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Author Missy Tippens & Strong Women Who Forgive & Giveaway

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 17, 2015

My guest today is my friend and Love Inspired Author Missy Tippens who is going to share about:

Strong Women Who Forgive

I love celebrating strong women. And I love celebrating mothers. So this is a great month be invited to Lyn’s blog! Lyn, thank you for having me.

When I first thought of writing my new book, The Doctor’s Second Chance, I had the idea to pair up a strong, driven professional woman with a laid back, outdoorsy man who gets thrown into an unusual situation (a fish-out-of-water story). After a lot of brainstorming, I ended up writing my heroine, Violet Crenshaw, as a driven pediatrician who’s forced to help a man she doesn’t like, a man who thinks the worst of her. My hero of the story is general contractor Jake West, whose cousin leaves him with her newborn baby. And he needs Violet’s help.

Violet had a terrible falling out with her family in her late teens, forcing her to achieve her dreams of being a doctor on her own. She stood strong and worked her way through college and medical school. Now she’s bought her own small, private practice and wants to help kids in a small town setting. She never hesitates to help the sweet baby Jake has brought to her, even if it means dealing with the uncle.

Throughout the story, Violet shows strength. One of her biggest steps is to learn to forgive and to move past old hurts. Without giving away too much, I’ll just say I think you’ll enjoy watching Violet push through her problems and learn and grow. And maybe even fall in love!

QUESTION: Do you think it takes a strong woman to forgive?

I will be giving away one copy of The Doctor’s Second Chance (print or e-book) to one person who leaves a comment.”–Missy

To purchase, click cover

The Doctor’s Second Chance

BLURB:

The Bachelor’s Baby

Jake West’s troubled cousin leaves him with a most unusual parting gift—her newborn baby girl! And now the small-town contractor is forced to seek help from the very woman he resents—the new big-city pediatrician who practically stole his uncle’s practice, Violet Crenshaw. Violet knows she shouldn’t be consorting with the enemy. But she can’t resist the adorable baby and her handsome new caretaker. Violet traded her chance at motherhood for her career years ago. But raising a family with Jake could be everything she’s ever wanted.

Thanks for being my guest, Missy. Sounds like a great book!–Lyn

Connect with Missy at www.missytippens.com and sign up for her newsletter.

Visit Missy at:

https://www.facebook.com/missy.tippens.readers

https://twitter.com/MissyTippens

https://www.pinterest.com/missytippens/

PS Martha J. Sturm won the Advanced Reading copies of my books HONOR and BLESSING. Congrats!

Happy News! National Readers Choice Award

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 16, 2015

I usually don’t blow my own horn but I’m very honored that my book HONOR IS a finalist in Oklahoma RWA’s prestigious Reader’s Choice Contest.

As you can tell from the title, this contest is judged by readers and that means a lot to me.

If you’d like to see who the other finalists are, click the link below and then scroll through the different categories and you’ll find HONOR under the Inspirational Category.-Lyn

National Readers Choice Award Finalists

Author Dorothy Love & I REMEMBER MAMA

Posted on May 16, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 14, 2015

Last but not least, author Dorothy Love shares her I REMEMBER MAMA:

I REMEMBER MAMA

Dorothy Love

When I was a girl growing up in the country, one of my summer chores was to help Mama in our garden. Summer in the south was brutal—by nine in the morning my hair was plastered to my head, and my dress–so carefully starched and ironed— was wilted, the collar damp and scratchy against my neck. In those days we had no air conditioning and the inside of the house was not much cooler than the garden. Mama’s strategy was to get out there early, get the day’s harvest picked and get much of the cooking done before the hottest part of the day.

We had two white enamel pans large enough to hold what we needed to prepare lunch and dinner ( which we called dinner and supper) for Daddy and my brothers. In the garden just after sunrise, Mama taught me the names of her favorite varieties—Big Boy tomatoes, Mississippi silver skin peas, Sweet Queen corn, Kentucky Wonder beans.

Back in the house, she set me to shelling peas or snapping beans at the kitchen table, the oscillating fan stirring the heat, the turquoise radio on the counter tuned to WHBQ in Memphis, ninety miles away. While she brewed a gallon of sweet tea and stirred the batter for cornbread we sang along with the Everly Brothers’ All I have to Do Is Dream, and the latest song by Elvis, our hometown boy. Tommy Edwards’ It’s all in the Game and Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe were my favorites.

