My novella, Angelica’s Christmas Wish, will be free on Amazon Kindle 5/8-5/12.
On Saturday 5/9, I will be hosting the Anaiah Press Spring Fling for the day. I invite you to join me for a Virtual Christmas Party. I’ll be talking about my novella, sharing Christmas memories, and playing games. There will be prizes!
You will need to join the Friends of Anaiah Press Facebook group to play along. You can follow this link to do so:
Today I’m interviewing M.B. Aznoe, author of the Swordflower Saga, a Christian Fantasy series. Thank you for joining me. Let’s get started by telling us a little bit about you:
Well, there are two of us who write under the pseudonym, M. B. Aznoe. We are a husband and wife writing team, and we decided to use our combined initials instead of our names spelled out (initials sound cooler anyway). Our names are Matthew and Bethany. We have been married for 16 years and have 6 children whose ages range from 8-15. As you can imagine, we have a very busy and active household which is why most of our writing is done either in the early morning or late at night when the kids are in bed. Our passion is to share the hope found in Jesus Christ. Whether in songs or stories, we strive to infuse our art with the truth of God’s Word, to demonstrate the hope of the Gospel in all of life’s circumstances. It’s also why after 20+ years as a software developer, Matthew has chosen to change careers and become a lead pastor in a small town on one of the Native American reservations in Montana even as we continue to write our books.
What isthe Swordflower Saga about?
The story is about a young man and woman, Khomar and Aya, who find themselves unexpectedly married and fleeing into the wilderness from unknown assailants. As they seek to uncover the mystery of the identity and purpose of their attackers, our heroes find their faith in God put to the test as their lives spiral out of control.
Elvensty is the first book in the Swordflower Saga which takes place on another planet with its own cultures and unique challenges. We enjoyed taking a fresh look at Christianity as we stripped it down to its core elements and explored it within the context of a new world.
How did you come up with the names of your hero and heroine?
Khomar was actually the name Matthew created for his first role-playing character back in his college days. The name is the only thing the two characters really have in common, but we really like the sound of it and it helped spawn the concept of the Auxule language of his homeland.Aya was found via the baby book when we were looking for a good female name. It also served as inspiration behind the Jyrye (pronounced YI-REE) language that her people speak.
Who was your favorite character to create?
We love all of our characters, especially the core group. They have great chemistry and work so well together. However, there is one that stands out for both of us. His name is Lu. He is enigmatic and quiet, but when he speaks, his words have a unique flow that is a joy to write (we call them Lu-isms). We’ve been told he’s a favorite by many of our readers as well.
Were there any surprises that came up as you wrote your story?
There are always surprises as we get into the writing process. We started our series with a basic outline – basically how each book would begin and end and a rough idea of what came in between. But as we told the stories and gave breath to the characters, sometimes they surprise us, or we meet new characters we had never even considered. For example, Aya meets two women in the bathhouse in Virados who we originally were going to make throw-away characters for that one scene. But they refused to be left out, and we found they became an important part of the texture of the story, even into our latest book.
Do you experience writer’s block? What do you do to get through it?
It really helps that we are a writing team. When one of us encounters writer’s block, usually the other one has an idea that they can start running with. After a couple of paragraphs (sometimes pages), our collective creative juices start flowing, and we are off and running again. However, the times when we’ve both had it usually resulted in us having to take a short hiatus to read other books, listen to podcasts, or even work on writing songs (that sometimes even end up in the book).
Do you reward yourself when a book is finished?
Yes! After the grueling deadline that we place upon ourselves, we find that we need a reward not just for us but for our children who have had to endure our long editing sessions as well. This generally involves going for Coldstone ice cream, and taking a few weeks off before pressing on into the next book.
Who was the first person you allowed to read your completed book?
Matthew’s mother, Cindy. As a former English teacher, she has helped with editing all three of our books, and is constantly asking when the next book will be ready for her start reading. However, we experienced the most trepidation when we gave Elvensty to our pastor. He wasn’t exactly our target audience, but we wanted his feedback to make sure our book was solid from a scriptural point of view. When he came back not just approving of the message but loving the story, we knew we had succeeded in writing the book we had set out to write.
