Meet and Greet: Dana Mentink

Book Giveaway Drawing!
Read the details later in this post.

Dana Mentink

Dana Mentink lives in California where the weather is golden and the cheese is divine. Her family includes two girls (affectionately nicknamed Yogi and Boo Boo.) Papa Bear works for the fire department and he met Dana doing a dinner theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit. Ironically, their parts were husband and wife.

Dana is a 2009 American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year finalist for romantic suspense and an award winner in the Pacific Northwest Writers Literary Contest.  Her October release, Betrayal in the Badlands, has been nominated for a 2010 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. 

She spent her college years competing in speech and debate tournaments all around the country. Besides writing, she busies herself teaching Sunday school and working in second/third grade combination class. Mostly, she loves to be home with her family, a dog with social anxiety problems, a chubby box turtle and a quirky parakeet. 


Howdy, all. 


I’m Dana Mentink, a harried mom of two who writes inspirational romantic suspense for Harlequin’s Steeple Hill line. My newest book, Turbulence, is on bookshelves this month. Though I started out as a mystery writer, these days I write mostly suspense. I enjoy fast-paced, action-packed books which have a thread of mystery and intrigue running through them. My books are Christian fiction, which means they also have a faith element.

My newest release is about a woman who has suffered the tragic loss of her young nieces in an accident that leaves her father on the brink of death. In the process of delivering a prototype mechanical heart to him, her plane crashes into a snowy mountainside. One of the other survivors is Dr. Paul Ford, her former fiancé and the man she blames for the death of her nieces. Sticky situation, no? To make matters worse, someone is determined to make sure the little band of survivors doesn’t make it off that mountain alive.

My favorite character is Maddie Lambert, because she is stubborn, deeply wounded and angry at the world. It’s a great starting place for character growth, not to mention a lovely stewpot for tension and conflict! I got the idea for the story after I read about the Berlin Heart which is a prototype mechanical heart not yet approved for use in the U.S. If it’s eventually approved, it might save the lives of many people waiting for donor hearts.

My next few books are going to be about treasure hunting I think. What could be more fun in a story than a little romance, a smidge of treasure and a whole lot of suspense?

Frequently people ask me to recommend books on writing. Anyone who is interested in writing professionally should check out Donald Maas’s book , The Fire In Fiction. Also Stephen King’s book on writing is really inspirational. Fictionally speaking, one of the finest suspense writers I’ve ever read is Harlan Coben, though he’s not a Christian fiction writer. That man can fool me every time!

Thank you for letting me share today. I’d love to chat via my website at www.danamentink.com or my Facebook Reader Page.

Thanks again and happy reading! 

Posted by Janalyn Voigt, author of novel books

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Book Giveaway Drawing: Dana Mentink will give away a free copy of Turbulence to a reader of this blog. To enter, leave a comment to this post. If you are a follower of Book Readers Central and tell me so in a separate comment, I'll give you an extra chance to win. 

Please include a valid email address in an anti-spam format (example: youremailhandle[at]gmail[dot]com]) or your entry will become invalid. Entries will be accepted until this Thursday at midnight (Pacific Time/US).

I'll announce the winner on Book Readers Central on Saturday. The winner must respond within two weeks of notification. Detailed rules of giveaways on Book Reader's Central are located in the footer of this blog.


**Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when products are purchased through links from Book Readers Central.

Meet and Greet: Richard Mabry

Book Giveaway Drawing! Read the details, below.

Dr. Richard Mabry built a worldwide reputation as a clinician, researcher, and teacher before retiring from medicine. He entered the field of non-medical writing after the death of his first wife, with the publication of his book, The Tender Scar: Life After The Death Of A Spouse. Medical Error is his second novel of romantic medical suspense. His first novel, Code Blue, was published by Abingdon Press in April of 2010, and will be followed next spring by the third book in the Prescription For Trouble series, Cause Of Death. Richard and his wife, Kay, live in North Texas.

