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What would you do with a million dollars? More importantly, what would you do for a million dollars? Beautiful Gypsy girl Janeal Mikkado is faced with a choice, and her father's fate rests in her hands. She makes a choice and lays her plans, but something went wrong. Terribly wrong. Retribution is swift and terrible, the whole kumpania is burned to the ground, and Janeal's entire life is turned to smoke. She flees and sets up a new life for herself, wanting nothing more than to forget the past. Fifteen years later, though, old ghosts begin to rise from the ash. Janeal was not the only survivor of the Mikkado Massacre as she had believed. Her boyfriend Robert and her best friend Katie also survived, and between them they have the power to destroy Janeal's new life. They know her secret. What lengths will Janeal go to to protect her carefully crafted hiding place? What will she do to be able to forget? And is there any second chance for Judas?

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I've read a lot of reviews on this book, and almost every one said it was better than Kiss, Ted and Erin's other co-authored book. I was a little skeptical myself, because Kiss had a more instantly gripping plot line to my view. Having actually read Burn now though, I find myself having to eat my words. Burn is indeed even better than Kiss was, hard to believe as that may be. Burn is a tale of regret, loss, and second chances; a story of three friends suddenly faced with their past and with the present, and with what to do with the future and each other; a story of the struggle between the John and the Judas in all of us. A beautiful novel, seamlessly weaving the fast-paced thriller we've come to expect from Ted with the slower, deeper emotion we were introduced to in Kiss.

I can't wait for more from these two! There are no planned colabberations in the future as far as I'm aware, but Erin's first solo book, Never Let You Go is due to come out in the coming months! Hooray for new books! I'm very excited for this, if you can't tell. I'm very interested to see what what Erin has up her sleeve.

Burn is set for general release in January 2010. Find Ted Dekker's fan page at href="http://www.teddekker.com"> and Erin Healy's at href="http://www.erinhealy.com">

And of course, can't forget Facebook. If you're a fan of either author or both, or just a little bit interested, you can't miss these links. Find Ted at href="http://www.facebook.com/teddekker"> and Erin at href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Erin-Healy/59683195940">

And definitely read all the books you can by these guys. Very cool stuff :)

It's pretty much eleven at night and I'm desperately tired, but I can't sleep. I mean, I probably COULD, but I can't. I'm worried about a friend of mine... I know she's unwell, but I don't know how unwell. Optimistically she'll be fine, possibility she'll die tonight. And I have no way of knowing until/if she mesages me and says, "Hey, I'm fine."
I'm trying to be patient. I'm trying to just pray and leave it in G-d's hands. But it's not easy, you know? I really care about this girl. And I know there's absolutely nothing I can do for her, I know that it's totally in G-d's hands and the HE knows what He's doing, and that I shouldn't worry, I don't need to worry. I know. Worrying won't help her.
But I'm worried anyway. I love you, Princess. Don't leave us tonight, please?

I'm just over a week into this thing, and I'm falling behind. I should theoretically have almost 15,000 words now, and I barely have 12,000. On the other hand, I've written 12,000 words in a week! That's amazing! I will see this out. I will, through sheer stubbornness if neccessary, win this thing. I will not be beaten.
But I also want to sleep at some point. And read books, and watch movies, and take naps on the lawn. If I can do this though, if I can win NaNo, I can do anything I want. Not strictly true perhaps, but a very good lie ;)

Also, GREATBIGHUGEEXCITING NEWS! I wn an ARC of Burn by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy today. My day is MADE :D

I can sooo do this. I'm way slower than most of the others, but I can do it. My handy word count predictor thingummy is green and burbling about 55k words by the end of the month (it was red and screaming about 30k this morning) and I have under 400 words to finish today's quota. I'm about 4 hours ahead of yesterday, and I took a nap and did chores today that I'd put of yesterday. I can even get ahead now, and make up for the days I'll have to miss, or not have as much time to write in!

I'm buzzing, in case you can't tell ^_^

I did it! 1688/1667 for day 1!


This is gonna be a long month, but I'm slightly (very slightly) ahead. I can do this! And, thanks to Cody, I have some slightly more interesting stuffs happening! I AM INVINCIBLE! *dozes off*

I'm three quarters of a day in. What the heck was I thinking? I write like a snail! I've been dedicatedly staring at my screen for hours, and I have exactly 510 words. That's from a daily word count of 1,667. I am so dead. I can't do this! I don't write novels! I write sporadic blog posts and occasional random chapters of never-to-be-finished stories. I already want to trash about half of my stupid retarded book. I keep telling myself to leave it alone, wait till December, I can tear it apart at the seams and stomp it into the ground then. Now it's time to write, to win. Why is writing in this blog so easy when writing in my novel is so hard?

Doesn't matter. I'll get there if I have to ..whatever..

I'll win.

Redefining Beautiful is about.. well.. just that. Learning to see ourselves as beautiful, and exploring what beauty really is in a world turned upside down by unrealistic standards. Jenna says that a foundational beauty secret is a fathers love, and shows us that whether we have devoted dads or not-so-great dads, we already have the perfect Dad, who can make us whole.

I really enjoyed this book, though I wasn't sure what to expect at first. Christian 'beauty' books so often emphasise spiritual beauty to the exclusion of physical beauty, and I find that unsatisfying. Yes, inner beauty is greatly important, but I want to BE beautiful, on the outside. Redefining Beautiful had a beautiful balance and perspective I've never seen elsewhere, and I'd say it's definitely the best book I've read on the subject.

At one point in this book, Jenna says that she is sometimes afraid she'll be defined as 'Max Lucado's Daughter' rather than 'Jenna Lucado'. To be perfectly honest, I did in fact prejudge her as 'Max's daughter' and expected her book to be like his books. I was proved wrong, and I'm glad of it. So, if you ever read this Jenna, I'm sorry. Thanks for the reminder.

I definitely would recommend this book to all girls, and to all their dads. I think it's a message we all need to hear.



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