Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Their Tangled Hearts Book Tour

For starters, just look at this BEAUTIFUL cover! Absolutely stunning, if you ask me, and it does this beautifully heart warming book perfect justice.

Their Tangled Hearts by Mary DeWeber


Emma had spent the last five years learning to cope with tragedy. She should have known that Doc had something up his sleeve when he'd talked her into taking a cooking job at a Colorado cattle ranch. Cooking was the easy part. Working with disabled children was something she was decidedly not prepared for. Throw in a tall dark mountain of a man with a voice like warm velvet and she was completely over her head! It would take God to straighten out the tangled mess she had made of her life.





Author Bio:



Mary DeWeber has always been a voracious reader. She often found unusual places to curl up with book including the branches of a sycamore tree! She spent hours entertaining her five children with stories that she would invent on the spur of the moment. Not afraid of tough subjects, her deep faith shines through her. Mary now resides in Arkansas in a hundred-year-old farmhouse with her husband Jeff and their dog Gretchen.




My favorite snippet:


“Do you like to fish?”
“I used to, but I’m afraid I was never any good at it.”
“I’m not surprised.” He teased. “I’ll bet you were one of those kids, who wouldn't hold still long enough to drown a worm.”
“There was way too much to do, and too many places for me to explore.” She threw him an inquiring glance. “How did you know?”
“Because I haven’t seen you hold completely still since you moved here and, you haven’t been still since you sat down either. Do I make you nervous?” Jake smiled into her startled eyes.
“No, I’m more comfortable with you than with anyone I know.” Emma dropped her gaze. To her horror she could feel a blush creeping into her cheeks. She wasn't sure what had gotten in to her. For a while there she had almost felt, well… normal.

Review: 

*****
Not only do I adore the cover for Their Tangled Hearts, but the story had me laughing, crying, and shrieking for all the right reasons! Emma and Jake experience a roller coaster of emotions that DeWeber  has made totally relatable for those of us who haven't experienced the exact same hard times. I felt my heart break through her nightmares, and I woke my sleeping toddler for laughing so hard during one of Emma's saucy moments. That girl can seriously put a man in his place! YEA! I felt like I could hear the music she was describing, and it took me back to my time being part of the band in high school. The music used to make my heart soar, and when I joined the choir I remember goose bumps racing from my toes to hairline when we hit all of the notes perfectly. I've always loved Christian Romances, but some of them fall a little flat, and don't feel quite as heart felt as Their Tangled Hearts does. 
BRAVO DEWEBER!!!

Be sure to follow along on the tour! Lots of cool blogs lined up for this awesome book!


Blog and Tour dates












3-Sep - www.thewritersrevolution13.blogspot.com

4-Sep - https://www.facebook.com/Bookhangoverpage

5-Sep - http://authorsandralove.blogspot.com/

6-Sep - https://www.facebook.com/PageByPageInsideOutReviewsandPromotion?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Polishing and Editing

I don't usually like to steal blog posts from others, but a friend of mine shared this one on Facebook, and it really made sense to me. So please, if you are like me and preparing a book to go to a publisher or editor take a few minutes to read this blog post!

Number 6 is probably the trickiest for me.

#6  IN HISTORICAL FICTION, DESCRIBING A LOT OF STUFF YOUR CHARACTER WOULDN'T ACTUALLY NOTICE.  Roger Sutton puts it this way There was this great article in School Library Journal by Joan Blos called ‘Bunches of Hessians’ where she talks about the various mistakes that are made in historical fiction. She said to take something from a historical novel--for example, a mother making dinner--and translate it into contemporary fiction. And then she wrote this hilarious passage about ‘Mother stood in front of the white box and carefully adjusted the black dial.’ It has to be natural to the person telling the story. They shouldn't be noticing things that only an outsider would be paying attention to.”

