Healing the Forest Ranger Interview

How exciting to have Lyndsy Warner, the heroine from “Healing the Forest Ranger,” written by Leigh Bale a May 2013 release from Love Inspired Romance.

1.     Lyn, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I’m a forest ranger.  Most people find that career choice interesting for a woman.  But I love it.  There are less than 400 forest rangers in the United States.  It’s a very specialized field and requires a variety of skills and whole lot of education.  Managing grazing, timber harvest, fishery and wildlife, parks and recreation, wildfires, and mining issues on national lands isn’t an easy job.  But the personal rewards are amazing.

2.     What do you do for fun?

Lately, I did nothing but work.  My husband, Rob, was killed in a terrible car accident a year ago.  My 9-year old daughter, Kristen, lost her leg in the accident.  It broke our hearts.  But losing Rob really damaged my relationship with Kristen, too.  I think we both blamed ourselves for the accident, even though it wasn’t our fault.  The accident was caused by a drunk driver.  But in retrospect, I think it’s normal to think of all the “would-of,” “could-of,” and “should-of” thinks I might have done in order to prevent the accident.  Now that I have Cade Baldwin in my life, I enjoy so many things.  Mostly riding horses.  Cade and I love watching the wild horses running free in Secret Valley, Nevada.  We rescued a mustang foal and took it home to raise.  My daughter named the filly Lightning.  And that little horse was the catalyst to help my daughter on the road to recovery after the accident.  It’s been a long, but remarkable journey to heal our broken hearts.

3.     What do you put off doing because you dread it?

Are you kidding?  I’m a normal mom.  Laundry and housework are not my favorite.  But gardening?  Planting and weeding flowers?  I’m there.  As a forest ranger, I love spending time outdoors.  I always have.  There is something so surreal about being alone on a horse on a mountain top at over eleven hundred feet elevation and gazing down at a mountain lake and the carpet of Douglas fir and aspens.  For me, it’s one of the closest places to heaven on earth.  Not because of the high elevation, but because I get to view God’s creation without disturbance.  And I start to reflect on my life and how blessed I truly am.

4.     What are you afraid of most in life?

Losing someone I love and not having the faith to make it through.  Having gone through it before, I know the helpless, lost panic that can come over you when it happens.  It took me a long time to recognize that God is there, even in our deepest, darkest moments.  He never leaves us.  Not even then.

5.     What is the most important thing to you?

The Lord and my family.  Being there for my loved ones.  Being strong when they are having trouble making it through.  Life is hard.  Very hard.  I don’t know how I could get through everything life throws my way without the support of my family and the Lord.

6.     Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?

Sorry, but I don’t read a lot of books.  I read a lot of research and studies.  Because of my work, I’m always reading up on the latest research, wildfire fighting techniques, grazing studies, plant studies, you name it.  Sounds kind of boring when I put it that way, but then I take the information I’ve learned and find ways to put it to use.  How to get an over-grazed pasture to come back to life.  How to keep the mine tailings from destroying a watershed and filtering down to kill numerous wildlife and poisoning the water supply of a town.  That kind of stuff.  And that work is incredibly exciting to me.  Especially when I succeed in my work.

7.     If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’m too much of a pessimist.  I always fear the worst will happen.  But of course, weaknesses can also be strengths.  Because I fear the worst, I tend to anticipate and take precautions and prepare.  That’s one of my great strengths.  My challenge is to find a happy medium.  J

8.     Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

Oh, boy!  Do I ever have pets.  Of course, they’re not “traditional” pets.  I have a whole national forest filled with pets.  And I am their caregiver.  Wild horses, mule deer, antelope, desert bighorn sheep, gophers, coyotes, black bears, sage grouse, and even lowly lizards and snakes.  They are all my concern.  At home, I have horses and love to ride.  In fact, I practically live on a horse.  For me, horses are a tool I use to perform my daily work as a forest ranger.  They’re also my friends.

