Pepper Basham's Blog, page 2

Tuesday Tea Talks – A Reason for Hope

There is a lot of hope to be found from Peter, the “apostle of hope”, in his letter I Peter. Here are a few of my thoughts.

Tuesday Tea Chat – Grief and Perspective

It’s been almost two months since my brother went missing and an 11-day search ensued until his body was found. Life has moved on for those of us still here and I’ve been learning a lot about the grieving process and my own heart. This is an impromptu video about what God has been so kind to help teach me as me and my family continue to grieve and grow. Hopefully, some of the things I’m learning about living in a world of suffering can help you too!

Burdened with Glorious Purpose?

I love dressing in costume.It’s a family thing. We all like it.It’s fun stuff to “pretend” to be someone else that we may see as “cooler” or “more beautiful” or “more powerful” or…just weird  But just because I put on a cape or a funny hat doesn’t mean I forget who I am underneath the costume.  In a world where lots of voices cry out to tell us who we “ought to be”, and show us pictures of a “better” or “more beautiful” way, I’m so grateful for a Truth that doesn’t change. A truth that doesn’t just say “whatever makes you feel better” or “whatever makes you happy”. Because, to be honest, happiness is fleeting, and if we based our happiness on what the “voices” of our time say, then it’s only going to last as long as the next fad or movie or advertisement.  Such “happiness” is temporary and, in the end, not very satisfying because there will always be the “better” in that measurement system. So we need something secure.Certain. Something that can give us true identities when all the facades are pulled back.And only one being has been around long enough to give us an “eternal” perspective against the changing “expectations” of centuries and even millenia. So…who does God say we are?Created beings, yes. So subordinate to Him, but also creatures created “in His image”!!! Handcrafted by God. Wow!!In the creation story of Scripture, we read that God “said” and the world became filled with light, life, and structure. But, when it came to humans, “saying” wasn’t how God wanted to move forward. He became much more personal in his details.He said, “let us MAKE”Make – handcrafted extra special. Why is that so wonderful?1. We’re not our own gods (even though we really try to be). This means, we have a Creator who knows more than we do and we have a Creator who knows more than we do. (get it We are both deferential to His greater understanding and power, but we are also couched within his care, love, and greater good for His kids.2. We are special in creation because of the image we bear. We have the ability to reason, think, forgive, restore, encourage, love, dream, imagine, create, and so many other things that, as a whole, are uniquely given to humans.3. We were created with PURPOSE – out of the formlessness of pre-creation, God brought order and life…and all of it had purpose. But the pinnacle of his creation was humankind!!! We were made for a purpose and a reason. To flourish.  But instead of being “burdened with glorious purpose” like Marvel’s Loki, we don’t have to feel the burden. Our purpose of glorifying God happens because Jesus made a way for us. Sure, as image-bearers we marred the “image” of God when Adam and Eve took their free will and sought to be their own gods. Sin entered the world, but our purpose remained. We were STILL image-bearers, but because we’d marred the image of God, another human would have to come to set things right. A “special” human. The God-Man, Jesus. And he was TRULY burdened with glorious purpose – a purpose he fulfilled without any trickery or deceit.To restore our image to its right place so that we could flourish in this world as our souls are prepared for the next.What a beautiful thing to remember as we plod along some days wondering “what is going on?”If you haven’t been taken to Heaven yet, Christian, then God isn’t finished with you yet. He still has a glorious purpose for you and me. A plan that He will work out through us!Burdened?Nope.Honored.Yes!

Tuesday Tea Talk with Pepper – A New “Normal” & “Why, God?”

Hello, friends!

Today, I’m beginning a new series of videos where we chat about various things. Some serious. Some fun. Some in-between.

I’m even trying to answer some frequent questions I’ve received. If you have some topic you’d like us to discuss, you can email your ideas to pepperdbasham@gmail.com

This is my first try at such a video and I hope for a laid-back, conversational style.

I don’t have all the answers. I’m just a fellow traveler on this life journey too, but hopefully, we can have some good chats along the way

 

 

Appalachia, Stories, and a CelebrateLit Tour

Books are a uniquely portable magic – Stephen King

My great-great grandmother Malinda Belle Hawks (and her young’uns)

Appalachia is known for having a high illiteracy rate. A place of beautiful scenery and rugged landscapes, the people of the mountains developed stories through oral storytelling much more than “book learning” for a long time. Which meant, history and legend were very important and passed down from one generation to the next. As a young girl growing up in this world, I loved hearing my granny share tales from up to five generations ago, filling in the narrative gaps between a birth date and a death date on a tombstone – giving flesh and breath to the stone-etched names.

