Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Big Picture by Jenny B. Jones


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

The Big Picture

(NavPress Publishing Group April 15, 2008)

by

Jenny B. Jones


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jenny B. Jones is the author of A Katie Parker Production series. The other books in the series are In Between and On The Loose. Though now an adult, she still relates to the trauma and drama of teen life. She is thrilled to see her writing dreams come true, as her previous claim to fame was singing the Star Spangled Banner at a mule-jumping championship. (The mules were greatly inspired.)

Jenny resides in Arkansas, where, as a teacher, she hangs out with teens on a regular basis.












ABOUT THE BOOK
Sometimes there’s a fine line between comedy and tragedy—and Katie Parker is walking it.

School is winding down for the summer but Katie Parker is having a bad day. After leaving the drive-in, where her imploding love life was the main attraction, Katie arrives home to a big surprise on the Scott's front porch.

Her mother, Bobbie Ann Parker, a former convict and recovering addict, wants to take Katie away from her family, friends, and church. Now Katie's life will be changed by a series of dramatic choices as she struggles to understand what family and home really means.

Katie is forced to walk away from In Between, leaving behind a family who loves her, a town drive-in to save, and a boyfriend who suddenly can’t take his eyes off his ex. When the life her mother promised begins to sink faster than one of Maxine’s stuffed bras, Katie knows she needs to rely on God to keep it together.

But where is he in all this? Can Katie survive a chaotic life with her mother—and one without the Scotts? And if God is there, will he come through before it’s too late?

A Katie Parker Production series offers teen girls real-world fiction balanced by hope and humor. The The Big Picture helps us realize that the difficult chapters in our journey are only part of God's big story for our lives.

You can read the first chapter HERE

"A heroine to love. Jones just gets better with every book, and The Big Picture is her best one yet."
~BARBARA WARREN, author of The Gathering Storm

"Such inspiration in a package of fun and faith!"
~EVA MARIE EVERSON, author of the Potluck Club series



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Posting Information


The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1600062083

Author's picture is:



The book cover photo is:

The code for this post is:

Jenny can be reached through the Contact link on her Website

And here's the complete list of everyone posting for The Big Picture on this tour! Go visit their sites to see what CFBA bloggers have to say!

Amy at Simple Folk Schoolhouse
Amy at sprightly
Amy at My Life
Andie at frommipov
Angela at One Baby, Seven Dogs, and a Mommy
April at Projecting A
Becky at Becky's Christian Reviews
Becky at Savvy Mom
Beth at The Write Message
Betsy Ann at Betsy Ann "Writer at Large!"
Bonnie at Bonnie Writes
Brittanie at A Book Lover
C.J. at C.J. Darlington.com
Camy at Camy Tang
Cara at the law, books, and life
Carla at Carla's Writing Café
Carol at Blogging With Carol
Carolyn at Serenity
CeeCee at Book Splurge
Cheri at Kudzu and Koolaid
Christy at Christy's Book Blog
Courtney at A Mom Speaks
Dave at Novel Spotlight
Dawn at Book Junkie Confessions
Deborah at books, movies and chinese food
Deborah at Country At Heart
Debra at Soul Reflections
Deena at A Peek At My Bookshelf
Delia at Gatorskunkz And Mudcats
Georgiana at Georgiana D
Gina at Portrait Of A Writer
Gretchen at Inspire Me
Heidi at Reviews by Heidi
Jackie at Journey Into Grace
Janis at The Nearsighted Bookworm
Janna at Cornhusker Academy
Jenn at Blessed is She…
Jennifer at Musings on This, That, & The Other Thing
Jennifer at So Many Books…So Little Time
Jenny at Come Meet AusJenny
Jessica at Praise, Prayers and Observations
Jill at Christian Work At Home Moms
Jo at Life Sparks - Jo's Journal
Joleen at timetotalk
Karen at Mommy of Three"
Karla at Ramblin' Roads To Everywhere
Katie at Christian Novels
Kelly at Scrambled Dregs
Kim at Window To My World
Kimberly at QuiddamChickee To Save The Day
Krista at Welcome To Married Life
Kristy at I Need To Read
Lacy at Novel Inspirations
LaShaunda at See Ya On The Net
Laura at Laura William's Musings
Leah at Ponderings From My Heart
Linda at Mocha With Linda
Linda at Faith In Love
Lynnae at Lynnae's Bookshelf
Margaret at Creative Madness
Michelle at Edgy Inspirational Author
Michelle at Just A Minute
Michelle at Michelle's Great Blogs
Michelle at Raising Little Women
Mimi at Mimi's Pixie Corner
Pam at Mom's Mutterings
Pam at Daysong Reflections
Peg at Sips 'n Cups Cafeteria
Pepper at Great Christian Fiction
Rachelle at Stifled Squeal
Rel at Relz Reviewz
Ruth at Booktalk & more...
Ryan at loves to read
Sean at Bookmark Cafe
Shauna at Shaunarumbling
Stacy at Vader's Mom
Susan at His Reading List
Tabitha at 123pizza's Weblog
Tami at Tree Swing Reading
Tara at Tara's View Of The World
Amber at Amber Miller
Tracy at Pix-N-Pens
Tricia at It's Real Life
Victoria at Footprints In The Sand
Posted by Bonnie S. Calhoun at 12:00 AM 49 comments