In July we started “putting up” vegetables for the winter, a laborious process that involved boiling water to sterilize the glass canning jars, setting the packed jars in a pressure cooker and after the prescribed time, taking them out to cool. My bedroom was near the pantry where Mama stored her canned goods. At night, while I read books by flashlight and listened to the crickets outside the open window, I could hear the “pop” of the jar lids as they sealed in all that summer goodness.

A voracious reader, I put off my chores while I read just one more chapter. Housework seemed counterproductive–I swept the floor and cleaned the bathroom, and the next day I had to do it all over again. Often I would give my chores “a lick and a promise” so I’d have more time to read. But my leisure rarely lasted very long. Mama would send me back to finish the job with this little jingle:

If a task is once begun

Never leave it till it’s done.

Be the labor great or small,

Do it well or not at all.

Mama is eighty three now, and her gardening is limited to tending her roses. But every time I hear one of those old songs, or enjoy a glass of iced tea on a sweltering summer day, I remember those precious days in the garden with Mama, and I am grateful.”–Dorothy

BLURB:

Savannah belle Celia Browning intends to wed her childhood sEeetheart, Sutton Mackay and take her place in society as one of the city’s most influential young matrons. Just as her engagement is announced, an unsavory newspaper reporter arrives, bent on resurrecting her family’s painful past. Celia receives a bracelet imbued with a chilling message and determines to uncover long-buried family secrets that could cost her everything.

For more online:
www.DorothyLoveBooks.com

Thanks, Dorothy, for sharing. I also think your story THE BRACELET sounds really intriguing! Thanks to all the authors who shared this week.–Lyn

Amish Author Marta Perry & I REMEMBER MAMA

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 14, 2015

Here’s another I REMEMBER MAMA memory by Amish author Marta Perry:

I REMEMBER MAMA

By Marta Perry

When I was small, my mother and I were often together with no one else around, since my brother and sister were eight and ten years older than I. In those times, one of the best things my mother did for me was to tell me stories. I’m quite sure that my love of story and the fact that I became a writer can be traced by to those early days of story-telling. She told me all the normal children’s stories, of course, and she read to me often. But my very favorite stories were those she told in response to my often-repeated request, “Tell me a story about when you were little.”

My mother had what most people today would consider a hard childhood. Her parents had a small farm, deep in the country, and seven children to feed, and my mother’s father died while she was still quite young. Looking back at it with adult eyes, I’m sure they were very hard up, but that never came through in my mother’s stories. Instead, they were all about the adventures of a little girl growing up in a big, loving family—picking berries, wading in the creek, collecting nuts, being allowed to help with the grown-up activities like canning and making my grandmother’s special homemade noodles.

I loved to sit on a small stool on the back porch on summer evenings, helping to snap beans and listening to the stories of that world, which sounded so far away in some ways and yet so familiar. And in my turn I learned to help with the canning, roll out a pie crust, and finally was considered old enough to cut the noodles before they went into the boiling chicken stock. Best of all was when my grandmother came to visit. She’d take me on her lap and tell me story after story of what life had been like—sometimes remembering the stories a bit differently than my mother had!

Now it’s my turn to be a mother and a grandmother, and when I visit my grandchildren, I hear the familiar chant, “Tell us a story about when Mommy or Daddy was small.” So I oblige, pulling out one of the long list of stories of my own children, stored away in memories as bright and sharp as if they happened yesterday.

I truly believe this need to share family stories contributes to our happiness and security. Like a quilt made of hundreds of tiny patches, the story of family goes on, bringing hope and strength to each new generation.

It’s that love of family that I’ve tried to express in my current series of Amish books, Keepers of the Promise, in which a grandmother entrusts three granddaughters with the stories of their Amish family, and each one finds a promise for the future in the treasures of the past.”–Marta

Thanks so much, Marta. I also try to share family memories with my children and my great nieces and nephews so that they know what their heritage is.–Lyn

QUESTION: Do you share family stories with the younger members of the family?

Amish Author Amy Clipston & I REMEMBER MAMA

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 14, 2015

SO VERY SORRY–My website server burped today and so this is posted late!–Lyn

I Remember Mama

By Amy Clipston

I REMEMBER MAMA and I would spend our Saturday mornings at the Hawthorne, NJ, movie theater when I was a little girl. We would pack a snack, which was usually a Ziploc bag of homemade popcorn, and two cans of soda in a large purse and head out to see the latest blockbuster. I looked forward to our Saturday morning trips. It was our special time together.

