Winner!!!

Hey all! Congratulations to the Winner of Nicole O'Dell's two teen books, Magna and Making Waves, who is....(drum roll, please)... KarenK! Karen, you'll need to email me your mailing address, and I'll get it to Nicole.
Sorry that this is late. Yesterday was slightly hectic, being Mother's Day and all. Happy Mother's Day to all mothers! I hope that, despite my not getting this posted, you had an excellent day yesterday.


Is anyone excited about this week or next week? Or even tomorrow? Boy, I'm about to bounce off of the walls waiting for next week! Me, my sister, and our three brothers are going on a three to five day camping trip--pioneer style! That means that the only electronics that we can bring are small flashlights, cameras, and alphies. Which means that we aren't going to be on the computers, and that also means that I won't be posting on here... and my automatic posting thingamajig doesn't post when I want it to. But I will be keeping a trail log, and when I can get back on the computer, sometime on the afternoon of Saturday the 22nd, I'll post that on here, along with lots of pictures! Hopefully I won't get a chance to take a picture of a tent that a deer didn't see...
I've got my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain this Saturday and Sunday, to give the ground a bit of time to dry out, because it is supposed to be dreary and rain all week. The corn in the fields around us is growing fast and needs the rain, so I suppose that I'm thankful for it. But that doesn't mean that I don't find it annoying sometimes...like when the ground is almost dry enough to mow the grass before it becomes a jungle and it rains again, or the deer trails are almost hard and they become a squishy, mushy mess. =) Okay, no more talking about rain, before it actually starts raining again!
Has anyone cooked with a dutch oven? We are going to pull the old dutch oven down from the barn loft, and we'll be using that on the camping trip, which should be quite an experience! Just cooking any meal outdoors that isn't hot dogs will be different.
We will be going out on the morning of Monday the 17th, right after breakfast, and staying until, at the very least, through Wednesday night. But we can stay out there until Saturday morning if we want to.

I'm going to go figure out what I am going to pack and start packing it, so if I forget anything, I'll have a whole week to remember it. =) Have an awesome, beautiful, amazing, wonderful week!!

Author spotlight with David and Diane Munson and book giveaway!!

Welcome David and Diane,





What advice would you give to today’s high school and college girls?
God designed each of you to be unique. Find the divine purpose He has for your life and don’t compromise your values to fit in with the group. While it may hurt for a bit, in the end you will find fulfillment. In the midst of hard times, keep your faith in the love of Jesus—it will bring you through everything. Remember to have fun in school and be a true friend. You may be friends for life!

What has past experience taught you about life?
Nothing about life is easy. Life has been this way since sin entered the world. Because of their sins, Adam and Eve had to work hard to keep weeds from overtaking their garden. At the same time, pressing forward helps overcome adversity, builds strong character, and makes us able to endure the difficulties that we will face. It will be this way until Christ returns and throws Satan from the earth. But faith and trust in Christ give us joy to live even in this imperfect world.

How has your faith helped you?
Besides being the compass that guides us through life, our faith in God determines what we write. Without our faith, we would be writing crime novels with blood and gore, because we write from our experience in criminal justice. Our faith in Jesus helps us to see those around us as God’s creation so we look for the redeeming things about people. We show God’s influence on our fictional character as we write about the failures of people that result in their run-ins with the law.

What is your favorite verse and why?
John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
What truth, what a sacrifice, what love we find in Christ Jesus. The longer we live, the closer we want to be to Jesus and to live so we are worthy of him. He lived on earth as a man and experienced trouble, pain, weeping, and joy. There is no greater love than what Jesus did for us. If we accept the gift he gives of salvation, we can have eternal life in Heaven.

What kind of books do you enjoy reading?
We both love all books that tell a terrific story, whether it is of a real person such as Sarah Palin or Tony Dungy, or fiction. The Bible is our favorite book and we try to read some of it every day. Also, we enjoy history, biographies and suspense books, which is what we write.

When did you first start writing and what got you started?
We never know in our lives what can influence us. We were reading of the genealogy of Jesus in the Bible, when we got the bug to trace our own ancestors. Out of that, came a desire to write a historical fiction, which Diane wrote on many legal pads and David typed. From that first work, publishers suggested we write suspense based on our careers. David was a Federal agent who worked undercover and Diane was a Federal prosecutor. So, this time we wrote a novel together sitting under a palm tree in Florida. That was Facing Justice. We now have three more novels finished and are working hard on our fifth one.

What would you do if you found a purple and green polka dotted panda in your living room one morning?
David would investigate to see how she got inside the house and where she came from. Diane would take her picture and then find out what the panda wanted to eat.

What would your perfect day be like?
Hands down, it would be taking a trip out West to Yellowstone National Park, walking together and photographing God’s creation. We love to watch eagles soaring, moose foraging in the woods, coyotes sneaking in the weeds or bison roaming the rolling hills. We’d have a picnic of apples, cheese and great bread. Hey, maybe we should quit typing and get outside. The sun is shining!

What is your favorite character in the books you have written?
We have four novels: Facing Justice, Confirming Justice, The Camelot Conspiracy, and Hero’s Ransom. In each one, the female Federal agent, Eva Montanna, appears with her FBI agent partner, Griff Topping. They are so cool under pressure, facing the odds with courage, that we keep them solving mysteries in each one. We like them both. Also, in Hero’s Ransom, we wrote in more detail about the escapades of CIA agent, Bo Rider, as he battles against Chinese plots. He’s a lot of fun and will be back in the next novel. Hope you like them, too.

Do you have another book coming out soon? If so, can you tell us a bit about it?
Thanks for asking! The next thriller is about half-done. It will feature Bo Rider, Wally and Liberty, who were from the “Lost Boys and Girls” from Sudan as they face intrigue in the country of Iran and other places. We will also write some more about Virginia, where we used to live, and include some feisty minor characters. In all our books, we highlight freedom, justice, hope and courage under fire.


We did this backwards today, we'll do the book blurb tomorrow. :) Sorry this is so hurried, we have a big storm coming our way, and I'm going to get this up real quick because I'm not sure how good our internet is going to be later.


~Abby