Last week I posted the cover of my soon-to-be-released novel Making Music Together. Today, I am happy to whet your curiosity a bit more by telling you what this new novel is all about. Read on.

The first day Mark Crandall hears Trudy singing in his next door neighbor’s apartment, he is captivated by her voice. When he does meet her, he is even more blown away by her beauty. Trudy has a vision impairment, but this does not prevent Mark from falling in love with her.

They have so much in common; they both love to sing, they are both Christians, and Mark is convinced Trudy is the right woman for him, the woman his mother told him about. They fall in love and spend many happy moments singing together.

However, Mark has been seeing Abigail, the daughter of the CEO of the company he works for. Abgail is rich, attractive, and manipulative. He sees her as just a friend, but she will go to any lengths to win his heart. In order to pursue his relationship with Trudy, he has to break it off with Abigail. 

When he does try to break it off, Abigail becomes angry. What follows is a cycle of revenge as she and her father try to get back at Mark for breaking up with her. Mark’s life goes into a tailspin and a future for him and Trudy seems almost impossible. If you enjoy Christian romance with a love triangle trope, you would love Making Music Together. Get your copy now while it’s still on preorder. 

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Publisher: Outskirts Press

Transformation: 30 Years is an autobiographical yet fictionalized account of a young woman’s journey through many facets, or serious issues, of life such as racism, domestic violence, bullying, eating disorders, lost love, alcoholism, low self esteem, poor self image, overcoming poverty, stereotypes…These are just some of the issues that are addressed in this book. The protagonist resents her “overprotective” mother keeping her from the “fun and mystery” of the darkness. When she finally “escapes” to college and has the power to “live life her own way” she experiences some of the lowest points of her life. Had it not been for the Grace of a Risen Savior, she would have perished. She was, “Saved by Grace.” The book is an easy, quick read that speaks to varying age groups. There is something in the book for anyone who reads it. The book is a ray of hope for those going through various struggles in life to be “tenacious,” and have hope because your Transformation is on the way!!!

The rampant partying continued even after classes had started. Even after a couple of years had passed. Even after it all became unfun. Partying and drinking had become a lifestyle that got in the way of the intended purpose of being there to learn and pursue a degree leading to a career. Jenny had frequent bouts of home sickness and was sinking deeper and deeper into depression. The late nights had become unfun; the hot wings, steamed oysters, and the pitchers of beer had become unfun. The frat parties with their free kegs and anything-goes antics had become unfun. The stories of drunken stupors, hellacious hangovers and promiscuous hook ups had become unfun. Depression was beginning to overtake her to the point of having suicidal thoughts. If life was going to be like this, why live?…

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“I could not put it down,” the lady said to me. “I could visualize everything clearly.” Those words were music to my ears, as they would be to any author. In my case, the lady was referring to Coming Out of Egypt, the first book in my Egypt trilogy.

The series chronicles the lives of two teenage sisters who survived sexual abuse by their father to eventually “come out of Egypt.” As you know, Egypt in the Bible represents a place of bondage–the place where the Israelites were kept in bondage for 400 years, until God delivered them by the hand of Moses. Therefore the title “Coming Out of Egypt” is a metaphor for the girls’ situation, but it’s also a literal one. The place where the story begins is called Egypt Village, or just Egypt, in Trinidad.

This compelling book is now available in paperback and will make a great Christmas gift for that book lover on your list. To whet your appetite, here’s the first chapter of the book. Just click on the link below.

Coming Out of Egypt – Chapter 1

If you enjoyed this chapter and would like to get the book in either kindle or paperback, just use the following links:

Coming Out of Egypt  

Coming Out of Egypt – paperback

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Novel excerpt:

“Angel, Keep your eyes open. The informant said we’d know him when we see him.”

“Copy that, Civic.”

Darkness filled the room and smoke seeped from the vents.  Someone was trying to make visibility near impossible. Nehemiah switched to his night vision goggles. He was perched just inside of the furnace room in the back of the hotel’s ballroom. He counted 22 hostages and four shooters.  The smoke was making it difficult for Nehemiah to keep his eyes on the target.

