The Miracle of Love!
About once a year I have had the privilege of being a contributing author to a book. In years past, I contributed to such books as Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of America, Ready to Wed, Supporting Families Through Meaningful Ministry, The Christian Leadership Experience, and Spiritual Mentoring of Teens as well as others.
My latest contribution is to the new book, Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Miracle of Love. It releases today (here’s the link), and the stories within its pages are inspiring, to say the least. The book has 101 stories about hope, soul mates, and new beginnings, stories of dating and romance, proposals and weddings, and second chances, including our second-chance love story. Each unique story touches the heart and encourages readers to revisit their own miracle of love.
Dale and I celebrate our 15thanniversary next month, so this book is a special gift I can give to my wonderful husband, Dale, for all his love and support through the years. As many of you know, our love story is a true miracle of love, one of redemption from broken marriages and a love that has brought both of us more joy than we ever could have imagined. Though we’ve struggled through more than a dozen major surgeries and cancer scares, and over a decade of battling Parkinson’s disease, our commitment and love for one another remains strong.
Committed love is so important to us that we’ve served as premarital counselors and have had two Tyndale premarital books published to help couples prepare for first marriages [Countdown for Couples: Preparing for the Adventure of Marriage] and remarriages [The ReMarriage Adventure: Preparing for a Lifetime of Love & Happiness]. Couples arelooking for real answers to help them build successful marriages that last a lifetime. Knowing God’s plan for a biblical marriage is foundational to finding true fulfillment. In these books couples will learn not only about each other, but also about themselves, their relational skills, and their compatibility as a couple. Sidebars from experts discuss the spiritual, emotional, social, relational, and physical intricacies of being married and provide extensive resources for continued marital education and growth.
You can read more about them here: http://www.susangmathis.com/premarital-booksand then click on the links to purchase them for yourself or someone who is dating, engaged, or recently married. These up-to-date and easy-to-use premarital guides will help individuals, couples, pastors, counselors, small groups, or premarital classes prepare for the adventure of marriage and remarriage.
I hope you’ll consider immersing yourself in the stories within Chicken Soup for the Soul: Miracle of Love stories and check out our premarital books. I’m sure you’ll be blessed.
What’s your miracle of love? I’d sure love to hear about it!
Meet Donna Schlachter
Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. She writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Sisters In Crime; facilitates a critique group, and teaches writing classes. Donna ghostwrites, edits and judges writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both.
Tell us about your newest book.
Mail-Order Brides contains nine historical novellas featuring nine women who chose marriage before love. In my story, A Train Ride to Heartbreak, John Stewart needs a wife. Mary Johannson needs a home. On her way west, Mary falls in love with another. Now both must choose between commitment and true love.
What genre do you focus on and why?
I love both historical and contemporary, but historical suspense is my passion. I am intrigued with how police and detectives solved mysteries before and just as the beginning of the onset of traditional forensic techniques.
Why do you write? What drives you?
I write because the stories are in there, and I feel that if they don’t come out, I’ll burst. I guess that’s the impetus, but over the years, I’ve figured out that getting these stories out is also a form of discipline for me, as I listen to God’s voice and try to be faithful to transcribe what He’s saying. The more I do that, the better I get at listening to His voice in other areas of my life.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
My main characters are Mary Johannson and John Stewart. For the plotline to work, I needed a common name, so Mary and John fit. Since Mary is coming from Pennsylvania, I chose a more European name, and for John—well, I liked the name Stewart.
What does a day in your writing world look like?
On any given day in my writing world, I could be plotting out a new book; writing a synopsis; preparing a proposal; writing the book; or editing the book. I might also be preparing a proposal to teach at a writer’s conference; traveling for research; reading a book or watching a movie for research; or organizing my files. When I’m ready to independently publish my books, I could be designing a cover or formatting an interior. And around the first of each month, generally I spend the better part of a day preparing my blog posts for the rest of the month.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
I think the hardest part of being an author is the rejection. By editors and publishers. By folks at the book table at a conference who choose not to buy. By readers who don’t like a book. By contest judges who don’t get the story. None of us likes rejection, but I have to keep reminding myself that it isn’t me they’re rejecting, and it isn’t my characters—who I love—or my stories. It’s the message—and if I’m not effectively communicating that message—that God is about second and third and fourth chances—then I need to listen better.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
I think the best part of being an author is the freedom to visit places in my stories that nobody has ever been before, to be the first person to hear and see the story God is dictating for me, because that’s what I really believe, and it’s what I pray as I sit down each day to write. God, keep my ears open, my heart humble, and my fingers nimble as I transcribe the story You’re about to dictate. And thank You for letting me be the first person to see and hear this story. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
What is the craziest thing you’ve experienced as an author?
