Chat with The Sweetest Romance!

Attention! Attention! A megaphone resounds in a deep bass voice.
http://sweetestromancechat.blogspot.com is hosting a chat every fourth Thursday and for September it will be from 8 to 9 PM, EST.

Our chat this month is September 24th.
Our guest is Rachel Starr Thomson, author of Worlds Unseen and Burning Light. Her websites are www.rachelstarrthomson.com and www.rachelstarrthomson.com/inklings/
A scavenger hunt, organized by our September hostess, Rachel Rossano, will be held late into the chat and the winner will be honored with, “the highly coveted Sweetie award.” This can be displayed on your website, blog and other cyber space realms you may have.
This chat is a great chance to learn all about the guest and their niche in the world of writing and publishing. There is additional info about Ms. Thomson which she will share during our chat.

Lonestar Secrets by Colleen Coble

Title: Lonestar Secrets
Author: Colleen Coble
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Book Description:

Can Texas's majestic Big Bend help Shannon find her life again?

Shannon Astor returns to southwest Texas to serve as the town's veterinarian, believing she's finally found the space to get her life back on track.

Then she catches a glimpse of Jack MacGowan, the man who ruined her life years before. But even more shocking is the sight of Jack's five-year-old daughter Faith, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Shannon's own daughter Kylie. Is it possible that their similarities could be more than just coincidence? Could Faith be the daughter that Shannon has believed to be dead for all these years?

As the truth emerges, everyone is forced to take sides--in a story with a heart as big as Texas.

Purchase a copy here

Review:

This is an amazing story of love and faith, betrayal and trust. Ms. Coble has written a wonderful novel that shows how devastating secrets can be and just how far desperate people will go to keep their secrets hidden. Through Jack and Shannon’s story, we see how one moment of betrayal can ruin trust for years, but bringing secrets into the open and having faith in others can heal. Jack and Shannon’s story is riddled with secrets and mistrust, not only between each other, but also between friends. And some of those secrets threaten to become deadly.

Lonestar Secrets is filled with suspense, heart-rending emotion, and hope that everything will work out in the end. It’s a great read that shows Christians living out their faith without showing even a hint of being preachy. It was a pleasure to read this book as a Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger, and I highly recommend Lonestar Secrets to anyone looking for a compelling novel with a surprising ending.

Fearless by Max Lucado

Title: Fearless
Author: Max Lucado
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Book Description:

Each sunrise seems to bring fresh reasons for fear.

They're talking layoffs at work, slowdowns in the economy, flare-ups in the Middle East, turnovers at headquarters, downturns in the housing market, upswings in global warming. The plague of our day, terrorism, begins with the word terror. Fear, it seems, has taken up a hundred-year lease on the building next door and set up shop. Oversized and rude, fear herds us into a prison of unlocked doors. Wouldn't it be great to walk out?

Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, or doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, where you could trust more and fear less.

Can you imagine your life without fear?

Purchase a copy here

Review:

Max Lucado has written another excellent book in Fearless. His “tell it like it is” style opens readers’ eyes to the reality of fear and how deeply it can effect a person’s daily life. A touch of humor keeps this book from weighing the reader down as he is forced to look at what fears are in his life and how they effect the choices he makes.

Fearless provides plenty of reminders that God never intended people to live in fear. If we have faith in Him, we have nothing to fear. With God in your corner, what do you have to be afraid of? As Lucado points out time and again, Christ often used phrases like, “Do not be afraid.” With a straightforward instruction like that, God makes it clear He intends for us to be courageous in our faith.

This book is full of practical advice and real-life examples that bring the concepts down to a personal level and help them hit home. Lucado’s words provide a great reminder that God doesn’t give us fear; His love overcomes it.

There are a few lines in chapter seven that, for me, capture the tone of the entire book. Lucado is talking about praying about our worries and fears rather than letting them eat away at us.

“Be specific about your fears. Identify what ‘this cup’ is and talk to God about it. Putting your worries into words disrobes them. They look silly standing there naked.”

This entire books disrobes many common fears, and Lucado is right. They do look pretty silly standing naked in the light of faith and logic.

Whether you worry incessantly, live in a state of constant fear, or just wonder if God really cares, Fearless is a great book to help you find your way to stronger faith and a life where you fear less.

Blood Elves inspired by...Gaston???

I admit it. I have a character on World of Warcraft. Yes, my Blood Elf is a Horde character (the supposed bad guys), but that's only because the Night Elves on the Alliance side (the supposed good guys) creep me out to no end. That, and my college student sister (who talked me into creating my character) was complaining about hating Blood Elves because they're all paladins. She's right, there are a LOT of Blood Elf paladins running around, but there are plenty of other kinds of Blood Elves, too.

By now, assuming you haven't gone cross-eyed from all the parentheses, I'm sure you're wondering, "Where is she going with this?" Bear with me a little longer and I'll get there.

Back to my character. It's a male Blood Elf hunter (level 21...yay!) I affectionately refer to as Rach. That's a nickname given to him by another Blood Elf within minutes of his creation, so don't bother looking for Rach on the dozens of servers if you're bored and have a WoW account. You won't find him.

Anyway, aside from ridiculously long eyebrows that stick out past his pointy ears (all Blood Elves have those eyebrows) and the wrong hairstyle, Rach could pass for Gaston's twin. You know, Gaston from the animated Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. They're both conceited, think they're better than everyone else, and are obsessed with looking good. And it's comical on both of them.

In World of Warcraft, you can make your characters flirt and tell jokes, among other things. One of Rach's built-in flirtations makes me think of Gaston every time. I can't give you an exact quote, but it's something along the lines of, "You know what I love most about your eyes? When I look deeply into them, I can see my own reflection."

Can't you just imagine Gaston saying something like that?

All of this makes me wonder what the programmers at Blizzard (the company who created WoW) had been watching before they designed the male Blood Elves. One more reason for speculation is the male Blood Elf's laugh. It is eerily similar to Gaston's.

Of course, I have no evidence for any of this, or for the similarity of a lot of the dance moves WoW characters have to Michael Jackson dance moves (particularly those from the 80s and 90s). It does, however, bring up an interesting question.

Writers, how much do the things you watch, listen to, or read affect your writing? Readers, have you ever come across a story with characters or storyline similar enough to another book, movie, or TV show that you wondered if the author is a fan?