Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Burden of Proof by DiAnn Mills ***ENTER GIVEAWAY***

BURDEN OF PROOF

FBI Rapid Response, #1

by

DiANN MILLS

   Genre: Inspirational /Mystery / Suspense / Romance
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers

Date of Publication: October 9, 2018

Number of Pages: 416

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Reeling from a negotiation gone wrong, FBI Special Agent April Ramos is caught off guard when a frazzled young woman shoves a crying baby into her arms, then disappears. Worry for the child’s safety quickly turns to fear when a man claiming to be the girl’s father abducts them at gunpoint. April puts her hostage negotiation skills to use to learn more about who she’s dealing with: Jason Snyder, a fugitive accused of murder. 

As Jason spins a tall tale about being framed for the killing of his business partner, April must sort through his claims to find the truth. A truth that becomes all the more evident after April overhears a conversation between Jason and the local sheriff and realizes something more sinister may be happening in their small town of Sweet Briar, Texas. But aligning herself with a known fugitive to uncover the burden of proof could cost April her job . . . or worse, her life and the lives of other innocent people.

PRAISE FOR DiANN MILLS:  "The tension level rises as layers of lies are peeled away in multiple plot twists." --Library Journal "DiAnn Mills is a master of fast-paced and intricately plotted romantic suspense." --Colleen Coble, Bestselling author "[A] fast-moving, intricately plotted thriller." --Publishers Weekly

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Traveling is a joy and a treasure for me. I value making new friends, exploring culture, and enjoying what makes an area special. The following are my top 5 places to visit again and again.

1. Israel - I could feel the Bible come alive here.

2. Ireland - Beautiful people and country.

3. Greece - History, food, museums, and the list goes on.

4. Hawaii - The good ole USA! My favorite island is Kauai

5. Rocky Mountain National Park - My husband and I love returning to a cabin along Falls Creek outside of Estes Park. The wildlife, hiking, and exploring the surroundings of the National Park is always filled with memories. 

CHECK OUT THE BOOK TRAILER! 

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne du Maurier, Inspirational Reader's Choice, and Carol Award contests. Firewall, the first book in her Houston: FBI series, was listed by Library Journal as one of the best Christian fiction books of 2014.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She is co-director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. 

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She's an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas. DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers.

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5 PRINT ARCs!
OCTOBER 9-18, 2018

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10/11/18	Top List	The Page Unbound
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10/13/18	Review	Missus Gonzo
10/13/18	Excerpt	All the Ups and Downs
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10/17/18	Video Guest Post	The Book Review
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Everless by Sara Holland

Everless

by Sara Holland

Published by HarperTeen

362 pages

Plot: In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency—extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one’s own lifespan. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries.

No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings’ palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night. When Jules discovers that her father is dying, she knows that she must return to Everless to earn more time for him before she loses him forever.

But going back to Everless brings more danger—and temptation—than Jules could have ever imagined. Soon she’s caught in a tangle of violent secrets and finds her heart torn between two people she thought she’d never see again. Her decisions have the power to change her fate—and the fate of time itself. (2018, Goodreads.com)

Review: With vivid world building and an intriguing plot, Everless is a well crafted and exciting dark fantasy debut by Sara Holland. Jules Ember is running out of time.  Her father is weak and on the verge of dying. His time is running out, and the only way for Ember to save him is to return to Everless, a place they ran from ten years ago, and find employment.  In Everless, money is in blood-coin. But this currency is converted from actual blood which takes years off your life. The most powerful families can live hundreds of years by taxing and taking blood-coins from the poor.  Ember’s father use to live with Lord and Lady Gerling at Everless as a blacksmith. That is, until a strange accident happened and they were forced to flee.

Lord Gerling’s son Roan, Ember’s childhood friend and love, is soon to marry the Queen’s daughter. So, in preparation for the wedding, the Gerling’s are hiring girls from the outskirts to work as maids and house servants. Jules’ father forbids her to go, but Jules has no choice.  She must return to Everless to earn blood-coin for her father no matter the consequences. But, the longer Jules works at Everless the more dangerous it becomes. With warnings all around, Jules is forced to confront her father’s secrets and a dark past that leads her to discover more than she is prepared to handle.  

