Author Stephen Bly & His Strong Heroine

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My guest today is the irrepressible Stephen Bly. I can’t resist a good Western, can you? Here’s Stephen:

The Lady Who Lingered Too Long

The working title for my new release was The Lady Who Lingered Too Long, to aim for female readers and to reveal the hero’s desire for a woman who’ll stick with him despite a turbulent lifestyle.

However, Center Point Publishers insisted on a classic western title: Creede of Old Montana. Which do you prefer? I’m stuck with the latter.

And so are my two heroines, who both remind me of the Bly family gals: got awesome smiles and stubborn as bulldogs.

One of them, Mary Jane Cutler, will mind. She’s threatened to kill Avery John Creede and will protest appearing in a story with his name on the cover. When Creede ignores this angry gal with the unlikely nickname of Sunny, she becomes more menacing. Yet another reason to watch his back.

Creede longs for peace and quiet. He’s arrived in Fort Benton, Montana, for a reunion with three army pals. While he waits for them, he buys a diamond ring in a velvet bag, just in case Carla Loganaire appears. She torments his dreams and memories. Her daddy made his fortune with imported glass, partnered with Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. Carla visited their NY house many times. As a girl, she had a crush on Elliot, not TeeDee (Teddy, Jr.).

But now she adores Creede. She calls him “Avery, dear” and fawns on him when they’re together. She reminds me of a Mary at the feet of Jesus, focused only on the one she loves. And Creede sees something sturdy in her he admires, beyond the elegance and sumptuous scent. She also offers him a settled life, in a social arena he has at times embraced. But missed communiqués keep them apart, even though sparks between them have raised a roof or two. Then, just as they get close again, she’s deceived by the charms of a truly bad hombre. Creede can’t let that happen.

By Chapter 8, Creede winds up on a 12 x 50 foot sandbar with the gun-toting Sunny and quite an eclectic cast crowded on this piece of land. When Sunny befriends a moose, she threatens me, the author, that she’ll quit the book if I continue to call her Moose Lady. Got to keep my characters happy. So, Creede disposes of the moose. The way he does it gets Sunny really riled up…again.

Can’t figure out if Creede’s naïve…or one smooth cowboy.

In the midst of the shooting, Creede manages to keep both ladies right where he wants them…or does he?

The whole time that Carla sweet-talks and soothes what ails him, Sunny jabs. He doesn’t tease well. She blurts out what she’s thinking, while Creede guards his feelings and thoughts. On the positive side, she proves to be a Martha type, able to handle most any situation with common sense solutions. He also learns that she’s a crack shot…and still more than ready to aim straight at him.

So, who do you think winds up with the ring?

On the trail,

Stephen Bly

www.BlyBooks.com

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Or follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BlyBooks

Author of 101 books, Christy Award winning Stephen Bly’s newest release is Creede of Old Montana, available October 2009. Order through your local bookstore, favorite online book outlet, public library, or www.BlyBooks.com “

Thanks, Stephen. It sounds like a winner!

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Book Monday-Author Cindy Woodsmall & The Sound of Sleigh Bells

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Today’s book is another great Amish story. It might make a great Christmas gift for someone you love!

The Sound of Sleigh Bells

Beth Hertzler works alongside her beloved Aunt Lizzy in their dry goods store, and serving as contact of sorts between Amish craftsmen and Englischers who want to sell the Plain people’s wares. But remorse and loneliness still echo in her heart everyday as she still wears the dark garb, indicating mourning of her fiancé. When she discovers a large, intricately carved scene of Amish children playing in the snow, something deep inside Beth’s soul responds and she wants to help the unknown artist find homes for his work–including Lizzy’s dry goods store. But she doesn’t know if her bishop will approve of the gorgeous carving or deem it idolatry.

Lizzy sees the changes in her niece when Beth shows her the woodworking, and after Lizzy hunts down Jonah, the artist, she is all the more determined that Beth meets this man with the hands that create healing art. But it’s not that simple–will Lizzy’s elaborate plan to reintroduce her niece to love work? Will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she’s always dreamed of and a second chance at real love–or just more heartbreak?

