Becky Wade's Blog, page 52

Inspired by Scripture

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Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

I hope you and your family are enjoying a very happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Our oldest daughter graduated from college in May and is now working as a medical assistant in San Diego. Our son is a sophomore at Hendrix College in Arkansas, where he plays basketball. Our youngest still lives at home and started high school at the performing arts magnet school this year. We’re fortunate to have all three home for Thanksgiving!

No Thanksgiving meal would be complete for us without sweet potato casserole. It’s a family favorite. This year, I ordered a smoked turkey. Not only is it super easy because it arrives cooked, but I think it tastes delicious.My mother in law was raised in the south, and her Thanksgiving dressing has always been cornbread-style and cooked in a cast iron skillet. We all LOVE it this way.My preferred way to eat cranberries on Thanksgiving? Via this jello, made with cranberries, pineapple, nuts, and orange.For the first time, I prepared mashed potatoes in the instant pot. They came out really well! And, bonus, the pot has a “keep warm” setting.Crazy about this combination of foods and flavors!Pumpkin pie and a a Cavalier Spaniel.Watching football and relaxing.

Wherever you are, whoever you’re with, may this long weekend be marked with gratitude, rest, and awareness that “every good and perfect gift is from above.” James 1:17

Happy Thanksgiving. God bless you all!

Christmas Gifts for the Booklover in Us All

Hi friends and Happy Wednesday! I thought it would be fun to share some booklover Christmas gifts as it’s quickly becoming that time of year. I had the best time “shopping” and I now have my personal Christmas wish list intact.  Hope you’ll enjoy the items too. 

I remember curling up in bed with a book, but this is an entirely new way of doing so. But why just go with a blanket when you can go with a full bed set, pillow, and all. 

Whoever came up with a book bed is a genius. Such creativity! 

Of course, no book lover is set without a little bookworm jewelry, and here’s a gorgeous jewelry box to store it in. 

I absolutely adore the colors, and here are a few lovely items you can store in it. 

I love each piece of jewelry, but the Shakespeare earrings are my favorite. I’m a huge Shakespeare lover. It’s hard to pick a favorite play, but if hard-pressed I’d go with Much Ado About Nothing and, of course, his Sonnets. But my favorite line by Shakespeare comes from A Midsummer’s Night Dream: “And though she be but little, she is fierce.” If you could pick any piece of literature or line from literature to be on a piece of jewelry, what would it be?

Speaking of favorites…my favorite novel of all time is Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. Everybody collects something. What do you collect? I adore purses and bags. It drives my poor husband nuts, but this just made the top of my Christmas wish list.

And for that seasonal outdoor fun….

Book planters. What a great idea! They are made out of ceramic or some I found are made out of brick but how fun to have a literary garden. I think it would be fun to label each with a title like The Secret Garden or Peter Rabbit. 

What a lovely way to spend summer days reading outside. I know this is probably made with kids in mind, but I wouldn’t mind hiding away and reading a warm, lazy summer day away. 

I was trying to find a unique bookmark, but I found so many, that I want to share my top three. My favorite being the last. Hope you enjoy! 

Question: 

Which gift above was your favorite? Or what would your favorite book lover gift be? 

Hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving! 

Best,

Dani

A story behind a story . . . in his perfect timing

When I was a teenager, after youth group on Sunday nights a bunch of us used to drive to downtown Atlanta and, equipped with flashlights, we’d sneak into an old, abandoned, boarded-up antebellum home. We’d wander around, peering into rooms, creeping up staircases (hoping they held) all while brushing aside cobwebs and breathing in plumes of dust.

It felt like walking through time—and I loved it!

I recall thinking about the people who had lived in that house and wondering what their lives had been like. Experiences like that are where my love of history took deeper root. Yet the seed of that love was first planted a few years earlier when I was 9. On a trip to Germany.