Please share an excerpt from Elevensty:
Raising her gaze, she saw the expanse of Jyrya before her. If she had been of a better temper, it would have been a stunningly beautiful sight. She could see the forest they had hiked through now lying in the long shadow cast from distant mountains to the west. She could just make out the outline of the river that ran down to the island of Elvensty and through the forest beyond. In the distance, she could see the arid plains of Jyrya, and in her mind’s eye she imagined the capital of Jyantral on the far horizon.
A mist was rising over the land, starting to shroud it from view. She trembled with anxiety and fatigue. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she watched the only life she had known sink beneath the shadows. God, where are you?
What’s next for you as an author?
We have two more books to complete in the Swordflower Saga. Jyrya, book number four, is set to release this fall with Illisya coming out sometime in the year after. We are already discussing the concept of a sequel trilogy that might take place a few years after the current series, and we have other ideas in the same world, both in the past and the future. We’ll see how it all pans out, but we intend to keep writing as long as God gives us inspiration to write.
Where can readers find you online?
Our website is www.swordflowersaga.com where we have a blog that we try to post to on occasion.
We are also on Facebook(mbaznoe), Twitter(@mbaznoe), and Instagram(@mbaznoe).
Today my guest is Melony Teague, author of the contemporary Christian romance, A Promise to Keep. Melony, I’ll start by saying that I’ve read your book, and it took me on an adventure with its characters and settings. Thank you for joining me today.
Thank you Carol for inviting me to be a guest. I’m a mom of two humans, and two cats. I’m married to the kindest, funniest man on earth. I’ve been a freelance writer since 2010 when I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. So, I’m a writer and an author. My latest foray into fiction has been an adventure.
What is A Promise to Keep about?
Research librarian Savannah Sanderson wants nothing more than to escape into her happily-ever-after novels with their larger-than-life fictional heroes. But a promise to her late husband has her attending her dreaded twenty-year high school reunion.
Once a reckless troublemaker, Michael McCann fled town after graduation. Now a professional technical rescuer, he’s back for the reunion, but on his trip down memory lane, he soon comes face to face with unresolved issues, namely Savannah.
Before the night is over, a pact between these two old friends will lead them on an adventure into uncharted emotional territory.
What is the inspiration behind your story?
I wondered what would happen if two friends reunited at a 20-year high school reunion, and what if that reunion happened because of a promise. I wanted to explore promises and the keeping of them and what obstacles might come up in trying to keep said promises. I wanted to write a story that would inspire and challenge, make people laugh and tear up, and ultimately examine how they are living their lives, today, in the moment.
A Promise to Keep is about hope, grief, healing, friendship, love and laughter, and living without regrets.
Do you have a day job? If so, how do you find time in your day to write?
Aside from being a mom, I work from my home office doing communications for a few non-profit organizations and sometimes edit and copy edit for clients. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic turned all our lives upside down, I’m finding much time is taken up by baking bread from scratch, cooking from scratch and planning meals to minimize those essential trips to the grocery store. I’m thankful that all my years as a foodie and compulsive baker (baking is my therapy) has paid off. I’ve had to adapt my writing and my client work around that. The class I teach on Writing Your Personal Story was cancelled due to the closure of all community centers and recreation programs, so I look forward to getting back to that when all of this is over. I hope that I’ll still be able to teach my seniors. I love my students and their stories so much.
Are you a night owl or morning person?
I used to say that I’m a night owl and that I couldn’t write in the morning, but now I’ve tricked my brain into doing writing and marketing tasks before it’s fully awake, so that my brain can’t talk me out of it. Does that make sense? As long as I have a cup of coffee at my elbow, I can work in the morning. I tend to be too tired at night, so I read or watch videos for research.
Were there any surprises that came up as you wrote your story?
Yes, first the professor, Donavan Radcliffe was never in the original synopsis, but he showed up and demanded a spot. So did Teddy actually, and it’s funny how these two characters are at odds with each other in a friendly sort of rivalry.