“Angel, come in.”

“Go, Civic.”

“We have a friendly to your 9 o’clock.”

Nehemiah heard her voice before all hell broke loose and shots rang out.

Nehemiah sat straight up in bed, drenched in a full sweat. Like every other night, the terrors woke him up at the same moment in the dream. He relived that tragic event, night after night.  Why him? Why her? He always questioned himself. Nothing could change the past, but the dreams continued to come.

Like clockwork, he went into the kitchen of his one-bedroom apartment in Portsmouth, VA and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. He sat in front of his television, but never turned it on. Nehemiah wanted to close his eyes, but every time he did, he saw her face, her eyes, and her blood.

Draining the contents of the bottle, he went back into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Face to palms, he sat there for a few minutes, feeling weary.

“Come back to bed. It’s cold under these sheets,” a soft feminine voice said.

Nehemiah needed to stop this philandering he was doing. His actions went against every principle and every value he was raised with.

“I’ll be right there,” he responded.

What was her name? He couldn’t remember her name or where he met her. Yeah, it was time to change his lifestyle.

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During a phone conversation with a friend yesterday, I asked as casually as I could, “Did I ever tell you I’m a writer?”

Now, this is a friend, mind you. Someone I’ve known for decades and I’m now telling her that I’m a writer. Better late than never, I guess. Anyway, just as I expected, my friend told me she’s not a reader, but she did ask a few questions, which I was hoping for.

After asking me what my book was about–I told her it was actually a series of three books–and gave her a brief synopsis of the books. Then she wanted to know how I was able to sit down and write three books.

I explained it was not difficult because the first book was based on a true situation I knew of when I was a teacher back in Trinidad. For those of you who never heard the background to Coming Out of Egypt, here it is in brief:

It was rumored that two sisters attending the elementary school where I taught were being abused by their father. Their mother had died, and the girls lived in a secluded home with their father. They appeared very shabby, were isolative and did not do well in school. We, the teachers, had no legal authority to do anything in that society during that time period, and I transferred from that school without knowing what became of those girls.

So much for the background. How did I write the book?

1. The idea. It was easy for me to get started because I had the basic idea – the above synopsis – but the ending would be different. Instead of transferring from that school to another, the teacher would stay there and try to help those girls out.

2. The characters. I already had the protagonist – the older sister. Her younger sister June would be the second most important character. Then I added another character– the teacher–and I gave her a name. If there’s a protagonist there would be an antagonist. Guess what? The teacher’s boyfriend, a detective,  became the antagonist.

3. The setting. I already had that too. A rural village in Trinidad.

4. The plot. That is what happens in the story. How do these characters act on this idea in this setting? The pieces began to fall into place. The girls would go to school, the teacher would teach, and the detective would … He would have to find something to detect. Right? More ideas.

In order to make the book interesting, I had to throw in a few more elements. So I threw in some romance–the teacher and the detective, Marva and her boyfriend and even June has a boyfriend or rather, boyfriends. Then I included some police work –our detective is a hard-working guy–so we give him a crime to solve.

By this time I had an idea what I wanted the title to be. The real village where the girls lived is called Egypt Village. Egypt in the Bible represents a place of bondage. Since the book was being written from a Christian perspective, I used the story of the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt as a metaphor for the story of these girls’ journey out of their bondage, and thus came the title Coming Out of Egypt.

This whole process may sound easy or complicated depending on how you look at it. However, if you are going to write a book, I would suggest you become familiar with the craft by doing the foll.:
1)Begin reading, if you are like my friend –not a reader.
2)Take a few courses–online or at a community college or some such place
3) Join a writer’s group and
4) Start writing

If you enjoyed this blog post, I will suggest two things:
1. Buy the Book
2. Sign up to join my mailing list. You will be the first to know about my giveaways, special offers from time to time and updates from other authors.

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I don’t know if it’s my imagination, or if it’s because Christmas ads and decorations began showing up way before Thanksgiving, but whatever it is, people seem to be making a bigger fuss about Christmas this year. For me, that’s a good thing. As a Christian, I love Christmas and all it signifies. As an author, I’m also noticing a lot of Christmas-themed books, and while my Egypt series is not based on Christmas, books 1 and 2 carry some Christmas scenes that will give you a glimpse of how my characters, and people in Trinidad where the story is set, spend Christmas.

