REPLICATION by Jill Williamson

by Jennifer AlLee

I love reading young adult fiction. Most of the time, the YA books I enjoy the most appeal not only to the target audience, but to adults as well. Are any other 40-somethings out there looking forward to the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games? I rest my case. So today, I'm very excited to share Replication, the first book in a new young adult series by Jill Williamson.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Someone is covering up multiple secrets… Martyr—otherwise known as Jason 3:3—is one of hundreds of clones kept in a remote facility called Jason Farms. Told that he has been created to save humanity, Martyr has just one wish before he is scheduled to “expire” in less than a month. To see the sky.

Abby Goyer may have just moved to Alaska, but she has a feeling something strange is going on at the farm where her father works. But even this smart, confident girl could never have imagined what lies beneath a simple barn. Or what would happen when a mysterious boy shows up at her door, asking about the stars.

As the reality of the Jason Experiment comes to light, Martyr is caught between two futures—the one for which he was produced and the one Abby believes God created him to have. Time is running out, and Martyr must decide if a life with Abby is worth leaving everything he’s ever known.

JEN'S THOUGHTS
I love this book! Even though we know from the start that Jason Farms is populated by clones, you have to ask the question: Clones of who? How this question is answered is one of the great surprises that pop up along the way.

Williamson tackles controversial issues such as cloning and when life begins in a thoughtful, unique way. By contrast to the "normal" teenagers in the book, Martyr at first seems awkward and out of place. But you realize that he's just like them... trying to figure out who he is and his purpose in the world.

The character of Abby is a Christian from the get-go, and her faith is treated as a natural part of who she is. So it's only natural that she would share her faith and her world view with Martyr, who has no knowledge of God. Some may find this overtly Christian, but I thought it worked quite well.
This is a great book for pre-teens and older. Parents, you'll want to read this one, too. It could lead to some very interesting conversations with your kids!

Q for U:  Have you given any thoughts to the ethics of human cloning? Where do you stand?

JENNIFER ALLEE believes the most important thing a woman can do is find her identity in God – a theme that carries throughout her novels. A professional writer for over twenty years, she's done extensive freelance work for Concordia Publishing House, including skits, Bible activity pages, and over 100 contributions to their popular My Devotions series. Her first novel, The Love of His Brother, was released by Five Star Publishers in November 2007. Her latest novel, The Pastor’s Wife, was released by Abingdon Press in February 2010. Her next two novels are The Mother Road (April 2012) and A Wild Goose Chase Christmas (November 2012), both from Abingdon Press. She's a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Romance Writers of America, Christian Authors Network, and the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance.

Visit Jennifer's website at http://jenniferalleesite.blogspot.com/

Infected by Grief

God is familiar with grief and grieving. Probably more so than we could ever imagine.
Jesus knew what it was to grieve the loss of a loved one.
Every one of the apostles had to face the deaths of friends and family members.

Whether it's the passing into eternity of an elderly family member, a miscarriage or stillbirth, the loss of a friend or coworker to illness, the death of an acquaintance — even a stranger — to an accident, or something as seemingly trivial as the death of a pet, all of us come face to face with the spirit of grief in the course of life. 

Grief is neither to be feared, nor revered. 
It is never to be worshiped.


Grieving — mourning loss — is a natural, normal part of the process of life. What's not natural or normal is when the spirit of grief is permitted to infiltrate our spirits, souls, and bodies like some kind of toxic mold, and then color our reactions and responses to life from that point onward. 

So how do we respond properly, healthily, to tragedy, sadness, and loss without becoming infected by the spirit of grief?


Perhaps our clearest instructions are found in Isaiah 61, just past the words our Lord recited in Luke 4 to announce his arrival and assignment.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

Isa 61:1-3 NKJV

Knowing first that Jesus was familiar with grief and loss, it's easier to look at Isaiah's prophetic words and accept them.

In Christ, we have the oil of joy to soothe mourning, and the garment of praise to free us from the spirit of heaviness. The comfort of the Lord belongs to everyone who calls upon His name. 

There is, even as the author of Ecclesiastes wrote, "a time to mourn." What we must be aware of is the temptation to allow mourning, grief and heaviness to have more sway in our lives, thinking and emotions, than joy, praise, beauty, and righteousness. 


