Month: May 2019

Sitting down with Darrell Anders Dean from A Bride for Darrell in The Proxy Bride Series by Marisa Masterson

~ Jenna Brandt ~ Leave a comment

proxy bride cover Bride for DarrellNovel PASTimes: Thanks for being with us today, Darrell. We’re going to get right to it. What do you want?

Darrell: I want to inherit the silver mine.

Novel PASTimes: Okay, but what do you really want?

Darrell: I want what is rightfully mine.

Some time passes before the question is asked a third time.

Novel PASTimes: That’s fine, but what do you REALLY want?

Darrell: I want to be married to someone who can be a companion more than just be a person who helps me to inherit a mine.

Novel PASTimes: Say you’re using Willa for something…what would it be?

Darrell: I need her for help in my store as well as to keep my home clean and to be a companion in and out of the bedroom.

Novel PASTimes: What is Willa using you for?

Darrell: I know she wants me to keep her safe from this red-haired stranger her guardian warned her of.

Novel PASTimes: How do you feel about that?

Darrell: I can’t send a telegram from Silver Town because I don’t trust the telegraph operator, but I desperately want to question her guardian and her grandfather’s lawyer. In addition, I’m worried that we aren’t really married so I won’t be able to protect her from whatever scheme is afoot.

Novel PASTimes: Assuming you and Willa work out your differences, what’s gonna keep you from living happily ever after?

Darrell: I am afraid the Pinkerton agent won’t get here in time to help protect her. The red-haired man has threatened her. What if he finds her? And her aunt has just arrived in town. What does that woman want? I have a bad feeling about her.

Novel PASTimes: Even though we hope they’ll never do it, for now just pretend it could happen: What’s the worst thing Willa could do to you?

Darrell: She’s always wanted to be welcomed into her family. They sent her away at the age of four to the girls’ academy. Now that her grandfather is dying and her aunt has found her, I’m afraid she’ll go back to New York to live with them. Can I be family enough for her? I just don’t know.

Novel PASTimes: Why would that be so bad?

Darrell: I know I hide my feelings usually, but Willa has broken through the wall of reserve I surround myself with. Since she has penetrated that wall, I’ll die a little each day without her.

Novel PASTimes: Why would you deserve it?

Darrell: I suppose some people in Silver Town might say I deserve to lose her since I jilted a former fiancée at the altar. But how was I to know I was already married? I lost track of a few weeks of time when I was injured by a falling beam rescuing a child during the terrible fire last year that destroyed the town.

Novel PASTimes: What’s the worst thing you could do to Willa?

Darrell: She deserves to be married. I have to find a way to marry her for sure. The letter she has proving I sent for a proxy bride is not in my handwriting so I am just not sure how legal our marriage is. The only pastor was suddenly called out of town. An odd coincidence just when we needed him to make sure we were truly married.

Somehow, I think for her to be safe we need to marry. I’m afraid it’s already to late for me to inherit the mine. It’s February 1, and I needed to be married by January 31 to inherit. I don’t care about that. All that is important is Willa. The worst thing I could do is stay in my store and pretend that I believe we are married or pretend that she is in no danger.

 Novel PASTimes:Why would she deserve it?

Darrell: Willa may have surprised me. I certainly didn’t expect a wife to show up and interrupt my marriage ceremony. That’s not important, though. In two short days, she’s brought joy into my life and has wiggled into my heart. She may have prevented me from inheriting the mine, but I need to protect her.

Novel PASTimes: Why do you want a relationship with this person?

Darrell: Willa has such incredible poise and beauty. She is giving and affectionate. Her strawberry blonde her is like sunshine to my sad life.

Novel PASTimes: With all the difficulties surrounding your relationship, why haven’t you given her up already?

Darrell: I can’t give up her, even though I told myself I only wanted to marry to keep Harv Perkins from taking my inheritance. Nights are lonely and Willa needs me to keep her safe. Besides there’s a part of me that feels like I’ve waited for years to meet this woman.

Novel PASTimes: Assuming it would hurt, why would it hurt if you gave her up?

Darrell: Like I said before, since Willa is with me the loneliness is gone. I don’t like the struggle I have right now to keep my emotions controlled and hidden, but I will go through it just to be with her.

Novel PASTimes: What does this person give you/do for you/complete in you that nobody else ever has?

Darrell: I thought one woman was the same as the next. Willa proved this wrong. She’s shown me the importance of having a companion I really like and want to be with.

Novel PASTimes: What do you do for her/give her that completes her that nobody else ever has?