Here is an excerpt from In The Wilderness: Book 2 of the Egypt series:

At last it’s Christmas Eve. Miss Lucy and her daughter have gone home, and we sit in the living-room admiring the Christmas tree and the decorations and sipping egg nog. Below the tree is an assortment of boxes wrapped in shiny gift paper and tied with pretty bows. The television shows women in beautiful frilly skirts and blouses with flowers in their hair, singing and dancing. The songs are in Spanish and they call them parang.
I’m holding Junior on my lap. June sits on the rug at my feet, her head resting against my legs. Junior tugs at her hair.
“Ouch!” She holds her head, and he squeals.
Across from us, Chrissy, seated on her father, also squeals and drops her rattle.
“Did we do this in Egypt Village?” I ask.
June turns her head. “Do what?”
“Sit around the tree and drink egg nog and watch TV.”
“I don’t think we ever had a tree. And we didn’t have a TV.”
No tree? It’s such a beautiful thing. I can’t understand why everyone wouldn’t have one. And no TV either? “We couldn’t afford it?”
June shrugs. “I don’t know.”
That’s another thing I don’t understand. She never wants to talk about our childhood and Egypt Village.
Junior takes another tug at her hair and she sidles away. “Come here, you.” She lifts him off my lap.
I turn to Miss Stewart. “Did you always do this?”
She smiles. “Yes, we did.”
I look at Mr. Bowen.
He nods. “We did, too. And you know what else we did?”
Everyone looks at him. “We sang Christmas carols and told the story of the Savior’s birth.”
“I didn’t know that,” his wife says.
He gazes at her. “Remember I came from a Christian home. When we lived in New York, we went to church on Christmas Eve night.”
“Was it snowing?” June asks.
“Sometimes, but we kids loved it. We would all bundle up in our coats, hats and gloves and sing carols while Dad drove us to church. When we came here, it took us a while before we found a church, so Mom made egg nog and we sat around and did the Christmas thing.”
“The Christmas thing?” June asks.
“Yeah. We sat around the crèche and told the Christmas story.”
That touches me. We don’t have a crèche, but maybe we can do the Christmas thing too.
Feeling shy, I ask, “Can we do that now?”
“Why not?” Miss Stewart gets up and turns off the TV. “Where do we start?”
June bounces Junior on her leg. “Let’s start with ‘Once upon a time.’”
Mr. Bowen picks up Chrissy’s rattle. “Okay, here’s how we did it. One person says a few lines of the Christmas story, then we sing a verse of a carol. Then the next person picks up the story from where the last person left off, we sing another verse and so on.”
“Sounds great,” Miss Stewart says. “I’ll go first. Once upon a time there was a man named Joseph, and he had a wife named Mary who was pregnant.”
June puts her hand up. “Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem in order to be taxed, in keeping with a decree from the emperor Cesar Augustus.”
“You forgot the song,” I say.
June slaps her forehead. “I’m sorry.” She clears her throat. “Silent night …”
We all join in the singing. When we finish the first verse, she repeats the lines she’d said, then everyone looks at me. I smile as I continue the story. “While they were there, Mary realized that it was time for the baby to be born.”
We sing another verse then Mr. Bowen continues, “Joseph tries to find a room in an inn so Mary could give birth, but he found none.”
We continue like this until Mr. Bowen ends with the angels telling the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men.”
I look down at Junior now asleep on June’s lap. I think of the Baby Jesus who came into this world as small and innocent as this baby even though He was God Himself. What a beautiful story!
June interrupts my thoughts. “Sister, I’m impressed that you remember the Christmas story so well.”
I turn to her. “Some things I’ll always remember, but the things I want to remember, I don’t.”

There you have it. Christmas with Marva, June and the Bowen’s. To read more about the Christmas celebrations with the Bowen’s, why not pick up a copy of the book on sale for only 99c. this weekend. And drop me a line and let me know how you spend Christmas at your house.

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