"Cloaked" Release Day + Giveaway!

Today's the day!  Cloaked is officially available in paperback and e-book from Amazon right here.  

Wow.  This feels slightly surreal, to be honest.  I mean, I've spent how many decades thinking, "Someday, I will publish a book."  And someday is today.

Thanks to my ARC readers, there are already several reviews up on GoodReads.  Thank you, ARC readers!!!  You can now post reviews on the Amazon page too :-)

Yesterday, I asked people to hold off on ordering copies until today so we can see how big of a splash this book can make on Amazon's charts.  Today is here!  You can order now :-)  I'll pop back in later on to report on its stats.  I'm hoping we can show Amazon that yes, people want to read clean, wholesome, God-pleasing books.  #RebelliousWriting!

And yup, there's a giveaway.  Because, you know... I just can't resist doing them.

The picture shows one bookmark, but I'm giving away FIVE of them.

This is open world-wide.  Enter using the widget below, and please be sure to use an email address you check often.  I'll draw FIVE winners on Saturday, October 7, and notify them at the email address provided.  If you don't reply to claim your prize within one week, I will have to draw a new winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to everyone who has supported me with your encouragement, time, prayers, and assistance!  Today would just be any other day without you, not my someday come true.

A Request for Anyone Who Has NOT Ordered "Cloaked" Yet

Tomorrow is release day!!!

If you have not already pre-ordered Cloaked, could you do me a favor and hold off until tomorrow?  I'd like to see what happens if a whole bunch of people order all on the same day, namely Friday, Sept. 29.  Maybe we could make it climb a decent way up Amazon's charts for a bit!

Here's a link to its Amazon listing, for your handy reference.  And also a snippet from an advance review:

Tomorrow, I have a little giveaway planned to celebrate release day, so check back in for that!

Top Ten Tuesday: Second Fiddlers

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Books with ___________ Characters."  I'm going to focus on "unforgettable secondary characters" which is kind of a vague way of saying this is my Top Ten Books With Secondary Characters I Care More About Than the Main Characters.

I have a habit with becoming extremely fond of side characters.  Who, in turn, have a habit of getting killed off and making me very sad.  But that doesn't happen to all of them, whew.  Here are ten books/series where my favorite character is actually not the main one.  If I've reviewed the book, I've linked its title to my review.

And Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field.  As much as I like Emily Blair, it's Dr. Merek Vance I read the book for.  This is probably a direct result of him being played by Alan Ladd in the movie version, I admit it.

Eragon (and entire series) by Christopher Paolini.  Eragon's okay, but his cousin Roran Stronghammer gets all my attention and allegiance in the series.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schafer and Annie Barrows.  Not that I don't like Juliet Ashton, cuz I do.  But I LOVE so many of the minor characters, especially Dawsey Adams and Isola Pribby.

Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling.  My favorite character is Sirius Black.  He's barely in most of the books, and gets talked about more often than he actually shows up, but I don't care. 

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.  The only character in the book I liked much at all was Dustfinger.  I loved Dustfinger.  (I like the movie TONS better than the book.)

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.  Granted it's been over a decade since I read this, but as I remember it, Wilfred of Ivanhoe was an unrealistically good and flawless character.  Both Brian du Bois Guilbert and Rebecca were millions of times more interesting than he is.  So was Wamba.  And Robin Hood.

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Here's another one where I do really love the main character.  But Alan Breck Stuart is just so many kinds of amazing and wonderful that David Balfour kind of pales in comparison.

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.  Boromir is only in about half of one of the three books.  And he is absolutely my favorite character.  Though Sam does run him a reasonably close second -- and he's not really the main character either.

Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Dorothea is a fascinating, nuanced, real-seeming character.  But every time Ladislaw shows up, I just pay attention to him instead.

Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery.  I'm probably going to be stoned for this opinion, but I don't like Rilla Blythe much at all.  I make it through this book by paying attention to Susan, who is loads more interesting.

Okay, that's it for this week.  Did you do a TTT post this week?  If so, what sorts of characters did you focus on?

"House of Living Stones" by Katie Schuermann

Why, oh why, did I wait so long to read this book?  I've had it on my TBR shelves for like two years now, and yet I just kept putting it off.  Silly me.  This was, overall, a delightful book.

Emily Duke arrives in the small Illinois town of Bradbury looking for a fresh start.  She's got a new job at the university there, and Zion Lutheran Church hires her as their choir director.  At Zion, she encounters a staggering number of odd, eccentric, quirky, or troubled individuals -- my one real criticism of this book is that I've belonged to seven different congregations in my life, and not one of them had this many outré individuals.  But, hey, it's fiction.  I'll let it ride and enjoy the fun.

Emily is hiding something about her past.  She finds herself attracted to Zion's bachelor pastor.  The organist decides to feud with her for reasons Emily can't fathom.  One of her fellow professors keeps asking her out for coffee.  She gets a pet rabbit.  It's non-stop excitement, I tell you!

Okay, not really ;-)  It's a sweet, fun, sometimes thought-provoking look at life in a small town.  I laughed many times while reading this, and got tears in my eyes a couple times too.  Schuermann has written two sequels, and I hope to read them before the end of the year.

