Book Blog Swap with Kate Scott of  Parchment Girl Blog

Welcome to Day 2 of Book Blogger week. This year Christian Fiction Blog is participating in the BOOK Blog Swap. I received the honor to interview Kate Scott of Parchment Girl Blog.  Parchment Girl Blog was created in 2009.  Here's the interview:

Who introduced you to book blogging and what about their blog inspired you to create your own?

No one person introduced me to book blogging. Over time I discovered a number of amazing book bloggers and was inspired by their professionalism and passion for books.

Your blog design is gorgeous. How did you decide on the design for your blog? 

Thanks! I hired Darcy, the gifted designer behind GraphicallyDesigning.com to create the perfect look for my blog. I gave her my general ideas of what I wanted it to look like and she turned them into a work of art!

Since you became a book blogger, which book has surprised you the most in a good way and why?

The book that has surprised me the most is actually one I read just a few weeks ago--Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand. I'm not a big crime reader (aside from cozy mysteries), but I was super impressed with Bertrand's gritty, realistic style and great character development. Christian fiction has come a long way in terms of quality, but Back on Murder surpassed every expectation I had.

What blog communities do you belong to and why did you choose them?

I belong to the Ning community for book bloggers. I like to interact with other book bloggers in the forum, swap ideas and answer questions. Other than that I'm just a part of the community of Christian book bloggers who interact via Twitter and blog comments. 

What do you love most about BBAW?

 Discovering new blogs to follow! I'm excited to check out the shortlisted blogs in each category and read some of these interview swaps!

Related articles

• Getting to know the Book Bloggers: Come Meet Bookies (bookbloggersassociation.com)

Miranda Parker and The Book Club Network's Book Fun Party Tonight

Miranda Parker's A Good Excuse to Be Bad included in Book Fun Getaway
Good Monday
If you haven't read my novel, A Good Excuse to Be Bad, tonight you could win a copy and possible a KINDLE!! Today I'm participating in The Book Club Network's Big Book Fun! They will be giving away a KINDLE &  my novel Miranda Parker A Good Excuse to Be Bad TONIGHT?? It's Not too late to win these gifts!! Contest Starts at 9p.m. Eastern Standard time! Join and pass this news on today It's Free and we have lots of books to give away www.bookfun.org 
Miranda

Related articles

• Perry Public Library presents the 2011 Adult Summer Reading Program featuring Georgia's own Miranda Parker (mirandaparker.com)

Decatur Book Festival Sunday Events at Decatur High Stage

Sunday, September 3rd I will be one of the stage captains for the Decatur Book Festival. I will be working the Decatur High School Performing Arts Center. Here’s the rundown on the events and more about the authors who will be presenting. I hope you come out and join us tomorrow. We have a great line up! I’ll be wearing a gray tee. :)

Decatur High School

12:00-12:45:

Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind featuring Ellen Brown shares the fascinating stories behind Margaret Mitchell's classic and how it became a Hollywood blockbuster. I hope she tells us whether Scarlett won Rhett back.

1:15-2:00:

100 Things Braves Fans Should Know & Do Before They Dief eaturing Jack Wilkinson

Veteran sportswriter Jack Wilkinson[E-6] has collected every essential piece of Braves knowledge and trivia, as well as must-do activities, and ranks them all from 1 to 100, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist as you progress on your way to fan superstardom.

2:30-3:15:

From the Briar Patch to the Big Stage: Adapting Brer Rabbit for Opera featuring Park Cofield, Madeleine St. Romain, Nicole Chamberlain

The Atlanta Opera has commissioned a one-hour children’s opera around the famed tales of Brer Rabbit — popularized by Joel Chandler Harris — for its 2011-2012 season, and at the AJC Decatur Book Festival we will have a special presentation about its development and creation (as well as a sneak peek of some of the songs!).

• Madeleine St. Romain, Author
• Nicole Chamberlain, Author
• Park Cofield, Author
• Lain Shakespeare, Moderator

3:45-4:30:

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Taking Your Breath (and Your Blood) Away featuring Tananarive Due, Alma Katsu

Tananarive Due and Alma Katsu discuss their chilling supernatural thrillers and how they came to write terrifying fiction.

5:00-5:45:

What Lies in Shadow featuring Philip Nutman, Christopher Buehlman

Christopher Buehlman and Phillip Nutman discuss their horrifying tales about that which lies in the shadows of the night.

Related articles

• Kensington Books Author Miranda Parker at Decatur Book Festival (christianfiction.blogspot.com)

Kensington Books Author Miranda Parker at Decatur Book Festival

The Decatur Book Festival Is The Largest Independent Book Festival in the Nation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical is an annual, free book festival that takes place over Labor Day weekend in Decatur, Georgia at several venues located in and around the downtown Decatur Square. Conceived in 2005 and launched in 2006, the festival brings more than 300 authors to Decatur for the holiday weekend. The authors give readings, talks, and panel discussions. The event is free and open to the public.
Miranda Parker will discuss how the city of Decatur became a main character in her Angel Crawford Series. She will also reads and sign her novel A Good Excuse to Be Bad, which has just been selected as a top pick by the Atlanta Press Club.
http://www.decaturbookfestival.com/2011/authors/detail.php?id=253

Searching for Daylight: Sharon Foster

Multicultural Fiction

Searching for Daylight: Part II

Sharon Ewell Foster on Witness, Writing, and the Christian Writer’s Journey

Sharon Ewell Foster is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author, speaker, and teacher. She is the author of Passing by Samaria, the first successful work of Christian fiction by an African American author, and six other works of fiction. Her works regularly receive starred book reviews—which is a rarity among writers—and has won a Christy Award, the Gold Pen Award, Best of Borders, and several reviewers’ choice awards.

Last month, Foster’s highly anticipated new novel released.
The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witnesses (Simon & Schuster) is a story about how Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, aims to clarify the accepted history of Nat Turner’s prosecution. Turner, the Ethiopian turned American slave, is a well-read patriot in slaves’ eyes, but an ornery slave who needs to be put in his place in his mistress’s eyes.

Foster continues her chat with Christian Fiction Online Magazine about this controversial novel, her questions to God about her writer’s journey, and how her readers were her saving grace.

Here’s a sneak of this interview.

What themes in this story are relevant to our current Christian worldview?

I’m always fascinated by how our past speaks to our present.

It is about love.

Slavery, trafficking—no matter what country, race, or age—is very simply our failure to see one another as brothers, to love one another. We can try to intellectualize it, but it is what it is.

It is about the power of truth and the power of lies. Many people, lots of black men, find it hard to love God because of the lies they’ve been told—lies like God doesn’t love them, God meant for them to be slaves, God says people are inferior or superior because of the color of their skin.

In the books, I explore lies that are so ubiquitous that we have come to accept them as truth—even when those lies fly in the face of God’s Word. I explore the power of the truth to overcome even the oldest lie.

Read the rest of this great interview here.