BOOK GIVEAWAY and INTERVIEW with Jennifer Hudson Taylor!

Please welcome Jennifer Hudson Taylor! She just published her debut novel that I absolutely recommend! I haven't read all of it yet, because I'm slow, but so far, I'm enthralled. If you like secular romance novels without all the sex, this is for you! I love romance, I love adventure, and what could be better than . . .

Highland warrior Bryce MacPhearson kidnaps Akira MacKenzie on her wedding day to honor a promise he made to his dying father. When he forces Akira to wed him, hoping to end a half-century feud between their clans, she struggles to overcome her anger and resentment. . .Yet her strength in the Lord becomes a witness to Bryce. But there is a traitor in their midst . . . and murder is the ultimate weapon.

Sound like fun? If you like that kind of adventure in your books, then leave a comment and you'll be entered to WIN a signed copy of Highland Blessings! If you also become a follower on my blog, I'll enter your name TWICE! If you're already a follower, then you have it made!

Now, for those that don't win, if you click on her book, it'll take you right to a place where you can buy it! But let's hope you win, right?

Allow me to introduce this talented author. Now, don't be shy, Jennifer. Come out from behind that tree. Isn't she cute? She kind of looks like the girl on her cover, doesn't she?

Jennifer Hudson Taylor is the author of historical and contemporary Christian fiction set in Europe and the Carolinas. Her fiction has won awards in the American Christian Fiction Writers' Genesis Contest. Her debut novel, Highland Blessings, will be released May 2010. Other works have appeared in national publications, such as Guideposts, Heritage Quest Magazine, Everton’s Genealogical Publishers, and The Military Trader. Jennifer graduated from Elon University with a B.A. in Journalism. When she isn't writing, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, genealogy, and reading. She resides with her husband and daughter in the Charlotte area of NC.

If you click on Jennifer's photo, it'll take you directly to her website.

Jennifer, thank you so much for coming! How long have you been writing? What made you decide to become a writer?

By the time I was 12, I was an avid reader. I finished watching Gone with the Wind with my mom and decided I wanted to write the next Civil War bestseller. I started writing my first novel that year. I set it aside during my teenage years, but started working on it again after I married in my early twenties. I finished it and had the nerve to pitch it to a Berkley editor at my first Romance Writers National Conference in Dallas. Needless to say, that manuscript will stay on my computer.

Where do you spend your time writing? Do you have a favorite place? A favorite time of day?

I work a full-time job and try very hard to be grateful when I’d rather be home writing. I’m up at 5am. This is when I have private devotions, get my exercise done twice a week, blog and update my Facebook and Twitter pages, and answer email. I have a long commute to and from work, which doesn’t bring me home until 6 or 6:30 in the evening. I greet my husband and daughter, manage some supper, and begin working on my writing or promoting my writing or research for my writing. By this time I’m very tired and weary. I write wherever and whenever I can squeeze it in—in the car on the way to family events, in the doctor’s office, in my bedroom, in my office upstairs, in restaurants on my lunch hour, on family vacations, I have even hid in my closet to keep from waking my hubby to write. A desperate writer will do whatever it takes. I covet your prayers for my sanity!

How'd you come up with this story?

From other secular historical romance novels set in Medieval Scotland. I had read them in the early 90’s. I wanted to write what I enjoyed reading. Highland Blessings started out in 1998 as a secular novel, Promised Betrayal. I converted it to Christian fiction in 2006.

What is your favorite scene in the whole book? If it's a reasonable length (not an entire chapter), feel free to post an excerpt.

There is a scene in the book where Bryce believes Akira is about to take off on his horse after he had kidnapped her. He calls to his horse who rises up on his hind legs and dumps Akira into a puddle of mud. The war is on after that. Here’s a brief excerpt:

She shoved his hands away, determined to dismount on her own. His edgy stallion pranced unsteadily. She turned and reached for the reins to steady his nervous horse.

“Ahern, rise!” he shouted. Without a moment’s hesitation the light gray stallion reared back on his hind legs. Bryce must have thought she was trying to escape.

Akira slid backward, landing with an unexpected slosh in the thick, red mud. She could feel the wetness quickly seeping through her wedding gown. Her hands sank at least two inches deep. She tried to stand, but her sodden gown drew her back down. Determined not to be bested, she propelled herself forward, only to lose her balance once more, this time falling forward on her hands and knees. The mud was so thick and slippery, she failed at every attempt.

