Toni V. Lee

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. As you can see from my blog postings, I'm a Christian author. I am also an avid reader of romance novels and cozy mysteries. Here lately, my reading has been limited to romance novels. When I was reading cozy mysteries, I enjoyed M. C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth Mysteries and one or two other authors. For years, I only read secular novels. To be honest, I was ignorant of the availability of Christian romance novels. There are tons of novels out there! So, I started to read those. For the most part, the books were well-written and the messages were in line with the bible. I read some that I liked, and I bought new releases as they hit the shelves. Two of the authors that come to mind are Lori Wick and Lori Copeland (historical novels). But then there were others. They were totally alien to my life experiences. I couldn't relate. Life is full of struggles, adversity, disappointments, and temptations for everybody, but the characters in those novels...

Welcome Miralee! Congratulations on the release of your first novel, The Other Daughter! I know you're excited, and we're all excited for you. I'm fascinated by the primary topic in your book - that of an unknown daughter showing up on the doorstep, and the unavoidable upheaval in the lives of those people her appearance impacts. What prompted you to write about this type of circumstance? A friend suggested that my first book be based on something true from my life, if possible, as I'd have an easier time fleshing it out. I began to brainstorm a few 'what ifs' from our marriage. What if the 18 yr. old girl who'd written my husband a letter claiming to be his daughter, had been a young teen without a mother instead, and we had to raise her? What if her conception had happened while he and I were dating, rather than prior to our meeting, as was the case? What if I were NOT a Christian and he was, and I struggled with Christianity and his faith? Hmmm....well,...

Miralee's Personal Bio I'm over 50, married for 35 years this July, and have two wonderful children, Marnee and Steven. I'm active at our small church, serving on staff with my ministerial license and working with women in a counseling/ministering capacity. My husband and I are looking forward to full retirement soon and taking off for a few months at a time on our 51' sailboat, where my writing will take on an entirely new creativity. We have a horse, a dog and three cats that my daughter and her husband will inherit while we're gone. Thankfully, they live on the adjoining property and are animals lovers. You can find me at http://www.miraleeferrell.com/ and http://www.miraleesdesk.blogspot.com/ . Miralee's premiere novel, The Other Daughter , is the story of David and Susanne Carson, a couple with an already fragile marriage that’s rocked to its foundation when a young teenaged girl appears at the door... The girl standing at the door took a deep breath, pu...

Tracee Lydia Garner is a national best-selling author. Family Affairs was not the first story she wrote but it was the first successfully completed and the one she says started it all. FAMILY AFFAIRS appears in the All That & Then Some anthology with BET/Sepia Books. Family Affairs won the grand-prize award, receiving an advance, a book contract, a trip to New York to accept her award and most importantly having her work published by BET Books. Her fourth release, Love Unchosen , is three books in one about the Watt women: three, entrepreneurial sisters on the brink of love. Tracee maintains that she is a creative writer as well as a journalist that enjoys writing "how to" articles, and articles of personal experience, both tragic and inspirational on the disability, African-American and woman experience, not necessarily in that order. Tracee maintains that as her writing career takes center stage, she will always be disabled, and thus she must and always will be committ...

The book we've been discussing, Authentic Parenting in a Post-Modern Culture , by Mary DeMuth is available now. You can purchase your autographed copy directly from Mary at the link above. I encourage you pick it up today!

Promoting Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture What does postmodern mean? And why should it matter to parents? Postmodernism is the waiting room between what used to be a modern worldview and what will be. According to several postmodern scholars, we’re in a shift right now, leaving modern ideas behind, but what we are shifting to is not yet fully defined. Postmoderns believe that rationalism and/or more education doesn’t necessarily create a better society. They typically don’t embrace the notion of absolute truth, though they reach for the transcendent. They are skeptical, and often question whether science is something to be embraced or feared. The question for parents is how will we mine the current worldview, even as it shifts? What in it can we embrace as biblical? What is not biblical? What I’ve seen in the church is a fearful adherence to what is familiar. So we cling to modern ideas, even though they may not be biblical and shun postmodern ideas even when they might be...

Sherri L. Lewis did a fantastic job of highlighting a controversial issue—the Christian response to homosexuality—with a liberal dose of humor and realism. My Soul Cries Out makes you examine your beliefs in God’s redemptive and delivering power. Do Christians really believe that God is powerful enough to deliver a person from homosexuality and give them a new life? Do Christians really extend God’s love and acceptance to individuals who leave that lifestyle and become born-again believers? Is homosexuality a worse sin than any other sin—lying, stealing, pre-marital sex, etc? Christians tend to put on their God-hat and put weights on sin. The novel addresses this with one powerful statement: Sin is sin. The hero (Kevin) and heroine (Monica) are well developed, and you empathized with their pain and struggle. One other character stood out for me, Trina. Trina, Monica’s best friend, had faced her own struggles with sin. Her struggle and eventual deliverance made her an empathetic and ac...

