What are our authors working on this month?
By Margaret Daley
Author: Sandra Orchard
Title: yet-to-be-titled, but
it’s book 1 in a new Mystery Series
Hero and Heroine: Serena Jones
with two potential heroes Tanner Calhoun and Nathan Butler
Line: Revell Publishing
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
I swept my gaze over her
outfit. “You have a part-time job for wages that are nothing to write home
about. I’m struggling to make two and two add up to a fifteen hundred dollar
dress."
Something cool learned from research: The heroine is an FBI
art crime detective in St. Louis so I learned TONS of cool stuff touring
St. Louis and visiting the FBI headquarters, but I want
to save the reveals for the book.
Author: Merrillee Whren
Title: No title—The Village of Hope Series, Book #3
Hero and Heroine: Melody Hammond and Hudson Paine Conrick the Fourth
Line: Love Inspired Romance
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
By the time the
evening was over, she had a throbbing headache, and she wished she could stop
thinking about Hudson Conrick. He was just another man who liked to live on the
edge. Even her dad had lived that way, refusing to listen to his doctor who
wanted him to eat healthier, get some exercise and quit smoking. He’d rolled
the dice and done none of those, and he had paid the price when he died of a
heart attack at the age of forty-eight, leaving behind a young widow and four
children. Melody didn’t want to have an interest in a man who gambled with life
no matter how appealing.
Something cool learned from
research: Army paratroopers have 3
weeks of training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. They train from a 34 foot tower and
then a 250 foot tower before doing actual jumps.
Author: Linda Goodnight
Title: Untitled: Book 2
of The Honey Ridge Novels
Hero and Heroine: Hayden
Winters and Carrie Riley
Line: Welcome to Honey Ridge,
Tennessee, and a house that's rich with secrets and brimming with sweet
possibilities.
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
Would the old man be passed
out by now? Or would he be waiting with clenched fist and a hankering to take
out his hatred of life on the good-for-nothing son of the good-for-less woman
who’d left them both so long ago the boy had forgotten her. Mostly. Somehow it
was Brody’s fault that his mother had left, and the old man never let him
forget it, though he never gave a reason. Brody was pretty much clueless about
his absentee mother. His angry father he understood, but thoughts of his mother
left him lonely and nursing a guilt he didn’t understand. He must have done
something really bad to make her up and leave that way.
Something cool learned from
research: Though I haven't used it, I ran across a home remedy for fever
in the 1800s was to wet tobacco leaves and place them on the forehead. This
left a brownish orange stain on the skin. Imagine walking around with that
on your face!
Author: Dana Mentink
Title: Coronado Christmas
Capture (working title)
Hero and Heroine: Donna
Gallagher and Brent Mitchell
Line: Love Inspired Suspense
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
Dark shadows drifted across
the tiny office window. Even the lights strung along the ferry boat could not
chase away Donna Gallagher's tickle of unease as she gazed out at San Diego
Bay. Rain beaded on the glass, a winter storm. The vessel was already crowded
in spite of the weather. In the upcoming three weeks, the number of visitors
would swell as eager Christmas shoppers came over from the mainland and
overnight guests arrived for the Hotel del Coronado's holiday festival.
Twinkling white lights, ice skating, fireworks and hot cocoa. The perfect
Christmas on the beautiful island town of Coronado.
Something cool learned from
research: Coronado Island is home to the North Island Naval Base where 1/3 of
the Pacific Fleet is docked!
Author: Terri Reed
Title: Under the Cover of
Mistletoe (working title)
Hero and Heroine: DEA Agent
Tyler Griffin and widow and mom Heather Larson-Randall
Line: Love Inspired Suspense
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on: For a long moment she
stared at him, her eyes so forlorn and vulnerable. He fought the need to take
her in his arms and assure her all would be well. But he didn’t.
Couldn’t. Letting this assignment become anymore personal than it already was
equaled a bad idea. His boss commanded him to stick close to the widow and her
son, to protect them. Not so he could fall for the beautiful lady and her
adorable kid. He ignored the little whisper inside his head that told him
he was fast on his way to falling and there wasn’t a safety net to catch
him.
Something cool learned from
research: I’ve been learning about the Christmas tree industry. I’d never
thought about the work done with the trees off-season and that the US exports
thousands of trees each year to other countries.
Author: Louise M. Gouge
Title: Not titled yet
Hero and Heroine: Jared
Mattson and Emma Sharp
Line: Love Inspired Historical
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
Emma froze. Jared Mattson. The last person she wanted to see, even at her best. Today, dressed in
Pa’s old trousers and faded flannel shirt, she cringed in spite of herself.
