Christian Fiction

Guestpost: Meet Stephanie @ 99th Annual NAACP Convention!

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:01:23 -0500

Time: July 13, 2008 from 2pm to 6pm
Location: Duke Energy Center
Organized By: Stephanie L. Jones, Author of The Enemy Between My Legs

Event Description:
If you're in the Ohio area, don't forget to stop by the 99th Annual NAACP Convention! EXCELLENT BUSINESS AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES!!!!!!!! Duke Energy Center 525 Elm Street Cincinnati, Ohio HIGHLIGHTS: The Enemy Between My Legs Book Signing Sunday, July 13, 2008 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. Speakers: Senator Barack Obama Monday, July 14, 2008 Senator John McCain Wednesday, July 16, 2008 http://www.naacpauthorpavilion.com/bio_stephjones.html Can't attend? Tell a friend in the Ohio area!

Book in a Bag Contest: The Sak Bag

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:13:32 -0500

If you haven't been entering to win your chance at some posh handbags filled with summer novels, here's your chance. Click here.

For the SAK bag

What do you do with Too Many Books?

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:50:01 -0500

I receive many books to review for other mags and to feature here at Christian Fiction. My family is in awe of my public storage bill and the fact that most of my storage are books. So I got big chuckle when this pic came to me. With my architectural background I might could pull this off and make a matching headboard, too!

Weekend Chat: Blog Talk Radio

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:30:56 -0500

The last couple of months I have been spotlighted and have listened to Blog Talk Radio. BTR is a great way to talk to your friends and folks in real time about issues, especially books that matter to you. You can listen on the phone, online and chat to be a part of the discussion. Today I'm highlighting my gal pals Marilynn Griffin and Pam Perry. Pam is a friend, mentor and colleague. Her Chocolate Pages Newsletter is now also a radio show. This week she featured Kimberly Cash Tate and Mary Griffin's new novels. Check it out here. I love that Mary spoke of Pan African history and how it shapes African American Spiritual Thought.

I have had BTR show parked for about a year now, but hadn't decided whether I would produce a show of my own. Right now my time is swamped reviewing, writing and promoting books. I would love to have a weekly chat about books, but who would tune in for that. No one watches BookTV. Most of the BTR book shows are more Meet the Author driven. For our weekend chatterbox question it is a personal and market research driven one:

Should I host a Blog Talk Radio show and if so what should it be about? You can leave a comment or use the poll below to give your 2 cents. Thanks!

Writing Project: 25 Words on Vertical Writing

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:00:20 -0500

I read many stories that attempt to illuminate and Fail. To set a soul vertical, upward toward Heaven, one must allow the soul to write.

To participate in the 25 Words of Work/Life Wisdom Writing Project click the link.

2008 Christy Winners

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:55:58 -0500

Last night the Christy Winners were announced. Thanks Donna Kehoe for inviting me to judge again and again and again.I didn't attend and chide myself for not extending my banquet ticket to a CFB reader in Orlando. I do apologize. I won't say what category I judged, but I am hopping up and down at the winner chosen. And there are a few authors on here that I think are just the best writers. So here they are:

CONTEMPORARY STAND-ALONE
Chasing Fireflies
by Charles Martin

CONTEMPORARY SERIES
Home to Holly Springs
by Jan Karon

HISTORICAL
A Proper P ursuit
by Lynn Austin

ROMANCE
Remembered
by Tamara Alexander

LITS
Hallie’s Heart
by Shelly Beach

SUSPENSE
The Cure
by Athol Dickson

VISIONARY
Scarlet
by Stephen R. Lawhead

YOUNG ADULT
Hollywood Nobody
by Lisa Samson

FIRST NOVEL
The Stones Cry Out
by Sibella Giorello

TwitThis

Talk w/Dee Live Today on Blog Talk Radio

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:34:41 -0500

Don't forget today I am also at The Master's Artist Blog. You know about the Writing Project I would like you to participate in with me, but you don't know why I think this project is important to The Master's Artist. Meet me there. Also don't just follow me on Twitter today. Leave me questions about Christian publishing, books, and promotion. Then talk to me live tonight on The Black Author's Network Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio. Look you do not have to be an African-American to listen in, chat and be a part of the show. Listen to my Utterz comment for further details. I also have a book giveaway for those who follow me around today. Look below and click the link or download the mp3 and listen to later.

