Win an e-copy of Joe the Dreamer Feb. 22-25

Blog hop interview
The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Pamela S. Meyers lives in the Chicago suburbs. Her debut novel, Book One in her On the Road to Love series, Thyme for Love, released November 2011, and Love Will Find a Way, Book Two releases in March 2013. Her historical romance, which is set in her hometown, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, will release in April 2013. She is active in her church as a women’s life group leader.
Link to purchase Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: http://tinyurl.com/b2jvwzq

Pamela’s blog: http://www.pamelasmeyers.com

In case you're curious, in a blog hop we cross promote one another's books, along with our own.

MAKE A COMMENT AND HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN an E-COPY OF JOE THE DREAMER: THE CASTLE AND THE CATAPULT

FROM ADA: Thanks for stopping by. Due to the ice storm that put my internet down and automatic posting not working during vacation, this is late posting. The good news: I'm giving away an e-copy of my new mystery/suspense novel Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult. Just make a comment on this blog post.

Today, I'm blogging again about my debut teen novel, JOE THE DREAMER: THE CASTLE AND THE CATAPULT. The next Big Thing is Joe the Dreamer now is available for Kindle on Amazon and you can win an e-copy!
JOE THE DREAMER also is available as a paperback.The links: http://buff.ly/XeqTvH


ADA BROWNELL

BLOG HOP INTERVIEW:
• WHAT IS YOUR TITLE OF YOUR BOOK (OR STORY)?
Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult
• WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE BOOK COME FROM?
I wanted a great mystery/adventure that not only would entertain youth, but also would leave a spiritual impact. Enter an area where people are missing and radicals want to obliterate Christianity from the earth. After Joe Baker’s parents mysteriously disappear, he finds himself with a vicious man after him. Joe and an unusual gang team up to find his mom and dad. The gang is dedicated to preventing and solving crimes with ordinary harmless things such as noise, water, and a pet skunk instead of blades and bullets. Joe reads the Bible hoping to discover whether God will answer prayer and bring his parents home. In his dreams, Joe slips into the skin of Bible characters and what happened to them, happens to him—the peril and the victories. Yet, crying out in his sleep causes him to end up in a mental hospital’s juvenile unit. Will he escape or will he be harmed? Will he find his parents? Does God answer prayer?

• WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL UNDER?

Teen/adventure fiction

• WHICH ACTOR WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY YOUR MAIN CHARACTER IN A MOVIE RENDITION?

Joseph Adam Jonas (when he was younger).
• GIVE A ONE-SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?
After Joe Baker’s parents mysteriously disappear, he finds himself with a vicious man after him and he wonders if God answers prayer.
• IS BOOK SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?
I went with Amazon’s CreateSpace. My first book, Confessions of a Pentecostal, was published by the Assemblies of God’s Gospel Publishing House. Traditional publishers today seem to want to work with younger writers and I wasn’t getting any younger, so I went with CreateSpace. I also like the royalty offered by CreateSpace, which also published my second book, Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. Although I had some frustrations with this last book, when everything finally came together I have been quite satisfied with CreateSpace editors and designers.
• HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF JOE THE DREAMER?

I probably had about 1/3 of the book written when I became distracted by other projects. After I finally got down to business it probably was about six months to the end of the first draft. I ran the story through critique groups under the title Terror Blasters, had professional critiques and positive feedback. Then I paid for a thorough edit. But the book also required so much thinking and rewriting! I caught flaws in the book---things or people were in the wrong place at the wrong time and a couple of times I called a character by the wrong name. I had to watch hair and eye color. I might add I caught quite a number of things the editor missed. I also took out many of the extra words she added such as “that” and “was.” MY editor’s suggestions for the book were much better in my estimation than her editing. I took almost all of her suggestions and changed or added things accordingly. Good thing we have “track changes” today. Can’t believe I started out my writing career using a typewriter.

• WHAT OTHER BOOKS WOULD YOU COMPARE JOE THE DREAMER TO WITHIN YOUR GENRE?

• Nightmare Academy by Frank Peretti, although my book is not speculative fiction. But it does have lots of suspense and ventures into danger and places the average teen wouldn’t see, such as a mental hospital’s juvenile unit. As a medical reporter, I’ve been in those.

• WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK? A need for young people to increase their faith and know God.

• WHAT ELSE ABOUT YOUR BOOK MIGHT PIQUE THE READER'S INTEREST?

• Robots, catapults, missing people, brain chips, spiritual conflict. Radicals who want to erase Christianity from the earth and plan to scramble the brains of effective opinion leaders, using Joe’s dad’s computer software knowledge.

The links to Joe the Dreamer: http://buff.ly/XeqTvH and https://www.createspace.com/3962829