I am getting really excited!  This book has been a long time coming!  Here is the dedication:

This book is lovingly dedicated to…

My mom, Kay:

Fourteen years ago, I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night on New Year’s night, turned on my computer, and just started typing. Ultimately, I wrote A Melody for James. It was my first book, and, I wrote it entirely in secret. Every morning, from the hours of 4 to 6 AM, I wrote, getting this story out as quickly as I could but telling absolutely no one I was doing it.

Halfway through writing it, I printed out my progress and mailed it to my mom with a simple note. “I’m writing a book. Let me know what you think of it.”

For a week, half a novel sat on my mom’s counter because she was afraid to read it — afraid it would be bad and then she’d have to pretend she enjoyed it.

Finally, she could ignore it no longer. She sat down to read and couldn’t stop because she became so engrossed in the story. She got to the end of what I’d sent her, picked up the phone, and called me at work.

“This is your mother,” she said by way of preamble. “I want you to quit your job, go home, and finish that book!”

So, here it is, Mama. The finished book, 14 years later. I hope you enjoy it as much the second time as you did the first.

Look for A Melody for James June 15th wherever books are sold!

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Here are just some of the amazing reviews that Emerald Fire has received:

As soon as I started out in it I just could not stop. It showed real struggles, how to cope with them, and move on. It is a great Christian Romance, with a great moral. It’s a book I would definatly recommend this book to everyone who loves a good Christian fiction Romance. ~Cooking from a SAHM

The author tells and showed me as reader just how important having God in our lives is. I loved how the author expressed the characters emotions with such passion,it had me in tears both of joy and sadness. ~Romancing the Book

Amazing. I did not want to put it down. I am so excited to get started on the next book. God is so good and blesses us in many ways. The example of prayer and quiet time with God was a great reminder. ~Amazon Review

After reading Sapphire Ice, I was anxious to read the next book in the trilogy. I was not disappointed!! This was a great love story full of passion, pain, and promise. It was filled with well-developed characters and written very skillfully. I would agree with other reviewers and suggest reading Sapphire Ice first so you don’t spoil any of the storyline! Highly recommended!! ~Amazon Review

Green eyed Maxine fights daily to extinguish the embers of her fiery youth. Long time friend Barry’s faith in God is deeply shaken when he is suddenly widowed. One spontaneous weekend shortly after the funeral, in the most unlikely of circumstances, they elope. But catastrophe threatens to wreck the happily ever after love story neither of them ever dreamed could come true. Only trusting God can carry them through the fire.

Emerald Fire can be purchased in e-book format at the following places:

Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, All Romance eBooks , Apple iTunes Store , Kobo, Sony, Diesel, eBookIt, Lulu, Bookie Jar

Emerald Fire can be purchased in paperback at the following places:

Create Space, Amazon,Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million

Here is the blurb:

A terrifying past imprisoned Maxine Bartlett all her adult life, shackling her with fear anytime a man even touched her.

In a spontaneous weekend, she unintentionally elopes with an unlikely groom. After a magical wedding night filled with love and passion, “Maxi” finally discards her dreadful chains.
She doesn’t know that her new husband has turned his back on God. Worried over how the world might see the completely unexpected – and some would certainly say inappropriate – marriage, in his pride he promises Maxine a quiet annulment.

Unwilling to let their marriage disappear as if it never happened, Maxine refuses to cooperate. Seeking God’s will, she moves in with him and informs him that when he decides to act like her husband again, he will find his loving wife waiting for him right there in their home. As the days stretch into weeks, the newlyweds slowly begin to trust and even love each other.

Then, just as they begin to live the “happily ever after” love story that neither of them ever dreamed could come true, a sudden and nightmarish catastrophe strikes that could wreck everything. Will her husband realize that he must trust God once more? Can he find peace and strength enough to carry them through the flames?

Melody Mason and James Montgomery lead separate lives of discord until an unexpected meeting brings them to a sinister realization: unbeknownst to them, dark forces have directed their lives from the shadows, orchestrating movements, keeping them singing solo. Fire, loss, and bloodshed can’t shake their faith in God to see them through as they face a percussive climax that leaves hearts forever changed.

