Rock Stars, Romance, and Jesus

How's that for a provocative post title? No, seriously -- I read a romance I really, really liked (and all of you know I’m notoriously tough to please). HER MINNESOTA MAN is set in—well, Minnesota. Brenda Coulter, author of all this bodacious terrificality, was kind enough to join us on JTTS today.

DK: Describe, please, what factors went into your starting the story 5 days after Jeb accepts Christ.

BC: Well, we see a lot of hero-gets-saved-at-the-end-of-the-story romances, don’t we? I wanted to do something different. I also wanted to show that getting saved doesn’t make a person’s life more comfortable, but less so. I mean, it’s easy to please ourselves, isn’t it? But living to please God . . . that’s a hard thing. Especially if you have never even been to church, how do you know where to start? And how are you supposed to respond when the people around you are laughing and pressuring you to get over your “foolishness” and return to “reality”?

A novelist always wants to open her story at a moment of great conflict for her protagonist, so I showed my hero being pressed on all sides as he struggles to find God’s will for his life. Right out of the box (I hope), readers who might otherwise have been less than sympathetic toward a rock-star hero will find themselves rooting for this poor guy who’s trying so very hard to do the right thing.

DK: I was surely rooting for Jeb! And Laney—she’s a tower of strength, but you show her struggling with faith questions. Do you feel that makes her a stronger Christian, or simply a normal one?

BC: I think she’s like most of us in that her faith sometimes wavers like a candle flame. The reader meets her at a particularly difficult time in her life: While she’s a true believer, she’s frustrated and emotionally exhausted to the point that she has stopped praying and attending church. She knows that’s wrong, and she means to get back on track. But just now, she’s feeling a tad resentful that God hasn’t moved to lighten her load.

DK: I can understand that, with all Laney has to deal with! How did you come to write the Three Graces? Do you know ladies like these?

BC: The Three Graces came straight out of my imagination, but I wish they were real. I would adore having tea with them, and maybe I would even ask them to teach me how to knit. I’d love to hug Millie and trade quips with Aggie and make Big Plans with Caroline.

DK: I’d like just to hang with them and see how triplets really interact! What went into your portrayal of the mainstream rock-and-roll singer’s life? Did you have to do “real-life” research?

BC: I watched a lot of “backstage” videos and read some Rolling Stone articles and also a bunch of on-the-road blogs by members of secular bands. It was fun because I love that music, even though I deplore the frequently unwholesome lyrics and the band members’ hedonistic lifestyles. (Over the course of my life, I have often whispered prayers for singers and bands whose lyrics have disturbed me. I imagine that’s where the idea for this story came from.)

DK: I came of age in the 70s, so I can relate to liking music I shouldn’t. At any time up to your decision to take your book direct-to-reader, did you feel any impulse to water down Jeb’s past life or his current struggles? What made you decide not to?

BC: My former publisher’s market research has repeatedly shown that in general, conservative Christian women don’t want to read about actors, sports stars, recording artists, and the like because those people are widely perceived as “hard-living” and unfaithful. I believed I’d written Jackson Bell in a way that would appeal to readers, but my editor was still compelled to “pass” on the project. Almost immediately, I was struck by the idea of self-publishing. My readers kept asking for longer books, and here was my chance to give them one. I would also be free to subtly depict the physical attraction between my hero and heroine without having to worry about those lines ending up on the cutting-room floor. I broke several more of my old publisher’s rules, and had a blast doing it. I was no longer writing for their audience, but solely for my own, and that was tremendously exciting. So this turned out to be a completely different book than it would have been had my editor bought the proposal. The story is bigger and more real, and I couldn’t be more satisfied!

Since I was previously published by Love Inspired, a huge name in Christian romance, some people have asked why I didn’t hire an agent to shop this story to the other Christian publishing houses. That simply never occurred to me. Self-publishing felt so right that I just never stopped to consider any other option.

I’m glad you made that choice. IMO, this was a story that deserved to be told. Brenda, thanks for two things: for writing such a terrific book and for sharing some of your heart for the story.

Potential fans and good-story-lovers, get HER MINNESOTA MAN at one of the links here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0086WXN3U/

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/167264

New Weekend -- Another Guest!

Hi, peeps. Today we take a peek into the writerly heart of author Fay Lamb. Isn't that a cool cover, by the way?

DK: When you’re not writing, what do you like most to read?
FL: I love to read romantic suspense, but any story with quirky characters is an invitation to get away. The novel BLISS, by Tracy Bowden and Jenness Walker, has been an absolutely favorite. I love to laugh, and I laughed from page one until the very last well-placed line of that book.

