Special Spotlight - Wind Over Marshdale!

Tracy Krauss is launching her book WIND OVER MARSHDALE on Tuesday, Oct. 16. Full of intrigue, romance, and plenty of surprises, see what’s hiding just beneath the surface in this seemingly peaceful town. You can help her achieve ‘best seller’ status by purchasing the book at amazon.com TODAY – and receive all kinds of cool free gifts while you’re at it! Here’s how: 1. Go to the Landing Page on Tracy’s Website 2. Buy the book at amazon. 3. Go back to the Landing Page and fill in the form with your name, email and purchase number. It’s that easy! You’ll be directed to your free gifts and all you have to do is choose which ones you want.

About the book:

Marshdale. Just a small farming community where nothing special happens. A perfect place to start over… or get lost. There is definitely more to this prairie town than meets the eye. Once the meeting place of aboriginal tribes for miles around, some say the land itself was cursed because of the people’s sin. But its history goes farther back than even indigenous oral history can trace and there is still a direct descendant who has been handed the truth, like it or not. Exactly what ties does the land have to the medicine of the ancients? Is it cursed, or is it all superstition?

Wind Over Marshdale is the story of the struggles within a small prairie town when hidden evil and ancient medicine resurface. Caught in the crossfire, new teacher Rachel Bosworth finds herself in love with two men at once. First, there is Thomas Lone Wolf, a Cree man whose blood lines run back to the days of ancient medicine but who has chosen to live as a Christian and faces prejudice from every side as he tries to expose the truth. Then there is Con McKinley, local farmer who has to face some demons of his own. Add to the mix a wayward minister seeking anonymity in the obscurity of the town; eccentric twin sisters – one heavily involved in the occult and the other a fundamentalist zealot; and a host of other ‘characters’ whose lives weave together unexpectedly for the final climax. This suspenseful story is one of human frailty - prejudice, cowardice, jealousy, and greed – magnified by powerful spiritual forces that have remained hidden for centuries, only to be broken in triumph by grace.

What others are saying:

Tracy Krauss has a deep talent. I am looking forward to more from her.* Tom Blubaugh, Author of Night of the Cossack


Tracy Krauss typifies all that is good in modern Christian authorship. She is consistently there for her readers and elevates her every effort.* Joyce Godwin Grubbs, Author From the Grassroots


Tracy’s characters are raw and real; her plots edgy and electric. * Lisa Lickel, award winning author of Meander Scar, A Summer in Oakville, The Map Quilt and other inspirational novels.


There is plenty of intrigue and mystery to keep any reader's attention, but for lovers of romance, this one will make your heart pound. * Michelle Sutton, reviewer and author of more than a dozen inspirational novels

Author bio:

Tracy Krauss is a high school teacher by profession, and a prolific author, artist, playwright and director by choice. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan and has gone on to teach Art, Drama and English – all the things she is passionate about. After raising four children, she and her husband now reside in beautiful Tumbler Ridge, BC where she continues to pursue all of her creative interests.

FREE STUFF!

Here’s just a sampling of the FREE e-gifts from generous supporters:

- a free copy of 25 Years In the Rearview Mirror - compiled and edited by Stacy Juba; Shoot the Wounded by Lynn Dove; Live Without Stress by Shelley Hitz; Alternative Witness by
Pauline Creeden; and Writing Your Family Legacy and Reflections of the Heart, both by Linda Weaver Clarke

a free first chapters of such best-selling books as From Spice to Eternity by Yvonne Wright; Angels of Humility by Jackie MacGirvin; and Silence by Barbara Derksen
- beautiful downloadable greeting cards by Brenda Hendricks; and poetry posters by Violet Nesdoly

- the ‘Fit Test’ by author and trainer Kimberley Payne; plus a chance to win an ‘amazon’ gift card courtesy of Ruth Hill

- And much more! All if you buy your copy of WIND OVER MARSHDALE at amazon.com on Oct 16! All links will be operational on the ‘Landing Page’ at www.tracykrauss.com/

DISCLAIMER: 

This ‘Best Seller book launch’ has been coordinated with the help of the ‘John 3:16 Marketing Network’ and many other generous supporters. The free gifts are deliverable electronically over the internet or by email by individual authors and supporters. They are not in any way associated with, nor deliverable by, amazon.com

Saturday Spotlight ~ Janis Patterson

Good Morning Friends!

I greet you from the glorious hills of Bandera, TX. Back at the Silver Spur Guest Ranch for The Wild Rose Press's "Back in the Saddle" writer's retreat. Always wonderful to be back here.

As you can see, I'm still not blogging regularly but hey, with The Wordsmith Journal Magazine, writing and editing my books as well as paid editing projects and building websites, I'm kinda busy LOL!

In case you missed my last post, I recently released a short story, Lori's Redemption which is available on Kindle, Nook & Smashwords!

And that, my friends is my life in a nutshell. So without much further ado, I bring to you our guest, Janis Patterson!

I Kill People, She Said With A Smile

Janis Patterson

It’s not that what I do is really so bad, it’s just that I enjoy it so much! When someone asks me what I do, I smile very sweetly, give them my best grandmotherly twinkle and say in soft, mellifluous tones, “I kill people.”

