Ronie has been married since 1990 to a man who can easily be defined in classic terms as a hero. She has four beautiful children. Her eldest daughter is 16 this year, her second daughter will be 13, and her twin boys are 10. After having four children, she finally finished her degree in December 2006. She now has a B.S. in Psychology through Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Getting her degree is a huge triumph for both her and her family--they survived!
This degree has also given her a fabulous perspective on her characters and how to not only make them deeper, stronger, but to make them realistic and know how they'll respond to each situation. Her debut novel, Dead Reckoning released March 2010 from Abingdon Press. And her Discarded Heroes series begins in July from Barbour with the first book entitled Nightshade.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Underwater archeologist Shiloh Blake is consumed with passion for the water and inflamed at the injustices of life. When her first large-scale dig traps her in the middle of an international nuclear arms clash, she flees for her life.
When she spots a man trailing her, the questions are, Who is he? And how is he always one step ahead? Is the man trailing her an enemy or a protector sent by her CIA father?
Reece Jaxon is a former Navy SEAL and now serves his country as a spy. His life is entangled by the beguiling Shiloh Blake as he hunts down the sources to a nuclear dead drop in the Arabian Sea near Mumbai, India. The only way to end this nightmare and prevent a nuclear meltdown is to join forces with Reece. Will Shiloh violate her vow to never become involved in her father's web of intrigue and mystery? Will she reconcile with her past and with him? Will she allow God to help her throught this ordeal of danger, mistrust and uncertainty?
In her debut novel, Ronie Kendig delivers a thrilling ride. In the first chapter, Shiloh Blake is swimming for her life. Throughout the book, Shiloh is constantly on the run, improvising as she goes. Her character reminded me of Sydney Bristow from TV's Alias: a young woman who's reluctantly drawn into a web of intrigue which she seems to handle almost by instinct. Reece Jaxon is full of his own brand of intrigue. When these two headstrong individuals get together, sparks fly and the body count rises, as does the level of danger. If you like your fiction fast-paced and high risk with a strong spiritual core, you'll love Dead Reckoning.
Ted is the son of missionaries John and Helen Dekker, whose incredible story of life among headhunters in Indonesia has been told in several books. Surrounded by the vivid colors of the jungle and a myriad of cultures, each steeped in their own interpretation of life and faith, Dekker received a first-class education on human nature and behavior. This, he believes, is the foundation of his writing.
After graduating from a multi-cultural high school, he took up permanent residence in the United States to study Religion and Philosophy. After earning his Bachelor's Degree, Dekker entered the corporate world in management for a large health care company in California. Dekker was quickly recognized as a talent in the field of marketing and was soon promoted to Director of Marketing. This experience gave him a background which enabled him to eventually form his own company and steadily climb the corporate ladder.
Since 1997, Dekker has written full-time. He states that each time he writes, he finds his understanding of life and love just a little clearer and his expression of that understanding a little more vivid. Dekker's body of work encompassing seven mysteries, three thrillers and ten fantasies includes Heaven's Wager, When Heaven Weeps, Thunder of Heaven, Blessed Child, A Man Called Blessed, Blink, Thr3e, The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, White), Obsessed, Renegade, and Chaos.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Would you kill an innocent man to save your daughter?
They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who’s abducted six young women. He’s the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die.
Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.
Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan’s estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own.
But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted, and in the end, only one father will stand.
If you're an avid Dekker fan, and would like wallpaper and counters for your blog, go HERE.
In BoneMan's Daughters, Ryan Evans is a man who has basically abandoned his family, until a harrowing experience in the Middle East changes the way he thinks about everything. Once back home, he wants nothing more than to repair his fractured relationships, but he finds that will be harder than he thought. His wife, now in love with another man, wants a divorce. And his teenage daughter feels that her father died a long time ago. Enter BoneMan, a serial killer who wants the perfect daughter... Ryan's daughter.
Dekker starts the book out at a breakneck pace and manages to maintain the intensity throughout most of the book. There are enough thrills, chills, and scares to satisfy his many fans, or those who enjoy King or Koontz. Readers who want something a little deeper will find themselves pondering the question that Ryan must ask himself: How far will a father go to save his child? Ryan's desperation is palpable as he races against the clock to save his daughter, while at the same time fleeing the FBI, who now see him as a suspect.
