Soul Runner by Jon Guenther - My Review

And now my five-star review of Soul Runner that I recently posted on Amazon.

Look out William P. Young. Here comes Jon Guenther!, January 7, 2010 (Ridgeland, MS USA) - I was so excited to learn about Jon Guenther and was even more excited when he volunteered to send me a copy of his book. As a new writer, I don't have a lot of time to read though and I told Jon this. I explained that I'd read what I could in the carpool line at school. HA! I dare you to try to read this book in short spurts. I double-dog dare you. Can't be done. No way. I found it difficult to find a place to stop reading when I eventually had to. I finally just quit reading when not-too-much was going on. For instance at one point I left two characters in a fist fight with the outcome pending simply because the alternative was to not quit reading. LOL Heart pounding action to be sure. So wonderful to see more Christian Fiction like The Shack coming from self-published, non-affiliated Christian authors who know what they're doing. I'm so happy CBA affiliated Moody Press dumped this book instead of publishing it, backing out of the contract at the last minute. No exclusive work here. Just good, solid, heart-thumping, action-packed fiction from a very talented author. Soul Runner will keep you reading until the very end and then begging for more. And what do you know, there's more coming! I can't wait.

Added for Sue's Blog:

Jon is calling his work Christian Fiction but it isn't CBA Christian Fiction. It is therefore written with no particular market of Christian's in mind actually. This also means that his work wasn't edited for that specific market of Christians CBA was formed to create fiction for in 1950.

Also, since CBA affiliated Moody Press did break Jon's contract, Soul Runner won't automatically show up in exclusive affiliated bookstores such as Lifeway or Mardel's nor will his work show up in CBA affiliated Christian bookstores such as ChristianBook.com. I actually found it interesting to see Soul Runner on Christianbook.com as being published by Moody Press early on but as par for the course, it no longer shows up because Jon isn't CBA affiliated. I find that--interesting.

I will tell you this, if you let Soul Runner slip by because you don't see it in these bookstores, you've missed out on a fantastic read!

Excerpt from Cyn No More?

Excerpt from Cyn No More?

Well, it's unedited but just a little something to let you know I am working on getting it together. I'm so very excited about this addition to my Thirsting for Blood Series. Anyway, here's the possible excerpt. LOL

Ceese speaking to Father/Merideth.

“Ciod e Dia?” she said in flawless Irish Gaelic.

“What is God?” Brendan translated.

Father smiled and replied. “Tha Dia na Spiorad, neo-chriochnach, bith-bhuan, agus neo-chaochluidheach nabhith, na ghliocas, na chumhachd, na naomhachd, na cheartas, na mhaitheas, agus na fhìrinn.”

Brendan’s translation followed albeit in breathless wonderment. “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”

Rodney, both brows raised in mock surprise as nothing could really surprise him anymore, said, “Umm, I take that to mean that Father is no longer a vampire.”

Okay so there ya go!

Happy Thanksgiving. ;)

The Best Advertisement is Free.

I have to tell you that one of my most treasured finds while googling to see if my book was getting any kind of attention (and therefore possible sales) was when I found Never Ceese mentioned on TVtropes.org. While the site itself is slightly tongue in cheek, Never Ceese was mentioned along with books by Tolkien and other such astronomically great authors. Here's the link if you don't believe me. And here's the page if your browser lets you see it. Simply scroll down to literature.



Do keep in my when those on this site say Christian vampire they are not referring to work put out by CBA or ECPA, two fee oriented organizations who lay claim to the label Christian as far as any kind of literature goes. Christian in this context refers to the fact that faith is an important part of the story. *Sue throws on brakes to get back on track*

Okay, so yes. I was extremely proud of this mention. After all, the publisher of Never Ceese is no more. I had to republish my paperback through Lightning Source to keep my Thirsting for Blood series alive. Then I'm searching the web today and come across this. Again, here's the link for those who are browser impaired. And here's where you can view it now. You will have to scroll down a bit but it's worth it. Oh my is it worth it! :)




Okay, if you still have trouble seeing it, I'll post it for you. *Sue grins from ear to ear*

Richard, a vampire in Sue Dent's Christian werewolves-and-vampires novel Never Ceese needs blood to survive, but copes with it in a novel way — he tells a sob story to people on the Internet about his mother needing blood transfusions and gets donations to live on. He still occasionally craves blood from a living animal, but can cool his urges by draining blood from livestock. One of the biggest weaknesses of vampires focused on in the book is that vampirism is a "curse" that prevents a vampire from interacting with, speaking of, or even thinking of anything holy — not just crosses, but Bible verses, God himself, churches, etc. Richard, with help of a mentor, can fight against it enough that he can manage to quote John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world..."), but still has to go through quite a bit of pain to do it.

Did you notice this line? "a vampire in Sue Dent's Christian werewolves-and-vampires novel"

Just keep in mind that this doesn't meant CBA affiliation. I've not sold out. This book is written for the general market and not a closed market of specific Christian readers.

My series is what it is! And it don't get any better than that! Check out my Thirsting for Blood Series. You might actually be glad you did! :)

Laughing at old Press Release.

Yes. One of older press releases came up on a google search and I absolutely had to laugh out loud. Of course these sites have affiliate advertising from google etc . . . and this advertising apparently honed in on the word Christian. The two sites advertised in the space available was Tate Publishing, earning itself a spot in Writers Beware top 20 of the worst stealth vanity publishers out there and CBD or ChristianBook.com who doesn't even carry my books because I'm not affiliated with CBA and have no other connection to the targeted market of Christians they serve. Well, aside from both books being deemed socially acceptable to the Christian market by Spring Arbor.

Gotta love it!!!

Oh and here's the link if the ads don't change.

FIRST Wild Card Blog Tour 9/11 I'm "askeered!"

FIRST Wild Card Blog Tour is coming up Friday and I'm shaking in my boots. For those of you unfamiliar with what a blog tour is, I'll try to explain. For the most part it is Christian/CBA market specific. No publisher or author or blogger makes as big a deal of blog tours as those in the Christian/CBA Market. I suppose it started because affiliated authors wanted a way to bring attention to their work. Blog tours have become "the thing" in the Christian market.

FIRST is the one of the few Christian blog tours that accepts work from general market and other markets with the only requirement being that it is non-offensive to believers. To understand my fear however, you have to understand that a lot of the bloggers only read affiliated fiction. *YIKES!* And the tendency for any reviewer is to compare what you've read to what you know. My hope is that the reviewers will be as kind and helpful as they were the first time I toured. My fear is . . . hopefully unfounded. LOL

I can't say I'm real keen on the date but perhaps some of the reviews will be a bright spot to someone else. :)