Powers by John B Olson & Open Giveaway

Synopsis:~

"Bury me standing. I must be buried standing."

Powers, the follow-up to John Olson's Shade introduces a sheltered Gypsy girl named Mariutza. Her grandfather utters a mysterious last request before dying in her arms after being shot by ten cloaked men. Those same men die before her eyes, but strange powers continue to pursue Mari through the swamps of southern Louisiana where she has always hidden from "the Badness."

The whole world seems to join in the chase-helicopters, soldiers, government agents, and the police are all trying to kill her. Mari's only hope of survival is to find Jaazaniah the Prophet, the mythical hero of her grandfather's bedtime stories. But she has never been outside the swamp or known other humans besides her grandfather and one teacher. How can this lone girl survive the bewildering world of men long enough to find a prophet who might not even exist?

My take:~

I love John's writing but I admit for the initial chapters of Powers, I felt a little like I was in Mari's swamp, confused and disoriented. I am happy to say that perseverance pays off with this novel as John hits his straps and takes you along for a epic ride as Mari and Jazz dodge government and supernatural forces and encounter an other worldly evil. Mind bending twists make for gripping reading and John's skillful characterisation adds heart, soul and even some romantic tension to the tale. Readers of Shade will delight in the reappearance of Melchi and Hailey and shiver with the return of the Mulo. Powers is a traditional battle of good and evil with unconventional characters and an intriguing plot that consolidates John's position as a premier author of Christian supernatural fiction.

Relz Reviewz Extras

Reviews of Shade & Fossil Hunter
Interview with John ~ Part 1 and Part 2
Visit John's website
Buy John's books at Amazon and Koorong

Giveaway

Thanks to the fabulous folk at B&HFiction, I have two copies of Powers to give away to my Aussie readers and two copies for my North American readers! To enter:

1. Post a comment before midnight Sunday 24th January, 2010
2. Add an AUS or USA at the end of your post so I know your location.

Book trailer for John B Olson's Powers

John Olson's sequel to Shade is one of my must read 2009 releases. I am trying to be patient until December comes around and Powers will be in my hands ;-)

Here's a peek:~

Shade by John B Olson and Open Giveaway

Unloved, unclean, threateningly large and homeless, Melchi is tormented by his failures to remain pure of heart. When he rescues a defenceless woman being terrorized by evil and finds himself falling for her beauty his worst fears surface.

Hailey Maniates nightmare begins as she is pursued by an elusive force, is rescued by a crazy man whose eyes express more than a thousand words, and whose thoughts she can somehow perceive without him speaking aloud.

Stalked by evil, derided by colleagues and friends and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, Hailey doesn't know whom to trust. Melchi is the only person who makes sense to Hailey and that is frightening all on its own. He acknowledges her terror as truth, but his strange ways and fearsome strength confuse her mind as do her burgeoning feelings for this unusual man, who may very well be the source of her fears and the cause of her problems.

Be prepared to bend your mind in more ways than one as you delve into the harrowing journey of Hailey, Melchi and their battle with evil. Shade is chock full of action, terror, mind games and tender emotion as John B Olson tosses Hailey into a real life nightmare and makes her squirm! The initial chapters had me all at sea and I felt a little of what Hailey feels, confused and somewhat frustrated but as the story opened up, I found my feet and launched in to the battle for Hailey's mind, body and soul. Melchi is an amazing character with untapped depths. A brief glimpse in to his childhood is horrifying and sets the scene for his adulthood, a man striving for righteousness while being choked by his failings, ignorant yet with a wisdom of the ages, fearful yet willing to fight with unsurpassed courage. How John manages to weave in attraction in this supernatural thriller is anyone's guess but it works! I am more than a little intrigued with where John will take this series but I am strapped in for what is going to be a ride of supernatural proportions! If you like your novels to be thought provoking, dark with plenty of heart pounding action, very evil bad guys with not just a little weirdness, Shade is just the ticket!

