Christine Amsden has written The Immortality Virus, which was just published this year by Twilight Times Books. Here’s the official blurb:

In the mid-21st century, the human race stopped aging. Those who know why aren’t talking, and the few who are brave enough to ask questions tend to disappear. To an elite few, The Change means long life and health, but to the increasing masses, it means starvation, desperation, and violence.

Four centuries after The Change, Grace Harper, a blacklisted P.I., sets off on a mission to find the man responsible for it all and solicit his help to undo The Change – if he’s still alive. To complicate matters, Grace’s employer is suspected of murdering his father, and when the police learn of their connection, they give her a choice – help them find the evidence they need to convict Matthew Stanton, or die. But if they discover Grace’s true mission, they won’t hesitate to kill her in order to protect their shot at immortality.

The paperback is available from the publisher for $18.95 (digital ebook for $6.50). I also see you can get a Kindle ebook for $3.25. You can read an excerpt here. If you want a free copy, I have one available for the first person who emails me at dona [at] fantasyandfaith dot com. Put “The Immortality Virus” in the subject line. (U.S. residents only, please)

You can find the author here: http://christineamsden.com

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of “The Immortality Virus” for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Anyway, I stumbled across something kind of fun. Holly Lisle has decided to allow others to read the first draft of her new novel TalysMana as she is writing it. If you sign up on the email list, you will receive one scene at a time, beginning with Chapter 1.

For the writers out there, she has also challenged others to write a novel with her at only 400-500 words a night. That shouldn’t be too bad.

If you’re interested in following along with Holly, visit her website at:
http://talysmana.com/

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of “The Immortality Virus” for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

What some don’t know is that in 2004, Rice announced that she had returned to the faith of her childhood and had determined that from that time forward she would “write only for the Lord,” leaving behind the “aetheistic despair, searching and misery” she had been mired in.

Since that time, her books “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt” and “Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana,” (the first two books in a planned trilogy) and “Angel Time” have been published. “Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim” hit the shelves in October 2009.

On January 14, Rice appeared in an interview on The 700 Club. In the interview, she talks about her search for God and her subsequent return to the faith. With many of her loyal fans following her story, she has had opportunity to respond to others who are reaching out to escape the misery and search for meaning they identified with in her vampire books. What journey she has made.

You can see for yourself Rice’s current projects and story at her website:
http://www.annerice.com/

She also has a Facebook fan page at:
Anne Rice’s Facebook Fan Page

Meanwhile, here’s a link to the 8-minute video interview: Anne Rice Interview

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of “The Immortality Virus” for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A link to the Terry Brook’s character auction is here. As of today, the leading bid is $175. Here’s the blurb from that page:

Item Description: Would you like to be immortal?  For more than 30 years, Terry Brooks has been a highly influential force in fantasy fiction. His first book, The Sword of Shannara, was published in 1977 and made publishing history, becoming the first work of fiction to appear on the New York Times Trade Paperback Bestseller list, where it remained for over five months.  His Shannara, Landover and Word & Void books have made him one of the top picks of fantasy readers worldwide.  His works have been compared to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  Now you can be a character in one of his books.  With over 50 books currently in print, you can be assured that any book he writes will be read by thousands and become a part of book collections in home and libraries around the world.  In addition, you will receive an autographed copy of the finished book on publication.

Special Instructions: The author, of course, retains the right to decide if you will be a hero, a villain, a human, a monster or something even stranger.  The more you bid, the better your chances of being cast in a favorable role and being given a larger part in the story.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of “The Immortality Virus” for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

“It’s amazing to me that a good 60%–70% of the winners go on with successful careers in writing, and several have become best-selling authors themselves, said New York Times best-selling author and contest judge Kevin J. Anderson (Dune prequels, Star Wars, X-Files).

Throughout the Contest’s 25-year history, more than 250 writers and nearly 200 illustrators have been recognized as winners, according to Labaqui. They’ve gone on to publish over 300 novels and 3,000 short stories as well as thousands of published illustrations. Former Writers of the Future Contest winners listed on the New York Times best-seller’s list include Jo Beverly, Nancy Farmer, Karen Joy Fowler, Sean Williams, Dave Wolverton and Patrick Rothfuss.

The contest was inspired by L. Ron Hubbard 25 years ago. Because of this, I was initially skeptical of the contest, but further research revealed that it is not connected to Hubbard’s Christian Science ideology. That and seeing who the contest judges were made me a believer in the weight this contest caries in the general market for SciFi and Fantasy fiction. Judges include Kevin J. Anderson, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Robert Sawyer, Robert Silverberg, K.D. Wentworth and equally famous illustrator judges such as Frank Frazetta, Bob Eggleton, Sergey Poyarkov, Stephen Hickman and Stephen Youll.

The contest provides new writers a leg up in entering the general market. Typically only 3 (yes, only three!) of every 10,000 manuscripts submitted in the United States each year are published, many by established authors, according to Contest Director Joni Labaqui.

So here is the list of annual winners that will be published in this year’s anthology. Keep an eye open. You may see some of these again soon in your local bookstore.

FIRST QUARTER WRITERS OF THE FUTURE

First place: Matthew Rotundo of Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Second place: Gary Kloster of Braham, Minnesota, USA
Third place: Fiona Lehn of Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

ILLUSTRATORS OF THE FUTURE
Oleksandra Barysheva of Matawan, New Jersey, USA
A.R. Stone of Eugene, Oregon, USA
Tobias Anson Fruge of Mesa, Arizona, USA

SECOND QUARTER WRITERS OF THE FUTURE

First place: Donald Mead of Bloomington, Illinois, USA
Second place: Mike Wood of Wirral, ENGLAND
Third place: Gra Linnaea of Eugene, Oregon, USA

ILLUSTRATORS OF THE FUTURE
Mark Payton of Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Joshua Stewart of Rexburg, Idaho, USA
Aaron Anderson of Saratosa Springs, Utah, USA

THIRD QUARTER WRITERS OF THE FUTURE

First place: Jordan Lapp of Coquitlam, British Columbia, CANADA
Second place: C.L. Holland of Anglessey, UNITED KINGDOM
Third place: Krista Hoeppner Leahy of Brooklyn, New York, USA

ILLUSTRATORS OF THE FUTURE
Douglas Bosley of Bellingham, Washington, USA
Evan Jensen of Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Ryan Behrens of Olympia, Washington, USA

FOURTH QUARTER WRITERS OF THE FUTURE

First place: Emery Huang of Orlando, Florida, USA
Second place: Heather McDougal of Davenport, California, USA
Third place: Schon Zwakman of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, USA

ILLUSTRATORS OF THE FUTURE
Jamie Luhn of Myersville, Maryland, USA
Luke Eidenschnik of St. Joseph, Minnesota, USA
Brianne Hills of Billerica, Massachusetts, USA

Congratulations to all the winners! The anthology (Volume 25) can be pre-ordered here. Release date is September 15, 2009.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of “The Immortality Virus” for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”