I once had a book signing in Estes Park, and near the end, a young girl walked in, saw my books, pointed to one on writing, and said, “I’ve read that book, and it’s great.” We talked a bit, and I asked if she’d seen my posts on Facebook or Twitter about the signing, and she said, “I live in Texas, and we’re only here for today. I just stopped in because I love books.” Now, is that a God thing or what? To bring this girl from Texas to encourage me on the only day she was in town, and the only day I was going to be there.
What are you most proud of?
I’m so proud of my husband Patrick, because he believed in me before anybody else did. He supported me and the cost of going to conferences, of buying books on craft, of traveling to do research. And even now, when I say, “I’ve got a story idea”, he smiled and says, “So, when’s our next trip?” I thank God for him every day” because I know that not every female writer has such a strong support system.
What is your favorite pastime?
Watching movies. Reading. Travel. Petting my cats. And not always in that order.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
I do. I have a number of books, including devotionals, books on writing, as well as my contemporary cozy mystery series under my pen name. And that’s just the published ones. I also have about a dozen novels and novellas that my agent is shopping around for me.
What are you working on now?
Right now I am editing a novella for a Barbour Books collection called MISSadventure Brides which will come out in 2019. My contribution is Detours of the Heart, and is set in Albuquerque at The Alvarado Harvey House Hotel. My characters are a tour guide and a driver for the Indian Detours, and the story includes, besides the romance, a counterfeit Indian jewelry scheme.
Website: www.HiStoryThruTheAges.com Sign up for my free quarterly newsletter and receive a free ebook
Link to book: http://amzn.to/2p8rKpE
Social media links:
Blog: www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter
Books: Amazon: http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq and Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2gZATjm
Meet Julie Cosgrove
Julie is a digital missionary. She writes and edits articles and devotionals for Cru Canada’s Power to Change internet ministries as well as being an award-winning, traditionally published author and inspirational writer for four publications. Her fictional genres include romance, suspense, and cozy mysteries as well as contemporary women’s issues. She is also a freelance content editor and proofreads for her publishing houses. Julie is a professional speaker who leads faith-based and writers’ workshops.
Tell us about your newest book.
The newest to release is the third novel in a cozy mystery series called The Bunco Biddies Mysteries. The first book, Dumpster Dicing, won best Cozy in Texas 2017. The second is entitled Baby Bunco, and the third is Threes, Sixes & Thieves. These are set in a fictitious senior community called Sunset Acres. Active senior ladies power walk each morning and play Bunco on Thursdays. When crime begins to seep into their community, they decide to take action and use their years of wisdom to help the police catch the criminals. Each book has a Bunco theme and is humorous.
What genre do you focus on and why?
I began writing suspense because reading it always gets my blood pumping. However, my publisher at the time was Inspired Romance (Prism Book Group) so I wrote a few romance novellas for them as well. My sister queried as to why I didn’t write mysteries since I read them and watch them so much on TV. So I researched that genre and presented it to my publisher, who thankfully went out on a limb and offered me a three-book contract. I am now under contract with two publishing houses for two cozy series.
Why do you write? What drives you?
I wrote my first story at the age of eight. I took creative writing in high school and college but then life as a working mom got in the way. However, stories kept filtering through my brain and I would spend months and months at a time developing them in daydreams while stuck in commuting traffic, when I couldn’t sleep, or while doing housework. God placed it on my heart to start freelance writing as a source of income, so I did that for six years. But my desire was to write solely for the Christian audience. As I got more “gigs” to write devotionals and inspirational books, the niggling to delve into fiction emerged again in 2008. So I began to hone that craft through workshops, critique groups and online courses. In 2010 I got my first contract.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
In the Bunco Biddies series, Janie Manson is the main character. She is the widow of a police detective who often bounced his puzzling cases off her brain for a new perspective. She is independent, sharp-witted, a bit stubborn, and a born leader who values friendship and family. I picked out her first name as I studied girl’s names popular in the 1950’s (when she was born) because it fit the visual image of her I had in my head. Frankly, I have no idea why I picked that last name. It simply sounded right.
