Lone Star Trail

Monday I said I would let you know what I read while I recovered from surgery. I enjoyed reading Lone Star Trail by Darlene Franklin. Darlene had sent it to me before I entered the hospital, and I was so glad to have something to read when I got home, as if my shelves were bare. No such luck.

This book is the first in the Morgan Family Series. It was definitely a good first book for a series. I'm afraid I read it after I read Captive Trail by Susan Page Davis, but it didn't take me long to get in the grove of this book.

It's the story of German immigrants wanting to start a New Germany in Texas. I knew some of them settled in Texas, but this book tells of the problems they had in a new country. It tells of the hatred the people had against the German's. The love story is so good. It shows how you can overlook something for the one you love. Sometimes we don't pick our love, it happens and that's what I gained from this book.

I enjoyed it so much. I enjoy Darlene's writing. She is a very good author. To insert the story about the Morgan horses was priceless. There will be a total of six of the Morgan Family Series. I know the rest of them will be just as good as these two I have read.

A Wonderful Week-end

On Monday it's good to look back on the week-end and think, "Boy, I had a wonderful week-end." Well, I can rightly say that today! I did have a wonderful week-end.

Our week-end started on Friday. My nephew and his wife from Scotland arrived at our house. This was their first time to see it after we moved. Jon and Arlene Galloway live in East Kilbride, Scotland, which is outside of Glasgow. We had not seen Jon in two years and it had been three years since we had seen Arlene.

If you can understand fast Scottish, you're all right. It had been a while since we had had that opportunity, and most of the time, I just nodded. Our son and his family came to supper on Friday night and our daughter and granddaughter came up from Nashville on Saturday.

The best part of the week-end was family. I love having my family around. This was such a special week-end with everyone getting to visit, even if I couldn't understand part of what they said. Everyone enjoyed the difference in words. A stove is a cooker. Arlene and I have very similar refrigerators, which surprised me. American appliances are popular there. It felt empty when everyone left Saturday afternoon.

Saturday night we went to the Senior Banquet at church. It was so good. We have some very talented young folks, and it was good to get to see them perform. The church does this every year, and it is so enjoyable. This is such an active church. Something is going on all the time. I love it, and I'm so thankful God put us here. We had never been is a congregation this active. My daughter says she can't come up to see us, because we are always doing something at church.

To end all this week-end up, my husband preached at a small congregation last night. I enjoyed it so much. Everyone was so nice and friendly. I'm anxious to go back next month and worship with them.

The week-end was wonderful, but I was so tired. I slept yesterday afternoon from 1:30 to 4:00. That's a long afternoon nap for me. I'll be so glad when I stop sleeping so much. Wednesday I hope to tell you about some books I read while I was recovering. Have a wonderful day.

Yahshua's Bridge

Here's the back cover and picture of Sandi Rog's latest release, Yahshua's Bridge. It was released on November 1, 2011. If you remember, Sandi's first book was also released on November 1, 2010, and that was the day she found out she had T-Cell Lymphoma. She has struggled this past year with chemo, radiation, and stem cell transplant. The cancer is sneaky, and it returned in the early fall. She has had radiation and tried an alternate treatment. The treatment seems to be helping her. I talked to her recently and she sounded so strong, much better than before.

With Yahshua's Bridge released, she has much to look forward to. DeWard Publishing is continue to put $1.00 of each sale of the book into a fund to help Sandi and her family. If you order from them during November, you will receive free shipping. That's a good deal with Christmas on it's way. I've already ordered mine, and I'm looking forward to reading the book. Continue to remember Sandi in your prayers. She's a wonderful, strong Christian. Her family is one in a million. They are behind her all the way. Read about her journey at sandirog.blogspot.com.

An amethyst stone draws him to his past. An elusive maiden draws him to his future.

Alexander is born into slavery under an abusive master: a master of his own flesh and blood . . . a man he will never call Father. Determined to break away from his master’s hold, Alexander devises a plan to purchase his freedom. But what’s he to do when he finds himself shipped off in shackles to Egypt, disappearing from the lives of everyone he knows and loves?