Liam Gerling, Roan’s older brother, is the reason Jules and her father left Everless years ago.  But, Liam has secrets of his own, and the more time Jules spends with Liam, the more she realizes that he’s hiding something.  And she’s determined to find out what. Alone at Everless, Jules doesn’t know who she can trust, and with Roan about to get married, she’s wondering how she will handle the heartbreak.

With a courageous heroine, dark secrets, and fast pacing plot, Everless will keeping you glued to the last heart-wrenching page!  A must read! Recommended for ages 14 and up!

Book 2: Evermore coming December 12, 2018

*A DRC was given for an honest review.

Rating: 5 Hearts!
              💖💖💖💖💖

Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Old Buildings in North Texas by Jen Waldo ***ENTER GIVEAWAY***

OLD BUILDINGS

IN NORTH TEXAS

by

JEN WALDO

  Sub-genre: Literary Fiction / Dramedy

Publisher: Arcadia Books

Date of Publication: April 1, 2018

Number of Pages: 213

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After rehab, Olivia, a 32-year-old cocaine addict, is required to move back in with her mother and pregnant sister. Having left a promising career in journalism in New York, she’s now working as a sales assistant for a family friend in her home town in North Texas. 

Under pressure from her court-mandated counselor – an old high school friend - to take up a hobby, Olivia decides on "urbexing." Soon she’s breaking into derelict homes, ex-prisons, and old drive-ins across North Texas, and it’s not long before she’s looting state property and making money off the possessions, fixtures, and fittings that have been left behind.

Old Buildings in North Texas is about a modern woman’s search for personal equilibrium and wild adventure -- the attempt to find stability in existence without losing sight of what makes life worth living. Jen Waldo’s style modulates effortlessly from domestic nuance to taut adventure, tackling social and moral transgressions with incisive observation and vivid humor.

PRAISE FOR OLD BUILDINGS IN NORTH TEXAS

“A lot of Jen Waldo’s debut novel takes place out on the porch of Olivia’s mother’s house. […] With its casual, confidential tone, Old Buildings in North Texas puts the reader in one of those porch chairs, reclining on a warm evening with a cool drink.” -- The Skinny

“Old Buildings in North Texas is an amusingly written and well worked book” -- Trip Fiction

“This novel is an absolute blast. There are serious moments of course, but Jen Waldo looks for the comedy in everything to create a memorable scenario that reminded me very much of the style of Six Feet Under.” -- Shiny New Books

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Character Building

Guest Post by Jen Waldo

            I once heard a recorded spoof based on the formula for writing romances.

            “Start all characters’ names with different letters,” the narrator said. “This is called characterization.”

            It’s a rule that’s too ridiculous for a writer to admit to following, but we all know that characters with similar names can be a stumbling block to the reader.

One of the most difficult hurdles in creating a character is finding the right name. Beside my writing desk I have several books of names and their meanings. I look them up online. I keep our church’s annual list of all who have died during the year. It’s given me Fitzhugh, Marveline, and Orceno.

Consider Olivia and Chloe, the sisters from Old Buildings in North Texas. To me these names say whimsical, resilient, and impetuous; a perfect fit for my girls. Extend the view to the woman who gave them these names (not me; their fictional mother), and it’s obvious that in her younger years she demonstrated like traits.

I didn’t give much thought to the meanings when I chose the names. But if I’d gone to the trouble to look them up, I’d have discovered that Olivia means kind; and she definitely isn’t that. And it’s amusing that Chloe means blooming and in the book she’s pregnant.

In a mystery series I’m working on, I changed the main character’s name several times before going with alliteration—Fran Furlow. Fran is tiny but mighty, intrusive, stubborn, fanatically goal-oriented, and flawed. Though I knew the character, it wasn’t until I got the name right that I came to love her.

In the same series, there’s Lurline. Every time she appears her image comes to mind: solidly built, walks heavily on her heels, middle-aged, quick to judge but can be compassionate, always well-groomed, and always stepping forth in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

In addition to bestowing names, there’s the matter of description. Painting the visual is as essential as revealing motives and mindset. As with differing names, unless it pertains to the plot, each character must come with distinct physical traits, so that with a single evocative word or phrase, the reader easily recalls who the person is.

