The Black or White Chronicles- The Contest

The Contest

When you comment on here, your name will be automatically be added to the contest. You will be able to pick which one of John's book you want: Abiding Darkness, Wedgewood Grey, or And If I Die. Good luck, and God bless.

Thanks to everyone who came here for this big tour of The Black or White Chronicles.

And a big thanks to John Aubrey Anderson who will ship the book to the winner, and I may be able to ask him to sign it for you.

The Black or White Chronicles- The Interview

The Interview
Questions and Answers
My interview with John Aubrey Anderson.

Caleb: Q1)How did you come up with the story plot?

John: A1)The best answer to that is: "I guess you had to be there."
And while you read the above statement, imagine that I'm standing in the foreground waving a large banner that says, "GOD DID THIS!!!". My first and only effort at fiction was a two thousand word story I did for our girls . . . a little thing about the ramifications of poor choices; that was twenty years ago.
Ten years ago I decided to pull that little story out and wrap it around the gospel. I had in mind giving it to a friend of ours.
I found myself "backstorying" in an effort to "set up" my little scene from the short story. Then, in November of 2002, I woke up to find myself surrounded by two or three hundred thousand words and questions about how to get a novel published.
I'm confident my methods won't get me a job as an author in residence, but just being on hand to watch how God worked it all out has been a once-in-a-lifetime gift.


Caleb: Q2)How do you figure out what to call each of your characters?

John: A2)It varies. Quite a few are named for friends, i.e., John Smith would become Smitty Johnson. Others are names I heard while growing up. And some characters occasionally have to wait for their names . . . I'll just type in "XXXXX" until they get fleshed out enough for me to figure out who they are. I know that sounds strange, but as often as not, I'll see a name -- or part of one -- and know exactly who it fits. I really like how some of the names worked out . . . and that's another God thing.


Caleb:Q3)How many books do you envision having in The Black or White Chronicles?

John: A3)God willing, there will be six books in the series. Book four (my wife's favorite) is finished but needs polishing. Books five and six are semi-laid out in my mind.


Caleb: Q4)Do you plan on doing another series? If so, what will it be about?

John: A4)For now, after I finish book six, I want to do a daily devotional book for men.


Caleb: Q5)If possible, share some fiction books that have inspired you?

John: A5)This is not the answer you were looking for, but I moved into the novel mode -- and from there to a whole series -- because of a suspense novel wherein the author vigorously defends a theory I believe to be without foundation.
I pray that God will let me write suspense fiction so intense that my readers will not skip over a single syllable -- and within my story I want to accurately defend a major Christian apologetic point or doctrine.
A friend told me tonight of WEDGEWOOD GREY being read by a man -- a non-Christian -- who had readABIDING DARKNESS. That the man would be willing to come back to my work tells me God has let me write in a way that attracts lovers of suspense -- believers or not.


Caleb: Q6)Who has had the most inspiration/guidance/moral-support while cranking out your novels?

John: A6)Let me take you back to the words on the banner. "GOD DID THIS!!!"
I won't go into the myriads of miracles He has accomplished on my behalf, but I'll give you a peek at where it all starts. I flunked Freshman English almost as many times as I took it -- mainly because I insisted on showing up for class while I was drunk. This wrting journey has been saturated with the things of God . . . and it's been beautiful.
After God, my wife is the most supportive person in the world.
And I have an enthusiastic prayer team.
Without my going on to say, "And I'd like to thank the academy. . ." the world needs to know that my editor is welcome to as much of the credit for these books as he wants to take.


Caleb:Q7)Which three fiction books would you most recommend to people > after reading your work?

John:A7)That's the hardest question you've asked. Wow!
If the reader likes my books, I'd say he'd like WATCHERS by Koontz (skip over the steamy sex stuff). My two all-time favorite novels are probably THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD . . . and I like THE CLIENT.
By way of explanation . . . I've left out some noteworthy authors because, starting five years ago, I quit reading fiction I haven't already read. I don't want other authors' ideas circulating in my head.


Caleb: Thank-you for you time!!!

John:My pleasure.


(Come Back tommorrow though next Wendsday for the contest!!!)

The Black or White Chronicles- The Author and The Truth

The Author

John Aubrey Anderson was born and raised in his grandparents’ home, five miles north of the setting he chose for Abiding Darkness. That little cotton country town is within a rifle shot of two rivers, a bayou, a double handful of lakes, and endless acres of woods. Add that backdrop to a culture that offered an umbrella of protection for children while allowing boys to roam the countryside with firearms and fishing poles, and you come up with an environment that would provoke the envy of Tom Sawyer. In those surroundings, millions of day-by-day adventures linked themselves to become my boyhood.

When John was eight years old, he saw Flying Tigers with John Wayne and knew he wanted to be a pilot. After graduating from Mississippi State, he flew six years in the Air Force then twenty-nine years for a major airline. His career in the cockpit was nothing less than a thirty-five-year answer to a young boy’s unspoken prayer. And now he get to write . . .

Writing has transformed my life...

Writing has transformed John's life—mostly for the better, but his schedule has been a little crunched for the last four years. In one sense, he looks forward to the day when he will be able to squeeze in time for banjo lessons and golf. On the other hand, he had never had a hobby that came within a long mile of generating the kind of pleasure he derive from crafting a good scene in one of my books.

John and his wife started to Mrs. Smith’s kindergarten together and graduated from high school with nineteen other kids. With college, careers, and forty some-odd years of marriage behind them, they find ourselves in Texas—about twenty miles south of the Red River. Most people would describe their lives as boring and colorless—he spend the biggest part of my time writing; she’s immersed in leading a comprehensive, women’s Bible study. They like greasy hamburgers and Dr. Peppers, most species of warm-blooded creatures (the kind that don’t normally bite), and spending July in the mountains.

The Truth

The simplicity of the Gospel is within the grasp of a four-year-old child; its implications confound the deepest thinkers.

May I invite you to consider the truths you see here . . .

We are all sinners.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And the penalty for sinning is death.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Christ’s death was part of God’s great plan.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

God stands ready to save us.
Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

We cannot save ourselves.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

You can know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

You can have Jesus Christ as your personal Savior by acknowledging in your heart what God has done for you. If you would like to do that, pray the following simple prayer.

Dear God, I know I’m a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You sent Jesus to die for my sins. I accept Jesus as my Savior and invite Him into my heart and life. Amen.