This full length novel will be available June 15 wherever books are sold. Look for my exclusive interview and video in the June edition of BookFun magazine.

Solitary strangers meet during a stormy stopover.
Hours later, their hearts hum a harmonious duet.

Melody Mason has the hottest female voice in the country music scene. But the cheers of all her adoring fans across the world mean little in the absence of the handsome stranger who rescued her years before.

Widower James Montgomery has never gotten the singing heiress he encountered during an unscheduled airport layover out of his mind. Years later, their paths cross in the most amazing circumstances. They know God brought them back together for a purpose.

Reunited once more, sinister forces threaten to destroy their newfound happiness. Uncannily, they learn they share much more in common than they could ever fathom. The couple must work in close concert, placing all their faith in God as they solve the deadly mystery that ties their lives inexplicably together time and again.

Fire, loss, and bloodshed can’t shake their faith in God to see them through as they face a percussive climax that leaves hearts and lives forever changed.

A Melody for James, coming June 15th!

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

What makes these bundles so special?  I’m glad you asked…

Each bundle contains a luncheon menu complete with full recipes.

In Bundle 1: Sapphire & Rubies, the menu is this:

Benedicts’ Parmesean Artichoke Dip

Readers ask about an artichoke dip tasty enough that Sarah’s
mother, Darlene Thomas, would request it for a party even if as a
point of pride it arrives by way of her nemesis Robin Bartlett.
This recipe is so yummy, especially when the baguettes are still
toasty warm. I pray it blesses you.

Sarah’s Strawberry Spinach Salad

Chef Casey at Hank’s Place knows just how to please Sarah’s
vegetarian palate with this wonderful vegan friendly, Daniel fast
friendly offering.

Viscolli’s Vermiccelli with Garden Vegetables

The Boston Viscolli Hotel is well known for 5-star international
cuisine and the specialty is always, no surprise, Italian fare.

Maxine’s Marvelous Marble Cake

When Maxine invites Tony to stay and celebrate his birthday, she
makes him Maxine’s Marvelous Marble cake which brightens his
day.

In Bundle 2: Emerald & Topaz, here is the menu:

Viscolli Hotel Caprese on a Stick

What could be better than a one-bit appetizer that satisfies all of the taste buds in your mouth.
Here is a dish that is offered in Viscolli hotels worldwide.

Maxine’s Vegetable Soup

While Sarah is recovering from a terrible illness, older half-sister
Maxine brings this amazing vegetable soup over to help restore her
health.

Robin’s Roast Beef Sandwiches

Derrick lived under Robin’s roof from the time he was 18-years-old.
Robin learned very quickly how to feed a “growing boy”.
When he comes home a decade later, she knows exactly what to feed him.

Sarah’s Vegan Birthday Cake

Maxine works with the pastry chef at the Viscolli Hotel in Boston
to make her baby sister the perfect vegan birthday cake for her
30th birthday. This recipe is so wonderfully delicious, you’ll
never miss the dairy or eggs.

These recipes are not found on Hallee the Homemaker – they are exclusive to these bundles only.

You and your friends read the books, plan a lovely lunch together, and sit around enjoying amazing food and answering the discussion questions at the back of the book.  The questions are designed to make you examine your faith, encourage your faith, and inspire your walk with God.

The bundles are exclusive to Amazon, so you can only get them in ebook form from there — but they are available in paperback.  Amazon will be selling them for $17.85.  If you want to order for a group, you can contact me directly to get a group discount of 20%.

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

It took us a while to get all of the other books down.  On Friday, we discovered that all of my inventory was finally cleared from Apple.  So, we uploaded my books, worked through the issues of having to figure out a whole new medium, and yesterday all of the final everything was finished and the books went live at the iTunes store.

HOWEVER, in so doing, we’ve stripped all of the reviews and the rankings because these are essentially new uploads.  So, every book has no reviews and the rankings are obsolete.

