Author of "Secrets Kept" Talks Music Inspiration

Today a writing friend of mine, Jennette, Mbewe, is here to talk about the music that inspired her new release, Secrets Kept. 

Welcome, Jennette!

Music Inspiration by Jennette Mbewe

     When I first wrote the story that would become Secrets Kept, my theme song at that time was Grace Like Rain by Todd Agnew. I listened to it over and over, and it compelled me to the end. Writing the final battle scene in what is now book three, that song played in my head and heart. (A video of the song if you want)

     Before I knew anything about writing and the industry, I had a dream to create a sort of Pilgrim’s Progress meets Lord of the Rings, but with the intent on the journey of faith, the overcoming of the wrongs and the hurt of our past, being set free from thought processes that keep a person in bondage to choices that hurt themselves and others repeatedly. Reflective of my own spiritual journey without realizing it. And for the struggle—grace. And I didn’t want the elements of allegory to be obvious. Oh, look, there goes Worldly Wisely. Although, nothing wrong with that either. I love Pilgrim’s Progress and Hinds’ Feet on High Places, but this was my dream, my story.

     And then, I realized I had done it all wrong. Ha!

     So the allegory was scrapped. After ten years of rewrites and edits, and two kids later, my memory is a little blurred on how many times I’ve reworked the story. Ha! Although, I still have the first original print out of the story in one little folder which now has become three novels.

     Ayianna’s story is her own, and I hope readers will enjoy the adventure for what it is, but you will undoubtedly find fragments of the existing allegory within the book, and hopefully it will lead to a richer reading experience. 

     Thank you, Alana, for allowing me to share a little bit about the music inspiration behind my writing. My time is up, and I haven’t even gotten to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks. Ha! Another time. Until then, go have an adventure, read a book!

Welcome to the World of Nälu!

The Tales.

Can a desert princess find love with a foreign king?

Johari lives in the shadow of her beautiful sister until a foreign king notices her, but in her haste to prove herself worthy of affection she finds herself compromised and on a difficult journey to make things right.

Find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and Goodsread

What if all you knew had been a lie?

The teaching of the Guardians has guided Semine's footsteps since her infancy. When her mentor shows up with information contrary to what she's been taught, she doubts her decision to follow in their footsteps. She must decide if there is life beyond what she has always known or embrace a new, mysterious path and reject the Guardians' legacy.

          Find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords

To what lengths would you go to save the world?

Elothryn keeps the darkest secret of Nälu: The cursed dagger of Raemoja. A weapon powerful enough to release the greatest evil from the underworld. For generations, his family has lived without incident until now. The hunters have his scent and will stop at nothing to reclaim the dagger. Elothryn and his son flee, seeking help, but will they find it?

        Find it on Amazon and Smashwords

The Novel

With a curse, she will build an army.
With the dagger, she will undo the last sacrifice.
But first the sorceress must find the secret keeper.

Torn from her homeland and thrust into a betrothal against her wishes, Ayianna learns her family has a deadly secret that now has her on the run. She joins forces with Kael, an embittered half-elf, and Saeed, an elderly High Guardian, to seek answers to her father’s death, the destruction of Dagmar, and the plains people’s bizarre behavior.

Ayianna discovers there is more at stake here than just her mother’s disappearance and her familial duty to her betrothed. The sorceress has cursed the plains people, and it is a race against time to release them before the sorceress resurrects an ancient evil.

Find it at Amazon and Goodsreads.

Author Picture & Bio

Writing as J. L. Mbewe, Jennette is an author, artist, mother, wife, but not always in that order. Born and raised in Minnesota, she now braves the heat of Texas, but pines for the Northern Lights and the lakes of home every autumn. She loves trying to capture the abstract and make it concrete. She has two short stories published in The Clockwork Dragon anthology, and is busily creating worlds inhabited by all sorts of fantasy creatures and characters, all questing about and discovering true love amid lots of peril. Her debut novel Secrets Kept and her short stories set in the world of Nälu: Desert Rose, Dragon Thief, and Indestructible are now available. She is currently living her second childhood with a wonderful husband and two precious children who don’t seem to mind her eclectic collections of rocks, shells, and books, among other things. For more information about her journey as a writer mama and all things creative please visit her at http://www.jlmbewe.com/

Social Media

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Google+ (But I’m still learning the ropes here!)

