Lyn Cote's Blog, page 85

Winner of Hometown Cinderella & Have You Seen this Video?

Vera is the winner of Ruth Axtell Morren's Hometown Cinderella. Thanks for everyone who left comments. You gave Ruth (& Missy Tippens) a warm welcome last week.

This Tuesday I'm going to post a question about the 2nd Fruit of the Spirit–joy. As you may recall, we discussed love and forgiveness. I hope you'll stop by and give me your take on joy.

Finally, here's something new from Love Inspired–Lyn

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Author Missy Tippens & Inspired by a Friend

My guest today is Author Missy Tippens who shares about how she was Inspired by a Friend. Here's Missy:

"Several years ago, I was shocked when, at a sports practice as we watched our kids play, a friend shared with me they thought her husband might have cancer. No way, I told her. He's too young. They must be mistaken.

Soon after, the diagnosis was confirmed. And later, worse news…it had spread.

The next couple of years were awful for that poor family. But through it all, my friend had faith. She had strength that I knew came from God—and from her desire to be there for her two young children as their father battled cancer and ultimately died.

She inspired me with her grace, her quiet strength and her ability to keep going. She inspired me with her honesty and willingness to give God the credit for carrying her through times when she wasn't sure she would make it.

So when I decided to write a new story about a secondary character from my earlier book, A Family for Faith—a story about a widow with four children, I decided to use my friend as a model.

In my new release from Love Inspired, A House Full of Hope, Hannah is struggling to provide for her children. She worries about spending time with each of them. She worries about providing a secure home. Though she struggles throughout the story, I tried to make sure she stayed strong and determined, leaning on God. Just like my friend. I also wanted the character to learn to forgive (another aspect of the story) and to trust God for the future.

Thanks to the inspiration of my friend, I think I was able to do that.

If my friend were to read this tribute, she either wouldn't recognize herself or would try to deny being so strong. But I know with God's help she has raised two wonderful children who are growing into the young adults God wants them to be. She's stayed strong through her own battles with cancer and through other hardships and is moving on to make a happy life for herself and her family. She'll always be an inspiration to me. "–Missy

Visit Missy at

Author Ruth Axtell Morren & The Heroine Named "Bitter"

My guest today is Author Ruth Axtell Morren who writes for Love Inspired Historical and her latest book is Hometown Cinderella.

RUTH WILL BE GIVING ONE AWAY SO DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!

Here's Ruth on one of the Bible's Cinderella stories:

"Naomi is an interesting figure in the Bible. She returns to her homeland embittered by what life has thrown her. Of course, in Biblical times, it was pretty tough to be widowed and to have lost both your grown sons. She was in effect with no means of support.

The heroine in my latest book, Hometown Cinderella, is a little like Naomi. I even named her Mara, which Naomi changed her name to when life soured. I chose the name Mara because I've always liked it, but it ended up being meaningful in the story, since the name means "bitterness."

Mara returns home to a small Maine village after years away in Europe, living a life people would say was glamorous. The wife of a noted concert pianist, Mara would be the envy of many. What they don't see are the internal scars she carries, from living with a self-centered, verbally abusive husband who drank and gambled all his money away. When he eventually dies of tuberculosis (the scourge of the nineteenth century), Mara is left penniless. But she has one immeasurable gift which the Biblical Naomi didn't. Mara still has a son, though at six, he is too young to help her.

When Mara's father dies, he leaves her half his house. Mara, too proud to return home before now, has no recourse but to come home and reside with a stepmother who made it clear to Mara when she was an adolescent that she wasn't welcome in the household. But now, her father has passed away and left her half of his house. Mara has no recourse but to return to live with her stepmother.

The inner strength she shows and fortitude while living with her carping stepmother soon attract the attention and admiration of a neighboring farmer, Gideon Jakeman, though he would never presume to think himself good enough to court a lady like Mara.

I hope you, too, will come to admire Mara as a woman of strong inner strength."–Ruth

For more info on Ruth & her books:

In Honor of Black History Month…

On Twitter, I found this interesting letter from a former slave to his master, dated August, 1865.

I think you'll find it interesting as an American and as a person of faith. Let me know what you think of it!–Lyn

Author Rachelle McCalla & What's a Princess to Do?

