Becky Wade's Blog, page 125

In the Beginning . . .

No, my title for this blog post doesn’t refer to the first line of Genesis. I’m talking about beginning a new novel.

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.” ― Beatrix Potter

As Beatrix Potter said (I quote her often on this), there is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. And if a writer is a seat-of-the-pants writer like me, the second line of the quote is every bit as true. I don’t quite know where those first words will take me.

One of the reasons I write is to find out what will happen to the characters and how their story will end. Oh, certainly, I do have at least a general idea what will happen (plot). If I’m writing a romance, I know my hero and heroine will find hope for a happily ever after by the end of the book. But what will happen to them on the way to that ending? And what exactly will that ending look like when I get there? These are questions I seek to answer. And so I write.

I enjoy the way my characters sometime surprise me, the same way I hope they will surprise my readers. I love digging into their histories so I can better understand their motivations. Why do they do the things they do? Why do they believe what they believe? Why do certain words come out of their mouths?

We are all a sum total of everything we have experienced in life. All of our decisions, all of our life-lessons, all of our triumphs and trials have shaped us. The same is true for the characters in my books, and so I seek to know them better as I follow them on their current journeys.

I am in that delicious early stage of a new book, when anything is possible and I’m still discovering where those first words will take me. I’ll let you know where that is.

~robin

Contest and Ebook Deals

Y’all, I got a really fun call yesterday after missing one a couple weeks ago. Flight Risk, my book about finding truth in fake news world and romance and family and well, you get the idea, has finaled in two contests. Usually, I miss the application deadlines for these. I think about it two weeks after the deadline has passed. Writing has been a tough journey in the pandemic, so it’s been so encouraging to get this acknowledgment that my books are good (in someone’s eyes ).

Now to the main purpose of today’s post. Looking for some great books to add to your summer reading list? Today I wanted to share some really great books that are on ebook sale just in time for summer vacations or long weekends. These seven are listed at $1.99 or $2.99 right now. I can’t guarantee how long they will be at this price so purchase them while you can.

This is the first time Lethal Intent has been discounted to $1.99. You know I love this book that is Caroline and Brandon’s story. It’s ripped from the headlines in a way I couldn’t anticipate, and I hope you love it!

Terri Blackstock’s Distortion is also on sale for $1.99.

New York Times  bestseller Blackstock delivers a gripping suspense about the deadly consequences of a husband’s lies.

When Juliet Cole’s husband of fifteen years is murdered before her eyes, she thinks it was a random shooting. Devastated and traumatized, she answers hours of questioning, then returns home to break the tragic news to her sons. But a threatening voicemail escalates this from a random shooting to a planned, deliberate attack.

Juliet realizes that she and her children are in danger too—unless she meets the killers’ demands. But as she and her sisters untangle the clues, her husband’s dark secrets come to light. The more she learns, the more her life is dismantled. Was her husband an innocent victim or a hardened criminal?

Next up is Sarah Sundin’s The Sea Before Us. I love her WWII novels at any price, but $1.99 is a great one! In 1944, American naval officer Lt. Wyatt Paxton arrives in London to prepare for the Allied invasion of France. He works closely with Dorothy Fairfax, a “Wren” in the Women’s Royal Naval Service. Dorothy pieces together reconnaissance photographs with thousands of holiday snapshots of France–including those of her own family’s summer home–in order to create accurate maps of Normandy. Maps that Wyatt will turn into naval bombardment plans.

As the two spend concentrated time together in the pressure cooker of war, their deepening friendship threatens to turn to love. Dorothy must resist its pull. Her bereaved father depends on her, and her heart already belongs to another man. Wyatt too has much to lose. The closer he gets to Dorothy, the more he fears his efforts to win the war will destroy everything she has ever loved.

The tense days leading up to the monumental D-Day landing blaze to life under Sarah Sundin’s practiced pen with this powerful new series.

I also LOVED The Spice King from Elizabeth Camden, and you can grab it right now for $1.99. It is rich with an interesting slice of history.

Gray Delacroix has dedicated his life to building his very successful global spice empire, but it has come at a cost. Resolved to salvage his family before it spirals out of control, he returns to his ancestral home to save his brother and sister before it’s too late.

As a junior botanist for the Smithsonian, Annabelle Larkin has been charged with the impossible task of gaining access to the notoriously private Delacroix plant collection. If she fails, she will be out of a job and the family farm in Kansas will go under. She has no idea that in gaining entrance to the Delacroix world, she will unwittingly step into a web of dangerous political intrigue far beyond her experience.

