Preslaysa

About the book:

A storm the size of Texas brews when Gloria Powell and Kai Chang meet in a Ft. Worth hotel. They have come to discuss the future of Lily, the daughter Gloria adopted from China and the sister Kai hopes to reclaim. Kai is a doctor who had to give up her little sister during the Cultural Revolution and has since discovered that an inherited genetic defect may be waiting to fatally strike Lily.
 
Gloria’s relationship with her daughter is tattered and strained, and the arrival of Kai, despite the woman’s apparent good intentions, makes Gloria fearful. Gloria longs to restore her relationship with Lily, but in the wake of this potentially devastating diagnosis, is Kai an answer to prayer–or will her arrival force Gloria to sacrifice more than she ever imagined?
 

About Patti:
 
Patti Lacy graduated from Baylor University with a BS in education and completed master’s-level courses in English at Indiana State University. She taught at Heartland Community College until May 2006, when she resigned to pursue her passion of writing. The author of three previous novels, Patti is the mother of two grown children and lives with her husband in Normal, Illinois.
 
For more about Patti and her other books, visit her website at www.pattilacy.com.

Patti Lacy is celebrating the release of her latest book, Reclaiming Lily,  with a KindleTouch Giveaway, blog tour and FB Book Chat Party!

Follow the blog tour and read the reviews!

Patti and her publisher, Bethany House, are giving away a Reclaiming Lily prize package worth over $150 to one lucky winner!!!!

Enter the Reclaiming Lily Giveaway and you could win:

• A brand new just released KindleTouch with Wi-Fi
• $25 gift cetificate to Amazon.com

But, wait there’s more!

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. Giveaway ends on 10/19! Patti will be announcing the winner of the Reclaiming Lily Giveaway at her Party on Facebook October 20th! She’ll be hosting a book club chat of Reclaiming Lily (it’s okay if you haven’t read it – you could win a copy!) and giving away other fun prizes! (signed copies of her books and gift certificates to Amazon.com, Starbucks, & iTunes!). Don’t miss the fun at Patti’s FB Author Page on 10/20/11 at 5pm PST ( 6 pm MST, 7 pm CST, & 8 pm EST)! RSVP today!

(A repost from Feb 18, 2011)

Because of my current stage of life, mother to a small child, I’ve been devising different methods to find time to write. Right now, my best time is early in the morning before the day starts. The house is quiet and I have ample time for my brain synapses to fire their sparks. So now, after I spend time with Jesus, I turn on the laptop and start writing. After writing early in the morning, I feel like I’ve satisfied my creative itch, had ‘me’ time and can now face the daily life of being a SAHM with peace and confidence.

Getting up early can be uncomfotable. Every time the alarm goes off, I have to tell myself why I’m getting up so early. To motivate myself to do something I wouldn’t naturally do, I have to think far ahead into the future and see where my NOT performing the action today would lead. I’ve done that with exercise, cleaning the house, reading the Bible, prayer, writing, marriage and parenting. I keep these negative consequences in mind whenever I decide not to perform a beneficial activity.

I’m more motivated by the pain of regret than the pleasure of achievement. Funny huh?

If there’s something you’ve always wanted to do but never done, take some time out and perform this exercise. With a pad and pen write what could happen if you never performed that activity. What type of person would you be one year from now? Five years from now? Ten years from now? Twenty years from now? What things would you regret?

Then, with those potential consequences in mind, get started on your goal. Getting started could mean make a plan of action, making a phone call, gathering research or reading a book.

Also, anytime you decide not to do something towards your goal, think back to what you wrote about your potential regrets. That’s enough motivation to get you going!

A Delicate Balance of Organization

By Shannon Vannatter

Balancing writing and family is a delicate skill that requires organization. Which I don’t have. I fly through life, deadlines, and obligations by the seat of my pants. On top of that, I have the worst memory. I keep my calendar on my desk and carefully schedule family stuff, writing commitments, and church events. I write down everything from allergy shots to interviews to weddings.

I do pretty good unless I have to travel. Traveling seems to wipe everything from my brain as Preslaysa knows. I missed my deadline for this post. But she’s sweet, so she puts up with me.

Here’s my list of things I try to do to keep my family my first priority:

• Only write when they’re not home, asleep, or my son has a friend over.
• Never make my family feel neglected because of my writing.
• Try not to schedule summer deadlines since my son is home.
• When I do have to be away from my family for writing commitments, do something fun when I get back.
• Try not to schedule book signings or speaking engagements on back to back weekends.

The last one is tough sometimes. Since Saturday is really our only family day, I try to keep at least two free a month. But when I scheduled my speaking engagements early in the year, it didn’t seem like September 23 and October 1 were only a week apart. I ended up going toSt. Louis,Missouri, six hours from home one weekend andSiloam Springs,Arkansas, four hours from home the next.

I often tell my husband I need a handler to get me where I need to be on time. I also need an assistant to help me keep it all straight. With Rodeo Dust releasing through Heartsong Presents this month, my book signing schedule kicks into high gear. And I did it again, I scheduled two signings on back to back weekends. But both are close to home, so we’ll have time for fun after my events.

My husband is currently a bi-vocational pastor which means he has a full time job as a dental technician and supposedly part time job as pastor. But there’s no such thing. In December he’s taking our church on full time. With a more relaxed schedule, we should be able to carve out more family time between his and my commitments.

For the most part, I stay on track, meet my deadlines and obligations, and manage family time too. Sometimes I feel like I’m juggling china on a treadmill, but life is good.