No one has run away yet, though I have had an interesting series of yelps and squeals.

It’s true what they say on Castle – only two types of people sit around trying to think of ways to kill people – psychopaths and mystery writers. I write mysteries.

The big question is, why do people read and write mysteries? In a world full of horror and bad news and economic tragedy, why do people choose to read books about murders? I think the answer is two-fold.

First of all, most of the population is personally untouched by the horror of murder; they’ve never lost a loved one to violent crime, so there is none of the visceral personal horror about a murder.

Second, while everyone can appreciate the feeling of revulsion at a murder, there is an equally strong pull of fascination. Morbid? Perhaps, but very human.

I like to write mysteries. (Does that make me weird? The Husband says so…) I like the puzzle of it – the old journalistic who, what, where, why and how. I like the challenge of not only creating the puzzle, but of doling out little bits here and there, just enough to give the reader a reasonably fair chance of solving the mystery. Sometimes, though, even I don’t know who the killer is until the final few chapters. I might think I do, but the characters have different plans!

In last year’s THE HOLLOW HOUSE (Carina Press http://bit.ly/O1x30d - Amazon http://amzn.com/B005UPRN14 ), I knew the killer from the beginning. Yeah. Sure I did. At least, I thought so. By the middle of the book I had no idea of who had done it. By the last three chapters I was starting to sweat and having wild fantasies of using that hoary old standby, the convenient wandering homicidal maniac. Then all of a sudden it all fell into place. The killer was someone even I had never expected, but it all fit so well! I was delighted, but then thought despairingly of the work involved in going back through the entire book and put in some clues so I could play fair with the reader.

Okay… I went back through the book, and to my astonishment they were already there. The lead-up was flawless. (Cue the Twilight Zone theme….)

In this month’s release BEADED TO DEATH (Carina Press http://bit.ly/SjFrXM, Amazon http://amzn.com/B007M8S2T4) the denouement was much less dramatic, even though I wasn’t sure of the killer until about halfway through the book. Also, there was less emotional investment in the victim. In THE HOLLOW HOUSE the victim was a real character, someone whom the readers had come to know. Also, the murder didn’t happen until about one-third of the way through the book. (There was lots else going on, though!)

Then, having been told that the murder should occur in the first chapter to be a ‘real’ mystery, I decided to try it. Normally I hate rules like this – just about any ridiculous rule, if you must know – but it seemed like a good writing challenge.

In BEADED TO DEATH bead artist Lilias Ruiz returns home from a tour of selling her wares at craft fairs. She unlocks the door to her house, turns off the alarm system and then finds the body of a man she’s never seen before on her living room rug. And that’s the last we see of the victim, though his presence in her house sends shock waves through her life. Before things are resolved, Lilias is reluctantly involved with drug smuggling, an FBI agent who may or may not be rogue, and a 7’3” nephew on the run from an unwanted basketball scholarship.

Whether the body is found early or late, though, it’s always done with reasonable restraint. Despite an addiction to CSI, I don’t do graphic. In one of my books you’ll not see the blood splattering (metaphorically) or on-page cruelty. No knives parting flesh, exploding body parts or the like. You might see a lip of red spreading from under a blanket, or an ugly smear of red on a wall, but that’s about it.

The Husband calls it ‘tasteful murder.’

And I suppose that’s as good a tag as any.

Janis Patterson is a seventh-generation Texan and a third-generation wordsmith who writes mysteries as Janis Patterson, romances and other things as Janis Susan May, children’s books as Janis Susan Patterson and scholarly works as J.S.M. Patterson.

Formerly an actress and singer, a talent agent and Supervisor of Accessioning for a bio-genetic DNA testing lab, Janis has also been editor-in-chief of two multi-magazine publishing groups as well as many other things, including an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist.

Janis married for the first time when most of her contemporaries were becoming grandmothers. Her husband, also an Egyptophile, even proposed in a moonlit garden near the Pyramids of Giza. Janis and her husband live in Texas with an assortment of rescued furbabies.

www.JanisPattersonMysteries.com

Well friends, hope you enjoyed this edition of Saturday Spotlight. Stay tuned Tuesday for a book launch for Tracy Krauss.

Until later....take care, God Bless & remember....

What we perceive as a disappointment may actually be a Divine Delay.

Pamela S Thibodeaux

"Inspirational with an Edge!" (tm)

http://pamelathibodeaux.com 

If You Liked Tempered Fire, You'll LOVE Lori's Redemption!

Hi Friends,

It is with great pleasure I announce the release of my short story, Lori's Redemption!

Lori Strickland (introduced in Tempered Fire) has always been known as her father's "wild child" with no desire to change until she meets ex-bull-rider-turned-preacher Rafe Judson. Her attempts to change her wanton ways come to naught until she realizes redemption only comes with true repentance. 

Lori's Redemption is available now on Kindle, Nook and at Smashwords for only $.99 cents!

I certainly hope you enjoy this story which compliments my Tempered series.

Pam T