Unveiled

Book #5 in Steven James, Patrick Bowers Files has arrived! Our review of Queen will be up in a few days and we’ll be giving away a copy to some lucky reader. Until then, check out some past reviews we have featured and interviews with master story telling, Steven James.

 The Pawn  The Knight  The Bishop  

Our most recent conversation with Steven James

Steven James is one of the nation’s most innovative storytellers. As one of the most versatile authors in the country, Steven has penned more than 25 books of both award-winning fiction and nonfiction including fantasy, inspiration, poetry, short stories, scripts, a nine-book storytelling library of resources for educators, and the best selling psychological thrillers The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, The Bishops and coming soon, The Queen.

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“We’re all freaks. It’s just a matter of perspective”

Over the next few weeks we will be featuring fiction from sources some don’t always consider: independents, boutique, and self-published. These are some of the most innovative and captivating suspense and thriller novels out there.

First up will be Winter by Kevin Newsome, the first thriller from Splashdown’s new “Darkwater” imprint. The review will be up in a couple of days but until then check out this fantastic trailer.

Four hundred eighty years have passed since civilization’s brush with extinction. Perfect order reigns. Humanity’s greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no disease, no malice, no hate, no war. There is only peace.

Until the day when one man discovers the truth: Every single soul walking the earth is actually dead. The human heart has been stripped of all that makes it human. Now only he is alive and only he has the knowledge that can once again awaken humanity.

But the way is treacherous and the cost is staggering. For, indeed, in that day life itself is…Forbidden.

It’s not quite time for a review yet but if you haven’t put this one on your “must buy” list you should do so right now!

Imagine a world, our world, nearly 500 years in the future. Imagine a world, our world, where its inhabitants are dead and don’t know it. No, this isn’t a zombie novel but rather a tale of depth and passion about a world that has lost its capacity to feel. Geneticists managed to eliminate all the emotions blamed for the Chaos that brought the near destruction of the human race leaving in their place just one – Fear. Now a world ruled by dread, the Order, and a fanatical devotion to its Monarch is about to discover the power of the blood running through the veins of a small band of unlikely heroes. The effects of their blood is temporary but there is one, a boy who will become king who promises to awake the world from its deathly slumber.

Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee have teamed up to not just write a story but to create a story world beyond comparison. Seldom does a story so grip me that I can’t help but read and re-read passages. Here is just a taste of what you will find in Forbidden.

It made no sense … The only sense Rom knew was pain. “Keep your words. This pain is no life.”

“You only feel plain because you’re alive, boy!” the keeper thundered. “This is the mystery of it. Life is lived on the ragged edge of that cliff. Fall off and you might die, but run from it and you are already dead.”

Forbidden by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee will be available in September 2011.

Be watching for my review of The Judas Gospel by Bill Meyer. Until then here’s a short synopsis. Then you can hear the first chapter.

Judas, the disciple responsible for betraying Jesus, has a conversation with God and proposes to him that if God had used his powers to market Jesus that Judas would have, Jesus would have been more successful in saving the world, with more people following him. Judas has heard rumors that God is preparing another prophet and talks God into letting Judas return to earth to prove his point using this new prophet, a woman who possesses supernatural abilities and who is stalked by a serial killer through her horrifying dreams of his victims. Judas takes her pure ministry and turns it into a marketing circus, and he comes to realize that in mixing commerce with God, bigger isn’t better and that God is interested in reaching individuals, not masses.

A funny thing happened while I was in Wal-Mart the other day. I found Mike Dellosso right next to Amish Love in the inspirational book section. Well, I didn’t actually find Mike but I did find his double novel edition of The Hunted and Scream screaming (sorry for the pun) to be noticed in a sea of buggies and bonnets.

The truth is this was no surprise to me. I had known for a while that this special edition had been placed in 1300 Wal-Marts across the country. Let me put that in perspective for you. There are 300 less Barnes and Nobles in America than the number of Wal-Marts that now carry Mike’s novels. To find that book in any Barnes and Nobles means trekking to the nether regions where the Christian fiction section almost requires a GPS to find. Most Super Wal-Marts place books near the front of the store or near electronics, both highly trafficked areas. This is a big deal.

It’s time you who love these stories get in the trenches and fight the good fight for them.

OK, I confess I did move this copy just a bit in a brilliant stroke of guerilla marketing. But the point is this, if you want these kinds of stories to keep being picked up by publishers go out and buy them!

So here’s what I’m asking  you to do. When  you pass through your local Wal-Mart, take a look and see if Mike’s Book is there. Now here are three things to do next:

• Snap a picture with your phone and send it to me.
• Buy a copy for yourself or a friend
• Do a little guerilla marketing of your own
• Leave a comment here and let me know what you found at your Wal-Mart

My agent just advised me to think about writing historical romance if I want a publisher to pick me up. Now, I love all my author friends who write in that genre but there is an audience for suspense. If you don’t believe it move over a couple of rows and see how many Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and James Patterson novels on are on the shelf.  I think it’s time you who love these stories get in the trenches and fight the good fight for them.

