Blessing Tour for Stephen Todd Jones

Stephen Todd Jones is a writer and poet from Virginia Beach, Virginia.While a sophomore at Liberty University, he sustained injuries in a car crash that left him in a wheelchair, and this perspective forms the basis for much of his writing. Through his poetry, he gives us a window into his world and his faith.

Why Sorrow Over

Why sorrow over
That had not
For the same is a
Heavy thought?

Why not enumerate
All here had
Rather than accounting
For those bad?

In content, do you
Not strive to
Obtain that reserved,
It seems, for few?

Or is content a state
Where you are
Never seeking that
From way afar?

Is dreaming wrong to
Do here when
You are dissatisfied in the
State you are in?

Are we not to seek to
Improve our lot,
Or as the fatalist here,
Are we not?

God, reveal to me the
Answer to those,
Or is there a definite

As I here suppose?

The problem of evil—how a loving God can allow tragedy in the lives of good people—is the primary reason skeptics reject Christianity. Yes, theologically speaking we are all evil; realistically speaking in our fallen world, there are gangsters, and then there are churchgoing grandmothers who volunteer their time for ice cream socials, food pantries, and prayer meetings. If a gangster’s crippled in a drive-by shooting, we tend to see it as God’s judgment. But if this grandmother is crippled in the same event because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time? How can a loving God allow that?

Like you Stephen, an automobile accident has challenged me with physical and mental handicaps. The head-on collision drastically changed my life, and I am told that by the year 2018, I will also be in a wheelchair.

I work at Subaru of Indiana Automotive where ironically, I build cars for other people to have accidents in. Because of pain management issues I qualify for intermittent Family Medical Leave Act: time-off from work. As my body’s been deteriorating, I’ve had to figure out how to replace my income with some kind of desk work. Beyond my 12th grade education, I am a self educated—looks real good on a resume.

God used the accident to force my hand, and make me focus on a talent (as in The Parable of the Talents). I knew I wanted to write fiction since eight years of age. In high school, the first short story I ever finished won a contest against hundreds of students from four states. In spite of His encouragement, I had neglected a talent he'd given me. Since God tapped me on the shoulder with a Mitsubishi Eclipse traveling at about 65 miles an hour and got my attention, I am now a published author with four short stories in two anthologies—my first novel will be released on September 30 of this year.

So my prayer for you, Stephen, is not trying to second-guess our Boss as to what is best for your life. My prayer is His will be done. We can ask nothing greater.

To God be the glory,

Frank Creed

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Home: frankcreed.com

Author Blog: frankcreed.blogspot. com

Book Review Blog: afrankreview.blogspot. com

Lost Genre Guild Site: lostgenreguild. com

Lost Genre Guild Blog: blog.lostgenreguild. com

The Underground Series: End Times Sci-Fi http://groups.yahoo.com/group/end_times_sci_fi

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CFRBlog presents High Street

The Summary:

Jamie Boyer sits in a stark homeless shelter in one of the seedier areas just off of High Street, certain that he has messed up his life forever. The young man had left his home on the farm just six months earlier for college in the big city. After falling in with the wrong crowd and getting mixed up with alcohol and drugs, his life is shattered. From the times he attended church while growing up, Jamie knows that he is running from God. The squalor and hopelessness of the homeless culture horrifies him, yet in shame he refuses to call home. Back in Shelby County, Martha Boyer worries about her missing son. She knows that she is not right with God herself, and is guilt-ridden. The occasional church visits have only made her more miserable.

High Street cuts through the heart of Columbus, Ohio. On the way, it snakes along a sprawling college campus offering rowdy bars and good times to young people who have just left home, and slides by dirty, crime-infested areas of the city that most try to ignore.

Can Jamie work his way out of his problems alone, and will anything really be different if he gets back to the college bars on High Street?


Where to purchase

You can buy High Street from

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/ and

http://www.blogger.com/www.barnesandnoble.com.

The book is also available through the national wholesale distributor Ingram Book Group.

About the Author

Jack Stinson was born and raised in rural, northern Ohio. After college, he became a technical writer, living and working in several states on the east coast and in the Midwest. For many years he helped with a Christian outreach program for the homeless, which was the inspiration for High Street.

