CSFF Blog Tour on, The Wolf of Tebron~

The CSFF blog is back for 2011 and the first book tour of this year is The Wolf of Tebron by C.S. Lakin A.K.A Susanne Lakin.
I would like to share with you guys a little about this interesting author and a review on her first book of her series The Gates of Heaven.

~About the author
Lakin grew up in the Big Orange, when there were still orange groves in the Los Angeles basin. Her first novel, A Rip in the Redwood Curtain, was picked up by the first agent who read it, Ben Kamsler -- Elmor Leonard's agent at the time.

Too literary and obtuse, the book never sold and remains under Lakin's mattress. Kamsler, 92, decided it was time to retire, which sent Lakin off to obtain new representation.

While running a bed and breakfast inn, raising two daughters, and breeding dozens of pygmy goats, Lakin wrote another two novels that were never published. One of the novels--Innocent Little Crimes--made the top 100 in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest, with Publisher's Weekly calling it "a page-turning thrill-ride that will have readers holding their breaths the whole way through." Ten years later, Lakin decided to start writing novels again, and in 2006 wrote her first fantasy book, now published with AMG/Living Ink publishers. She has since written seven more novels, three of which have been contracted for publication.

Publications:
Her contemporary novel, Someone to Blame (Zondervan, August 2010), is set on the north California coast in the fictitious town of Breakers. It is a psychological suspense story about a family reeling from the tragic deaths of their two teenage sons. Hoping to pick up pieces and start all over, their hopes are dashed when their family collides with Billy Thurber, a young drifter who comes into town one day selling firewood.

Her fantasy series, The Gates of Heaven (AMG/Living Ink), debuted with the July 2010 release of The Wolf of Tebron, soon to be followed by The Map Across Time (March 2010) and The Land of Darkness (September 2011).


~A few things about the author from her own words
I come from a family of successful writers, i.e.: they have actually made a living writing books and television scripts. I finally landed my first fiction contract, after winning the Zondervan First Novel contest at Mount Hermon in April 2009. But as a friend once said, "God doesn't call us to be successful; he calls us to be faithful." My prayer is to keep focused on God—it's all about Him, not me, and my dream is to reach people with hope and the means to extol my faithful and loving God to my readers.

Another friend encouraged me to keep on pressing forward. She said, "A life spent loving God is never a failure." I keep these comments fresh in my heart each day, knowing God has a plan. He always does. He doesn't tell me what it is, so I try to guess. (laugh). Sometimes I even ask him to please tell me his plan. He never does. He intends to show me. He wants me to wait and see.

Waiting has never been my strong point. My friend Renae says this is my favorite word: Sheesh. Sheesh. Just where did that word come from, anyway? My twenty-year wait has paid off, and now I see how God has been training me—not just in my writing skills but in my nature—to understand that success means nothing, but God's will is everything.

I love: hiking, backpacking, watching Star Trek reruns cuddled up on the couch in my husband's, arms, doing everything with my daughters (especially eating and baking), gardening (when I'm not writing or editing, I landscape for a living), taking my dog for walks, reading, playing Zuma on the computer (OK, I confess my addiction), sleeping with my three kitties on the bed, and the list is endless. Most of all I love God and give him the glory for "He created all things, and by his will they exist and were created." I am just a little speck of dust in this vast universe. What do I know? Only one thing. (I am picturing Billy Crystal in "City Slickers" holding up his one finger to his buddies). When you hold up that one finger, it only points in one direction and to one Person. And that's all that matters. God is the creator of all things. God is in control. Thankfully, God knows what he is doing, and that makes me feel so relieved. So, I'll just keep on writing...

~My Review

The cover art for this book is awesome! Yes, I know I shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but I do... and truly who doesn’t ;-) The Wolf of Tebron is considered to be a fairy tale by some and others an allegory.

The only bad thing that I can say about The Wolf of Tebron was that I did not like it at all in the beginning because the author made her Jesus Christ portraying character a wizard named Ruyah who is forced to go into hiding as a wolf. Wizards and wolfs are usually evil dark characters and I’m sorry, but I do see wizards as only being evil. Yes I love fantasy, but there are certain things I personally stand firm on in my heart. Good wizards, good witches, and other good Gods, makes my heart ache. Did this ruin the story... not really , but it almost stopped me from reading all of it. The only reason why I picked it up again was that I personally have not heard or seen one horrible bad review on The Wolf of Tebron, nor C. S. Lakin’s or her other works. The deep story behind The Wolf of Tebron is beautifully and masterfully woven with the story of Jesus' love... C. S. Lakin did a wonderful job on that and is a talented writer. I am privileged to say that I received a surprise in the mail a week and a half ago... an advanced reader’s copy of The Map Across Time, book two of The Gates of Heaven series. The cover is even more awesome on book two The Map Across Time and it's three times thicker than The Wolf of Tebron!

This book review is based upon an advance reader’s copy of the book provided to me free of charge by the publisher and author :-) Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!

If you would like to read The Wolf of Tebron you can purchase it here - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0899578888

To find more about the author please visit the author’s web site - http://www.cslakin.com/
and the author’s blog - http://cslakin.blogspot.com/

To find out more about The Gates of Heaven series please visit the books website http://www.gatesofheavenseries.com/

See what the other CSFF tour members for this month are saying about The Wolf of Tebron by C. S. Lakin :-)
Noah Arsenault
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler