Mary DeMuth and Free Books!

Daisy Chain explores family secrets in a small East Texas town after Jed's best friend Daisy goes missing.

Before we meet today's author, I'd like to announce that the winner of the signed copy of Renee Ryan's book, The Marshall Takes a Bride, goes to:

vie@ . . .

Congratulations! I'll contact you today for your snail mail address, and we'll get your book to you right away. I encourage readers to keep commenting and/or subscribe at right in order to participate in future book give-aways!

And now let's meet novelist Mary DeMuth, author of Daisy Chain (Zondervan, March 2009).

Author of six books, Mary E. DeMuth helps people to turn their trials into triumphs. Mary has spoken at several national writers conferences and has had the privilege of teaching in the US, Europe, and Africa for various churches and church planting ministries. She's appeared on national TV in Canada, and WFAA's Good Morning Texas. Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Rockwall, Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France, where they planted a church.

Mary, tell us a bit more about the plot of Daisy Chain.

The abrupt disappearance of young Daisy Chance from a small Texas town in 1973 spins three lives out of control--Jed, whose guilt over not protecting his friend Daisy strangles him; Emory Chance, who blames her own choices for her daughter's demise; and Ouisie Pepper, who is plagued by headaches while pierced by the shattered pieces of a family in crisis.

In this first book in the Defiance, Texas Trilogy, fourteen-year-old Jed Pepper has a sickening secret: He's convinced it's his fault his best friend Daisy went missing. Jed's pain sends him on a quest for answers to mysteries woven through the fabric of his own life and the lives of the families of Defiance, Texas. When he finally confronts the terrible truths he's been denying all his life, Jed must choose between rebellion and love, anger and freedom.

Daisy Chain is an achingly beautiful southern coming-of-age story offering a haunting yet hopeful backdrop for human depravity and beauty, for terrible secrets and God's surprising redemption.

Which character in your novel most interested you while you wrote? Why?

Jed, the main point of view character because it proved to be a challenge to get into a 14-year-old's head.

Why will readers enjoy your novel?

They'll enjoy it because it's different. Twists in the plot should surprise, and the folks you thought would be redemptive might not end up being that way in the long run. On the other hand, some characters show a beauty only found toward the end of the book.

People who like books like Peace Like a River should enjoy the read. I like to call it literary suspense.

If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your lead roles?

Jed: Shia LaBoeuf (though he's getting older)

Daisy: Abigail Breslin

Hixon: Will Smith

Hap: Chris Cooper

Muriel: Winona Ryder

Ouisie: Kate Winslet

What facet of the writing craft comes easiest to you? Explain.

The initial flurry of fleshing out an idea (nonfiction) or a character (fiction). I love the creativity that comes in those genesis moments.

What do you struggle with in your writing?

Rewriting. It's just not as fun!

This month I'm asking our authors about well-rounded characters. Say a new writer is struggling to make her main character less "flat." In a few sentences, give her your advice.

Authors must to learn to "go there" in our personal lives. If authors skate along the surface of life, never mining what's beneath, they will inevitably turn out emotionally flat stories. Use your own angst to fuel your characters. It doesn't need to be the exact angst, but use the emotional landscape of your own to add texture to your characters.

Choose an inanimate object to represent you. Explain what you have in common with that object.

A deck of cards. Sometimes I'm neat, all my corners and edges lined up. And other times I'm 52-card pick up--a disarray of queens and hearts and spades.

What is the last book you read that impacted you? How did it affect you?

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It made me want to make a difference in the developing world. If my books sell lots of copies, I'm funneling the funds to Africa.

What are you working on now?

The third book in the Defiance, TX trilogy, currently titled Defiance.

Where else can readers find you or your writing online? Please include the link for purchasing your book.

Book: Amazon.com

Websites: www.marydemuth.com, www.thewritingspa.com

Blogs: blog.myfamilysecrets.org, www.relevantblog.blogspot.com, www.wannabepublished.blogspot.com.

