CINDERELLA TEXAS

by Molly Noble Bull


Here is the cover of my novel Cinderella Texas. Do you know what kind of novel it is?

UPDATE FROM TERESA

Teresa Slack expected her new book, Sarah's Sin,to be published this week. She'd planned to feature it on this website today and on other sites as well, but the publication date was delayed. All she can do now is is beg your patience and understanding.
She'd also planned to give away free downloads, and she will. But it will be later on in the month or early next month.
Teresa put it this way.
I am so sorry it worked out this way. I feel like a dope even though it was out of my control.
In a nutshell, we at Writers Rest are sorry we don't have a new article this weekend. Please check back. We promise to have something interesting and new soon.

Thirsty Thursday FACEBOOK EVENT

Tonight at seven Eastern time.

Just sign in at Facebook. Then go to Helping Hands Press. You could win free books.

by Teresa Slack

 

Teresa Slack spent most of her writing career focused on novels. Her first, Streams of Mercy, won the 2005 Bay Area Independent Publishers Award for Best First Fiction. Her latest novel, Runaway Heart, was published in February and is available for release as an e-book by Helping Hands Press. But she’s recently discovered writing short stories is a whole lot of fun.

 

Released May 1, Carla Comes Around was a fun story for Teresa to write. While she never felt as though she was running away from anything like her story’s heroine, she definitely felt few people would miss her after she left her small southern Ohio town following graduation. Carla Comes Around is the second of Teresa’s series True Stories Celebrating Love & Family. The next installment, Sarah’s Sin, is due out next week—a very unconventional Mother’s Day release.

Carla Comes Around

Happiness for Carla Fischer was Cartersburg, Tennessee in her rearview mirror. She couldn’t wait to ditch the tiny town where she spent a rotten childhood as soon as the ink was dry on her diploma. When she receives an invitation to her thirtieth year class reunion, she doesn’t waste a moment thinking about going. There’s not a soul in town she wants to see. Well, okay, maybe one soul, but Tim Shelton barely knew she was alive thirty years ago. She doesn’t expect him to remember her now. 

When Carla’s sister Patty announces she’s sinking her life’s savings into a local gift shop, Carla leaves her hectic life in Atlanta and heads to the one place she said she’d never go. Cartersburg hasn’t changed in thirty years, but Carla has. Hiding behind a hard veneer to protect her fragile heart, she has no interest in reconnecting with old friends. But everyone wants to see Carla, the small town daughter who never came around after fleeing to the big city. 

As time for her thirtieth-year reunion draws nearer, Carla is reluctantly drawn into her sister’s excitement over her plans for the gift shop. Carla wants to be part of her sister’s life, but she loves her life in Atlanta. Can she forsake her career for something that has alluded her most of her life? Peace, contentment, family. When Tim awakens a long dormant love in her heart, Carla begins to wonder if Cartersburg is the only place for her that’s truly home.

Check out her short stories and other titles on her Amazon page http://www.amazon.com/Teresa-D.-Slack/e/B001JP0MQ2/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 and wherever else books are sold. Learn more about Teresa and her writing at http://www.teresaslack.com  

MEET AUTHOR, MURRAY PURA

                                                                    

by Molly Noble Bull

My friend, Murray Pura, is an ordain Baptist minister who lives in Canada, and he is also a multi-published author. Blessed with success writing for publishing houses like Zondervan, Harper One, Barbour, Harvest House, Trestle Press/Helping Hands, and Baker, he puts his writing miracle this way.

“I enjoy doing different kinds of writing, fiction as well as nonfiction, so a diversity of labels helps me to do that.”  

The year 2012 was his first year in the American fiction market. Up till then Murray’s novels and stories were published in the UK and in Canada and even “down under” but not in the USA – devotionals, Bible commentaries, yes – fiction, no. That all changed with opportunities from Barbour in Ohio, Harvest House in Oregon, and Trestle Press/Helping Hands Press in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Barbour published A Bride’s Flight From Virginia City, Montana, where Old Amish meets Old West; Harvest House published The Wings of Morning, a story about flying set in 1917, and The Face of Heaven, a story that takes place during the Civil War; and Trestle Press/Helping Hands Press began to release a story set in 1728 in Colonial America in a serialized eBook format. It was called The Rose of Lancaster County.

