Thunder In the Morning Calm was quite fast paced, and moving. I am left impressed upon by the depth of emotion that Don Brown put into the sharing of POW's and the abuse of those held prisoner in a Communist society. To me Pak was one of the most important charactors in this book. I followed her part in this story with the greatest of intrest.
The rest of it is good as well, lots of fight scense and intense action all told from someone who throughly understands it, and the way the military works. But what stands out to me after the back cover was closed is how much faith and obediance this one woman showed in this book, and how well Thunder In the Morning Calm shows how greatly missed are those who never came home from war, and how greatful we are for those who did make it home from these wars.
DON BROWN, a former U.S. Navy JAG Officer, is the author of Zondervan’s riveting NAVY JUSTICE SERIES, a dynamic storyline chronicling the life and adventures of JAG officer ZACK BREWER. After TREASON, his first novel in the NAVY JUSTICE SERIES, was published to rave reviews in 2005, drawing comparisons to the writing style of John Grisham, Don Brown was named as co-chairman of national I LOVE TO WRITE DAY, an event recognized by the governors of nine states to promote writing throughout the nation, and especially among the nation’s schools.
Paying no homage to political correctness, Don's writing style is described as “gripping,” casting an entertaining and educational spin on a wide-range of current issues, from radical Islamic infiltration of the military, to the explosive issue of gays in the military, to the modern day issues of presidential politics in the early 21st Century.
Don graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1982, and after finishing law school, continued his post-graduate studies through the Naval War College, earning the Navy’s nonresident certificate in International Law.
During his five years on active duty in the Navy, Don served in the Pentagon, was published in the Naval Law Review, and was also a recipient of the Navy Achievement Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lieutenant Commander 'Gunner' McCormick is assigned as an intelligence officer to Carrier Strike Force 10, being deployed to the Yellow Sea at the invitation of South Korea for joint exercises with the US Navy. During his pre-deployment briefing, he discovers a TOP-SECRET MEMO revealing rumors that the North Koreans may still be holding a handful of elderly Americans from the Korean War in secret prison camps.
As it happens, Gunner's grandfather, who was a young marine officer in the Korean War, disappeared at Chosin Reservoir over 60 years ago and is still listed as MIA in North Korea. Sworn to silence about what he has read, the top-secret memo eats at him. Gunner decides to spend all his inheritance and break every military regulation in the book to finance his own three-man commando squad on a suicide mission north of the DMZ to search for clues about the fate of his grandfather.
Risking his career, his fortune, and his life, Gunner will get his answers, or he will die trying.
Don Brown is building a loyal fan base by writing what he knows best: thrillers with heart. A former Navy JAG officer and action officer in the Pentagon, Brown pens action-packed plots and finely-drawn characters that are credible and compelling. Thunder in the Morning Calm is a novel of bravery, duty, and family love that will keep readers of all ages reading straight through to the last page.
If you would like to read the first chapter of Thunder in the Morning Calm , go HERE
Residential Aliens is the product of editor Lyn Perry. Here you will find several short Science Fiction stories. I didn't read them "in order" as I picked the one I was most interested in first. I read "Snow Angel" by Joanne Galbraith first. Snow Angel is a story of a mother and daughter who have just lost the man in their lives, or have they? Emma, the daughter keeps telling her Mother that her Daddy isn't gone, he is the one making snow angels outside each night. It was an interesting short story.
Having finished that one I moved onto "Some Assembly Required" by T.M. Hunter. Here I read another short story that deals with the age old question of emotions and life with artificial intelligence, or cyborgs. It wasn't a bad story, but it left me wanting to read the REST of it, which there wasn't the rest of it.
On Wednesday I read the interview with an artist. I wish I could have seen more of his work with the article to help me out.
And then I got to read "Beatitude" by Fred Warren. This was a good one! I liked the premise of Nuns running a rescue station for space mining. Sister Monica was a very good character, and in this once case I feel like I got to watch a 30 min. episode of something good on TV. In other words, this one being a short story was excellent. God was well worked into the story, and it was just quite nice.
I like that this is a nice forum for short stories to allow writers to publish. That I really appreciate!
