Market Mondays: 7 Ways Friends Can Support Your Book and how to ask for their help

Welcome back, Sandra.

This article originally appeared April 5, 2012: http://buildbookbuzz.com/the-shy-authors-guide-to-book-promotion/

By Sandra Beckwith

I recently read an article that detailed seven ways people could support their author friends. It was well-done and offered the type of specific information I’m always looking for, but honestly, it felt a little…well…self-centered. I mean, really, am I supposed to expect my friends to ask me how they can promote my book? Or, worse, am I self-absorbed enough to think that my friends are using Google to find ways they can support my book marketing? I could never send any of them a link to that article with a note saying, “Please read this and see what you can do.”

I’m also one of those people who would never say, “Please buy my book.” But that was one of the suggestions in this article – “buy the book.” Most of my friends aren’t interested in my book topics, so why would they buy any of them? Your book might be different, of course, but my books are on business topics and many of my friends are social workers, teachers, and so on.

In reality, while our friends think it’s “cool” that we’re authors, it probably doesn’t even occur to most of them that they are in a position to help us get the word out. It’s our responsibility to ask for that help. The challenge is in finding a way to make the request in a way that works for you – not me, not my friends, and not another author.

Here are some things you will want to consider asking friends to do along with suggestions for making your request something they can act on quickly and easily. You might not be comfortable with all of these suggestions, but there might also be a way for you to get the end result with a different approach.

1. Share information about your book with the “right” people in their e-mail address books. Remember that you didn’t write your book for everyone. You wrote it for a specialized audience, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction. (Not everybody likes mysteries, right?) It’s okay to ask your friends to share information about your book with their networks, but when doing so, make it clear that you realize that they might want to be selective about who they share the information with. Send an e-mail that describes the book, explains who will find it interesting, details how they will benefit from reading it, and includes a link to an online purchase site. Suggest that they forward that information to appropriate people.

2. Provide information about organizations that might use you as a speaker. A complementary word or two from a friend who is a member could be all you need to be the luncheon speaker at the monthly gathering of a group that’s perfect for your book.

3. Look for your book at bookstores and request that stores stock it if it’s not available. A lot of my friends are authors, so I do this for them at Barnes and Noble all the time. I also turn the cover face out on the shelf so it’s easier to see, and when there’s more than one copy, I add one to a display at the end of the shelf, too. If a friend’s latest book isn’t in stock, I ask the store to order it.

4. Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networks to share a link to a purchase page. Ask them to write a personal message with the link, such as “Can’t wait to read my friend’s new book about business etiquette” or “Nobody writes better science fiction than my friend Justin Brown – buying his latest book now!”

5. Share a review online. Give a copy of your book to friends you can trust to actually read it, asking them to write a positive review on Amazon and other retail sites.

6. Interview you on their blog when it’s a good fit. This is a reasonable request only when the blog’s target audience matches your book’s. Otherwise, you’re putting your friend in an awkward and unfair position.

7. Rate reviews on Amazon so the good ones show up first and the bad ones show up last. At the end of each review, Amazon asks, “Was this review helpful to you?” Click “yes” for the four- and five-star reviews and “no” for anything with less than three stars. The “yes” clicks will help make sure that the positive reviews stay at the top.

What have you asked your friends to do to support your book, and how has that worked out for you? Please send me a note and tell me your story!

About Sandra

Sandra Beckwith is a former publicist who has won several national and regional publicity awards and teaches authors how to generate long-term media buzz for their books. She is the author of three books on publicityy, conducts publicity workshops, and writes frequently on small business marketing and management topics. Please visit her book publicity site and publicity blog to learn more.

The Sunday Book Reveiw: two great new non-fiction self-help books

I rarely recomend books, but these two have caught my attention. It’s a series, and I look forward to more of them.

I give both 5 Reflections.

Thaw: Freedom From Frozen Feelings

By Don Carter, MSW, LSCW

ASIN: B005X8OQT0

Kindle book: $9.99

Publisher: www.Internet-of-the-Mind.com (October 18, 2011)

For those of us who live in a shell of emotional discomfort, who are stuck in a rut of inability to connect or stay connected to others, Carter’s book will help work through these issues. By analyzing and coming to grips with the events that led up this emotional impasse, you’ll be able to appreciate, maybe for the first time able, the joy of living a healthy and stable emotional life.

