Winner! Clash of the Titles Congratulates Keven Newsome, author of Winter

Clash of the Titles Congratulates Keven Newsome, author of Winter  and winner of the Comparable Cover/ Book Blurb Clash!  One of the commenters at Clash of the Titles said, 

“Just finished Winter, loved it.”

About Winter:
We're all freaks. It's just a matter of perspective.

Winter Maessen didn’t ask for the gift of prophecy. She’s happy being a freak – but now everyone thinks she’s crazy. Or evil. Goths aren’t all the same, you know. Some are Christians…
Christians to whom God sends visions.

Students at her university are being attacked, and Winter knows there’s more than flesh and blood at work. Her gift means she’s the only one who can stop it – but at what price?

Keven talks about Winter.Winter is a four book series. As the series progresses, Winter’s ability as a prophetess grows to rival Elijah. She does not just have a gift of prophecy, but is an Old Testament style prophet. I worked very hard to make sure everything she does is theologically and Biblically accurate. Everything she does has a corresponding Biblical example.

The story is not necessarily about Winter being a prophetess or her battle with a Satanic priest. It is more about her fall and redemption through Christ. That’s why the story is told in two parts. The flashback story shows how she fell to become unlovable and unwanted. The modern day story shows how God can take the most unlovable and unwanted person and transform them into something amazing.  I want this story to inspire all readers that even though they don’t think they’re good enough for God, God thinks otherwise.

About Keven:
Keven Newsome is a graduate student at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is pursuing a Master of Arts in Theology specializing in Supernatural Theology. He writes stories that portray the supernatural and paranormal with a Biblical perspective. He's also the found and administrator of The New Author's Fellowship and produces music and videos through Newsome Creative. When asked about himself, he says, "I am a child of God, husband, father, and friend, in that order. I am a musician, novelist, and sometimes artist. I know the difference between Star Wars, Star Trek, and Firefly, but I prefer Lord of the Rings. My mp3 player contains a mix of Christian rock and movie soundtracks. I am more of a nerd at heart, but I am equally comfortable sleeping under the stars with a log for a pillow, playing Halo with a bunch of guys with cold pizza on standby, or playing intra-mural sports such as tennis or flag-football. In short...I am strange."
He currently lives in Louisiana with his wife and their two children.

Visit Keven's Web site here

Submitted by Clash Hostess: Gail Pallotta

Bio: Gail has published several hundred freelance articles and two books. While some of her articles are included in anthologies, two of her historical pieces ended up in museums. In 2004, the year she published her first book, Now Is the Time, the American Christian Writers Association named her a regional writer of the year. Gail’s first Christian romance, Love Turns the Tide, was published by Awe-struck E- books in their inspirational category. Learn more about Gail here Visit her blog here

Author LOVE TURNS THE TIDE
available from Awe-Struck E-Books
www.awe-struck.net
Website:  http://www.gailpallotta.com
Blog:  www.gailpallotta.blogspot.com
Splickety magazine, issue 1.1
https://magcloud.com/account/downloads

Clash of the Titles - Vote on Recognized Pairs

Your Clash Hostess:  Gail Pallotta

Clash of the Titles has a great selection of books in our give away this week. Shelley Adina will donate a copy of Lady of Devices, Keven Newsome offers a choice between a signed print copy of Winter OR two e-books, one of Winter and one of Aquasynthesis. James Rubart gives away a copy of The Chair. 
Wow! Vote in order to enter. You'll find the voting box below. You can also leave a comment on any COTT post or on our Facebook page. Multiple entries encouraged!


Many times we hear a word or phrase and another comes to mind. The two go together so well we can’t think of one without recalling the other. Some easily recognized pairs come from life experiences, others from songs, books or movies.


Here are a few to complete just for fun.
A  song:  “Love and Marriage.”
“Love and marriage, love and marriage go together like a  _____ and _____.”  According to Wikipedia, this tune was introduced by Frank Sinatra in the 1955 television rendition of “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. It aired on Producers Showcase.
Something we eat.Hot apple pie and ____ _____. No one eats apple pie without it, do they?
Movie stars often cast together: Doris Day and _____ ______.
Three of their 1962 movies, “Pillow Talk,” “ Lover Come Back” and “Send Me No Flowers,” are available today in a romance collection.
From Books and Television:
The Hardy Boys / _____ ______. This series was based on two series published by Edward Stratemeyer.
A heroine in a book. Her name is in the title. ______ of Green Gables. This book was published in 1908 by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Originally written for all ages, recently it’s been considered a  children’s book. Since publication it’s sold 50 million copies, and is taught to students  worldwide. It’s been adapted to film, television and stage.
The prey in a tale of the sea.  Captain Ahab and the great white_____. Published in 1851 by Herman Melville, this is  one of the great American novels. It tells the story of Ishmael, a sailor on a ship named  Pequod.
A character in a novel.  Miss Scarlett in _____ _____ ___ _____. Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer prize for the  novel in 1936. The movie, considered a classic epic film today, premiered in 1939.


Answers: 1. Horse, carriage  2. Ice cream  3. Rock Hudson  4. Nancy Drew  5. Anne 6. Whale  7. Gone with the Wind


That was fun. Now vote for your pick in the cover and book blurb Clash.
When we read the blurbs, do the images on the front of the books come to mind and vice versa? If so, which of these go together best? Later when you think of what the book blurb has to say, will you see the cover in your mind’s eye?   


Please vote for one.

Cover and Blurb A

We're all freaks. It's just a matter of perspective. 

