Madison Wallace grew up in the small town of Roach, Missouri, and has only been back once since she left twelve years ago. When she gets laid off from her marketing job in Atlanta, her sister, all excited at the prospect of entering the Rainbow’s Hunt geocaching hunt at the church together, invites Madison home until she can land another job. Madison hates the thought but needs to keep her savings intact so she agrees. She can send out resumes as well from Roach as anywhere. If she’d known that an escapade of her young nephew’s would take her sister away for half the summer, though, she’d never have agreed.

Grant Simmons retired as a bass pro fisherman and is now making his living as a fishing guide. He and his grandfather have signed up to do the treasure hunt together, but the first day’s hike proves too much for the old man. Grant’s grandfather and Madison’s sister convince them to join forces in the absence of anyone else to geocache with. Relucantly, Madison and Grant agree.

Madison doesn’t know about Grant’s pro days. All she sees is a back woods kind of guy with a rusty old truck, and she’s not impressed. All Grant sees in Madison is a city girl with a four hundred dollar purse–not that he’d have a clue if she didn’t tell him. Neither is looking for love, that’s for sure, but once they begin to see beneath the surface in the other’s life, the more they begin to realize love might have found them.

What will happen when Madison’s dream job in New York City comes knocking?

Although I read and critiqued this novella last summer just before we turned all the manuscripts in, I was surprised upon rereading it to see how much Annalisa had managed to build upon my novella, ahead of it in the collection, as well as foreshadowing the ones to come. Little things like Grant discovering tiny plastic castles in the caches at Ha Ha Tonka State Park amused me, and hopefully our readers will catch that (and other little tidbits) as well. If they don’t, they’ll still enjoy Annalisa’s tale, as the connection isn’t required to understand the story. It’s just a fun addition.

I’ve read another of Annalisa’s books before and really enjoyed it. I reviewed Love is Grand here. Check out her six novels if you enjoyed this novella.

Also you’ll want to follow along at the Romancing America blog as Annalisa shares her first geocaching hunt with the readers there one day soon. You’ll also find an interview with her as well as an excerpt of her novella. Keep tabs on that blog!

Annalisa Daughety, a graduate of Freed-Hardeman University, writes contemporary fiction set in historic places. Annalisa lives in Arkansas with two spoiled dogs and is hard at work on her next book. She loves to connect with her readers through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Do I need to say that I did NOT get this book from the publisher for the purposes of review, but instead got a boxful of them for the purpose of celebrating?

For the month of May, Monday “Recipe Bites” is featuring recipes from Rainbow’s End as found in the e-recipe-book Novel Morsels, which was compiled by my friend and co-author Nicole O’Dell. You can download this book free of charge during May by using the code valeriecomer, and enjoy recipes from the books of dozens of CBA authors.

1. Give a lot of buzz ahead of time. We tweeted (and Facebooked) multiple times in the day and hours leading up to it, with reminders coming closer together as the allotted time neared. Ask friends to retweet and share the buzz.

2. Choose a hashtag, and make sure it’s repeated in all your buzz. We used #RainbowsEnd because it’s the name of our book. It’s not too long (remember the whole tweet only has 160 characters, max) and not too overused by others.

3. Blog a landing page, making sure you cover the basics your partiers will need to know to get the most out of the event. Then create a short link for the page and use it throughout the party. Our Twitter Party landing page is here.

4. Preschedule some tweets. We scheduled tweets that the party officially started NOW, and for each 15-minute increment, and for the closing time. Hootsuite works great for this. It was nice not having to watch the clock specifically for these cues. They just showed up in the timeline, alerting all of us.

5. Have one or more giveaways and mention them often. Because there are 4 coauthors for Rainbow’s End, each of us gave away 1 copy. I took the first 15-minute timeframe, recording every participating name every time they tweeted. More tweets? More entries into the draw. Which leads me to. . .

6. Have at least 2 hosts. (We had 4, which was awesome.) In our case, we knew which one of us would be pulling out after every 15-minute segment to select a winner. That took a few minutes, so had there been only one host, no one would have been around to keep the party going. Rotating worked well.

7. Encourage all partiers to follow all hosts. You can’t dm (direct message) someone who isn’t following you to get their email or mailing address if they win.

8. You can use the search function on twitter.com, but be aware that not all tweets will show up on it unless you continually click ‘all tweets.’ The default is ‘top tweets’ and who knows how Twitter decides which tweets are important? As host in particular, you need to know you’re seeing every participant. An alternative I found out about after our party is TweetChat which I’ll definitely be using next time.

9. Announce winners with fanfare! Make them feel special. DM them for an email address (for downloads) or snail mail address (for physical gifts). Then follow through within 48 hours.

10. Follow all the tweeters who came to your party, especially if they participated. They’re interested in you. Show the same courtesy back.

