First Time Kindle Price Reduction of this amazing true story! Note: I’m pleased to announce a special sale for a friend’s book I had the honor of editing—and a book I highly recommend. When a baby dies from head injuries, an innocent babysitter is accused, and uncertainty forces experts to define the edges of truth. This intensely personal story will grip your heart and challenge your faith. It gives a vivid account of Mary Weaver, who was presumed guilty of shaking and slamming a baby to death; and one of her lawyers, Steve Brennecke, who fought to clear her name. Dr. Ruth Ramsey calls this book “a wake-up call for anyone who is ever involved in child care.” Reduced Kindle price June 21-26, 2014: Saturday-Sunday—$3.99 Monday-Tuesday—$4.99 Wednesday-Thursday—$5.99 Friday—regular Kindle price: $7.95 Get it here at Amazon. Companion Bible Study—Free for a Limited Time! I Survived! gives a personal, inside view of…
Each novel manuscript I edit for my day job is a learning experience. It either reveals what doesn’t work in fiction writing or reinforces what does. In this post I want to talk about the speech tag. I briefly wrote about it in this post, but I wanted to expand on some key ideas here. Why? Because strong dialogue is so important for good fiction. It reveals character, it depicts drama, it reveals vital information, and it pushes the story forward. Used correctly, it can do so much for a story. But use it unwisely, and it can really be a drag. Of course, the primary purpose of speech tags is to ID the spakers, but I’ll just come right out and ask it. Are speech tags even necessary? What do they accomplish other than giving the reader more words to read? Because, I would argue, there’s a better way…
NOTE: Don’t miss the drawing for a free book, mentioned below. I always enjoy reading the latest Christian thriller by Brandilyn Collins; in fact, her novels are part of the inspiration that got me started writing my own stories. Not to mention that each novel offers a wonderful blueprint of how a Christian suspense novel should be written. Each time I read another of her novels, I learn more about plotting, pacing, and all the other necessary ingredients for a good plot to work. But this novel especially caught my attention when I read the back-cover burb. The novel I’m working on now, my third, has a few similarities to Brandilyn’s premise (the protagonist needs brain surgery and gets an implant that offers more than anyone expects). So when I read her blurb, I thought, Oh no. Somebody beat me to it. But thankfully her story goes in a very…
This is what the question has come to. I wish I could be Superman and do all of it—write for my blog and work on my next novel—but I simply can’t do both well. That’s just the simple truth. Not with my editing schedule to pay the bills. Working on my blog frankly means less time to work on my novel, and I’m committed to finishing novel #3 this year. So what’s gonna have to give? The blog’s gotta give. Going forward, I plan to write an article every other week instead of every week. I hope to continue writing insteresting content for fiction writers or lovers of Christian suspense or both. I’ve also recently updated the look of my website and recently programmed a store, showcasing some of my favorite books. Let me know what you think. How’s the novel coming? It’s coming. Just not as quickly as I would…
