All that Glitters, a Gold Rush historical romance

"A wonderfully unpredictable plotline!"

"All that Glitters was a beautifully written story that speaks of redemption and forgiveness."

"The author draws you in and keeps you engaged to the last page."

About the book:

The world has gone plum crazy over gold. Men and women alike would do almost anything to make their fortune. Leaving behind her family and a dying father, Ginny Connor follows the cunning Logan Harris up North to strike it rich. Twenty-year old Vivian Connor embarks on a cross-country chase to rescue her sister Ginny and they are both led into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Meanwhile, Ben McCormack leaves his farm to retrieve his intended bride from a rowdy, tent town on the Alaskan coastline. Ben’s path
inadvertently entwines with Vivian’s and he finds his heart tugging him in a different direction.

Danger and disappointment plague all their journeys to the far North. Will Vivian find her sister in time to return home to see their
father? Can Ginny forgive herself for the decisions she's made? Will Ben find the lifelong love he searches for? When the world listens only to the call of gold, redemption and love become scarce treasures.

PURCHASE

Amazon

Chat with the author:

How do you connect with God best? 

I love listening to the Lord speak into my heart during worship.

Which Christian author has influenced you the most? 

I have been a fan of Allison Pittman’s work for years. Even more amazing, The Christian Communicator assigned my novel All That Glitters to her for editorial. Her encouragement and insight helped me develop as a writer and take the leap toward publication.

Are your books only for Christians or would other people also enjoy them? 

My books definitely embrace a Christian worldview; however, the settings and characters are memorable enough for anyone who enjoys a good read.

About the author:

Lisa Flickinger lives in the shadow of the Rockies with her husband Matthew and their dog Zeke. When not writing or reading, you will find her combing antique shops, walking in the woods, or sipping a latte with friends. All That Glitters fulfills the lifelong dream of sharing the characters in her head with you, dear reader. Enjoy!

Writing Tips: Ane Mulligan

 

Did y’all know that Delia developed my logo for me? She did. And I love it. She caught the essence of my Southern-fried Fiction brand. So, when she told me my topic was writing tips, I thought, “Cool. I love to pass on tips I’ve learned from other writers.”

And that’s true. I don’t have many of my own, though. Other authors, who have mentored me and taught workshops, have instilled them all in me. I’m merely paying them forward, hoping it

takes you less time than it did me to grab the brass pen and sign a contract.
Here are five that stand out to me and have made a big difference for me:

1. Story is king. Learn the basics of good writing and then trust your instincts as a storyteller. Learn when to break the rules, and then do it with panache.

2. Coincidence can’t replace Motivation. Motivation is the key to great characters and plots. Readers will follow a character through anything if the motivation is believable.

3. Give your characters a lie they believe, flaws and quirks to make them real. People can’t relate to someone who is good all the time. They want to see characters that make mistakes like they do. Who mess up in life like they do. Characters they can relate to.

4. Make metaphors and similes fresh and turn clichés on their ear. The opening lines to my latest WIP, Life in Chapel Springs, are: The morning fog was about as thick as the pea soup Great-aunt Lola used to make. Claire hated that soup then and she didn’t much like this fog now. That’s making an old cliché fresh. Instead of saying a “Cheshire cat grin” I used “She grinned like Garfield with a pan of lasagna.”

5. This one was taught to me by the late Ron Benrey. I keep it posted nearby lest I forget. It’s called The Magic Paragraph and goes like this:

• Signal which head to enter

• Twang an appropriate sense, emotion or mental faculty

• Show appropriate action

• Repeat if necessary

Home to Chapel Springs:

A homeless author, a heartbroken daughter, and a theatre ghost. There’s trouble in Chapel Springs.

There’s always someone new in Chapel Spring, either coming home or stirring up trouble.

Bestselling author Carin Jardine’s latest book is a flop. While the reviewers are happily skewering her, her racecar-driver-husband walks out on her and she’s evicted, because he hasn’t paid the lease on their condo for the last three months. Then she discovers he also he drained their bank accounts. Homeless and broke, she and her little boy have no choice but to retreat to the house she inherited from her nana in Chapel Springs—the house that’s been gutted. Then, a stranger knocks on her door. One that will change the course of her life.