No movie genre was off limits. We enjoyed comedies, chick flicks, and action/adventure films. Mama would let me choose the film, and she even tolerated a horror movie or two in order to please me. Some of the favorite movies I recall seeing with her were “Annie,” “ET,” the “Karate Kid” series, “Beetlejuice,” “Footloose,” and the “Back to the Future” series. When I started working as a babysitter for neighbors, Mama took me to a special sneak preview for the film “Adventures in Babysitting.”

The tickets started out at $2.00 each, and then progressively increased in increments of $.25. Soon they were $2.25 and then $2.50. By the time I graduated from high school, one matinee movie ticket was $4.50. The cost, however, never interfered with our special Saturday dates.

My mama has always been my best friend and greatest confidant. While I was growing up, I knew that she always had my back and she would listen without judgment. Even during my angst filled and confusing teenage years, I could share anything and everything with her.

Mama is still my movie buddy, and my younger son, Matthew, has also joined our small club. Every weekend, we choose a movie to download through iTunes. I enjoy sharing some “old” movies with Matt now. He has learned to appreciate some of my favorite movies, such as the “Jurassic Park” and “Terminator” films. The three of us venture out to the theater often, and occasionally, we can convince my older son, Zachary, and my husband to tag along with us.

Mama is still my best friend and I’m grateful that she lives with my family and me. I can always count on her to be there when we need her, but most importantly, I know she’ll watch any bizarre movie I choose to download.

Book Blurb:

A Simple Prayer, Hearts of the Lancaster Grand Hotel series Book #4

Linda is no stranger to hardship. Now she dares to hope for a chance at love and a new beginning.

As the sole survivor of a buggy accident that left her orphaned at age four, Linda Zook was reluctantly raised by her Uncle Reuben. She longs to be worthy of someone, but the lasting trauma of her injuries and embittered upbringing by her uncle have destroyed her self-worth.

Aaron Ebersol left the Amish community seventeen years ago when he could no longer bear the restrictions or the constant tension with his father. Despite years of unanswered letters to his parents, and the roots he’s put down in Missouri, Aaron rushes back to the Amish community of Paradise, Pennsylvania, after receiving word of his mother’s stroke. Hesitant to get too close to the family he was once a part of, he decides to stay at the Heart of Paradise Bed & Breakfast. He soon encounters Linda, working there part-time, and the two find they have a lot in common.

Can Linda and Aaron forgive the family members who have deceived and forsaken them? And will Aaron be able to convince Linda that she is worthy of his love?”–Amy

Again, my apologies, Amy and everyone. The Internet is great when it works!–Lyn

I Remember Mama by Author Lynne Gentry

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 6, 2015

My guest today is author Lynne Gentry who shares her memories of her mother. Here’s Lynne:

I remember Mama shaking her head and saying, “Girl, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

My mother was a practical woman. She loved to squeeze numbers into straight little columns and make them add up. In her opinion, everything in life was either black or white.

The hero of many make-believe battles

I, on the other hand, loved to stand on the hill overlooking our wheat fields, cram a stick into the ground, and pretend the world could hear my voice. On hot summer days, I would spend hours squirreled away in a treehouse or a fort made of hay bales. My vivid imagination converted these everyday places into castles or frontier outposts. I was the hero of many make-believe battles.

My mother and I were so different.

She worried that a girl who could sell wind in a bag might never have a productive life. I thought she considered me a disappointment. We clashed. A lot.

It wasn’t until I became a mother that I really began to understand the fragility of the mother/daughter relationship. I longed to bridge the divide with my mother and I wanted to prevent the same divide from forming with my daughter.

When parents and children don’t see eye to eye

it creates strife. Are we doomed to remain at odds?

Writing fiction has given me the opportunity to dig beneath the surface and explore unique ways to unite two very different people with the same DNA. What have I learned?

Honest conversations are a must.

Nine years ago my mother was diagnosed

with cancer. For two years, I flew home one week a month to care for her. My children were teenagers and I had my own parenting issues. I really didn’t have time to sit with my mother, but I did. It was during these long days of waiting for the end that we were forced to get to know each other. To ease my mother’s pain, I told her stories. To ease my pain, she showed me her well-organized pictures, family histories, and finances. A new and deep appreciation for both of our strengths emerged during this time of weakness.

