Talkshow Thursday: Meet Multi-genre author Kelly Irvin

Talkshow Thursday: Meet Multi-genre author Kelly Irvin

I'm pleased to be sitting down the Kelly Irvin who writes both Amish fiction and Romantic Suspense fiction-a fascinating combination! Draw up a chair and meet this interesting author.

Linda:  Thanks for joining me today. You’ve written more than a dozen Amish books, and last month released the second in your Every Amish Season series, Beneath the Summer Sun, available on Amazon. Here’s the book blurb:

Jennie Troyer knows it’s time to remarry. Can she overcome a painful secret and open her heart to love?

 It’s been four years since Jennie’s husband died in a farming accident. Long enough that the elders in her Amish community think it’s time to marry again for the sake of her seven children. What they don’t know is that grief isn’t holding her back from a new relationship. Fear is. A terrible secret in her past keeps her from moving forward.

Mennonite book salesman Nathan Walker stops by Jennie’s farm whenever he’s in the area. Despite years of conversation and dinners together, she never seems to relax around him. He knows he should move on, but something about her keeps drawing him back.

Meanwhile, Leo Graber nurtures a decades-long love for Jennie, but guilt plagues him—guilt for letting Jennie marry someone else and guilt for his father’s death on a hunting trip many years ago. How could anyone love him again—and how could he ever take a chance to love in return?

In this second book in the Every Amish Season series, three hearts try to discern God’s plan for the future—and find peace beneath the summer sun.

Where did you find your inspiration for this story?

Kelly: Beneath the Summer Sun is part of a four-book series that examines the role widows play in Upon a Spring Breeze, is about a young, pregnant Amish woman who suffers a terrible tragedy. Beneath the Summer Sun focuses on Jennie Troyer, a thirty-something widow with seven children. The third book features a grandmother and the fourth book, a great-grandmother. The different seasons of life. It’s been a pleasure to write this series. Each heroine is so different, and I love writing older men. So much fun.

Amish community life. I saw a blurb by an Amish scribe in The Budget newspaper that listed the annual stats for their district, which included number of births, deaths, school graduates, baptisms, weddings, etc. It included number of widows/widowers. They were singled out as an important statistic. I wanted to explore how they fit into the family unit that is so important to Amish communities. I also wanted to write about older women. The first book,

LM: The age-old question for writers – are you a planner or a “panster,” and what is your favorite part of the writing process?

Kelly: I’m totally a panster. I’ve gotten a little better about thinking ahead but mostly I know who the main characters are and what the central conflict is. After that, I let my imagination go wild. I love having a new character pop up or learning something about my heroine that I didn’t know until it appears on the page. That’s my absolute favorite part of writing. I have to do a lot of editing and some rewriting, but it’s working it to have that creative process unleashed.

LM: You write Amish fiction which requires an extra layer of research to ensure accuracy about their culture and beliefs. How did you go about researching Beneath the Summer Sun and did you discover any extra special tidbits of information?

Kelly: Regardless of the genre, a lot of research is necessary to get the details right. We’re so fortunate to have tons of information at our fingertips through the Internet. With all my Amish stories, I go to Donald B. Kraybill’s The Amish to better understand issues of faith, how they’ve been affected by changes in the mainstream world, and many details of day-to-day life. I read The Budget newspaper for glimpses into daily life as well. The Amish scribes are wonderful about sharing about family and community life. It’s a fantastic peek into their world. I enjoy reading Amishamerica.com’s blog which also includes great photographs to get a good visual of how things look in different communities. My husband and I went to Jamesport, Missouri, where this series is set, a few years ago and attended their school fund-raiser auction over Fourth of July weekend. I observed their buggy styles, clothes/colors, whether they had phone shacks, took a look at the schools, and learned about setting. It’s an on-going process of learning.

LM: How did you get started as a writer, and how did you decide to seek publication?

Kelly: I always wanted to be a writer. I decided in high school to become a newspaper reporter so I could write and make a living. I did that for about 10 years, before I jumped into public relations, but I always wanted to write novels. When I turned 45, I realized it was now or never. I spent a few years writing, learning the craft, going to conferences, and finally got an agent. It took another three years to get my first book published, a romantic suspense novel called A Deadly Wilderness. My agent suggested I try writing an Amish romance. She ended up selling my first one, To Love and to Cherish, before I finished writing it. I’ve loved every minute of writing these stories and have been blessed to get them published by Harvest House and Zondervan publishing houses.

