I totally have creativity constipation, aka writer’s block. I’ve been staring at a screen for pretty much two months. It’s a fabulous feeling. I keep waiting for that bolt of inspiration, but so far all I’ve managed to do is up my Facebook time. Tonight I’m going to eat ice cream for dinner and see if that will shock my system into being creative. Not that ice cream for dinner is that foreign to this body…

Well, it’s official–the economists have declared that we are in a recession. Good thing they did that. Otherwise we might not have known. . .What a  revelation. I did not see that one coming…three years ago.

So Brit is making her comeback with her new CD. I’m so glad to see she is off the crazy train. Girls like me and Britney, we always find our way back around. We just rise from the ashes–bigger and better than ever. Okay, did I mention I don’t have a fiction-related thought in my head? It’s driving me nuts. My agent once said that Jerry Jenkins will isolate himself in a hotel room to write. OMG, if I did that I’d come out 10 pounds heavier, I’d have gotten no work done due to a Cribs marathon, and I’d probably have spent the rest of my time seeing how far I could spit off the balcony.

And I have some writing friends who go to coffee shops and places like Panera. But I’m too much of a people watcher (eaves dropper) for that. By the end of the day I’d be all pulled up to someone’s table giving them my best Dr. Phil advice. And eating off their plate.

(Insert your own crafty transition here. I can’t think of one since I have blockage of the brain.)  The December issue of Christian Fiction Online Magazine is up! I always look forward to reading this. You can check it out HERE.

Thanks to Erin for sending me THIS LINK where you can send free postcards via the internet to our troops.

Okay, I stole this from my friend’s Facebook page, but it was fun. Here are the rules:

* Grab the book closest to you. Now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
*Write that sentence as your status.
*Copy these instructions as a comment to your status.
*Don’t go looking for your favorite book, or the coolest one you have — just grab the closest one

Here’s mine: “Hard work can age anyone,” Sergei said.
Ain’t that the truth. Wise words from a romance novel…

Now it’s your turn. And tell me from what book you get your line from, too.

Speaking of creativity and writing, I read a GREAT book a few weeks ago. It’s my first suspense book, I think. Brandilyn Collins has written a winner with her latest Dark Pursuit. Her tagline is “Don’t Forget to Breathe,” and honestly I really did find myself gasping and holding my breath a few times. I loved how you were just compelled to turn the pages. Even if you don’t like suspense (and this one is not gory at all), it’s a great study in how to move a plot quickly and keep the reader turning the pages. I mean there was something happening ALL THE TIME. I stayed up ’til like 1 a.m. reading this in one evening. The next morning I was sleep deprived and rolled into school looking like I had hung out with the dry cows all night. You can read a sample chapter below this post. But I give this book two thumbs up.

JEN

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Dark Pursuit
Zondervan (December 1, 2008)
by
Brandilyn Collins

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Brandilyn Collins is known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®. She is currently working on her 20th book. For chances to win free copies of her work, join her Fan Club on Facebook. Here’s what Brandilyn has to say about why she wrote Dark Pursuit:

In John Milton’s Paradise Lost Satan’s followers, kicked out of heaven, boast about storming the gates and reclaiming their territory. Beelzebub scoffs at their boasting as merely “hatching vain empires” and suggests a different revengeful scheme: seduce mankind away from God. So Satan visits the Garden of Eden to teach humans the very thing he and his cohorts have learned to be futile—the dark pursuit of hatching their own vain empires instead of following God. He presented man with this “gift” of death, disguised as life. And man fell for it.

Upon this theme of man’s fall and spiritual blindness, I created the characters and events in Dark Pursuit. The story clips along at a fast pace, with much symbolism running underneath.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dark Pursuit—A twisting story of murder, betrayal, and eternal choices

Novelist Darell Brooke lived for his title as King of Suspense—until an auto accident left him unable to concentrate. Two years later, reclusive and bitter, he wants one thing: to plot a new novel and regain his reputation.

Kaitlan Sering, his twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, once lived for drugs. After she stole from Darell, he cut her off. Now she’s rebuilding her life. But in Kaitlan’s town two women have been murdered, and she’s about to discover a third. She’s even more shocked to realize the culprit—her boyfriend, Craig, the police chief’s son.

Desperate, Kaitlan flees to her estranged grandfather. For over forty years, Darell Brooke has lived suspense. Surely he’ll devise a plan to trap the cunning Craig.

But can Darell’s muddled mind do it? And—if he tries—with what motivation? For Kaitlan’s plight may be the stunning answer to the elusive plot he seeks…

Read the first chapter of Dark Pursuit, HERE.

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