August 2011 - New Releases

These late summer releases promise some good reading from ACFW authors. Check out the list. There's bound to be something to meet your taste in reading.

More in-depth descriptions of these books can be found on the ACFW FictionFinder website.

A Horseman’s Heart by Myra Johnson -- Romance from Barbour/Heartsong. When Kip Lorimer shows up with a horse to donate to the family's equine therapy program, Sheridan Cross can't help but be suspicious. A cowboy a thousand miles from home and living out of a horse trailer? What's wrong with this picture?

A Most Unsuitable Match by Stephanie Whitson -- A Historical from Bethany House. They are opposites in every way. . . except how neither one can stop thinking about the other.

Agent Undercover by Lynette Eason -- Romantic Suspense from Love Inspired. A little boy with a secret, a killer with a vendetta, and a man and a woman who will stop at nothing to protect the child while catching the killer.

Aquasynthesis by Grace Bridges, Fred Warren, Caprice Hokstad, P.A. Baines, Adam Graham, R.L. Copple, Travis Perry, Mike Lynch, Keven Newsome, Kat Heckenbach, and Ryan Grabow. -- Fantasy from Splashdown Books. From classic-style fantasy and science fiction stories, through speculative tales that delve deeper into motivations and meanings, we move from humor to sacrifice by a linking story that connects many very different themes.

Blue Skies Tomorrow by Sarah Sundin -- General Fiction Historical from Revell. In a time of peril, can they find the courage to confront their fears and embrace a love that lasts?

Edge of Grace by Christa Allan -- General Fiction from Abingdon. Unable to cope with her brother’s news that he is gay, Caryn Becker rejects him. But when he is attacked and nearly killed, she is forced to make hard choices that take her to the very edge of grace.

Lost in Dreams, Book Two; Altered Heart Series by Roger Bruner and Kristi Rae Bruner -- Young Adult from Barbour. Eighteen-year-old Kim Hartlinger discovers the victory Jesus provides during the most trying of circumstances as she learns to lean on other Christians.

Marrying Miss Marshall by Lacy Williams -- Romance from Bethany House. Her job is to protect the town... but who will protect her heart?

Out of Control by Mary Connealy -- Romance from Bethany House. Rafe Kincaid controls everything in his life . . . until he meets Julia.

Ransome’s Quest by Kaye Dacus -- Historical Romance from Harvest House. Romance, intrigue, and swashbuckling leaps of faith create a wonderfully heroic close to this beloved series.

Something Old by Dianne Christner -- Romance from Barbour. Love is rarely plain and simple.

Surrender the Dawn by Mary Lu Tyndall -- A Historical from Barbour. You’ll be swept away in this seafaring romance between a plucky damsel-in-distress and a nefarious rake who’s selling out his country amid the War of 1812.

The Matrimony Plan by Christine Johnson -- Historical Romance from Love Inspired. A rich girl falls in love with a poor boy -- until the tables are turned.

Happy Reading!

Spotlight on MaryLu Tyndall and The Blue Enchantress

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MARYLU TYNDALL, a Christy Award Finalist, and best-selling author of the Legacy of the King’s Pirates series is known for her adventurous historical romances filled with deep spiritual themes. She holds a degree in Math and worked as a software engineer for fifteen years before testing the waters as a writer. MaryLu currently writes full time and makes her home on the California coast with her husband, six kids, and four cats. Her passion is to write page-turning, romantic adventures that not only entertain but expose Christians to their full potential in Christ. For more information on MaryLu and her upcoming releases, please visit her website at http://www.mltyndall.com or her blog at http://crossandcutlass.blogspot.com.

THE BLUE ENCHANTRESS
by MaryLu Tyndall
Published by Barbour Publishing

ABOUT THE BOOK

Searching for love and value, Hope Westcott throws herself at any man who looks her way. Betrayed by the nobleman she longed to marry, Hope is being auctioned off as a slave at a distant port when Nathaniel Mason comes to her rescue and sells one of his prized ships in order to save her. Determined to erase the stain of his mother’s past, and angry at his loss, Nathaniel wants nothing to do with the stubborn, wanton girl and procures passage for them on the first ship home. But will he be able to resist the provocative beauty, and what is he willing to give up to save her? And will Hope find the love she seeks in God or will she fall back into her sordid ways?

From the Carolina Coast to the Caribbean, through stormy seas and shipwreck, can Hope and Nathaniel put aside their painful pasts, listen to God’s voice, and fine true love and acceptance?

Readers, buy your copy of The Blue Enchantress today!