Resources
http://www.icr.org/
http://www.creationresearch.org/
http://www.trueorigin.org/
http://www.trueorigin.org/camplist.asp
http://www.creationontheweb.com/
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
http://www.biblicalcreation.org.uk/
http://www.ldolphin.org/
http://www.apologeticspress.org/
http://www.reformed.org/
http://www.carm.org/
http://www.tektonics.org/
http://www.discovery.org/
http://www.arn.org/
http://www.leaderu.com/
http://www.probe.org/
http://www.swordandspirit.com/home.php
http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/
http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp
http://www.reasons.org/
http://www.home.earthlink.net/%7egbl111/page2.htm
http://www.apologeticsinfo.org/index.html
http://everystudent.com/index.html
http://www.str.org/site/PageServer?pagename=GregsInfoPage
http://answering-islam.org/
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/
http://www.comereason.org/
http://www.errantskeptics.org/
http://paracleteforum.org/
http://www.whitehorseinn.org/index.htm

Scripture quotations taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, COPYRIGHT © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1994, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

(Come Back Friday for THE INTERVIEW)
(Come Back Saturay & Sunday for *Something Special*)
*PRIZE FOR A WINNER*

All Content taken from John's Website:

http://www.johnaubreyanderson.com

The Black or White Chronicles- The Books

THE BOOKS:
Book One: Abiding Darkness
By John Aubrey Anderson
(ISBN: 0446579491 / Publisher: Faithwords / Date: Aug 2006 / Page Count: 339)

Abiding Darkness initially anchors itself in the relationship between two children.

Junior Washington is an eleven-year-old black child. He lives in a small cabin out on Cat Lake; his parents work for the Parker family. He’s loyal, he’s compliant beyond what would normally be expected of an eleven-year-old boy, and he’s a committed Christian.

Missy Parker, who lives on the other side of the lake, is the crown princess of the Parker family. At seven years of age she’s beautiful, wealthy, willful, and tough as a tractor tire. And—in the midst of the most defined segregation in our nation’s recent history—this little white girl and Junior Washington are best friends.

Only one thing stands between these two children and a storybook childhood . . . they are destined to encounter a faithful servant of the Author of Evil.

Abiding Darkness starts almost gently. The first sentence offers doubt, but readers may not see any real trouble surface until a few sentences later, and that’s mostly kid stuff, almost cute. From there through the second chapter readers are given a little more to think about . . . an opportunity to imagine what might happen to the children . . . especially the girl.

By the end of the second chapter intuitive readers will be taking a deep breath . . . they’re going to need the oxygen.

Book Two: Wedgewood Grey
By John Aubrey Anderson
(ISBN: 0446579505 / Publisher: Faithwords / Date: Feb 2007 / Page Count: 372)

Mississippi cotton country . . . in the spring of 1960.

The War At Cat Lake is fifteen years in the fading past . . . but the demonic beings who launched that first battle, are alive and well at Cat Lake. Waiting.

Late on a Friday night, on a muddy little road a mile east of Cat Lake, a ten-year-old black child is forced to watch while a gang of white men beat his mother to death. Aided by Mose Washington, an old black man, the boy exacts a measure of his own revenge. When the sun comes up on Saturday morning, Mose and the boy are fugitives.

Missy Parker Patterson, who as a child stood at the epicenter of the first war, is married and living in Texas. In the aftermath that follows Mose Washington’s disappearance, she goes back to Cat Lake to discover that the demonic beings have been anticipating her return . . . and so begins the second battle of The War At Cat Lake.

In 1962, an old black man and his grandson move into the country near Pilot Hill, Texas. The people in the local area are told that the old gentleman’s name is Mose Mann—his grandson introduces himself as Bill.

However, the lives of the new arrivals are not as peaceful as they seem. The unassuming old black man and his grandson are being pursued by a triad of formidable and unrelenting adversaries . . . a ruthless political leader, an enduring lie, and an invisible army allied beneath the banner of a hatred for God.

Wedgewood Grey is a story about the impact of choices that real people—people like you and me—are sometimes forced to make.

Book Three: And If I Die
By John Aubrey Anderson
(ISBN: 0446579521 / Publisher: Faithwords / Date: Aug 2007 / Page Count: ?)

In 1945, a spirit voice told Mr. A. J. Mason to “Be ready.”

In 1960, the spirit drew near and said the same words to the same man. “Be ready.”

On both occasions Mason ended up in bloody battles with the forces of evil. On both occasions, he saved the life of a young girl named Missy Parker. And on both occasions good people died.

It’s 1968.

Missy Parker has been married to Dr. Patrick Patterson for nine years; they live in Denton, Texas. Missy plays tennis and golf; Pat is chairman of the philosophy department at North Texas State University.

Mose Washington, a black man Missy refers to as her almost-daddy, is hiding behind a new name—Mose Mann. Mose and the young black man who poses as his grandson have spent eight years successfully evading the FBI, a murderous congresswoman, and creatures from the demonic realm. They now live in Pilot Hill, Texas—fifteen miles from Pat and Missy. Mose is committing the autumn of his life to the pursuit of the knowledge of God and the protection of his “grandson”. His “grandson” is interested in honing his skills as a bull rider.

Close friends see portents of danger in events of the early summer and converge on Pilot Hill to warn the two black men that yet another confrontation with malevolent beings may be looming.

In the pre-dawn hours, on the second day of the North Texas Rodeo, the voice of an invisible being speaks to Missy Parker Patterson. The voice warns her that it is now she, not A. J. Mason, who has been chosen as the person who needs to “Be ready” . . . and Missy doesn’t want the job.

Ordering Info(for Amazon):

Abiding Darkness:

http://www.amazon.com/Abiding-Darkness-Anderson-Aubrey-Chronicles/dp/0446579491/sr=1-1/qid=1172083298/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0909598-8628827?ie=UTF8&s=books

Wedgewood Grey:

http://www.amazon.com/Wedgewood-Grey-Black-White-Chronicles/dp/0446579505/sr=1-2/qid=1172084180/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-0909598-8628827?ie=UTF8&s=books

And If I Die (For Pre-order only! Should send out around, August 22, 2007):

http://www.amazon.com/If-Die-Black-White-Chronicles/dp/0446579521/sr=1-1/qid=1172084244/ref=sr_1_1/002-0909598-8628827?ie=UTF8&s=books

Don't Forget to visit John Aubrey Anderson at:

http://www.johnaubreyanderson.com

(Come Back tommorrow for THE AUTHOR info, and THE TRUTH)
(Come Back Friday for THE INTERVIEW)
(Come Back Saturay & Sunday for Something Special)

All info taken from:

http://www.johnaubreyanderson.com

Wedgewood Grey By John Aubrey Anderson

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Wedgewood Grey
(Faith Words, February 2007) by John Aubrey Anderson.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John Aubrey Anderson

John was born five miles north of the setting for Abiding Darkness, a cotton country town within a rifle shot of two rivers, a bayou, a double handful of lakes, and endless acres of woods.

