Surprise Guest #Giveaway

Howdy y'all! Crystal Barnes here and I've got a surprise guest for y'all today. She's a sweet buddy of mine and a fellow Texan.
She's an author, avid reader, and shameless hero addict. She loves books, Ancient Rome and all things gladiator. She makes her home in Houston, Texas with her husband, stepsons, and one very spoiled pitbull mix named Eric T. She is a 2015 Grace Award recipient, a two-time ACFW Genesis finalist, and a Romance Writers of America Lonestar finalist in the Inspirational Category. Though she still doesn't understand the point of white crayons, she is passionate about writing unforgettable stories with real characters that rise from brokenness to victory.

Please help me welcome Nancy Kimball!!! (Cue the applause :-) )

Where did your love of books/storytelling/reading/writing/etc. come from?
My parents. Mom and Dad read to me when I was little and my flannel board Bible stories in Sunday School sparked my love of story. As a tween and young adult, I wore out the library and we lived in a very rural area without neighbor kids so books were my friends.

How does your upcoming release, Unseen Love, relate to your faith journey?
When I wrote it in 2010, it was earmarked as the “get me published” story because it held more mass-market appeal than its predecessor, Chasing the Lion, which I was still trying to find a publisher for at the time. It was finished, edited and complete since 2012, but I feared inciting my loyal Chasing the Lion following to riot if I released anything that wasn’t the sequel to that book. The fear of that backlash kept Unseen Love in storage until this summer my writing partners and my husband became the catalyst to overcoming those fears. Through their love and support and some repenting, I got honest about whose approval I was really seeking. The Lord’s or my readers. Now my priorities are back in order and the book is coming as soon as the cover is finished and the formatting is done.

What do you think most characterizes your writing?
The honesty in my work and with my characters. They have real fears, frustrations, questions, struggles, triumphs, bad decisions, regrets, who question God and shake their fist at Him at times, doubt His goodness at others, and through it all are stronger and better for it at the end.  By the time a reader has finished one of my novels, they know my characters almost as intimately as I do and seen shades of their own lives within them, and that’s what makes them so unforgettable.

Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured in Unseen Love?
Oh, GREAT question. A main character with a disability and a new Christian struggling with sexual temptation. I don’t find characters with disabilities, especially main characters, often enough for my tastes in Christian fiction. The Disney film Love Leads the Way about the first guide dog in the United States, and Touch the Top of the World, the autobiography of Eric Weihenmayer, a blind athlete, mountain climber, and motivational speaker who has summited Mt. Everest and every other peak on every continent on the globe, changed my life forever. It gave me such a respect for the abilities of the blind it remained close to my heart and came out when I wrote this novel.

So did something a lot of male readers will be able to relate to. Sexual temptation. This isn’t a facet of a man’s character that magically disappears when he comes to faith in Christ. This is another thing I find underrepresented in Christian fiction, especially romance, that “the struggle is real” and is especially tough on men like my hero who are recent converts and didn’t grow up True Love Waits. They have pasts and sometimes those pasts bring relationships and entanglements that continue in day to day life as they seek to embrace an abstinent lifestyle. Drusus, the hero in Unseen Love, perfectly captures this as he presses on to live honorably in his faith while working out his humanity with its sexual attraction, sketchy past, and at times a very honest temper. He also has a hidden talent that’s REALLY COOL that I hope male and female readers alike enjoy learning about.

What is the biggest thing that people THINK they know about blindness, that isn't so?
People who are blind do not use footstep count to gauge distance. But we see that in movies all the time and it’s wrong! They do not think “it is six steps to the door from my bed” because when a person is tired, or carrying something, their stride shortens. Though I am not blind I put all my effort and abilities into researching and representing well the challenges and uniqueness of living with blindness and pray I did it justice representing it in the ancient world.

I'm sure you've done a memorable job. Tell us...Are you a full-time or part-time writer?  How does that affect your writing?
Part-time and while I’m tempted to blame that for the years between releases, it really isn’t. I haven’t developed the discipline to write when I’m not inspired to and when I’m not burning with passion for the characters and their stories. But I’m working on that. So I am a work in progress as much as my own work in progress.

What are some ways in which you promote your work?
After I released Chasing the Lion, I didn’t do much promoting. It is in an uncrowded (relatively speaking) sub-genre of Christian fiction so it’s selling in ebook on Amazon and audiobook on Audible on searches and hits, together with strength of cover and reviews. Which is really rewarding almost three years later, and I’m hoping to see the same with Unseen Love. My amazing subscriber email list will help me get it launched and get initial reviews up, but after that it’s up to the story and reader word of mouth to get the new novel out there into more reader hands. I’m going right back to working on my next book.