Carter, who has a masters in social work and is a therapist, spends most of the book teaching readers to recognize patterns of misguided parenting. As a parent of adult children, I look back at what I thought were my very best efforts to raise them the best I knew how. But we are all the sum of our experiences, both positive and negative, and “our best” doesn’t always mean the same to others or have the results we hoped for. I certainly never meant to do harm; no one in his right mind does, but I’m not perfect.

Beating ourselves up over our mistakes, and taking an honest ride through our own upbringing will help purge the negativity, makes room for healing, and sets us on a course for positive growth, no matter what stage of life we’re at now.

I learned things about myself that suddenly make sense. Instead of reacting to my past, I find I can, with lots of baby steps, trial and error, move forward and make new positive memories and associations with my parents and children. I’m not so impatient and appreciate the struggles we share much better now.

Read the book and work book, do the exercises no matter how you feel. At the very least you’ll come out stronger and better equipped to understand yourself.

Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome

By Don Carter, MSW, LSCW

ASIN: B007RPMAIG

Kindle book: $9.99; paperback: $14.99

Publisher: www.Internet-of-the-Mind.com (April 4, 2012)

Like Carter’s previous book, Thaw: Freedom From Frozen Feelings, the author helps readers explore their past, recognize patterns of woundedness and work to heal those current patterns of detrimental behavior.

It’s not easy to delve into painful past memories. Even those of us with fairly mild and remembered happy, healthy upbringing will be able to reach inside to uncover—not make up, but peel away—layers of learned behavior we’ve developed to protect ourselves from emotional pain inflicted by others.

Half of the book is “lecture” with lots of diagrams, and half is work book. Carter, who has a masters in social work and is a licensed therapist, guides us through a careful and detailed analysis of our childhood. By doing the exercises, the reader will develop a dynamic picture of his or her current behavior.

Why do we act the way we do? Read the Thaw series and find out. It’s more than a “get in touch with your inner child” set of books. The books are a great, non-threatening way to understand yourself and pick away at unwanted emotional baggage. A great bargain!

Beauty Under Pressure

Posted by Elaine Marie Cooper

***WINNER**of The Promise of Deer Run! Janet Grunst! Congratulations!***

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I was excited to visit a museum I had not been to in many years: the Natural History Museum. Eagerly anticipating huge displays of dinosaur bones, I was not disappointed. Remnants of large lizards from long ago filled the large halls and display cases, reminding me anew of the incredible variation in God’s creation.

What really surprised me on this visit, however, was the room filled with geologic crystals. It was a display I had apparently forgotten about. Talk about God’s creation! The variety of colors and rock formations from all over the world was astonishing and beautiful.

When I got to the display of amethyst, I paused, utterly amazed. The magnificent purple quartz was embedded deep inside the cavity of an ugly, ordinary rock.

Staring at the glass-encased exhibit, I read the brief explanation of the precious stone’s formation. It explained something about the amethyst being formed by the cooling of heated ground water, silica, and deposits lining the walls of rock cavities. What?

Further research into this process revealed to my inquiring mind that heat and pressure play a role in causing these openings in the rocks which then allows—in some mysterious fashion to my non-scientific understanding—the development of the lovely, shining quartz within. Beauty forming under pressure when the heat is on—from an ordinary, ugly rock.

God seems to work His way in our ugly sin nature in a similar fashion. He applies the heat of duress in our lives, and takes what could be an unattractive shell and infuses it with His perfection through trials that He allows in our lives to change our sinful nature into something of polished refinement.

Crystals of holiness, wrought through the pressures that will mold us into the shining creation He wants us to be.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1Peter 1:6-9 NIV)

Why the Label?

So I was brainstorming in my chamber of deep thought earlier this afternoon (the shower), and today’s bloppick came to mind. Why do we label Christian fiction? Not, what separates Christian fiction from everything else, but literally, why do we need the label?

I’m not hugely bothered by the label. I understand that plenty of Christian readers want to know they’re reading books that agree with their beliefs. They like to know that what they’re reading is safe for their hearts. I personally enjoy being able to enter a bookstore and head straight to the ‘inspirational’ section to browse shelves filled with some of my favorite authors. It’s like a family reunion!

Seriously though, why use the term ‘inspirational’ strictly for Christian/religious/spiritual fiction? Are no other books meant to inspire? I find that a little odd.

