From the Publisher:
An inseparable bond.
An insatiable force.
Battling his own personal demons, Police Chief Jonah Westfall knows the dark side of life and has committed himself to eradicating it. When a pair of raccoons are found mutilated in Redford, Colorado, Jonah investigates the gruesome act, knowing the strange event could escalate and destroy the tranquility of his small mountain town. With a rising drug threat and never-ending conflict with Tia Manning, a formidable childhood friend with whom he has more than a passing history, Jonah fights for answers—and his fragile sobriety.
But he can’t penetrate every wound or secret—especially one fueled by a love and guilt teetering on madness.
From best-selling author Kristen Heitzmann comes a spellbinding tale of severed connections and the consequences of life lived alone.
Here is a link to an interview Kristen did: http://www.multnomahemails.com/wbmlt/audio/Kristen_Heitzmann.mp3
My Review:
I loved this book. Of course, there have been very few Heitzmann books that I haven't enjoyed! In Indivisible the romantic tension is thick, the mystery is page-turning, and the secondary characters add just the right touch of glaze to the top of what is already a very tasty pastry. A very enjoyable read!
I'm offering a give-away for Indivisible. Leave a comment on this post and you will be entered to win the book. The drawing will be held next Friday the 21st, of May.
About the Author:
While home schooling her four kids, Kristen Heitzmann wrote her first novel. It became one of a five book historical series. Since then, she has written three more historical novels and eight contemporary romantic and psychological suspense novels including The Still of Night, nominated for the Colorado Book Award, The Tender Vine, a Christy Award finalist and Christy Award winning Secrets. She lives in Colorado with her husband Jim, sundry family members, and pets.
Learn more about the author at her website.
My path to publication is unconventional. Although I grew up surrounded by books, I rarely considered a writing career. Instead, I studied chemistry and received my doctorate in pharmacy. After graduation, I chose to work one day a week as a hospital pharmacist so I could stay home with our three children. On January 6, 2000, when our youngest was a toddler, I had a dream with such intriguing characters that I felt compelled to write their story. Before that date, I’d never had an idea for a book, and after that, ideas flowed. It was as if God turned on a writing switch in my brain. The novel that came from that dream will never be published, nor should it, but it got me started.
Since God had called me to write and since our children were young, I decided if I was going to dedicate time to writing, I needed to be serious and pursue publication. I went to my first writers’ conference in September 2000 with a perfect 750-page manuscript and one question—how to find a publisher. That one-day conference showed me everything I was doing wrong. I came home with several books on writing craft and slashed my manuscript in half. I still had a lot to learn.
In 2001, I joined Diablo Valley Christian Writers’ Group. My writers’ group has taught me three main things: 1) how to write 2) how to handle critique, and 3) a writer needs other writers. Later that year I attended another conference taught by Lauraine Snelling. She taught me so much about plotting, characterization, and research. At that point I was playing with the idea for A Distant Melody, and Lauraine’s teaching got me off to a great start.
The concept for A Distant Melody came out of a “what if” question—what if a man and woman met at an event, truly clicked, and parted before exchanging contact info? Wouldn’t it be romantic if he went through great effort to track her down? It wouldn’t work in a contemporary setting—he’d “Google” her—but it made a sweet premise for a historical. My husband and I watched a History Channel special on the US Eighth Air Force based in England which flew over Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II, and I was hooked.
But a historical? Historicals require research! And I’d never flown a plane—how could I put myself in my hero’s seat behind the wheel of a four-engined bomber?
So for the next year I immersed myself in research. I read basic texts on World War II, the home front, and the Eighth Air Force. I checked out a “How to Fly” book to get the basics, purchased copies of the B-17 pilot’s manual and the Army Air Force training film (pure gold!), and ran the flying scenes past a pilot friend. For home front information, I used everything from Top Ten lists, to fashion style guides, to the Time Capsule series with extracts from Time Magazine. I loved my research so much that the story expanded to become a trilogy, with each book focusing on one of three brothers.
In 2003, my writers’ group encouraged me (pushed me?) to show my work to professionals, so I submitted at Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference. I received good feedback from published authors, editors, and agents—and began accumulating a stack of “good” rejection letters. They liked my writing, my story, and my characters—however, historicals weren’t selling. They wanted chick lit. This continued for years.