Dee

Mobile post sent by deegospel using Utterz. Replies. mp3 Replies. mp3

Update: If you missed the show, no worries, you can listen here below.

Readers Online Book Chat: Melanie Wells

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:18:54 -0500

PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER AUTHOR TO CHAT
ABOUT WHAT LIES BETWEEN THE LINES:
Melanie Wells Joins Readers on Online Bookstore Chat

	WHO: Melanie Wells, author of the critically acclaimed Dylan Foster series – “When the Day of Evil Comes,” “The Soul Hunter” and the newly-released “My Soul to Keep.” Wells will join the family-friendly online bookstore, Abunga.com, to discuss her insights on the fiction series, writing, building story lines and using one’s creativity and imagination to shape character development.
WHAT:	“Authors at Abunga” Chat with Melanie Wells Wells’ Dylan Foster trilogy is packed with both humor and suspense. Each thriller tracks the mayhem surrounding Wells’ unlikely heroine, college psychology professor Dylan Foster. Wells, who is also a psychotherapist and accomplished musician, will provide insights into her writing style, how stories are created, and where characters come from.
wheN:	Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11 a.m. – Noon PDT / 1 – 2 p.m. CDT / 2 – 3 p.m. EDT (LIVE) At www.Abunga.com/AuthorsAtAbunga
DETAILS:	Wells is the first author to be featured on the newly-created “Authors at Abunga” chats by Agunga.com. A Texas native, Wells is an accomplished musician (she’s a fiddle player) a licensed psychotherapist, and the founder and director of Dallas-based LifeWorks counseling associates (www.wefixbrains.com). Beginning with “When the Day of Evil Comes,” each of Wells’ novels weaves a gripping tale in which the quirky, likeable Dylan Foster wrestles with her own personal demon -- Peter Terry – “a spiritual and emotional stalker,” Wells says, ”Peter Terry is a compelling character who rings true for all of us. He is a metaphor for the opposition we all have in our lives. And we can all relate to Dylan, who often feels like she’s fighting forest fires with a squirt gun.” More info found at www.Abunga.com/FeaturedAuthorWells. Abunga.com is an online bookstore founded to provide families a protected shopping environment. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., Abunga.com offers more than 1.6 million family-friendly books, savings through distributor-direct prices and support to nonprofit organizations by donating 5 percent of each transaction to a customer-selected charity. For more information, visit www.Abunga.com.

Trailer Park Tuesday: Love Starts with Elle

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:40:27 -0500

Yesterday I received the cutest book trailer from Rachel Hauck's Love Starts with Elle. What I like about this from a book promotion glance is that it does what a book ad should do introduce the reader to the character in a way that makes the reader want to learn her story and experience her world.

CFB Author Chat: Marita Teague

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:01:59 -0500

Listen to Walk Worthy Press Author, Marita Teague and me on Utterz as we discuss her debut novel, Taste of Good Fruit and how women bible studies can use her book as a great companion piece. Click here to listen.

Dee Stewart is a writing diva mother, Christy Book Awards Judge, contributing Editor for Hope for Women Magazine, inspirational book reviewer for Romantic Times Magazine, and owner of Christian Fiction Blog. Her writings have appeared in: Spirit Led Woman, Gospel Today, Good Girl Book Club, The Dabbling Mum, Atlanta Christian Family, Mosaic Literary, Precious Times, Vertical Fix just a few. Visit her at Christian Fiction or follow her on Twitter.

Thanks Rhonda!