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

1. What gave you the inspiration for this story?

The Blue Enchantress is the 2^nd book in my Charles Towne trilogy, each about a different sister in one family—all daughters of a British Admiral. The theme for the series comes from the parable of the seed and sower in Matthew 13 where Jesus describes 4 types of seeds and the soils they fall upon. Each sister and each book in the series deals with one type of these seeds. In the first book, The Red Siren, the heroine Faith represents the seed that fell on the rocky soil which Jesus describes as someone who receives the Word of God but when problems occur and tragedy strikes, they quickly fall away. In The Blue Enchantress, Hope represents the seed that falls on the thorny ground wherein the Word of God is choked out by the pleasures and concerns of this world.

To expound on that theme, however, I created in Hope a character who I believe many women can relate to in our culture today. She is young, beautiful and has discovered that she can use her beauty to attract attention from men. Unfortunately, because she had a difficult and unloving childhood and she has never experienced the love of God, she mistakes this shallow attention for love and ends up getting herself into a heap of trouble!

2. How much of your own experiences influenced your characters? What aspects became traits that are theirs and theirs alone?

For this particular book, I drew quite a bit from my own experiences because I have much in common with Hope, the heroine. Hope has grown up in a very chaotic home. As the middle child, she never seemed to measure up to her sisters. She fought constantly with her mother and never received her father’s approval. Betrayed and attacked by a trusted relative, Hope uses her beauty to find value in the attention of men. Even though she is often left heartbroken and used, she mistakes their affections for true love and continues her search. This could be described as my life for many years before the Lord rescued me, so I found Hope’s character an easy one to identify with. In general, however, I would say that there is a little bit of me in all my characters.

3. If one of your characters were an ice cream flavor, what would he/she be and why?

Great question! Hope would have to be Rocky Road. She's got a soft heart like a marshmallow, she's a bit of a wild nut, and everybody craves her like chocolate. Nathaniel would be pure vanilla with a swirl of caramel through it. He's wholesome and good and everybody likes him but if you dig a little deeper, he's got a wild streak.

4. Are there any themes in The Blue Enchantress that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the stories progressed?

The main theme that I started out wanting to portray in the story is that true love and true beauty come from knowing God, but as I wrote, I noticed these other themes developing out of the plot and the character's lives:

1. Outward beauty is fleeting while inward beauty is eternal.
2. Giving yourself away outside of marriage is very destructive and will leave you feeling empty and used.
3. You cannot truly change and become a better person without the power of God.
4. If you try to run from God, He will find you.
5. Only by fulfilling God’s will for your life, will you find true joy.
   

5. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?

In the first half of the book, there's a hurricane that strikes the ship. Writing an accurate and believable account of a hurricane's affects on a tall ship and her crew and how they would survive it, took quite a bit of research and time in writing. I know I spent a couple weeks on those scenes. My favorite scenes to write were the ones between Hope and Nathaniel when they are starting to love each other but aren't ready to admit it. I just love writing those highly emotional, tense scenes.

6. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?

There is one more book in my Charles Towne Belles series, The Raven Saint, coming out in January. The Raven Saint is the story of the third sister in the series who represents the seed that fell on the good soil in Matthew 13. Grace is a good Christian lady who spends her time ministering to the poor around Charles Towne and serving God in any way she can. But when she is kidnapped by a French mercenary bent on selling her to a Spanish Don, she cannot understand why God has allowed such tragedy in her life.

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Thank you, MaryLu, for being in the spotlight with us.

Readers, leave a comment for your chance to win a FREE autographed copy of The Blue Enchantress.

Make sure you also leave your email address (name at domainname dot.com/net). You won't be entered in the drawing without it. If you wish to comment but don't want to be entered, say so when you post.

And if you want to make certain you don't miss anything, check the box that says 'email follow-up comments to:' when you leave a comment and they'll be sent to the email address associated with your blogging account. That way you'll be notified of any comments and will know when I announce the winner.

This week, the contest is open to anyone worldwide.

CFBA Blog Tour - MaryLu Tyndall and The Falcon and the Sparrow

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Falcon and the Sparrow
(Barbour Publishing - August 1, 2008)
by M. L. Tyndall

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

M. L. (MARYLU) TYNDALL grew up on the beaches of South Florida loving the sea and the warm tropics. But despite the beauty around her, she always felt an ache in her soul--a longing for something more.

After college, she married and moved to California where she had two children and settled into a job at a local computer company. Although she had done everything the world expected, she was still miserable. She hated her job and her marriage was falling apart.

Still searching for purpose, adventure and true love, she spent her late twenties and early thirties doing all the things the world told her would make her happy, and after years, her children suffered, her second marriage suffered, and she was still miserable.

