Jerusalem Rising: Adah’s Journey by Barbara Britton

Biblical history

Harbourlight, November 2017

$4.99

$14.99

Buy on Amazon 

About the Book:

When Adah bat Shallum finds the governor of Judah weeping over the crumbling wall of Jerusalem, she learns the reason for Nehemiah's unexpected visit—God has called him to rebuild the wall around the City of David. Nehemiah challenges the people of God to labor on the wall and in return, the names of their fathers will be written in the annals for future generations to cherish. But Adah has one sister and no brothers. Will her father, who rules a half-district of Jerusalem, be forgotten forever? Adah bravely vows to rebuild her city's wall, though she soon discovers that Jerusalem not only has enemies outside the city, but also within. Can Adah, her sister, and the men they love, honor God's call? Or will their mission be crushed by the same stones they hope to construct?

Review:

Beautifully written, well-researched tale of one of the lost eras in the history of the Hebrew nation. Yes, we read about rebuilding the wall in Ezra and Nehemiah, but then begins a dark ages-like time until the Roman occupation. It’s good to know that women went alongside as they were called to do. While Britton doesn’t mean to create a feminist novel here, she does want us to know through lovely fiction that women were not always the paving stones of the biblical world. They had a mission and a voice and real goals. Adah’s Journey is a story of one of these women with a personality and a national sense of duty; a determination to act upon God’s call for her community no matter what misguided men of the society believe of feminine capabilities in opposition to God’s plan.

Adah’s mother encourages Adah and her sister Judith to seek help from an old friend who has gone to live as a hermit outside of the city. This master builder has his own past to deal with and fights rejoining society. Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the king, is portrayed as a sympathetic hero who must convince his own people to retake their culture and their faith during a broken time. Fans of biblical fiction will find much to love about this story, one of the Tribes of Israel series. Adah’s Journey is a stand-alone full-length novel.

About the Author:

Barbara M. Britton was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, but currently lives in Wisconsin and loves the snow—when it accumulates under three inches. She writes romantic adventures for teens and adults. Barb has a nutrition degree from Baylor University but loves to dip healthy strawberries in chocolate. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Wisconsin Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. You can visit Barb online at www.barbarambritton.com or follow her on Facebook and twitter.

Science Fiction The Third Thaw

Third Thaw by Karl J Hanson

Young adult futuristic fiction

August 2018

EL Marker, Publisher

$5.99

$17.95

Buy on Amazon 

About the Book:

Mankind forced to relocate to a different habitable environment, light years from Earth. A group of young people on a distant planet who must re-establish human civilization. A fantastical yet realistic world based on plausible technological developments. A power-mad egomaniac determined to destroy anyone who gets in his way. This is The Third Thaw, a hard science fiction novel that presents a radically different strategy for planet colonization, one within the grasp of present technologies.

In a settlement called New Eden, live a group of teens known as the Third Thaw. They come from Earth, conceived there and sent as frozen embryos on a rocket ship to this planet twenty-six light years away, a journey that lasted 80,000 years. 

When they reach the age of twenty-one, after being thoroughly and specifically educated for their future tasks, the Third Thaw must leave New Eden to assist with colonizing a larger, permanent settlement on the planet. 

After the First and Second Thaws fail to complete their expedition, it’s up to the Third Thaw to succeed and save civilization.

As the highly-trained expedition party heads out to fulfill their tasks, they encounter life-threatening obstacles in their way, many of which challenged the Thaws that preceded them. 

Not the least of these is a group broken off from a German colony sent from Earth years earlier. This group and their leader, Ulrich, believe they are evolved beyond ordinary humans. 

Ulrich, along with his supercomputer “Genius,” is determined to destroy the Third Thaw. And anyone else who threatens to stop him.

