Meet Second Officer Dorothy Fairfax from Sarah Sundin’s The Sea Before Us

April 17, 2018April 16, 2018 ~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

Today on PASTimes we welcome a character from the latest book by Sarah Sundin!

Name: Second Officer Dorothy Fairfax

Parents: Reginald and Margaret Fairfax, but my mother was killed in the London Blitz in 1940.

Siblings: My older brothers, Arthur and Gilbert, both served in the Royal Navy and they both died serving the crown.

Places lived: I’ve lived in London all my life.

Jobs: I’m proud to serve as an officer in the Women’s Royal Naval Service. As a “Wren,” I work in Allied Naval Headquarters in London, where I use civilian snapshots and reconnaissance photos to help create maps and diagrams for the upcoming Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

Friends: I simply adore my friends! Gwen Hamilton and Muriel Shaw serve in the Wrens with me, and my dear friend Johanna Katin works for my father.

Enemies: She isn’t quite an enemy, but I’m not fond of my commander, First Officer Julia Bliss-Baldwin. And she certainly isn’t fond of me.

Dating, marriage: The man I’ve adored since I was a schoolgirl is serving in my command, Lt. Cdr. Lawrence Eaton. I’m finally turning his head. However, a certain American naval officer, Lt. Wyatt Paxton, is making me reconsider my lifelong dream.

Do you like yourself? Not particularly. I’m too loud and enthusiastic and boisterous, and I’m cursed with freckles.

What, if anything, would you like to change about your life? I dearly long to be suave and sophisticated, the kind of woman Lawrence Eaton could love. But most of all, I wish I could change my father’s life. He is so melancholy that he barely eats or goes to his office. And he never looks at me if he can help it.

Strongest/weakest character traits: My friends say I’m very loyal and caring, and they enjoy my daredevil spirit. However, I’m also too dramatic and boisterous, simply not proper for an English lady.

How much self-control do you have? Practically none. I’m far too impulsive.

Fears: Heights and flying.

Collections, talents: I do enjoy drawing and painting. I’m quite an amateur, but it relaxes me. Also, my artistic skill helps me create maps and diagrams for the Allies.

Food, drink: All my life I’ve had a horrid sweet-tooth. Wartime rationing has allowed me to have a trim figure for the first time.

Best way to spend a weekend: Going out with my friends, dancing, seeing the sights in London, and walking Bonnie Prince Charlie, my Scottish terrier.

What would a great gift for you be? More oil paints! They can’t be found with the war on, and I’ve had to resort to watercolors, which are too wispy and ethereal for my taste now.

When are you happy? When I’m with my friends.

What makes you angry? Very little.

What makes you sad? When others are sad, especially my father. The only person who can lift his spirits now is Wyatt.

What makes you laugh? So much. I laugh far too often for a proper lady.

Hopes and dreams: I’ve always dreamed that Lawrence would fall in love with me. Wyatt is becoming a dear friend, but how could I fall in love with an American and leave my father?

Biggest trauma: The deaths of my mother and brothers, all within one year.

What do you care about most in the world? Doing my part to bring this beastly war to an end.

Do you have a secret? That my father doesn’t love me. He can’t bear the sight of me, because I only remind him that he’s lost all the people he did love. However, I’m all he has left and I love him, so I’ll fight for him.

What do you like best about the other main characters in your book? Wyatt has become a dear friend. He’s kind and honest, and he does the right thing even when it hurt. He’s humble enough to admit his sins and dedicated enough to make amends. And I enjoy his company immensely.

What do you like least about the other main characters in your book? Wyatt is always present, and my father prefers him over Lawrence. At first I barely noticed Wyatt, but the more I do notice him, the more attractive he becomes. That simply won’t do. I need to marry an exciting man, and Wyatt is the quiet sort.

Most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you: It happens in this story, when my desire to win Lawrence’s heart clashes with my fear of flying. Simply dreadful.

