Overlooked Orchid

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.

You’ll have to excuse the lapse in entries lately. Things have been so crazy busy that I haven’t had the time or the energy to do much blogging, or anything else computer related for that matter…*LOL*

Things are going well here. Started my medical transcriptioning course this past week, and am making good progress…I got a 100% on my first quiz, of which I am really happy about!!

The girls’ schooling is going well. Kind of slow progress because of so many appointments and such, but they are still doing well.

The girls had a dentist appointment this past week. Megan has one tooth that need a filling, but all is well otherwise. We have an appointment set up in July to get that taken care of, and both girls are going to get a sealant put on their teeth, because their enamel isn’t as dense as it should be, so the sealant will help protect against cavities. The dentist said that Des might have to get braces in the future, which I half expected, seeing how her adult teeth are growing in. But we don’t have to worry about that until she is between 10 and 12 years old, so I have a few years to come up with the money for them.

Anyway, that’s about all that is going on around here, so I’ll move onto doing other things. Keep me in your prayers, that I do well with my med. trans. course, and that I’ll move quickly through it. The quicker I get through this course, the faster I will be able to stay at home.

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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This week, theChristian 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

Well as if I’m not crazy enough, Wordpress just had to do another upgrade….and wow, isn’t this one a HUGE change!!! Now  I’m having to learn where everything is again, and what certain buttons do and such….From just the few minutes I’ve been here…I like some of the new changes, but it will still take some getting used to!!

Well this week was crazy!!!….Monday we went up to pick up the girl’s glasses, which of course is an all day trip…Came home just in time to have dinner at Bubble’s before heading the rest of the way home….

Tuesday…hmm….I think Tuesday was either the day that I spent doing errands around town, or the day that I spent most of the day helping out a friend. Ahh, yes that’s right….Tuesday was bill paying day, and I had to stop by and get a tire fixed on my car, as I picked up a nail somehow or another…

Wednesday would have been the day that I spent helping out a friend…and than I stopped by my sister’s house to see my nephew. There was no school that day, so it was the perfect time to slip in and spend some time with him, and let him and the girls play for awhile.

Thursday I had to go to CPR training for my job….It’s a pretty short class, but as you can see from the rest of my week…I was dead tired and so didn’t want to be there….but I made it through, and am officially certified again…

Hopefully this next week is a little calmer….I only know of 3 appointments….and we will see what the rest of the week brings!!