My guest today is Author Rachelle McCalla who finds a parallel between her grandmothers and her latest heroine, a princess! Here's Rachelle:

"Two of the strongest women I've ever known were my grandmothers.  One raised five kids, the other six.  As farmers' wives, they worked just as hard outside as they did inside the house.  Even though they were always busy and money was often tight, they still found ways to create beauty through art, music, quilting, and crochet.

The heroine in Protecting the Princess is like my grandmothers in surprising ways.  She too, loves to create beautiful things.  She uses her knowledge of jewelry and gems to find valuable clues to the uprising in her country of Lydia, by examining the Crown Jewels.  And when she flees from danger to her grandparents' house, it's no mistake that the beloved retreat of her childhood comes straight from my memories of visits to my grandparents'.

My grandmothers were often on my mind as I wrote this story, and I even managed to sneak in a tribute to both of them.  My Grandma Betty used to play the church organ in a little town that no longer exists.  The town was called Dorsey.  And my other grandmother's name is Doris.

So when it came time to name the beautiful Mediterranean island where the princess and her protector flee, I named it the Island of Dorsi.  It's a place where Princess Stasi's ancestors used to live, so I think it's only fitting that my ancestors have a claim to the place, as well.

It seems to me that in this story Rachelle has combined a bit of what sounds like a fairy tale (though it isn't) and intrigue and some Greek tycoon type romance all in one. Interesting! I love it that she entwined her own life, her grandmothers into the story too. Do you enjoy a story with princesses, crown jewels and exotic Greek isles? –Lyn

Website:

Is There Anything You Like but Most Others Don't?

The view from my front window

Is there anything you like and others bemoan? Like fruitcake. I LOVE FRUITCAKE and people make endless jokes abou it. Does that make me weird?

What about winter?

I was driving my dh to drop his car off Saturday morning and I suddenly was so grateful for the winter day. Snow was falling–thick flakes–many flakes grabbing each other and falling down to the white earth or flying up against the "snow" sky–the kind of sky that seems heavy with snow-a white-gray sky that appears to have substance.

Both sides of the narrow winding road were thick with trees. The firs–white pine, red pine, cedar, hemlock and more–had been flocked the night before. They each wore a white "ball gown" with the boughs and needle pattern flowing down to the layers of snow underneath each. The trees that lost their leaves were tall young "men" wearing black suits standing between the "ladies."

Even when the temperature drops to a cold that seems to suck the warmth from you and turn clothing to what feels like cellophane, I love winter. I even like it when it gets scary cold or a blizzard blows in from the west. Then we stay home and watch the storm and feel blessed to be inside, warm and cozy. And the best part in contrast to mudslides, floods and tornadoes, after a blizzard, we dig out but in the spring the snow melts and turns everything green again.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I'm strong enough to finally declare–I like fruitcake. I like winter (until March 30 then I think it's time for spring–but that's another story).

So what do you think? Am I nuts or what? Is there something YOU love that other people moan about?–Lyn

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Two Winners Last Week!

I posted a blog on the

Lyn Reviews Author Susan Page Davis's Captive Trail

My Friend & Author Edward Semon, Tennis Anyone? #ebookgiveaway

My guest today is an author and a personal friend, Ed(ward) Semon. He lives on a lake not too far from my lake. He is a retired teacher and a very interesting person. Recently my daughter helped him take his Out of Print book into the digital age! Here's Ed's interview:



1-Tell us about your book, Over the Net and Between the Lines.
ED: After I retired from a/my teaching career, I started playing tennis, a lot of tennis. I loved the game and I started playing five days a week, indoors at an indoor tennis facility in Glendale (suburb of Milwaukee.) I had many enthusiastic tennis partners, mostly men, but not all, and with all the practice, I improved my game to the point where people were asking me to join their game. At the same time, I thought I had the time to write a reading and vocabulary textbook, time I never seemed to have when I was teaching. "Gates to Understanding" was published and sold all of 136 copies. Lesson, if a teacher is going to write a text, do it while you have students in front of you. I also started writing stories about my experiences on the tennis court, I never told anyone how to play the game. The stories were published monthly in a tennis periodical-"Crosscourt News"-out of a Chicago suburb. My wife suggested I put the stories into a book. That's how

Lyn Reviews Author Melody Carlson's River's Call