Relz Reviewz Extras

Review of Fossil Hunter

Interview with John ~ Part 1 and Part 2

Visit John's website

Buy John's books at Amazon and Koorong

Giveaway

Thanks to the fabulous folk at B&HFiction, I have two copies of Shade to giveaway to my Aussie readers and two copies for my North American readers! To enter:

1. Post a comment before midnight Sunday 21st September, 2008

2. Tell me your favourite super hero!

3. Add an AUS or USA at the end of your post so I know your location.

Interview with John B Olson ~ Part 2 and US/Canadian Giveaway

Former biochemist, now full time author, John Olson, continues to share about his life, his love of literature and an insight into his thriller, Shade.

If you missed Part 1 of our interview, click here.

Thanks for those of you who left comments on Part 1 of John's interview - it was much appreciated.

Now, back to John:~

Personal

Do you read much yourself? If so, some favourites, please?

I'm actually illiterate, but I love to sit and look at the pictures. My favourite picture books include: Pride and Prejudice, The Lord of the Rings, Perelandra, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Great Divorce, Tarzan of the Apes (yeah, yeah, I know Burroughs was a eugenicist, but it was the first adult book I ever read, and I still love it today), Skeleton in God's Closet, The Princess and Curdie, The Chronicles of Narnia, Taliesin, The Brothers Karamazov, Beau Sabreur, Prisoner of Zenda, The Mad Scientists Club, Harry Potter, The Bourne Identity, etc.

What are you reading at the moment?

I've been reading Lois McMaster Bujold and several other books that haven't been good enough to mention

Favourite movie and favourite line from a movie?

I'll skip over Ever After and the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice and jump right into Buckaroo Banzaii: Adventures Across the Eighth Dimension. There are so many great quotes:

“No matter where you go, there you are.”

“Character is what you are in the dark. History is made at night.”

“Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."

Please share some of your faith journey...

I'm still trying to figure out what a faith journey is. I think with me it was a child-like leap into the void when I was six – followed by many many years of testing, questioning, struggling, observing, experimenting, and accumulating experience. I'm still not done, but I know one thing for certain. Every time I step out on faith and trust in God, He holds me up and prospers me. When I try to do things on my own, I fail and I'm miserable.

Some essential Aussie questions

When/if you make the trip Down Under what do you want to see first:~

1. A platypus or a koala?

A kangaroo!

2. Barrier Reef or Uluru (Ayers Rock)?

Ayers rock.

3. A cricket match or a game of Aussie Rules Footy?

Definitely Aussie Rules Footy. I can see cricket anywhere (anywhere north of France and west of Denmark, that is), but Aussie Rules Footy is totally unique - and bizarre!

Now we have the important stuff out of the way, let's talk turkey about your new series which commences with Shade, releasing from Broadman & Holman in September, 2008.

Before we get into Shade, tell us what writing project are you working on now?

I just started working on the next book in the Shade universe. It's a supernatural thriller about a gypsy girl who has been kept completely isolated from the rest of the world by her grandfather - right up to the time he's murdered by ten dead men.

The codename for the project is Powers, and it won't be released until next year, but because you've been such an encouraging friend and supporter (and because I feel bad about taking so long getting this interview to you), I'm going to do something I've never done before. I'm going to give you and your readers a sneak preview of the completely unedited rough draft (which might not even survive until the release):

Smooth moonlight, soft and timid as a sleeping babe's breath, seeped through the forest canopy, painting Old Man Oak's mossy beard with twisting ribbons of silver and shadow. The swamp folks were full awake now. All stoked up with joy, singing hallelujah for the tolerable coolness of another summer night. Bachelor bullfrogs barking out their steady bass against a piercing cicada trillody. Crickets and peepers and creepers hollering their praise full on top the other, singing out to the Lord for the blessings He hath made.

It was a glorious song, filled with deep magic and considerations of awesome wonder. It made a body thankful to be alive. Squish-squashing through soft cool mud. Hopscotching dead wood and fresh fallen branches. Pausing to look out across dark star-dusted waters where the proud Cypress sisters, skirts hitched high above dark boney knees, waded through reflections of ringing light. Swaying and sighing to the night music. The sounds of blessed freedom and sweet never-ending joy.

Freedom. Mari turned from the water with a sigh and felt her way back into the pressing darkness. Grandfather would be getting home soon. He was going to be busting out mad when he found out she was gone. But she couldn't just sit there and let him lock her up. She was a proper lady now. A full-grown woman. Miss Caralee said so herself. Proper ladies didn't stay locked up in diddlecars. Proper ladies had work to do. Washing and cooking and tending to the nets.

