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 ...

STEALING LIBERTY by Jennifer Froelich, published by Clean Reads, 2017 I am so excited to share this news with you: my new novel, STEALING LIBERTY, will be released in all e-book formats June 13, 2017.  Here's the scoop: When Reed Paine is sent to a secret detention school for teens whose parents are branded enemies of the state, he doesn’t expect to find friendship – especially after coming face to face with Riley Paca, a girl who has every reason to hate him. But when Reed, Riley and a few others start reading the old books they find in tunnels under the school, they begin to question what they are taught about the last days of America and the government that has risen in its place. Then the government decides to sell the Liberty Bell and Reed and his friends risk everything to steal it – to take back their history and the liberty that has been stolen from them. In the coming weeks, I'm going to tell you more about Stealing Liberty: How I came up with the stor...

I am so excited to share this news: A Place Between Breaths was awarded an Honorable Mention for genre fiction in Writer's Digest's most recent Self-Published Book competition. Nearly 5,500 books were entered in the competition and only ten books were honored for genre fiction (that combines romance, suspense, thrillers, sci fi, memoirs, mysteries, westerns, etc. -- in other words, a very competitive field). Each books was judged in six categories*, with a high score of five points. A Place Between Breaths was awarded a FIVE in every category! Here's what the judge who read it had to say (SPOILER WARNING: A minor spoiler from the prologue is in the second paragraph): I loved this story! It is a well-written, suspenseful, crime-investigation novel that also highlights the problems of border crossings, the Mexican drug cartels, dirty DEA officers and police officers as well as their truly courageous counterparts. In addition, I loved that you began with the vie...

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...

***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...

Jane Austen finished writing her final complete novel, PERSUASION , 195 years ago this month.  It’s my favorite among her novels.  I feel it more than her others – the pain Anne Elliot feels.  Imagining that she’s made a mistake that cannot be undone, she holds her pain in check, always ready to serve others, to grieve privately, but to wish she had not been so easily persuaded when she was young. I can’t help wondering how much of herself Miss Austen poured into Anne’s character.  Perhaps not as a copy of her experience, but an imprint of her own heartache, pieced together into another form that has become one of literature’s most loved characters. Many have speculated about the romantic inspiration for Miss Austen.  Whom did she love?  Was she loved in return?  What were her regrets? Histories have been dissected, correspondence examined; we read between the lines and speculate.  Books are written, movies filmed.  We wrap them ...

My family and I are going to see the Broadway musical, WICKED, tonight.  The story, based on the book written by Gregory Maguire, is part prequel, part retelling of the WIZARD OF OZ from the viewpoints of Glinda the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West.  In WICKED, we see a very different version of events than those depicted in L. Frank Baum’s classic.  I won’t spoil it by telling you more.  I suggest you see it and decide for yourself which version is “the truth.” But it’s funny timing.  I’ve been thinking about truth a lot recently:  Particularly in books, but also in other forms of entertainment.  Think, for a minute, about the way we talk about things we have read, watched or heard: Did that really happen? You can’t make this stuff up. That’s hard to believe! It’s right out of a novel. It’s stranger than fiction. You can’t believe everything you read! Ain’t that the truth! We’re obsessed with the “truth” – but not in an ...

by Jennifer Froelich           The sun was too low on the horizon by the time Corey Porter jumped out of his pickup and hustled through the gravel toward base camp.  DPS officers and the Red Cross were already onsite, setting up first aid and communication hubs next to the ranger station at Slide Rock State Park.  Tracking should be easier at this time of day, Corey reminded himself, but it was small comfort.  Ten-year-old Gloria Chee had already been missing for three hours and temperatures in Oak Creek Canyon would drop quickly after dusk. ... “Gloria!” Corey’s voice echoed from the walls of Oak Creek Canyon two hours later.  His team stilled behind him, expectant.  Only the creek interrupted; bubbling, splashing.  Even the trees were silent, as if they too were listening for the cries of a lost little girl.  Corey was beyond hoarse, but he waited ten seconds then called her name again.  When...