Want to know a bit more about Twitter Parties? Here’s an informational guide.

While I wanted to spend most of May talking about the newly released Rainbow’s End on my blog, it just didn’t seem right to review my own novella, so I asked my friend and co-author Nicole O’Dell to submit a guest review. Here’s Nicole:

How are you at sharing your faith? Was there ever a time in your life when you were nervous about admitting you were a Christian, afraid people would mock you or scorn you? Raised by a boisterous street preacher who shoved his faith at anyone who had the misfortune to stumble by, Lyssa Quinn really struggles with that fear. This is especially true after she took Humanities four years ago in college and watched her evangelical best friend railed on a daily basis for what her professor felt were pedantic beliefs and a societal crutch.

As the Rainbow’s End geocaching hunt approached, Lyssa agrees to be in charge of the marketing and promotion for this church-sponsored event. The logical choice for a local sponsorship would be the electronics store since every hunter will need a GPS device. Logical, that is, until Lyssa hears a familiar voice as she enters the store. Was that Kirk Kennedy, her Humanities professor? It couldn’t be—what was he doing there?

Face to face with her biggest fear—sharing the truth about her faith through her connection with the church—with her biggest nemesis. Should Lyssa believe Kirk’s claims of faith, or should she be on guard, assuming a leopard never changes his spots?

“Topaz Treasure,” Valerie Comer’s delightful debut work, is rich with vibrant characters and a strong, relatable plot. It’s the perfect foundation for the entire book and a great launch to what surely will be a long writing career.

Also you’ll want to follow along at the Romancing America blog as Valerie and the rest of the Rainbow’s End crew shares more throughout the month. You can hear an interview with the whole gang right here on Choose NOW Radio.

Thanks, Nicole!

For the month of May, Monday “Recipe Bites” is featuring recipes from Rainbow’s End as found in the e-recipe-book Novel Morsels, which was compiled by my friend and co-author Nicole O’Dell. You can download this book free of charge during May by using the code valeriecomer, and enjoy recipes from the books of dozens of CBA authors.

Do you remember the song from Finding Nemo that Dory-the-crazy-blue-fish kept singing?

Just keep swimming,
Just keep swimming,
Just keep swimming…

Yeah, publicity is a lot like that. You just need to keep at it.

Sometimes you will feel like you are the only fish swimming upstream, while everyone else is swimming down, but you just need to keep swimming. Keep pressing on. Keep putting yourself out there – but make sure you are swimming in the right direction.

I realize that many of you may still be in the stages of looking for a publisher or agent. I want you to stop and remember that everything we do, whether we are thinking about it or not, is publicity. For the good or for the bad. (To keep with my analogy, all us little fishies are constantly swimming, whether we are going in the right direction or not.)

The Internet is a vast place, but with the ability of search, it shrinks right down to small-town-barber-shop size. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY ON THE NET. (And at writers conferences, and to agents and publishers you may talk to. Because if the Internet is barber-shop size, the writing world is even smaller. And agents and publishers do talk to each other.)

I read several agents and publishers blogs and I can’t tell you the number of stories I’ve heard about an agent or publisher being interested in an author until they went on a Google hunt and started discovering some things the author had said.

Put yourself in an agent’s shoes for a moment. Let’s say they get two promising queries. Query A is from Suzy Sweetwater. She always has nice things to say on her blog about the industry, agents, and all things publishing. Query B is from George Grumpypants, who is constantly griping and complaining on his blog. Which person do you think the agent is going to request more information from? Of course it is Suzy Sweetwater because the agent doesn’t want to risk the fact that they might be a subject of one of Mr. Grumpypants’ tirades in the future. Not to mention that any future publishers will probably also check him out and the bad attitude might prevent them from offering a contract, which will keep the agent from getting paid.

Now this doesn’t mean that you have to say nice things about something that just drives you crazy. But the old adage “sometimes it’s better not to say anything at all” will serve you well. And if you just HAVE to say something, make sure that you say it in a respectful, thought-out way, or it just might come back to haunt you.

These principles apply whether you are brand new to the industry, or have just signed your 20th contract.

Lynnette Bonner has a brand new release, High Desert Haven, a Christian historical romance.

Is Jason Jordan really who he says he is?
Everything in Nicki’s life depends on the answer.

Nicki Trent is left with a toddler and a rundown ranch when her husband dies in a mysterious riding accident. Determined to bring her ranch back from the brink, Nicki hires handsome Jason Jordan as a manager. But when her neighbor, William, presses for her hand in marriage, the bank calls in a loan she didn’t even know about, and bullets start flying, Nicki questions whether this ranch is worth all the trouble.

To make matters worse, terrible things keep happening to her neighbors. When Jason is blamed, Nicki wonders how well she knows her new hand…and her own heart.