What does a day in your writing world look like?
I write in spurts. Actually I carve out writing time. It is as if I get an itch that needs scratching. When that happens and I sit down at my computer with a cup of hot tea, my fingers start clicking over the keyboard and the hours pass by. Summertime and winter are usually my best writing times because my other obligations are lessened. I usually begin a new novel during November for NaNoWriMo. (National Novel Writers’ Month).
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
Marketing! Most of us writers are introverted creatures that are happiest when we live in front of our computer screens. Tooting our own horn is not natural. Besides, there are so many great works being written now in the faith-based market, I can’t read them all even in the genres I like the best. So much competition! I often feel as if I am shouting into a tempest.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
The best part is twofold for me because I write fiction and nonfiction. For my nonfiction, it is when my words touch a heart and I know God has used my writing for His purpose. There is nothing comparable to the joy. The same is true to some extent in my fiction writing, but it is also fun to see where my characters lead me and how the Holy Spirit guides me in the process of developing the plot. And, I have to admit, to write “the end” is a great sense of accomplishment. I often refer it to birthing a baby—exhausting, excruciating at times, but oh so worth the effort. Then, when it arrives in print and I smell the new ink on the page, well that elation never grows old.
What are you most proud of?
I also edit, and love to help other authors make their works shine, whether it is an article for Power to Change that leads someone to Christ or a novel of a budding author that gets published. I enjoy being a small part of that process.
What is your favorite pastime?
I love word games and puzzles as well a reading and watching mysteries. I also am a very amateur bird watcher.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
To date I have sixteen books published—ten fiction and six nonfiction. I have four more fiction mysteries under contract. You can peruse them on my website www.juliebcosgrove.com and view trailers, read first chapters, etc.
What are you working on now?
The 4th Bunco Biddies, Until Dice Do Us Part, is in edits with a release date later in 2018. I am beginning a newly contracted series, The Begat Buddies. It is about a trio of thirty-something women who decide, after reading the “begats” in the Gospel of Matthew, to discover more about their own genealogies—and of course, discover some family secrets along the way that some people prefer not be uncovered. I am in initial edits with the first one entitled One Leaf Too Many. All of them will have “leaf” in the title because on a popular genealogy research website that is what you find when it comes to tidbits of information about your ancestors.
Website: www.juliebcosgrove.com
Blog: Where Did You Find God Today?
Link to book: http://amzn.to/2eN4K9W
Social media links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juliebcosgrove.tx
Twitter: @JulieBCosgrove
Amazon Authors: https://www.amazon.com/Julie-B-Cosgrove/
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2E6ebfi
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliebcosgrove/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cosgrove_julie_b/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/juliebcosgrove/
Meet Lin Stepp
Dr. Lin Stepp, a New York Times and USA Today Best-Selling international author, is a native Tennessean, businesswoman, educator, and the author of eleven Smoky Mountain novels, including the most recent LOST INHERITANCE (2018) set in Gatlinburg, a novella in one of Kensington’s Christmas anthologies, and two regional guidebooks co-authored with her husband. Lin writes engaging, heart-warming Southern fiction with every novel set in a different location around the Great Smoky Mountains.
Tell us about your newest book.
My latest book, Lost Inheritance, is the eleventh in my Smoky Mountain series and set amid the charm of downtown Gatlinburg this time. All my Smoky Mountain novels are stand-alone books, each taking readers visiting to a new place around the mountains with a new story every time. This book, featuring main characters Emily Lamont and Cooper Garrison, explores how loss and disappointments can, in time, open surprising new doors for happiness and gain. As the story opens, Emily Lamont learns that an improperly executed will has cut her out of inheriting her godparents’ estate and the prestigious Newman Gallery in downtown Philadelphia she manages. Leonard, a nephew her godparents had little use for, inherits everything instead. Stunned with this news, Emily leaves the city to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, to a small art gallery on the River Road she did inherit through a later legal transaction. Here she hopes for a new beginning and a time for healing, but she quickly bangs heads with Cooper Garrison who thinks his mother should have inherited the gallery instead of her.
What genre do you focus on and why?