Who was your favorite character to create?
I had so much fun with all my characters, Savannah and Michael were such a joy to create, then they almost became real enough that I caught myself almost having a little prayer meeting for Savannah. But other than the main characters, I adored Mrs Delaney. I wish I had a real life person like her in my life.
How did you come up with the names of your hero and/or heroine?
Since Savannah was born in South Africa, I liked the idea of giving her a name that rings of the African continent where we find the beautiful savannah landscape. The African Savanna reminds me of home. (I was born in South Africa too). As for Michael, I can’t remember how I came up with his name. I did end up with too many characters whose names started with “J” so I did a competition to rename a character originally named Jennifer, and the winner of the competition was Andrea, so Jennifer had her name changed to Andrea.
Are you a plotter or a panster?
I started off as a complete pantser by participating in NANOWRIMO in 2010. The more I write, and with every new manuscript, I plot more. So I’ve become a hybrid of sorts. I like to write the first three chapters first to get to know my characters, then I outline the synopsis based on what I THINK will happen, then I write the story. The synopsis sometimes still changes, but the framework and the direction of the story is still there to keep me on track. The main thing is that I start with my characters.
Are you part of a writing group?
I have been part of a local writers group since 2012 and we wrote a devotional for writers together called, As the Ink Flows, Devotions to Inspire Christian Writers and Speakers. We have grown really close and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. I’ve recently joined a writer’s group on Zoom led by the amazing and super talented Brandy Vallance, and I’m being challenged and fed there too. In these times when we can’t meet in person, we’ve had to learn to adapt.
Share your favorite excerpt from your book:
Here’s the first half of chapter one where we meet Savannah in the hallway of her old school trying to come to terms with how life has turned out for her. She doesn’t recognize the hunky stranger who obviously knows her. And then, the fun begins. I love this part. Such promise. (Excuse the pun)
Only a promise to a dying man would make her attend her twenty-year high school reunion.
Savannah Sanderson glanced at the large clock in the empty corridor of Point High. She had twenty-seven hours, forty-six minutes, and some seconds before the party—just enough time to work herself into a panic before the reunion dinner and dance. She’d arrived a day early to ease herself into the whole experience, but being alone with her thoughts wasn’t helping.
Savannah ran her fingers over the combination lock that secured what used to be her locker, feeling a peculiar connection to it since she’d stowed so much deep within her heart. The cold gray metal cabinet once held tokens of her dreams. School was out for the day and would soon be out for the summer, but she imagined the locker was filled with somebody else’s things, someone with wild and idealistic dreams of his or her own. She prayed the occupant’s future wouldn’t shatter like hers had.
The kitten sticker on the top corner had survived two decades of students. The matching backpack she’d toted from class to class, faded and worn, was still stashed in her closet at home. She couldn’t bear to part with that symbol of her survival of the awkwardness of high school. The magnet of her favorite rock band, which had held her schedule, had probably been replaced by a pouting pink-haired diva magnet. Times had changed, and she had, too.
At thirty-seven, she didn’t consider herself old—but maybe a little old fashioned. If she updated her locker now, she’d add magnets with the faces of love-song-singing crooners with velvet voices and perhaps that new actor in the latest happily-ever-after romance movie whose name she couldn’t recall. As a librarian, she saw people come in daily wishing to escape into a fictitious world with handsome heroes and feisty heroines and their happily-ever-afters. She was almost ready to think about where her story was going beyond the covers of her favorite novels. It was one thing to daydream, in love with the idea of happiness. It was quite another to find it.
She leaned her forehead against the cool enameled door, steeling herself for the days ahead. Tomorrow night, the building would flood with noise and laughter of her former classmates. For now, she must face the abandoned hallways with a heart just as empty. Only wispy recollections of her teenage years remained. It was strange how the happier memories brought her the most pain. Still, she was ready to let those memories back in. To heal.
In five months, it would be a year since Nick had left her to face her future alone. She’d done her best to prepare herself for the inevitable, but nothing had primed her for
the phone call from the hospital that October night. She’d rushed to Nick’s side, counting each minute with him a gift.
