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Once in a while, an author offers readers an in depth view of her work. Author Staci Stallings does just that as she takes us to Nashville for an interview with the main characters in her book, Cowboy.
Wait til you see the special offer Staci has after the interview!
News From Nashville & Beyond
Character Interview with Ashton Raines and Kalin Lane
(Transcribed from a television interview with “The Music Plays… World Tour” featuring opening solo artist Kalin Lane and headliner Ashton Raines, both accompanied by their wives, Beth Raines and Danae Lane.)
NFNB: First of all, welcome to you all. Thanks for sitting down with us.
Ashton: Thank you for having us.
NFNB: Let’s start with what it’s like to be on a world tour. What cities? What are the crowds like?
Kalin: Well, for me it’s been an absolute dream come true. I mean, getting invited to be here with Ashton who, let’s face it is the King of Country music right now. Standing on that stage every night, hearing the fans singing my songs, cheering, in all these different countries…. it’s truly amazing.
Ashton: I have to agree. I stand down there as Kalin’s playing, and there’s just this incredible energy that sweeps through the whole place, no matter if we’re playing for 20,000 or 60,000. To hear those fans, to get to connect with them. It’s what I came here to do, it’s why I started singing in the first place, and to get to do it night after night has been such a blessing.
NFNB: How’s it been working together? The two of you play country music, but it’s really not quite the same kind of country.
Ashton (laughing): Yeah. I could never pull off the hair! (Reaches over and ruffles Kalin’s famously stringy blond mane then shrugs.) But it works, you know? I play the more traditional stuff, Kalin rocks the house, it works.
Kalin: I have to agree. I think it has really come together because we’re not two performers who happen to get on the same stage every night. We really understand each other and respect each other for what life has thrown at us and the hard knocks it’s taken us to be able to play from the heart so to speak. So it doesn’t matter that he plays the acoustic and piano, and I’ve got more electric and keyboards to my style of music because I think deep down we both really see that we’re doing what we love to do, making the kind of music we love to make. When you do that, somehow the synthesis of what comes out of it just works even if on the outside it doesn’t look like it should.
NFNB: You mentioned what life has thrown at you. Would you call the road to get here bumpy or smooth?
(Ashton looks to Beth who smiles back, and Kalin grins at Danae who brushes her brown locks from her forehead and shakes her head with a soft laugh.)
All: Bumpy.
(Laughter)
Ashton: Definitely bumpy. (Beth nods, her eyes filled with respect and love as she looks at her husband, and the two of them share a moment. When he turns back to the camera, Ashton seems to drift into another world.) After my first wife died of cancer, there was a long stretch in there that honestly I didn’t even want to be here. I mean here as in making music here, but even here as in on the planet. Then one night I wound up in this little diner in the middle of nowhere (He looks over to Beth.) And an angel from Heaven pulled me back and gave me a reason to keep on living. (As if no one else is watching, he leans over and kisses.) Thank you, babe (he whispers so the camera barely catches the words. Then he turns back.) To be real honest, I’m not even sure I’d be here without her.
NFNB: So Beth, what was it like? I mean, he is Ashton Raines. It’s like every girl’s dream to have the king of music to walk in and sweep you off your feet. That must have been surreal.
(They glance at each other.)
Beth: Well, to be honest with you, I didn’t even know who he was that night.
NFNB: You didn’t?
Beth: No, really I didn’t. It’s a long story, but let’s just say I fell in love with a man, not a music star.
NFNB: Okay. Well… (Turning to the other couple.) Kalin, you also said bumpy. Now we know a little about your career’s early fits and starts what with having to go back to your home country the first time around. What was that like?
Kalin: Rough. Really, really rough. To be honest with you, that first time I let the fame and the money and the adulation of all the people around me go straight to my head. I fell in with a lifestyle I thought was great at first, but it caught up with me real fast. When I lost everything–the dream, my meal ticket in Nashville and almost my life–I thought it was all over, you know? Back then, there was no way I could have seen the amazing grace God was waiting to give me and the joy and the mercy and the grace He gives me every day now. Getting to be here now, like this, with the Raines family, and my beautiful wife. (He turns to Danae and smiles. She smiles back.) I’m telling you it’s more than a dream come true. In fact, it’s the reason I sing “Lucky” every night out there on stage.
That line about, “And it’s not fate, it’s not luck, it’s a gift from God above, that I found you, you found me, and we found love”? Those aren’t just nice, pretty words. I really believe that, you know? Because if it was not for God and the love of this wonderful, strong woman sitting next to me, I can almost guarantee I would not be sitting here today. It’s more grace and love than I’ve ever deserved or imagined, I’ll tell you that.
NFNB: Well, it’s almost time to wrap this up. Closing thoughts, anyone?
Ashton: The tour’s been amazing. The fans, the cities, the experiences. All out amazing.
Kalin: Come out and see the show!
NFNB: That’s it for now from News from Nashville & Beyond. Now back to you in the studio.
Copyright Staci Stallings, 2012
Staci Stallings, the author of this article, is a #1 Best Selling Contemporary
Christian Romance author and the founder of Grace & Faith Author
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Ever wonder how our ancestors in 1830 celebrated Thanksgiving? Donna Winters shares what she has learned while researching her new novel.
For the past couple of years, I've been steeped in the history of 1830 for the writing of my latest historical novel, Bluebird of Brockport, A Novel of the Erie Canal. The story takes place in my hometown of Brockport, New York, and along the Erie Canal. With Thanksgiving a few days away, I got to wondering what the holiday would have been like for the characters in my story. In researching Thanksgiving in 1830, several delightful traditions surfaced which are not part of our modern-day practice.
My characters would have started their day with a church service. While some churches today hold Thanksgiving Day services, the vast majority with which I am familiar do not. The sermon, we can assume, would have focused on God’s provision for which the congregants could give thanks. It might also have focused on the history of the locale and or the parish. The latter was the case with the sermon I discovered at the Library of Congress website (link below). The sermon was dated Dec. 2, 1830, reminding me that in 1830, Thanksgiving was not a national holiday. Back then, each state’s governor would annually write a proclamation for Thanksgiving. While the week of the holiday could vary from state to state,it would always fall on a Thursday in late November or early December.