I've seen this book compared to the Mitford books by Jan Karon, and that description is fairly apt, though I feel like this is a bit edgier than the Mitford books I've read.  But the first Mitford books were written more than twenty years ago, so, you know, whatever.  By "edgier" I just mean there's a character that others suspect of being gay (he isn't), and there are some downright unpleasant people here.  Plus very gossipy ones.  So much gossip.  Which is portrayed as being bad and wrong, at least.

In the end, yup, I liked this, want to read the other two books, and have already recommended it to several friends.  And my mom.

Particularly Good Bits:

The Word of God was preached in its truth and purity that morning, the body and blood of Christ was rightly administered, and all God's people sang, "Amen."  As soon as the first notes of the postlude rang out in the church, young and old spilled out of their pews to make their exodus to the land of coffee and muffins before the Sunday school hour (p. 28)  (That's just the most Lutheran paragraph I have ever read in a fiction book, and it cracks me up in a happy way.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some gossipy speculations about marital infidelity and a person's sexual orientation.  No bad language or violence or racy scenes.  

This is my 9th book read and reviewed for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2017.

Winners of the 2017 Tolkien Party Giveaway

Here we go!  The Rafflecopter winner-picking widget has spoken, and I've done my best to match the winners it picked with prizes they will like.  Congratulations, winners!  Everyone else... there's always next year :-)

Four postcards -- Savannah Grace
Four postcards -- Olivia
Four postcards -- Natalie
Tolkien quotation stickers -- Cecilia of Frell
Gandalf stickers -- MiddleEarthMusician
Gandalf stickers -- Fawnabelle Baggins
Hobbit hole stickers -- RM Lutz
Bard the Bowman stickers -- Movie Critic
BBC dramatization of The Hobbit -- Anna Holmberg
Tolkien Trivia -- John Smith
Necklace #1 -- Mary Horton
Necklace #2 -- Erudessa Aranduriel
Necklace #3 -- Dynal Roberson
Necklace #4 -- Maura Martin

Winners, please check your email later today -- I'm working on emailing each of you at the address you provided to the widget to get your mailing addresses so I can send you your prizes.

I regret to say that this is the end.  Of this year's festivities, I mean.  If you haven't filled out the tag yet, though, you can still do that!  And if you're like me and still haven't finished reading other people's tag posts, then you still have Tolkien fun ahead of you :-)  

"Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you!"  (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Answers to the Middle-earth Movie Songs Quiz

Here are the answers to the lyrics quiz from earlier this week!  And everyone's scores are below.

1.  Now I see fire, inside the mountain.  I see fire burning the _trees_.  ("I See Fire")

2.  May it be an _evening_ _star_ shines down on you.  (2 words) ("May it Be")

3.  The tears we cry Are falling rain For all the _lies_ you told us.  ("Gollum's Song")

4.  Blunt the knives, bend the forks, Smash the _bottles_ and burn the corks.  ("Blunt the Knives")

5.  You can drink your fancy _ales_, You can drink 'em by the flagon.  ("The Song of the Green Dragon")

6.  The _pines_ were roaring on the heights.  The winds were moaning in the night.  ("Misty Mountains")

7.  What can you see on the _horizon_?  Why do the white gulls call?  ("Into the West")

8.  Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many _paths_ to tread.  ("Pippin's Song")

9.  But in dreams I still hear your _name_.  And in dreams, we will meet again.  ("In Dreams")

10.  Many places I have been.  Many _sorrows_ I have seen.  ("The Last Goodbye")

Scores:

MiddleEarthMusician -- 10
Anna Holmberg -- 9
Elanor -- 9
Erudessa Aranduriel -- 9
Farm Lassie -- 9
Olivia -- 9
Savannah -- 9
Cordy -- 8
Marian H -- 8
Evangeline Yackel -- 7
Mary Horton -- 7
Gabby A -- 6
RM Lutz -- 6
Maura Martin -- 4
DKoren -- 3

Nicely played, my friends!

Answers to the Shire Quiz

Here are the answers to the "How Well Do You Know the Shire?" quiz, and everyone's scores.

1. The Brandywine River separates the Shire from ____________.

a. Buckland


2.  The Shire is divided into four ______________.

b. Farthings


3.  Bilbo Baggins (and later his cousin Frodo) lives in a hobbit hole called _______________.

d. Bag End


4.  In The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo Baggins sells his home and moves to a house called _______________.

c. Crickhollow


5.  Bilbo Baggins lives in the village of ______________.

a. Hobbiton


6.  The hobbits have a museum called a "mathom house" in the town of _________________.

c. Michel Delving


7. The only brew for the brave and true comes from the ________________.

b. Green Dragon 


8. Peace in the Shire was traditionally kept by a voluntary group known as the _______________.

a. Shirriffs


9.  The two main crossing points of the Brandywine River are the Brandywine Bridge and _____________.

c. Bucklebury Ferry


10.  Which of these is NOT a place in the Shire?

c. Cobas Haven

Scores:

Cecilia of Frell -- 10
Erudessa Aranduriel -- 10
Mary Horton -- 10
Olivia -- 9
Gabby A -- 8
Marian -- 8
Maura Martin -- 8
RM Lutz -- 8
Cordy -- 7
Elanor -- 6
Farm Lassie -- 6
Movie Critic -- 6
Natalie -- 6
Savannah -- 6

Well done, everyone!  Thanks for playing!