Here is a novel as interwoven in romance as it is with mystery and history. With in the first few pages of The Colonel's Lady you are transported back in time to 1779, on the Kentucky frontier. Back in time when the British Redcoats are still fighting the Bluecoated Patriots, and the Shawnee are at war with almost everyone.
Here in the midst of it all one woman, Roxanne. Roxie to her Father and those who hold her dear. Having had the flatboat she was traveling on raided, Roxie takes a small band of women and a child to Fort Endeavor to find her Father. Upon arriving she soon learns that her beloved Father has been killed on the battle front.
Colonel Cassius McLinn loved Roxie's Father, and his dying wish was that Cass take care of Roxie. Once the Colonel finds that Roxanne is under his protection in the fort, things start to change rapidly. Having women in the fort is a drastic change of pace, as well as other captives. Since Roxie can't bear to be ideal in her grief, and a gentle lady like herself shouldn't be a full time cook, Cass soon puts her to work as his scrivener, the position her Father had held for him.
Between daily survival, and multiple growing attractions, it soon becomes clear to Roxie that someone in the Fort means the Colonel and possibly others ill. But how far will they take that ill-will? Her Father left some clues, but she isn't sure who to talk to them about totally, or who to trust. Not just trust with her secrets, but her heart, her life, and the lives of the child and women she brought to the Fort.
The Cololnel's Lady is a really fascinating read. It is extremely well written and worked out. No detail is left hanging, from the descriptions of clothes and food, to the looks that pass between many of the main characters. God is not left out either. He is there in each simply honest prayer as the months pass inside Fort Endeavor waiting for the outcome of each of their lives. Here in a historic setting we grow to be fond of these people, and watch the plans laid out for their lives, a story of hope, courage, forgiveness and truth.
Carol
About the Book
To the trail-weary and frightened women, Fort Endeavor seemed unwelcoming at first, but Roxanna Rowan knew they needed to get to safety as quickly as possible. Deep within the Kentucky Territory, Fort Endeavor could provide a new life for genteel spinster Roxanna as long as she was with her father. She had to find him in the mass of all these soldiers. But where was he?
Shortly after arriving at the Kentucky fort commanded by Colonel Cassius McLinn, the Colonel tells Roxanna that her officer father has died. Penniless and destitute, Roxanna accepts the Scrivener position once held by her father. Before long, Roxanna discovers secrets that her father uncovered shortly before his death. Who could she trust with this discovery that she found in her father’s Scrivener desk? Could she trust the Colonel? Was his attraction to her real or was he hiding his own secrets including her father’s death? Roxanna needed answers that only the Colonel could provide.
Set in 1779 The Colonel’s Lady is a powerful and emotion-packed story full of love, suspense, intrigue, faith, and forgiveness from reader favorite Laura Frantz. Her solid research and skillful writing immerse readers in the world of the early frontier while her realistic characters become intimate friends.
About the Author:
Laura Frantz credits her grandmother as being the catalyst for her fascination with Kentucky history. Frantz's family followed Daniel Boone into Kentucky in the late eighteenth century and settled in Madison County, where her family still resides. Frantz is the author of The Frontiersman's Daughter and Courting Morrow Little and currently lives in the misty woods of Washington with her husband and two sons. More information about Laura at: www.laurafrantz.net
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books that bring the Christian faith to everyday life. They publish resources from a variety of well-known brands and authors, including their partnership with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Hungry Planet.
Endorsements:
“Portrays the wild beauty of frontier life, along with its dangers and hardships, in vivid detail.” – Ann H. Gabhart, bestselling author of The Blessed, Angel Sister, and The Seeker
“Vivid and Poetic…you’ll disappear into another place and time.” – Jane Kirkpatrick, bestelling author of All Together in One Place and Flickering Light
One of the highlights of our days in the Fiction department at Thomas Nelson? Receiving reader letters—either directly addressed to us or passed along from our talented authors. It’s critical to be reminded that at the end of our long days acquiring, editing, designing, selling, marketing, and publicizing books, those stories are reaching readers, striking nerves, changing lives. We want readers’ feedback. How stories have given you hope. Which authors’ series you can’t help from sharing with everyone you meet. We want to know what makes you stay up late in the night to finish a story, and conversely what turns you away.