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Winter Haven by Athol Dickson


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Winter Haven

(Bethany House April 1, 2008)

by

Athol Dickson


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Athol Dickson's university-level training in painting, sculpture, and architecture was followed by a long career as an architect then his decision several years ago to devote full time to writing.

Athol Dickson’s writing has been favorably compared to the work of Octavia Butler
(Publisher’s Weekly), Daphne du Maurier (Cindy Crosby, FaithfulReader.com) and FlanneryO’Connor (The New York Times).

His They Shall See God was a Christy Award finalist and his River Rising was a Christy Award winner, selected as one of the Booklist Top Ten Christian Novels of 2006 and a finalist for Christianity Today's Best Novel of 2006.

He and his wife, Sue, live in Southern California. Visit AtholDickson.com for more information.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Boys who never age, giants lost in time, mist that never rises, questions never asked...on the most remote of islands off the coast of Maine, history haunts the present and Vera Gamble wrestles with a past that will not yield. Will she find refuge there, or will her ghosts prevail on...Winter Haven

Eleven years ago, Vera Gamble's brother left their house never to be seen again. Until the day Vera gets a phone call that his body has been found...washed ashore in the tiny island town of Winter Haven, Maine. His only surviving kin, Vera travels north to claim the body...and finds herself tumbling into a tangled mystery. Her brother hasn't aged a day since last she saw him.

Determined to uncover what happened in those lost years, Vera soon discovers there are other secrets lurking in this isolated town. But Winter Haven's murky past now seems bound to come to light as one woman seeks the undeniable and flooding light of truth.



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Posting Information


The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764201646

Author's picture is:



The book cover photo is:

Athol can be reached through the Contact link on his Website
Posted by Bonnie S. Calhoun at 12:00 AM 49 comments

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My Soul To Keep by Melanie Wells


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

My Soul To Keep

(Multnomah Books - February 5, 2008)

by

Melanie Wells


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A native of the Texas panhandle and the child of musicians, Melanie Wells attended Southern Methodist University on a music scholarship (she's a fiddle player), and later completed graduate degrees in counseling psychology and Biblical studies at Our Lady of the Lake University and Dallas Theological Seminary.

She has taught at the graduate level at both OLLU and DTS, and has been in private practice as a counselor since 1992. She is the founder and director of LifeWorks counseling associates in Dallas, Texas, a collaborative community of creative therapists.

When the Day of Evil Comes is her first published work of fiction, and the first of a three-book series. The second work, The Soul Hunter was released in May, 2006. Melanie lives and writes in Dallas.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

As nasty as I knew Peter Terry to be, I never expected him to start kidnapping kids. Much less a sweet, funny little boy with nothing to protect him but a few knock-kneed women, two rabbits and a staple gun…

It’s psychology professor Dylan Foster’s favorite day of the academic year…graduation day. And her little friend Christine Zocci’s sixth birthday. But the joyful summer afternoon goes south when a little boy is snatched from a neighborhood park, setting off a chain of events that seen to lead nowhere.

