Burning Questions Accepted Here!

We all have them, those burning questions we'd like to ask but find we're just too afraid to open our mouths. We'd like to offer you the opportunity to post those questions and allow the collective talents here at BB a chance to give you an answer. Whether you seek explanation about the meaning of such acronyms as RUE and POV in a crit, or would like some suggestions on the best how-to on query-writing, Sandra R., Lisa, Amber, and myself will work to give you an answer.

Shoot those questions to us by emailing them using the tab at right. Or, if you're brave, leave the question in comments on Tuesdays.

Read More

You're Smack-Dab in the Middle! (Children's Book Review)

About the Book:

"Willie Juan said, 'Little friends, what is one thing you think Abba will ask you someday when you are in heaven?'

Willie Juan and Ana couldn't have children of their own, but somehow, their home is always full of children and laughter and love. One day, when gathered together enjoying a beautiful evening and Ana's most delicious sopapillas, Willie Juan asks this most curious question.

As the group discusses the question, all come to the wonderful realization that Abba loves each of us, and we are all smack-dab in the middle of His love."

Amber's Review:

Sweet! From the lovely and adorable illustrations, to the tasty and engaging descriptions, Smack-Dab in the Middle of God's Love is a sweet book! The theme of being "smack-dab in the middle" is creatively expressed and like a warm hug reminding readers of the wonder of God's love for each one of us.

The simplicity of this colorful book would make this a great bed-time story for younger children. (Or even for children at heart, like this book-loving college student!) The use of a few Spanish words might make it difficult for young English-speaking children (perhaps Kindergarten or first-grade age) to understand, but if parents or other older family members read the book aloud and help clarify the imbedded explanations of the words, I think this would have a lot to offer in terms of a great message and some teachable moments!

The book has a rather unique take on God's love in regards to the question posed to the characters. While I think some ideas could have been expressed more clearly (such as the definition of "Abba"), overall this is a great children's book - wonderful in its message of God's all-encompassing love, with a narrowed focus on the truth that God wants us to enjoy the good gifts He gives us.

*With thanks to Julie Backman and Thomas Nelson Publishers for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion.*

*Be sure to stop by the BB on Friday for your chance to win a copy of Smack-Dab in the Middle of God's Love!*

Or you can buy a copy of this charming children's book today for someone you love at Amazon.com!

(Book description and cover image from Goodreads.com.)

Read More

Winners!!

It's always so much fun to give away great books!! Congratulations to this week's lucky winner:

A J Hawke - Blue Skies Tomorrow by Sarah Sundin

A J, please use the button in the upper right side of this page to email me with your mailing address so I can forward your information to the author. Then, sit back and wait for your book to arrive.

Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book and thank you, Sarah Sundin, for your generosity in providing a book!

Read More

Weekly Drawing

Entering our weekly drawing is easy:

1. Leave a comment on Fridays or...

2. Sign up to follow The Borrowed Book. Followers will automatically be entered for a chance to win that week's drawing!

This week, The Borrowed Book is giving away:

Blue Skies Tomorrow by Sarah Sundin ~ In a time of peril, can they find the courage to confront their fears and embrace a love that lasts?

When her husband becomes a casualty of the war in the Pacific, Helen Carlisle throws herself into volunteering for the war effort to conceal her feelings. But keeping up appearances as the grieving widow of a hometown hero is taking its toll. Soon something is going to give.

Lt. Raymond Novak prefers the pulpit to the cockpit. His stateside job training B-17 pilots allows him the luxury of a personal life--and a convenient excuse to ignore his deepest fear. When the beautiful Helen catches his eye and captures his heart, he is determined to win her hand.

But when Ray and Helen are called upon to step out in faith and put their reputations and their lives on the line, can they meet the challenges that face them? And can their young love survive until blue skies return?

Filled with drama, daring, and all the romance of the WWII era, Blue Skies Tomorrow is the captivating final book in the popular Wings of Glory series.

Winners will be announced on Saturday, 09/03/11.

Read More

Weekend at a Writers’ Conference

I always enjoy attending writers’ conferences, and last weekend was a real treat. I spent three days in Nashville at Killer Nashville, a conference for mystery and suspense writers. This conference brought together some of the bestselling authors of mystery and suspense in the nation as well as those seeking publication.

The lineup of guest speakers had something for everyone who’s ever wanted to write mystery. The opening session’s guest speaker was Dr. Bill Bass, widely known as the world’s foremost expert in forensic anthropology. Dr. Bass who founded The Body Farm on the campus of the University of Tennessee also co-writes murder mysteries with a friend under the name of Jefferson Bass. He is used by law enforcement all over the country in helping solve murders. His entertaining session was highlighted by the bones of real victims he brought and explained how the bones give him clues to the method used to murder the individual.

