Heather Day Gilbert's Blog, page 6

Boys of Summer Book Giveaway, My Summer Reads, and a 99c Steal!

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First, I want to share an amazing 20 e-book giveaway I’m participating in with some amazing authors. If you’ll notice, most of these covers have dudes on them, thus the boys of summer theme.

Interview & Giveaway with Shauna Shanks, author of A Fierce Love

Readers, today I’m thrilled to introduce you to a debut author who’s making waves with her book, A Fierce Love. I was so intrigued when I heard there was a Christian woman out there who’d written a story of how she stayed the course in a marriage that had been rocked with her husband’s affair.

Now, you all know a theme in many of my books (particularly my Viking series) is dealing with the real-life issues we run into in our marriages (even Christian ones!), including infidelity. So today I wanted to invite Shauna over and ask her a few questions about her book, which I’ll be offering in softcover format to one winner who enters below!

A little more about Shauna:

Shauna Shanks is a wife, mother, and entrepreneur. She started Smallfolk, a health food café, out of her passion for health and fitness and unchecked desire to make fancy pop tarts. She graduated from Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas, with a focus on world missions. Shauna and her husband, Micah, who is a police officer, have been married for more than a decade, and they are building a house out of shipping containers with their three boys on an Ohio farm.

Continue reading Interview & Giveaway with Shauna Shanks, author of A Fierce Love at HeatherDayGilbert.com

Interview and Giveaway with Author Becky Doughty

My author guest today needs very little by way of introduction, because if you’ve followed me for any period of time, you’ve likely noticed that I’m always suggesting Becky Doughty‘s books to readers, not only because she’s my critique partner, but because she is truly one of the best writers I’ve ever been privileged to know. I’ve read every one of her books and each one is a treasure. GIFTED is the word I’d choose to describe Becky–who is also an incredibly talented narrator (a velvety chocolate voice, I often say) who has also narrated three of my books! And she’s graciously offering her entire 4-book Gustafson Girls series to one winner today (including her latest release, Gia and the Blast from the Past), so be sure to read on and enter below!

Becky came to visit me in West Virginia once (from her far-flung home in California!) and we had the best time. During that visit, she graciously helped me take those first steps into indie publishing, staying up to get my debut novel God’s Daughter formatted (while I was freaking out because it seemed so complicated!).

Continue reading Interview and Giveaway with Author Becky Doughty at HeatherDayGilbert.com

Classics Challenge!

You know what? I’ve been reading a lot of modern authors over the past few years, and while I love doing that (sign up for my newsletter here for updates on what I’ve been reading lately), I feel I’ve fallen way behind in my reading of classics.

Ya’ll, I love me some classics.

Interview and Giveaway with Karin Kaufman, Author of the Anna Denning Mystery Series

 

My author guest today is one of my favorite mystery authors, Karin Kaufman. I’ve read every book in Karin’s Colorado-set Anna Denning Mystery series, and folks, these are books where it’s nearly impossible to guess whodunit! Bitter Roots is Book 5 in this excellent series, and it was one of my favorites thus far. Find my review here. Karin’s first four mysteries are also available in audiobook on Audible, narrated by Becky Doughty,who is also my narrator.

I wanted to ask Karin a few questions about her creative process (because I’m nosy like that). Read on for our interview and be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win one of two e-book copies of Bitter Roots!

About Karin:

Although my mysteries and thrillers are written from a Christian perspective, they don’t downplay the evil we confront in this world—or the isolation Christians sometimes feel in what is a largely secular culture. But I reject the notion that “realistic” means dark or oppressive.

Continue reading Interview and Giveaway with Karin Kaufman, Author of the Anna Denning Mystery Series at HeatherDayGilbert.com

Recent Reads, Reviews, and Cover Reveals!

If you receive my newsletters (be sure to sign up here), you’ve already received updates on some of my current reads. I think it helps to know what an author likes to read, because often it’ll be similar to what they enjoy writing. I just wanted to share some of my recent Goodreads reviews with you today. AND I wanted to share cover art for some of my upcoming releases!

Click on the book covers below for buy links!

Karin Kaufman’s Anna Denning Mystery Series has such a beautiful Colorado setting, and if you know me, you’ll know I have enjoyed every one of these mysteries. Bitter Roots is Book 5 in the series. Here’s my review:

(5 stars) I had the privilege of early-reading and endorsing this one. I have read every Anna Denning mystery and this one might be my fave! This is a mystery that has a similar feel to Agatha Christie’s And Then There were None.

Captivating from page one, Bitter Roots is one of those mysteries you can’t put down, yet hate to see end.