9.     If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I’d love to go back to 1905, when the U.S. Forest Service was first established.  My great-great-grandfather was one of the first forest rangers.  Back in those days, it was dangerous to be a forest ranger.  They had the unsavory job of telling some very hardened ranchers when and where they could graze their livestock on lands that were previously open to anyone and anything.  But once President Roosevelt established areas of protected national lands, in order to preserve them for future generations, we had to step in and stop the abuse.  Those early forest rangers packed a gun on their hips.  And the first rangers were tough men in their own right.  They had to be in order to get the job done.  Being a ranger is still dangerous work, but we no longer pack a gun.  We have very solitary work and are frequently alone out in nature where we encounter the occasional escaped convict on the run.  We have to be vigilant and careful.  But I’d love to travel back in time to meet those men who first started my profession.  They might be stunned to see that a woman is a forest ranger, but I’d love to talk with them just the same.  Especially my great-great-grandfather.  I have a feeling we’d have a lot in common.  And I’d love to thank him for the great work he did in paving a legacy for our future.

                                           

Featured Book: Healing the Forest Ranger

Rancher to the rescue:

When a wild mustang threatens someone's life, rancher Cade Baldwin springs into action. But he's not pleased when he sees the beautiful woman he's saved is the town's new forest ranger. Lyn Warner is determined to round up the wild horses Cade loves so much. But she's also the woman who makes him smile like no one else. After her husband died in a car crash, Lyn turned her back on her beliefs and focused all her attention on her injured daughter. But Cade's strong faith and steady love might be exactly what they all need to create an unbreakable family.

Ask Elnora--About RT in Kansas City-Lenora Worth

Hello my lovely ladies and Vince! What a week we have had. I got home from my girls' beach trip and turned around to pack for Kansas City. I am attending the Romantic Times Book Lovers Convention. We drove across the country to get here and the weather was so nice, we put the top down on my little Mini Cooper. As I write this, however, it is snowing! I can see it out the window of our hotel room. I'll show a picture of that later. The scoop here, of course, is all about e-books and self-publishing. Mark Coker (of Smashwords fame) showed some compelling statics regarding the rise of e-publishing since this time last year and how authors who really promote their e-books can sell an impressive number of books. Covers count, he believes. Staying on top of promoting your books adds up to more books sold. And pricing your book around $2.99 to $3.99 seems to be important. Of course, good old traditional books were plentiful and in demand around here, too.

I was on a panel with Colleen Coble, Thomas-Nelson Senior Acquisitions Editor Ami McConnell and Deeanne Gist and we had a good time talking books with both aspiring writers and avid readers. I was touched when two of the audience members told me mine was the first inspirational they ever read and that they loved my books. They bragged on all of us, actually. One sweet lady said her daughter brings her to RT to meet her favorite writers. We had a great time. I also had lunch with writers Sherri Shackelford and Winnie Griggs along with Diane Moggy and Glenda Howard (both from Harlequin) We talked about a lot of things, especially the new HAN (Harlequin Authors Network) and how much we like it.

In the meantime, I've enjoyed walking around Union Station with Big Daddy. Below are some pictures of this beautiful train station that now holds shops and restaurants. Lucky for us, there is an enclosed catwalk around the hotels that lead to the station and a mall. Here are some pictures of our adventures:

 

 

 

So snow in May, e-books the topic of the day, all sorts of costumes and writers, 30 years of romance and lots of laughter and fun. RT has only just begun. And we, the writers, thank RT for a great convention and we hope for many more years of reading, writing and good intention!!!

 

 

Does Weather Up Suspense?

Debby Giusti here!


It's overcast in Georgia, which means it's a perfect day to write suspense. This spring has been a mix of sunny skies and stormy days with dropping temps. For me, the latter lends itself to writing suspense.