DK: I'll have to get that one! I love to laugh. And you--if you didn’t write in your chosen genre, which would you write? Why?
FL: I'd write contemporary romance, not necessarily formulaic. While I have written formula romance, I like to tell a story that goes so much deeper than the love of two people. I like to show relationships with issues, lots and lots of issues and conflicts to overcome.

DK: That’s the best kind of romance of all! Where do you see the fiction market going in the near-term?
FL: Since God spoke His creation into being, storytelling has been a part of mankind. God's Word is full of true-life stories. Jesus used fiction to speak into the needs of those who sought Him. While I believe the fiction market is going through some pains caused by fast-growing technology, I don't believe the desire for a good story will ever fade.

I'm going to get in trouble with my next statement, but here goes: I believe Christian fiction will suffer if the publishers do not begin to understand their market. I was appalled when I sat across from an editor from one of the larger Christian publishing houses, and I was told that my writing was too complex for Christian readers. I decided at that moment to seek a Christian publisher that had a better opinion of their readers and who realizes that secular publishers reach across the aisle to attract Christian readers. In the same way, with stories that do not compromise God's truths, Christian publishers need to reach across those aisles and touch secular readers with stories of light and life—stories with meaning, stories that have the Only Answer to every dilemma.

DK: There isn’t one little bit of your statement with which I disagree! C-fic has many different subsets of readers, and so must become more inclusive. What has been your biggest challenge since you decided to seek publication?
FL: As mentioned above, my biggest challenge was finding a publisher that looked beyond formula and taboo subjects and realized that BECAUSE OF ME is a book that speaks of God's love, and shows the truth behind Romans 8:28: No matter what we face, what we've gotten ourselves into, God proclaims, "…all things work together for good" to those who love Him. That's a hard Scripture to embrace when we're walking through the fire, but when we're on the other side, and refined through our heartache and pain, it's one of the most wonderful verses to cling to.

DK: True, and precious beyond words. What about your favorite authors? Care to give us a few names?.
FL: My all time favorite author is James A. Michener, but I add to that list: Margaret Daley, Karen Ball, Francine Rivers, Rachel Hauck, John Grisham and Sharyn McCrumb.

DK: Sharyn McCrumb is one of my all time faves. Those books are hoots! About you, now--care to share a writing habit you cannot do without?
FL: One of my habits is what I call "free writing." It's allowing myself time to play with story and character. If I'm working on a novel, inevitably, another story will call out to me. The characters want me to come and play. You never know when a character is going to step on stage and give you the story of a lifetime. So what I do is promise myself that if I get a certain amount of writing done on the current work in progress, I can go and play with characters from another neighborhood.

Fay, thanks for being on JTTS, and thanks for your candor.

Great New Read

And I must say I do love this book. Here's its cover:

Its author is my Blindingly Brilliant crit partner, Janet Butler. And can she do more than crit? You bet your scarlet rosebuds she can.

Here's some "get acquainted" info straight from Janet.

Deb: When you’re not writing, what do you like most to read? Genre, favorites, etc.

Janet: What do you mean, when I'm not writing? When am I not writing? J Oh…okay. I read suspense and mystery, some chick lit, romantic comedy, the occasional Regency historical, and "gentle" fiction of various types, including Christian fiction.

Deb: If you didn’t write in your chosen genre, which would you write? Why?

Janet: If I knew which genre I've chosen, that'd be an easier question to answer. J Actually, for all my "serious" writing career, I've wanted to write Harlequin Romances. The sweet little books. I've yet to figure out how to do one, however, since every time I sit down to write, some dark villain taps on my shoulder and says, "Hey, I could make these people's lives a whole lot more interesting, if you just let me." So…I tend to let them. You don't argue with villains.

Deb: Where do you see the fiction market going in the near-term?

Janet: Frankly, I don't like where I see lots of fiction going. I see a lot of despairing fiction: dystopian, nihilistic, stuff that deals in grit with no redeeming light, or authors who feel like they have to be obscene, depraved, or coarse simply "because they can." I'd like to see more books that don't make you want to jump out a window, or feel like you need to take a shower, when you're done with them. As far as where the markets are going? Who knows? I suspect it's all going electronic, or at least largely so. I like paper books, so this is not comforting to me. And I really dislike the notion of "enhanced" books. I'm a fiction writer; I like imagination. It seems to me that putting too many bells, horns, and whistles in a book is a fundamental violation of that imagination, and an intrusion upon the magic. Sorry. Not for me.

