Love is in the Air by Marie Bast

As a romance writer, I’m always on the look-out for a good story, subject matter, theme, or setting to inspire me. Everywhere we go, my eyes and ears are always peeled for something to arouse my interest for my next novel. And summer is a great time to go on a vacation or a hike, take a walk through the park, go to the many festivals that are all around like our Rhubarb Festival or Hog Fest, maybe attend an outside art and craft show or visit a historical site to glean ideas.

Last weekend, we enjoyed a concert in the park. Besides a terrific 

band, we saw young couples sharing a blanket on the ground or 

sitting side-by-side in lawn chairs holding hands. Many had 

playful interactions with the band.

                                                              

     

Sometimes just the lying on the warm sand in the Bahamas, Mexico, or Myrtle Beach can inspire the creative juices. One year, we visited the dunes in Michigan. Went on a canoe ride on lake Michigan and enjoyed the sunsets.

My husband and I love to go on cruises. The picture at the right is 

a replica of a nineteenth century paddle-boat dinner cruise on

the Mississippi River.        

The picture at the right is the Brilliance of the Sea Gulf Cruise we took to Cozumel, Mexico, in 2016. A cruise lends itself to romance in exotic, romantic, and historical places the ships visit. We’ve gone on several Bahama cruises to enjoy the beautiful beaches and warm water.

The below pictures are of my grandson and his girlfriend who was crowned South Carolina's 2016 Rodeo Queen. Now who doesn’t love a good rodeo or fair in the summer. They also like to enjoy a relaxing horseback ride.

So what is your favorite place or thing to do in the summer? And if you’re a writer, do you have a special place or event that gets you inspired for that next story?

Marie Bast is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author of romance     

that whispers words of hope and healing through complex 

characters and twisting plots. She enjoys writing Amish, 

contemporary and historical stories. Marie's latest release, The Amish Baker, is a Publisher Weekly best seller. Her next novel, 

The Amish Marriage Bargain releases January 2020. Married for 

twenty-seven years, Marie and her husband have two grown sons 

and one daughter. When she’s not writing, she’s walking, golfing, 

gardening or spending time with her family.

The Amish Baker purchase links:

AMAZON         BarnesandNoble            BooksAMillion               Christianbook

Visit Marie's website or follower her on social media:

mariebastauthor.com        Facebook        Twitter        Pinterest        blogspot

Finding Thanksgiving by Marie Bast

 

 

I love the holidays and this time of year. It always brings to mind            

how much I have to be thankful for—our family, our health, for
the many blessings, but this year I get to add my first book with
Love inspired. I’m so grateful to the wonderful LI team and all
their hard work to get my book ready for publication. 

But Thanksgiving also goes deeper…

When I set the table with my grandmother’s antique Haviland Bavaria china and mom’s silverware, memories from past years with family come flooding back. One Thanksgiving years ago, it was my turn to host the traditional family dinner. It snowed 15.6 inches in northern Illinois the night before. I had cooked and baked for two days and had tons of food and afraid we’d be eating a 25-pound turkey for a month. They plowed the roads and everyone made it. Now we go to South Carolina for the winter, but my grandson thought he’d send me a reminder of those days.

 

Yet Thanksgiving can be about remembering a family vacation like
the one we had three years ago with our son and his family in Michigan and visiting the dunes and enjoying beautiful Lake Michigan. Two years ago, it was about taking a cruise to Mexico with our other son and his wife.
                                                 

Thanksgiving was also when my husband had bypass surgery, and today I thank the Lord every day that he is here with me.

Yes, Thanksgiving is all these things and much, much more.

Thanksgiving isn’t about just one day, it’s about all the memories, all the good times, all the people, and yes, it’s about the food, too, and about sitting down together and joining hands in prayer and making new memories. It’s about finding all that we have forgotten about…

So what are your memories? Have you found your Thanksgiving?

 
































                                                

 

Showers of Inspiration

    

It's happened to me more times than I can count. I get up early, brew some coffee and settle down at my desk in my teensy writing office, ready to tackle the next scene in my story.

     I write. I delete. I write again.  I delete. I stare goggle-eyed at the annoying cursor flashing reproachfully on my screen.

     I mentally tot up how far behind I'm getting and how soon my kids are going to be up, signaling the official end of my writing time. I seriously consider scratching the whole idea of writing books. Maybe I'll take up knitting instead. Knitting is cozy, and you can do it while you watch television.

     I remember the last time I tried to knit.

     Okay. So maybe not knitting.

     I refocus on the computer screen. I don't like my characters anymore, especially that heroine who's stubbornly refusing to cooperate with me. In my beautiful, breezy outline, she came across as delightfully spunky. Now she's like that renegade wheel on the grocery cart I always end up with--the one that makes me veer off track and crash into pyramids of canned green beans.