After church service, my characters would have returned home for a sumptuous feast. Their relatives for miles around would have joined them. The menu would have included several types of meat, not just turkey. By the way, the turkey wouldn't have been a plump butterball-type like we know today, but would have likely weighed ten to fifteen pounds at most, having thinned down under the strain of being driven (on foot) several miles to market.
The bird would have been cooked over an open hearth fire dangling by a string which rotated it, or in a new-fangled invention called a “tin kitchen” or reflector oven with a spit that turned. The stuffing for the turkey probably included many of the same ingredients we use today, and a few less common ones: chopped bread, beef suet, eggs, wine, salt, pepper, sage, and parsley.
One delightful dish that would have accompanied the feast, but is virtually unknown today, is Marlborough Pudding. This is much like our custard pie with a few additional delights such as pureed apples, lemon juice, and wine. The “pudding” wasn’t considered a dessert, but a main dish that was served alongside the meats and vegetables. In addition, the meal likely included hot slaw – braised shredded cabbage served with vinegar, salt, and pepper –and mincemeat pie containing real meat (beef) as well as suet, apples, raisins, and spices.
Now for the best part of Thanksgiving Day – a wedding. Since the harvest season was now over and the extended family had gathered in one place, Thanksgiving Day weddings were common. I can imagine my hero or heroine celebrating the wedding of one of their siblings on Thanksgiving Day. The groom would wear his tailcoat, the bride her best Sunday-go-to-meeting dress. The preacher who had expounded on the blessings of the Lord or the origin of the locale in his morning sermon, would arrive to unite the romantic couple in holy wedlock. What a delightful way to spend Thanksgiving afternoon!
To learn more about an 1830 Thanksgiving, watch the feast at Old Sturbridge Village here (approx. 3 min.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrJYS9nD2w0
You can get the recipes for stuffing and Marlborough Pudding, and watch them being created here (approx. 8 min.) http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/mass_appeal/taste/authentic-1830s-thanksgiving-day-feast
You can read the original text of the Thanksgiving Day sermon delivered on Dec. 2, 1830 at Ware First Parish (Congregational), Ware, Mass., here: http://archive.org/details/historicalsermon00reed
What about your Thanksgiving Day? Do you have favorite recipes, games, or other traditions you look forward to each year
You can connect with Donna at the following links:
http://www.greatlakesromances.com wholesome fiction for readers 12 and up
http://greatlakesromances.blogspot.com
twitter:@bigwaterpub
Facebook Profile: Donna Winters
Facebook Book Page: Great Lakes Romances
Here’s a little about Bluebird of Brockport, A Novel of the Erie Canal. (You can buy Bluebird of Brockport for 99 cents (Kindle) or in paperback format at http://ow.ly/eWu9y)
Dreams of floating on the Erie Canal have flowed through Lucina Willcox’s mind since childhood. Yet once her family has purchased their boat and begins their journey, they meet with one challenge after another. An encounter with a towpath rattlesnake threatens her brother’s life. A thief attempts to break in and steal precious cargo. Heavy rain causes a breach and drains the canal of water. Lucina comforts herself with thoughts of Ezra Lockwood, her handsome childhood friend, and discovers a longing to be with him that she just can’t ignore. Can she have a future with Ezra and still hold onto her canalling dream?
Ezra Lockwood’s one goal in life is to build and captain his own canal boat, but two years into the construction of his freight hauler, funds run short. With his goal temporarily stalled, and Lucina Willcox back in his life, his priorities begin to change. Can he have both his dreams — his own boat, and Lucina as his bride?
Donna adopted Michigan as her home state in 1971 when she moved from a small town outside of Rochester, New York. She began penning novels in 1982 while working full time for an electronics firm in Grand Rapids.
She resigned from her job in 1984 following a contract offer for her first book. Since then, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Zondervan Publishing House, Guideposts, and Bigwater Publishing have published her novels. Her husband, Fred, a former American History teacher, shares her enthusiasm for history. Together, they visit historical sites, restored villages, museums, and lake ports, purchasing books and reference materials for use in Donna’s research.
Donna has written fifteen historical romances for her Great Lakes Romances® series. Recently, she turned her attention to her hometown on the Erie Canal and produced an historical novel, Bluebird of Brockport, A Novel of the Erie Canal, which released as a paperback in June, and has now been offered in Kindle format for 99 cents.
I've been tweeting about this one for several days. Now it's time to give my readers a closer look at K Dawn Byrd and her new release, Amazing Love.
Welcome, Dawn! Tell us about your latest release and what you think readers will enjoy about it.
My latest release, Amazing Love, is the modern story of Hosea and Gomer. It was a tough story to write because my heroine suffers severe consequences for her sins, but it was necessary to portray how low we can go and how much God still loves us through it all. I hope readers will take away the fact that no matter what we do, God loves us with an unconditional love and is ready to accept us back into His loving arms.
What would you like readers to take away from your book?
Amazing Love is the modern-day version of the Hosea and Gomer story from the Bible. I'd like for readers to take away that God loves us with an unconditional love. My heroine, Dee, does some pretty terrible things and believes that God could never forgive her, but He does.
What did you learn while writing this book?
I learned that even though the Bible gives us stories about individuals who lived in Bible times, it's vague at times about specifics. This give a fiction writer a lot of leeway to let their imaginations run wild.
What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?
Finding time to write. I work a full-time job and also a lot of weekends, which means that I have to be really devoted to my writing time. I set aside at least an hour every night, six days a week if possible. The fact that I start with a well-developed plot makes things move faster.
What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of, writing-related or not?
I'm proud of earning a master degree in professional counseling from Liberty University. I believe this degree helps me to understand my characters better and what makes them tick.
What kind of planning do you do before writing a novel?
I fill out character sketches in order to get to know my characters better. I ask myself what their goals are, what motivates them, and what's keeping them from reaching their goals. Sometimes, I start by writing a synopsis. This gives me information about the plot as it develops. I usually have a pretty strong plot before I actually begin the story.
Why do you write?