Deb: What has been your biggest challenge since you decided to seek publication?

Janet: There have been two: First, fighting the "impostor syndrome," that absolute conviction in the dark places of your writer's soul that you're really a fake, you really can't write at all, and one of these days, someone's going to rip away the veil in front of Oz and you'll be revealed in all your duck-tape-and-twine weakness. Second, trying to attract an agent; I've probably queried 100+ of them over the past few years, with only a few even requesting partials. Of course, with the way the industry is moving now, maybe that issue is moot, anyway.

Deb: Name a few of your favorite authors.

Janet: Mary Higgins Clark, Rochelle Krich, Diann Hunt, Sophie Kinsella, Jan Karon. How's that for a potpourri? I keep discovering new authors as I go, though, so stay tuned.

Deb: Care to share a writing habit you cannot do without?

Janet: Mwah hah haaaaah…you know what's coming: the Dreaded Synopsis! There. I've said it. Don't hate me because I synopsize!
Seriously. I have tried writing without an outline, and I've tried writing with one. With one is better. Years ago, I discovered that if I wrote by the seat of my pants, I had a lot of fun, but I lost the story in the process. Now that I'm older, I don't have the energy to chase down my characters and/or a plot clear to Abu Dhabi to figure out where I went wrong (Besides, airfare's just too darn expensive.). I also freeze up if I don't have SOME idea what's going to come in the next few pages. Mind you, nothing in the synopsis is carved in stone; stories can, and do, change from the first outline. But I need to have SOMETHING to work from.

So I synopsize.

And I also believe in a wonderful, well-chilled bottle of champagne… at the appropriate time.

Deb: A total delight, don't you agree? Except that champagne gives me a headache. You can have my share.

Janet's VOICE OF INNOCENCE releases January 15 from Desert Breeze Publishing. Go get this book! You'll like it.

Two Bits of Good News

My super crit partner, Janet Butler, has sold her VOICE OF INNOCENCE to Desert Breeze Publishing! Yay! This was/is the book she calls her "400 lb. gorilla" though I think by now it's gained some weight. Sure it is that it's found its wings! Congratulations, Janny.

Today also I wrestled the 973 Wales book, PEACEWEAVER, into submission and sent the proposal on to my agent. Now begins the bane of the publishing industry--the wait. Pray for me. Patience is not my greatest strength.

New Review

MONTANA HEARTS, Charlotte Carter, Love Inspired Historical, December '10, ISBN 978-0-373-86742-6

What's not to like? Cowboys. Montana skies. Motherless kids...well, not often for this reader, so...read on.

I liked this book though I don't generally buy titles with women in cowboy hats on the covers (G). I approached it with some trepidation but found myself liking it more than I thought I would. Sarah has undertaken a rather risky search for the family of her donor -- she's had a heart transplant. Needless to say, she finds them, and the widow of her donor is a true and studly muffin with two traumatized kids and a cantakerous mother in law looking after them.

I won't spoil the read by telling more, but the story had a sort of inevitability that only good writing and a good sense of pacing can produce. Yes, Steeple Hills do all end with him and her together at the end, and we know that, but it's the "how do they get there" bit that's intriguing. Carter has done a good job with this love story. Mind you, there's a twist to the end that's also charateristic of a fine author with an engaging tale to tell.

Would I read this author again? Yes, definitely. My rating: 4 stars

Go Ahead, Win Something

Better still, help me celebrate -- ALOHA, MY LOVE comes out from Desert Breeze tomorrow. To celebrate this e-book, I believe one of you Faithful Minions should win something!

Sound like a plan?

Post a comment. Win one of my jewelry pieces (I design and create jewelry). Most of them are necklaces but I also do earrings for pierced ears. Haven't found any decent findings for non-pierced ears yet. "Findings" are those little extra necessities like earwires, posts, those round springy things that fasten the necklace in back...you get the picture.

Enough of the jargon. Make a post. Win a necklace or whatever you choose that I have (I have some real sweet stuff ready-made).

Celebrate! Aloha.

Cover Art Triumph!

Once again, the wonderful artist Jenifer Ranieri at Desert Breeze has created a great cover. I'm pleased to show it to you here.

This is the fourth of four winner covers Desert Breeze has assigned to my books.

Color me pleased, humbled, and proud.

