Weekly Drawing

It's Fun Friday at The Borrowed Book! To enter: Leave the time it took you to complete the puzzles in the comments section as well as your email address for notifying you if you've won. Winners will be drawn from ALL of the times, so the person with the fastest time may not be the actual winner, but by leaving your time, you double your chances. Want another entry? Tweet your puzzle time and mention The Borrowed Book, get another entry. RETWEET...

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How a Suspense Book Came About, by James R. Callen

When I read an old Texas folk tale about a wagon load of precious metal being pushed in a lake to hide it from the pursuing Mexican army, I knew I had to use that in a book.  But how?  I don’t write historical novels. What effect could an old folk tale have on people today?  I had worked on an information retrieval as part of my dissertation in graduate...

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Did You Know? ~ Homemade Ink

This past weekend I was in Staples, one of my favorite stores. I spent a small fortune on ink for my printer. I also perused the pens, but couldn’t find one I liked. I’m persnickety about pens and only certain ones will do. So, as I was researching a topic for today’s blog, I came across some recipes for ink. I thought about my visit to Staples and how easy modern technology has made my job as an author.  I can type a digital document on...

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Two Aids in Creating Memorable Characters by Author James Callan

My book on character development, Character: The Heart of the Novel, was published by Oak Tree Press in 2013. The main theme of the book was: Create memorable characters. Here are two ways to help in that endeavor.   If you’re writing fiction, you need to use metaphors and similes.  Why?  Because you need to develop memorable characters, characters that...

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Historical Romance Book Review ~ The Dancing Master

About the Book "Finding himself the man of the family, London dancing master Alec Valcourt moves his mother and sister to remote Devonshire, hoping to start over. But he is stunned to learn the village matriarch has prohibited all dancing, for reasons buried deep in her past. Alec finds an unlikely ally in the matriarch’s daughter. Though he’s initially wary of Julia...

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Winners!!

Good morning, BB fans! Thanks to everyone who participated in our "puzzling" Friday giveaway! Keep all those facebook and Twitter notifications, coming! This week's winner is:  Emily Kopf (zerina147 at gmail dot com ) - Betrayed by Lillian Duncan. Congratulations, Emily! Thank you all so much for stopping by The Borrowed Book....

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Max'ism...everything I've learned about God by watching my daschund

Max’ism:  Get off the Dock Matthew 14:25-32  Max isn’t built for swimming. With his long, barrel-like body and short, stumpy legs, he’s like log set adrift on the waves, even when I support him with my hand firm under his belly. But he absolutely cannot stand when we are in the pool and he isn’t. So he sits on the dock and whines,...

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Weekly Drawing

It's Fun Friday at The Borrowed Book! To enter: Leave the time it took you to complete the puzzles in the comments section as well as your email address for notifying you if you've won. Winners will be drawn from ALL of the times, so the person with the fastest time may not be the actual winner, but by leaving your time, you double your chances. Want another entry?...

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A Chat with Lillian Duncan

Today we continue our visit with Lillian Duncan, author of stories of faith mingled with murder & mayhem. Lillian is a multi-published writer who writes the type of books she loves to read—suspense with a touch of romance. Whether as an educator, a writer, or a speech pathologist, she believes in the power of words to transform lives, especially God’s Word. Lil,...

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Did You Know? ~ Cashews and Poison Ivy

Cashews are one of my favorite kinds of nuts. I’ve been known to consume copious quantities of them if I’m left alone with an open can. So I was surprised to discover that cashew trees are botanically related to poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.  The tree produces the same urushiol oil as its green, leafy relatives. Lest anyone stop buying and eating cashews because of childhood memories of red, bubbly, torturously itchy poison...

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3 Steps to Publication--Guaranteed! by Author Lillian Duncan

All stories have a beginning, a middle, and end. If you want to get published you need to write the BEST BEGINNINGS, MARVELOUS MIDDLES, and EXPLOSIVE ENDINGS.  Succeed with these three easy steps and you’ll have a contract before you know it. OK—maybe they aren’t all that easy to master. It took me years to learn the writing craft and I’m still learning!  BEST...

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YA Book Spotlight and Review ~ The Afterlife of Lizzie Monroe

About the Book "If Shane Davis had it to do over again, he wouldn't have gone out that night. He wouldn't have burned down the church. And he sure wouldn't have taken the annoying dead girl home with him. Now that Shane has her, he has no idea what to do with her. He can't release her into the 'wild' because people will recognize her (being a hundred and fifty year old...

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