After graduating from Mississippi State, he flew six years in the Air Force then twenty-nine years for a major airline. And now he gets to write.

He and his wife have been married for forty some-odd years and live in Texas—about twenty miles south of the Red River. He spends the biggest part of his time writing; she’s immersed in leading a comprehensive, women’s Bible study.

They like greasy hamburgers and Dr. Peppers, most species of warm-blooded creatures (the kind that don’t normally bite), and spending July in the mountains.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Wedgewood Grey is the second book in the Black and White Chronicles. The first was Abiding Darkness (August, 2006).

Mississippi cotton country . . . in the spring of 1960.

The War At Cat Lake is fifteen years in the fading past . . . but the demonic beings who launched that first battle, are alive and well at Cat Lake. Waiting.

Late on a Friday night, on a muddy little road a mile east of Cat Lake, a ten-year-old black child is forced to watch while a gang of white men beat his mother to death. Aided by Mose Washington, an old black man, the boy exacts a measure of his own revenge. When the sun comes up on Saturday morning, Mose and the boy are fugitives.

Missy Parker Patterson, who as a child stood at the epicenter of the first war, is married and living in Texas. In the aftermath that follows Mose Washington’s disappearance, she goes back to Cat Lake to discover that the demonic beings have been anticipating her return . . . and so begins the second battle of The War At Cat Lake.

In 1962, an old black man and his grandson move into the country near Pilot Hill, Texas. The people in the local area are told that the old gentleman’s name is Mose Mann—his grandson introduces himself as Bill.

However, the lives of the new arrivals are not as peaceful as they seem. The unassuming old black man and his grandson are being pursued by a triad of formidable and unrelenting adversaries . . . a ruthless political leader, an enduring lie, and an invisible army allied beneath the banner of a hatred for God.

Wedgewood Grey is a story about the impact of choices that real people—people like you and me—are sometimes forced to make.

The Author's Website:

http://www.johnaubreyanderson.com/

Amazon Link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446579505

(Come Back Wendsday for THE BOOKS)

(Come Back Thursday for THE AUTHOR info, and THE TRUTH)

(Come Back Friday for THE INTERVIEW)

(Come Back Saturday & Sunday for Something Special)

The Dead Whisper On By T.L. Hines

~* GREAT NEW UPCOMMING FICTION!!! *~

The Dead Whisper On

~* * A new thriller * from the author of Waking Lazarus! When Candace hears her dead father's voice speaking from the shadows, she's drawn into a conspiracy linked to murder---and spontaneous human combustion. Is Candace really communicating with departed spirits? If she doesn't find out fast, she and thousands of others may literally go up in flames.

372 pages, hardcover from Bethany. *~

Waking Lazarus By T.L. Hines

I told T.L. Hines I would review his book, so here it goes.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Jude Allman became famous as the man who died and came back to life three times. Now he’s a recluse, hiding from the world in the deep forests of Montana.

But when children around him begin disappearing, his days of hiding are over. Only Jude has the key to stopping the abductions--hidden inside the mysteries of his own deaths. Now he must face the questions that have haunted him. What if his deaths aren’t just accidents? What if there’s a reason behind it all? What if he’s been brought back just for this moment?
Do you dare to wake with Jude(A modern day Lazarus)?
Check out Waking Lazarus a your nearest library or purchase it on most online store that sell books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
T. L. Hines is probably a native of Billings, Montana, born somewhere around 1966.

In his early life Mr. Hines has seeded potatoes, sold strawberries, trimmed Christmas trees and cleaned corpse storage rooms (perfect experience for a future mystery writer!). He was also an undefeated teenager performing on the air guitar in competitions.


T.L. Hines attended the University of Montana in Missoula, graduating with a B.A. in English Literature.


Mr. Hines has been a professional writer for over 15 years with articles and at least one non-fiction book. He also has fiction appearing on the web.2005 was the year that saw T.L. Hines winning the Maryland Writers' Association Novel Contest. He was also the managing editor and contributor of Locations Magazine - a publication promoting on-location film production around the world.T.L. Hines founded the H20 Advertising Agency with his wife Nancy in 1995, eventually merging with Wendt Advertising; becming the largest ad agency in the Northern Rockies.


Mr. Hines presently serves on the Board of Trustees for his local Parmly Billings Public Library.

T. L. Hines's Website


REWIEW:
This book chills-you-to-death. I thought I had the book figured out after the first few chapter, so I had the impression that I was gonna hate the book because I thought I had figure it out. Boy was I WRONG. This book impress me, when I picked it up I didn't put it down until I read a couple chapter. I can't wait to read The Dead Whispers On. I have it on my book list to read already!!!

Dear John By Nicholas Sparks

Miriam Parker, from Warner Faith and Center Street, requested me to review Nicholas Sparks' Dear John about 4 months ago. So finially, here is the review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965, the second son of Patrick Michael (1942-1996) and Jill Emma Marie (Thoene) Sparks (1942-1989). His siblings are Michael Earl Sparks (b. Dec. 1964), and Danielle Sparks (b. Dec. 1966, d. June, 2000). As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then optometrist's assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.

After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.

He and his wife Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989. While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year, though again, it wasn't published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medallist and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.

He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October, 1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), and Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), Three Weeks with my Brother (2004), True Believer (2005) and At First Sight (2005) all with Warner Books. All were domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more than 35 languages. The movie version of Message in a Bottle was released in 1999, A Walk to Remember was released in 2002, and The Notebook was released in 2004. The average domestic box office gross per film was $56 million -- with another $100 million in DVD sales -- making the novels by Nicholas Sparks one of the most successfuly franchises in Hollywood.

The film rights to Nights in Rodanthe, True Believer and At First Sight have been sold, and Nicholas Sparks has written the screenplay for The Guardian, though he has not offered it for sale at this point.

He now has five children: Miles, Ryan, Landon, Lexie, and Savannah. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.

His ancestry is German, Czech, English, and Irish, he's 5'10" and weighs 180 lbs. He is an avid athlete who runs daily, lifts weights regularly, and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He attends church regularly and reads approximately 125 books a year. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.