I write because I can't stop. It's more than a hobby, it's a passion. It's the most fun I've ever had in my life!
Are you a plotter or a pantzer?
A big time plotter. Because I write all of my books in 30-day marathons, I have to start with a thorough plot. That doesn't mean that sometimes the story doesn't take a life of it's own, surprising me when it takes me down a road I hadn't planned to travel.
What would you be doing if you weren’t writing?
Probably still riding a Harley. I sold my bike in order to have more time to write. On weekends, I'd rather curl up with my laptop and the story in my head.
What do you do for fun when not writing?
When not writing, I love to read. Romantic suspense or young adult novels are favorites.
What is your personal definition of success?
My personal definition of success has nothing to do with money. To me, a successful person is one who is happy and enjoys life.
How can readers get in contact with you?
Email: kdawnbyrd@yahoo.com
Blog: www.kdawnbyrd.blogspot.com
Twitter: kdawnbyrd
Pinterist: kdawnbyrd
Facebook: kdawnbyrd
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLtz_kGEFFk&feature=plcp
Now a little more specific information about Amazing Love.
 Gabe Knight, a pastor in a small coastal town, finds his life is turned upside down when Dee Dillow arrives and hires him to remodel an estate she's inherited from her aunt. Dee dashes his plans for wedded bless when on a drunken binge, she divulges that she's the highest paid call girl in Nevada and part-owner of the ritziest brothel in the state.
Gabe falls in love with her, but can't believe he's hearing the voice of God when a still, small voice tells him to marry her. After much questioning, they marry and he is deliriously happy. Until, Dee betrays him.
Gabe soon discovers just how hard it is to have the unconditional love God calls him to have for his wife, the kind of love God has for his children. When faced with losing her, Gabe realizes what true love is, how much it hurts, and just how much God loves and is willing to sacrifice for his children.
Interview with the heroine:
Dee, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I'm not sure how interesting it is, but it would be pretty shocking to most people. I grew up in a brothel outside of Vegas. My mother owned it and since I was home-schooled, I spent most of my life there. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I became the highest paid call-girl in all of the state.
What do you do for fun?
Shop. I love fancy cars, fine jewelry, and designer bags and shoes. I also like to invest money. It's exciting to watch it grow. I left the brothel when I was teenager and ended up trying to survive on the streets when my mother turned her back on me. I never want to live like that again and that's why I save money.
What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I put off going to church with my husband, Gabe. I'm just not into all that religion stuff. I know he expects me to go, but I'm pretty good at coming up with excuses why I can't.
What are you afraid of most in life?
I'm afraid of having to live on the streets again as a prostitute like I did when I was a teen. I'm also afraid of going hungry.
What do you want out of life?
All I want is to have a family. I never even thought about a husband and kids until I met Gabe and now that's all I think about.
What is the most important thing to you?
My money and Gabe.
Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
Remodeling magazines. Gabe is remodeling a huge estate I inherited from my aunt.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I'd want to make Gabe happy. He expects me to accept his God, but I just can't. It's hard to believe in a God you can't see.
Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No pets. I really don't have time for them.
If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I would go back to the day I was born and find a way to take me away from my mother. She allowed terrible things to happen to me.
Interview with the hero:
Gabe, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I'm a preacher and God told me to marry a prostitute. Am I crazy? Am I hearing voices? I know God told Hosea to in the Bible, but this is 2012!
What do you do for fun?
I love working with my hands, especially carpentry work. I also own some old vehicles and like to work on them. Sometimes they're a challenge to keep running and my wife, Dee (the prostitute) hates them, but I can't afford all those fancy sports cars she drives on a preacher's salary.
What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I put off dealing with drama. An ex-girlfriend has stirred up all kinds of trouble in my relationship with Dee. Maybe I shouldn't look the other way so much. Maybe I should tell her like it is. I just hate hurting people and I have the church to think about. My greatest fear is that something will split it.
What are you afraid of most in life?
Dying alone. I want a wife and kids.
What do you want out of life?
I want it all. A wife. Kids. A little white house with a picket fence. Of course, I'll settle for Dee's mansion on the hill overlooking the ocean since that's where she wants to live. She inherited it from her aunt and I've been working on it for her.
What is the most important thing to you?
My faith. I've worked long and hard to get as close to God as I am and I don't want anything coming between us.
Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I read remodeling magazines.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
If I could change one thing about myself, it would be my past. I didn't always live for God. I did my share of drinking and had my share of women. If I could go back in time, I'd live my entire life for God.
Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No, I don't own any pets. I'm so busy with my job as a preacher and my side jobs remodeling that there's no time for them.
If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I'd love to meet Hosea face to face. Dee has put me through torture. She's ripped my heart out. I'd like to ask Hosea how he dealt with that kind of pain when Gomer was unfaithful to him.
K. Dawn Byrd is an author of inspirational novels in several genres, including, historical, suspense, romance, and young adult. Some of her favorite things are chocolate, cars, and her pets. Her hobbies include reading, writing, and riding down country roads in the passenger seat of her husband's Corvette Stingray. When asked why she writes, her response is, "For the simple joy of placing words on the page!"
OK, on October 31st, I signed up for that totally maniacal and obsessive November event, NaNoWriMo. For those of you non-writers who don't know what that means, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's a commitment to write 50,000 words during the thirty days of November.
The problem is, I'm a huge procrastinator. I often find a reason to do something else instead of doing what maybe I should be doing. Sometimes, though, there's a need that drives a person to where the decision finally has to be made to do what has to be done.
In other words, I've put off my writing for way too long, so long that I have this kind of dull ache deep inside that begs to be relieved. The remedy is to pull my long neglected novel up from the depths of my computer files, scan through the 100K+ words I already have written, and take it from there.
Yeah, 100K is a lot for an unfinished novel, but much of it is rewrites of the same scene or even scenes I know will eventually be cut altogether. I got so tired of searching dozens of files with names like Chapter One (second) or rewrite of Chapter Four or rewrite of Chapter Six scene after Crit Group comments. You get the idea.
So, last night, I stayed up later than I should have, scanning through my 415 page document so I could "sleep" on how to advance the story today.