Review of ML Tyndall's The Restitution

A Frank Review of M.L. Tyndall's The Restitution:

Book Three of the Legacy of the King's Pirates Series

by Frank Creed

After I've read an excellent novel or author, it takes my brain a while to process things. After reviewing The Redemption and The Reliance someone asked me who my favorite novelists were. It was then that I realized M. L. Tyndall's fiction had placed her in my top-three novelists' list. Only George Orwell and C. S. Lewis precede her. A few weeks after coming to this conclusion I received an advance review copy of The Restitution in my mailbox. Seeing as Tyndall's the only one of my favorite novelists still breathing, you can imagine my delight.

But I was a bit apprehensive—I hate reading the final book in a series and saying goodbye to strong characters that I've come to love—and I really hate when a sequel doesn't do justice. Could she impress me yet again?

After reading Tyndall's first two novels, I knew her gift for action-pacing and characterization was all Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark. It's rare that a sequel qualitatively surpasses an original, but The Restitution is the best of the Legacy of the Kings Pirates series. I'm not even going to waste space with a plot synopsis in this review—all you need to know is that Tyndall writes in a Caribbean pirate setting, with Christian characters. Sails, swords, and ports—very exotic.

There are few Christian novels I consider to be must-reads, but Tyndall's books most definitely qualify. If you liked Pirates of the Caribbean, don't even bother reading any further; just go to the closest bookstore. Tyndall's meaningful pirate fiction is far better. Here's what MaryLu does so well . . .

Action-Pacing: I already knew that this woman's tales TWIST badder then Chubby Checker with an ice-cube in his shorts, so I made it through seventy pages of The Restitution just by expecting the unexpected. Then her plot sailed off my charts and blew me out of the water with a broadside. Reading The Restitution is like putting on a blindfold and riding a roller coaster. My favorite thing about Tyndall's fiction is that anything can happen at any time—you never see it coming. For example, check this setup:

In the following scene, the main character, Lady Isabel, is searching for her kidnapped infant-son. In desperation, she's reluctantly accepts the help of the only person who's offered assistance. A pirate captain named Kent: the child's biological father—he'd sexually assaulted Lady Isabel in The Reliance. Here they have encountered a heavily-laden Spanish slave-ship, which Kent does not want to attack, but his crew is about to mutiny, so he gives in:

"The Restitution swooped down a surging roller. Kent steadied his gaze upon his fleeing prey. Under a full crowd of sail, the sloop made a good run for it, but she sat low in the water. Although her crew members tossed crates and barrels overboard to lighten her load, their efforts would be futile. Hot wind swarmed over him, igniting the excitement of the chase. He braced his boots as the ship thrust boldly into the next swell, sending a spray of foam exploding over the bow. He shook it from his hair. With Isabel aboard, he'd hoped to avoid attacking any ships, but he would certainly put her in more danger should he not keep his voracious crew appeased. He saw the way some of them looked at her. With him out of the way, they wouldn't hesitate to pass her amongst them like a common trollop. Hann stood next to her on the foredeck, grinning like a pirate who'd just found a treasure. The lad leaned in to whisper something in Isabel's ear, and she giggled. Jealousy oozed green in Kent's heart."

Tyndall's layers of action are too thick to count.

Description: Being a lifelong avid reader, and now a novelist, it's so very rare that a writer can entertain me to the point that I'm totally absorbed in a story. Tyndall can still do that to me. She describes with verbs—there is no more powerful method. She sweeps you away from your reading chair, and puts you there. Here we go again:

"A blast of heat blowing in from the land struck Isabel, and she plucked a fan from the sash of her gown and snapped it open. Perspiration dampened her neck and slid down her back, and the fluttering of her fan did nothing to assuage it. She sighed, wishing the ship would move faster, but she knew the entrance to the harbor with all its reefs and cays held many hidden dangers for even the most skilled seaman. Captain Carlton navigated it with ease.

Coming into view on the port side were the golden shores and green fields of Hog Island, named so for the farm animals that were allowed to roam freely there until they were butchered to feed the settlers. The stench of hog and cow dung roasting in the sweltering heat crashed over Isabel, nearly choking her.Holding a hand to her nose, she turned to see the rows of wooden docks punching out into the harbor from the center of Charles Towne."

Characterization: While I admire good action pacing, if I don't care about characters in the action I'll put a book down. If a reader can't identify with, and care for Tyndall's characters, then that reader is obviously a hermit.