Murray is happy to say that more books are being launched in 2013: Ashton Park, Under the Dover Sky, Whispers of a New Dawn, and An Amish Family Christmas by Harvest House; Majestic and Wild by Baker; A Road Called Love, Seven Oaks, The Name of the Hawk, Go Tell It On The Mountain, and The Last Man in Texas by Trestle Press/Helping Hands Press. Quite a variety of genres, and he enjoys the diversity and challenge of that – Ashton Park and Under the Dover Sky are set in England in the early 20^th century; Whispers of a New Dawn takes place during the outbreak of World War 2; An Amish Family Christmas is modern day as is A Road Called Love; Seven Oaks takes place on a Virginia plantation during the Civil War; The Name of the Hawk is a medieval romance and adventure; and Go Tell It On The Mountain and The Last Man in Texas are westerns set in the 1800s. Some of them are finished and some are still being written.

“It’s special to be able to share my stories with my readers,” he says, “and I hope they enjoy what I have penned for them this year. Thank you, Molly Noble Bull, a great writer and a great colleague, for letting all your friends know about me.

God bless you all.”

Murray is truly a writing miracle, and he isn’t finished yet.

#

To find all Murray’s books, write Murray Pura in the search slot at online stores like Amazon and walk-in bookstores. 

When A Christian Music Artist Loses His Voice

God Direction

In my last post, I mentioned how God deepened Mark Hall’s understanding of ministry at a time when he was unable to sing. It was years before Mr. Hall became the lead singer of Casting Crowns. Still, when a person is faced with losing the thing he thought God called him to use, I asked, “What do you say to your Creator when that happens?” It seems Mark Stuart, the former lead singer of Audio Adrenaline, would have the answer to that question.

A few weeks ago I read an article about the remade Audio Adrenaline and its new purpose to enlarge a ministry for orphans in Haiti, in CCMMagazine.com. Audio Adrenaline is a Christian rock band formed in the late 1980s. Mark Stuart was not only one of its founding members, but in its previous life, the lead singer. In 2006, the band disbanded largely due to Mark’s “on-going vocal challenges.” He could no longer sing.

Wow! Again, I ask, “What do you say to your Creator when that happens?”

He wasn’t just preparing for a career in music, that was his career. But, no more.

In the article in CCM Magazine, Mark mentions how the struggle to write music had become only a reminder of his broken voice. What once was his ministry became a badge of defeat.

So what did he do? He immersed himself in a new passion for Christ—The Hands and Feet Project—a ministry he, and fellow band-mate, Will McGinnis founded in 2004, to help orphaned children in Haiti.

That’s what he did.

Why am I telling you about this? Not just because no matter how complete or incomplete we think we are on our own, God is not done with us. He sometimes has bigger and better plans ahead, and we need to submit to that plan. It’s also a reminder of how God can bring us back to that thing we love, so we can use it again. At present, Mark Stuart is still not able to sing on long tours with the band. But he and many of his former band-mates have re-united to form a NEW Audio Adrenaline in order to promote the Hands and Feet Project, and encourage others to do likewise. This new mix includes Kevin Max, formerly of DC Talk, as lead singer in place of Stuart. But Stuart is very much a part.

He now writes songs for Audio Adrenaline, with a renewed purpose and understanding of his place in God’s world. I pray he has all the success that can be bestowed on an empty vessel of the Lord.

If you’d like to see the beginnings of this new ministry, click the link for the video of Kings and Queens or try the imbed below:

Also, check out the complete interview about the new Audio Adrenaline in the March 2013 issue of CCM Magazine.

Connie is a 2012 Genesis semi-finalist for Women’s Fiction. She was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Winter 2012 WOW Flash Fiction Contest for her entry, Why Not to Kiss on a Park Bench (aka. Harold and Violet). Come visit her on one of her other blogs:

Living the Body of Christ

InfiniteCharacters.com

STORY SETTINGS

by Teresa Slack, 

Have you ever taken a vacation or browsed a travel brochure or even looked at a postcard without imagining a story of your own in that setting?

Me neither.
We’re writers. That’s what we do. Choosing settings are nearly as much fun as creating characters that will live on with readers long after they finish the book. In fact many readers—and yes, publishers—consider setting as another character to be examined and explored throughout the story.

Tomorrow I’m on my way to Charleston, SC for a week long vacation. Ah, Charleston—the history, the romance, the mystery. Of course I’m looking forward to it as a tourist. But as a writer, I’m more excited about the opportunity for research for future writing projects.

I can’t be the only one. What location has always appealed to you as a possible setting for your next book? Is it a small town you drove through once on vacation? A foreign city full of mystique and excitement? A historic town that doesn’t exist anymore, or a futuristic location of your own making?

Share your dream setting here and a little about why it appeals to you. I’ll send the one with the most intriguing setting a postcard from beautiful, historic Charleston. Then you can send me one from your setting when you sign your next contract.