New for August from Our Love Inspired Contemporary Authors

Jean C. Gordon here with new must buys from our Love Inspired Contemporary authors. Just click on a cover to buy one. And to learn more about these talented ladies, click on their names.

Texas Daddy
by Jolene Navarro 

THE COWBOY'S SECOND CHANCE
Being a devoted dad is former bull rider Adrian De La Cruz's top priority. So when Mia suffers a rodeo injury and winds up recovering alongside Adrian's first crush, Nikki Bergmann, he becomes even more protective of his daughter—and his heart. Nikki is back in Clear Water solely to recover, and he knows she has no intention of staying. But as the bond between Mia and Nikki grows, Adrian can't help falling for her once again. Until Nikki's long-buried secret comes to light, and Adrian must decide if he can forgive the past, or face a future without the woman he's never been able to forget.

Reuniting His Family
by Jean C. Gordon

A FATHER'S PROMISE
Rhys Maddox wants nothing more than custody of his two sons. Released from prison after a wrongful charge, the widowed dad will do anything to bring his boys home where they belong. But that doesn't include falling for their former social worker. Now leading an outreach program for families in transition, Renee Delacroix can't escape the tall, dark and intriguing single dad ... or his adorable little boys. But Rhys is determined to go it alone. Until one incident that may cost him what he wants the most. Now it's up to Renee to save him ... if she can make him see she's just what he needs to complete their forever family.

Meet the Donnelly Brothers

Hometown boys make good . . . and find love

 

Jared

A HOMETOWN REUNION

Single mom Becca Norton is surprised to discover her high school crush Jared Donnelly is back in town. The motocross champion hasn't been home in years, but the former bad boy is as gorgeous as she remembers. And his kindness toward her kids melts her heart. But when she learns his true purpose in town is to build a motocross school on land near her home, she has to put on the brakes. Her children's welfare is her priority, and her former in-laws have made it clear they don't approve of Jared or his plans. Soon Becca may have to choose between her heart…and her home.

Connor

THE PASTOR'S CHRISTMAS MATCH

Pastor Connor Donnelly is done with romance. After proposing to his high school sweetheart, Natalie Delacroix, five years ago—and being turned down—he's putting all his time and energy into his community. He's determined to make the Christmas pageant he's directing a success. But family and friends are set on fixing up the good-looking bachelor in time for the holidays. And now that Natalie is back in Paradox Lake—and helping with the pageant—they might just succeed. Because working so closely with Natalie stirs up old feelings…and Connor starts to hope for a second chance with the one who got away. 

Josh 
FALLING FOR THE BACHELOR
Tessa Hamilton never imagined the hardest part of having her best friend help renovate her small-town movie theater would be keeping her heart safe. She can't fall for a man who has no interest in a serious relationship with any woman…and who doesn't know the secret she hides. Besides, Josh Donnelly is too eager to leave Paradox Lake—especially when his estranged father returns. Tessa struggles with the turmoil, but as she falls deeper for the bachelor, she knows she must be honest if there's any chance for them. But will telling Josh put everything at risk—including their friendship?

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Coming Together by Jean C. Gordon

I love it when a community comes together for the good of all, whether it's picking up after a disaster, pulling together to save an historical building, or, like the village and hamlets in our township, finding a creative way to fund a community project. Keying off the fact that the village is a former rail hub, three years ago, our town started an annual summer exhibition of train sculptures.

Local businesses and individuals contribute to buy the forms and other supplies to create the sculptures. Potential artists submit sketches of their designs on a photocopy of what the undecorated train engine forms will look like. This year 20 designs were chosen and, since Memorial Day, the completed sculptures have been displayed along the streets of Ravena, Coeymans, Coeymans Hollow, and Alcove (the village and hamlets in our township). The week after Labor Day, the sculptures will be auctioned off at the Coeymans Marina and the proceeds will go toward youth programming for the community. Last year's auction funded a movie projector for the town's summer movie nights. The sculptures pictured are the ones I drive by on my way to the grocery store and church.

My next Love Inspired romance Holiday Homecoming (available now for preorder) features a community event, too, an ecumenical Christmas Pageant on Christmas Eve. Pastor Connor Donnelly is done with romance. After proposing to his high school sweetheart, Natalie Delacroix, five years ago—and being turned down—he’s putting all his time and energy into his community. He’s determined to make the Christmas pageant he’s directing a success. But family and friends are set on fixing up the good-looking bachelor in time for the holidays. And now that Natalie is back in Paradox Lake—and helping with the pageant—they might just succeed. Because working so closely with Natalie stirs up old feelings…and Connor starts to hope for a second chance with the one who got away.

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall – Does the Season Matter?

 by Jean C. Gordon

Do you what September is? September is National Chicken Month. Thank you Little Gray, Yellow, Brown, and Yellow Spot for posing. 

It's also the beginning of Fall, my favorite season, ushered in at 10:29 last night. My birthday is in September. Our wedding anniversary is in September. We're blessed with beautiful fall foliage. And school starts. I was enough of a geek that I always looked forward to going back to school.

Which brings me to a question: Does the season a book is set in influence your book choices? Aside from holiday-month books — I love holiday books — I never gave much thought to the season in which a book was set, either in my reading or my writing, until my ninth book, Small-Town Mom. The season only came to my attention then when we were at the cover stage. The story takes place in the dead of a frigid Adirondack Mountains winter. But the book came out in June, and initially, the cover had no snow and looked like spring, not winter. The dusting of snow was added to bring it into season.

With the books I've written since then, I've thought about when it will be published and tried to mesh the story's season with the publication season (or close). And, just for fun, I checked the seasons my books are set in. Four are set in the fall, one in the winter, and the rest take place in the summer.