Here are a few endorsements for YAHSHUA’S BRIDGE:

Sandi Rog has done it again. With Yahshua’s Bridge, the sequel to the enjoyable and award-winning The Master’s Wall, Rog proves that her first effort was no fluke: This lady knows how to spin a page-turning adventure that is at once heartwrenching and uplifting. Yahshua’s Bridge has that rare and immensely satisfying quality of being a wonderful story, brilliantly told. ~Robert Liparulo, author of The 13th Tribe, Comes a Horseman and The Dreamhouse Kings

Sandi Rog's novels are sneaky good. She has an excellent understanding of the first century and is able to convey the details of New Testament culture without making it feel like a history lesson. Like her debut novel, Yahshua's Bridge is complex without being confusing and teaches truth without being preachy. With a story that hooks you and encourages you in your own life, Yahshua's Bridge is a fast but engaging read that is sure to please any lover of historical or Biblical fiction. -Alison Strobel, author of Composing Ameliaand many others

In Yahshua’s Bridge I found an amazing novel full of romance and intrigue just as I’ve come to expect from Sandi Rog. Beyond that, I found an epic struggle of good versus evil played out against a backdrop of martyrs, coliseums, and gladiators. This book illustrated to me more than any other novel the fact that life is but a pale illusion and the glorious reality awaiting us in eternity far supersedes any temporary pain or struggles we might face on this earth.  ~ Dina Sleiman, author of Dance of the Dandelion

Yahshua's Bridge is a powerful story about forgiveness and loyalty to the Christian faith. I loved the theme that God loves us enough to allow whatever is necessary to bring about our spiritual good and to produce healing in our lives. Sometimes what He allows makes no sense to us at the time. 

Yahshua's Bridge reminded me of Francine Rivers's Mark of the Lion trilogy in that it was also set during the first century when Christianity was still growing, and when gladiators fought to the death for mere entertainment of Roman citizens. Sandi Rog draws you into the story so deeply that you feel each character's pain and you hurt along with them. Well-written and fast paced, Yahshua's Bridge has the potential to heal hearts and touch many lives because it doesn't soft-step or minimize human suffering. The greater the darkness was, the more the light of Christ shone in this book. I loved it! ~Michelle Sutton, author of over a dozen inspirational novels.

Interview With Mary Connealy

Thank you Mary for taking the time to answer my feeble questions. I have been a fan of yours since Petticoat Ranch came out. The books keep getting better and better. Since my husband retired, he’s been reading your books.

KA  When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

MC  I wrote my first book when I was twelve. A romance novel of course. I shudder to think what a twelve year old knows about romance. That book is long lost (and no doubt good riddance). I started writing seriously with a goal of publication, a full length romance when my baby went to kindergarten. (for those keeping score at home, that is a gap of about twenty five years.) So honestly I don’t know if I ever exactly wanted to BE a writer, I just AM a writer. I can’t seem to control that.

KA  Are you a plotter or a seat of the pants writer?

MC  I’m going to answer this in an odd way. I think Plotter and Panster is one of those discussions writers have while they’re trying to define something that is just intrinsically difficult to define. I think plotters fly by the seat of their pants quite often, abandon their plots quite often, ignore their early decisions with few qualms when the creative direction changes as they write.

I think writers who say they write by the seat of their pants, do a lot more plotting than they think. After all, you’ve got to have some idea where you’re going when you type Once Upon a Time to begin a book, right? So we all plot and we all (okay, what’s the word ‘pants’?) Anyway, I’m more panster than plotter, but I do some of both.

KA  How do you come up with those crazy things that happen in your books?

MC  A lot of the craziest stuff that happens is the result of a LOT of hard work. Scenes, especially action scenes and comic scenes do NOT spring fully created from my magical fingertips. I write them, then I start revising. Comedy and action particularly are hard work. I do a lousy job on the first draft and each pass I get better. It’s tricky to get action to not stumble, to not include lines that don’t sing, that don’t flow, that grind the action to a halt. So I have to add and cut and polish and build and cut and add some more and it never ever stops getting better. So I accept that the first draft will be slow and awkward, then I start fixing it. The crazy usually isn’t there to begin with, that comes eventually and in bits and pieces.

KA  How does your writing day begin? I am an unscheduled person.

MC  I try to be disciplined about producing and write everyday. But I forgive myself when I fail. I usually spend the morning answering email and working on blog posts like this one. I’m an insomniac so it’s not unusual for me to be writing late at night. Being an insomniac is part of the reason I started writing. Something to do on those long, sleepless nights.