BoneMan's modus operandi is to break the bones of his victim without breaking the skin. Dekker doesn't get overly graphic, but he does give enough detail that I found myself needing to quickly skim a time or two. He gets across the terror of the situation as well as a victim's need to placate the abductor while still trying to maintain sanity and look for a way to escape.
There were a few plot points that, to me, hinged on total coincidence, and I never did completely buy BoneMan's motives. BUT, this is still a top-notch, well-written thriller. Readers who want to have their spines tingled will enjoy this one. But if you read it at night, you might want to keep all the lights on.
WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of Boneman's Daughters, just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll pick a winner at random on April 25th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. PLEASE NOTE: For this contest I can only accept entries from the USA and Canada. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) Good luck!
Of her three main interests, art, music and writing, she chose to study English at the University of Colorado and thrived on Creative Writing and Literature classes. She married her husband Jim, and turned her energy to building a family. They have four children whom they have home schooled for all or most of their education. Kristen is a music minister with the ecumenical covenant community People of Praise.
Once she realized the stories in her head were truly a calling from the Lord, she made writing not just a passion, but a ministry. She has written seven historical fiction novels as part of the The Rocky Mountain Legacy series, the Diamond of the Rockies series, and the Christy Award winner Secrets. Most recently, she has written several contemporary fiction novels, including Echoes, Freefall and Unforgotten.
Kristen and her husband, Jim, and their family live in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she serves as worship leader in their church.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Tessa Young, an up-and-coming landscape architect who specializes in the design and creation of labyrinths, has immersed herself in the mythological, spiritual, and healing aspects of the elaborate structures. She also is searching for God and hoping to make sense of the nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.
When Smith Chandler, an estranged colleague--with whom she'd half fallen in love a dozen times before catching herself every time--calls to propose a project he claims is the opportunity of a lifetime, she reluctantly agrees to check it out. Smith is reconstructing a pre-Revolutionary War abbey for wealthy clients. Among its remarkable features is an overgrown labyrinth.
Unable to resist, Tessa accepts his offer to work with him. Soon she is immersed in the project of a lifetime. But one evening, after weeks of work in the labyrinth, Tessa and Smith are attacked. While protecting Tessa, Smith is stabbed, and the nightmare begins...again.
If you would like to read the first chapter, go HERE
Today we’ve got another first! I’m thrilled to welcome my first male guest, author Brandt Dodson, whose new book is White Soul. Let’s meet Brandt!
THE BIO
Brandt Dodson was born and raised in Indianapolis. He is a board certified Podiatrist and the author of White Soul and The Colton Parker Mystery series from Harvest House Publishers. He resides in southern Indiana with his wife and two sons and is currently at work on his next novel. You can visit Brandt at www.brandtdodson.com.
THE INTERVIEW
JA: Your latest novel is White Soul. Please tell us about it. BD: White Soul came about because I have a fascination with crime fiction and that’s especially true when the novel deals with organized crime. I think it’s one of the greatest scourges we have and one of the greatest drains on our economy that we’ve ever faced. Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that these groups make their money and grow their influence because they prey on the weaknesses of others. In short, because they know the temptations that many people face and are all to willing to capitalize on them.
Satan works the same way. Every one of us has been - and will be - tempted. Now we are not all tempted to sin by the same thing, but we all have our weakness. Even the most solid among us, will crumble if we do not keep our guard up as Paul warns us to do. Undercover officers face temptations as a matter of course. So when I decided I wanted to write a novel that confronts this issue, I could find no better vehicle than a novel about a Christian undercover officer who must deal with the temptations that surround him. To further add to the luster of the lifestyle he’s investigating, I set the story in Miami, the capital of flash and materialism.
In White Soul, Ron Ortega penetrates a group that is run by a ruthless drug lord name Ricardo Estevez. Estevez is trying to rebuild The Corporation (a real entity, by the way) in order to seize control of the drug flow into the U.S. and build new opportunities in the new, post-Castro Cuba. (Which we’re beginning to see) As his investigation proceeds, Ortega must answer the basic question: “Do the right thing? Or do the desired thing?”