ALOHA, MY LOVE, a contemporary romance, releases as an e-book in all known Terran formats on December 1.

Sing With Me (The Danger Theme From "Jaws")

You know how it goes...duh DUHH...duh DUHH.

Right, this means Kinnard is swimming about, fin showing just above the waves, daring to approach...

...with another book review. FTC, I was sent this book without charge, for review, so here goes.

Yes, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water. Deb's been reading again.

This time it's a real treat. I have few nits to pick with this one, and I'm happy as a hog in slop to say so.

The book in question was written by Lisa Wingate, and its title is NEVER SAY NEVER. The piece departs from Lisa's general narrative style by alternating back and forth between two unforgettable characters: Donetta, a senior with spunk to spare, and Kai, a twentysomething who's security deprived.

A sudden hurricane ties these two strangers together. Donetta yearns to know her husband cares that she's gotten lost with two of her age-mates on the way to the Gulf coast to take a cruise in which he wasn't interested. Kai, rootless and friendless except for two abandoned dogs, evacuates her endangered seacoast town and runs into the lost ladies, a church on the run from the storm, a handsome but enigmatic nephew of Donetta's, and a cat from the Lower Reaches of Hell. And will Donetta ever find out the long-ago story of the mysterious Macerio?

It's a heady, yummy brew. I thought it might dwell too much on the "escape from the hurricane" portion of the story (actually two intertwined stories), but the true crises come when the entire motley mob arrives in Daily, Texas.

It's a fully realized love story in both characters' points of view. Wingate has a flair for local language mannerisms that caught me from the first sentence. More importantly, she layers a story delicately, flavor by flavor, so that at the end she leaves the reader sighing in replete satisfaction.

My grade: A. I'm a picky eater/reader but found nothing that could be improved upon. All three of you blog readers know how rare that is! I heartily recommend it.

For You, Part Two - Another Book Review

Yes, I know...what's Kinnard about? TWO in a WEEK?

Yes. Get a lawyer.

Today's confection is Betsy St. Amant's A VALENTINE'S WISH (Love Inspired, Feb. 2010, ISBN 978-0-313-87581-8). And for all you FTC types, I bought this book with my hard-earned, so there.

A VALENTINE'S WISH tells the tale of Lori -- broke, unemployed and boyfriendless as V-Day approaches. It's Andy's story also, a youth pastor who's told by his church board that he'd better look for a wife toute suite because of another local youth pastor's scandalous conduct with one of his young flock.

How do they meet, you ask? Oh, don't worry, they're already best friends. Though for some couples this is an easy slide-in to True Love, for this pair it's anything but. Andy's gotten used to seeing Lori as a pal. Lori's accustomed to being the Invisible Woman as far as romance is concerned. These two have a bit of heavy sledding before arriving at Hearts and Flowers Bliss!

Ms. St. Amant has crafted a tale that reads as slick and smooth as some of those chocolates her heroine's been consuming. (Though Lori does gain 4 lbs. during her work at a candy store, never a zit to be seen! It's not fair!) The book is a treat for the reader and will go down as easy as Cadbury's Royal Dark. Though I don't often buy Steeple Hill, this one is the exception sort of book that always catches me as a pleasant surprise.

Five stars.

Desert Breezes Blow a Contest Your Way

Those of you who know my writing already are aware that most of my characters are coffee-a-holics.

This isn't bad, it's GOOD! We who enjoy coffee know there are a few primo varieties in the world, and the rest of the time we buy at the grocery store.

Now, for anyone brave enough to come here to this blog, or savvy enough to know my Desert Breeze stories, here's your challenge: answer either one of the following questions and win a nice sized bag of ground Kenya AA coffee (best there is IMO)

1) why is my blog named www.justtellthestory.blogspot.com ? Short answer is good enough.

2) name any "pair" of the lovey-dovey characters in my Desert Breeze books. They don't have to be the coffee-chugging ones.

Okay, get crackin' and win some Joe!

A Book Sale

Pleased to report that my contemporary "second chances" book, DAMAGES, will be released by Desert Breeze Publishing next April.

I love this story. It's about its sixteenth incarnation, where a man recovering from the loss of his disastrous first marriage, embarks on a second for all the wrong reasons. Probably this "mistake" factor is the reason it didn't sell in the mainstream Christian markets. That's fine. Sort of. In any case, I'm glad to see this book get a chance out there, and hopefully engage some readers in a story I like a lot.