Two yearning hearts. Powerful enemies. Surprising love.
Set in the adventure and danger of the Wild West.

Lynette Bonner was born in Malawi, Africa and spent her growing up years between there, Rift Valley Academy (a boarding school in Kenya,) Oregon, and Washington. Her love of reading blossomed into a love of writing during her adolescent years, but it wasn’t until her late 20’s that she pursued a career as an author. Today she has two historical romances out with OakTara, Rocky Mountain Oasis and High Desert Haven, and two more historical romances due out later this year. She is a member of NCWA, the American Christian Fiction Writers association, and co-leader of a Fiction Writers’ Group offshoot of NCWA. She loves to interact with other authors and invites you to connect with her through her website.

Life is tough in Tennessee as the war closes, and Heaven Wharton has her hands full keeping marauders off her land. Surely soon Pa will return to take Heaven and her sister off to Chicago. Too bad Heaven is a lousy shot. When she attempts to shoot over a man’s head, she accidentally grazes him instead. Horrified, she drags him into the house and tries to save his life.

Angel, her 12-year-old blind sister, has been trying to get a bit more freedom to do things on the farm, but Heaven has been protecting her. It’s been a stop-gap measure while they wait for Pa. But when the stranger regains consciousness, she finds that not only has Pa died and given away the family farm to this. . .this stranger, but he’s thrown in Heaven and Angel as well. Surely that can’t be right!

A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennesee is a wonderful glimpse of life in a difficult time. So many men didn’t return home from the Civil War and, of those who did, many were so changed they found it impossible to pick up their lives where they’d left off. This story showcases several characters with differing levels of war-induced trauma, making the issues feel very real.

Although I loved Heaven’s spunk and Travis’s determination, my favorite character was Angel. She has such conflicting emotions and no hesitation speaking up, from wondering if she is a suitable chaperone (being as she’s blind), to telling both Heaven and Travis things to make them think more kindly of the other. So many times I wanted to laugh and cry and cheer with Angel.

If you enjoy historical romance, or possibly even if you don’t, you’ll love A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennesee by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer. This is one of my favorite books so far this year.

Christian author Diana Lesire Brandmeyer lives in Southern Illinois where the corn grows at a rapid rate behind her home. She’s married and has three grown sons all on their own now, each of them bringing someone special to join the family. Yay! Daughter-in-laws!

Diana writes historical and contemporary romances. She’s also written We’re Not Blended-We’re Pureed, A Survivor’s Guide to Blended Families. Once widowed and now remarried she writes with humor and experience on the difficulty of joining two families.

A digital copy of this novel was provided by the author for review. However, the opinions are, as always, mine alone.

This post is part of the Take Flight Blog Hop. I wish the cute little linky tool would work on this website, but it doesn’t. Trust me, though, everyone else has great books they’re talking up today as well. click here to see the list.

What? A Twitter Party!

When? TODAY from 9-10 pm Eastern

Where do I go? Twitter: Search and follow the hashtag** #RainbowsEnd

How can I participate? Ask questions, tell your friends, whatever–just use the hashtag** #RainbowsEnd. Every tweet enters your name in the draw!

Whom should I follow? You’re welcome to follow
@valeriecomer
@annalisa_
@Nicole_Odell
@Cara_Putman
but we’ll all be watching the hashtag #RainbowsEnd

What’s in it for me? You might win a prize. Giveaways at 9:15, 9:30, 9:45, and 10:00 pm. And even if your name isn’t drawn, think how much fun you’ll have hanging out with us!

**Not sure how to use a hashtag? Go to Twitter.com. See the search bar in the top right corner? Paste in #RainbowsEnd and hit enter. This will allow all of us to see every tweet with that hashtag, regardless of who posted it.

To participate, add the hashtag to tweets during the party times. Ask questions such as: Where did you get the idea for #RainbowsEnd? You may use our twitter handles (above) if you want to direct the question or comment to one of the authors, but we’ll all see it because we’ll all be watching the hashtag. Make sense?

See you on Twitter from 9-10pm Eastern with #RainbowsEnd!

UPDATE!!
If a winner from the Twitter Party resides outside the USA, they win a copy of Rainbow’s End. Winners in the USA may choose any one of the following books:

Whispers of Wisdom for Mothers of Preschoolers
Whispers of Wisdom for Single Moms
Whispers of Wisdom for Girls
Random Thoughts: Get Real with God, Others, and Yourself (a devotional for young adults)
Rainbow’s End

Twitter Party Giveaway Options

The basic concept of pickling is that the preservation is done via salt. Salt replaces water in the cells of food immersed in it, which prevents bacteria from entering and spoiling the food. In some cases you ingest the salt, but ofttimes you can rinse the food before consuming it and get rid of the excess salt. Still, pickled foods are forbidden on a salt-reduced diet. This does not mean there isn’t a place for it, though.