Winter Maessen didn’t ask for the gift of prophecy. She’s happy being a freak – but now everyone thinks she’s crazy. Or evil. Goths aren’t all the same, you know. Some are Christians…

Christians to whom God sends visions.
Students at her university are being attacked, and Winter knows there’s more than flesh and blood at work. Her gift means she’s the only one who can stop it – but at what price?

Cover and Blurb B

                                                               
London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.
At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire’s talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head.
It’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices . . .
When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .

Cover and Blurb C

                                                  

If someone gave you a chair and said it was made by Jesus Christ, would you believe them?

When an elderly lady shows up in Corin Roscoe's antiques store and gives him a chair she claims was crafted by Jesus, he scoffs. But when a young boy is miraculously healed two days after sitting in the chair, he stops laughing and starts wondering . . . could this chair heal the person whose life Corin destroyed twelve years ago?
As word spreads of the boy's healing, a mega-church pastor is determined to manipulate Corin into turning over the chair. And that mysterious woman who gave him the piece flits in and out of his life like a shadow, insinuating it's Corin’s destiny to guard the chair above everything else. But why?
Desperate, he turns to the one person he can trust, a college history professor who knows more about the legend of the chair than he'll reveal. Corin's life shatters as he searches for the truth about the artifact and the unexplained phenomena surrounding it. What’s more, he's not the only one willing do almost anything to possess the power seemingly connected to the chair.


Please vote below, and don't forget to enter to win one of these great books.

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COTT Spotlight on Gail Pallotta

*guest post by COTT Sr. Editor, April W Gardner

This week, it was my privilege to spend a few extra minutes with author Gail. Gail is one of the blog alliance correspondents at Clash of the Titles.

Her husband, Rick, says she’s the only person he knows who can go in the grocery for a loaf of bread and come out with someone’s life story. That’s probably because she inherited her mother’s love of people and enjoys talking to them. Working as an editor and freelance writer, Gail published a couple hundred articles. While some of them are in anthologies, two ended up in museums. In 2004, the American Christian Writers Association named Gail a regional writer of the year. She recently published her first romance, Love Turns the Tide. When she isn’t writing she likes reading, swimming, and getting together with friends and family. Gail wants to write books of faith that show God’s love. She and Rick live in Georgia. Just a couple hours north of me, actually! We’re practically neighbors. :-)

Every COTT staff member is a professed child of God. Gail, can you tell us about your relationship with Christ?
I can’t remember when I didn’t love Jesus. My father’s father was a minister, so I grew up listening to Bible verses and references to Jesus. But my mother played a huge part in helping me establish a relationship with Christ. At bedtime she said prayers with me and told me stories from the Bible. First, she taught me “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” but even then I had a copy of “The Lord’s Prayer” hanging on the wall above the headboard of my bed. She taught it to me a few lines at a time. We soon started saying it instead of “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.” She also told me about the Crucifixion in her own words, explaining how much Jesus had to love me to die for me. She taught me to talk to Jesus, to say the things I was thankful for, to praise Him, and ask for things I needed. I did the same with my daughter. I’m so grateful for the many blessings Jesus has given me and that He’s always there for me. I don’t always get the answers I want to my prayers, but I get the answers I need to fulfill God’s plan for my life. Whenever I’ve needed a miracle, Jesus has supplied one. There are several hymns that touch on how I feel about my relationship with Christ. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and “He Leadeth Me” are two. My daughter recently gave me a CD, Elvis, An Evening Prayer. The first song on it, “His Hand in Mine,” conveys how I feel about my relationship with Christ. It’s an old gospel song written by Mossie Lister. It’s on YouTube. The URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulTtL_YaC-w

Beautiful testimony! A mother’s faith is essential in a child’s life, and you’re proof of that!
None of us are perfect though, so what’s the craziest thing you did as a teenager? 

Gail Pallotta

I grew up at the foothills of the mountains. At a reunion a few years ago, many of us told our beloved biology teacher how much she meant to us. She replied, “Well, I had to teach biology. There was no one else in town that could.” Teachers were scarce. We had a very old algebra teacher. He couldn’t stay awake during class. Nope. He took the roll and told us to turn to the next chapter and work the problems. Then he pushed back his seat and propped his feet on the trash can. We’d give him about ten minutes, and he was out like a light. His classroom was in the basement with a window level to the ground. In the spring as soon as he started snoring, we went out the window, got in my friend’s convertible (she had the only car) and went to the lake.

No way! That’s so funny!! How long were you gone? What is something else people would be surprised to know about you? 
At age twenty-two when I graduated from college, I packed my clothes in a medium-sized suitcase and moved to a large city with eighty dollars in my pocket. Had no car, no job, and nowhere to live. 
Wow! You can’t leave us hanging, lol! How did that work out for you?

On a slightly more serious note, what is the nearest book to where you’re sitting? 
I love to read anything, non-fiction, fiction, any genre, Christian and many secular. But the book closest to me, probably because I also write as well as read, is Essentials of English.

I’d imagine that covers grammar? Forms of writing? Sounds like a must-have for every writer! What are three things you can’t live without?   
Faith, family, fun

Three very important f’s! Makes me wonder though, when I say the word “fun,” what’s the first thing to pop into your mind?

What is the message you most want to convey to readers with your writing? God loves you. Accept His love and let the greatness of it overcome the imperfections of this world. 

That brings to mind. John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." NAS (©1995)
Anything else you’d like to add? 
I was honored when asked to be part of the Clash of the Titles Staff. I love helping to promote Christian books and writers.
And we love having you!!
***
Get to know Gail better by visiting her website or her blog.