Turned in

With summer in full swing, and my writing window minimized, I'm pleased to announced that the book I've been lamenting about over the past six months is finally turned in. For better or worse! I just hope if it needs more fixing, the readers and/or my editor will fill in the blanks. It's my first non-fiction book, tentatively called "The Women of the Book of Mormon." It's not long, maybe 80 pages, but took a lot of research.

Also, I just realized that in 11 weeks, Alma the Elder will be out. That means next week, I'll start a 10-week giveaway contest for Abinadi, leading up to the release to the sequel. So stay tuned! It will probably be similar to the last contest, answering the question of the week on my blog, and being entered into a drawing.

Of course, if you already own a copy of Abinadi, I'd be willing to send you a copy of one of my other books.

I guess I should take a bit of a break from writing or editing. But it's not to be. I have a great deal of anxiety over my thriller on the Queen of Sheba. My agent is working diligently on "shopping" it to publishers. And my big fear would be that when/if she comes back with a deal, and the publisher wants to talk sequel. So I've started outlining the sequel (which I'm calling "King"--could of predicted that, eh?), with the hopes of having a "pre-synopsis" done in a couple of weeks. Not that the synopsis won't change. I revised Queen quite extensively and the original synopsis wasn't much like the final synopsis. But it's good to be prepared.

This stuff takes time and I first have to figure out the main hook of the entire book. One idea I'm playing with is Ramses II. There is some controversy surrounding his reign, and whether or not he was the pharaoh who ruled during the time of Moses. I also have to decide which of my characters to bring back into the story. I had 3 main characters in my previous book, and wonder which ones the readers cared about the most. But I don't have any readers to ask.

Until then . . .



Below, I've posted a copy of my submission letter to Covenant:


Dear Editor,

I'm please to submit my non-fiction book, The Women of the Book of Mormon.

As stated in the introduction: When my Out of Jerusalem series hit the shelves in 2004, the readers’ response reflected genuine interest in the lives of the women. I included female characters in my historical novels about Nephi and Lehi, mostly out of my own curiosity. Like many readers, I wanted to know what it was like to be a woman living in Ancient Israel, or one living along the Guatemalan coast of Mesoamerica. Surprisingly, only six women are mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon, and just three of those six lived during the Book of Mormon era.

The women of the Book of Mormon are our sisters, and their stories lie within those sacred pages. Not only can we learn from the messages of their husbands and sons, but we can discover how much the Savior loves us through the experiences and enduring faith of these women.

In fact, there had never been a complete book written on the women of this era. In my research I found very little information on them, and I realized that was why this project had not been attempted by another.

The endnotes will be fleshed out some more, but the manuscript is complete at 20,000 words.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Heather B. Moore