The Sound of Sleigh Bells is a heartwarming Christmas novella where lack and abundance inside an Amish community has power for good when it’s tucked inside love. Romantic Times gave The Sound of Sleigh Bells 4 ½ stars, saying ~ This is a wonderfully written, transformative story of two Amish families at Christmastime. It will bring sleigh-riding memories to life as readers vicariously join in this jolly and exciting holiday tradition.

To read the first chapter of The Sound of Sleigh Bells, go to: http://www.cindywoodsmall.com/books/sound-of-sleigh-bells_excerpt.php

To purchase through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Sleigh-Bells-Cindy-Woodsmall/dp/0307446530/ref=pd_ts_b_5?ie=UTF8&s=books

To purchase through CBD.com: http://www.christianbook.com/sound-sleigh-bells-cindy-woodsmall/9780307446534/pd/446534?event=HPF2

Cindy Woodsmall is a New York Times best-selling author whose connection with the Amish has been featured on ABC Nightline and the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Her ability to authentically capture the heart of her characters comes from her real-life connections with Plain Mennonite and Old Order Amish families.

Cindy is the mother of three sons and two daughters-in-law, and she and her husband reside in Georgia. Visit her Web site at www.CindyWoodsmall.com


~~~~~~~~~

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LeAnn Harris & Her MASH Mom

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LeAnn Harris, another Love Inspired Author, is my guest today. Here’s LeAnn:

“The brave woman in my life I want to share with you is my mother. She is amazing. My mother was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army and a nurse during the Korean War. She met my dad, a lowly private, who worked on her floor. After they got married, mother was assigned to a Korean mash unit. When she took her training at an Army base in the Southwest, they dropped the nurses in their white uniforms in the middle of a field, gave them maps and told to find their way back. My mother’s sense of direction is not the best, so she begged the poor driver t help her. He told how to get back. What a creative way to solve a problem.

I am awed at my mother’s determination and compassion. As a nurse, she is the best. It is a gift I think God gave her. All of her patients admired and loved her whether she did private duty or home health care. Where ever she worked, she won praise, and wasn’t afraid of doing what was right. When I was in the hospital and suffered a major brain bleed, mother was in the room and called for help immediately. If you were sick, she’s the one you want there.

Even into her seventies, my mother could run me into the ground with her energy. Growing up I could only stand back and admire her.

In my current book, Lilly Burkstrom has had to show strength when her husband left her when she was pregnant, and the later after their divorce he was killed. Lilly fought against the same force that killed her ex and was threatening her daughter. It is a strength that relies on God. I am in awe.”–LeAnn

I am in awe too, LeAnn. Drop by LeAnn’s website to learn more about her and her books.–Lyn

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Author K.M. Weiland & Faith Enough

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Author K. M. Weiland is my guest today. Here’s Katie:

“Faith Enough: Hagar and Mairead

When we think of the great women of faith in the Bible, it isn’t often that Hagar comes to mind. Her story is surprisingly brief, almost a footnote in the larger tale of Abraham and Sarah and the chosen nation to which they would give birth. When I visualize this Egyptian maidservant, I inevitably bring to mind the vampish taunts of actress Zoe Sallis who portrayed her in John Huston’s film The Bible. But somewhere in the course of reading Genesis so many times, I’ve realized that the vague details of her story leave room for another interpretation.

This woman—who was also destined to give birth to a great nation—was abandoned, thrust out from her home by the father of her son, left to wander the desert, and presumably die. When at last she and Ishmael collapse beneath a bush, her hopelessness is tangible: “Do not let me see the boy die!”

Whatever Hagar may have been (and there’s little doubt that she behaved less than angelically toward her mistress, even as there’s little doubt that Sarah probably behaved less than reasonably toward her maid), whatever she may have become after this chapter ends and she exits the Biblical account forever, she stands as a beacon for the rest of us in our own moments of hopelessness.

She cries out to God in despair, probably doubting that this God of Abraham’s would even hear her, much less respond. She had not even faith enough to ask for a miracle. She didn’t ask to be saved; she asked only to be spared the sight of her son’s death. And from that tinier-than-a-mustard-seed grain of faith—just faith enough to speak up—God granted her a renewal beyond anything she imagined.

