Happy Thanksgiving!

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name.  ~Psalm 100:4 NIV

Dora here. On this Thanksgiving Thursday, my laptop sits idle on my desk, my office even more quiet than usual. Not a word will make it into my wip. My fingertips won’t dance across the keyboard.

But that's okay.  

Because once again our house is bursting with family. It's loud with excited chatter and laughter, bubbling over with joy, little boy hugs, and more food than our family could possibly consume. We’re skirting make-shift beds on the floors and getting tangled in electronic cords and groaning over an endless cycle of dirty dishes.

But that's okay.

Because as much as I savor the solitude of my early mornings and the tranquility of my writing routine, this moment is something that will never come again. Time is fleeting and precious, and not one of us is promised tomorrow. This journey is meant to be shared with our loved ones, family, and friends.

And that’s where you come in.

We cherish you, dear readers. Thank you for traveling this writing journey with us. For faithfully stopping by to read our posts, for brightening our days with your comments, and for sharing us with your friends.

Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving!
What about you? Will you find a quiet spot to squeeze in writing time today?

Mom Knows Best by Mary Ellis

Mary Ellis

I remember when I began writing around fifteen years ago, the only person I would allow to see my precious work was my mother. Who understands inner hopes and dreams better than your mom? And who would accept me for the flawed creature I am, yet still love me unconditionally? Since I’ve always had a lifelong passion for both travel and history, I decided I would set my books in the South. I loved taking off for long weekends or on summer vacations to study people who spoke with drawls, never worried about snowstorms and loved sweet tea. I was also fascinated with eras when men were men and ladies wore big hats and corsets. While writing my first book, I did laundry every Friday at my mother’s house. (Who could afford a Laundromat’s high prices?) While my clothes tumbled in her dryer, I would read my latest chapter aloud True to the code of motherhood Mom would laugh…or cry at every appropriate spot. When she died unexpectedly, I buried that manuscript in my sock drawer. It was too painful to submit, even though I went on to publish a dozen other novels in two different genres.

But Mom wasn’t happy. It was as though she was sending messages through my dreams that would stay with me all day. Finally I dug out and dusted off my old masterpiece. After a major overhaul (funny how much you learn after a dozen books…) I sent it in. What a surprise that my agent liked it as much as Mom.

One thing I learn while traveling the globe for research—deep down inside people are all the same. Everyone stands in awe before a gorgeous sunset; everyone loves to see a baby smile, everyone enjoys putting their feet up when day is done. And people never stop trying to please their parents, no matter how old they are. It’s the same with history. People might have dressed differently back then and ate odd sounding food, but when you get down to it, we haven’t changed much. Stories that delve into the human heart are timeless. The issues deviling our ancestors like what to be when you grow up or who to marry are the same ones facing us. So a romance will still ring true today, even after spending a considerable amount of time in my sock drawer.

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What Happens When an Underground Railroad Conductor

Falls in Love with a Man Loyal to the Confederacy? 

Emily Harrison’s life has turned upside down. At the beginning of the Civil War, she bravely attempts to continue her parents’ work in the Underground Railroad until their Ohio farm is sold in foreclosure. Now alone and without a home, she accepts a position as a governess with a doctor’s family in slave-holding Virginia. Though it’s dangerous, she decides to continue her rescue efforts from there.

Alexander Hunt, the doctor’s handsome nephew, does not deny a growing attraction to his uncle’s newest employee. But he cannot take time to pursue Emily, for Alexander isn’t what he seems—rich, spoiled, and indolent. He has a secret identity. He is the elusive Gray Wraith, a fearless man who fights the war from the shadows, stealing Union supplies and diverting them to the Southern cause.

The path before Alexander and Emily is complicated. The war brings betrayal, entrapment, and danger. Amid their growing feelings for each other, can they trust God with the challenges they face to provide them with a bright future?

Mary Ellis has written ten bestselling novels set in the Amish community. Before "retiring" to write full-time, Mary taught school and worked as a sales rep for Hershey Chocolate. Living in Harmony, book one of her last series won the 2012 Lime Award for Excellence in Amish Fiction. Love Comes to Paradise won the 2013 Lime Award. An Amish Miracle, a collection of novellas, released in December from Harper Collins. She is currently working on a three-book series of historical romances set during the Civil War. The Quaker and the Rebel released January 1^st. Book two, The Lady and the Officer will release this summer, both from Harvest House.
She can be found on the web at:

 www.maryellis.net or https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mary-Ellis/126995058236

Dreams by Lynn Chandler-Willis

Lynn Chandler Willis

If you hop over to my Facebook timeline and scroll to last year about this time, you’ll probably see a status update about writing my Emmy acceptance speech when I was a little girl. I’m a big TV fan. Always have been and always will be. The Emmys will be awarded tonight. When I was a kid and wrote my acceptance speech it wasn’t for acting, directing, producing — it was for writing. I even wrote a spec script for a show called “The White Shadow” while I was in high school.

