Interview with Susan Meissner and a Giveaway

It’s a true pleasure to have award-winning novelist Susan Meissner join me today to talk about her newest book from WaterBrook Press, The Girl in the Glass, a part-contemporary, part historical novel set in Florence, Italy. I read this book for endorsement while I was still in Germany this summer and loved it. I literally kept slowing down as I read because I didn't want the story to end. It is WONDERFUL. Someday I hope to write such beautiful stories. 

Read to the end and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of this wonderful book.

Susan, tell us where the idea for this story came from.

For our 25^th wedding anniversary a few years ago my husband and I took a much-anticipated eight-day Mediterranean cruise. One of the ports of call on the Italy side was close enough to Florence to hop on a bus and spend the day there. When I stepped onto Florentine pavement I fell head over heels in love. No joke. There is something magical about Florence that I didn’t see in Rome, or even Paris if you can believe that. The beauty created by the masters of the Italian Renaissance is jaw-dropping and it meets your eye no matter which direction your turn. Florence  was the perfect place to bring a disillusioned present-day character who needs to re-invent her life. That’s what Renaissance means: rebirth. I went back a couple

With Every Letter Review & Giveaway

Today, I'm delighted to share my friend Sarah Sundin's new book with you. With Every Letter is the first book in her new Wings of the Nightingale series. While watching Shop Around the Corner, she began wondering what it would be like to fall in love through letters at a soul connection. As she noodled on that idea, With Every Letter was born. Mellie is a woman who's never quite fit in and as a result is a loner who can't form friendships. But her boss is requiring her to if she wants to become a flight nurse. Tom is also a loner because of his past. He puts on a sunny front, but in reality he doesn't let people close.

Interview with Cheryl McKay and giveaway!!!!

Today I'm delighted to introduce you to an author. While I've never met Cheryl McKay, I feel like I got to know her well through her delightful novel Never the Bride, co-authored with Rene Gutteridge. This is a novel that I believe every single woman should read. I invited Cheryl here because I thought you'd be blessed by her story...and it would give you a chance to learn about her new book. Be sure to read to the end to learn how you might receive a copy of the book, Finally the Bride. 


Cheryl, it’s a delight to have you join me. I LOVED your novel Never the Bride. How has this new book grown out of that story?


Thank you. I’m so glad you loved Neverthe Bride. 

In Finally the Bride: Finding Hope While Waiting, I wanted to share, in non-fiction form, my personal angst as a single person. It gave me lots of great comedy material for the story of Never the Bride (co-written with Rene Gutteridge). But I also wanted to be more forthcoming with a similar message the novel has about how God cares about our love lives. While we were working on that novelization, I felt strongly I was to write a non-fiction companion book, especially penning it while I was still single. I needed to write it from a place of pain, not “after the fact” when I had moved on, gotten married, and my wait was no longer present (a wait that admittedly was driving me a bit crazy at times). So, I wrote it concurrently, except the final few chapters. I had to wait to finish the book, to see how God was going to pay off my true-life story. Little did I know how much it would match what God does in Never the Bride!

Three books you should add to your reading lists...giveaways!

Yesterday, I was looking through my bookshelves and realized I ended up with multiple copies of a few books that I really enjoyed. Either the winner didn't claim them or I didn't realize I had multiple copies. So today...with cold winter nights perfect for reading and spring breaks coming up soon, I want to give you an opportunity to get some new reading material. These book are wonderful and a mix of genres. So comment, comment, comment -- but be sure to let me know which book you want to read!

Cherry Blossom Capers is HERE!

And I'm so excited I want to give one away. Here's more about the book:

Lovers and Law-Breakers Collide under the Cherry Trees

Encounter mystery, mayhem, and murder near Washington, DC, alongside four professional females. White House assistant chef Tara Whitley works with an old flame, FBI agent Jack Courtland, to stop a plot to sabotage a state-dinner. Attorney Ciara Turner and her nemesis Daniel Evans have trials tracking down a judge’s murderer. Archeologist intern Samantha Steele and security guard Nick Porter are on the heels of a dangerous forger. Shop owner Susan Holland and renovator Vince Martini turn upside down her late uncle’s mansion while investigating a string of mysterious accidents. Will these sleuthing couples’ machinations move them into matrimony?

 I wrote Ciara's story...it was such fun to recreate the neighborhood we lived in inside the Beltway. So leave a comment...have you ever lived in a place where your neighbors became family? What made that place so special.

Spread the word, and let me know how you spread the word, and you'll get extra entries. Follow my blog or enter your info in the box to the right to get the blog fed to you, and you'll get more entries. For each thirty entries, I'll throw in another book. It's Christmastime and I want to celebrate!

