Lisa has graciously offered an e-book version of her story to one lucky reader, so as usual, leave your comments below with how you can be reached.

About Lisa

Lisa Lickel is a Wisconsin native who writes inspirational novels with Midwest flavor. She and her husband live in a hundred and fifty-year-old house built by a Great Lakes ship captain, filled with books and dragons. She enjoys travel, filling the bird feeders, reading and quilting and visiting with friends and family.

About Meander Scar

Love can heal even the deepest scars …

After seven years with no clue as to the whereabouts of Ann Ballard’s missing husband, nearly everyone presumes him dead. Now forty-something, Ann is ready for her stagnant life to flow again. Then one day, a dark-haired younger man from her past shows up on her doorstep offering a river of hope in place of tears.

Former neighbor Mark Roth has secretly loved Ann for years. A respected attorney, he’s returned home to help Ann face down disapproving family members and the le­gal maneuvering of her likely deceased husband’s family— while quietly winning her heart.

When the hidden truth of Ann’s situation turns their lives on end and another tragedy strikes, the two must come to terms with family, faith and the depths to which true love can run.

Hi, Lisa! What’s your latest book?

Thank you for letting me visit, Roseanna. My newest book bears the unusual title Meander Scar. It released February 15 in both print and Kindle eBook format from Black Lyon Publishing.

Definitely an intriguing title! What’s your favorite part of the story?

My favorite part is when Ann discovers what happened to her husband. I love all that suspense stuff, and using Ann’s inner turmoil to take the reader on her quest to solve this mystery – whether she even wanted to. She questions her sanity, her evidence, and herself, all the way through the process. Both Ann and Mark had trials to face as they decided to enter into a relationship. How far was Ann willing to go to keep Mark on her side? That concept was interesting to explore.

Oo, gotta love the deep, winding paths we have to take through ourselves! Is there a theme to this book?

I start all my books with themes. For this book I chose to explore the definition of family. As I wrote and rewrote over the course of editing, agents, and readers, and finally, the publisher, this theme evolved into the exploration of staying power. The title refers to the course of a river that bends when it runs into, say bedrock, or something that diverts it away from a naturally straight course. The water curves until it meets the original path. The abandoned water-filled curve eventually dries from a lake to a swamp, then heals leaving a meander scar. In a way, the book took a meander of its own when I was asked to rethink large chunks of story. I loved the idea of using a natural phenomenon to describe relationships. Everyone hits a hard place and has to make decisions. Those decisions affect the people around us. How far will we go off course when we struggle? What happens to get the path running true again? Healing, like writing, takes a lot of determination.

Well, I just learned something! And how cool to use something like nature as a metaphor! Nothing like tapping into God’s creativity, eh? Are there any people (family, writing group, editors) who you rely on when writing?

I have several people in my writing life upon whom I rely. My anatomy/science teacher husband makes a great thesaurus when I ask him strange questions, like “what’s this bone called again?” pointing to my leg. I also belong to a couple of critique groups and have a special writing partner. A couple of years ago at Easter, I needed to brainstorm names for places in this manuscript, and asked all family members for suggestions for the rehab center. I also rely on my readers. Especially for this story, the ending seemed muddled to me until Deidre said at lunch one day, “it’s time we had a story that says Christian men don’t leave their wives.” The rest of the story fell into perfect clarity after I heard that.

Ah, the “click.” Love it when a story gets one of those. =) Aside from writing, what takes up most of your time?

I’m a local historian and work with local society programs and preservation. I also spend a lot of time working with other writers through critique, mentoring, and book reviews.

“That’s so cool!” says this history buff! What writing goal have you set for yourself that would be the hardest (or unlikeliest) but most rewarding to achieve?

Do I look like too much of a snob when I say I’d love to win a Pulitzer? That’s just the top for me. I read books like Marilynn Robinson’s Gideon and think, wow—to be able to weave a story like that would be a reward unto itself. My real goal is to eventually write a book that can be reviewed in the Library Journal.

I think that is a fabulous goal! And not too snobby at all. Here’s rootin’ for ya! Do you remember where you were when you got your first or most important call about a book contract?

The publisher for Meander Scar is half the continent and two time zones away from me. I was at my local writing club when I got the call to discuss the contract. I had a hard time focusing on critiques after that.

I bet the others were very understand, LOL. What are you writing right now?

I’m putting the finishing touches on a manuscript I wrote while my oldest son was courting his wife. I’d started it before I met the young lady but the parallels between them and my main characters are going to be hard to convince the family otherwise. A missionary who is determined not to let anything or anyone come between him and serving his field clinic, and a guarded young lady using a pre-arranged relationship as a crutch even though she longs for a bigger life have to regroup when God interferes in their plans. I’m also writing the third mystery in my cozy series that began with Barbour’s The Gold Standard, book one of the Buried Treasure series.

Can’t wait to see them out!