In my recently released medieval novel Behold the Dawn , my heroine, Lady Mairead of Keaton, is forced into a situation just as hopeless. Pursued by evil men, she flees to the Third Crusade in the Holy Land, only to be captured by the infidels and watch her husband die of his wounds. Alone in a hopeless situation, with only the kernel of her battered faith to support her, she too must find the courage to call out to God.

And when He answers in a way she never expected, by bringing her a rescuer in the shape of the condemned and embittered knight Marcus Annan, she must embark on a perilous journey that will force her to cast everything upon the Lord and trust that even in the midst of impossible circumstances, He is, indeed, a God of hope. He is a God who may lead us to the edge of our endurance—to the edge of Hagar’s desert—but He will never abandon us, so long as we have even just faith enough to speak up.

About the Author: K.M. Weiland http://www.kmweiland.com writes historical and speculative fiction from her home in the sandhills of western Nebraska. She is the author of A Man Called Outlaw and the recently released Behold the Dawn . She blogs at Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors and AuthorCulture .”

Thanks for that great insight and the book sounds truly intriguing.–Lyn

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Book Monday-Author Susan Meissner & White Picket Fences

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Readers of emotional dramas that are willing to explore the lies that families tell each other for protection and comfort will enjoy White Picket Fences. The novel is ideal for those who appreciate exploring questions like: what type of honesty do children need from their parents, or how can one move beyond a past that isn’t acknowledged or understood? Is there hope and forgiveness for the tragedies of our past and a way to abundant grace?

The story in a nutshell:

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece. Tally is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she and her family can offer the girl stability and a shot at a “normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.

What led you to write White Picket Fences?

Several years ago I was a court-appointed advocate for children involved in protective services. There were times when I saw that despite the outward appearance of a less-than-perfect home, a child could be loved there. Just because a parent is unconventional or unsuccessful career-wise or makes choices that buck societal norms, it doesn’t mean that he or she is by default a “bad” parent. Likewise, parents who we would traditionally call “good” -meaning they provide, they protect, they don’t hit, they don’t ridicule – can nevertheless make decisions regarding their children that have hugely negative effects and yet their outward appearance would never lead anyone to suspect it. Even if you live behind a white picket fence, you still have to deal with the fallout of a living in a broken world. You can’t hide from it. The perfect, idyllic life is an illusion. Life is a weave of both delight and disappointment and it’s precisely these things that give it definition and depth. To ignore what is ugly is to cheapen what is beautiful.

You dovetailed a current day family drama with the Holocaust and the Warsaw Ghetto. Why the connection?

I think it’s fair to say that the depth of the atrocities inflicted during the Holocaust wasn’t fully appreciated until after the war. There was ugliness happening, if you will, and much of the West failed to see it — for whatever reason. Within the horror, though, people made brave choices, selfless choices. And there were survivors who had to choose what they would take with them from the ashes of their suffering. I wanted to explore how a person makes that decision. Even the decision to pretend it never happened is a decision regarding those ashes.

What do you think interests you about the intersection of personal relationships and perceptions – a theme you wove into both The Shape of Mercy and White Picket Fences?

I see every great work of fiction being about human relationships. Gone With the Wind is so much more than just an epic story with the Civil War as a backdrop. It’s a story of human relationships. Scarlett and Ashley, Scarlett and Rhett, Scarlett and Melanie, Scarlett and her father. It’s within our closest relationships that our brightest virtues and worst flaws are exposed. That’s why there is such tremendous story value within intimate human relationships. We are at our best and our worst when we are responding and reacting to the people who shape who we are. Human history is the story of relationships and what they teach us about what we value. And what we don’t.