I like my stories to take place in chilly weather, either fall or winter. A soaking rain, a gusty blast of wind, hail or snow or sleet...all that inclement weather ups the suspense and makes the characters work harder to achieve their happily ever after. I save the sunshine and flowers for the epilogue when everything has been resolved and the hero and heroine declare their love.

What's your favorite weather for a suspense story?

Wishing you abundant blessings,
Debby Giusti
www.DebbyGiusti.com
www.seekerville.blogspot.com

THE GENERAL'S SECRETARY

By Debby Giusti

Trusting the Wrong Person Can Be Deadly...

Lillie Beaumont's dark past has just turned up on her porch--fatally wounded. The dying words of the man imprisoned for killing Lillie's mother suggest hidden secrets. Criminal Investigations Division special agent Dawson Timmons agrees. He has his own motive for seeking the truth, and it gives Lillie every reason to doubt him. But even as they reluctantly begin to face painful secrets together, Dawson fears that a murderer is waiting to strike again. And this time, Lillie is right in the line of fire...

Alone and Afraid. Christine Johnson

Imagine losing your parents at a young age. Your whole life would be turned upside down. According to family stories, my great-grandfather and his brother arrived in this country as orphans. They were fortunate. A family here gave them a home and a new last name. How scared they must have been in that time between losing their parents and finding a new home. How would they survive in a strange country? Would they have to work in order to eat? Where would they stay? How would they get by when they didn’t understand the language?

Many of us are fortunate enough to only imagine such a thing, but for hundreds of thousands of children in 19^th century America, that scenario played out again and again. Many of those orphans were children of immigrants, with no relatives who could care for them and no generous family to take them in. They ended up in orphanages or on the streets. Unwanted. Hungry. Often reviled.

By the mid-1800s, city orphanages were crowded, and many other orphaned children roamed the streets scavenging for food and other necessities. That’s when the idea of sending orphans away from the squalor of the cities to small towns and farms took hold. People like Charles Loring Brace of the Children’s Aid Society believed these children could get a fresh start in kind, Christian homes in Middle America. Thus was born what we now call the Orphan Train movement.

The first orphans sent west by train arrived in Dowagiac, Michigan in 1854. After the success in placing the children there, trainloads of orphans continued to be sent west from eastern seaboard cities through the late 1920s. Some found wonderful new families, some did not adjust to the change, and others ended up in bad situations. PBS aired a wonderful program on Orphan Trains in their American Experience series (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan/).

I am blessed that my parents are still living. There have been times, though, when I felt alone and afraid. One time before I carried a cell phone, my car died on the side of the expressway far from home. The world suddenly became a scary place. Praise God, help arrived. Have you ever experienced a time when you felt very much alone?

Leave a comment today for a chance to win my May book, The Marriage Barter, the second book in the Orphan Train series!

In Love Inspired Historical’s Orphan Train series, the last unclaimed orphans on a train headed through Nebraska meet disaster when robbers attack the train. The series starts in April with Allie Pleiter’s Family Lessons, continues in May with my book, The Marriage Barter, and wraps up in June with Linda Ford’s The Baby Compromise. Though these orphans have good people advocating for them, frightening circumstances leave them feeling alone and afraid. In time they learn that love can conquer the most frightened heart and create new families from the broken shards of our lives.

Christine Johnson

The Marriage Barter

Love Inspired Historical

May 2013

Website: http://christineelizabethjohnson.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChristineJohnsonAuthor

Need a story idea? Try the Lost and Found!

Where can you find a good story idea? How about the lost and found? Hello, all. Dana Mentink here and there’s nothing more intriguing than a Lost and Found. It’s a tiny snapshot into the crazy world of people’s passions and playthings. If you’ve left something on a train, bus, cab or coach during your jaunt through England, you can visit the Lost and Found in the basement of Baker Street, Central London. For 75 years the place has been collecting items left behind by travelers. Not just the expected collection of brollies (though the basement houses more than 7000 lost umbrellas a year), you can find such nutty items as a puffer fish, clothing, false teeth, watches and two urns of ashes. No reports on whether or not Jimmy Hoffa has surfaced yet. I can’t help thinking this would be a great place to start a suspense novel. What if the clerk at the Lost and Found happened upon something…say a small black notebook with some hard to decipher writing? Or a round disk with a series of numbers printed on it? And what if this discovery soon had her running for her life? What do you think? And what, pray tell, is the strangest thing YOU’VE ever lost or found?