JA: Your hero, Ron Ortega, is a cop torn between his family and his professional ambition. As someone who comes from a long line of police officers, how much of your personal experience were you able to put into Ron? BD: In the sense that I grew up in a family of police officers and clerked with the FBI, I’ve been able to build the story off the psyche that cops seem to share as well as my own experiences. But other than that, the novel is built wholly off a mix of speculation and research. Which is not unusual, by the way. Mario Puzo is alleged to have once said he got everything he knew about Sicilian crime families from the public library. (Unfortunately, he didn’t have the internet)
JA: What do you hope people take away after reading White Soul? BD: That temptation comes at us when we are at our most vulnerable and that if we going to resist it, we must live close to God. “Abide in me,” Jesus commanded.
In White Soul, Ron Ortega is a what I call a “functional” Christian. His conversion is real, he attends church services, and might even pick up the Bible on occasion. But he is not maximizing the opportunities that God has provided. He isn’t living as close to God as he could and therefore, like a moth, he is drawn to the flame.
JA: By the way, I love book cover art, and I have to say the cover of White Soul is just great. Is that a gun I see in the clouds, or are my eyes playing tricks on me? BD: I had the same question when I first saw it. No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks. It’s a gun. I had an opportunity to meet the cover artist during the last ICRS (CBA for all of us oldies but goodies) and to tell him how much I have enjoyed and appreciated every cover he’s done. He just happened to have a mock up for White Soul with him and when he showed it to me I was ecstatic. When you write (or at least, when I write) I have an imaginary cover in my head. But I must say, the covers I have mentally pictured are in no way as good as the ones he does. He’s a very talented artist. I’m very fortunate.
JA: There are four books in your popular Colton Parker series. Do you have any more adventures planned for Colton? Is White Soul the beginning of a new series? BD: I have several Colton Parker novels in my head, ready to go. But for the moment, my publisher has asked for some stand alones. White Soul is written as a stand alone, but could also be part of a series. I’ll have to see what develops. My next release, Daniel’s Den (January 2009) will be a stand alone and a straight suspense novel.
JA: I read that you were contacted by a porn actor after he read you first novel, Original Sin. What an awesome thing to be able to reach someone who isn’t the stereotypical “Christian fiction” reader! What’s the overall response been to your books? BD: Very good. Very solid. My intent was to write for a male reading audience, an audience that has largely been neglected. In that sense, we’ve been successful.
My personal mission statement, as it relates to my writing, is to generate enough thought in the reader to have them go back to the Bible for more information. If I can direct my readers to become God’s readers, I will have completed the task that I feel He’s given me to do. The awesome thing about writing is that it covers the spans of time and space. I had a missionary in China recently contact me about an article I wrote over eight years ago. So you never know who your writing is going to touch, where it’s going to touch them, or how. I’m convinced that God meant for his people to be a reading people. After all, He wrote the greatest bestseller of all time.
JA: Besides being a successful fiction author, you’re a husband, father, and board-certified podiatrist. What does your family think about your literary life? BD: They’re supportive. If they weren’t, I couldn’t do this. And I think they’re proud of me, but it hasn’t reached the point –yet- where my wife is willing to stand next to my chair while I have dinner and fan me with a big feather. (I say, “yet”. She’s says, “Never”) Karla and I have been married for almost 28 years. She still tells me to take out the garbage. To my sons, I’m just dad. And that’s a good thing to be.
JA: What’s something that people would be surprised to learn about you? BD: That I like poetry. I read Dickens, Eliot, and local Hoosier favorite James Whitcomb Riley. I think poetry adds to life and it can add to a better, more economical use of language in nearly any writing endeavor.
I also like to cook.
JA: What authors have had the biggest impact on you? BD: Chandler, Hammett, and Robert B. Parker, for obvious reasons. But it was Dean Koontz who got me to reading again. I had just opened my solo practice and since patients don’t exactly beat a path to your door in those early years, I went to the mall and bought a copy of The Bad Place. I read it and was impressed enough to read something like 12 or 15 of his backlist titles over the next two or three weeks.
