A Mocha with Tamera Alexander

I am embarrassed it took so long but good things come to those who wait, right?! One of the highlights of my time in Atlanta in July was finally meeting Tamera Alexander in person. I have loved every single one of her novels and have followed her blog for several years. We had also connected via email in 2009 as she was journeying through her mom's final days of fighting cancer and blogging about that; I had recently lost my mom, although the circumstances were different. So it was a treat to sit down and chat with her. I also had the opportunity to meet her sweet daughter, Kelsey, who was traveling with her.

Let me tell you - she is as genuine as they come! I felt like we were BFFs from the moment we met! Much of what was on the tape wasn't even an interview, just the two of us talking and laughing! (Ever wondered how those Southern belles with all of their hoops and petticoats managed the call of nature? Well, pantaloons back in the day had slits!) We also discovered that we were born four days apart. Which, of course, puts us equally young at heart but gives me, born first, the edge on maturity! LOL

Grab a cup of your favorite brew and enjoy this chat with Tamera Alexander. And then be sure to make a note of the Facebook party she's having tonight to celebrate the release of her first Belmont Mansion book, A Lasting Impression! (You can read my review here.





It is so great to finally meet you in person! And congratulations on your nomination for a Christy Award tonight!

Thank you! I look at finaling in the Christy Awards as a win. I’ve finaled five times, I think. It’s all very subjective – the difference between first place and second, third, fourth, whatever, is sometimes just a point or less. You have to remember that. You’re there by the grace of God to be given that affirmation at that time. But awards don’t sell more books, necessarily. It doesn’t mean that book is any better than another book. The awards are wonderful. But I think the affirmation from and the connection with readers is what’s wonderful. On that day when I think “I can’t write! What on earth am I doing trying to write another book?!” I don’t turn around and look at the awards. I get out reader mail and say, “I remember that--- when [this reader] wrote that she had just lost her mom after reading Within My Heart and it helped her on her journey, and her sharing that helped me on mine.” I remember you and I wrote some while Mom was sick and afterwards, and that just helps so much because you don’t feel alone. You realize we’re all in this together!

You have such a way with words! The way you describe the scenes is incredible. It’s as if you have a paintbrush and paint the words on the page.

Honestly, if I can’t see it, I can’t write it. It’s like a movie happening. And sometimes – this happened at a couple of the scenes in Within My Heart – there are those moments where the creativity, sleep level, whatever it is, everything aligns and you just can’t type fast enough, the movie that’s playing out. You see the characters, you hear them saying things, and it’s like you're trying to keep up. Obviously, I know, it’s coming from the creative bent or that muse or whatever. It happened with The Inheritance, too, at the end of that book. I was writing and I thought, “I honestly don’t know what to do with this scene at the very last. I know what needs to be done but I don’t know how to get there as far as what things to place and everything. All of a sudden this character walked around the corner. I had not expected him to walk around the corner. I thought, “That’s it!” In those moments—I always used to pull an empty chair up beside me—I would just lean over and say “Thank you, Lord!” Because I had no clue what was going to happen here but apparently He did! And God just gives you those.

I always say writing is a journey, and it really is for me. I’ll be frank: it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There are a lot of things I can do that are easier than writing! I am currently contracted for a few more books but after that, I have no idea if God will continue to open a door for writing or not. If not, I’ll do whatever He wills because—and this was a theme in one of my books, too—I want to be centered in the middle of God’s will, whatever that is, no matter what it is, because that’s where the greatest happiness and contentment is found. Oftentimes I’ve kinda kicked against the goad or tried to go my own way. We try to chase after things we think will bring us happiness. That’s one of the themes of A Lasting Impression: chasing after what you think will make you happy and not really being authentic in your faith or as a person. You’re putting a front out there when really, the happiest and most contented—and honestly, the most effective for the kingdom—you’ll be, is just to be who you are, to be authentic. That’s been my journey over the last year and a half, specifically, of writing A Lasting Impression. That book is also my first antebellum book, a Southern historical.

Tell me what you have in the works.

I’m working on the next Belmont Mansion book. There will be three Belmont books and three Hermitage books. So I’ll be in the South for awhile, writing about mansions. I’ll probably stay in the post-Civil War era, looking at the histories of those homes and those families, but it will be the fictional story woven behind the backdrop of the history. That will keep me busy, the way that I write, for probably four to five years, and then after that, who knows?

I have a group that I brainstorm with. We each have about an hour and a half to brainstorm. We gather around and the author does a five-minute pitch on that book, and then we all give ideas and talk about plots or characterization or whatever we need help with in that book. We’ll also do what Robin Lee Hatcher, who’s also in that group, calls A List of Twenty. We’ll take, maybe, twenty minutes and you’ll sit and write down as many things as you can (it may not be twenty; there may only be eight!) and you gift those to the author. (She laughs.) I remember last year, I needed a theme for my third Belmont book and they helped me with that one. Then Robin Lee Hatcher, after she suggested it, said, “Shoot! I wish I’d kept that one for me!” And I said, “No, no, no! You gifted it to me! It’s mine now!” We spend several days and eat and plot and eat and walk and plot.

I’m so overwhelmed by the graciousness and the lack of ego you authors have and the camaraderie and friendship among all of y’all.

Oh, I’d sooner give up writing than give up the relationships I’ve made!

In one sense of the word, though, you are basically competing with each other—for shelf space, for reader loyalty. But you are each other’s best friends, and I just think that’s cool!

They are my best friends. Even though I have friends in Nashville, my writer friends are my best buddies and we email every day; we’ll talk on the phone or we’ll Skype or iChat. But I honestly don’t look at them, even if they’re writing historical fiction—they are not my competition. I truly believe, Ephesians 2:10 talks about the masterpieces that God has created for each of us to do before the beginning of time. So to me, before the beginning of time, God knew, in this certain set of days, that I’d be writing, and that my books are going to make it into the hands, however many readers, where God has prepped it—where He has willed it. Some authors, like Karen Kingsbury, are going to reach massive amounts of people, and that’s His journey for her. Authors who sell fewer books, it doesn’t make their journey less important, it’s just a different journey. We’re part of a family. I learn so much from them. I read their books and I start crying or I laugh, and I stop and think, “How did they get me here?” (That’s one thing: If you ever want to learn how to write, it ruins reading novels! It ruins it because you dissect them. It’s very difficult for me to lose myself anymore in a novel.) So yes, we’re all a family. And I’m so thankful for them because I wouldn’t be writing without my buddies who have helped me along. They have honed me and marked up my work and told me, “This was really good, but this was just alright; you need to work on this.” I want to offer God my best, and how can I offer Him the best without knowing how I need to improve? And they help me do that.

So how did you start?

I always loved to write when I was younger. Then someone who was very influential in my life, when I was around twelve or thirteen, got ahold of something I had written and said, “You’ll be making an ass of yourself if you ever let anybody read anything you’ve written.” So I took that to heart. I was sexually abused at the age of five and six and had a lot of issues that I was dealing with, especially in those coming of age years. So my filter was a little skewed, so I tucked writing away and thought about it briefly when I went to college. I ended up majoring in Marketing; that came pretty easily to me and I enjoyed it and worked almost 20 years in that field. Then my mother-in-law, Claudette Alexander, gave me a book in 1995 and said, “I think you’ll love it.” Well, Linda, I looked at the cover and it was a prairie cover and I think it had a chicken on it and it was just not something I thought I would enjoy. I kinda cut my teeth on Dean Koontz and Stephen King, and I read some historical romances too but back then there weren’t hardly any Christian ones; they were all secular. A couple of months went by and she asked if I’d read it, and I said, like we do in the South, “No, but thank you so much! I will!” But I had shelved it. Then we got a call one day unexpectedly and Claudette had died of a brain aneurysm. It was such a shock. She was the one who would eat the broccoli while we’re all chowing down on brownies and she walked all the time; it was so unexpected.