Review:

The Third Thaw is an intriguing distant future yet familiar novel that spans several genres, from coming of age to New Adult to mildly science fiction fantasy. The summary explains the story quite well. If you like Lord of the Flies combined with some of Ray Bradbury’s robotic parent-teacher tales, you’ll find The Third Thaw enjoyable. A little rough start with formal language eventually smoothed out into a very nicely written, engaging story. One aspect I was surprised about was that the children raised in New Eden are virtual innocents, not even taught about adult relationships, then expected to go forth and populate their new world, but there were a number of twists that kept me turning pages. The story is an intriguing tale about potential societal development when attempting to start from scratch. I wanted to read this story as I worked on my book, Parhelion, that revolves around a similar theme of starting a new civilization from scratch and was glad to note we each have our own fresh perspective.

Spring BreakBookapalooza

Calling all readers! Spring has sprung and you’re all invited to N. N. Light’s

Book Heaven Spring BreakBookapalooza

Daily features from April 1-30

#Celebrate your love of books all month long at N. N. Light’s Book Heaven Spring Break Bookapalooza. 56 books, 35 bestselling and award-winning authors, 5 Amazon/B&N gift cards plus author share what they love about #spring and where they’d love to #travel to on their fantasy spring break. Leave your passport and sunscreen at home and join in the fun.

Open Internationally.

56 books featured plus a chance to win one of the following - sign up below:

Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

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Enter to win a $10 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

I’m thrilled to be a part of this event. My book, Parhelion, will be featured on April 5. I even talk about where I’d go on spring break if money were no option. You won’t want to miss it.

Amazon https://amzn.to/2S0ANVn
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Bookmark this get-together and tell your friends! Enter the raffle below.

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Rose Chandler Johnson shares her new romantic fiction

Refuge at Pine Lake
Rose Chandler Johnson
Chanson Books
March, 2019
Inspirational Romantic Fiction

$4.99 Ebook
$14.99 Print

Buy on Amazon

About the Book

Robin Lancaster, a twenty-six-year-old former kindergarten teacher, has her summer and her life all figured out. She’s ready to be on her own, writing and illustrating her children’s stories at her family’s beloved lake house. Once there, she intends to rekindle a romance with Caleb Jackson, the area’s top hunting and fishing guide, and bag him for herself. Complications arise from the start when Robin finds out her mother has rented the lake house to a man they know nothing about. Matthew McLaughlin, forty-year-old widowed university professor and author from California, shows up at Pine Lake in crisis. A sabbatical might be his only hope to save much more than his career. He needs a place of refuge. Sharing the lake house with a lighthearted young woman and her dog is the last thing on his mind. Caleb Jackson has his own plans. He’s used to things going his way, but a man staying in Robin’s house presents unforeseen challenges. When paths unavoidably entangle for these three, hearts are on the line.

About the Author

Rose Chandler Johnson is known for her heartwarming, inspirational writing. In addition to works of God, Me, and Sweet Iced Tea: Experiencing God in the Midst of Everyday Moments.

sweet contemporary, Christian fiction, Rose has written an award-winning devotional,

Connect with her on her devotional blog: www.writemomentswithgod.blogspot.com

Author page: https://amzn.to/2tVXCj2

Twitter: @rechanjo

Follow her on BookBub: bit.ly/2CezzAx

Refuge at Pine Lake by Rose Chandler Johnson

“…a tender story of healing and finding a place to belong. This sweet, Southern romance doesn’t disappoint.” –Liz Talley

Rose, what do you love about this new story?

What’s not to love? I love the intriguing storyline itself which involves an unlikely love-triangle, and I love the characters who make the story come to life. Any one of them could be someone you know. They each have real struggles and goals, strengths and weaknesses, and the reader sees them dealing with their lives and growing in the process. I’m not ready to say good-bye to these folks and you won’t be either. More Pine Haven romances will be forthcoming.

Tell us something about Caleb.