Darrell: Willa has never had a home, aside from the girls’ academy. I can give her that. I want to give her that. She craves affection and responds so easily to any little touch I give her. It makes me want to love her. (Now where did that thought come from? Love?)

Get A Bride for Darrell now on Amazon or Read it for Free in KU

zSheilaAbout Marisa Masterson

Marisa Masterson and her husband of thirty years reside in Saginaw, Michigan. They have two grown children, one son-in-law, a grandchild on the way, and one old and lazy dog.

She is a retired high school English teacher and oversaw a high school writing center in partnership with the local university. In addition, she is a National Writing Project fellow.

Focusing on her home state of Wisconsin, she writes sweet historical romance. Growing up, she loved hearing stories about her family pioneering in that state. Those stories, in part, are what inspired her to begin writing.

Meet Percy from Wish Me Home West Virginia by Valerie Banfield

~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

Introducing Percy Bigler, a homespun boy who lives within the pages of Wish Me Home West Virginia, by Valerie Banfield

Novel PASTimes: With me this morning is Percy Bigler, a native of Elizabeth, West Virginia and a participant of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s highly acclaimed, yet widely controversial, Civilian Conservation Corps. Good morning, Percy. 

PERCY: Morning, ma’am.

Novel PASTimes: I know the purpose of the CCC is to take young men off public assistance, to provide for their families financially, and to build or improve the country’s infrastructure, among other things. How did you come to enroll in the program?

PERCY: When the stock market crashed back in 1929, it took a while for its effects to trickle into West Virginia. During the five years since, that trickle’s washed away livelihoods, swept food off the tables, and drenched folks with fear. My family managed to tread water until 1934, but when the incessant flow hit flood stage, it was time for me to man the lifeboat and get them out of harm’s way. It was President Roosevelt who tossed the ropes to me, and it was in the form of the CCC.

Novel PASTimes: That’s an unusual way to frame the consequences of the Great Depression. 

PERCY: Flooding is all too common in the hills and hollows, so I reckon that’s why it seems a fitting comparison. Truth of the matter is that some counties in West Virginia have unemployment as high as eighty percent.

Novel PASTimes: Oh my. In that case, flood stage may be an understatement. Tell me about your experience with the president’s program.

PERCY: Some people are downright scornful when it comes to the CCC, but I’m proud of the work we’re doing. Sure, it takes a heap of money to set up a work force like President Roosevelt designed, but we’re saving forests, preventing fires, building roads and dams, and employing conservation techniques that protect our land. A hundred years from now, when someone snags a fish out of a lake in a national forest, or a father takes his family camping at a state park, evidence of our work will remain, and I hope those folks know that it was the men of the CCC who prepared the way.

Novel PASTimes: Is it true that you have been the subject of disciplinary action?

PERCY: Yes, ma’am. I’m embarrassed to say that the sergeant overseeing my training at the conditioning camp and the camp commander in Nevada both took me to task.

Novel PASTimes: Would you mind sharing what happened?

PERCY: I’d rather you got to know me a mite better before I spill the story, especially since my defense won’t sound credible without retelling the events that led up to each indiscretion. I will say that I’m a peaceable person who practices compromise, but in both situations, I ended up on my backside before I could offer another remedy. It’s funny how fast things can go downhill—not that either occasion was laughable. That’s not what I mean.

Novel PASTimes: My notes indicate your education ended after the eighth grade. How do you account for your vocabulary?

PERCY: I may not be schoolhouse smart, but I’m what the folks in the hollow call book learned. They pronounce that ler-ned. When I saw the hundreds of books at the CCC camp library, it set my mouth watering. Shelves overflow with books about history and science, and good reads by authors like Mark Twain. A good story can take you anywhere, don’t you know?

Novel PASTimes: Did you ever imagine your real life travels would take you to Nevada?

PERCY: No, ma’am. It’s as hot out here as the tin roof on Bigler’s General Store, but this is where the CCC sent me, and I aim to make the best of it.

Novel PASTimes: What about your personal life, Percy? Do you have a sweetheart waiting for you to come home?

PERCY: No, ma’am. I will say that I met a nice looking gal who lives here in Hawthorne, but she’s nothing like those from back home. Pretty and smart as she is, I think she scares me more than she entices me. I reckon I’d be better off with one from my own neck of the woods, one who delights in the simple things in life. One like . . .

Novel PASTimes: Why, Mr. Bigler, I think you’re blushing. Would you care to enlighten our readers?