The police are baffled, but Christine’s eerie connection with the kidnapped child sends Dylan on a chilling investigation of her own. Is the pasty, elusive stranger Peter Terry to blame? Exploding light bulbs, the deadly buzz of a Texas rattlesnake, and the vivid, disturbing dreams of a little girl are just pieces of a long trail of tantalizing clues leading Dylan in her dogged search for the truth.

“Like water rising to a boil, My soul To Keep’s suspense sneaks up on you…before you know it, you’re in the thick if a frightening drama…Superbly crafted.”
---ROBERT LIPARULO, author of Deadfall, Germ, and Comes A Horseman

“Written with passion, a good dose of humor and, dare I say it, soul, this novel reminds us that we all, with grace and good fortune, bumble our way toward salvation.”
---K. L. COOK, author of Late Call and The Girl From Charmelle


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The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590524284

Author's picture is:



The book cover photo is:

Melanie can be reached through the "Listen to Me" link on her Website
Posted by Bonnie S. Calhoun at 12:00 AM 37 comments

Monday, April 14, 2008

Exciting Changes At CFBA

Hello CFBA membership! You, as members are the first to share in these exciting developments. The Press Release below is being sent to all of our publishers and publicists at midnight tonight. The CFBA is going to start charging publishers and publicists who want to contract book blog tours with us.

For you, as reviewers, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. There are NO COSTS TO YOU.

What this change will do is open up more blog tour slots. We will go to 8 tours a month (more books for you to choose from). And it will also allow me to add tours for independently published, small press, non CBA/ECPA sanctioned books that have been excluded up to now because of space constraints!

WE also have an online magazine called the Christian Fiction Online Magazine that will present it's first issue this July. We've secured many very exciting columnists like Randy Ingermanson, Brandilyn Collins, Marilynn Griffith, and Kristin Billerbeck to name a few.

I have brought on Michelle Sutton as the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine, and she has many exciting ideas to put into action.

.So without further ado...read the Press Release!

PRESS
RELEASE

What CFBA is going to do, starting immediately:

-Conduct 2 standard book tours a week, approximately 100 tours a year.

-Charge $500 per book blog tour.

Why is there a need to charge for something that has always been free?

The organization is growing by leaps and bounds.

Where we once had 80 to 90 members, we now have over 200.

Where I once spent 2 or 3 hours a week managing members and tours, I now spend 40+ hours a week.

Where it once cost nothing but time, there are now monthly emailing service, website, and other related costs that I pay personally.

There are many other public relations companies charging considerably more than $1000 for the same service, with noticeably weaker results.

Why would you, as a publisher, publicist, or author, pay $500 for a blog tour with CFBA?

-We presently have 202 reviewers, and 217 blogs as members, and are signing up new members at the rate of approximately 5 a week. Our mailing lists are not only current, but copious!

- We have our own Linux server, so our website space allocation is unlimited. And we contract with a top of the line email campaign company that has the ability to deliver individual email to thousands of members simultaneously.

- Our bloggers are quality reviewers. For example: we have over 30 published authors as members including Brandilyn Collins, Chris Well, Tony Hines, Robin Lee Hatcher, Tricia Goyer and Lisa Samson to name a very few. We have several editors and agents as members. A writing chapter from ACFW is a member, and one of our members runs 4 book clubs at a Lifeway Christian Book Store.

-Our track record on blog tour successes is well-known. A recent article in CBA Retailer & Resources documents this. If you would like to read the article, we have it archived HERE on our blog. Click on each of the page images to open them in a larger readable format.

-Our Technorati results are listed on our blog after every tour. The recent Tour Update for Brandilyn Collins' Amber Morn, shows that because of our tour, her books from the series netted positions #1, #2, #3, and #4 on Technorati's Popular Books.

-For those unfamiliar with Technorati, their core strength is as a blog search engine. Their Popular page, dubbed Blogger Central is visited by 10 million global direct measured visitors, and almost 5 million US direct measured visitors a month, according to Quantcast statistics.

