Tuesday, January 1, 2019

A Fresh Story by Laura Frantz—Review



Filled with all the things we love about Laura’s writing: breathtaking prose, heart-pounding romance, and an epic journey, A Bound Heart is a unique story with equally unique settings.

I’ve never read another story like this one. From the beautiful Scottish Island of Lark and Magnus’s upbringing, to the new colonies in America and Jamaica, this story spans the globe, yet keeps two hearts bound as one. I especially loved the characters in this story, both main and secondary. Each one is unique and realistic. From the colorful inhabitants of the Scottish island, smuggling goods to stay alive, to the desperate characters onboard the ship, indentured for their crimes, to those in the slave quarters in both America and Jamaica, fighting to stay alive, and the Gentry in Williamsburg, building a new society, there is so much to love about this story. I enjoyed each and every page and didn’t want the tale to end.

I can’t believe I have to wait another year for Laura’s next novel.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway ~ Day 9!

On the 9th day of Christmas, my favorite authors gave to me…a chance to win nine books and a $150 Amazon gift card or one-year subscription to Audible!

Join twelve authors (myself included!) as we celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway. 
Today is stop #9 on the blog tour and look at all these amazing books we're giving away.


The prizes are building, and today’s winner will receive my recent release, The Victorian Christmas Brides Collection, with my story A Christmas Promise.


As well as ALL of the following:

An advanced copy of The Secrets of Paper and Ink by Lindsay Harrel

The Sky Above Us by Sarah Sundin

Where the Fire Falls by Karen Barnett

My Heart Belongs in Fort Bliss, Texas by Erica Vetsch

A Sparkle of Silver by Liz Johnson

Cold Case Christmas by Jessica R. Patch

Wyoming Christmas Quadruplets by Jill Kemerer

Christmas with the Cowboy + jingle bell necklace by Tina Radcliffe

It’s not too late to enter in the Rafflecopter giveaway below by following some of your favorite authors on social media and signing up for their newsletters. We draw a new winner every day, and on December 12th, we’ll give away a $150 Amazon Gift Card OR a 1-Year Audible Gold Subscription (winner’s choice) in addition to all the other great prizes! You can also get an extra entry every day by tweeting about the giveaway.

Merry Christmas and good luck!

Don’t forget to stop by Sara Ella's blog tomorrow to see what else will be up for grabs this week!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, May 11, 2018

Backcountry Brides - Debra E. Marvin

May is the release month for The Backcountry Brides Novella Collection from Barbour Publishers and we're celebrating! All month long, the authors from the collection will be hosting one another on their blogs to share about different aspects of their stories.


My blog will be devoted to the Secondary Characters from each novella and to celebrate this fun topic, my second guest is Debra E. Marvin, author of A Heart So Tender.

Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter Below for a chance to win a fabulous grand prize!



Before we get to Debra's post, here's a little more about the collection:

Love on Colonial America’s Frontier

Travel into Colonial America where nine women seek love, but they each know a future husband requires the necessary skills to survive in the backcountry. Living in areas exposed to nature’s ferocity, prone to Indian attack, and cut off from regular supplies, can hearts overcome the dangers to find lasting love?


A Heart So Tender, by Debra E. Marvin - Secondary Characters

It’s hard to ignore a secondary character when he’s a bigger-than-life, and ‘real-life’ person. In A Heart So Tender, we meet Sir William Johnson, an important man in Colonial History. He was born in 1815 in County Meath, Ireland, and came as a young man to work for his uncle in what is now New York State. It’s said that his familiarity with mistrust and subjugation—as an Irishman living under English rule—gave him an unusual empathy for all he met. While he was not a religious man, he encouraged all religions to build houses of worship and join in multi-cultural settlements.

Sir William Johnson
Johnson set up a trading post and learned the Mohawk language, and by 1744 was appointed Superintendent of Indian affairs for The Crown. He acquired much land and wealth but it was his ability to enlist Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) warriors against the French that helped him land military honors and government favors. He became known as a military hero during the French and Indian War (The Seven Years War), and negotiated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix and others. After the battle of Montreal, Johnson was given a “title” to 100,000 acres of land in the Mohawk Valley.

Johnson sparing Baron Dieskau's life
after the Battle of Lake George
Johnson married (though not in a legal, or church-sanctioned ceremony) Molly Brant, sister of the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant and had children with her. She was not his first wife, but he remained on good terms with his English wife and children even as his new Mohawk family expanded. Later, he was able to find positions of authority and good marriages for most of his offspring.

Being well-respected among the native people made him an important asset to the British Government. After continued trouble along the frontier, Pontiac’s Rebellion to the west, and an incident called The Massacre at Devil’s Hole, Johnson invited chiefs and warriors from every tribe to come to a great gathering of nations at Fort Niagara in the summer of 1764. Many treaties were signed and he managed to win land along the Niagara River from the Seneca who’d been behind the massacre.

