Meet and Greet Monday: Jill Williamson

Book Giveaway Contest!
See the details, below.

Jill is the author of By Darkness Hid and To Darkness Fled, the first two books in a medieval fantasy trilogy. She has worked as a freelance editor and published numerous articles. VOYA magazine named By Darkness Hid as one of the Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novels of 2010.



Jill grew up in Alaska with no electricity, an outhouse, and a lot of mosquitoes. Thankfully it was the land of the midnight sun, and she stayed up late, reading by the summer daylight that wouldn’t go away. But in the winter, there was nothing better to do than daydream. Both hobbies set her up to be a writer.

Jill has served alongside her youth pastor husband for the past twelve years and loves working with teenagers, especially to encourage young writers. (http://www.teenageauthor.com/) An avid reader, she started Novel Teen Book Reviews (www.novelteen.com) to help teens find great books to read. She lives in Oregon with her youth pastor husband and two book-loving children. Visit Jill at http://www.jillwilliamson.com/.

BRC: How would you describe your book?To Darkness Fled is the second book in the Blood of Kings trilogy. It’s about Achan, a young man who wanted to become a knight, and Vrell, a girl who is dressed as a boy to hide from the man who wants to marry her. Book two picks up where By Darkness Hid left off.

Here is the back cover copy for To Darkness Fled (Blood of Kings, book 2):

They have no choice. Chased by an evil prince, Achan, Vrell, and the Kingsguard knights flee into Darkness. They head north, for Tsaftown and Ice Island, where they must free an army that can help them fight for Er’Rets.

Darkness sickens Vrell. How long can she keep her secret without being caught? Achan already suspects her of lying. If she is not careful, he will suspect her of treason as well. She hopes he will let his suspicions go until they reach her home.

Achan wanted freedom, but this new journey has bound him more than ever. Sir Gavin’s claims are so far fetched. First, that there might only be one God, and second, that this God chose Achan to push back Darkness, the magnificent curse of Er’Rets. Him. Achan. Barely a man himself.

Each setback Darkness brings seems minor compared to the one choice only Achan can make. What will he choose?

BRC: What message do you hope it conveys?
From Achan’s journey: That there is only one God and that he is the desire of Achan’s heart. No matter what Achan faces, knowing God will make life more worthwhile. God created Achan for a purpose. If Achan wants to fulfill that purpose, he must discover who God really is.

From Vrell’s journey: That the truth will set her free, but there are still consequences to sin. Vrell may try to hide from those consequences, but she cannot hide forever. She must embrace who she is and confess what she has done if she is ever to be truly free.

BRC: What did you enjoy most about writing this book?I loved slowly revealing Vrell’s secret here and there. Vrell is a girl, but in the first book, she is in hiding, dressed as a stray boy to avoid having to marry the evil Prince Gidon, who only wants her inheritance. Then she meets up with Achan, who thinks she’s a scrawny boy. It was so much fun to dangle Vrell’s secret out there to be nearly discovered time and again, only to save her at the last minute each time. But the secret does come out in this story, and that was a fun scene to write too.

BRC: What did you dislike most about writing this book?
It was a challenge to write a book where much of it takes place in pitch black darkness. You can’t describe people or surrounding so easily without light. I had fun at first, but it was hard to keep it up for most (of) the story. There are lanterns and torches and candles used sometimes, but often, they travel in darkness so that no one will be able to track them. That was tough to write.

BRC: What inspired you to become a writer?
I wanted to speak to teens. I discovered that sometimes, people hire speakers based on articles written by the speaker. So I looked into writing articles. Then the new Harry Potter book came out, and a new barrage of debates within the church community flared up as to whether or not the books were evil. The debate inspired me to write my own teen novel that all Christians would love. Yes, I was a bit naive. I have since learned that no one likes every book. But that’s how I got started. I was inspired to try and write blockbuster-style stories that glorified God.