All my contemporary Southern fiction books to date have been set in the Smoky Mountains. All have a little romance, a dash of suspense, a touch of inspiration, and a big dollop of Appalachian flavor. When trekking around the Smokies, hiking its trails with my husband for our hiking guidebook (published in 2014), this was the kind of contemporary book I started looking for. However, more than one bookstore owner shared regrets that they had no fiction books like this to offer, despite the Smoky Mountains being the most visited national park in America. So I decided to write some! I hoped to bring readers to the different places around this area I know and love in every book, through a good story in a rich setting, making them feel like they’d visited here.
Why do you write? What drives you?
I spent most of my earlier life as a businesswoman and a professor. I have been on faculty at Tusculum College, teaching research and a wide variety of psychology courses, for over eighteen years. I have also carried a variety of marketing, sales, and public relations jobs for educational companies and with my husband’s and my business S&S Communications. An old secret desire to write books always lurked in my heart, and when my children were finally grown and gone from home—out on their own—it seemed the time to write, around my other jobs, finally opened. As a Christian, I believe we are expected to use the talents God gives us with all our heart and mind and strength.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
My main female character in this book is Emily Lamont. Emily has a tough, smart, business-savvy side—as the long-time manager of a downtown Philadelphia art gallery—but she has a soft, tender side, too. Even when Cooper first meets Emily, he seems to notice that dual nature. Emily means “industrious and hard-working” but also “flattering and eager” which seemed appropriate for this character’s two sides. When I choose character names I keep personality in mind … but am also moved by the pictures I find to represent my characters. Many times when I find the perfect picture to represent the character I’m “seeing,” the name simply comes to me as I look at the picture.
What does a day in your writing world look like?
As an author I generally spend three months researching, planning, and outlining a book and then three months writing it. So I usually write two books a year, unless life throws me a curve ball. But there is so much more work involved than just sitting at a computer writing out the latest novel. To better handle all the other aspects of the job, I designate Mondays as Marketing Day, where I work on setting signings and events, responding to requests to speak, doing media follow-ups, handling communications, updating my website events, answering calls, and writing needed interviews or articles. Every day is a busy day in the life of an author.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
First, “Time Management.” Working at home without a 9-5 boss means you have to see to it, by yourself, that you get your work done—without prompting. It also means you work on your own without interaction and without the ongoing encouragement and sharing you get when in the work force outside the home. This takes a lot of self-discipline.
Second, “Isolation.” Perhaps some introverted authors love this isolation, but I am an extrovert by nature, so I get energized being with others and I love interacting with other people. I make the isolation work for me by keeping my focus on how my story will inspire and entertain when finished. Also while writing, I feel like I’m interacting with others since my characters become like “real” people to me.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
First, “Independence.” The best part of my author’s life, besides writing and its satisfactions, is working primarily for myself. I am a natural entrepreneur and innovator. I love the creative process of inventing my own characters and books, and I love organizing and operating my own business. I see this independence as one of the best parts of my job.
Second, “Meeting My Readers.” For me, as an extrovert, the second best part of my author’s life includes getting out in the public to meet my readers. This includes going to book signings, speaking events, festivals, literary conferences, book clubs, civic groups, libraries, churches, and organizations where I get to share about my books and interact with my fans and readers. I do about fifty events a year … and I simply love these times of meeting my readers and making new friends.
What is the craziest thing you’ve experienced as an author?
A lot of funny and unexpected things happen in the life of an author. At my very first bookstore signing I had a large table with books all over it, a big sign beside my table with my photo and book cover on it, and an identification hangtag around my neck. I was so excited to be there, signing my first published book. And yet, people came into the bookstore over and over again asking me questions about where to find books and things in the store, assuming I was an employee. Didn’t they read? Didn’t they see the signs and my books piled on the table? Evidently not … For this has happened over and over for ten years and through fourteen published books now!!!
What are you most proud of?
That God gave me the courage, the ideas, and the inspiration to become an author. I’m so happy, too, that what I’ve written has given others joy and pleasure. I’m proud, also, that what I’ve written has received recognition. From the beginning I wrote what I loved, and the kind of books I personally love to read, but to my delight, readers have loved my Smoky Mountain books, too. Even more amazing, my books have hit the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon bestseller lists, and some have gone into large print, audio, CD, and even into international versions. I often look back on it all and say: Look what the Lord hath done. I have been so blessed.
What are your favorite pastimes?
I love to read. I’ve always been a voracious reader and still am. I read about two books a week around my writing and other works. I know reading shaped me as an author, too. Through reading, I absorbed all the things that make a book entertaining and enjoyable. I also love learning new things through books and think of myself as a “lifetime learner.” I would probably go back and get another degree if I had time.