Anyway, my issue with labeling Christian fiction as such is that I have a lot of non-Christian friends (and a few Christian friends who don’t read much) who don’t even realize there is such a thing. Honestly, I rarely see a section in bookstores for Christian fiction; rather, I see sections marked off as ‘Christian,’ or ‘religious’ or ‘inspirational,’ period. That said, what non-Christian is going to read This Present Darkness if it’s sold on the same shelf as I Kissed Dating Goodbye? Nothing against the latter, you know what I mean. I understand the shelving logic: these books are belief-friendly, mix them together. But fiction and nonfiction have very different purposes, and I feel like those differences should be recognized.

I need a haircut.

Again, I do see the logic behind the Christian fiction label. It’s all about the marketing process, and the folks behind Christian fiction marketing are probably Christians who want other Christians to read the Christian books they Christian publish. Christian. However, I’ve read plenty of books on the…other market…which had messages of hope and spiritual growth in the plots, but simply because they were published by a different company, they didn’t get to sit at the table of Christian-labeldom. Dean Koontz, for example, is an author with a pretty hefty word count who definitely doesn’t ignore the spiritual realm in his writings. His books make me think on deep, important stuff just as much as Ted Dekker’s books do, but you’ll find no Dean Koontz on a Bible shelf.

Another thing, if Christian fiction gets its own corner in the bookstore, then why do I never see any Atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, New Age, et cetera, fiction? Sure there are nonfiction books that are by this religious group for this religious group, Richard Dawkins’s, The God Delusion comes to mind, but fiction? I haven’t seen it, and now that I think about it, wouldn’t it seem kind of weird to walk into a bookstore and see signs all over the place separating Christian fiction from Muslim fiction and so on and so forth? Right now, there seems to be Christian fiction and…everything else. Not all ‘secular fiction’ authors are unbelievers, so a Christian fiction label might even be a little off-putting to everyone else in the spectrum.

The way I see it, Christian stories are meant to aid in spiritual growth and plant seeds, so to speak. When the first thing people will see is “Hey! A Christian wrote this so you might consider accepting Jesus,” what firmly-rooted non-Christian will keep reading? Some will. Some get curious, but I can tell you from personal experience that most will glance at the bookshelf and keep walking. It’s not the label that bothers me, it’s how people react to it.

I can’t say I have an immediate solution to this. Maybe I’m the only one who sees a problem with it, but if what is currently considered Christian fiction were to simply be called ‘fiction,’ would we Christian authors not get more readers? How many more seeds could we plant if people didn’t have the obvious label to walk away from? It’s not denying our faith if we take the label away; denying our faith would be to rewrite everything without a message. What I think matters most is that we as Christians know Who and what we’re writing about, and that readers are encouraged to think on the world beyond themselves after reading what we write. They don’t need to know what we know as soon as they see the shelf the books are on, you know?

Obviously, a lot would have to be done in order for this change to be made. I’m not saying, “Let’s start a revolution with secretly-Christian-fiction,” per se, but I’d like to know if I’m not the only person who feels this way.

In closing, here’s a doodle I drew shortly after getting my first two short stories published by Splickety and OtherSheep magazines. Thanks for reading, cheers, God bless!

In Christ,

Luther D. Powell

Reflecting on: a Debut Novel, with Nick Dettmann

Welcome to Nicholas Dettmann, whose first published novel just released this winter. He’s joined our local writer’s group and I’ve asked him to share about his experiences.

When I held the hard copy of my novel for the first time, it was one of the most exciting moments of my career and my life. A lifelong dream had been achieved: I wrote a book and it was published.

The process to do so was much harder than I originally anticipated, specifically the cost. After some efforts to get it published through traditional houses, I came across the idea of self-publishing. I did a lot of research and found that it was an expensive route, which dampened my spirits. There were times I never thought my manuscript would be published because I couldn’t figure out how to pay for it. But after some begging and generosity from family and friends, my manuscript finally got off the computer and into a printer.

It was exciting and still is. However, it’s been a struggle to try and convince people who are unfamiliar with my work that purchasing my novel is worthwhile. I also didn’t expect to have as hard of a time selling the physical copies. The electronic editions, at least from what I’ve been told, have sold better.

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time working on my craft and believe I have the talent to be a successful author. The other part I’m trying to adjust to is the idea of patience. Outside of family and friends, I’m not really sure how the book is selling, so I wish I could say if the active promotion that I’m doing is working or not. I know it’s worked on a couple people who’ve met me at certain events.

My dream is to be a best-selling author someday. Some professional reviews I’ve received were not big fans of my novel, A Life Worth Dreaming About. But people who have read it said they love it and had a hard time putting it down. So the other problem I’m having is finding out what the true sense from people of the book is.

