Becky Wade's Blog, page 12
April 27, 2025
Becky’s Favorites
We hope you are enjoying these weekly feature posts from the authors of Inspired by Life…and Fiction. We’re sharing some of our favorite things to help you get to know us a little better—and we’d love to hear your answers to these “favorites” questions in the comments below.
Favorite Beverage (whether hot or cold): Coffee! I drink a cup of black coffee every morning with breakfast, but I will also indulge in an occasional afternoon latte. I recently ordered the latte pictured below—a “honey lavender latte sprinkled with bee pollen”—and fell instantly in love. Delicious!
Favorite Color: The blue of Lake O The Pines as seen from my absolute favorite spot—the porch of our vacation rental house in East Texas.
Favorite Thing You Collect: Christmas Dickens Village houses from Department 56. My mom also has a collection and she’s the one who got me started with my first few houses. Since then, she and I have added to this quaint grouping that I set up on our dining room table every December.
April 25, 2025
One Powerful Way to Help Authors…
First, thank you for reading HOWEVER you’re reading. You might be buying paperback books, buying ebooks, or buying audiobooks. You might be reading in KU. Or reading and/or listening through your library. All of that is a tremendous support to authors!
While there are still many who prefer paperbacks (and we treasure you people) I’ve personally watched the sales of the digital versions of my books grow enormously. Back when my first Christian romance, My Stubborn Heart, released in 2012, just 7% of the units that sold in the first royalty period were digital copies.
Five years later, when True to You released in 2017, 26% of the units sold in the first royalty period were digital copies.
With my parents at a B&N event celebrating True to You’s releaseFive years later, when Turn to Me released in 2022, that number had risen to 50%.
With my most recent Sons of Scandal series (which I published independently) audiobooks, ebooks, and Kindle Unlimited accounted for approximately 90% of the unit sales and also 90% of my income as an author in 2024.
We’ve experienced a tremendous shift in how readers consume books. Authors navigating the seas of publishing over the last fifteen years have been on a wild ride! It’s also been wonderful because 1) people are still reading! And 2) it’s more possible than ever before for authors to publish and distribute their work themselves–and for readers to access their books in all the ways and formats they enjoy.
So, in this current publishing landscape, what’s one powerful way–in addition to reading books yourself–that you can help authors?
Request that your library carry your favorite books.
Here’s another statistic from my files… 25% of my income in 2024 came from Memory Lane and Rocky Road’s audiobooks. And the lion’s share of that came from libraries who purchased those audiobooks for their patrons. Why did so many libraries purchase those books? Because readers asked them to.
I’m thankful!
Here’s my encouragement to you . . . . Even if you yourself are a paperback-only reader, if you request Memory Lane, Rocky Road, and Uneasy Street (or other books by Inspired by Life authors or Christian fiction authors) in paperback as well as audiobook and ebook format via your library, and your library goes on to purchase those books, you’ve just made those novels available to a wide range of fellow readers. And you’ve helped authors, too!
I’d love to hear! Has the way that you consume books changed in the past 15 years? If so, how?April 24, 2025
The Accused Launches and Giveaway
April 22, 2025
Celebrating World Book Day
Hi friends!
I’m excited it’s my day to post because it’s World Book Day. I thought what better way to celebrate than to share some fun facts.
World Book Day began on April 23rd, 1995, and it is celebrated on the same day every year.
World Book Day is on the same day as the anniversaries of the deaths of William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. 
One hundred countries celebrate World Book Day. The world’s longest sentence was penned by Victor Hugo in his novel, Les Misérables. It is 823 words long. The first foreign language edition of my debut novel, Submerged, was published in German. 
There is a World Book Night in the UK on (or around) the 23rd, where volunteers give away books. Some famous book series that have been made into movies include: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. 
My favorite authors with the most book-to-movie adaptations include Jane Austen at 23, Agatha Christie at 50, and Shakespeare at 1100 Film Adaptations. There may be more with high numbers, including Stephen King, for example, at 34. 
One of the bestselling Christian fiction series is the Left Behind Series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, which has sold an estimated 80 million copies. Ways to celebrate World Book Day and promote reading
Buy a book Lend a friend a book Write a book Start a book club Read a book yourself or to a child Get a book from the library
I’d love to hear your favorite book of all time.
Have a blessed week,
Dani
How I Picked The Setting For My New Novel
My Publicist recently asked, “What inspired you to write a story set in Painswick, England, and how did you research this English village?” So I thought I would share my answers with you here as well.