We extended grace. We learned to love each other.

My mother lived to see my first book published. I remember showing it to her on my computer. She dragged her hand over the screen, smiled, and said, “Who knew that selling wind in a bag would pay off.”

I remember Mama. She taught me everything that matters.–Lynne

To purchase, click here. Healer of Carthage: A Novel (The Carthage Chronicles)

BLURB

The first in The Carthage Chronicles series, Healer of Carthage launches Dr. Lisbeth Hastings into third-century Carthage. Desperate to survive in this unknown world, Lisbeth is forced to grapple with slavery, religious persecution, and disease. Against this dark backdrop, romance, justice, and courage take center stage.

Thanks so much for sharing, Lynne. Does anybody else want to leave what they remember about their mama in a comments?–Lyn

For more online:

Website: http://lynnegentry.com/

Facebook: Author Lynne Gentry https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Lynne-Gentry/215337565176144

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lynne_Gentry

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/lynnegentry7/

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imh1AwR698Y

Simon & Schuster: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Lynne-Gentry/412732530

I Remember Mama (Book Giveaway)

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 3, 2015

Honor, the mother

As usual I focus on mothers and daughters in the month of Mother’s Day.

This week several authors will be sharing memories of their mothers. And in the upcoming weeks of May I will ask authors and you readers to share little tidbits about your moms. Hope this makes you remember and hope you enjoy hearing other’s memories.

Here’s my take on I REMEMBER MAMA.

Do you recognize the title of this blog post?

If you do, you’re over 30 or an old movie or early TV buff. I Remember Mama was a book first, then a movie, then a charming TV series.

It was the story of a Swedish family that immigrated to San Francisco early in the 20th century. If you haven’t seen this move, rent it. It is all about how Mama–kind, good and wise–keeps her family together and loved.

I lost my mother a few years ago. Unfortunately the end of her life was nothing like the days I most treasure, the days when she was a young and loving mother. Dementia and its unpleasant side effects separated us at the end.

But today I want to remember Mama, the way I loved her.

My mother loved animals. We owned turtles, ducks, fish, cats, dogs, a baby robin. (The robin’s another story for another day.) Our house was always filled with animals–some ours; some of the neighbors. It wasn’t unusual to come home from school and find the house filled with all the pets on the block. (This was before leash-laws.)

One special memory is the cat from down the street who obviously didn’t trust her kittens with her owner. She birthed her kittens in her own home. But a few hours after delivery, she carried each kitten one by one up the hill to our house. My mother “got” what the mama-cat wanted and set up a box with an old blanket in it. The cat nestled all three of her mewing kittens to that box and moved in. Once or twice a day, she would go down to her house and visit her owners but then she would come back to our house.

Our neighbor downhill was not amused. But what could she do? When the kittens were old enough to give away, my mom found homes for them. And the mama-cat moved back to her owners.

One Christmas memory I have is of my first cat, a very large, a very loving tom who thought that we had put up the Christmas tree just for him. He climbed it every night!

And this was in the days of glass ornaments. Every night for three nights we woke up to CRASH!!!! We had to pick up the tree, sweep up the shattered glass ornaments and redecorate.

Now most moms would have banished the cat until the tree came down New Year’s Eve.

Not my mom.

She put a cup hook in the wall and tied a narrow rope to the tree. Then the cat could climb the tree and not knock it over. Now most moms would not have wanted a cup hook in her living room wall. But to my mom, the cat was more important than the wall.

This is how I REMEMBER MAMA. QUESTION: What do you most remember about your mother?

I will be giving away an advanced reading copy of my book HONOR and my book BLESSING which comes out July 1st both to one reader who leaves a comment. Hope you’ll share!–Lyn

Blessing, her daughter

Author Sylvia Bambola & Anna’s Meatballs

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 3, 2015

My guest today is author Sylvia Bambola. She is offering a book giveaway of her newest book,THE SALT COVENANTS. And she is sharing her mother in law Anna’ Meatball recipe–WHICH SOUNDS SCRUMPTIOUS! Here’s Sylvia:

Anna’s Meatballs:

1 ½ lbs chopped beef

1 raw egg

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

½ cup seasoned bread crumbs

2 Tbs dried parsley

¼ cup milk

Salt/pepper

Mix above together and form into medium size balls.

