Gone Fishin'...

...Well, not exactly. But I'm like the rest of the world...scurrying here and there, preparing and planning and enjoying this time of year with my friends and family. 

I love the months of November and December for this exact reason. Everyone's so busy and festive. It just makes me happy and joyful! I feel like caroling...but I won't! :)

I'm happy to report that my Christmas shopping is finished and wrapped! I'm done!! Just sitting back and enjoying everything around me. 

I'm not happy to report that I owe y'all a review of last months book club title, A Bride Sews with Love by the sweetest of sweets, the lovely Erica Vetsch, and I just can't get to it right now. I've read the first few chapters and I'm hooked already, but unfortunately, reading has become one of those luxuries that I can't seem to squeeze in!!

I'm hoping to finish it and post a review before Christmas though, so keep your eyes peeled. But in the meantime, if you've read A Bride Sews with Love, will you do me a favor and rave about it in the comments, please? 

Most importantly, I just wanted to pop in here to wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas! Big hugs and happy wishes of family gatherings, piles of scrunched up wrapping paper, way more Christmas cookies than are healthy, and blessed spirits to you all!!!! 

November Book Club Selection

 Happy November 1st everyone!!!

I'm so excited to announce the 2nd title in my little book club series! 

Last month we read Love's Reckoning by Laura Frantz and it was breathtaking! Today we turn our attention to a book that's release day is also today! 

My November selection is: 

A Bride Sews with Love in Needles, California

by Erica Vetsch. 

I've had the privilege of reading Erica's books before and they're always so romantic and engaging! So I have high hopes for this new release of hers! :) 

Grab yourself a copy and read along with me!!! (Click the title link to purchase your copy from Amazon.) We'll discuss our thoughts at the end of the month!! 

(Just a reminder that I'll be typing furiously this entire month so you may not see me as often. But in my spare time...I'll be reading Erica's book!!!) 

Share with me: Will you read along with me? Have you read Erica's wonderful books before? 

Nervous Jitters, Radio Silence, and Happy Halloween!

I'm a bundle of nerves! I can't think clearly for longer than ten minutes. My mind keeps wandering from any given task back to how quickly the clock seems to be ticking down...reaching for Thursday! Doomsday. Also known as the kickoff to NaNoWriMo.

I'm as ready as I can be...I think. I'm all plotted out. I know where I'm going, or at least where I think I'm going. I've got nothing left to do but wait and jot down random ideas that occur to me.

So to fill the time, I've been trying to Spring clean my house. Don't ask me why. Apparently, I'm literally going to die from this next months task, and I don't want to suffer any humiliation in Heaven as I witness my relatives rummaging through my junk-filled house. (Who thinks like this??)

It's gotten a bit silly the last few days. My family would probably label me crazy and mad instead of my nicer word choice. But, really, I had my kids Clorox-wiping door frames full of fingerprints at 8:00pm the other night--granted they were their dirty fingerprints, but...I think the term crazy just might fit.

**Beginning next week, my poor little blog will be entering a Radio Silence phase. (I will still announce my November book club title on Thursday the 1st and we'll still be reviewing said book in the comments at a date to be specified later! Actually, I'm really excited about the next book...so come back in two days and grab yourself a copy and read along with me!!!) During the month of November, I'll be devoting all my free time, and much of my not-free-time to writing so I won't be updating my blog or hanging around Facebook as much. Who am I kidding? I don't think anyone could label my social media usage as "much". :) But just so you know...

I'd like to wish anyone else out there NaNo-ing a huge and hopeful...GOOD LUCK! We can do it!!!

Finally, tomorrow is Halloween. However you choose to spend this holiday, I hope it full of laughter with loved ones, safe adventures, and lots of sugar!!! Mine sure will be! 

Happy Halloween! 

It's Review Day!!

I've set myself a nearly impossible feat...trying to review one of the most memorable books I've read since Janette Oke. Truly. (I can give no higher compliment than that, since Ms. Oke's stories are the first that drew me in so deeply, I would lock myself away for hours just to feel the emotional high that comes from a love story...of the heart and soul.)

