The Divine Appointment Blog Tour

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing THE DIVINE APPOINTMENT
(Howard Books June 5, 2007) by Jerome Teel

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jerome Teel is a graduate of Union University, where he received his JD, cum laude, from the Ole Miss School of Law. He is actively involved in his church, local charities, and youth sports.

He has always loved legal-suspense novels and is a political junkie. He is also the author of The Election, another political thriller that we reviewed November of '06.

Jerome and his wife, Jennifer, have three children...Brittney, Trey, and Matthew...and they reside in Tennessee where he practices law and is at work on a new novel.

You could visit Jerome at his Website, or at his blog Christian Political Blog.


ABOUT THE BOOK:

"They aren't hiding just one something, but a bunch of somethings..."Small town southern lawyer, Elijah Faulkner is a dying breed...an attorney that actually takes pleasure in fighting injustice by working hard for the little guy. But when he takes on a case to defend a philandering doctor with a pregnant wife in a seemingly open-and-shut murder trial, Eli is not so sure he is on the 'right' side.

Back in Washington D.C., supreme Court Justice Martha Robinson has died, presenting an unprecedented opportunity for conservative President Richard Wallace to impact the direction of the highest court in the land. He believes God put him in the presidency for just such a time as this...to make a Divine Appointment. Not everyone is thrilled with the president's nominee, however. And some will stop at nothing, including murder, to prevent his confirmation by the Senate.

A lobbyist with a vendetta, a small-time Mafioso, an investigative reporter with a Watergate complex, and a powerful Washington political machine combine to create a fast-paced suspense novel that explores the anatomy of a murder, and the ripple effect that it creates across the country.

"Jerome Teel has crafted an intriguing political thriller...nice twists and turns to keep you reading. he paints vivid mental pictures that bring characters and locales to life."--Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee's 7th District

Reluctant Runaway Blog Tour

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing RELUCTANT RUNAWAY (Multnomah, March 2007) by Jill Nelson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jill Elizabeth Nelson is a member of the CFBA. Her blog, Artistic Blogger, addresses issues about art, art theft, antiquities preservation, and the art of fiction writing. She takes art seriously - when she's not having fun with it, that is. The To Catch a Thief Series combines her love of the written word with her love of other art forms.

The first in the series was Reluctant Burglar , second is Reluctant Runaway. In January 2008, she will reveal the third book, Reluctant Smuggler. Jill is thrilled if the adventures that spill from her imagination can raise awareness about art theft - deemed "a looming criminal enterprise" by the FBI. Jill and her husband, Doug, have four children and live in Minnesota.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Stolen Indian artifacts...A murdered museum guard…

A missing woman…A baby in danger…

Only Desiree can unearth the horrifying secret that links them all.

Museum security expert Desiree Jacobs doesn’t mean to get in danger’s path. Really she doesn’t. But when a friend is in trouble you don’t just walk away. No matter what your overprotective FBI agent boyfriend says! So when Desi and Tony’s date at a presidential ball is interrupted by a frantic Maxine Webb, Desi doesn’t hesitate to jump in.

Soon Desi is neck-deep in a confusing array of villains. Did Max’s niece run away or was she taken? Is she still alive or the victim of a perverse ritual? And who wants her infant son–and why?

Then Tony’s organized crime case collides with Desi’s investigation, throwing them both into the path of something dark and sinister. Something that craves blood...

From the streets of Desi’s beloved Boston to the mountain desert of New Mexico, Desi and Tony must rely on God to thwart unseen forces–and save a young woman and her baby from a villain more evil than any of them can imagine.

"A fresh voice, strong heroine, and unique plot make Reluctant Runaway a can't-put-down read. Jill Elizabeth Nelson is an author to watch in the realm of romantic suspense!"
----SUSAN MAY WARREN award-winning author of In Sheep's Clothing

As I Have Loved You Blog Tour

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
As I Have Loved You
(Revell June 1, 2007)
by
Nikki Arana
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nikki Arana is an award-winning author of highly-acclaimed inspirational women's fiction who weaves today's social, political, and spiritual issues into her novels. She has received numerous awards, including the Excellence in Media 2007 Silver Angel Award for The Winds of Sonoma.

The book was based on the true love story of how Nikki met her future husband Antonio as he was cleaning the stalls of her parents' Arabian horses. Nikki and Antonio have been married for over thirty years, have two grown sons, and live in Idaho.









ABOUT THE BOOK:

Contemporary Struggles...
...A Single Mom and College-Ages Son.

