Preslaysa

I’m excited about today’s interview with novelist Raquel Byrnes. Raquel’s latest inspirational romance, Purple Knot, releases this month.

Welcome to The Literary Mama, Raquel. Tell us a little about yourself.

Thank you, I’m so happy to come and visit. Well, I am a homeschool mom of six so I am pretty much up to my elbows in spelling tests and crafts. I have a super hubby and I love to write inspirational romance.

**What is Purple Knot about?

Purple Knot is about Reyna Cruz, a private detective that goes back to Seattle in order to investigate her best friend’s mysterious death. In returning, she is forced to team up with her ex-fiancé, James Corbeau. As their romance relights, so do the memories of what tore them apart. Reyna and James must decide if their love can survive the secrets Reyna’s investigation reveals.

**What do you hope readers walk away with knowing from Purple Knot?

That we have a God of second chances and grace. You do not have to be perfect to have a relationship with Him. He hurts with us, loves us, and longs for us to walk with Him despite mistakes we’ve made in the past.

**Tell us about your journey to publication.

I’ve been writing for over a decade. I’ve taken classes, gone to conferences, and really tried to hone my craft. I signed with an agent a year and a half ago, and signed a three-book deal with White Rose in January.  I am amazed at the Lord’s generosity to me.

**What other new projects do you have in the future?*

The other two books in the Shades of Hope series, Ruby Dawn and Bayou Blue, release later this year and in 2012. Right now I am writing another series centered around the mysterious Noble Island.

**Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Still homeschooling, my youngest will be twelve and just entering Jr. High, and writing.

**How can readers get in touch with you?

Through my website, www.raquelbyrnes.com – or on Twitter @raquelbyrnes I love to connect with other readers and writers!

**Thanks for stopping by today!

It’s been a pleasure! I had a lot of fun, thank you!

I’m excited about today’s interview with Michelle Sutton. Michelle’s novel, Their Separate Ways, is available now in e-book format and will be released in paperback in July.

Welcome to The Literary Mama, Michelle. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a forty something mother with two sons in college and a husband of almost twenty one years. I live in Arizona and have since 1991. Before that I lived in NY. I have three wonderful publishers and have been fortunate to be able to write straight from my heart without the stories getting sliced and edited to death. I write for the Lord and to minister to others through stories with real life themes intended to help heal the reader’s heart through spiritual insight and a redemptive message.

**Tell us about your journey to publication.

I went to my first writer’s conference in 2004 mainly to meet Francine Rivers. I was very inspired by the conference and everything she said about how the Lord led her to writing Christian fiction. I met my agent Tamela Hancock Murray at that first writer’s conference and ended up signing with her in 2005. Since then I have sold about a dozen novels with more contracts on the way.

  **What is Their Separate Ways about?

It’s the sequel to Never Without Hope, which I call my “adultery” story. So many books portray the man as the cheater. I wanted to do something different and show what it would look like from a woman’s perspective if her husband had been neglecting her physically and emotionally, thus leaving her wide open to temptation. The first novel shows how she got into the affair and how her life imploded as a result. The book Their Separate Ways chronicles her journey and the journey of the man she had an affair with the year after their relationship ended. I wanted to show how two different couples deal with the fallout. One couple knows the Lord and the other does not. Here is the back cover blurb…

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing when you experience it in marriage… But what if you don’t? 

What happened in the hearts of Tony Perotta and Hope Williams after the affair was exposed and they went their separate ways? Did they ever struggle with memories from their past relationship, or with wishing things would have turned out differently? Was trust ever restored in their homes after their lives crashed and burned around them? Did they ever heal enough to enjoy their marriages as before, or were they even worse off after their sin was revealed? 

Their Separate Ways continues the saga the year after the exposure of Tony and Hope’s extramarital affair. It’s an honest and close-up look at the inner working of each of their hearts as they reflect on the painful memories resulting from that devastating choice. Experience with them the vast difference between couples who know true forgiveness and hope and those who don’t.

 **Who are your favorite characters in Their Separate Ways and why?

Probably Tony. I love writing about messed up men who are prone to sin and who struggle with doing the right thing (in the flesh) and failing miserably because they don’t ask God for help. Tony is one complex man who deceives himself like so many people tend to do.

