The Sentence

My first inspirational novel, The Sentence is coming in October from By Grace Publishing. Today, I'd like to share an excerpt with you because I'm pleased with the way the book turned out. I'd considered an inspirational for some time but kept putting it off because I really like to write mostly sweet contemporaries. Still, this story kept nagging at me until I wrote it. I hope you enjoy the excerpt.

Thanks for reading!
Elaine Cantrell
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
http://www.elainecantrell.com

The Sterling Daily
October 10
Upstate Edition

Judge Shocks Community

Controversial Judge Marion Lowe shocked every person in his packed court last Wednesday when he passed sentence in the Clint Hayes case. Hayes, 27, who works for Bud Parsons at Bud’s Private Club, was found guilty of burning Saved By Grace Community Church last April.

Originally, Hayes was arrested for arson. His fingerprints were found on a beer bottle in the church parking lot the night the church burned, but a sheriff’s investigation revealed the fire was caused by a cigarette that Hayes threw into an azalea bed. Authorities believe the cigarette caused the dry mulch around the bushes to catch fire, and the flames spread to the church. The building was a total loss.

After consultation with Reverend Neal Amos, the pastor of Saved By Grace, Judge Lowe sentenced Hayes to six months in the care of Reverend Amos who in effect will be his jailor.

“The verdict was a surprise,” admitted Rachel Amos, 24, the minister’s daughter. “My father discussed the situation with my mother and me, but to be honest we never dreamed the judge would go along with it.”

Several members of Saved By Grace have expressed their support for Reverend Amos’ decision, but they admit there are some who want nothing to do with Hayes.

Local civil rights groups have announced their intention to get the verdict overthrown, but so far Hayes says he wants the sentence to stand.

Until the new church is constructed, Saved By Grace is meeting at Sterling High School. Sunday School is at ten o’clock followed by worship at eleven. Anyone wishing to make a donation to Saved By Grace’s building fund may do so at People’s National Bank.

Wow What A Surprise!

I got an email the other day that really surprised me. According to the editor I'm working with at By Grace Publishing, they want to publish my book in October of this year which is a lot sooner than I expected. I'm agreeable, so if all goes as planned I'll have The Sentence coming from By Grace in October, and The Best Selling Toy Of The Season coming from MS Fiction in November. How's that for ending the year with a bang?

I thought I'd offer you a blurb for each book just so you'd know what they're all about. In September I'll start offering some excerpts from each one.

Blurb: The Sentence-By Grace Publishing

For a hundred years, the little church pointed the way to Heaven for the congregation. Then, Clint Hayes stopped in the parking lot one night to throw away a beer bottle and have a cigarette. The cigarette made him cough, so he threw it away too. It came to rest in an azalea bed beside the church.

Aided by a fingerprint on the beer bottle Hayes was arrested for arson, but it soon became apparent he hadn't meant to burn the church down. Everyone expected him to spend a few months in jail, but the judge had a better idea.

He sentenced Clint to six months under the care of Rev. Neal Amos, the pastor of Saved By Grace, a move the pastor's daughter Rachel isn't happy about. Why didn't her father let this criminal go to jail? That's what he deserved.

But as Rachel gets to know him, she finds herself falling for a man with no education, family, or faith. And he's falling for her too.
Will Rachel overlook his past and believe he's given his life to God, or will she let him walk away when his sentence is over?


Blurb: The Best Selling Toy Of The Season

Who'd want to be Nikki Lane? Sure, she's beautiful, but her family isn't much. She isn't married either, and supporting her two boys on a minimum wage job has cost her more than one sleepless night.

Tommy Price is everything Nikki isn't. He lives on James Street, the best street in town. Naturally, his rich, influential family has a suitable woman picked out for him to marry.
Tommy and Nikki's two diverse worlds literally collide one evening at the discount store where Nikki works, giving both of them a glimpse into a life they never knew existed.

Can the growing attraction between them bridge the vast gulf which separates them, or will their romance end before it even begins?


Thanks for reading!
Elaine Cantrell
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
http://www.elainecantrell.com
http://www.myspace.com/elainecantrell

The Muse Online Writer's Conference

Going to a major writer's conference can be a daunting experience in terms of both time and money. It's not something everyone can do. If you haven't attended a conference and would like to go to some workshops and maybe make some pitches to agents or publishers, an online conference might be what you need.

I attended an online conference last year sponsored by SORMAG. I enjoyed it. I received some useful information and made a few friends as well. I also made some online pitches to a major literary agent. (Unhappily, nothing came of that.)

I've signed up for another online conference which will be held this fall. This one is sponsored by The Muse Online writer's group. You can find information about both the conference and this group by going to http://www.themuseonlinewritersconference.com If you're interested in the conference you'll need to be sure to register before September 1. They say they won't take late registration.

Thanks for reading!
Elaine Cantrell
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
http://www.elainecantrell.com
http://www.myspace.com/elainecantrell

I Can't Believe I Did It!

What did I do? Oh, I made video trailers for each of my 2007 releases. Why is that such a big deal? I've been talking about ebooks and technology for three weeks now? It's a big deal because yours truly is technologically challenged. I didn't grow up with computers, so technology doesn't come as easy to me as it does to some people.



Anyway, I had watched other people's trailers and wanted one, so when I was offered the chance to take a class on Windows Movie Maker I did. To my surprise, the basics weren't that hard to master. That doesn't mean I didn't struggle with it. I did, and I know I still have a lot to learn, but I made one trailer for Purple Heart and another for The Welcome Inn.