Finally, after church and spending some quality time with our daughter and granddaughter, I settled down and started writing. It was slow going because I kept referring back to scenes and refreshing my memory of character names, but I did manage to get 1049 words on paper.
Not a lot, but it's a start. I'll do more tomorrow (maybe even later tonight if I can't sleep). Will I make 50,000 words by November 30th? Highly unlikely. Yet, over the next twenty days of this challenge that remain, I'll do my best to peck the computer keys enough to rack up 20,000 words.
Maybe I'll only hit 10,000. Still, that will be 10,000 more words than I have today.
And the ache is starting to ease - a little.
It's a delight to welcome author Susan Sleeman to Patti's Porch. Susan talks about worry, the theme for her new release, Dead Wrong.
As I contemplated sitting on Patti’s porch and thinking about Dead Wrong, my new book release, my mind went to one of the questions I’m often asked. What inspires me to write the books I write? No better time then sitting in a rocker—I’m assuming you have rockers, Patti—on a porch sipping a tall glass of iced tea to answer.
The simple answer is that each book is inspired by a different event or situation, but what doesn’t vary from book to book is the way I choose a spiritual theme for the story. I’m a firm believer that the Lord allows trials and tribulations in our lives to grow our faith so that we can help others struggling with the same problem. So my first step in writing a book is to choose a Bible verse for the story that has impacted my life in a significant way. I want something that has helped me live through the difficult times in life so I can share that with readers through my characters.
The theme or area I chose for Dead Wrong is worry. The verse I chose is, Matt 6: 27 - Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Through the years, I have worried with the best of them over little things and big things. But several years ago when my husband lost his job, we had zero income and had spent all of our savings on my medical bills, I knew I could do nothing about it and worrying about it wouldn’t improve my life in any way. As the Bible says, worry certainly didn’t add an hour to my life. In fact, all worrying accomplishes is to tell God that we don’t trust His timing. We don’t trust Him to work things out in His way. Point blank, we don’t trust Him to know what’s best for us. He does of course and He doesn’t want us to step ahead of Him or worry about things that are out of our hands.
So what did I do? I stopped focusing on the problem and left it in God’s hands. Of course, He not only took care of the problem, but gave my husband the best job he’s ever had. A blessing far beyond income.
Have I given up worry for good? No, but every time I am tempted to worry, I remember that whenever I focus on anything, be it good, bad or indifferent, it will grow in my life and take over everything else. I made a commitment to myself that as soon as I realized I was worrying that I would turn the thing I was worrying about over to God and each time it came back up, I’d recommit it. It took time and lots of effort to let it go, but the ensuing peace was well worth the effort. Kat Justice has to learn the same lesson in Dead Wrong, but I didn’t give her a simple job loss to bring it to the surface. No, I made her struggle with life and death issues.
Now what about you? When you have that feeling in the pit of your stomach, your hands start sweating, or maybe you just don’t feel peaceful do you give it to God in prayer and leave it with Him and wait with expectation for Him to solve your problem?
A KILLER’S CLOSING IN…
When her client and old college friend is murdered, P.I. Kat Justice knows the killer will come for her next. Her survival depends on finding her unknown enemy first…and working with homicide detective Mitch Elliot, her onetime crush.
It’ll take all her professional skills to ignore the sparks between them, but Kat can’t allow the handsome cop to get close. She’s seen too many people she loves die, so she vows just to do her job without getting emotionally involved. Yet keeping her distance may not be the best way to protect her heart—or their lives.
For more info about and to read and except for Dead Wrong visit Susan’s website
SUSAN SLEEMAN is a best-selling author of inspirational romantic suspense and mystery novels. Her first romantic suspense title, High-Stakes Inheritance earned a spot on the ECPA bestseller list and her Garden Gate Mystery series, which features Nipped in the Bud, and Read Between the Tines has enjoyed time on Amazon bestseller lists as well. And The Christmas Witness was named a finalist in the 2011 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. In addition to writing, Susan hosts the popular internet website TheSuspenseZone.com.
She currently lives in Florida, but has had the pleasure of living in nine states. Her husband is a church music director and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law, and an adorable grandson. To learn more about Susan stop by any of these locations on the web.
To learn more about Susan stop by any of these locations on the web.
Today I welcome author Eddie Jones to Patti's Porch. This dynamic author talks about his writing, his ministry, and his commitment to carry out Gods will to the best of his ability.
Tell us about your upcoming release, Dead Man's Hand, with Zondervan.
First, it’s a fun, fast read aimed for middle school boys, but we’re also getting nice reviews on Goodreads from teachers and mothers. But my aim is to give boys a book they can enjoy, one that taps into today’s fascination with the occult. This is the first book in the Caden Chronicles series and each story involves one element of the supernatural. Book one explores the concept of ghosts, spirits and what happens to our souls when we die.
Zonderkidz is a Christian publisher, so the paranormal aspect is surprising.
I added the paranormal aspect because I want parents and youth to struggle with eternal questions. We’ve created such a culture of blood-letting through books and movies involving vampires, zombies and survival contests, that the reality of death doesn’t carry the sting it once did. In high school my youngest son lost several friends to driving accidents. When another friend recently died, we asked how he felt and he replied, “I’m numb to it.” I fear that’s what we’re doing with our youth: desensitizing them to the horrors of death. In Dead Man’s Hand, Nick and his family discuss spirits and ghosts and the afterlife because I think it’s important for teens to wrestle with these questions before they’re tossed from a car and found dead on a slab of wet pavement.
You've spent the last few years dedicating yourself to helping others get published. Tell us a little about your publishing company and what motivated you to take on such a huge endeavor.
We started the publishing arm to publish devotional compilations for Christian Devotions Ministries. We wanted to give some of our devotional writers their own byline in print. Part of the mission is to launch new careers for first time authors. We wanted to create a publishing house where writers were happy selling from 2,000, to 5,000 copies of their devotional book. There is a big jump from unpublished author to “three-book contract” author and we wanted to serve as a stepping-stone for those writers.