Are you consumed by death? By loss? By grief and mourning? Perhaps it's time to consider Jesus' response to death: He raised Lazarus, cast the mourners out of the house of the dead girl, and, perhaps most applicable to us, went off by Himself to spend time with His Father in prayer after learning of the death of his cousin, John the Baptist. 

The common denominator? Jesus never stayed in an attitude of mourning and grief for long.

He did not allow death to define life.
Yes, it's far easier said than done, but that's just one of the reasons He sent the Holy Spirit to us: to help us exchange that spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. If you've been tormented, twisted, or tortured by grief and mourning, whether over a life lost, or over your own youth, or lost dreams, or whatever, may today be the day you begin to exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise.

About the Author: Niki writes fiction, blog posts, articles in the local newspaper, grocery lists, and Facebook status updates. She can be found at her own blog, In Truer Ink, in addition to posting here. She was a 2009 finalist in the Faith, Hope, and Love "Touched by Love" contest.

Race to the Finish

by C.J. Chase

I’ve been sprinting the past week or so. No, not running. For some reason, I’ve never enjoyed running. These are writing sprints.

Okay, don’t tell my editor, but there are days I don’t enjoy writing either. Some days it’s drudgery trying to create people and conversations from nothing but my imagination.

You see, creating a book isn’t a 100-yard dash. It’s a marathon—and often a lonely marathon at that. Sure, it’s easy to start strong, with energy and enthusiasm. But what about after 100 pages? 250 pages? 400 pages?

Just like the runner runs a 26-mile marathon one step at a time, the novelist types the entire story one word at a time over the course of hundreds or even thousands of hours. Oh, how easy it is to skip an hour here. Who will know? And then another hour there—until finally, a half-finished manuscript languishes on my computer. Which is why I find writing sprints so helpful.

Writing sprints work this way: several writers meet in an Internet chat room. The moderator sets a timer, and everyone writes for the specified time. When time is up, we all report our progress. We chat and brainstorm for a few minutes--then we set the timer and off we go again.

I often accomplish more on my sprint days than those days when I write alone. Why? Those other writers provide me with encouragement and accountability.

Hebrews 11 is often called the “faith chapter.” The writer presents us with example after example of Biblical figures who remained faithful through hardship: Noah retaining his righteousness in a sea of wickedness, Moses’ parents refusing to follow Pharaoh’s edict and kill their child, Rahab daring death to hide the spies sent from God. 

These examples of old “did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” (Hebrews 11: 13 NIV) And yet, they remained faithful to God.

And then we come to Chapter 12:

Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! (Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG)

The Christian life is a race—a marathon, not a sprint. It requires day after day after day of trusting God even when we feel surrounded by depravity (like Noah) or discouraged by unfulfilled dreams (like Sarah). There will be times when (like Abraham) we don’t know where God is leading us. There will be times when we feel caught between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army. And there will be times when we face seemly impregnable walls like Jericho’s.

The race is long--but we aren’t running it alone. Imagine! That long list of faith heroes is to provide us with encouragement, inspiration, and accountability. We are to keep our eyes on Jesus, who endured persecution and for our sakes, and then we "will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:3 NIV).

One step at a time, one day at a time. And then we can say with Paul, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Timothy 4:7)

Have you felt weary or discouraged in the Christian race? Who are some of your favorite faith heroes who inspire you to keep running? (I'll be sharing some of mine in the comments, so you'll have to check there!)

After leaving the corporate world to stay home with her children, C.J. Chase quickly learned she did not possess the housekeeping gene. She decided writing might provide the perfect excuse for letting the dust bunnies accumulate under the furniture. Her procrastination, er, hard work paid off in 2010 when she won the Golden Heart for Best Inspirational Manuscript and sold the novel to Love Inspired Historicals. Redeeming the Rogue was an August, 2011 release. You can visit C.J.'s cyber-home (where the floors are always clean) at cjchasebooks.com

Suzanne Hartmann: Peril Giveaway

Cardinal Fan, Born And Bred

by Suzanne Hartmann

After a short drive to downtown St. Louis, Dad and I walked to Busch Stadium from a nearby parking garage. Dad stopped to buy a scorecard, then we surrendered our tickets and walked back and forth up, up, and up the walkways to our seats. As the game started, Dad pointed to the bright banner between tiers of seats that gave the score and taught me how to read the batter’s progress and what inning it was. He meticulously recorded each player’s actions on the scorecard and showed me how to write each type of play.