Anna’s Pasta Sauce:

2 packages Italian sausage

1 recipe Anna’s meatballs

2 pig knuckles

Olive oil

4 cans Italian peeled tomatoes

1 can tomato puree

2 Tbs red wine

Salt/pepper

In a large pot add enough olive oil to thinly cover bottom. Fry sausages, pig knuckles, and meatballs until golden brown. Remove from pot. Blend cans of tomatoes, one at a time, in blender, and add to pot, cooking over medium heat until all the drippings and crusted meat on bottom of pot have blended with tomatoes. Add tomato puree and heat until mixture begins to bubble. Add wine, then add meat and simmer over low heat for about three hours. Oil will begin to float to surface when it is done.

Significance of Recipe:

My first dinner at Anna’s house, my future mother-in-law

It was during my first dinner at Anna’s house, my future mother-in-law (who I later happily called “mom”) that I discovered a can of Franco American Spaghetti and a loaf of French bread was NOT Italian food.

Anna served pasta, the kind that came out of a box and had to be boiled in water.

And sauce . . . the kind that bubbled for hours and contained meatballs made from scratch, and sausages, and pig’s knuckles.

In all my young twenty years I had never seen such a sight.

The large Bambola tribe and I sat around a big concrete table in the back yard where I shamelessly gorged myself, then pushed away the empty plate and thanked my hostess. Anna laughed in that sweet way of hers and said, “Dinner? Oh, no, dear, that’s just first dish. Now we’ll have dinner.”

Just first dish!

And out came breaded chicken, a roast beef, salad and several vegetables. We sat for hours talking, laughing and of course, eating. I can’t think of a nicer way to be introduced to Italian food.

After several years of marriage and watching my mother-in-law cook, I finally mastered the “sauce.” And this staple accompanied many Sunday meals where wonderful lasting memories of family and friendship were forged.

Food says so much about people.

In my recent historical novel, The Salt Covenants, food and meals were important elements in Isabel’s Jewish family. Their faith required them to followed strict religious laws, in what they could and could not eat, and even in how they prepared their food.

And meal time was an opportunity for the family to come together in unity and share events of the day as well as practice their faith, as during their weekly Sabbath meal. Also the issue of a lack of food comes into play, as Isabel endures the rigors of a new land as well as struggles to acclimate herself to the foreign foods. Though The Salt Covenants isn’t a story about food, it is remarkable how much food does play a part in it.”–Sylvia

To purchase, click here. The Salt Covenants

Book Blurb:

“But these plans they have laid out for me like an embroidered rug, showing me where my feet must travel, is to me an awful penance for sins I did not commit.” Isabel

Spain 1493: Isabel has broken her mother’s heart by becoming a sincere convert to Christianity. But when she is noticed by Friar Alonso at La Casa Santa, the Holy House, she is forced to flee the Inquisition by entering into a loveless marriage and sailing along with Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World.

But all too soon Isabel is forced to struggle alone in her new life and new faith. With all the risks and hardships, her very survival is called into question. And how is she ever to find love in this strange land? And what of the dangerous Enrique Vivar? Will his hidden agenda cost her her life?

Publishers Weekly starred review called The Salt Covenants “transcendent” and “beautifully written”

Sylvia, I can’t wait to try your recipe. Sylvia is giving away a copy of her THE SALT COVENANTS so to enter the drawing be sure to leave an answer to the QUESTION: When you married or visited a friend for dinner, what new food did you discover?–Lyn

For more online:

website: http://www.sylviabambola.com/books

goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83706.Sylvia_Bambola

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sylvia-Bambola/78754640991

twitter: https://twitter.com/sylviabambola

To purchase:

amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Salt-Covenants-Sylvia-Bambola/dp/0989970779/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422041070&sr=1-1&keywords=the+salt+covenants

barnsandnoble.com: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-salt-covenants-sylvia-bambola/1120995842?ean=9780989970778

bookamillion.com: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Salt-Covenants/Sylvia-Bambola/9780989970778?id=6217838042591

Mothers’ Favorite Sayings

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 5, 2015

May is the month I focus on mothers and daughters and I am asking one question each week related to this topic.

Here’s this week’s question:

Could you please relate your mother’s favorite saying or bible verse?

