I had the privilege of meeting JoAnn Durgin at the 2011 ACFW Conference in St. Louis, and was delighted by her warm, enthusiastic spirit. Her newest release, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, is now available from Pelican Book Group.
She was recently interviewed about her experience at SeriouslyWrite. I encourage you to check it out!
Filed under Author Highlight, Uncategorized
Grand Prize Giveaway! Leave a comment either on this website, or my Facebook Author Page, or on one or more of my Blog Tour posts by December 15 for a chance to win an autographed copy of Amberly!
Filed under Blog Tour, Giveaways, Uncategorized
Kristy invited me to be a Fan Fridays guest host on her blog! Check out the interview here.
Filed under Interviews, Uncategorized
Home Educating Family just posted my latest article – “Scrubbing Before Scribbling,” which is about submitting our talents to God. If you can relate to the difficulty of balancing creative pursuits against necessary tasks in order to keep priorities straight, I think you’ll enjoy this article. If you do, please leave a comment!
Filed under Article, Uncategorized
I had the privilege of “meeting” Kathleen Freeman last year through ACFW.com’s Scribes critique loop. She did valuable critiquing for me on Amberly – and wrote at least two of her own books during the same time! It was with great pleasure that I was able to watch via Live Feed while she won the highly coveted Genesis Award last week for her novella, The Broken Feather. Here are her responses to a few questions:
The Broken Feather is the legend of a girl fighter in ancient India. She’s clumsy and odd, facts that the other girls remind her of on a regular basis. Then, a market tournament goes horribly wrong with an accusation of cowardice. Her village rejects her, and she’s cast out of the Kalari school with no hope for a future. She finds a broken feather waving on the riverbank. The Feather gives her the courage to keep going, to try something new. Out of the ashes rises a life, wonderful beyond her wildest dreams.
I had a dream one night, and like many of my dreams, it birthed a story. Yes, I dream with an odd vividness. So then, the mystery began. I had to figure out who this girl was, how she could possibly be a fighter in ancient India, and what was going to happen to her after her village rejected her. I started writing and kept writing until all those questions fleshed out. It, of course, took countless hours of research. Good thing I adore learning.
2. How long did it take you to write?
Well, I’ve been a writer since I learned to string words together, but this is the story I cut my novel teeth on. I “finished” it about thirteen years ago. Time flies. It’s mostly been put on the back burner since, as I’ve researched, refined, hooked the chapters, and learned from talented crit partners. In that time, I’ve worked on other novels and ideas, as well as raised two wonderful sons.
4. Tell us about other stories you’ve written.
Other novels? The Happily Ever After Company is about a woman who makes a huge mistake and has to flee for her life. Up the Sycamore is about a young man who moves to a small town and despite every intention to be king of the school, makes friends with the town outcast, a boy with a horrible mystery surrounding him. No One Would Know is about a woman who risks life and family, angering people in high places, to solve the mystery of her best friend’s death. Then, there is The Hobo and the Swan, a work of literary fiction and passion of many readers. It’s the story of a girl growing up in the Great Depression whose life has been about survival. She has little to lose. Then she meets Eddie, the boy who has lost even more, and she has to choose between her survival and his.
Like my characters, my writing isn’t standard. My work all involves finding hope in hard times, both of which I’ve seen in abundance. Only my articles have been published at this point, though some novels are coming close, so, perhaps soon.
5. Do you tend to be an outline or freeform writer?
Panster or outliner, that is the question. A vague outline always forms in my head, but it’s something I jot down rather than rely on. I’m a connections person and story is so dependent on what my characters do and decide. I tend to let them tell the story. Usually I can guess where they’re headed, but often, I’m only a step ahead.
I keep finding that they have their reasons for behaviors and beliefs and those epiphanies help enrich the story in ways an authoritarian approach never would, sometimes changing the course of the plot. I guess, in that way, all my stories are mysteries.
6. What are you working on now?
In the works? I have several in various states of completion. Children of Revolution, the story of a young French lord trying to save his children is almost finished.
My website has many of my stories and concepts for the future.
Filed under Interviews, Uncategorized
The e-book for my novel Amberly is now available – and only $3.99! Be swept away with a humorous romantic adventure for the price of a mocha latte! You can get yours right now – here!
Filed under Amberly Updates, Uncategorized
Rich and I met at Drake University at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. (I had to go to SOME kind of church to stay on God’s good side, and I worked on-campus on Sundays, but. Intervarsity met mid-week.) I remember being astounded that those people really believed that Bible stuff—to the point of actually living it. Rather shook my easy-believism to the core.
One day Sara Weddington, the attorney for Roe in the abortion case Roe v Wade, came to campus to make a speech, and I was assigned to interview her for my TV journalism class. To complete my report, I needed the name of a particular legal case about abortion, so I ran into the law library for help.
And there was Rich behind the desk. Just getting off work.
Abortion is one of his hot-button topics (he’s against it!), so he volunteered to help me. We began talking, and never stopped.
Soon, I realized two things: Our relationship was getting serious, and I couldn’t just say I was a Christian for Rich’s sake.
Rich and I drove from Des Moines to Wyoming so that he could meet my parents. While we were there, Mom and Dad took us out to eat at a pretty fancy steak place. Rich looked Dad in the eyes, and said, “I’d like your permission to marry your daughter, Sir.”
My Dad looked up, grinned, shrugged and said, “You’ll have to take that up with her.” Then he simply took another bite of his food.
So, Rich asked me to marry him, and I said, “Of course I will!”
