Amanda Tero's Blog, page 35

Countdown to Release: 3 days, Interview with my Illustrator

Today I'm thrilled to have my illustrator, Natalie, join me in an interview! We've known each other for--what, six or seven years now? It's been fun, but I learned a lot more about her when I did this interview. ;)



Me: How long have you loved to draw?Nat: I've always enjoyed drawing! It's something I did casually, but i got serious about it a few years ago. I was tired of the people I drew looking like childish cartoons. I wanted to draw more realistic things and essentially get good at drawin...

Countdown to Release: 4 days, More Q&A

Last Monday, I featured three Q&A's from upcoming interviews. Today, here are three more Q&A's. I've been asked some really thought-provoking questions!




Q) What made you decide to write stories that bring glory to God? A) This is actually a long story, but I hope to be brief and not bore you out here. I have loved writing since I was probably six. As I entered my teens, I began to write stories that were exciting and adventuresome, but I had a hard time finding how to fit God into my s...

Scripture Graphics #94

And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course… there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
(Luke 1:8, 11)Zacharias was doing his duty, being a faithful priest, when God chose to answer his prayer (vs. 13-14). If this couple lived today, they may have become bitter against God, or stopped going to church, because their prayers over the years had been unanswered. But not Zacharias and Eli...

Beautiful Name | Book Review

The cover of this book was so cute, but I had to give it two stars. Read why in my review below.


Children’s curiosity leads them to ask a lot of deep, theological questions. “What is God’s Name” is definitely one of those questions. Having never read author Matt Goselin before, I was interested to see how he brought the answer down to a child’s level.

The art is very whimsical and childish—something that I think children would greatly enjoy. There are a lot of colors and some “sparkly” hints wh...

Countdown to Release: 6 days, Book Bloopers

Surely I’m not the only person who likes to watch blooper reels, right? Okay, I know I’m not the only one, because my siblings enjoy it too, and we create a nice, grand party of laughing at others’ bloopers. Well, just as there are behind-the-scenes in movies, there definitely are some behind-the-scenes in books…and, yes, some bloopers too.


For “Quest for Leviathan” I had two main bloopers (I mean, I have countless “Amanda-isms” that my mom or sisters catch and go, “That only makes sense to yo...

Countdown to Release: 7 days

One week away!
A reviewer asked if there was a flyer she could share with her local homeschool group. Since I'm a homeschool graduate (AND my illustrator is a homeschooler), I'm totally in on that idea! I created a flyer for her... but if any of you would like to print it up and share it with friends, feel free to do so! It would mean a lot to me.
You may access the file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qCiz8iXPc1mFNvgpsCk-m3hVnIheUVO-/view?usp=sharing

Also, if you're a Pinterest fan, I'v...

Porch Swing Girl | Book Review

What would it be like to lose your mother quickly, unexpectedly, and tragically to cancer? Then, what if your dad left on top of that? These are the issues that Olive faces as she stays the summer with her grandma and younger sister in Hawaii—except, Olive isn’t planning on staying in Hawaii. She’s determined to earn money for a ticket to Boston to join her dad and prevent him from throwing out all their memories of her mom.

Olive was a very believable, hurting girl. Yet, she also took the bel...

Countdown to Release: 8 Days, How Many Words?

The author in me is always interested in other authors' word-counts. Usually when I write a story, I just write until the idea's out. However, for "Quest for Leviathan," I wanted to write at least 4,000 words so that it would be well above the flash-fiction category, but I didn't think I had a novella-suitable idea. Sure enough, it totaled at...

Which of course, I realize after-the-fact that if I had added JUST one more word, we'd have an even 4, 350. But I don't notice these things until too...

Countdown to Release: 9 Days, Favorite Quote

I'm fairly certain I'm not the only author guilty of coming up with a quote that HAS to go into the manuscript and then working the story around the quote. Such was the case for "Quest for Leviathan." The quote, in essence, is not a new quote nor is it original to me. It comes from a thought I've heard portrayed in sermons and stood out to me as mind-blowing and very necessary for us as humans to understand. I was very happy to weave it into the wisdom of Joed, as he counseled Anath.

Countdown to Release: 10 Days, What is a Trireme?

Anath’s vessel, Valor, is based off the Minoam’s Trireme. I was first introduced to this war-vessel years ago, when I watched the classic Ben-Hur (1959 Charlton Heston version that I adored as a pre-teen; little do you know how much you glean as a child!). But it wasn’t until I was researching ancient ships that I realized that this was the perfect type of vessel for Anath to use. It took a bit of research to figure out how to portray this ramming-ship. I cannot verify that triremes were actu...