We most often think of pickles as having to do with cucumbers, and this is probably the most common. Small cucumbers can be packed into canning jars, covered with brine, and canned via the hot water method for a few minutes. You can also slice larger cucumbers and can them in a sweeter brine as bread-and-butter pickles.

Here’s my daughter’s post with a recipe for Spicy Asparagus Pickles, which we love in this family. (That’s what the photo is of, also.)

In reality, nearly any vegetable can be pickled, and you can bet our foremothers did a large variety of them, from carrots to cauliflower to beets to peppers and more besides. Nowadays we usually can the pickled foods as an added level of security, but before the invention of canning, pickled vegetables and meats were kept in large crocks with tight-fitting lids, and a person just removed food as needed.

A wonderful and simple do-it-yourself pickling/fermenting idea is to make your own sauerkraut, which is far superior to anything bought in the store. I haven’t made my own for a few years, but I’m hankering to do it again this fall. You can google ‘how to make sauerkraut’ and find zillions of hits. Here’s one that breaks down the steps nicely, with photos.

There’s plenty of evidence that traditionally lacto-fermented foods (such as homemade sauerkraut) are good for us–possibly even vital to our health–so don’t automatically dismiss the idea as “too salty.” In our household, we eat almost no processed food, so I’m not too worried about the salt we do eat. However, if your doctor has ordered a low- or no-salt diet for you, you’ll have to weigh the decision for yourself.

Do you pickle foods? What’s your favorite?

Which newsletter service do you use?
Vertical Response

How long have you been using this service?
Since I was preparing for my first novel’s release in 2006 (so about 6 years)

Are you a convert from another service and, if so, why?
Nope. I changed from individually emailing my friends to using a double-opt-in service.

How did you choose it (ie: what criteria were important to you?)
Ease of use was hugely important, as well as flexibility and affordability.

What do you like best about it? The worst?
I love that I only need to pay when I use it. In my case, I started out sending monthly Book Buddy newsletters, but decided that was taking too much from my writing time so I switched to quarterly. Then illness took me away from writing for several years, so I just didn’t send anything out. Now I’m resuming an occasional newsletter, and everything is in place and waiting.

The one thing that has been a challenge is that with the double-opt-in method, sometimes people sign up, but don’t ever see the confirmation email. . so they are stuck in a limbo of half-way signed up, but not yet getting the newsletter.

What, if anything, is the cost?
There is a small cost per email sent. Cost for purchasing those credits varies depending on if you bulk order a lot at once.

About Your Newsletters

How often do you send a newsletter (or how many have you sent so far)?
Originally it was each month. Then quarterly. Then nothing. Now I’m back to quarterly (I hope).

What is the purpose of your newsletter?
To share a devotional thought, encourage the readers, share updates on my writing projects and occasionally some behind-the-scenes stuff, and share suggestions for those who are prayer supporters…and then to pray for the Book Buddies.

How easy (or difficult!) do you find creating your newsletters? Why?
The templates make it technically easy. Honing down what I think readers would find of value is the difficult part. I tend to procrastinate when I know it’s time to send out a newsletter. I’d rather use my limited writing time for writing projects. Yet the feedback always encourages me that people appreciate the updates.

What do you always try to include in each letter?
Devotion, news, prayer requests, a link to my latest book, and a prayer.

About Your Subscription Base

How do your subscribers find your email sign up?
On my website, sharonhinck.com – right hand column of first page.

Do you offer an incentive for new subscribers?
Not currently. However when there is a special offer or contest or event, my Book Buddy subscribers are the first to hear about it – and sometimes I do a special contest or fun gift JUST for the Book Buddies.

Are your subscribers the same people who are your Facebook fans, or who follow your blog or Twitter?
Not completely. I try to use each of the platforms, because some of my readers don’t do social networks, but like getting an email newsletter from me occasionally. Some only do Twitter, some only do Facebook, some only follow my blog.

About Sharon

Sharon writes “stories for the hero in all of us,” about ordinary people experiencing God’s grace in unexpected ways. Known for their authenticity, emotional range, and spiritual depth, her novels include contemporary fiction such as The Secret Life of Becky Miller or Stepping into Sunlight and the groundbreaking Sword of Lyric fantasy series which includes the newly released The Restorer’s Son–Expanded Edition. She’s been a Christy finalist and won three Carol awards.

Sharon’s undergrad degree is in education, and she earned an M.A. in Communication. When she isn’t wrestling with words, Sharon enjoys speaking to conferences, retreats, and church groups. She loves interacting with visitors at sharonhinck.com.

Interested in seeing reviews of other newsletter services? They’re all here in the newsletter category. Valerie Comer uses and enjoys YMLP. You can sign up for her newsletter here.