Sneak Peek

At last, my debut novel has gone to print! It will release through the Heartsong Presents book club in January 2012 and be available through trade markets (Amazon, CBD, etc.) in June.  I'm excited to give you a sneak peek at the beautiful cover that Barbour created. I cannot tell you how pleased I am as they took into consideration my suggestions and really captured the protagonist's essence.

 

 The Shadow Catcher’s Daughter
Colorado/New Mexico, 1875

  Eliana Van Horn aims to make her mark by joining her father as his photography assistant on an expedition to survey and document the placement of a marker at the intersection of four southwest boundaries. Living in the shadows of his native heritage, a half-Navajo guide, Yiska Wilcox, is thrown off course when The Shadow Catcher’s Daughter opens up the uncharted territory of his heart. As they travel through dangerous terrain in New Mexico and overcome barriers of culture, faith, ideals, and secrets that they both keep, they at last discover common ground and stake a chance on love.
 
The Shadow Catcher’s Daughter is book 1 in the Love in Four Corners series. Book 2, Pride's Fall by Darlene Franklin and Book 3, Almost Arizona by Susan Page Davis

Season of Blessings

"All that we behold is full
of blessings."
  ~William Wordsworth 

I have so much to be thankful for! I know that Thanksgiving has past, and here we are at the beginning of December already, but I want to back track a bit as I am still enjoying the afterglow of my 50th birthday celebration (Nov. 16th).  So if you'll allow me to reminisce, here's how I celebrated during my birthday season of blessings. . .

First of all I enjoyed a wonderful two week long road trip with my Mom in August to celebrate our 50th and 70th birthdays. It was such a special time to spend together and we did so many things including visiting lots of family. I got a ton of research done to boot. It was one of the grandest times of my life!

Our amazing "Birthday Dinner" at the Riverwalk Restaurant
in Yorktown, VA.  Tillapia Fillet & Baked Sea Scallops
wrapped in parchment paper.

Then at the end of October my husband and I went to a Third Day concert. They also had Tenth Avenue North and Trevor Morgan with them and it was an amazing show and time of worship. We came out afterwards to a flurry of huge snowflakes, the first fall of the season! So beautiful!

Then came time for my actual birthday. I was blessed with tons of wishes and gifts including the beautiful flowers from a special friend. My husband got me an awesome "author, author" charm bracelet and he and my sons gave me a Kindle Fire! Woo!

And one very sweet moment at the end of a long day on my birthday was when my sons sang me a duet of Happy Birthday, which made this mother cry.

And now, my 50th year, I look forward to a new career as a published author of two books, with two more to follow the next year. I have lots to celebrate big and small in this season, and in all. 


"Seeing our Father in everything makes life one long thanksgiving and gives a rest of heart." ~ Hannah Whitall Smith.

 

Jubilee!

What a year this has been! So much going on between juggling sickness (I just got over pneumonia, thus my absence once again) and loads of deadlines for my two publishers ~ bio sheets, book cover design sheets, edits/revisions, final edits (galleys) and a host of other activities. Today I am celebrating...me! It's my 50th birthday! Wow, did I really just write that? Those are a few words I'd like to edit! Actually, life is very good and I'm very content, humbled, and excited beyond belief that I have three books scheduled for release in 2012-2013.

It's been such a whirlwind that I haven't even had time to order my photos from my head shots that I had taken this summer by my talented cousin, Kristen LaValley Walters. So here I am, what do you think? Any of the pics are available in varying finishes and these haven't even had their final touches yet.

So with all this talk about edits and polishing and all of the hard work that I've been doing this year ~ my year of preparation as I've been calling it ~ I hope to spend time in my 50th year, my Jubilee year, and ask the Lord to do a little polishing of me personally and to refine my relationship with Him. So follow along, I will try to be more consistent in my posting. I'm so grateful for you all!

Her Own Prison

At last my dear friends, I return to my much neglected blog. Thank you for your patience while I have been rather indisposed of late. I've been sequestered in a prison of my own making and hardly seen the light of day, or so it seems.

My first priority was to finish my manuscript for my novella, Carving a Future (Barbour). This is the first story in the Colonial Courtships anthology featuring the four Ingersoll brothers in Glassenbury, CT, 1752.  Happy am I to say that I completed my task, or it would have been the gallows for me! 

My local writers conference occurred in the midst of this writing, though I had hoped to be done with my manuscript by then, I was not. The conference was a pleasant diversion, but it did require much of my time as I was one of the conference planners. I'll be posting soon on that wonderful day that I shared with two of my favorite authors, Susan Page Davis and Ruth Axtell Morren.

During this time, I've also submitted two synopses to my agent for potential inclusion in a series, and am very hopeful about these! We also communicated about my writing goals.  Did you ever notice how similar the word "goal" and "gaol", the old fashioned way of spelling jail are? There must be something to that, methinks.

At the end of this came the copy edits for my January release, The Shadow Catcher's Daughter (Heartsong Presents), and a request for description for the book cover. Now that is fun!

I am also beginning to write my next novel, A Design for Love, for Abingdon's Quilts of Love series. My story is set in Boston, MA, 1770. And though I keep myself in chains to my writing, it is where I want to be.

I promise, I really have been keeping out of trouble! Although, I've been trying to manage all this amidst headaches and an entrapped nerve in my neck and back.  I'll blame that on the stocks (pictured above at Colonial Williamsburg), they are a tad uncomfortable you know.

And thus is the work of an author, I am finding, not always comfortable, challenging me to my limits, it seems. But it is what I have chosen, and what God has chosen for me. So, lest you think I am complaining, I am not. I am ever so grateful to have the opportunity to enjoy, and endure, this life of mine that has changed and is changing me.

“Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.”