Congratulations to our GRAND PRIZE WINNER!!
2015 LYRA AWARD
K.M. Weiland
K.M. Weiland lives in make-believe worlds, talks to imaginary friends, and survives primarily on chocolate truffles and espresso. She is the IPPY and NIEA Award-winning and internationally published author of the Amazon bestsellers Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel, as well as Jane Eyre: The Writer’s Digest Annotated Classic, the western A Man Called Outlaw, the medieval epic Behold the Dawn, and the portal fantasy Dreamlander. When she’s not making things up, she’s busy mentoring other authors on her award-winning blog Helping Writers Become Authors. She makes her home in western Nebraska. For more information about her fiction, visit her website: KMWeiland.com.
In the high-flying, heady world of 1920s aviation, brash pilot Robert “Hitch” Hitchcock’s life does a barrel roll when a young woman in an old-fashioned ball gown falls from the clouds smack in front of his biplane. As fearless as she is peculiar, Jael immediately proves she’s game for just about anything, including wing-walking in his struggling airshow. In return for her help, she demands a ride back home . . . to the sky.
Hitch thinks she’s nuts—until he steers his plane into the midst of a bizarre storm and nearly crashes into a strange airship like none he’s ever run afoul of, an airship with the power to control the weather. Caught between a corrupt sheriff and dangerous new enemies from above, Hitch must take his last chance to gain forgiveness from his estranged family, deliver Jael safely home before she flies off with his freewheeling heart, and save his Nebraska hometown from storm-wielding sky pirates.
Cocky, funny, and full of heart, Storming is a jaunty historical adventure / dieselpunk mash-up that combines rip-roaring steampunk adventure and small-town charm with the thrill of futuristic possibilities.
“Dropping (literally) dieselpunk fantasy elements smack into the middle of an action adventure story revolving around a biplane pilot set in 1920s historical fiction was a brilliant idea. This novel is a joy to read!”—Suzan Robertson
“Memorably colorful and deeply knit-together characters captain this addictively charming page-turner with dialogue that sounds like an ash bat cracking a home run centerfield and proto-European dieselpunk undertones gild an aesthetic of pure Americana, exotically nostalgic and yet somehow effortlessly resonant, making us feel every punch of action down to the last gasp of a superb climax.”—Luke Taylor
“It's just one of those stories that's plain fun to sit down with. Rich, meaningful, well-crafted, heartwarming. I can't remember the last book where I enjoyed myself so thoroughly in the reading process.”—Schuyler McConkey
Congratulations to our Second Place BWB LYRA AWARD Contest WinnerOne semester before graduation, Danielle Caruthers, a Yale senior, takes a train to New York City and vanishes. No one has heard from her since—not her parents in gilded Westport, not her senior advisor, eminent art historian Whitmore Verhaast, and not her roommate, Sabrina Gutierrez.
The daughter of a single Colombian mother, Sabrina grew up on the rough side of Chicago and has been defying the odds ever since—most recently with a full scholarship to Yale. Now, as she sifts through the clues her roommate left behind, Sabrina discovers that Danielle was in hot pursuit of a centuries-old secret—the true identity of Vermeer. If Danielle’s explosive discovery is revealed, it would ruin Verhaast and expose the powerful cabal in the shadows behind him—a cabal ready to kill to keep the secret.
Obsessed with solving the mystery of her missing friend, Sabrina leaves Yale behind and risks everything to bring the truth to light. Further fueling Sabrina’s perilous mission is her own score to settle...that is, if Verhaast doesn’t get her first.
Congratulations to our Third Place BWB LYRA AWARD Contest WinnerSusan D. Hill graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University and worked in human resource management for ten years. She served as a leader with Bible Study Fellowship and Young Life, and currently works with Uganda Orphans Fund, a non-profit NGO founded by her husband, Duncan Hill. Since 2002, UOF has built over thirty orphanages or schools for AIDS and war orphans, and other vulnerable children in Uganda. Hill started writing for publication in 2003 through magazine articles with Light & Life, War Cry, AWE, Christian Educators Journal and World magazine. WaterBrook Press/Random House released her spiritual memoir in February 2008: Closer Than Your Skin: Unwrapping the Mystery of Intimacy with God.
Book Description
Ten-year-old Iris Somerset encounters a living God when her mother dies unexpectedly. She and her two brothers face a troubling future. Their father’s instability undermines the family, yet God is there—speaking and moving.
Her budding faith carries her through frightful uncertainty, until a reckless choice one fine summer day changes everything.
As her world unravels, Iris and her older brother travel to post-Amin Uganda with their uncle who runs an orphanage. In a land of despondency, Iris’ heart begins to mend as she confronts her worst fears and experiences the wonder of God through the eyes of war orphans.
“I am not old, but I’m no longer a child. Sometimes I’m brave enough to think about those days—days of suffocating fear and weeks when sadness had no end, and I lived with many questions tapping on my brain like a relentless woodpecker. Each new bend in the road of twists and turns thrust me into the unknown like a wild mustang ride—snorting, rearing, and trampling my simple world. And when the quiet came at night, my heart seemed as cold as the bottom of the great lake.
Yet Nana’s gentle hand on my arm, or the look in Skeets’ kind eyes, well, they kept something muffin alive in me. They made me believe a greater thing could happen…”
–Iris Somerset
Review by Moriah McKee
I loved reading these true "God Stories" woven into Iris' fictional life. A child's perspective on life's big problems reminds me its ok to question God, even ok to be mad at God. We just can't stay there forever. A redemptive story, and an inspiration to every day keep listening for the still small voice.
WE WILL POST ALL BWB 2015 CATEGORY WINNERS BOOK COVERS AS SOON AS WE HAVE THEM ALL!!
Women’s Fiction - Finding Amanda by Robin Patchen
General Fiction - A Man of Character by Margaret Locke
Romance - The Defendant by Chris Taylor
Historical - Rogue Knight by Regan Walker
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller - The Eyes of Others by Mikael Carlson
Romantic Suspense - The Perfect Husband by Chris Taylor
Inspirational - Dance of Grace by Stacy Monson
Novella - The Forgotten Web - A Novella by Sara Snide
Young Adult - The Humming Bird Book 1 by The de Wardin Sisters
Science Fiction/Fantasy - Dawn of Wonder by Jonathan Renshaw