Continue reading Recent Reads, Reviews, and Cover Reveals! at HeatherDayGilbert.com

About Me & Upcoming Releases

I just updated my “About” page on my website, and it was interesting to see what sort of flowed out as I wrote it. For some reason, I focused on the moves our family has made, but I think it was to show how I left my home state of West Virginia and eventually found my way back here. If you’re new to my blog and you’d like to know a little more about that, check out that page here.

If you’ve already read my books and are wondering what’s coming up next, it’s looking like this year I’ll be focusing on my mystery/suspense. This means my newsletter subscribers will be getting early peeks at the cover art for Undercut, book 2 in the Hemlock Creek Suspense series, and for Guilt by Association, book 3 in the Murder in the Mountains series. Be sure to sign up here if you haven’t already for the earliest glimpses of those book covers!

Check out my Pinterest board here to get a sampling of what I’m envisioning for the setting/characters in Undercut, which will tell Molly McClure’s story.

Continue reading About Me & Upcoming Releases at HeatherDayGilbert.com

The Message in a Bottle Blog Hop & Giveaway–Stop 2

Flames lapped at the monk’s robes. He raced down the corridors that crackled with the collision of dampness and heat, dodging fire-lit debris. So this was to be the end, then. The night the stones of Ballyfir Monastery would tell their last tale…

So begins the tale of a humble monk, his unwavering courage, and the bronze bottle he sends into the night with a prayer that its contents might bring hope—the very word etched into the bottle—to someone, somewhere.

The Message in a Bottle Romance Collection follows the journey of that same bottle throughout the centuries in five novellas. It travels the world and touches hearts… and today, we’d like to invite you along for that journey.

Would you care to come along with us for a look behind the scenes in this short five-stop blog tour?

At each stop, one of the five co-authors will interview another, to take you chronologically through the novella collection and unwrap some fun bonus material.

Joanne is kicking us off with an interview of me, since mine is the first novella in the collection.

Continue reading The Message in a Bottle Blog Hop & Giveaway–Stop 2 at HeatherDayGilbert.com

Interview and Giveaway with Jocelyn Green, Author of The Mark of the King

Occasionally, there are times when I read a book’s blurb and tell myself I need to read that book. In the case of The Mark of the King, I was also pulled in by the fact that I knew the author’s writing style and the cover art was to die for. So I was honored to become part of Jocelyn Green‘s early reader team for this historical novel, set in the early days of Louisiana.

I stayed up way too late one night to finish this book, which kept me on the edge of my seat. Here’s my review:

Rarely do I encounter such well-researched, beautifully-written, theme-rich historical fiction as The Mark of the King. From the first page, I was riveted to Julianne’s story. Chock-full of atmospheric detail, this novel transported me to a place I had never read much about, and even though it brought to light horrors I had never heard of, the entirety of the story was wrapped with the repeated theme of the grace of God. I love books that gently bring timeless truths to life (as opposed to spelling those truths out for us, leaving no room for nuance), and this novel does that. Best of all, it had a combination of factors that made it one of my new favorites: memorable, believable characters, unpredictable twists, and a story that keeps living in my head long after I turn the last page. C’est bon!

Today I’m interviewing Jocelyn about this incredible novel that will definitely be on my “Best of 2017” list. Here’s a little about Jocelyn, and be sure to read to the end of the interview to link to the French-themed giveaway!:

Jocelyn Green inspires faith and courage as the award-winning author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, including Wedded to War, a Christy Award finalist in 2013, and The 5 Love Languages Military Edition, which she coauthored with bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman. She graduated from Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, with a B.A. in English, concentration in writing. She is an active member of the Christian Authors Network, the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Military Writers Society of America. She loves Mexican food, Broadway musicals, Toblerone chocolate bars, the color red, and reading on her patio. Jocelyn lives with her husband Rob and two small children in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Visit her at www.jocelyngreen.com.

 

 

 

Interview with Jocelyn Green:

HG: All your historical books are so well-researched. Could you share a little about how long the research process takes versus the writing process? Also, are you a plotter or a pantser?

JG: Thank you! I think the research is one of my favorite parts of the process. I usually spend about nine months researching and three months writing the first draft. Then after I turn it in to the publisher, we spend a couple more months editing, which usually requires more research if I write any new scenes.

I have typically been a plotter, but the book always diverges from my outline to some degree as I get into the story and think of new twists that would work well, or decide that some plot points won’t work for some reason. So as much as I try to plan, I also remain flexible.

HG: The Mark of the King is so different from many Bethany House books I have read. I love the way you covered dark, desperate situations, but didn’t revel in the gore (always my goal, as well). How did you maintain balance in portraying this tumultuous era?