The leading Lady Isabel was raised by parents who instilled the values of wealth and title on their daughter. Now that she's given birth to Frederick, an illegitimate son whom she dearly loves, Isabel, a new Christian, is confronted by an inner struggle. Will she bow to her parents' noble values, or will she realize that slaves and servants are also meaningful in God's eyes?

The leading man is a villain from The Redemption and The Reliance. His heart has grown weary of meaningless treasure and power. His assault of Lady Isabel is a millstone around his neck—so much so that he has renamed Vanquisher, his pirate ship, Restitution. Kent's soul is empty and he seeks to fill it with Isabel—by making amends. But he discovers just how powerful Isabel's God is.

Then we meet the new characters. Tyndall has managed to pull off one of the most difficult things in meaningful fiction: philosophical discussion without being preachy. She has Atheist, Theist, and Feminist secondary-characters on board the Restitution. This is usually where Biblical novels take the pulpit and preach to the choir. A Christian novelist's first job is to entertain, and here's where Tyndall struts her stuff. Debating worldviews is nonfiction's territory—she doesn't go there. The situations in which these characters find themselves all lead to dialogues. Experiences are quipped through the lenses of these characters' perspectives, each according to their own natural conclusions. The tension created is all about the characters, and is just part of the story. Without preaching, Tyndall's page turning fiction has as many layers of depth as it does action.

If you enjoy riding out hurricane plot-twists on a pirate schooner, do it with the freshest mistress of Christian fiction—a Lady-Captain with a dagger clenched in her teeth.

My only complaint to Barbour books is that M. L. Tyndall needs to get off the historical romance shelves, and into a place where a younger generation of Christians and seekers can be inspired by her fiction.

Frank Creed—novelist and founder of the Lost Genre Guild

Karina Fabian talks about Virtual Book Tours

CM: Karina, you’ve had a busy month marketing Infinite Space, Infinite God. Tell us a little about it.

KF: I’ve been virtual book touring Infinite Space, Infinite God for the month of August. ISIG is thought-provoking science fiction with a Catholic twist—stories about bringing faith to lost races and determining whether genetically engineered chimeras can have souls, how challenges of space travel, extreme crime and more affect people morally and spiritually; how the practice of the Catholic faith will influence and be influenced by technological advances both small and incredible.

The book tour has had 43 stops in 31 days, including blogs, live chats and guest columns in newsletters. I’ve talked about everything from the book itself to the historical role of Catholicism in science to balancing writing with homeschooling kids. I wrote most of the interviews and guest blogs during June and July, so in August, I’ve been (when able) just enjoying seeing the posts and comments.

CM: You've done many interviews throughout the virtual book tour of Infinite Space, Infinite God that focus on different aspects of the anthology and your leadership role. Since this is the last day of the tour, I would like to focus on your conclusions about this unique marketing medium.

First of all, can you explain what a virtual book tour is?

KF: In a nutshell, a virtual book tour is when you and your book are featured on blogs, podcasts, live chats, etc. on the Internet. This can be anything that gets you out there: posting of your book summary, interviews, reviews of the book, links to your book website or trailer, guest blogging. Use your imagination!

Setting up a tour is a lot of work, but not difficult. You find bloggers who talk about something your book touches, and ask them if they will host you. You arrange a date they will post, and what they’ll post, then you advertise it on your own website, to friends, etc.


CM: Different online groups are organized precisely for the purpose of touring new novels but this virtual tour of ISIG is very different in many ways. Can you tell us how you came up with this idea? and what you felt its merits would be?

KF: I didn’t really come up with the idea. It was mentioned at the MuseOnline Writers Conference. (A totally free and incredibly worthwhile online conference. I’m giving a workshop on Virtual Book Tours, and there are many other great seminars from how to write to how to market. http://www.museonlineconference.tripod.com/) At the time, I didn’t know what I was doing, so I set up a website/blog just for touring other people’s books and started looking around for folks to tour Infinite Space, Infinite God, which at the time was in eBook only.

Groups that run blog tours are great. Often they are themed and have a readership that likes to purchase books. The merits of seeking other bloggers who don’t just tour books are that you can further target your readership, and that you reach people who might not ordinarily consider your book. For example, Infinite Space, Infinite God is thought-provoking science fiction with a Catholic twist. I didn’t find a VBT group that specific! However, I did find a great number of sci fi bloggers, Catholic bloggers and even a few Catholic Sci Fi bloggers!

Interviewer's note: Karina has designed a comprehensive Virtual Book Tour Primer and it is available to read on fabianspace.com.

