New Kid on the Block--Mary Moore!

Missy Tippens, here. I'm excited to welcome New Kid on the Block, debut Love Inspired Historical author Mary Moore. Mary's generously offered to give away a copy of The Aristocrat's Lady to one lucky commenter! I'll do a random drawing. Just be sure to tell me you'd like to be entered.


Welcome, Mary!

Hi Missy,

Thank you for this opportunity; you’re my first blog!

Can you tell us about The Call for your first sale?

I absolutely do remember the call from my agent, Jenni Burke.  It was wonderful!  She had sent it out to several publishers, of course, but the first one who wanted it was Love Inspired.  I was so new; I didn’t even know who they were!  It was in October 2010 and the editor, Rachel Burkot, had an open slot for September 2011 if I could get all of the editing they required done by January 1^st!  I said good-bye to Thanksgiving and Christmas and got it ready in time.  And I believe God was in every part of it and it its where I am supposed to be.

I wanted to tell you how adorable my agent was about it all.  We had worked on the manuscript for almost a year to be sure it was spic and span ready to submit to publishers.  During all of that time, the title of the book was “Scent of a Rose” which Love Inspired ended up changing.  But imagine my surprise when the day after the contract was signed I received a dozen beautiful roses to celebrate my first book and my first sale.  I cried the whole day!  So, yes, I absolutely remember everything about getting that first contract.

 What's something readers may not know about you?

Readers won’t know this but everyone who knows me at all knows that I am a John Wayne fanatic.  I became obsessed with him in my early teens and I even named my dog after him.  (My dad refused to call John Wayne in to dinner, however, so it was shortened to J.W.)  I had posters on my wall and many scrap books devoted to him.  I realize I will be showing my age here, but I saw many of his movies when they were new in the theaters!  I remember getting sympathy cards from a few crazy family members and friends when he died.  I have a wonderful collection of all his movies, but they are all on VHS, and I can’t afford to go out and buy DVD’s or Blu Ray or whatever the latest medium is.  To this day, if I find a John Wayne movie on TV, you won’t get my attention back until it’s over…PILGRIM!

 What are you working on right now?

Right now, I’m working on things that I need to do for the release date of September 6^th.  I’ve scheduled a book signing at a few venues locally.  This is hard because I am definitely a behind-the-scenes kind of gal.  But I really wanted to do something to get established in the community and this will be a good start.  And several other authors have volunteered to give me some blog time, which I really appreciate.  My agent and I just finished the proposal for my second book, another Regency, that I hope LIH will be interested in.  So it’s still pretty busy.  Having now gone through the entire process from beginning to end, I hope, Lord willing, that the next time will be a little more organized and a lot fewer mistakes!

Thanks for visiting, Mary!   

BIO:

I have been an avid student of the Regency-era since the 1970’s and I am a member of the American Christian Fiction Writer’s historic fiction community as well as a member of the Faith, Hope and Love and Beau Monde chapters of the RWA.  I have been writing historical fiction for over fifteen years.  I had to put my writing on hold due to some health issues, including a bout with breast cancer, but I’m now even more excited about my writing as I incorporate some of my struggles throughout my books; dedicated to encouraging others in the Lord and using my stories for His glory.  A native of the Washington, DC area, my husband and I now live in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia, with our black lab, Darcy.  When not writing, I enjoy time with my husband, watching romantic movies, reading and weekend get-aways.

New Kid on the Block--Patty Smith Hall!

Missy, here. I'm pleased to welcome a New Kid on the Block today! She's actually a new Love Inspired Historical author, and her debut is titled Hearts in Flight. Welcome, Patty Smith Hall!

Can you tell us a little about getting that first sale call?

Sometimes I wondered if that first call was ever going to come! See, my manuscript won the 2008 ACFW Genesis in Historical Romance and I had received a  request for a full by Love Inspired. Two little problems--first, I only had the first fifteen pages of the story!(Great reason to have the manuscript finished before entering it in a contest!) Secondly, life  got in the way--six surgeries in our immediate family, two graduations and a cross country move to be exact! Finally, in November of 2009, I was able to get back to my manuscript and by March, 2010, I was able to turn it in to my agent who then sent it to Rachel Burkot at Love Inspired.

Then the waiting began--I felt like I was a kid waiting for Christmas morning, wondering if I was going to find a lump of coal in my stocking. But on August 5, 2010, while I was sitting in the Chick-fil-a drive-through, Tamela called me with the news. Scared the poor girl at the window to death when I screamed!

What's something fun that readers may not know about you?

That I'm like a kid about Christmas! At our house, we make a schedule of Christmas movies that we watch between Thanksgiving and December 25th. And because our entire family loves the season, my mother, my sister and I started a tradition of supplying Christmas to needy families in the school district--You should see us with our train of shopping carts as we plow through Target and the grocery story! 

What are you working on now?

I just finished the sequel to Hearts in Flight that I've affectionately called Capturing the Enemy's Heart. It features one of Maggie's(the heroine in Hearts) cousins and a young woman running away from an unthinkable secret. This story took me in places I never expected!