I never wanted to give up on the series, because I loved my characters. However, in 2005 all doors to publication seemed closed and padlocked, and I wondered whether I had heard God correctly. Was I truly meant to write? Was I wasting my time when I could be doing something more productive?
That year at Mount Hermon I went for a walk under the redwoods and stopped to admire a little white flower. I praised God for the flower and felt touched—had He made that flower just so I would praise Him? Then I looked around me. Hundreds of redwoods covered the hills, and thousands more out of my vision, all surrounded by white blossoms. How many of those flowers would ever cause someone to stop and praise God? Were they created in vain? Did the Lord waste His time creating them? Of course not. God is a creative Being, and He made us in His creative image. In His mercy, the Lord showed me that even if my writing was never seen by another human being and never caused anyone to praise Him, I did the right thing obeying His call to write. I was not wasting my time.
Mother Teresa said, “God doesn’t require us to succeed; He only requires that you try.” If God has called you to do something for Him, measure your success through His eyes. Did you obey? Were you faithful? Did you persevere?
Stubbornness can be a serious fault, but when it’s applied to following God’s will, it’s a very good thing.
It’s been said that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” While I understand the sentiment behind the phrase, to me it somehow lessens and negates the other millions of steps taken in any journey. Yes, there has to be that first step, but sometimes the real effort comes in later steps after the excitement of embarking on the journey has worn off.
For me, life is not only a journey, but a series of mini-journeys. And for authors, each book is a journey all its own. For my novel TEXAS ROADS, the journey consisted of both an inner personal trip as well as the outer steps needed to produce a work of fiction. Let me begin by giving a little background to help you understand my trek into the world of writing TEXAS ROADS.
I’ve always longed for one little corner of the world to call my own, yet for many years my family and I seemed destined to travel from one small Texas town to the next. Just as we’d start to feel at home in one place, God moved us on somewhere else. Finally I reached a breaking point. If God loved me so much, why wouldn’t He give me this one desire of my heart?
Hindsight makes comprehension so much easier, doesn’t it? I now see that through this part of my life journey God was gently revealing that He was my home. Only He could fill that home-sized hole in my heart. That quest and discovery of true home became the spiritual journey for my heroine in TEXAS ROADS. From outward appearances, Dani Davis has it all—wealth, social status, a fulfilling career. But on the inside she knows something is missing. She feels empty, and wrongly assumes that it’s because she’s never felt like she belonged anywhere.
When she stumbles upon Miller’s Creek, Texas
My writing journey has been much the same. Only when I lost what I thought was rightfully mine was I able to embark on the journey God had planned for me—that of becoming a writer. My first single step was a two-footer as I jumped in with both feet, eager to test my wings. Those first steps weren’t tentative for me, but more like an excited skip down a new pathway.
After an extensive pre-writing session where I filled out lengthy character charts and wrote a synopsis that was more like a novella, the first draft of TEXAS ROADS flowed easily. Then the challenge of the journey threatened to stop me in my tracks. The problem came from my own naïve assumption. As a newbie, I thought the book would be written in that first draft. You can imagine my disappointment in reading over the story. Maybe writing wasn’t my thing. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to take this road. My steps slowed. I looked back.
I’d already come so far. I’d spent hours reading craft of writing books and more hours of applying what I’d learned to my writing. I’d invested money, time, sweat and tears on the journey. And if I stopped now, what would I do? Like the gentle Shepherd that He is, God nudged me to take another step. Only His constant nudging pushed me up the mountain of edits and revisions. He provided a whole host of friends who were brutally honest and helped me shape and polish the story. Finally I made it to the mountain top. Ah, at last! I was skipping down the road again. The story secured some recognition in the ACFW Genesis competition and provided momentum to push me up the next incline.
Then I came to a fork in the road. One path was filled with people just like me—those who wanted to make a difference in the world through the stories they told—some who’d already cleared a few obstacles in the path toward publication and were quickly becoming known as storytellers.
The other path was a little shadowy and very narrow—the path of self-publishing. From where I stood, it looked rocky and steep. Many fellow travelers had only made it halfway up the mountain where they now congregated in an attempt to catch their breath. To make it worse, some of the people from the first path jeered at them.
How was I supposed to know which way to go? In all honesty, neither path looked appealing. I sighed and followed the majority. But the further I traveled down my chosen pathway, the less right it felt. So I did what I should have done in the first place: I stopped and asked God what He wanted me to do.
