 By this time next week, Finding Courage will be available. I can't wait for all of you to read Duke and Avalon's story. I'm also looking forward to your meeting their dog, Khanrad. I shared before that I created him after our own Khanrad. Just look at that face over there! Khanrad was quite the character and one of those dogs you never forget. He was also a talented escape artist. I'm not even joking. We had a six-foot chain-link fence and he would climb up and over it whenever he wanted to get out of the yard. Before we realized he did that, my husband and I would be at work, and we'd come home to find Khanrad sitting on the front porch waiting for us. Neighbors would then tell us that he just wandered the area while we were gone. He could hear our vehicles and would make sure he was on the porch before we got close enough to see him. Ha! He didn't just escape the yard. One time, he saw a dog in our front yard and he went right through the screen of the open window. I'm convinced he would have gone through the glass had it been there. He ran that dog down the street, caught up with it, pinned it to the ground, then let it up again and walked home. I think he just wanted to stress that it was his yard and the other dog was to stay out of it. I hope you enjoy Khanrad's antics in Finding Courage. I certainly feel honored to have the opportunity to share him with all of you.  Finding Courage is available for pre-order now and will be released October 1st. You can get it for the introductory price of $0.99 through October 4th.
It takes courage to ask for a second chance … even more to extend one. For Duke and Avalon McNeil, it was love at first sight. Married within months of meeting, their feet hardly touched the ground until the reality of their haste hit home with startling clarity. Duke's heart shattered when Avalon vanished for nearly three weeks, fleeing their arguments and misunderstandings. Now she's back. He's happy she's home and safe, but he isn't ready to risk everything again when their bond was so easily broken. Avalon's relieved to be home. She's desperate to make peace between them, but returns with a secret. She can't reveal anything to Duke until she proves to him she came back to restore their relationship. As outside pressure continues to threaten Duke and Avalon's fragile foundation, they must find the strength to prove to each other their marriage is worth fighting for.
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 Today is the first day of fall and that means it's time for the Clean Indie Reads Fall Sale! There's a variety of books in different genres that are on sale now through the 26th. The best part of all? You don't have to worry about excessive violence, sexual content, or language. Now that's my favorite kind of book, no matter what genre it is! Have fun browsing the great books on sale. You can also go to the link at the top of the page and check out the other CIR books available at regular price.
My other books, Calming the Storm and Finding Hope (Love's Compass: Book 2) can be found at regular price. :-)
I'm excited to have Author Katy Huth Jones on my blog today as she reveals the beautiful cover of her newest book, Mercy's Gift. This is the second book in her fantasy series He Who Finds Mercy.  Peace is fragile. Gifts have limits. While Prince Valerian adjusts to marriage as well as his new title, conspiracy brews in the south among disgruntled lords who wish to separate from the north. The situation is made even more volatile by a charismatic rebel leader whose guerilla tactics are swift and brutal. The clandestine efforts of a witch hired by one of the lords render Valerian's gift of Sight ineffective, and Merry's Healing gift is sorely tested. It has become dangerous for a northerner living in the south, and if the gifted young royals fail to stop the growing rebellion, evil will reign in Levathia. MERCY'S GIFT will be released September 25  A heart of peace in a time of war As second son of the King of Levathia, seventeen-year-old Valerian desires the quiet life of a scholarly monk. But when he fails to save his older brother in battle, Valerian must instead become crown prince. While a traitorous knight schemes against him, Valerian meets Mercy, a pacifist Healer with whom he can speak mind-to-mind like the great dragons. Their bond emboldens Valerian to seek out the legendary dragons and ask for their help against the monsters who killed his brother. Can Valerian survive the traitor’s assassins long enough to find the dragons? And if he does, can he convince them to lay aside their hatred of humans and help him save the land from destruction? Praise for MERCY'S PRINCE: "Easily one of the best indie books I've ever read." Story Sanctuary "A truly believable fantasy world saturated with suspense." Marcha's Two-Cents Worth "The action is heart-stopping, the love is pure, and the emotions are real." Amazon reader "A lovely, spiritual tale with all the adventure, mystery and romance a reader could want. Oh. And dragons!" Amazon reader MERCY'S PRINCE will be FREE on Amazon September 17-19 Connect with Katy on her website