She glared at Bryce. He couldn’t hide his amused grin. His men broke into laughter. Faces turned red, more jests were made, and laughter continued to ring throughout the forest. Bryce managed to stop laughing and bent toward her, extending his hand.

Her lips tightened into a thin line as she considered her options.

Bryce made another move toward her.

“Don’t ye dare touch me!”

She might be in an unfavorable position, but she wasn’t witless. Drained of energy for the moment, she sank back into the mud to assess the situation further, completely at the center of attention as Bryce’s men circled around her. Let the lot of them rot!

“Pray tell, what would ye do if I were to touch ye?” Bryce taunted, folding his muscled arms over his broad chest. His men shushed each other to hear her reply.

She smiled sweetly from her mud hole. “The same as ye would,” she answered, as if his question were silly.

“Lass, if ye would do as I would, ye wouldn’t be smiling at the moment.”

She didn’t take the bait, and her smile remained plastered across her face. “Ye belittle my intentions. Don’t think like a man, but have a wee wit about ye and think like a woman.” His men laughed. A few barbed comments reached her ears, but she ignored them, keeping her attention focused on Bryce.

Grinning with interest, Bryce took a step forward and bent. His eyes sparkled. “I believe a lass such as yerself would have the misfortune to imagine herself capable of pulling me down in the mud with her.”

Akira’s bravery never faltered. She lifted her chin a notch higher for emphasis and looked him straight in the eye. “And I believe a man such as yerself might overestimate his own ability.”

His men inched closer, as if straining to hear what Bryce would say next. They would have a while to wait. Before Bryce could come up with a fitting reply, a small fistful of red mud splattered across his face. It hit him so hard his head jerked back to the side.

Amazed at her own reflexes, Akira reached up and covered her mouth, unconsciously smearing a patch of mud on her face. She sat very still, waiting to die. Surely she had pushed him too far?

Fierce gray eyes scorched her. If it were possible, she would have run from him, but she couldn’t, so she thought hard to come up with a creative plan. Bryce lunged for her. She scrambled to her knees, pretending to cower before him, bending as low as she could.

Bryce hesitated, surprised by her actions. A second later, he no longer stood.

Akira had sensed his hesitation and chose that moment to lunge at his feet. She pulled and tugged on one of his legs until he came sliding down upon her. She twisted, grabbing two more fistfuls of mud. Knowing time was of the essence and that she might not live to gain any more favors, Akira shoved the mud into his face.

He sat up, trying to wipe the mud away, but his efforts were futile when his hands and every other inch of his body was covered in mud.

“Nay, I didn’t use brutal strength to pull ye in. I outwitted ye with yer own conceit, and if that hadn’t worked, my gown would surely weigh enough to pull us both in had ye tried to drag me out.”

Akira was so engrossed in her pleasure at having bested him in at least one thing that she did not yet realize she was now at his mercy.

“Is that so?”

“Aye, it is.” Her smile slowly faded with warranted concern.

“Well, I now have ye right where I want ye.”

“Aye,” she gulped, acknowledging the truth of his words. His dark eyes peered through his mud-soaked face, roaming over her equally mud-clad features. Her heart started beating rapidly, and she could not calm her racing pulse as he stared at her.

He reached down and smashed a handful of mud in her face. Laughing, he crawled away, watching as she sputtered and spit the gritty mud from her mouth. His men clapped and laughed. They were obviously pleased by his actions.

“Aye, she’s a spirited lass. She has a temper to match our Evan’s,” said a man above the other hearty voices. Akira had heard Bryce call him Kian during their ride.

Bryce glanced over at Akira still sitting in the mud beside him. He held out his hand to her in a gesture that suggested a momentary truce.

Akira hesitated. Should she trust him? If she didn’t, she might never get out of this mess. Deciding she could trust him in at least this one thing, Akira placed her hand in his.

He assisted her up. “Reach out to Balloch,” Bryce directed. She reached up and strong hands gripped her under the arms, lifting her out of the mud as if she were a small child.

Bryce followed suit on his own, but at a much slower pace.

She stood shivering in the cold rain, blinking as water rushed over her lashes and into her eyes. The rest of the pouring drops washed away some of the mud. Her gown hugged her figure, and she could only imagine the disgraceful sight she must be at the moment. Bryce stopped beside her, allowing his gaze to travel over her. She stiffened, knowing she was being scrutinized once again.

“I wonder if I look as sorry as ye?” Bryce raised a black eyebrow. He cleared his throat and wiped away a thick wad of mud that was about to drop from his ear.

“Aye, ye do,” Akira assured him.