I’m pretty sure I cold write historical fiction (I am a history wonk after all) but I’m not ready to surrender just yet!

DISCLAIMER: Guerilla marketing is not endorsed or encouraged by Charisma Publishing, the Realms imprint, Mike Dellosso, or anyone else I know. My actions are solely my own and I am darn proud of them.

Mike Duran’s debut novel, The Resurrection, hits bookstores next month. Be watching for my review of this haunting tale of evil and redemption later in the week and my interview with the author shortly after that.

Ruby woke more than a dead boy, and the secrets she unleashed  threaten to destroy them all.

I can now announce that I’ve signed a contract with Tyndale House for my second novel, Bound by Guilt. This book is a sequel to my first, Thicker than Blood, in that some of the main characters from Thicker (Christy, Hunter, etc.) become minor characters in Bound. Right now we’re looking at an early 2011 release date. Some of the same settings play a part in this story as well, including rare books (a valuable first edition copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in particular), as well as the Colorado town of Elk Valley.

So there you have it. I’ve also begun a third book that ties into my first two books as well.

Brandilyn Collins’ seatbelt fiction has been a staple in Christian suspense for years. Check out my review of one of her latest, Exposure and an interview I did with Brandilyn a few months ago.

I recently asked Brandilyn what lies on the horizon for her.

The novel I’m working on right now is the book I was made to write—a suspense about Lyme Disease. As many know, I battled this disease in 2002-2003 until God chose to grant me a miraculous healing from it. Had it not been for that gift, I would have battled the illness far longer. Lyme Disease is so controversial in our country the arguments surrounding it are called the “Lyme Wars.” On one side are the doctors who deny the very existence of chronic Lyme and insist a mere 10-day or so bout of antibiotics will cure it. On the other side are very sick patients and the few doctors who treat them long-term, sometimes at the risk of losing their medical licenses. My story is based on current events from the Lyme Wars and centers on the wife of a prominent doctor who refutes chronic Lyme. It will be my typical fast-paced Seatbelt Suspense® and at the same time will shed light on the labyrinthine perils of the Lyme Wars and those who battle the often-crippling disease. Title of my novel: Over the Edge. It will release in May 2011.

Athol Dickson has been a friend of Unveiled almost since the beginning. Check out my reviews of They Shall See God, River Rising, The Cure, Winter Haven, and Lost Mission and both of my interviews with Athol (June 2009 and September 2009). I also had a chance to chat with Athol over at FictionAddict.com a few months ago. I recently asked Athol what is on the horizon for him.

Great question, Tim. Right now I’m putting together a thirteen-part presentation based on The Gospel according to Moses, What My Jewish Friends Taught Me About Jesus. It’s a memoir I published nearly eight years ago about five years I spent studying the Torah under the senior rabbi of the world’s second largest Reform Jewish congregation. The Gospel according to Moses, continues to be a bestseller among a wide spectrum of readers, both Christians and Jews. As the title says, I learned a great deal about Christian faith from the rabbis and Jews with whom I studied with during those five years. As a Christian, I found their take on the Torah fascinating, but also frightening. They challenged my stereotypes and presuppositions about God and the Scriptures, stretching my faith almost to the breaking point more than once. In the end my relationship with Jesus and our Father became much, much richer for having been engaged in study from a Jewish perspective.

The series I’m putting together will duplicate that intense experience as much as possible. Each session is a stand-alone encounter, so groups can pick which topics they’d like me to explore. I’ll dig into questions such as, “What does it mean when doesn’t God answer my prayers?” “How should I respond to the contradictions and paradoxes I find in the Bible?” and “Am I allowed to have doubts?” I’ll look into the most fundamental difference between Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism (it’s not what most Christians think). I’ll lead a search for Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures. I’ll wade into the very difficult topic of anti-Semitism in church history and how we should respond, and I’ll investigate the question that most disturbed me while I was at temple, “Are Jews going to hell?”

I’ll have this series ready to go by the end of April, and would love to talk to anyone who’s interested in having me come to lead their church or group through any part, or all of it.

Terri Blackstock’s last novel is on the New York Times Bestseller list and she isn’t finished yet. Check out my review of Intervention as well an interview I did with Terri a while back.

I recently asked Terri what is on the horizon for her.

I’m working on Book Two in my Intervention Series. I wasn’t planning to make it a series when I wrote Intervention, the first book, but when it hit the New York Times Best-Seller List and I got so many letters begging for me to continue the story, I changed my mind. I’m tentatively calling it Vicious Cycle. I can’t wait to continue the burgeoning romance of Barbara and Kent, and get Lance and Emily out of their newest trouble.