Thanks, Mary, for telling us about yourself and Daisy Chain. Readers, Mary has offered to sign a copy of her novel for the winner of our drawing on Monday, March 9. To enter, leave a comment for Mary, below. Leave your email address, in case you win, like so: trish[at]trishperry[dot]com. If you subscribe to my blog, at right (or if you're already subscribed) you'll be entered an additional time to this drawing and all future drawings.

And check back on Thursday, when we'll meet novelist A.K. Arentz, author of The Case of the Bouncing Grandma. And we'll draw the winner of Lyn Cote's book, The Desires of Her Heart. You can still enter for that drawing under Lyn's interview, below.

Finally, take a look at some of the exciting novels releasing this month:

1. A Hundred Years of Happiness, 2nd in the Summer Meadows Mysteries by Nicole Seitz from Thomas Nelson. A generous story of family, war, loss and longing . . . of the ways we hide from those we love, and the ways that love finds us anyway.

2. A Silent Terror by Lynette Eason from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. Someone wants Marianna Santino dead. Ethan O'Hara is willing to risk everything, including his heart, to keep her alive.

3. A Test of Faith, Mystery and the Minister's Wife #3 by Carol Cox from Guideposts. When everything falls apart, can faith hold them together?

4. Breach of Trust Call of Duty #1 by DiAnn Mills from Tyndale. Paige Rogers, former CIA agent, must choose between protecting the lives of loved ones or bringing a ruthless killer to justice.

5. Candy-Coated Secrets, 2nd in the Summer Meadows Mysteries by Cynthia Hickey from Barbour. Who would have thought escorting an elephant down Highway 64 could lead to murder?

6. Daisy Chain, Defiance, TX series, book one by Mary DeMuth from Zondervan. The abrupt disappearance of young Daisy Chance haunts the small town of Defiance, Texas. Fourteen-year-old Jed Pepper searches for answers in this gritty and compelling story of love and sorrow, revealing God’s hand of redemption in impossible situations.

7. Daniel's Den by Brandt Dodson from Harvest House Publishers. Daniel and Laura become the objects in a game of cat and mouse where they learn just how big the cat can be - and that it's no game.

8. Fatal Illusions by Adam Blumer from Kregel Publications. An obsessive woman, a serial killer, and a sudden winter storm turn a sabbatical in the North Woods into a nightmare that the Thayer family may not escape alive.

9. If Tomorrow Never Comes by Marlo Schalesky from Waterbrook-Multnomah Publishers/Random House. Kinna and Jimmy Henley never planned on infertility stealing their dreams, crushing their love. But it did. Now, their last hope lies with a mysterious woman rescued from the sea.

10. Love Finds You in Humble Texas by Anita Higman from Summerside Press. Two sisters fall in love with the same man.

11. Michal: A Novel, The Wives of King David series Book 1 by Jill Eileen Smith from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. A princess falls in love with her father's worst enemy - will it cost her everything?

12. Poisoned Secrets by Margaret Daley from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense. Maggie spent years searching for her birth mother, but when the past is revealed, the shocking disclosures could tear her life apart.

13.The Hand-Me-Down Family by Winnie Griggs from Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historicals. For the sake of three orphaned children, two scarred individuals - one physically, one emotionally - try to work together to forge a new family.

14. The List by Sherri Lewis from Urban Christian. Four women on a quest to find Godly men based on a list.

15. Wind of the Spirit, The American Patriot Series, Book 3 by J. M. Hochstetler from Sheaf House Publishers. As the patriot cause falters, can her love bridge the miles that separate them--and the savage bonds that threaten to tear him forever from her arms?

16. Yesterday's Embers, The Clayburn Novels by Deborah Raney from Howard Books/Simon & Schuster. Newlyweds Doug and Mickey must find a way to untangle their knot of hasty choices without breaking the hearts of five precious children or their own in the process.

Happy reading!