Of all the award shows, the Emmys have always been my favorite. Except for the year they snubbed Robert Duvall for best actor for his role in Lonesome Dove. Still shaking my head on that one.

Well, as I aged, my acceptance speech never really wavered. It always ended with the line “dreams really do come true.” Of course the older I got, the more fleeting the dream seemed. But the more encouraging it was to younger writers because, even at my, um, older age, I was living proof, it can be done.

So…where is all this leading us? To my acceptance speech. No, not for the Emmy you silly goose — that’ll be next year. My acceptance speech for winning the 2013 Minotaur Books/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Private Eye Novel competition. Thanks to the Private Eye Writers of America and St. Martin’s Press, my favorite PI, Gypsy Moran, will come to life!
The award was presented Friday night at the Shamus Awards Banquet, coinciding with this year’s Bouchercon. I wasn’t able to actually attend because, well, it costs money and I’ve got six grandkids with birthdays coming up.

So anyway, Robert Randisi, founder and past President of the Private Eye Writers of America, sent me an email last week congratulating me on the win. He says he understands I will not be at the conference but would I like to make a comment to be read. Oh….Robert….you don’t know how long I’ve had this little speech written.


Dreams really do come true.

Dora here. What's your dream?

Does it seem to be fading as the years pass?

What are you doing to make it a reality?

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A little boy, beaten and left to die in an alley.  A cop with a personal life out of control. When their worlds collide, God intervenes. Detective Ellie Saunders's homicide investigation takes a dramatic turn when a young victim "wakes up" in the morgue. The child has no memory prior to his "rising" except walking with his father along a shiny road. Ellie likes dealing with facts. She'd rather leave all the God-talk to her father, a retired minister, and to her partner, Jesse, a former vice cop with an annoying habit of inserting himself into her life. But will the facts she follows puts Ellie's life in mortal danger? And will she finally allow God into her heart forever? 

Lynn Chandler-Willis has worked in the corporate world (hated it!), the television news business (fun job) and the newspaper industry (not a fan of the word "apparently" and phrase "according to"). She keeps coming back to fiction because she likes making stuff up and you just can't do that in the newspaper or television news business.

She was born, raised, and continues to live in the heart of North Carolina within walking distance to her kids and their spouses and her nine grandchildren. She shares her home, and heart, with Sam the cocker spaniel.

She is the author of the best-selling true crime book, Unholy Covenant. Her debut novel, The Rising (Pelican Book Group) was released in July 2013. Chandler-Willis is the 2013 winner of the Minotaur Books/Private Eye Novel Writers of America Best First Private Eye Novel competition for her novel, Wink of an Eye.

Write Anyway by Karla Akins

The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots
by Karla Akins
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When I first connected with Karla through her website, I knew immediately I wanted her to guest on Seriously Write to talk about her passion for helping families with incarcerated loved ones. You can see more about her prison ministry here, but meanwhile allow her words to touch the deepest part of your writer's, and your parent's, heart. ~Dora

When I wrote the first drafts of my manuscript, The Pastor’s Wife Wears Biker Boots, I had no idea that it would find an agent and be released at the same time one of my sons would be arrested for drug charges.

Yes, you heard right. My son, the pastor’s son. Homeschooled. Nurtured and taught the Word of the Lord from conception, is now in prison because he was caught selling $50 worth of Meth to a friend.

It’s funny how God works. When I wrote my book, part of the story included a rebellious preacher’s son who gets in trouble for underage drinking. I never imagined at the time I created that scenario that my own son, in his late 20s, was slipping into drug addiction.

Oh. The heartache.

When I wrote about a man with Alzheimer’s in my book, I had no idea that my mother-in-law would come to live with us because she developed Alzheimer’s at about the same time my son went to prison. My household is not exactly a haven of serenity with Mama, adult twin sons with autism and another adult son on the autism spectrum living there.

I have to wonder—while I was writing this book—was God somehow preparing me for the worst storm I’d weathered yet?

