The Blog/Diary of Novelist Sam Batterman

Welcome to my blog. Please feel free to make yourself at home, look at my postings, visit my friends links and contribute your own comments. 

Thank you for visiting!


Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mike Dellosso Reviews Wayback

Mike Dellosso, the author of Scream, The Hunted and the forthcoming Darlington Woods reviewed Wayback on Amazon:
Intellectually Stimulating Thriller
Batterman's WAYBACK is more than a thriller . . . it's an education. Meticulously researched, this book is an intelligently written, thought-provoking, yet action-packed ride. It gave me much food for thought without taking from the entertainment value.
I've often wondered what it would be like to go back to the time of the Great Flood. To see Noah's ark. To experience life as it was lived before the deluge. This book satisfied my curiosity. Time and time again I found myself sharing insights and ideas from the book with my wife.
If you're looking for a story that will satisfy on a number of levels, stimulate you intellectually, hold your imagination captive, and keep you turning pages, WAYBACK needs to be at the top of your list.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

2 New Reviews

Greetings! Hope your new year is going well.

Alisa Wagner has posted a review of Wayback and an interview of yours truly on her fabulous blog: Faith Imagined. Alisa has poured countless hours into her blog site and the number of people following her on Twitter and as Google followers shows she's having an impact. Check out her site.

Andy Anglea posted a review on his site as well after reading Wayback over Christmas break.

If you're a writer and are planning on attending the Christian Writer's Guild in Denver, Colorado make sure you look me up for coffee. I'll be there trying to find a publisher and agent for my next novel, Maximal Reserve. I'm just finishing the 5th draft and it's 90,000 words - that's around 350 pages. Some early readers that have read it have even said they think it's better than Wayback.

I guess I should be getting better over time. That's the whole idea, right? :)

Please pray for the poor souls in Haiti struggling to survive amidst the devastation of the earthquake that hit there two days ago. Also, consider making your faith and prayer more concrete by sending money to a respectable humanitarian aid organization like the Red Cross.

Blessings to you,

Sam

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Another good review of Wayback

Mark Buzard of Thoughts of a Sojourner has posted a review of Wayback. You can visit his site and register for a signed copy of the book over the next 10 days. Here's the review (with Mark's permission to repost):

Sam Batterman, the author of Wayback, emailed me recently and asked if I would be interested in reviewing his book. I read about it - it sounded pretty good, but it is not from a big Christian publisher, so I was a bit dubious, but I went for it, and am glad I did.

This is a time travel book, but is the best one I have ever read - and I have read a few. I found it entertaining, fascinating, and even educational. A team of experts in their fields is sent back in time to just prior the Flood. Though the book is the author's idea, based on the Bible and help from Answers In Genesis, I still was intrigued by the description of how things might have been.

The author uses a fictional story to show how intelligent design and Creationism have to be right. Through discussions with the characters in the book, he presents the proof for Creationism. Some on the team are Christians who believe completely in God and Creationism, while others are not Christians and embrace the theory of evolution, until they take the trip of a lifetime.

I really, honestly enjoyed this book. It came in the mail today (Saturday), and I took it, climbed in the recliner, pulled a blanket up over me, and quickly got pulled into the story. This was one of my "one sitting reads" - when a book is so good that I read it in one sitting, except for bathroom breaks or an email check. I learned that a book doesn't have to be from a big publishing company to be quality fiction.

Bookmark his site - he's got a lot of great reviews up there.

Blessings,
Sam

Saturday, January 2, 2010

2010...and no flying cars (yet)

Wow, can it really be 2010? It seems like just yesterday everyone was worried (needlessly) about the Y2K bug and its civilization damaging effects, and now, ten years later we hardly remember what all the fuss was about.

2009 will always have a special memory for me. The year my first book, Wayback, was published, the year my daughter started playing sports competitively on JV teams, the list could go on and on. New Friends made, friends that have gone on to Heaven, friends moving away. It's a swirl of happiness and sadness all melded into one.

Maximal Reserve is now going through its third revision - the spelling and grammar errors that pockmarked the first draft are now gone and the story has been cut here and elaborated more there. It's gone from a meandering walk in a park to a sprint down a city street.

It's definitely better.

In February I'm going to the Christian Writer's Guild (a writer's conference that was started by Jerry Jenkins) and I plan on talking with publishers and agents about the manuscript then. I will also be posting it on Christian Manuscript Network to see if it gets any action beforehand.

One of the neat people that I became acquainted with in 2009 was Mike Dellosso. Mike also lives in Pennsylvania and he writes Christian Fiction that has a hint of horror and suspense. Can such a genre really exist in the world of Christian Fiction (you might ask)? The answer is wholeheartedly "Yes!!!" I read Scream and ripped through it in a day and a half. He's an honest writer and a master storyteller.

Finally, thank you to all my readers that took time out of their busy, hectic schedules and read Wayback. I much much appreciate each and everyone of you.

Blessings to you and yours in 2010,

Sam