Atlanta Author Shorts Christian Fiction’s Best

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:55:47 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 18, 2008
Contact: Dee Stewart
(770) 298-7539, davidae.stewart@gmail.com

Atlanta Author Shorts Christian Fiction’s Best
Marital Grace Defeating Homosexual Disgrace Makes Debut Novel a Good Read

My Soul Cries Out made the list. The novel depicts an unsuspecting wife realizing that her husband, a music minister has been struggling with homosexuality since childhood, and that their church has been covering up this secret shame for just as long. The novel has already received acclaim through book clubs, reviews and author endorsements. It is also an Essence Magazine Bestseller.
Winners will be announced on September 20, 2008 at the ACFW Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota

About Sherri Lewis
Ms. Lewis is a staff physician at a Georgia Department of Corrections’ women’s prison, and the author of two bestselling novels, My Soul Cries Out and Dance into Destiny. Her third novel, The List will be released March 2009. To learn more, visit Sherri Lewis at www.sherrilewis.com.

About ACFW
The American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) is an association of 1500 authors, editors, agents, publicists and aspiring writers working in the Christian publishing industry.

Dee & Mom Know the 7 Secrets 2 Love Giveaway

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:50:59 -0500

THIS SUMMER HAVE AN INTIMATE BIBLE STUDY w/LOVED ONES

This summer I planned to start a new bible study. For the past three years I have shared a woman's bible study with church friends from my old neighborhood. But like me many of them have relocated, so I thought I would be solo this summer. To my surprise my mom asked to join me. My mom and I are polar opposites in terms of personality, but we share the same spiritual beliefs and have the same hearts' desires, to take care of our families the best way we know how. It was appropriate that we chose Dr. Gary Chapman's Love as a Way of Life.

USE THIS BOOK AS A NINE WEEK BIBLE STUDY

The book is broken up in three parts. We used the first part as a warm-up to get to know each other. The second part we are using like a weekly bible study session. Each week we will learn one of the seven secrets to love. We use the bible study companion in the back of the book to take this session deeper. So far so good. I'm learning some things about my mom, myself, our relationship, and what God has probably been trying to tell us for a long time. :)

AN INVITATION AND CONTEST TO BE APART OF 7 SECRETS COMMUNITY

I invite you to use this book as a personal bible study with your parents, your bffs, your spuse, your kids. See how God moves through you. In fact I like this book so much I am giving away a copy here at Christian Fiction Blog. To enter this giveaway you must do one of three things:

please add my badge to your sidebar(if you have one,)
twitter the link to this blog post with the words "@deegospel & Mom Knows 7 Secrets 2 Love. Do U?" between now and July 23
or join The Christian Fiction Network.

The winner will be announced next Wednesday in our Wednesday Read-Up. (Yeah I know. I didn't post one this week. :) Leave your entry in the comments. Thank you.

A little more about Gary Chapman

CFB: What is the take-away message of Love as a Way of Life?

Dr. Chapman:

Love as a Way of Life is designed to help the person who sincerely wants to make a positive impact in the world. I believe that is ‘most of us.’ Our biggest problem is that we don’t know how and we keep getting tripped up by our own selfish ambitions. The purpose of the book is to help us break free from the prison of selfishness and come to experience the satisfaction of truly loving others as a way of life. It is little acts of love that build up to a lifestyle of service.

Author Bio:
Gary Chapman is the author of twenty-five books, including the New York Times bestseller The Five Love Languages, with more than 4 million copies in print. His daily radio program, A Love Language Minute, is broadcast on more than 100 stations nationwide. Chapman, a graduate of Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, Wake-Forest University, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, serves on the pastoral staff at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Has Blogging Lost Its Relational Focus?

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:33:35 -0500

Per Darren Rouse's Problogger Post Today:

Has Blogging Lost Its Relational Focus?

This morning I read and commented at Problogger about the question above. I thought I would post it here, and invite you to continue the conversation.

Dee's Response...

Yes. Blogging has lost it''s relational focus.