Stories, Stories Everywhere

by Jean C. Gordon

Readers often ask, "Where do you get your story ideas? "My short answer is "Life." Maybe I should refine that to "Ordinary Life."

For instance the idea for my first published book, a sweet romance, came from the experience of another family that was adopting a Korean baby from the same agency we used to adopt our son. The Korean agency had a strict rule of allowing only married couples to adopt its children. Sadly, after a child was placed with a local family, the mother died before the adoption was finalized. Initially, the agency wanted to take the child back. I don't know what actually happened, but the resolution in my story is a happy one--naturally.

An article I read at work in The Wall Street Journal  planted the seed of my second book. It was about a financial planner who scammed older people. In my book, the hero's grandmother was scammed. My heroine works for the practice that scammed her. Of course, she knows nothing about it. But the hero doesn't know that.

Small-Town Sweethearts, my first Love Inspired Romance grew from a comment a family member made about how she liked their new church because it was more formal, and she could worship privately there. In contrast, I really like our church because of the fellowship the congregation shares. I started thinking about the value of Christian fellowship and how different people perceive it, and the story unfolded.

An incident my daughter experienced as a midwife inspired my latest Love Inspired, Small-Town Midwife. I thought, what if Autumn, my midwife heroine, no longer has the confidence to catch babies. Then, I brought in Dr. Jon Hanlon who exudes nothing but confidence in his technical app roach to delivering babies. How could a romance not develop?

Think about your life. How many story ideas do you see?

Unusual Place Names

Jean C. Gordon here to talk about unusual place names. When we travel, I like to note unusual place names. That’s how I came up with the Paradox Lake setting for my Love Inspired books, Small-Town Sweethearts (January 2012) and Small-Town Dad (January 2013). In the first book, Emily Hazard faces a paradox when she comes home to Paradox Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York to stay with her teenage niece while Emily’s brother is deployed to Afghanistan with his Reserve unit.  

Paradox Lake gets its name from a unique occurrence which happens every spring. Melting snow in the eastern Adirondack Mountains flows into the Schroon (not Loon) River. Paradox Lake's outlet also flows into the Schroon River, but due to the sudden increase in water, the outflow is forced back, causing it to flow in reverse.  In addition to the Schroon River, there’s also a Schroon Lake. From what I could find, the origin of that name is unknown. But it’s stuck in my mind because, on one vacation in the Adirondacks, our then-small daughter kept looking for “schroons” after hearing me mention the name of the lake to my husband.

The Village of Ticonderoga is also near Paradox Lake. Home of Fort Ticonderoga, which played a role in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, Ticonderoga comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways" (Lake Champlain and Lake George, joined by the La Chute River).

Closer to home, we have Hannicroix, Coxsackie, and Catskill. Hannicroix takes its name from the nearby Hannicroix Creek. According to an old story, early Dutch settlers saw a rooster floating down the creek on a block of ice, so the creek became known as the Hannekraai, meaning "cock-crowing" creek.

From what I could find, Coxsackie (pronounced coke-sah-key) is from a native word mak-kachs-hack-ing, which Dutch settlers wrote as Koxhackung. It is generally translated as "Hoot-owl place” or "place of many owls.” As for Catskill (the village and mountain range), the name has nothing to do with killing cats or, most likely. cats at all. The actual origin is murky, but “kill” is Dutch for creek. We have numerous “kills” in the area. A 1656 map of New Netherland located the 'Landt van Kats Kill' at the mouth of the Kats Kill. 

Finally, we come to my township, Coeymans. I’m going to randomly give away a copy of Small-Town Sweethearts to one person who posts how they think my town is pronounced — I had it totally wrong when we moved here — and one person who posts an unusual place name. I’ll stop back tomorrow with the pronunciation and the winners.

With the help of God and the love of Drew Stacey, a down-sized Wall Street analyst turned church camp manager, NYC assistant art director and former town misfit Emily, ne Jinx, Hazard finds the thing she wants most in the place she least wants to be — Paradox Lake. Through having to be responsible for her niece, interaction with the town's people, and falling in love with Drew, she learns the meaning of Christian fellowship. 

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The Other New York

I’m a new Love Inspired author and I was thrilled to be invited to join the Craftie Ladies of Love Inspired Romance.I’m also a native Upstate New Yorker. Upstate is quite different from the Downstate New York City area. Upstate we have dairy farms, mountains, lakes, orchards, and lots of villages and hamlets with fewer than 5,000 people that aren’t near any major cities. Wyoming County in Western New York, where I grew up, is the number one diary county in the state and has about the same number of milk cows as people (40,000). Little know fact: One year — I won’t say what year — I was runner-up Wyoming County Maple Princess. And us Upstaters from Western New York root for the Buffalo Bills, not the NY Giants or Jets, no matter where we live.

My extended family — husband, daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren — lives on a small farm near the Albany/Greene County line where my son-in-law raises organic hogs and vegetables. Our son lives about 20 minutes away. This is Benny, our first boar, and the picture above is of our back fields ready to be planted with winter rye.

As an Upstater, I have a personal mission to introduce others to my part of New York State. All my contemporary books are set in Upstate New York. My first Love Inspired, Small-Town Sweethearts (January 2012), and the one I’m currently working on, tentatively titled Small-Town Dad, take place at Paradox Lake in the Adirondack Mountains, about two hours north of our house. My book cover captures the setting exactly. I love it.

Have I sold you? Are you ready to come visit us Upstate? Benny is always up for visitors.

Jean C. Gordon