What's the best thing about writing? All of life is material. It's all grit for the oyster. What's the worst thing about writing? I still only make a dime an hour. Taking care of your family, aging parents, training guide dog puppies, and writing a novel must create some hectic times. How do you rely on God to get you through all your activities? Yesterday provided a perfect example of how to answer that question. Just as I was zooming dow ntown to deliver my hot-off-the-press novel to a store that had requested copies, the kids left a door open and the dog disappeared to explore the smells of our neighborhood. The next hour was spent dog hunting. I fought an interior battle of frustration: Grrr! I can’t seem to get anything done on my book without needless interruptions! But the Lord reminded me to release that book into His hands, and go find that dog (which we did). Later that afternoon, when I finally did get to the store, I bumped into a friend. She was meeting with ...

A contributing editor to Christian Parenting Today magazine, Suzanne has been published in numerous magazines, including Worldwide Challenge, Parent Life, Marriage Partnership, among others, and has contributed to five non-fiction books. She lives with her husband, four kids and a steady stream of puppies that she raises for Guide Dogs for the Blind in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find Suzanne on-line at http://www.suzannewoodsfisher.com/ . Copper Star is a World War II love story set in 1943, as theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer smuggles a young resistance worker, Louisa, out of Nazi Germany. Louisa waits out the war in a dusty copper mining town in Arizona but can’t leave her resistance skills behind. Soon, she turns the town upside down, uncovering a mystery that leads her back to the Nazis and her war-torn country. Released on June 30, the film rights of Copper Star are under consideration by a major motion picture studio. A contract for the sequel was offered to Fisher before Copper ...

* Describe yourself - what do you want people to know about you. I am a creative soul, and love to create anything that expresses the heart of God. In addition to novels and short stories, I write praise and worship music, and have choreographed dance pieces for church ministries. Next to God, music is my greatest love - especially live music. I enjoy contemporary and neo-Soul music, and LOVE jazz. Especially when I'm writing. Music spurs my creative muse. I love to sing also. I currently work as a physician in a women's prison in Georgia and it has truly been a life changing experience. I look forward to sharing some of the stories from this experience in future novels. * How do you find time to connect with God? I MAKE time to connect with God. I'm no good without Him - insane actually. Me and God are an all day thing - I talk to Him from the moment I wake up until I fall asleep at night. I'm just an addict for His presence. * Tell us about your journey to publicatio...

On June 25, Sherri Lewis will share with us her journey to publication as well her motivation for writing My Soul Cries Out . My Soul Cries Out is a compassionate look at the issues of Christians struggling with homosexuality and the redemptive power of God to bring deliverance. !!! Released July 2007 !!! Monica Harris Day's perfect world begins a downward spiral the day she comes home to find her husband in bed…with another man. After confronting Kevin, her husband of two years, Monica discovers he's had a lifelong struggle with homosexuality that began at the age of ten, when he was molested by a deacon in the church. For years, Kevin has sought deliverance, crying out to God to make him straight. He explains his deceit by saying he truly thought he had been delivered when he married Monica, but was afraid to share his past with her for fear she wouldn't marry him. Kevin begs Monica's forgiveness and wants to save their marriage. He is convinced that God has indeed...

Where did you birth the idea for this book? When? How did it come about? People often ask where I get my ideas for my books. My answer? You never know! For Veil of Fire , the idea was birthed at my favorite Mexican restaurant in the mission town of San Juan Bautista. There I was, sitting with my family, nibbling chips and salsa, when a wedding party came by. The bridesmaids were dressed in beautiful turn-of-the-century style gowns. As they passed, my mother-in-law began to tell me of the dresses that her great grandmother, who lived in Hinckley, used to sew for the rich ladies in Minneapolis and St. Paul. From there, came the story of the great Hinckley fire and the rebuilding that this woman, my husband’s great-great-grandmother, was a part of. And finally, I heard the tale of the mystery figure in the hills, a person burned beyond recognition. A person never identified, living as a hermit until one day he just disappeared. At that moment, the first inklings of the story that would b...