Writing TEXAS COWBOYS Comes Naturally to Debra Clopton

Debra Clopton here and yes I do love Texas Cowboys and you ma have heard the saying "Write what you know, or love" well I believe that. So, since I live in the heart of Texas Cowboy country and am surrounded...it just came naturally to write about them. First with my long running MULE HOLLOW series and now with my new COWBOYS OF SUNRISE RANCH I love bringing strong men to the pages of my books. Men who tip their hats, swagger a little and always open doors for a lady--whether she wants him to or not!

I think most cowboys are unforgettable...so when I was searching for a title for the 1st book of this series HER UNFORGETTABLE COWBOY was the perfect fit--after all Jolie Sheridan broke off her engagement to Morgan McDermott but she was never able to forget him! For more behind info on the creation of the series check out my blog post http://debraclopton.com/category/personal/ and sign up for my newsletter on the Contest page and a chance to win a prize!

Here's the blurb:    A New Beginning
Everyone in Dew Drop, Texas, is thrilled that Jolie Sheridan has returned to Sunrise Ranch. Everyone except Morgan McDermott. Eight years ago, Jolie left the ranch—and Morgan—for a career as a competitive kayaker. Now after an accident has sidelined her, she's back as a teacher for the ranch's foster boys. Morgan knows he can't risk getting his heart broken again. But watching Jolie's gentle ways with the boys opens his eyes to the truth: he's never stopped loving her. Can a "family" of foster kids help give this couple a second chance at love?

I have a sweepstakes on my Facebook page for a chance to win also: http://on.fb.me/17rNSeT
Follow me on Twitter @debraclopton and facebook and http://www.debraclopton.com

The Marriage Barter Interview

How exciting to have with us today Wyatt Reed, the hero from THE MARRIAGE BARTER written by Christine Johnson, a May 2013 release from Love Inspired Historical Romance.

1.  Mr. Reed, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I can shoot a hole through a birch leaf at a hundred yards. All right. I guess that might not be interesting to the ladies. Let’s see. I’ve got a bullet lodged in my knee. Got it in the war. Fought for the Union, mind you. Part of General Sherman’s troops that blazed through the South to end that terrible war.

2.  What do you do for fun?

Fun isn’t a word I use much. I’m a tracker. That means I hunt for people who are missing. Mostly fugitives. That’s not fun, folks. It’s dangerous work. One mistake and you’re dead. I relax by riding hard. Dusty—that’s my horse—and I like a good gallop in open country.

3.  What do you put off doing because you dread it?

Anything, and I mean anything, that involves women. I gotta stay tough and alert to keep alive. A man tends to get distracted around the ladies, if you know what I mean.

4.  What are you afraid of most in life?

That the nightmares won’t end.

5.  What do you want out of life?

I don’t expect anything from life. If you don’t expect things, you won’t be disappointed.

6.  What is the most important thing to you?

It used to be faith and family, but the war took that away from me. A man sees things and does things in war that he’s none too proud of afterwards. I wish I’d done things differently, mind you. Every day. Sometimes when I see a family with young’uns, I get to dreamin’ about what might’ve been. If this here job works out, I’m heading west. Going clear to San Francisco. Maybe there I can start over.

7.  If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would never have lost my temper. I keep it under control now. Have to. But in the war, I let that anger loose, and others paid the price. Regret it every day, and that ain’t no way to live.