I love to hike, walk, and explore. My husband and I are avid hikers and adventurers. And my favorite daily exercise is a long walk around my neighborhood or on nearby walking trails.
A Frank Lloyd Wright quote I love says: “I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work.” That’s true for me. I get inspiration and needed exercise all in one!
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
To date I have eleven novels set in different locations around the Smokies and my husband and I also write regional guidebooks. Our first, titled The Afternoon Hiker, was a guide to 110 Smoky Mountain hiking trails, filled with trail descriptions and color photos. We had so much fun creating that book that over the last two years we visited all 56 state parks in Tennessee to write a new guidebook, Discovering Tennessee State Parks, publishing the same day as my new novel. The parks book is a guide to the opportunities and amenities available in every park and it includes over 700 color photos in illustration. In future my husband and I plan to do other guidebooks together, a devotional, some children’s books… and, of course, I will continue to write more novels. After my Smoky Mountain Series is complete, a new series called the Mountain Home Books begins. And I have a short 3-book trilogy publishing that will take my readers to Edisto Beach, SC, to our favorite vacation spot.
What are you working on now?
Right now I am completing the second book in the Edisto Trilogy Return to Edisto and starting edits on my next Smoky Mountain novel called The Interlude set in the Greenbrier-Pittman Center area and scheduled for publication April 2019. Interested readers can keep up with all my books on my website, and I’d love for readers to follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and to look for me on Goodreads.
WEBSITE: www.linstepp.com
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/Lin-Stepp/e/B0028OJMPA
Social media links:
AUTHOR FACEBOOK PAGE: www.facebook.com/Lin-Stepp/715932788428635
My FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/linstepp
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/linstepp
Meet Denise Weimer
Denise Weimer holds a journalism degree with a minor in history from Asbury University. A former magazine writer, she is a substantive editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas as well as the author of The Georgia Gold Series, The Restoration Trilogy, and a number of romantic novellas. Denise is a wife and swim mom of two daughters who always pauses for old houses, coffee, and chocolate!
Tell us about your newest book.
My novella, Across Three Autumns, releases May 1 in Barbour’s Backcountry Brides collection. I’m honored to be a part of this anthology with some amazing authors, many of whom are my fellow contributors to the Colonial Quills blog.
Travel into Colonial America where eight 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?
Across Three Autumns by Denise Weimer: Fighting Loyalists and Indians, Jenny White settles for strength over love . . .until Scottish scout Caylan McIntosh leads her family on a harrowing exodus out of Georgia’s Revolutionary War “Hornet’s Nest.”
What genre do you focus on and why?
My writing includes historical fiction and contemporary romantic suspense. My preferred technique is to marry these two genres in suspenseful time slip romance. Several of my books, including The Restoration Trilogy and a new novel that my agent is currently working to place with a publisher, contain modern characters who uncover a mystery—and resulting danger—from the past.
Why do you write? What drives you?
Since age 11, when from the back seat of the car I’d scribble stories about the historic sites my parents took me to visit, I’ve realized my calling to be a writer. Even though the publication journey has been long and challenging, I’ve never doubted that God gave me a gift He wanted me to use.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Jenny White is my main character in Across Three Autumns. Inspired by Georgia’s Revolutionary War heroine Nancy Hart, Jenny represents an atypical romantic heroine. She’s six feet tall, raw-boned, and freckled. As such, she struggles with self-image and fears no man will ever love her. She considers the two lovely things about her to be her red hair (even though many despise that, too) and her name. Jenny comes from an English settler family, so her name had to reflect that ancestry.
What does a day in your writing world look like?
My writing begins after my family leaves home for work and school and I’ve done my devotions and checked my e-mail and social media. I try to concentrate on writing from mid-morning to early or mid-afternoon, when I start preparing dinner. Of course, I include a lunch break, and I usually brew a cup of tea to sip while I’m writing in the afternoon.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
Two things come to mind. First, most authors are introverts by nature, but selling one’s books requires interaction with the public. Today, a lot of this is done online. I love Facebook parties! But I’ve also spent a lot of time over the last ten years promoting my books in person. While I adore visiting book clubs, I find all-day festivals exhausting! Second, it usually takes many years to build enough readership for writing to financially move from hobby to career status, especially when one starts in indie publishing. Many unpaid hours are clocked! Sometimes it’s hard to keep the vision.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
Spending most of my time working in the environment I’m suited to, while doing what I know God has called me to. Then, hearing from readers that the message I included in my books touched and changed them! I love writing about God’s healing power in a fictional format.