A few months passed and I was cleaning the bookshelves downstairs, just dusting, and I ran across that book. I had completely forgotten about it. I sat down and read it. LOVED it. It was Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly. I just loved it It was a simple love story. But it painted a picture of God’s unconditional love for me in a way that I had never seen. You know how God will take things and show you a different facet of Himself, a different glimpse. So I went on and tried to read everything in Christian fiction that I could find. At that time it wasn’t nearly what it is now. A couple of years passed and probably in 1997 or 1998, Joe and I were on our way back from Texas and I had just finished a book, tossed it in the back seat, and said, “I think I could write one of those,” just totally kidding. And he said, “Well, why don’t you?” We’ve always been a bit competitive so I said, “Okay, I will!” Sat down and started writing, “It was a dark and stormy night. . . “! (We laugh.) I was working at the time and doing the Mom thing so I wrote from 10:00 pm to 2:00 am, which incidentally, are still my most productive hours. So I finished the book and sent it and thought I’d get an answer in a week or so, yes or no. And a year and a half went by! I had sent it to Bethany House – that’s where my marketing degree came in handy. I looked at the target market and Bethany House by far sold most of the historicals. So I checked out a ton of their books and read them. And even though each genre is different, there is a Bethany House “feel”. I went through three rewrites with my editor and then when it went to the final review board, they said no. Usually, the third time’s the charm (with three rewrites) but they said, “It’s just not there yet, but I’m sure another publisher will snap it up.” And at that point that old voice rose up inside me: “You’re making an ass of yourself. See? Told ya!” But God had healed me and dealt with so many of those issues by then – I was in my late 30’s/early 40’s – I had come through a ton of that and thought, “God never leads you anywhere but that He doesn’t prepare you.” And I thought, to get to a final pub board just on a whim of “I think I’ll write a book” [was pretty good]. I didn’t know what I was doing! So I just tucked that book away.

For the next two years, I basically just dissected my favorite novels, joined ACFW, took writing classes, and learned how to write. I essentially took apart all the aspects of writing. Then 2004 came around and I was coordinating the conference for Francine Rivers at ACFW that year because that’s what I did in my corporate life (coordinated corporate conferences). That year Joe said, “Why don’t we take this year and you give it your all? You’ve been doing it piece-meal, working full-time and writing. Just take a year off [from work] and let’s see how it goes.” That’s when I wrote Rekindled, my first book, and Bethany House offered me a three-book deal then, and then another three-book, and then a six-book, which I just signed. Then about two years ago, my agent called and said Thomas Nelson wanted me to write the first historical for their Women of Faith fiction line. The problem was that they wanted it really soon and I physically couldn’t do it. She said, “You don’t want to turn this down. Do you not have anything tucked away?” And I said, “Ah! I’ve only written one other book and it was my very first book.” It was beyond even fixing up; it was a whole new rewrite. But Linda, I

had lived with these characters. I still dreamed about them and thought about them and their journey. And as God would have it, I had just finished reading a history book on Chinese-Americans in early American history and how they built the railroad across the plains and through the mountains of Colorado, and Women of Faith wanted different ethnic lines in their books to fit the broad ethnicity of their market. So I said to my agent, “I’ve got this book, The Inheritance that I can do.” She said, “Well, they need a write-up for their meeting tomorrow at 8:00 am.” It was 1:00 pm! So I stayed up until 4:30 that next morning, and it came so easily because I knew those characters and had lived with them!

I teach a class on rejection and how to use rejection in your writing, and being willing to rewrite and remaining teachable. But part of it too is, every “no” along the way is really part of God’s final “yes” when His perfect timing is reached, period. What we term as a setback is really part of narrowing down that right way, that journey that God has for you and me. I’ve learned that. The gift is in the journey and in what you learn along the way. That’s the long story of how I got into writing. I loved it when I was younger and never thought I would do it. But God is the restorer of discarded dreams and He dusted it off at the right time. And I could have never written the stories about marriage. My first book was about disappointment in marriage, expectations in marriage, loving your husband for who he is and not for who you want him to be, the husband loving the wife unconditionally like Christ loved the church. I couldn’t have written that at 20-something! I needed 20-something years of life and marriage under my belt! It all works for good!

I know you have a book-signing to get to, so any last words to share?

To the readers, thank you! These journeys that we take together, the relationships through the reader mail, meeting people at events like this and looking into their eyes and just having that connection mean so much, and to know that for us who are believers, it’s only begun! The best is yet to come!

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Thanks so much, Tamera! Readers, you will be missing out if you don't get to know this talented author and delightful and gracious woman better, either through her blog, where she posts at least a couple of times a week, or through her Facebook page. Her FB page is especially fun, such as last week when she personally exceeded the FB comment limit during the Bethany House Book Banter party and was banned by FB from commenting for two days, resulting in her sporting some oh-so-fashionable duct tape! I understand her daughter loved this picture so much that she put it on her phone as her mom's profile picture!

Don't miss tonight's Facebook Party with all sorts of prizes, including the grand prize, a Kindle Fire! (Be sure to click the button below BEFORE NOON TODAY to enter to win that!) Pop over now for all the info and click that you will be attending. It starts at 8:00 EST, 7:00 CST, and 5:00 PST.

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Wednesday Hodgepodge

I love Wednesdays because that means it's time to join Joyce for the Wednesday Hodgepodge. I'm always amazed at the unending fount of questions she seems to have!

1. Have you ever been 'asked' to report for jury duty? Were you chosen to serve? If not, were you happy or disappointed?

Once, within the past year. I have always wanted to serve, but I had some scheduling issues that made it really bad timing, and I was able to be excused.

2. On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very), how mechanically inclined are you? Give an example to back up your answer.

I would say an 8. I was always able to figure out how to work the VCR ( mine NEVER blinked 12:00; that drives me nuts!), I've put a few things together, and I was the tech person for our ladies retreats and Bible Studies several years - running the computer, sound, lights, etc.

3. Beets-cabbage-cauliflower-butternut squash....of the four, which is your favorite fall vegetable?

Butternut squash. I've only had that variety of squash once that I know of, but I generally like squash. The other three choices Joyce gave? Blech!

4. What do you recommend to overcome self-pity?

Thankfulness - in other words, thanking God for my blessings, not focusing on what I don't have.

5. Do you enjoy classical music?

In moderation. I really like it if it's my girl playing her viola! I'm not real fond of the interminably long pieces.

6. October is National Book Month...what's on your reading list this month?

Oh, I've been reading some great books and have some more in my stack! I just finished Deeanne Gist's Love on the Line (review coming next week), and I'm eagerly anticipating Richard Mabry's Lethal Remedy and Tamera Alexander's A Lasting Impression! There are a few more as well, but you'll just have to keep an eye on my blog to find out what those are!

7. What is your idea of 'cute'?

Babies.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Took my girl and a couple of her friends the other night to see Courageous on their school holiday earlier this week. Absolutely loved it! (Javier was hilarious!) And I don't think I've showed you that I got to meet Alex Kendrick and Kevin Downes (who played Shane, the partner of Kendrick's character Adam Mitchell) when I was in Atlanta this summer!

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Interview with Deborah Raney Plus Giveaway!

