We’re experimenting with something this month with the release of Tea with Hezbollah, the travelogue Ted Dekker wrote with Middle East expert Carl Medearis.

On January 28th, David Beasley with the Center for Global Strategies, Ted, and Carl will be hosting alive webcast called “Why Do You Fear Me?” They’ll be tackling the big questions that most people have about the Middle East, as well as the misconceptions most of us have about it as Westerners (and, specifically, Westerners of a Christian tradition). I read this book in manuscript form last year. When I opened it I had one, admittedly one-dimensional, view of the region and the controversy that swirls about Israel, the Palestine state, and the West Bank. When I closed the book I had a completely different take on it.

This really is a book that every Westerner should read to get a better grip on the Middle East.

But, back to this webcast. You can access it for free when you buy the book through Bookschristian.com. They’re offering the book for roughly the same price as Amazon, but you can also get access to the webcast ($12.97 on its own). It’s a good deal, and I think well worth it if you plan on buying the book anyway. Check out the offer HERE. Hope you can join in. The book and webcast just might change everything you think you know or believe about the Middle East and loving your enemies.

As most of you may already know, the New Year brings with it several new Dekker titles and the first one out of the gates is Burn, a book that was co-authored with Erin Healy who also penned Kiss which came out last January. Take a look at the book’s trailer, which was done by uber-talented designer, and good friend, Mike Heath. If you haven’t already picked it up, be sure to add this book to your reading list. And be sure to watch for Erin’s debut solo novel, Never Let You Go, which comes out in May. Very talented writer who has a long career in front of her.

This is the approved cover copy for the advanced reader’s version of The Bride Collector, a Dekker thriller coming in April 2010 from Hachette/Center Street. Enjoy the sneak peek. -KSK

FBI special agent Brad Raines is facing his most complex case yet. A Denver serial killer has murdered a string of beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each scene, and he’s picking up his pace.  Unable to crack the case, Raines appeals for help from a most unusual source: residents of the Center for Wellbeing and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill people who are extraordinarily gifted.

It’s there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family and barely escaped his hand.  Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Paradise may also have an extrasensory gift: the ability to experience the final moments of a person’s life when she touches the dead body.

In a desperate attempt to find the killer, Raines enlists Paradise’s help. Gradually he starts to question whether sanity resides outside the hospital walls…or inside.

As the Bride Collector picks up the pace – and volume – of his gruesome killings, the case becomes even more personal to Raines when his friend and colleague, a beautiful young forensic psychologist, becomes the Bride Collector’s fourth target.  And she isn’t the last – by far.

As a marketing guy, sometimes I get to do fun production stuff. Later this week, I’m headed to Austin, TX for a video shoot with Ted. We’re mostly capturing footage for use on the web in 2010, but we also have a few tricks up our sleeves. As we were scripting the day out, I thought, “You know, this would be a good time to record Ted riffing on the craft of writing. Why not? We have a lot of writers in our community who would get a kick out of that.”

I pitched the idea to Ted and he liked it. So it’s now officially part of the day’s schedule, thank you very much. Time block #3 to be exact, “Writer Conversations–Ted talks about the craft of writing.”

Here’s how you can be part of the process. If you’re a writer or someone interested in the craft of writing, let me know what questions you want answered. Anything’s fair game as long as it’s about the craft of writing. So, please, no questions about specific Dekker novels, characters, etc. unless it has to do with the “how” of writing.

Leave your questions here on my blog as a comment. I’ll compile them all before the shoot and then hit Ted with both barrels when we sit down on-camera. Here’s your chance to have that one question that keeps you awake at night finally answered.

Thomas Nelson is about to re-release the Dekker Lost Books series. And when they do, the books will sport some re-designed covers. Check them out below and leave a comment about what you think. Your opinion matters.

In the book world, life happens in 12-month cycles. We live in the future because we must, not always because we want to.  It’s a necessity, this living in the future, driven by the demands of the whole rumbling machine we call publishing.

It’s a fascinating process and I wish more readers could see what I do on a daily basis. If they did, they would appreciate the massive amount of time, talent, money, and dedication required to pluck inspiration from the sky, turn it into a story by tying words and emotions together, and then transform it into something that transports them to another world even as they sit on their couch nursing a cup of tea.

Most people don’t know that it takes a year (or more) to bring a book to market. Well, I mean they know it does, but they don’t really know. It’s like saying we know it takes several years for a good wine to go from a harvest of grapes plucked from a sunny slope to a raised glass as friends sit around a table. Until you stop to consider it, the whole business is easy to pass over without a thought. You don’t really think about the planting, the cultivating, the harvesting, the crushing, and the other bits, because the maker did his job all out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind.

So let me show you my side of the world for a moment.

Yesterday Ted did an interview from his home office via Skype. It was for CBN’s new streaming online channel. At just over two minutes, it is probably the shortest interview he’s ever done, but I think he made the most of it. So, for those of you who need a Friday Ted Dekker fix, here you go.