After the residents thwarted Howie Newlander’s plans for a Miami-style resort on Chapel Lake, he’s running for mayor and spreading rumors about diverted water and misused taxes. The Lakeside Players want to remodel the town’s old theater, but it’s rumored to be haunted. When Newlander and Mayor Riley go head-to-head, Claire gets caught in the middle.

Claire’s youngest daughter is in love with a young man whose daddy is none other than Mayor Felix Riley…the man who blames Claire for every wrong in Chapel Springs. Having him part of her family isn’t in Claire’s plan. The years of her heartache should warn her daughter off this boy. So far, her daughter’s heart isn’t hearing the warnings.

With hearts pulled in all directions, will they find a home in Chapel Springs?

About Ane Mulligan:

While a floppy straw hat is her favorite, novelist Ane Mulligan has worn many including pro-family lobbyist, drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. Ane writes her Southern-fried fiction in Sugar Hill, GA, where she resides with her artist husband, chef son, and a dog of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, her Amazon author page, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Finding Hope in Barely Above Water

An illness comes of out nowhere and strikes Suzie Morris. Her boyfriend dumps her. She has no living family, and her physician can’t diagnose the malady. Suzie relies on her Christian faith as she faces the uncertainty of the disease, and turns to a renowned alternative doctor in Destin, Florida. She takes a job coaching a county-sponsored summer swim team. She’s determined to turn the fun, sometimes comical, rag-tag bunch into winners. Her handsome boss renews her belief in love, but learns of her mysterious affliction and abruptly cuts romantic ties. Later he has regrets, but can he overcome his fear of losing a loved one and regain Suzie’s trust?

PURCHASE

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble

ENDORSEMENTS

"Gail Pallotta’s contemporary romance novel, Barely Above Water, is a touching story of loss, hope and healing." ~Nancy Mehl—award-winning author of the Finding Sanctuary series.

"The main theme in Gail Pallotta’s Barely Above Water is “overcoming incredible odds.” Readers will find themselves rooting for characters who face illness, unemployment and heartbreak. I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy this story about trust and faith!"

~Loree Lough—bestselling author of more than 100-award-winning books, including RT 4.5 star Top Pick, Saving Alyssa {Harlequin Heartwarming}.

The Story Behind the Story:

Ten years ago I grew very ill. After a month of tests the doctor told me he couldn’t diagnose my malady, so he couldn’t treat me. I had no idea where to turn for help, but the last name of a chiropractor a friend of mine had seen ten years earlier kept popping in my head. I ignored it because I needed medical assistance, not an adjustment, but the name persisted. Finally I called my friend and asked about him. He turned out to be David Lee, D.C., Ph.D., C.Ad., now an alternative doctor as well as a chiropractor. He started treating me immediately for a toxic substance. Later, a scan showed the bacteria for Chronic Lyme Disease. Since then, I’ve met or heard of many people suffering from the ailment, or a malady that can’t be diagnosed. Their stories touched my heart and inspired me to write Barely Above Water, which details symptoms and treatments for the disease. The technical material is woven around a romance and a cute group of youngsters on a summer league swim team, so it’s fun as well as informative. 



Bio:

Gail Pallotta’s a wife, mom, swimmer and bargain shopper who loves God, beach sunsets and getting together with friends and family. A regional Writer of the Year for American Christian Writers Association in 2004, she was a 2013 Grace Awards finalist. Gail’s published four books, poems, short stories and several hundred articles. Some of her articles appear in anthologies while two are in museums. Connect with Gail on her Website Blog Facebook Twitter

"Writing the Line" in The Book Breeze Magazine

My article, Writing the Line, on page 7 in The Book Breeze Magazine's April edition.

Laurel Award Winner 2016!

I'm so excited to announce that At First Sight won this year's Clash of the Titles Laurel award! This is a reader-judged competition, so it means a lot to me. Always good to know readers like what I'm doing. Thank you, readers and COTT!

Note: At First Sight is one book in Pelican Book Group's Pure Amore Subscription Book Club from 2015.

March Release Clash Results

The Votes have come in,
and we've got a winner!

DRESSED FOR DEATH

by Julianna Deering

Congratulations, Julianna!!