True no matter how much you sell, Nick–best wishes! Belief and dreams are excellent. ~Lisa

About the Book:

•ISBN-10:1468543008

•ISBN-13: 978-1468543001

Kindle: $3.03

Paperback: $16.95

Carl Robertson, a 32-year-old man, did everything he could to move out of his small Midwestern town, losing many friends along the way. He dreamt of living the elegant lifestyle of New York City. He used his anger and hatred to move out of his hometown, discredit it and never wanted to think about it again. For a while, it worked. Then, he finds his life on the ropes and doesn’t know why or how to change it. That is until he meets a man who will change his life forever and in a way he never could’ve seen coming. Suddenly, he finds himself trying to catch up to a new reality, just in time to save his life and find his true love. Learn more at www.nickdettmann.com

About the Author:

Nicholas Dettmann is a veteran journalist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has worked at daily newspapers in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Michigan City, Indiana, and West Bend, Wisconsin. He has also appeared in numerous newspapers around the country, including the Houston Chronicle, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun.

He has won writing awards at the local, regional and national levels. Nicholas graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in journalism & mass communications. In 2010, Nicholas wrote a story about a high school swimmer who suffered from dwarfism. His dream was to become a Paralympian. The Wisconsin Newspaper Association said, “Good story and nice storytelling getting the reader into the story.”

Tuesday Promotion in Motion: Becky Melby

Welcome fellow Wisconsin Author, Becky Melby, author of Tomorrow’s Sun, to Reflections in Hindsight.

Tomorrow’s Sun back cover copy:

One House. Two Loves. A century and a half apart.

Her fractures have mended, her scars faded, but Emily Foster can’t move on until she makes restitution for a past mistake. Flipping houses seems like the path to her goal. Yet, instead of finding a door to the future, the 1840s house she plans to remodel opens windows to the past.

Contractor Jake Braden hates Emily’s plan to modernize the old house, but the cost of fighting for guardianship of his late sister’s twelve-year-old twins forces him to take the job anyway. When a hidden door and faded love letters connect the house with the Underground Railroad, he and Emily embark on a mission to uncover the fate of young lovers.

As Emily and Jake unravel the long-forgotten love story, words of faith in the face of fear inspire, convict, and draw them to each other. . .but will they be prepared when faced with the greatest test yet?

 Becky Says—-

 

What I love about Tomorrow’s Sun:

For years I’ve been a fan of artist Charles L. Peterson’s “Memories” Collection (http://www.clpetersonstudio.com/prints-memories.html). Each painting depicts a contemporary setting superimposed with a translucent scene of a by-gone era. These paintings spark questions and spin stories in my head. Several years ago, sitting at a historic restaurant inRochester,Wisconsin with my husband, the history of the building we were sitting in awakened the same kind of muse. Built in 1843 and originally known as the Union House, the building had thirteen-inch stone walls. Local legend claimed it had once been a stop on the Underground Railroad. . .and was inhabited by ghosts! From there it was an easy step to creating a father and daughter living just across the bridge from the Union House. What impact would their involvement in the Underground Railroad have on a woman who bought their house a hundred and sixty years later? I loved the vicarious experience of living in this house with a hidden room in two radically different eras.

 

What I learned while writing it:

That I love writing historical fiction! That came as a surprise since most of what I read and all I’ve written has been contemporary. Rather than choosing between genres, I hope to continue writing parallel stories that juxtapose two time periods.

I also learned some intriguing facts and legends about the Underground Railroad in my part ofWisconsin. While his conductor got a fresh team of horses, Joshua Glover, a Missouri slave seeking asylum in 1854, enjoyed “a hot cup of tea and lunch” at a home in Rochester—just across the river from the Union House. On arriving inRacine, Mr. Glover was “pounced upon” by his master who had him arrested and put in jail. But abolitionists from all around southeasternWisconsinsurrounded the jail, broke down the doors, and transported him safely toCanada.

The other thing that comes to mind wasn’t new knowledge, but a needed reminder: True freedom is only possible through surrender to Jesus Christ. Most of us are bound by some kind of shackles—memories of past injustice or mistakes or loss—and only through a relationship with the God of the universe can we experience the breaking of chains and cycles.

Something unique about the book:

Adam, one of the twelve-year-old twins in the book, is patterned very, very closely after my grandson Sawyer. All of the things Adam carries in his cargo pants can be found on my ready-for-emergency grandson at any given time. My daughter sent an email last week telling about Sawyer’s latest doctor’s check up: “We forgot to have Sawyer disarm before he left home. The nurse asked if he had anything in his pockets and he just started pulling out knives (four, I think) and flashlights and rope and duct tape. . .”

