Author Spotlight: Amanda Blackwood

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The Miller Miles

Micro-Biographies Book 1

by Amanda Blackwood

Genre: Nonfiction, Biography, Human Trafficking, Abuse Survival 

A saint was once asked "What is anger?" He replied that anger is a punishment that we give ourselves for someone else's mistake. Believe me, revenge is far worse.

We all do things we aren't proud of. Some of us have done far worse than others. I was a rather troubled teen and grew into a troubled young adult. One of the chapters from my life that I didn't know I'd ever have the courage to tell is the one about the Miller Miles.

From sex to drugs to love and lies, this adventure holds all that touches the lives of our nation's youth no matter what decade it might be. I was a teenage runaway, and as bad as that might be, I dragged others down that road with me. Eventually my friends betrayed me and I was left stranded in a strange city. It wouldn't be the last time that would happen in my life, but it was the last time in my life I actively sought (and achieved) revenge.

Miller was completely caught off guard. To some extent, so was I. It was an adventure to a degree, a nightmare to live and a story that I'll never forget as long as I breathe.

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The Shack In the Woods

Micro-Biographies Book 2

How much trouble can two young kids get into when nobody is looking? A lot.

Don and I were unlikely friends, both damaged souls from secrets nobody knew. One of our many adventures took us to a shack in the woods where nobody had ventured in too many years to count. We knew we needed to explore the place and were driven by an unexplained force, but we never imagined what we might find.

While we both found lost history, and Don found adventure, what I found was much more precious. I found a piece of me, a passion for history, and a rediscovery of my soul. I learned through one adventure as a kid that no matter how bad things were, I still didn't want to die. Discovery of self can be one of life's greatest adventures.

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Detailed Pieces of A Shattered Dream

Micro-Biographies Book 3

"My name is Amanda Blackwood and I'm a survivor of human trafficking."

Even now the words sound like fiction, especially as the horrors fade from recent memory. It's been 20 years since I escaped that fate, beating the odds. Most don't survive. I know that now, I didn't know that then. I didn't see any other option.

At the age of 19, my life took a drastic turn down a very dark path. I married a much older man in an attempt to escape my already dramatic life and was looking for a way out of trouble when the word "trouble" was completely redefined for me. Taken in you a young couple who then sold me like property to the highest bidder, my life changed completely. Suddenly I found myself locked away in a small room with no food, no water, no bathroom, and no company other that the screams of other trapped girls down the dark, deadly hallway. I had ample time to rethink my life. When I escaped, I didn't go back for the other girls whose screams haunt my dreams even now.

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Custom Justice

by Amanda Blackwood

Genre: Nonfiction, Biography

It's hard enough to escape human trafficking, but how does someone survive the aftermath of continually being hunted for years to come? I was young when the abuse started. It came from every angle. Struggling for many years, I wasn't sure I'd ever have a chance at a normal life with real love and true happiness. At the age of 31 I figured I was too old for that sort of thing. I'd been abused in the past, but this time I was finally going to have a happy ending.

I was moving to a foreign country to get married to a police officer I'd known for seven years. I would finally be happy. I had no idea that my entire life would change once more, and I'd be forced to either subject myself to abuse beyond anything I could ever imagine, or end my life unceremoniously, death by train. The man I thought I loved exploited me beyond comprehension. The damage he left behind will haunt me for the rest of my life. There is no way to seek court justice across international borders against a police officer in a corrupt system. Instead, I seek my custom justice simply by sharing the truth with the world. It's been 10 years since I escaped, beating all odds. Most don't survive. I know that now, I didn't know that then.

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Lost April

by Amanda Blackwood

Genre: Nonfiction, Biography

When the media first started talking about the pandemic of 2020 it seemed as though most of the world was operating out of fear. Having already survived so much in my life, I was hesitant to buy into it all. Instead, I found myself facing new challenges with friends who were dying around me of cancer, and losing those who had taught me that I still had a heart worth loving. Challenges mounted as I found myself the soul supporter for the household after my roommate lost his job, and then totalled my car. The pandemic was 'raging on' according to the news, but the real fight was within.