My husband and I first visited Painswick (a Cotswolds village in Gloucestershire) a few years ago and were both charmed by the village and especially by its beautiful church (St. Mary’s) and churchyard. We made plans to return for a longer stay, which we did last summer. While there, we met members of Painswick’s Local History Society, who provided me with many editions of their excellent publication, the Painswick Chronicle, which aided me a great deal as I wrote the novel. They also kindly answered follow-up questions by email and reviewed the manuscript for me. I am grateful!
Thanks to their help, I have recently turned in a revised draft of a new romantic mystery called Whispers at Painswick Court, which is going through the editorial process now. It is scheduled to come out in December of this year, but is available for preorder now. I can’t wait for you to read it!
Are you drawn to smaller English towns and villages as I am? Or are you more drawn to cities like Bath and London? Do tell!
In the meantime, here is a brief description of the new novel:
Anne Loveday, a surgeon’s daughter, is determined to live a single, useful life. To escape her matchmaking stepmother, she accepts an invitation from an old friend to return to Painswick, the place she and her sister spent many happy summers until that last, fateful year. Soon after arriving, Anne is asked to serve as sick-room nurse to Lady Celia, who forbade her nephew to marry Anne’s sister years before. Pushing aside resentments, Anne moves into Painswick Court, which is rumored to be haunted. Also in residence are Lady Celia’s spinster daughter, her handsome adult nephews, and a secretive new lady’s maid. Two local doctors visit regularly as well, one of whom admires Anne while concealing secrets of his own. As an escalating series of mishaps befalls her patient, Anne realizes someone is trying to kill the woman. But who? When Anne finds herself a suspect and her determination to avoid romance challenged, can she discover the real killer—and protect her heart—before it’s too late?
I hope you will enjoy it! Thanks for stopping by today!
April 21, 2025
March 19th was National Poultry Day!
I’m a little late, but we just celebrated NATIONAL POULTRY DAY. Well, you know you don’t have to encourage me to celebrate chickens (and turkeys and ducks and quail). So here are a few facts you may not know about chickens!
1. Chickens can run at 9MPH, but they can’t fly far. Their flight is more of a flutter-assisted hop. You won’t ever see chickens soaring like eagles.
2. Chickens do not sweat. Which is why I put fans on my heavily-feathered girls in summer.
3. There are more chickens than humans in the world. If every human had a laying hen, we’d take care of starvation.
4. Brown eggs cost more than white eggs–because white layers ( mostly leghorns) lay every day; brown laying hens don’t. So they cost more to feed/raise than white-egg laying hens.
5. Chickens do not take baths with water. They take baths in dust and dirt.
6. Hens do not play favorites with their chicks.
7. Chickens can recognize people. My experience tells me they DO play favorites with people.
8. Chickens Are Not Colorblind
9. Do chickens know their names? Perhaps.
10. The most expensive part about keeping chickens is the coop–if you build a proper one that predators cannot break through or dig under.
11. Chicks start to peck each other (establish a pecking order) at three days old.
12. Do hens need sunlight to develop a hard shell? No, but they do need 10-14 hours of sunlight to produce eggs. God gives them the winter off. 
13. Hens only use one of their ovaries unless the other one is damaged.
14. What causes double yolked eggs? A double yolk egg is caused by two yolks being released by the ovary at the same time.
15. Double yolk eggs do not hatch into two chicks.
16. Colored eggs do not taste any different than white eggs. Eggs come in many colors: blue, green, tan, ivory, brown, speckled, and even pink!
17. A darker yolk is not more nutritious–but it shows that the hen has been eating grass, bugs, etc, not only chicken feed.
18. Chickens are one of the few birds to have comb and wattles
19. Chickens are descendants of the Red Jungle Fowl
20. A cloudy egg white means the egg is fresh. Fresh eggs also sink to the bottom of a cup of water. Older eggs float in water because air has penetrated the shell.
21. Different chickens have different combs. The color of the comb can indicate the bird’s health.
22. Will I get salmonella if I eat a raw egg? These days it is incredibly rare to find a chicken egg infected with salmonella.
23. Can chicks survive without a hen? Yes. They know how to eat and walk when they hatch. But chicks in the wild will die without a mama hen to keep them warm and protect them. Everything likes to eat chickens.
24. Chicks can identify their mothers.
25. Chickens do not need to forage to survive.
26. DNA-wise, chickens are most closely related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Amazing, right?
Until next time,
Angie
April 20, 2025
He is Risen!
He is risen, indeed! We are so very grateful that our Good Shepherd laid down His life that we may have eternal life. Wishing a very blessed Easter to all our dear readers of Inspired by Life…and Fiction!
April 18, 2025
Walking with Jesus
Praying the Stations of the Cross as a ProtestantA number of years ago, my church home began offering a self-guided walk through the Stations of the Cross. I found it a meaningful experience, and I was glad to discover, when I began attending a new church last year, that they offer a Good Friday tour through the Stations of the Cross. Given this is Good Friday, I may even be at church, praying my way through the Stations, as you read this post.
