Adam Blumer on meaningful suspense
Adam Blumer is the author of three Christian suspense novels: Fatal Illusions (Meaningful Suspense Press); its sequel, The Tenth Plague (Kirkdale Press); and the upcoming Kill Order (Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas). A print journalism major in college, he works full-time from home as a book editor after serving in editorial roles for more than twenty years. He lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with his wife, Kim, and his daughters, Laura and Julia.
Tell us about your newest book.
Adam’s newest suspense thriller is called Kill Order. Grammy Award-winning pianist Landon Jeffers is at the height of his career when doctors discover a malignant brain tumor and give him only a few years to live. Desperate, he turns to a so-called miracle worker and agrees to the insertion of a medicinal brain implant. He feels better than he has in years…until he wakes one morning with blood on his clothes but no memory of what happened. On the run for a crime he doesn’t remember committing, Landon, with his mom and his high school sweetheart, uncovers a mind-blowing conspiracy and begins remembering details of a crime he has long forgotten. As his brain unlocks repressed boyhood memories of a school shooting, he realizes his past holds the key to his future survival in a deadly cat-and-mouse game that threatens everything—and everyone—he holds dear.
What inspired you to write Kill Order?
Adam’s dad passed away from brain cancer in 2011, and several aspects of his cancer journey kicked off the initial idea, which grew from there. One key detail involved a medical procedure; the doctors agreed to remove as much of his dad’s brain tumor as possible and replace it with medicinal wafers intended to fight the existing cancer. Adam began playing the what-if game. What if the doctor implanted something else, something that could monitor or even control his dad’s life?
How would you describe this book to someone in a 30-second blurb?
Landon Jeffers discovers a crime network is controlling his life through his brain implant. How can he escape and keep his loved ones safe?
What genre do you focus on and why?
Adam writes “meaningful suspense.” He has enjoyed suspenseful novels since he was a kid, and there are several successful authors who have inspired him along the way. They include Frank Peretti, Terri Blackstock, Mary Higgins Clark, Brandilyn Collins, Ted Dekker, and Steven James. He also likes to include a redemptive message that will inspire or encourage readers. Like most novelists, he enjoys writing what he likes to read.
Why do you write? What drives you?
Since Adam was a kid, God has hardwired him to come up with story ideas and a yearning to get them down on paper. If publishers and readers want his offerings, that’s even better.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Landon Jeffers is a celebrity pianist in his forties. Adam has always liked the name Landon and never used it in a previous story. Adam believes he came up with the last name Jeffers by looking through a phone book and finding something unusual that had a nice sound to it.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
Adam writes mostly in the evenings and on the weekends, after his regular day job and household chores are out of the way so he can focus.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
The hardest part of the writing life for Adam is finding adequate time after his day job and other commitments to actually write and free his mind enough to be creative. If he is under too much life pressure, he has difficulty producing. Perhaps someday his schedule will be freer so he can focus more on the writing.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
Adam loves hearing from readers who went to work tired because they stayed up too late finishing one of his novels. If Adam kept them immersed in his story, that’s a score in his book.
What’s one unusual fact about you?
When he was a kid, Adam had too many interests and struggled to focus. For a while he wanted to be a ventriloquist and had a “dummy” named Andy. But then Adam got braces and could no longer talk through his teeth like he used to. Andy sadly went into storage.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
Adam’s first novel, Fatal Illusions, was originally published by Kregel; he now self-publishes it through Meaningful Suspense Press. Kirkdale Press (Logos) published its sequel, The Tenth Plague.
What are you working on now?
Adam is currently working on the sequel to Kill Order, which he hopes is only the first book in a series.
Website: https://www.adamblumerbooks.com/
Social media links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdamBlumerNovelist
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamblumer
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2315682.Adam_Blumer
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/adamblumer/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamblumer/
Want to enter to win a copy? Click here: <a class=”rcptr” href=”http://www.rafflecopter.
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Leigh Ann Thomas on encouraging women
Leigh Ann Thomas is passionate about encouraging women to seek God’s best. She has penned four books and is a contributing author in twelve compilations. A staff writer for the parenting sites, InTheQuiver.com and Just18Summers.com, Leigh Ann has also contributed to Southern Writers Magazine, Power for Living, Charisma Magazine, and others.
