Love Inspired Heartsong Presents discussion
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Falling for the Farmer sounds delightful. And in the Snowy Mountains? Be still my heart!June - so glad you enjoyed Rancher. The setting was where we lived in California. Only the names have been changed ...
Narelle, I can't read yours next because I read it last month the day before I read Davalynn's. Totally loved it! I even left a review on Goodreads! (Now Davalynn's wondering about her review! :) I did rate it and say I loved it Davalynn!!! I promise! I just didn't write more because at the time I was still emotionally wrapped up in the story and didn't know what else to say. I'll remedy that some day!)
It is so much fun connecting authors (the real person) with their books. Since I joined Goodreads and Facebook and half of my 'friends' are well loved authors, the whole reading experience has changed for me!!! You've become a part of my life, not just an escape!!!
June I fully agree I have meet some great authors since joining goodreads and the ones who interact feel like friends and gain loyal readers dont they.
Hello Everyone!Thanks so much, Jenny and Narella. This is awesome! I'm Jennifer Johnson...soon to be Jennifer Collins Johnson. There are a lot of writers who share my name. LOL!
Anyway, I've been writing Heartsongs since 2009. My 18th book, A Love Discovered, is one of the twelve on this group. :)
I'm so excited to get to know you all better. :)
Welcome Jennifer, I remember reading some of your books.
Jennifer, I too have loved your books!!! Looking forward to more!!!
Hi My name is Janet! I live in GA and love to read! So excited to be a part of this group!
Hi Jenny! I just purchased Inspy Kisses for 99 cents! Amazing deal!
June, I just found your lovely review of Falling for the Farmer - thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the story :)Hi Jennifer, It's great to see you here :)
Hi Janet, Welcome and we're glad you've joined us :)
Davalynn wrote: "Hello, Kimberly. It is such fun to meet other authors and our readers on this group."Waving back at Davalynn. I agree, this is fun. :)
Davalynn, I just finished The Cowboy Takes a Wife!What a great story. Loved the characters and the story. Now that I've read one of your contemporary and one of your historical, I can answer your earlier question of which genre is preferred!
In your case, you'll have to write 4 or 5 more in each category before I can narrow it down, because they were both really good
This post is for June.The Widow's Suitor is a prairie romance about a faith-filled widow with a newborn and cantankerous mother in law trying to prove up her homestead while beginning to fall in love with an ambitious businessman who doesn't have time for God. Of course, her neighbor who wants her and her homestead isn't making it easy!
Wedding on the Rocks is a contemporary romance (released in May 2013) that is set in the same place as The Widow's Suitor, Faith, South Dakota. Both stories have true elements on the history of the town.
Hi Shannon Vannatter! I'm glad you joined us!
June wrote: "Davalynn, I just finished The Cowboy Takes a Wife!What a great story. Loved the characters and the story. Now that I've read one of your contemporary and one of your historical, I can answer your..."
I know you didn't write this to me, but had to tell you, I love your response. You are every writers dream. :)
June wrote: "Davalynn, I just finished The Cowboy Takes a Wife!What a great story. Loved the characters and the story. Now that I've read one of your contemporary and one of your historical, I can answer your..."
Wow - Thank you Kimberly. I'm so glad you liked them. You can't imagine how it feels to hear from a reader. Guess I better get back to writing!
Rose wrote: "This post is for June.The Widow's Suitor is a prairie romance about a faith-filled widow with a newborn and cantankerous mother in law trying to prove up her homestead while beginning to fall in ..."
Rose - just wanted to let you know how I enjoyed Wedding on the Rocks (haven't read Suitor yet). Loved the way you tied the area's history/fame into it.
June wrote: "Davalynn, I just finished The Cowboy Takes a Wife!What a great story. Loved the characters and the story. Now that I've read one of your contemporary and one of your historical, I can answer your..."
June - I thought I was writing to you! Bear with me as I get GR figured out. Regardless, it's great to hear what readers think. Thank you for taking a chance on both of my genres. Like I told Kimberly, I'd better get busy!
My new way of picking which book to read next! You ladies are awesome at stepping up to my challenge of telling me about your book so it was the next one I reached for. This has been a great weekend full of reading HSP books! Rose Ross Zediker, I finished The Widow's Suitor this morning. Loved it. Even your villain had me hooked. I just wanna grab a big old stick and poke Clement in the eye! LOL
I think I'm going to enjoy being a part of this group!!! :)
Hey Narelle and Jenny, Thanks so much for setting up this group. This will be so much fun.I live in north central Arkansas. I've been married thirty years and my husband is a pastor. I'm a stay at home mom/full time writer with a twelve year old son.
I've been a reader as long as I can remember and started writing in late 1999. I finally got a contract in early 2009. My first three titles are set in Romance and Rose Bud, AR near where I live. My five Texas Rodeo titles are set in Aubrey, Dallas, and Fort Worth.
Four more rodeo titles will release from 2014 - 2016. I'm contracted for three more titles after that and I'm thinking I'll go back to Arkansas for those titles.