A sneak peek at Shade please,and tell us why are you nervous about it's release?

Shade isn't your grandma's prairie romance. It's pee-your-pants intense, mind-bendingly complex, chillingly nightmarish and a tad bit weird. Okay… Maybe more than a tad. There's more going on beneath the surface than even the most brilliant reader will be able to pick up on, and it could very well be frustrating to readers who are used to having their stories served to them in nice bite-sized chunks. I'm not just nervous about it's release; I'm chew-my-fingernails-up-to-my-elbows terrified.

And I'm excited. I've waited ten years to be able to publish Shade. It's more vulnerable and unfiltered and ME than any book I've ever written. I can't wait to get people's reactions. They aren't all going to be positive reactions, but I think they'll all be good. And I think the story will rumble around a lot of heads for a long long time.

So here's the prologue:

A moonlit night. Silver-frosted shadows frozen in the stillness of an early Minnesota fall. A weathered farmhouse looms over a fog-cloaked bog, leaking soft candlelight from a second-story window. Flickering silhouettes beat against the window panes. Clacks and sharp cries, injecting the silence with echoes of ringing pain.

Rising out of the mist, a dark shadow rolls through the clearing. Blotting out the farmhouse. Obscuring the moon.

“Recite the Gateway Prophecy. Now!” A hooded man swung a staff in a sweeping arc toward a young boy's face.

“`The ancient enemy-'” the boy ducked and hopped backward on feet bound together with new hemp rope--“`-in the last dark days of hunt shall rise up to destroy the Standing.'” The boy twisted his staff upward, deflecting the next blow in one fluid motion that circled his staff beneath his master's defense. “`Only the long-awaited shall stand.'”

The man sprang back, spun around and swept at the boy's feet, but the boy leaped into the air even as he brought his staff down on the man's shoulder, pulling back on the blow an instant before impact.

“Good!” The old man smiled against the strain of another swing.

“`By becoming the enemy, he shall shield the world from the enemy's dark-'” The boy flinched, just managing to parry the next blow. He shuddered as a cold shiver crawled up his spine. Something…something dark…touched his mind like a foul stench.

“What is wrong, child? You've dropped your guard.”

The boy frowned up at his beloved master. “Do you not feel it?”

“Feel what? Are you ill?”

“I don't know. It's awful-wicked!”

“Don't use slang with me, boy. If it's wickedness you feel, you need look no further than yoursel--” A rasping gurgle choked off the old man's voice. His eyes rolled back, then clamped shut until the creases surrounding them showed white against blood-red skin. Veins bulged at his neck as his lips drew back from his teeth in a piercing scream.

“Evil!” The man's howl echoed around them as he smashed his staff into the boy's shoulder, knocking him to the floor.

The boy tried to roll to his feet, but the force of the blow left him stunned. The air around him swirled with rage. A deep, dark unquenchable hunger.

“Pay attention, foundling!” The old man glared down at him, his face twisted into a mask of loathing and disgust. “Think you get a second chance with It?” The master swung his weapon down upon the boy's now upheld staff. “Never underestimate its capacity for evil.” The staff struck again, sending pain radiating through the boy's arms. “No atrocity is ever too small. Too twisted. Too profane!

Again and again he rained blows down upon the boy's staff until it splintered in his aching hands. The boy rolled to the side, dimly aware of a sharp smack inches away from his ear. Springing to his feet, he hopped to the window and dove at it headfirst.

But the window mullions were too heavy.

With a sickening crunch he bounced off the window and sank to the floor.

A crash sounded above his head. The spray of glass and splintered wood. Shielding his eyes with his hands, he pushed onto his feet. “Master, please. I don't under--”

Pain exploded in his arm as a powerful blow knocked him back through the jagged window. Icy darkness. The shriek of howling wind. He hit the ground with a soul jarring thud.

Pain.

Glorious, wonderful, delicious pain!

Every heartbeat, every movement that convulsed his body with searing fire was answered with surges of perverse pleasure. Lying in the weeds, curled around his throbbing arm, a dark presence pressed down on him, rose up within him.