She is married to her best friend, Roy, and they are thankful for the gifts of three daughters, two sons-in-law, three amazing grandsons and a grand-princess.
Tell us about your newest book.
Smack-Dab in the Midlife Zone—Inspiration for Women in the Middleuses scripture, prayer, and the power of story to show women in midlife how being smack-dab in the middle of God’s plans and purposes is the best place to be!
I am thankful for the Lord’s work in my life and for the privilege of walking in step with Him, each day an adventure. But a few short years ago, this was so not the case. I was grieving an approaching empty nest, a changing body, and an uncertain future. Through my struggles, God showed me that even though life was packed with change and transition, He did not change, and His call to love and serve continued in all seasons of life. This book includes my journey, as well as the stories and insights from over a dozen women I interviewed concerning their midlife years. I pray it will be a fun and meaningful mosey through the midlife zone!
What genre do you focus on and why?
I’m drawn to inspirational nonfiction as a way to encourage and motivate women to seek God’s best and to live with joy. For pure fun, I write short stories and drama sketches (a creative rest for my brain).
Why do you write? What drives you?
I feel God’s pleasure as I brainstorm, write, and edit. Being on mission with Him is the greatest joy of my life. The years I wasted running from this calling, are my motivation for writing with an intense urgency.
What does a day in your writing world look like?
An ideal day includes: an early start, breakfast, quiet time, calendar review, writing until early afternoon, lunch, editing, then a few minutes dedicated to the business end (marketing and such). If I’ve walked by a work-in-progress countless times to engage in “busy work,” I know the day is in danger of losing “ideal” status. And yes, it happens. I try to show myself grace and to move on.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
Everything beyond the quiet working moments with me and the Lord. I’m a typical introverted writer, and social media, marketing, and public events are way out of my comfort zone.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
The beautiful moments walking with God—as I learn, grow, laugh, and cry. These times are precious because I ran from it for so long.
What is the craziest thing you’ve experienced as an author?
I get tickled when anyone assumes I’m wealthy or well-known because of being traditionally published. I tell them, “Sure, I’m loaded. I’m laying up awesome treasures in Heaven!”
What are you most proud of?
This is more like what I’m grateful for, but that I stopped running and surrendered to God’s plans and purposes.
What is your favorite pastime?
Traveling with my sweetheart, hanging out with family, and being silly with my grandbabies (did I mention them yet? Big smile.)
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
I’m also the author of Ribbons, Lace, and Moments of Grace—Inspiration for the Mother of the Bride(SonRise Devotionals—2017). I have two older books, Time Out—A Quiet-time Devotional for Busy Moms, and Go Ye Therefore: Dramas for Today’s Church.
What are you working on now?
I’m smack-dab in the middle of a book launch (see what I did there?) so that’s absorbing my working hours. But I’m excited about the next steps as I listen for my Lord’s voice and stay ready to respond to His direction. Quite the adventure!
Website: LeighAThomas.com
Link to book: https://amzn.to/2IAEUVd
Social media links:
Twitter: @LThomasWrites
Instagram: @LeighAThomasWrites
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leigh.nallthomas
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/785810.Leigh_Ann_Thomas
Author Susan Meissner on WWII
Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling novelist with more than half a million books in print in fifteen languages. Her novels include The Last Year of the War, a Library Reads and Real Simple top pick, and As Bright as Heaven, starred review from Library Journal. She attended Point Loma Nazarene University and volunteers for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing.
Tell us about your newest book.
The Last Year of the War is a WW2 tale about an ordinary American teenager named Elise Sontag whose German immigrant parents have lived in Davenport, Iowa, for years. The Sontags’ world is turned upside down in 1943 when Elise’s father is arrested for being a suspected Nazi sympathizer. Unable to convince anyone of his loyalty to the US, the family is sent to an internment camp in Texas. While struggling to hold onto the threads of her identity, Elise meets a Japanese girl from Los Angeles who, like her, was born in America to immigrant parents. They form a bond of friendship Elise will cling to, even when she and her family are repatriated to war-torn Germany the last year of the war. In the hell of warfare and its aftermath, where all Elise believes herself to be is called into question, the echoes of that friendship will help her decide who has the right to declare to her who she is.
What inspired you to write The Last Year of the War?