Ten Great Insults: Bible Style

     If you watch TV today, you might have noticed that many characters have gotten a little lax when it comes to insults. With the plethora of vulgar language now in vogue, it's as if the art of insults has been degrading to two or three choice (and very overused) phrases.

     Would that we could go back to Bible times, when insults were wide and varied! So if you're tired of the same old vulgarities, here are the top ten biblical insults I've found in the pages of my own Word of God. I was going to use the King James version, but seeing as how some of the verses had to deal with donkeys, well, I didn't want to really offend anybody...

10) You are a flat cake not turned over (Hosea 7:8). It's uniqueness as an insult notwithstanding, you're probably not going to convey the original intent of this verse to a modern-day audience. Perhaps the contemporary equivalent would translate better as "You're a Subway sandwich with the bread over-toasted."

9) A quarrelsome wife is like the constant dripping of a leaky roof (Proverbs 19:13). Its biting intent perhaps overshadowed by its overuse, this insult still definitely manages to convey the annoying tendencies of a nagging wife. Spouses ... be warned!

8) Brood of vipers! (various NT verses) Again, this insult isn't quite as effective anymore, simply because we've all heard it so often. But if anyone has a significant fear of snakes, I imagine you can still see its charming impact (no pun intended). 

7) Their tongue is an open grave (Romans 3:13). I've heard some biting insults about bad breath, but none quite like this.

 6) You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! (1 Samuel 20:30) Spoken in a fit of anger by King Saul to his own son, Jonathan, this insult is a little more creative than its (very overused) contemporary counterpart. (And it would get by television censors to boot!)
 
5) My little finger is thicker than my father's waist (1 Kings 12:10). Speaking of censorship, the NIV tones down their translation quite a bit. The King James says, my little finger is thicker than my father's loins. In other words, Rehoboam is saying that his pinky is "thicker" than his father's ... um ... maybe we should just stick with waist...
 
4) Go castrate yourself. Ok, this isn't a direct biblical quote. The exact translation is "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" (Galatians 5:12). Let's hope for these "agitators'" sake that Paul never got his wish.

3) You were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment (Ezekiel 16:38). Not the kind of comment I'm guessing you want to hear spoken to your mother or sister.


2)  There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses (Ezekiel 23:20). No. Commentary. Needed.

1) You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean (Matthew 23:17). It shouldn't be surprising that the award for best insult goes to Jesus himself. Let's just hope none of us hear him say those words about ourselves!

***

Blog Love: This post was included in Christian Home Magazine via Laura O from Day by Day. Check it out!

Your Chance to Win: If you haven't seen it yet, there's a contest up on my blog. Winner gets to name two characters in my next novel! 

  

A Boy Named Silas: Heavenly Sights

This post was originally published in April, 2011 on my special needs blog, A Boy Named Silas, which has since been retired.

***

In the radio drama we listened to today, one of the characters flat-lined in the hospital. Silas started sobbing uncontrollably. He wasn't shaken up because the character might be dead (Mr. Whittaker survived, by the way). I think Silas' response was much more subconscious.

"It's beeping," he cried over and over.

This wasn't the first time I've suspected Silas of having some latent memories of his neonatal crash. For an entire year, whenever Silas watched a certain Veggie Tales movie, he would go into sobbing hysterics during one particular scene in which three angels (all dressed in white and looking suspiciously like doctors) cornered one of the veggies.

Do I believe Silas accurately remembers each event leading up to his NICU stay as it happened in real time? Of course not. But every once in a while, Silas will say something that simply blows my mind and makes me wonder if my son's earliest memories include not only medical trauma but a decent amount of the supernatural.

One Sunday while leading Silas' kids' church class, I was teaching a lesson about angels. After explaining that in the Christmas story God sent angels to deliver messages, I asked my students, "What else do angels do?''

     Without skipping a beat, my three year-old answered, "They play with babies."

Up until that point, I had never talked to Silas about the angels that might have helped him at his birth. Actually, up until that point, I was pretty skeptical about such matters myself.

Over the next weeks, I wondered if Silas would mention the angels again. I didn't want to ask him too many leading questions about them, but I wanted to be open if he actually did have more supernatural recollections. Finally, after waiting a month or so, I asked Silas again to tell me some jobs that angels do. One of the ones he mentioned was to help babies. I jumped on it.

"Who helped you when you were born?" I asked.

"Angels," he said.

"What did they do to help you?"

"Put me to bed," he answered.

Silas said the angels were big and colorful and looked like stars. He even sang me a song that he said the angels sang to him the morning he was born.

