Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

• The hunt BEGINS on 10/21 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.
• Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
• There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 10/24 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
• Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

Hey Scavengers! This is Creston Mapes and I write contemporary Christian thrillers that women binge and then tell their husbands about! I was once a newspaper reporter, then a marketing copywriter, and have been writing thrillers since 2005. I’ve penned 10 novels and am working on #11. You can learn more about my books here on my site and on my Bookbub Page and Amazon Author Page.
My newest release is an epic domestic thriller--CHARM ARTIST.

Here’s what it’s about:
After the Portland terrorist attack, the kidnapping of his daughter, and the domestic violence case that almost killed him, Detective Wayne Deetz and his wife Joanie escape for a long overdue vacation in Sedona, Arizona, to make some monumental career decisions. When Joanie’s childhood friend, Suzanne, acts euphoric and distant, Deetz and Joanie become suspicious of her boyfriend, the beguiling millionaire artist Octavius Hunt.

The more Wayne and Joanie dig into Octavius’s corrupt and scandalous background—and his shady partnership with Mayor Marsden Maddox and entrepreneur Timmy Kondore—the darker and more twisted Suzanne’s reality becomes. When Wayne and Joanie dare to venture one step too far into Octavius’s sinister world of drugs and pleasure to find answers, they find themselves square in the madman’s crosshairs.

Although Octavius Hunt is a bad example of someone who thinks creatively and spontaneously—I’m a good example!

HOW I COME UP WITH ‘WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT’—BY THE SEAT OF MY PANTS

There are novelists who are plotters—plan the whole book out before they begin writing—and there are seat-of-the-pants authors—who write the book on the fly as they go. I’m the latter. So, I take just a seed of an idea for a few characters and what might happen—and start the writing journey.
 
As the manuscript slowly grows, I type ideas of ‘what can happen next’ at the end of the book. As the book grows more, I add more and more ideas about what can happen next at the end. By the time I’m halfway finished, I’ve broken those ‘ideas’ into categories for each main character. I also add an ‘Ending’ category with various ideas about how the book can end.
 
This process makes me a slower writer than many, but I believe the resulting organic story and chilling twists-and-turns make it worth it for you—the reader.

If you’re interested, you can order Charm Artist on Amazon!
 
Here’s the Stop #10 Basics:
 
Clue to Write Down: (in the)

Link to Stop #11, the Next Stop on the Loop: James L. Rubart’s site!
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Good luck!

Patty and I just returned from a trip to NYC to visit our daughter, Esther, and see the sights. I'd taken each of our 4 kids to NYC when they graduated from high school, but Patty and I hadn't been together yet. Since Esther is based there as a flight attendant with American Airlines, this was a great time to go. 

We stayed at the Arthouse (Upper West), did the CircleLine boat ride around Manhattan, saw the 911 Memorial Pools, Central Park, Starbucks Roastery, Electric Lady Studios, and took in Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and Soho. Of course, Patty had to make stops at Tiffany's and, especially, the New York Public Library.

The other cool thing was, I had always used the subways to get around . . . but Patty got us on the buses and I never looked back. Loved the buses, because you're at street level and can see the sights while you get to your next destination.

Shout out to Amsterdam Ale House and Motorino Pizza. Good times in my favorite city with wonderful people.

Late at night I used to veg-out on cable news, from CNN to FOX. I'd watch it during lunch and listen to radio news talk shows in the car and at home. It was a habit -- and now I realize it was a bad habit. 

For Lent, I gave up cable news completely and I venture to say, I'll never go back. It's been one of the most freeing things I've ever done. Now, I'm not stressed about the state of the country/world. It's all in God's hands. What's going to happen is going to happen. When something big goes down, I'll find out about it soon enough.

Oh, I've also limited my social media junk to one day a week, when I get all caught up. That, too, has been immensely freeing. After all, I really don't need to know about the steak my sixth grade friend had for dinner on his yacht, in his mansion, whatever.....

Had a lovely stay on Amelia Island with my wife Patty recently. Almost every day we rode bikes, went to the beach, fished, and walked beach in the evening. I caught a bonnethead shark in the surf, several blue fish, and a bunch of whiting. Began taking notes for my next novel, which I'm thinking will be based on Amelia Island and in the town of Fernandina Beach. 

Currently still writing Book #4 in the Signs of Life Series, entitled Charm Artist - set to drop Sept. 1. You can pre-order HERE.

Hi friends, this week I had the privilege of doing a guest interview with Author Trish Perry. Here's the LINK.
Enjoy!
Creston

I'm currently writing Book #4 in the Signs of Life Series, to release in 2021! Watch this website for details as we have them!

It's so exciting to me that we have hundreds of readers who've pre-ordered my new thriller, I PICK YOU!

Release day is tomorrow, Dec. 9, 2020, so all those people will get their ebooks delivered! Plus, a slew of newly printed paperbacks will be going out as well. I always love to see the reviews start to come in on Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub.

For you audio book lovers, I PICK YOU will be available on audio in just another week or so. Stand by!

To get the new book, and see the catalog of my other titles, simply click on my Amazon Author Page!