I may have mentioned, October is my favorite month. It’s finally cool enough to throw open the windows, sprawl out on my patio in a lawn chair with a pumpkin spice latte and an equally delicious book. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, should fit the bill. This Southern Gothic is about as Southern and as Gothic as they come. The atmosphere is as thick as South Carolina humidity, with characters so vividly quirky they come off the page. In a switch from the usual “Extraordinary boy pulls misfit girl into his extraordinary world” theme so prevalent in paranormal YA right now, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is told from the point of view of a 16-year-old boy in a small Southern town where there are only two kinds of people living: “The stupid and the stuck… . Those bound to stay or too dumb to go.” Ethan can’t wait to shake the dust of Gatlin off his heels, but when a new girl arrives in town, the niece of the crazy old recluse, he learns of a whole other side of his home town, and nothing he’s taken for granted his whole life is what it seems. There’s this whole…

Seasons Of Sugarcreek #3 August 2010 On Sale: August 17, 2010 Featuring: Robert Miller; Lilly Allen 256 pages ISBN: 0061852376 EAN: 9780061852374 Paperback $12.99 Add to Wish List Inspirational Fiction Amish Buy at Amazon.com Autumn’s Promise by Shelley Shepard Gray Could an Englisher really give up all that she knows for a chance at true love? Some promises are meant to be broken. . . . Until Robert Miller met Lilly Allen, his world had been dark. A widower after only two years of marriage, he’d been living in a haze, feeling that, at twenty-four, his life was already over. But thanks to his friendship with Lilly, he now has new reasons to wake up each day. He knows his connection to her doesn’t make sense. She’s only nineteen, with a past the whole town talks about. Even more, she’s not Amish, like Robert. A marriage between the two of them could never happen. Lilly’s heart is drawn to Robert, not to his faith. No matter how much she admires his quiet strength and dependability, she doesn’t think she could ever give up her independence and reliance on the modern world. Is their love doomed before it even begins? Previous…

The first time I encountered Death, I hurled my mother’s medical chart at him. As far as impressions went, I blew it, but I was five at the time, so he eventually forgave me. Some days I wished he hadn’t—particularly when we crossed paths on the job. When you think of Death personified, what image do you see? Many probably conjure images of skeletons in black robes carrying long, deadly scythes and intent on reaping souls. At one point, that might have been my first image as well. Not so much anymore. Now when I picture a personified Death, the image in my mind is of a much more relaxed figure in a black tee-shirt and faded jeans. He leans against a wall, arms crossed over a wide chest and his dark hair falling around his face as he watches with a smirk. Not a traditional image, that’s for sure, but that’s what he looked like when he first walked into a scene and became a leading character in my newest book, GRAVE WITCH. Angel of Death, Soul Collector, Grim Reaper—whatever you called him, most people saw him only once. A popular question has been why I decided to cast…

Writing is a tough profession. The competition in today’s publishing world makes the strongest writers think twice about their commitment to excellence. But those of us who are lured by the magnificence of story are committed to creating a world where our readers slip into the shoes of our characters and are whisked away to an amazing thrill filled with uncertainty. A writer has a gauge by which she measures her stories, the one she is currently writing and the future projects that are being shopped at publishing houses. My personal barometer is for each reader to Expect an Adventure. This aspiration is a two-way street. If I don’t have the adventure of a lifetime while I’m writing the story, then how can I expect a reader to feel the same exhilaration? When I laugh, cry, hate, love, argue, discover, run for my life and leap high mountains, I expect my readers to take the same plunge. Oh, the span of emotions that expands the human heart. What is my criteria? Simply stated, each book has to have deeper characterization than the previous novel, a more intricate plot, and a setting that challenges the storyline. No pressure there! My quest…