***

Love it! So, what do you hope people will get out of reading your book? What's the "take home" factor?

Regardless of past wrongs and long-held grudges, God can mend any relationship, even clans of people—whole nations.

What are you working on now?

I am working on a sequel, Highland Sanctuary. It will be released in October 2011. It is set in 1477 Caithness, Scotland.

Summary:

Gavin MacKenzie is hired to restore the ancient Castle of Braigh. He discovers a hidden village of outcasts that have created their own private sanctuary from the world. Among them is Serena Boyd, a mysterious and comely lass who captures Gavin’s heart. The villagers have an intriguing secret, while Serena harbors a deadly past that could destroy her future. When a fierce enemy launches an attack against them, greed leads to bitter betrayal. As Gavin prepares a defense, the villagers unite in a bold act of faith, showing how God’s love is more powerful than any human force on earth.

Thank you so much for coming, Jennifer! I'm looking forward to that next book! We'll be keeping our eyes open for it. Thank you for letting us get to know you and for sharing your work with us.

So Readers, if you want to WIN a SIGNED copy of Highland Blessings, be sure to leave a comment. If you want your name put in twice, then become a follower of my blog. And if you're already a follower, then you're already in the drawing twice!

Good luck to those who enter!

A New Focus that's Old

Okay, I've lost my focus. The focus should be on my readers. THEY'RE the ones I'm writing for, and somehow I lost sight of that.

On a writing loop someone asked if we have too many "rules" to the point that we're losing creativity in our writing and storytelling.

This was my response:

Are there too many rules? No. Not too many "rules." But when the rules become more important than the story, then yes, there are too many rules.

The reader wants a good story. Not perfect prose. Now, I'm not talking about poor grammar, lousy punctuation, etc. Although, I just demonstrated poor grammar and lousy punctuation in the previous line. Readers simply want a great story with sentences that get the point across than a bunch of perfectly written sentences that amount to borrrrrring.

And in my book, rules are meant to be broken, especially in a field that requires creativity. So, learn the rules. Learn to master them. Then break them. :-)

So, I'm back on track. I'm writing for my readers, not for the critics.

Writing Contest Blues!

I recently got the results back to my contest entries, and I'm depressed. Hey, this is the same contest I finalled in last year. But this year, I crashed and burned.

I'm trying to be strong. One judge gave some very helpful feedback, and I already sent off my thank you note to her. It was easy because I was thankful, grateful even. But I can hardly bring myself to look at the rest. Some judges just didn't "get it." Or so I'd like to think. Ugh.

Here's the worst I got. I won't quote it because that's not allowed. Let me just say that out of a score of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest, I got a two for these opening lines because she didn't think it was a "good hook."

I'll include the whole scene after the opening lines so you can see what happens. The judge said she was "confused" because most women would have wanted to be there, but not Amelia. Why is that "confusing?" Isn't it clear why she doesn't want to be there in the context of the whole scene?

***

Gun smoke still hung on the air.

The preacher scowled. "Do you, Nathaniel Ward, take Amelia Taylor to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Amelia's father cocked his rifle and aimed it at the reluctant groom.

"I do," Nathaniel said, his voice firm and unwavering. Despite her father's threats, Nathaniel's very presence exuded power, his raised chin, broad shoulders and wide chest unflinching against the barrel of the rifle.

Amelia didn't dare look up at him. What must he be thinking? How many women had hoped to get him this far, and now, here she stood where most women dreamed of standing—gunshot wedding, or not. If only she could melt into the wooden floor of the parlor like the candle burning in the nearby lantern. Or disappear like the smoke. Disappear into nothingness, with no remnant left of her existence.

The preacher's words rushed over Amelia like a gush of foul air as he asked her the same question.

She stood paralyzed, unable to speak. She'd vowed never to marry. How would she bear this cross? She'd seen enough loveless marriages in her life to know it wasn't worth the heartache, despite the shame of spinsterhood. And now, to be forced on a man? What miseries awaited her? Abuse? Neglect? Slavery? Any man in his right mind would despise her for the rest of his days. It would be impossible—unthinkable—to procure his affection . . . his love.

The minister, still in his nightclothes, cleared his throat. His wife, holding up the lantern, glowered from behind him.

Amelia swallowed, darting a glance at her terrifying father. With a snarl, he narrowed his eyes at Nathaniel and pressed closer with his rifle. Would he put another hole in the preacher's wall? Or Nathaniel's chest?