8.  Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

I’m a tracker. I’m always on the move. There’s no place in that kinda life for a pet. Closest thing I got is Dusty. He’s the best mount I ever had. Smart as tacks. Bit of a temper. Guess that’s fair enough considering I got a bit of one myself.

9. Can you tell us a little interesting tidbit about the time period you live in?

Ten years after the Civil War, and the railroad’s finally laid tracks across the whole country—coast to coast. Part of it passes right by Evans Grove, Nebraska, where I got this simple job to do. Seems a bunch of orphans got stranded here when their train got robbed. All I got to do is bring ‘em twelve miles to Greenville. The town’s offered a bundle of money for it too. I figure it’ll take me only a day or two, and then I’ll be on my way to a new life. 

FEATURED BOOK: THE MARRIAGE BARTER BY CHRISTINE JOHNSON

Mission: Children


Rounding up a gaggle of orphans isn't Wyatt Reed's specialty. Still, the bounty hunter is being paid handsomely to bring these children from Evans Grove to the next town. And then he sets eyes on one pigtailed, pint-sized complication, and the beautiful widow who needs his help.



Charlotte Miller's marriage lacked love, but at least it gave her the right to adopt little Sasha. Now without a husband, she can't be a mother. Wyatt agrees to be her groom-for-hire—only until Sasha is hers. But the man who couldn't wait to leave town is finding unexpected reasons to stay…and glimpsing a future surpassing any fortune he's known.

The Marriage Barter

by Christine Johnson

Love Inspired Historical

May 2013

http://christineelizabethjohnson.com

Ask Elnora-- about friendship--Lenora Worth

Darlings, I am at the beach at beautiful Orange Beach, Alabama with a group of ladies I call the Surf  Sisters. You   have heard me mention them before. They are my dear friends and I'm happy to be back with them for the weekend. That got me to thinking about what true friendship means. I can tell you what it means to me:

It means laughing until you cry. It means crying when you pour out your heart then crying until you can finally laugh again. It means fighting like sisters but defending each other like warriors. It means shopping until you drop, then modeling what you bought and comparing notes to see who got the best bargain. ( I once got a suede coat that was priced at $250.00 for $1.08. Yes, one dollar and eight cents!!)  It means life, death and birth. It means carrot cake and coffee and trail mix and happy trails. It means knowing someone is in your corner even when you've painted yourself into that corner.  It means no matter how far away you are, when you get back together you are home.

What does true friendship mean to you?  Let's discuss!!

Word Search Puzzle and a Giveaway

Hi.  Winnie Griggs here.  I thought we'd take a break from our normal type of post here and do a fun word search puzzle instead.  In the puzzle below, you can find the names of our 15 Love Inspired Historical authors who post regularly here at the Craftie Ladies site.  And just to make it more interesting, to all of  those who post a comment indicating you've found at least 12 of them (we'll go on the honor system) I'll put your name in the hat for a chance to win an advance copy of my upcoming June release, The Bride Next Door.

Have fun!

Book Covers: from Vague Ideas to the Reader's Hands

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Naomi Rawlings here, and I thought I'd share a bit about book covers with you today. Have you ever looked at a book cover and thought, Oh, that looks interesting? 

If so, the next thing you probably did was pick up the book and glance at the back cover copy to find a little more about the story. Perhaps at this point, you put the book down and realized it wasn't quite like you thought it was going to be. Or maybe the paragraphs on the back of the book made you even more curious about the story. So then you find the price, flip the book open to the first chapter, and decide whether you want to buy the book.

Or perhaps the opposite is true. Have you ever seen a book cover that made you cringe and walk to the other side of the store?(Don't feel bad. I think we've all done that before).

I'm currently in the process of gathering cover information for my next book (The Wyoming Heir, which releases January 2014). And while every publisher goes about creating book covers a bit differently, they all have the same goal in mind: To make a cover so eye-catching readers will take a moment out of their busy day to give the book a second glance.