-Amazon results are trackable by comparing the book ranking before and during the tour. A recent example of this was expounded on by Jeffery Overstreet, in the CBA Retailer & Resource article. Overstreet was amazed that his CFBA tour for Auralia's Colors raised his Amazon ranking by 75,000 points. His statement said, "I've done 25 radio interviews and I've never seen this kind of spike. It's pretty amazing."

-We will conduct our 100th tour in the month of April, and we presently have 49 other tours booked, some into next year. (All books that already have tour dates are exempt from the new change.) Because of the new schedule we can place an additional 20 book tours for this year.

-All of our Alliance members get my undivided attention. When publishers send books to their "influencer lists" there is only a small percentage of readers who will ever post anything about the book online, or in an organized manner that will create buzz. With CFBA tours, we require 100% posting compliance of our reviewers who have solicited the specific book for promotion. We Stay on top of this. Those who don't post are contacted. And those who don't comply are dropped from CFBA membership. We manage our tours instead of just "letting" them happen.

-Each paid tour will also get a free ad in our new monthly magazine. (Startup tentatively for July 2008 - it will have author interviews, book reviews, a writer's corner, columns on writing tips, agent tips, industry news and much more. It will be free to all.

Additional exciting news:

In the month of July we will be launching our new monthly online magazine:

CFBA presents…
Christian Fiction Online Magazine


We have hired author Michelle Sutton as the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine. She has put together an exciting lineup of twenty-five columns and features for each monthly issue written by notables of our industry.

The magazine will cover the complete spectrum of Christian fiction, from reading and writing to agents and interviews, and will include news relevant to upcoming blog tours and their dates.

There will also be paid advertisement space available in each issue.

I hope you will join in our excitement at the prospect of moving into even greater expansion than we have enjoyed so far in area of online advertising.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Bonnie Calhoun
Director- CFBA
Founder/Owner - Christian Fiction Online Magazine
Posted by Bonnie S. Calhoun at 9:45 PM 2 comments

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Trouble the Water by Nicole Seitz


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

Trouble the Water

Thomas Nelson (March 11, 2008)

by

Nicole Seitz


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Nicole Seitz is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and the author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass as well as a freelance writer/illustrator who has published in numerous low country magazines. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor's degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole shows her paintings in the Charleston, South Carolina area, where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children. Nicole is also an avid blogger, you can leave her a comment on her blog.

Seitz's writing style recalls that of Southern authors like Kaye Gibbons, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Sue Monk Kidd, and this new novel, which the publisher compares to Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, surely joins the ranks of strong fiction that highlights the complicated relationships between women. Highly recommended, especially for Southern libraries.



ABOUT THE BOOK:

In the South Carolina Sea Islands lush setting, Nicole Seitz's second novel Trouble the Water is a poignant novel about two middle-aged sisters' journey to self-discovery.

One is seeking to recreate her life yet again and learns to truly live from a group of Gullah nannies she meets on the island. The other thinks she's got it all together until her sister's imminent death from cancer causes her to re-examine her own life and seek the healing and rebirth her troubled sister managed to find on St. Anne's Island.

Strong female protagonists are forced to deal with suicide, wife abuse, cancer, and grief in a realistic way that will ring true for anyone who has ever suffered great loss.

"This is another thing I know for a fact: a woman can't be an island, not really. No, it's the touching we do in other people's lives that matters when all is said and done. The silly things we do for ourselves--shiny new cars and jobs and money--they don't mean a hill of beans. Honor taught me that. My soul sisters on this island taught me that. And this is the story of true sisterhood. It's the story of Honor, come and gone, and how one flawed woman worked miracles in this mixed-up world."


"...a special sisterhood of island women whose wisdom and courage linger in the mind long after the book is closed."
-NEW YORK TIMES best-selling author SUSAN WIGGS


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Posting Information


The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595544003

Author's picture is:



The book cover photo is:

Nicole can be reached through the Contact link on her Website
Posted by M. C. Pearson at 12:00 AM 39 comments

Monday, April 07, 2008

Amber Morn by Brandilyn Collins


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing


Amber Morn

(Zondervan Publishing Company - April 2008)

by

Brandilyn Collins



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Brandilyn Collins is a best-selling novelist known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense™. These harrowing crime thrillers have earned her the tagline

“Don’t forget to b r e a t h e …®”

Brandilyn writes for Zondervan, the Christian division of HarperCollins Publishers, and is currently at work on her 19th book. Her first, A Question of Innocence, was a true crime published by Avon in 1995. Its promotion landed her on local and national TV and radio, including the Phil Donahue and Leeza talk shows.