Between labored breaths, he begged her, “Promise me you’ll go to the reunion.”
“I can’t go without you. I can’t face…”
“You won’t be alone, Savannah. I want to go, but as things are right now…” Even with tubes and monitors keeping him alive, Nick didn’t come right out and say what they were both thinking.
“I need you to go. For me.”
“But why? Why would you say that?”
“Can you trust me this one last time?”
Despite trying to be brave for him, a tear trickled down her cheek. He reached up to wipe it away. Nick wasn’t playing fair, and he had to know it. How could she say no? Savannah gripped his emaciated hand as if she could pull him back from heaven’s threshold.
In that sterile room in the palliative-care ward, she made the promise one hour and twenty-three minutes before the monitors announced his arrival at the gates of heaven.
At the funeral, they said Nick’s unwavering faith was an inspiration to all. If Savannah heard “Everything happens for a reason, dear” one more time, she’d lose it. All well-meant but not helpful. Savannah let the platitudes and the sentiments wash over her, but she remained tight lipped, her anger simmering below the surface.
Things were not supposed to end with her sitting dry eyed in the front row of their church, having cried all her tears in the months before Nick left this earth. She wasn’t supposed to be saying goodbye to the man who’d swept her off her feet in high school. They were supposed to grow old together. They’d promised to share a lifetime. God hadn’t been listening to that promise, had He? It was as if God weren’t listening to her at all.
Her prayers since then had been scattered, unfocused and reluctant at best, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She’d successfully hidden from her church family and society at large, burying herself in her work and her books. She’d found valid excuses why she couldn’t make it out to church—except on bake sale Sundays, of course.
Even so, she’d kept her promise. Now, standing in front of her locker, she lifted her chin and gazed toward heaven. “Okay, I’m here, Nick,” she whispered. “Now what?”
“Savannah?”
She screeched, the sound rattling the windows of the aging school building. With one hand over her beating heart, she swiveled to find the source of the deep voice over her right shoulder. Standing in front of her was a six-foot, broad-shouldered, chestnut-haired stranger. She wondered whether she’d lost her mind and conjured a hallucination of one of her bookish heroes. He shoved a hand through his cow-licked mane and stepped closer. When he didn’t vaporize, she blinked and waited. Maybe her new contact lenses were malfunctioning.
He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
“The janitor said no one was here. Classes are over for the day, so I thought I was alone.”
“You’re not alone.” He winked. The man actually winked at her.
Savannah stepped backward and collided with the lockers, the clattering of the impact reverberating in the silent hallway. Nothing much had changed there. After all, there was a reason they printed Accident Waiting for a Place to Happen below her photo in the yearbook.
Was he a current faculty member? No. If so, he wouldn’t know her name. “Are you here for the reunion? It starts tomorrow. I’m a day early.” One look at the man, and he’d set her off babbling like a jittery teenager. With her back against the lockers, she inched sideways toward the exit.
“Yes, I am. Me, too.”
She stopped her sidestepping to make sense of his words. “You, too?”
He backed up, his hands raised like she was a crazy lady about to lunge at him. “Yes, I’m also a day early.”
If he was here for the reunion, that meant he had been in her class. There was a familiar sparkle in his blue eyes. Could it be—
“You don’t recognize me?”
Embarrassed, she tried to picture what he would have looked like twenty years ago. By the tone of his voice, she should know who he was. Maybe her trusty locker would open and swallow her, saving her from her impending humiliation.
Today my guest is Renée Lichtenhan, author of a middle grade series called “I am Girl.” Renée, thank you for joining me today. Let’s start by telling us a little bit about yourself.
I’ve lived in Mississippi for almost two decades, and I’ve given up on the sweltering, humid summers ever “growing on me.” I’ll never get used to them. I’ve also given up on developing a taste for sweet tea or an endearing southern drawl. But, I’m all about the strong family values and the deep-rooted faith that permeates southern culture. My husband loved raising our three kids around fishing lakes, mud trails, deer hunts, backyard hammocks, and cotton fields. Since they’ve grown up, I spend most of my time either working as a “church lady” in charge of children’s faith formation or working as an author writing and promoting my novels.