But before you think it was too glamorous a trip . . . there were EIGHT of us crammed into a Volkswagen Bug! My mom, older brother, and grandmother got the backseat. My aunt and uncle sat up front, and their two toddlers were passed from lap to lap (times were different back then). And me? I sat in a cubbyhole in the back, fake-smoking little bubblegum cigarettes as we chugged around Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands for a month.

My 9-year old self boarding a glass bottom boat on the Rhine River in Germany (Stylin’, I know)

It was when we toured a 12th-century castle on the Rhine River that something happened. Feeling the cold stone wall beneath my hand as we descended into the belly of that castle changed me forever. Yet it wasn’t until nearly 35 years later that God revealed what he would eventually do with the seed he planted that day (inspire a lover of history to write historical fiction).

But no matter how much time passes, his timing is always perfect.

My latest novel A Million Little Choices released just two weeks ago, but I’ve had the idea for this particular story—and even wrote the first few chapters of the novel—over 15 years ago.

The stories that have lived inside me the longest seem to be the most difficult to write (I’m writing another one of those right now, in fact), and A Million Little Choices was certainly that.

Not only because of the subject matter—marriage and infidelity—but also because these characters are so real to me and the settings so tangible that the first words on the page often felt frustratingly inadequate and thin compared to the living, breathing movie inside me.

The story is about two women from different centuries who live in the same house and share strikingly similar journeys. The setting is Atlanta, where I was born and raised. And would you care to guess what house was the inspiration behind the antebellum mansion depicted in this dual-timeline story?

Yep, that 19th century Atlanta antebellum home I used to sneak into following Sunday youth group roughly 48 years ago.

Don’t you love how God weaves the “race” he’s uniquely set before each of us, according to his will, throughout the entire course of our lives? He’s so faithful. So wise and loving. Every twist and turn takes on new meaning with Christ, our eternal champion, charting the course.

I wish you all a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving this week, and pray you’re able to be with people you love and who love you. If there’s an empty chair at your table this year—perhaps someone you love who is now part of that great crowd of witnesses as mentioned in Hebrews above—know you’re not alone in missing those loved ones and in longing for the day you’ll see each other again! I’m right there with you, as are so many others in our community here.

I’m counting you all among my greatest blessings and am grateful for our connection, and for our shared hope in Christ and Christ alone,

Tammy

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Prepare Your Heart . . . for Christmas

A couple of years ago, I tried to find an outdoor Christmas ornament that would reflect our faith . . . and the only thing I would find was an angel. That’s fine, but this was NOT a biblical angel. She was a she, and she had long, flowing blonde hair and a pretty dress . . . sigh.

So I went onto my Facebook page and went out a little tirade about how our society has no idea what a real angel is any more. And the response was so strong, the next day I waxed eloquent about how our picture of Joseph and Mary (riding a donkey) going to Bethlehem is WAY off base.

Before I knew it, I was discussing all kinds of things that we’ve twisted or forgotten about in the story of Christ’s birth. So I put all those things together and sent the idea to my editor, who allowed me to write STAR OF WONDER, AN ADVENT DEVOTIONAL TO ILLUMINATE THE PLACES, PEOPLE, PROPHECIES, AND PURPOSE OF THE FIRST CHRISTMAS.

Or something like that.

I LOVED writing that book–not only because it allowed me to point out forgotten or little-known truths, but because I love research, and I was able to do a lot of digging throughout those few pages. The result is a book with 25 lessons about the birth of Christ . . . along with some ideas for new family traditions and a pause for wonder.

If you’d like to join us in a Facebook group for a day-by-day discussion of those 25 readings, I’d love to have you join us. Just click on the link here, order your book, and you’ll be ready to go when the discussion begins on December 1st. I promise you’ll never look at Christmas in quite the same way.

Inspired by Scripture

We pray that all our readers have a blessed Thanksgiving week with much to be thankful for and much for which to praise the Lord.

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.

My Writing Life

My life has been a little stressful lately, mostly related to my writing life, although not entirely.