The sound of a slamming door broke him free from the nightmare's grip. He struggled to his feet, but tripped on the rope and toppled back to the ground. A dark shadow, invisible to the eyes but chilling to the soul, passed over him as he lay on his side fighting with his good hand to work the rope over his bare feet.

A low growl rumbled in the night. Feet free at last, the boy rose to a crouch and searched the swirling darkness. The sound… it was all around him. Everywhere, nowhere, filling his mind, his soul, the spaces in between.

The angry voice of his master lashed out at him from the front of the house. The boy sprang to his feet and fled for the barn. Leaping against the bolted door, he attempted to run up its reinforced surface, but slipped and crashed back to the ground.

Risking a backward glance at his approaching master, he took a deep breath, and then, his right arm dangling, picked his way up the exterior braces of the door. He jumped out into space, twisting in the air to catch with one hand the rope that dangled from the loft beam overhead. He clung desperately to the rope, wrapping his legs and feet around it as he squirmed his way toward the overhanging beam.

A dark, rumbling growl filled the night, freezing him where he clung. A sharp cry of agony followed by a rasping wheeze. Wave upon wave of unholy exultation battered him as he clung, trembling, to the rope. He looked down at the twisted shadow on the ground, but even without seeing, he knew.

His master was gone.

The steady, familiar presence had disappeared. For the first time in his life, he was alone.

A blurred, man-shaped shadow moved toward him. The hazy figure flickered like a moth beating erratically against the light. Hunger. A dark terrible longing. Invisible eyes locked onto him. An irresistible tug on his soul. He was hungry. So very hungry. There was no escape. Weariness sang through him. Despair. Surrender. He had to give up. Climb down. He moved to lower himself down the rope…

Searing pain exploded in his right arm. The boy cried out, blinking into the night as if waking from a nightmare. His fingers tightened and he clung to the rope for his life. The dark presence reached toward him from below, but he didn't look down.

Relax. Release the rope. All will be well.

“No!” Scrambling blindly against the tears and pain, heedless of the crashing of the barn door and the roar that echoed in his mind, he pulled himself onto the overhanging beam.

He couldn't escape. Mustn't.

Gritting his teeth, he stepped out onto the practice cable that stretched between the barn and the old farmhouse.

He couldn't do it. It was too dark. He was weak, cowardly, full of loathsome sin.

Fixing his eyes on the light from the second-story window, he took a faltering step, feeling for the thin cable with his bare feet.

He was going to fall. He'd never practiced in the dark.

A jolt passed through the cable and rattled in his mind like a thunder clap.

And then he ran.

Across the cable, over the rooftop, down the trellis. Through field after field after screaming, shrieking field, he ran. Through the night and long into the morning until exhaustion left him panting in his sleep, cradling his arm in the fork of a tree in front of a small Minnesota farmhouse.


Trust me, Shade is one wild ride of a read!!! Look for my review closer to its release date! Once you have recovered from that little heart pounder, check out the giveaway!

Giveaway

John is generously providing two copies of Fossil Hunter, signed by none other than John B Olson, for you to win.

To enter:~

1. You must have a US or Canadian postal addy (sorry, Aussies - you'll have to buy your copy!)

2. Post a comment before midnight Friday 23rd May, 2008 and

3. Tell me who you would rather be:

Girls ~ Elizabeth Bennett (P & P), Princess Leia (Star Wars) or Sydney Bristow (Alias)

Guys (I know you're out there!) ~ Captain Jack Sparrow, Indiana Jones or Jason Bourne?

Thanks, John for spending time visiting RelzReviewz and sharing your wit and insight. Count me in to read everything you publish in the future :)

Interview with John B Olson ~ Part 1

I have had a ball reading John B Olson's books and a it has been a privilege, as well as a lot of fun, getting to know him through our email correspondence. John has been blessed with a great family, a keen intellect and a desire to write about truth. If that wasn't enough, John also exhibits exceedingly good taste when it comes to literature and movies!

One thing is for sure, he will both entertain and surprise you, not only through his novels but also in this interview!

Over to you, John!

Writing

Why Christian fiction?