I read Love's Reckoning almost a month ago, in a single day. Laura's story far exceeded even my highest hopes of what I thought the book would be about. I was so drawn in and spell bound by her setting, her characters, the customs...everything played a part in this tale. Everything was so intricately woven together. It was beautiful!

 

As Keli Gwyn aptly pointed out a few days ago, Love's Reckoning is so full of "emotion". There's no better way to describe or praise Laura's work. It's like existing in a dream where you are the heroine, and you personally experience every fluttery, heated stare, every heart pounding fear, every degree of uncertainty, every ounce of unfairness...until you want to scream at someone that it can't possibly end that way! And then you just give up, and fall into the story (again), feeling every emotion that Eden felt.

Today's review is slightly unique in that I don't want to talk about its technical merits (although they're abundant), and I don't want to just tell you over and over how much I adored it (although I do, and I kinda already did!). 

Instead, I'd like to show you some of the images that wove the story together...some of the images that evoke the emotion that I've been trying to describe. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. 

I borrowed each of these images from Laura's Pinterest board titled Love's Reckoning. There are many more pictures that will have you feeling the story before you ever open the cover. 

I hope you loved this book as much as I did...and I'm eager to hear your thoughts too. Please let me know (in the comments) about your experience reading Love's Reckoning. 

And have a HAPPY (early) WEEKEND!!! 

***November's Book Club Title will be announced on Thursday, November 1st!!! 

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month (November) is a mere 8 days away!!!

And I'm signed up!

I'm nervous. No, I'm terrified...of failing. But this year, I'm trying it. I've wanted to participate for the last two years but I just haven't had the courage to try.

I'm quite notorious for my procrastinating ways. So naturally the task of writing 50,000 words in 30 days seems daunting to me.

The difference this time is that I feel prepared.

I'm all plotted out and ready to start a new story. I'm excited and hopeful that my detailed outlines will keep me on track and moving forward when I hit those inevitable blank screens and urges to go back and edit.

Also a huge relief is that I've cleared my November schedule to the best of my ability so no extra tasks will be on my plate while I attempt to complete the near-impossible.

Share with me: Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? How are you preparing? Have you ever done it in the past? What was your experience like? 

***Don't forget to stop by on Thursday the 25th for my review of this months book club title, Love's Reckoning!! I think you all know by now that I loved it! But I'm excited to tell you why! ;) And I hope some of you were able to read it as well and leave your thoughts in the comments! 

On a completely unrelated topic: I had a yucky head cold over the weekend and managed to plow through both season 1 and 2 of Downton Abbey...in two days!!! Wow! Why didn't you all tell me that show was amazing!?? Okay, you probably did...I'm just slow. Loved it! When does season 3 come out? I need to fake another cold. :)

Do You Know Laura Frantz?

Laura Frantz

Today is all about the brilliant author behind Love's Reckoning, Laura Frantz. I literally read this story in a matter of hours, and I'm confident you'll love it just as much!

Apart from being a skilled and hypnotizing writer, she is also kind and generous with her time. She sweetly agreed to let me pester her with very random, unrelated questions. (Seriously, you might get whiplash reading this interview!) 

I'm always so curious about how other women, wives, mothers...do life...

This is what I wondered about Laura: 

• When did you realize your passion was writing and what first steps did you take to pursue it? I actually knew at age 7, believe it or not. It was then I wrote my first story about ships and told my mom I wanted to be a writer. I wrote my first novella when I was 12 after visiting Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. And I've turned out a historical every few years since, even the very terrible sequels to Dances With Wolves and Gone With the Wind. Stories only a mother could love.  It wasn't until I had kids and had put my writing away for a few years that my brother (a pastor in Spain) encouraged me to make use of any gifts the Lord had given me.   

• As a working mother, how do you find time to balance both work and family? Any tips for other moms out there that are trying to carve out some time for themselves? It's very hard to find balance and requires continual prayer in our house. I always ask the Lord to give me pockets of writing time - and He is always so faithful. I've learned to pretty much write through anything - the TV blaring, doctor's appointments, cooking supper, doing laundry, pregnancy and nursing, etc. I think the best thing is to pray for that time and then decide when you are at your creative best - early morning, during your kid's afternoon naps, or later at night when they're asleep.  When I homeschooled for 8 years, this was a real challenge. But now that my boys are in public school I have more time to write. 

