June Releases!

Hostess: Gail Pallotta

Summer’s the perfect time to spend a day by the shore, an afternoon on a lake or several hours in a hammock with a good book. The June releases featured are brand new and offer a great variety in selection. They include a boy’s book, contemporary and historical romance, western mystery, and romantic suspense. The presses are small and traditional. Find your favorite summer reading spot to enjoy these books. Then use the voting box below to let us know which you’re likely to read first. 

Three boys have their hands full with a raging river, a crusty prospector, his gold mine, a gang of claim-jumping outlaw bikers, and a desperate river escape on their makeshift wooden raft. Think that’s the worst that could happen…well it isn’t.

Jobless and down to her last dime, Ellie Moore disguises herself as Lavinia Stewart, a middle-aged widow, to land a position with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. In her wildest dreams, she never imagined having to add a second character to her repertoire in the form of Lavinia's dazzling niece, Jessie . . . or considered the problem of losing her heart to Steven Pierce, who has no idea that the woman he’s falling in love with doesn’t exist.











With her father’s death, Anna Newfield loses everything—her home, her inheritance, and her future; she had nothing left but her faith. Major Edmond Grenville longs to rescue her, but loving her means going against his family’s rigid control and perhaps losing his entire future.





Amid murder, mystery and mayhem, Deputy Chief Ryan Fitzgerald and Free-lance journalist Meghan Henry must set aside their personal hurts in order to work together, risking their lives to solve a murder, catch a killer and rescue a baby before it’s too late. And in the process discover that the biggest, most rewarding risk of all is love.

Filipa Beltran is tired of living out her parents' dreams, while Nathan Cross would give anything to make his late father proud. When a childhood friendship blossoms into romance, can this couple find common ground as they search for contentment in their God-given gifts?

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Author LOVE TURNS THE TIDE available from Awe-Struck E-Books www.awe-struck.net Web site: http://www.gailpallotta.com Blog: http://www.gailpallotta.blogspot.com Splickety magazine, issue 1.1 https://magcloud.com/account/downloads

So...Talk!

So my crit partner is gearing up for this year's RWA conference. The cost is not cheap. At over $400 for members and upwards of $600 for non-members, its definitely something that takes a few moments of debating whether or not it is the right time to go.  Do you have a finished book or one that is near completion to pitch? Are you ready to take a meeting with either an agent or an editor? Do you truly feel its worth not only the expense, but also the days weeks of stress that comes with what could be a MAJOR step in a writing career?


However, as it is in Anaheim this year, the conference seemed totally doable because we wouldn't have to pay airfare, hotel, or car rental. Being that both of us reside a reasonable distance from the venue, we talked about going together. Ultimately, I decided not to attend. But...my partner is going and I am so excited for her!


This brings us the flurry of emails flitting back and forth between her and I. She is trying to get her one-sheet for her book ready. Her photo is fabulous! She definitely looks like an historical romance author! Also she's working on her proposal. But the thing that seems to be stumping her the most...and I had the same problem...is her elevator speech.


We sat down for coffee last weekend and we did a little role play to flesh out what she might say during her appointments with the agent and editor. So we shook hands, introduced ourselves, and then she looked at me expectantly. Finally, after a few seconds, I asked her (in my best agent-y voice) "So tell me about you're going to say."


She blinked..."Well, ask me questions."


So I told her that when you sit down to talk...you have to talk.  Like right away. Its a sales meeting, essentially. Your book is your product.  Be professional, direct, clear, and passionate about your novel. My crit partner and I tried to work out a succinct, yet interesting pitch for her book. I gotta say...that is so hard to do!


Anyway, I think she's got it now and I hope she does exceedingly well a the conference and returns with great news.  My fingers are crossed, Erin!

Photo by Fran Ulloa

The Soul Saver

*guest post by Michelle Massaro

At Clash of the Titles, we're interested in the Christian Fiction that's making a splash, flying onto the scene in a burst of attention-grabbing technicolor and gripping our imaginations. Every month we're seeing batches of new stories hit the shelves and here's one that has also hit our hearts.

Dineen Miller's The Soul Saver recently competed on our website and garnered a lot of attention there. We just had to know more about this book and its author. Here's what we discovered...

About Dineen Miller:

Dineen Miller readily admits that one of the greatest lessons she’s learning about life is that there’s purpose in our trials. It’s all about trusting God and putting our hope in Him. Her favorite stories are of the miracles God has wrought in the lives of her family.

Through this lens she also believes her years as a youth counselor, a Stephen Minister, a women’s ministry leader, and a small group leader fuel her desire to ignite the souls of others through words of truth.