Marlo Schalesky Paints Compelling Word Picture in VEIL OF FIRE Schalesky is the author of four books and a regular columnist for Power for Living. She has been published in Focus on the Family, Decision, Moody Magazine, Today’s Christian Woman, Discipleship Journal, and others. In addition, she was named 2001 Writer of the Year at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers' Conference. Cook Communications will be launching the “Sizzling Summer of Fiction” reading campaign with VEIL OF FIRE and other summer releases. Fiction book clubs and reader groups may contact Schalesky and schedule a time and date to interact via Internet or conference call. Downloadable reader’s guides are available at http://www.cookministries.com/ . A separate “Bring an Author to Your Book Club” Internet page, www.cookministries.com/readthis is also available. (NASHVILLE, TENN.) Hinckley, Minnesota is going up in flames and a mysterious “being” sets up camp at the edge of town in Marlo Schalesky’s May 2007 rele...

1) When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer? Was there anything in your childhood that influenced you to become a writer? Like most children, I always had my own imaginary little world. Then, when I was ten years old, Mary Martin appeared on black and white television playing Peter Pan. If you’ll forgive the pun, that’s when my fantasies really took flight because it was such a happy tale. I wanted to make up stories like that, too. I loved to write in school, often turning ordinary term papers into fiction that incorporated my research. There was always a story simmering in my imagination. But my children were all in school when I finally began to write seriously. 2) Although you have written several novels, what inspired you to specifically write a historical trilogy of the post Civil War era? The Civil War was such an important turning point in United States history because it defined what we would become as a nation. In this series, I wanted to explore why Reconst...

I'm honored to announce that I will be spotlighting my writing mentor and award winning, multi-published author Louise M. Gouge on June 11, 2007. Louise will share with us the driving force behind her historical trilogy on the post Civil War era and Then Came Hope in particular . Then Came Hope is the second novel in Louise's historical trilogy on the post Civil War era. Delia was born into bondage and battered for 17 years. But in the wake of the Civil War, she joins a ragtag band headed North through a bitter and defeated South. Can handsome Ezra Johns help Delia realize her true value to God? Will he gain the respect his war service deserves?

This week we're spotlighting multi-published author, Rachel Hauck and her latest release Diva NashVegas . Rachel Hauck lives in sunny central Florida with her husband, Tony, a pastor. They have two ornery pets. She is a graduate of Ohio State University and a huge Buckeyes football fan. Rachel serves the writing community as Past President of American Christian Fiction Writers and a member of the Advisory Board. Visit her blog and web site at http://www.rachelhauck.com/ . Leave a comment on her blog and be eligible to win a $25 gift certificate to Starbucks or Barns & Noble. Two names will be drawn. Rachel's Latest Release For the past decade, Aubrey James has ruled the charts as the queen of country soul. She rocketed to fame in the shadow of her parent’s death – Gospel music pioneers Ray and Myra James. While her public life, high profile romances and fights with Music Row execs writes juicy tabloid headlines, the real and private Aubrey’s is a media mystery. When a clos...

What is your new book about? Evidence of Grace is the third book in the Jenna’s Creek Novels Series. I don’t want to give too much away for readers just starting books one and two. Suffice it to say, new evidence surfaces in the murder of Sally Blake. The guilty party may be hiding more secrets about that night or may not have acted alone in the murder. Christy Blackwood has vowed never to speak to her mother again after finding out the secrets of her past. But now Christy is home and hiding some secrets of her own. What were some of the challenges in writing the book? Evidence of Grace is probably the hardest book to write so far in my career. I had so many story lines going on at one time, I had to make sure I gave each one ample billing. I also wanted to make sure the reader cared strongly about each story line. It was a challenging book to write, but also a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. Of course, I always say that after a book is finished. While I’m writing it, it’s a pain an...

!!! New Release on June 15 !!! Nearly thirty years have passed since Sally Blake disappeared from a party. H er remains were found twenty-five years later and her killer brought to justice. Or so everyone in Jenna’s Creek believes. A mysterious phone call from a potential eyewitness leads authorities to believe an innocent person may have pled guilty to her murder. Noel Wyatt enlists the help of a young attorney and David Davis, a retired judge who once prosecuted the case, to find out why. Thus begins Evidence of Grace , the third installment of author Teresa Slack’s Jenna’s Creek series. Twists and surprises await the reader as more and more details leading up to the night of Sally’s disappearance are revealed. Did Noreen Trimble act alone in Sally’s murder? Why is she willing to sacrifice her own freedom in order to protect someone else? Several new characters, only briefly mentioned in previous books, are introduced to keep the series fresh and moving forward. Ms. Slack’s down to ...