• Using five words, how would your husband and kids describe you? Do you agree with their choices or would you choose different words? Oh, love this question! Five words? Quiet. Compassionate. Dedicated. Sensitive. Blonde. But my almost 16 year old son said in a fit of exasperation last year, "Mom, you're so driven and intense!" Then he wrote in a school paper not long ago that I'm the kindest person he knows. So go figure! I think the intensity part is true - I feel things very deeply and this comes across in my writing, or so readers say. I'm also passionate about God and the beauty of words and hope that comes across, too. I think I'm one of those tortured souls who are never really happy unless they're writing. My family is so understanding of that and I'm deeply grateful. 

• How do you go about plotting your stories? Or are you a seat of the pants writer? Give us a peak into your routine. I used to be seat of the pants and just sit down and write without anything but a couple of character names, a pen and paper. I still write all my manuscripts in longhand first. I think better on paper. But since I've been published, I've had to become more of a plotter. In The Ballantyne Legacy which is a 4 book series, I had to develop a synopsis for each story. Very hard to do for a panster! I like the thrill of sitting down and not knowing where I'm going and letting my characters and scenes surprise me. Thankfully, my pub allows me quite a bit of freedom as my books don't always echo my synopsis. 

• What is your favorite time of year and why? Summer, hands down. Being a Kentucky girl, I'm such a sun lover. But from the look of my Pinterest boards, you would think fall! My autumn board is bulging and I'm loving that it's almost here.

•  Favorite beverage and dessert of choice? Perrier and cranberry juice with a twist of lime. Favorite dessert would be chocolate cream pie... 

• Do you have a life verse or a favorite verse that encourages you? That varies depending on the season of life I'm in. Right now my favorite verse is Colossians 3:23: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. This reminds me of the real reason I write and that God gives the gift of writing. It's all about Him, not me.

• Who are some of your favorite authors? Do you have any all-time favorite books? Oh, I do! I love The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, a veritable classic, and Catherine Marshall's Christy. Within the CBA, I think immediately of Liz Curtis Higgs, especially her recent Scottish series, Here Burns My Candle and Mine is the Night. She writes beautifully and packs a powerful punch with her well-researched historical novels. 

• What is your idea of the perfect day? The one I had today, in fact - answering reader mail in the morning and doing a little marketing and researching my next story, then after lunch writing that same story on deck in the sunshine. My kids come home about 2:30 so I like to have everything pretty much taken care of for the day work-wise. Then I can fix supper and catch up on laundry and things like that. I get up uber early - about 5 am. So my days are nice and long. 

• How did you meet your husband? What is the best marital advice you ever received? I met Randy when I worked at a historic lodge in Washington state one summer. He was at the other historic inn across the lake. I've been thanking the Lord ever since! We celebrated our 18th anniversary in September.  The best marital advice ever is found in 1 Corinthians 13, at least for us. Love is patient and kind...

Thank you Laura! These snippets give me such a clear picture of who you are and what you value! Just makes me want to give you a great big hug!! :) 

Like Laura mentioned in her answers above, Love's Reckoning is 1 of 4 books headed our way. I can personally vouch for Silas and Eden's story! Wow, wow, wow! In fact, I plan to re-read it very soon! 

Share with me: What is your idea of a perfect day?? Are you reading Love's Reckoning yet?? (You should be!) ;) Did anything about Laura's interview surprise you...or delight you?

***Next Thursday (the 25th) will be REVIEW DAY here on my blog! I'll be posting my review of Love's Reckoning and I invite you to participate by reading the book, (really you could start on the 24th and be done in time) and posting your thoughts/review in the comments on that same day! It'll be fun to see what everyone has to say about this particular story...and the twist! (There's always a twist, right?)***

Question Time

Today, I'm wondering...

What makes you lose your cool?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And in happier news...
**If you're looking for an amazingly romantic read right now, might I suggest Love's Reckoning by Laura Frantz?? You won't be disappointed! 
***Check back on Thursday the 18th for a deep look into Laura's life! She was such a sport with all my random questions. :)