Visit him @:

http://www.nicholassparks.com

ABOUT THE BOOK:

"Dear John," the Letter read. And with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives changed forever...

An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who has captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else. "Dear John," the letter read...and with those two words, a heart was broken and two lives were changed forever. Returning home, John must come to grips with the fact that Savannah, now married, is still his true love—and face the hardest decision of his life. *Adult Content, be warned*

Pre-order Dear John at:

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

REVIEW:

An extraordinary, moving story, DEAR JOHN explores the complexities of love-how it survives time and heartbreak, and how it transforms us forever.

~~Mariam Parker,from her e-mail to me~~

Dear John is an extraordinary, moving story. It touches the heart and soul. This novel depicts how 9/11 effected many of our troups lives. WHAT IS LOVE? I think the bible says it best:

1 Corinthians 13

4)Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5)It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6)Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7)It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8a)Love never fails.

I know this book is not a Christian book, but the ending does show this verse.

~*Sorry for the very short review it's been a while since I read it, and I have forgotten most of the book*~

THANKS TO:

Miriam Parker

For asking me to review it, sorry to take so long.

Hachette Book Group USA

For providing me with the book to review

Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing

Christian Writer's Market Guide
by
Sally Stuart.
WaterBrook Press; Pap/CDR edition (January 16, 2007)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Sally E. Stuart is the author of thirty-four books and has sold more than one thousand articles and columns. Her long-term involvement with the Christian Writers' Market Guide as well as her marketing columns for the Christian Communicator, Oregon Christian Writers, and The Advanced Christian Writer, make her a sought-after speaker and a leading authority on Christian markets and the business of writing. Stuart is the mother of three and grandmother of eight.

ABOUT THE BOOK

For more than twenty years, the Christian Writers’ Market Guide has offered indispensable help to Christian writers. This year, for the first time, this valuable resource comes with a CD-ROM of the full text, so you can search with ease for topics, publishers, and other specific names.

The 2007 edition also includes up-to-date listings of more than 1,200 markets for books, articles, stories, poetry, and greeting cards, including information on forty new book publishers, eighty-three new periodicals, and thirty-four new literary agents. Perfect for writers in every phase, this is the resource to get noticed–and get published.

It contains listings for: 695 periodicals, 228 poetry markets, 355 book publishers, 133 online publications, 29 print-on-demand publishers, 1185 markets for the written word, 321 photography markets, 31 e-book publishers, 122 foriegn markets, 112 literary agents,and 59 newspapers.

It also gives you comprehensive lists of contests, writers groups and conferences, search engines, pay rates and submission guidelines, editorial services and websites.

Christian Writers’ Market Guide is a "must have' for any serious Christian writer that is looking to get published!

The book link is:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400071259

Sally's website is:

http://www.stuartmarket.com/

The Longing Season

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducting The Longing Season (Bethany House July, 2006) by Christine Schaub.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Christine Schaub is the author of the MUSIC OF THE HEART series, including Finding Anna, the “rest of the story” behind the writing of the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” (October 2005) and The Longing Season, the story behind “Amazing Grace” (July 2006) with Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Books.

In 2003, Christine won the “On the Page” screenwriting contest at Screenwriting Expo 2 in Los Angeles. Her one-page story, written on-site in 24 hours for Jacqueline Bisset, was selected by the actress as the best Oscar Wilde-type comedy for her persona.


While working in freelance corporate communications, Christine completed three feature-length screenplays, including a drama/comedy, romantic comedy, and sci-fi action/drama; developed four biopic teleplays for the stories behind the hymns; and published an online column for the MethodX website (Upper Room Ministries).


Christine honed her writing skills after more than 15 years in corporate communications for healthcare, pharmaceutical, and entertainment companies. She has also been a featured conference speaker on working with at-risk youth and changed lives in the classrooms with her creative presentation style.


Christine's love for the arts and creativity have taken her from church platforms to civic and professional stages, performing classics and dramas from her own pen.

Christine graduated from Anderson University with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications. She has served on numerous boards and committees, usually as Communications Chair, and has received both regional and national awards in writing and design.


ABOUT THE BOOK
All of the books in the MUSIC OF THE HEART series are based on a hymns and their histories. The Longing Season is about one of the greatest redemption stories of all time: John Newton and his song, Amazing Grace.

Nature conspires against him, tossing the ship like a toy. Directionless--just like his life.
It seems his odyssey will end here, in the cold Atlantic.
Grief and terror grip his heart, but he will not surrender...not yet.
She reads the sentence again and again.
The first day I saw you I began to love you.

He'd written the words, sealed and posted them, then vanished.

She has a choice--turn toward the future, or wait, wating and hoping.

And so begins her season of longing.

Christine's website link is:

http://www.christineschaub.typepad.com/

The book link is:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764200607

Relentless By Robin Parrish

RELENTLESS
My Review:
This book is Relentless(No, seriously.) It does not allowing anything to keep one from what one is doing or trying to do, and that is reading this book. The writing flows off the pages like water flows from a stream. Robin Parrish is doing now what C.S. Lewis did long ago.
When you get to the last page it leave you with no sense of a happy end.
Robin Parrish is showing the concept of:

• The result of an angry heart.
• When man is bent to much, he brakes.
• Light overcomes darkness.
• The importance of "Vengence belongs to the Lord."

Renlentless is never-ceasing action, betrayal, manipulation, fighting, and power.

"IN THE SPACE OF A BREATH,

WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS HIS LIFE...SHATTERED.

CAN DESTINY BE UNDONE?

The Players are READY.

The GAME is in motion.

And the PACE is:

RELENTLESS." (QUOTED FROM INSIDE DESCRICTION ON THE DUST JACKET)

About the Author:
ROBIN PARRISH

Robin Parrish had two great ambitions in his life: to have a family, and to be a published novelist

In March of 2005, he proposed to his future wife the same week he signed his first book contract.

Born Michael Robin Parrish on October 13, 1975, Robin's earliest writing efforts took place on a plastic, toy typewriter, and resulted in several "books" (most between 10 and 30 pages long) and even a few magazines.

By the age of thirteen, he had begun winning local writing awards and became a regular in his high school's literary magazine. In college, he garnered acclaim from his English professors and fellow students while maturing and honing his skills.

After college, he entered the writing profession through a "side door" -- the Internet. More than ten years he spent writing for various websites, including About.com, CMCentral.com, and his current project Infuze Magazine, which is a unique intersection between art and faith which he also conceived of and created.