What is your new book, Violet, about?
Thirteen-year-old Violet Windsor is obsessed with the rush and thrill of skateboarding through a dangerous, gang-ridden part of New York City. Certain that her high-society parents wouldn’t approve of the rough-and-tumble sport or the sketchy neighborhood, she and her best friend, Sloane, hide her secret adventures in a thick veil of lies.
When Violet’s autistic, non-verbal brother, Oliver, begins drawing pictures that reveal a mysterious knowledge of her secrets, Violet is rattled to the core. Intrigued by peculiar clues in Oliver’s drawings, she follows them down a reckless path toward redemption and truth.
What is the inspiration behind your story?
My “I Am Girl” collection of middle-grade books is inspired by a desire to help parents cultivate faith and virtue in their kids. Honesty is at the root of my most recent release, VIOLET. I chose to spotlight honesty, because — let’s face it, lots of teenagers lie to their parents. That’s what VIOLET chooses to do, and as you’d expect, her choice ends up getting her into a heap of trouble. But, what happens when she comes clean is a surprise even to Violet.
Do you have a day job? If so, how do you find time in your day to write?
Yes, I have the perfect day job! I work part-time as the children’s director of faith formation at my church. I love my job. Not only does it give me a deep sense of purpose, but it’s also an outlet for my extroverted nature. And because it’s very flexible, I can easily find big chunks of time to write.
What book do you wish you would have written?
All of the Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books. As I child, I devoured every one of them. I loved escaping into pioneer days when life was harder in some ways, like surviving the dangers of winter or wild bears, yet simpler in others, like living in a cabin in the woods with a family who danced to fiddle music and ate stew. I think I’m drawn to writing for this same age group because I have so many warm memories of how her books made me feel. I hope that my novels stir emotion in children and make some kind of lasting positive impact like the “Little House” books did for me.
Share your favorite excerpt from the book.
“You skateboard. Could you do any of those tricks?” Mom asked.
Violet glanced at her, then back at the skaters, stalling her response. She wanted to tell her that she came alive when she soared through the air, and how satisfying the slap of a solid landing felt. She wanted to say it was the one place she most loved to be and the only place she felt comfortable in her own skin.
Instead, she pressed her forehead against the cold glass window, stared out at the ramps, and said, “I’d try any of them.”
It wasn’t a lie, but she withheld the whole truth. She had to be careful to keep her skate park trips hidden. Mom and Dad were already freaking out about the one time they knew about her going to Harlem. There was no telling what they’d do if they found out she’d come here tons of times. Violet didn’t even want to think about it.
Today my guest is Connie Anne Michael, author of A Thousand Moments Series. Thank you for joining me today, Connie. I’ve read your series and I found your characters and action scenes to be very authentic. I’m excited to have you here with me today. Let’s start by telling us a little bit about yourself.
I am a teacher on the Crow reservation in Montana. I love the outdoors and I’m a new grandma.
What is your Thousand Moments series about?
My Thousand moments series follows Doogie and Raven as they tackle falling in love in the midst of the battle field.
What was the catalyst for your interest in writing?
Weirdly the Twilight series got me to actually finish a book. I have written partials since I was little.
Do you have a day job? If so, how do you find time in your day to write?
I do work and have an hour commute to work and an hour back. I love my school but I do struggle to find time to write and write mostly in the summer.
Are you a night owl or morning person?
I am a morning person. I love the morning because it means the day is full of possibilities
Who was your favorite character to create?
I love Doogie. She is a strong woman who keeps moving forward even when things get tough.
Are you a plotter or a panster?
Total pantser.
Do you experience writer’s block? What do you do to get through it?
I have experienced this a lot more lately and I usually go for a walk or a bike ride to get my mind flowing again.
What’s next for you as an author?
Book 4, A Thousand Sacred Moments, will be released on July 21, 2020.
Inspirational Author 