I was on Ellis Island a few years ago for a book event related to A Fall of Marigolds, which takes place partly on the grounds of the Ellis Island Hospital. The guide who was going to be taking us on the hard hat tour of the hospital buildings asked me if I knew that Ellis Island had been used as a detention facility for German and Japanese-Americans during WW2. That was the first time I heard of German-Americans being detained in the States at all during the war. He then told me that it wasn’t just Ellis Island; there was internment camp south of San Antonio, Texas, where hundreds upon hundreds of German-Americans – and their American-born children- had been sent, and that some of these people were actually repatriated to Germany in prisoner exchanges. As a writer always on the lookout for a historical event about humanity, I knew there was a story waiting for me here, and waiting for you, because it was largely an untold story.
How would you describe this book to someone in a 30-second blurb?
At its core, this is a story about the quest for identity. Do I decide who I am or is my identity imposed upon me by others? Who decides who I am? The Last Year of the War deals with this question but also friendship and family bonds, fear and prejudice, love and acceptance.
What genre do you focus on and why?
I’ve written in other genres but I’ve stayed in the historical fiction lane for the last eleven years because I love how this genre allows us to learn history by experiencing it through the pages of story. It’s like being able to time travel without leaving your chair.
Why do you write? What drives you?
Like many writers, I understand life by writing about it. Writing is gift, I think. God gifts some people with the ability to paint; it’s in their DNA. I think writing is in mine. I am motivated by hearing the real life stories of ordinary people like you and me thrust into extraordinary circumstances that force them to find strengths they didn’t know they had.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Elise is the main character and I chose this name first because I love the way it sounds coming off the tongue. Secondly, it’s derivative of the German name Elsa, which is a Sontag family name.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
On writing days, I try to wrangle 1500 good words onto the page. Sometimes (on a really good day), I am done by noon. Other days, I am still at it at dinner time. Non-writing days are usually used for research or social media requests or handling the day to day business life of a freelance writer.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
For me the hardest aspect to deal with — and maybe this is true for many other creatives who produce a product for the masses — is managing expectations and disappointment. It can be a challenge to refuse to compare myself and my books and their standing in the marketplace with other writers and their books. I try to begin each day with an attitude of gratitude. That seems to ward off envy and discontentment and anxiety.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
Meeting people, making new friends, finding new kindred spirits. The reason it’s the best part is because people are the best part of any kind of existence. In the end, it’s the people in our lives that make life wonderful and purposeful.
What’s one unusual fact about you?
I don’t like escalators. I will ride them but I don’t like them. If we are walking together and approach an escalator, you have to go first. I am going to need a second or to count off a couple steps before I step out and commit.
How have you changed or grown as a writer?
I’ve learned so many things on this career path. I’ve become a better writer (I hope) with better insights on how we think and why we humans love what we love and fear what we fear and do what we do in response to these two universal motivators. I’ve learned writing doesn’t get easier, and that that’s okay. Feeling the challenge is part of the process of crafting a great book, in my opinion.
What is your favorite pastime?
Traveling to faraway places is always a treat. But as for everyday pastimes, I love to read what I want to read (not for work) in a comfy spot with a cuppa and with my dog curled up at my feet.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
I have about 20 other titles; the most recent are AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, A BRIDGE ACROSS THE OCEAN, STARS OVER SUNSET BOULEVARD, SECRETS OF A CHARMED LIFE, and A FALL OF MARIGOLDS.
What are you working on now?
The book I am only a few chapters into doesn’t have a title yet but it’s set in San Francisco in the early twentieth century. The lives of three women are going to converge because of the machinations of one man. Here’s my working premise: When the lives of three women collide in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a shared secret buried in the resulting dust and ash will bind them forever afterward.
Website: susanmeissner.com
Link to book: IndieBound
Social media links:
www.facebook.com/susan.meissner
https://twitter.com/SusanMeissner
On Instagram as @soozmeissner
Carol Ashby on Roman-era historical fiction
Carol Ashby grew up mostly in Idaho, but she’s worked and raised her family in New Mexico. After a career in research, she now works full time writing stories about difficult friendships and life-changing decisions in dangerous times, where forgiveness and love open hearts to discover their own faith in Christ. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys watching birds and other wildlife, playing piano, sewing, and traveling with her husband Jim.
Tell us about your newest book.