**What do you hope readers walk away with knowing from Their Separate Ways?

I want my readers to see how having faith in God and a relationship with Jesus really does make a difference in the healing process, but it doesn’t make it without pain or consequences. I want the reader to also see that no matter how badly people want to change in the flesh, without faith it’s an uphill battle that most people can’t successfully fight.

**Where do you see youself in five years?

I’ll still be writing. Hopefully I will be making better money as a writer’s life is no way to get rich. But even if I never make more than a few thousand dollars a year, the fact that I’ve reached anyone’s heart at all keeps me going. I hope to continue to sell novels to publishers and increase my circle of readers and my ability to read people who need to read the types of stories I write.

**What other new projects do you have in the future?*

I have several different stand-alone titles and a series that I will be contracting soon. But if I tell you who they are with or what they are about before I sign the contracts, I’ll have to kill you. So mums the word.

(Preslaysa here: Mum, it is!!!)

**What is your favorite bible verse?

Easy question. Romans 8:11-13. I often sign my books with these verses below my name.

*How can readers get in touch with you?

I’m a lot of places. I run a sight called Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers. It’s a number of places. Just google the phrase and you’ll see it everywhere. I also have a number of blogs and my own personal website (that has a tab for each of my blogs) www.michellesutton.net

*Thanks for stopping by today!

Contest Alert!! Ruth is giving away a copy of her debut novel: The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth Novel)

Leave a comment in this blog post with your email in this format: yourname(at)youremail(dot)com for a chance to win! Winner announced on June 30th.

Welcome to The Literary Mama, Ruth. Tell us a little about yourself.

I live in Florida with my husband and our three children. We have two dogs, Zyvox, a silver Weimaranier, and Lady Bird, a Jack Russell who adopted us. We also have four water turtles who hang out in a 128 gal fish tank.

**Tell us about your journey to publication.

After entering a young authors writing contest in grade school, I was hooked on storytelling. However, I pushed those dreams aside to pursue a degree in Pharmacy. Several years later, I took the Jerry B. Jenkins writing course and rediscovered my dream of writing a novel. Meanwhile, I completed my first manuscript. But, then I read the book, The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes by Jack M. Bickham, and I realized my book had 35 of those mistakes.

I tossed the manuscript in the bottom of my closet (still there) and I enrolled in a Master’s of Theology program, assuming God wanted me to write non-fiction, and I needed a firmer foundation. (Looking back, I was running away from writing another novel.) Four months from completing the Master’s degree, and after writing twelve-page research papers for each class, I felt God calling me to write another book. Eight weeks later, at graduation time, I had another novel written and this one passed the Bickham rules for avoiding fiction mistakes. Next, I found an agent who represented Christian romance authors, sent her a query letter and the manuscript, and later signed a contract. 

In developing the story, The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth Novel), I wanted to start the book with what had sparked my interest with the Amish, a barn raising. While I attended Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, I met several Amish families in the nearby settlement. I’ll never forget the day I skipped classes to watch a barn raising.

**What is The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth Novel) about?

Interrupting the ordered routine of the Mecosta County Amish settlement, an angelic visitor awakens Judith to a new faith.

All Judith Fischer has ever wanted is to marry within her community and raise a family of her own. She longs for the day when her parents will allow Levi Plank to officially court her.

But on the day Judith suspects Levi will ask her parent’s permission, her younger brother Samuel has an accident under her charge. Rushing to Samuel’s aid, Judith spies a strange man helping him; a man she later believes was an angel.

When she shares her conviction with her family and close friends, she is shocked to find that no one believes her, including Levi. In the days following the accident, the angel visits Judith with information that may guide her down the path of faith, should she choose to follow. 

As her community slowly distances themselves, only one person is willing to stand up for her – the bishop’s son, Andrew Lapp. But can he convince the settlement to listen to her? With a show of faith that flies in the face of her conservative upbringing, can Judith hold strong to the promise that there are even greater things in store for those who believe?

 **Who are your favorite characters in The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth Novel) and why?

My favorite characters are Judith for her unwavering faith, and Andrew for his devotion to God and to Judith.  

*What do you hope readers walk away with knowing from The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth Novel)?

As people read The Promise of an Angel (A Heaven On Earth Novel), I pray their faith is inspired and they are determined to stand even if it means standing alone.