KA  Out of Control was such an interesting book. Was it hard to come up with the plot and setting?

MC  I’ve wanted to write Out of Control almost since the very beginning. I just had a lot of ideas and it was a while before the turn came for my Carlsbad Cavern idea. I visited Carlsbad Cavern years ago, as a young bride, and that place caught my imagination like no where I’d ever been. It’s so beautiful and I was chilled by the danger. Not for us. We were safe in well marked and fenced off trails with good lights and lots of people around. But when I saw it caught my imagination, I mean I could just time travel myself back to the first person who found that cavern. What would it have been like? There are bottomless pits. Ledges everywhere. Places that look like the ground has broken through. It was stone that was thin as glass and it looked like a bubble. What if you walked on it and it cracked and you’d fall forever? You look at stone under your feet and think you’re safe, but it is as fragile and thin as an eggshell. And in the modern, safe Carlsbad, the stones far below are lit up so you could see how far there was to fall. But it is sooooo beautiful the lure would be almost impossible to resist. I wanted to tell that story about the deadly danger and the staggering temptation because of the beauty of it.

KA  The historical books are my favorite. What made you want to write one like The Ten Plagues?

MC   I wrote for ten years before I got my first book published. At the end of that ten years I had twenty finished books on my computer. During those years of writing in mole-like anonymity, I reached a point where I just thought, ‘No one’s going to publish me anyway, I might as well entertain myself.’ And I wrote anything and everything that interested me. Almost all romance, but within that genre I wrote widely. And that includes Ten Plagues. I have about ten more books on my computer in about six more genres and I love them all and would love to see them all in print. Maybe someday.

KA  Do you pattern your characters after actual people?

MC  You know, most people aren’t really crazy enough to sustain a book. Sometimes a person will give me a starting point. In Petticoat Ranch I sort of patterned Sophie’s daughters after my daughters. But only in the most general way. The orderly oldest child, the animal loving soft hearted middle child, the tomboy youngest child. But I had to abandon my real children pretty quickly…to their everlasting relief.

KA  There will be two more in The Kincaid Brides Series, and I have an idea who Ethan will marry. What about Seth?

MC  Oh, you’re gonna love who Seth ends up married to. I’m not telling but you’ll have the general idea by the end of Ethan’s book. I just finished Seth’s story and I just loved it. Of course I tend to love the book I’m working on at the moment so that’s not a really FAIR test. But his wife was so much fun to write. Who is woman enough for crazy Seth Kincaid? Callie can handle him, or die trying…and when I say ‘die’ I’m talking about Seth not Callie. Cuz she puts up with no nonsense. I’m grinning while I type this.

KA  Each writer I know has their own routine and dress when they write. If my hair is combed, I’m happy. What about you, are you fully dressed, pj’s, completely made up, or what?

MC  I’m a really low maintenance writer. I don’t have any of those things. (or maybe I do and I’m kidding myself? Subconscious perhaps???) But I can write in a distracting situation. I don’t need music or my favorite tea or utter silence or a muse. I just start writing, if something interrupts I deal with that interruption then go back to writing. Ten broken-up noisy minutes, five unbroken hours. Whatever I can get.

KA  How many books do you write a year?

MC  I can write a 90,000 word book in about three months. I was writing four a year for Barbour. But the pace was making me nervous, and I worried I’d slip up and start falling behind. I’m writing two that length now for Bethany and I’ve got spare time. So in my spare time, I’m writing other books that may or may not ever see the light of day. I know, like it would kill me to talk to a friend or take a walk or something.

KA  Do you have a goal to write so many words a day, week, or month?

MC  My goal is 1000 words a day seven days a week. However if I’ve got revisions or if the publisher sends me pages to rework or galleys to proofread, then those take precedence. I’m working well ahead. For example, Seth’s story, which I’ve already turned in, isn’t due until January 1^st. So the pace of 1000 words a day isn’t as urgent as it was with the four books a year situation I had.

KA  Tell us about “the kiss.” It makes for interesting reading, but my husband is driving me crazy each time he reads a book of yours. Is this going to be a trademark of yours?