     I want to clonk her on the head.

     I decide this book is a total wash. No matter that I'm on page one hundred and eleven. It's garbage. I'm just going to have to start over; that's all there is to it.

     I give up and go to take a shower.

     And then--when I am physically as far away from my computer as I can get and still be inside the house, when I have no pen, no paper, nothing except shampoo and soap--it comes to me.

     I know exactly how to write that scene.

     I wish I had a nickel for every time I have hopped dripping out of a half-completed shower in desperate search of a pencil to jot down the dialogue my spunky heroine can utter that will turn the scene from a disaster into exactly the plot device I need to move the story forward.

     Apparently, I'm not alone in this. Agatha Christie, who as a murder mystery writer did have the enviable advantage of being able to kill off annoying characters, once remarked, "The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes."

     What about you? Is there a non-writing activity that tends to get your creative juices flowing when you're blocked? Since I'm in the middle of a particularly balky book right now, I'd love to hear about it! Leave a comment below--or connect with me on my blog, via email or on Facebook.

And don't forget to check out my newest release A Baby for the Minister, available now! 

Finding Your Niche by Marie Bast

Authors all want to get published, but it’s not always easy to find a publisher that’s the perfect fit for our writing. Especially when it’s our first book. I’m a new author with Love Inspired, and therefore, thought I’d share my experience on cracking the code to publication. For those of you who have been trying to capture the attention of an editor or publisher, here is my journey to my first book contract.              

Before

I joined writers’ organizations like RWA, ACFW, SCBWI, Word weavers, and two critique groups. The training and information from these professional organizations and writers were invaluable. Now, I’m going to enlist the aid of my son’s dog, Lola, who has graciously volunteered (after receiving several biscuits) to demonstrate show don’t tell for manuscript makeover. In the creative stage of writing, extraneous little creatures—over-used words, adverbs, prepositions, sentence starters and filler words had weaseled their way onto each page. They made my work-in-process (WIP) look bloated and shaggy—needing a cleanup.       

After

After scrubbing and trimming my manuscripts, they looked professional, sharp, and ready for presentation to editors and publishers. Besides publishing dozens of articles, short stories, devotionals, poetry and prayers, I contributed to four book compilations. Brimming with confidence, I wrote three adult books and five children’s books. Armed with proposals, I attended several writers' conferences. None of them caught a publisher's attention. Disappointed but I was still determined.      

 
Since I enjoyed reading Love Inspired books, I browsed their webpage and found that in February, they often held contests or offered submission opportunities. My first attempt at submission, failed, but I received constructive comments and advice. The next time I entered a contest, I made it through stage one, but rejected at stage two. Then at a writers’ conference, I attended a workshop given by Allie Pleiter. I learned a lot from Allie on how to further hone my work, and it gave me the push to submit to LI again. After submission, the whole process took around a year, but it ended in a contract.

 My advice, don’t give up. Attend writers’ conferences and workshops, find a publisher that you’d like to work with, then read their books and determine if this is the kind of niche or genre you’d like to write. Before you submit, make sure you have trimmed and polished your manuscript until the shaggy spots are gone.    

My first book, The Amish Baker releases March 2019. Have you ever had someone give you that crucial shove to try something one more time?  To get to know me better, visit my blog, follow me on Facebook, or Twitter.



 

 
 

 

We All Need a Valley of Hope

This month, Harlequin released my novel, Valley of Hope. Well, technically, it’s a re-release since I originally wrote this novel in 2013 and self-published it.

Sarah Price's Amish romance, Valley of Hope, at Walmart

For over 35 years, I’ve been writing romance novels. Seeing a novel published and sitting on the bookshelves of a store, especially Walmart, is always a thrill.

But especially for this book, Valley of Hope.

You see, in most Amish romances, the Amish are depicted as living idyllic lives. They smile as they do chores, they fall in love by fence posts, and they live happily ever after.

Having grown up in a Mennonite family, I’m very familiar with the culture of conservative Mennonites as well as Amish. When I was nineteen, I found an Amish family who took me in and let me stay with them. For years I would spend summers and spring breaks at their farm. Later, an older Amish woman let me rent a room from her and I spent several years with her, going back and forth to Pennsylvania from my life in New Jersey.

And I know that not all Amish romances begin with the sweet meeting by the fence post.

In Valley of Hope, the fourth book in my Amish of Lancaster series, Samuel Lapp is a headstrong young man who, while on rumpschpringe—that period of freedom before Amish youth take their kneeling vow—prefers to hang out with Englischers. He loves Mary Ruth, but he’s wrong when he thinks she will wait for him forever.