Richard Mabry:

Janalyn, I appreciate this opportunity to let your readers know a bit about me. I’m a physician, retired after over a quarter century in private practice followed by ten years as a professor at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Theoretically, I’ve been retired for a decade, but really I’ve just changed hats. Now I’m a writer—when I’m not playing golf or playing grandfather.

I sort of backed into writing as the result of a crisis in my life. My first wife died suddenly in 1999, and I used journaling as a coping mechanism. After some friends read what I’d written, they urged me to turn the material into a book. Like most people, I had no idea how to write a book or get it published, but those of you familiar with the publishing world know that’s not an easy task. It was seven years later that Kregel published my book, The Tender Scar: Life After The Death Of A Spouse. The book has been on the market for almost five years, with over ten thousand copies in circulation, and I’m pleased that it continues to minister to those grieving such a loss.

Along the way, authors James Scott Bell and Alton Gansky encouraged me to try my hand at fiction. The learning curve was steep, but I persisted. Four unsuccessful novels and over forty rejections later, Abingdon Press published Code Blue, my first novel of “medical suspense with heart.” There are three novels in the Prescription For Trouble series, and the second, Medical Error, was just released. The third, Diagnosis Death, comes out next April.

Why do I write medical suspense? Actually, I didn’t start out writing that way. My male protagonist was a doctor who’d failed as a professional baseball player, and the book detailed his attempt to get back into the sport he loved. The editors liked it, but the pub boards hated it. After several tries, I found my “voice,” writing about female doctors placed in difficult situations, with strong male characters to balance them. So far, it’s worked.

In Code Blue, Dr. Cathy Sewell retreats to her hometown hoping to heal after the latest of a series of romantic disappointments. Not only does she encounter opposition from some of the local doctors and townspeople, she finds that at least one of them wants her gone…as in “dead.” The takeaway message of this book is found in Psalm 139:7-10. No matter where you run, you can’t outrun God.

In Medical Error, we encounter Dr. Cathy Sewell as a patient dies after receiving medication she should have tolerated. Then the authorities accuse her of being part of a narcotics ring. As more and more problems arise, Cathy finds herself in danger, her only allies a colleague who carries a load of guilt and an attorney who is a recovering alcoholic. What she finds is that, although God doesn’t promise freedom from conflict, He can sustain us through it (Isaiah: 54:17).

Both Code Blue and Medical Error are available from all booksellers, both online and brick-and-mortar. Your readers can check their favorite source, but my publisher has arranged a 40% discount for copies purchased through Cokesbury online: http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=838650.

My third novel, Diagnosis Death, is complete, and will be published next spring. In it, Dr. Elena Gardner is accused of mercy killings, including her husband's. She finds it hard to defend herself, since she’s not totally sure she’s innocent. I hope you all will watch for it.

I’ve considered branching out into a different genre for future novels, but always come back to medical suspense. The designation “medical suspense with heart” typifies my writing style. “Medical” because I’ve been involved with that discipline in one way or another for half a century. “Suspense” because that’s my favorite type of book. I especially like the work of the late Robert B. Parker, whose spare prose kept me turning pages without making me sleep with the lights on. The phrase “with heart” carries a double meaning: there’s always a bit of romance in my stories, because that’s the way life is. But “heart” also indicates the love of God for us, conveyed in a subtle, understated way.

Thanks again, Janalyn, for letting me have this time with your readers. They can learn more about me on my website (http://rmabry.com/) and follow my random thoughts on my blog (http://rmabry.blogspot.com/). I’m also on Twitter and Facebook—just search for Richard Mabry.

Book Giveaway Drawing: Leave a comment to this post to be entered in the drawing for a free copy of Medical Error. Please include a way to reach you online or your entry will be ineligible. Entries will be accepted until this Wednesday at midnight (Pacific Coast time/United States). The winner will be posted Friday. A link to detailed giveaway rules is located in this blog's footer.