JG: I cringed while writing some of the scenes in this book, but all of them were historically accurate and important in establishing the need for God’s grace, and the power of it to cover anything and everything. I want to communicate those things that were true to history with enough detail so the reader understands what’s going on, but allow the reader’s imagination to fill in a lot of blanks. I had a lot of practice finding this balance when I wrote my four-book Civil War series. J To skip over the danger of the Louisiana frontier would be doing a disservice to history, and would weaken the message of grace. One thing I’ve learned during my years of writing both fiction and nonfiction is that we don’t have to be afraid to acknowledge the bad things that can happen, because no matter how dark life can seem, Jesus’ light can shine brighter (Click to tweet!). The Bible contains some pretty violent passages too, but the overall message of God’s grace remains dominant. So my goal as a writer is not to sanitize history, but also not to dwell in the darkness, but to push through it and let hope shine bright.

(HG: Oh my goodness, you just articulated my own thoughts on what we need to be writing as Christian authors. We need to take the Bible as our guide, and it did not gloss over injustices and evil, although it didn’t wallow in it).

HG: Have you been to Louisiana or did you have a source who filled you in on the environment? It was so vivid in your descriptions!

JG: Yes, my family and I took a research-vacation road trip down to New Orleans before I wrote this book. But obviously, today’s New Orleans is nothing like what it was in 1720. So we explored some backwater areas that weren’t built up, but I also had a source who graciously answered all my questions. Dr. Bob Thomas is a professor in the Environmental Studies Center of Loyola University, and he  was able to tell me where the bayous, sand ridges, swamps, marshes, etc., were, what kind of trees and vegetation grew on and near each one, and so on. He was a goldmine of information for me, and I’m so indebted to him!

HG: I know you have a French sister-in-law–did she help with anything specific to French ways/language (video of French pronunciations below)?

JG: Yes, she did! When I went to New Orleans, I spent a day researching at the Historic New Orleans Williams Research Center. Many sources were in English but the book I most wanted to read was in French, which I don’t speak. I could tell enough by the chapter titles which chapters I wanted, so the staff made copies of those pages and I brought them home with me. Audrey translated all of it verbally while I took notes. So helpful!

HG: Finally, tell us about the next book you’re writing! Is it a standalone novel? Could you tell us where/when it’s set?

JG: I’m writing another stand-alone novel, this time set in the 1790s, about a decade after the end of the American Revolution. The heroine is a lacemaker who escapes from Paris to Philadelphia during the French Revolution, because by this time even lacemakers were sent to the guillotine for their association with the aristocracy.  She finds asylum in the French settlement called, literally, Azilum, in the wilderness of Pennsylvania, and must figure out how to survive in this harsh new land. I’m hesitant to say much more because I’m sure it will all change, but I do know there will be intrigue, a lost prince, a plague, whiskey rebels, cameo appearances by Alexander and Eliza Hamilton, and an Irish-American hero. J

(HG: Sounds irresistible–go ahead and sign me up as an early reader, gal!)

***Readers, want to enter an amazing French-themed giveaway? Click the photo below to visit Jocelyn’s blog and enter her Rafflecopter giveaway (um, is that COFFEE I see there, Jocelyn?

DOUBLE SALE

Just checking in briefly to let you all know that I’m running a double sale on my Vikings of the New World Saga, running now through 1/19/17.

Click the Forest Child cover above to pick up Forest Child now for only 99c/Kindle!

 

Click the God’s Daughter cover above to pick up God’s Daughter now for only $2.99/Kindle!

I don’t plan to have any other sales in the near future on these books, so please be sure to pick up your copy today and tell others about this deal! Here’s are couple of tweets to copy/paste and share!

99c/Kindle for a few days only! FOREST CHILD, bestselling #Viking #histfic based on real people/events! http://amzn.to/2jnQmbE

ON SALE for only $2.99/Kindle! GOD’S DAUGHTER, bestselling #Viking #historical: http://amzn.to/2iA617h 

Finally, if you read and enjoyed Forest Child, tomorrow is the last day it can be nominated for an INSPY award. Only those with the most votes make the longlist. Here’s the info if you would like to show your support for this book:

LINK to INSPY nomination form: http://inspys.com/?page_id=1183 (I had to use the Google docs form, linked at the bottom of that page)

INFORMATION to Enter for Forest Child:

TITLE: Forest Child

AUTHOR: Gilbert, Heather Day

PUBLISHER: Click “Other” and enter WoodHaven Press

CATEGORY: General Fiction

PUBLICATION MONTH: October 2016

13 Digit ISBN: 978-0997827903

THANK you, readers!