It’s no surprise then, with a heart cultivated from rich oral stories, I fell in love with reading. Books became that “portable magic” that took me places my little Appalachian community couldn’t provide. I fell in love with the Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew. Wept through the end of Bridge to Terabithia and Old Yeller. Traveled to the plains with Sarah Plain and Tall and fell in love with horses with The Black Stallion. But when I was in seventh grade, I read my very first “British” novel, The Secret Garden. In that one introduction, my world expanded into mysterious English manor houses and British classics. Before long, I’d consumed Jane Eyre, Austen’s classics, some Dickens, Dracula, Frankenstein…and the list goes on! And then…I found Tolkien and Lewis – and the ‘real’ world swelled into OTHER worlds.

I’m grateful for true stories of book-loving pioneers traveling into the world of Appalachia to provide books and literacy training to “my people”, because I know some of those books made their way to my tiny elementary school library…and not only brought me the chance to discover stories, but to write them too!

Isn’t it amazing how books can do that?

In Hope Between the Pages, I wanted to bring the same awe and discovery I felt as a child (and continue to feel as an adult reader) to the story of two people whose worlds had seemed small. Stories stretched their worlds, but the stories also gave them wonderful imaginations and positive perspectives. It’s still amazing to me that ink-and-paper words can make such a lasting impact on hearts and minds. They can lead us to dream, teach us new things, encourage our hearts, help us to think outside the box, swell our imaginations, broaden our horizons, and encourage our hope.

Books are not a replacement for real adventures and relationships, but they certainly provide a beautiful “door” into other lives and worlds that we may never have a chance to experience in real life. Sadie, my historical heroine, and Clara, my contemporary heroine, both have kept close to home but traveled greatly through books…and BOTH are given the opportunity to reach beyond the bindings to discover real-life adventures. I’d like to think that their love for stories helped them have the courage to step away from the page and into their own tales even more prepared than they would have been without stories.

What are some of your favorite books you read as a child? Did any of them influence you to become a more avid reader?

AND RIGHT NOW, CelebrateLit is having a wonderful #giveaway for my newest novel, Hope Between the Pages plus a $25 Amazon Gift Card!! Check out the giveaway, here! 

Hope Beyond Imagining

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved the idea of flying.

In fact, any time I could pretend to be a superhero, it was always a flying superhero.

Even in my sleep, my recurring dream as a child and young adult was a “flying” dream.

In a world where folks can strap on wings to hang glide or buckle into a parachute to skydive, the idea and experience of “flying” might appear like a very tangible opportunity, but the concept from my child-brain and the actuality of taking flight like Superman, isn’t something that happens in the real world. I can’t step off my back porch and take to the skies by just thinking about it. Not really. And as hard as I try to imagine it, I’m sure REALLY being able to fly would be much better than what I think or dream.

I ESPECIALLY wanted the power to fly during this past year. As the world has been on constant lockdown or intermittent quarantine, the desire and hope to “fly away” from it all hit hard some days.

How about you?

There were times, when the struggle of online school, managing work from home, lonely kids, canceled plans, sick friends, grieving loved ones, and a host of many other painful transitions, hit at my hope like few other things have. There has been such a wearying feeling of helplessness and hopelessness for many folks.

I think that’s why the story of Easter is particularly potent this year.

In a time of great grief when the long shadows of death or loneliness hover so close we feel saturated in them, the tale of God’s powerful love brings an added sense of wonder and…hope.

Why?

As the Son of God was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit, suffered the eternal wrath of God alone, died as a criminal in one of the most hideous deaths of the time, and was hastily buried in a borrowed tomb, the deep shadows of grief fell across the world, and especially on his followers. In their minds, hope had died along with their Master.

The darkness had won.

Or so, they thought.

But we know the rest of the story.

Christ rose from the dead. Death was defeated. God’s wrath on sin was satisfied.

Hope didn’t just emerge; it blew the stone off the grave with a finality to change eternity.

In Christ’s death on the cross, God affirmed his compassion and love for His people, but in Christ’s resurrection, God displayed his ability and power to secure His millennia of promises for His people.

He didn’t just tell us about why we should find hope in Him.

He showed us in 3-D certainty why we can find hope in Him. He was not only willing, but completely able.

God’s plan proved beyond anyone’s imagination. Which is why, when we face hardships of pandemic proportions, we can find comfort in the God who is not only willing but able to work outside of our human imaginations to do remarkable things. (especially when the world looks dark).

And He does! Every moment.  He gives purpose to our struggles when the long shadows fall upon our lives. No second of our lives is outside of God’s power to touch or beyond his ability to use for our growth and His glory.

And He is efficient. Every grief, every sting, every frustration…he takes them and uses them to work in us an awareness of who He is and who we are in Him.

As you prepare your heart to celebrate Easter, I encourage you to focus on Christ. Circumstances may be hard, but God is still the Creator of amazing things…even in, and many times through, our trials.

