Celebrating!

 Thanks to everyone who has celebrated with me!

Thoughts on Winning the Carol Award for YA Fiction

This was a pretty exciting week for me. On Saturday night I learned that I won the prestigious American Christian Fiction Writer's Carol Award in the Young Adult fiction category for Dauntless! For anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's not quite the Oscars of the Christian fiction world (that would be the Christy), but it's definitely up there. Maybe the Golden Globes.

Those sorts of moments are always a bit overwhelming. Emotions run high, and it takes a while to sort everything out. But now that things have settled, I want to share how I'm feeling about it. 

1) My writing journey has been pretty bumpy lately. Sales haven't been what I hoped for and some of the reviews have been downright harsh. I love writing, but I was feeling like it wasn't loving me back very much. So this award means a lot. It means that my industry and the ACFW organization that mentored me said, "Job well done." That did my bruised writer's heart a world of good, and I'm incredibly grateful. 

2) I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't there for the presentation, but it just wouldn't have been financially or logistically wise for me to have traveled to Nashville this weekend. However, I feel like God orchestrated things so that I was with many of my closest friends here in Virginia (at an unrelated party) when I watched the live feed and learned I won. They whooped and hollered so loud that strangers down the street joined in just for fun :) That was awesome and made the evening very special even though I wasn't at the live event! I'm also blessed that I had a friend there to receive the award for me, and another who is delivering it home to me.

3) There's also a bittersweet side to this. I started two new jobs within the last year, which was very necessary for our family finances with two kids in college, and I haven't had the mental energy to create entire worlds in my head anymore (a.k.a. write novels). This award is very encouraging, but right now I don't really know what my writing future holds. I realize some women work and raise a family and still find the time and energy to write, but evidently I'm not those women. I would appreciate prayers for guidance for my writing future. I hope to get back to it if and when God moves on my heart with a new story idea and opens the opportunity for me to work on it.

The good news is that I still have a novella coming out next month as a part of the Austen in Austin collection. I also have a nearly finished book 2 for my Deep Within series that I can potentially dust off and finally get out into the world. And I have an idea for a nonfiction book, which might prove a little less grueling to write than a novel. 

As I mentioned in my acceptance speech, God has been my writing partner in this journey, and I couldn't have done it without Him. I'll just have to continue to trust in Him as I move forward from here.

A Sneak Peek at Courageous

Courageous, Book 3 in my Valiant Hearts Series, will release July 5th! I thought it might be fun to give you a visual sneak peek at what's coming your way.

This is actress Katie McGrath from the BBC's show Merlin. She's who I've been picturing for Rosalind, both in book 2 when she serves as Gwendolyn's lady's maid, and now in book 3 as she travels to the Holy Land on crusade in search of redemption. Some readers were very concerned about her at the end of book 2. She can't forgive herself for a mistake she made and feels she no longer deserves marriage or family. Rest assured, I as the author did not share her harsh judgement of herself. In this book she will discover God's forgiveness, grace, and receive a fresh start on life.

And here's actor Michael Socha from Once Upon a Time--my pick for Randel. In book 2 Gwendolyn kept thinking of him as an awkward teen, until she realized he had grown up quite nicely. I fell in love with Randel, and decided he needed to be the hero of book 3. To me he represents those boys who are awkward in high school, but grow up to be the best husbands. Randel wants to stay in the Holy Land to become a celibate Templar knight in the hopes of pleasing his parents, who planned for him to be a priest, while still fulfilling his own dream of being a knight. We'll see if God might have other plans for him.

Another important character in Courageous is thirteen-year-old Sapphira. I had a hard time finding a model to capture her fairy-like appearance, but this one comes pretty close. Of course she would never have shown her shoulders (or even her elbows) in the middle ages. Don't let her ethereal appearance fool you, though. Sapphira is as strong as they come, at least on the inside. In true Joan of Arc fashion, her vision has prompted their entire crusade, and she comes in tow with her own troop of children. Although she's not a natural born fighter, Sapphira does everything she undertakes with all her might. I love the way Sapphira balances some of Rosalind and Randel's difficult life experiences with such purity, innocence, and idealism.

One of the most interesting things I learned while researching this book was about medieval ships. I had no idea they had such huge sailing vessels at that time--big enough to take entire armies on crusade. And I was fascinated by the defensive "castle" structures featured in this picture on the front and back of the ships, like floating forts.

Finally, here are some pictures of the primary setting for the book, the area of medieval Tripoli. It's not the desert you might imagine, but rather a beautiful mountainous area along the Mediterranean. Today, this city is found in Northern Lebanon, but during the early 1200s, it was its own "Crusader State" within the Holy Roman Empire. Rosalind, Randel, Sapphira, and the rest of the cast are about to discover a new and exotic world as they undertake the adventure of a lifetime!

I hope this whets your appetite for Courageous, coming next week. And you can read a sneak peek here on the Bethany House website. Now's the perfect time to pre-order. So what are you waiting for?

Pre-order on Amazon
Pre-order on Barnes and Noble
Pre-order on Christian Book Distributors

Free and Reduced Valiant Hearts Books!