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Amanda grew up moving all over the country and befriending people from all different cultural backgrounds. She came from a middle class family, and from the outside everything appeared to be quite normal. Nobody knew about the struggles behind closed doors - from an abusive family to school bullying, one struggle after another gave her a fighting spirit to never give up and to root for the underdog. While Amanda has mainly published memoirs and autobiographies, she has a heart for romance and an imagination for sci-fi. She has recently branched out into several different genre.

Amanda Blackwood is a survivor of human trafficking. A portion of every book sale goes to help fight human trafficking and to help other victims still trapped. Amanda lives in Denver, CO with her supportive husband and rescue cats who keep her sane.

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Then Came You

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Then Came You

by Veralyn Keach

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

SARA ANDERSON is offered the chance of a life worth dreaming about. Will she be brave enough to take it?

Sara lives a quiet life; she has her job as a nurse, which she loves, and a lovely apartment she shares with a roommate. One fine summer evening, she is working her usual shift when a stranger comes up to her with important news. Sara has inherited a bar from a grandfather she never knew. At first, she wants to sell it, but, in the end, she decides to see it first. Maine really could be as wonderful as she has heard.

Maine is gorgeous, and the bar is profitable. Her manager, ROY LARSEN, is handsome and compelling. She feels her heart begin to open to him. It is only after someone offers her a dream opportunity in medicine that she truly begins to think she should stay. Everything starts to fall into place; she has her bar, job, and a new house. Then Roy’s ex-girlfriend shows up. She is trouble. Her schemes threaten everything Sara and Roy have built. Will Sara see through them and regain her trust, or will she let it destroy her new life?

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Also by Veralyn Keach:

The Scent of a Man Series

by Veralyn Keach

Genre: Paranormal Romance

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Veralyn Keach, is the writer and author of the new Fiction/Fantasy/Romance Paranormal Vampire series, "The Scent Of A Man." As well as the Romance Novella “Then Came You.” She resides in Port St Lucie, Florida and when she's not writing she is glued to Netflix or Hulu!

This has been an exciting time for her to write a series about vampires, werewolves, and romance because she grew up reading and watching fiction/fantasy/paranormal/young adult books and movies, which is the category for which her series falls under. If this is you too, you are the perfect reader for the series.

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Soul of the Citizen

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Soul of the Citizen: Prayers For A Divided Nation

by Mischa Field

Genre: Christian Nonfiction 

Crisis times call for leadership.
Corrupt times call for integrity.
These times call for a move of God, and a move of God calls for you.

Soul of the Citizen: Prayers for a Divided Nation, by Mischa Field, is the cry of a burdened heart refusing to give up on neighbor or neighborhood or nation. It is a collection of prayers for leaders and followers, for parents and children, for shepherds and flocks, and for you and your enemy.

A biblical scribe for modern times, Field offers the reader a word of hope and a call to action. This book is for anyone looking to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God in a time drowning in accusation and ambiguity.

If you long to protect your peace in times of conflict, this book is for you.
If you long to live ethically and authentically in times of struggle, this book is for you.
If you are moved to pray that God would do a new thing in the life of this nation, this book is for you.

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Mischa Field is an ordained reverend who has practiced ministry in Brooklyn for 21 years. His writing explores the intersection of Divinity and Humanity: Faith, Identity, Culture, and the Soul. His heart for hurting people and broken institutions fuel his determination to rebuild both.

A graduate of Amherst College and Alliance Theological Seminary, with degrees in film, writing, and urban ministry, and a background in journalism, he finds consistent joy in the mysteries of faith, consistent humility in attempting to practice them, and constant wonder in God’s ability to accomplish perfect things with perfect combinations of imperfect people.

A native of Brattleboro, Vermont, he lives in Queens with Lori, his wife of 15 years. Soul of the Citizen is his first book.

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Murder Undetected

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Murder Undetected

by Roxanne Dunn

Genre: Mystery, Suspense 

The moment psychologist Brittany Ann Thornton thinks she has her life all dialed in, her perfect little family falls apart and the FBI seizes all her assets. Trouble follows her from Seattle to Paris to the south of France.

Viane Thibaudet, darling of a quaint hilltop town in Provence, has been getting away with murder. But when she attempts to poison her husband, Brittany steps up to stop her.

