Toni V. Lee

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?