"Amelia, girl." Her father's voice sent a shudder down her spine as it echoed through the quiet house. "You know, I always keep my word." He'd threatened to kill Nathaniel if she refused to be his wife.

"I do," she said, her voice small and trembling, quite the opposite of the man next to her. The horror, the shame. How did her life come to this?

"I now pronounce you man and wife." The minister slammed his Bible shut and pointed it at her father. "Now get out."

Shadows clouded Amelia's vision and her legs wobbled like those of a newborn calf. Her knees buckled, but rather than landing on the hard floor, she found herself caught in Nathaniel's strong arms.

Now her husband.

***

It's been hard not to doubt myself. Am I just fooling myself into thinking I can actually WRITE a GOOD STORY?

COMING SOON!

MY BOOK!!!!

Click HERE to pre-order!

THE MASTER'S WALL

He fights for his freedom. She fights for her life. Together, they fight for each other.

After watching Roman soldiers drag his parents away to their death, David, a young Hebrew, is sold and enslaved to serve at a villa outside of Rome. As David trains to become a skilled fighter, he works hard to please his master and hopes to earn his freedom. However, an opportunity to escape tempts him with its whispering call. Freedom beckons, but invisible chains hold him captive to the master's granddaughter, an innocent girl with a fiery spirit. David vows to protect Alethea from his master, the murderous patriarch, and contrives a daring plan--sacrifice his own life to save hers.

Here's an excerpt:  First Kiss . . . Or . . . No Kiss At All

Here's what people are saying about THE MASTER'S WALL: Because I have nothing to say...

COMING NOVEMBER 1, 2010!!!!

If you click on the images, they will enlarge. Click on the bottom one twice and you'll be able to read the back cover copy.

I'm very excited about my cover because it's "different." It's a perfect depiction of my story.

ENJOY!!!

And the WINNER is . . . .

The winner of Meander Scar is . . .

Beverly Bender!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

BOOK GIVEAWAY with LISA LICKEL

Please welcome LISA LICKEL!

LISA LICKEL is a Wisconsin writer who lives in a hundred and fifty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain. Surrounded by books and dragons, she writes mysteries with Wisconsin flavor, and contemporary romantic fiction set in the Midwest. She is married to a high school science teacher. They have two grown sons and daughters in law. Lisa enjoys travel, feeding the birds, reading and spending time with family and friends.

MEANDER SCAR

Love can heal even the deepest scars …

After seven years with no clue as to the whereabouts of Ann Ballard’s missing husband, nearly everyone presumes him dead. Now forty-something, Ann is ready for her stagnant life to flow again. Then one day, a dark-haired younger man from her past shows up on her doorstep offering a river of hope in place of tears.
Former neighbor Mark Roth has secretly loved Ann for years. A respected attorney, he’s returned home to help Ann face down disapproving family members and the legal maneuvering of her likely deceased husband’s family—while quietly winning her heart.

When the hidden truth of Ann’s situation turns their lives on end and another tragedy strikes, the two must come to terms with family, faith and the depths to which true love can run.

***

If you'd like to get your hands on this book, click on the book cover and it'll take you directly to Amazon.com where you can buy it. But if you'd like to WIN a copy of Lisa's book, stick around and leave a comment with your email address typed out like this: sandirog at gmail dot com. If you'd like to be entered into the drawing a second time, then become a follower! Good luck to those who enter!

Read this awesome review by Millie NS Samuelson as posted on Amazon.

When a non-romance reader (that's me) calls a romance novel extraordinary, you know the novel must be worth taking a look at. Yes, MEANDER SCAR is that kind of book -- worth taking a look at and then definitely worth reading. Sure, MEANDER SCAR is a romance, but it's not an everyday, formulaic, quick-read one. While the romance plot element is strong, very strong, so too are the elements of theme, suspense, characterization, and writing style. For example, the title is just one of many beautiful stylistic uses of metaphor in the novel (curious? read the novel). And characterization -- wow, reading about a younger man (Mark) who's loved an older woman (Ann) since he was a teenager, and then watching him become her suitor years later is for sure not your typical love story (curious? read the novel). Then there's the suspense of what's happened to Ann's probably deceased husband and the implications for Ann and Mark's romance (curious? read the novel). One theme in the novel I really liked was Mark's strong faith in God, and Ann's not so strong faith -- both were realistically portrayed, and both were realistically threatened (curious? read the novel). Once you've read MEANDER SCAR, you'll want to read author Lisa Lickel's other fascinating novels and recommend them -- just like I am with this review. Plus you'll also join me in hoping Lisa plans some sequels to her characters who've become our good friends.

