Writer’s Call: The 2012 Christmas Story Carnival

It's that time again. I'm seeking some writers to participate in my Christmas Story Carnival for Christian Fiction Blog and Christian Fiction Online Magazine. I'm seeking Christmas short stories 1000 words or less (the shorter the better.) The stories must represent our current Christian worldview. The theme is based on the picture above: What is the story behind that Lonely Gift? I will select stories that are well written and fit the theme. The best three of those stories will be featured in my column at CFOM. There will be more goodies for the winners to be announced in November. Everyone selected will be featured on CFB. I would love to have 25 to share for a Christmas countdown. I will write one myself. Submission deadline is November 10, 2012. Email submissions to deegospelpr at gmail dot com. Please Share.  Leave any questions here in comments.

September #Blacklitchat Attica Locke The Cutting Season

We are so excited to have Attica Locke join us this Sunday, September 16 for #blacklitchat at 9 p.m. ET on Twitter.  Her new novel, The Cutting Season, is out on Sept. 18. It's a murder mystery set on a plantation. The Cutting Season is a great story and we can't wait to ask her all about it and her writing process. Please join us for the chat and let us know you're joining us on Sunday in the comments. As always, it will be a fun chat and we welcome your questions. We also will have prizes to giveaway.

Here's how to enter for a prize for our chat with @atticalocke:

Leave a comment below saying that you will join us for the chat.:

1. Follow @bernadettedavis, @deegospel and @atticalocke
2. Participate in the chat on Sunday, Sept. 16
3. Tweet one of the following before 5 p.m., 9/16:

RT @bernadettedavis Join me & @deegospel for #blacklitchat Sun., 9/16, 9p ET w/ @atticalocke, author of #TheCuttingSeason @harperbooks.

RT @bernadettedavis We're talking to @atticalocke about her new novel #TheCuttingSeason for #blacklitchat on Sunday at 9p ET.

@harperbooks Prizes will be shipped only to U.S. addresses. Here's more about Attica Locke and her books. New York Times review Los Angeles Times interview

About Attica Locke:

Attica Locke’s first novel, Black Water Rising, was shortlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize in the UK in 2010. It was nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award, as well as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a Strand Magazine Critics Award. The novel was also a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. In addition, Attica has spent many years working as a screenwriter, penning movie and television scripts for Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, HBO, and Dreamworks. She was a fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Feature Filmmakers Lab and is a graduate of Northwestern University. A native of Houston, Texas, Attica lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband and daughter. She is a member of the board of directors for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.

Visit her at http://www.atticalocke.com/

 About THE CUTTING SEASON

Caren Gray is the general manager of Belle Vie, a sprawling antebellum plantation where the past and the present coexist uneasily. The estate’s owners have turned the place into an eerie tourist attraction complete with full-dress reenactments and carefully restored slave quarters. Outside the gates, an ambitious corporation has been busy snapping up land from struggling families who have grown sugar cane for generations, replacing local employees with illegal laborers. Tensions mount when the body of a female migrant worker is found in a shallow grave on the edge of the property, her throat cut clean. The list of suspects is long, but when the cops zero in on a person of interest, Caren has a feeling they’re chasing the wrong leads. Putting herself at risk, she unearths startling new facts about an old mystery—the long-ago disappearance of a former slave—that has unsettling ties to the modern-day crime. In pursuit of the truth about Belle Vie’s history—and her own—Caren discovers secrets about both cases that an increasingly desperate killer will do anything to keep hidden. Taut, hauntingly resonant, and beautifully written, The Cutting Season is at once a thoughtful meditation on how America reckons its past with its future and a high-octane page-turner that unfolds with tremendous skill and vision, demonstrating once again that Locke is “a writer wise beyond her years” (Los Angeles Times).

Be advised. This chat is not a Christian Fiction novel chat. I am a fan of Attica’s work, so I am sharing this event with you.

National Day of Remembrance Book: Karen Kingsbury 9/11 Series

Good Tuesday. Today as we celebrate Patriot Day and National Day of Remembrance Christian Fiction Blog spotlight’s Karen Kingsbury’s 9/11 Series. These novels.
Book 1: ONE TUESDAY MORNING
A devoted fireman and a driven businessman, strangers with the same face. On that fateful Tuesday, one will leave the Twin Towers alive--but will he ever find his way home? Winner of the Silver Medallion Book Award.
Book 2: BEYOND TUESDAY MORNING
Jamie Bryan, widow of a firefighter who lost his life on that terrible day, has found meaning in her season of loss by volunteering at St. Paul’s, the memorial chapel across the street from where the Twin Towers once stood. Here she meets a daily stream of people touched by the tragedy, including two men with whom she feels a connection. One is a firefighter also changed by the attacks, the other a police officer from Los Angeles. But as Jamie gets to know the police officer, she is stunned to find out that he is the brother of Eric Michaels, the man with the uncanny resemblance to Jamie’s husband, the man who lived with her for three months after September 11.
Book 3: REMEMBER TUESDAY MORNING
Sheriff’s deputy Alex Brady and his K-9 partner Bo, are on a mission to protect the people of Los Angeles. Domestic terrorists are trying to make this the worst fire season in California’s history. Can Alex stop this senseless destruction in time, or will he lose himself in the process?