CM: ISIG has toured for 31 days and many of those days included more than one tour stop! How did you locate so many people to act as tour stops? Was there a point early on when you wondered if you’d fill all the spots?

KF: I developed a lot of contacts over the past year—one of the great benefits of the MuseOnline Writer’s Conference. I’m also active on a great many yahoo Groups. Thus, when the time came, I put out a general call for folks to host me. I also host a lot of folks on my book tour site, http://www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com/, so some of them returned the favor. Finally, I did a google search for science fiction and Catholic bloggers and approached them.

This tour turned out to be more generic than the one I did in December, when I specifically sought out Catholic and sci fi bloggers, so I had a great many more participants. Frankly, I was ready to say “Enough!” once I’d reached my goal of 31 stops, but folks kept asking, and who am I to turn down free publicity? Everyone has been terrific about it, too. I was writing a novel, moving across country and my computer died, so I’ve been out of touch most of the tour. Fortunately, most of the work for the tour (writing interviews, sending out documents and pics) is usually done ahead of time, so the tour ran without me. (Try that in real life.)

CM: What are some of the highlights of the tour? I realize you are grateful for all those participating, but if you had to choose just 5 sites to direct people to, which ones would be on your list?

KF: I especially enjoyed the review by Sarah at Snoring Scholar. It’s always rewarding to get reviewed by someone who normally doesn’t like sci-fi, yet ends up loving the book.

Ann Lewis and I came up with the interview on her site while chatting—we were trying to come up with some stuff no one had asked yet.

I’d like to give Gloria Oren a special mention because between her troubles over the summer and mine over August, we didn’t get an interview done, but she kept seeking me out through others when I was off-line and we finally got it done, albeit a bit late.

Grace Bridges did a really fun interview on her blog. Look in the archives for her review of ISIG as well.

Most of the blogs had very solid, basic interviews. Tannia Ortiz, however, asked a novel’s worth of questions—then sent it back four times with edits and requests for more! (She was the one person I had to say “Enough!” to. She takes this very seriously and is very conscientious, which I appreciate, but I was in the middle of moving boxes at the time.)

I’d like to also let folks know that I am going to be on the internet radio in Sept.:

Sept 18: Conscious Discussions (hosts Lillian and Dave Brummet)
I may also be on http://www.talkshoe.com/ with Adam Graham, but I’m not sure of the date yet.

CM: Did your author contributors to ISIG participate in any way?

KF: No. Frankly, I was doing so much, I didn’t ask. I’m not sure I could have coordinated the efforts of 10 others. I suggested they arrange their own tours to coincide, but none did. However, many of them are doing more in-person stuff—conferences and such—that I can’t do at this point in my life, so we complement each other. Ken Pick, however, is a big web presence—you’ll see his comments on several of the tour sites and more.

CM: Did you set out having a goal for this tour?

KF: The goal was 31 stops in 31 days and beyond that, I wasn’t sure what else to quantify. I’ve been disappointed in the sparse comments to the posts—it makes it hard to know how many people have read them. However, I did a Google search on Aug 25, and found that there are 14 other sites that have mentioned Infinite Space, Infinite God, from comments to recommendations. Our book trailer on YouTube has had 350 more hits than in July; the Infinite Space, Infinite God website (isigsf.tripod.com) has had a lot of new hits; and the Infinite Space, Infinite God MySpace site (www.myspace.com/infinitespaceinfinitegod) has had about 200 hits (and I have hardly advertised it), so I know folks are reading about it and are interested.

It’s way too early to know about sales, but I do know that ISIG sold 30 copies via Fictionwise during fourth quarter 2006 and 8 copies during first quarter 2007. There were two ebook sales via the TT Books web site during fourth quarter 2006 and five copies during first quarter 2007. I think the elevated Fictionwise sales are a result of the first book tour.

CM: The outcome of a focused marketing effort like the tour often has an early spurt in benefits but more likely, most of the benefits will be realized over time. What benefits have you seen during the 31-day tour?

Like I’d mentioned above, Infinite Space, Infinite God is getting a lot of attention, and not just from the folks who participated in the tour itself. The Internet really is the marketing tool of the future—more people are researching and shopping there, and if your book isn’t going to end up on the store shelves (and even when it does), it pays to advertise on the Web.