He motioned for me to backtrack, and then started leading me up the narrow path. “Lord, I don’t think I can do this.”
“You’re right. You can’t. At least not by yourself.”
My pulse thundered in my ears at the implication. I knew I needed to trust Him more. “But Lord, the success rate isn’t too great on this road.”
“Whose success are you after, yours or Mine?”His words sliced clean and deep, removing the vanity and pride that had built up in my heart. I grabbed hold of His outstretched hand and began to climb.
So far the journey of writing and independently publishing TEXAS ROADS has taken three years, but just because a book has been published doesn’t mean the journey is over. I’m currently learning to take the difficult steps of getting the word out about the book.
Why stay on this exhausting road? Because it’s His story, not mine.
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Click on the cover of the book to be taken to the Amazon page. Or download a Smashwords e-book here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8963 . Connect with Cathy on her blog, WordVessel.
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Click on the cover of the book to be taken to the Amazon page. Or download a Smashwords e-book here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/8963 . Connect with Cathy on her blog, WordVessel.
A mother who cannot face her future.
THEIR ELUSIVE ENEMIES TOOK EVERYTHING. NOW THEY WANT MORE.
Crossroads Crisis Center
Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace.
The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman’s situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts?
My Review:
This was a very enjoyable read. Ms. Hinze keeps the reader interested from the get-go, with enough questions to keep you turning pages, and enough answers to satisfy the "need to know." What would it be like to wake up and not remember who you are or where you come from? Add on top of that, the fact that no one seems to care that you are missing. That was the hook that kept me reading. If you like romantic suspense, you will really enjoy this book!
Read more about this book here: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422057
THEIR ELUSIVE ENEMIES TOOK EVERYTHING. NOW THEY WANT MORE.
Now, a mysterious woman appears at Crossroads seeking answers and help—a victim who eerily resembles Ben’s deceased wife, Susan. A woman robbed of her identity, her life, of everything except her faith—and Susan’s necklace.
The connections between the two women mount, exceeding coincidence, and to keep the truth hidden, someone is willing to kill. Finding out who and why turns Ben and the mystery woman’s situation from dangerous to deadly. Their only hope for survival is to work together, trust each other, and face whatever they discover head on, no matter how painful. But will that be enough to save their lives and heal their tattered hearts?
My Review:
This was a very enjoyable read. Ms. Hinze keeps the reader interested from the get-go, with enough questions to keep you turning pages, and enough answers to satisfy the "need to know." What would it be like to wake up and not remember who you are or where you come from? Add on top of that, the fact that no one seems to care that you are missing. That was the hook that kept me reading. If you like romantic suspense, you will really enjoy this book!
Read more about this book here: http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422057
Vicki Hinze is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, three nonfiction books, and hundreds of articles. Selected for Who’s Who in America Florida
Leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of this book. Drawing will be held on Friday April, 30th.
I love the first (and last) lines from the movie Miss Potter, in which the title character, Beatrix Potter, avers, “There's something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you.”
I discovered exactly what Miss Potter meant when, in the summer of 2002, I typed the first sentence of what I intended to be a novel based on the Biblical prophet Jonah—Ben Amittai: First Call. In the spring of 2009, I typed the last line of what was now a trilogy on Jonah, “A Prophet’s Tale”.
How did a novel become a trilogy? Several reasons, I suppose. Inexperience. Seat-of-the-pants writing. Lack of control or any desire to achieve control. But mostly, I blame Miss Potter.
The story of the story begins in a Sunday School class. I was teaching a series of studies through the Minor Prophets. When I researched the book of Jonah, it struck me how unique a Biblical character he was, yet how little we knew about him. Why such an acute reaction to the idea of preaching to Nineveh? If the sailors aboard the ship jettisoned all cargo during the storm, what was there left to sacrifice (Jonah 1:4,16)? What kind of shape would he have been in physically after soaking up the digestive juices of a big fish for three days (sorry; hope you’ve finished breakfast)? Hundreds of miles separate the coast of the Mediterranean from Nineveh, so what might have happened during his journey across the desert? Did he speak Assyrian? If not, how did he communicate? How might God have prepared Nineveh to receive His message? Oh, this is only the beginning of the list.