Caleb is a handsome and talented man who appears to be a prince of a man. Having earned a degree in electrical engineering, he none the less launched out on his own to pursue his dream and became Pine Lake’s top hunting and fishing guide. He’s a man’s man, yet he’s also one who opens doors for ladies and brings them flowers. He’s a keeper all right. Robin has her heart set on him for her future husband. Yet, as we all know, flaws rise to the surface in the course of relationship dynamics and … you’ll have to read the story to see how things work out.

Share one or two new things you learned while writing this book.

A vital component of our well-being is our connection with others. We need that connection to feel needed and valued as a human being. In an atmosphere of love, we’re free to be our best selves.  The story also highlighted for me the complex dynamics of relationships and the lovely way God works on our behalf if we’ll just let Him.

What do you hope readers will tell others about this story?

That it is heartwarming and a real pleasure to read. That it’s definitely a worthwhile story you won’t put down. You’ll love the characters and setting. Read it.

Craft Talk Omniscient Point of VIew

Omniscient Voice or Head-Hopping?

What’s the difference between an all-knowing, omnipresent, prescient narrator, or what’s basically author intrusion? The widest footprint in the sand is whether your omniscient narrator has a role in the story or whether it observes events. An omniscient narrator knows the thoughts and timeline, but does not influence them. It is unkind to show off this knowledge of multiple characters in the same scene or paragraph, let alone same sentence, but it’s not necessarily wrong. Omniscient POVs are generally found in literary works instead of genre work. Omniscient POV generally works better in plot-driven story (when the story is mostly about what happens/reactions to events) vs. character-driven story (when the story is mostly about the people/what they do).

Head-hopping switches from a person’s thoughts about something to another person’s thoughts of their own individual tone/perspectives in the same setting or scene, in the same sentence or paragraph. It is the character’s voice vs. the narrator’s voice telling something about them or another character from outside of the purview, not the characters sharing their story from their own mindset.

Is head-hopping ever acceptable? Let’s just say, it’s done on occasion, especially in some romantic lit or in books by popular authors whose editors fear their reps. It can be done without disrupting the reading experience (eg, in the heat of the moment), but it’s more compelling to watch an expert author spin a tale limited to one perspective (at a time).

Omniscient voice should never change perspective but keep the same tone and ability throughout, an all-knowing prescient entity, unless the narrator is a character with a storyline and purpose. Omniscient voice often masquerades as author intrusiveness and lays a barrier between reader and story. An aspect of omniscient voice that I try to teach writers to avoid is that a prescient voice tends to waste the reader’s time explaining what’s not happening, not heard or seen, not done, or not known. Omniscient is what perspective, in general, cinematic films use to show story.

Omniscient voice can be:

• Completely outside narrator with a voice/personality/perspective of his own (Our Town/Wilder, Book Thief/Zusack). This perspective may be unreliable because it has bias. 

• Omniscient close third – the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of everyone, those born and long gone, but does not direct the action; merely reports, not responds, not causes the characters to act or react; this narrator is trustworthy (and boring), and uses the same tone throughout the book. (Celeste Ng/Everything I Never Told You, Brave New World/Huxley) 

• Omniscient limited third – the narrator knows everything about only one or two characters or an event. The setting can become a character. It has bias but only from what it knows about the character. This voice understands and not always hears those around him/her. (Harry Potter/Rowling, Hogwarts; A Man Called Ove/Backman, the neighborhood; My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She's Sorry/Backman, the apartment house)

What should you choose for your story? Here are some pointers to help you decide:

• Does your story have a literary scope or does your story fall into a specific genre?
• Whose story are you telling? (Which character has the most to lose?)
• Is the relationship among the characters or the event/scope of the story more important?
• How would your story be different if your characters weren’t directing their own actions?
• Can you carry such an all-knowing voice consistently throughout the entire book?

 Photo courtesy of LisaLeo on Morguefile.