LM: You live in a beautiful area of the world, a place many people visit. If money were no object, what is your idea of the ultimate vacation?

Kelly: I’d love to do an extended tour of Europe, with stops in France, Spain, and England. I have a physical disability that makes traveling a challenge, but I’ve always wanted to visit Paris, Madrid, and London.

LM: What is your next project?

Kelly: I’m finishing editing the fourth book in this series, With Winter’s First Frost so that I can jump into a new project. I recently signed a contract with Thomas Nelson Publishing to write two romantic suspense novels. The first one, Tell Her No Lies, will debut in January 2019. It’s already written, but I need to get started in January on the second one, which is due in August. I’m thrilled and excited to get back to my first love, romantic suspense. I’ll continue to write Amish romances too. It’s the best of both worlds and writing in different genres helps keep me fresh.

LM: Where can folks find you on the web?

Kelly:

Website: http://www.kellyirvin.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelly.irvin.author

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/irvin0739/

Twitter: @Kelly_S_Irvin

Thursday Talkshow: Meet Caryl McAdoo

Thursday Talkshow: Meet Caryl McAdoo

Linda: I am so pleased you could stop by to chat with me. You’ve just released two books, Son of Promise and Silent Harmony. Can you tell us about bit about them?

Caryl: May I first say what a pleasure it is to be with you today? I so appreciate this opportunity, Linda.

My readers met the main characters in Son of Promise, Travis and Emma Lee Buckmeyer when they married in the final installment (book ten) of my Texas Romance Family Saga, Chief of Sinners. I really loved the two of them and decided they needed their own novel, but it couldn’t be a romance, so I’m calling it a Companion book to the series—women’s fiction. It’s a story of redemption, and conquering familial love, of truth and lies and of moral choices resulting in consequences.

Travis has wanted to tell his wife of a long ago indiscretion, but keeps putting it off due to multiple miscarriages, but time has caught up with him. That morning, he has to tell her he has a twelve-year-old son from a one-night-stand because he’s going to pick the boy up from a reform school and intends to bring him home. Bringing the juvenile delinquent into their lives means lots of conflict all around. It’s set in 1950—the year I was born. 

Silent Harmony is a part of a ten-book collection called Lockets and Lace. The novella is set in 1867, just after the Civil War that took the lives of the father and the oldest sister’s husband, leaving three Parker sisters living alone together on their northeast Texas prairie. The arrival of the story’s hero, a preacher form the east coming to start a School of the Deaf in the area at his mother’s family home place, brings even more trouble between the sisters as all three have their eye on him.

The title character, Harmony is the four-year-old daughter of the widowed sister, Lucy. The middle child, Servilia is a gossip and keeps a sharp tongue. With a chip on her shoulder, she resents both sisters and her deaf niece. The girls’ mother passed at the birth of the third sister, so Lucy’s raised Melody and loves her as her own—the same way Melody loves Harmony. I recently blogged about my research on Schools of the Deaf Schools of the Deaf .

    

Linda: Those sound fascinating! You have written numerous books. Where do you get ideas for your stories?

Caryl: These two titles are my thirty-first and second to be published; the first ten traditionally, then in 2014, I went independent and have published the rest since then, so I’m a hybrid author. When I start a new story, there’s only a vague idea of the character and premise. I just start writing chapter one, and the characters and stories develop as I write. Just like the new songs God gives me, I must give Him all the glory for these wonderful stories, too. Sometimes I get more than halfway into one and still have no idea how He’s going to make it all work, but He always does. And it always amazes me J

Linda: You have written Biblical, historical, and contemporary fiction. How do you decide which genre you’d like to write in, and do you have a favorite?

Caryl: Each time I start a new book, I have that vague idea which determines the genre. I love them all and for different reasons. In the Biblical fiction series The Generations, it’s making Biblical characters come alive.

I’m a real stickler to adhere to the Word, so I do not change His story, just add dimension to the characters who were just people like us with troubles and trials and emotions. You will find though that the perspective on the Scripture might take quite a different turn from the traditional stories we learned as children in Sunday School.

My best-selling novels are the historical romances, and because I have a beloved (fifty years of marriage to my co-writer husband Ron in June 2018!) I enjoy writing these love stories. And though I was no history buff in high school, I find myself enthralled with the research for the different time periods to find how those people lived. Contemporary romance is fun because I can just write away, very little research.

