The dedication, work, creativity, and vulnerability required to publish a novel is simply astounding to me - it seems like the crowning bucket-list achievement {in my mind} for any writer. It's commendable. Risky. Gutsy. Inspiring.
Two authors local to Northern CO, have recently had their works published, and I would so encourage you to check out their writing and to support them in their creative endeavors - I believe it is no small task to put a dream on paper.
Below is a quick snapshot of each of their works and where you can find them. I appreciate their heart for why they wrote what they did:
Donna Wichelman, author of "Light out of Darkness":
A prestigious art exhibition turns into a horrific spectacle when a murder sends an art curator and a professor on a hunt for a highly coveted stolen painting.
Jamie Holbrooke came to Italy to escape a painful past in Ohio. But Jamie’s past follows her during an evening stroll along Varenna’s shoreline walk when an assailant, who looks like her dead brother, presses a mysterious riddle into her hand. Still reeling from shock at breakfast the next day and clueless about what the riddle means, she discovers that her long-time paragon Dr. Alessandro Marianni may have a link to the enigmatic riddle. Finding Jamie and her questions intriguing, Alessandro’s answers are cut short when their colleague falls prey to an assassin’s bullet. Convinced the riddle and murder are connected, Jamie and Alessandro risk their lives to discover why an obscure painting has caught the attention of art critics and criminals alike. At stake is a two-thousand–year-old drama, unfolding in the contemporary world of the Northern Italian Alps. Will Jamie and Alessandro stop powerful organized crime figures before the painting is lost forever and with it a secret more valuable than the prized artwork? Will Jamie find the answers to help her reclaim her life again? She will need the courage to face her fears and the persevering faith of Dr. Alessandro Marianni to heal her wounded heart.
"The concept for the book began in the early 2000s after our family took a vacation to northern Italy. The beauty of the landscape made me think it would make a great setting for a novel. But it wasn’t until I read an article in the Biblical Archaeological Review about J.M.W. Turner’s Bible Lands Paintings and more research led me to a little known pre-reformation group of the northern Italian Alps that the story began to take shape around this ancient religious sect called the Waldensians. Their real-life story of valor and enduring faith in the face of Roman Catholic persecution in Europe throughout the second millennium touched and encouraged my heart. I wanted to bring their story to life in a contemporary suspense novel about courage and faith. The title—Light Out of Darkness—comes from 2 Corinthians 4:6 and John 1:5 and is the text written in Latin, Lux lucet in Tenebris, which appears on their emblem dating from the 17th century."
"The concept for the book began in the early 2000s after our family took a vacation to northern Italy. The beauty of the landscape made me think it would make a great setting for a novel. But it wasn’t until I read an article in the Biblical Archaeological Review about J.M.W. Turner’s Bible Lands Paintings and more research led me to a little known pre-reformation group of the northern Italian Alps that the story began to take shape around this ancient religious sect called the Waldensians. Their real-life story of valor and enduring faith in the face of Roman Catholic persecution in Europe throughout the second millennium touched and encouraged my heart. I wanted to bring their story to life in a contemporary suspense novel about courage and faith. The title—Light Out of Darkness—comes from 2 Corinthians 4:6 and John 1:5 and is the text written in Latin, Lux lucet in Tenebris, which appears on their emblem dating from the 17th century."
"Light out of Darkness" can be found at
http://www.amazon.com/Light-
or visit her website at www.donnawichelman.com.
You can also read Donna's blog at http://donnawichelman.
http://www.amazon.com/Light-
or visit her website at www.donnawichelman.com.
You can also read Donna's blog at http://donnawichelman.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Marie Evergreen, author of "Quinn":
Quinn Brooks woke in a hospital room with no memory of how she got there; she only knows she must escape or die. Fortunately Samantha Woods was willing to pick up hitchhikers, and the two women became friends.
As they travel across Alaska, Canada, and into the lower 48, Quinn ‘Travels’ uncontrollably in time.
Pursued in the present and shot at in the past, can Quinn find the answers she needs before time runs out?
"Have you ever picked up a book, expecting it to take you on great adventures, only to have it filled with sex, drugs and swearing? When my daughter was younger, she was a very advanced reader. We both were disappointed to find the teen section over run with these types of books. It was very difficult to find anything worthy of reading. My name is Marie Evergreen. I have been a writer for several years. It was not until my daughter got to this point in her reading, that I felt a desire to write teen fiction. From that desire, Quinn was born."
Quinn is the first book in The Travelers series and can be picked up at
http://www.electric-scroll.com/index.php?content=book&id=13