For all of the Love Inspired imprints (Contemporary, Suspense, and Historical), authors fill out a cover form on the computer called an Art Fact Sheet. This sheet asks for all kinds of information about the story. The year and place in which the novel takes place, the themes of the book, the looks of the hero and heroine, etc. On top of that, I also have to provide a summary of the novel, as well as pictures of famous people who look like me hero and heroine. For example, my hero, Luke Hayes, is a rancher from Wyoming and looks a little like . . . Paul Walker.

My heroine teaches advanced mathematics at a girls preparatory school, and she looks like . . . Amy Adams.

Furthermore, the story takes place in 1893 upstate New York. So then I had to dig up some pictures of New York in the fall.

 

And then, I'd really like for the story to convey that my rancher isn't very comfortable being called to New York and thrust into all the business his late grandfather left behind. So I thought, why not have a western cowboy on the cover with a fancy white mansion in the background? I found this picture of a mansion:

All in all, Love Inspired writers have to give the Art Department three different scene ideas for the front cover. Then the Art Department decides which scene they think will do best on the front of the novel and use that.

So what will the cover for The Wyoming Heir look like when all it's done? I have no idea! I've got to wait until this fall to find out. But I do know that the art department will try very hard to create a cover that will appeal to readers like you.

So now I'm curious. Is there a book cover you saw recently that you loved? Please do share. I'd love to know what some of your favorite book covers look like. As for me, one of my best friends (Melissa Jagears) has a debut novel releasing in October, and I'm completely in love with the cover.

What do you think?

You Can Change Lives

Sandra Orchard here to tell you that you have something very significant to offer other people: You!

You don't have to be a published writer to touch lives, or have accomplished some heroic act, or be expert in some field. You've had many experiences in your life--both positive and negative--and others can benefit immensely from that experience...if you're willing.

There are infinite opportunities to come alongside someone and encourage them.
Do you see yourself in any of these roles?

As a young mom, I was blessed to have more experienced moms (and even teens who'd had more babysitting experience than me!!!) offer encouragement and advice and lend a helping hand. And to tell me that yes, it's perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed by it all sometimes.

As a home educator, I was blessed by the experience of those who'd navigated through the grades and stages ahead of me and were willing to share their experience, their resources, their triumphs and their frustrations.

Oops! How did that get in there?!

When I lost my parents, I was blessed by those who weren't afraid to cry with me, to bare their hearts, and share their own journeys through grief.

As a new believer, I was blessed by those who'd not only encourage me to go to church, but go out of their way to drive me, by those who'd lead by example, by those who'd hold be accountable, and especially by those who weren't afraid to be real about their struggles.

As a young wife, I was blessed by older women who helped me master cooking a Christmas turkey, building gingerbread houses, navigating a tax return, balancing the many aspects of running a home.

 As a wife at every stage, I've been blessed by women who'd be transparent about the emotional roller coaster marriage can be and who didn't shy away from asking the hard questions or offering advice.

As an aspiring writer, I was blessed by the encouragement of other writers, both published and aspiring. Women who freely shared their knowledge, their experiences, and offered their advice and prayers.

As a published writer, I continue to be blessed by the mentorship of other writers--and not just published ones. I have several critique partners who offer me invaluable advice, and encouragement with every manuscript, and who pray for me. This is a huge time commitment on their part and I am so grateful for them.

 I love being on the other side of the scenarios above, too. The most fulfilling, of course, is coming alongside my own daughter as she raises my granddaughter, and awaits a second. Yee! (Sorry, couldn't help it those squeals just come out uncontrollably sometimes.)

Whatever your vocation, passion, hobby, you have likely been blessed by someone who has taken time to help you grow in it.

And you can do the same for others.

Your Turn: How has someone touched your life? Don't be shy about sharing. You may inspire someone to touch another's life in what you say!

Drawing Readers Into the Story Through Settings
By Carrie Turansky

Hi Friends,
Taking Readers to unique settings is something I enjoy doing to make my novels memorable. I've set stories in rural Vermont, Princeton, Portland, Philadelphia, and Kenya. My next novel, The Governess of Highland Hall, will be set in Berkshire, England.