Because I have seventeen grandchildren, I also write for Mid-grade and Young Adults. Ron and I go to schools and I love those presentations and being around the children. I have a thriller, a military story and a couple of mysteries—working on another now—and three non-fiction as well! One of my mentors, Jack Ballas, Berkley’s top western author, told me, “Caryl, pick a genre!” But I never could! As to my favorite genre . . . ummm . . . I will say the historical Christian romances.   

Linda: What is your favorite part of the writing process? (e.g. research, dreaming up characters, developing plot, etc.)

Caryl: Dreaming up and giving my characters dimension! I think most readers would agree that my stories are character driven. I’m told over and again how they feel like real people, family and friends to my readers. What a wonderful compliment that is. The fun part is the characters become the same to me!

Linda: Family is very important to you, and I’m sure you must spend as much time with them as you can, but do you have hobbies or activities you like to pursue?

Caryl: I love flower gardening but have difficulty getting up and down like I used to. I love singing—praise and worship songs best. And I’d be remiss not to include playing bridge. Ron and I play every Tuesday night with several other couples and from that, I’ve been invited to play in a monthly ladies bridge club on Thursday afternoons.

Linda: Quickies:

What’s your favorite color? GREEN, some might say a little obsessively! My eyes were very green as a child. Emerald is my birthstone. Spring is my favorite season when everything turns green—it signifies new life. I drive a green car, my walls are green, I have green furniture, roof, clothes, purse, sunglasses, date book, coffee cup, and I only write with green ink J Laaaa!

What’s your favorite food? TACOS! I’m having a Taco Tree in the front yard of my heavenly mansion. Come on by and have one when we both get there! I’ll share!

What’s your favorite Bible verse?  Oh, so many to choose from, but a ‘life’ scripture is Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

LM: Where can folks find you on the web?

Caryl:

Website: http://www.carylmcadoo.com/

Newsletter signup: http://carylmcadoo.com/sign-up-to-the-caryler

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CarylMcAdoo.author

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_1hQx6UZbWi3OYwmKKxh6Q

Blogs:

The Word and Music: http://carylmcadoo.com/blog/

HeartWings: http://www.HeartWingsBlog.com

Stitches Thru Time: http://www.StitchesThruTime.blogspot.com

Sweet Americana Sweethearts: http://www.SweetAmericanaSweethearts.blogspot.com

Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/GoodReadsCaryl

Google+: http://tinyurl.com/CarylsGooglePlus

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caryl-mcadoo-00562323

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CarylMcAdoo

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/CarylMcAdoo

Puzzle: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=10dafee7870e

Talkshow Thursday: Author Terrie Todd

Talkshow Thursday: Author Terrie Todd

I discovered Terrie Todd's first book, The Silver Suitcase when it first came out. I was drawn to the story because it was set during WWII, my favorite era about which to read and write. Since then she has come out with two more books, Bleak Landing the most recent. Grab a "cuppa" and get to know this interesting lady.

Linda:  Thanks for joining me today. I loved your first two books, and recently discovered that you’ve published a third, Bleak Landing. I can’t wait to read it. 

Here's the book blurb: In the dead-end Canadian town of Bleak Landing, twelve year old Irish immigrant Bridget O'Sullivan lives in a ramshackle house and dreams of another life, even as The Great Depression rages. Routinely beaten by her father and bullied by schoolmate Victor Harrison, the waifish but fiery redhead vows to run away and never return. Just a few short years later, run she does-fleeing the unspeakable repercussions of her father's gambling. In Winnipeg, Bridget lands a job in a garment factory, the first step in her journey to shed her past and begin anew.

When her father dies, Bridget-now a striking and accomplished woman-returns home to claim her inheritance. But she has no identification to prove her stake, and no one in town recognizes her-except Victor, who has become a pastor and a candidate for town mayor. Though war has wounded him, his secret affection for Bridget remains, and now he's the only one who can help her prove her integrity. But can he also prove he's a changed man worthy of her forgiveness?

As Victor preaches of freedom in faith, will his words spark Bridget's once-hopeless heart and lead her to the life she's been seeking?

Where did you find your inspiration for this story?

Terrie: Thanks so much for inviting me, Linda! Bleak Landing began with a mental image of a young girl locked in an outhouse on a hot day during the Great Depression and went from there. Parts of the story were also influenced by Downton Abbey, even though my story is set a few years later and in Canada, not Great Britain!