One of his more "high concept" ideas for Infuze was to return to his love for storytelling and create a serialized tale that would play out every two weeks, telling a complete, compelling story over the course of nine months. That serialized story eventually came to the attention of several publishers, who saw it as a potential debut novel for Robin Parrish.

In 2005, Bethany House Publishers brought Robin full circle by contracting him for the rights to not only that first book -- but two sequels. A trilogy, to unfold in the consecutive summers of 2006, 2007, and 2008. One massive tale -- of which that first, original story would form only the foundational first volume of the three -- spread across three books.

Robin is the Editor in Chief and creator of Infuze Magazine. He and his wife Karen reside in High Point, North Carolina. Karen works for Premier Productions. Robin and Karen are members and Small Group leaders at High Point's First Wesleyan Church.

FEARLESS

After the events of Relentless, the world has changed.

Hundreds of super-beings walk among earth's inhabitants. An unexplained series of natural disasters have shaken the populace to its core. Fear fills the heart of every human being.

But in the darkness there is hope -- the man known as Grant Borrows, whom the public has dubbed "Guardian." He's heroic, powerful, and fearless. While Grant enjoys this new life, those close to him worry he may be hiding a terrible secret.

A search for answers brings Grant and his friends to London, where an extraordinary discovery awaits that will challenge everything they thought they knew. With a deadly new enemy dogging his steps, Grant realizes that the world's only hope may come from unraveling the truth about himself once and for all. But what he comes face-to-face with leaves even this most powerful of men shaken with fear...

Vist Robin At:

www.infusemagazin.com

www.robinparrish.com

www.myspace.com/robinparrish

Germ By Robert Liparulo

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducting GERM(WestBow Nov 1, 2006) by Robert Liparulo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robert's novel paints a scenario so frighteningly real that six Hollywood producers were bidding on movie rights before the novel was completed. His acclaimed debut novel, Comes A Horseman, is being made into a major motion picture by producer Mace Neufeld and his short story "Kill Zone" was featured in the anthology Thriller, edited by James Patterson.

Robert is an award-winning author of over a thousand published articles and short stories. He is currently a contributing editor for New Man magazine. His work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Travel & Leisure, Modern Bride, Consumers Digest, Chief Executive, and The Arizona Daily Star, among other publications. In addition, he previously worked as a celebrity journalist, interviewing Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Charlton Heston, and others for magazines such as Rocky Road, Preview, and L.A. Weekly. He has sold or optioned three screenplays.

Robert is an avid scuba diver, swimmer, reader, traveler, and a law enforcement and military enthusiast. He lives in Colorado with his wife and four children.
He is currently working on his third novel.

REVIEW:

I caught this germ. Form the first line to the grand finally, I breathed in every little microscopic organism used to make up this superb contagious novel. Slowly this book builds up it’s contagious infection, until it comes to a deadly ending! You beter caught up with this epidemic before it catches up with you.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

If you breathe, it will find you...

The list of 10,000 names was created for maximum devastation. On it are business leaders, housewives, politicians, celebrities, janitors, children. None know what is about to happen...but all will be part of the most frightening brand of warfare the world has ever known.

The GERM...a more advanced form of the Ebola virus...has been genetically engineered to infect only those people whose DNA matches the codes embedded within it. If your DNA is not a match, you simply catch a cold. But if your DNA is a match, within days your internal organs liquefy and you die a most painful death. There is no cure.

The release of the virus would usher in a new era of power...one in which countries are left without any form of defense, where one person or millions could be killed with 100% accuracy yet result in no collateral damage to property or those not targeted.

That time isn't coming...It is now!

GERM is coming. Pray the assassins get you first.

Bob's website link is:
http://www.robertliparulo.com

The book link is:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785261788

Sinner By Sharon Carter Rogers

Sinner came out in January 2007. It is the debute novel by Sharon Carter Rogers. I have another informative post about Sinner. So, I will keep to the About the Author and my review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sharon Carter Rogers is author of the suspense novels, SINNER (releasing January 2007) and UNPRETTY (currently unreleased).

However, there are some who suggest that Sharon is not the author's real name, and that she has chosen to hide her true identity from the public view. Others dismiss this as pure speculation and a publicity stunt--that is, a "mysterious author who writes mysteries."

Ms. Rogers refuses to confirm or deny any of these speculative assumptions.Rumors about Sharon's background include the following:

• She is a former English teacher and is now a homemaker.
• She is a former covert military agent and skilled combantant.
• She is married to one Steven Rogers.
• She has never married for fear that her work would put her loved ones in danger.
• She is married to James Barnes.
• She is an elderly woman living in Connecticut.
• She is an actress living in southern California.
• She is blonde.
• She is brunette.
• She is a redhead.
• She is bald, and wears wigs that are blonde, brunette, and redhead.
• She is a former mob moll who now lives in the witness protection program.
• She is a high school drama teacher in Alabama.
• She doesn't exist at all.

Regardless of the rumors, there is one thing we can be sure of about Ms. Rogers: She's an astonishingly good writer of fast-paced, suspense-laden, mystery novels.

Listen to what others have said about her debut thriller, SINNER:

"Sinner is a thriller fantastic both in the 'literary genre' sense and in the 'extraordinarily good' sense. If a book can have gravitational force, then this novel is a black hole that pulls you in and doesn't let go until you travel all the way through."

--- Aspiring Retail Magazine

“Engaging. Haunting. Innovative. Sinner is the kind of novel that will keep readers talking long after they’ve read the last page. Sharon Carter Rogers delivers a story reminiscent of Dean Koontz on a dark night. So lock the door, sit down, snuggle in and enjoy the ride.”

--- Alton Gansky, author of Director’s Cut and other novels. www.altongansky.com.

“With Sinner, Sharon Carter Rogers weaves a gritty, thought-provoking tale that holds nothing back as reality gets twisted in her wild imagination. Reading this book is like sitting in the font row of the theater and watching a hair-raising thriller!”

---Clay Jacobsen, Television Director and author of many popular novels such as The Ultimate Reality Show and Circle of Seven.

So who is Sharon Carter Rogers? Perhaps it doesn't matter, as long as she keeps delivering high-octane entertainment like SINNER and UNPRETTY.

Sharon Carter Rogers is represented by Nappaland Literary Agency, publishers of the free Internet magazine, Nappaland.com

REVIEW:

A tale that is thought provoking, lingering, tightly woven, heinous, and redeptive.

A heinous crime against a priest, who ever would have that it was for the good of everyone.