Here's a link to my masterpieces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_bb3s4UiY

If you do watch them, send the technologically challenged one (me) a note and tell me how you liked them. Be kind. They're my first ones.



Thanks for reading!

Elaine Cantrell

Hope. Dreams. Life... Love

http://www.elainecantrell.com/

http://www.myspace.com/elainecantrell

Harlequin Interactive

I read about something Harlequin Publishing is doing and thought I'd share it with you. It sounds good to me.

Thanks for reading!
Elaine Cantrell
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
http://www.elainecantrell.com

TORONTO, July 9 /PRNewswire/ Harlequin Enterprises Limited (http://www.eharlequin.com/), the global leader in series romance and one of the world's leading publishers of women's fiction, announced today the launch of their Enriched Edition eBooks. With this launch, Harlequin becomes the first publisher to offer entire eBooks that are enriched with interactive buttons that hyperlink to Web sites with more information about the content.

The launch title, UNMASKED(http://ebooks.eharlequin.com/D0202CC6-7C9A-4669-AC03-444A8CBCC17B/10/126/en/ ContentDetails.htm?ID=3248E63E-7845-4356-B5CC-21B6FF6331D0) by NicolaCornick (http://www.eharlequin.com/author.html?authorid=726), a Regency-sethistorical, has been enriched with interactive buttons that hyperlink to Web sites containing photos, historical commentaries, illustrations, sound effects, maps, articles and more, bringing the world of the novel to life without the reader having to leave the computer or the current screen page. The interactive buttons have been designed to be unobtrusive, so if one prefers not to access the bonus material, the reading experience remains uninterrupted.By exploiting the interactive possibilities inherent with eBooks, Harlequin is recognizing the opportunity for online reading to enhance the reading experience, evolving it above and beyond the replication of print books.Harlequin will release select Enriched Edition titles from its many series and imprints, but chose to launch with a historical release since the period setting particularly lends itself to the enriched experience. Obscure period details, customs, terms and references become instantly accessible should the reader wish to learn more about the story's context.Enriched Edition eBooks are available at www.eBooks.eHarlequin.com<http://www.eBooks.eHarlequin.com/> and are being sold at the same price asregular eBooks.

Sony's New Move

Welcome to the blog! Today is the second installment of my four part series on ebooks. I found an article from Publisher's Weekly that sounded like a significant move to me and thought I'd share it with you. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
Elaine Cantrell
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
http://www.elainecantrell.com

Sony Adopts EPUB Standard for Reader
By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 7/24/2008 7:16:00 AM
The International Digital Publishing Forum's epub e-book standard received a big vote of support this morning when Sony announced that effective immediately its Sony Reader will now support the standard. Beginning in August, all new devices shipped will use epub, and right now owners of existing devices can go to http://esupport.sony.com to update their device's software for epub support.

Brennan Mullin, v-p of Sony Audio, said the company was adopting the epub standard to encourage more vendors, booksellers and publishers to get involved in the e-book market and to broaden the amount of content that can be viewed on the Reader. The move to use epub is a significant change in approach for Sony, which has used its own standards and restricted consumers to buying e-books for the Reader from its own store. The use of epub will allow consumers to buy titles from a variety of outlets and will grow the number of titles compatible with the Reader to well passed the 45,000 now available through its online store. Another avenue for new material will be Adobe: Sony also annouced today that the device will support Adobe e-books with DRM and will also have the capability to reflow standard PDF e-books and other documents.

Publishers, who generally favor the one-format approach made possible by epub, welcomed Sony’s decision. “Sony’s support of epub is an important step forward in the cooperation of publishers and portable digital book manufacturers to create better experiences for readers,” said Brent Lewis, v-p digital & internet for Harlequin. “We’re thrilled with the upgrade." IDPF, of which Sony is a member, approved epub as an industrywide standard in an attempt to foster interoperability among e-book reading devices.

Mullin said sales of the Reader have been steady and that sales of titles have increased. Interest in e-books has grown and although reluctant to credit a competitor, Mullin acknowledged that the buzz around Amazon’s Kindle “has been good for everybody in the e-book market.” Amazon, however, has not adopted the epub standard.

In addition to adopting the epub standard, Sony has announced it has started offering the Reader in the U.K.

Five Reasons To Buy Ebooks

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Elaine Cantrell, and I write romance novels. I like to focus on that first breathless thrill when eyes meet across a crowded room. I try to give my readers the feeling that love really could happen to them. Oh, I'll torture them before the end of the book, but rest assured, I always have a happy ending.

I've been published five times, have another book The Best Selling Toy Of The Season coming from MS Publishing in November, and have just signed a new contract with Lachesis Publishing. I'll talk more about my books in the coming weeks, but today I'd like to talk about ebooks.

Ebooks are relatively new in the publishing world. They've had some difficulty gaining acceptance, but schools now teach their students to do lots of their work on computers, so I think ebooks might be what'll they want to read.

If you haven't tried an book, here are five reasons why you should:

1. They cost less. You can buy two instead of one.

2. They don't take up space in your house. You don't have to dust them either.

3. You can impress your friends with you technical jargon and computer literacy.

4. You can discover a world of new and exciting authors.

5. On an ebook reader, a device about the size of a paperback, you can carry your library with you and read from it at any time.

Oh, go on and give it a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for reading!
Elaine Cantrell
Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
http://www.elainecantrell.com