True Freedom is the next in the Light in the Empire series of stand-alone novels set in the Roman empire between AD 114 and 122. Enslaved as a youth when the Romans conquered his homeland, Dacius has grown to manhood as a Christian slave, trying to serve his masters as he would serve his Lord. When he overhears his owner’s son planning to kidnap the owner’s daughter Julia to get the ransom money to pay a gambling debt without his father knowing, Dacius risks his life to save her. Can his sacrificial service earn the freedom and love he never dreamed possible, or will it only end in his death?
What inspired you to write True Freedom?
Carol loves thinking about how living faithful to God can impact the people around us. Some people get to do big things to help others, but more often it’s the little things in the way we live our daily lives that draw people toward our Lord. While writing The Legacy and Faithful, two earlier novels in the series, she learned a lot about the social dynamics of the Roman world, split between free people and their slaves, who were legally “living things” and considered as disposable as a piece of furniture or some livestock. That raised the question of how people with no power over their own fate could live a life faithful to God and how that faithfulness could change the ones with power over them.
How would you describe this book to someone in a 30-second blurb?
It’s a story about a man staying true to his faith in Jesus even after being made a slave and losing everything and how his faithfulness opens an unexpected future for both him and the woman he was bought to serve.
What genre do you focus on and why?
Carol writes historical romance: adventures with a challenging romance threading through the plot. Her stories are tales of dangerous times, difficult friendships, and the power of forgiveness and love to transform lives. The early Roman empire is the perfect backdrop for being a Christian when it might get you killed and for nonbelievers who get to know a believer well to wrestle with whether following Jesus is worth the risk. It’s the forgiveness and friendships, romantic and otherwise, between characters of different faiths that open hearts toward God.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Carol is obsessive about getting the history right in her novels, and that limits the names that can be used. There were only twelve first names for citizen men in common use, and four of those made up sixty percent of the names. Names in Roman society followed very strict conventions if you were a Roman citizen. The lead female character is the daughter of an ex-consul of Rome and governor of Sicily, so she used the feminine version (Julia Secunda). The hero (Dacius/Leander) is a slave who’d had his name changed each time he was sold, which was common practice in those days.
What is your work schedule like when you’re writing a book?
Carol writes full-time, and spends eight to ten hours every day writing her novels, working on her websites (she’s her own webmaster), interacting on social media, and working on marketing activities. She’s an energizer bunny who naturally runs on six to seven hours of sleep, so writing at one or two in the morning isn’t uncommon when she’s in the flow of a scene.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
The hardest part of being an author is marketing. Even the biggest traditional publishers today expect their authors to do most of the marketing of their work. The stories come and are a joy to write, but figuring out the business aspects of being an author and spending the necessary time are not sources of joy.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
The best part of the author’s life is hearing from a reader that they found their own faith encouraged by the faith of the characters in one of Carol’s stories.
What’s one unusual fact about you?
Carol worked in semiconductor research for many years, and that meant a lot of writing using a formal English style. It took her months of writing fiction before she would write “But” at the beginning of a sentence instead of “However,” without cringing.
How have you changed or grown as a writer?
After so much study of the advice of experts on how to craft tightly plotted stories that set a hook and won’t let a reader go, it’s become much easier to capture the emotion and action in the first draft. She rereads finished scenes and edits as she writes, so there isn’t as much to change when the first draft of a manuscript is finished. That makes the total time to write a 100K-word manuscript much shorter than when she started writing fiction.
What is your favorite pastime?
Carol’s favorite ways to spend her time when not writing include watching birds and other wildlife and playing the piano.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
True Freedom is the sixth in the stand-alone Light in the Empire series, all set in the Roman Empire between AD 114 and 122. The stories range across the Empire from Roman Germany to Judea and present-day Turkey. Each can be read independently so a reader can enter the series with any of the stories, but they share some characters. She tries for an exciting read with an “aaah” or two at the end. Sometimes that “aaah” is for a character the reader met in a different book but really got to know in the current one. The next book, Honor Bound, is going to be like that.
What are you working on now?
Carol is working on Honor Bound,which picks up a secondary character in True Freedom and makes him the male lead four years in the future. She’s also writing a novella focused on the sister who was separated from the hero of True Freedom twelve years earlier when they were both made slaves by the Roman army. Plus, she’s writing more articles for her Roman history website at carolashby.com
Website: https://carol-ashby.comis my author site.
https://carolashby.comis my Roman history site.