UPDATE Saturday, 10/15/11 9:45 am WINNER!
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
11
Timestamp: 2011-10-15 14:40:21 UTC
Congrats to Susan! Email me your address and I'll send the book your way!

* * * * *
I haven't met many folks more gracious than author Deborah Raney. I met her in 2009 in Dallas at the Christian Book Expo and she immediately endeared herself to me. I was so excited to discover she and her husband, Ken, would be in Atlanta for ICRS this past July. Spending an evening with them, having dinner and then intereviewing each of them, was an absolute treat for me. (You can read my chat with Ken about Clash Entertainment, his great website for Christian teens, here.)

You have released Forever After, the second novel in the Hanover Falls series, which follows the families and survivors of the fire in book 1, Almost Forever. Tell me a bit about it. [Note: My 2009 interview with Deb, and more about the first book, can be found here.]

My husband, Ken, is always on the lookout for story ideas for me. One morning over coffee a few years ago, he handed me a newspaper clipping––the story of nine heroic firefighters who were killed in a tragic fire in Charleston, SC. That story along with the risk-laden career of my niece's firefighter husband, got me thinking about the survivors of fallen firefighters and how they find the will to go on after a tragedy like the one in South Carolina. My Hanover Falls novels series explores the questions I encountered that day, and Forever After, in particular, is the story of a firefighter who lost his father––also a firefighter–– in the fire, and blames himself. To make matters worse, he falls in love with his fallen buddy's wife, Jenna Morgan. And of course, she has problems of her own. And the story takes off from there.

Can you share a little about your writing process?

I’ve not written many series before. The Clayburn novels were my first true series. I have done a couple of sequels to books. Both times I did sequels, I wrote the first book not even considering the possibility of a sequel, but by the time I got to the end, I knew there was another character I wanted to explore more. But when I started writing the Clayburn novels I knew they would be a series. So I could set things up, and that’s the first time I intentionally set things up in the first book that would carry over to another book.

One thing I love about writing series is that I create a world. I always write about fictional towns, maybe set close to a real town. The characters might go into a real town—like Springfield, Missouri—for dinner, but they always come home to a completely fictional town in an obscure, not very well-defined place. It takes a lot to create a world. I usually have a map down on paper, not just of the streets of the town and where they are, but what the houses look like. I usually find houses in magazines and pull those out and say, “This is where ‘Susan’ lives” etc. I’m a very visual person, so I have to be able to picture it before I write it.

That’s a lot of work!

It is. But honestly, that’s the most fun part! Because the whole time I’m searching for pictures of my characters and drawing the maps, my imagination is working overtime, writing that story. I always tell my husband that just because my fingers are not on the keyboard doesn’t mean I’m not writing. I can be staring out the window, and I’m doing some of the most important work of writing, which is just creating—creating that world.

So in writing a series, I can write three books, and I only have to create that world one time. There’s an economy to writing series in a very real sense because so much of the research and the creative part is done in the first book. Where it gets difficult is, finding enough interesting things to happen to carry over into three books. You’ve done all your big “happenings” in your first book; how do you sustain that for two more books? It’s really hard. And I have to say, of the series I’ve read over the course of time, I almost always like the first book the best. The others are okay, but it’s always the first book that is absolutely the best. That’s probably true for my own books, too. And I would say awards would prove that out. Remember to Forget was a Christy finalist and won several awards; the other two books haven’t done as well in contests. I think the original idea gets carried out the most in the first book.

There are pros and cons to writing series. I have to have enough characters in the first book that are interesting enough and enough a part of the subplots that people care about and remember them from the first book and want to know more about their story. And yet I have to wrap the whole book up in each one, just in case someone only picks up that one book. I want the story to be complete. Because honestly, as a reader, nothing makes me angrier than to read a book and realize I’m twenty pages from the end and there’s no way they can wrap this up. And then you find out you have to wait a whole year for the next book to find out what happens.

What also irritates me is when they make it so complex, and then you feel like they ran out of word count and they resolve the whole thing in two pages. It’s way too simplistic and fast.

It’s anticlimactic! And I’m guilty! I’ve done that very thing in a couple of books, I know. It’s that very reason: either a) you ran out of time or b) you ran out of word count. Probably the best solution would be to go back and cut a subplot so you could concentrate on the main plot. Sometimes you have time to do that, and other times you just don’t. There have been times that I know the manuscript I turn in as a first draft (which for me is usually a fifth or a sixth or a seventh draft!) is that way. I’m turning it in with the complete intention of fixing all that when I do rewrite because a lot gets changed with rewrite. But a lot of times, I don’t know what the editor’s going to think about it, and what direction he/she is going to want me to go. So it doesn’t really do me any good at that point to fix everything because I may be changing it anyway.

As much as you plot out and plan out your “kingdom,” your book’s environment, do you plan and outline the story?

(She laughs) I am totally a seat of the pants writer. About the only thing I do is, I usually—not always-- know who the characters are that are going to carry over. That allows me to do something with them and create some interest with the secondary characters that will be the main characters in the next books. For me, it would ruin the fun of writing if I knew how it was going to turn out every time.

Do your characters have minds of their own sometimes?

Absolutely! I’ve had characters die on me and not even make it into the book. I was writing a book once and the main character had a wonderful dad but the book was already too long and I still had a long way to go. So I was subconsciously trying to figure out how to cut the book down. I was typing a scene and all of a sudden the dad had a heart attack and keeled over! And I knew that was my mind saying that character was unnecessary, and I went back and deleted all the scenes he was in.

When will the third book release?

It comes out in April, and it is titled After All. In the third one, Susan, the director of the homeless shelter, is dealing with some opposition from the town. They don’t want the shelter. Having the shelter implies that they have homeless, and if they get rid of the shelter, then they won’t have homeless; they’ll go somewhere else like Springfield or St. Louis. And especially because of the fire, the homeless shelter has just been a black mark on the town. So she’s dealing with that and dealing with one of her sons, who’s really struggling with his dad’s death.
Each book starts at the original fire and then jumps forward. The second book jumps forward a year and the third one is 18 months later. So the opening of this one is Susan at her husband’s memorial service. As she’s leaving with her two college-age sons, she sees a strange woman—a beautiful, nicely dressed woman. At first she thinks the woman’s visiting someone else’s grave, but then their eyes meet and she sees something there.

An affair?

Well, we don’t know! But this woman appears again later in the book, and Susan knows at that moment that there’s some secret that her husband was keeping, and we’re not sure what it was. That’s a lot of the story, her resolving the issue of “Was my husband someone I don’t even know anymore? Did I even know this man that I thought I loved and that I’ve been grieving and who was the father of my children?”

Will we find out?

Oh, yes. You’ll find out everything at the end of this book because it’s the last one. Hopefully all the things will be tied together. I think the ending will surprise some people who have read all three books, especially. I’m really happy with how the whole series came together.

What are your current projects?

I’m working on a book for Summerside Press, Love Finds You in Madison County, Iowa, which is [the location of] the Bridges of Madison County. The town of Winterset is absolutely charming and the bridges are beautiful. Another claim to fame is that it’s the birthplace of John Wayne. They also have this tower, Clark's Tower, with a beautiful overlook in a park and there will be a scene there. It will probably have even more romance than I usually have in my books. I’m looking forward to writing it.

The project after that, also with Summerside, is for their new Christmas series. Each book’s title is a Christmas song. Basically, they are taking the reader back to the day when they fell in love to remember what things were like then. My book is set in 1971, when I was in high school, and it was really fun to go back and see how much things have changed! My title is going to be one of the songs the Carpenters sang. I'm not sure about the release date yet, but probably Fall 2013.