In addition to writing for Spiritually Unequal Marriage, Dineen has won several prestigious awards for her fiction, and her devotional writing has been featured in Our Journey and Christian Women Online Magazine. She’s also a C.L.A.S.S. Communicator and has been featured on the Moody Radio Network, Family Life and Focus on the Family Radio.

Married for 24 years to a guy who keeps her young, she lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two adult daughters, who surprise her daily with their own creativity.

She is the co-author of Winning Him Without Words: 10 Keys to Thriving in Your Spiritually Mismatched Marriage and the author of The Soul Saver.

Links:

Websites:
http://www.dineenmiller.com
http://spirituallyunequalmarriage.com

Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/DineenMiller.AuthorSpeaker https://www.facebook.com/SpirituallyUnequalMarriage

GoodReads author page:
http://www.goodreads.com/dineenmiller

The Soul Saver Booktrailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p07iTbP5SK8

Q & A with the Author

1. What inspired the story for The Soul Saver?

My own life. I wanted to write a fictionalized account of how God can work in amazing ways in our lives when we trust Him. The Soul Saver is that story—of how Lexie Baltimore desires to love her unbelieving husband in the way God is calling her to and the battles she faces with the enemy because she’s on the front lines praying for the salvation of her

husband. I wrote this book for all the Lexies out there, to encourage and remind them that we’re not alone. God is there working in ways we can’t even imagine!

2. A suspense novel in the Christian industry can often be difficult to write. What helped you overcome those obstacles?

Staying true to the message I felt God calling me to write. I attended the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) conference in 2008 and by the end of the week, I left with a clear understanding that God wanted me to write this book. I stayed faithful to that calling and trusted God to find a place for it. Some in the industry either had reservations with the issue of being spiritually mismatched or with Tobias, a demon, who is simply a tool I used to show the spiritual warfare that is common in spiritually mismatched marriages. At one point I wondered if I would have to take him out, but my amazing agent, Rachelle Gardner, encouraged me to hold true to my story and she was right. The right timing and publisher did come along. I will be forever grateful to Barbour Books for giving The Soul Saver a chance.

3. What made you want to write in this specific genre?

I love intricate stories and characters. Suspense wrapped with the supernatural is something I’ve always loved to read. The amazing thing is, we live in a world full of suspense and the supernatural every day. My favorite stories have and always will be of the miraculous, of how God has provided, made His presence known, saved a lost soul because that is what’s really happening around us if we just take the time to notice it. God loves to wow us. I hope I can do a little of that to my readers too. They deserve it.

4. Do you have any future projects going on?

I have a novella coming out in August, A Love Meant to Be, that’s part of a collection titled Rendezvous in Central Park. I have the distinct privilege and honor of writing with Ronie Kendig, MaryLu Tyndall, and Kim Vogel Sawyer, three seasoned and very talented authors. I love this story because it’s a tribute to my father, a Vietnam vet who passed away in 2010. These stories span from the Civil War to WWII to Vietnam to present day conflict in Afghanistan.

About The Soul Saver:

When Trusting God Is the Only Way Out
On an average day, God started her missions in her sculpting studio, revealing the face of the person she would meet at the grocery store, bank, or playground. The goal was always the same. Reach the lost, bring someone back to God, restore hope. But then came the tough missions—the ones that sent Lexie Baltimore into real battle. And she had a few battle scars to show for it.

Tormented that she can’t reach the one person she loves the most—staunch atheist and husband Hugh—Lexie finds her own hope waning when the battle comes to her doorstep in the shape of a pastor who represents everything she wants and everything her husband is not—a godly man.

Then false accusations and rumors spin her husband and family into a precarious position, and the only way out is to trust God. But how can she convince her husband when she’s struggling to trust God herself?

This time Lexie is the mission.

What others are saying:

“Deep, compelling, a beautifully written story of faith, hope, and the saving power of love. Dineen Miller hits home with this debut novel. The Soul Saver will stay with you for days after reading the last page.”

                    — Tosca Lee, NY Times bestselling author of Havah: The Story of Eve

“When you combine stellar writing, intriguing characters, and a fascinating plot the result is a story like The Soul Saver. It’s the kind of novel I wish I had written.”

                    — James L. Rubart, bestselling author of ROOMS, Book of Days, and The Chair

Links to purchase The Soul Saver:

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1616265825/kittenscomefr-20

CBD.com:
http://www.christianbook.com/the-soul-saver-dineen-miller/9781616265823/pd/265823?product_redirect=1&Ntt=9781616265823&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCG

Barnes&Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-saver-dineen-miller/1104273979?ean=9781616265823&itm=2&usri=the+soul+saver

The Soul Saver Booktrailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p07iTbP5SK8


*Michelle Massaro is a 2012 Genesis Finalist and Assistant Editor with COTT. She loves to connect, so stop and see her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MichelleMassaroBooks