Unfortunately, subsequent military leaders had much less empathy for the native people and, because of the Haudenosaunee’s history of friendship with the British, they were burned out of their villages across the region, and sent away during the War of Independence.

The movie The Broken Chain tells the story of Mohawk Leader (and William Johnson’s brother-in-law, Joseph Brant). Actor Pierce Brosnan plays the role of Sir William Johnson, a fascinating character! I enjoy placing “real-life” historical people in my stories, and I hope you enjoy all of the novellas in The Backcountry Brides collection.

Debra E. Marvin tries not to run too far from real life but the imagination born out of being an only child has a powerful draw. Besides, the voices in her head tend to agree with all the sensible things she says. She'd like to live a wee bit closer to her grandchildren, but is thankful that God is in control, that He chooses to bless us despite ourselves and that He has a sense of humor.

Other than writing light-hearted romances and gritty gothics, she has rather normal obsessions such as fabric, peanut butter, vacations, British dramas, and whatever mystery series she's currently stuck on.

Click to purchase Backcountry Brides.

Visit Debra on Twitter or her Author Facebook Page.  

Your Turn: What movies do you enjoy that are based on real events or people? Some that come to mind for me are Apollo 13LincolnSaving Mr. BanksAmistad, and Amazing Grace, just to name a few.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Backcountry Brides -- Secondary Characters

May is the release month for The Backcountry Brides Novella Collection from Barbour Publishers and we're celebrating! All month long, the authors from the collection will be hosting one another on their blogs to share about different aspects of their stories.


My blog will be devoted to the Secondary Characters from each novella and to kick off this fun topic, my first guest is Shannon McNear, author of The Counterfeit Tory.

Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter Below for a chance to win a fabulous grand prize!


Before we get to Shannon's post, here's a little more about the collection:

Love on Colonial America’s Frontier

Travel into Colonial America where nine women seek love, but they each know a future husband requires the necessary skills to survive in the backcountry. Living in areas exposed to nature’s ferocity, prone to Indian attack, and cut off from regular supplies, can hearts overcome the dangers to find lasting love?


The Counterfeit Tory by Shannon McNear – Backcountry Brides

The main secondary characters in The Counterfeit Tory fall clearly into two categories, heroic and villainous. Among the latter are Lizzy’s father, Charles Cunningham, and her brothers, Robert and Richard (Robbie and Dickie), fictional uncle and cousins of the infamous Bloody Bill Cunningham. Ideally a writer should strive to create almost-villains who are more than cardboard cut-outs, to give redeeming qualities even to men guilty of neglect and abuse. I tried with Lizzy’s father and utterly failed. The brothers I painted with a little more sympathy. All three are quite steeped in pride and self-interest, and the father may qualify as a true narcissist. When they fade from the scene near the end of the story, there’s little to miss.

The heroic Zacharias Elliot, on the other hand, may someday demand his own story. Elliot serves as Jed Wheeler’s contact with the Continental forces while he’s undercover with Cunningham’s company, and readers of my first novella, Defending Truth, may recognize him as the older brother of Micah Elliot, who had turned coat long before the Battle of Kings Mountain and figured so heavily in Micah’s reluctance to return home while questioning his own loyalties. (The son of “good loyalists” choosing to go rebel was no light matter at the time.) It was fun to pull in a briefly mentioned character from one story and give him actual screen time in another.

Other secondary characters—the townfolk, for instance, and Jed’s fellow company members—are more ambiguous in their honor. Many loyalists served as they did because their sense of justice or religious duty demanded it; so it was with those on the patriot side. Many loyalists chose to extend mercy when the occasion demanded it, while many patriots exacted vengeance nearly as chilling as that of William Cunningham himself. I hope I’ve captured a little of history’s complexities in these brief portraits, but it’s probably more than a little ironic that the more prominent secondary characters are less evenly shaded.

Click to purchase Backcountry Brides 
And the prequel, The Highwayman, which is now available as a standalone.

About the Author:
 
After more than two decades in the South, Shannon McNear now makes her home on the windy northern plains with her husband, four of their eight children, two German Shepherds, four cats, several chickens, and a noisy flock of guinea fowl. She serves in worship and youth ministry, and has been writing novel-length fiction since age 15. Her first novella, Defending Truth, from A Pioneer Christmas Collection, was a 2014 RITA® nominee. When not sewing, researching, or leaking story from her fingertips, she enjoys being outdoors, basking in the beauty of the Dakota prairies.


shannonmcnear.com

Question for you: What kind of secondary characters do you enjoy in a story? The villain? The comic relief? The overbearing friend? The confidante? Is there a secondary character from a story that stands out to you?
 