SO — please go download Greater Than Rubies for free.  Especially if you got it from Apple to begin with.  And, if you could, please leave me an honest review so that my presence within Apple’s metadata can get reinstated.

Thank you!

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

Fifty Shades of Gravy, A Christian Gets Saucy!

If you’d like an autographed copy, they are $9 plus shipping. You can email me at hallee@bridgemanfamily.com to request your copy today!

And, coming soon:

The Walking Bread, the Bread Will Rise: a cookbook (and a parody)

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

There are 9 ways to enter the giveaway, and some of them you can do every day.  But, hurry, the giveaway ends on Saturday, May 4th at 5:00 PM EST!  You can get the giveaway by clicking this link: Mother’s Day Giveaway at Hallee the Homemaker.

Good luck!

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!

This is the first book in a set of Christian contemporary romantic suspenseful thrillers from best selling inspirational novelist, Hallee Bridgeman. The exciting new SONG OF SUSPENSE series premiers everywhere fine books are sold June 15, 2013 with book 1, A Melody for James.

A Melody For James, book 1 in the Song of Suspense series premiers June 15, 2013

The Book:

Strangers meet during an unexpected layover. Hours later, their hearts sing a harmonious duet.

Melody Mason finds James Montgomery sincere, honest, and keenly intelligent with a tenderness that contradicts his broad stature. Melody lifts James from the depths of all- consuming grief for the first time since his wife’s murder. Uncannily, they learn that they share much in common. They begin to wonder whether God brought them together.

Though determined to unite, sinister events take an ominous turn. The couple won’t even see each other for four long years.

Melody rises to stardom as America’s newest Country Music sensation while James brings a billion dollar technological breakthrough within reach.

The two finally reunite and find the connection between them has only grown stronger in tempo, joining them like notes in a symphony. But once more, a terrifying hidden truth secretly sneers at their hopes for happiness. After so long apart, the couple must work in close concert.

They have to put all their faith in God as they solve the deadly mystery that ties their lives inexplicably together time and again.

The First Scene from Chapter 1:

ANGELA Montgomery nearly missed it. She had lost herself in memories of her recent birthday celebration marking the passing of her 30th year on earth. Her husband, James, her junior by 2 short years, had gone all out. Being “much” younger, he had decorated the entire house with black balloons and held a surprise “wake” for the passing of her late youth. Daydreaming and lost in feelings of love and adoration for her beloved groom, Angela nearly failed to recognize the moment when it happened.

When her consciousness shifted from her reverie back to the present, for several breaths she simply stared at the smart board in front of her and ran through the calculations again. Then she tried to ignore the little shivers of nervous excitement that danced up her spine.

“Heeyyyyy …” Donald Andrews clicked a few keys on the laptop in front of him, magnifying the image on the smart board screen so that it covered the entire wall. “Did we just …”

Angela rose, her legs feeling uncharacteristically stiff, and walked forward while staring at the screen. “You know what, I’m cautiously going to say yes. Yes, we did.”

Alvin Berry let out a loud, “Whoop!” He removed the ever present knit cap from the top of his head and tossed it into the air. The group collectively looked at each other and grinned. Years of work, and the breakthrough sat right there on that smart board, staring back at them.

“We should celebrate,” Lorie Frazier announced. She pulled her glasses from her nose and casually tossed them onto the stack of papers in front of her. “We need to celebrate, then we need to call a press conference. But only after we get to the patent office.”

Angela looked back at the screen. “We have to be sure.”

“We’re sure,” Alvin said. “Look at that beauty. It is so simple yet so elegant.”

“Call James,” Lorie said. “Tell him to make us a reservation in the most ridiculously expensive restaurant Atlanta has to offer. Tell him we’re going to celebrate.”

Despite her naturally conservative nature, Angela started to let the feeling of giddy excitement take over. She laughed and hugged Don as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket.

Her husband would probably jump up and down or do a little dance of celebration. She felt like she might just as easily be making a call to announce that she was expecting their first child instead of the conclusion of this long project.