Leigh Scott is a widowed, single mother who wants the best for her son Jeff. She would like him to graduate from college, land a secure job, and start a family. However, Jeff, who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) at a young age, has a God-given compassion for people. And his non-judgemental acceptance of all has unintended consequences.

Jeff starts dating Jessica, a girl with a questionable past and seemingly non-existent future. Soon, Jeff's grades drop as quickly as his sober determination to achieve the goals he's worked toward all his life, and Leigh finds herself caught ina relational tornado

To complicate matters further, Leigh is an author with a looming book deadline, a father battling cancer, and her former boyfriend and first love, a strong Christian Native American, coming back in her life.

Arana weaves a multi-layered, emotional family saga that brings the peril of judgement, the need for forgiveness and the gift of love to light

"Nikki Arana wrings the heart and exalts the soul."
---Romantic Times

Diva NashVegas Blog Tour

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing DIVA NASHVEGAS (Thomas Nelson May 8, 2007) by Rachel Hauck

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel is the author of many books. Her current release, Diva NashVegas is the second in a series which began with Lost in NashVegas. She is also a Blogger and a CFBA member! She lives in Florida with her husband. Visit her great profile and learn more.






ABOUT THE BOOK:
Even if you are not a lover of country music, you can enjoy this fun look at the Nashville entertainment industry.

What do you do when the past you’ve been skirting shows up at your door with cameras rolling?

Aubrey James ruled the charts as the queen of country for over a decade. She’d rocketed to fame in the shadow of her parents’ death-both of them pioneers in Gospel music. But while her public life, high profile romances, and fights with Music Row execs made for juicy tabloid headlines, the real and private Aubrey has remained a media mystery.

When a former band member betrays Aubrey’s trust and sells an "exclusive" to a tabloid, the star knows she must go public with her story. But Aubrey’s private world is rocked when the Inside NashVegas interviewer is someone from her past-someone she’d hoped to forget.

All the moxie in the world won’t let this Diva run any longer.

"Hauck once again takes us into the country music world, this time through the experiences of mega-star Aubrey James. Aubrey's life journey is filled with flaws, as well as a great deal of joy, and real life locales makes this highly original story authentic. The extra tidbits - from Aubrey's liner notes to quotes from the "media" at the beginning of the chapters - add extra sparkle to the plot."

- 4 Stars, Melissa Parcel, Romantic Times Book Club

These Boots Weren't Made For Walking Blog Tour

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing These Boots Weren't Made for Walking (WATERBROOK Press June 19, 2007) by Melody Carlson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Melody Carlson has published over 100 books for adults, children, and teens, including On This Day, Finding Alice, the Notes from a Spinning Planet series, and Homeward, which won the Rita Award from Romance Writers of America. She and her husband, the parents of two grown sons, make their home near the Cascade Mountains in Central Oregon. Melody is a full-time writer as well as an avid gardener, biker, skier, and hiker.






ABOUT THE BOOK:
Willing to make the necessary sacrifices–even skipping the occasional latte–to ensure career success, 31-year-old Cassidy Cantrell "invests" in a chic pair of boots, certain they’ll make a spectacular impression and help seal the deal on a long-anticipated promotion from her Seattle employer.

But reality tromps all over her expectations. Cassie’s job is abruptly eliminated–and her love life obliterated, when her longtime boyfriend dumps her for a "friend." Her self-esteem in tatters, Cassie limps home to the resort town she once so eagerly fled–only to find her recently divorced mother transformed into a gorgeous fifty-something babe with a thriving social life. Cassie wrestles with envy and apathy as she considers the dismal shape of her own physique and romantic prospects. What will it take for her to jump back into life and regain her stride?

This sassy and hilarious novel leads readers on a romp through the wilds of relationships, romance, career, and spirituality, revealing that, while God’s plans may look drastically different than our own, it’ll always be a perfect fit.

Spirit of Sweetgrass Blog Tour

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS Integrity/Thomas Nelson (March 6, 2007) by Nicole Seitz

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

NICOLE SEITZ is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and freelance writer/illustrator published in South Carolina Magazine, Charleston Magazine, House Calls, The Island Packet and The Bluffton Packet.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor's degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole is an exhibiting artist in the Charleston, South Carolina area where she owns a web design firm and lives with her husband and two small children.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins is a 78-year-old sweetgrass basket weaver who sits on the side of Hwy. 17 in the company of her dead husband, Daddy Jim.