White Picket Fences is a different kind of novel than your acclaimed book, The Shape of Mercy, but there are some similarities too. Can you explain those?

As with The Shape of Mercy, there is a historical thread in White Picket Fences, though it is not as dominant. The invasion of Poland by the Nazis is woven into the story, and provides the backdrop for Chase’s and Tally’s discoveries about hope, dreams, and redemption. This thread is enhanced by visits to a nursing home where Chase and Tally meet a man blind from birth who survived the occupation of Poland. It is also a story that draws its pathos from family dynamics and the near-universal desire we have to make straight what is crooked. There are two young protagonists in White Picket Fences, like there was in The Shape of Mercy, as well as a third character, who, along with the two men in the nursing home, provide a similar multi-generational story thread.

What do you hope readers come away with after reading White Picket Fences?

The pivotal moment in the story for me is when Josef says to Chase: “[This] is what all survivors must decide. We have to decide how much we will choose to remember, how much courage we are willing to expend to do so.” It takes courage to acknowledge and remember what drove you to your knees or nearly killed you. If you choose to forget – and that’s assuming you actually can – then it seems to me you suffered for nothing. You are different but you don’t spend any time contemplating – or celebrating – how. I’d be happy if there was a takeaway for someone out there who needs to consider that.

My bio:

Susan Meissner is the multi-published author of The Shape of Mercy, named one of the Best Books in 2008 by Publishers Weekly the ECPA’s Fiction Book of the Year. She is also a speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. A devotee of purposeful pre-writing, Susan encourages workshop audiences to maximize writing time by mapping the writing journey and beginning from a place of intimate knowledge. She is the leader/moderator of a local writer’s group, a pastor’s wife and the mother of four young adults. A native San Diegan, Susan attended Point Loma Nazarene University. When she’s not writing, Susan directs the Small Groups and Connection Ministries program at The Church at Rancho Bernardo.

You can purchase White Picket Fences here:

http://www.amazon.com/White-Picket-Fences-Susan-Meissner/dp/1400074576/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

And read an excerpt here:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400074570&view=excerpt

Susan Meissner

www.susanmeissner.com

http://susanmeissner.blogspot.com

http://theshapeofmercy.blogspot.com

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Author Allie Pleiter, Knitter & Mom

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My guest today is a writer who exudes joie de vie, Allie Pleiter. Here’s Allie:

“More than anything, it’s our choices that define us. So many times I’m awed by Christ’s choices–to stop and listen to one person when the whole world was clamoring for His attention, to stay put when I would have skittered around inefficiently, to confront when I would have hid, to be kind when I would have resorted to harsh words. By His actions, Christ teaches me that choices are not the same thing as circumstances.


My circumstances this past year have included some serious medical challenges for my son–and by inclusion, our entire family. Now, medical challenges make me break out in hives (pun intended). I’m a control freak–maybe that’s why I write those types of characters so vividly–and medicine is not the native habitat of control freaks. Let’s simply say God’s been working on my character. This, if you haven’t already experienced it, is not fun. I can’t control fevers, or test results, or long waits or the whole “we’ll just have to wait and see” that has been our journey–and quite frankly, it’s making me nuts.


I choose, however, to try and embrace it as much as I can. I make friends with the providers and staff my son and I come across. I learn their names and call them by name whenever I can. I count blessings. I hunt down silver linings. I knit soft fuzzy things while in waiting rooms. I celebrate every tiny goal I can get my hands on. In our house, a blood draw gets you a trip to Dairy Queen, period. Even if it’s dinnertime.


Shallow? Maybe. I’m aware that most of what I do to cope wouldn’t qualify as much more than a parlor trick. But I’ve found that if you pile up enough of those tiny blessings, you plant the seeds of courage and strength. You install the counterbalance to fear and invite the fragrance of grace. For I believe that grace is grown and given, never earned or stuffed into place.


