What's hiding in the kudzu?

Kudzu is rampant in the South. It's a lush green vine that covers other vegetation. In doing so, it creates a fantastical landscape, mimicking giraffes, elephants, water falls, etc. But under the kudzu, everything else is dead. It cuts the sun and water from what it overtakes. Killing it is practically impossible.

Kudzu Sculptures is a Main Street Mystery with Winged Publications. Dorie Hudson is a new journalist for the small town local newspaper Daelin Gazette. Her first assignment is to find out about why the kudzu has not been removed from an old stand of loblolly pine. Ross MacAvoy, the owner of a nursery, normally receives a contract to take care of the kudzu. This year the mayor will not allow it. What's hiding in the kudzu and why? Who is he protecting?


The people in Daelin, Georgia, are like the kudzu sculptures. All sweetness and light on the outside but dead bones underneath. Along the way, Ross and Dorie fall in love, but he can't stay in Daelin due to something he finds in his grandfather's truck that he's allowed the kudzu to overtake. Will it's discovery destroy his relationship with Dorie?

I didn't expect this book to be a murder mystery. It just turned into one! It's a crazy feeling when your book surprises you!

I just submitted my latest manuscript to Winged Publications! It's going to be part of a boxed set of billionaire romances. Though Eddie is an heir to an ancient lordship and its fortune, he'd rather work in the basement of the British Museum uncovering the past as an anthropologist/archeologist. Caroline is a Rhodes Scholar and middle school teacher who is in Oxford to complete a masters level project about the lore and legends of England. Along the way she meets the charming Eddie. Look for Oxford Fairy Tale, coming soon!

Back Surgery Metaphors of the Christian Life

My journey toward reconstructive back surgery began years before 2016. Cortisone shots in my lower back reduced the pain and inflammation, but they were temporary measures, never fixing the big picture. After air travel alone in January and again in February, after slinging computer bags into the overhead bins and pulling bags from the baggage carousel, it was clear that something was wrong.

http://www.teachpe.com/anatomy/the_spine.php

As a fibromyalgia sufferer, it’s sometimes hard to know if pain is more than just a spike in ‘regular’ pain.  For a while I dismissed the pain in my hips, lower back, buttocks. My right quad would go numb when standing for too long. Tingles would cascade down my legs. When I woke on March 9 with a massive muscle spasm from my lower back to behind my knee, my husband said, “Now will you go to the doctor?”

So I did, finally. After yet another cortisone shot in my left lower back and an x-ray showing a ‘bone spur’ on the L4 vertebra in the lumbar region, the physician’s assistant requested an MRI from the insurance company. If you follow me on Blasting News, you’ve read that story.

How is all of this a metaphor for the Christian Life?

First, you can’t go about changing a problem until you realize you have a problem. As non-Christians, we all must come to the conclusion that something is wrong in our lives. All the Tylenol Extra Strength doses would never fix the cause of my pain. Once I knew that the pain had a specific cause, I knew I had to fix it. Sin in our lives, yes even Christians sin, can never be repaired without the Holy Physician’s help. Only He can remove our sin as far as the east is from the west. Until He excises my sin problem, my constant missteps without Him, I continue to stumble and fail to live a life focused on Him instead of dwelling on myself.

Marketing Gold Earrings

My life has been filled to overflowing with marketing Gold Earrings and some family drama.

One way I have been doing this is being involved with the John 3:16 Marketing Network. The network is a Christian family of writers who encourage, support, and pray for one another. It has helped me make new friends who know more about this marketing gig than I do.

Two ways we support each other are the Book Showcase and the Book Launch. The Showcase involves members featuring other members books on their blogs, twitter, web sites, etc. The Launch involves concentrated focus (24 hours) on Amazon to help Christian books reach best-seller status on one day. Writers offer eGifts to anyone who buys the book during the launch. These eGifts can be previews of their books, free books, special offers, and almost anything.

Gold Earrings begins a Showcase on September 29 and the Launch day is October 4. If you have read Gold Earrings, you can help by posting a review on Amazon, Facebook, twitter, etc. Books are available still from me, including the Special Edition Hardback which will never be for sale through anyone but me. Amazon is already selling my novel; Barnes and Noble has it for pre-order.

Thank you for all of you who have already read Gold Earrings and replied with such kind words. You can read reviews at the "What People Are Saying about Gold Earrings " on my new website http://dianeetatumwriter.weebly.com . Pictures from the first book signing at Celtic Cup Coffeehouse in Tullahoma, TN are also posted there.

September 27 is Gold Earrings Release Date. A Summer in Oakville by Lisa Likel and Shellie Neumeier is being Launched on Amazon that day. October 11, Fit for Faith by Kimberly Payne is being launched. See her Launch Page at http://www.kimberlypayne.wordpress.com/

I'm a published book author!

My dining room/office is now full of books! In other words, Gold Earrings in now an actual published book! Once the proof copy went back to Tate Publishing, everything began to spin quickly to get Gold Earrings into print.

The eBook is also available at https://tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-61777-574-1 .

Plans for marketing include Facebook, Fan page on Facebook, book signings, email, postcards, John316 Marketing Network.

Join the fan page, MyFacebook friends, and this blog to stay in the loop.

I have posted the first 5 chapters of my new book A Time to Choose on http://authonomy.com.

In Him,

Diane