Inspired by her Auntie Leona, Essie Mae finally discovers her calling in life and weaves powerful "love baskets," praying fervently over them to affect the lives of those who visit her roadside stand.

Relations are strained with her daughter Henrietta, who thinks Essie belongs in a retirement center. If Essie can't pay $10,000 in back taxes to save her home, she may have no choice. More tensions: her grandson EJ wants to marry a white girl, Essie discovers that a handsome man she's trying to find a girl for is gay, and her daughter carries a hidden secret.

When she's faced with losing her home and her stand and being put in a nursing home, Daddy Jim talks her into coming on up to Heaven to meet sweet Jesus-something she's always wanted to do.

The SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS shifts less successfully to the afterlife, where her Gullah-Creole ancestors surround her; but soon, her heavenly peace is disrupted, for she still has work to do. Now Essie Mae, who once felt powerless and invisible, must find the strength within her to keep her South Carolina family from falling apart. Together, with Daddy Jim, they team up to return to Earth and battle two spirits conjured up by Henrietta's voodoo that threatens to ruin an attempt to save the sweetgrass basket weaving culture.

FIRST Post: Prints Charming by Rebeca Seitz

It is JUNE 1st,
time for the FIRST Day Blog Tour! (Join our alliance! Click the button!)
The FIRST day of every month we will feature an author and his/her
latest book's FIRST chapter!

This month's feature is:

Rebeca
Seitz

and her book:

PRINTS
CHARMING

(Thomas Nelson Publishers, March 15, 2007)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rebeca Seitz is Founder
and President of Glass Road Public Relations. An author for several
years, Rebeca cut her publicity teeth as the first dedicated publicist for
the fiction division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. In 2005, Rebeca resigned from WestBow and opened the doors of GRPR, the only publicity
firm of its kind in the country dedicated solely to representing
novelists writing from a Christian worldview. Rebeca has worked with such
esteemed authors as Robin Jones Gunn, Ted Dekker, Frank Peretti, Walter Wangerin, Jr., DiAnn Mills, Brandilyn Collins, Colleen
Coble, Melody Carlson, and numerous others. She
has secured coverage for novelists in a variety of media outlets,
including The Today Show, USA Today, Chicago Sun-Times, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, Publishers Weekly,
Christian Retailing, Aspiring Retail, Southern
Living, Daystar Television, HarvestTV, WAY-FM, K-LOVE, and others. Rebeca makes
her home in Kentucky with her husband, Charles, and their son, Anderson.

AND
NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Chapter One

"Girl, where are you?" Lydia tightened her grip on the cell phone as
she wondered anew how any woman could be late to every single thing in
her life. She had thought Jane might’ve changed in the two years they’d
been apart, but Jane was evidently still living up to her old high
school nickname of Late Jane. The woman would get to her own funeral about
an hour after they started the music.

"I’m coming, I’m coming." Jane kept one hand on the steering wheel
while frantically sifting through the things in the passenger seat of her
Blazer. There was a brush somewhere, she just knew it, but finding
anything at seven in the morning was difficult at best. Why in the world
she’d allowed herself to be talked into attending a sale that started at
seven a.m. was beyond her ability to fathom. Finding her shoes had been
a reason for cheering. A brush might just be asking too much.

"Do I need to grab anything for you? This stuff is going fast." Lydia
watched a woman stretch for the last package of Times-style foam
alphabet letters and readjusted her own heavy shopping basket. In the five
minutes she’d been in the store, it had already begun biting into the skin
on her arm.

"Nope, I don’t think so. I’ll be there in about two minutes," Jane
said, still searching for the brush while trying not to drop the cell phone
from her shoulder.

"Okay, but hurry. I’ll be over in the baby girl section. I need to find
something for Olivia’s first bath pages and get ribbon for Mac."

"Got it. Baby girl. Be there in a flash."

***

Jane snapped the phone together and slammed to a stop at the red light.
Turning her attention to her still searching hand, she finally grasped
the elusive hairbrush and quickly raked it through her long black hair.
She had been looking forward to this sale all week but, of course, Mr.
Wonderful had chosen to make his appearance a mere thirty minutes
before she walked out the door. They had fought over Wilson. Again. When
would the man get it through his head that Wilson was in her life forever?

She pushed thoughts of her soon-to-be ex-husband out of her mind as the
green arrow finally appeared. Squealing her tires, she tore into the
parking lot of The Savvy Scrapper. Tossing the hairbrush back into the
passenger seat, she threw the car into Park, grabbed her purse, and flung
open the door.