Unable to deny her attraction to the reclusive business tycoon, Annabelle will be forced to choose between her heart and loyalty to her country. Can Gray and Annabelle find a way through the storm of scandal without destroying the family Gray is fighting to save?

The Paris Dressmaker is another wonderful WWII novel. So rich and on sale for $2.99 right now. Based on true accounts of how Parisiennes resisted the Nazi occupation in World War II—from fashion houses to the city streets—comes a story of two courageous women who risked everything to fight an evil they couldn’t abide. “It’s a riveting novel with twists and turns you won’t see coming!” —Cosmopolitan Paris, 1939. Maison Chanel has closed, thrusting haute couture dressmaker Lila de Laurent out of the world of high fashion as Nazi soldiers invade the streets and the City of Lights slips into darkness. Lila’s life is now a series of rations, brutal restrictions, and carefully controlled propaganda while Paris is cut off from the rest of the world. Yet in hidden corners of the city, the faithful pledge to resist.

Things I Never Told You is on sale for $1.99 the entire month of June. “With tenderness and skill, Beth Vogt examines the price of secrets, the weight of tragic loss, and the soul-deep poison of things left unsaid.” —Lisa Wingate, NYT bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

It’s been ten years since Payton Thatcher’s twin sister died in an accident, leaving the entire family to cope in whatever ways they could. No longer half of a pair, Payton reinvents herself as a partner in a successful party-planning business and is doing just fine—as long as she manages to hold her memories and her family at arm’s length.

But with her middle sister Jillian’s engagement, Payton’s party-planning skills are called into action. Which means working alongside her opinionated oldest sister, Johanna, who always seems ready for a fight. They can only hope that a wedding might be just the occasion to heal the resentment and jealousy that divides them . . . until a frightening diagnosis threatens Jillian’s plans and her future. As old wounds are reopened and the family faces the possibility of another tragedy, the Thatchers must decide if they will pull together or be driven further apart.

Our own Karen Witemeyer’s More than Meets the Eye is also on ebook sale for $1.99. Many consider Evangeline Hamilton cursed. Orphaned at a young age and possessing a pair of mismatched eyes–one bright blue, the other dark brown–Eva has fought to find her way in a world that constantly rejects her. Yet the support of even one person can help overcome the world’s judgments, and Eva has two–Seth and Zach, two former orphans she now counts as brothers.

Seeking justice against the man who stole his birthright and destroyed his family, Logan Fowler arrives in 1880s Pecan Gap, Texas, to confront Zach Hamilton, the hardened criminal responsible for his father’s death. Only instead of finding a solitary ruthless gambler, he discovers a man not much older than himself with an unusual family. When Zach’s sister, Evangeline, insists on dousing Logan with sunshine every time their paths cross, Logan finds his quest completely derailed. Who is truly responsible for his lost legacy, and will restoring the past satisfy if it means forfeiting a future with Evangeline?

And finally for those of you who love Romantic Suspense, Colleen Coble’s Two Reasons to Run is on sale for $1.99.

Gripping romantic suspense from USA TODAY bestselling author Colleen Coble. 

A lie changed her world.

Police Chief Jane Hardy is still reeling from the scandal that rocked her small-town department just as she took over for her retired father—the man who wrecked her life with one little lie. Now she’s finally been reunited with her presumed-dead fifteen-year-old son, Will, and his father, documentarian Reid Bechtol. 

A crisis looms.

As always, confirm the book is still on sale as you purchase. Most of all, enjoy these seven novels.

Not Perseverance After All

Hi friends,

Happy to be back with you today! As the title alludes, this originally was going to be a post about preserving through difficult times, but then I realized, to my surprise, it wasn’t about perseverance at all.

To say life has been a rollercoaster lately is an understatement. I went in for cataract surgery a couple weeks ago. Everyone told me it was easy. Everyone around me who’d gotten the procedure done, had a wonderful experience.

I’m typically the medical anomaly. Well, an anomaly in general, but that’s a post for another day This time the medical anomaly held true. Everything was going smoothly until my doctor went to put the new lens in. Due to childhood trauma, the capsule they typically put the lens in, burst. I won’t go into full detail, but in my doctor’s words while I’m lying on the surgical table were, “everything just went south.” Definitely not the encouraging words I was hoping to hear.

The next day, I was in a retina specialist’s office and that same afternoon, I was having emergency retina surgery. The ‘eye surgery saga’ as my sweet agent called it, continued on. It was a slow ride up to the top with all hope of a smooth ride, only to go flying south in a whoosh. In eight days, I had two surgeries and four doctor appointments. Only on my final appointment with the surgeon did I receive bright news. There are still weeks of healing ahead, and the possibility of a third procedure still exists, but I should be fine.