But I keep writing. Writing is the one time I can escape into a blissful other-world. I refuse to let the devil steal from me anymore than he’s already tried to.

I’ve refused to see my son as he was—a drug addict and felon, and I’ve chosen to believe in what he will be on the other side of his incarceration. (You can read more about this experience on my prison ministry web page: http://www.karlaakins.com/prison-ministry.html ).

But it hasn’t been easy.

There are certainly days I want to curl up in a ball and hide from the world, but I know that’s exactly what the devil wants me to do. He hates me, my children, my message. He’ll do anything he can to stop it.

Satan hates you, your children and your message, too.

Don’t let him win.

Write anyway.

Supposedly the following poem by Mother Teresa in its original form is posted on an orphanage wall in Calcutta. (See original here). I’ve paraphrased it below as a poem of encouragement for writers:

When people are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered:

Write anyway.

When you are hurting, in pain, and feel like quitting:

Write anyway.

If you are kind, and people accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives:

Write anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies:

Write anyway.

What you spend years writing, may be rejected and never be published.

Write anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness in writing, others may be jealous:

Write anyway.

The good writing you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.

Write anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.

Write anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God.

It was never between you and them.

Write anyway.

Karla Akins

Karla Akins is a pastor's wife who rides her own motorcycle. She is the mother of four boys and one step-daughter, and grandmother of five. She lives in North Manchester with her husband who is the pastor of Christian Fellowship Church, her twin teenage boys with autism, mother-in-law with Alzheimer's and three rambunctious dogs. Karla and her husband have been in ministry together for 30 years. You can contact Karla for speaking engagements via her website at KarlaAkins.com

Writing for the Young Adult Market By Krista McGee

Krista McGee

Know your audience.
Young adult writers need to spend time with teens, get to know them. Writers can’t assume their adolescent experiences will translate into comparable experiences for 21st century teens. The reality of life as a teenager today is radically different from what it was twenty – or even ten -- years ago. Though the pressures are similar, the pace at which kids are exposed to those pressures has increased dramatically. The avenues through which those pressures come are far more varied, subtle, and dangerous. Teens today develop friendships over Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, Path…They rarely pick up a home phone and think a PC is an ancient artifact. Their computers are handheld, and much of their self-image can be found within the slim confines of their iPod Touch. The stories that will resonate with them acknowledge all that – and more. Even if the story is set in the past (or future), current realities must be considered.

Write for a specific audience.
No matter what you write, you won’t be able to appeal to all teens everywhere. Teens, like adults, have varied interests, are at different places socially, spiritually, and emotionally. Some writers in the Christian market cover pretty heavy subjects  – drugs, sex, suicide. They address those themes, not because they are seeking to push the envelope, but because their audience faces those issues at school and at home, and those writers want their readers to see those issues handled from a Christian perspective. On the other hand, the audience I write for are predominantly Christian kids who are truly seeking to live the Christ-life. I don’t discuss sex, drugs, and suicide, not because I want to avoid those topics, but because my audience wants to hear more about how to deal with apathy, how to grow in their faith, how to find their self-worth in Christ and not in the opinions of others. My books do not appeal to all audiences, but I never intended them to. I write for a specific audience, and I am overjoyed when I get emails from readers thanking me for speaking to them through my stories.

Keep it moving.
Teens today don’t like to wait. Thanks to DVRs and Youtube, there is little need to watch commercials – at least not for more than 5 seconds. They can complete research for their term papers online in one night – no scouring books after finding them with the card catalogue. Food is fast, and opinions expressed in 120 characters or less. As much as some of us want to spend several pages developing our exposition, we just can’t. Descriptions have to come between dialogue, a sentence at a time. And dialogue has to be fast, moving the plot along.  Less summary, more action. Cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Keep the kids turning pages or you lose them – after all, they have a group chat and an Instagram daily challenge they could be doing right now.

Dora here. Do you write for the YA market?

What are some of the challenges you've faced and how did you overcome them?

About Krista McGee

When Krista McGee isn't living in fictional worlds of her own creation, she lives in Tampa and spends her days as a wife, mom, teacher, and coffee snob. 

Right Where I Belong
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Natalia’s about to discover her place in the world . . . and it’s not following in her father’s footsteps.

After watching her father jump from one marriage to the next, Natalia has completely written off love. And when her father divorces his third wife—the only one who has been a mother to her—Natalia is ready to write him off too.