My problem is I hate telling people no, especially when they have a solid project. When it comes time to reject a manuscript, it pains me because I've been and continue to be on the other end of rejection. I will delay saying no as long as I can in order to rework the e-mail. I try to give authors good advice for how they can improve their writing. The problem is, if I’m too nice, then they keep coming back and asking to resubmit the same project. My advice to those authors is, improve your writing and send me something new.
We currently have forty authors under contract, have published over thirty books and distribute around four thousand dollars a month in royalty checks. We pay our authors monthly, not quarterly, because we want them to feel like writing is a real job. In fact, I teach a class on how, if an author will write five books a year, they can make over twenty-five thusand dollars. And these are not large books. Most are under thirty thousand words. The goal is to have five books that sell 125 copies, (print and ebook combined). a month.
I get jazzed when one of our books launches or sells well. I know what it feels like to see your book growing legs and garnering positive reviews so I get excited for our authors. Sometimes I think that’s how God feels when we’re doing the thing He’s called us to do. When we’re in our zone, doing the thing we love, we feel His joy. That’s what is great about working for God: sometimes you get paid for playing. J
But the only reason I’m able to publish books and write full time is because four years ago I told God I’d work for Him full time. I figure if I was working for God I’d never be out of work. I may not make a lot of money, but he says there’s plenty of work and not enough laborers, so to me, that means job security. I took a blank sheet of paper and signed it one day during my devotions and said, ‘Okay, God, I’ll do whatever it is you ask me to do, because I’m tired of working for other people. I want to work for You.’ Making up stories for boys, writing devotions, creating humorous romantic novels for adults, I get to do all this plus make dreams come true for other authors all because I agreed to work for God full time.
You're passionate about getting boys interested in books. Why do you feel it's so important to get boys reading fiction at an early age?
I fear we’re on the verge of losing the male reader. I don’t mean men and boys won’t learn to read: they will. But the percentage of males who read for leisure continues to shrink and this could be devastating for our country. We can’t lose half our population and expect America to compete on a global level. Reading forces the mind to create. With video, the scene and characters are received passively by the brain. There is very little interaction; it’s all virtual stimulation, which is different from creation. When you read, you add your furniture to the scene, dress the characters, add elements not mentioned by the author. This is why readers so often complain, “the movie was nothing like the book.” It’s not, because the book is your book. The author crafted the outline of the set but each reader brings their emotions and expectations to that book, changing it forever.
In general, boys would rather get their information and entertainment visually. This is one reason books have such a tough time competing for male readers. It can take weeks to read a book, even one as short as Dead Man’s Hand. In the meantime, that same story can be shown as a movie in under two hours. So in one sense the allure of visual gratification is robbing future generations of our ability to solve problems. I believe Americans only posses one true gift, creativity, and it’s a gift from God. Other nations build things cheaper and with fewer flaws. They work longer hours for less pay.
But the thing that has always set America apart is our Yankee ingenuity. We have always been able to solve our way out of problems. That comes directly from our ability to create solutions to problems we didn’t anticipate. If we lose male readers and fail to develop those creative connections necessary for the brain to conceive alternatives, then we will lose our position as the world’s leader.
What advice would you offer to parents to get their children interested in reading at a young age?
Watch for clues. If your child shows any interest in reading, reward the activity with trips to book fairs. I remember in grade school how excited I got when we were allowed to order books. All we had to do was check a box, (or so I thought), and wham! A few weeks later boxes of books showed up and the teacher began dealing them to the students. I didn’t learn until later my parents had mailed the school money for those books. I still have most of them.
But not all children like reading and you can create an anti-reading environment if you push too hard. An alternative for boys are comic books, graphic novels, or simply cartoon books. I read a lot of Charlie Brown cartoon books and still remember the plot: Lucy has the football. Charlie wants to kick the ball. Lucy promises she will hold the ball in place but at the last moment… We know this story because it’s repeated, not in a novel, but in a cartoon.
Okay, we're going to be really nosey now, you've been married a long time. Tells us a little about your family, how you and your wife met and your family.
I met my wife at a stoplight in West Palm Beach, Florida. She was in the backseat of the car behind us. The driver honked and I crawled out the passenger window, a brown Pinto. The door didn’t work so it looked like I was a NASCAR driver getting out on pit road. The car behind us was full of girls from Meredith College. They asked where I went to college and I told them I went to Meredith, too. "It's a girl's school, you dork," one of them said. I told them I was taking Old Testament that semester, can’t remember the professor’s name, now, and one of the girls yelled, "Hey! You're in my class!” I explained I'd been surfing all day and didn’t have a place to stay and needed to hose off and asked if we could borrow their showers. They led us back to their hotel, my buddy and I washed off and left.
Driving home a week later we came upon the same car in the slow lane of I-95. The girls were afraid we’d fall asleep driving home, my buddy couldn’t drive at night, so they agreed to put one girl in the car to keep us company. She’d get in, tell her life story and at the end of the hour, another would get in the car. Our last passenger was this cute girl wearing a funny Gilligan hat. She never said a word, not for the whole hour. We put her out, the girls drove off and I finally got home, exhausted. The next week I invited that shy girl to a Warren Zevon concert. Four years later, I married her.
You've freelanced writing newspaper columns for the last few decades on boating. Do you have an interesting boating story you can share?
All my boating stories are interesting. I collected the columns into two books, Hard Aground and Hard Aground… Again. The column began in the late eighties when an editor read a couple of essays I'd written about trying to sail a boat with my wife. He seemed genuinely amused someone of my limited boating experience would think a woman of my wife's refined nature would enjoy peeing in a bucket in the cockpit of a small sailboat. He informed me that I had correctly spelled the minimum number of words to meet his editorial standards and since someone on the staff had mistakenly sold one ad too many for the next issue, the publication was in need of some copy to balance out that page. I didn't know this at the time. I thought he was genuinely impressed with my writing abilities. I've been told I still suffer from this delusion."
The editor told me the column needed a catchy name. I purchased a few sailing publications and knew all boating columnists were subject matter experts. The only thing I was an expert on was running off the boat ramp, running aground on clearly marked shoals and running into the dock. I decided I would become an expert on making the best of tough times. When you run aground in a boat – in life - you have two choices. You can cuss and complain or you can grab a good book, kick back and wait for the tide to float you off. It's all a matter of perspective and pennies and I'm cheap so I usually wait for the tide.