If you are a Protestant, like me, you might be thinking, Isn’t that a Catholic thing? And yes, historically, it has been embraced most fully by the Catholic Church. But at its heart, the Stations of the Cross is a devotional practice that invites believers to walk—step by step—with Jesus through the final hours of His earthly life. And I believe there’s something profoundly beautiful, profoundly human, in retracing those steps.
Because here’s the truth: the story of the cross is our story too.
What Are the Stations?The Stations of the Cross are typically a series of 14 reflections or “stations,” each representing a moment from Jesus’ passion—beginning with His condemnation and ending with His burial. Each station calls us to pause, to reflect, to pray.
They are not merely scenes to remember but holy invitations to enter into Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice. They remind us that our Savior didn’t race to Calvary. He walked. Bruised, bleeding, stumbling beneath the weight of the world’s sin—of my sin—He walked that road in love.
Why They Matter to MeI didn’t discover the Stations until well into my Christian life. But when I did, they captured my heart. Each station became a prayer, a moment of stillness. As I lingered with Jesus in Gethsemane or wept with the women of Jerusalem, my own story began to meet His in new and deeper ways.
I saw my weakness in Peter’s denial. I felt my helplessness in Simon of Cyrene, pressed to carry a burden not his own. I recognized my grief in Mary’s silent vigil. And I found hope in the shadowed tomb, knowing that Resurrection Sunday was coming.
This practice is not about ritual for ritual’s sake. It’s about remembering. It’s about love. It’s about the deep, soul-restoring truth that Jesus endured the cross for us—for you and for me — and He invites us to take up our own crosses and follow Him, even when the road is hard.
Come, Sit with the SaviorDear friend, if your heart longs to know Jesus more—if you’re weary or wondering, grieving or grateful—come. Walk the road with Him. Sit at His feet. Weep at the cross. Marvel at the love that held Him there.
And when the stone is rolled away and the tomb stands empty on Resurrection Sunday, may you rejoice all the more deeply because you have walked the way of the cross.
In the grip of His grace,
Robin
P.S. Here are the Stations of the Cross and some scriptures to pray as you meditate.Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41)Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested (Mark 14:43-46)Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)Jesus is denied by Peter (Matthew 26:69-75)Jesus is judged by Pilate (Mark 15:1-5, 15)Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns (John 19:1-3)Jesus takes up his cross (John 19:6, 15-17)Jesus is helped by Simon to carry his cross (Mark 15:21)Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31)Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33-34)Jesus promises his kingdom to the repentant thief (Luke 23:39-43)Jesus entrusts Mary and John to each other (John 19:25-27)Jesus dies on the cross (Luke 23:44-46)Jesus is laid in the tomb (Matthew 27:57-60)
April 17, 2025
April in Texas = Bluebonnets
When late March arrives, I start looking for bluebonnets. Where I live in Abilene, we don’t get the dramatic fields of flowers that you see in the Hill Country. Our bluebonnets come later in the spring and are harder to find, but you’ll hear me cry, “Bluebonnets!” and point out the car window whenever I happen to drive past a patch. In fact, last week I did precisely that when in the car with my daughter, and she commented that seeing bluebonnets makes her feel like she should pull over and pose. I wonder why? Surely not because her mama was always getting her kids in the bluebonnets for photo ops.
As the state flower of Texas, bluebonnets are as iconic as longhorns and the lone star flag. I thought you might enjoy some quick facts about these beautiful wildflowers.
1. The bluebonnet was named the Texas state flower in 1901, but it was a contested race. The cotton boll and prickly pear cactus bloom were also in the running. In the end, however, the bluebonnet prevailed, and I’m so glad it did!
2. The bluebonnet is a variety of lupine that grows only in Texas.
3. Some believe it got its name because the individual buds resemble a lady’s sunbonnet.
4. It is also been known by the names Buffalo Clover and Wolf Flower.
5. Blue is the most prevalent color, but on rare occasions this flower can also be seen in white and pink.
6. Legend has it that you will only find pink bluebonnets near San Antonio. The story goes that the flowers were originally white, but changed to pink when the river ran red with the blood spilled at the Alamo.
7. Texas was the first state to plant flowers along state highways. The Texas Highway Department was organized in 1917, and officials quickly noted the abundance of wildflowers along the roadsides. In 1932, they hired a landscape architect to maintain, preserve, and nurture these wildflowers. In 1934, the department outlawed all mowing during spring and summer wildflower season unless required for safety purposes. In addition, the Texas Highway Department purchases and sows about 30,000 pounds of wildflower seeds each year!