You can order it here:

CBD.com
Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble

Blue Skies Tomorrow Review & Giveaway

Calling all World War II fans. Sarah Sundin is back with another fantastic installment in her Wings of Glory series. Blue Skies Tomorrow focuses on the third brother, Lt. Ray Novak. A pilot like his brothers, Ray has been an instructor, but now he can't do that anymore because the army is saving those slights for those returning from the war. He's not sure he likes his new assignment, but it allows him to spend time at home where he reacquaints himself with a neighbor girl Helen Carlisle. The widow of the town hero, Helen has lost herself in the battle to live up to everybody's expectations of her.

She's lived a nightmare and in her quest to establish a life for herself and her young son, she's trapped in the quagmire of being the grieving widow. Too bad she's not really sad, especially now that Ray's back in town.

The story is richly woven with the feel of the era. I love Sarah's books

Fade to Blue & author interview + giveaway

Today, I'm delighted to host my friend Julie Carobini. She writes fun stories set in California along the ocean. She has a new book releasing this week, and it's another good one. I read  -- no, savored -- Fade to Blue over several days, letting myself enjoy the heroine's journey.

In honor of the release of Fade to Blue, I'm giving away a copy of Sweet Waters, the prior book in the Otter Bay series. To be entered leaving a comment about your favorite ocean/water escape. Congrats to winner Sarah Forgrave.

Suz Mitchell is a determined dreamer and won't allow her ex-husband Len's jail sentence to ruin their young son Jeremiah's life. An accomplished artist, she moves with her child across the country to California's central coast and lands a job restoring priceless art for the historic Hearst Castle overlooking the ocean.

A serious old flame, Seth, also works at Hearst and jumbles the dreams inside Suz's heart. While sorting out the awkwardness of their past split and current spiritual differences, a repentant Len shows up eager to restore his family.

What I loved about this story is that Suz is a gal I wanted to bring home for coffee. I needed to know how she waded through so many issues and how they resolved. There also was a major twist at the end that I loved. It really upped the stakes and made me love the outcome all the more. 

If you would like to read the first chapter of Fade to Blue, go HERE.

I always want to know how people got started writing. Where did your interest start?
My father wrote magazine articles on the side, including interviews with entertainers such as Fred Astaire and Fred MacMurray. Always loved that! I too became an article writer almost twenty years ago, but I always yearned to create fiction. I wrote two novels that did not sell, but as they say, third time’s a charm, and my debut novel, Chocolate Beach, released in 2007 (re-released with recipes in 2011 as an eBook). By that time, I had a renewed faith in God as well as a redefined focus on the kinds of stories he was leading me to write.

What compelled you to write this book?
Ever since the inception of the Otter Bay Novels with Sweet Waters, I’ve wanted to set a book with the famed Hearst Castle as its backdrop. So much intrigue and mystery about that real castle on the hill and its eccentric, yet astute owner. Of course, novels are more than their location. So after writing the 2nd of these stand-alone novels, A Shore Thing, even I longed to know what happened next for the big-hearted, single mom from that story. Fade to Blue satisfies that curiosity … ☺

What surprised you as you wrote this book?
Writing this story was much like holding a seashell, constantly turning it over in my hand. Though they’re often tossed into the sea with nary a glance, seashells are intricately beautiful—even when broken. The more I examined the shattered life of Suz—the heroine of Fade to Blue—the more beauty I found. Only the One who restores our souls can make that happen.

Are there  specific lessons you hope readers will learn and apply to their lives after reading your book?
I hope readers get lost in the story and the beautiful setting, that they revel in God’s creation as much as I did while writing it. I also hope they experience the Good Shepherd’s gentle leading (Psalm 23), and fall in the love with the concepts of forgiveness, sacrifice, and grace—as much as they do the breathtaking locale.

How does the book intertwine with God’s call on your life and how you are currently serving Him? This story reminds me not to dwell on the past, but to prayerfully, joyfully—and ‘hope’fully— move forward. Such lessons there! Suz Mitchell made mistakes in her past—so have I—yet healing brokenness and restoring souls is God’s business. Praise him for that!

Anything else you want to add in closing?
Just that I hope people reading this are encouraged to follow their heart’s desires with the Good Shepherd as their guide. God took all the lows and highs in my life and created something new with them. Although I’d always wanted to write, I had no inkling that I’d be writing beach- themed novels one day. I just kept praying and writing and seeking until an idea popped into my head. I followed that idea, and now find myself talking about my fifth novel filled with ‘waves of grace.’ Be encouraged!