Wake of Echoes

Stealing Liberty on Amazon STEALING LIBERTY  comes out today and I am SO excited! I hope you buy it, read it, love it, review it and tell all your friends so they can buy it, read it, love it and tell all their friends too. But even if you don't, I want to tell you the story of how it was almost never published. Last year, after my literary agent, Cyle Young of Hartline Literary, had contacted all the big name publishers, inviting them to offer us a contract for Stealing Liberty , he heard back from very few. That's not at all unusual. But the ones who did respond declined to publish it. They liked the concept and the writing , they indicated, but the story was "too Christian." "Too Christian?" I asked. "Really?" Cyle was baffled too. Two things confused us most: First: a couple of these publishers have a long history of publishing  Christian  fiction.  Second:  STEALING LIBERTY  isn't even really a Christian ...

photo from Pinterest boards Can you find  DREAM OF ME  on one of these bookshelves?   Of course not, and you even know what you are looking for. As of today, Amazon lists 1,414,078 titles for its Kindle store alone.  That accounts for far more books than you see on these shelves.  It’s no wonder that a novel like DREAM OF ME is invisible to the average reader. WORD OF MOUTH is still the book reader’s most valuable friend, even in this age of modern communication.  Luckily, word of mouth now includes every social media venue available to us online. So here’s a check list of things anyone can do to help get the word out about  DREAM OF ME -- or any other favorite Indie book .   Most of them cost nothing but a little time.  I really appreciate everything my friends have already done to support me.  If you choose to do more, that is just frosting on my gluten-free cupcake. :)  Thanks so much! 1.  Pos...

I know you. You hate stereotypes in fiction.   That’s what I say too. Usually, it’s the truth. The skinny heroine, the leading man who owns a mansion. The overbearing mother-in-law, the drunken stepfather. The husband who sleeps with his secretary, the strung-out rock star. But I’ve come to realize that sometimes I find comfort in the stereotype. Some characters are not meant to stand out, but to fit in. Sometimes a character needs to say what is expected, do what is cliché. Every once in a while, vanilla is the right flavor. And even though real people are as unique as their thumbprints, we don’t know them all well enough to see where they differ from “the norm.” We don’t know the quirks of everyone among our acquaintance, much less all those we have marginal contact with – and I’m pretty sure we don’t want to! (I think this is why complexity in every  character can make a story feel just as contrived as those without any.) So when do we use stereotype and...

What do you love that no one’s ever heard about?  I’m sure there’s something. I have my own list. There’s a talented guitarist named Doug Smith.  You would recognize one or two of his songs; they use them in TV and radio commercials.  But very few of you are likely to have heard his name.  How about George Winston, the pianist?  He’s great too, but if you know him, it’s not through major media outlets. I love a line of Japanese skincare products sold by a company called DHC.  They are fantastic, but few of my friends even knew they existed before I badgered them into knowledge. How about Elizabeth Gaskell – have you heard of her?  If you’re a reader, you may have.  She was a contemporary (and friend) of Charlotte Bront ë who wrote some wonderful pieces of literature like North and South and Wives and Daughters .  But I didn’t hear about her during all my years of school.  I only discovered her as an adult when my love for literat...

***SPOILER ALERT*** This blog post contains the original prologue for my debut novel, Dream of Me, which I decided not to use in the published novel. Some might call it a spoiler. I would call it a teaser. In chapter one, Shannon whispers, "A long time ago, on a path that curved toward the sea..." These are the first words to a story she used to tell Erynne as a child. It was a story that began on All Hallow's Eve hundreds of years earlier, and was passed down from mother to daughter. This is the story:  A long time ago, on a path that curved toward the sea, the prophetess Cruithne paused to catch her breath, tightening her grasp on the woolen shawl she wore.  The frigid Atlantic wind was picking up, searching out her lonely spot on the hillside. Though her shawl was thick and in good condition, night was approaching quickly and with it would come even colder temperatures.  She had been walking for more than two hours through the hill country of Lough...

I have a dear, sweet* young friend named Hailey who loves books.  She loves old books and new ones.  She loves the smell of them, the crackle of spines, the sound of each page as it turns.  She loves the weight of a book in her hand and the way they look, lined up on shelves.  (*And please understand, I don’t mean “dear” or “sweet” in a condescending way.  She’s as dear to me as a niece and anyone who knows her can attest to her sweetness.) But Hailey’s love of paper books is a jealous love.  She is adamantly opposed to digital books and e-readers.  She goes so far as to smile at the thought of EMPs leading to a dystopic future where we are all sadly in possession of worthless gadgets, while she is still the proud owner of a prized library.  So when I decided to write about e-books, Hailey came to mind.  And if you’re thinking that conceding to her viewpoint before even beginning to express my own is a lousy way to arrange things, you’r...

cover art by Mike Baxter I'm excited to announce the upcoming release of my debut novel, DREAM OF ME, which will be available on all e-book platforms, including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and (with the aid of apps) on tablet readers like ipad as of September 20.  What's it about?  Check it out: Bay-area dressmaker Erynne O’Keefe begins dreaming about a handsome stranger shortly after her mother’s suicide.  Every night they walk along a damp street, empty beach or desert river until the light of morning pulls her back to reality.  Practical and guarded, Erynne would like to dismiss her dreams as evidence of grief, but remembering her mother’s life-long struggle with strange dreams and nightmares, she fears they point to hereditary mental illness.  Erynne begins searching for answers in a stack of her mother’s old love letters while trying to resist her growing feelings for the stranger. But the man in Erynne’s dreams is quite real, living in Arizona and wonde...