Dear Friends,

I won't keep you long today. I just wanted to let you know that Dauntless(Valiant Hearts Book 1) is FREE right now for ebooks on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Christianbook, etc... So click on your favorite distributor and download your free copy right away! Meanwhile, Chivalrous (Valiant Hearts Book 2) is available for the reduced price of $5.99. And if anyone is looking for a great deal on print books, both Dauntless and Chivalrous are a available for the low price of only $6.49 on Christianbook.

Now is the perfect opportunity to pick up a copy of each and get them read before Courageous (Valiant Hearts Book 3) releases this July. And if you already own them, please consider ordering them as a gift or sharing the news with a friend :)

Blessings,
Dina Sleiman

A Courageous Cover Reveal!!!

And here it is....drum roll please...the cover for Valiant Hearts book 3, Courageous.

Valiant Hearts: Where Adventure and Romance Meet

Inspired by the vision of the Young Lady Sapphira, Rosalind of Ipsworth joins a group of men, women, and children as a defender of the cross, seeking to free captives from prisons near Tripoli. She gladly gives herself to the cause, as she's haunted by a tragic mistake and no longer deserves such joys as marriage and family might bring.

Sir Randel Penigree was reared to serve in the church, but dreams of protecting the innocent as a knight. Joining a crusade to escape humiliation at home, he finds himself drawn to Rosalind as they partner to train and protect a group of young adolescents. When they face political machinations, danger, and an unknown enemy bent on their destruction, they are forced to reconsider their priorities and the very nature of the God they serve.

Coming July 15, 2016 with Bethany House Publishers. Available now for pre-order on amazon.com

Chivalrous Beginnings

* The winner of last week's Valiant Hearts "Swag" giveaway is "Princessica of books." I will be contacting you by email soon :) *

Chivalrous at Barnes and Noble

This week I thought it would be fun to tell you a little bit about the origins of Chivalrous. In the spring of 2013 I was walking and praying about an idea for a young adult medieval novel. Suddenly it came to me: books with strong heroines in legendary male medieval roles! I'm sure part of my inspiration came from the BBC Robin Hood I had been watching with its tough Maid Marian and female Djaq, but even Once Upon a Time was doing fairy tale retellings with kick butt heroines. Not to mention other strong heroines like Merida in Brave and Katniss in the Hunger Games.

I knew in an instant I had found a stellar idea, and my mind entered that magical creative haze. By the end of the evening I had landed on the series name Valiant Hearts, and I had premises for several books based on legends. Then I played around combining strong words with romantic words for titles: Dauntless Love, Chivalrous Dreams, Gallant Beauty, ect... Originally I planned to write them as stand alone books in different medieval times and places.

The second book in the series would be Chivalrous Dreams, an Athurian type story with a Lancelot and Guinevere twist. I was going to place it in a fictional kingdom in the mountainous part of Germany in the Holy Roman Empire in the late 1200s.

But I was also very open to working with a publisher and incorporating their ideas for this series. When Bethany offered me a contract for book one, formerly titled Dauntless Love, they asked for a few changes in direction. First, they chopped down the titles to one word, thus Dauntless, Chivalrous, and Courageous. Second, they wanted me to add more point of view characters and bring out the epic adventure feel. And third, they wanted the books to spin directly off one another by time, place, and linking characters.

Picture from "The Artist Librarian"

That required some big changes to my Chivalrous idea. It moved to 1217 when the armor was still chain mail and tournaments were still pretty wild. And it needed to take place in a fictional dukedom (technically duchy, but I felt like that word was too weird) in England instead of a kingdom, so I was dealing with dukes and duchesses rather than kings and queens. I decided that in my fictional Athurian dukedom, they would have more progressive, civilized rules for their tournaments and focus them more on jousts the way I had originally envisioned the story.

But the story itself had to undergo some significant changes too. The biggest was that peasant and outsider, Allen of Ellsworth from book one, would now be my hero. Originally the hero of this book was going to be a nobleman from the country who already knew Gwendolyn but just didn't know the secret that she fought as a knight. I had to get pretty creative to work out a scenario that allowed this former peasant to fit my plot, but evidently I managed that part pretty well, because I haven't had any complaints so far.

Favorite quote meme by Janeen Ippolito

That left one final problem. Allen and Gwen didn't know each other, and I hate whirlwind romances. I tried to give them some extended time together off the page, but I'm not sure if everyone caught that, and even then, it was only about a few weeks total. And I tried to make their relationship more about God's will than romantic tingles and shivers. Finally, the romance tied into the plot and at some point became an issue of survival. I hope I managed all of that.The truth remains, I don't generally think whirlwind romances are smart. You need time to really know a person and their character.

Having Allen in the book provided for some other great surprises I never pictured in the early versions, but I wouldn't want to give those away. And of course every story takes on a life of its own and follows unexpected twists and turns. The inclusion of dark magic and Morgaine in Chivalrous was a complete surprise to me, but became necessary to provide motivation for the villain. Since it fit the Arthur feel perfectly, I went with it, although I felt strongly about depicting magic as evil rather than in the light way it is treated in the Arthur stories. Even after all of that was said and done, the publisher requested some additional tweaks, like more action and less introspection, which is always a good idea.

So that is the evolution of Chivalrous. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

What's something in your life that didn't turn out the way you expected it?