While Adam got to use a lot of his survival gear in Tomorrow’s Sun, Sawyer is still dreaming of that great adventure for which he will be more than prepared.

About the Author:

I started writing stories when I was about seven. One memorable piece. . .“How Valentine’s Day Got Started,” foreshadowed my future career in romantic fiction. In high school, a poem I wrote about Jacqueline Kennedy was published in the Union Grove Sun, our local paper. I imagine the circulation was about four hundred, but I was ecstatic. My next big break came with a high school literary magazine. We used a lot of literary license in calling it “literary”! One of my poems, entitled “Depression,” depicts being symbolically buried alive and ends with the soul-stirring words “Metal on stone, I’m now alone.”

            My goal of seeing my first novel published by the time I turned twenty-five was detained a few years thanks to my real-life romance and the four sons that resulted. My publishing dream became reality the same year I found out I was going to be a grandma. In March we’ll celebrate forty years of marriage. In January of this year our twelfth grandbaby was born. In spite of all these wonderful “interruptions” I’ve co-authored nine books for Heartsong Presents and written three novellas. Tomorrow’s Sun is the first book in the Lost Sanctuary series, my first full-length project. Yesterday’s Stardust and Today’s Shadows will be released later this year.

            I love writing and reading spiritual Cinderella stories. For real-life and fiction stories of “tarnished dreams refinished by grace,” come and visit me at www.beckymelby.com/blog.

Market Monday: Technology and You, with guest Teena Stewart

Google, Are you Kidding?  Futuristic Glasses Worse Than Texting While Driving

By Teena Stewart

I hear that Google has an idea in the works for experimental hi-tech glasses that can do it all. They sound like something right out of Star Trek or James Bond.

Here are some of the proposed features:

• While wearing a pair you can see all the directions to your destination right before you eyes.

• You can video chat with friends

• You can shop on line

In a word, the glasses can mimic what you can already do on a smart phone or tablet which are getting more sophisticated all the time. Very cool idea and it’s hands free. But if these things ever actually hit the market, can you imagine the problems they will unleash?

My husband does sports officiating and on several occasions has ridden with a guy who texts while he drives. What’s worse is he doesn’t do it well and is all over the road. It has to be bad for Jeff to complain. Who of us who texts can’t admit being side-tracked at least once with texting while walking or driving, until we maybe decided this wasn’t a very brilliant idea. Some of us are still doing it, which isn’t making me feel safer on the road.

Like it or not, technology is here to stay and if you don’t want to go the way of the dinosaur you need to scramble to keep up with the latest developments. But sometimes it gets more than a little scary.

Give me your input. Do you think these glasses will ever hit the public arena?

Have you had any experiences with someone annoying you or putting you in danger because they are distracted by technology?

Teena Stewart is a published author, an accomplished artist, and an experienced ministry leader.   Her newest book (Working Title) Mothers and Daughters: Mending a Strained Relationship is due out via Beacon Hill in summer 2012.   Teena is a contributing writer to DreamBuilder’s Ministry in Motion and has served in ministry leadership for years. Currently, she and her husband Jeff are the key visionaries and managers of Java Journey an innovative market place ministry in Hickory, North Carolina (http://www.javajourney.org).

The Sunday Book Review: Hiking Through by Paul Stutzman

Hiking Through

By Paul Stutzman

Revell

ISBN: 978-0-8007-2053

$13.99 May 2012

Inspirational Memoir

 

Healing grief is different for everyone: some try, some don’t, some make rash decisions or none at all. Paul Stutzman through-hiked the Appalachian Trail one summer two years after his wife’s death from cancer.

Leaving his career as a restaurant manager and taking the hike, Stutzman says he needed a greater purpose than simply making a drastic change in his life. His goals were twofold: “to remind men to appreciate what they have today—don’t take your family and your wife for granted.” Secondly, he wanted to write a book showing “that the Christian life doesn’t have to be boring.”

And boring this book is not. From the prologue where the author states he uses only trail names to identify his trail brothers and sisters so they can claim plausible deniability if ever accused of any of the stunts, to the rain, sleet, festivals, and fear, Hiking Through is a great journey book that’s more than a guide; it’s a quest for peace.