My mom’s was “Life’s great if you don’t weaken.”

I think she said this because it reminds us that we will all weaken and we’re not in charge of life, a reminder of humility.

Here are both of my guest authors this week and what their mothers’ favorite sayings were.

First author Lorraine Beatty, yesterday’s guest:

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

My mother was ill a great deal of her life and I think this passage sustained and comforted her greatly over the years.–Lorraine

Next Author Sylvia Bambola tomorrow’s guest :

“If you’re going to do something, do it right!”

Those words my mother spoke so often still roll around my head. They’re good words; words that teach an important lesson found in scripture: Do all as unto the Lord. They made me want to do my best, to cultivate a spirit of excellence, something I’m still working on.

Still, over the years I’ve decided that not everything needs to be done with excellence. I mean, you don’t have to move all those knickknacks every time you dust. You can just dust around them until you have more time. Right? Well, that’s my plan and I’m sticking to it!–Sylvia

I’m with you on that one, Sylvia. And Lorraine, that is a memorable verse for all.

So readers, what was your mother’s favorite saying or Bible verse?

Leave a comment and be entered into the drawing for an Amazon gift card of $5. –Lyn

BTW, my ebook HONOR is 99 cents this week as an ebook. If you haven’t purchased it yet, look to the left and click the cover and it will take you to Amazon.com.

Author Lorraine Beatty & Bachelor to the Rescue

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Lyn CoteMay 3, 2015

My guest today is author Lorraine Beatty who writes for Love Inspired Romance. She is going to share about her latest romance, Bachelor to the Rescue. Here’s Lorraine:

Lived inside my head for several years

“My current heroine, single mom Lainie Hollings, has lived inside my head for several years. I knew she was a brunette and she had two little girls. She comes to a new town to start a new job and a new life, but something prevents it, and she has to come up with a new plan.

I saw her as a determined, strong woman who would do whatever it took to provide for her girls, even to working with a man she disliked. That idea went through many changes before finding it’s foundation in a book for Bachelor to the Rescue.

Lainie is no stranger to adversity.

As a young wife and mother, pregnant with her second child, she loses her husband in a construction accident, something that could have been prevented if the foreman, Shaw McKinney had been doing his job. She moves back home with her mother, gives birth to her child and goes back to school to earn her degree, landing the position of Head librarian at the new library in Dover, Mississippi.

Nothing in Lainie’s life comes easily. Robbed at gun point she and her girls are left broke stranded and the only one she knows in town is the man who made her a widow. But she’ll do whatever necessary to take care of her girls, even taking help from Shaw.

Loyal to the memory

Lainie is loyal to the memory of her husband, but that loyalty blinds her to the truth about him and stokes an old fear that keeps her from risking her heart again. It’s not until she stops and faces her past that she’s free to step into the future with a man who will love her and her girls completely.

Humorist Erma Bombeck

We all do this sometimes, get memories wrong. This is a funny antidote Humorist Erma Bombeck shared which points out what happens when we simply accept things at face value. When she was growing up Erma’s mother always hosted Easter dinner and she would cut the ham in half and bake the pieces separately.

When Erma had her own family she continued the practice. One day her husband asked her why she cut the ham in half. Unable to answer she called her mom who told her it wasn’t some special baking method, she simply hadn’t owned a pan big enough to hold the whole ham so she…cut it in half.

Lainie never bothered to learn the truth.

She simply accepted her husband’s explanation for things. She is a strong, accomplished and intelligent woman, but even the strongest of us have fears that keep us bound up. Maybe Lainie’s story will help someone stop, turn around, and confront an old fear so they can be free to move forward.”–Lorraine

To purchase, click here. Bachelor to the Rescue (Home to Dover)

Blurb

Young widow Lainie Hollings will do anything to protect her daughters—even if it means accepting help from Shaw McKinney. Though she blames Shaw for her husband’s death, he’s the only one she can turn to when a robbery forces her to take shelter in his home. Soon she’s surprised by the handsome contractor. He’s kind, charming and determined to protect her and her girls. Being with Lainie makes Shaw want to give up his bachelor life and become a family man. But he’ll need to win over the pretty librarian and prove to her he’s the right man for her future.

That’s a great point, Lorraine. Not taking what we are told for granted even from someone we love is a good idea. QUESTION: Have you ever had to change your mind in light of new information?–Lyn