In any event, I made the comment to my class, “If I were ever to write a novel, it would be about Jonah.” I had no intention of writing a novel. But my wife, Jeannie, was sitting in the class. And, as wives are wont to do, she elbowed me in the ribs later that day and said, “Well…?” The result: “A Prophet’s Tale.” So, now I can blame both Miss Potter and Jeannie.
The inexperience I spoke of a moment ago, combined with impatience and naïveté, plunged me rashly into the publishing industry. I had finished the prequel, Ben Amittai, and paid a subsidy publisher to get it on the street. Wrong approach. The manuscript was not ready for primetime, and over the intervening years I learned what I should have known before I ever peddled my story. I attended writers’ conferences and writing seminars, met agents and publishers, joined the local ACFW chapter to commiserate with other aspiring writers, sought beta readers and critique partners—in short, all the stuff I should have done first. Happily, things improved.
I read about a new Christian publishing house (royalty, no-fee), Capstone Fiction (now OakTara Publishing) through a post on Shoutlife. I submitted a much more polished manuscript for the first full part of “A Prophet’s Tale”: The Journey Begun in 2008, and, to my pleasant surprise, was offered a contract. A contract for the second and final part, The Word Fulfilled, soon followed. The Journey Begun was released in July 2009, and The Word Fulfilled is due for release in spring 2010.
I still write by the seat of my pants. I love it. I think it optimizes the joy of writing fiction. For me, too much discipline chokes off the creative juices. Sure, eventually you’ve got to sit back and organize your approach and your story so you don’t write yourself into a corner, but in order for the first lines to be “delicious,” they have to be spontaneous, like ordering an entrée on impulse at a new restaurant you just happened to drop into—and discovering not just a new favorite dish, but a new favorite restaurant, as well. Otherwise, you tell the lines where to go instead of allowing them to take you where they want. Example?
About three quarters of the way through The Journey Begun, a sub-minor character—someone I didn’t even name, who was supposed to be little more than a prop in one scene—jumped up and did something totally unexpected. I sat back from the keyboard and thought, “Hmm. I wonder why he did that. Let’s see where this goes.” I leaned forward again and started banging away on the keys. Where it went changed the entire course of the story, and he ended up starring in one of the most exciting scenes of the book. I don’t know why. He just did. And he still doesn’t have a name.
So, all this to say enjoy delicious writing. Just because you’re the author doesn’t mean you have to write the story.
Every writer knows that the path to publication is long and paved with lots of rejection slips. It has always been encouraging to me to read about how a story came to life. How a book went from concept to bound pages sitting on a shelf. Starting Monday, lots of authors will be trickling through to tell you about their stories' journeys.
If you are a writer, I hope these stories will be a great encouragement to you. Getting published does take time, but with a lot of hard work and perseverance, it is not impossible. Keep on keepin' on and one day you too will hold your very own work in your hands.
If you are a reader, I'm sure you will find the path your favorite book traveled to make it into your hands, an interesting one.
Monday we will start off the author line-up with OakTara author, Bruce Judisch.
Inspired by the engaging stories told through her grandmother’s photographs taken at the turn of the century, award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick provides a portrait of the tension between darkness and light in the soul of a young woman pursuing her professional dreams.
While growing in confidence as a photographer, eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele’s personal life is at a crossroads. Hoping she’s put an unfortunate romantic longing behind her as “water under the bridge,” she exiles herself to Milwaukee
Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in otherMidwest towns, pursuing her profession. But even a job she loves can’t keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life.
Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in other
Jane Kirkpatrick is an award-winning author of sixteen historical novels, including A Flickering Light, the first part of Jessie Gaebale’s story, and three nonfiction titles. Known for her unique insights into the exploration of community, family and faith of actual historical women, the Wisconsin native and her husband have called their ranch in Oregon
For more information about this book visit: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781578569816
For more information about this book visit: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781578569816
My Review:
An Absence so Great is an excellent piece of literary, historical fiction. Not heavy on romance, but full of vivid historical details that will make you feel you are right there as the story unfolds. If you enjoy that kind of writing, I think you will enjoy this book, which is the 2nd books in this series by Jane Kirkpatrick.
I have a copy of this book to give away. If you would like to enter the drawing which will take place next Friday the 16th, just leave a comment on this post.
Random house gave me a copy of this book to review.