About the Author

JULIANNA DEERING has always been an avid reader and a lover of storytelling, whether on the page, the screen or the stage. This, along with her keen interest in history and her Christian faith, shows in her tales of love, forgiveness and triumph over adversity. A fifth-generation Texan, she makes her home north of Dallas with three spoiled cats and, when not writing, spends her free time quilting, cross stitching and watching NHL hockey. Her new series of Drew Farthering mysteries set in 1930s England debuted from Bethany House with Rules of Murder (2013) and is followed by Death by the Book and Murder at the Mikado (2014), Dressed for Death (2016) and Murder on the Moor (Coming 2017). Also, as DeAnna Julie Dodson, she has written a trilogy of medieval romances (In Honor Bound, By Love Redeemed and To Grace Surrendered) and six contemporary mysteries for Annie’s Fiction. She is represented by Wendy Lawton of the Books & Such Literary Agency (www.booksandsuch.biz).


Find her On the web:

www.juliannadeering.com

www.deannajuliedodson.com


On Facebook:

https://business.facebook.com/AuthorJuliannaDeering/

https://www.facebook.com/julie.dodson.9659


On Twitter:

@DeAnnaJulDodson


On Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6565151.Julianna_Deering



Dressed for Death Back cover:


A Regency-Era Costume Party Should Have Been an Amusing Diversion, But it Seems Wherever Drew Farthering Goes, Mystery--and Murder--Are on the Guest List



Drew and Madeline Farthering arrive at a Regency-era house party at Winteroak House, excited to be reunited with old friends, including Drew's former Oxford classmate Talbot Cummins. Tal is there with his fiancée, Alice Henley, and though many present seem worried about the couple, nobody is prepared when Alice dies from an apparent overdose. Tal refuses to believe she'd taken the drugs intentionally, and a dark question arises of whether the death is an accident or murder.



The police have their own information though, and Drew is shocked when they arrest someone he's trusted and admired since his childhood--someone who's been smuggling drugs into the country for years. Stunned by what has happened, Tal begs Drew to get to the bottom of everything, but Drew has never felt more unsettled. Questioning his own ability to see people as they really are, Drew doesn't know whom to trust, and he's not ready for the secrets he's about to uncover--or the danger he'll bring down on everyone he holds dear.



Clash Comments:

• "Dressed for Death" is the best Drew Farthering mystery yet, and I'm really looking forward to the next one (and yes, even more after that)! Julianna Deering has a gift for storytelling that keeps me turning the pages long into the night, and her characters are always so vivid and lifelike! I love pulling out her books and re-reading them over and over again.

• Julianna Deering captured our hearts and attention with Drew Farthering mysteries....can't wait for more.

This sounds like such a FANTASTIC read! Ready to dive in? Want to peek at the sample? It's right here:

Buy Links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

CBD

And don't Miss Drew's Upcoming Adventure:

Murder on the Moor

At the urgent request of Drew's old school friend, Hubert "Beaky" Bloodworth, Drew and Madeline Farthering come to Bloodworth Park Lodge in the midst of the Yorkshire moors, a place as moody and mysterious as a Brontë hero. According to Beaky, there have been several incidents of mischief making out on the moor, property destroyed, fires started, streams dammed up, sheep and cattle scattered and, if local gossip is to be believed, the sighting of the shadowy figure of a great black hound. Worst of all, the vicar has been found dead on the steps of the church, and no one can imagine who would want to kill him.

Beaky is obviously smitten with his wife of eight months, the gorgeous and vivacious Sabrina Bloodworth, though it's hard to imagine what she sees in a man as awkward and plain as he. Drew can't help wondering if Sabrina's affections lie more with Beaky's money than himself and, just perhaps, with the fiery Welsh gamekeeper, Rhys Delwyn. Delwyn says poachers are to blame for the recent trouble, Sabrina claims the moor is haunted, and Beaky suspects that Carter Gray, a neighboring landowner with a longstanding grudge against the Bloodworths, is behind the episodes. But when someone else is murdered and the troubling incidents grow more threatening, Drew begins to suspect local ne'er-do-well Jack Midgley of more than poaching. But just how does Midgley fit into the scheme and who is paying him? It's up to Drew to look past his own prejudices, determine what is really going on, and find the killer before it's too late.


Would you like to see the cover for Murder on the Moor? Sign up for Drew’s News at http://www.juliannadeering.com/newsletter.php for exclusive series information and giveaways.

Have a blessed week, everyone!

From your friends at Clash of the Titles!