Why not Christian fiction? I love stories and I want to write about the deepest, most important truths in the universe. What other choice do I have?

You are a scientist with a PhD in Biochemistry ~ what on earth are you doing writing novels?!

What? I'm on earth? I thought I was on Mars or in an alternate dimension or in Pakistan… (Or is Pakistan on earth? I always get that mixed up.)

Back when I was working as a scientist, I never got to go to any of those places. A few trips to Russia or England or Sweden, but never Pakistan or Mars. And I never go to do anything exciting either. But now… As a writer, I get to go wherever I want. The sky's not the limit. Every day is an adventure. One minute I'm a palaeontologist running from a band of soldiers across the deserts of Iraq, and the next minute I'm a beautiful woman eating a gourmet dinner with a homicidal monster - and my wife doesn't even mind!

Rel: What an amazingly understanding woman!

Don't get me wrong. Science is exciting, but it just doesn't compare to writing. I worked years and years automating the resonance assignment of proteins using two and three dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, but do you think the people I meet at potlucks want to talk about it? I can't tell you how many potluckers have been injured falling asleep in their green bean casserole. But writing is a completely different story… I've gotten dozens and dozens of angry emails from irate readers who stayed up all night to finish one of my books. Life doesn't get much better than that.

A couple of years ago you took the plunge to leave your career in Biochemistry and write full time - tell us about that decision.

I wrote Adrenaline while I was in the middle of a series of very demanding deadlines at work. Not only was the ordeal exhausting and painfully stressful, but I ended up neglecting the people I love the most. After that experience I agreed with God that I wouldn't write any more books until I had quit my full-time job.

I ended up taking almost three years off from writing while I finished up an important project at my old company. Then, as soon as the project was finished, my wife and I started preparations for cutting the umbilical. At first things went like clockwork. I didn't have any book contracts yet, but God was leading and providing for everything else, and my wife and I knew we could trust Him. Then, about a week before I was scheduled to give my two weeks notice, a guy from a movie company called me up and asked me to write a novel to go along with a screenplay they were planning to produce. Amy and I were so excited! God was providing a way for us!

Then I read the screenplay. Uh oh… I couldn't write that story. Maybe someone else could, but that someone definitely wasn't me. So I called the guy back and turned him down. It wasn't easy, but I knew it was the right thing to do. And it was…
The guy called me back a few days later and asked me what I would have done differently. I told him I would have written a completely different story. A thriller instead of a drama - perhaps something set in Iraq. Something about a fossil hunter maybe… A scientist who finds something that doesn't square with evolutionary theory… And thus Katie James was born.

The movie company actually paid for me to write the story - which gave us a chance to get the book pipeline going again. It's been a wonderful adventure. God has provided for our family every step of the way. It's amazing how many more miracles you get to see when you're living life on the edge - homesteading in God's wild and woolly frontier. It's a great place to visit, but be careful… You might decide to live here.

You have a lovely wife (well, she looks lovely in the photos!) and two talented and energetic kids (again, guessing but pretty sure I'm right) ~ what does a typical writing day look like for you (if you ever have one!)?

Yes, she is lovely… and loveable. I'm lucky because those two adjectives don't always go together. And my kids are certainly talented, but not so energetic these days. They haven't exactly been burning their candles at both ends. It's more like they chucked them in the fire and had done with them all together. But that doesn't tell you anything about my day - which is about as exciting as watching mud dry.

So here it is:

I get up at around 7AM and take a nice hot shower. That's pretty much it - at least that's the productive part of my day. I do some other stuff like staring at my computer for nine hours, but the shower is where all the new ideas come from. It's where I get to watch plots develop and talk to the characters as they come to life. If anyone ever invented a computer that worked in the shower, I'd buy stock in their company.

I'm with you on the shower computer - I wonder how many of the world's great inventions were born as water pummels people's brains?!

Fossil Hunter

What's a bloke doing writing romantic suspense?

I'll have you know blokes are absolutely essential to a good romance. And I'm a particularly romantic bloke. Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book, and Ever After is one of my favourite movies. I like to write what I like to read, and I like to read books that are full of adventure, suspense, mystery and even a little humour.