For five years, she and this amazing team of engineers had worked to perfect this revolutionary data storage solution. For five years, usually working six days a week, usually not less than twelve hours a day, they’d toiled in this basement lab in her inherited home. While she’d hoped and prayed for all that time, now that the reality of what they’d accomplished actually shone back at her from that beautiful smart screen, she realized she hadn’t ever really been certain they’d succeed.

But they had.

She got James voice mail. “Darling,” she purred, knowing he’d hear the smile in her voice, “We did it. We’re done. I cannot wait to show you. Come home. Come see. We need to celebrate.”

As soon as Angela hung up, she gave Lorie a hug and said, “I vote for cheesecake.”

“Copious amounts,” the nearsighted genius agreed. “Oh! With strawberries! And really good coffee.”

Angela felt her heart skip when the red security light started flashing. Her eyebrows crowded together in confusion. Why was the intruder alarm going off now?

Angela had inherited the farmhouse from her late uncle at the age of 17 and lived there throughout her lengthy matriculation at Georgia Tech. For a brief time when this venture was just beginning, she and her brand new husband, James, as well as their business partner and his best friend, Kurt, had all lived there under the same roof.

During the initial months and years, Kurt and James had renovated the basement entirely; installing a T1, a two post rack of networking gear, a four post rack of high performance servers; and most importantly, a state of the art security system, designed and built by her brilliant husband himself. For the last five years, they had hardened the basement into a panic room with steel reinforced doors, magnetic locks, and pinhole security cameras. It took two-factor authentication to even get into the room.

When the magnitude of the fact that the security alarm was still sounding sunk in, Angela whirled around until her eyes met with Don. When she spoke, she hated the shrill edge of panic she detected in her voice. “Back it up to the Snap.”

His fingers clicked on the keys with the speed of machine gun fire as spoke. “There’s no time. We didn’t do an incremental yesterday because the waffle was running a defrag.”

“Right. Execute a differential and encrypt it.” She waited a few heartbeats while Don’s fingers played out a staccato percussion on his laptop.

With confusion clouding his eyes, he looked up and announced, “Our hard line is down.”

Alvin pressed a series of keys on his computer and several small screens appeared on the smart board, all showing different angles of her home. Men in masks moved through the empty house with military precision, high powered and very deadly looking carbine rifles tucked tightly into their shoulders at the ready. They stared around every corner through the sights on the short rifles.

Lorie gasped and said, “What is going on? Who are they?”

Fear and panic tried to take over. Her stomach turned into ice and Angela felt like her breathing wasn’t productive, like she could never get a deep enough breath. Focus, she said to herself. You will have time to be scared when it’s over.

“Can you remember how we got here since the last backup?” Angela asked Alvin, her hand pointing in his direction like a knife blade. If she’d ever met anyone whose memory rivaled her husband’s, it was Alvin.

His voice sounded flat, emotionless. “Yes. Of course I can.”

She watched a crouched figure outside the entrance to the lab tape two liter plastic bottles filled with water to the hinges of the security door. The security that James and Kurt had installed was tight, state of the art even, and the door was sealed. But no seal in 100 miles would withstand the blast of a shaped charge pushing water ahead of a supersonic shock wave. It would slice through the steel door faster than the world’s most powerful cutting torch.

Whomever these people were, they had known the defenses they would have to overcome. They were prepared. They had planned. They had obviously even rehearsed as was apparent in their staged and perfectly timed precision movements. And the most dangerous thing Angela and her team had for protection once that door came down were a few custom computer viruses.

She’d known the risks. The success of their project was potentially worth upward of a hundred billion dollars in the first year alone, and that was on the conservative side. The long term applications of the soon to be patented technology could not even be calculated. The reason they worked out of her home instead of in some downtown lab was for the secrecy of the project, a vain hope of security by obscurity.