Tell us about your ministry, Christian Devotions. How it got started, what you all are up to these days and what your plans are for the future.
Cindy Sproles and I started the ministry years ago to help authors publish their devotions. We’d go to writers’ conferences and on the last day find all these writers in tears because no one wanted their work. I had a web business and knew how to build web sites so I put up a home page and invited contributing writers. We figured we could at least give new writers a byline, even if it was only on the web. Cindy had been writing devotions every day for two years, partly because of something Alton Gansky said at a Blue Ridge Conference and partly as a commitment to God. The odd thing was, Cindy and I didn't know each other at that first conference but we both wrote down Al’s words. It was like God spoke to each of us separately to work together. Weeks after that conference I was under my willow tree doing my devotion when I heard God whisper: ChristianDevotions.com. I meant to register the domain but by the time I got to my upstairs office, I forgot. A few weeks later God spoke again. Once more, I forgot. A few more weeks past and this time I wrote it down in my journal and marched upstairs only to find that ChristianDevotions.com was taken. I registered ChristianDevotions.US, instead. The dot com domain is worth over ten thousand dollars now. Procrastination has a price.
For months Cindy and I were the only writers on the site, then slowly God grew the readership. Now we have thousands of readers, a ton of subscribers who get the devotions daily in their email and Kindle, subscribers who receive the daily devotion on their Kindle eReader (99 cents a month). We have a teen’s ministry, iBeGat.com, kid’s web site, DevoKids.com and last year we purchased InspireAFire.com. That’s our mission-oriented web site. We have a radio ministry, prayer team, finances ministry and of course the book publishing. We didn't set out with a marketing plan to do what we’re doing. We simply responded to a need in the marketplace, walked the mountain with God and asked how we could help. Find a need and fill it.
What's one thing you wish I wouldn't ask you and pretend I asked you that question.
How I became a writer. I started my sophomore year of high school when I told my English teacher I wanted to write for Cat Talk, Millbrook High School’s newspaper. Mrs. Hough said, “Eddie, you can't spell and you’re a terrible grammarian.” But I wrote a couple of articles, and she seemed to like the way I could put words together, so I won a spot on staff. My senior year, Mrs. Pollard begged me not to major in English. In fact, she was shocked I would even consider going to college because I’d never be accepted. She was right. NC State rejected my application. A few days later I made an appointment with the admissions office. The day of my interview I wore a pair of red and white checkered polyester pants my mom made me, white shirt and a red tie. State admitted me into Industrial Arts, which I thought would be pretty cool since I thought Industrial Arts meant I’d get to paint buildings. I flunked English 101 twice before passing with a D. I graduated from N.C. State four years later with a degree in English/Journalism and four years of writing experience for the Technician. I’m still a lousy proof-editor but I learned long ago storytelling trumps grammar.
You're writing for children right now with Zondervan. Besides the upcoming Cadence Chronicles Series, what are your dreams for your writing future?
Each day I walk around my yard reciting the Lord’s Prayer. This is my conversational time with God. Part of that prayer time is me putting on the armor of God. When I’m about halfway fitted out I say, “Lord place across my chest your breastplate of righteousness that my thoughts may be pure, honorable and good and my dreams secure: my dreams of sailing around the Caribbean, writing a best selling novel and surfing reef breaks.” Beyond that I don’t have any grand writing goals.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Write devotions, don’t focus on the praise, book sales and reviews. Forget about trying to find an agent and editor. Once you’re successful, they’ll find you. Explore the wounds in your life and minister to others through your writing. If God allowed you to be hurt, you can speak to that with authority. The rest of us cannot. Ask yourself where your passions lie. I love surfing. If I could do anything, be anywhere, I’d be in a hut on a beach surfing a point break alone. I love playing and hate work. This is reflected in the types of books I write. I love pulling for the underdog, this comes out in the ministry God gave me. Only you can write the stories God dropped in your lap and if you do not, they will die.
Where can we find out more about you?
Please come find me on www.Eddiejones.org
Eddie Jones is the author of eleven books and over 100 articles. He also serves as Acquisition Editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. He is a three-time winner of the Delaware Christian Writers' Conference, and his YA novel, The Curse of Captain LaFoote, won the 2012 Moonbeam Children's Book Award and 2011 Selah Award in Young Adult Fiction. He is also a writing instructor and cofounder of Christian Devotions Ministries. His He Said, She Said devotional column appears on ChristianDevotions.US. His humorous romantic suspense, Bahama Breeze remains a "blessed seller." When he's not writing or teaching at writers' conferences, Eddie can be found surfing in Costa Rica or some other tropical locale.
I'm pleased to welcome Ada Brownell to Patti's Porch. Ada shares a message of hope and healing with her new book.
Hello Ada! Tell us about your book.
My new book is Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal.
Did you know we have scientific evidence that we are more than a body? Because of cell death and regeneration, we aren’t even walking around in the same bodies we were born with—or even the one we had last year. Although we started about the size of a mite, we can gain hundreds of pounds, then lose weight—and we are the same person who began in our mother’s womb. Our limbs may be destroyed, surgeons can remove parts of our brain, vital organs, and even transplant someone else’s heart or kidneys into our bodies and it doesn’t change who we are. Our parents were involved, but God designed us as living souls that will never die and we will live beyond our flesh.
What inspired this book?
Just as we know leaves on a tree will one day flutter to the ground, we all know our days on earth are numbered. But what then?
I thought I knew all the answers until we lost our 31-year-old daughter to cancer. Did I believe what I thought I did?
That question haunted me until as a medical reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado and a student of the Bible I searched for evidence that we will live beyond the grave. I picked the brains of medical experts, did research, and underlined every passage in the New Testament about eternal life.
I found what I previously believed was still true. Jesus did something about death when He came as our Redeemer—and death’s the reason He slipped into flesh and blood to be our Savior. That’s why we sing, “Joy to the World, the Lord is come!”
How long have you been writing?