I have one more stand-alone to write for Howard Books. It will probably have more suspense elements than my books have ever had, although it won’t be a suspense per se. It’s about an empty nest couple with two kids away at college, and the wife goes to a conference and never comes home. She calls and says she’ll be late and that she still has a couple of hours to drive but she never shows up, and they never find her car. My working title is The Face of the Earth, and it will come out in the spring of 2013. I don’t have all the details of the story worked out yet, but at a family reunion last summer, my husband’s brothers asked me what I was working on. I gave them a synopsis and they immediately began throwing out ideas while I wrote them down as fast as I could! I loved brainstorming with them because the biggest part of the book is going to be from the perspective of the hero, not the heroine. They were giving me the perspective of a man: if this happened, what would a real man do?

And I’m not telling you how it ends, mostly because I don’t know yet! I have about three scenarios that I’m working from. It’s different, after writing two series – my last 6 books have been parts of series – to go back and write a stand-alone and know that I have to wrap everything up in one book.

Thanks so much, Deb! It's always a pleasure to catch up with you! Folks, you can learn more about Deborah Raney on her website. Now, here's more info about her latest Hanover Falls book, along with a giveaway!

Forever After
Deborah Raney
(Howard Books)
ISBN: 978-1416599937
June, 2011/416 pages/$14.99

A fire killed his best friend and his lifelong dream of being a firefighter. The same fire killed her husband and hopes for a family. Can new dreams replace old?

Lucas Vermontez was a proud firefighter like his father. Now, not only has he lost his father and his best friend, Zach, in the fire at the Grove Street homeless shelter, but the devoted rookie can no longer do the work he loves after being crippled in the tragic event. When friendship with his buddy’s beautiful widow turns into more, he wonders, what could he possibly offer Jenna?

Jenna Morgan is trying to grieve her husband’s death like a proper widow, but the truth is, she never really loved Zach. His death feels more like a relief to her. But that relief is short-lived when she loses her home and the financial support of her in-laws. Now the secrets of her past threaten to destroy her future.

Can the two forget the painful past and discover new reasons to live and love?



MY THOUGHTS:
Deb thinks subsequent books in series often don't measure up to the first one, but in this case, I disagree! I thoroughly enjoyed Forever After and loved how she developed the characters of Lucas and Jenna. Their shared tragedy understandably bonds them together; the baggage they carry threatens to extinguish the spark of romance growing between them. This story is also a good example of the pressure communities and families can place on the family members of fallen heroes, forever defining their lives and actions in context of such a tragedy, rather than allowing them to move forward and focus on life, not death. I look forward to reading the final book in this series!

GIVEAWAY!
I have an autographed copy of Forever After to give to one of you! To enter, leave a comment on this post by 8:00 pm CDT Thursday, 10/13/11, and I will draw a winner. Leave a second comment stating you mentioned/linked to this giveaway on your blog or Facebook for a an additional entry. Limit 2 entries per person. US residents only, please. You must include an email address if you do not have a blog.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Howard Books. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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A Double Giveaway!

UPDATE 10/9/11 9:45 pm WINNERS!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
1
4
Timestamp: 2011-10-10 02:39:17 UTC
Congrats to Beth and karenk! Email me your address ladies, and I'll send the books your way!

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Along Wooded Paths
Tricia Goyer
(B&H Books)
ISBN: 978-1433668692
October, 2011/320 pages$14.99

All she wanted was a simple Amish life . . . But now Marianna Sommer finds herself depending on Englisch neighbors. Although proud of living apart from the world, she and her newly relocated Amish family have discovered that life in the remote mountains of Montana requires working together.

As Marianna begins helping those different from herself—and receiving their help—her heart contemplates two directions. She’s torn between the Amish man from Indiana whom she has long planned on marrying and the friendly Englischer who models a closer walk with God than she’s ever seen before.

Who should have young Marianna’s heart? What is God asking her to sacrifice? Her traditions? Her community? The answer is found along the wooded paths.

Read an excerpt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tricia Goyer is an acclaimed and prolific writer, publishing hundreds of articles in national magazines including Today’s Christian Woman and Focus on the Family while authoring more than twenty-five fiction and nonfiction books combined. Among those are 3:16 Teen Edition with Max Lucado and the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Award winners Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights. She has also written books on marriage and parenting and contributed notes to the Women of Faith Study Bible. Tricia lives with her husband and four children in Arkansas. Learn more about Tricia and her other books at her website.

MY THOUGHTS:
I am thoroughly enjoying this series. If you are tempted to think, "Not another Amish book!", let me assure you, Tricia Goyer is one of the stand-out authors in this genre. I love how Marianna and her family, as well as their small Amish community in Montana, are stretched by the authentic Christianity lived out by the Englishchers in their midst. So many Amish books portray the Englischers as worldly and hostile to things of God, and the interactions between the two cultures are uneasy at best and, more often, distrustful and contentious. In this series, the Englisch are not only believers, they are co-workers, customers, neighbors and friends of the Amish. I particularly like how Marianna desires to did deeper into faith to find out the difference between Biblically-based beliefs and those traditions decreed by man. Toss in her heart's tug of war between her childhood sweetheart and the new friend who has opened her eyes to faith as she's never before experienced it, and I found myself glued to the pages of this completely mesmerizing yet thought-provoking novel. I highly recommend this book and this series. I eagerly await the next one!


You can read my review of book one in The Big Sky series, Beside Still Waters, here.



Come to a Facebook Party and Live Author Chat!

Tricia is celebrating the release of Along Wooded Paths with a Fabulous Facebook party on October 18th. She'll be giving away prizes and a sneak peak at the next book in the Big Sky series.

Then during the second half of the party she'll be hosting a LIVE AUTHOR CHAT on her website and announcing something BIG! CLICK the button (below) to RSVP for the party, then go here to sign up for the Live Author Chat.

Best Kept Secret - Spread the Word!

It is embarrassing how long it is taking me to sift through, transcribe, and post my interviews from my incredible week in Atlanta. If money were no object, I'd find some sort of recorder that converted words to text so it wasn't so time-consuming. But the good thing about the time spent transcribing each interview is the opportunity to once again experience each conversation.

I am especially excited to share this interview and spread the word about an incredible website for Christian teens. Author Deborah Raney became a sweet friend when I met her in Dallas in 2009, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to meet her husband, Ken, and learn about his ministry. The three of us enjoyed dinner together one evening then found a quiet spot for a double interview. It still makes me smile as I think about it.

Deb had told me about Clash Entertainment when we first met and I told my girl about it, but listening to Ken share and hearing his heart and philosophy behind this ministry absolutely blessed me. Please read this and share it with every teen and youth ministry leader you know!

Why the name Clash? Is this because teens clash so much with adults?!

Actually, I was looking for a name that would be kind of catchy that teenagers could relate to but I also was interested in the concept where, in Ephesians 6, it says we struggle not against flesh and blood enemies but against powers, principalities, etc., so the name Clash came up because it’s a struggle or a battle.

Tell me about the website in general and what’s there.

Clash Entertainment is an entertainment website for Christian teenagers and we basically report on and we have reviews and interviews for Christian media; that would include books, movies, music, and games. We do review mainstream movies, especially the ones that appeal to teenagers, such as when Ironman came out. We don’t review movies that we don’t think teenagers are going to be interested in per se. The books we review are the Young Adult (YA) novels. We do have reviews of some adult novels we think the teens are going to be interested in.

Are you reviewing YA Christian novels o r YA mainstream novels?