About the book:

In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a “Wren” in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, who pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France—including those of her family’s summer home—in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt turns into naval bombardment plans for D-day.

As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn into something more. But both of them have too much to lose to give in to love . . .

Sundin_Sarah Sarah Sundin is the best-selling author of ten historical novels, including The Sea Before Us. Her novels When Tides Turnand Through Waters Deepwere named to Booklist’s “101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years,” and Through Waters Deepwas a finalist for the 2016 Carol Awardand won the INSPY Award.A mother of three, Sarah lives in California, works on-call as a hospital pharmacist, and teaches Sunday school. She also enjoys speaking for church, community, and writers’ groups.Please visit her at http://www.sarahsundin.com.

Meet Violet Channing from Beside Still Waters by AnnaLee Conti

April 9, 2018April 7, 2018 ~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

19390578_1363467877068622_3142695911782601619_o My name is Violet Channing. Orphaned at a young age, I found myself tossed about by life’s turbulent waters when my Aunt Mabel who raised me died.

I always wanted to be a teacher, but my education was cut short by the untimely death of my Uncle Chester. He made poor business decisions, and as a result, my aunt lost their large Victorian house in a wealthy neighborhood to the creditors at his death.

In order to support us, I had to quit normal school at the age of 18 and take the only job I could find for an unskilled woman in 1915 Boston as a seamstress in a ramshackle wooden garment factory. With its accumulated dust and lint, it was a tinderbox. Fire was my greatest fear.

My wages only afforded Aunt Mabel and me a cold-water flat in a dirty tenement with stark chimneys that belched soot-ladened air. When Aunt Mabel got sick, we couldn’t afford a doctor.

“It’s just a cold,” she said.

But when she began to cough up blood, I quit taking a lunch to work so we could pay his fee. “Consumption,” he told Aunt Mabel. “Keep warm and rest.”

Then, he called me aside. “There’s nothing I can do for her. Her lungs are too far gone. She probably only has a few weeks.”

Heartsick, I quit my job to take care of her.

Now, she’s gone, and I have to figure out what to do with my future. I can’t bear to go back to that firetrap of a factory. At the corner grocery, I buy a few necessities and a copy of the Boston Globe with the last of my money. In the corner of the Classifieds, an ad catches my eye: “WANTED: a young lady to be a companion and tutor to a sick child.”

I read the fine print. No teaching credentials required. Room and board provided. Can this be the answer?

Before I grow fainthearted, I pen an application and mail it off to the address.

A week later, I receive a cream-colored envelope addressed to me in a feminine hand. Excitement pulses through me as I withdraw the note which requests that I come for an interview on Saturday at one o’clock in the afternoon.

Laying aside my mourning clothes, I dress carefully in my best, though slightly out of fashion, outfit. At the address, a three-story brick house in Cambridge, a gracious lady invites me in. Over tea and snickerdoodles, a treat I hadn’t enjoyed since my uncle died, Mrs. Henderson describes the job.

Her granddaughter, Jenny, was recovering from rheumatic fever. Her mother had died, and the girl’s father needs a nanny and tutor for her as he has to be away frequently on his job as a railroad engineer.

The job offer sounds too good to be true until she tells me where they live—in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory!

Uncle Chester had regaled Aunt Mabel and me with his reading of Robert Service’s “The Cremation of Sam McGee.” All I know about the Yukon is that it is wild and frigid. Do I have the courage to go there?

I think of my shabby apartment. I have nothing to keep me here, but will I be jumping from a city firetrap into frozen wilderness icebox?

I decide to take the leap. Sailing up the Inside Passage of Alaska on my way to Whitehorse, I fall in love with a dashing Yukon riverboat captain. But do we live happily ever after? That’s a secret revealed only in Beside Still Waters.