Hi Shannon,I'm excited to see you on here! I've been a huge fan since that first book! (Meaning if a box of HSP showed up on my doorstep and one of them was written by you, there was no question which one I was reading first!) Looking forward to reading Rodeo Song.
Hi Shannon, Welcome and it's great to see you here :)
Thanks Narelle and Jenny for setting up this group. This will be fun.I live in north central Arkansas. I've been married for 30 years and my husband has been a pastor for 14 years. I'm a stay at home mom/full time writer and we have a 12 year old son.
I've been a reader ever since I can remember. I started writing in late 1999 and finally got a contract in early 2009. I have 7 titles with Heartsong Presents. With 7 more coming.
My first three titles were set in Romance and Rose Bud, AR close to where I live. My Texas rodeo series is set in and around the Fort Worth Stockyards. There are four more titles coming in the series. They're not all about the rodeo, but a lot of the characters work at the Stockyards in some capacity. Each book stands alone, but each new book continues the series.
After I finish the Texas books, I'm contracted to do three more. I think I'll do another Arkansas series then.
Shannon wrote: "Thanks Narelle and Jenny for setting up this group. This will be fun.I live in north central Arkansas. I've been married for 30 years and my husband has been a pastor for 14 years. I'm a stay at ..."
Nice to "meet" you Shannon. I'm always interested in a good rodeo tale. We spent a few seasons at Hot Springs, AR where my husband was the Oaklawn Park chaplain. The rest of year, we rodeoed.
Welcome Shannon your new series sounds interesting.I read the first of your Arkansas books White Roses I think it was.
I really enjoyed it.
Davalynn,I'm glad you enjoyed Wedding on the Rocks. I'm going to a RWA conference in the Chicago area next month and am taking a couple of days to sight see. The Field Museum where Sue T-Rex is housed is on my list.
June,I had a lot of fun writing Clement in The Widow's Suitor. I'm glad you liked the story. It was my first attempt at writing a historical. I have another historical coming out in August, but now I'm back to writing a contemporary rodeo series.
Rose wrote: "Hi Shannon Vannatter! I'm glad you joined us!"Hey Rose,
Good to see you. And we're both writing rodeo series. How fun.
Sorry, I posted my intro twice. Somehow, it's not showing up for me. But at least y'all can see it. I'm usually not so repetitive :)
June wrote: "Hi Shannon,I'm excited to see you on here! I've been a huge fan since that first book! (Meaning if a box of HSP showed up on my doorstep and one of them was written by you, there was no question ..."
June, you just made my day. Truly - you just don't know what that means to an author. I'm so glad to meet you.
Narelle wrote: "Hi Shannon, Welcome and it's great to see you here :)"Hi Narelle, Welcome to Heartsongs. Maybe we'll be in the same box some day.
Davalynn wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Thanks Narelle and Jenny for setting up this group. This will be fun.I live in north central Arkansas. I've been married for 30 years and my husband has been a pastor for 14 years..."
Hey Davalynn, here's the confession. I fell off a horse when I was 14, landed on my shoulder, and tore every tendon and ligement in my neck, shoulder, and arm. I got back on, but very few times. Only with my dad leading or on a very gentle horse. I never rodeoed. But I did work the concession stand and my dad announced. I had to learn a lot for my rodeo series, but it's been a lot of fun.
Ausjenny wrote: "Welcome Shannon your new series sounds interesting.I read the first of your Arkansas books White Roses I think it was.
I really enjoyed it."
Thanks Jenny. Glad you enjoyed the book. That series was repackaged into a three in one last year. I got on the Texas rodeo series because my husband is from Texas. We've made a lot of visits there and it's my second favorite state. It was only supposed to be a 3 book series and my family had fun visiting the Fort Worth Stockyards. The series kind of took on a life of it's own and morphed into 9 books. I have 3 undesignated titles in my current contract and I think I'll go back to Arkansas with those.
This is weird. I can see my comments now. And I'm going to be redundant on purpose. Thanks so much to Narelle and Jenny for setting up with this. Talking with readers is so much FUN!
June wrote: "Hi Shannon,I'm excited to see you on here! I've been a huge fan since that first book! (Meaning if a box of HSP showed up on my doorstep and one of them was written by you, there was no question ..."
I meant to say also, I'm glad you're looking forward to Rodeo Song. It was fun to write a long haired Country music star - not the typical hero of Christian romance. And it was the only book I've ever written that was based on a dream.
Susan wrote: "I am Susan Manchester, voracious reader of Christian fiction books. I belong to the Heartsongs book club, so I have hundreds of the books. I also belong to the Love Inspired Suspense book club, bec..."Susan, nice to meet you. I remember reading about a reader who owned all of the HP's back when Barbour still owned the line. I need to go back and find that blog post and see who she was.