A favorite exhibit at the conference was a mock murder scene staged by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in the hotel’s parking garage. Agents from the bureau laid out a crime scene from a real murder that happened in a Nashville parking garage. The scene contained all the evidence found when the victim was killed. Conference attendees were challenged to solve the crime by examining the evidence, and the winner was awarded a free registration for next year’s conference.

This year the conference hosted two guests of honor, both New York Times bestselling authors. Donald Bain has written 115 books and currently writes the USA Today bestselling series of 37 original novels based upon the television series, Murder, She Wrote “in collaboration" with TV's most famous mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher.  Robert Dugoni writes thrillers, and his book Bodily Harm, was voted one of the top five thrillers of 2010 and critics are calling it his best book yet. His session Creating Thrilling Plots was one of the best I’ve ever attended.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend, and I came away having learned a lot. I was especially impressed by Donald Bain who made the comment in one of the sessions that he had just learned something from another presenter. Coming from an author who has written 115 books, that comment made me stop and think.

We should never quit learning. After all, that’s why we as writers attend conferences. We want to gain some knowledge that will enable us to improve our writing so we can create the best work possible.

Are you planning to attend a writers’ conference this year? What do you hope to learn while you’re there?

Read More

Author Interview ~ Sarah Sundin

Sarah Sundin lives in northern California with her husband and three children. When she isn’t ferrying kids to soccer and tennis, she works on-call as a hospital pharmacist and teaches Sunday school. She is the author of the Wings of Glory series—A Distant Melody (Revell 2010), A Memory Between Us (2010), and Blue Skies Tomorrow (August 2011).

Hello, Sarah! Welcome to The Borrowed Book. Did you always see yourself becoming a writer as a child? If not, what did you dream of being?

Occasionally, but not for long. I also saw myself as a ballerina and a protozoologist. Yes, a protozoologist, as in a scientist who studies protozoa, those cute little one-celled organisms like the amoeba and the paramecium. Not only did I want to be a protozoologist, l loved seeing people’s faces when I told them. Yes, I was a strange child.

LOL! That just means you fit in just right as a writer. How long did you write before you sold your first book?

I started writing in January 2000, started submitting in 2003, and received an offer for a three-book contract in 2008. My first novel released in March 2010, ten years and two months after I first started.

Wow, talk about perseverance! Many of the people who follow our blog are aspiring writers themselves. So along with telling them to keep at it, can you share your favorite writing tip with them?

It’s a dual tip—you need both. Be teachable and be persistent. Teachability without persistence leads us to rewrite chapter one over and over for ten years. Persistence without teachability leads to a mess—no improvement as a writer and strained relations with professionals.

Great advice! Now for the readers…many times, it’s easy for them to connect with the characters in a book, but not so much the authors themselves. Share something about your day-to-day life that might help a reader to feel as though they know you a little better.

How about my morning routine? After I drop the kids off at school, and before I have my quiet time, I wear out Daisy the yellow lab. I set up my laptop at the kitchen table and check emails while I wave a laser pointer (known to the Sundins as The Magic Light) up and down the length of the family room. Daisy chases it, back and forth, over and over, yipping and barking. We do this for over an hour. When I’ve had enough—Daisy never has enough—I put away The Light and open the back door. Daisy trots outside and cools off in the pool. Most likely, while I’m answering your comments on this blog, I have a barking, growling dog running beside me. This is my life.

Now that you are published, do you still experience rejections? If so, how are these rejections different or similar to the ones you received before becoming published?

I was blessed to receive another three-book contract from my publisher recently, so I haven’t had that type of rejection for a while. But I do get occasional nasty reviews—and I remind myself that all authors do. But a snarky review feels more personal than those polite professional form letters. I just pray for them, because people who can only feel good about themselves by mocking someone else have some serious hurt in their lives.

Congratulations!! Looking forward to learning more about your new series. For now, tell us a little about your latest release:

Blue Skies Tomorrow is the third book in the Wings of Glory series, which follows the three Novak brothers, B-17 bomber pilots with the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England during World War II. Each book stands alone.

Lt. Raymond Novak prefers the pulpit to the cockpit, but at least his stateside job training B-17 pilots allows him the luxury of a personal life. As he courts Helen Carlisle, a young war widow and mother who conceals her pain under a frenzy of volunteer work, the sparks of their romance set a fire that flings them both into peril. After Ray leaves to fly a combat mission at the peak of the air war over Europe, Helen takes a job in a dangerous munitions yard and confronts an even graver menace in her own home. Will they find the courage to face their challenges? And can their young love survive until blue skies return?