We’re conducting a series of surveys—seeking answers from readers who love Christian fiction. Up for grabs is a free ebook for every respondent who completes the survery, as well as a $10,000 prize for one entrant. The responses we gather will help shape the future of the books we publish for years to come. As well as the data we’re collecting here, we’ll also seek more in-depth feedback from a panel we’ll develop over the next year. More details to come. The note below from one of authors gives a specific picture of how reader feedback shapes her work. In short, your opinion matters! We thank you for your time and appreciate your responding.
--Thomas Nelson Fiction
Dear Friends--
Your opinion matters. It really does. I love hearing from readers about what worked for them in a story and about what doesn’t work. Reader feedback changed the balance between romance and suspense in my novels. After the Rock Harbor trilogy, I wanted to write more suspense in my novels because that’s what I personally like. But readers really wanted more relationship and romance in the books so I moved back that direction to about the same mix of 50/50 that the Rock Harbor novels contained. I write for you even more than for myself.
I had no intention of setting a whole series of books at Bluebird, Texas. It was going to be only one book, but readers sent me requests in droves for more books. The fourth book in the Lonestar series, Lonestar Angel, will be out in October. The Rock Harbor novels were going to be complete at three. There are now five and I’m thinking about another one! All due to reader demand.
I’ve often asked for reader input on names and locations too. When I was struggling for a name for my hero in The Lightkeeper’s Ball, I turned to my readers. Harrison really fit my character, and my readers told me. Love that! When I was trying to decide on a location for the new Hope Beach series I’ve started, I asked readers. Their overwhelming response was for a series set in the Outer Banks so guess what I’m writing?!
That’s why we’re coming to you for answers. We want to give you what you really want! Don’t be afraid to let us know what you really think. We value your honesty and the time it will take to share with us. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say!
My last book by Pamela Ewen was my first, and that review can be found here.
Dancing On Glass was even better, and much closer to things I have been around or had friends go through in my own life. Amalise Catoir is attending collage to become one of the first few female lawyers when she becomes entranced by an artist named Philip Sharp. While Amalise is trying to stay focused on her rise in a rather good law firm, and steer clear of men, Philip is determined to keep "Ama" as his own. Able to charm even the most resolute, Amalise is unaware of his deep seeded underlying problems. She soon finds herself making small compromise after compromise and all the while asking God to lead her and help her, but unable to guide Philip towards God or figure out what is happening. Like so many women she is sure it will all work out, and be o.k. soon.
Philip's smooth manipulations and control of Ama only increases when she finally figures she is doing the "right thing" by marrying him. Soon parts of her life are spinning out of control, and only her family and her best friend from childhood forward, Jude, are aware that anything is less than perfect and they don't know very much at all! As Amalise's career rises, her relationship with her husband worsens as she starts to see more and more of the little things that start to add up to the bigger picture.
The problem is the figuring it all out is slow in coming. Once Amalise sees more of Philp's problems, and what lies underneath them, she is now in danger. She is cut off from all her friends, her family, church, anything that makes Philip sad or uncomfortable has slowly changed over to his way of thinking. Now that lives are on the line Amalise's life and the lives of others are on the line. She is reaching out to God with all that is in her for help and answers.
This book has a dramatic ending, and it is super well written, as well as extremely truthful. Relationships, as well as New Orleans are shown clearly and cleverly. Dancing On Glass is God centered, but yet as real as day to day life is. A recommended read to anyone dealing with controllers in their lives as I think this book could be a help to lots of women.
Until recently retiring to write full time, Pamela Binnings Ewen was a partner in the Houston office of the international law firm of BakerBotts, L.L.P., specializing in corporate finance. She now lives just outside New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, James Lott.
She has served on the Board of Directors of Inprint, Inc., a non-profit organization supporting the literary arts in Houston, Texas, as well as the Advisory Board for The New Orleans Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans; Pamela is a co-founder of the Northshore Literary Society in the Greater New Orleans area. She is also a member of the National League of American Pen Women.
Pamela’s first novel, Walk Back The Cat (Broadman & Holman. May, 2006) is the story of an embittered and powerful clergyman who learns an ancient secret, confronting him with truth and a choice that may destroy him.