Except one, Sinner, who thinks that God has given him "forsight" to condemn or save those who are lost.

Sinner depicts, not only the great redeption story of old, but a new revelation to that very old tale. Sinner left me awake at night thinking about everything, and asking questions such as:

"Am I the worst sinner?"

This story depicts the old saying:

"Clean the skeletons out of the Closet."

If you think you are the worst of sinners, read this redeptive story. Sinner should be available at every major book outlet. Check this book out, it's a great read. And if you like it get in touch with the publishers and tell them you would like to see more Sharon Carter Rogers' books.

Abiding Darkness

It is February 1st, time for the FIRST Day Blog Tour! (Join our alliance! Click the button!) The FIRST day of every month we will feature an author and their latest book's FIRST chapter!

This month's feature author is:

John Aubrey Anderson

and his book:

Abiding Darkness

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John was born five miles north of the setting for Abiding Darkness, a cotton country town within a rifle shot of two rivers, a bayou, a double handful of lakes, and endless acres of woods.

After graduating from Mississippi State, he flew six years in the Air Force then twenty-nine years for a major airline. And now he gets to write.

He and his wife have been married for forty some-odd years and live in Texas—about twenty miles south of the Red River. He spends the biggest part of his time writing; she’s immersed in leading a comprehensive, women’s Bible study.

They like greasy hamburgers and Dr. Peppers, most species of warm-blooded creatures (the kind that don’t normally bite), and spending July in the mountains.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Abiding Darkness is the first book in the Black and White Chronicles.

It initially anchors itself in the relationship between two children.

Junior Washington is an eleven-year-old black child. He lives in a small cabin out on Cat Lake; his parents work for the Parker family. He’s loyal, he’s compliant beyond what would normally be expected of an eleven-year-old boy, and he’s a committed Christian.

Missy Parker, who lives on the other side of the lake, is the crown princess of the Parker family. At seven years of age she’s beautiful, wealthy, willful, and tough as a tractor tire. And—in the midst of the most defined segregation in our nation’s recent history—this little white girl and Junior Washington are best friends.

Only one thing stands between these two children and a storybook childhood . . . they are destined to encounter a faithful servant of the Author of Evil.

Abiding Darkness starts almost gently. The first sentence offers doubt, but readers may not see any real trouble surface until a few sentences later, and that’s mostly kid stuff, almost cute. From there through the second chapter readers are given a little more to think about . . . an opportunity to imagine what might happen to the children . . . especially the girl.

By the end of the second chapter intuitive readers will be taking a deep breath . . . they’re going to need the oxygen.

THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Summers were mostly reliable.

The always followed spring. They always got hot. And they always promised twelve weeks of pleasure to the three children at Cat Lake.

The summer of ’45 lied.

^ ^ ^

The whole thing started right there by the Cat Lake bridge.

They were playing their own version of three-man baseball when Bobby knocked the ball onto the road near the end of the bridge. Junior was taller and faster, but Missy was ahead in the race to get it. Bobby and Junior were older, but Missy was tough enough to almost keep up, and the boys usually held back some so they didn’t outdo her too much.

Missy was still a few yards from the ball when it rolled to a stop near the only car in sight. A boy taller than Junior stepped from behind the far end of the car and picked up the ball; he was followed by two more boys—one younger than Missy and another almost as tall as a man.

Missy slid to a stop in the gravel and yelled, “Hurry! Throw it!” Junior jogged up behind the girl and waited.

A heavyset man in a rumpled suit was standing in the road by the driver’s door; he allowed himself a long look at the girl and whispered something to the boy with the ball.

The boy nodded at what the man said and backed toward the car. The tallest boy moved up to stand by the man.

The fat man eyed Junior, then looked up and down the deserted road before beckoning to Missy. “Why don’t you come closer, and he’ll let you have it?”

Missy ignored the man and advanced on the boy with the ball. “Give it.”

When she walked past the taller boy, he fell to his hands and knees behind her and the one with the ball shoved her over his back. When Missy hit the ground, all three boys laughed. The man grinned.

In the near distance, a foursome of well-armed witnesses—tall, bright, and invisible—stood at a portal between time and eternity and watched Bobby Parker leave home plate and sprint for the bridge.

One of the group said, It begins.

Junior Washington’s guardian answered for the remainder of the small assembly, And so it does.
The three guardians conferred quietly about the events taking place before them; the archangel watched the unfolding drama in silence. The quartet—guarded by the wisdom of the ages against restlessness—waited patiently for a precise instant in time that had been ordained before the earth was formed.

The middle kid was plenty bigger than Missy, but she came off the ground ready to take him on. When she waded in, the tall kid grabbed at her. Junior got a hand on the strap of Missy’s overalls and yanked her out of the boys’ reach. He held her back with one hand and popped the tallest kid in the nose, hard enough to knock him down.

When the boy landed in the gravel, the man started swearing. He reached into the car, jerked a mean-looking billy club from under the front seat, and turned on Junior. “Okay, Black Sambo, let’s see h—”


Bobby was short steps from the trouble, running wide open, when the archangel broke his silence. The long-awaited time is come. He pointed his bright sword at a point between Bobby and the man with the club and said, In the Name of Him who sits on the throne, and for the Lamb—go there and turn the tide of evil.


Bobby—barely slowing when he got to the confrontation—tripped over thin air and rammed the business end of the bat hard into the man’s back. The man lurched forward, stumbled over the boy Junior had knocked to the ground, and sprawled on top of him.

Knocking the man down wasn’t what he’d planned, but Bobby knew better than to back off from a pack of bullies; he was talking before the man rolled over. “You keep your hands to yourself, mister.”

The red-faced man struggled to get up, cussing and pointing the club at Bobby. “Son, when a boy hits me, he steps over the line to manhood. That means you’ll get the same beatin’ I’ll be givin’ this nigger.”

On the Parker place, Negro folks were called black or colored. For the children, transgression of that rule meant someone was going to get his mouth washed out with soap. Missy and Junior froze when the man said the forbidden word; Bobby didn’t.

When Bobby squared his stance and drew the bat back, the man rethought his position. “You better put that down, boy.”

Bobby was only twelve, but he knew serious trouble when he saw it—and he was the one holding the bat. “I reckon not.” He and Junior and Missy had made a law about standing up for each other, and these strangers had chosen to be their enemies. If the man made a threatening move, Bobby was going to swing for his head and deal with the consequences later. “You’re on Parker land, mister, an’ you best be gettin’ off.”