Needing a change of scenery, Natalia leaves her home in Spain and relocates with her stepmother to sun-soaked Florida. But she didn’t realize just how far a new school, a new culture, and a new lifestyle would push her out of her comfort zone.

One of her biggest surprises comes from Brian, a pastor’s son with an adorable smile, who loves God with a sincerity that astounds Natalia. She doesn’t want to fall for him, but she can’t seem to avoid him long enough to get him out of her mind.

Love is the last thing Natalia wants. Even so, God has her right where she belongs.

The Bumpy Road to Publication by Margaret Daley

The names of the Genesis semi-finalists were announced this week. Congratulations to all who made it on the list! Unfortunately so many of my writer friends did not. If you are suffering discouragement and battling frustration and fatigue, wondering if you will ever sign a contract or final in a contest, wondering if it's worth the time and effort, I hope and pray Margaret's story encourages and refreshes you to continue on your journey. Love you all! Dora

Scorned Justice
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This last year was my thirtieth year since my first book came out from Silhouette Romance called Second Chance on Love. 

I thought once I sold my first book, things would become easy. I would continue to sell, and I wouldn't receive the rejections I did before I sold my first book. It didn't take me long to see the folly in that thinking. My second book was harder to sell than my first one. After finally selling it, I was fortunate to continue to sell eighteen more. 

Then came the eight-year dry spell. The publisher I was selling to the last few years before the dry spell stopped publishing their category series line--Dell Ecstasy. I was out of a job. I tried to sell books, but I had hit a wall. I'd come close, but I couldn't get the contract.

After eight years I went to RWA National Conference in Dallas and heard about a new line opening called Kensington's Precious Gems line. I had a book, and when I got home from the conference, I sent it to them. That was the start of my comeback. 

I sold five books to them and four more to a small press before I found my true home--Christian romances and romantic suspense. In 2000, I sold to Harlequin's Love Inspired and since then, I have been blessed to sell to date fifty-four more books to Love Inspired, Summerside Press and Abingdon Press. But even that journey had its ups and downs, and I'm still receiving rejections.

Rejections are the red badge of courage for a writer. It proves you have written a book and pursued a publisher. Many writers don't get that far. They never quite finish writing the complete book, or if they do, they rewrite their story over and over rather than send it to a publisher and possibly get a rejection. I'm not going to deny getting a rejection isn't hard. It is. I have a huge file of them, but I have survived it. I won't kid you. They often caused me to doubt myself as a writer, but I wouldn't let them stop me from writing. If I had, I would never have gone on after my dry spell to sell sixty-two books.

So the moral of this journey is not to give up. Perseverance and determination are half the battle to become a published writer. You've got to learn the craft, tell a good story and have a bit of good luck and timing, but it is possible with a lot of hard work to become a published writer. 

On that bumpy road to publication, I have sold eighty-four books over a thirty-year span. Check out my website at http://www.margaretdaley.com and read some of my excerpts from my books. 

Dora here. What about you? 

Where are you on your writing journey?

How do you perceive rejections?

Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-four books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household. To find out more about Margaret visit her website at http://www.margaretdaley.com.

Treat Your Story As A Gift by Ian Acheson

The contract was signed and now we had to complete the final draft. Lion Fiction had kindly provided me with an experienced editor to work with to tighten the manuscript. In addition, I had to lose an additional 20% of it, that being 30,000 words or 60 pages.

It was now 8 years since the first 700-page draft. It’s incredible how many scenes and characters I’ve deleted including entire sub-plots. I hope one day some of those characters may make a re-appearance. In particular, there were a number of angels and demons that I let go. I think of this culling process like the casting call for a movie or TV show. Some actors get the nod, many don’t. Those that missed out were just not right for this publication but may well be in a future one.

My experience of working with editors has been exceptionally rewarding. Both Claire, who worked on the original draft, and Jan, on the latest one, took the opportunity to teach me how to write. They re-wrote a small sample of the manuscript, say a few pages, explaining why they made each change. I was then able to incorporate those methods in the rest of the manuscript.

Significant Re-work

Over the years the manuscript had passed through many “readers” of the various publishing houses who reviewed it, rarely was any comment made about needing to change plot or story elements. Typically all the queries related to the language and writing style. Accordingly, it came as somewhat of a surprise when I received Jan’s first five pages of review notes as they addressed the story, and the story alone.

Some very key elements of the story weren’t good enough.

Gulp.