I’ve also been influenced by Ken Follett, Tom Clancy, Jack Higgins, Ed McBain, and recently, Brad Meltzer and David Baldacci. From the classics, I like Poe (nobody, I mean NOBODY creates mood better than him), Dickens, Twain and London. (Dennis “Doc” Hensley turned me on to Jack London by opening up his work for me in a way I wished they had done when I was in school)
JA: Last but not least, how can people keep up with your latest publishing news? BD: I have a website which is probably the best way. I can be reached at www.brandtdodson.com. I answer all correspondence and keep the site updated. I also blog on Amazon and on Keep Me In Suspense at www.keepmeinsuspense.com.
I enjoyed speaking with you, Jennifer. Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you, Brandt, and continued blessings to you in your writing journey!
JEN’S REVIEW
This is the first book I’ve read by Brandt Dodson, and I became an instant fan. When I picked up White Soul, I had just finished reading three chick-lits in a row, so I was ready for some serious action… some testosterone, if you will. Man, did Dodson deliver!
In undercover agent Ron Ortega, Dodson creates a character who wants to do what’s right, but is constantly reminded of what he perceives as his shortcomings. Entrenched in the decadent and dangerous subculture of drugs and organized crime, Ron is surrounded by temptation. Through twists, turns and non-stop action, Dodson delivers a compelling, energetic story that is sure to challenge and entertain readers.
WIN THE BOOK
If you’d like to be entered to win a copy of White Soul just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll combine the responses of my Blogger and ShoutLife blogs to pick a winner at random on April 11th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) ShoutLifers will be contacted via ShoutMail. Good luck!
A big welcome to Deborah Piccurelli, author of the novel In the Midst of Deceit. Let’s meet Deborah!
THE BIO
Deborah M. Piccurelli is passionate about the Lord, family and creating powerful prose. After the publication of her first novel, she has turned to writing suspense stories woven around dark and obscure issues. She hopes to see those efforts in print soon. Deborah likes reading, movies, family time and friendly get-togethers. She lives with her family in New Jersey.
THE INTERVIEW
JA: Tell us about your book, In the Midst of Deceit. DP: It’s an inspirational romantic suspense. Following a near-fatal sky diving incident, a driven financial advisor enlists the aid of a spiritually grounded woman to help him determine which of his business partners wants him out of the way.
JA: How did you come up with the idea for this novel? DP: I don’t have any special techniques for generating ideas, as some authors do. I came up with the characters first. I like to use unlikely heroes, so I thought having someone in a wheelchair suffering from head trauma would be interesting. I also sometimes like to have the hero and heroine be polar opposites, which is why the heroine, Stasi Courtland, is the conservative, upstanding Christian. She still sometimes backslides. As for Slade, he’s the bad boy; the womanizer and adventure-seeker. The story itself took some thinking about. My own working experiences came into play and I ended up using the world of financial planning as Slade’s occupation. And because I needed Stasi to be at home a lot and available to be a help to Slade, I researched what type of home businesses were out there. Back when I wrote the book, information technology was a little-known service, but it fit well with the plot. And of course, being a suspense novel, there had to be at least an attempted murder.
JA: Your hero, Slade, loses everything after a devastating accident. Was it hard to take him to such a dark place? DP: A little. This probably sounds weird, but I suffered right along with him. He needed to reach that point of brokenness, though, in order to see that material possessions aren’t everything.
JA: What do you hope people take away when they finish reading In the Midst of Deceit? DP: That you can have everything, but really have nothing without the Lord; that you can have nothing, but live abundantly if you have the Lord.
JA: What’s next for you in the writing arena? DP: Since In the Midst of Deceit was published, I’ve decided to write about dark, obscure, social/moral topics. I’ve just finished the first manuscript of that type, which involves fetal harvesting. I’m preparing to seek representation for it.
JA: You wrote a very interesting piece on your web site about “Wedded Bliss.” You’ve been married for about thirty years. How do you keep the romance alive? DP: One way is making an effort to do things that please your spouse, just like when you were dating.