Taking the trail name Apostle, Stutzman begins his journey with a photo op, then hiking north from Georgia to Maine over four and a half months. Starting in April with thirty-five pounds of tent, bear bag, and notebook, Stutzman hoped to walk a thirty-mile leg one day, one of the few goals he never met. I’ve become addicted over the past few years to follow Interstate highways and freeways ever since accidently driving the entire length of I65, and I enjoy hiking, but Stutzman’s pictures helped me decide to continue to enjoy “through drives.” More photos are available on his web site hikingthrough.com. He’s begun a “biking through” adventure as well.

Walk with the author as he meets wonderful and exotic hikers with names like Sailor, Bubbles, Sir Entity, and Litefoot as they walk through fourteen states in all kinds of terrain and weather, beautiful scenery, and dangerous overnight conditions as well as enjoyable ones such as old stagecoach stops and hotels. I’m a sucker for the history and details Stutzman shares about the various places along the trail, such as Civil War sites, and general early Americana. The life-lessons Stutzman shares? Well, I’ll let you discover those as you read.

Available May 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

♦♦♦♦♦ Reflections

The Sunday Book Review: Finding Angel, by Kat Heckenbach

Finding Angel

Kat Heckenbach

c. 2011

Splashdown Books

ISBN: 9781927154137

$6.99 eBook

Speculative fiction, YA

An Angel appears out of nowhere…a young girl, wandering along a country path inFlorida, in her possession, but no memory. When the Masons find the lost girl, they name her “Angel” for the letters on her bracelet and soon she becomes part of the family.

The Mason collect stray children, including a set of twins who are older than Angel, and a younger boy, Zack, who holds onto Angel’s heart and appreciates her fascination with magical creatures and her reading tree. Eight years pass, and at fourteen, Angel has made a new life, albeit one with a gaping hole.

As much as Angel is infatuated with mythical creatures, Zack loves nature and bugs, and shows her a beetle. Promising to help identify it, Angel visits the library and instead discovers that a new boy, Gregor, has come to town. Gregor unlocks the missing pieces of Angel’s life by taking her “home” to a place of myth and mist, like Glockamorra or Brigadoon.TochIslandis “sort of” inIreland; “hidden” so it can’t be taken over by technological development, a place where the Empowered do not have to hide their Talents. It’s a place where the magical creatures are true, Elves live and make music, and dangers are real, so real that Gregor has lived as an orphan since the age of ten after the evil Dawric killed his family. Angel stays with Gregor while her memories gradually surface and she relearns her Talent. But Gregor harbors secrets. Is she safe with him? Where are her parents? And what about the new murders in the community?

Chapters are interspersed with scenes of concurrent events that build like pieces of a puzzle. Each chapter and segment has a title that hints at what’s to come.

Although the teens seem too young to live on their own, Heckenbach’s deft handling of the characters feels rich and fully alive. Gregor knows his duty and is ready to fulfill his destiny, and Angel reunites Toch as no one else can.

The author’s word choices are bright and succinct, in voice appropriate to age and magical world. There are instances of danger and murder and resulting emotions that children younger than sixth or seventh grade might find disturbing. Occasional long segments of description and internal thought, months spent relearning Angel’s identity, were sometimes slow but fascinating, and an end that flies up your face shouldn’t disrupt the great pleasure of immersing yourself in the world of Toch, the Empowered, and a future full of bright possibilities and dreams that will come true.

♦♦♦♦ Reflections

Meet “Reflections” on John 3:16 Blog Hop Tour

Posted by Elaine Marie Cooper

Welcome, Friends!

My usual post here every other Friday is my Revolutionary Faith column, as I discuss all things about book research as well as Colonial America, my particular area of interest. On the other Fridays, I post devotionals that will hopefully inspire my readers to draw closer to the Lord.

But this week a wonderful network of Christian writers and readers that I belong to is doing a Blog Hop Tour to spread the word about their wonderful books as well as their inspirational blogs. On top of that, John 3:16 (the network group) is also offering free books AND the chance to be in a drawing for two kindle giveaways!! Not a bad contest. But you must leave comments to be entered in the drawings.

Here is the link to all 50 plus blog tour participants:

http://reflectionsinhindsight.wordpress.com/wp-mepvo1a-1vm/

So go ahead…hop around and visit these wonderful websites, leave comments, and hopefully, you too will be a winner of one of these prizes!

Those who leave comments on my blog that I have linked to above, will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of both The Road to Deer Run and The Promise of Deer Run. Please leave your e-mail addy so I can contact you.

Have a Blessed Friday!

Now available on kindle and soon to be released in paperback:

The Legacy of Deer Run

The Legacy of Deer Run (The Deer Run Saga)