We do a little bit of both. I have two sources that supply me with reviews. One reviews Christian YA novels and the other one reviews mainstream secular YA novels, but from a Christian worldview. The games are all over the board. For the most part, the company I use doesn’t review the ones with a M rating, although there have been a couple.

Are they adults reviewing them or teens?

It’s all adults. Occasionally I’ve had teenagers contributing some music reviews, some game reviews, some fashion stuff, but it’s mostly adults. There are a lot of adults out there who have a passion for teens and do this type of thing. I’d love to have more teens, but the problem is that pretty soon they become adults and I have to keep finding new ones! One of the things we’ve offered them is that I’ve got a pretty good editor. (He grins at his understatement of his award-winning wife’s capabilities!) If they write for us, we tell them that Deborah Raney will edit your material and help you become a better writer. So we send it back to them marked up. (Deb interjects, “I red-ink them!”)

There are some other Christian review websites that are super conservative. That’s one thing my girl has liked about yours, that you’re not quite so ultra-conservative. What is your philosophy? How do you strike a balance of “in the world, not of the world” and giving teens healthy boundaries without everything being a gasp and a no?

That has been an issue. I’ve gotten letters and comments from (I’m assuming) adults who are not happy with some things that we’ve done. I spoke with a youth pastor before I started the site. He told me that there’s a very well-known reviewing site about which he said, “I find it worthless because everything’s bad. It may be bad, but the kids are watching those movies. I would much rather tell them the truth and let them decide for themselves than say ‘everything’s bad and don’t watch anything’ because they’re going to go anyway.” That’s kinda the attitude I’ve taken. I tell them, “If you’re going to watch Ironman, you’re going to have a lot of fun. You’re going to enjoy it; there are a lot of neat special effects and a lot of cool stuff. But this is in there also. So we try to let them kinow and have them informed. We’ve had a few people get upset with us. But I’d rather treat the kids more as adults than look down at them.

One thing I struggle with: there are some things that are out there that I don’t really want to promote. So if I feel like that we just won’t put it on there. For example, there’s a lot of heavy metal Christian music, and I just don’t appreciate. It just bugs me! But I know it’s very popular. So if I’ve heard of them and I know a little bit about them, I go to their website. If I see that they honor Christ on their website, I’ll post it. But if I go to their website and I just see a lot of stuff about music and I don’t see anything about Jesus, then I won’t promote that. I’ve been very impressed with a lot of the hip-hop Black Christian music. I’ve been very impressed with their testimonies. Never heard of these people, can’t say I’m a big fan of their music. But reading what they’re saying and why they’re doing their music, I’m thinking, “praise the Lord and amen for these people!” If they’re doing that, I’m trying to encourage teenagers to check it out.

Deborah interjects: Can I jump in and say one thing? His philosophy with raising our kids was always: When they got to a certain age and wanted to do something, he would say – and I didn’t always like this very much, but I think it was a good thing – “you know what Mom and I believe about that, and you know what God’s Word says about it, but you’re a big boy (or a big girl) now, and this decision is going to have to be between you and the Lord.” Most of the time, our kids made the right decision, given those parameters.

The internet is blamed, rightly so, for a lot of negative behaviors among teens. Some folks might just say toss it. How can it be used for good?

It’s just like anything else; it’s a tool. There are good things on the internet. For parents, let’s just be honest: if your kid’s going to school, they’re seeing things you don’t approve of. They’re hearing stuff you don’t approve of. A lot of that is the same way on the internet. The best thing is to raise them up right when they’re younger. Our function at Clash is two-fold. One is to offer an alternative to the world’s media. Our daughter liked People magazine and celebrity stuff, which is pretty trashy and pretty vacuous. We’re not celebrity-based at all but we try report on people who are Christians, like the movie Soul Surfer and Bethany Hamilton. She became pretty famous from that so we had a lot about her life and about the movie. And Tim Tebow in football – we had some articles about sports figures who are Christians and taking a stand for the Lord. So we try to show there are people who are Christians in the news or the limelight or whatever. If you like games, there are some Christian games but they are few and far between and from what I understand they’re not very good. We try to let people know about them. We’re trying to raise the standard so that the Christian games will be as good as or better than what the world does. Movies are the same way. Soul Surfer was a good step. Blind Side wasn’t a Christian movie per se, but those familiar with it know it was a Christian family but those are positive steps – a well-made movie with positive depictions. We’re trying to encourage more of those kind of movies with that kind of quality.

So is Clash part of a media company or a private thing?

Clash Entertainment is essentially a ministry right now. It actually costs me money every month to keep it going because I pay some of the contributors and of course, I paid to get it built. It’s never made any money. I felt like the Lord instructed me to do this, and He hasn’t told me to stop. So I’m going to keep going as long as I can. I don’t get to put as many hours into it as I’d like to. I freelance for a media group for other work but that’s separate.

What is the best way to promote Clash?

That’s a good question. I felt from the beginning that if we could get out the word to youth leaders and teenagers themselves and they went to the site, they’d like it and tell their friends. The first day the numbers were up but it’s never hit that again. All I can figure is that right now, the allure of the world’s media is so strong and Christian media has not been very good, so there’s no real reason or atraction to keep up on that. But the thing is, I’m convinced that most people, let alone teenagers, are unaware of a lot of the Christian media that’s available. There’s some really good music that’s every bit as good as the world’s music. The stuff that the Christian musicians are doing now is very, very good. Books are there. A lot of teenagers like fantasy; there are a lot of really good fantasy authors in the Christian market. Gaming industy’s not quite there yet. Movies are coming up, but they’re not making movies for teenagers per se. So there are still some gaps, but there’s a lot of stuff they’re not even aware is available. I’d venture to say that most Christian teenagers don’t even know all the Young Adult authors who are working out there. We were hoping to be an outlet for that. And I’ve had to turn advertisers away. All the publishers have contacted me saying, “This looks like a great idea” and I’ve had to say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t have enough people coming to my site to charge you any money. But I’ll put your ads on for free!” And I’ve done that. So like I say, it’s ministry. So the best way to promote it, I think, is keep talking about it.

Well, I know it’s in my girl’s Favorites, and I was checking her computer for something, and it was in her History. Is there a logo I could put on my blog?

That would be great. If you go to our FAQ, there are several choices of logos.

What else can you tell me about the site?

There are two things we haven’t talked that I think teenagers and youth leaders will find very important.

We have a career section. Mostly, that contains interviews with Christians in the work force. We have a canned set of questions we send out. We have farmers, architects, a B-2 stealth bomber pilot, a lot of film makers, a lot of graphic designers, authors, illustrators, teachers, homemakers, small business owners, all kinds of jobs. The questions are things like What kind of education did you have to have to get your job? What’s a typical day at work like? What do you really love about your job? What one part of your job would you really like to have someone else do? How does your job allow you to use your God-given talents? And the last question is Do you have any hobbies or things that you do that you think teenagers would be interested in? We get a lot of people who, for example, teach school all day and then write novels in the evenings. So they get to cover that. We’ve got—I don’t know how many—maybe 100 interviews on there, so a teenager who is interested in a certain career goes to the Career tab and types in that career and it pulls up those interviews.

The other thing we started is Verse of the Day. I get several verses of the day in my email and it’s just text. I thought, “Let’s put a pretty picture on there.” I thought I’d link to one but I couldn’t find one so I made my own. So we have Verse of the Day which is a photograph with a Scripture on top of it. We’re actually going through Psalms this year, and it might take more than a year to go through Psalms! We just have a different verse each day with a pretty picture, and we invite teenagers to submit photos. We don’t take every picture, but if they send good pictures we’ll put them up there and they get credit with their age. The photos are all God’s creation. We try not to show any signs of man. What we did recently was make it a different website. It’s still on Clash, but we also made it a different website so it can be found with search engines. I bet I’ve had half a dozen teenagers submit pictures and have them published. We have one young man now from Scotland, 17 years old, and this guy’s talented! We’ve run a lot of his pictures. He’s very talented; I think he’s going to go somewhere in photography or film-making or something like that.