She is also the best-selling author of the acclaimed non-fiction book Faith On Trial, published by Broadman & Holman in 1999, currently in its third printing. Although it was written for non-lawyers, Faith On Trial was also chosen as a text for a course on law and religion at Yale Law School in the Spring of 2000, along with The Case For Christ by Lee Stroble. Continuing the apologetics begun in Faith On Trial, Pamela also appears with Gary Habermas, Josh McDowell, Darrell Bock, Lee Stroble, and others in the film Jesus: Fact or Fiction, a Campus Crusade for Christ production.
Pamela is the latest writer to emerge from a Louisiana family recognized for its statistically improbable number of successful authors. A cousin, James Lee Burke, who won the Edgar Award, wrote about the common ancestral grandfathers in his Civil War novel White Dove At Morning.
Among other writers in the family are Andre Dubus (Best Picture Oscar nomination for The Bedroom; his son, Andre Dubus III, author of The House of Sand and Fog, a Best Picture Oscar nomination and an Oprah pick; Elizabeth Nell Dubus (the Cajun trilogy); and Alafair Burke, just starting out with the well received Samantha Kincaid mystery series.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In the steamy city of New Orleans in 1974, Amalise Catoir sees Phillip Sharp as a charming, magnetic artist, unlike any man she has known. A young lawyer herself, raised in a small town and on the brink of a career with a large firm, she is strong and successful, yet sometimes too trusting and whimsical. Ama's rash decision to marry Phillip proves to be a mistake as he becomes overly possessive, drawing his wife away from family, friends, and her faith. His insidious, dangerous behavior becomes her dark, inescapable secret.
In this lawyer's unraveling world, can grace survive Ama's fatal choice? What would you do when prayers seem to go unanswered, faith has slipped away, evil stalks, and you feel yourself forever dancing on shattered glass?
One of the highlights of our days in the Fiction department at Thomas Nelson? Receiving reader letters—either directly addressed to us or passed along from our talented authors. It’s critical to be reminded that at the end of our long days acquiring, editing, designing, selling, marketing, and publicizing books, those stories are reaching readers, striking nerves, changing lives. We want readers’ feedback. How stories have given you hope. Which authors’ series you can’t help from sharing with everyone you meet. We want to know what makes you stay up late in the night to finish a story, and conversely what turns you away.
We’re conducting a series of surveys—seeking answers from readers who love Christian fiction. Up for grabs is a free ebook for every respondent who completes the survery, as well as a $10,000 prize for one entrant. The responses we gather will help shape the future of the books we publish for years to come. As well as the data we’re collecting here, we’ll also seek more in-depth feedback from a panel we’ll develop over the next year. More details to come. The note below from one of authors gives a specific picture of how reader feedback shapes her work. In short, your opinion matters! We thank you for your time and appreciate your responding.
Publishing books is a team effort, and there are a lot of players—authors, editors, cover designers, marketing staff, and a host of other behind-the-scene folks who help get the books on the shelves. And readers are also a large part of the process. Your input matters, probably more than you know.
When I hear from readers, I really listen to what they want. This is particularly true with my series books. For example, Seek Me With All Your Heart (book #1 in the Land of Canaan series) wraps up nicely at the end, but one of my minor characters (Katie Ann) was left pregnant after her husband left her. I received lots of emails about Katie Ann from readers, so book #2 in the series—The Wonder of Your Love—is Katie Ann’s story.
With the popularity of social media resources such as Facebook, it has allowed me to keep in close contact with readers and to seek opinions and advice. Several times, the publisher and I couldn’t decide on a cover, so we posted the cover options on Facebook and let readers decide. And if you’re posting anywhere on my Facebook Fans Page, your name could end up in a book. I often scan the names there, so you are unknowingly helping me just by being on the site.
Readers also made it clear that they wanted books in digital format, large print, and audio versions. Authors and publishers listened, and most (if not all) of my books are available in multiple formats.
As an author, I hope to write entertaining stories that will be enjoyed for many years. As a reader, I have favorite authors, and I’m not afraid to let them know what I want in future books. We listen to the likes and the dislikes in our effort to bring you the best stories we can, so don’t be shy. Tell us what you think!
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Christian Books in Multiple Genres, Join Christian Indie Author ~ Readers Group on Facebook. Opportunities to find other Christian Authors and learn about new releases, sales, free books.
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