Monday, October 5, 2009

ALMA Blog Tour & Updates

This past weekend I signed at the Redwood Seagull Book in Salt Lake. It's always an exciting time to do a booksigning because people come from all over the world to SLC during General Conference. One thing on their to-do list is to shop for the newest LDS materials.

I signed books for a couple of long-time readers, and also a gentleman from Canada and another from England. So Alma will be doing some traveling.

This past week, I also had the opportunity to read an advance copy of David West's upcoming book Heroes of the Fallen. This book won't be available in November, but David asked me to read it several months ago, so I was excited to get the ARC. Heroes of the Fallen is a novel based on the last days of the Nephite civilization. From the first chapter (Prologue), I was captured by David's writing style. It's very poetic and vivid, reminiscint of the time and culture. I told David that coming up with description in my own writing is not a natural talent, but something I have to go back through my first draft and add in.

Speaking of writing, I'm about 200 pages into Alma the Younger. This past week, I was able to make some important decisions and actually outline most of the rest of the book. Outlining is not something I do much--Brandon Sanderson would call my writing style "multi-drafting." But I'm excited to complete the 150 or so pages left, and see what my beta readers think!

A few more reviews came in for ALMA, Check them out:

Jennie Hansen--Meridian Magazine
It's always an honor to be reviewed by Jennie Hansen on Meridian Magazine. She is a prolific and well-respected LDS reviewer, but she doesn't review everything she's sent. She is also a bestselling author, and her new book, Shudder just came out. It looks fascinating, and it's on my list of fall reading.

Jewel Adams--Jewel's World
Another author! Jewel has published several clean romances, and she graciously reviews books as well. Her latest book, Place in This World was just released.

Heather Justesen--Clean Books for LDS Families
Heather Justesen just started a Facebook page for Clean Books. She included Alma in her line up (thanks!), and Heather also has her first book coming this month: The Ball's In Her Court.

Ronda Hinrichsen--The Write Blocks
Ronda is an award-winning author. She just won the Best Novel award from the League of Utah Writers for her unpublished book, TRAPPED. Her first book, MISSING, will be out this month.

2 comments:

Tamara Hart Heiner said...

I'm excited to get my hands on David's book! Like you, I don't do setting well. I just write. Afterwards, I go back in and put the setting.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Thanks, I really appreciate your endorsement Heather.