We also change the header on the website every week, and teenagers can submit one of those. We have a template they have to use, but there are lots of opportunities for teens to do things, through design, reviews, photography, etc.

Thank you so much, Ken! I loved learning more about this!

Readers, my girl refers to this site often. She really likes their balanced movie reviews. She also submitted a book review that was published on the site, and she was able to get some great information from the career tab about a young woman that is a missionary who majored in music, the exact career combination my girl is interested in! So we heartily endorse the site.

Folks, I urge you to take a peek at this website and share it with any teens you know as well as the youth leadership at your church and any other organizations that impact teens. The career info would be a great thing for Christian school counselors to know! Post the button on your blog and share it on Facebook and let's help spread the word!

BTW, you don't have to be a teen to subscribe to the Verse of the Day! I love getting it in my inbox every morning! You can see today's verse and subscribe here.

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Carol Award Winner - Interview and Giveaway

UPDATE Monday 10/3/11 at 8:30 am WINNER!

Random Integer Generator
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3
Timestamp: 2011-10-03 13:29:29 UTC
Congratulations to traveler. Email me your address and the book will be on its way to you.

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The very last ACFW Carol Award announced Saturday night was that for Debut Author. While I was not physically at the event in St. Louis, I was following the live blog on my iPhone. I was thrilled when Gina Holmes won for Crossing Oceans. I absolutely loved that book when I read and reviewed it last year. What a treat it was to have the opportunity to meet and interview Gina when I was in Atlanta in July! What better time to post our conversation than now, especially since I have an autographed copy of this award-winning book to give to one of you at the end!

Crossing Oceans is just incredible. I put a big box of tissues on my review! I didn’t see any way the book could end well, but you showed how God uses grace in our darkest moments and wrapped it up so beautifully. It is an incredible novel for anyone to write, but the fact that it’s a debut novel just blew me away. Tell me how you came up with all of that and your writing journey.

I probably have one of the most documented on the web with the blog Novel Journey (now Novel Rocket). I wrote four suspense novels that I tried to get contracted and they came close to getting contracted but God had other plans. I’m so glad it happened that way because that’s not the genre I should be writing in!

I was with Chip McGregor, who is my agent, and I was working on a nurse sleuth mystery because I’m a nurse and I wrote suspense; I was working on that, and it just felt like drudgery. I mean, I felt like I was at work and I just didn’t want to be there. So I started Crossing Oceans. At the time in my life, I was going through a very painful divorce, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but the dying mother was me. And if anybody’s ever been through a divorce, you just come out of it with all this guilt for your children and all this pain and all those feelings that come with it, and it’s like a death. So that’s what I was working out at that time. And I presented both stories to Chip and said, “Which one do you think?” And he said, “I could sell either one of these, but Crossing Oceans is your voice. So I finished that one and worked out a lot of grief through that story, and I guess in a sense, I was Jenny, and that death was the death of my life as I knew it. I was a stay-at-home mom and leading Bible clubs in my home and teaching Awanas and a Sunday School teacher and just like that, everything I knew had changed and the rug was dragged out from under me. The way God works in Crossing Oceans is the way God always works in my life: what you see as this beauty from ashes, stuff you just have to trust –because it makes no sense right now – this can’t possibly work out, I can’t possibly ever be happy again. And God has a plan. He’s just so amazing in ways you never saw coming. All of that was Crossing Oceans. So it very much is a part of my soul and I hope I get another story like that. It’s very cathartic writing, it’s very cleansing writing, and it’s very cheap therapy!

I think the third one that I’m working on right now is like that. It’s about an abused woman and I know a little bit about that

With Crossing Oceans, when Chip sent it out to the publishers to see what the reaction was, everyone said, “What is this? We’ve known Gina for years and she writes these weird exorcist books!” But Tyndale was absolutely in love with the story and contracted it before it was even finished and pursued me. I’d never had that happen! Up to that time I was stalking editors but at that point the tables turned and I was being courted. A couple of publishers were interested but Tyndale was passionate so we went with them.

I just signed a new two-book contract with them; Dry as Rain comes out in September.

I was hoping an advanced copy of that one would be available by now!

That’s my fault because it took so long to write. They say if you could, just skip writing your second book and move to your third one! I don’t know what it is – some kind of weird sophomore curse. It was absolutely horrible to write and so difficult. They say it’s like that for everyone. I don’t know why that is. I never want to have to go through that kind of toil again in writing a book. It didn’t come naturally or easy, and I went through some major rewrites from third person to first person, from two points of view to one point of view. Crossing Oceans flowed. And the third book is flowing. But with Dry as Rain, I felt that I was tweezing every word out.

Tell me what Dry as Rain is about.

Dry as Rain is from the point of view of a man, which I think is a little jolting to people; having been in first person Jenny’s point of view [in Crossing Oceans], now I’m in first person Eric’s point of view throughout the whole book. It’s about a couple who drifts apart, one misunderstanding and unkind word at a time, as many marriages do over years until there’s this huge chasm between them and they separate. Eric ends up having an affair with a coworker, wakes up in that woman’s bed, and gets the phone call that his wife was in an accident. She has partial amnesia and doesn’t remember that they’re separated. She doesn’t remember she’s not madly in love with him, and she treats him the way she treated him years ago. What he thought was a toe tag on the marriage, he finds that he never stopped loving her. So now he’s got a window of opportunity in his mind, whether that’s right or wrong, to win her back before she remembers. It’s about forgiveness and infidelity and can the unforgiveable ever be forgiven.

So you’ve got a third book in the contract?

The first contract I signed was for Crossing Oceans and Dry as Rain. I just signed another contract for Shadows of Love and Driftwood Tides, which are not written yet; I’m working on them.

They’re all stand-alone books?

Yes. I wouldn’t mind trying a sequel or series sometime, but right now I’ve got a lot of individual stories to tell and maybe, a lot of individual therapy sessions to work out with myself!
I think not everyone realizes it’s therapy. If you know what someone is going through and you know them that well – it took someone else telling me on Crossing Oceans, “You were going through a divorce; do you not see that connection? She is dying, you were ‘dying’.” Now it all makes sense and not until the end do you have time to look back and see what you were working out. I think if that’s not true of an author, then maybe they’re not cutting the veins open. But I think it is true and I think they don’t realize it. I think it takes someone with some pretty good insight into human nature and who knows them pretty well to say “Oh you were working out this.”

Sometimes you do tell other people’s stories. With Dry as Rain, I have not suffered infidelity (that I know of!), so that book did not feel like my story as much as Crossing Oceans did or the third one coming up will, because I have been through abuse and I have died, in a way.

Do you work as a nurse still?

When I signed the second contract, I stopped, so that was very recently. It’s tough work. It’s not for the faint of heart. People say writing is one of the toughest jobs – oh, give me a break! Come work on a med-surg floor! (We laugh and share some camaraderie and memories.)

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Of course, I like to read. I love being outside; I like getting my hands dirty—gardening and hiking and walking. I love hanging out with my husband. I’ve been married two years now and he’s just my best friend and the greatest gift from God. Talk about beauty from ashes! And I like hanging out with my children. Get me around some dirt and mountains and water and I’m happy.

What’s on your nightstand?