Last week, I received the final cover for The Beginning of Wisdom: Bilqis’s Story. This novel from Guidepost is the 90th release of my career (I believe it ships to subscribers in December, but I’m not sure when it will be listed on the website for sale). I loved writing this novel about the queen of Sheba and the faith in the one true God that she took back with her to Sheba after spending time with King Solomon.

Coming in December 2023

About noon on Tuesday of this week, I emailed To Marry an English Lord to my (sainted) editor. This novel is book #2 in the British Are Coming series. I have been reading a number of suspense books lately, and as I was finishing the final proof of To Marry before sending the manuscript off for edits (and by the time I am proofing, I’m pretty sick of every novel), I thought to myself, The next book in the series is going to have a bad guy or even two, so I can shoot somebody whenever I feel like it. 

Coming in February 2024

That takes me back to when I was writing my very first novel (by hand on yellow pads). That was many, many, many years ago. I was out in the garden pulling weeds (I am not a gardener and I hate weeding). My neighbor came over to the fence and asked what I’d been up to lately. I looked up at her and I said with a smile, “Today I burned down a mansion, and I killed a man. And I never had so much fun in my life.”

I don’t know if killing a bad guy in a novel is always fun, but it is a great way to let off steam and/or release tension.

Christmas present from my oldest; she knows me well

I surprised myself on Tuesday when, instead of just becoming a couch potato after sending the book to my editor, I decided to get thoughts in order for my next novel, a contemporary Christmas story that is part of a series with six other authors. These books will release next fall. More info will follow after the first of the year.

Anyway, I started getting my Scrivener document in order and then I decided to do some outlining/brainstorming/note taking and then I did a bit of research. The next thing I knew, I was writing the first chapter of the book. By the next day, I’d already written 6% of the story. There’s just something about a Christmas romance. Gotta love them.

Inspiration for my Christmas romance

I’m hoping, hoping, hoping I can keep this momentum going all the way to the end of the Christmas novel, because I have another Guidepost deadline staring me in the face plus I’m eager to return to Eden’s Gate ranch for the next book in the British Are Coming series (the one with bad guys I can kill).

Ah … The writing life. So full of glamor … Not!

SO HOW DO YOU RELIEVE STRESS? (you can only do what I do on paper!)

~robin

PS I had the opportunity to read Shadia Hrichi’s new Bible study, Rahab: Rediscovering the God Who Saves Me. It’s wonderful. And Shadia is currently running a giveaway of signed copies of the study. It’s easy to enter. Here’s the link: https://kingsumo.com/g/mbmw1n/exclusive-rahab-media-tour-giveaway

Fall = Cozy Reading (& Goodies!)

I love fall. The heat of summer finally fades, leaving a crispness in the air that makes me long to curl up in a fuzzy blanket with a warm beverage and a good book.

Since I love hot tea (especially the bookish variety) and shortbread cookies, I thought I’d help kick off fall with a bookish giveaway perfect for a quiet evening spent in a cozy chair with your favorite novel in hand.

I drink hot tea year round, and when I am writing, my morning tea is Publishers Blend by Murchie’s Tea in Victoria, BC. My afternoon tea is Editors Blend. The bookish names make me grin and a shot of encouragement. Murchie’s is my favorite tea dealer. I fell in love with them after taking a trip to Victoria with my daughter several years ago. Well, they have a book lover’s gift set that includes Early Grey shortbread along with 3 sampler boxes of their literary flavors – Editor’s Blend (one of my favorites!), Library Blend, and Baker Street Blend (Sherlock, anyone?).

Today, I’ll give away this book lover’s tea sampler along with one of the books pictured below.

For a chance to win, picture yourself about to snuggle into this reading chair and answer these three questions:

What warm beverage are you sipping?What are you snacking on?Are you reading in print or e-book?

I’ll post the winner in the comments on Saturday.

Plenty to be Thankful for

About this time each year one of my favorite songs from the movie Holiday Inn starts running on repeat through my head.

This song has been especially poignant for me this year. 2023 has been one for the books—and not in a good way! It won’t be forgotten. And yet, so much to be thankful for—things and people only the Lord could have put in place. 

