COVER REVEAL!!! The Number of Love

COVER REVEAL!!! The Number of Love

It’s that time again!

I confess: seeing my covers is one of the most exciting parts of the whole book-creation process. I mean, I love writing the story. And holding it in my hands for the first time can’t be beat. But getting that first glimpse of a story’s face? Yeah. That’s pure awesomeness right there.
And though An Hour Unspent only released a month ago, I’m already fully immersed in my next series, The Codebreakers. If you’ve read A Song Unheard, then you’re hopefully (LOL) already a fan of this next heroine. Margot De Wilde, little sister of Lukas, takes center stage, all grown up and helping England with her cryptography skills in the mysterious Room 40, intelligence hub of the British Admiralty. Haven’t read Shadows Over England yet? No worries–characters they have in common will just appear like secondary characters, and it won’t be assumed that you’re already familiar with them. 😉 But if you the Ladies of the Manor series, you’ll be excited to know that those characters appear too! Brook actually spurs Margot into a rather funny decision… Anyway!
So, bit of backstory on the cover. On my birthday (August 14) I got an email from my editor that wished me a happy birthday and said they’d actually just wrapped the cover photo shoot a few minutes ago, so he sent me a candid shot from it. Best. Gift. Ever. It was fun to see the set they used (which involved a window set up on blocks and held upright with a clamp) and the model they’d chosen. Aaaaggghhhhhh!!!!!!! That glimpse was enough to know I was going to love the final product.
Then a few weeks later, I saw the cover itself. Oh yes. Total LOVE. It was EXACTLY what I’d asked for. Margot, at an old window, foggy rain beyond it. Writing the number 18 on the glass with a finger. Wearing a long, belted cardigan, hair in waves. Bethany House always does an amazing job on my covers, but this is the first time that my exact suggestion was used, so it made me all the more excited.
So are you ready???? Here it is!
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Voila!!
Isn’t it gorgeous??? I love the model they chose–she definitely has that European look that Belgian Margot should have. The expression on her face is perfect. I adore the red of the cardigan–in the story originally it was blue, but I promptly changed it to match, LOL, as we all agreed this color was perfect for the cover. The art deco touches and font is spot-on, and that 18 she’s writing on the window…
What’s the significance of that? Well, you’ll just have to read it in June and find out. 😉 Though, funny story. I showed the cover to one of my writing partners, and she loved it. Then read the manuscript that weekend and had to come back with a thrilled email of “THEY PUT 18 ON THE COVER!!!!” A detail that doesn’t mean a whole lot until you read the story. And then it means everything. 😉
Here’s a bit more about the book:
Three years into the Great War, England’s greatest asset is
their intelligence network—field agents risking their lives to gather
information, and codebreakers able to crack every German telegram. Margot De
Wilde thrives in the environment of the secretive Room 40, where she spends her
days deciphering intercepted messages. But when her world is turned upside down
by an unexpected loss, for the first time in her life numbers aren’t enough.
Drake Elton returns wounded from the field, followed by an
enemy that just won’t give up. He’s smitten quickly by the too-intelligent
Margot, but how to convince a girl who lives entirely in her mind that
sometimes life’s answers lie in the heart?
Amidst biological warfare, encrypted letters, and a German
spy who wants to destroy not just them, but others they love, Margot and Drake
will have to work together to save them all from the very secrets that brought
them together.
(other retailers not yet available)
What do you think of the cover? Do you like the mood? Do you find the image intriguing? Make you wonder about that message on the glass?  What’s your favorite part?

Greater Than Gold – Secrets of Wayfarers Inn – Book 4

Greater Than Gold – Secrets of Wayfarers Inn – Book 4

A little while back you may remember that I shared some book info about the series I am a part of through Guidepost. Exciting news! My first story in the series is now available! YAY! Greater Than Gold is the fourth book in this series and you can find purchase info below! There are 8 other authors contributing to this series, so make sure you check out their books as well. 😉
About the Book
Wayfarers Inn finally opens, just in time for Marietta’s biggest tourist draw, the Sternwheel Festival. But LuAnn, Janice, and Tess’s excitement is tempered when the inn’s ancient elevator breaks down—and handyman Tory Thornton goes missing, leaving a bloody rag behind. When LuAnn finds a valuable and long-missing bracelet in Thorn’s toolbox, suspicions mount—as do the suspects. Has Thorn run off with a treasure that had been hidden in the inn centuries before . . . or has an old enemy caught
up with him? 

As LuAnn and her friends seek to learn more about the bracelet, and how it ended up at the inn, they uncover a tale of theft, betrayal, and sacrifice that dates to the Civil War. As the clues pile up, both for and against Thorn, and hidden pieces of his past come to light, the friends find themselves asking the age-old question: How well do you ever really know someone? And how do you ever know what to believe about the people you think you know?


Giveaway! A Heart’s Revolution…Is on AUDIO!