I love Charles Martin and Francine Rivers. I’m in a non-fiction mode right now. I’m reading a lot of John Townsend stuff, the one who wrote Boundaries.

What sort of spiritual messages do you like to put in your books?

I think for me, I don’t try to put any message in there, but what comes out for me and what I’ve seen God do in my life, He always uses the least of the least, and I’m definitely the least of the least. I was a very sad, very troubled child, and all these things I thought were huge crushing, painful things in childhood, I thought, “God, why would You do this to somebody if You love me?” And to fast-forward so many years later and see how He used all those things for my good and I just didn’t see at the time; I just didn’t know His plan. We don’t have the “beginning and the end” view that He does. I like to work that in – just trust God! He really has got it. Take it easy, sit back, relax, put your seat in the chair and just trust. Even if you can’t see it right now. He’s proven that to me over and over, and it can’t help but seep out into what I write.

What has been the most unexpected thing about being a published author?

Because I ran Novel Journey, now Novel Rocket, for so long and sat in your chair, I had a good picture and knew what to expect. I knew there was not celebrity involved. No one really cares about the author; they care about the book. I knew book signings were torturous, and they’re more torturous than I thought they were!

That’s a shame! I love getting to know the authors! I’d be holding up the line because I would want to sit down and chat!

Before I knew anything, that’s what I thought it would be. But I feel like I’m standing there with a cup and people are trying not to make eye contact because they don’t want to put a quarter in my cup. They seem so uncomfortable. I’ve even had people take my book, look at it, and walk away with it without having me sign it. The author doesn’t matter as much as the book does, and that’s probably a good thing! I like meeting people and talking to people but I don’t like begging people to take my book.

What’s the most tedious part of writing?

It depends on the book. Crossing Oceans wasn’t heavily edited. They liked it as is, although they did edit it some. Dry as Rain was more tedious. When you go from third person to first person and take out 50% of the character, that ends up with multiple rewrites and can be frustrating. I think if you stay true to what you should be writing and don’t allow yourself to be contracted beyond what you can do, that helps. The marketing part, trying to figure out what readers are looking for and trying to please them, can be tedious. I don’t think we do well when we try to do what other people expect of us. I think we have to be true to the story and ourselves and the story God has for us.

What do you say to an aspiring writer who either doesn’t know how to start or gets rejected.?

I have tons of advice! Visit Novel Rocket, not because we need the readership but because it really is a good place to learn. My biggest piece of advice is to go to writer’s conferences. There are gatekeepers in this industry and that’s where they are. You need to go and meet people and you need to meet them several times. Relationships don’t build instantaneously, although that’s what we want. We go and attack people and pitch them our story and we think they’re going to take them and it doesn’t happen that way. I met my agent one year, pitched him and he rejected me, met with him another year and then another year, and by the fifth year we were friends and he was pursuing me. That’s how relationships build. Take it easy, just like with God and life. Put your seat back. It’s going to be a long ride. You’re not as far along as you think you are. At the right time, it will happen. And it usually happens when you don’t need it to happen or when you don’t desire it above everything else. Go to conferences, perfect your craft, get every book on writing, write, write, get into a critique group – not one that tells you what you want to hear, but one that tears up your work in a positive way that you know is right.

Any last words of wisdom or things that you want to say?

I appreciate everyone’s support. Crossing Oceans did really well and it’s because of word of mouth, and I appreciate everybody that did that. I appreciate you for doing that for me; your review was beautiful and it made my day!

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, Gina!

Here is the summary of Crossing Oceans and a reprint of my thoughts from my May, 2010 review:

Jenny Lucas swore she’d never go home again. But being told you’re dying has a way of changing things. Years after she left, she and her five-year-old daughter, Isabella, must return to her sleepy North Carolina town to face the ghosts she left behind. They welcome her in the form of her oxygen tank–toting grandmother, her stoic and distant father, and David, Isabella’s dad . . . who doesn’t yet know he has a daughter. As Jenny navigates the rough and unknown waters of her new reality, the unforgettable story that unfolds is a testament to the power of love and its ability to change everything—to heal old hurts, bring new beginnings . . . even overcome the impossible. A stunning debut about love and loss from a talented new voice.

MY THOUGHTS:
This is an amazing novel for any author to have written, but the fact that it's Gina Holmes' debut novel makes it that much more incredible. Just be sure to have one thing by your side at all times as you read it:


I am not kidding you. I have never had a book break my heart like this one did, nor cause me to mull over it so long after finishing it. (What is a reader to do when she longs to pray for and hug the neck of fictional characters?!) Not that it is morose in its telling. On the contrary, it is an achingly tender story. Jenny and her precious daughter, Isabella, walked right off of the pages and into my heart. As I progressed further into the book and the layers of sorrow and love intertwined, I couldn't fathom how the story could end in any satisfying manner. And if this were a secular title, that would be true. But God infuses hope and grace at each of life's most fragile turns for the believer, and Gina Holmes has gently and expertly woven Truth into this book. While the book literally made my heart hurt and brought me to tears, the last sentence left me with a smile. And that is all I will tell you! You absolutely MUST get this book.


GIVEAWAY!

I attended Gina's book signing at the Tyndale booth in Atlanta and received an autographed copy of the award-wining Crossing Oceans to give to one of you! To enter, leave a comment on this post by 8:00 pm CDT Sunday, 10/2/11 and I will draw a winner. Leave a second comment telling me you mentioned/linked to this post on your blog and/or Facebook and receive a second entry. Limit two entries per person. US Residents only. You must include your name and email address if you don't have a blog so I can contact you if you win.

Be watching for my review of Dry as Rain; I am anxiously awaiting its arrival!

Learn more about Gina at her website or on Facebook

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A Christy Winner Interview & Giveaway!

UPDATE Sunday 9/25/11 at 10:00 pm WINNER!

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1
Timestamp: 2011-09-26 02:53:57 UTC
Congrats to petite (Ellie)! Email me your address and I'll send the book to you!

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DiAnn Mills is an author that I had the privilege of meeting in Dallas back in 2009. I had enjoyed several of her books and we immediately hit it off since she lives in Houston and we have some commonalities, plus she writes books set in Texas! When I found out I had the opportunity to go to Atlanta in July, I immediately set up an interview to reconnect with her. At first, I thought, "What should I ask her? I've asked the standard author questions about her writing journey, etc." Silly me! There is never enough time to talk to someone who is as vibrant and fascinating as she is! Grab a cup of your favorite brew and enjoy this chat with DiAnn Mills!

I still laugh when I remember meeting and interviewing in 2009 in Dallas when you told me that most people drive through their neighborhood and see a roll of carpet at the curb and think someone’s remodeling but you immediately think “there’s a dead body somewhere!” (She laughs!) Tell me about your recent novel, Under a Desert Sky, which is set in New Mexico -- a change from your series about the Border Patrol.

There’s a story about Under a Desert Sky. Two years ago I was supposed to teach an advanced fiction class at a writer’s conference. I flew into Albuquerque and it’s 2 ½ hours by bus to even get to Ghost Ranch. It’s desolate. (Remember the movie City Slickers? It’s filmed there.) It got its name honestly. There are some fabulous tales there. Georgia O’Keefe, the famous artist, lived several years there. We pulled into this ranch, kind of an adobe kind of setting. I got off the bus and I said to the driver, “Just give me my luggage and I’ll pull it to [my room] as soon as I sign in.” And he said, “Oh no. We have to get someone to drive you there.” I said, “Oh, I can walk!” And he said, “No, where you’re staying is not even here.” So I looked around, and the sun was starting to set, and it was the most desolate place I’d ever seen in my life! In truth, it was 2 ½ miles down a back road and over a cattle guard to get to this home that was built in 1935, and by then it was dark! There were no locks on the house, my cell phone didn’t work, and all I could think was, “In the morning, I’m going home!” That was my horrible attitude! The next morning I opened the blinds and it was absolutely the most beautiful view I had ever seen. The sun was glistening off the rocks, and I thought, “Wow! This is stunning!” And I fell in love with the whole area.