What is the craziest thing you’ve experienced as an author?
Craziest … hmm. I’m not sure how to answer this. Maybe having the first publisher I signed with for my Georgia Gold Series fold just as book one came out? But God worked that out. After I put my writing on the altar, He taught me many things about the industry, then led me to another publisher (Canterbury House) for that series. In person, maybe having a lady I’d spent several minutes in good conversation with at a festival throw up her hands and stalk away when she learned my books had a Christian influence. It made me sad for her, because something had obviously hurt or confused her deeply in her past.
What are you most proud of?
My daughters, Emily (18) and Abigail (15). Seeing them become lights for the Lord and find His will for their lives encourages me that the time I invested in them as I worked from home produced an even greater, eternal treasure than the books I’ve written.
What is your favorite pastime?
Apart from writing? Haha. Over the past years, I’d say I’ve probably had the most fun cheering for my girls at swim meets. Rich, meaningful time has been spent in fellowship with friends from our Sunday school class and small group.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
- The Georgia Gold Series (Sautee Shadows, The Gray Divide, The Crimson Bloom, and Bright as Gold) – Eugenia Price-style, mid-1800s romance from the time of the Georgia Gold Rush through the end of the Civil War
- The Restoration Trilogy (White, Widow, and Witch) – modern romantic suspense centered on a restoration project, with historical back stories from three different centuries
- Holly, Ivy & Intrigue – three novellas of Christmas suspense including mine, A Holiday Intruder
- And many more in process!
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on something very unusual and challenging for me, a modern romance about an injured college swimmer who falls in love with a special needs swim team and their recreation director during her sports marketing practicum. Anna faces many challenges as she attempts to convince the organization that she should coach a group to the Special Olympics—and the rec director that her feelings for him can overcome the obstacles in his life as guardian of his autistic sister. I started this project after a conversation with Hallmark, but since they want books-to-film, the editor decided that creating swim-meet scenes would require too much budget. Somehow, I felt compelled to continue, and hope to find a Christian publisher interested in this theme.
Website: https://deniseweimerbooks.webs.com
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Backcountry-Brides-Collection-Colonial-America%C2%92s/dp/1683226224/
Social media links:
https://twitter.com/denise_weimer
https://www.facebook.com/denise.weimer1
Enter a giveaway!
During the month of May, you can enter to win a print copy of Backcountry Brides plus a whole load of goodies related to the stories! Follow this link and the Rafflecopter directions: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/aac1581d4
Meet Dr. Craig von Buseck
Dr. Craig von Buseck is an author and editor for Inspiration.org, the website of Inspiration Ministries. He writes for CBN.com, ChristianPost.com, MTL Magazine, and Generals.org. He is a frequent guest on Susie Larson’s “Live the Promise” radio program. He holds a Doctor of Ministry and an MA in Religious Journalism from Regent University. Craig’s recent books include Nobody Knows: The Harry T. Burleigh Story and Praying the News, co-written by 700 Club co-host Wendy Griffith.
Tell us about your newest book.
I have recently completed a biography of President Harry S. Truman and the Zionist Movement to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the 70th Anniversary of the rebirth of Israel. This new book, I Am Cyrus: Harry S. Truman and the Rebirth of Israel, will be released soon.
What genre do you focus on and why?
I love narrative non-fiction and biography. I have been interested in history and personal stories all my life. My father encouraged me early to learn from the stories of others. I think we can learn from both the success and failures of others. I often say I’m an amateur at this thing called life–this is my first time living it. So I have always tried to learn from the lives of great women and men–and of course from the Bible. I love to teach to help people grow in their relationship with God and in wise daily living. So in addition to narrative biographies I have also written several teaching books from a biblical worldview.
Why do you write? What drives you?
I’ve been a writer from my childhood. I started writing songs and short stories, then op-ed pieces for the newspaper. In my early 30s I started to have a deep desire to go into writing full-time. I have always been driven by a desire for people to walk in God’s truth and to be set free from destructive thinking and behavior. My desire is to help people find the truth in God’s word so they can then experience the freedom that comes from a relationship with Christ.