Giveaway! A Heart’s Revolution…Is on AUDIO!

The moment we have been waiting for is finally here!

A Heart’s Revolution is now available on AUDIOBOOK! And I am giving away a couple copies!!! All you need to do is COMMENT on this post! Please leave your email address so that I have a way to contact you if you are one of the winners! 
Giveaway will be open 9/11/18 – 9/17/18 11:59pm EDT. Winner will be chosen via Random.org from the list of those who leave comments. Giveaway open Internationally. Void where prohibited.
You can find a list of retailers on my website

Happy Reading!

An Hour Unspent is HERE! Giveaways & More!

An Hour Unspent is HERE! Giveaways & More!

It’s HERE! It’s HERE! It’s HERE!

Barclay and Evelina are “officially” out in the wide world. And I have so many goodies for you today! Pour yourself a cup of steaming tea, get comfy, and let’s CELEBRATE!

About the Book

An Hour Unspent

Shadows Over England Book 3


With Danger Creeping Ever Closer,

Do Their Dreams Still Matter?
Once London’s top thief, Barclay Pearce has turned his back on his life of crime and now uses his skills for a nation at war. But not until he rescues a clockmaker’s daughter from a mugging does he begin to wonder what his future might hold.
Evelina Manning has constantly fought for independence but she certainly never meant for it to inspire her fiancé to end the engagement and enlist in the army. When the intriguing man who saved her returns to the Manning residence to study clockwork repair with her father, she can’t help being interested. But she soon learns that nothing with Barclay Pearce is as simple as it seems.
As 1915 England plunges ever deeper into war, the work of an ingenious clockmaker may give England an unbeatable military edge—and Germany realizes it as well. Evelina’s father soon finds his whole family in danger—and it may just take a reformed thief to steal the time they need to escape it.


Book Sale

The first two books in the series are on sale right now in my store! Signed print copies!



An Hour Unspent Companion Guide
This was so much fun to put together. I love that I can give you a peek into the history of this story. You can download this PDF for FREE in my store. Use for book club discussions or for your own personal use. You will explore the design of wristwatches, Big Ben, and blackouts during WWI. 
Printable Quotes

I have created three different printable graphics for you! Use to decorate your reading nook, office, living room, or give as gifts. These are also available in my store for FREE!

      

Giveaways
Yes, plural. Because you know how much I love my international readers. Please read the details for each giveaway. Enter via the Rafflecopter links below.
Open to all US Mailing Addresses. Giveaway is open 9/4/18 – 9/10/18 11:59pm EDT.
Void where prohibited. Please see disclosures and policies for more details.
Prizes Include*:
One (1) framed print of Big Ben clock tower
One (1) clock necklace
Complete Shadows Over England Series in print, signed.
Open to all residents outside the US. Giveaway is open 9/4/18 – 9/10/18 11:59pm EDT.
Void where prohibited. Please see disclosures and policies for more details.
Prizes Include*:
One (1) Trio of Teas set from Ahmad Tea London
One (1) eBook copy of An Hour Unspent
*Prizes subject to change due to availability. If the pictured prize is no longer available, a similar product will be chosen in its place.

Coming Soon!!!
You won’t want to miss it!

Well, I think that’s all the excitement I have for you today. I hope you enjoy reading An Hour Unspent. Remember to leave your reviews on retail sites and share with your friends and book clubs!


Secrets of Wayfarers Inn – A Guidepost Series

Secrets of Wayfarers Inn – A Guidepost Series


If you follow me on social media, you may have seen comments about a series of books that I am working on with Guidepost. This has been a fun and exciting opportunity for me, and I wanted to share a little more about these books with you. Secrets of Wayfarers Inn is a series published by Guidepost (and therefore ONLY available from them directly) and consists of myself and nine other authors. The first 2 books in the series are now available and MY first book in the series will be releasing in September. You can find purchase info HERE.

About Secrets of Wayfarers Inn

On the banks of the Ohio River, in the historic town of Marietta, Ohio, a trio of good friends stumbles across an empty historic waterfront stone building while house hunting. Next to a Realtor’s “For Sale” sign, an aging bronze plaque on the doorpost marks the building as once being a pre-Civil-War stop on the Underground Railroad. The four-story building, originally built as a hotel, was most recently used as a warehouse for goods arriving via river barges, but it has sat empty for the past decade. On a whim, LuAnn Sherrill, Tess Wallace, and Janice Eastman start to think of what a beautiful bed-and-breakfast this could be. When all is said and done, these three friends are the proud co-owners of the neglected but elegant structure, which they plan to renovate and open as a cafĂŠ and B&B known as Wayfarers Inn. While remodeling, they come across hidden passages, filled with secrets and surprises of all sorts, which set them on a course to solving mysteries.
As the trio of friends are drawn further and further into the mysteries of the inn and the town of Marietta, with its intriguing antebellum heritage, each one finds her own personal faith enriched—in both God and humankind.