LM: The age old question for writers – are you a planner or a “panster,” and what is your favorite part of the writing process?

Terrie: Definitely a pantster. When I try to plot it out, I either lose interest because I already know what happens, or I deviate so much my original plan is unrecognizable.

My favorite part is the editing. Laying out that first draft is grueling, and makes me feel like a cotton headed ninny muggins. But once that’s down and I’ve got some feedback from others—especially after the professional editors get their hands on it—I love making improvements and polishing the story.

LM: You write historical fiction which requires an extra layer of research to ensure accuracy about the era. How did you go about researching Bleak Landing and did you discover any extra special tidbits of information? 

Terrie: Having done two previous historicals (The Silver Suitcase and Maggie’s War), I was able to use some of the research from those. I loved working in some little-known tidbits like “IF Day” in Winnipeg during the war, and the visit of the king and queen in 1939. My editors at Waterfall Press were also brilliant at fact-checking and caught some of my errors, such as my reference to the Hudson Bay Company (it’s actually the Hudson’s Bay Company, even though the body of water is called Hudson Bay! Who knew?)

LM: How did you get started as a writer, and how did you decide to seek publication?

Terrie: I first realized I might have a knack for writing when people began telling me how much they looked forward to our family Christmas newsletters. For years, I was the drama director at my church and wrote numerous plays and sketches for the team, some of which were later published. I began writing my first novel in 2009, the year I turned 50, just to see if I could.

The road to publication was long and littered with “close, but no cigar” results in contests. While I waited and learned more about the industry and studied the craft, I took on a weekly “faith and humor” column in our local newspaper. Six-plus years of column-writing has taught me much about meeting deadlines, connecting with readers, and writing tight. I also sold a couple of plays and eight Chicken Soup for the Soul stories during that time.

When my first novel finaled in the Christian Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel contest two years in a row, it drew the attention of an agent (Jessica Kirkland) who signed me and eventually sold the book to Waterfall…who then published my next two books as well.

LM: You live in a beautiful area of the world, a place many people visit. If money were no object, what is your idea of the ultimate vacation?

Terrie: At the risk of sounding cliché, I can’t imagine anything better than escaping a cold Canadian January to lie on a warm beach in Hawaii or Jamaica. So far, imagining it is all I’ve managed.

LM: What is your next project?

Terrie: I just finished the first draft of another historical called April’s Promise. Here’s the tag line:

One Secret. Three Sisters. One longs with all her heart to know the truth. One simply wants the truth to go away. And one is desperate to keep the truth hidden forever.

Waterfall Press has discontinued its fiction line, so my agent is in the process of finding us a new publisher for this fourth book.

LM: Where can folks find you on the web?

Terrie: 

Website: http://www.terrietodd.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/terrie.todd.31

Talkshow Thursday: Meet Award-winning Author Cathy Gohlke

Talkshow Thursday: 

Meet Award-winning Author Cathy Gohlke

I'm thrilled to welcome, Christy-award winning author, Cathy Gohlke to my blog. Her books are powerful, inspirational, and fascinating works of fiction. Draw up a chair and learn more about the story behind the story of her newest book, releasing this month.

1. What inspired you to write Until We Find Home?

Cathy: Alarmed by the plight of young refugees fleeing gangs in Mexico to cross United States borders, and heart heavy for victims and refugees worldwide who’ve suffered and continue to suffer under oppressive regimes, I looked for a moment in history to tell their tale as I wish it could play out.  I didn’t have to look far.

The Kindertransport of 1938-1940, brought 10,000 predominantly Jewish children to Great Britain for refuge from Nazi oppression.  Accounts abound of men and women who rescued children through resistance, often at great cost to themselves—even life itself.  But what happened next?  What happened when those children entered countries of refuge?  I wondered about the average person and what role they might have played once the children were out of immediate danger. . . and what role we might play in the world’s need today. 

2. The novel is set during WWII in England’s Lake District—not a location we typically think of in relation to the war.  What is unique to this location and why did you choose to set your novel there?

Cathy: England’s magnificent Lake District—breathtakingly beautiful and pristine—might seem an unlikely place to portray wartime life on the homefront.  In reality, the area portrayed just what might happen to an unsuspecting English village—a location that seemed safe and far from the maddening war.  Because of its apparent safety, the Sunderland Flying Boat Factory built an entire village—Calgarth—there to house its employees and manufacture its flying boats for the war effort.  