Shana Burton on FLAWS & FALL FICTION

Multicultural Fiction for Christian Fiction Online Magazine

Although summer is winding down, faith-based fiction refuses to turn down the heat. Shana Burton, author of the Flaws series, has returned with a sequel to her best seller Flaws and All: Flaw Less(August), a page-turning women’s drama. Burton chats with Christian Fiction Online Magazine to discuss the novel, the sequels, and the stigma of being an edgy inspirational writer.

What have the girls been up to in Flaw Less?

Oh, the girls are as messy as they’ve ever been—if not messier! Sullivan is (Click to read more)

Weekend Chatterbox: How will the DOJ Amazon.com Settlement Affect You?

Usually during the summer I pick a super large book to read. This year, however, I read the legal documents and various blog posts about the DOJ lawsuit against  Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster ( Wall Street Journal.)

Because Apple and others have already submitted appeal documents we may never see the change in prices. However, I’m curious both as a book buyer and an author. How will this settlement affect me?

• As a book buyer will this protect my ability to buy cheaper digital books?
• As an author will these cheap digital books price me out of the book writing business?

I don’t know. Maybe if I here your thoughts I wouldn’t feel so confused. So that is why this question is our Weekend Chatterbox question: How will the DOJ Settlement affect you?

DOES THIS BOOK STINK or ITS BOOK REVIEW?

6 Tips for restoring Book Reader Confidence in Book Reviews

A few weeks ago a national book club shared with me that their book reviews had been taken down from Amazon.com, because the account had more than one person noted as a reviewer. Amazon.com’s new policies no longer allowed multiple users on one account.

The book club was outraged. They felt targeted. They didn’t understand.

What was the problem of using one account for all the members to broadcast their book reviews?

This past week’s RJ Ellory debacle maybe the best answer. According to The Telegraph Ellory admitted to creating fake book reviews for over a decade. To make matters worst, some of the reviews were negative toward other authors.

Giving MacBride one star for his work Dark Blood, he[Ellory] wrote last month: “Unfortunately this is another in the seemingly endless parade of same-old-same-old Police procedurals that seem to abound in the UK.”

Later he used the same names in forum posts during a bit of “shameless self-promotion”, in which he also attacked another author before appearing to give himself away by signing off messages with “Roger”.

Now if that ain’t a hot mess… Catch this. Ellory is not alone. There have been other authors caught gaming online book review sites. (Orlando Figes)

So how does this affect book clubs submitted online reviews?

Because authors, paid reviewers, and who-knows-what-else have disregarded  FTC guidelines for full disclosure and have crossed the ethical line for book reviewers, Amazon.com and other consumer review sites have had to create stricter guidelines, in order to try to restore the value of the system.

Now I am not a fan of online reviews, because up onto this point, many reviews are biased or paid, aren’t always about the content but things beyond the authors control, and do not follow a universal book review writing guidelines. I cannot place the same value in a book review from someone whose review is simply “I couldn’t relate to the author.”

On the other hand as a published author, publicist, and former book reviewer, I know how book reviews are. In this new landscape of oversaturated book hodgepodge easy to find, cheap, affordable books-a-plenty book discoverability has become paramount. We know that book reviews help lift our books out of story obscurity.

But if the book review system is this flawed, then what is the value of a book review now, too? Very close to zilch.

So what can we do?

Karen Burgess at Literary Lunchbox shared a great idea to resuscitate book review power.

“… Consider doing some reviews yourself… on Amazon, on Goodreads, or even start your own blog. Because the more people who really love books share the love, the less opportunity there is for hacks and scammers!”

I also suggest for publicists:

1. Traditional PR works for one great reason. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. Submit books to review according to review periodical editorial guidelines and let the chips fall where they may.
2. Understand the FTC Guidelines for Book Bloggers and use them when you approach book bloggers for book review opportunities.
3. Review the reviews on your client’s book pages (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, GoodReads) monthly. It’s our job to manage our client’s image. Make sure those reviews line up to ethical standards.
4. No how to contact Amazon.com or any consumer review site to dispute a review. (Note I am a Good Reads Librarian. Contact me about your clients book data.)
5. Be transparent.
6. Work with vetted reviewers and bloggers who have a reputation for quality and ethical reviews.

Photo credit: Digitized Chaos

TPT: Dee Henderson Full Disclosure

Trailer Park Tuesday’s spotlight is Dee Henderson’s new novel Full Disclosure.

The Lady Shooter, a hired gun responsible for dozens of murders, has managed to keep her trail cold. Though she's long been inactive, Special Agent Paul Falcon refuses to give up the hunt. Then, Midwest Homicide Investigator Ann Silver seemingly appears out of nowhere and drops him the best lead on the case that he's had in years. But Ann leaves him with more than just good evidence—he also has a strong desire to get to know this clever cop better. Is he prepared for both the case's and Ann's secrets?