Krista Noorman's Blog, page 5

Until Then QUOTE and PREORDER

Sharing another quote today from my upcoming novel, Until Then (Book 2 in the Cornerstone Series).

Oh, how I want to hug my main character, Michelle, and let her know that she's always first choice in God's eyes. ;)

Until Then is available for Kindle PRE-ORDER NOW ! Coming May 24th!

I'm also running a little Amazon ebook giveaway of Goodbye, Magnolia (Book 1) HERE . Enter for a chance to win. No purchase necessary.

Until Then RELEASE DATE!

Lots of sharing this past week. I posted this image with another quote from Until Then. A couple of scenes take place at this little waterfall at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids between Michelle and a certain someone. ;)

My newsletter went out a few days ago with some very special announcements.

• RELEASE DATE -- UNTIL THEN finally has a release date. MAY 24TH!!!! That's right. Michelle's story will be coming out in May. I seem to have a thing for that month. Both of my previous novels were published in May, too.

• CHAPTER ONE -- Newsletter subscribers got a link to download a little advanced reader pdf of CHAPTER ONE of the novel. If you haven't yet signed up for the newsletter and would like to read that first chapter, GO HERE , subscribe, and you'll get access to that and some other goodies. :)

• PRE-ORDER -- UNTIL THEN is now available for PRE-ORDER on KINDLE . Order now and the book will be automatically delivered to your Kindle or Kindle App on release day, May 24th.

Lots of excitement and getting good feedback on the first chapter already. Still so much work to do to prepare it for publication, and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Happy reading!
Krista

the nitty gritty

I've been working on story edits of Until Then for the past month. It's serious business cutting lines, paragraphs, even whole chapters sometimes. Many chapters have been rewritten. A new chapter was even added that ended up bringing one particular part of Michelle's story full circle, which was very unexpected, but happily so. I sat in tears staring at my computer screen after that one. :)

I'm finally to the point where I'm working on line edits now, which is where I go over each paragraph line by line to make sure that it flows well, that I've described mood and setting properly, that dialogue sounds realistic and not forced, that I haven't used the same words and phrases over and over again, etc. I'm into the nitty gritty now. This is where it all starts to come together. I've set a deadline to finish all edits by the end of March.

I'll also be sharing promotional images in the coming weeks and months. This is the first.



Getting Michelle out of Chicago is top priority for her family because of the rough neighborhood she lives in and the sketchy guys she hangs out with. Her grandparents offer to pay her college tuition is HUGE and the answer to all of their problems. But they have one condition - choose one of three Christian colleges they have handpicked for her. This does not go over well with Michelle. Not at all.

If you'd like to be among the first to learn when the book will be released, sign up for my newsletter HERE . I promise I won't bombard your inbox with emails. I send out my newsletter every month or two and your email address will only be used for that purpose.


Coming soon!

Celebrate Lit Christmas Celebration

I'm over at Celebrate Lit's Christmas Celebration this morning from 10-11 to chat. There will be tons of authors participating today and tomorrow, December 16-17, so feel free to stop by whenever you have a free moment. CLICK HERE.

Black Friday Sales

Goodbye, Magnolia eBook is FREE from Black Friday thru Sunday.
That's right. FREE! So make sure you click over to Amazon on FRIDAY to get your copy.

PAPERBACK SALE
Both of my books are on sale this weekend in paperback form.

Use COUPON CODE:
U5CQM2F4
to get $1.99 OFF each book.
You can order multiple copies and the code will take that amount off each copy as well.

Goodbye, Magnolia • $11.00 (originally $12.99)
The Truth About Drew • $8.00 (originally $9.99)

* Note: The above coupon code only works when you purchase paperbacks through my Amazon Createspace Storefront, so make sure you follow the links to each book from this post, then enter the code there. The code will not work on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or anywhere else my paperbacks are sold. Thanks. :)

Happy shopping & Happy reading!

the truth about drew | 99 pennies

Goodbye, Magnolia has had plenty of sales lately, so I thought it only fair to give Drew a little discount as well.

Now through Sunday, October 4th, The Truth About Drew is only 99¢ on Kindle ebook.

Get The Truth About Drew HERE!


Happy reading!

Fall Into Reading Sale

It's a lovely first day of fall and I'm taking part in a fun Fall Into Reading Sale with other independent authors over at Clean Indie Reads today through Sunday.

Goodbye, Magnolia will be FREE for the first two days of the sale. Yep, that's right. FREE!

Spread the word. Snatch up a copy for yourself. Viewbook.at/GoodbyeMagnolia

Happy fall reading!
Krista

Fall photo finds | a location from The Truth About Drew

Fall is my favorite! I've loved the cool breeze, the leaves changing colors, cozy sweatshirt & jeans weather, for as long as I can remember. On Saturday morning, I opened the door and discovered several leaves in shades of red on my back steps and it made me really happy. :)

This morning, as I was browsing through some old photos of locations from The Truth About Drew, I discovered some wonderful fall photos of Chloe that I had forgotten about. I originally shared some location pictures HERE on Pinterest and there are a couple of her up on Mt. Baldy, one of the most important locations in the book, only the bench she's on is not the one I pictured while writing the book. So today, when I found these, I was ecstatic.