I submitted ideas to a youth magazine when I was age 15. Then I started writing articles. Sold the first one to The Pentecostal Evangel and someone made it into a tract. Then I wrote an article for David C. Cook’s Leader magazine about my mom’s Sunday school methods, and it was accepted. So I sold my accordion, bought an electric typewriter and enrolled in a writing course.
I have a non-fiction book published by the Assemblies of God and more than 275 of my articles and stories have been published in about 45 different Christian publications. During my early years, though, I became a newspaper correspondent and it blossomed into a career. I took time off for our five children, then went back to work and am now retired after spending 17 years as a reporter, mostly for the Chieftain. I now have branched out into novels.
What do you hope readers will take away from Swallowed by LIFE?
Hope. Joy. Peace. An urgency to tell the world about Jesus. The book is written for support groups, religion classes, people with chronic or terminal illnesses, individuals who fear death or are curious, the grieving, and those who give them counsel. The book has questions and answers for each chapter.
What is your favorite season?
I live in Missouri now and the trees are beautiful in the fall. They’re starting to turn now. But spring is also gorgeous with all the flowering trees and bushes. Yet, I’m a transplanted Colorado native and in my youth winter was a wonderful time. I enjoyed ice skating, and after we married when we lived in Minturn (six miles from Vail), our house was on a hill above the railroad depot where my husband worked. I’d jump on a sled and take his lunch to him. But we loved playing tennis in the summer, too.
Seasons of life are similar. You can find something good about them all. I have a friend who said, “When you know Jesus, each season of life is more exciting that the last.”
If you could travel back in time when and where would you go?
I like to read historical novels from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. I probably would have enjoyed living then or during the Great Awakening era. But I feel privileged to live in this time and place, as well as growing up in a big family when we didn’t have to lock our doors and almost everyone believed in God and the Ten Commandments.
What project are you currently working on?
I’m marketing Swallowed by LIFE by speaking, book signings, being a vendor at conferences, on social media, and I’ve sent out some news releases and do some direct mail. My teen novel, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult will be out for Christmas. Then I will put final touches on my historial romance, The Lady Fugitive., Hopefully I’ll start on sequels and continue to write for Christian publications and op-ed pieces for newspapers.
What else would you like to tell us?
Swallowed by LIFE is free Oct. 19-21. Tell your friends and Bible study groups!
Where you can find Swallowed by Life:
(click on the links below)
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Booksamillion
And you can see reviews on GoodReads
Visit Ada at her blog.
 I am excited to welcome my good friend Kathy Harris. Although we have not met in person, Kathy and I are members of a close-knit group who share hopes, dreams, successes, disappointments, and confidences in cyberspace.
Join us as Kathy talks about something near and dear to all of us at one time or another in our lives: going home.
Many times over the past few years, I've dreamed of being back in my grandparents’ house. The small white bungalow, tucked behind a double row of trees, was surrounded by fields of corn. The stalks were taller in maturity than I was at the time (or, for that matter, than I am now).
The vegetable garden, henhouse, pond, and barn are indelibly engraved into my memory. It has been almost twenty years since I last visited that old homeplace, but I can still taste the first ripe tomatoes of the season, hear the cackling of the chickens, and smell the musty scent of the hayloft.
I can mentally slide my hand across the faded gray, rough-hewn barnwood—and delight in the memory of a dairy cow licking my fingers with her raspy, pink tongue. In a flash, I’m sitting on my grandpa’s knee, trying to learn how to milk one of those cows, and then giggling when a thin white stream of milk misses the pail and lands on his bare foot.
As an adult, well past childhood, I would drive for hundreds of miles in rain or snow to return to that family home on special occasions. The place—and the people who inhabited it—brought me comfort then. Thinking about it—and them—still does.
There’s something special about returning to our roots, remembering where we came from. Like human carrier pigeons, we often try to go home. If not physically, then within the confines of our minds.
Perhaps by way of a built-in spiritual compass, we also understand that our eternal home is waiting. We can’t yet see it. But we know it’s there.
In the meantime, we each have a journey to complete here . . . miles, rain, snow, and winding roads set out before us on our way “home.”
QUESTION: What are some of your favorite childhood memories?
(Answer this question in comments between now and October 31st to be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Kathy's book, The Road to Mercy. Be sure to leave your email address!)
The
Road to Mercy
by
Kathy Harris
Tragedy, love,
and secrets meet on a journey of faith.
Have you ever dared to believe you could find God's
forgiveness, even when you can't forgive yourself?
 Dr. Ben Abrams, rescued as an
infant from a fiery crash that killed his family, turned his adversities into
success but lost his heritage of faith. Fifty years later, Josh and Bethany
Harrison face a difficult decision that also tests their faith. A rupture in
Beth's carotid artery leaves her on the brink of death, even as she's pregnant
with their first child. While Dr. Abrams urges her to abort the baby to save
her own life, she and Josh step out on faith and
continue the pregnancy.
During the next few months, Josh, a contemporary
Christian singer, struggles with his faith while Beth hides a secret that may
destroy their marriage. She also discovers a decades-old connection to Dr.
Abrams that could change his life forever.
- Abingdon Press, September 2012
Kathy Harris is an author by way of a divine detour into the Nashville entertainment business. She graduated with a B.S. in Communications from Southern Illinois University and has spent the past two decades employed as a marketing director in the Nashville music industry.
An active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and the publicity officer for Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, Kathy lives near Nashville with her husband and their two Shiloh Shepherd dogs. Her fiction debut, The Road to Mercy, was released by Abingdon Press on September 1, 2012.
Kathy regularly interviews literary and music guests on her blog, Divine Detour . Visit Kathy's author site.. She can be found on Facebook or Twitter @DivineDetour.
Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the book launch for Written World Communications' most recent release, the prarnormal/action/adventure novel Rockapocalypse by Byron Suggs. Although all WWC book releases are exciting, this one holds a special place in my heart.
It is the first book edited by me.
For months, author Byron and I emailed, talked by phone, quibbled over words, debated grammatical issues, discussed scenes, and at times, agreed to disagree. I can't say I ever got inside Byron's head, but I did start thinking the way his characters would think.
After a while, I no longer had to ask grammar or local flavor? in a character's dialogue. I just knew.