8. Ennis is known as the Official Bluebonnet City of Texas. Up to 100,000 people visit the small town each year to travel the scenic 40 miles of the Official Texas Bluebonnet Trail. The trail changes each year depending on where the best growth is found.
9. Bluebonnets are toxic. Don’t eat them!
10. Historian Jack Maguire once said that the bluebonnet is to Texas what the shamrock is to Ireland.
What wildflowers grow in your area?
April 16, 2025
Guest Post: Crystal Caudill
Hey y’all! My friend Crystal is posting for me today. If you haven’t read her historical romance/mystery books, you should! Now here’s Crystal:
There is Only One Way to Do It
If we’ve not met, you probably don’t know that in addition to being the author of “Dangerously Good Historical Romance,” I am a full-time caregiver for my mother-in-love. As the only child of his legally blind mom, when my husband asked me to marry him, I knew that it wasn’t just a marriage between two people, it was essentially a marriage of three. (God, of course, is ALWAYS central to our marriage, but I’m just talking earthly beings.) We’ve all three lived together from day one of marriage, and the first time my husband and I will live alone together will be after our children have flown the nest and his mother has passed onto glory. While this can be a common practice in other countries or even our country’s past, it’s not something too common today. In fact, I often run into people who are horrified that we all live together. How on earth do you do it? How do you write AND take care of all her needs and your family’s needs?
There is only one answer I can give: God. It might sound like a trite answer, but since 2018 we have faced multiple major surgeries and recoveries with massive complications, a pulmonary embolism, a broken neck, a hiatal hernia that was bad enough to cause stomach acid to go in her lungs, eye cancer, and an overall decline in health—both physically and mentally. God is not a trite answer, my friends. He is my desperate-cling-to-only-way-I-can-get-through-this answer. It is only by His strength, mercy, power, guidance, and work in my heart that I can make it through the constant medical events while writing the books He dragged me kicking and screaming to write. (Publishing was never my original goal, but God demanded it of me, and eventually, I obeyed. But that is another story.)
Literally every story I’ve written for publication has been during one (or multiple) of the many crises listed above. Written in Secret, my newest release, was written during the season of her broken neck when literally her every (and I mean EVERY) need had to be met by me or someone I could get to give me a reprieve. It was one of the hardest caregiving seasons of my life, and in many ways, it broke me and my mental health. Complications bled into the next year while I attempted to write the next book. That hiatal hernia issue took surgery and a recovery that she really never came back from all the way. But we had a few months of “normal” life while I tried to mentally recover . . . and while I fought God on what the focus of book 2 would be. It shouldn’t surprise you or me, but He won. And that topic He wanted? Mental health. For my good and hopefully the good of future readers. While I thought writing Written in Secret was the hardest book of my career, book two has proven far more challenging on so many levels. I’m about to start writing book three, and I won’t lie . . . I’m a little scared to see what will next fall in our laps as I write. But whatever it is, I know I have my God and Savior as my answer for how to get through it.
I don’t share all this for sympathy but maybe as an encouraging commiseration with my fellow readers. All of us are facing challenges that wear us down, shake our faith, require us to readjust the plans, hopes, and dreams we had for our own lives, and live in complete dependence on a God, who sometimes asks of us more than we can handle. He does this because He wants us to have that complete dependence on Him–which if you’re anything like me, is ridiculously hard. I’m like the two-year-old who declares they can do it all themselves. That dependence is difficult, but when we lay it all down at His feet, our response to the circumstances becomes easier to bear, even if the circumstances do not change.
So how do you and I do it? There is only one answer: God. He is the true intersection of life, faith, and fiction in my life. Before I leave you, here are two sections of the Bible that have gotten me through those rough season, and a picture I recently took on an evening tour of Cincinnati when my aunt was visiting.
ALL of Psalm 27: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/PSA.2...
2 Corinthians 4:1, 8-9, 15-18
“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart . . . We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed . . . All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
May those verses grant you peace and comfort as you walk your own troubles, and may you remember that there is only one answer to how we do anything: God.
About Crystal Caudill:
Crystal Caudill is the author of “dangerously good historical romance.” Her debut novel, Counterfeit Love, was a 2023 Carol Award finalist, and her novella, “Star of Wonder,” won the 2024 Christy Award for short form. She loves history, hot tea, all things bookish, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She is a stay-at-home mom, caregiver, and chaos organizer. When she isn’t writing, Crystal can be found hanging with her family and playing board games at her home outside Cincinnati, Ohio. Find out more at crystalcaudill.com.
I hope y’all enjoyed meeting Crystal and hearing a bit of her story. I’m still working my way through her first series, but I can’t wait to get to this new one!
Have you read any of Crystal’s books?