On another note, this same father of mine announced, “Yo, Adrienne!” (from the Rocky movies) when the pastor asked, “Who gives this woman to be wed” during the wedding rehearsal.
Our wedding itself was, frankly, kind of empty. Since his family is from Indiana, and mine was from Wyoming, we met in the middle and had the wedding in Des Moines. Unfortunately, we scheduled it during Drake’s fall break, so very few of our friends were in Des Moines at the time. On the other hand, it meant so very much that so many of our family members were able to drive in. Their love meant a lot, because we knew they were sacrificing family vacations to support us.
I hope that people see that Christ is the center of our marriage so much that His love cannot be denied because His love overflows to those He has put into our lives. Most especially our daughter, Leah.
Filed under Romantic Remembrances, Uncategorized
Ingredients:
· 2 lbs beef stew meat, cut up
· 6 Tbls flour
· 2 cups baby carrots
· 1 pkg (8 oz) fresh mushrooms, stems removed
· 1 pkg (16 oz) frozen pearl onions, thawed (or quick-boil & peel fresh ones)
· 2 tsp garlic, minced
· 3/4 cup beef broth
· 1/2 cup rich red wine, preferably a deep red burgundy
· 1/4 cup tomato paste
· 1 1/2 tsp salt
· 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
· 1/2 tsp dried rosemary (optional)
· 1/4 tsp dried thyme
· 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Putting it all together:
In a large mixing bowl, toss the beef with the flour so it’s thoroughly coated. Lightly coat the inside of your crock pot with butter, then add the beef, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and garlic.
Whisk together the beef broth, wine, tomato paste, salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary and pour over the beef pieces. Cover and cook on low for 8 – 10 hours. Excellent served with mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with fresh, chopped parsley, and serve with a rich red wine. Bon appetit!
Filed under Recipes, Royal Recipe Collection, Uncategorized
My new feature is called ROMANTIC REMEMBRANCES! Short, sweet real-life stories of romance. My first guest author is (drumroll, please . . . ) Kristy L. Cambron! Kristy writes vintage romance with a heart for Christ . . . HERE.
She posted this wonderful story there on July 23, 2012:
We women adore heels.
‘Tis true, my friends. We do. Some of us will wear anything from stilettos to kittens, just as long as we have a little lift when we leave the house for the day. Rain, snow and ice? We’ll grab a sturdy pair of wedges. A pair of jeans and an outdoor concert? For us it’s heels that won’t sink in the grass. Black and white spectators, mustard-yellow satin, bows at the ankles or turquoise with peacock feathered jewels on the top – we love a pair of unbelievably gorgeous heels and don’t care who knows it.
So you’d think someone that buys into that philosophy could find the right heels for every occasion short of a marathon, right?
My date drove down the gravel driveway to his grandmother’s home and pulled the truck to a stop in the center of a rural dreamworld. It was peaceful, calm. It had a background laden with cricket-song. it had a shining moon overhead and a truly remarkable view of open fields with the occasional firefly floating up from the tall grass. We hopped in his truck bed and sat on a quilt, just gazing up at the marvelous expanse of stars up ahead.
And as if God whispered my name out there in the quiet, I felt peace…
I’d never seen such a clear night sky. I suppose I’d always lived on the edge of a city and perhaps the sky was hazy because of it? Maybe I’d just never taken the time to really pause and appreciate a sparkling ceiling overhead? Whatever the reason, you’d have thought it odd for an eighteen-year-old girl to find herself so awestruck by a handful of stars overhead, but I was. Clearly I was; all these years later, the memory is still crisp in my mind.
I also realized that my heels didn’t fit the scene in my date’s countryside. I remember slipping them off and tossing them in the truck bed as if they didn’t matter. And it was funny, but in that moment, they didn’t. Instead we sat, the two of us just talking and holding hands, with my feet bare and my heart open to remembering. I memorized the smile on his face and that romantically sweet, oh-so starry sky overhead.
I remember the cadence of the breeze as it patted my face.
I remember the coolness of our night as it knocked on autumn’s door.
I remember falling in love with the clear sky… I remember falling in love with him.
Have you ever had a moment like that, one so remarkable that your memory has honored it with its own name? That night will always be Stilettos and Stars for me. It will always remind me of the power of simple, the magic of quiet, and the sweetness of honest beginnings. It stays in my heart. It gives a remembrance of the moments that God steps in and makes a connection with us – when He delights in giving us the desires of our hearts (even if we didn’t really know what we wanted).
If someone had handed me a fast $1000 to do with whatever I wanted, shoe shopping would probably have crossed my mind. I doubt I’d ever have thought of buying a few extra moments under a September sky from some fifteen years ago. But now? Given my choice? I’d pay to be back there again. I’d pay to toss a pair of Jimmy Choo heels in the back of a truck bed like they don’t matter, and appreciate the stars with my husband’s fingers laced with mine.
I am five-months pregnant and yes, I am still wearing heels. I’m not driving an old pick-up or taking jaunts through the rural field grasses mind you, but I am still enjoying the subtle smile that a pair of heels gives me on a busy weekday morning. And sometimes, just sometimes, I smile when I put on a pair because I remember how unimportant they truly are. They’re pretty, but I want more. I want to remember the starry moments. I remember the glittering sky and my heart’s finding of peace in that place. I remember God making an appearance, His breath and His whisper shielding us in peace, and putting His thumbprint on our lives.
It was a perfect sky. A sweet memory. A spectacular pair of heels that matter not at all. Thank you, God, for those moments born of you.
-Kristy L. Cambron
Filed under Romantic Remembrances, Uncategorized
Have a map drawn for your novel
Author Mary E. Hall 