Even two years after he cruelly played with her affections and then jilted her
without any explanation, she still couldn’t bear to be in his presence. She
could manage to ignore him in church and at social gatherings, but now, covered
from head to toe with soot, she would make an easy target for his teasing wit.
Something cool learned from
research: I learned about the New Mexican custom of Las Posadas, which is
celebrated in many Spanish speaking countries.
Author: Jolene Navarro
Title: The Pilot &
The Single Mom (working title)
Hero and Heroine: Tyler
Childress and Karly Kalakona of Clear Water Texas
Line:Love Inspired
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on: When she lifted her eyes back to the sky, he could
see her profile. Her full lips definitely brought kissing to mind. He shook his
head and returned to star gazing. She made him think of early morning kisses.
Not the hot burn-out-quick kind, but the kind he used to see his dad give his
mother every morning in the kitchen before he left to work. The kind that
showed you that the day was good and that home was always waiting for you.
Something cool learned from
research: In a small plane you should open the doors in an emergency
landing. If door can collapse and trap you inside.
Author: Jean C. Gordon
Title: The Pastor's Christmas
Star (working title)
Hero and Heroine: Connor
Donnelly and Natalie Delacroix
Line: Love Inspired
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
For the rest of the afternoon
worked beside Connor, welcoming and talking with the open house guests and
replenishing the refreshment table. More than once, she had the thought, so
this is how it would feel to be the pastor’s wife. And even more often, she wished the crowd would thin
and the open house would be over, so she could have a few minutes of alone time
with Connor to talk before she lost her nerve.
Something cool learned from
research: There are two different Polar
Express train rides on
different rail lines in the Adirondack Mountains, one that leaves from Saratoga
Springs and one that leaves from Utica.
Author: Barbara Phinney
Title: Cinderella of Minnow
Lake
Hero and Heroine: Ellie B and
James
Line: Maybe Love Inspired or
Independently published. Not sure yet.
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on: The book is finished, but this is the blurb:
Ellie B Phillips wants the
promotion to rec director in her small town of Minnow Lake, and has the support
of the outgoing director, but the sudden arrival of her old flame, researcher
James Simcoe, has the town in turmoil, putting her dream promotion at risk.
James has come to Minnow Lake
with one agenda, to discover why this lake lives and his has died. Once his
testing is done, he's leaving, and none too soon for most in Minnow Lake. But
he's driven to resurrect his lake and nothing else matters.
As much as Ellie B wants her
promotion, she secretly dreams of her own happily ever after with James. But he
is leaving in a few weeks while she is tied to this town. Can there be a
happily ever after.
Something cool learned from
research: I learned what makes mountain lakes that beautiful blue colour. It's
called Rock Flour.
Author: Deb Kastner
Title: A Cowboy Country
Christmas Novella
Hero and Heroine: Marcus Ender
and Sarah Kendrick
Line: Harlequin Love Inspired
One Paragraph:
Tears pricked the corner of
Sarah Kendrick’s eyes but she dashed them away with the back of her hand. No
more tears. She was done crying.The Percherons were the last of her livestock
to go—well, everything except for Snort and Crash. Trying to sell live reindeer
less than a week before Christmas was like trying to pawn penny candy at a
gourmet chocolate shop. An added stress to an already bleak season.
Something Cool Learned from
Research: I've only just started on this novella and am learning how a
Christmas tree farm operates, including shaking, touch-up, trimming, netting
and loading.
Author: Lacy Williams
Title: Matty's story (don't have official Harlequin title yet)
Hero and Heroine: Matty White and Catherine Poole
Line: Love Inspired Historical
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
"You say you don't need a
friend," Matty said. "But I don't believe you."
Something cool learned from
research: I've been researching
soddies/dugouts. The heroine lives in a one-room home built into the ground.
Author: Mindy Obenhaus
Title: Healing the Warrior’s Heart (working title)
Hero and Heroine: Kaleb Palmer and Grace McAllen
Line: Love Inspired
One paragraph from the page
you are currently on:
As a teenager, he used to
dream of the day he’d own his own motorcycle and had planned to purchase that
very model as soon as he left the Army. He longed to conquer Colorado’s
infamous Million Dollar Highway, leaning the machine into every hairpin curve. Of
course, that was back when he had two legs.
Something cool learned from
research: There are small, pop-up
trailers made to be pulled behind motorcycles.
