Becky Wade's Blog, page 152

What’s Coming Next?

Thank you for Elisabeth Espinoza for this lovely picture!

I’ve been hearing from many readers who’ve been finishing the third book in my bride-ship series, A BRIDE OF CONVENIENCE, and I’ve been getting questions and comments like:

“I don’t want this series to end! Will there be any more books?”

“I’m anxious to know if Zeke gets a story!”

“Ever since Zeke was introduced, I’ve been waiting . . .”

“Zeke is SO READY for a bride!”

I’m super happy to report that the fourth and final book in the series, ALMOST A BRIDE, releases in about a month on August 25. And yes! This story finishes up with Zeke Hart (whose twin sister Zoe is the heroine in A BRIDE OF CONVENIENCE).

The fourth book includes another bride from the Robert Lowe (the second bride ship). The setting takes place in British Columbia, this time even further up in the mountains in a mining community. Of course, the town is filled with mostly men (like the rest of the colony) and having a woman arrive creates quite the stir!

Pre-order is available now! For those interested in the possibility of being a part of my launch crew and getting an early reading opportunity, make sure you join my Reader Room!

Also, this fall be on the lookout for The Fairest Maidens series! The first book BEHOLDEN releases September 22. BEGUILED releases October 20. And BESOTTED releases November 17.

This series is a prequel to the medieval books that released last fall in The Lost Princesses series (and includes some of the same story-world). If you love knights, castles, danger, and daring damsels, then this sweet romance series will be right up your alley!

Beginning in January of 2021, I’ll be starting a brand new series involving a family of handsome cowboy ranchers set in the high country of Colorado in the 1860’s. The first book is called Cowboy For Keeps (published by Bethany House). More to come!

Also in June of 2021, I’m delving into a new genre. Let me just say, if you like Outlander by Diana Gabaldon or The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley, then you’ll love my Middle Ages time-crossing novel, Come Back to Me (published by Revell). More to come on that soon too!

Whew! That’s all for now!

YOUR TURN! What’s next up for YOU? We’d love to hear about your summer and what you’ve been up to!

What Are You Watching?

Thanks to our not-so-friendly neighborhood pandemic, many of us are spending more time at home this summer. And if you’re like me, you’re finding the entertainment options challenging. No sports (I’m particularly missing the Olympics as well as the tennis grand slam tournaments) and few normally scheduled summer programming options.

I am watching a lot of Food Network, my go-to for clean TV in the summer. (I’m currently enjoying Big Time Bake and Guy’s Grocery Games.) However, one cannot live on Food Network alone.

Thankfully, I’ve run across a handful of new options on Netflix lately that I have enjoyed, and I thought I would share them with you.

The English Game – This historical mini series is set in 1879 England and chronicles the the invention of football and how it quickly rose to become the world’s most popular game by crossing class divides. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between upper and working classes, and how the main characters grew the more they came to see things from the other’s perspective. My favorite part of the entire piece was the relationship between Arthur Kinnaird and his wife. I loved reading the historical notes at the beginning of episode one and end of episode six. There is a tiny bit of language, but overall, it is pleasantly clean. even got my hubby to watch since it featured soccer. He played, coached, and now refs the game.

Crazy Delicious – I’ve already shared my penchant for watching cooking competition shows with you, but this one was a fun new discovery. It’s like the Great British Baking Show in an enchanted fairy tale forest. I’m loving the creativity and imagination of the home cooks. Not to mention the fabulous sets and adorable hostess with her pet bunny! If you like cooking shows and fairy tales, you’ll love this one.

Ride Like a Girl – I watched this movie last weekend with my daughter. It’s the inspirational true story of Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup despite facing odds of a 100 to 1. She was the youngest of 10 children, raised without her mother who died when she was just 6 months old. Her father was in the racing business, so his children tended to gravitate to that world, but none more strongly than Michelle. I love watching stories about strong women who defy the odds, and if there are horses and Aussie accents involved, even better! There was a lovely spiritual element to the show, as well, which I enjoyed.

What have you watched lately that you would recommend?

Things That Make Me Smile

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been struggling a bit lately. Not only does the pandemic continue to make life stressful, but here in Texas we’ve now added 100+ degree days into the mix. My condo is feeling more confining than usual these days, and I’ve found myself wallowing in “I wish” and “If only.”

So lately I’ve been trying to notice the things around me that make me smile. Perhaps they will make you smile, too. Or maybe they’ll inspire you to look around your own space and discover your own list. Whatever the case, I’m sharing the top 5 things in my house that cause me to smile at the moment.