I have a book niche blog and belong to a blog team of published authors, editors and agents, and we rarely visit each other's blogs. I was guilty of it myself. But this summer I decided to change my mindset about who my blog belongs to. I am the owner but the blog belongs to my subscribers and the writing community.

So I use Darren's Speedlinking idea every other Friday to link other blogs who are having conversations about Christian Fiction or Christian Books. I still ask other bloggers to come on and guest blog. I belong to a book tour blog alliance of 150 bloggers, who blog about the same book on the same day. I comment on many of those blog sites during the blog tour. I have encouraged them to follow me on Twitter. now we are on twitter doing book chats and crazy things. Someone introduced me to ning, so i started a social network (The Christian Fiction Network) based on the blog. I have 40 published authors in this network we feed off each other post are favorite blogposts in the network. Last week I began using utterz to host author chats on their and link them to my blog and then share it with my blog buddies for cross promotion. Christian Fictgion is also on blogtalkradio. I don't have a show, but i hack other radio shows ;)) A great way to read podcast bloggers and find connect with them.

Since I've been playing around with other forms of social media that i can feed into my blog it has kept things interesting and i share these applications with the writing blogging community.

I agree. It's easy to go into your own bubble and create compelling blog posts to find noone is reading. Then you goto your blogfriends blogs to see no one is reading there either, because everyone has a blog now. But rolling back and remembering why blogging was fun back in the day gives you the juice to get creative and back in the game.

My stats have jumped up and so have pr and book opportunities for me as well. I've even been approached by three lit agents and a publisher. Thanks Daren for keeping rich content and opening up problogger for others to share and communicate.

"Hey you...talk to me!!!!!"Photo courtesy of Crafting with Love

Dee Stewart is a writing diva mother, News Editor for Hope for Women Magazine, inspirational book reviewer for Romantic Times Magazine, and owner of Christian Fiction Blog and The Christian Fiction Network. Her writings have appeared in: Spirit Led Woman, Gospel Today, Good Girl Book Club, The Dabbling Mum, Atlanta Christian Family, Mosaic Literary, Precious Times, Vertical Fix just a few. Visit her at Christian Fiction. Follow her on Twitter at DeeGospel

Christian Fiction News: Tyler Perry Template for LionsGate

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:55:27 -0500

Christian Fiction News for the Week Ending July 19, 2008

The Shack Reaches British shore

John Sutherland of the Guardian asks "Is The Shack the Blair Witch Project of the modern book world?" The book reaches the British shore this week and will be published under European rights Hodder and Stoughton.

Urban Christian Honored

ATLANTA, Ga., --: Today the American Christian Fiction Writers Association announced their finalists for the ACFW Book of the Year. Atlanta Author Sherri Lewis’s debut and controversial novel, My
Soul Cries Out(Urban Christian) made the list.

ICRS A Weeklong Review

Laura McCorkle of Crosswalk.com will be sharing her experiences at the 2008 ICRS Convention.

LIONSGATE to Copy Tyler Perry Formula

Joe Drake, president of LionsGate will begin making changes to the movie company. He plans to offer more family friendly movies with Tyler Perry's blockbuster movies as a thumbnail sketch. Nikki Finke reports.

Tonight Me, You & Book Marketing Insider Tips on Blog Talk Radio

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:59:41 -0500

Please join me 6pm-10pm EST tonight on Ella Curry's Blog Talk Radio Show, BAN as we discuss the marketing and promotions of books. If you have a question about book promotion and you want me to answer those question on the show, leave me a comment or DM me on Twitter.

Pam Perry of Ministry Marketing Solutions, Rhonda Bogan of Mocha Readers, Kimberly Matthews of Kissed Publications and Marina Woods of GoodGirlBookClub Online will be joining us as well.

Essence Magazine Wants Your Book Pick

vidae@writing.com (Dee Stewart) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:46:36 -0500

Patrick Bass, Books Editor for Essence Magazine is taking wants to know, "What is your favorite inspirational storyteller?" Send him an email with your pick at patrikspicks at essence dot com