You can visit Shannon online at: www.shannonvannatter.com/

Shannon’s latest novel Rodeo Dust is available from Heartsong Presents

About Rodeo Dust:

Ad exec, Rayna Landers meets bull rider, Clay Warren at the State Fair of Texas. While Rayna thinks she’s content solo, Clay longs for marriage and family. Though poised to win his third world championship, his ranch is in a slump. Clay convinces his publicist to hire her advertising firm in a last-ditch effort to keep his employees and lasso her heart.

Soon the city girl is on the ride of her life, until the rodeo unearths buried memories from her past. Clay sees her through the trauma, but an injury and his stubborn determination to get back in the hypothetical saddle threatens their budding relationship. Can they rely on God to find their common ground or will they draw a line in the rodeo dust that neither will cross?

I’m excited about having novelist and editor Dina Sleiman with us today. Dina’s debut historical novel, Dance of the Dandelion, is available now. You can order it on Kindle for $4 and in paperback for $14.99

Welcome to The Literary Mama. Tell our readers a little about yourself.

I live in Virginia Beachwith my Lebanese husband, three children, and two yapping maltipoos. In addition to writing, I love all of the arts and have been very involved in drama and dance. I hang out at the ocean a lot and take a lot of long walks and bike rides. What else do you want to know? Favorite color: purple. Favorite dessert: tiramisu.

When did you get the writing bug…and when did you follow the call to write?

Ever since high school I’ve known that I wanted to write novels. I did pursue a masters degree in writing, but then I had kids and homeschooled and didn’t write much for about twelve years. Honestly, I was too active at that point to sit behind a desk all day and happier running around at the playground and being involved in dance ministry at church. I probably could have written young adult novels or basic romances at that point, but I wasn’t really sure that I had done enough living to have much to say anyway. Then in 2006, I felt God telling me it was time to get serious and write my first novel.

What is Dance of the Dandelion about?

It’s a coming of age story about a young peasant woman who is haunted by the deprivation of her childhood. She’s determined to make a better life for herself, even if she must leave her sweetheart behind. This begins a long and twisted journey of self-discovery and of discovering the true meaning of love. Along the way she meets other men who represent facets of love, but all of them leave her unfulfilled. It’s only when she discovers an intimate relationship with Christ that she finds the freedom and healing to that lead her to true earthly love as well.

If this novel were made into a movie, who would you like to play the hero and heroine?

Hmm…since my book is not a typical romance novel, I’m not sure if I want to give away who ultimately is the hero. LOL. But I will say this, her sweetheart at the beginning of the book I always pictured as Heath Ledger in a Knights Tale. Sadly, he passed away shortly after I finished the book. I also had a specific person in mind when I started writing my sexy Italian sea captain—Sawyer from Lost. But he kept trying to speak with a southern accent, which was quite problematic, so I had to shift the picture a little. Lord Thomas Worthing could probably be played by Dean Cain, at least in the older version toward the end of the book.

For Dandelion, I went online and found a young picture of Taylor Swift that was just about perfect. Not sure how she’d do with an English accent, though. But if I were casting a real movie, I might cast my daughter. She’s on the cover of the book and in the trailer. She also inspired the little girl version of the main character. And since she’s currently studying acting at a high school for the arts…yeah, I’d have to cast her.

What type of research do you undergo while writing a historical?

I really immersed myself in this time period. I had the idea for the novel and jotted down some notes in 2001. So for five years in addition to reading about 20 research books, I also read every novel and watched every movie I could about the time period. I even ended up teaching Medieval English lit for a semester. By the time I wrote the book, I was more fact checking than researching. I did most of that online.

You’re also an editor for White Fire Publishing. Tell us about that.                  

I was already friends and critique partners with the owner, Roseanna White, and I was enthralled by the vision she and her husband had for WhiteFire. She wanted the company to focus on those books that fell in the cracks between CBA and ABA fiction, as well as books with unusual settings that the CBA called “unmarketable.” And their first book, A Stray Drop of Blood written by Roseanna, is one of my personal favorites. Even before they were taking submissions, I had a sense that this would be the publishing house for my Dance of the Dandelion. Once they did accept my novel, I offered to help out with the company in any way that I could. Since Roseanna knew we had almost identical taste in books, she asked me to help with acquisitions. I’ve really enjoyed working in this capacity, and I think I’ve learned more about writing through editing than I could have learned in years of classes.

Do you have any other books coming up in the future?

My agent, Tamela Hancock Murray, is currently shopping a contemporary women’s fiction series that I wrote. Here is the blurb for the first book, Dance from Deep Within.

When a veiled Muslim woman meets a blonde ballerina and a bi-racial hippie chick over a group project on diversity, these class assignments push them to experience the world from new perspectives. Layla longs for freedom and a chance to finish her degree before being pressured into marriage. Allie struggles against feelings for an ex-fiancé, unable to accept him or the church he represents. Rain desires an existence with meaning, but that longing could cost her the love of her life.

These three returning college students bond in unexpected ways as they grapple with faith, purpose, and romance, searching for truth that will resonate deep within and carry them through life’s challenges.

While the time period is very different than Dandelion, many of the themes overlap like worship, intimacy with Christ, inner-healing. They both contain a lot of romance and a dance emphasis. So I’m hopeful that my readers will be willing to cross over genres and give it a try.

Thanks for stopping by to visit to Dina!

You can visit Dina online at www.dinasleiman.com

Also, you can order Dance of the Dandelion from any of the following:

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dandelion-Dina-L-Sleiman/dp/0983455600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317384588&sr=8-1

Barnes and Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dance-of-the-dandelion-dina-sleiman/1102106110

Ebookit
https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000691/Dance-of-the-Dandelion.html