Pictures of my family—I’ve not always had a lot of pictures of my kids on the walls of my home, but I when me moved in here I chose a wall to use for pictures now that we live away from all our children. I used to forget to change out the photos, but I recently updated my wall and it makes me smile. And my brag board always brings me a grin. As does this old collage of my three kiddos.

My books—just looking at my bookcases overflowing with books makes me happy. I can’t help but smile knowing that every book on the shelf means something to me or to my husband. Those books have entertained us, taught us, changed us. And they continue to do so. Books always make me smile, whether its the memory of having read them or the excitement over what awaits in the books yet to be read.

My Bible—when we moved to Austin four years ago, we gave each other new Bibles for our anniversary. The ones we used every day were marked up and falling apart. I didn’t really want a new one. The old one felt like a dear friend. And yet there was something about the thought of those fresh pages waiting to be read, to be marked in new ways as well as old. But it was hard, at first, looking at all the pristine pages. Now, four years later, it flops open of its own accord and most pages are marked up. It finally feels like mine. And that makes me smile.

Pioneer Woman Instant Pot—first you have to understand that I hate to cook. I just do. So when I look at my instant pot you’d think I’d cringe. Except that it has made dinners so much easier! But the truth is that isn’t the main reason I smile when I see it. You see, when I chose to get one I opted for the Pioneer Woman version of the instant pot because it is so pretty! I love the bright flowers, the pop of color in my otherwise dark kitchen.

Lemony Kitchen Towel—I like to change my kitchen towels to match the different seasons and holidays, but I realized this year that my summer towels weren’t really anything special. So thanks to some Kohl’s cash I had accumulated I ordered something more summery. The lemons always bring a smile to my face. Why? Maybe because lemons remind me of lemonade and long ago summer memories. Or maybe it’s the yellow/blue combo. Or then again, maybe it’s just that splash of yellow that makes things feel bright and happy.

Those are the things making me smile in these days of of isolation and stir-craziness. What is making you smile?

How Do Authors Create Characters?

To generate blog post ideas, I asked readers what topics they’d like me to address. One question raised was:

What is your process for creating your characters? How do they then become real to you? Something must happen, because they seem alive to your readers.”

Honestly, creating characters doesn’t come easily to me, but it’s something I’ve learned to do better. In fact, it’s one of the topics I’ll be talking about during the fabulous and affordable Northwestern Christian Writers Conference (online; July 24-25, 2020) along with co-teacher Michelle Griep. Many other authors, editors, and agents will also be speaking and taking appointments. If you are an author or dream of writing a book, we’d love for you to join us!

I’ll give an abbreviated description of my process here, though keep in mind every author has her own way of doing things.

Creating characters

Designer’s preliminary sketch

For me, characters often start out as simple outlines in my mind or sketches like this one, until I flesh them out. The goal is to create believable, compelling characters that readers can relate to and want to spend many hours with through the pages of a book. In Christian fiction especially, heroes and heroines should be admirable, likable, or at least empathetic—meaning, even if they start out as prickly, deeply flawed, or behaving badly, I let readers see into their hearts or pasts to learn the reasons behind that bristly façade or poor behavior. But I try not to leave them there. Don’t we all love to see characters grow and change over the course of a novel? I do! I especially enjoy redeeming curmudgeons.

The Life of a Desk

Last time I blogged, I told you the story of the farmhouse dining table that became my writing desk and is now at home in my oldest grandson’s bedroom. Today, as promised, I want to tell you the story of my “new” (but actually very old) writing desk. 

The first history of this desk that we know is when it was owned by Maude Berquist, wife of Arthur Berquist, who owned and operated Berquist Drugstore in Marquette, Kansas for many years. Mrs. Berquist was a sister to my husband Ken’s grandfather, Kenneth Raney. She gave the desk to Ken’s parents, Kenneth and Shirley A, Raney when they were remodeling an old house in Ellsworth, Kansas. My Ken (Kenneth W. Raney III) and his four younger siblings grew up in that wonderful house, and so did Ken and I, two years after our marriage, when Ken’s parents moved to Southern California. We lived in that house for eight years and brought three of our four children home from the hospital to the “big red barn” as we called it.