I’m thankful for this house which gave us a place to land when we discovered all the rotted floor joists and foundation beams under our house. We had plenty of room and a yard for Dolly. And it was only about 5 minutes from our house, so we could check on work progress often. 

I’m thankful for this house that the Lord gave us exactly three years ago this week. While it doesn’t look the same now as when we moved in, it is definitely “ours” now. And we can be fairly sure there won’t be issues under our feet that affect our walls and foundation again. We love our house so much. It is the perfect space for us. We will be glad to be fully moved back in next week!

I’m thankful for Jeff who has been a rock through all the house mess, his office remodel and his testimony in our state senate—-all going on at the same time! He truly is a testimony to God’s grace and faithfulness. 

I’m thankful for my sisters, brothers-in-law, and parents who have gone above and beyond helping us move in and out, feeding us, and taking care of Dolly while we traveled. 

I’m thankful that Dolly is now a year old. She still drives me crazy most days but at least we are past the worst of the puppy stage. And she can be sweet when she wants to. 

I’m thankful for my new contacts and being able to see the world more clearly! I didn’t really realize how much I had been compensating for my bad vision until it was corrected. (Still tweaking the strength of each contact, but my sight is so amazingly better than it was before.)

I’m thankful for friends near and far who have laughed and cried with me and generally kept me sane through the chaos of this year. 

Who or what tops your list of things you are thankful for in 2023? 

Q & A with Julie K

Recently, I answered ten questions in preparation for a podcast interview and I thought I’d share my answers here. Not because I think I’m so interesting, but because I’m at a loss about what else to blog about today.

Photo by bookstagrammer, Laura W.

Anything here strike you as interesting or surprising? Either way, I DO so appreciate you visiting the blog today!

Ten Things About Me

Who are you? I’m a believer, a wife, and mother to two grown sons. I worked in Christian publishing for many years and am now a full-time writer with 18 novels of Historical Fictional published to date.Where are you from and where do you live? I’m originally from Chicago but have lived near one of Minnesota’s 10,000+ lakes for over 30 years now.What do you like to do in your spare time? I like to read, watch British period dramas and mysteries, walk, nap, and spend time with my husband.Can you tell us a little bit about your faith journey? I grew up believing in God but knew little about Jesus or the Bible. When I went away to college, I cast aside the beliefs I had been raised with, as many young people do. But a few years later, increasingly aware of my sin and a growing emptiness, and through various people and situations, I realized my need of a savior and accepted Jesus. Eventually I met and married a Christian man and together we raised two sons. Parenting (even now that our boys are young adults) has brought its own challenges, and certainly keeps us running to God. I wouldn’t want to go through life’s trials without Him!If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be? Believer, Author, AnglophileWhat inspires you? I’m inspired by the mercy of God, the history and beauties of England, and favorite authors like Jane Austen.How did you get into writing? I have always wanted to be a writer and believe God wired me to be creative in some wordish-way. After working in marketing for several years, I pursued a job in Christian publishing, first in advertising, then as an editor. What a wonderful training ground for a “secret” would-be writer. Eventually, I finished my first historical novel and submitted it under a pseudonym. Thankfully, my colleagues wanted to publish it, and after that, the cat was out of the bag and I was edited as thoroughly as I ever edited anyone else! What inspired your latest book and what is the story behind it? My upcoming release A Winter by the Sea (Dec 2023) is Book Two in my ON DEVONSHIRE SHORES series.The series is about the relationships and romances of four sisters, and is set in the town of Sidmouth on the south coast of England in 1819-1820. When I learned that Queen Victoria’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, visited Sidmouth that winter, I knew I wanted to include them. As the book opens, the Summers sisters expect a quiet winter. Instead they are called upon to host three members of the duke’s staff, which leads to intrigues and unexpected romance.What are you working on now? I am currently revising and editing Book Three, The Seaside Homecoming.What are your goals and aspirations? To delight readers and glorify God.

Have you read Book One, The Sisters of Sea View? Either way, thanks again for stopping by today!