I must have re-read those five pages and, the key scenes Jan was referencing, a hundred times that day. After swallowing my pride it soon dawned on me I had a lot of work to do. This wasn’t an edit. This was a re-write.

I was back at the beginning having to re-create scenes from scratch. So besides losing 20% of the manuscript I estimated I had to significantly amend 50% of the rest.

The final manuscript was due in Oxford by New Year’s Eve. Three months and counting.

I seriously questioned whether I could do it.

Let go of your story

One morning as I prayed prior to starting work on a particularly challenging scene that required major modification, I sensed this quiet nudge from the Lord: “Angelguard isn’t yours, Ian, it’s mine. I’ve invited you to write it. Do you think I’d abandon you now, this close to publication?”

Peace settled in my heart.

I can do this. Or more to the point He can do it. My executive editor is the Creator of the universe.

Hallelujah!

As the day passed and the new scene came together, I was able to reflect on the following:

“Our stories are His and He invites us to write them.”

This was incredible encouragement for me as I motored along each day. I was amazed how I was able to rapidly engineer new scenes, perform major surgeries on others plus modify characters with this fresh perspective.

I had set myself a target of mid-December so I could put the novel down for a few days before Christmas. Then give it a final read after Boxing Day before sending it off on 31 December.

It was a great feeling to reach that target.

If you’re struggling with your story may I encourage you to let it go. Thank God for the story by handing it back to Him. He might give it back. Maybe He won’t, because He has other stories in mind.  As challenging as that may be, press into Him and believe He will guide you.

Dora here. What about you? 

Have you been forced to cut several thousand words from your manuscript? How did you accomplish that?

Do you treat your story as a gift? Or a job?

A Peek Into Angelguard…

Within a period of weeks, three horrific bomb blasts devastate areas of London, Los Angeles and Sydney. No explanation is offered, no victory claimed for these acts of terror. Yet behind the scenes a Machiavellian European businessman is planning to bring the G8 nations to their knees for his own larcenous purposes, aided by the dark forces to whom he has sold his soul. Jack Haines, an Australian academic, is grieving the loss of wife and children in the Sydney blast. Against his will he finds himself thrown into a war that transcends the physical world, a conflict in which angelic guards have a special mission for him. This is a gripping novel of the unseen forces that throng our world.

You can watch the trailer here. 

About Ian Acheson 

Ian’s debut novel, Angelguard, was released last month in the US and Canada. The UK follows in March and Australia in May. It’s been 10 years in the making and he’s very pleased it’s made the light of day.

Ian reads a lot, and a lot, and a lot more. He’s been telling and writing stories for most of his life since early childhood.

When Ian’s not writing he’s a professional strategy consultant having been in the Corporate world for the past 25 years. He brings some of this experience into his stories. He’s lived in Sydney, Australia, all of his life. Ian shares life with his wife, Fiona and they try to keep up with two almost-twenty something young men who give them much joy and you know what else if you’re a parent.

You can keep in touch with Ian at: 

Website: http://ianacheson.com/

Twitter: @achesonian

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ianachesonauthor

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6483090.Ian_Acheson

Book Trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB7S-GXotNE

Are You Ready for a New BFF? by Sandra Ardoin

I’ve made two major moves in my life—once from Indiana to Texas and once from Texas to North Carolina. Those weren’t just “a hop, skip, and a jump” to another neighborhood. Each move required me to say goodbye to old friends. 

Reaching the end of a novel is a little like making a major move. As writers, we create “friends” we spend time with for as much as a year or more. I don’t know about all writers, but I suspect many are like me. They get attached to their characters—even the not-so-friendly ones. They are people we endow with talents, flaws, quirks, tragic pasts, and a destructive present. We give them happily-ever-after endings or, in some cases, vague futures. We stand alongside them as they face tough challenges. (If they don’t have tough challenges, it isn’t a story worth writing.)

Like our real-life friends, they can reflect some aspect of our own personalities—we have something in common with them. Maybe your heroine has a similar sense of humor to yours, which makes her dialog sparkle with teasing sarcasm or dry wit. Perhaps your hero has suffered a tragedy you can relate to and your empathy causes his emotions to run deeper on the page.

Some of us wipe away tears when writing that last scene because it means saying goodbye to those we’ve come to know as well as we do our real-life BFFs. It can be like staring through the rear window of the car as the people and places we know so well grow smaller and smaller until they disappear. But take heart, dear writer, there will be future visits through edits and the marketing of your book.