Treat yourself to Guideposts’ newest Christian Mystery series, Secrets of Wayfarers Inn, where pre-Civil War mysteries abound in these cozy fiction books about faith and friendship.

Contemporary:

When retired school teachers LuAnn Sherrill, Tessa Wallace, and Janice Eastman, decide to buy an inn built in 1851 and turn it into a café and bed and breakfast, someone is not happy. Strange things begin to happen in the building—handprints on a dusty mirror, a missing wallet—and who owns the gold earring? Realtor Bradley Grimes is helping them unravel the mystery when he finds one of his own. In a ledger from the 1800s he finds the name of his great-great-grandfather, Howard Bickerton, the man he’d always thought of as a hero in the Underground Railroad. But was he?

Historical:
Prudence Willard, a farmer’s wife and conductor on the Underground Railroad, faces danger on a regular basis, but nothing is quite as frightening as witnessing what happened to Howard Bickerton—and keeping the knowledge to herself. Should she report Bickerton’s death and the man who assumed his identity, or remain quiet for the sake of the Cause?

Series Authors: 

Enjoy each book in this series written by some of your favorite authors: Becky Melby, Kathleen Y’Barbo, Tracey Bateman, Roseanna White, Ellen Kennedy, Beth Adams, Virginia (Ginny) Smith, Kim Vogel Sawyer, Janice Hanna Thompson, and Ocieanna Fleiss.


Highlights from the Gaithersburg Book Festival

Highlights from the Gaithersburg Book Festival

Last Saturday, my family drove a few hours down the road for the Gaithersburg Book Festival, where I would be presenting a panel with two other amazing Christian historical fiction authors, Cathy Gohlke and Carrie Turanksy. Having never attended this festival before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it was so much fun!

First, it was raining. I’m talking, we’ve had 2 solid weeks of rain in the mid-Atlantic. Trees are coming down just because the ground is so soggy it can’t hold them up. To say it was a bit wet for this outdoor festival is an understatement.
But you just can’t dampen the spirits of book nerds. They still showed up by the thousands.
The GBF is a really great, really big event. There were hundreds of authors present in every conceivable genre for every conceivable age group. My family and I sat in on a panel with writers and illustrators of the Science Comic series and learned how they turned topics like The Plague and Sharks into fun, accessible stories for kids, and then we got to watch them draw for us on the spot. We caught the tail end of a non-fiction talk on the founding and building of Los Angeles. And then I joined Cathy and Carrie for our panel on weaving history into fiction.
It rained off and on all day, and the ground was a muddy mess. I had mud splatters all up my legs, and at the time I’m writing this, I haven’t even summoned the bravery to check out the shoes that we just shoved in a plastic bag after the event was over, before we drove home. [Update: they all cleaned up just fine, LOL.] We juggled umbrellas and raincoats and had to try to figure out how to keep our bags off the sopping ground. The bookstore had a lot of books with slight curls to their pages.
And it was SO AWESOME. 
Because we got to see hundreds and thousands of other book lovers, coming together in a community. I got to meet two members of my launch team (hello, Kat and Kathy!!!) and finally meet two authors I’ve long respected but have never actually gotten to see in person. And of course, I got to talk about books! These sorts of panel conversations are always so much fun for me. A chance to talk about writing in general, the stories I love in particular and share a glimpse into the crazy life of a homeschooling writer.
And it’s so cool to then walk to the book signing area and get to meet some of the people who sat in on the panel. To meet people I’ve talked to online. To hear new readers say they so enjoyed my talk they had to run and buy my book. To hear another young woman say I’m one of her favorite authors and she had to come to the GBF to meet me (she said that to the NEWS camera!). To sign one book for a sweet lady’s friend and then see her back in the line with her family, because her husband bought her a copy.

Me, Cathy, and Carrie…and a bit of the mud.
The folks who put on the festival gave the authors a regal welcome and thanked us for coming, thanked us for writing. But I think I speak for most of the other authors when I just smile and laugh and turn that right back around–because I’ve written for years in a vacuum, without my words ever going anywhere beyond my computer. Writing itself doesn’t accomplish much. It’s the interaction of writing with readers that matters. It’s the readers who make it all worthwhile, and seeing all those dedicated readers braving the mud and rain to come and listen to a bunch of authors talk, to stand in line in the rain to get a book signed…they’re the ones who deserve the thanks.


(Video from the local news station–you can see me a fair bit in the background as they interviewed Michelle, the young lady who was so excited that I was going to be there!)

It was a wonderful day, and I’m so grateful to everyone who turned out to say hello! I had a great time, and I hope to see the diehard readers of Montgomery County, Maryland back at the GBF in years to come!

(Sorry I didn’t take more pictures–my hands were filled with umbrellas and books I was trying to keep dry, LOL!)