Ken’s mom, Shirley, tells the continuing story of the desk this way: “Our oldest son [Ken] was always drawing and so we put the desk in his room. He used it for years until he was married and our family moved to California and while we were there, refinished the desk. Sometime along the way, we gave the desk to Ken and Deb to be their own. It has been a treat to see it move from house to house and room to room all these years.”

Ken used the desk in his office after we bought our first home and he eventually launched his own graphic design and illustration business, Raney Day Creative, from that desk.

After we moved into our home in Wichita, Kansas, he needed a larger desk, so the Berquist-Raney desk was moved into our basement in storage. My sister was helping me paint at our house and when she saw the desk, she admired it and wondered why we didn’t have it in a room where it could be seen and enjoyed. Ken challenged me: “If you can sell that old rolltop desk in the living room, I’ll help you haul this one upstairs.” Within hours, I’d sold the rolltop on craigslist (for $50 more than we paid for it at a garage sale) and that night, the desk got moved upstairs to our living room where it lived happily for the next six years.

When my dad saw the desk in our living room, he reminded me that it has some history from my family as well, since Marquette is my dad’s hometown, and Daddy had spent many hours at the soda fountain in the tiny town’s popular drugstore. That store is still operating today as City Sundries and the Berquist name is still on the doorstep! Several years ago, my dad and sisters and I had lunch there on a little tour of Daddy’s hometown.

And then, when we moved to Missouri and my farmhouse table desk went to our screened porch and later to our oldest grandson’s room (that story is HERE) the Berquist-Raney desk moved into my office where it still lives today and will no doubt serve as my writing desk for the rest of my life.

As Ken’s mom said, “It is a treat to relive some of those early years of family members that have been gone for years… There are many many stories that stay with us as we go down this road of life. The desk has other stories, I am sure, and some we will never know or have the honor to remember.”

Yes, it’s only a piece of furniture, but it has served its purpose well and given delight to several owners. I’m so honored to be the current keeper of the desk!

Do you have a special piece of furniture or other heirloom that has played a special place in your family’s history? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Inspired by Scripture

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POPPING IN ON A SATURDAY (and a giveaway)

Hi, friends. Remember me?

Last year, when I took a step back from writing bi-weekly blog posts for Inspired by Life and Fiction, I never dreamed I would let so much time pass before I took advantage of my “Bonus Days” status. Because 2019 was a rough year for me personally, I was looking forward to turning the calendar to a new year and a fresh leaf.

My word for 2020 is “Revelation” and the related verse is Ephesians 1:17 where Paul prays, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” (NASB95)

Sounds good, right? I was ready to spend this year deepening my intimacy with Jesus, only in my mind, I pictured that happening during long, easy days spent in joyous contemplation. Picture wildflowers in a mountain meadow. Cue swelling music.

Well, like everybody reading this, 2020 has not gone at all as I wanted or expected. (And we all knew that those long, easy days with wildflowers and music were a fantasy, right?)

On the bright side, I have two books releasing this month, and I really want to share them with you.

How Sweet It Is

How Sweet It Is officially releases on Tuesday, July 14th. This is the third book in the Legacy of Faith series, and I must confess that it is bittersweet to see it released because I have moved on to other stories but still miss the Henning family. I fell totally in love with them and was deeply touched as I wrote about Andrew Henning’s Bible and how it affected the lives of the three descendants featured in Who I Am with You, Cross My Heart, and How Sweet It Is.

There are two things I hope for now. First, I hope that you have fallen in love with the Hennings and will be eager to read How Sweet It Is (and the first two if you haven’t already). And second, I hope that I will leave a legacy of faith that is just as strong as Andrew’s.

About How Sweet It Is, one reader on Goodreads said: “This is my first Robin Lee Hatcher book and I am now a huge fan! [… The story] touched me to my core.”

Those are the kind of words that make long weeks and late nights on deadline so worthwhile.

Rich Beyond Measure: Zlata’s Story

My other book out this month (available now) is my first novel with a biblical setting. I struggle to call it biblical fiction because another writer said, “If it’s biblical, it isn’t fiction.” That has a ring of truth to me.

Rich Beyond Measure is how I envisioned the story of the poor widow who gave the two mites in the Temple. When I was first approached by Guidepost Books via my agent, I was daunted by the idea of setting a story in Jesus’ day. If I make a mistake (despite my research) in a book set in the 1700’s or 1800’s, I feel bad. But somehow the possibility of writing about Jesus and making a mistake felt much, much worse. What if I messed up?