After the war, those empty buildings set amid the peaceful and beautiful Lake District became temporary homes for the Windermere Boys—over 300 children who had barely survived Nazi concentration camps in Europe and who were in desperate need of rest and restoration. Nearby Grizedale Hall became one of the first prisoner of war camps for German prisoners—particularly naval officers.  In Keswick, a nondescript pencil factory that had supplied the nations pencils for years, secretly created spy pencils during the war—pencils with hollow barrels in which tightly rolled maps were hidden to aid British aviators shot down over enemy territory.  In its eraser was a compass.

3. Can you tell us about the historical research that went into writing this novel?  Did you learn anything new that surprised you? 

Cathy: 

In 2014 I traveled to England and Scotland with my friend and writing colleague, Carrie Turansky, For me, we travelled to Windermere and the Lake District to research Beatrix Potter and her renown Hill Top Farm, the poetry and world of Wordsworth, and to learn just what happened to refugees and evacuees in the District during WWII.  

where we both did research for our book projects.

That was the travel portion of my research.  Internet investigations and the reading of books, old and new, continued for months.  Included in those books were wartime diaries, especially those compiled from Britain’s Mass Observation Project, day by day histories of the war waged against Britain, journals and letters from Beatrix Potter Heelis,  journals, letters and biographies of C. S. Lewis, the books and notes of C. S. Lewis, the history of Glencoe, biographies and history of Sylvia Beach and details of Shakespeare and Company, the American bookstore in Paris, studies of Europe’s child refugees housed in Britain, and so much more.  Perhaps the most fun was found in rereading childhood classics.

4. Is there one character whose experience you especially identify with or one whose story grew out of lessons you leaned in your own life? 

Cathy: I must give two here:

a. Claire’s ability to view life and relate through stories she’s loved and read is one that’s long been my own.  Her desire to be loved and belong, and her journey to knowing she is loved by our Lord—that only He can calm our restless spirits and give peace to our souls—is my own.

b. Miranda’s journey through grief and illness, and the desire the Lord creates and leads her to—to live with His grace—is reflective of my own journey through those dark valleys.

5. A major historical focus of the novel is the European Jewish children who were given refuge in Britain. What led you to focus on this specific aspect of WWII?

Cathy: 

Children everywhere hold a special place in my heart.  They are the most vulnerable, the least prepared physically or experientially to face war and the deprivation of home and family.  Jewish children in WWII Europe had absolutely no recourse or help when there parents were taken away.  The state did not support or help them.  It was up to compassionate individuals and citizen organized networks to step up to the plate, to help and protect those in need.  In many cases the people of Britain did that—by taking in their own evacuees and by taking in children from overseas.  Modest governmental financial assistance was available, though not everyone took advantage of that.  Sadly, not all children were treated well, but all adults had the opportunity to do something generous, something naturally heroic for those children. 

I very much wanted to show that while it can be difficult to peel back the reserves, the grief and fears and heartaches in our own adult lives in order to reach outward and embrace those in need, it is possible.  Not only is the journey possible, but it is blessed . . . blessed as we sacrifice, and blessed as we embrace a different life and a new family.  Stepping out of our comfort zones, shedding the shackles of all we’ve come to believe we need and must preserve, means simultaneously stepping into a freedom we didn’t know existed.

6. What did you learn through writing this novel, and what do you hope your readers will take away?

Cathy: I’ve learned in life and more fully in the writing of this story that letting go of fear, surrendering insecurity—which torments—to the Lord, is the path to freedom.  I’ve learned, just as the Scripture says, that “perfect love casts out fear.”  I hope recognition of the need to surrender, to let go of fear and to embrace the joy and freedom found in Christ is what readers take away.  I hope we all walk boldly into the future, whatever that future may call us to sacrifice or to embrace

7. What is your next project?

Cathy: I’m currently writing a WWII novel that begins in Warsaw, Poland—such a different wartime experience than that of any other occupied country. This story was inspired by two courageous people, some real life events discovered through multiple research and news sources, and a Facebook message from a friend, all on separate occasions.  It was as if the story was given to me piece by piece.  From the very beginning it was a story I’ve felt compelled to write.  It’s working title is The Medallion, and will release in 2019.

Cathy will be giving away a copy to one lucky winner who comments about today's post.