Link to book: https://amazon.com/dp/B07RWL15G1/
Social media links: https://www.facebook.com/carol.ashby.50
Sherrinda Ketchersid on medieval era historical romance
Sherrinda Ketchersid is a lover of stories with happily-ever-after endings. Whether set in the past or present, romance is what she writes and where her dreams reside. Sherrinda lives in north-central Texas with her preacher husband. With four grown children, three guys and a gal, she has more time and energy to spin tales of faith, fun, and forever love.
Tell us about your newest book.
Lady Jocelyn Ashburne suspects something is amiss at her family’s castle because her father ceases to write to her. When she overhears a plot to force her into vows—either to the church or a husband—she disguises herself and flees the convent in desperation to discover the truth.
Malcolm Castillon of Berkham is determined to win the next tournament and be granted a manor of his own. After years of proving his worth on the jousting field, he yearns for a life of peace. Rescuing a scrawny lad who turns out to be a beautiful woman is not what he bargained for. Still, he cannot deny that she stirs his heart like no other, in spite of her conniving ways.
Chaos, deception, and treachery threaten their goals, but both are determined to succeed. Learning to trust each other might be the only way either of them survives.
What inspired you to write Lord of Her Heart?
When I hit the age of forty, I decided I would write the book I always wanted to write. I didn’t want to come to the end of my life and regret not even trying. So that is what I did. I love the medieval era and began researching women during that time. That’s when I learned about rich women being sent to convents for an education. I began to ask the question ‘what if’. What if a woman was forced to remain? What if her family ceased to communicate with her? What if she found out she had to take her vows to the church or marry an old man? Those questions led to Jocelyn’s story and her escape from a convent.
What genre do you focus on and why?
I focus on historical romance for a couple of reasons. I love learning about the past and how people lived before all of our modern conveniences. When you couple that with romance and all that involves, it helps me to escape easier into another world. It is fascinating to me that people had the same goals and desires back then as they do now, yet had different constraints and societal structures they had to adhere to.
Why do you write? What drives you?
I write because the thought of bringing someone as much joy as books have brought me just makes my heart happy. I love happily-ever-after endings. I love romance. I love to live vicariously through the adventures my characters have (I’m not the most adventurous person!). And if someone catches a spiritual truth in the story, then … well, let’s just say that would be an immense blessing. I want to make God smile through my writing.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
My main character’s name is Jocelyn Ashburne. I chose Jocelyn because it was a pretty name from the time period. So many names back in medieval times were like Mary, Matilde, Maude, Elizabeth, etc… I wanted something different and pretty, yet still true to the era.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
So far, the hardest part of being an author has been the self-doubt. It is incredibly difficult to keep my focus on Jesus and not compare myself to other writers. When that happens, it is paralyzing and hinders my ability to create. I’m learning though. It’s a slow and deliberate process to daily give my time, energy, creativity—even success—over to the Lord. It makes all the difference.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
One of the best parts of my author life has been making life-long friends in the writing community. There is such camaraderie and support from writers all over the world. Seriously, it is such a gift.
What’s one unusual fact about you?
An unusual fact about me is that I, and every female in my family, have scoliosis (curvature of the spine). It runs mainly in females. My mother, her mother, my daughter, my two sisters and their daughters have it. Out of the eight of us, three had to wear a back brace, including me. I had to wear a metal and leather brace during my freshman and sophomore year of high school. Think Joan Cusack in Pretty in Pink. Yes, I was that awkward! While I hated it at the time, I can sure laugh about it now!
What is your favorite pastime?
I love to read, as does every writer, I’m sure. I also love to tend my flower beds, play with my seven month puppy Phineas, and play in my art room. Getting paints out and journaling in my Bible has become a special time of worship for me.
What are you working on now?
I am in the editing/rewriting phase of my second book, His to Keep. It is the story of Ian McGowan, the head guardsman in Lord of Her Heart. I fell in love with Ian and knew he needed his own story. He has a challenging road ahead of him, but faces each obstacle with courage and determination.
Website: www.sherrinda.com
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q4R9L8Z/
Social Media links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SherrindaKetchersidAuthor/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sherrinda
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sherrinda
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sherrinda/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19022507.Sherrinda_Ketchersid
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sherrinda-ketchersid
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sherrinda-Ketchersid/e/B07Q5Y8QHF/