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Murder Unrehearsed

by Roxanne Dunn

Genre: Mystery, Suspense

When aspiring young actress Heather Shelton jumps in the car with her dog, Bear, and flees to her family's mountain cabin to escape an untidy romance, all she wants is peace and time to study for auditions. What she gets is murder. The only witness of a savage killing—and squarely in the cross-hairs of a ruthless assassin—she is injured and left for dead.

Heather knows handsome men are bad news, but hottie lawman Matt McCrae's smile gets her every time, until he leaves her hanging out as bait to trap the killer. McCrae promises to protect her, but fails, and she faces the killer alone, with only Bear to help.

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Recently, I ran into an old boyfriend “You’re looking good,” he said, pulling me in for a hug.

I started to smile and say “thanks.”

“… for an old broad.”

Ah, well, being an old broad isn’t all that bad. Instead of rushing off to work each morning, I take my coffee out to my flower garden and plot.

Right now, I’m working on my third novel. Chloe Eugenie Duval finances her Paris apartment and extravagant lifestyle by picking up diamonds and other baubles left lying around by careless owners. I won’t be surprised if a body turns up soon.

When not writing, I’m trying to help save the endangered Pacific Northwest killer whales. And I cook, clean, garden, do yoga, text my grandchildren, update my website, phone my aunts, teach my husband how to make pie crust, and make sure I have clean underwear. My life is rich and full.

To quote essayist John Burroughs, “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, and all the friends I want to see.”

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Biblical Retellings

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All Things Are Possible

Biblical Retellings Book 5

by C.A. Gray

Genre: Biblical Fiction

Stories of the miraculous abound in the Bible: the parting of the Red Sea. David and Goliath. Daniel and the Lion’s Den. Nebuchadnezzar’s Fiery Furnace. Jonah and the Whale. Many of us learned of them on felt boards in Sunday School class, and might know them so well that we have subconsciously relegated them to the realm of myth and fairy tale. But have you ever considered what it might have been like to live through those incredible stories—without knowing how they end?

These stories and more are brought to life in All Things Are Possible, told through the eyes of the main character. As with the other books in the Biblical Retellings series, the fictionalized retelling is followed by an afterword explaining why I made the decisions I did in the story, and finally the scriptures themselves. Protagonists include prophets, prisoners, warriors, and kings, ranging from the budding nation of Israel to the glorious New Jerusalem, as seen by John the Apostle in the book of Revelation. What unites these tales is the common thread of the supernatural, depicting God’s goodness and mighty power exercised on behalf of those who trusted in Him.

That same power is still available to us today. Jesus promised that with God, all things are possible (Mark 11:27)—and He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

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Blood Covenant Fulfilled

Biblical Retellings Book 4

God is a covenant making, covenant keeping God. From the dawn of prehistory, God’s dealings with mankind can be understood through the lens of covenant: a binding agreement of unending loyalty and faithfulness. His early covenants with mankind were one-sided, requiring very little from men in return. All of that changed with the birth of the nation of Israel, and her deliverance from slavery in Egypt through Moses.

The Mosaic covenant, also known throughout the Bible as “the law,” encompassed the rest of the Old Testament books through the death and resurrection of Jesus. With the perspective of hindsight, we know now that God neither expected nor intended for Israel to keep the law perfectly. Instead, He wanted them to recognize that their best human attempts would inevitably fail. What they needed was a savior who could do it for them (Romans 7:13-25): one perfect kinsman of Adam, who could redeem all mankind from the predicament of the fall, and restore God’s family to Him. This was always the goal, from the very beginning.

This second volume of the Blood Covenant duology picks up with Moses, God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt and His institution of the law. Israel’s early interactions with God can only be understood in the context of this covenant, set against the backdrop of a heavenly war. It carries through to Jesus’ initiation of the New Covenant of His blood, and finally to the prophecy of His return through the eyes of John. Each chapter begins with a fictionalized retelling, followed by an afterword discussion of commentaries and why I made the choices I did in the stories. Finally, they include the original scriptures. Blood Covenant Fulfilled is the story of how God united both His justice and His mercy in one staggering sacrifice that changed the world for all time.

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Blood Covenant Origins

Biblical Retellings Book 3

One of the most common arguments against Christianity is that the God of the Old Testament seemed so drastically different than the God of the New Testament. In the Old, many claim He seemed cruel and capricious, while in the New, He suddenly became a God of love and tolerance. Yet Jesus said, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9), and the writer of Hebrews tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). If God hasn’t changed, how do we explain the apparent difference? The answer lies in a long-forgotten word: covenant.