They were taken in mid-October 2010 when Chloe was 7 at Mt. Baldy Scenic Lookout near Hastings.

The railroad tie steps to the top.


And the very bench from the book. :)


I love these so much. Really need to frame the one of her on the bench.

When I look at that bench, I can almost picture Claire and Drew sitting there, her head leaned on his shoulder. This scene comes to mind:

On Sunday afternoon, Claire decided to take a walk up Mt. Baldy. It had been kind of lonely lately without Drew around as much, and she missed his presence. In those quiet moments with him, when no words were necessary, she felt the most like herself. She didn’t really care for the anxious, confused insomniac she had become.

Old leaves from autumns past crunched under her feet as she walked along the familiar path. A squirrel ran across in front of her with a large nut in its mouth. There was rustling in the bushes to her right. Every sound seemed amplified and she was beginning to feel a little paranoid. She had walked this path dozens of times before, but always with Drew. Never alone. Where she normally felt happy and peaceful walking up that hill, now she felt sad and lonely.

She glanced over her shoulder at nothing, then took the old railroad tie steps to the top as quickly as she could. As she pushed past the branches of the big pine tree at the top, she spotted someone sitting on the bench. Her heart nearly burst out of her chest with happiness. She felt like running to embrace him, but she approached slowly, afraid she was dreaming or that it wasn’t actually him. But it was. That sandy blond head of his was bowed forward a bit, his eyes were closed, and it looked as if he was deep in prayer. He opened his eyes and smiled at her without a word.

The Truth About Drew is a young adult novel, but I've had so many adults read it and tell me that they were moved to tears. I hope you'll check it out if you haven't already. You can get your copy here:

Viewbook.at/TheTruthAboutDrew .

Thanks, guys! Happy reading!

not our plan

"This verse, that found me during my morning Bible reading a couple weeks ago, goes perfectly with Goodbye, Magnolia . Maggie thought she had her life all planned out, but it wasn’t God’s plan for her at all. I’ve been in this same situation many times in my life. Plans are made, my heart set on things going one way, and they just don’t. Sometimes things go very far in another direction. But over and over again, I have seen situations work out for the better in ways I never would have imagined. I believe this verse. I believe that the Lord knows every step I take and will take. We can plan all we want, but if we’re trusting God’s guidance and seeking Him in our lives and it’s not His will for us, those plans will change. And so it is for Maggie, my lovely main character. Her heart was set on marrying, but it was not to be. And that was for the best."

- originally posted on my blog, bykrista.com, back in February.

P.S. This was from before I changed the font of "Magnolia" on the cover. ;)

What's in a name?

Sharing a little blog post flashback today. Originally posted 9.25.14.

I don't know how other people choose names for their novels, and I actually didn't do this for Goodbye, Magnolia, but when I was writing The Truth About Drew , I really wanted the names to have meaning. I wanted the main characters personalities to fit with the name they held, because I felt like the book itself had so much meaning. So, here is a list of the characters' names that I chose purposefully:

DREW • Wise. Brave. Courageous.
CLAIRE • Clear. Bright.
BRODY • Brother … duh! :)
AMY • Dearly loved. Beloved.
DAMON (Amy's last name) • Constant. Loyal.
ZACH • Remembered by God.
GILBERT (Zach's last name) • Trusted.
LIAM • Determined Guardian.

I didn't really choose the names of the other characters based on their meanings, but I thought it would be fun to look them up anyway. Here is what I found:

NATE • Gift of God. - OK, this is a lovely meaning for Nate, but maybe in relation to my book, it could be flipped around to "God's gift". If you've read it, that might make more sense. ;)

MANDY • Lovable. Worthy of love. - This goes well with all that Mandy went through. She is definitely worthy of love, even after everything that happened, God brought her through it and gave her something new.

SAM • Bright sun. God hears. Heard by God. - I like this. I don't really go into Sam's story very much, but I do reveal his faith in God, and God definitely heard all the prayers that went up for him after a big event happened in his life.

TRUMAN (Claire + Brody's grandparents' last name) • Loyal. Faithful man. - This goes well with Grandpa and Grandma, faithful followers of Christ their whole lives.

LARA • Famous. - Well, she's not famous, but she's a popular cheerleader, so I'll just interpret it that way.

KELLER (The football coach's last name) • Little champion. - LOL! They do win those football games. :)

DONNA (The coach's wife) • Lady. - Yep, she's a lady. ;)

That was fun. I'm amazed to find that the meanings of the names really feel like the characters to me. Even some of the ones whose names I didn't choose for their meaning. This book was such a labor of love for me. Even when I was choosing those names, I felt such a leading from God. Claire and Drew and Brody and Amy and Zach … they all feel like kids I would be friends with if I was their age again.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR NAME MEANS? Leave it in the comments below. My first name means "Follower of Christ". I'd say that describes me to a T.