BRC: Tell us about your writing process.I start by brainstorming a premise, characters, and a basic plot. I need to know where the story is headed before I can write too much. I also need to know how each main character’s story will end. For this book, I use a spreadsheet, since I have two point of view characters. I write Achan’s scenes in one column and Vrell’s scenes in the next column so I can see how their journeys will mesh. Once I feel good about where I’m headed, I start writing. I try to write the whole book as quickly as I can—in a month, preferably. Then I go back and edit, rewrite, and add or cut scenes if necessary.

BRC: What are you working on now? 
I'm working on From Darkness Won (Blood of Kings, book 3).

BRC: What books do you enjoy reading? Books by Ted Dekker, Eric Wilson, Frank Peretti, John Olson, Bill Myer, Anthony Horowitz, Jane Austen, Jenny B. Jones, Lisa Samson, Francine Rivers, Megan Whalen Turner, and Cathy Gohlke. I enjoy stories that make me laugh, cry, or stay up all night because I can’t put the thing down.

BRC: Where can readers buy your book?
Online you can go to Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or MarcherLordPress.com. You can also buy an autographed copy from me through my website. You can special order my book at your local bookstore by giving them the name and author. Also, many libraries have my first book, and if they don’t, they would likely order it if you ask. Print out a couple reviews from the Free Download section of my website and take them to the library with you when you ask so that they know my book is a good one for their library.

BRC: Where can readers find you online?
My website is http://www.jillwilliamson.com/. I’m also on Facebook, MySpace, Shoutlife, Shelfari, GoodReads, Twitter, Amazon… On top of that, I run two blogs. The first is Novel Teen Book Reviews at http://www.novelteen.com/. It’s a website that reviews clean teen fiction. This is a great resource to see what books are available in the Christian market for teens. The other blog is for teen authors, though adult authors may find some useful tips too. http://www.teenageauthor.com/.

BRC: Thanks for visiting Book Readers Central today.
Thanks for having me! J




Book Giveaway Contest: Limited to entrants with mailing addresses within the United States. Please leave a comment to this post to enter. The winner may choose either By Darkness Hid or From Darkness Fled. A link to the full giveaway contest rules is provided in a sidebar of this blog.

Meet and Greet Monday: Steve Rzasa

Today's guest, Steve Rzasa, was born and raised in South Jersey, and fell in love with books—especially science fiction novels and historical volumes—at an early age. He and his wife, Carrie, have two boys and live in Buffalo, Wyoming. Steve’s short story, “Rescued,” which is set in the universe of The World Reclaimed, won the 2009 G.K.Chesterton Award in the Athanatos Christian Ministries Writing Contest.


Dear Reader,

The Word Reclaimed, my tale of a young man named Baden who discovers what may be the last Bible in existence, releases this October from Marcher Lord Press, the premier Christian speculative fiction publisher.


I grew up in southern New Jersey with a love for books and sketching. My parents were quite willing - thankfully! - to indulge my insatiable appetite for reading materials. I’ve always enjoyed science-fiction, particularly space opera, which is somewhat less finicky about the “science” part but big on fast spaceships hurtling across the depths of space. I tried my hand at writing my own space adventures off and on in school, mostly in short story form. In high school I wrote a novel-length story called Unifying Factors that will probably never see the light of day (Lord willing).

Soon it was off to college at Boston University and I suddenly had a whole lot of free time – excluding homework and studying, of course. I worked on several short ideas that didn’t really pan out. It was later in my junior year that I committed myself to following Christ. I dove into Bible study, and came up with a space opera of clashing empires called This Stirring Strife. It eventually became a 220-page novel involving Christian protagonists and interstellar war that I self-published through Booklocker.com as an experiment of sorts.

All this took place as I began a post-collegiate career in journalism. As anyone in that field can tell you, you do a lot of writing - even if, like mine, your work appears just in weekly newspapers. For the next eight years I wrote about eight articles a week, approximately. You can imagine my reluctance to go anywhere near a keyboard when I got home from work.

