My Times Square Fun — and my good news!

If you’ve been to New York City recently and happened to walk down Times Square, you might have spotted the American Eagle Outfitter store that allows customers their “fifteen seconds of fame.” As a thank you for any purchase, they plaster your picture up on a huge, sparkling billboard that hovers just above their store in the heart of Times Square.

Well…since I was in New York on a research trip for my next book, and being shameless enough to want to coax a chuckle out of my editors and marketing staff at Tyndale, I immediately seized on the advertising opportunity! I just happened to have a copy of the lovely cover for my new, upcoming release – Whisper on the Wind, set to hit stores no later than the first of September. (I’ll be talking about my new book in upcoming posts, so be on the look out for that.)

And — voila! — here I am, holding a copy of the Sneak Preview for Whisper on the Wind. Larger than life, for all of Times Square to see. The only drawback was not being allowed to be bold about my marketing tactic; while they did allow me to hold up the sample chapter booklet, they wouldn’t let my note read Buy My Book, or even the title unless it was smashed together as one word. So I put up my name and hoped for the best. It was fun! When I returned home and sent emails to Tyndale, they all got the hoped-for kick out of it. 🙂

Now to make this posting more fun, the first five people who contact me either here on my blog or through my Facebook page, I’ll send you a copy of this Sneak Preview. It’s the first three chapters of Whisper on the Wind, all bound up in the lovely cover that Tyndale designed!

For those first five people, please just send me your email address only and I’ll contact you privately for your mailing address—only post your email address, and while we’re doing the safety thing, use “dot” and “at” rather than the symbols, to weed out any spammers.

And now for my good news: I was contacted earlier this week by the wonderful folks at ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) to let me know Look to the East has finaled in the newly-named Carol Award. Formerly known as the Book of the Year contest, this widely popular contest was renamed for long-time Bethany House editor Carol Johnson, to recognize her important role in bringing Christian fiction into the hands of so many eager readers. For the complete list of finalists, click here. Just scroll down until you come to the “Long Historical” category and you’ll see my title, along with the other finalists. One of which is my very own critique partner! Siri and I will be cheering each other on at the banquet, since we’re roommates for the ACFW conference. See how important it is to have a critique partner???

Each of the finalists on this list know what an honor it is to be nominated, so I hope you’ll celebrate with us!