A man who loves P & P ~ you do realise that once every woman has picked up her jaw from the ground, they will rush out and buy your books!! Instant credibility with women...not so sure about the fellas - LOL!

I love Katie James ~ why did you give her a debilitating phobia??

For realism. Katie is extremely intelligent, but intelligence comes with a price. It isn't just an ingredient you can add to a character like sugar or salt. The human brain is much more tightly integrated than that. When a person has a huge strength, they usually have one or more huge weaknesses that are directly tied to that strength. I call these weaknesses strength shadows, and you can see them clearly in most geniuses you encounter in real life. Unfortunately they're not quite so common in the world of literature, but that's because most literature isn't written by the geniuses who are plagued by such strength shadows. Katie's phobia comes as much from her difficulty in processing body language and social cues as it does from the trauma that triggered it in the first place.

Take a walk in Katie's skin while she's searching through the desert. See the way she processes her surroundings? Now imagine her trying to process all the complex nuances of human faces and body language and verbal inflections in the same way. You can see how she'd be overwhelmed.

What was your favourite scene to write?

I don't want to give too much away, but there was a scene in which Katie and Nick were being chased through the desert by soldiers, and Katie has to stop to use the little girl's desert. That's about all I can say without ruining it, but it was particularly fun to write. Rel knows what I'm talking about…

You bet...LOL!!!

I also had a lot of fun with the Big Bill scenes. He was a very naughty character. Whenever I tried to write his scenes, his personality would take over and steal the show. I would have fought him for control, but I was too busy laughing.

How do you go about choosing names for your characters?

Katie was named after Jessie James's wife, but I got Nick Murad from a combination of common American and Pakistani names. Big Bill Turner made up his own. (He couldn't go by his real name so he created an alias off the top of his head.) He must have taken it subconsciously from The Pirates of the Caribbean, but I didn't realize it at the time. If I had noticed, I wouldn't have let him use it, but unfortunately I didn't.

Any ideas who you might cast in a movie of Fossil Hunter?

Actually, I've given it a great deal of thought. The whole time I was working on Fossil Hunter, I had to consider how easy it would be to adapt the book into a film. It was an interesting exercise. I thought the movie company would want me to avoid stunts and special CGI effects, but they didn't really have a problem with those kinds of things. So what did they have a problem with? Basically the same thing Katie has a problem with. Crowds. Stadium scenes, shooting on busy city streets…

But I digress… Since I was thinking about adapting the book to film, I always pictured Katie and Nick as two actors in particular. I know it probably won't happen, but I couldn't help it. For Katie I was thinking Mrs. Potato Head and for Nick I was thinking Mr. Potato Head. Have you seen the new Taters of the Lost Ark action figures? Very Katie James…

Or very John Olson.....

Underlying the pure entertainment of this adventurous tale is the debate between evolution and intelligent design ~ tell us about your considered view on this topic (ok, I know, huge question but, hey, you're a writer so the Reader's Digest version would be great!)

Okay… Reader's Digest version:

I'm excited about ID, not so much because of the evidence or arguments that may or may not support it, but because it focuses the debate on the most pivotal question of our age: was the universe designed or not? Until I've answered that question, I don't really care how the designer (I call him God) did it, and I certainly don't care how long it took Him to do it.

I think we Christians have done the world a huge disservice by focusing people's attention on the how rather than on the Who. Especially since the how is still open to debate.

Somewhere along the way, I think we got our priorities mixed up. And I think the reason we that happened was because we were afraid. Fear--the polar opposite of faith. Evolution seemed like a terrible enemy at the turn of the twentieth century. It was undermining one of our shiniest and newest apologetics tools. But rather than roll up our sleeves to help with the investigation in an attempt to discover the truth, we dug in our heals and started an all-out war. We're still fighting that war today. Not for our faith - one can certainly be a Christian and believe God created life through a process that looks like evolution - but because we were too busy pointing out the biases of those who opposed us to consider our own biases.

Good stuff - thanks!

What impact do you hope this book has upon the reader?

I wanted to give the reader a more honest view of the ID/evolution debate than what is usually portrayed in Christian literature. In particular I wanted the reader to see the biases of both sides of the fence. Scientists aren't the enemies. Ignorance and bias are the enemies. All truth leads to God.

