedroom play-by-play, not even close, but the authors don't shy away from it either.

The fact is, Christian writers are writing about sex, the public is buying the books and they're even enjoying them. Gasp!

So, my question is, why all the fuss? Yes, the majority of romances are sweet and very chaste, but to generalize and say Christian fiction is for prudes, misses the mark completely.

If you ask me, the controversy is much ado about nothing.

Questions for you: Do you think the controversy is warranted? What books/authors have you read in Christian fiction that push the boundaries?

Debut Author Spotlight ... Catherine Richmond

MY SCENIC ROUTE TO PUBLICATION

by Catherine Richmond

My publication journey involves an unexpected turn leading onto the scenic route. I was busy raising my family and working as an occupational therapist, when I heard a song about a mail order bride meeting her husband for the first time. Prairie grass waved dusty green in the wind. The hot sun released the smell of creosote from the railroad ties. A train whistle echoed in the distance. I knew these two people - where they’d come from, their hopes and dreams, and what happened next to them.

What I didn't know was how to write.

The newspaper said one of my neighbors had a novel out with Bantam Loveswept. So one afternoon, when everyone was out of the house, I called her. She recommended I join RWA. I took a non-credit class through the community college, then several on-line classes. I read the RWR and how-to books. I joined a Nebraska Novelists critique group. I wrote other stories. Rejection letters filled my mailbox. Contest judges slapped low scores on my entries.

I learned to revise. Again and again.

A year ago April, while vacationing in New York City, agent Sandra Bishop tracked me down. The manuscript had placed third in the Launching a Star contest, earning a read from a Thomas Nelson editor. Sandra said the publisher was interested if I could make a few changes. Being totally unprepared for this news, I did not have my laptop with me. So Sandra made the requested changes on her copy and sent the manuscript back. The next morning, I got The Call in Central Park, at John Lennon's memorial, a mosaic with the word "Imagine". Which shows God is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all we ask or think!

SPRING FOR SUSANNAH
by Catherine Richmond

Thomas Nelson, May 2011
356 pages

With no prospects for marriage and her parents recently deceased, Susannah Freemont agrees to go west to the Dakota territory to marry her minister's homesteading brother, Jesse. But Susannah is painfully shy, doesn't see herself as worthy of love from either a husband or from God, and lives in constant fear that Jesse is going to ship her back to Detroit.

In spite of her petite size and the fact that Susannah doesn't look like she could survive on the prairie, Jesse quickly discovers that his new wife is a greater blessing than he even hoped for. The years she spent as her father's veterinary assistant allow her to save Jesse's ox and twin calves and to help neighboring farmers with their animals.

But Susannah's feelings of unworthiness are deeply rooted, and she can't believe that Jesse's praise-or the tenderness and love he shows-could possibly last. The thawing of her heart seems almost as distant as Spring in the midst of the winter blanketing the Dakota prairie.

Catherine Richmond was busy raising a family, working as an occupational therapist, and trying to remember where she hid the chocolate, when a song sparked a story within her. The journey to publication was long, but full of blessings. She couldn't have done it without the ACFW, RWA, and FHL (the inspirational chapter of RWA) and lots of chocolate!

http://www.cathyrichmond.com/