As a result, my fiction writing languished for years. But during this time, the idea for The Word Reclaimed came when I asked myself a question: What would happen if a man on a spaceship found a Bible floating in space? That idea exploded into a universe of starships that jump between solar systems in the wink of an eye. In a world where all printed materials are banned, the royal family and its religious secret police control all electronic information sources. A religious tolerance act ensures that all faiths are equal – anyone who claims a certain path is the sole path winds up imprisoned, or worse. It took me several years to get just partway through the book. But after I began working at a library – and didn’t have to write all day – I finished the book in nine months.

 I encourage you to read the prologue and first part of Chapter One of The Word Reclaimed here. Even if you don’t usually read science fiction, check it out. Several women who don't like science fiction told me they enjoyed the story.

You can buy The Word Reclaimed at the Marcher Lord Press website. Visit my website, www.steverzasa.com, for more information about my book and its universe.



Baden picked up the wrong book - and dark forces will stop at nothing to take it back.

Meet and Greet Monday: Kerry Nietz

Kerry Nietz is a self-confessed refugee of the software industry. He spent more than a decade of his life flipping bits—first as one of the principal developers of the database product FoxPro for the now mythical Fox Software, and then as one of Bill Gates’ minions at Microsoft. He is a husband, a father, a technophile and a movie buff. He has one previously published book, a memoir entitled FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software. A Star Curiously Singing is his first novel.

Q: What inspired you to become a writer?

Doubtless all the books I read as a kid. I used to love getting those Scholastic book order forms in elementary school. I would pour over them, circling the books I wanted. I must have driven my folks crazy (and nearly into poverty.) I think one month I connived them into ordering twenty books for me. I read them all, though, so the money wasn’t wasted. I think I still have many of them too. Will that save me money with my own kids? Probably not.

 Q: Tell us about your book.

 

A Star Curiously Singing is a speculative Christian novel with a decidedly  *cyberpunk feel. It takes place in a future hundreds of years from now, where much of the world lives under sharia law.

In this dualistic society, average people live on the streets in near-squalor and the powerful ride above them in cable car-like conveyances. This latter group shrouds itself in high tech, to the point of needing specialized debuggers to handle their machines.

That’s where my protagonist comes in. Sandfly is a debugger who’s summoned to solve the mystery of why a robot malfunctioned. The unusual circumstance? The robot has been to space. Deep space. Something about the trip made it malfunction.

A Star Curiously Singing is a sci-fi mystery, of sorts.

Q: Is there anything special you’d like people to know about this book?

Yes, it breaks a lot of rules, making me the author that my publisher now has to apologize for when he speaks at writers’ conferences. For example, it is written entirely in first person present tense.

Q: What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

Envisioning the future, especially the technology portion of it. As someone who has worked in the tech industry, I have a unique perspective on how things might be. I think it gives my book a very original feel. I’m confident I’ve shown things in this book that haven’t been seen anywhere else. For instance, when was the last time you read a detailed description of someone reconstructing a robot? My book has that.

Q: What message do you hope to convey in your writing?

The biggest theme is that freedom is important, and worth sharing. It is also fragile, and needs our constant diligence to protect and expand. That goes for both American freedom, and the freedom we have in Christ.

Q: What books do you enjoy reading?

Though science fiction is a preference, I read a broad range of books. In fact, I tend to alternate between non-fiction books and novels. In non-fiction, I read everything from biographies, to current events, to politics and works to encourage my faith. Some of my favorite fictional authors are:  Michael Crichton, Jack Mcdevitt, Frank Peretti, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov.

Q: What new projects are you working on?

A sequel to A Star Curiously Singing is in the works. After that, possibly another.

Q: Where can readers buy your book?

You can purchase it online directly from the store at www.marcherlordpress.com or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And if your local bookstore doesn’t carry it, they can order it for you.

Q: Where can readers find you online?

My Web site is www.kerrynietz.com.

Q: Is there anything readers can do to help your book do well?

If you like it, please tell others. And be sure to post a review online at those places that will let you—Amazon, for instance. Don’t feel like you have to write an exhaustive review. Just an honest summary of what you liked and disliked will suffice. 

* Wikipedia "Cyberpunk" Definition