Need Some Inspiration?

Is your life the fairy tale you always hoped it would be? This enchanting video from Duirwaigh Studios will put you in touch with those long-ago dreams:

 

New Thriller Releases

It’s always fun to read books by friends, even more so when they’re YAs. I confess, I’m a YA addict. Maybe because I’m still a teen at heart. Or maybe I love them because YAs are usually better written, more tightly plotted, and faster paced than adult books. I prefer stories that move along rather than meander along. I’m big on action and characters, not too interested in getting bogged down with description and setting.

So I found Jill Williamson’s YA thriller, The New Recruit, a rapid rollercoaster ride that met all my requirements.

Here’s the book blurb:

Forced to choose between military school and a Christian spy organization, skeptic Spencer Garmond signs on with the Bible geeks. But before he even boards the plane for Moscow, Spencer realizes this is no Bible club.

These guys mean business.

Stumbling onto a case involving a gang of homeless boys, a chilling tattoo, and the always beautiful Anya Vseveloda, Spencer struggles to find the faith needed to save the Mission League from enemy infiltration.

For more about the series, go to the Mission League. Jill is also offering an undercover scavenger hunt with some terrific prizes.

The book trailer:

This isn’t the only book of Jill’s that I’ve enjoyed. She has an award-winning fantasy/speculative fiction trilogy, The Blood of Kings, and the recent YA sci-fi release, Replication. Coming  in 2013 is the first of a dystopian YA trilogy, Captives.

And this must be thriller release month for my friends, because one of my CPs, Don Helin, just released Devil’s Den (Headline Books), a fast-moving adult suspense that moves from a ghostly disappearance on the Gettysburg battlefield to a plot involving an Irish mob. The hero, with his post traumatic stress syndrome, becomes the prime suspect in a ghost-related crime.

Free and Bargain E-books

Pass it on… Some great bargains for lovers of YA books are available this month:

FREE, yep, that’s right, FREE for the next few days (for Amazon prime members). It will be only 99 cents from April 1 to May 1:

Check out Island Sting at Amazon.

Anthology by authors Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill Williamson, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Linda Joy Singleton, and others...

Spirited available on Amazon for 99 cents!! It has augmented reality by Karl Gee.

Under My Skin regularly $4.99, available for 99 cents on Amazon for a limited time.

And for adults, check out Dancing with the Devil, by Cate Masters, FREE on Amazon for a limited time. For other great bargains, check out the Leap Books site on April 1, 2012, for some great bargains.

And for a blog about FREE and BARGAIN BOOKS, see Downtown YA.

Angel in the Mist

Photo Credit: Zsolt Zatrok

Just got word that my short story “Angel in the Mist” will be published in the charity anthology A Community of Writers (Sunbury Press, 2012). Even cooler: All my CPs will also have stories in the book. Joint booksignings, here we come.

Royalties from the sale of the book will be donated to the Fredricksen Library in Camp Hill, PA.

 

What if you sacrificed your life so others could live? A different kind of ghost story.

Can You Resist a Free Book?

I don’t know about you, but I can never resist a free book, even if it’s a genre I don’t normally read. So I jumped at the chance to get this Free e-book and thought I’d share the link in case you wanted a copy too:

Linda Joy Singleton has a FREE YA paranormal romance  Dead Girl Walking for the Nook and Kindle available at Amazon.

Ghostwriting

I began a totally new project in December–ghostwriting a romance. I’ve ghostwritten nonfiction, but this is my first attempt at working from someone else’s synopsis. That’s been a challenge.

I find that my brain starts popping out kernels of ideas until I have bowls full of popcorn, but I have to sweep more than half of it in the trash because it doesn’t fit the outline I’ve been given. I’m convinced that my additions would make for a better, stronger story, but they’d take the book in a totally different direction.

I guess writing to a preset outline is good discipline, as is setting aside several hours a day to work on fiction writing, but I wonder if my creative brain will suffer if I constantly ignore its ideas and directives. Any thoughts?

New Year, New Projects?

So the new year has begun. I once read that the number 11 signifies creativity, so this should be a great year to work on all my creative projects. Just wish I didn’t have so many going at once. Dreaming of babies is also connected with new projects, and I’ve been dreaming a lot about babies too.