I knew I was starting to tread a fine line. The more questions I asked, the more I risked planting false memories into Silas' head. But I had to know one more thing, so I risked it and asked.

"Did the angels say anything to you?"

“Yeah.”

Immensely thankful that by this time I was recording our conversation on my video camera, I asked Silas what the angels said.

According to Silas, the angels told him, "Would you wake up, please?"

I suppose we will never be one hundred percent certain if Silas' memories are true or not. There will certainly always be skeptics, and I included myself in that category for quite some time. But, although this was certainly the most coherent conversation about angels Silas and I have had, it is not the only one.

Silas also has talked on multiple occasions about a large playroom he was taken to after he was born. Wondering if it was a vision of heaven, I asked him once what was in it. Silas said it was filled with things like Thomas the Train, Elmo, bouncing balls ...  in other words, the toys that Silas likes to play with today. Real memory or not? I'm dubious. But then again, when the Apostle John experienced his glimpse of heaven, he had to find a way to put his vision of the infinite into human language. Is a playroom filled with wonderful toys the best way a three year-old can describe heaven? Who knows?

Another time Silas told me about a huge crash, after which he was placed by angels in a hospital bed. Could Silas actually be remembering doctors taking him to the nursery and trying to resuscitate him? Who's to say yes?

But, then again, who's to say no?

 (An edited version of my conversation with Silas about angels)

You can read the full story of Silas' first five years in the touching memoir, A Boy Named Silas.

"What's In A Name" Contest

     My next novel, Not Alone, is just as suspenseful as The Beloved Daughter, but it also has a romantic component. That's where you come in! Tell me about a real-life romance you know (could be yours!). Do you have grandparents who have been married for 72 years and still slow dance in the living room with bare feet every evening? Did your spouse pull off some amazing wedding or proposal surprise that still makes you smile? Did your next-door neighbor marry his junior high sweetheart? I want to hear those stories!

Rules: 

1. This is an exclusive contest for newsletter subscribers. Not a subscriber? Just add your email to the upper-right sidebar, or go to alanaterry.com/newsletter.
2. Tell your story in the comments section below.
3. Choose your names for the two characters in Not Alone. (Don't use real names without permission!) If you'd like to honor a couple that's truly in love but they want to keep their privacy, you can come up with names that start with the same letter of their real names. Of course you can use your name if you'd like (as long as you have your partner's ok as well.) Include your choice of names in the comments section.
4. If your story is selected as the winner, the names you chose will be used in Not Alone, and I'll send you either a free paperback copy when the book is released (USA only - ebook for international winners) or an advanced PFD pre-publication!

For more about Not Alone, check out the book trailer!  *** Just released ***

Review: Zombies, Aliens, and the End Times

a Rafflecopter giveaway

       About two months ago, my husband and I were stuck in traffic behind a car with a zombie bumper sticker. I made some off-the-cuff comment like, "Wouldn't it be ironic if the events in Revelation really end up looking like some kind of zombie apocalypse?" at which point my husband and I decided we should co-write a novel on the subject.

     Turns out we were too late. The novel's been written, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the author. I have read several other works by Pauline Creeden, and so when I heard just a week after that conversation with my husband about her upcoming novel, "Sanctuary," I was ecstatic.

     Let me get one thing out there in the open. I don't read zombie novels. I don't read end-times novels. But I made the exception for Creeden, and I'm so glad I did. I'm also thankful for the chance to join up with the "Sanctuary" blog hop to offer my review and point you to a great giveaway sponsored by Creeden herself.

My Review:

I was hooked on the premise of the book from the get-go. The events of Revelations explained in the context of an alien-induced zombie apocalypse sounded very intriguing, and it was.

I wasn't sure if I'd be ok with the book, since I don't like horror or zombies. Even though there was violence, it was tastefully done and something I wouldn't mind recommending to the teens in our youth group. I do wish there was more backstory, as we jump in several weeks after the aliens first arrived.

The greatest strength of Sanctuary was in the character relationships. Hints of potential romance, sibling rivalry, lost loves ... these made the story a lot deeper than I'd expect from a typical thrasher novel. The only character I wasn't thrilled with was the protagonist's younger brother. His acceptance of aliens coming and terrorizing his family seemed a little too toned down. On the other hand, no one likes to read about young kids getting traumatized, so in some ways I'm thankful the author didn't play this particular plotline up to its full potential.