Shannon wrote: "Susan wrote: "I am Susan Manchester, voracious reader of Christian fiction books. I belong to the Heartsongs book club, so I have hundreds of the books. I also belong to the Love Inspired Suspense ..."Shannon, I own the whole shebang! I joined the club in 1998. With a bit of help through eBay and Amazon, I collected all previous books. Years later when money got tight and I had to sacrifice book clubs from my life, HSP made the cut because my library did not carry them and they were the cheapest :) I like books just a little bit :)
June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Susan wrote: "I am Susan Manchester, voracious reader of Christian fiction books. I belong to the Heartsongs book club, so I have hundreds of the books. I also belong to the Love In..."So, it was you I read about. How cool is that. So glad there are voracious readers out there like you. And so glad to meet you. Where do you keep them all.
I like books just a little bit too, but I have to clean my shelves and force myself to part with some titles every once in a while simply because I run out of room.
Shannon wrote: "June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Susan wrote: "I am Susan Manchester, voracious reader of Christian fiction books. I belong to the Heartsongs book club, so I have hundreds of the books. I also belong t..."That's the beauty of the size of HSP's. I have 9 shelves that are 6 ft tall. Short shelves fit 2 deep and taller fit 2 deep and 2 high with 52 across. Sadly I can't see them all, but it warms my heart to know they are there! They line the wall in the tv/game room, so the kids allow it because I let them put couches in front of them (closer to the screen for them that way ;)) and I get to test the osmosis theory! It's worked on a couple of them!
June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Susan wrote: "I am Susan Manchester, voracious reader of Christian fiction books. I belong to the Heartsongs book club, so I have hundreds of the books...."Oh, I love this! To think, I may be in someone's game room!
Susan, I'm the same way. I want to see all my books. I stacked them two lines in the shelf a while back thinking I could keep more books that way. But it's driving me crazy. I have to keep telling myself - more books, more books, more books.I had to do the math. If I remember right, HP started in 1981. With 52 books a year for 37 years - Susan collected 1664 books through 2013. Is that right? Have HP's always published 4 books a month and was it 1981?
Shannon wrote: "Susan, I'm the same way. I want to see all my books. I stacked them two lines in the shelf a while back thinking I could keep more books that way. But it's driving me crazy. I have to keep telling ..."48 books a year. March's shipment included #1088.
June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Susan, I'm the same way. I want to see all my books. I stacked them two lines in the shelf a while back thinking I could keep more books that way. But it's driving me crazy. I have ..."Well duh. First of all, I counted literal weeks in a year instead of four books a month. And I never thought to look at the number on the spine. On top of that, I used 37 years instead of 32. I have lots of duh moments - especially when I try to do math :)
So it must not have started in 1981. Or it wasn't at the beginning of the year because that would be 1536. If I did my math right, which is debatable :) Okay, I've officially learned not to try to do math on a social network where everybody gets to see my duh moment.
Back to the question, does anybody know the official start date for HP?
Shannon wrote: "June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Susan, I'm the same way. I want to see all my books. I stacked them two lines in the shelf a while back thinking I could keep more books that way. But it's driving me c..."First dozen were printed in 1992.
Okay, June. I was off a decade. I was thinking it was 1981 or 1982. You're good. And I got you confused with Susan. So it's your game room we're in. You'll have to forgive me. I'm new to Goodreads. Sorry, I got you confused. Can you tell I'm not writing right now? I'd never be on here this much if I was. I just finished my first draft for the book I have to turn in by May. I always let it rest two weeks before I start editing, so I'm in the rest phase right now. Which makes more time for me to do bad math and get people confused on my newly joined social network.
Shannon wrote: "Okay, June. I was off a decade. I was thinking it was 1981 or 1982. You're good. And I got you confused with Susan. So it's your game room we're in. You'll have to forgive me. I'm new to Goodreads...."Yes, Shannon. It's my game room we are in :) It's good that you get a couple of weeks to rest. It amazes me how different the writing process is for everyone. Some authors are on social network every day (all day long) and others only pop on when promoting another book just getting ready for release! A few make me wonder how they ever get anything done :)
It is so great to see the chatter here and you will probably notice some of us from other groups tend to get of track and at one stage it always turned to sci fi but I digress.Its great to see the interaction. There will be other topics starting and feel free to start your own conversations.
June wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Okay, June. I was off a decade. I was thinking it was 1981 or 1982. You're good. And I got you confused with Susan. So it's your game room we're in. You'll have to forgive me. I'm n..."When I'm writing, I pretty much have to make myself stay off social networks. I promote whatever author is on my blog and any new book I have, but that's pretty much it. I really have to stay off Pinterest. So addicting. I'll have to catch up on that during my break.
Shannon wrote: "Davalynn wrote: "Shannon wrote: "Thanks Narelle and Jenny for setting up this group. This will be fun.I live in north central Arkansas. I've been married for 30 years and my husband has been a pa..."
Ouch! Gotta love it to hang in there after that. I didn't compete - just helped behind the scenes. Timed, sang the National Anthem from horseback, helped my husband with his clown acts, and at one rodeo where he was seriously injured, I dressed up in his clown clothes in the spirit of "the show must go on." But never fought bulls. Mamma didn't raise no fool.
Davalynn your story sounds interesting. Can you tell us a little about The Cowboy takes a wife. It sounds like a good match for Narelle's Falling for the farmer.