Francie Dickman shares her novel Chuckerman Makes a Movie

Chuckerman Makes a Movie
Francie Dickman

She Writes Press
Self-discovery, Jewish fiction
October, 2018
$16.95 Print
$9.95 Ebook

Purchase Links: 
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
The Book Stall

About the Book:

“A laughter-inducing novel of nostalgia and self-discovery…rooted in love, family connections, and comedic dysfunction.” —Foreword Reviews

-Winner of Chicago Writer's Association 2018 Book of the Year Award, Indie Fiction 

David Melman is a successful thirty-five-year-old celebrity brander with deep affection for the 1977 Cadillac he inherited from his grandfather. But everyone in his life agrees that he needs some help in the relationship department. When David’s sister, Marcy, suggests a screenwriting class, he tentatively agrees, and readers are treated to the story of Slip and Estelle, David's grandparents and characters in a real-life soap opera that is Jewish senior living in 1970’s Miami. 

Will writing a movie about a childhood visit to his grandparents in Florida, an unforgettable driving lesson, and a 1977 Cadillac bring David love? Luck? Or both? Alternating between David's present-day life and his past through his movie script, Chuckerman Makes a Movie is a romantic comedy blended with a comedic coming-of-age.

A Brief Interview with the Author:

Francie, what do you love about this book?

I love many things about Chuckerman Makes a Movie—the characters, the relationships between the characters, and I love the humor. I laughed out loud a lot as I wrote, and I hope that my readers will do the same. But I especially love the setting of David Melman's movie—his grandparents North Miami Beach senior-citizen condominium building in 1977. One of my purposes in writing the story was to bring to life that era and that communal way of living. Also, I particularly love Grandma Estelle's story line. As I was writing, I thought the story belonged to David and Slip, the grandfather. But when I got to the end, I realized that the story was just as much about Grandma Estelle and Laurel. It's a story about feminism and freedom. 

Share a couple of things you learned while researching this story.  

First and foremost, I learned about screen writing. The present-day plot line centers around a film writing class that David Melman begrudgingly attends and the relationship that he later develops with his film writing instructor, Laurel Sorenson (aka "The Mormon Rodeo"). In addition, throughout the book, David writes a script. To write the novel, I read a ton of books on screen writing, I studied scripts, I watched and re-watched movies.

Also, in the novel, Laurel grapples with leaving her religion for Judaism. So, in bringing Laurel to life, I learned about the Mormon religion. I didn't know that Mormon's don't drink coffee.

Introduce us to the character who made you cry first.

I don't think any of the characters made me cry, it's not that kind of a book. But, Grandma Estelle certainly holds the softest spot in my heart. She's a sympathetic character. She's kind. She's smart. She's caring. She's upbeat and optimistic. She's not in the best of health. She has put up with Slip her whole life. She hasn't always been treated well by him but she's dependent on him. Early on in the book, she asks Davy if he's heard of Women's Lib, and then says if she knew where they were selling it, she'd go get herself some. That line gets me.

What do you hope readers will tell others when they’ve finished the book?

I hope readers will tell others to read Chuckerman. Ideally, they will say something like: You need to read Chuckerman Makes a Movie! It will make you feel like you are watching a Neil Simon movie...it's family story, a coming-of-age, a perfect combination of funny, sentimental and serious. Go get it now.

What are you reading now?

I just finished Educated by Tara Westover, which was one of the most amazing stories I've ever read. Before that, I read The Budda at My Table by Tammy Letherer. I recommend both of these memoirs.

What’s next?

I'm working on another novel. My goal is to get this one, currently titled A Fish Out of Water, done in less than time than the decade it took me to write Chuckerman!

About the Author:

Francie Arenson Dickman has been using her family as the source of writing material her whole life. Chuckerman Makes a Movie, published by SheWrites Press, is her first novel.

Her personal essays have appeared in publications such as The Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Today Parents, Motherwell Magazine, Brain Child Magazine, among others, and have served as material for performances at TEDx Chicago, The MOTH and Listen to Your Mother. She lives in the same suburb of Chicago in which she grew up, with her husband, twin daughters and dog, Pickles. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from The George Washington University School of Law.