PERCY: No, ma’am. That’s all I have to say on that subject.

Novel PASTimes: Then, let me ask one more question. What do you fear, and what to you hope to find, when you finish your work with the CCC and go back to West Virginia?

PERCY: First off, I try not to worry. It takes more effort than living the day that’s set before me. That said, I hope the Depression ends before I go home, because I’ll need a job once I get there. I hope that when I return, I’m just a grown-up version of the country boy who left. I have faith that regardless of what I find when I walk into the only place I’ve called home, the Good Father will determine my next steps. 

VALERIE BANFIELD is a talespinner to the lost, the loved, and the found. She is the author of eleven novels, co-author of three West Virginia-themed tales, and recipient of the Cascade Award for Historical Fiction. In the course of writing about West Virginia, the hills and hollows beckoned her, so she uprooted her tent stakes and planted them in the Mountain State’s red clay soil. Right now, she’s pretty sure she’s home. 

www.valeriebanfield.com

www.amazon.com/dp/1091036616

Meet Violet Channing in Beside Still Waters by AnnaLee Conti

~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

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, at his death my aunt lost their large Victorian house in a wealthy neighborhood to the creditors. 

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 bought a few necessities and a copy of the Boston Globe with the last of my money. On the Classifieds page, an ad caught 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. Could this be the answer?

Before I could grow fainthearted, I penned an application and mailed it off to the address.

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

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

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

The job offer sounded too good to be true until she told 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 knew about the Yukon was that it is wild and frigid. Did I have the courage to go there?

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

I decided to take the leap. Sailing up the Inside Passage of Alaska on my way to Whitehorse, I fell 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.

About the Author 

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.comand sign up for her inspirational blog at http://annaleeconti.blogspot.com/.

Meet Abby from Allison Wells’s War-Torn Heart

~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

Tell us a little about your family, Abby.

  • Well, my name is Abby, I’m the second child of Nathan and Grace Walker. I have an older brother, Peter, and then younger than me is Reba, Jake, Eliza, and Gabriel. I’m also close to my Aunt Dottie who doesn’t live too far away. My father is a banker in our little town, and my momma is the best momma there is.

You are close to your brother, Peter, aren’t you?

  • You know, if someone had told me when we were little that he’d be one of my best friends, I would have laughed. But Peter and I became very close as he grew up. I guess that’s what happens when you go through the same thing and have the same morals. Peter has always stood up for me and protected me and I adore him for it. 

You tell people that you want to become a career woman. What do you think you want to do?

  • When I said that I was thinking about maybe being a secretary or something in an office. But after making a wedding cake for someone special, I knew I wanted to learn more about baking. It’s just something I have a knack for, and who doesn’t love a pretty cake?

Tell us about Harvey Nicholas.

  • Oh my. Harvey, well, he’s just the kindest, most amazing man you could ever hope to know outside of my daddy. He loves God, loves his family, he’s very smart, and I’ll tell you, he looks good in a uniform.

What was it like growing up so close to Clemson College?

  • I didn’t think too much of it. It was just always there, down the road. I had a few girlfriends who would go to dances the cadets put on and a few even met husbands that way, but it was never much my scene. I never imagined a Clemson cadet would find me! God definitely had his hand in that.

Tell us about the war.

  • Oh, can I not? That dreadful war. It tore apart the most beautiful family I ever have seen. I’m sure it tore apart many families. And because of that war, I almost lost my Harvey. Both as a casualty of war and as a casualty of Clarice Renard! But you’ll have to trust me on that until you read the story. That’s enough war talk for me.

Okay then, how about PJ?

  • Who wouldn’t love to talk about PJ? Peter Junior, my brother’s sweet baby boy. I was there when that child was born and I will love him his whole life long. Never have you seen a child so loved by his parents and extended family. I know he might grow up a little spoiled given his circumstances, but I pray that God will use this child’s life to glorify Him!

You and your sister-in-law Emmeline go on a road trip, where do you go?

  • We drove across South Carolina to go to Charleston – with PJ in tow! Neither of us had been there or even seen the ocean before, so that was a treat! I’m so glad Emme got to see it, you know? But we weren’t there for a vacation. We were there for some truth digging and confrontation. That Clarice had a scheme up her sleeve, but after talking with Harvey’s Aunt Doris, I knew I had to discover just what was going on.

There is a happily ever after, though, right?

  • Well, you’ll have to read my story to find out the details, but I can say that yes – my own story ends happily. It was not how I ever expected God to write my life, but I put my trust Him and He has never failed me once.