One day, she picked up her old Bible, dusted it off, and began to read. Somewhere in the middle, God opened her hardened heart to see that He was real, that He still loved her, and that He had a purpose for her life, if she'd only give her heart to Him completely.

Her current releases in the Legacy of The Kings Pirates series include:The Restitution, The Reliance, and The Redemption

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Mademoiselle Dominique Dawson sets foot on the soil of her beloved homeland, England, she feels neither the happiness nor the excitement she expected upon her return to the place of her birth. Alone for the first time in her life, without family, without friends, without protection, she now faces a far more frightening prospect, for she has come to the country she loves as an enemy-a spy for Napoleon.

Forced to betray England or never see her only brother alive again, Dominique has accepted a position as governess to the son of Admiral Chase Randal, a harsh man, still bitter over the loss of his wife. Will Dominique find the strength she needs through God to follow through with the plan to rescue her brother? Will Chase find comfort for his bitter heart in God's arms and be able to love again?

And what new deceptions will they both find in France when they arrive to carry out their plan?

If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

1. What gave you the inspiration for this story?

The biggest inspiration was my desire to create a heroine that I believe many women can relate to. She's not the normal brave, outgoing, independent woman we see in many novels. Not that I'm against that type of heroine. I adore strong women characters and write about them myself, but I think many more people are on the timid side like I am, than are on the courageous side. So, my ultimate purpose was to show how someone who's typically shy and frightened, someone who doesn't think they can make a difference at all, can do impossible feats with God on their side.

2. How much of your own experiences influenced your characters? What aspects became traits that are theirs and theirs alone?

My life experiences greatly influence my characters. In fact I pull most of my spiritual themes from things I have learned in my walk with God. The heroine in this particular story I modeled after myself. I tend to be on the shy, timid side, fairly insecure and usually nervous. I used to think I was an oddity, that God must have made a mistake, but as I've gotten to know more and more people, I realize many of them are much closer to being this way than to being brave and outgoing! So the heroine of this story, Dominique, was fairly easy to write for me. My own experiences and fears paved the way for her reaction to the world that I threw her into. When I'm writing a character who is not like me, I still inject some of my own qualities in him or her, but rely heavily on experiences and observations I've had with other people. But no matter how well I have mapped out a character's personality in the beginning, they always tend to take on a life of their own and develop qualities that are uniquely theirs as the story progresses.

3. What themes exist in The Falcon and the Sparrow that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the story progressed?

The main theme I hope to portray is that no matter how frightened we are, no matter how hopeless our situation, God is our strength. We may not feel calm, we may not feel courageous. In fact we may be shaking in our boots, but if we trust Him, He will never let us down.

(I can tell you’re a writer, Tiff, because you ask questions only a writer would know!) But, yes, often while I'm writing a book, other themes that I hadn't planned on developing seem to formulate out of the story. In Falcon, two more themes emerged. One, that life doesn't always turn out as we hope or pray for, but that doesn't mean God doesn't love us or has abandoned us, and two, that often times when we think we are horrible witnesses and doing nothing good for God, we are affecting those around us in ways we could never imagine.

4. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?

The hardest part of any book I've written is the first 30,000 words or so. I really struggle getting a story started, introducing all the characters, the conflict, the plot. But something magical happens somewhere around the first third of the book. The characters become real to me and begin to take over the story. The words flow out of me and my writing becomes easier. By far my favorite part to write is the last 10,000 words. I love endings and have no trouble putting together a tense, satisfying ending to my books. At least, I hope you'll think so too!

5. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?

My next release is called The Red Siren, book 1 of the Charles Town Belles series. It will be released in February '09 and is the story of an admiral's daughter who is a pirate by night, and a lady by day. She hopes to accumulate enough wealth to save her and her sisters from unsavory marriages. But her plan is thwarted when she falls in love with the British Navy Captain who is out to catch the villainous woman pirate scouring the seas around Charles Towne!

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Thank you, MaryLu, for being in the spotlight with us.

Readers, leave a comment for your chance to win a FREE autographed copy of The Falcon and the Sparrow.

If you wish to comment but don't want to be entered, say so when you post.

Make sure you leave your email address (name [at] domainname [dot] com/net) or that there's a way to contact you. Otherwise, you won't be entered. Wouldn't want you to miss out on winning a book. :)

And if you want to make certain you don't miss anything, check the box that says 'email follow-up comments to:' when you leave a comment and they'll be sent to the email address associated with your blogging account. That way you'll be notified of any comments and will know when I announce the winner.

This week, the contest is open to US/Canada residents only.

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