God used the impossible to secure hope for His people. And He’s still doling out hope, even in the middle of devastation or despair. He’s near. He hears. He is with us.

There is hope.

He is risen!

Happy Easter!

Ephesians 3:20-21: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Hope Between the Pages

I hadn’t planned on writing this book.

The opportunity came and I took it. (Thank you, Barbour).

I hadn’t planned on the way Oliver would swoop into the story and completely win my heart. Or the way Sadie’s strength would find its way throughout the pages and wind itself into Clara. I hadn’t expected Max. At all. Or the way fairytales and fiction and hope and strength kept sprinkling their ways into every scene.

I hadn’t planned on any of them, but I’m SO glad they found me and my “pen”.

 

This story stretched me, made me laugh, sigh,…and ugly cry. I’d never written a dual timeline before, so that was new for me. I really wanted to make the stories as seamlessly fit as I could so that the reader easily transitioned from the historical to the contemporary.  AND saw how one life braided into another.

  But more than anything, I wanted this book to overflow with hope.

We live in a world where difficult things happen. We are wounded, betrayed, scared, scarred, forgotten, ashamed, and multitudes of other ways that brokenness invades our lives. Many times there may be “reasons” to lose hope, but if nothing else comes from the pages of this book, it’s my prayer that it leaves the readers with hope.

Hope that “there’s still some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for” as Samwise Gamgee says in The Two Towers.

Not only that, but it’s worth LIVING for: Living and dreaming and laughing and moving forward.

I hope YOU will enjoy Hope Between the Pages. I’m so thankful Barbour let me bring this book to life.

If you are interested in discovering more about this story, you can order in many places, but here are a few

Sassafras on Sutton, Baker Books, Amazon, Books a Million

Biltmore in the Time of Corona

What is a special place that helped you get through 2020

Here is one of mine! (see below for photos)

Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt – Stop 21

Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt!

If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

• The hunt BEGINS on 3/18 at noon MST with Stop #1 at LisaTawnBergren.com.
• Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
• There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/21 at midnight MST)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.

• Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the Rafflecopter form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

 

Hey Y’all! So glad to have you visit my site and enjoy the fun of this Scavenger Hunt! My name is Pepper Basham and I am an author of contemporary and historical romance. My books are “peppered” with grace and humor and are usually sprinkled with some of my Appalachian heritage too. You can learn more about me by perusing this site or touching base with me on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, MeWe, and/or Pinterest.

 

My newest release, Hope Between the Pages, celebrates all things BOOKISH!!! Oh yes, you got that right. Stories GALORE! Bookshops. Libraries. Classics. Here’s a little about it!

Clara Blackwell can’t lose her family’s one-hundred-year-old bookshop, but with the deed missing, there’s a chance her father’s legacy could fall into the hands of her greedy uncle. In a n attempt to locate the missing deed, Clara uncovers an unusual love note which leads to the discovery of a long-lost romance. Forced to step outside her predictable bookish world, Clara embarks on an adventure with only the name Oliver as a hint of the man’s identity in her great grandmother’s unknown history. From the beautiful North Carolina Vanderbilt estate to a hamlet in The Lake District, England, can Clara put the pieces of an ill-fated romance together in order to save her bookshop…and maybe even find her own bookish happily-ever-after in the process?

 

If you’re interested, you can order Hope Between the Pages here or here or in about any of your online bookshop communities.In Hope Between the Pages “stories” play a vital role in two romances a century apart. You know what I mean. Stories matter.

 

The Stories that Shape Us

The earliest books I remember were the hardback, blue Bible storybooks my parents kept on a bookshelf in the living room. Each book had a smooth cover with a scene depicting some Bible story and promised pages filled with surprising revelations about what God did for his people.  My parents read a Bible story to me and my little brother each night before bed, but stories were an integral part of my early childhood. I’m from Appalachia, so, besides the Bible stories, many stories were “told” not “read”. I would say that my love for stories started with that hardbound Bible book, but was inspired and encouraged by the oral tales my granny shared of our family history. Encouraged by my love for storytelling, reading became a natural passion and I was often found carrying a book around which led to the discovery of many other wonderful tales. The Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew were the first sets that drew me to such an extent, I felt I needed to write sequels. “Mysteries” suddenly emerged around every corner of my imagination and though I couldn’t draw very well at all, my first “story” ended up being a mystery inspired by my love for those book series. (note the photo of my daughter holding a copy of my poorly illustrated first story)

In my late elementary years, I learned the value of traveling outside of the U.S when I read The Secret Garden followed quickly by A Little Princess. It was then that I began my deep and abiding love affair with “all things UK”. With that shift in reading, growing my little Appalachian world, even more,

I began to devour as many stories as I could find. I held a fascination for Abraham Lincoln in middle school and John F. Kennedy in early high school. I would read as many books as I could get my hands on about the English landscape and history, particularly royal history. Then I read Jane Eyre followed quickly by some of Austen’s classics and I was a goner.