Thankfully, I was able to brainstorm the book with my wonderful writer friends. I always love brainstorming with this group (we’ve been doing this together since 2003), but their excitement and enthusiasm as we talked about the story took away a lot of my fear. The remainder of the fear vanished when I started writing the book and found myself immersed in the four Gospel accounts every single day. I learned so much and grew so much, and I have a new appreciation for reading the Bible through Middle Eastern, First Century eyes.

If you’d like to read an excerpt (the scene with the sinful woman who washes Yeshua’s feet with her tears), it’s available for download on my website.

Rich Beyond Measure isn’t available through normal bookstore channels at this time. It can only be ordered from the Guidepost Books website (hardcover, ePub, and ePDF). Right now you can use the promo code CELEBRATE to get 20% off. (I don’t know for how long that promo will last.)

We remember the past to live forward

While last year was personally rough and this year has been a challenge for people around the world, I was reminded in the Bible study Jesus and Women in the First Century and Now by Kristi McLelland of the importance of remembering God’s faithfulness.

Kristi wrote: “Remembering God’s faithful record in our lives gives us courage to trust Him in the unknown and live forward. We zakhar (remember) so that we can step forward, because the same God who was faithful to be with us in the past is the God who will be faithful to be with us in a future that may seem unknown. We don’t remember for remembering sake, but we remember to move forward with renewed faith and hope in the God who is shepherding our whole lives.”

In 2016, I did some Bible art journaling about the Stones of Remembrance (Joshua 4:3, 6-7). We bring those stones from the deepest waters of our lives. We bring them from the hard places. Those times aren’t easy, but they allow us to “live forward” because we remember what God brought us through.

Comment for a chance to win

Would you like a chance to win an autographed copy of How Sweet It Is? Just leave a comment on this post, and I’ll select a random winner on Tuesday morning, July 14th.

Friends, I pray that you are well and remain well. And I wish you joy.

Robin

Road Trip Photos (and a giveaway!)

I schedule my writing year so that my deadline always lands on June 1st. This makes April and May crazy for me, but there’s a method to my madness. Namely, a June 1 deadline puts me in sync with my kids’ summer vacation. I’m able to enjoy time off from writing during the entire month of June (glorious!) followed by a very relaxed, part-time writing schedule in July.

This June, we’d planned to take our family of five on a trip up California’s Pacific coast — from my hometown in Riverside (where my parents and sister still live) all the way north to the Redwood forest. Because of the Corona virus, we had to cancel. So when June rolled around and I found myself stuck at home during what was supposed to be my coveted vacation month, I started feeling blue. I hadn’t seen my parents since last fall. I hadn’t seen my sister and her family in a year.

I wasn’t willing to fly, so I started Googling the driving route from Texas to California which, in my twenty-seven years living in Texas, I’ve only done twice and always with more than one driver. Here’s what I found…

My husband needed to stay home and work. My teens were busy with work and online school. But after almost zero live interaction with other children for the past three months, my eleven year old was more than willing to brave the long road trip in order to spend time with her cousins. But was I willing to brave it? There and back? It was a bit daunting. What if my car broke down in West Texas? What if a truck flattened us? What if we caught the virus en route? I debated, looked at hotels, discussed the possibility of a visit with my parents and sister. Peered at my June calendar, so full of deleted activities that tumbleweeds blew past it.

Ultimately, my desire to see my family and my love of travel trumped all. I armed myself with a face mask, hand sanitizer, plastic gloves, an iced latte, and audiobooks.

We set off.

The intrepid travelers.

I know myself and I know that driving 10+ hours a day is not in my wheelhouse. Thus, we divided the trip into three driving days.

The first day, I drove for 7.5 hours without leaving Texas.

Truth: I didn’t hate the driving days. In fact, it was wonderful to watch huge swaths of America sweep past. It reminded me that other humans are still out there and flourishing, that truck drivers are hard at work ensuring that the supply chain continues, and that our world is still beautiful.

We arrived just in time to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad.

L to R: me and my daughter, my mom and dad, my sister and her three daughters. The time with family made the trip completely worthwhile.

After a few days in Riverside, my sister and I journeyed to the town of Big Bear in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains, a mountain range where we spent a lot of time when we were growing up.

I love the the AllTrails web site and app for finding hikes that are the right distance and difficulty for our crew. AllTrails came through for me with flying colors while in Big Bear. On our first hike, the girls discovered a love of boulder climbing.

Big Bear Lake

On our second hike, they populated my phone with pictures of baby ducks.