The baseball bat had the man stymied. Exertion and frustration soaked his collar with the sweat. “This isn’t your land; it’s a public road.”

Bobby said, “That might be, but the land on both sides of the road belongs to the Parkers—an’ that’s us.” He looked the man up and down. “You ain’t from around here, are you?”

The man’s wide mouth and thick lips were not unlike those of a bullfrog; small, widely-spaced teeth and flesh-draped eyelids contributed to a reptilian appearance. “What if I’m not?”

Bobby cracked a hard smile. “’Cause if you was from around here, folks would’ve told you not to mess with the Parker kids—that’s us, ’specially the black ’un an’ the girl.” He pointed the bat at Junior and Missy. “That’s them two.”

From within the car a woman’s voice said, “Let it go, Halbert. Don’t be getting heated up over some white trash.”

When the woman called them white trash, Missy puffed up and started for the car. Junior grabbed the strap of her overalls again. “Stay quiet, Missy.”

The girl jerked loose and glared at Junior, but she stayed where she was.

The tallest boy got in the car, holding a hand to his bloody nose. The other two weren’t ready to leave.

The man looked at the car and back at Bobby; he didn’t want to leave either, but he wasn’t going to argue with the woman. “Git in the car, boys.” His tongue came out and made a circuit over the fat lips; he let his gaze rest too long on the girl, and he spoke to her last. “You’ll get yours, Little Miss Blue Eyes. Just you remember Hal Bainbridge said so.”

The woman in the car leaned across the seat. Facial features that had been cast to portray beauty were twisted into an angry mask. “Halbert!” she snapped, “I told you to shut up and get in the car.”

The two smallest boys were the last ones to climb. The one who had pushed Missy said, “I’ll be back.”

Missy made a face.

When the Bainbridge family withdrew, a creature that had been traveling with them stayed behind.

The being that remained on the Cat Lake bridge had been working his vile mischief in the Bainbridges’ lives for years. His brief observation of Missy Parker, however, ignited a hatred that far exceeded anything he had ever felt toward Estelle Bainbridge. He petitioned his leader, the high-ranking villain who was assigned to the Bainbridges, to let him stay at Cat Lake and work his evil on the girl and those around her. The one to whom he answered hated to grant any request that might strengthen the position of a subordinate, but he hated humans more. So it was that the malevolent being stayed behind while his former superior and dozens of their kind moved away with the Bainbridges.

The spirit-being assayed his intended victim and was encouraged by what he saw. The girl was self-willed, self-centered, and self-confident—all traits that made her more susceptible to his influence. Early pieces of his plan were arranging themselves before the Bainbridges’ car was out of sight. He would recruit his own team of underlings from the demonic realm. When he and his chosen confederates were in place, he would formulate a plan to destroy the girl’s life, maybe in bits and pieces over the coming years, maybe catastrophically in a single day. There might even be a way to use the Bainbridges to help bring her to ruin. And, if the opportunity presented itself, he would do the same to the two meddlesome boys.

When the car was down the road, Bobby turned on Missy. “You can’t be startin’ fights with boys bigger’n you.”

“I didn’t start it. He did.”

Bobby watched the car. “Well, don’t be messin’ with folks like that. That man had somethin’ wrong with him, like he was mean or evil or somethin’.”

“I ain’t scared of the boogeyman.”

“I don’t mean like that. I mean grown men who stare at little girls like that—stay away from ’em.” He watched the car disappear behind a curtain of dust. “An’ if that bunch comes around here again, you head for me or Junior, you hear me?”

The girl directed her wrath at her brother. “You’re not my boss, Mr. Bobby Parker, an’ I’ll have you know I ain’t a little girl.”

Bobby was still learning that he needed to tell Missy to do exactly the opposite of what he wanted done, but he knew who carried the most influence over her. “Tell ’er, Junior.”

Junior picked up the ball and offered it to the girl. “Do like he says, Missy. A growed man that’d speak bad to a lit—to somebody not big as him has got somethin’ wrong inside ’im. That man had the devil in ’im.”

She turned her back on the ball because she wouldn’t be bribed. “Well, if a’ evil man shows up again, an’ I can’t whip ’im by myself, y’all can help.”

The boys took that as a concession and followed her back to their baseball field.

^ ^ ^

Amanda Allen Parker was the first girl born into the Parker family since the Surrender. Maybe they had spoiled her or maybe she knew she was special. Whatever the cause, “Missy” Parker was a young lady who didn’t just give orders—she laid down the law for those who drew near.

When they didn’t call her Missy, everybody on the Parker place and most people in town just referred to her as the girl. The petite picture of brown-haired Southern charm endured the company of women when she had to, but she preferred the attention of the males of her domain.
The Old Parkers and the Young Parkers lived out south of town in two nice houses set back from the west side of Cat Lake. They got good shade from a stand of oaks planted by their ancestors and the cool of a lake breeze when the wind was right.

Bobby Lee Parker ran the Parker Gin; young Bobby looked as if he had been spit out of his daddy’s mouth. Young Mrs. Parker played bridge, went to the garden club and Missionary Society, and tended her yard. Old Mr. Parker farmed ten sections of cotton land, played dominoes, drank coffee, and visited with his friends. Old Mrs. Parker, the genetic source of the girl’s spitfire personality, stayed close to home and baked things.

The Washington family—Mose, his wife Pip, Mose Junior, and little Pearl—lived across the lake from the Parkers. Their home was set back in a stand of pecan trees planted by the same hands that put down the Parkers’ oaks. Mose had been born in the cabin and inherited the house and forty acres of good sandy land from Pap, his great-granddaddy. Back behind the cabin, a full section of Old Mr. Parker’s cotton land separated Mose’s place from the trees of Eagle Nest Brake. Pip, her brother Leon, and her momma Evalina “did for” the Parkers during the week. Mose was Mr. Bobby Lee’s overseer at the gin.

When she became old enough to walk, the girl went where Old Mr. Parker went. While he drove, she stood beside him, one arm on his shoulders, the other holding on to the seat back. When he played dominoes at the pool hall, she sat on his lap. It was the men at the pool hall who had named her Missy—she and those same men called her granddaddy R. D. Trips to that establishment dimished in frequency after Pip had to switch her for “cussin’ in my kitchen.”

Once she started to Mrs. Smith’s kindergarten, Missy’s day-to-day activities became even more curtailed. She countered by playing hooky when she’d had her fill of finger painting and stories about animals made of gingham and calico and velveteen.