ANNALEE CONTI’s experiences growing up in a missionary family in Alaska in the fifties and sixties provide inspiration for her writing. She has published numerous short stories, devotionals, articles, and church school curriculum on assignment for Gospel Publishing House, as well as four books. Beside Still Waters is the third novel in her Alaskan Waters Trilogy that tells the life and death saga of a Norwegian immigrant family who battles the beautiful but often treacherous waters of early twentieth century Southeast Alaska to find love and happiness in the midst of tragedies.

AnnaLee is also a teacher and ordained minister, who resides with her husband in the Mid-Hudson River Valley. Together, they have pastored churches in New York State for more than 35 years and are now retired. Learn more about AnnaLee and her books at www.annaleeconti.com and sign up for her blog at http://annaleeconti.blogspot.com/.

A Conversation with Austin Goddard from A Borrowed Dream by Amanda Cabot

April 7, 2018 ~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

A Borrowed Dream-Book Cover It’s our pleasure to welcome Austin Goddard to PASTimes today!

NOVEL PASTIMES: It’s a pleasure to meet you, Austin. Perhaps I shouldn’t presume, but since your name is Austin, I assume you’re a native Texan.

AUSTIN: No, ma’am. I’m afraid I can’t claim that honor, but I will say that I’m grateful the Lord led me to Cimarron Creek. The Texas Hill Country is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen.

NOVEL PASTIMES: That sounds as if you’ve lived in a lot of places. Where else have you called home?

AUSTIN: Well …

NOVEL PASTIMES: I can see that I’ve made you uncomfortable. That wasn’t my intention, but I am curious about where you’ve lived.

AUSTIN: You won’t repeat what I’m going to tell you, will you?

NOVEL PASTIMES: Of course not. This is just between us.

AUSTIN: All right. I’ll trust you. I was born in Oklahoma, but I’ve lived in Philadelphia and Paris.

NOVEL PASTIMES: Paris, France? The city with the Louvre, Notre Dame cathedral, and the river Seine?

AUSTIN: That’s the one.

NOVEL PASTIMES: Is it as beautiful as I’ve heard?

AUSTIN: I don’t know what you’ve heard, but it is indeed a beautiful city.

NOVEL PASTIMES: And yet you left it.

AUSTIN: It was time to bring my daughter home. I wanted her raised in America.

NOVEL PASTIMES: The ladies at church are all talking about her and how quiet she is. I can’t help but wondering whether she’s always been that way.

AUSTIN: Not always, but it was difficult for Hannah to leave Philadelphia.

NOVEL PASTIMES: Then why didn’t you stay?

AUSTIN: There was no choice. I had to keep her safe. And, please, don’t ask me to explain. There are some things I can’t talk about, and that’s one.

NOVEL PASTIMES: I’m sorry. Once again, I’ve made you uncomfortable, and that wasn’t what I had intended. I just wanted to get to know you. Before today, all I knew was that you were a widower and the most eligible bachelor in Cimarron Creek.

AUSTIN: Eligible bachelor, bah! When you talk to the other ladies, do me a favor and tell them that I’m not looking to remarry.

NOVEL PASTIMES: But surely Hannah needs a mother.

AUSTIN: Maybe so, but I don’t need a wife. Especially not one of the young ladies that have been paraded before me. If I wanted a wife, I’d pick someone like …

NOVEL PASTIMES: Don’t stop there. Like who?

AUSTIN: Like … nobody.

NOVEL PASTIMES: Not even Catherine Whitfield?

AUSTIN: Catherine’s different from the simpering misses. I’ll grant you that. She’s a wonderful teacher, and Hannah loves her, but the simple fact is, I’m not planning to marry her or anyone.

NOVEL PASTIMES: So you say. So you say.

Amanda Cabot is the bestselling author of A Stolen Heart, as well as the Texas Crossroads series, the Texas Dreams series, the Westward Winds series, and Christmas Roses. Her books have been finalists for the ACFW Carol Awards and the Booksellers’ Best Awards. She lives in Wyoming. Learn more at www.amandacabot.com.