 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, December 3, 2017

12 Days of Christmas Giveaway!

On the third day of Christmas, my favorite authors gave to me...


Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway! Here's how it works:

Each day, a new prize will be added to the bundle, and a new winner will be selected, until the twelfth day when the final winner receives all the prizes plus a Kindle Fire HD 8! Be sure to check back every day to see what has been added to the giveaway and enter again.

Today's winner will receive:


A copy of my brand new release, The Gift of Twins, as well as...



The Rancher’s Mistletoe Bride by Jill Kemerer


AND Christmas Captive, by Liz Johnson.

Tomorrow's winner will receive all of these books, as well as another prize from Liz Johnson, so be sure to stop by her blog! 

Don't forget to enter in the Rafflecopter giveaway below by following some of your favorite authors on social media and signing up for their newsletters. And remember, we draw a new winner every day. On December 12th, we’ll give away a Kindle Fire HD 8.


Your Turn: What are your favorite ways to enjoy the Christmas season? Do you enjoy watching movies, baking cookies, sending out cards, decorating the Christmas tree, or all of the above?

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

My Boys

It's fun to use real people as inspiration for the characters in my novels. My upcoming Christmas novel with Love Inspired Historical has a set of fraternal twins. I used my own twins as templates, from their eye and hair color, to their personalities. I tried to imagine how they might react if they were placed in the same situations as the twins in my story. By using real people as inspiration for fictional characters, I hope to bring the story to life in a way that resonates with my readers.

The character of Zebulun Trask is inspired by my older twin. He's sweet, silly, and compassionate. 




The character of Levi Trask is inspired by my second twin. He's curious, smart, and likes to be in control at all times.




The story is titled: The Gift of Twins. It releases with LIH in December, 2017.

Friday, January 20, 2017

A Moonbow Night, by Laura Frantz


There are some books that read like a fast food meal, quick and easy, with little thought. Some read like a decadent dessert, rich, filling, and sweet. Others are like a snack to be read in little bits, as time allows or when you're bored. Some are like a family meal, creating good memories, lots of laughter, and heartfelt moments. Still, there are others, like A Moonbow Night, that read like a six course meal which should be savored, unhurried, purposeful, and satisfying to the very end.

I just closed the pages of A Moonbow Night and my heart is full of Kentucke, Boones, Indians, settlers, friends gained, friends lost, breathless kisses, enduring love, betwixt and betimes, and a beguiling moonbow. What a stunning tale Laura Frantz has spun. With each scene, each character, each backstory crumb, the gossamer threads are woven together to make a tapestry so intricate and so beautiful, it's truly a work of art.

Laura's passion for Kentucky is breathed into the very essence of her characters and storyworld. My own desire to see Kentucky has increased tenfold, though I feel as if I've been there and it has become a part of me. She has taken my preconceived ideas of Kentucky and turned them inside out, teaching me about the history that shaped the state and country and the men and women who sacrificed everything to settle the land.

The story is full of historical references, well-researched details, and breathtaking prose. Several times I stopped just to enjoy a sentence or capture a feeling. The romance grows gently as it changes the hero and heroine, drawing them out of their brokenness and into a place of healing. Some scenes are so powerful, they will leave your heart beating a little harder and make you eager for the next.

I loved reading this story and experiencing a piece of history I knew little about. When I came to the end, I was sad to say goodbye, but thankful I had been invited on the journey.

Thank you to Laura for another adventure, another unforgettable hero, and another timeless love story tucked inside my heart.

About the Story:
After fleeing Virginia, Temperance Tucker and her family established an inn along the Shawnee River. It's a welcome way station for settlers and frontiersmen traveling through the wild Cumberland region of Kentucke--men like Sion Morgan, a Virginia surveyor who arrives at the inn with his crew looking for an experienced guide. When his guide appears, Sion balks. He certainly didn't expect a woman. But it is not long before he must admit that Tempe's skill in the wilderness rivals his own. Still, the tenuous tie they are forming is put to the test as they encounter danger after danger and must rely on each other.

With her signature sweeping style and ability to bring the distant past to vivid life, Laura Frantz beckons readers to join her in a land of Indian ambushes, conflicting loyalties, and a tentative love that meanders like a cool mountain stream.

About the Author:
Award-winning author Laura Frantz is passionate about all things historical, particularly the 18th-century, and writes her manuscripts in longhand first. Her stories often incorporate Scottish themes that reflect her family heritage. She is a direct descendant of George Hume, Wedderburn Castle, Berwickshire, Scotland, who was exiled to the American colonies for his role in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, settled in Virginia, and is credited with teaching George Washington surveying in the years 1748-1750. Frantz lives and writes in a log cabin in the heart of Kentucky.