There are thematic elements I'm told the Christian reading public won't tolerate. In ANGEL WITH A RAY GUN an early reader told me the main character should be shown praying more. I considered this, but didn't change it much. You see, a "more prayer" theme didn't actually advance the story. And story rules all. In DAMAGES, I was told the marriage-by-mistake theme would turn off readers.

Do Christians make mistakes? Sure. I do, and I don't think I'm atypical. It's how I show the Lord working through these characters' lives that matters. The development of the characters, getting past their less savory decisions, growing in Christ -- that's the story. If the idea that believers make mistakes, even in major life-decisions, turns off some readers, so be it.

Writing What You Know

We've all heard this one, haven't we? "Write what you know about." Good advice in all circumstances, right?

Right?

What happens when what you know about is boring?

I'll shed a little light here. I'm smarting (well, not as badly as earlier on) due to a "no-thanks" from a publisher I hoped would pick up PEACEWEAVER. Its problem was apparently not the writing, or I expect the editor would've mentioned that. The problem was the setting. Nobody is going to read a novel set in Wales in 973.

Um. I would.

Anyway, getting past this a bit--my contemporary novels are "write what I know" as far as setting. Now, I don't live in a sleepy southern town with lots of tradition and "hey, how y'all doin'?" feeling. I live in a suburb of a congested, irritating big city. My burb is where I was raised. It's what I know. I can get around on foot or on my bike, and I know where the best bike routes are, the wet places after it rains, and why you shouldn't trust the forest preserve at night.

But this isn't interesting! I'm wondering now whether my contemporaries are being turned down by larger houses simply because of setting. I've made up my own Illinois small town that I use in two published books, and I love going to DeBrett. For my WIP, it's Shelley, Iowa, which also lives only in my mind, but is modeled on a small town.

But the romantic settings? The small town with a native's feel for how people there live and interact? Those are not mine to offer. I do, of course, have my very own burb...

Progress!

No, not a new sale. But possibilities. I'm back working on A ROSE IN LATE OCTOBER, the central-Iowa set two-unwilling-partners-in-a-landscaping-business book. I'm into third (or sixteenth?) round edits on it, hoping to flesh it out from an unfinished 45K words to a nicely rounded 75K. I know what the plot is, and how the subplot will develop. I'm reading it now for nitpick edits and for story, both, and that's tough for me to do. Since this blog is out here to urge people to concentrate first on STORY, I need to take a dose of my own advice. My job now is to get a handle on story: what I've already written and what I still need to write in order to tell this particular tale as it should be told.

Oh, and did I mention I have an entire chapter or two (which I need) on a 3" floppy that the pooter will no longer read? Aaargh!

The question here is: does this story still interest me enough to finish and put it out on proposal? Reading along, I'm finding areas that could be fun if better developed, and I'm finding I still like the story. Enough to go the distance? I don't know. What does an author do who is on a deadline, who's sold a three or six book deal and finds that her story ideas just aren't that riveting just now?

I don't know. Not sure I want to find out. I suspect I already have an idea...she girds her loins, so to speak, and sits down to WRITE...

ANGEL Takes Wing!

Woot! ANGEL WITH A RAY GUN has found a new home! Desert Breeze Publishing will release it on or about May 1 (this year!) as an e-book.

I'm pleased as can be. I told myself not to get my hopes up too high. Reissues are notoriously difficult to place. My agent says so, and she knows.

E-publishing: been there before, and the upside of this book's release is that e-books are much higher profile now than when I first sold one in '02. The big publishers are starting to realize the potential of this market. And then there's Kindle.

So watch for bigger things from e-publishing. With the economy so uncertain, publishers seem to be re-assessing how they get content out there, and the future of the e-book looks brighter than before.

The Waiting Game, Part XXIV

We're on our wait yet again. Heard from Publisher #1 about the proposal for PEACEWEAVER. Apparently they like it well enough to see it again next spring, if we haven't sold it by then. Drat! I wanted a deal now...

Did I mention I'm not too good at waiting?

DAMAGES, the full manuscript, is wending its way to my agent for submission. I have good hopes for this story because a publisher contacted ME (not the other way 'round!) and said they liked my voice, and wouldn't we like to send in something for consideration?

You bet your sweet bippy we would. So my matchless agent, Tamela, told me to send her the full printed MS plus proposal. It's in the hands of the (gulp) US Postal Service as we speak, and I hope the publisher likes it well enough to give Tamela a call and me something to rejoice over.

Now, if anyone knows ways, other than chocolate, to ease the waiting time, I'm all ears and available taste buds.