Allison Wells is a Southern wife, mother, and writer. She became a Christian at the age of sixteen. She’s a graduate of Clemson University and she still lives close enough to hear football games on Saturdays. She love to read, hates the snow, prefers the mountains to the beach, loves the color turquoise and she will belt out any 80s song from the top of her lungs. Allison’s motto is “Life is short, eat the Oreos.” She thanks the Lord for her husband and four children daily.

Interview with Willa Brown and Harrison Holt from Jenna Brandt’s Wanted: Tycoon

~ Jenna Brandt ~ Leave a comment

Wanted-Tycoon-KindleNovel PASTimes: What impression do you make on people when they first meet you?

Willa: I think they like me. I hope they do. I try to be friendly, even though I’m naturally shy.

Harrison: I tend to focus on accomplishing tasks, and forget to think about anything else. I don’t mean to, but it can cause me to come across serious and to-the-point.

Willa: I wasn’t sure what to make of him when I first met him, but once I got to know him, I realized he was a good person.

Novel PASTimes: What’s your idea of a good marriage?

Willa: A partnership between to people who love each other.

Harrison: I agree with Willa. It’s all about being with someone you can trust.

Novel PASTimes: What are you most proud of about your life?

Willa: Helping my family. They were in need, and I found a way to help them.

Harrison: Making Willa happy. Helping her help her family and giving her anything she wants has made me more happy than all nine of my brick yards.

Novel PASTimes: What’s the worst thing that’s happened in your life? What did you learn from it?

Willa: The death of my mother and brother. I learned those you love can be gone with a blink of an eye, so you should love them as best you can while you can.

Harrison: I learned the same lesson from the death of my parents. Though I wasn’t as close to them as I would have liked, I never got a chance to rectify that. Now that they are gone, I never will.

Novel PASTimes: What would you like it to say on your tombstone?

Willa: She loved her family well.

Harrison: He was an honorable man who did right by all he knew.

Novel PASTimes: Thank you for your time, Willa and Harrison. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Get your copy of Wanted: Tycoon on Amazon.

Jenna headshotAbout the author:

Jenna Brandt is an international bestselling and award-winning author who writes Christian historical and contemporary romance. Her historical books span from Victorian to Western and all her books have elements of romance, suspense and faith. Her historical series the Window to the Heart Saga and contemporary series Billionaires of Manhattan as well as her multi-author series, The Lawkeepers, Match Made in Heaven, and Silverpines have garnered praise and love from readers. Both her books, Waiting on the Billionaire and Lawfully Treasured, were voted into the Top 50 Indie Books of 2018 on Readfreely.com.

She has been an avid reader since she could hold a book and started writing stories almost as early. She has been published in several newspapers as well as edited for multiple papers. She graduated with her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Bethany College and was the Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper while there. Her first blog was published on The Mighty website, Yahoo Parenting and The Grief Toolbox as well as featured on the ABC News, CNN Health, and Good Morning America websites. She is a contributor and curator for the website, Novel PASTimes and a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW).

Writing is her passion, but she also enjoys cooking, watching movies, reading, engaging in social media and spending time with her three young daughters and husband where they live in the Central Valley of California. She is also active in her local church where she volunteers on their first impressions team and in the crisis care ministry.

To find out more about Jenna, to sign-up for her newsletter, or to purchase her books, visit her website at http://www.jennabrandt.com

Her reader’s club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/844819802336835/

The Lawkeepers’ reader’s group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/430422374043418/

Her books on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Jenna-Brandt/e/B0711MSFXW/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1497269877&sr=8-1

Like her on Facebook www.facebook.com/JennaBrandtAuthor

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Look her up on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16847426.Jenna_Brandt

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Review: Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

~ Cindy Thomson ~ Leave a comment

Historical fiction based on real historical people can be a tricky genre to pull off. I admire Callahan for taking on C. S. Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman. I knew little about her, and I expect that is the case for many fans of C. S. Lewis. She brought Joy to life while exploring her complicated relationships and her chronic health issues. I loved the way Lewis is shown as well, the way he depended on Joy emotionally and enjoyed their philosophical and theological discussions. From what I can tell, Callahan treated these historical people fairly. In the author’s note she explains how she did her research.

That alone is enough to give this book a high rating, but the writing is seller, captivating, and caused me to read this book quickly. I love a novel that pulls me in like that. If this was made into a movie, I think it would be better than the new one on Tolkien.

Highly recommended.