 My last three Love Inspired novels, Seeking His Love, A Man To Trust, and Snowflake Sweethearts were all set in Fairhaven, the beautful historic section of Bellingham, Washington.

These three novels were published over a two-year period, so it may be hard to find paperback copies, but they are all available as eBooks. Many readers have told me they enjoyed the descriptions of the setting and felt like Fairhaven was a real location. And I am always delighted to tell them that it is. I chose Fairhaven because I liked the name, and thought it would be wonderful place for my heroine in Seeking His Love to find a safe refuge.

Rachel Clark, the new director of the Nortcoast Christian Youth Theater, is seeking to escape her past mistakes and make a fresh start in Fairhhaven. Handsome frame shop owner, Cameron McKenna, ovesees the Fairhaven Arts Center, and he needs to rent space to the youth theater to raise funding to keep the center open. But secrets and hurts from the past could destroy their relationship and hurt all those who are counting on them. It's a tender story with a sweet romance.

Ross Peterson, a secondary character from Seeking His Love, became the hero in A Man To Trust. Ross's photography business fails, and he must take on a new job as manager of Bayside Books. Adrie Chandler has been the acting manager, until someone can be found to take her place. But when Ross steps in, she is not sure she wants to leave and follow her dream to become a classical musician.

In each book I include four senior-age friends who are known around town as the Bayside Treasures. They are life-long friends, faithful prayer warriors, avid Scrabble players, and soft-hearted matchmakes. It was fun to watch their plans for younger firends and family memebers find lasting love.

I used actal businesses, events, and special sites in each book. You'll find mentions of Village Books, Katie's Cupcakes, The Village Green, The Annual Salmon Bake, The Tylor Dock and South Bay Trail, Mt. Baker Theater, The Bellingham Cruise Terminal, Skylarks, Chuckanaut Drive, and Larrabee State Park.

Some may be surprised to read that I have never been to Fairhaven, but I was able to write the stories with accuracy by doing reasearch online, watchign videos, and by connecting with people in Fairhaven to check my facts.

I hope to visit Fairhaven some day, and when I do, I think I will feel like I am coming home. If you travel to North West Washington State, I hope you will stop in and visit our friends there! Here is a link to what's happening in Fairhaven: http://www.fairhaven.com.

Check out my Pinterest boards for more photos of the characters and settings for these books: http://pinterest.com/carrieturansky/

What is one of your favorite settings? Leave us a comment, or stop by my website for more information on these books: http://www.carrieturansky.com.

Ask Elnora--How do you mend a broken heart? Lenora Worth

What a week. I'm beginning to dread my birthday each year. So many mass tragedies have happened over the years during this week in April. It's supposed to be spring. It's supposed to be a time of rebirth and rejoicing. But even as the flowers bloom and the rain pours, evil tries to fill our world with darkness and fear.

But we do not have a spirit filled with fear. We have a spirit filled with love. Christ died for that love.  We live because of that love. Each time something horrible happens, we prove over and over that love never fails. Our hearts may be broken, but God's love mends all broken hearts. God's love shields us with an armor of hope and His strength gives us the strength to carry on.

In Boston, heroes ran toward the smoke. That is love. In Texas, a man and woman rush into a damaged nursing home to help the elderly. That is love.  Teachers protect little children. Fathers shield tiny daughters. Mothers hold their babies close. That is love. This country, with all the politics and the parties, with all the demanding discussions and angry rhetoric and all the spins and the bluster and the speeches and the confusion--this country, no matter, always rushes toward the smoke. That is love.

What a week. As Jimmy Buffet would say "Just one more candle and a trip around the sun."
Each sunrise brings a new day. And each sunset brings us a sense of peace. If we run toward love, evil can never win. If we run toward love, there will always be a light in the darkness.