Readers should know before picking up Sanctuary that it's the first in a series, or else the ending might feel a little abrupt. I do look forward to reading more about the characters however and commend the author for this original piece of work.  

 

EXCERPT:

When Jennie reached the back door, she saw them. Four large dog-like creatures with pinched faces like bulldogs and lion-like manes. They snarled, and one of them leapt at the window on the top half of the door when it saw her. Jennie jumped back and fell hard on the cold tile floor. The bottle of painkiller bounced across the kitchen tiles. The creature slammed against the window a second time, cracking it. She blinked hard. Her heart sunk, and the hairs on her arms stood on end. A horrendous gargling howl rent the air, causing a shiver down her spine. She held her breath and waited for the creature to slam into the door again.

“What on earth?” she whispered to herself.

When the third attempt never came, she scrambled toward the door. Blinking hard, she used the door knob to help herself stand. Out the cracked window, her mother was still out of sight, but the last of the dogs headed across the field behind her backyard.

“MOM?” Jennie called out.

The rumbling faded, and the vibrations in her chest receded with the dogs. She pulled open the door and rushed onto their back deck. “Mom, where are you?”

When she reached the banister, she looked over the side. Her mom lay sprawled with one hand on the lattice. Blood gushed from Mom’s leg and her opposite arm. Jennie’s ears rang and flooded with every beat of her heart.

Jennie didn’t know how she got to the second floor of her house, but she found herself shaking her sleeping father. How had he slept through the rumbling? “Outside, it’s Mom…”

Her father leapt from the bed. Mickey, her little brother, lay asleep and undisturbed. Dad ran down the stairs and outside in his flannel pajama bottoms and white t-shirt. He scooped Mom up to his chest and carried her inside. Blood stained his shirt in crimson.

“Jennie, call 911!”  Her father had said it at least three times before it finally registered in her brain.

She pulled the cell phone from her pocket, but it refused to connect. With a groan, she grabbed the cordless from the wall receiver, glad her heart stopped pounding in her head so she could hear.

“All operators are busy at this time,” a mechanical voice deadpanned, “Please stay on the line, and the next available operator will take your call.”

“They have me on hold, Dad. Should I hang up and try again?” She held the phone in both hands away from her face.

“No, just stay on the line.” Her father lifted the shredded jeans from Mom’s leg. “It looks like a shark bite. What on earth happened?”

Jennie took in the damage through tear-filled eyes. A huge chunk was taken from her mother’s calf, exposing the fibrous tendons that covered the bone in her leg. A bloodstain grew on the beige couch. Was she going to die? Panic rose up.

“What happened, Jennie?”

“I...I...They looked like lions, or dogs, or something. The rumbling shook the whole house…I tried to go outside to get Mom, but—” A sob blocked her throat.

Her father grabbed a throw pillow and held it against the leg. Mom’s exposed forearm laid across her chest in much the same condition as her calf.

“Grab me the duct tape.”

Jennie suddenly remembered the phone, put it back to her ear, and headed to the hall closet. She reached for the shelf above the jackets and grabbed the junk basket next to the toolbox.

“Please stay on the line. An operator will be with you shortly.”

She shoved the phone in the crook of her neck and fished through the box.  Half the contents dropped around her feet. Who cares? When her fingers wrapped around the silver duct tape, a short-lived relief sent prickles down her arms. But the urgency gripped her chest in less than a heart beat, and she threw the junk basket on the ground with the rest of the items.

“Hurry, Jennie!” her father called from the living room. “And turn on the TV. Maybe they’ll have something about what’s going on.”

She handed her father the tape and turned toward the TV. The mechanical voice on the phone came through again, followed by more easy listening.

When she clicked on the TV, the shouting and wailing began before the picture warmed up on the screen. A sideways picture of New York City broke through, with the shaky voice of the newscaster voicing over.

“What we are watching now – I can’t believe it – is live footage of Times Square,” the newscaster’s voice paused for a deep breath. “We’ve lost our man on the scene and his camera man to what appears to be some kind of new alien creature. Just a short half-hour ago, the doors to the ship that hovered above Central Park opened and these dog-like creatures flooded out.”

Jennie couldn’t pull her eyes from the screen. She straightened and dropped the phone on the hardwood. The battery popped out and skidded across the floor.

NOTE: "Sanctuary" has been pushing the charts ever since its release. The kindle version is only 99 cents, so get it while you can!! And don't forget to enter the giveaway above.