In BLUEGRASS CHRISTMAS, Mary Thorpe learns that grace means trusting others with who we really are–weaknesses and all. She thinks her new neighbors will run her out of Middleburg once they know her secret. Yet, as a new believer, she’s still learning how God’s grace smoothes over the friction between us and builds opportunity where we would normally see disaster. The Prince of Peace can always redeem Christmas, even when we’ve made a royal mess of things.


Perhaps most especially when we’ve made a royal mess of things.”


Come visit me at alliepleiter.com or to my knitting blog at destiKNITions.blogspot.com.


AUTHOR BIO:

An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction. The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, doing laundry, running carpools, and finding new ways to avoid housework. She grew up in Connecticut, holds a BS in Speech from Northwestern University, spent fifteen years in the field of professional fundraising, and currently lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois. The “dare from a friend” to begin writing nine years ago has given rise to a career spanning two parenting books, eight novels including the multi-nominated MY SO-CALLED LOVE LIFE, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing.


BACK COVER COPY:

BLUEGRASS CHRISTMAS

#4 In the KENTUCKY CORNERS Series

ISBN 13# 978-0-373-87556-6


An Old Fashioned Christmas…

That’s what led new believer Mary Thorpe to start over in quaint Middleburg, Kentucky. As director of the church’s Christmas pageant, Mary’s job is to bring the townspeople together, to remind them what the season is really about. But everyone is all riled up over one very handsome man: the man daring to run against Middleburg’s popular long-standing mayor. Mac MacCarthy wants change. Mary wants things to stay as they are. Is there a happy medium? Both Mac and Mary are in for one very big Christmas surprise.

Thanks, Allie!


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Book Monday–Author Michael Angley, His Mom & His Book

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My guest today is Author Mike Angley who has an interesting family story to share and he is especially proud of his award-winning book CHILD FINDER. Here’s Mike:

“This story would not have been possible without the intervention of a rambunctious mutt named Howdy, but let me save this prequel for the end. It’s priceless.

My mother, Jean Angley, grew up as Jean Marie Davis in the coal-mining region of northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA). Born during the Great Depression, and the youngest of 13 children in her Welsh-American family, it would seem misfortune was in her cards. But I think that’s also what made her the bravest, strongest woman I’ve ever known.

My dad was from a large, Irish-American-Catholic family, and after working as a coal miner in the 1940s, he and his new bride moved to New Jersey where he pursued a job in a leather tanning factory. When my mom was pregnant with me in 1959, already the mother of four other young children, one of whom was still an infant, my dad suffered a stroke. The only good thing it seemed about living in the Projects in Newark, NJ, was its proximity to New York City…and Columbia Presbyterian hospital. My dad was rushed across the Hudson River and into the operating room.

Brain surgery in the 1950s was nowhere near as refined as it is today. Back then, most people died on the table. The surgeon told my mother as much. I can only imagine her fear, the mother of four, with number five on the way, facing the loss of her husband and the sole breadwinner who had no life insurance.

I’ve heard tales that my dad was the very first person in the history of medicine to have survived this particular operation. But he was not out of the woods yet. He was in a coma for three months, and when he finally came out of it, he was permanently paralyzed on the right half of his body. All the while my dad was in the hospital, my mother made the trip back and forth between Newark and NYC by bus, visiting with him and praying for him. Throughout all this she not only had to care for her four children, she also gave birth to me. It was tough, and while I was too young to even be aware of what she endured, I often think about how she must have struggled through it all.

My dad pulled through and continued to work hard every day of his life until his death in 1985 from Black Lung Disease that he developed during his coal mining days. Although my parents never finished high school, all five of their children have college degrees. Today, my mom remains my heroine…a tough old gal with a great spirit and endless love.