Book 1 of The Dreamland Series: Lethal Legacy in Dreamland  What’s the ghost of Al Capone doing in Dreamland, Arkansas? Trixie’s willing to live and let live, but he doesn’t seem to be so tolerant! Trixie Blake barely remembers her small hometown or the grandfather who left her the Quimby Building on the antiquated town square. Newly-widowed and at loose ends, she treks to Dreamland to look for a fresh start. It takes less than twenty-four hours to discover she’s in the path of a shadowy development company’s plans to take over all of Dreamland’s historic downtown. That is, if they can persuade the three hold-outs to sell and move on. When Trixie decides to become hold-out number four, her already precarious situation deteriorates rapidly. She finds an odd assortment of allies: the Drummond sisters, two feisty senior citizens who run the Sunshine Style Shoppe on the first floor of Trixie’s building; Rudy James, a former high school classmate (now the proprietor of the Twilight Bar and Grill); Glen Ellard, the long-time mayor who owns the town’s only hardware store; Hetty Green, a retired teacher who keeps her fingers on the pulse of the town; Danny Jefferson, who doesn’t let his Down Syndrome define him; Mitch Langley, whose connection to the development company is too close for comfort; and Candace King, self-appointed head of the Dreamland Historic Association, who knows the town’s dark secrets. On top of everything else, Trixie’s great-grandfather’s buddy Al Capone seems to be still in residence on the Quimby Building’s second floor. Does he also get out and about to vandalize Trixie’s hotel room, slash her tires, and make threatening phone calls? And why does Police Chief Doug Everton want Trixie out of town sooner than later? Has Al met his match in Trixie Blake, or is he just a bystander in a seedier plot?  Follow Trixie’s saga with Desperate Deception in Dreamland and Ghostly Gambit in Dreamland. Judy Nickles blogs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at The Word Place Follow her blog for writing tips, research links, book-related information, and the occasional freebie offer. Visit her website to learn about her other books including the popular Penelope Pembroke Cozy Mystery Series Not too sweet and not too spicy!  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post I titled Just Be Held. I shared about how overwhelmed and frustrated I'd been feeling and how God used a song to remind me that sometimes we have to quit holding onto so many things and just allow ourselves to be held instead.
I posted that first thing on a Sunday morning. Ironically, my family went to church a couple of hours later and I discovered that the message was centered around editing your life. I hadn't even heard the message yet and knew that it was meant for me. You see, as soon as I saw those words, I thought about how I'm right in the middle of the editing process for Finding Courage. There's a lot that goes into editing a novel, but one of the most painful parts is cutting text. When I personally write, seeing that word count increase is a big encouragement. Word count is important. But when it comes time to edit, often the best thing an author can do is to delete text. We delete words, sentences, and sometimes *gulp* even paragraphs that are unnecessary or don't fit with the story. It's painful. After all, it took a whole lot longer to write those sections than it did to backspace them from existence. But guess what? When it's all said and done, the story is stronger without them. I think the same is true of our lives. I know I personally allowed so many things to build up as the day progressed that I couldn't possibly keep up. It's been helpful to reduce some of the things on my to-do list. But what's helped me more than anything else is releasing myself from my own expectations. Which isn't nearly as easy as it sounds. Because that means giving up a measure of control. Surely, if I map out every part of my day to make sure my to-do list is in place, it'll help make the day go more smoothly. Except it never worked out that way. Inevitably, something went off schedule and things I just had to do began to pile up. At the end of the day, I felt exhausted. It meant shoving even more items to the to-do list for the following day, and so the trend continued. I went to bed feeling behind and that's never a good thing. In the last couple of weeks, I've found that if I don't wake up with this big list of things to do in my head, I still manage to get almost everything accomplished as they come up through the day. The benefit? I'm not nearly as stressed! If something doesn't get done? Well, it doesn't seem to be nearly as big of a deal if it wasn't waiting there on a list waiting for me to place a check mark next to it. Just like editing a novel can strengthen a story, editing our lives can leave us with more time for the important things that we might miss otherwise. Does this mean I won't ever have stress in my day? I know myself well enough to realize that won't be the case. But in the words of L.M. Montgomery, "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" Praise God for that!
Hello everyone! Please welcome Author J.J. DiBenedetto. I'm excited to have him on my blog as he shares the cover for his newest book.
After ten books and nearly a million words, the Dream Series will be complete on October 20th. Book number ten, DREAM WEDDING, will be released, along with DREAM FRAGMENTS, a collection of short stories that fill in some of the gaps between the novels of the series. And here is the brand new cover for DREAM WEDDING, designed by Emma Michaels
What's it about?
It ought to be a joyful time for Dr. Sara Alderson. Her daughter, Lizzie, is about to graduate college, and marry her longtime boyfriend. But the family’s happiness is shattered when a drunk driver seriously injures her teenage son in a hit-and-run accident.
The DREAM FRAGMENTS collection also has a brand-new cover, also designed by the wonderful Emma Michaels:
If you can't wait for October 20th (and I don't blame you if you can't!), all nine of the previous Dream Series books are available on Amazon as well as many other eBook retailers (visit my website to see the full list of where to buy them!). You can also check out my website (listed above), as well as Facebook and Twitter for the latest Dream Series news. Or you can click here to download a quick guide to the Dream Series and me!
You can also check out the Dream Series on Audiobook. The first seven books are currently available on Audible, and book number eight, DREAM VACATION, will be available within the next two weeks. You can hear samples from all the audiobooks at my website, too! |
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