I turned in the final proofread, and in a matter of days, the manuscript was off to press. That's when the doubts bombarded my brain.
Had I caught all the typos?
Had I corrected inconsistencies in capitalization?
Had I been tired when I read the final copy and missed something really important?
It thrilled me to make my way through a throng of people to the back of The Written World on Saturday where Byron sat behind a table with a stack of books next to him - real printed books we and other members of the Written World team had worked on and perfected together. The cover art we had all agreed on was replicated in a big poster located next to him.
Even though Byron and I had joked about never reading the book again, I couldn't resist thumbing through the pages, skimming sentences and scenes I'd read at least a dozen times over the past weeks. Somehow, the words looked different between the pages of a bound book than they did on a computer screen.
Then I found it The one thing I had feared. It jumped out at me like a mole on the end of a model's nose.
A mistake!
I won't repeat the sentence itself to avoid ruining any portion of the story for readers, but there is a period where a comma should be!
Readers might not even notice, but that particular oversight is one of my pet peeves.
This example will explain what I mean.
"Let's go." Sue said. (incorrect)
"Let's go," Sue said. (correct)
UGH!
My granddaughter, who accompanied me to the booksigning, saved my crushed ego.
"Look, grandma. All books have mistakes." She showed me the book she had brought with her, a novel written by a world renowned author that has sold millions of copies.
Sure enough, at the end of a paragraph of dialogue, there was no closed quotation mark! I double checked to be sure the same character was not continuing his dialogue in a new paragraph.
Nope, this was a genuine, bona fide mistake!
When it comes right down to it, the only book where I have never, ever seen a single error, whether it be typo or missing comma, is the Holy Bible. How fitting that God's book is the only perfect one I've ever found!
There are probably other errors in Rockapocalypse, things I missed. I heard that during the printing process, in one place, the word "chief" lost its "c." Bet any reader smart enough to read the book will figure that one out.
I believe in this story.
The message overshadows the mistakes by miles.
About a year after they married, our son Jason and his wife Jaque decided to make their home in New York City, a fair distance from our Colorado home. Two years ago, they stretched the mileage chasm even further when they moved to the UK.
Two years is a long time to not see your son, but contact such as instant messsaging on the computer, gmail chat via cell phone, and an occasional Skyped conversation along with a phone call every few weeks kept us pretty well in touch.
Three weeks ago, our daughter told us she was taking our granddaughter to the mall to do some back-to-school clothes shopping. My husband and I took our granddaughter, Madi, with us to look for a new laptop that morning, and when we took her home, we stayed for lunch and watched a movie.
I thought it strange, when it got to be late afternoon, that they had made no move to leave for their shopping trip, especially since the mall is eighty miles away. "The sale doesn't start until six, Mom," our daughter, Joelene, told me. "We have plenty of time."
When I texted her at 11:00 PM and she told me they were just leaving Pueblo, I was surprised. "Madi talked me into taking her out to dinner and we played some mini-golf."
Oh, OK, that made sense.
When 12:30 (A.M, mind you) rolled around, I was getting tired and thought I would text again just to be sure they were home before heading on to bed. No sooner did I get the text sent when I could have sworn I heard a car drive in the yard. I chuckled to myself. Madi must have talked her mom into letting her come over and show us all of her new school outfits, even though the hour was late.
I heard a knock on the door and went to unlock it with a smile for Madi, Towering above me with his six-one frame stood Jason! Joelene and Madi had been to DIA to pick him up, and they'd been keeping the secret that he was coming since April!
We had a wonderful couple of weeks together. Jaque had also come along, but they had parted ways in Charlotte, N.C. They had brought a friend from the UK, Josie, who had never been in the US, so Jaque and Josie flew on up to NYC to do some touring there while Jason flew on out to Denver.
A couple of days later, the girls flew to Denver, spent the night with a friend, and Jason drove up and picked them up the next day. They had a chance to visit friends and family here locally as well as take a couple of days to visit friends in Colorado Springs.
It was fun to watch "the kids" do some of the silly things they used to do together years ago, like climb on the garage roof! Back in the day, I would have been up there with them. Not any more!
Jason sure misses Mexican food, so we went out to dinner at one of our local Mexican food restaurants.
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| Um, Little Bro, did you really just take a drink of MY pop? |
Dairy Queen is the only fast food restaurant in our small town, and of course we had to make a visit there!
One day Josie treated us to home-made crepes. Oh, man, were they ever good!
Jaque mastered the art of flipping them, but, nope, I didn't even try!
 One evening, Jason and Jaque brought out a whole bunch of sweet treats from the UK. We're still enjoying the variety of candies and cookies! In the meantime, they purchased some of the favorites they miss, mainly Mountain Dew and Chips Ahoy cookies!
The vehicles overseas are smaller than here. They don't have many "big trucks" or SUV's, so I invited Josie to take my Ford pick-up for a spin.
The second week of their visit, the girls and Jaque's family went on a road trip out west to see Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
Jason was able to arrange to work while here, since he normally works from home on a computer. He brought a laptop with him and the company supplied him with a phone. Due to the time change between the UK and here, he worked his shift at night.
Of course, I didn't remember to get any more pictures until we were at the airport and the three were leaving!
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| Jaque & Jason |
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Jaque & Josie
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Jason & his mom (yours truly)
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Jason was not thrilled about having to go through the body scanner at the airport, but they all made it out okay. As you can see, we had a chance for one last wave good-bye!
A lot of people say they miss the days when their children were young. I guess in a way I do too, but I'm also proud to see the adults both of our kids have become. It's fun to relate to them as adults, to listen to their view of the world, their experiences, and the sibling banter that occurs when they reminisce about their childhood.
Modern technology allows us to stay in touch with loved ones, no matter how much distance separates us. When kids move away, it's still hard, but not quite as hard as it was back in the day when the only means of communication was by letter or a phone call.
Still, it's not the same as giving a child (even an adult child!) a hug, seeing them smile with their sibling at some silly memory, or watching your once little boy stride across the room with the determination and maturity of a grown man.
We will cherish the memory of every moment of this visit and can't wait for the next one!
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