*What other new projects do you have in the future?*

Currently, I’m working on the second book in the Heaven on Earth series, Brush by Angels Wings, which will be out April 2012.   

*What is one thing people may be surprised to know about you?

I work full time as a pharmacist and I answer as many pharmacy/drug related questions as I do writing questions. Often, I get questions from writers who need help creating a medical scene or who ask for assistance with developing treatments for adverse drug reactions. 

*How can readers get in touch with you?*

I love interacting with readers through my website www.ruthreid.com or on face book at Author Ruth Reid.

*Thanks for stopping by today!*

I had a great time talking with you, thanks for inviting me!

I’m excited about our interview today with novelist Lorna Seilstad. Lorna writes historical romance and her latest novel, A Great Catch, the second in the Lake Manawa Summers series, releases this month.

Welcome to The Literary Mama, Lorna. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’ve called Iowa home her whole life. I received her B.S. in education from Lubbock Christian University. After my first child was born, I quit teaching and became a professional wiper. I wiped noses, tears, skinned knees, baby’s bottoms, and countertops every day. But at naptime, I wrote. Today, I write historical fiction with a generous dash of humor, and lives in Iowa with her husband and three children–ages 19, 17, and 12.

I grew up attending antique auctions with her parents, and from that, grew a love for history. The love of Oreos is all my own.

When I’m not writing or chauffeuring her kids around, I teach Bible classes, working with my 4-H club, or bake cookies.

*Tell us about your writing journey.

In 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grade, I had the same teacher for English. Every Friday, we had a creative writing assignment. For example, we might come to school and find footprints taped to the walls and ceiling and we were supposed to write about how they got there. I loved it.

After my first child was born, I decided I wanted to stop teaching and stay home. I did daycare for teachers, but I needed something. I went back to my first writing love of fiction

In 2000, I started writing fan fiction online. I wrote at a site called romancefanfiction.net. There were a lot of wonderful writers there, and it was a wonderful place to learn and find my voice. I started working toward publication in 2007.

I went to my first ACFW conference in 2008. There, I met Andrea Doering from Revell in one of editor interviews. My first contract, for the three books in the Lake Manawa Summers Series, came from that interview.

*What is A Great Catch about?

She wants to change the world.

He wants to change her mind.

It’s the beginning of a new century at Lake Manawa resort in Iowa, but some things never change. When Emily Graham’s meddlesome aunts and grandmother take it upon themselves to find her a husband among the resort guests, the spunky suffragist is determined to politely decline each and every suitor. She has neither the time nor the need for a man in her busy life.

Carter Stockton, a recent college graduate and a pitcher for the Manawa Owls baseball team, intends to enjoy every minute of the summer before he is forced into the straitlaced business world of his father.

When their worlds collide, neither Emily nor Carter could have guessed what would come next. Will Carter strike out? Or will Emily cast her vote for a love that might cost her dreams?

 *How did you come up with the concept for A Great Catch and the Lake Manawa Summers series?

When the resort park at Lake Manawa closed, my grandfather purchased one of the bath houses there for $300. He moved it to a lot on what had once been the Midway and made it into a house. That is the home where my dad lived as a boy. He told me stories about the area, and after I did a some research, I knew I had to write a story there.

*How much research do you undertake while writing historical fiction?

It takes a lot of research. I don’t just want to get the facts right, I want to get the feel of the times right. I read a lot of newspapers of that day besides doing the other research. I love research, though. It’s like a treasure hunt.

*Where do you see yourself in five years?

Hmmm. I see myself still writing, but I hope I have my office fixed up by then. My office is in the basement and it’s really cold in the winter. I have to wear gloves without fingertips.

*What other new projects do you have in the future?

Right now, I’m finishing up the third book in the series. It’s about Lilly and a roller coaster designer. I have another book series in the proposal stage.

*What is one thing people may be surprised to know about you?

I can tell time without wearing a watch. It’s a strange ability, but I never wear a watch and I almost always know the time within about five minutes. I didn’t tell my kids that I could do this for a long time, but they know now, so they like to test me at random times.

*How can readers get in touch with you?

I love to hear from readers. I can be contacted through my website www.lornaseilstad.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Thanks for stopping by today!