Me, styling in my Great-Grammie’s sunglasses, post surgery

For now, it feels like I’m on a level course, but that could change in an instant. Everything could go south, but I have peace because what doesn’t change, or rather, Who doesn’t change, is God.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” ~John 1:17 (NIV)

In a week of shifting shadows—both figurately and literally—there was one constant. There is always one constant. God. He was right there, holding my hand through it all. Some might look at the situation and say I persevered through it, but the truth is God carried me through it.

Reader Question:
What’s one circumstance or time in your life when God taught you something new or reminded you of one of His truths?

Blessings,

Dani

Calling All Needlewomen!

A few months ago, I participated in an online discussion of the book Jane Austen Embroidery: Regency Patterns Reimagined for Modern Stitchers during a meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America (MN Chapter).

Jane Austen: Her Home and Her Friends

The author introduces the book by saying:

“We all know that Jane Austen was an accomplished novelist. Less well known is that she was also a talented stitcher, as at home holding a needle in her hand as she was wielding a pen. In an 1870 biography of his aunt, James Edward Austen-Leigh described her as ‘successful with everything that she attempted with her fingers’, whether she was plotting her novels, playing games with her nephews and nieces, or working at her needle.”  

At least three examples of Jane Austen’s work survive, including the beautiful quilt she created with her sister and mother, which I posted about here.

Her needlework was exquisite.”

—Constance Hill, Jane Austen: Her Home and Her Friends

Sadly, I am not a needlewoman, but I bought the book so I could participate in the discussion. I enjoyed reading about the importance of needlework in previous centuries, and related quotes from Austen’s letters and novels. I especially enjoyed looking at the beautiful photographs of embroidery samples and patterns.

Jane Austen Embroidery: Regency Patterns Reimagined for Modern Stitchers

The book includes historical embroidery patterns repurposed into modern sewing projects, like an evening bag, a muslin shawl, an apron, a floral napkin set and tablecloth, as well as other pretty, practical items.

Do you like to sew or embroider? If you are interested in this book, leave a comment (with your email address), and I will happily send my copy to one responder. I am sure a devoted needlewoman will enjoy this lovely book and get more use of it than I will.

Book & Game Bundles! (June 7-13, 2021)

I’m super excited to offer a pair of book and game bundles to two winners.

I’m teaming up with Rachel Fordham for this great package of autographed books and fun family games. Both Rachel and I have June releases: The Heart’s Charge and A Lady in Attendance. We thought it would be fun to bundle our books together and give two lucky winners copies of BOTH books! Not only that, but Rachel just happens to be kin to the family that created Grandpa Beck Games. Even before I knew this fun fact about Rachel, my family had been playing–and loving–several of their card games. Our ultimate favorite is Skull King. Rachel’s favorite is Antiquity Quest. So, not only will each winner receive both books, but my winner will receive the Witemeyer family favorite game, and Rachel’s winner will receive the Fordham family’s favorite!

What’s better for summer than books and games?

Click here to view this promotion.


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Eating Tulips

Have you ever eaten tulip bulbs? I haven’t, and I’m guessing not many of you have, either. Unless you lived in the Netherlands during World War II, that is. A Google search lists quite a few edible flowers including pansies, nasturtiums and marigolds. Tulips aren’t listed. I ate a flower at a trendy restaurant once that looked something like an orchid. It didn’t have much taste. But the Dutch didn’t eat tulips because they were trendy or tasty. The people were starving and desperate, and tulips were the only food available. Actress Audrey Hepburn, who lived in Holland during the war, has told how she survived on tulip bulbs. She said they tasted terrible.

I learned these sad but interesting facts while researching my newest novel, “Chasing Shadows.” The launch date is tomorrow, June 8, by the way, and I am super excited! (Keep reading to find out how to win a free copy!) The novel tells the stories of three women who live through the Nazi invasion and occupation of the Netherlands during WWII and have to decide how they will cope. The easiest way to survive is to befriend the enemy and collaborate with them. The middle path is to bury your head in the sand and simply try to cope by giving in to their demands, no matter how evil. The most difficult choice—and one that many, many brave Dutch people chose—is to actively resist and fight back against everything the Nazis were doing. You’ll have to read the novel to find out which of the paths my main characters chose.