What I loved about writing this novel was how it depicts the inner turmoil some of the youth go through when involving the process of making that final commitment to join the Amish church. Not a lot of people realize that there are two types of Amish: those who are born into the community and those who join the church. Not all of those who are born Amish actually become Amish.

An Amish Farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Photo Credit: Sarah Price

Samuel Lapp isn’t certain that he wants to become Amish and give up the good life. Only he comes to learn that what he believed was exciting and fun isn’t as ‘good’ as he originally thought. Isn’t that something we can all relate to? How many times have we thought we wanted something, worked hard to achieve it, and when we obtain those goals, we realize that we aren’t as happy as we thought we’d be.

Does Valley of Hope have a happy ending? Well, most of my novels do. But surprises happen along the way because…well…that’s life. It’s full of surprises, just like the real world of romance and life. And just like the real world, sometimes we all need a valley of hope in times of indecision. 

Sarah Price is the author of over 40 novels, several of which were on the ECPA Bestseller Fiction List. She runs the Amish Fiction Authors blog at http://www.amishfictionauthors.com. Her own website is http://www.sarahpriceauthor.com.   

Love at The Candy Heart Cafe—Chapter Five by Jean C. Gordon

Love at the Candy Heart Cafe (Our Valentine Serial)

Chapter Five

Jean C. Gordon

Candy scooped up Chad's business card from the top of the pastry and cookies case and held it between her thumb and index finger over the trash barrel behind the counter. But somehow she couldn't let it drop. Like she couldn't let go of the remnant of feelings for Chad that lay buried deep inside her, of wondering why his sister Taffy had lied to her.

She raised the card in front of her so she could read it. Her gaze went to the phone number, 555-222-5683—555-222-LOVE. Candy shook her head. The first six digits were different, but the last four were the same as his old number, the one he'd had when they were together. The number that he’d “had to” change to when he’d lost a dare with her over who could eat the most pieces of her grandmother’s famous triple fudge whipped cream pie. The green look on his face before he’d rushed to the men’s room brought a smile to her face.

“So, is whatever is on that card, good or bad?”

Candy raised her head to see Honey Sweet, her grandmother’s best friend, part-time pie supplier to the Candy Heart Café, and Candy’s high school home and careers teacher. Mrs. Sweet was the one who’d first recognized Candy’s creative talent and encouraged her to pursue her design degree.

“Neither. It’s Chad Hersey’s business card.”

“I see,” Honey said, bustling around Candy to place the two already sliced pies she carried in the case.

Uneasiness crept up Candy’s spine. Honey had been very close to Grandma, whom Candy had confided in. Honey might see more clearly than she did. “Chad wants to buy the Café,” she said, hoping to redirect whatever the older woman night be thinking.

“That’s what he does, I hear, buy and sell property,” Honey said. “But it’s not what you’re thinking about.”

Candy glanced around the empty café and dropped into the nearest chair.

Honey joined her at the small, round table for two, one of several in the middle of the café floor between the two rows of booths. “You may not want an old woman’s advice, but you’ll get it anyway. I always thought that if you’d just talked, you and Chad could have patched things up after that incident with Ginger Spice was resolved.
 
Candy stared at her fingernails, polished red with pink hearts for the upcoming holiday. So Grandma hadn’t shared everything. Words spilled out of her of their own volition. “When Ginger came back here to visit six months after she and Chad had left on the same day, I confronted her and her sparkly engagement ring, and found out Taffy had lied to me about Chad seeing Ginger behind my back when we were dating. The engagement ring was from Ginger’s now husband.”  She stopped for a breath, and Honey patted her hand.

“I tried to talk with Taffy about it, and she wouldn’t. She’d been one of my closest friends all through school.” That had broken Candy’s heart all over. “Taffy has done her best to avoid me since. Nearly ten years.”

“Sweetie,” Honey said, “did you try talking with Chad after you'd spoken with Ginger and Taffy?”

“Yes.” Candy slammed her palm to the table, startling the older woman and herself. “I called the phone number I had for Chad and left him a message that I wanted to talk with him. When I hadn’t heard back from him by a couple days later, I swallowed my pride and called again. He’d apparently blocked my number.”

Honey muttered something about electronics and the demise of modern society. “What are you going to do now that Chad is back?”

Candy steeled her spine. “I’m going to carry on with my life.” As she had when she and Chad had broken up, when her grandmother had become sick and she’d had to give up the job she’d loved at the bridal shop in Tampa, and two months ago when the local bank had turned down her loan request for funds to update the Café.

She rose and brushed her hands together. “And the Café is my life.” But somehow, since Chad’s appearance, the Café looked dingier than it had when she’d arrived to work this morning.

The bell on the door chimed, as a young couple stepped in. Candy pasted a smile on her face to greet them. But the joy she always felt in sweetening up the lives of the residents of Sweet Tart Village didn’t bubble up.