Now before you call in Dr. Phil for yourself (or me), let me say there is good news. Just as you made friends in your old town (novel), you’ll make friends in your new town (novel). While writing one book, plans for your move to another will have been popping in your brain like a bag of Orville Redenbacher’s best.

Soon, you’ll meet new characters whose stories draw you to them. In the planning, you’ll question them about their lives, eventually getting to see what makes them the people they are. In the process of writing, they’ll show even more of themselves.

Relationships grow when people allow us see below the surface to the person they really are—their emotions and how they change and grow. It’s the difference between true friendship and a passing acquaintance. If you cannot see below the surface of your fictional characters to sympathize or empathize with them, then neither will the reader. And everyone will miss out on a special relationship.

Have you ever written a character you dreaded saying goodbye to? 

What makes someone else’s fictional character stand out in such a way that you, as a reader, don’t want to their story to end? 

Sandra Ardoin writes historical romance, mostly set in the second half of the nineteenth century. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Carolina Christian Writers, and the author of Get a Clue, a children’s short story in Family Ties: Thirteen Short Stories. Contact Sandra through her website at www.sandraardoin.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Goodreads. 

JANUARIES by Tanya Hanson

January

When I was little, January was the cruelest month. Watching the Rose Parade only reminded me I had another year to wait before Christmas came again. Oh, I don’t mean just presents and cookies and new black patent leather Mary Janes. I mean the whole wonder of memorizing Luke 2 for the Christmas program at school. The joy of the carols, the “gloria” of the angel wings I wore in the pageant. Most of all, the splendor of a tiny baby who was really the King of all kings...

The Januaries of high school and college weren’t much different. January only meant the end of Christmas break and back to the grind. And as a teacher myself later on, January slung me headlong into final exams and report cards.

January five years, though, found me barraging God with gratitude. After a long sophomore slump, I had a second romance novel scheduled to release!

And it released the same day my husband was diagnosed with cancer.

Those horrible months taught me it wasn’t about the book. It was prayers and tears and caretaking as he battled to live, then struggled to regain his health.

Because of my husband’s ordeal, and the stretching of faith so taut my breath can still stop, I got the urge to write inspirational romance. By January 2010, I believed God had opened a new window, and I soon contracted a bunch of novellas about a fictional Colorado ranch family. I stood there, glowing, atop my pretend Rocky Mountain town. Into these stories flowed the people and stories of my own life and heart. Despite my best efforts and prayers, though, I can’t say I’m any kind of success. So once again, I realized it isn’t about the books. This time, it’s about the message.

Maybe reading Book three, a woman will get her husband or son to check himself for testicular cancer and help save his life. Maybe somebody will realize there can be falling in love during cancer. Maybe, like in Book Four, some reader’s estranged family will break down barriers that divide them. Maybe some couple on the brink of collapse, due to the stresses of an unimaginably disabled child might, can find the faith and trust to make it, upon coming across Book Six.

Maybe, like in a few of the stories, readers will simply realize that taking a city slicker wagon train trip can be just plain fun!

I don’t know.

This January has opened a new window, and it’s a terrifying one. By year’s end, I’ll be another name, Anya Novikov, and part of a young-adult launch. I left teaching years ago, I’m a gramma now of two tiny boys, and I have no idea how to reach a teenage audience. I guess I’ll have to use the next few months to try to figure it all out.

One thing. Mine won’t be the only set of footprints in the sand as my new journey starts.

 

Determined to get her life back on track, Mary Grace Gibson takes on a substitute-teaching job, grateful for the room and board offered at Hearts Crossing Ranch. The bustling family life helps her heal after abandonment by her ex. But her little boy’s serious disabilities make her cautious about revealing her secrets to anybody. Even Scott Martin, the handsome cowboy who’s fast stealing her heart.

Her former student now grown up, cowboy and graphic artist Scott Martin is instantly drawn to the beautiful single mom. She’s had some hard luck but never let go of her faith. Their age gap doesn’t fret him, and their kisses ignite his love. But as they fall for each other, Mary Grace’s lack of trust in him shatters his feelings, for he’s been down that broken trail before.

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I’m a California beach girl happily married to my personal hero (firefighter and cancer survivor). We’ve got two grown kids, who are the best thing I’ve ever done, and two little grandsons who totally obsess us. I love travel, country music, Hallmark movies, and McDonald’s iced coffee. I don’t like to cook, am terrified of down escalators, am a proud Defender of Wildlife, and I volunteer at our local horse rescue.