She’s also known for her distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons), and often teaches at writers conferences.

Brandilyn blogs at Forensics and Faith. Visit her Website
to read the first chapters of all her books.


ABOUT THE BOOK

The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than sixty seconds.

Bailey hung on to the counter, dazed. If she let go, she’d collapse—and the twitching fingers of the gunman would pull the trigger. The rest of her group huddled in frozen shock.

Dear God, help us! Tell me this is a dream . . .

The shooter’s teeth clenched. “ Anybody who moves is dead.”

On a beautiful Saturday morning the nationally read “Scenes and Beans” bloggers gather at Java Joint for a special celebration. Chaos erupts when three gunmen burst in and take them all hostage. One person is shot and dumped outside.

Police Chief Vince Edwards must negotiate with the desperate trio. The gunmen insist on communicating through the “comments” section of the blog—so all the world can hear their story. What they demand, Vince can’t possibly provide. But if he doesn’t, over a dozen beloved Kanner Lake citizens will die...

Amber Morn is the climactic finale to Collins’ widely read Kanner Lake series. All first three titles in the series, Violet Dawn, Coral Moon, and Crimson Eve, were bestsellers. Library Journal placed Crimson Eve on its Best Books of 2007 list, and hailed it the “Best Christian suspense of 2007.”

A few early reviews of Amber Morn:

“… essential reading … a harrowing hostage drama.” – Library Journal

“… heart-pounding … breakneck pace … satisfying and meaningful ending.” – RT Bookreviews

“This cataclysmic ending left me breathless … Kanner Lake is the Best Suspense Series of 2007/2008.” – deenasbooks.blogspot.com

“Collins has saved the best for a last .. a powerful ensemble performance.” -- BookshelfReview.com

“… a staccato tempo … Sometimes you just have to close the book in order to come up for air.” – Dale Lewis

“…a masterpiece of page-turning suspense with a cast of dozens.” – Peg Phifer



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Posting Information


The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310276411

Author's picture is:



The book cover photo is:

Brandilyn can be reached through the Contact link on her Website
Posted by Bonnie S. Calhoun at 12:00 AM 46 comments

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

When Zeffie Got a Clue by Peggy Darty


This week, the

Christian Fiction Blog Alliance

is introducing

When Zeffie Got a Clue

WaterBrook Press (March 18, 2008)

by

Peggy Darty



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Peggy Darty is the award-winning author of twenty-seven books, including two other cozy mysteries set in Summer Breeze, Florida: When the Sandpiper Calls and When Bobbie Sang the Blues. She has worked in film, researched for CBS, and led writing workshops around the country. Darty and her husband call Alabama home but spend a great deal of time in Colorado, Montana, and on Florida’s Emerald Coast.






ABOUT THE BOOK:

It’s an ordinary afternoon in Summer Breeze, Florida, when a young, wide-eyed girl steps into I Saw It First, the trash-to-treasure shop Christy Castleman and her Aunt Bobbie have opened. Clutching a jewelry box, Zeffie Adams tells Christy she needs money to pay her grandmother’s medical bills, prompting Christy to offer this curious visitor more than the jewelry box is worth–or so she thinks.

But complicated questions form when Christy rips out the box’s lining and uncovers a clue to a cold case murder mystery from eight years ago. Despite warnings from her family and handsome boyfriend Dan Brockman, Christy decides to do a little detective work of her own. After all, the infamous murder happened close to her grandmother’s farm. How risky could it be to take the jewelry box back to the Strickland plantation and ask around about it?

Soon Christy finds there is more to the small box than someone wants her to know. A jewelry theft. A mansion murder. Dangerous family secrets buried in history. Can Christy convince others to let go of the past before it’s too late?

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Posting Information


The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400073332

Author's picture is:



The book cover photo is:

Peggy can be reached through the Contact link on her Website
Posted by M. C. Pearson at 12:00 AM 38 comments
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