What do your plans for future projects include?
I’m pleading the fifth. I announced on my website recently the highly anticipated sequel to Chasing the Lion is on hold indefinitely. I’m still maintaining that position but can share that I am working on two projects right now and whichever one is finished first will be my next release. I learned the hard way not to overpromise, so I’ll just say I fully expect to have Unseen Love out by Thanksgiving and a new release sometime in 2017. God willing and I continue to cultivate more discipline in my writing.

I completely understand, Nancy. Even the Bible teaches us to say, "Lord willing." Thanks so much for sharing with us today. 

Everyone, I hope you've all enjoyed Nancy's visit as much as I have, but in case you think the fun is over... Nancy had offered to giveaway an ebook copy of CHASING THE LION to one of this post's participants. ( Winner to be announced in the Monday Weekly Wind-up post.)

So let's talk... Nancy mentioned unforgettable characters. What is one of the most unforgettable characters you still carry with you? What about them was most rememberable?

Find Nancy online at
http://www.nancykimball.com/

Don't want to wait? Snag your copy of CHASING THE LION here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JXBSGIK

Interview with Nancy Kimball

I'm so excited to introduce you to my friend Nancy Kimball. Her debut novel Chasing the Lion is amazing, and if you haven't already read it, you need to now. Well, right after you read this interview.

 

Nancy was the first person I met when I joined the Houston chapter of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). She has the gift of hospitality in addition to the ability to take readers on a literary roller coaster ride.

1. Thanks for stopping by Stitches Thru Time, Nancy. Can you tell us about Chasing the Lion?
This story burdened me with an overwhelming responsibility to steward it well. Jonathan was a much better character than I was an author, and it took me a few years to catch up to him. His story has become so much more than the tale of a young Roman noble betrayed into slavery who would come to faith as a gladiator and save the life of the woman he loves. Bringing his story to the page affected me deeply and was used by God in my life repeatedly. To see and hear this story resonating with readers as deeply as it is blesses me so much, and I hope it inspires others to never give up.

2. That is a good lesson--and a hard one to learn. Jonathan, the hero, is a fantastic character who goes through one hardship after another. Just when I thought he was going to be okay, you'd put him in danger again! Why do you think Jonathan will win the hearts of readers?
Jonathan's drive to always do the right thing runs marrow-deep. Even when it's misdirected in his own anger and frustration, or heartrendingly being used against him, the man that he is deep within demands it. As we watch his journey in its broken failures and soaring triumphs on a divine course to his destiny, at times the reader sees in him who we really are in the dark, and who we hope to be, in equal measures along the way.

 

 

3. Early reviews (mine included) compare Chasing the Lion to Francine Rivers' Mark of the Lion series. How does that make you feel?



Well, I was conditioned in query and proposal not to compare yourself to the greats ever, so I didn't. (Watch me tell the truth right here and shame the devil, LOL) Honestly, though, I was praying that just ONE of my endorsers would say that. Nope, haha. So I almost asked, but then knew it wasn't fair to solicit it so I just let it go. When the reviews started coming into Amazon, I had to laugh at God. It is both deeply humbling, and also makes me nervous. Nervous because Jonathan's story is very different from the beloved Hadassah, Marcus and Atretes. I don't want readers to expect a retelling of Mark of the Lion because they will be disappointed if so. I believe the comparison comes from the epic scope of a long and tedious faith journey through some very difficult circumstances. That's a battle that is timeless, whether in Ancient Rome or contemporary culture, and part of what I hope readers take away.

4. Chasing the Lion releases June 1st. After pursuing traditional publishing for years, what made you

jump into the indie water?
The paperback and Kindle version are available now at Amazon, and for Nook at Barnes & Noble. June 1st is our official launch date and the one we've been pushing to give our early readers and core influencers time to get reviews posted and iron out an Indie kinks. Which there were none, Praise Jesus! =) I'm grateful for what I learned and the connections I made in the four years I pursued traditional publication. Ultimately, I decided it wasn't fair to Jonathan and the many people who believed in his story to delay any longer. And I was honest with myself that holding out for a contract with a prestigious traditional publisher had become more about pride than anything else. The surest way to slay that dragon was to go forward in faith as an Indie author and self-publish.

5. What are you working on now?
Ohh, I'm so glad you asked! I'm working on the audiobook due out  August 10th. God blessed us with an amazing narrator, Joseph Narducci, who loves the Lord and if talent were sand, he'd cover an entire gladiator arena. I squeal like a little school girl every time he uploads a new chapter to approve because for the first time, I get to experience Chasing the Lion like the readers do. I never know quite how Joseph will interpret a scene, or a character, and it's like watching the movie with my eyes closed. When I'm not binging on the audio like it's the first box of Girl Scout cookies, I'm working hard on Book 2 in the series, Charging the Darkness.

To learn more about Chasing the Lion, and connect with Nancy, visit her official website, http://www.nancykimball.com/.

Okay, now you can go to Amazon and check out Chasing the Lion.