At age twelve, I was more interested in simply watching the players, but I soaked up the information throughout the game. We sang Take Me Out to the Ball Park with the words “Root, root, root for the Cardinals” inserted instead of “for the home team,” and pounded our feet and clapped our hands to the music to spur on my team.

We repeated this scene over and over throughout my Jr.  and Sr. high school years as we used the two sets of free “Straight A Tickets” I received each year for keeping an A average in school. Not only did I enjoy the games, but it made for great Daddy/Daughter time.

So it’s no wonder I was a die-hard Cardinals fan by the time I graduated from high school, in spite of the fact that the Cardinals kept the Cubs company in the doghouse throughout the 1970’s. My faith in the Cardinals was rewarded my sophomore year in college with a World Series win in 1982, followed by two more appearances in the Series in 1985 and 1987. I even attended one of the National League Playoff games.

So how did such a big Cardinals fan end up writing a novel with a twist of NASCAR? Why didn’t I add a twist of baseball with a focus on the Cardinals? Maybe I received a “drive-fast gene” from my fraternal grandfather, who drove an ambulance for a living for a while.

Although my husband watched the races occasionally, I generally used the time to take my Sunday afternoon nap. Maybe my ancestry through my grandfather made me susceptible to becoming a NASCAR fan, but it was a descendant—my daughter—who sparked my interest in stock car racing when she announced that she had chosen a favorite driver. Since I knew next to nothing about NASCAR, I had no idea if this driver was someone we should encourage her to root for. So I decided I’d better educate myself.

After a few months of watching the races and pestering my husband with questions. I realized that stock car racing was more interesting than I thought. I couldn't resist using a few racetracks as settings for the stories which eventually became Peril: Fast Track Thriller #1. And that naturally led to the addition of a NASCAR champion as a main character.

I haven’t turned away from my beloved Cardinals, especially not this year, when they won their eleventh World Series (gotta love the Comeback Cardinals). I’m still a die-hard fan, and I at least mentioned the team in my novel, but it’s the twist of NASCAR that makes Peril unique.


What is your favourite sport to play or watch?

Leave a comment with a valid email address by Friday midnight, Jan 27 for a chance to win Suzanne's giveaway of a copy of Peril: Fast Track Thriller #1.

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PERIL: A Fast Track Thriller

Lady Anne, a top operative of the OJL, the American government’s most clandestine intelligence organization, is paid to be paranoid, and she’s good at her job. So good, in fact, that she singlehandedly stops an assassination attempt at the White House. When newspapers splash her photo over the front page for saving King Ahmad—a Muslim recently converted to the Christian faith—not only is her cover in jeopardy, but the secrets of her enhanced strength and the entire agency. Then she’s given another assignment—to escort King Ahmad to a NASCAR track….

Stuart Jackson, age 33 and at the peak of his career as the reigning Cup Champion of NASCAR, has everything anyone could want—fame, fortune, success. But after he’s nearly blown up by a bomb at the White House, his achievements lose their allure. Nor can he forget the mysterious Lady Anne.


Give Suzanne Hartmann the ‘Checkered Flag’ for Peril. It’s like being on the race track, packed with fast-paced excitement and intrigue. A great read for any racing fan.” Rev. Greg Doussard, Director of Midwest Raceway Ministries, Pastor of The Sanctuary Church

“Plenty of action and unexpected twists.” Foreword by Jimmy Makar, GM of Joe Gibbs Racing

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Suzanne Hartmann is a homeschool mom and lives in the St. Louis area with her husband and three children. When not homeschooling or writing, she enjoys scrapbooking, reading, and Bible study. PERIL: Fast Track Thriller Bk. #1 is her debut novel. On the editorial side, Suzanne is a contributing editor with Port Yonder Press and operates the Write This Way Critique Service. She has also written an e-book on the craft of writing, entitled Write This Way: Take Your Writing to a New Level.
For more articles about PERIL and its sequels, visit my website:
http://fasttrackthrillers.blogspot.com/