This was the first time this writer’s conference had been held at Ghost Ranch, and they didn’t have any takers for the class I was teaching. So I walked around and all I could think was “This would be a great place for a suspense novel.” By the time I went home a few days later, I had the whole story in my mind. I took tons of pictures, and set it around that ranch – the buildings, the house, the landmarks, everything.

It’s unusual in that the heroine is in first person and the hero is in third. The reason for that is because I knew her. She spoke to me. I understood her lifestyle a little better. But the hero is a Navajo Indian who is also a medical doctor. I couldn’t get that intimacy in first person, so I wrote in third, as close to first as I could, but in third, so it’s a little different. I loved the way it turned out.

It’s very good. Being from Texas, when I think of New Mexico, I think of what you saw that first day, and I don’t see the beauty. I think of flat and desert, although I know there are some pretty areas, such as Albuquerque and the mountains.

Mountains, copper colors and blonde blending in together, and when the sun glistened off them it just sparkled, the deer – it was November so I didn’t see any snakes or I’d have been running! – everywhere you turned, it was just gorgeous. It is a trip worth taking. I’m going back the first part of November this year to teach a beginner class and I’m so excited because I’ll have my book with me. They have a library and I donated a copy to that. It was just fun. It was out of my normal realm. It was 1935, which was a nice transition from historical to contemporary suspense.

What do you have in the works right now?

I have a romantic suspense coming out with Tyndale in September called Attracted to Fire. The hero and heroine are Secret Service Agents. Their protectee is the rebellious daughter of the Vice President. They whisk her off to a remote ranch in West Texas thinking they can keep her safe because she’s been threatened, but someone on that ranch has betrayed them. It’s fun. I enjoyed that; I loved the suspense and the Secret Service – how they do things and how they think and how they would step in front of a bullet for someone they don’t even care for.

So how did you research that?

It was difficult. I know a couple of Secret Service agents and basically what they would say is “No, DiAnn, you have it all wrong; go back to the drawing board” or “Hmm, that’s pretty close” – that sort of thing. So I did have a little bit of help, but it was in such a way not to go against Secret Service protocol but so I could write with a little accuracy.

I’m currently writing a series called Crime Scene Houston. And I love it! I love the characters; it has the same characters all the way through. My heroine is a writer, and my hero is an FBI agent. In the course of writing Pursuit of Justice, I became friends with the media coordinator in Houston’s FBI office. She was instrumental in securing me a pass that I could write from their solved cold cases. So the novels in that particular series are based on solved cold cases. And then I massage it and fictionalize it. They’re set in Houston. My FBI agent, the media coordinator, reads every word to make sure I have the right terminology. There are some things that are a little stretched and we work on that, because it is fiction and it’s like a movie – not everything is going to be exactly the same – and I’m really enjoying that. My husband says I live in a fiction world and that’s pretty true!

The first book is about gang warfare and I have a fabulous story about that. I finished the first one and it’s based on a case that was originally called Beloved Doe. It was a child who was found in a dumpster and the child had been starved and it looked like the child, because of physical problems, had had a feeding tube at one time. It was really sad and it took five years for it to be solved. The first quarter of the book I sobbed all the way through because I knew it was true. I had the news media reports on DVD to watch. The other part of the story is that my FBI agent is trying to bring in some gangs. It’s gang warfare mixed with this other situation; they overlap and you'll have to read it to find out how that happens! I finished the first draft and sent it in and my editor said, “You know, we really would like to have the point of view of the villain.” The villain is the leader of the largest Hispanic gang in Houston. Now, I’ve gone to Sudan to research, researched FBI, ridden the line with the Border Patrol – I’ll do just about anything to research! But I’m not going to go to a gang and say “Hey! Tell me how you do things!” But a fabulous thing happened. In our church on Easter we had one of those presentations where people walked across the stage with signs that said what they used to be. Well, there was one fellow whose sign said, “Used to be in a cartel, and saved by the blood of Christ.” Everybody clapped. I called the church’s Spanish ministry and got in contact with the guy right away. He’s the sweetest, nicest guy you’d ever want to meet! He told me everything I needed to know about the villain’s view, Spanish phrases, all kinds of cool things. And I was able to help connect him with a published writer to do a biography for him. Obviously he can’t use his real name, but he’s had two cartels, done everything from street crime to white collar crime. Anyway, we just became friends! So I got my point of view and didn’t have to go down on the south side and wait for something to happen!

I’m very happy with how my career is going. There’s always the social media. You could spend all day long doing nothing but social media, and I don’t want to do that. I write in the mornings, and I have my craftsman students, the Christian Writer’s Guild that I mentor, in the afternoon. I highly respect, admire, and understand all the work that has to happen through social media. So I’m doing it but I hope that I’m doing it sensibly – more of a power punch than a scatter gun.

I love your Monday question on Facebook. I’m just overwhelmed with how kind you authors are. I’ve met “famous” Christians who don’t have time for the little people. It means so much when I make a comment and you "Like" it.

I have to go in with the mindset of “There’s a friend, there’s a new friend, there’s a friend I haven’t seen in a while,” instead of “Oh, how nice this person is, maybe she’ll buy my book.” That’s what I enjoy about social media, Facebook, etc. Our grandparents purchased their supplies from the fellow with seven kids who sat on the pew in front of them in church. They purchased from those with whom they had a relationship, not that the relationship was supposed to get them a better deal, but because they liked them. That’s the way I look at Facebook. I want to have relationships. If you’re in the market for a book and if you want to read mine, that’s great, but that’s not why I’m on FB. I think that maybe some people don’t have that mindset and then they wonder why things aren’t going the way they want them to. And that’s my view. We’re just bringing back traditions our grandparents had and putting them in a different form. That’s my sermon on Facebook!

To me as a reader, it’s just that much more fun to read a book and meet the author and make connections and discover you went to the same church as my brother-in-law and that you live in Houston!

Any last words for your readers? What will I remember from this interview, like the carpet at the curb?

Maybe my friend who used to be in two cartels who loves Jesus? Oh my! He works in Spanish ministry, and he's a great dad! He understands the power of forgiveness -- just amazing! You and I live in our comfortable worlds. I just have so much respect and admiration for this man and who he is and what he’s doing in the midst of some dangers. We either think some lives can never be redeemed or we think “oh that’s a movie; that doesn’t really happen.” It does. It really does.

Look for me on Facebook and let me hear from you!

Thank you so much DiAnn! It's always a treat to spend some time visiting with you!

As I mentioned, I also had the opportunity to meet and interview DiAnn in 2009 just after Sworn to Protect was released. (You can see that interview and review here.) So it was an extra-special delight to be in Atlanta in July and see DiAnn receive the Christy Award for this same novel! So of course, I went by the Tyndale booth the next day where they were giving away autographed copies and got one for a giveaway! For a chance to win, just leave a comment on this post by 8:00 pm CDT Sunday, 9/25/11. You must include your name, as well as an email address if you don't have a blog, to enter. Leave a second comment telling me you linked to this post via email or FB for a second entry. Limit two entries per person. US Residents only, please.

Tomjorrow, I'll share my review of her just-released novel, Attracted to Fire!

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