After the second time she got called away from her Thursday morning bridge game to hunt for the girl, Young Mrs. Parker taught Pip how to drive. For the next two years, Pip was called into town about twice a week to retrieve the girl from the pool hall. When she was captured, Missy’s complaints were drawled in a little-girl bass voice.

On her first day in first grade, the girl and the staff at the elementary school encountered the first in a series of unique obstacles. The magnitude of the initial confrontation was probably connected with the fact that Missy was on a first-name basis with most of the men in Moores Point, including both bankers and both white preachers.

Missy finally came out of her chair when the first-grade teacher persisted in calling her Amanda.
Hoot Johnson, the school’s janitor, attracted by the mounting sounds of battle, abandoned his dust mop and intervened to contribute his unsolicited—and uninhibited—opinion. The girl’s reaction to what Mr. Johnson had to say didn’t help the situation.

The teacher made a strategic blunder when she decided she would enlist the aid of the principal. The principal made the mistake of showing up, and the tension multiplied geometrically.

Someone eventually called the pool hall and let Old Mr. Parker know about the conflict.

When he got to the school, the farmer didn’t have to guess where the girl was; the war in Europe could not have been heard over the commotion coming from the first-grade classroom.

The adults in the room—a scattering of teachers, the principal, and one vocal janitor—were all yelling at the girl or each other. The other first-day first-graders—joined by two brand-new teachers who had made the mistake of coming to see what on earth the noise was all about—were all cringing in the farthest corner of the room. The girl, who seldom found it necessary to yell at anyone, especially an adult, was keeping her voice down. She was, however, employing the teacher’s chair to be at eye level with the other combatants.

There was Missy, standing in the chair, her tiny fists at her waist, leaning into the principal’s face, her Dutch boy-cut brown hair popping back and forth as her miniature bass voice cataloged the things she didn’t like about his institution. She took passing note of her granddaddy’s presence but continued with her business. She reasoned that if R. D. needed to talk to some of these folks, he was gentleman enough to wait his turn; if he needed to see her, he’d wait ’til she was finished. And wait he did. Leaning on the door frame and giving himself a manicure with his favorite Case pocketknife, the cotton farmer stood by for a break in the storm.

When a majority of the folks finally stopped to catch their breath, Old Mr. Parker put away his knife. He got everyone settled down, borrowed the teacher’s chair from the girl, and presided over the formation of a multifaceted truce.

In the future, the school’s staff would call the girl Missy; she was old enough to decide what her name was. In return, Missy would address the Truitt Elementary School’s principal as Mr. Franklin, not Jimbo, for basically the same reason. Missy would address Mr. Johnson, the school’s janitor, as Hoot because he and the girl were good friends and both preferred it that way. And, one of the teachers crouching in the corner would be released from her contract before the girl moved up to her grade level.

The last point of the truce was a little vague and never resolved to the girl’s satisfaction. It had something to do with whether she could stand on the teacher’s chair, balanced against how many adults were “raisin’ sand for no good reason” when the girl needed to make herself heard.

In the pool hall that afternoon Jimbo Franklin said, “You know somethin’? That girl ain’t always pliable, but she’s almost always fair. I musta been about a bubble offa plumb to take that teacher’s side.” The sages in the pool hall, including Hoot and R. D., nodded. They agreed with every word he said.

During the next year, the second grade had tolerated her well enough; the reciprocal wasn’t always true.

She was three feet tall in the summer of ’45, on the slender side of a pound an inch, with what Scooter Hall called “about eight ounces of eyelashes” strategically situated around midnight blue eyes.


When the sun was out, the three older children at the lake—two Parkers and one Washington—were inseparable. Junior usually deferred to white folks of all ages, and both boys required themselves to yield to most adults. The girl’s deference, however, was never offered capriciously; people of all colors and ages were evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and any recipient of her respect had earned it.

For those times when they stepped away from the rest of the world, the children—like a tiny nation—followed an often-argued tangle of laws they had fashioned for themselves.

For three months every summer, and at any other time the children were together, their respective parents—who never knew what might be coming next—waited for the “other shoe to drop.” Or as Old Mr. Parker put it, “for the next shoe to crash through the floor and take most of the house with it.”

^ ^ ^

That spring, the three had used up practically a whole Saturday morning arguing about what to name the boat.

The year before, they had procured the building materials for the vessel by tearing the siding off a dilapidated cotton house. Pip’s brother Leon, who took care of things around the Parkers’ houses, was perfectly content to cater to the girl’s every whim. Missy traded him two of Old Mr. Parker’s cigars for his help with the boat. Leon sawed the boards, helped the children nail them together into something that would almost float, and showed them how to put tar in the cracks “so it don’t leak too bad.” The finished product looked like a pauper’s coffin: roughly seven feet long, two feet wide, with two-foot sides. They swamped it so often the first month that Pip told them, “Y’all could use it for one o’ those summarines.” Missy made a new law that only one person could stand up in it at a time, and they kept slopping on tar until they got so they could stay most of the day on the lake without sinking, unless somebody broke the rule. Pip complained, “When they git outta that confounded piece o’ junk, they’re so black I can’t tell which one’s Mose Junior.” It wasn’t the kind of craft a person would want to venture out in while wearing Sunday clothes.

The argument about the christening surfaced because Bobby wanted to name the boat after his hero. Mose Junior said he thought it might be good to name it something out of the Bible, but he cared more about getting started with the painting. When it came right down to it, Missy didn’t really care what they named the dadgummed boat; she was just tired of Bobby getting his way just because he was twelve and she was seven. Bobby countered her objections by claiming they were a democracy, then bought Mose Junior’s vote with the promise that Junior could do most of the painting.

They “happened across” a can of white house paint on the top shelf of the tool shed and made a paint brush by tying a wad of pine needles together. Unraveling the boat’s actual name called for the reader to do a little traveling. The lettering was white and bold; the spelling was close. Junior’s GENRALROB worked its way down the starboard side; around the corner, the bow showed Bobby’s neatly done ERT. The arrangement of the general’s middle initial and last name on the port side was Missy’s responsibility—they came out EEEL. The craft was one of their greatest accomplishments, and they were rarely near the water without it.

Young Mrs. Parker took some snapshots of the paint-splattered trio standing by their pride and joy and gave one to Pip. The two mothers kept the cherished photographs on their dressers until the day they died and occasionally laughed together at speculations of what kind of grandchildren they would see from the mischievous threesome.

They had no way of knowing that the three little figures in the picture were never going to have children.