The other motivation is simply the fact that God created me to be a writer. Again quoting my Father, who is a world-class portrait painter: “If they took away my oils I would use acrylics; if they took away my acrylics I would use water colors; if they took away those I would use a pencil; if they took away my pencil I would find a stick and draw in the dirt. You see, I’m not an artist because that’s what I do, I’m an artist because that’s who I was created to be.” I feel the same way about writing.
Who is your main character, and how did you choose that name?
Most people know the main character of my new book, since he was President of the United States – Harry S. Truman. Some other key characters of this saga include Chaim Weizmann, Winston Churchill, Theodor Herzl, Arthur Balfore, David Ben Gurion, Franklin Roosevelt, David Lloyd George, among other towering historical figures of the 20th Century.
What does a day in your writing world look like?
Since I work a full-time job as content editor for Inspiration.org, I do my writing mostly at night or on the weekend. However, as I was writing “I Am Cyrus,” I got into the groove of getting up early and writing for one to two hours before work, then two hours again in the evening after dinner. Then I would work all day Saturday whenever possible. I knew that 2017-2018 was an important time of anniversaries for Israel, so I was motivated to get this book done. However, it required an immense amount of time doing the research, with many hours of reading. So the months between the fall of 2016 through the fall of 2017 were pretty much consumed by this project.
What is the hardest part of being an author? Why?
For me the most difficult part of being an author is also one of the special things about being an author–and that is the vast amount of time spent in solitude. As any writer will tell you, hours fly by when you are in the thick of a project that you love. But those are hours that other people often spend with family and friends. The writer has to make the sacrifice to give up some of the life that he or she would share with those close to them. But they also have to be careful to stay connected to keep a balance in life.
What’s the best part of your author’s life? Why?
I love when I’m speaking to promote a book and I can tell that the light is coming on in the minds of people in the audience. They are getting it. They are no longer seeing Craig, but they are seeing the love, grace, and goodness of Jesus. I get the same feeling when I receive an e-mail from someone who read one of my books or articles and express their joy in connecting with the truth from Scripture, or with a story of someone who experienced redemption in their life. That is the most satisfying part of being an author.
What is the craziest thing you’ve experienced as an author?
I was at the Christian Booksellers Association convention in Atlanta and a man who I had never met before walked up to me, reached out his hand, and said, “Craig von Buseck.” I shook his hand and said hello. Then he said, “I have taught your book, Seven Keys to Hearing God’s Voice across the continent of Australia.” That was a cool moment.
What are you most proud of?
I am proud of my three children, who are now adults. My oldest son is a film maker, and is about to graduate from Regent University with a degree in Cinema. My middle son graduated last year from Norfolk State University with a degree in communication. My daughter is a junior at Old Dominion University pursuing a joint degree in fine arts and theater.
As far as my writing is concerned, I’m proud of my book Nobody Knows because it tells the heroic story of Harry T. Burleigh who went from poverty to worldwide musical fame at the height of Jim Crow racism in America. Burleigh is a true American hero–which is why I wrote the book, and also why his portrait was featured in the Smithsonian Institute among other great African-American leaders.
What is your favorite pastime?
I love to hike in the woods or the mountains. I enjoy visiting museums and historical sites to learn about our past. I love to travel. I love hanging out with my kids and going to movies.
Do you have other books? We’d love to know.
In addition to Nobody Knows, my other books include Praying the News, NetCasters: Using the Internet to Make Fishers of Men, and Seven Keys to Hearing God’s Voice.
I have also done some ghost writing, including a book that will likely be published later this year called Yes I Can–the story of a quadriplegic who was told he could never be a physician, but who defied the odds and is now a world-class kidney specialist in New York City. I have also co-written a book about a survivor of the Holocaust that I then adapted as a screenplay. More news on this project will hopefully be coming soon.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently editing I Am Cyrus as my agent pitches it to publishers. My son and I are also starting the process of adapting Nobody Knows: The Harry T. Burleigh Story into a screenplay.
There has been some interest in a teaching book on the subject of faith that I have had on the back burner, so I will be working on that this year as well. The working title is “The Peter, Paul, and Mary Principle: Learning How to Receive from God.”
Website: vonbuseck.com
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Nobody-Knows-Forgotten-Influential-American-ebook/dp/B00DY9FPKY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516748559&sr=8-1&keywords=Nobody+Knows+von+buseck
Social media links:
facebook.com/craigvonbuseck
google.com/+CraigvonBuseck
linkedin.com/in/craigvonbuseck/