They’d taken additional precautions which Angela belatedly realized she had characterized as “paranoid.” A commercial exothermic incendiary device much like a military grade thermite grenade perched atop each server array that would, when detonated, melt their way through the machines at over 4 thousand degrees Fahrenheit, effectively destroying everything in a completely unrecoverable fashion. They would burn 3 times hotter than molten lava and the crew would have to be careful not to look at them since the radiant energy was bright enough to blind them without a welding visor.

“Then destroy it. Destroy it all.”

Lorie’s finger hovered over a steel pin. “You’re sure?”

The explosion above them shook the room. Alvin rushed to the inner door and made sure the panic room door remained bolted on all four corners. Angela closed the lid on her laptop and slid it into the 2 inch air gap between network switches. Then she draped her hand on Lorie’s shoulder and whispered, “Do it.”

She closed her eyes and started to pray as the room around her grew suddenly very hot and smoke started billowing up to the ceiling. “Lord Jesus, if I live through this, let me remain in Your will. But if I come home to you, sweet Jesus, please watch over my husband. Let him feel your comforting love and let him find the destiny you have in mind for him.”

Smoke alarms went off and the lights flickered. Then she felt herself being picked up and thrown aside, riding on the wave of a perfectly timed blast. As she flew backward from the shock of the multiple explosions blowing open her steel door she prayed even harder — she prayed for courage, for protection, for strength.

As she landed and fell against the tower of computer drives, she watched the thermite spill and splatter like lava, setting the entire area on fire. Her last thought was of pain as a spray of burning powder fell on her chest.

One of the things about indie publishing is that you don’t have a huge base of readers from which to draw, and you don’t have a distribution list where you send books.  You just kind of put a book out there into the wild wild west and hope that someone sees it.  You have an initial surge of sales when all of your friends and family buy your book, and then it slows down to a trickle of sales.  At least, that was my experience.

On the first of February, I was happy to sell five or six books a day.  That’s kind of how I trudged along, and for almost a year that had been the norm.  Then on February 9th, Greater Than Rubies was finally price-matched to be listed as “free” on Amazon.  It immediately climbed the charts of Amazon’s free lists, stayed in the top 10 of free Christian romance and free Christian fiction for a month, and even graced the top 100 of Amazon’s free overall.  And since that first surge to the top 10, it has never dropped below #30 (as I type this, it’s #22 in the FREE Christian fiction).

But I justified it.  “It’s free,” I thought.  “People are just downloading it.  No one is reading it.”

Then my book sales picked up.  Drastically.  I began selling more and more of my not free books.  And, one of the coolest things about it is that I sold a lot of the Jewel Trilogy Anthology.  To me, that meant that people were reading the free book and liking it so much that they bought all three of the trilogy at one time, instead of just buying one book and seeing if they liked that as well.

In fact, so many people bought the the Jewel Trilogy Anthology that, for the first time, I broke a top 100 PAID list on Amazon.  It was listed at #94 for anthologies last week, and it bounces off and on the top 100 list for anthologies all day.

But, I justified that away.  Out of the hundreds of thousands of books on Amazon, how many of them are really anthologies?  Surely, it can’t be that hard to break the anthology top 100.

But, this morning, I woke up to discover that Topaz Heat is #94 in Religious Fiction Romances and #100 the top 100 in Christian Romances.

I’m not justifying that one away.  I’m claiming it.  I just made another top 100 paid Amazon list!

Wow!

It’s incredibly exciting to be an Amazon best seller while I’m finishing up the new book that will publish on June 15th!  Stay tuned for more information coming about A Melody for James! (And if you want to join the street team, Hallee’s Allies, of this Amazon best seller, click the logo to your right for information!)

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
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Join me this Saturday, April 13th, from 10AM-4PM for a book signing at the April Adele Book Cafe in Versailles, Kentucky.  Versailles is having a Main Street Festival, and I’ll be joining authors Donna McDonald, Kathy Logan, and J.M. Madden for a book signing there.

Stop by and say hi!

I’m so grateful for your visit, today.
You would bless me if you added me to your feed reader or subscribed via email.
You can also become a fan on Facebook or follow me on Twitter. I would love to see more of you!