***

Now, if that doesn't make you want to read Lisa's book, I don't know what would. If you'd like more, check out Lisa's book trailer HERE on YouTube!

Lisa, welcome to my blog. Thanks so much for stopping by! So, how long have you been writing? How did you get your start?


Although I’ve always enjoyed writing articles and the like, I didn’t start writing for hire until 2003, after I was part-way through the Christian Writers Guild Apprentice Course. In 2006 I signed with an agent and contracted my first two novels.
What made you decide to write fiction?


Fiction is often just twisting, adding, or subtracting bits of reality—it has to be, in order for us to understand and relate to it; even sci-fi and fantasy have to have some basis in a reality we can comprehend. Therefore, when I tell you that my stories come from a glorified “what if” added to a newspaper account, added to an interview or a scene from some other form of media, you understand that I made it up—yes—but the tale wells up from an incident you can identify with, even if you haven’t experienced it.


What made you choose this particular genre?


In all honesty I’m still settling into genre. My first novel published was a cozy mystery, but I prefer to write mainstream stories that will all have some romantic moments and a little bit of mystery.


How did things change once you became a published author? Did you lose friends? Make friends? How did it affect your family?

I’m having a lot of fun and angst with this business. Yes, a business. This poor girl who grew up in a family of farmers and teachers and married and birthed teachers had no clue that writing a book was essentially asking people to give you money for a product they may or may not like, certainly don’t Need, and it’s up to you to convince them they really want it. Horrifying! I didn’t really lose friends because of my publishing, and I gained so many writing acquaintances that make me happy. When I got my third contract offer I quit my day job and went to work at a temp agency. Then the economy tanked. I had two years where my business lost money, so it affected my family in that my goal of earning a part-time job income isn’t going to be a reality for a while. But we eat just fine since I’m not spending money on gas and clothes and odd food.


Where do you spend your time writing? Do you have a favorite place? A favorite time of day?


I plot on paper when I’m first starting out, and that can be anywhere, any time. I sat at a picnic table in Yosemite to plot out Meander Scar, and held my hubby and his little brother, the psychology professor, hostage in the car while we chatted about what makes a family. When I get to the nitty gritty of story-telling, it’s in the living room at the computer desk, a great hulking thing that I purchased at a local auction for $5, formerly owned by a local oil company. I have access to the Internet, encyclopedias, the telephone, hubby’s science books and the dictionary. When I’m really zoned on putting new words on clean paper, I don’t have a schedule, I’m just manic.


How did you come up with the story for Meander Scar?


Again, here’s where those little bits of media interviews came back to haunt me: older men marry young women all the time; why aren’t there more stories about younger men and older women in a relationship? There are plenty of such couples all around. In fact, when I was starting to interview folks for background to Meander Scar, I learned a lot. Well, why not? Nothing lewd or morally wrong, is there? Couple that with growing faith, ‘what happens to all those people who go missing every year, anyway’, dysfunctional families, and grown-up decisions about whether or not to tell the truth, and you have a story about what happens when the flow of life, like a river, hits a hard place and meanders off course. In the story, Mark is a wonderful, faithful man, a lawyer, who comes back to the one place in his life where he felt happy and supported. Ann’s husband went missing on a business trip years earlier. Mark offers to help put Ann’s husband’s case to rest while quietly convincing her that it’s all right to love again. Just when they’re ready to move on together, Ann discovers what happened to her husband. But I’m an equal-opportunity story-teller: Mark has to come to some hard conclusions about his life, too, in this story. Ann’s not the only one who has decisions to make.


What are you working on now?


While I’m writing this interview, I’m in wait mode as I just submitted a couple of manuscripts and other items for consideration. I plan to finish up the sequel to the mystery series this summer, since I can’t stand leaving anything undone.

Meander Scar sounds intriguing! I can't wait to get my hands on it. What do you see in your future as an author? Do you have concrete ideas for more books you'd like to write on down the line, or do you plan out a book only after you've decided to write one?


They’ll have to pry the pencil from my cold, dead hand. I spent last year thinking and started on the third and fourth in the mystery series, but was interrupted by a little surgery. Then in the first quarter of 2010 I did some editing, wrote a screen play and a couple of radio theater episodes for a local group I enjoy, ventured back into the world of short stories and took a good, hard look at whether my blog was doing what I needed it to do. I do a lot of book reviews and author interviews. I submitted the previously edited work and will go back to the mysteries. Meanwhile, I have two or three or ten other ideas floating around in various stages of plotting. But to be fair, I do the most plotting and synopsizing once I’ve settled into a decision about where to go next. I haven’t gotten to the point where I’ve contracted more than one book at a time, even though most of my stories can be serialized.
Hmm…my future? I suppose I’ll join the speaking/teaching bandwagon at some point, and keep on going the best I know how with a lot of help from above and my friends. I love to mentor new writers and work with book clubs.


