Writerly Wednesday (AKA win a book) and True Heroes: T

True heroes are all around us, in our every day lives, but some people stand out. During this A-Z Challenge I hope to share several of my real life heroes, and invite you to share yours in the comments.

yndale, William. Many of my heroes throughout history stood against the powers that be, and several gave their life for a cause. Tyndale is one of those.

After Wycliffe's Bible got out, the "church" (AKA world wide government) basically put a death sentence on any "unauthorized" translations of the bible to English. In other words, they wanted to keep the people ignorant. Inspired by Martin Luther, Tyndale studied both Greek and Hebrew, and against church mandate, translated the Bible into English. One book he wrote, The Obedience of a Christian Man, ended up in King Henry VIII's hands, and became another stick on the bonfire that ended in King Henry declaring independence from the Roman Catholic church.

Because of his actions, Tyndale became a hunted man. After hiding for a time, he was betrayed, captured, and imprisoned. He spent a year in prison, then was sentence to be strangled to death and burned at the stake. His last words were: "Lord! Open the King of England's eyes."

Four different English versions of the Bible were translated in following years, at King Henry's mandate.

I can only imagine William Tyndale's constant fear of being caught, but I'm inspired by his courage. If he could give his life for such a worthy cause, surely I can live mine to support those same principals of freedom and truth.

Are you ready to meet a new author and enter to win an awesome book? 

Last week, Jay Noel shared Dragonfly Warrior with us, along with two truths and one lie. Those who guessed the lie correctly were entered into a random drawing for the chance to win one of these two AWESOME Steampunk bookmarks:

Jay's game:

1. In 2002, Jay had a near death experience. His heart stopped while in the hospital, and that's why he never takes anything for granted.

2. Jay's a big time extrovert, and spent a lot of time on stage. He participated in musicals, plays, speech and debate. He even got to the National Championships in humorous interpretation.

3. Jay had a strange encounter with a ghost when he was 13 years old and it radically changed him forever. He's been infatuated with the paranormal ever since.

And the lie is: 

#2. Jay really is a huge extrovert, but he never did do drama or speech and debate. He was too busy playing sports and chasing girls. BUT, when he was a high school English teacher, he did coach speech & debate.

Way to guess those of you who got it right! You are officially human lie detectors. And the winner is:

...DRUM ROLL...

Michael Di Gesu!

Congrats Michael!

And now to today's feature, a book that fits right in with Tindale's time period:

Notorious pirate Barren Reed has one thing on his mind: Revenge against the man who killed his father. So kidnapping his enemy's fiancé seems a perfect plan…until he actually does it.

Larkin Lee is more than a pretty face and fiancé to a powerful man. Her fierce personality is enough to make any pirate want to push her overboard.

But when the King of the Orient comes to Barren with a task—to find the Bloodstone, a powerful gem thought only to exist in legend, Barren sees another opportunity to destroy his enemy. Together, Barren, Larkin and a crew of pirates set off to find the stone, only to discover it caused the death of Barren’s own mother and Larkin’s, too. As his strongest allies turn into his greatest enemies, and the life of the girl he kidnapped becomes more important than he ever dreamed, Barren’s quest for revenge becomes a fight to save the Orient.

Pick up your copy HERE.

Let me introduce you to the amazing author: 

Ashley Nixon was born and raised in Oklahoma, where the wind really does sweep down the plains, and horses and carriages aren't used as much as she'd like. When she's not writing, she's hard at work on her Master's degree in Library Science and Information Technology, working out, or pretending she's Sherlock Holmes. Her obsession with writing began after reading the Lord of the Rings in the eighth grade. Since then, she's loved everything Fantasy--resulting in an unhealthy obsession with the 'geek' tab on Pinterest, where all things awesome go.

Ashley can be found eating mozzarella balls while sitting at her desk, working on her books.

Ashley gave me two truths and one lie to test your "lie detector" skills. Those who figure out the lie will go into my magic hat for a chance to win your choice of an eBook of Cutlass. You have until Tuesday, April 29, at 1 p.m. EDT to guess--and be sure to come back for the answer on April 30.

TRUTH OR LIE

1. Ashley memorized all the lines to The Two Towers after watching the movie for about 30 days straight.

2. She has a really weird scar on her neck that looks like she was stabbed by a fork...or bitten by a vampire.

3. When she was little, she had an imaginary friend monster named Petie.

And you have a second chance to win today:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Seven more days to get MOONLESS at $1.99: Jane Eyre meets Supernatural

Is Ashley vampire bate--or which is the lie? How do you feel about freedom of speech? Is there a cause you feel strong enough about you'd be willing to give your life? Do you have any heroes from this religiously revolutionary era?