College introduced Frankenstein and Dracula, along with Gawain and the Green Knight, Dickens, and Canterbury Tales.  Each story feeding a different interest within my imagination, a fun conglomeration which likely encouraged my rather “eclectic” writing style now But…at this time, the only fiction with an overtly  Christian influence that I’d read was Grace Livingston Hill books- and though they were sweet and gentle, they didn’t hold my interest as much as some other fiction did.

In my early twenties, I made two fascinating discoveries.

Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings (I finished both series within a week each as a new mom. AMAZING! Nursing moments really add up.)When I picked Siri Mitchell’s book, Kissing Adrien, followed immediately by Mary Connealy’s book, Petticoat Ranch, I realized I’d “found” the Christian influence, intriguing stories, and quality of writing I was looking for, not only in reading but also in writing. Add to that the powerful depth of Francine Rivers, Redeeming Love, and, somehow, I found my “writing” family.

All along the way, stories not only entertained me, but each one contributed to growing my education, my imagination, and my appreciation of people, history, worlds, hardships, and triumphs that I may never experience (and may never WANT to experience) in the real world. The point is, they GREW me.

I learned and loved through books. They made me a better person, reader, and writer. They broadened my world and gave me a better understanding of others. Stories matter.

“Their” stories matter and our stories matter. That’s why “book folks” enjoy each other’s company so much. We share stories and the love of stories. We build community, so, not only to stories teach and entertain us, they also bring us together (Hmm….maybe that’s why Jesus used them so much

So, now it’s your turn.

What fiction inspired you? Either early on in your reading journey or later? We’ve all grown through stories. Some of mine were written down and some were told to me from a family member, but they all influenced me and my imagination in different ways.

What about you?

Leave your answer in the comments to have an opportunity to win a copy of Hope Between the Pages – a story inspired by the love of books!! 

ALSO…..Here’s the Stop #21 Basics:

Clue to Write Down: DIVE 
The Next Stop on the Loop: the AMAZING Kara Swanson’s site! 

Montana Rose by Mary Connealy

Do you reread books?

I do! And I rewatch movies. Love to!!

So it was fun to pull out my copy of Mary Connealy’s books, Montana Rose, and take a second journey into the Wild West of Mary’s even wilder stories.

Have you heard of this book before? Here are my thoughts:

With the hope of rescuing newly-widowed and pregnant Cassie Griffen from a fate worse than death, Red Dawson volunteers to marry the young woman and sweep her out of embittered Wade Sawyer’s harmful path. But Wade’s wrath may not be Red’s biggest concern. His obedient, demure little wife might accidentally kill him before Wade can ever get the chance. Forced into subservient insecurity by her former husband, Cassie responds to Red’s gentleness with suspicion and surprise. The more she realizes his genuine goodness, the more she wants to give to him – but her former husband never taught her how to be a rancher’s wife, so her attempts nearly burn down the barn, knock off Red’s head, or drive him to such distraction he loses his herd.

Like a baby bird, Cassie finds freedom to fly in the security and encouragement of Red’s love. Whereas her thoughts, feelings, and personality were stifled by the tyrannical rule of her first husband, Red’s consistent coaxing (sometimes goading), quick forgiveness, and ready laugh bring out the Cassie who has been hiding underneath years of abuse.

If Red can survive the antics of his incompetent wife and Wade Sawyer’s schemes, will he find the love he’s been looking for? With humor, gentleness, and poignant spiritual depth, Mary Connealy weaves a beautiful tale about the freedom found within true love. Mary opens the reader’s eyes to the transforming power of God’s love and how our security in Him helps us to become the people He’s called us to be. Never a slavemaster, but ever the gentle Lover, God pulls us from our preconceived hurts and notions to bring out the REAL us – and bloom the hidden talents he’s designed within us.

Red Dawson’s constant example of God’s love to Cassie gives her strength to become the woman God’s called her to be. Along the way, there is laughter, heartbreak, and a breathtakingly beautiful bond that develops between the young couple. Mary’s description of the labor and delivery of Cassie’s baby was all the things that make up a good story: touching, hilarious, frightening- with enough reality to make it believable.

As with all of Mary’s books so far, I highly recommend Montana Rose. I’ve always said that Petticoat Ranch is my favorite novel she’s written, but Montana Rose is quickly vying for first place. I can’t repeat it enough. Get this book, sit back, enter a world of lassoes, spurs, strong women, vicious pigs, perfect scoundrels, gentle cowboys, and a God who can use them all for His glory.