Company's Coming! DELIA LATHAM

Please give a warm welcome to Delia Latham, White Rose Author of the newly released Kylie's Kiss.

Born and raised in a place called Weedpatch, Delia Latham moved from California to Oklahoma in 2008, making her a self-proclaimed California Okie. She loves to read and write in her simple country home, and gets a kick out of watching her husband play Farmer John. The author enjoys multiple roles as Christian wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend, but especially loves being a princess daughter to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. She loves to hear from her readers. She may be contacted through her website (http://www.delialatham.net) or send an e-mail to delia AT delialatham DOT net.

Here's a blurb:

On a dare, Kylie Matthews lands smack in the middle of Solomon’s Gate—Castle Creek’s new Christian dating agency—and she finds herself revealing exactly what she’s waiting for in a relationship: “The kiss that steals my breath away.”

What she doesn’t reveal is her lack of self-esteem or her irrational reaction to facial disfigurement. Neither is applicable to her quest to find the perfect match. But that seemingly superficial malady becomes all-important when her first agency-arranged date is Rick Dale—a man who is everything Kylie is searching for. He’s handsome, smart, fun. Rick has it all…including an angelic six-year-old daughter with severe scarring on one side of her face.

Hard at work founding a therapy camp for young female victims of deformity or disfigurement, Rick wants Kylie to be a part of those plans. She’d love to say yes…but how can she, when every contact with the facility’s guests—and Rick’s own daughter—will make her violently ill?

Kylie is ready to admit their relationship doesn’t stand a chance, but she’s forgotten that God makes a way where there seems no way.


Available publisher-direct - www.whiterosepublishing.com - or through local and online booksellers (e.g., Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD)

What do a woman of faith and a heathen biker have in common? The devil, of course.

Tessa is moved to intercede for a man she’s never met. When they do meet, she’s stunned. Gunnar is gorgeous, charismatic, and driven. He’s also hostile, self-destructive, and an unbeliever…and she’s drawn to him like no other. The temptation she feels is as dangerous as it is alluring. She wants to stay away, but God has other plans. He reveals the devil’s intent to destroy Gunnar and commissions Tessa to keep him covered in prayer. Can she rely on God to keep her from falling…in love, and into temptation? Or will the devil claim them both?

My friend JoAnn C. Carter was kind enough to post an interview I did with her on my journeys to faith and publication. Check it out: http://home.comcast.net/~jo.glenncarter/site/?/blog/category/7/

My First Contract

I just signed my first contract for a novel. The COVERING will be published with White Rose Publishing. Every author I spoke to at White Rose - without fail - assured me it's a wonderful place to be. I'm naturally apprehensive, a little giddy, and surprisingly I have to add confident. Not in my ability but in God's leading and judgment. I have peace about where I am - and though I don't expect to make a fortune - where I'm going. God is good and since He placed me in the White Rose bouquet, I'm trusting Him to keep me from stinking.

Pet peeves are a popular theme among bloggists, so here’s one of mine: Profanity in Christian Fiction. More specifically, the rejection of profanity in Christian fiction. Here’s the thing... In real life I cuss (curse/use profanity/swear). Some days it’s rare, some days you might think you got off the bus at a truck stop. For those of you with delicate sensibilities, cover the next line with a finger or pencil…

My favorite cuss is futher mucker. No, it’s not spelled wrong, that’s exactly how I say it.

Since it’s not the same pronunciation as the street favorite, I’m not certain it is a cuss, but I only say it when I’m angry or frustrated so I guess it counts. My point is that I’m a Christian. Not the “arrived” kind, but of the work-in-progress category most of us fall into.

Everything I write is personal. It’s also a w-i-p until the time it’s in someone else’s hands and I no longer have a say. Before then I keep going back, keep finding errors or things that just fit better. So it makes sense I’m the same way. I’ll need plenty of work right up to the second Jesus comes for me.

Some reading this will get it, some will wonder if I’m in condoning cussing. Well…not condoning so much as accepting. It’s not that I want to cuss or even particularly like it (though I must confess a flair for the darker side of my vocabulary), but it’s just the way it is. For me. And for some other Christians I know. And if Christians cuss, how much more those who aren’t saved?

I write about people I find interesting, about places I’ve been or would like to visit, and about things I see, hear, experience and feel. I’m not just writing about the way it was or will be one day, but the way it is now. As a Christian I’m writing just as much for those who don’t know Christ yet as for those who do. Should I represent Christ in the most flattering light? Well He doesn’t need me to do that, He’s pretty good at His own P.R. Should I represent Christians in the most flattering light? Well, it is fiction, but no. That’s each individual’s job, not mine.

And as a writer, I want to show people with flaws and temptations, not always wanting to make the wrong choice, but sometimes falling on their face even with the best of intentions. That’s me. That’s you. A profane word might never cross your lips, but maybe you’re a bigot. Prideful. Or a hypocrite.

As writers we shouldn’t shrink from showing the underbellies of our characters’ personalities. They’re ours as well. Of course let me say that Christ can change anyone who is willing to be changed and in my books the main characters do recognize their errors and make steps to correct them, often trying to use their own ability and strength, but more often, relying on Christ, the Author and Finisher of our (their) faith.

At least half of you will disagree with me. That’s fine, and feel free to say so. Maybe we’ll come to a meeting of minds when I write about my next pet peeve: Sex in Christian Fiction.