JA: What would people be surprised to learn about you? DP: That I’m a Bruce Lee fan. I am fascinated by the martial arts talent he possessed. I’m not crazy about the gory parts of his movies, but they had good stories beyond the violence.
JA: What’s your favorite thing to read for fun? DP: The daily comic strips.
JA: Last but not least, how can people keep up with your latest publishing news? DP: Visit my Web site and sign up for my news bulletins. They’re not a regular weekly or monthly newsletter, just whenever I have news of some interest, like an interview and book drawing. Right now, there aren’t any publishing announcements, because, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve only just finished my next manuscript.
Thank you, Deborah, and continued blessings on your writing journey!
WIN THE BOOK
You can win a copy of In the Midst of Deceit here. Just leave a reply to this blog. I’ll combine the responses of my Blogger and ShoutLife blogs to pick a winner at random on March 18th. Please leave an email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. (To prevent spammers from trolling for your email, please use this format with the brackets--you [at] yourmail [dot] com--or something similar.) ShoutLifers will be contacted via ShoutMail. Good luck!
Ted is the son of missionaries John and Helen Dekker, whose incredible story of life among headhunters in Indonesia has been told in several books. Surrounded by the vivid colors of the jungle and a myriad of cultures, each steeped in their own interpretation of life and faith, Dekker received a first-class education on human nature and behavior. This, he believes, is the foundation of his writing.
After graduating from a multi-cultural high school, he took up permanent residence in the United States to study Religion and Philosophy. After earning his Bachelor's Degree, Dekker entered the corporate world in management for a large healthcare company in California. Dekker was quickly recognized as a talent in the field of marketing and was soon promoted to Director of Marketing. This experience gave him a background which enabled him to eventually form his own company and steadily climb the corporate ladder.
Since 1997, Dekker has written full-time. He states that each time he writes, he finds his understanding of life and love just a little clearer and his expression of that understanding a little more vivid. Dekker's body of work encompassing seven mysteries, three thrillers and ten fantasies includes Heaven's Wager, When Heaven Weeps, Thunder of Heaven, Blessed Child, A Man Called Blessed, Blink, Thr3e, The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, White), and Obsessed, with two more...Renegade, and Chaos to be released later this year.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
He died once to stop the killer...now he's dying again to save his wife.
FBI behavioral psychologist Daniel Clark has become famous for his well-articulated arguments that religion is one of society’s greatest antagonists. What Daniel doesn’t know is that his obsessive pursuit of a serial killer known only as “Eve” is about to end abruptly with an unexpected death-his own.
Twenty minutes later Daniel is resuscitated, only to be haunted by the loss of memory of the events immediately preceding his death.
Daniel becomes convinced that the only way to stop Eve is to recover those missing minutes during which he alone saw the killer’s face. And the only way to access them is to trigger his brain’s memory dump that occurs at the time of death by simulating his death again…and again. So begins a carefully researched psychological thriller which delves deep into the haunting realities of near-death experiences, demon possession, and the human psyche.
"As always with a Ted Dekker thriller, the details of ADAM are stunning, pointing to meticulous research in a raft of areas: police and FBI methods, forensic medicine, psychological profiling-in short, all that accompanies a Federal hunt for a serial killer. But Dekker fully reveals his magic in the latter part of the book, when he subtly introduces his darker and more frightening theme. It's all too creepily convincing. We have to keep telling ourselves that this is fiction. At the same time, we can't help thinking that not only could it happen, but that it will happen if we're not careful."
New York Times best-selling author Ted Dekker unleashes his most riveting novel yet...an elusive serial killer whose victims die of unknown causes and the psychologist obsessed with catching him.
. 
: a young woman who's reluctantly drawn into a web of intrigue which she seems to handle almost by instinct. Reece Jaxon is full of his own brand of intrigue. When these two headstrong individuals get together, sparks fly and the body count rises, as does the level of danger. If you like your fiction fast-paced and high risk with a strong spiritual core, you'll love Dead Reckoning.
Let’s meet Brandt!