I managed to finish my WIP on December 30, which means I can get started on a new book. I also have plenty of manuscripts languishing in the To Be Revised drawer, but a new year seems to call for a brand new start. I have lots of ideas hopping around in my head. It’s just a question of getting them down on paper. And how do I choose which one to start on first? I have several ideas for a romance series and a few for YAs. I also want to tackle a totally new genre–writing a thriller that’s been nagging at me for several months–but am not sure it’s quite ready to be born yet. Or is that fear speaking?

Anyone have any advice on how you choose new projects?

 

Live in California?

If you’re anywhere near Turlock, CA, this weekend, be sure to stop by the Borders in Turlock to meet paranormal author Kitty Keswick:

And the Line Up Is…

Last post about the Christy award. I promise. (Well, at least until the winners are announced.) It’s just that when I get excited about something, I have a tendency to go overboard.

So I mentioned that Jill Williamson is up for the award, but lots of other exciting books are in the running in various categories. If you’re a fan of Christian fiction, this would make the perfect reading list:

Contemporary Romance

Breach of Trust

by DiAnn Mills (Tyndale House Publishers)

How Sweet It Is

by Alice J. Wisler (Bethany House Publishers: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

Stand-In Groom

by Kaye Dacus (Barbour Publishing)

Contemporary Series, Sequels, and Novellas

Who Do I Talk To?

by Neta Jackson (Thomas Nelson)

The Hope of Refuge

by Cindy Woodsmall (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

Daisy Chain

by Mary DeMuth (Zondervan)

Contemporary Standalone

June Bug

by Chris Fabry (Tyndale House Publishers)

The Passion of Mary-Margaret

by Lisa Samson (Thomas Nelson)

Veiled Freedom

by Jeanette Windle (Tyndale House Publishers)

First Novel

The Familiar Stranger

by Christina Berry (Moody Publishers)

Fireflies in December

by Jennifer Erin Valent (Tyndale House Publishers)

Scared

by Tom Davis (David C. Cook)

Historical

A Flickering Light

by Jane Kirkpatrick (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

Though Waters Roar

by Lynn Austin (Bethany House Publishers: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

The Swiss Courier

by Tricia Goyer & Mike Yorkey (Revell Books: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

Historical Romance*

Beyond This Moment

by Tamera Alexander (Bethany House Publishers: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

A Bride in the Bargain

by Deeanne Gist (Bethany House Publishers: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

The Inheritance

by Tamera Alexander (Thomas Nelson)

The Silent Governess

by Julie Klassen (Bethany House Publishers: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

Suspense

Intervention

by Terri Blackstock (Zondervan)

Lost Mission

by Athol Dickson (Howard Books: a Division of Simon & Schuster)

The Night Watchman

by Mark Mynheir (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

Visionary

By Darkness Hid

by Jill Williamson (Marcher Lord Press)

The Enclave

by Karen Hancock (Bethany House Publishers: a Division of Baker Publishing Group)

Valley of the Shadow

by Tom Pawlik (Tyndale House Publishers)

Young Adult

Beautiful

by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma (Thomas Nelson)

The Blue Umbrella

by Mike Mason (David C. Cook)

North! Or Be Eaten

by Andrew Peterson (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

Isn’t that a stellar lineup? Happy reading!! Do you have any favorites on the list? Drop me a comment!

Big News…

We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast of BEA happenenings to cover some fabulously exciting news. My friend Jill Williamson is up for a Christy!!

Christy Award

How cool is that? So I just have to do a happy dance, and then plug this terrific book that’s been garnering all kinds of praise and winning multiple honors and awards. But now she’s up for one of the biggest awards in the Christian book world.

If you aren’t familiar with the Christy, it started in 1999, and from the website:

“The Christy Award is designed to:

• Nurture and encourage creativity and quality in the writing and publishing of fiction written from a Christian worldview.
• Bring a new awareness of the breadth and depth of fiction choices available, helping to broaden the readership.
• Provide opportunity to recognize novelists whose work may not have reached bestseller status.”

And Jill’s book certainly qualifies for the “quality and creativity” part. So what’s the fab book that’s snagging so much attention? It’s By Darkness Hid, the first book in The Blood of Kings trilogy.

Book Two, To Darkness Fled, is out now. And I’m eagerly awaiting Book Three.