Week ending Dec. 19

Christian romance novelist Kristy Dykes helped write a last, real-life love story before her death—involving her husband Milton.

Having journaled movingly about Kristy’s battle with brain cancer at her Web site—she died in July, aged 56—Milton has recently posted about his unexpectedly falling in love again… with someone Kristy had said would be a perfect match for him, during her illness.

A pastor, Milton Dykes tells of having been hurt when his late wife raised the idea, only to be “stunned” by the ways things have happened in the past few weeks. He writes more about the unfolding events at http://www.christianlovestories.blogspot.com/

Zondervan author Keri Wyatt Kent (Rest: Living in Sabbath Simplicity) offers seasonal reflections at the publisher’s blog (http://zondervan.typepad.com/zondervan/), urging readers not to let holiday preparations rob them of “the joy this season is alleged to represent”… and cautions against overspending.

With Christmas gifts in mind, retailer Byron Borger recommends Ben Stein’s documentary questioning Darwinism, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, for “somebody who needs (to be) annoyed.” He also recommends some “provocative” titles addressing the intersection of science and faith, at the Web site for his Hearts & Minds store in Dallastown, Pa., at http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/booknotes/

For Thomas Nelson head Michael Hyatt, sales not critical acclaim are the best gauge for what makes a good book. In the first posting in a series on “Book Marketing 101,” he observes that “what the reviewers like and what the general public likes are often two very different things.”

The standard for success in commercial publishing, he contends at http://www.michaelhyatt.com/fromwhereisit/2008/12/book-marketing.html#more , is “consumer acceptance and enthusiasm.”

Meanwhile, one of Nelson’s authors, Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of Barack Obama, says that the incoming President’s invitation to pastor-author Rick Warren to give the invocation at his January inauguration, suggests that he is “trying to symbolize his openness to ideas and religious streams that are not necessarily his own..” Read more at http://www.mansfieldgroup.com/