On our third hike, they became literal tree-huggers.

Me and my sister



The picturesque lake at which the first Parent Trap movie and scenes from Dr. Doolittle 2 were filmed



Scottsdale, Arizona

It was a treat to spend nights in Arizona both going to and coming home from California. The scenery there is so memorable and distinctive! In the end, my car did not break down in west Texas, we were not flattened by a truck, and we did not catch the virus.

We were gone eleven days and loved every minute!

Any road trips on your calendar this summer?

I’m currently offering a summer reading giveaway via my Facebook page and three of the four novels I’m offering are written by Inspired by Life and Fiction authors! To enter, head to my Facebook author page. You’ll find the giveaway post pinned to the top. Simply comment on my post, letting me know which of these beautiful books you’d like to win.

A Quick Escape and Rediscovering the Fun in Writing

For years, I’ve written hard. In the chaos of life, while working other jobs, traveling, and so much more. I love all of my books, and writing them has pushed me in unique ways. Sometimes the pressure has removed the joy from writing. Have you ever had that happen? Something you love becomes a job rather than a joy? It’s not wrong or bad, just reality. I’d set myself the goal of rediscovering the joy of writing this summer, when life turned upside down.

We spent the last week of June in Nebraska and South Dakota with my family. It was our attempt at a mini-vacation that was COVID safe. My sister, one of my brothers, and my parents rented a house with us in South Dakota. That allowed our kids to have tons of cousin time while we hiked and enjoyed all the outdoor fun that the Black Hills has to offer.

Buffalo were everywhere…including on the road next to us. We hiked all over trails, which was awesome. There is something about being outdoors in nature that puts everything back in perspective. It reminds me that God is in control and bigger than everything.

This was the break that each of us needed. It was a chance to safely get out of our normal. Our group was big enough that the two tours we took were just our group. Everything was outside in the wide open spaces and wonderful. I even brainstormed a novella I’m writing with my sister-in-law and mom. It was perfect!

While I am a left-brained person, I have enough right-brain balance to be affected by the chaos…partly because all my left-brain coping mechanisms (to-do lists, planners, etc.) don’t work when so much is out of my control. That’s made creating for fun…challenging, but I’ve found a way. I’m writing a Christmas suspense novella to be included in a collection with nine other authors. And I decided to write this one in first person. I’ve always wanted to and been told I have a good first person voice, but my books are all third person with the hero and heroine’s perspective.

I’m having such fun!

It’s been what I needed to jumpstart a new perspective on my writing. It feels almost like play as I try to tell the story from the sole point of view of the heroine.

You can preorder this collection now for 99 cents. Then on October 6th Mistletoe and Murder will download to your Kindle.

Have you stepped away for a min-vacation? Or are you creating a getaway at home? How are you handling the new normal that is this summer?

Writing Cave

Hi friends,

Always happy to spend this time with you. I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. We had family time early on and then I spent the remainder of the three-day weekend writing. Yep. It’s that time again. My eleventh novel, The Crushing Depths, released on June 30th and my deadline for book 3 is in two weeks. This equates to crazy time. Literally. Trying to juggle the two is an art form—one I have yet to master.

So the last two weeks before deadline, I enter my Writing Cave. What’s a Writing Cave you ask? Great question. It means I have all my writing stuff set up the night before so when I get up in the morning (after Bible time), I can dive right into the story. I shut down my email, keep all windows closed—the only exception is Google for when I need to double-check a research fact—and I write until dinner. Then I take a short break to spend time on social media connecting with my phenomenal readers. God has blessed me with the most encouraging, supportive, and prayerful group.

After dinner and my short break, I’m back at it until bed. I do have a special way for my family to reach me anytime even with things off but honestly, they know to steer clear of deadline mom. Yep. I’ve actually been dubbed ‘Deadline Mom’ and I don’t think it’s a compliment.

My younger daughter can tell how deep in the story world I’m in or how panicked I am based on my hair. Not kidding. Here’s a shot of deadline hair probably two weeks before due date so you can only imagine how bad it must really get.

However, my family (while avoiding me like the plague) is super supportive. Kayla brings me Starbucks and surprises me with a nice cup of tea and some Dove dark chocolate. Ty goes for physical items to boost my morale. Like this cup and notepad. And, my husband cheers me on. Again, I’m very blessed.

Question: If you’re a writer how do you handle deadline time? If not a writer, what kinds of hobbies or projects do you work hard to complete?

Blessings,

Dani