If you could only share one line from Blue Skies Tomorrow, which one would you choose and why?

Ooh, that’s tough, not just because I have so many favorites, but because most wouldn’t make sense out of context. This is what I chose...

Mom set the platter of chicken on the table. “Boys, please call your father for dinner.”

Ray and Walt grinned at each other and called out, “Your father for dinner!”

First of all, that’s an inside joke—my sister and I used to do that to our mother. Both my mom and sister got a kick out of that. Also, it shows the camaraderie in the Novak family. They’re not a perfect family, but they love each other deeply and have a whole lot of fun.

Writers often put things in their books that are very personal—like a funny story that happened to them, a spiritual truth they learned through difficulty, or even just a character trait that is uniquely theirs. Is there something in Blue Skies Tomorrow that only people close to you know is about you or someone you know?

There’s a scene where the heroine, Helen Carlisle, is emotionally distraught and forgets her young son at church. One day several years ago I forgot my little guy at my older son’s karate studio. We didn’t get out of the parking lot before my daughter chirped up, “Where’s Matthew?” I’ll never forget my horrified feeling, how I cranked my car into the fastest U-turn ever—or the heartbreaking sight of my little son standing outside the studio looking for me. His posture and the look on his face—well, I transplanted them onto little Jay-Jay Carlisle.

Readers often talk a lot about the hero and heroine of a story, but today I’d like to know something about your villain. Does he or she have a redeeming quality? Why or why not?

He might be controlling and manipulative—and something darker—but he’s also very generous and charitable. He’s also funny and charming, and most people who know him think the world of him.

What kind of research did you have to do for this book? Can you share some articles or website links you found particularly helpful?

I have to confess, I have over two hundred books and websites in my bibliography. Yes, that’s sick. Since the heroes in this series are B-17 bomber pilots—but I’ve never flown a plane—I read a “How to Fly a Plane” book to get the basics, purchased copies of the actual B-17 pilot’s manual and the training film (pure gold!), and ran the flying scenes past a pilot friend. For this book I pored over microfilm of the Antioch Ledger for gobs of local details, everything from the price of pork chops, to rationing updates, to the weather. Plus fun trivia, like how the PTA met at Mrs. So-and-So’s house on D Street where they knit socks for soldiers. My absolute favorite website for research is http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/. The Hyperwar website has hundreds of public domain official documents and books about World War II—the official Army histories, training manuals, technical manuals—just fabulous stuff.

Looks like a great link! I'll be sure to check it out. Tell us what new projects you’re working on.

I signed another contract with Revell for a series tentatively titled Wings of the Nightingale. It follows three World War II flight nurses who discover love, friendship, and peril in the skies and on the shores of the Mediterranean. I just finished the first novel in the series, which will release Fall 2012. It features a You’ve Got Mail-like anonymous pen pal relationship between a loner nurse and an Army engineer burdened by the legacy of his infamous father.

The most common thing I hear when people learned I’ve published a book is, “I’ve always wanted to do that.” Faced with this statement, what advice would you give to someone just starting out in this business?

I hear it all the time too! If they haven’t started writing yet, I just encourage them to write the story, all of it, and worry about publication later. If they’re working on a project, I recommend writers’ conferences. First of all, conferences are the best way to connect with editors and agents if they’re ready for that. More importantly, you get great instruction and learn to be a better writer. I also recommend American Christian Fiction Writers (www.acfw.com) —the e-mail loops and on-line courses are like a mini-conference in my inbox every day. I only wish I’d joined ACFW years earlier.

What is the one question you were afraid I would ask…and how would you answer?

Any of those “If you were a ____, what would you be?” questions. Color, animal, song? Oh, I don’t know. I usually ask whichever family member is in the room, which is dangerous. When one interviewer asked me what animal I’d be, I asked my teen daughter. She said, “A sloth.” That’s the problem with writing—no one thinks you’re actually doing anything! By the way, never ask the opinion of your teen daughter.

Connect with Sarah:

Website: http://www.sarahsundin.com
Blog: http://www.sarahsundin.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SarahSundinAuthor
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sarahsundin

Check out The Borrowed Book on Friday for a chance to win a copy of Sarah's book, Blue Skies Tomorrow!

Read More

POLL: Name the Most Difficult Aspect of Writing (multiple answers allowed)

Read More