The Dutch people suffered terribly during the war. During the final year, the railroad workers went on strike to hinder the Nazis’ movements, but when the trains halted, food supplies couldn’t be distributed. The winter of 1944-45 was called the Hunger Winter. It’s estimated that 22,000 civilians starved to death. One of the few things available to eat were tulip bulbs, so the Dutch Office of Food Supply published a guide with recipes, telling people how to cook them. The most common way was to grate the dried bulbs and use it like flour to make bread.

Fortunately, most of us have never faced the hardships of warfare. But we can read novels like “Chasing Shadows” and try to put ourselves in the characters’ places, and imagine how we would have reacted to such extreme circumstances. I like to think I would have faced the enemy courageously, but I’ll never really know.

And yet . . . I do have an enemy who wants to defeat me and take me captive. I face a variety of challenges, large and small, every day, and must decide how I will react. Am I going to allow the enemy to discourage and defeat me? Will I get angry, give in, give up? Or will I allow Christ’s love and grace to shine through me regardless of the circumstances? Like the women in my novel, I must decide if I will surrender to the enemy, do nothing, or show love?

It seems like it has taken a lifetime for me to fully trust in God’s provision. Like the Israelites, I sometimes grumble and complain about the manna He provides, preferring the cuisine of captivity. Jesus said that if we ask our Heavenly Father for bread, He isn’t going to give us stones. But sometimes His answers to prayer seem pretty hard to swallow. Like tulip bulbs. Will I eat them without complaining? Will I be thankful for them, as the faithful Dutch people were? Until the enemy is fully defeated, it’s a decision I must remember to make every day.

To celebrate the release of “Chasing Shadows,” (and my characters who eat tulips bulbs), I’m giving away two free copies of my book. To enter to win, simply leave a response to this blog, below. If you’d like, you can tell me about any flowers you’ve eaten. (I don’t think cauliflower counts!) Enjoy!

Inspired by Scripture

This Sunday feature is brought to you by ClashVerseoftheDay.com. You may sign up to receive a beautiful photo with Scripture in your inbox each morning or view the verse each day online.

Release Time! Let’s Party!!

For the past month, I’ve been sharing about my new book, Come Back to Me. (Here’s a post about the characters another post about the inspiration behind the novel).  This week I’m FINALLY  celebrating the release!!

As you may or may not know, Come Back to Me is a time-crossing (aka time travel) novel that combines contemporary and historical elements in a suspenseful adventure that still contains the sizzling romance readers have come to expect from me.

I’ve gotten much enthusiasm from many readers who are excited about going on this adventure into a new genre with me.  It has vibes similar to Gabaldon’s Outlander series but as one reader put it, “without the swearing and sex.” Even though it’s a clean romance, readers keep bringing up the chemistry between the main characters, so make sure you have fans handy when you start reading!

For those who don’t quite know what to think about a time-crossing novel, let me reassure you that I am continuing to write my usual historical romance and my medieval young adult. I have absolutely no plans to stop! In fact, you can expect my second Colorado Cowboys book, The Heart of a Cowboy, to release in October (along with two more in 2022). And you can also expect two books in a brand new medieval YA series to release in November and December (look for the cover reveals soon!).

But what about Come Back to Me? Should you give it a chance?

This story is about young and talented research scientist Marian Creighton. She and her father share one goal—to find a remedy that can help cure her sister Ellen of a deadly genetic disease that already stole their mother away. However, she is skeptical of her father’s methods. She feels his long-time fixation with ancient holy water and its healing properties are both crazy and a waste of time.

But when Marian’s father falls into a coma after drinking a vial of holy water, she’s determined to test his theories for herself. However, she soon realizes that she is not the only one interested in his research. A break-in and a kidnapping convince her that she must take the plunge and follow her father back to the Middle Ages in order to save both her father and her sister.

Some of the MANY lovely pictures readers have created!

I hope that you’ll decide to take the plunge into this new book! You never know, you just might find yourself swept away in the rivers of time!

If you’d like the chance to WIN a copy of the book, I’m giving away TWO copies here on the blog to celebrate the book’s release, your choice of a paperback copy or audio book! Enter the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

While traveling back in time, what is ONE thing you would take with you if you could?

The Heart’s Charge

Release week is here!

I’m so excited to share The Heart’s Charge with you. Writing this book stretched me in many ways. First, I wrote two intertwined love stories into one overarching romance novel. All four main characters have their own POVs to allow both stories to share the spotlight equally. It was very important to me that both of these Horseman heroes had full and robust love stories. They deserved nothing less.

