Forensics & Faith

Here we are with Photo Friday for March. (Can you believe it's March already?) PF runs monthly on Forensics and Faith. For you new readers, here's the scoop: Write the best caption, win your choice of one of my novels. Enter as many captions as you like. Come back over...

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Major congratulations to Stuart Vaughn Stockton, who has won this year's Eppie Award in the science fiction category for his debut novel, Starfire. Many of you know Starfire is dear to my own heart. Stuart allowed me to use Starfire as the novel written by my character S-Man in the...

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Some of my most fun fan letters have come from younger readers. This one is particularly young to be tackling one of my books. You can't read the letter without smiling. I'm running it here as is--no spelling/grammatical fixes. I have blocked out certain plot details, using underlining in their...

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Yesterday Publisher's Lunch linked to this interesting paper: The Short-Term Influence of Free Digital Versions of Books on Print Sales, by John Hilton III and David Wiley. I'm interested in the topic after two of my novels, Dark Pursuit and Exposure, were offered free on the Kindle for about the...

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Recently on an author e-mail loop someone raised the question about the spiritual message in Christian fiction. The writer wondered if the message should be "hidden" in order to better reach non-Christians. This writer's manuscript, as described, had little Christian message until the very last. That tactic had been criticized....

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Ever needed just the right word to explain something--and the word didn't exist? It may now--through The Unword Dictionary. As purveyor of Today's Word on Twitter and Facebook, I love learning new words. Even so I often find in my writing that as my fingers fly I make them up....

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Heard from my publisher yesterday that I'll be receiving the galleys for my next adult suspense, Deceit, on Friday. Which means I'll have to put in about six hours' work over the weekend to proof said galleys. I can't take the time during the regular work week, as I have...

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The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Starz Entertainment has bought the U.S. television rights to The Pillars of the Earth, an epic novel by Ken Follett about the building of a cathedral in 12th century England. The eight-part mini-series will begin airing this summer.The Pillars of the Earth is a...

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Recently I sent this tweet to Twitter, which fed to Facebook: Novelists: it's 1:30 p.m. PST. Do you know where your characters are? My, we authors are hard on our characters. Here are the answers I received:Mine are in cryogenic suspension waiting to be resurrected by me. (Suzanne Fortin) Mine's...

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Feeling a bit quaquaversal? Here's a list of Today's Words that ran in February. (For previous months' lists, check the Craft and Industry archives.) I challenge you creative types to use at least six of these words in a sentence. Best sentence (chosen by me) wins a copy of my...

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You'd think that we full-time novelists would happily run to our keyboards every morning, eager to open our book files and start writing.Nope.In fact most of the time we'd rather do anything but write. Most likely this has to do with how hard the craft is. Many other things are...

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"This one will be talked about for a long time." --Jerry B. JenkinsThe ever-creative supernatural suspense author Bill Myers has a novel releasing this fall titled The God Hater--with a fascinating premise worthy of the Bill Myers moniker. Here are some words from Bill about the novel--and with an offer...

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I found this post on the blog Real. Life. Conversation., written by author and radio personality Tim Sinclair. I liked what Tim had to say. He's allowed me to run the post here for you:--------------------------"Pants on the Ground"Susan Boyle"Evolution of Dance"That music video with the guys on the treadmillsMillions of...

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This month Clash Entertainment, a large and beautiful Web site for teens, officially launched. Clash Entertainment is "dedicated to bringing excellent, enlightening, even edifying entertainment to Christian teens." The Web site is updated daily with fresh content that includes:~ news~ reviews~ interviews~ comics~ music~ videos~ games~ career information ~ contests~...

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This is a guest post by author and speaker Jim Rubart. Jim also owns Barefoot Marketing. His first novel, Rooms, hits shelves in April. -------------------------------When my wife and I shopped for our first couch many moons ago, I asked our salesperson, "What style of couch do you personally like?""Oh, you...

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The myriad opinions of readers never cease to amuse me. Reactions to novels vary widely for two simple reasons: (1) personal taste in story and characters, and (2) personal experience. Both points are powerful, but point two is the dominant one. To a large degree, personal taste in story is...

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Here is the CBA "March" list and the ECPA "February" list, both reflecting sales in the month of January. CBA just put up its list yesterday, so let's take a look at the comparison. Books appearing only on one list are highlighted in blue. For a reminder of how these...

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Are you facing a spiritual attack? There are many psalms to be prayed for those who are being oppressed. Here is one: Psalm 27. Pray it aloud for yourself or for someone else who needs it. (This is in what I call the BPV—Brandilyn’s Prayer Version, which is taken from...

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This is for aspiring authors, the not yet published. Perhaps you are one. Perhaps you know someone to whom you can send this message. They need to hear this.It's okay to stop writing.1. A halt to writing is part of the journey. I stopped writing numerous times during the ten...

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Last Friday Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch reported that a "reliable source" at Amazon informed him the online bookstore is considering giving a free Kindle to every prime member. Rumor or true? Prime membership in Amazon costs $79 per year and entitles members to free two-day shipping, regardless of the...

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Here we are with the second Photo Friday of 2010. PF runs monthly on Forensics and Faith. For you new readers, here's the scoop: Write the best caption, win your choice of one of my novels. Enter as many captions as you like. Come back over the weekend to read...

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This week, theChristian Fiction Blog Allianceis introducingHunter's MoonBethany House (February 1, 2010)byDon HoeselABOUT THE AUTHOR:Don Hoesel was born and raised in Buffalo, NY but calls Spring Hill, TN home. He works as a Communications Department supervisor for a Medicare carrier in Nashville, TN. He has a BA in Mass Communication...

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Today I am traveling from my Mom's back to California. At least that's the plan. It was also the plan yesterday. Until a storm came and wiped out Kentucky, Ohio and Chicago. I don't think anything flew in Chicago yesterday, including birds.Mom was happy. We got an extra day together....

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Want readers to empathize quickly with your main character? If they don't, no matter how brilliant your plot, they won't care what happens. They have to care about the protagonist. Here are 10 ways to build that necessary empathy:1. The character highly displays a valued trait such as loyalty, love,...

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Circa 1972: The Who were coming to Lexington, Kentucky for a concert. I was 15, maybe 16 years old, and excited as all get out. I wanted to go. "Mom, guess who's coming to Lex?""Who?""The Who!""Who?""The Who.""Who?""I said it, the Who."She looked disgusted. "Well, who are you talking about?"Oh, good...

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