Covenants play little to no role in our world today, but in ancient times they were all-important. Treaties between individuals, tribes, and kingdoms took the form of blood covenants. These were much stronger than our modern concept of a contract, which can be broken by finding clever legal loopholes or sometimes simply by a decision not to honor one’s word. By contrast, covenants were bonds broken only by death, and at times extending to the progeny of the two making the original agreement. Ancient covenants entailed unending loyalty and faithfulness, and often included the union of all assets, liabilities, and responsibilities between the parties. Most cultures had such a concept. They got the idea from God, who keeps His covenants to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 7:9). But in order to make such treaties with mankind, God had to find a willing human participant.

This collection of biblical retellings explores the covenants between God and Adam, Noah, and Abraham, and how these covenants (or the lack of them) affected His dealings with mankind at various times. Each chapter begins with a fictionalized retelling, followed by an afterword discussion of commentaries and why I made the choices I did in the stories. Finally, they include the original scriptures. God’s ultimate goal was always love and grace for all mankind, and yet He had to balance this with justice, as well as with honoring His own original word. Blood Covenant Origins is the story of how He began the process that ultimately led to the cross.

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Daughters of Zion

Biblical Retellings Book 2

Have you ever wondered what it was like for Eve to be the first woman, created as an adult but with the mind of a child? What must it have been like for Deborah to be the only female judge in Israel’s history? Ever considered how Esther felt about being chosen as queen in the ungodly kingdom of Persia—particularly when she’d have to share her husband with a harem? What must Mary and Martha have thought when their brother Lazarus had died, and it looked to them like Jesus was not coming? 

This collection of retellings from the perspectives of women in scripture explores these stories and more, including a few stories from female perspectives that also appear in Messiah: Biblical Retellings. While all of these women lived in various patriarchal cultures, and some of the most prominent women were even Gentiles, scripture shows that God cherished them all. As the Apostle Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28)—and this was true for believing women under the old covenant as well, whose faith was counted to them as righteousness.

These are tales of miracles and victory: from brokenness, bitterness and envy to shalom: peace and wholeness, with nothing missing and nothing broken. For some, this meant a transition from barrenness to motherhood; for others, from widowhood to love and belonging. Still others went from bereavement to receiving their dead restored to life again. They included judges and queens, and also prostitutes and despised foreigners. God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11, Acts 10:25): what He does for one, He will do for all who believe in His promises.

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Messiah

Biblical Retellings Book 1

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be one of the five thousand when Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves? Or one of his disciples when he walked on water? Or to have seen Lazarus come out of the tomb? Ever wonder what Mary thought when Gabriel told her she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, or what the fallout was like in her personal life? Ever considered how those two disciples felt on the road to Emmaus, when they found that the man with whom they had been talking was in fact their risen Lord?

This collection of retellings from the gospels is designed to bring each of these stories and more to life in your imagination. They stick to the facts wherever the facts are known, from either the scriptures themselves or from extra-biblical commentaries. But they also add in back story when necessary, reimagining the sights, the sounds, the colors, and the emotions for the person most involved. Each retelling ends with an afterword discussion, summarizing the reasons for the choices made in the story, followed by the scriptures themselves.

Together, I hope these retellings help to paint a portrait of the Messiah.

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C.A. Gray is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor (NMD), with a primary care practice in Tucson, Arizona. She has always been captivated by the power of a good story, fictional or otherwise, which is probably why she loves holistic medicine: a patient’s physical health is invariably intertwined with his or her life story, and she believes that the one can only be understood in context with the other. For freebies, giveaways, and new release info, sign up for her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/F3rof.

Her favorite fictional tales have always been epic battles of good versus evil, with a strong tendency towards parable. An idealist herself, she has always been convinced that these stories have something deeply true to tell us about the human condition, and that is why we love them so much… or at least that’s why she does.

She still wants to be everything when she grows up. She moonlights as a college chemistry teacher (she has a degree in biochemistry, with minors in Spanish and Creative Writing), does theater when she gets the chance, sings, plays piano, was once a personal trainer and in coffee shop management. She is blessed with exceptionally supportive family and friends, and thanks God for them every single day.

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