Second, two of the main characters in this novel are people of color. I was hesitant, initially, to write from a point of view so different from my own. How could I possibly create authentic voices for my characters when I had no idea what it was like to live inside Black skin? The truth is that I couldn’t. Not on my own, at least. I depended heavily on a pair of sensitivity readers who read my chapters as I wrote them and gave me extremely valuable feedback. I’m sure my character portrayals are imperfect, but my prayer is that they will demonstrate how people from diverse backgrounds and experiences can come together in friendship, mutual respect, and brother/sisterhood.

Character inspiration photos for my main characters.

I love adventure, romance, mystery, and utilizing children as support characters, and this story allowed me to incorporate all of those elements.

Here’s an excerpt of the opening scene to give you a taste:

When Mark Wallace left Gringolet two days ago to deliver a prize gelding to a wealthy rancher west of Llano, he never dreamed he’d be called upon to deliver a baby, too. Or that the mother of said baby would be waving a pistol back and forth between him and Jonah as if trying to decide which fellow to shoot first.

“Get outa here! I don’t want your help.” Her face contorted, and a muffled groan escaped as she wrapped her left arm around her swollen belly.

She might not want their help, but she sure as shootin’ needed it. The woman looked as wrung out as yesterday’s washrag.

Mark, palms out in front of him, took a step forward. “Easy, now, ma’am. I’m not going to hurt y—”

The pistol exploded. Mark flinched. He took note of the barrel pointing toward the sky, but tossed a look over his shoulder, anyway, to make sure his friend wasn’t sporting any new holes. Jonah gave him a nod, his hand curling around the handle of his own revolver, ready to defend them if necessary.

Mark prayed it wouldn’t be necessary. The lady in front of him might be a few cards short of a full deck at the moment, but she was still a woman. And a gentleman never abandoned a woman in need. Even if she shot at him. The sound of the gunshot seemed to startle her as much as it had him. Her eyes widened and her gun arm quivered. Seizing the opportunity, Mark rushed forward, grabbed her wrist, and knocked the pistol from her hand. She shouted, kicked, and pounded his chest and chin with her fists, but Mark ignored the pummeling. Well, until she nearly gouged his left eye from its socket. Couldn’t ignore that. A man needed to be able to see, after all. Especially when dealing with a woman in a delicate condition who seemed to have taken leave of her senses.

Amazon | Baker Book House | Barnes & Noble | Christianbook

One Horseman drawn to an old flame. Another trapped by his past. Neither can ignore the mystery of missing children nor the women determined to intervene.

To celebrate the release of The Heart’s Charge, I’ll send swag bundles to three people who leave a comment about what you like best about cowboy heroes.

Mystery Post

Knowing we were visiting family out of state for the long weekend, I had a post ready to go for today. Well, ready to go except for one crucial piece of information to pull it together. Information I thought I’d receive while I was gone. Except I didn’t. 

So here I am at the airport waiting to board a flight home and what to write is a complete mystery to me. So I thought I’d try writing the way I write best—by the seat of my pants! 

May was a busy, busy month. Not just activity, but people. Lots and lots of people. Family, mostly. And it’s good to be with family. But after a while, Jeff and I, both introverts, wear down. We get weary. And quiet. We only want the comfort of a solitary space and a good book. In fact, on our three hour drive to the airport today, we said very little to one another. No podcast or music, either. Only the occasional GPS directions. And a few necessary words every now and then. Already I’m looking forward to being on the flight and settling into my noise-canceling headphones! 

But relationships are important. And the Lord continues to show me that when I lean into those relationships He has given me, even when I am tired and peopled out, He is my strength. He sustains. He even gives me unexpected moments to breathe deep by myself. To gain a tiny bit of fuel to continue on until I can truly hunker down for a little while and recover. 

It’s a huge area of trust for another reason, too. For when I am depleted in spirit from too much people time, I have a really hard time finding any energy to create. So I need the down time in order to have productive work time. And now that I am on a deadline, work becomes a higher priority. Yet I don’t want to use work as an excuse to put off time with people I love. 

And so the cycle goes, requiring a constant readjustment of time and priorities, of yes and no. Requiring a continual conversation with the Lord about the structure of my days. A continual trusting in Him to make up the time—whether work or people—when the other needs my immediate attention. 

Trust God. Love people. Do work. It all comes down to that. Which is, I guess, what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about anyway. 

So mystery solved: this post is for me today, but for someone else, too. Today I am choosing to trust in the Lord who loves me, who has provided my work and initiated my relationships. 

How about you? Is there a particular area in which you are struggling to trust God right now?