I am really good at info dumping, its been a challenge going back through my book and getting rid of all of them. Hahaha! Enjoy!

http://www.elawreads.com/blog/2014/7/15/finishing-the-hat-ten-things-that-make-an-editor-stop-reading-your-manuscript

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The C. S. Lewis Journal

A friend of mine got rid of a ton of books he had laying around his office, and was kind enough to ship 2 fairly large boxes of them to me. One was jammed packed with children's stories from The Bernstein Bears to some fabulous Mercer Mayer, and my son's new favorite story Grandpa's Teeth by Rod Clement.





The book that really grabbed a hold of me, and I kept extra close to me as we packed and moved to our new home, was The C. S. Lewis Journal.

As a nerd in elementary school, I was the first in my class to read the entire C. S. Lewis Narnia series. I couldn't get enough! I loved the adventure, the twists, the magic, and I found my self right along side the mesmerizing characters each and every time they went back to Narnia. My favorite will always be Prince Caspian. If I hadn't already decided I was going to marry either Batman or Henry from the Boxcar kids, I would have put Caspian on the top of my novel crush list.

I've kept journals for years and years, but since having my adorable little monster son I have almost completely given up. Juggling a 3 year old at bed time, plus a puppy, and now a house that seems to breed messes all by it's self, does not leave much time for reading or editing the book I've written, who has time for journal keeping too!?!

Still the journal seemed to call to me somehow. It's not fancy or sparkly by any means, its not very big either. So today I finally cracked it open and took a peek. The editor Patricia S. Klein is a women after my own heart. She begins the book by pretty much defining why I am a collector of books, why its important to share them, and then finishes with one of my all time favorite quote from Lewis. This quote is one I've read countless times to keep me working toward my publishing goal. It says:

"When ever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the greatest cure for all human ills."

Isn't that beautiful!

So I've decided I'm going to start journaling again. I'll probably switch off and on between a plain notebook and this journal, my goal is to eventually get to the point where I'm writing every night again. It's so relaxing, and its such a great way to clear your mind before bed. I highly recommend it.

The first quote, for the first journal entry in the Lewis book is titled "Hiding in Plain Sight". "We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake." -from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.

So many times in my life my Heavenly Father has made himself known to me. Never as clearly as he did for so many in the bible, or even as he did for Joseph Smith Jr. But still, I know with all my heart that he is there, and that he loves me as one of his children. I will forever be grateful for his confidence in me, and for his trust in my ability to be the mother of such a wonderful special little boy. I highly doubt that I deserve such confidence and trust, but I will always be appreciative of it.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Toe curling books

Have you ever read a book, so intense, so captivating, that your feet clench in anticipation? Yea, it sounds weird, I'm sure, to all of you who have never experienced it. 
Last night I read the first book in a box set called Breathtaking. The Book is called Baggage Claim by Amanda Tru, and it left me completely unable to go to bed until I had devoured the entire story. My toes curled, my teeth clenched, and I had to regularly bite my tongue to keep from waking my husband who slept completely unaware to the awesomeness that was playing like a movie inside my head. 
Visions of terrorists, high tech bombs, hilarious costumes, and the entire time a deep, mysterious, romance building. 
By the half way point of the book I knew the main characters would end up together. The question was just how they would over come his crazy issues. I've got to say Mrs Tru your ending was PERFECTION!
 I squealed like a little high schooler, and then clamped my hands over my mouth as my poor husband rolled over to make sure I wasn't being attacked by some homicidal killer in our home. Once he was satisfied that I was just being my own particular brand of crazy after midnight, when I needed to get up at 5am the next morning, he groaned and rolled back over. Muttering something about me being a nerd, and then proceeded to snore a little louder.
Yes, I like a lot of books, and I'm not incredibly picky with genres (accept for horror, no horror, EVER!) but rarely do I find a book so-o-o good it keeps me up long past the story is over, with my toes clenched. Seriously! It took my toddler getting up for a drink an hour later to get my mind of the story. Can't wait to dig into the next book of this series tonight!


Thursday, May 22, 2014

SUPER QUICK AWESOME EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!

I will be joining some blog tours, and bring to you reviews and other info on some new super awesome-sauce books! EEEEK! I'm so excited! So stay tuned!