Today through Friday, kind folks around the blogosphere will be devoting their blog entries to WAKING LAZARUS. I'll try to keep track of those entries throughout each day, and post to them on my own blog. I hope you'll take the tour, because you'll find out a lot about the book (many people are doing reviews), as well as the evil, Machiavellian mind behind the book (many people are doing interviews).

First up, Mike Duran at Decompose has a fun regular feature called INSites, where he spotlights web sites/blogs and the people behind them. Today, I'm in that spotlight, in no small part because of my past success in the competitive world of air guitar competitions. See, ma? I told you I'd amount to something.

At her It's Real Life blog, Tricia Goyer posts an interview with moi, in which we were able to compare my work to fellow Bethany House authors Janette Oke and Beverly Lewis. Plus, Tricia's a fellow Montanan, so she's obviously witty, intelligent, charming and beautiful. That's just the way we Montana folks are.

Dineen Miller, who runs what has to be one of my favorite names ever for a blog--Kittens Come From Eggs--has also posted a nice interview. In my chat with Dineen, we were able to talk about marathons, electricity and indoor plumbing.

Mimi Pearson is the mind behind Tags and Other Forms of Mischief, and today that mischief is a review of WAKING LAZARUS. She even picks up on the section of the book that talks about Mr. Clean--I've always loved Mr. Clean.

At Musings from the Windowsill, Linda Gilmore was kind enough to do an early post before leaving for vacation. Thanks, Linda; were I headed out on vacation, updating my blog would be the last thing on my mind. Come to think of it, updating my blog is the last thing on my mind most days. (SFX: RIMSHOT) On a side note, Linda was the first person to point out a WAKING LAZARUS sighting on the shelves of her local bookstore.

Bonnie Calhoun, at her aptly-named Bonnie Writes blog, posts a very kind review of the book. She even comments on the name of a town featured in the book. Shhh. No one tell Bonnie I completely made up that town. Bonnie is also now the Director of our little Christian Fiction Blog Alliance project, and is planning some great things in the upcoming months.

David at The Curmudgeon's Rant was downright un-curmudgeonly when he interviewed me. He was quite pleasant, as a matter of fact. And, in one of the more detailed interviews, David asked me about my favorite scene from the book. The politically-correct thing to say is, "It's hard to pick one favorite scene; I just hope people like the book." Of course, I'm not politically correct, so I told him my favorite scenes.

Katie Hart, who was nice enough to write a kind review of the book for Christian Book Previews, now chimes in on her own Writing Christian Novels blog--and points out at least two known aliases of WAKING LAZARUS.

Kevin Holtsberry at Collected Miscellany likes the book, but recommends you "read it in the warm sunshine." I think that's probably a good recommendation. Kevin thought some of the parts were maybe a little over-the-top; I suspect a few people may agree with him. Maybe I'm even one of them; I'm still torn on that aspect of the story myself. And thanks to Kevin for being so forthright in his analysis of the book.

At her Gospel Fiction and Christian Fictionblogs, Dee Stewart has some nice things to say about the book--and even pulls out a bit of cajun to describe it. Getting a compliment in cajun is the highest compliment of all.

Gina Burgess is one of the people I've had the distinct privilege of getting to know through Dave Long's faith*in*fiction forum, and today she posts the first part of an interview at her Refreshment in Refuge blog. In said interview, I admit Jude Allman is probably a little more like me than I care to admit.

At Scrambled Dregs, Kelly Klepfer follows up her recent review of the book with an interview, in which I 'fess up to spending an inordinate amount of time in my basement as a child.

Chris Well, author of some mighty fine crime fiction books himself, posts the first of a three-part interview at his Learning Curve blog, giving me a chance to give some props to a few of my favorite authors.

Becky Miller's A Christian Worldview of Fiction is becoming, in my mind, one of the finest blogs devoted to faith-based fiction. Today, she responds to a guest posting stint by editor Jeff Gerke (you really should read both of his posts, as well), and has some nice things to say about WAKING LAZARUS related to one of those scary, literary-sounding words: theme.

LaShaunda Hoffman, who blogs at See Ya On the Net, asked me the most profound thing I learned while writing the novel. I'm not sure I belong in the same sentence as the word "profound," but I gave her an answer anyway.

Michelle Pendergrass of Just A Minute points out that we share a common affinity for Stephen King, as well as a similar journey to faith. But what she perhaps doesn't realize is that we also share a distinct admiration for the Yiddish word "tchochke."

At Scraps of Me, Tina Kulesa offers a nice review, and gets big points on my Nice List for saying the book isn't "preachy." She also talks about a slight romantic subplot in the book, and I'm glad to see that--what with all the attention paid to abducted children in the plot analysis, folks seem to pass that by.

Christy Lockstein, at Christy's Book Blog, offers a great analysis not just of the plot itself, but some of the character traits and writing choices as well.

And Kathleen Popa, at Reading, Writing, and...What Else is There? (a very good question) offered what is probably my favorite comment about the book thus far: "Publishers Weekly said your book is not for the faint of heart, but gee whiz, nothing went squish." I'd love to see that on the cover of the book, actually.

I'll keep adding posts as they roll in the next few days. On a related note, this must be a big interview day for me. I'll be on the KULR 8 Noon News at, um, noon. Actually, it's sometime between noon and noon-thirty, but hey, the fools are letting me on TV! I'm hoping I can get a copy on tape or something, then digitize it for the web. I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: I went on the Noon News with Jodi Hathaway, and managed to avoid starting the studio on fire or creating other major mishaps. I'll try to digitize the clip and post it later today.