Same bat time....same bat channel this Friday to learn more about John's favourite books, his passion for his "pee-your-pants intense, mind-bendingly complex, chillingly nightmarish" novel, Shade and an exclusive excerpt from his work in progress!

And......drum roll.....a giveaway you don't want to miss!

RelzReviewz Extras:~

Review of Fossil Hunter

John's website

Purchase Fossil Hunter at Amazon or Koorong (Aust)

Coming soon ~ interviews with John B Olson and Robert Liparulo

You may be aware that male authors are in scarce supply in CBA publishing, so I want to do my part in addressing the balance - LOL!!

Over the next week or two, I have the great privilege of interviewing two trailblazers in this traditional female world ~ John B Olson and Robert Liparulo.

These men just may surprise you so make sure you check back and don't miss the fun.

Here's some tidbits for you:~

One holds a PhD in the scientific field, the other was a celebrity journalist.

A Christy Award sits in one of their homes, the other's novels have been optioned for films.

Both are devoted husbands and dads.

Both have just released books you don't want to miss :)

Be sure to comment when the interviews are posted - I will appreciate it and so will John and Bob.

Fossil Hunter by John B Olson

Paleontologist Dr Katie James has it all ~ beauty, brains, a successful career.....and a debilitating phobia! Determined to overcome her weakness, Katie devotes herself to the discovery and investigation of fossils, comfortable that her faith and profession can go hand in hand.

Dr Nick Murad is highly skilled, thorough and intent on beating Katie James to every fossil remaining undiscovered in the known universe! Uncompromising in his belief of evolutionary theory, Nick jumps at the chance to search for fossils in the previously prohibited hot spots in Iraq. He just didn't count on Katie James getting in his way.

Political intrigue and Iraqi governmental and religious rivalry set Nick and Katie against each other in a tantalising race to uncover the remainder of a whale fossil purported to be in the Al Muthanna desert. When Katie's team is attacked, Nick Murad is the last man on earth Katie wants to save her.

John B Olson's fourth novel is rip roaring hit! Katie is by no means your everyday heroine ~ she is gutsy, brilliant, passionate about her faith and career with a vulnerability brought about by her neurosis, which only adds to her appeal. Nick is an equally well drawn character, smart, attractive, fulfilled by his career, if not his choice of women, and requiring more than a brief pep talk to consider creation by intelligent design. Their interaction is entertaining and electrifying. Action, adventure and humour abound, scene descriptions are so detailed I felt myself sweating in the desert and the seamlessly interwoven discussion of scientific theory and intelligent design, stimulating and engaging. John's PhD in Biochemistry has been put to good use in this novel yet at no time did I feel confused by the jargon. Fossil Hunter will appeal to men and women and has my highest recommendation. I would love to see Katie and Nick hit the big screen one day ~ eat your heart out, Indiana!

Check back soon for my in depth interview with John and a fantastic giveaway!

John's book is part of the Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed campaign. Ben Stein's movie Expelled is now available on DVD. Find more details at www.expelledthemovie.com.

Shade ~ Coming soon from John B. Olson

John Olson's upcoming release, Shade, is another book I can't wait to read! I love John's work ~ just imagine a guy who can write great action scenes and include just the right level of romantic tension!

The good news for me is I have an ARC that I will be getting into shortly!! The bad news is you will have to wait until Shade releases in October, 2008 from Broadman & Holman.

Here's a preview to ensure you note it for your TBR pile :)

Enjoy!

“You will not fear the terror of the night.” —Psalm 91

A monstrous waking nightmare is pursuing graduate student Hailey Maniates across San Francisco to Golden Gate Park where she is rescued by a towering homeless man. She seems able to read her rescuer’s mind, but is it just a delusion? Doctors diagnose her as a paranoid schizophrenic and attempt to prescribe away her alleged hallucinations. But too many questions remain around Hailey and the man who saved her. He appears to suffer from her same mental condition and is convinced that some type of Gypsy vampire is trying to kill them both.

Against reason, Hailey finds herself more and more attracted to this strange man. But what if he is a fantasy? What if he is the monster?

Now check out the trailer (to enlarge, click on the little tv screen).........