Featured Fiction: Kristin Billerbeck

Today, we’re celebrating one of the authors who helped us make the Frasier Contest possible! Kristin Billerbeck is a  CBA bestselling novelist who has written over 40 novels and novellas. She lives in the Silicon Valley with my family.

Q: Kristin, can you tell us a little bit about your next book?

I’ve taken off nearly two years of writing, but I’m getting back into it now that my two sons are off to college.  My last book is the final Smitten collection, Smitten Book Club with fellow authors and friends, Colleen Coble, Denise Hunter and Diann Hunt for Harper Collins Christian. http://www.amazon.com/Smitten-Book-Club-Thomas-Nelson/dp/1401687164  Right now, I’m working on a follow-up to my most popular series, “Ashley Stockingdale” and I’ve got a new book coming out soon called, “What a Girl Needs.”  It’s about the life and times of a chaotic patent attorney and her quest toward marital bliss.

Featured Fiction: Introducing Melanie Dickerson

Today, we’re celebrating one of the authors who helped us make the Frasier Contest possible. Melanie Dickerson helped judge the Frasier, and her new book The Princess Spy, came out this Thursday!

Q: Melanie, can you give us a little blurb about your book?

In this Medieval romance based on The Frog Prince fairy tale … Margaretha has always been a romantic, and hopes her newest suitor, Lord Claybrook, is destined to be her one true love. But then an injured man is brought to Hagenheim Castle, claiming to be an English lord who was attacked by Claybrook and left for dead. And only Margaretha—one of the few who speaks his language—understands the wild story.

Conversations with a Writing Coach

Hey Awesome Writers!

I’m on the road this week – so I asked my friend Phyllis Wheeler, who runs a publishing start-up if she’d step in with a blog to sort through how to choose between traditional publishing and self-publishing. Hope it’s helpful!

PS – Ever want to sit down and talk through your writing journey with a writing coach? JUST launched a new book that does just that! Follow the journey of an aspiring writer (and learn along with her!) in Conversations with a Writing Coach. $4.99 Available only on KINDLE!

Take it away, Phyllis!

*****

Should you self-publish?

Self-publishing has changed over the years. There are now some high-quality self-published books out there, and the authors are reaping 100 percent of the profit. Should you join them?

Listen to me! Or: The non-list-making, non-threatening, let’s-have-a-cup-of-coffee-and-chat method of creating living breathing characters.

Christian books should reach beyond our hearts to touch our souls. Regardless of the genre — suspense, romance, historical, or chick lit — stories can touch our lives, even change us. And, while plot lines are important…it is characters that drive stories. When we think of the Hunt for Red October, we think of Jack Ryan. When we think of the Fugitive, we think of Dr. Richard Kimball. Characters drive the plot. So, how do we create characters that live and breathe and drive a story into our hearts?

Throw away the list!

When I began writing, I did what seemed logical – I filled out character lists. Answered hundreds of questions. But my characters still felt flat, and more than that, their actions, dialogue and conflict didn’t seem to connect. At the time, I was home schooling, and as I looked at developing my children’s self-esteem, it hit me. People reveal themselves from the inside out, based on how they see themselves, or want others to see them. And discovering how a character defines himself is the key to making them come alive.