New Sites and Bestseller List

Happy post-Labor Day, BGs. Hope your holiday was unlaborious. Not mine—I wrote all day.

Three points of news:

1. www.titletrakk.com is a new website featuring the latest in Christian fiction and music. It has interviews, reviews, and information on new titles, such as first chapters of new novels. Two BGs—C.J Darlington and Darcie Gudger—are involved in creating the site.


2. www.wherethemapends.com, created by Jeff Gerke, is devoted to Christian science fiction, fantasy, time travel, alternate history, supernatural thrillers, chillers, and pure speculative fiction. The site boasts interviews from the “pillars” in those genres. First up is Frank Peretti, followed by Jerry Jenkins and Ted Dekker. Jeff also has a massive booklist of published novels in these genres (over 250 and growing), a “fantastic visions” gallery area for Christian speculative art, and lots of information for budding novelists on how to improve their fiction and get published. The emphasis on writing and publishing, from a professional in the field, may be the one of the site’s main contributions. Jeff has a page up offering his full array of editorial services as well. And he’s thrown in some world-builders and idea-starters, including a “fabulously fun” random story generator that Randy Ingermanson and he put together.

3. Have you seen the September bestseller list (featuring sales in the month of July)? First time I’ve seen a list like this one. Sixteen of the twenty titles are also on the Top Fifty list, which is unusually so dominated by nonfiction titles. In addition, the #1 and #2 spots on the fiction list are also #1 and #2 on Top Fifty—Lori Wick’s Leave a Candle Burning, and Terri Blackstock’s Night Light. (Hm—do they know something about electricity we don’t know?) BG Donna Fleisher, at #16 on the fiction list, is #50 on the Top Fifty. I think this is Donna’s debut on both lists. Congratulations, Donna! And congratulations to fiction in general. Heck, people aren’t readin’ boring nonfiction at the beach—they’re reading NOVELS.