Thank you so much for having me here, Sandi. Meander Scar is up for a vote for the ACFW Book club choice in the coming months. It has a lot of juicy issues to discuss, so I hope you’ll consider it for your vote when the time comes. Reader’s Guide questions are available both on my website and at Goodreads. I love to visit with any book clubs.

Thank you so much for joining us, Lisa. We're so glad you could come.

Meander Scar is available from your local book store, as well as online at the usual retail sites, also in Kindle and pdf. format from the publisher.
You can find it at Amazon. Like I said, just click on the book above. But if you'd like to try it out on your knew Nook, Kindle or Sony Reader, check it out HERE.

Oh, and guess what I just found out! For those of you who are members at B&N, if you order online from them, you can get FREE SHIPPING! HERE is where you can find Meander Scar at B&N's online store.

For those who would like to try their luck at a FREE SIGNED COPY, let us know by leaving us a comment, and don't forget to leave your email address like this: sandirog at gmail dot com. And if you'd like to have your name entered a second time, sign up to follow my blog.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE! I'm sure you'll enjoy this story!

Here's why it's been so quiet

I don't know where to start. It's all happened so fast, and yet, not fast enough. The ride has been like a rollercoaster!

I can't believe it's finally my turn to say I'm going to be published! How exciting! I can barely type because my hands won't keep still. My breathing is rapid, and now I'm not getting enough oxygen. If I'm not careful, I might hyperventilate. I mean, it's already taken me like two whole minutes to type the previous lines because I keep clapping my hands in glee! Okay, time to calm down, Sandi. Calm yourself, girl! Breathe! Okay. I'm taking a long, slow deep breath. I'm lifting my chin and straightening my lapels (because I'm wearing a dress suit of course, not my favorite sweats and t-shirt with my two-year-old tugging on my legs and demanding my attention). I'm a serious author who knows what she's doing, yes I am, Sandi I am. I am?

So . . .



who wants to escape their monotonous life, kick off their shoes and run barefoot through a Roman villa? Who wants to eavesdrop on whispering voices in the woods between a slave boy and his master's granddaughter? Who wants to stand breathless and trembling before a murderous patriarch and still have the courage for the Savior's name to cross your lips? And finally, who's willing to risk all you hold dear to save the life of a girl--a girl you once thought of as an annoying little sister until she grew up into a beautiful woman?



If this sounds like something you'd like to do, stay in touch! I'll let you know when the book is released!



Here's the official book jacket description:



THE MASTER'S WALL


He fights for his freedom. She fights for her life. Together, they fight for each other.

After watching Roman soldiers drag his parents away to their death, David, a young Hebrew, is sold and enslaved to serve at a villa outside of Rome. David trains to become a skilled fighter. He works hard to please his master and hopes to earn his freedom. However, an opportunity to escape tempts him with its whispering call. Freedom beckons, but invisible chains hold him captive to the master's granddaughter, an innocent girl with a fiery spirit. David vows to protect Alethea from his master, the murderous patriarch, and contrives a daring plan--sacrifice his own life to save hers.



***



THE MASTER'S WALL was a 2009 finalist in the Genesis under the title Mark of the Sword in the Historical category. The story takes place just outside of Rome in 76 AD, and I just signed a three book deal with DeWard Publishing, THE MASTER'S WALL being the first in my IRON AND THE STONE series! DeWard is a small press and they're moving pretty fast on this project. I believe my book will be coming out sometime this summer (ARCs to be released this month). Because they're a small press, and this will be their first fiction line, I'm going need all the help I can get from my fellow writers and readers. So, I and DeWard will be immensely grateful to anyone willing to give us a hand in promoting my book.



If you'd like to read an excerpt, head on over this way http://thebookdoctorbd.blogspot.com/2009/08/masters-wall-final-version.html. I actually shredded my own manuscript to teach others what "not" to do in writing fiction. It was painful, but this is how it actually reads. I suppose I should put up a "nicer" excerpt on this blog. I'll do that later. I hope it appeals to your reading taste buds!



I'll let you know when it's released, and I hope ALL of you will buy it! LOL No pressure. :-)