More than that, though, I’ve learned a lot about myself and my book from these tours. There have been times when someone has asked me a question where I’ve had to stop, think and even research the answer. Can’t do that live! It seems funny that I’ve actually thought more about the stories in the book and its impact on folks now that it’s written, but it does.

CM: And lastly, what did you learn from your endeavor?

KF: #1 Don’t do a book tour while you’re in the middle of a move. There’s so much more I wanted to do, including daily posts to my own blog and a lot more advertising, that I just didn’t have time for.
#2 Double check that folks know their post date and that you have the website right. I had some folks post in July instead of August. Still great to get the publicity, but it didn’t have the impact it would have this month, as the book hadn’t been published yet.
#3 Wait until After the book is out. Infinite Space, Infinite God came out in print August 15. I’d hoped to build up some hype, but 20-20 hindsight says it would have been smarter to wait until they could on the whim go right to http://www.twilighttimesbooks/ or http://www.amazon.com/ and buy the book.
#4 Keep an eye on your tour, but don’t fret about it. I was quite upset earlier this week that the tour was messed up because I hadn’t been able to keep tabs on it. In fact, I had about 7 posts I could not find (wrong dates, wrong sites and one just plumb forgot), but then I did that Google search and Wow!
#5 Write down the hits to your sites before the tour, so you can see how it’s impacted your publicity.
#6 Advertise it early and hard! I didn’t do this (thinking the bloggers would handle their own sites), and I think that’s one reason there are so few comments.

Thanks, Cynthia, for the chance to talk about the tour.

And thank you Karina for giving us this opportunity to learn more about virtual book tours.

Some links of interest:

Karina Fabian's Virtual Book Tour Primer
Twilight Times (ISIG publisher)
Muse OnLine Writers Conference: October Karina will be giving a workshop on Virtual Book Tours at the free Muse OnLine Conference (October 8-14)

31 Days of Infinite Space, Infinite God virtual book tour:
http://www.doylebooks.com/ (summary)
http://www.kaleidosouls.info/, (summary)
http://www.kaleidosouls.info/, (interview)
http://www.thewritingjungle.blogspot.com/ (interview)
www.freewebs.com/mary-andrews (interview)
http://http//writeurthoughts.blogspot.com (interview)
http://www.catholicfiction.net/ (interview)
http://http//timewithtannia.tripod.com/(interview)
www.writeandwhine.blogspot.com/ (interview) http://www.jillelizabethnelson.com/artisticblogger.shtml
http://www.shoutlife.com/jillelizabethnelson
http://www.myspace.com/jillelizabethnelson (interview) http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://cmwforum.blogspot.com/ (review)
http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com(interview/)
http://www.thedarkphantom.wordpress.com/ (interview)
http://www.lostgenreguild.com/ (review)
http://gloriaoren.blogspot.com/(interview)
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/dragons-of-the-pyramid-book-reviews.html (review) http://beverlyjean.livejournal.com/(interview)
http://www.virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com/ (trailer)
http://cfvici.blogspot.com/ (review)
http://catharsys.wordpress.com/ (interview)
http://cdrippe.wordpress.com/ (summary)
http://www.annmargaretlewis.com/ (interview)
12 Noon: Live Chat: http://jolinsdell.tripod.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/grace1979
http://blog.myspace.com/grace1979 (review)
7:00-9:00 PM: http://www.writerschatroom.com/ (Live Chat)
http://www.marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://www.snoringscholar.blogspot.com/ (review)
http://solshine7.blogspot.com/ (review and interview)
http://scifijournalist.blogspot.com/(review and interview)
http://www.jamiesonwolf.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://www.authoralley.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://www.karenee.blogspot.com/(interview)
http://www.disturbingreviews.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://www.thebookpedler.wordpress.com/ (interview)
http://worldsapage.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://%20www.livejournal.com/~paulinebjones (interview)
http://penelopemarzec.blogspot.com/ (guest blogger)
http://aspiringauthor.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://www.disturbingreviews.blogspot.com/(interview)
http://www.myspace.com/happywriter(guest blogger)
http://zyphe.blogspot.com/(review)
http://360.yahoo.com/raeshylle(review)
12 Noon: Live Chat "Infinite Space, Infinite God and the Infinite Possibilities of Book Marketing" http://www.virginiajennings.zoomshare.com/5.html
http://writetype.blogspot.com/ (guest blogger)
http://www.noveljourney.blogspot.com/ (interview)
http://afrankreview.blogspot.com/ (review)