MC  The kiss, huh? Hmmmm….so I have a trademark kiss? What this brings to mind is my first book, Petticoat Ranch and the fact that one of the standard questions I got from readers was, “How did she get pregnant?” I just censored myself until it was almost undiscoverable the moment they became intimate. But I wanted to be so careful and not offend anyone and not upset my publisher with anything inappropriate. So I asked my editor about it. What’s allowed? How careful do I need to be with … ahem … marital intimacy. He said, “Stop censoring yourself and let me do it. I know when you’ve gone too far.”

So that’s what I’ve done. I’ve relaxed my own censorship (I think I still write really clean stuff, nothing ever graphic) but the kissing can get heated. I trust my editors to tell me when to settle down and behave myself.

Mary, I’m sure my blog readers will find you a very interesting person. Thank you so much. Tell us how to reach you.

Thanks for having me on, Katt.

You can email me at: mary@maryconnealy.com

Or find me online at:

http://www.seekerville.blogspot.com/">Seekerville
http://petticoatsandpistols.com/">Petticoats & Pistols
http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/">My Blog
http://www.maryconnealy.com/">My Website

A Kiss Is A Kiss Is A Kiss

Monday I'll be interviewing Mary Connealy. She's a wonderful writer and one of my top favorites. Lately, I've noticed she has more description of a kiss. Believe me,  I think it is good. Who wants to kiss a card box character? I thought it would be interesting if we discussed a kiss in writing.

Do you remember the first kiss from your spouse? Do you still fill that tingle? Most of us probably do. I remember my feet left the floor, and I thought I was floating. How do you tell that experience in a book?

You have to draw a line between being discreet and being trashy. Think of what goes through your head when you're kissed. I'm sure you don't stand there like a statue, but you are thinking something. Your heart flutters, your knees go weak, the room starts to swirl, his hands entwine in your hair and he draws you closer, we could go on.

I'm not very good at kissing scenes. That's one thing I want to improve on. Let's see how it goes. "Jacob looked into Callie's sky blue eyes and knew he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life. He encircled her with his arms and their lips met. He felt a longing that he had never felt before. He knew he was home with Callie. His stomach felt like there were ten thousand bats in it, all flying at the same time. This was more than he had ever imagined. He didn't want to let her go, but for propriety, he had to."

"Callie saw the love in his eyes as he drew her to him. His lips touched hers, and she began spinning out of control. She wove her fingers in his que and held on for dear life.  Tingles went up and down her spine and she knew she never wanted him to stop. When he released her, she saw a smile she had never seen before. She knew he loved her."

This is my lame attempt to put a little more emotion into the story. Tell me what you think?

Doing Better

Yes, I'm finally doing better. I still don't have a lot of strength, but each day is a little better. Yesterday, I went to church for the first time since the surgery. That's only been two weeks, but I sure have missed my church family. It was good to see everyone, and I protected my belly to keep kids from running into me. There were a few close calls. My youngest grandson came up and hugged me and asked, "How's you belly?"

This has been a good surgery for me. I feel so much better physically. My mental health is still a little slow, but it will return in time. I use search and find puzzles, games, and anything else I can find to jump start my brain. I feel I may be ready to get back to writing before long. I need to, but I'm doing some research during this time, so that is almost like writing.

Today is our yearly apple butter day. We do this each year, and we make it in the old-fashioned way. It is cooked over a fire in an open kettle. It's fun to remember how people had to do things in the past. We do can ours instead of storing it in crocks. People are bringing lunch and some men are already here stirring. The fellowship is worth all the hard work.

I'm not stirring this year, but I'm the one who knows when it comes off. It has to be just right, and it is not easy to know when to take it off. It will be so good this winter to eat.

This little bit of writing has helped. I wrote an article for our ForChristianGirls.org website this morning. I may be able to write more this afternoon or tonight. I want to get some pictures of our gang at ACFW conference posted soon.

Finally, I Feel Like Writing A Little

I came home from the hospital on Monday. The two days stay didn't work. That's okay, there was a lot done and I had complications keeping food down.

Everything seems to be doing well. Pain? Yes. Appetite? No. Walking? Yes. I'm still pretty swollen. My left side is extremely sore and it hurts. The incision in the right side has never hurt.

I'm resting a lot, and I'm thankful this is over. Thanks to everyone for your prayers.