Say I give my main character blond hair and blue eyes. What kind of blond? Almost white? Brassy? Ripe wheat? What shade of blue? Cornflower? Silver? Navy?

Having committed to golden hair and periwinkle eyes, in order not to be repetitive, each time the character is mentioned, I must come up with a new way to describe the same coloring.

And this meticulous focus must also be applied to every sidekick and nemesis.

The organized way to handle this would be to keep a record of the descriptive wording each time the character makes an appearance. Yeah, I don’t do that. If I fear I’ve been redundant, I scan for past descriptions and rewrite accordingly. It’s an inefficient way to go about it, but by the time I finish a manuscript, I’ve been forward and back so many times that I’ve got it memorized.

Now I’ve got names and physical traits.  

But how do my characters think and act?

Take a fictional group of four friends. One is the smart one; another is kind-hearted; the third is tough and snide; and the last is the comic. These characters are always true to their traits, which is understandably comfortable for the reader.

But for me, this consistency comes with a built-in conundrum. I want my characters to be believable. And in the real world people are unpredictable. The smart one will make a mistake. The kind one will grow impatient. Real people make decisions and they change their minds. They do stupid things knowing they’re stupid. A well-rounded character is constantly reacting to those around her. She doesn’t go straight through without hesitation and deviation.

In Why Stuff Matters, one of Jesse’s main traits is her inconsistency. She’s confused and hurt and she doesn’t know how she feels about anything. Resentful when her twelve-year-old stepdaughter, Lizzie, is foisted on her by her dead husband’s first wife, Jesse is often uncaring toward her stepchild and unconcerned when Lizzy is delivering contraband drugs to the questionable side of town, reading erotica, and showing an unhealthy interest in a grown man. Yet Jesse arranges flute lessons for Lizzy, buys her her first bra, and uncomplainingly pays the hospital bill when Lizzy falls through a pile of debris. 

Because my characters come with a sense of humor, I often run into trouble when I sacrifice consistency for a laugh. I know it’s simply not something this particular character would say, and yet she said it anyway. That’s me taking over. I hate to lose a funny line. Nevertheless, out it goes. 

And finally, there’s the question of how much of myself goes into each character. And how much is based on people I actually know?

I don’t peep into windows like Fran, and I have never been raped. I don’t sneak into abandoned buildings like Olivia and I’ve never been addicted to cocaine.

But like both of them I tend to be irreverent and opinionated. Also like them, I’m fully aware of my flaws and have no intention of attempting to conquer them.

Another trait I have in common with many of my characters, central or secondary, is a baffled fascination with the behavior of others. Why the ego? Why the sense of entitlement? Why the bitterness or the mean tongue? Why did this woman choose that man? Why is this person begrudging and this other person generous? Why does one person manipulate another?

Overall, the key to creating a character is submission on my part. Olivia isn’t me. She’s her own person and when she takes over I disappear.

Anyway, that’s the way it happens for me.

         

Jen Waldo lived in seven countries over a thirty-year period and has now settled, along with her husband, in Marble Falls, Texas. She first started writing over twenty years ago when, while living in Cairo, she had difficulty locating reading material and realized she’d have to make her own fun. She has since earned an MFA and written a number of novels. Her work has been published in The European and was shortlisted in a competition by Traveler magazine. Old Buildings in North Texas and Why Stuff Matters have been published in the UK by Arcadia Books. Jen’s fiction is set in Northwest Texas and she’s grateful to her hometown of Amarillo for providing colorful characters and a background of relentless whistling wind. 

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◆  AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE  ◆   ◆  GOODREADS AUTHOR PAGE  ◆ 

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1st Prize: Signed Copy of OBiNT + $10 Amazon Gift Card 2nd Prize:Signed Copy + $5 Amazon Gift Card 3rd Prize: eBook Copy of OBiNT October 2-11, 2018

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10/3/18	Review	Tangled in Text
10/4/18	Author Interview	Chapter Break Book Blog
10/5/18	Review	A Page Before Bedtime
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10/9/18	Review	Reading by Moonlight
10/9/18	Guest Post	The Page Unbound
10/10/18	Sequel Spotlight	All the Ups and Downs
10/11/18	Review	The Clueless Gent
10/11/18	Review	Forgotten Winds

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