The Prequel: One day in the late 1940s, my future mom and future dad were walking toward each other across the Breslau Bridge in the Wyoming Valley region of NEPA. They hadn’t yet met, but that was about to change because of a dog named Howdy. As my dad walked Howdy, he clutched the simple rope leash around the dog’s neck to keep the energetic pooch under control. Somehow, Howdy broke loose, and my dad gave chase. He ran frantically after his dog, gradually approaching my mother, and screaming at the top of his lungs, “Howdy! Howdy! Howdy!” My mom had no idea he was calling his dog; she thought to herself, “Well, this has to be the friendliest boy I’ve ever seen.” She grabbed Howdy, met her soon-to-be husband, and never left his side until the day he died.”

Mike Angley, Special Agent (ret)

Colonel, USAF (ret)

Author of the Child Finder Trilogy

www.childfinder.us

Mike Angley is the award-winning author of the Child Finder Trilogy. He retired from the Air Force in 2007 following a 25-year career as a Special Agent with the Office of Special Investigations (OSI).

His debut novel, Child Finder, received the Silver Medal for Fiction in the 2009 Military Writers Society of America’s Annual Awards program. When it debuted in June, the esteemed Library Journal placed it on its Summer Reads list and called it a “compelling debut novel,” and a “real find.”

FreeofferIf you would like to read a sample of the first few pages of Child Finder, please click here. hapter b

The Child Finder Trilogy…

…inspired by real-life experiences… follow the paranormal adventures of an Air Force Special Agent as the government exploits his psychic abilities to rescue abducted children. Major Patrick O’Donnell, an Air Force Special Agent assigned to the Pentagon, begins experiencing haunting nightmares about children who have been abducted and murdered—before their bodies are found. It quickly becomes apparent that he has a special psychic gift that the government is all too eager to exploit.

He is drawn into a TOP SECRET black world community overseen by the FBI that leverages his skills to solve child abductions. Soon Pat discovers that this black world has an even darker underbelly when those close to him begin to die mysteriously.

Rescuing abducted children is a noble pursuit, but it comes at great cost. Pat must battle dark, murderous forces within his own trusted inner circle, as well as unimaginable evil that threatens his family. Before his journey ends Agent O’Donnell will learn explosive government information that will rock his understanding of life, the universe, and his own faith. Perhaps some secrets are best kept hidden . . .

Your trilogy sounds exciting, Mike. Thanks so much for sharing your family story and your new book with us!–Lyn


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Winners of Finally Home-Finally Found & Paging Project Journal!

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In September my Love Inspired Classic Finally Home-Finally Found was released. To celebrate its rebirth, I am giving away an autographed copy to these ladies who left comments during September:
April,
PtClayton,
Wilma,
and
Joye.
I have email addresses for 3 of these. JOYE, I TRIED TO EMAIL YOU BUT IT CAME BACK TO ME. SO PLEASE EMAIL ME–ASAP!

It really helps when you leave a comment if you would leave your email address. Substitute a period with the word “dot” and @ as “at” so that Spammers can’t pick up your email.

BTW, Project Journal, please contact me at l (dot)cote (at) juno.com . You have won the September drawing on Craftie Ladies of Romance blog.

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Lyn & Friends for a Great Fall Weekend

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This past weekend my friend Author Roxanne Rustand visited me along with another friend who was a longtime food columnist who now is a photographer. AND WE HAD FUN!

We went shopping in Eagle River WI, which included garage-saling. When we stopped at one house, I spied a crabapple tree. The boughs were drooping nearly to the ground they bore such a rich crop. I asked and they gave me permission to pick a bag of this specialty fruit. The next day I rinsed them and cooked them down to juice. Then next day I made the juice into 9 jars of my ABSOLUTELY favorite jelly. And I’m not giving it away–since most people don’t love it as much as I do!

And here’s a photo of me and my daughter’s cat, Tricksy. Roxanne is a petlover extraordinare and her blog is the “All creatures great and small place” at
http://roxannerustand.blogspot.com/


Good friends are one of God’s greatest gifts. And pets are a close second. Soon I’ll be guesting on Roxanne’s blog. I’ll give you a heads up. Yesterday, my dh and I drove up to the Kewana Peninsula in Upper Michigan. The colors weren’t at peak but very close and the low mountains there made for beautiful panoramic views. It was a long day. We left at 7 a.m. and didn’t return till after 8 p.m. But what a glorious day! This was our celebration of our wedding anniversary on Monday. A great gift for both of us.
What are your favorite autumn activities and pleasures?

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