I just got some good and interesting news I thought I’d share.  O Little Town, which had a great Christmas season thanks to all you folks who bought it (and I hope read it), has won an award.   It’s called an ADDY award and it’s given by the American Advertising Federation.  It’s for the book cover and I have to thank all of the David C Cook people for this design as they had much more to do with it than did I.  When I first approved the picture for the dust jacket, I was very much taken by the car which I think is a Nash Rambler.  I’m not sure of the year so I’ll leave that to you auto-pop historians who can tell by the window shapes and door handles what year it was made.  But I must share a funny story about the tree on top.  A good friend of mine, after seeing the cover for the first time, pointed out that the tree was backward on top of the car.  He said if you drove a tenth of a mile it would be on the ground in shambles because of the wind drag.  I looked again and had to agree.  But he has been the only person to notice.  I wouldn’t dare embarrass him by telling you his name but he goes under the indentity of Bryan Kennedy.  But that just goes to show you what you know Bryan.  It won an award!

The next good news came in the form of a nomination.  The ACFW, American Christian Fiction Writers Association gives out awards for books in all kinds of categories.  Well, it appears O LITTLE TOWN has been nominated for Book Of The Year in the Ficton class.  I am humbled and honored by both of these recognitions.

But on to the future.  I get a lot of emails and questions about upcoming projects.  In a previous blog I had stated that two new novels were forthcoming and this brought on the question of “when?”.  Well, now I can answer that a little better.  My next book has already been delivered to the publisher and a date of release has been set for August 2010.  That seems a long way off but it takes nearly a year to get all the things in motion, editing, artwork, printing and etc. before it’s ready to ship.  Plus, this gives O LITTLE TOWN another Christmas season on the shelf before a new book comes on the market.  There is a working title but I’ll share that with you as we get closer to the release date.

Right now I’m working on the next book which will probably be out in 2011.  I can’t share that title with you either because I don’t even know it yet.  Just like writing songs, sometimes the title comes first and sometimes it comes after the song or story is completed.

Hope you’re having a nice spring.  And hope the summer is gentle and warm.  Stay in touch and God bless.

DR

Friday afternoon, 4:05- March 13, 2009

For the past few months I’ve been doing some speaking engagements.  I’m not much interested in traveling anymore so they all have been fairly close to home.  I’ve also been doing some book signings and they haven’t been very close.  But still, I enjoy them all.

The speaking engagements are usually churches and not all of them are posted on this website for varied and sundry reasons.   Same for the booksignings.  Most have been at publishing conventions and are not opened to the public so I figured, “Why confuse the issue?” by advertising something folks can’t get into even if they showed up.  But one thing that has happened recently is something I very much want to share with everyone.

Yesterday, October 1, I had a new book released.  It’s a novel.  My first.  And I’m as happy about this book as I have been about anything for a long time.  It’s set at Christmastime in a small Virginia town I chose to call Mt. Jefferson.  One look at an Old Dominion map will tell you that there is no more a Mt. Jefferson than there is a Statler brother.  I just pulled the name out of the same air we pulled Statler from.  But in reality it’s Staunton, my favorite town and it takes place in 1958, my favorite decade.  If you’re so inclined, I hope you read it and, of course, I hope even more you like it.

Since I’ve been writing books these past six years, I’m always asked when the next one is coming.  That answer has always been rather nebulous as I was never sure if there would even be another one.  But now I can offer a firmer answer to that question.  We’ve just signed a two-book deal with DavidCCook Publishing so there will be more coming for sure.  Just keep watching this site and I’ll try to keep you informed as to when and what.

But right now I guess I’d better get back to work on those two books!

The holidays are upon us so have a fun Halloween, a peaceful Thanksgiving, and a Blessed Merry Christmas!

Thursday, Oct. 2 -6:50pm

DR