Please share a blurb about the story and where readers can contact you.
Hearts in Flight is the story of Maggie Daniels, a pilot with the Women's Army Service Pilots determined to prove herself to her family and to squadron leader Captain Wesley Hicks. While Wesley knows Maggie is a great pilot, her fearlessness reminds him of all he has lost in the war. It's a story of forgiveness, grace and discovering the God has a bigger dream for us than we have for ourselves.

Readers can reach me at www.pattysmithhall.com.

Thanks for having me--I appreciate it!

New Kid on the Block: Kit Wilkinson!

Missy, here. You may have seen Kit Wilkinson's name as an author writing for LI Suspense. But in July, she has her very first Love Inspired Romance coming out, Mom in the Making. So I thought I'd feature her as our New Kid on the Block this week. I did a fun interview with Kit...

-Was it difficult to write a straight romance without the suspense element?

Surprisingly, no! And I really enjoyed using the extra "space" to develop the characters. In a suspense, there's SO much to cram in the plot that it's difficult to study character and not lose story momentum. In the romance, I didn't have to worry about that. It was kind of nice :-)

--What's one thing we may not know about you?

I lived in Europe for most of my twenties, in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was definitely a defining time of my life. I studied at the university there, taught English classes and traveled some. It was a fabulous experience. I'm very ready to go back for a visit!!! (um...I'm hoping my parents are reading this and are moved to buy me a ticket )

--What do you plan to write next?

Right now, I am writing an Amish suspense for Love Inspired Suspense. This is a story about an Amish raised police detective who is asked to go back to his hometown to solve a murder--a sort of prodigal son story. I'm having a great time writing this. I find the Amish culture fascinating, so I have enjoyed the research (including a trip to Lancaster). 

--School's almost out! What's your favorite summer activity? Favorite ice cream flavor?

The BEACH! I don't know if that's an activity but that is my favorite part of summer. No doubt. We have a great place just two hours away and I hope to spend LOTS of time there as soon as school's out. I love to walk, run, read, and play with my kids there. And I love how tired we are at the end of the day. I also have a great place to write there and get a lot of work done, so that's nice too.  

I like cookie dough ice cream best, but honestly I'm not a huge ice cream fan. I'd rather skip the ice cream and eat more cake!!! 

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Kit Wilkinson is a former Ph.D. student who once wrote discussions on the medieval feminine voice. She now prefers weaving stories of romance and redemption. Her first inspirational manuscript won the prestigious RWA Golden Heart and sold to Harlequin.

Besides writing, she loves hanging out with friends and family, cooking for lots of people, and spending time in the sun. She, her two children and one extremely energetic Border Collie live in central Virginia.

New Kid on the Block

Missy, here. I'd like to welcome new kid Ginny Aiken, who's not actually new to Love Inspired (she's had LI suspense novels published) but is new to Love Inspired Romance. Her first LI, The Daddy Surprise, will be out in June.


Ginny, congrats on your upcoming LI! Can you tell us titles of the books you've published with Love Inspired Suspense?

Mixed up With The Mob

Mistaken For The Mob

Married to The Mob

Danger in a Small Town

Suspicion

Someone To Love

All of them are LI Suspense, and the first three were the most fun to write of all I've written, while the other three were definitely the most challenging because of the subject matter. I love both series.

Can you tell us a blurb about The Daddy Surprise?

I can't beat the back cover copy on the absolutely gorgeous cover of The Daddy Surprise! Here it is:

Matthew "Ryder" Lyndon has just learned he's the father of a five-year-old girl. A girl who suddenly appears in his life with her mother, Lucie Adams--and Lucie is everything Ryder remembers. Beautiful, sun-washed, a free spirit who made him smile. But she'd trampled his heart with her sudden disappearance six years ago. Coming face-to-face with each other again, both Ryder and Lucie are reminded of what they once shared. Now God has given him an unexpected blessing in their daughter. After all this time, can Ryder find a place for them in his life?

Sounds like a great story! What's your favorite vacation spot?

Vacation? You've got to be kidding! What's a vacation??? Four college educations have put vacations in a distant category. These days, my favorite vacation is time with my two little grandsons...wherever they might be.

Grandkids are enough fun to call a vacation! :) What's something people may not know about you?

That English isn't my native language! Believe me, in spite of my lack of foreign accent and my totally American education, sentence structure has at times been a massive challenge.

Ginny, thanks so much for giving us a sneak peek! We'll be looking forward to your new book. I guess book club subscribers will get it this month! :)


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A former newspaper reporter, Ginny Aiken lives in northwestern Indiana with her husband of thirty-four years, their three dogs, and her husband's miniature parrot--yes, his parrot. Ginny was born in Havana, Cuba, and was raised in Valencia and Caracas, Venezuela. An avid reader, she wrote her first book at the age of fifteen but burned it when she turned a 'mature' sixteen. University in Europe, college in northwestern Pennsylvania, and four sons followed. In the hope of retaining some sanity amid all that testosterone, she turned to writing and still works at the hardest job she'll ever love--except raising those four guys. When Ginny's not writing, she's reading, knitting, embroidering counted cross-stitch, or playing with her two gorgeous grandsons.