"Ouch!"

Jane looked up just as her door collided with the midsection of one
very tall man.

"Ohmigosh. I am so, so sorry. I’m just in a rush. The sale is happening
and I’m late and—"

"It’s okay."
Mr. Tall held his hands up as if to ward off any other car doors she
might be hiding somewhere and she noticed the coffee cup in one hand and
bagel bag in the other. Bagels would be so heavenly right now.

"I’m fine, really." He set the bag down on the ground and brushed the
dust off of his olive-green sweater, then looked at her. "I know how
women can be when there’s a sale involved." He grinned as he knelt to pick
the bag back up.

She tried hard to ignore his sexist statement and not remind him of how
many guys camp out at golf stores before a sale or sleep in the parking
lot to get tickets to a concert.

"Are you sure you’re okay? I mean, I have insurance and we can call
somebody." Jane forcefully tucked her hair behind her ears, willing
herself to focus on the problem at hand rather than the sale happening about
ten yards away or the way her stomach was now grumbling for coffee and
a bagel.

"Really, go ahead. I’m fine."

"Okay, thanks." She turned and made her way around the back of the car.
"Really, I appreciate this. It’s just that this only happens once a
year and my friend is waiting . . ." She stopped on the far side of the
car and looked at him. He could sue if he was really hurt and her luck
with men right now meant he would definitely sue and she would surely
lose. "You’re absolutely fine?"

"Go." He made a shooing motion with the bag. "Happy shopping."

Her mother always said to never look a gift horse in the mouth and this
was one time Jane would be obeying Elizabeth rather than giving in to
her own desire to argue. She practically sprinted to the front door of
The Savvy Scrapper, yanked it open, and burst inside.

***

"Jane!" Lydia was in the front corner of the store, surrounded by pink,
yellow, blue, lilac, and pale green. She waved a die-cut of a bathtub
and bubbles above her head. "I found the perfect stuff for Olivia and
Oliver’s First Bath page."

"Great." Jane joined her, looking a bit frazzled but otherwise okay.

"Okay, here’s the deal." Lydia turned toward the back of the store and
pointed. "All the Times letters are gone, the vellum is quickly going,
and the dog section is getting riffled through as we speak. Where do
you want to start?"

"Dog section, definitely." Jane stuffed her keys into her purse. "I
took great pictures of the ex this morning picking up Wilson’s poop while
stepping in another pile."

"You are so gross. What was he doing there?"

"Trying to get me to give him Wilson again." Jane scanned the rest of
the store, making a quick plan to get the most stuff. "He’ll get the
picture one day, just not today. He’s insane if he thinks I’m letting my
puppy come live with him while he’s spending all hours online with his
e-mistress."

"Okay, that still sounds so weird." Lydia’s eyebrows rose as she gave
Jane a disbelieving look. "E-mistress? Really? That’s what we’re calling
her?"

"E-mistress is the only thing I could think of that’s fit for public
consumption." Jane grimaced. "Anyway, forget her and him. I’m here to
shop, honey."

"Right. Go on over to the dog section. I’ll come over there when I’m
finished here. Can you grab me that new paper with the red stripes and
dark-brown bones? I’ve got some pictures of Otis with Olivia and Oliver
from last week."

"Dale let that pug get near his precious twins? I thought you said the
only thing he cared more about than SportsCenter was those babies."

"Dale hasn’t seen the pictures yet. He never comes in my scrapbook
studio. Says it’s my workspace and that I spend too much money on all this
junk as it is." Lydia waved her hand to encompass the store. "He’s
probably right."

"Oh, please. Men are never right," Jane said and turned toward the dog
section. "Dogs, on the other hand, are absolutely wonderful companions
who never cheat and can’t even turn a computer on."

Lydia laughed and turned back to the wall of baby-themed paper in front
of her, leaving Jane to take care of the dog paper. Stripes or flowers?
She didn’t want to make the scrapbook too babyish, but she also didn’t
want it to look too grownup. The papers were all on sale, so maybe she
would just get both. Dale would never know since he didn’t come into
her studio anyway, and she could give some of it to Mac for Kesa’s baby
book. She took two sheets of the pink-and-lime-green-striped paper, then
two of the blue rosebud ones.

"Men are never right," she muttered under her breath. Maybe Jane had a
good point.

Prints CharmingRebeca SeitzCopyright © 2006 by Rebeca Seitz.