Drum Roll...and our winner is...

Our winner in the drawing for a free copy of Janet Grunst’s A Heart Set Free is Amy Campbell. Congratulations, Amy! I’ll be in touch right away to get your mailing address, and a copy will be on its way to you shortly. You’re going to love this story! 

A Heart Set Free

Today I’m featuring a post by my good friend Janet Grunst about how she got the idea for her debut novel, A Heart Set Free. I highly recommend this heart-tugging story, and I’m looking forward to many more wonderful historical novels from Janet in the future! A Heart Set Free just released from Smitten Historical Romance December 2nd, and today we’re having a drawing for a free copy, in either print or ebook edition. To be entered in the drawing, please leave a comment on this post by midnight today. Don't forget to include your email address and also whether you prefer print or ebook, either mobi (Kindle) or epub (Nook). I’ll post the winner first thing in the morning. You’ll find a blurb about A Heart Set Free at the end of the post.

Welcome, Janet!

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Thank you, Joan for featuring me on your blog today. You asked how I got the idea for A Heart Set Free. There were a number of factors that gave birth to this story.

Decades ago I was a stay-at-home mom with regular columns in two regional newspapers. While I served in leadership in our church and Community Bible Study, I believed the Lord was leading me to share my faith in additional ways. Could I communicate truths of the Christian faith through writing fiction?

I am an avid reader and a student of history so there was no question the genre would be historical. For this acknowledged anglophile and a long time resident of Virginia, with its rich history, the setting was obvious. Since watching a movie about an indentured servant as a young teen, a story about this kind of immigrant had been germinating in my mind for some time. The mandate to extend forgiveness was the spiritual theme I wanted to communicate.

A great deal of time was devoted to honing my fiction writing skills and researching every detail to create a story in pre-Revolutionary War Virginia. The tale came together in six months time, but it took years of continually editing and improving the story. What followed was learning all that is involved in submitting work for publication including finding an agent and developing a platform.

An author can grow very fond of their characters so it was no surprise that I followed their lives in another story, hopefully one that will also be published.

A Heart Set Free 

by Janet S. Grunst

In 1770, Heather Douglas is desperate to escape a brewing scandal in her native Scotland. Penniless and hoping for a fresh start far away, she signs a seven-year indenture and boards a British merchant vessel headed to Virginia.

Widowed planter Matthew Stewart needs someone to help raise his two young children. The tall blond standing on the Alexandria quay doesn’t look like much after her harrowing sea voyage, but there’s a refinement about her that her filthy clothing cannot hide. Could God be leading him to take this unknown indentured servant as his wife?

When Matthew purchases Heather’s indenture, marries her, and takes her to his farm, she faces new and constant challenges. And Matthew wonders if they can ever bridge their differences and make a life together.

It is in the Virginia countryside that Heather begins her greatest journey, one of self-discovery and of maturing faith. Here, she discovers that her emotional and spiritual scars bind her far more than her indenture . . . and love will finally set her heart free.

~~~

Janet Grunst is a wife, mother of two sons, and grandmother of eight. She lives in the historic triangle of Virginia (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown) with her husband and West Highland White Terrier. A lifelong student of history, her love of writing fiction grew out of a desire to share stories that can communicate the truths of the Christian faith, as well as entertain, and bring inspiration, healing, and hope to the reader. She is represented by Linda S. Glaz of Hartline Literary Agency.

You can find Janet at:
http://JanetGrunst.com
http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/
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Holiday eBook Sale from Sheaf House!

Time to stock up on great reading—and great gifts—for Christmas! All Sheaf House ebooks are on sale for only $1.99 through November 30 on Kindle and Nook, which means you can get all 5 volumes of my American Patriot Series for only $9.95!

And for more gripping historical fiction, you’ll find Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series, which I co-authored with Bob Hostetler, at the same terrific price. Catch up with the story before Book 2, The Return, releases April 1, 2017! And for a deeply moving Christmas read, don’t miss my modern-day retelling of the Christmas story One Holy Night. Go to Kindle or Nook to find the listings. Christian Book Distributors will have their price changed early next week, so if you have an account with them, check back in a few days for that link.


Cozy mystery lovers, you’re going to love E. E. Kennedy’s delightful Miss Prentice Cozy Mystery Series! You’ll find all 4 volumes on Kindle and Nook for only $7.96! CBD link to come.

And if you love heart-warming contemporary women’s fiction, check out Jen Stephens’ Harvest Bay Series! Only $5.97 for all three: The Heart’s Journey Home, The Heart’s Lullaby, and The Heart’s Hostage. The characters will capture your heart! Kindle and Nook. I’ll also have the CBD link for this series
soon.

Elaine Marie Cooper: The Key to Inspiration

Today I'm featuring a guest post by my writing buddy, Elaine Marie Cooper. Her latest novel, Saratoga Letters, just released Monday. Be sure to check out this compelling story along with Elaine's other historical romances!

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Writers are sometimes asked where they get their ideas for a their books. There is really no clear answer for every writer nor for every book. But after writing five novels and one nonfiction, I have come to the conclusion that, for me, the key to inspiration is waiting for that nudge that begins to toy with my writer’s muse. In the case of Saratoga Letters, one of those inspiring thoughts was literally from a key.

My husband and I were visiting Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2014. We stayed at a 1970s era motel along the main road. It had the simple décor of most motels from the ‘70s—two beds with nondescript bedspreads, a slight step-up to the shower area, old white and black tile, and the standard solid black phone that was the main source of communication for visitors before cell phones were birthed.

But one of the main differences between modern day hotels and older motels is the key. In 2016, keys look like a credit card. In the 1970’s, a key was a metal device attached to a plastic key holder that was inscribed with the room number. It didn’t inspire me at first, until I looked for my key when we were checking out.

“Where is it?” I searched through my purse, around the floor of the car, and everywhere I could imagine a key slipping away from my safekeeping. My husband tried to be patient. We were already so tired from traveling hundreds of miles, that a lost key became an annoyance. I told the motel owner that I had lost the key and I was so sorry. I was sure I’d find it tucked in a suitcase or something. And of course, I eventually did—after I returned home!

But this lost key suddenly became more than a minor annoyance. It became the impetus for a story idea. I had already heard from a historian at Saratoga National Park Service about a bicentennial celebration in 1977. It was the commemoration of the 1777 win by the American troops at Saratoga, New York. So what if the fact that there were two keys to each motel room during the ‘70s meant that a female visitor to the bicentennial was in danger? What if there were leftover, deep-seated feuds from the original battle in 1777? What if hatred had sifted down through the generations to complicate the lives of those in 1977? What if… but wait. I don’t want to give the plot away entirely.

So the key to my inspiration for SaratogaLetters turned out to be just a “key” after all. Ah, but in the hands of a writer, a key can take on new dimensions. It can become the key story idea. Hope you enjoy my latest novel!

~~~

It is 1777. The Battle of Saratoga, a turning point of the Revolutionary War, encourages the American Continental Army with their first great victory. But there seemed little to celebrate for one patriotic woman forced to nurse wounded British soldiers right in their war camp. Thrust into deception by a cruel Loyalist uncle, Abigail is forced to lie in order to survive, all the while dealing with fears that challenge her faith. Danger stalks her everywhere, yet her salvation springs from an unexpected source.

Then…

Two hundred years later, on the anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga, thousands arrive from Europe and the United States to celebrate the event—including descendants from the war. One young American, Abby, meets another offspring of a British soldier. When her life is threatened, Abby turns to the only person she knows at the event—her British ally. Can she trust him with her life? Or will he betray her in the same way Loyalist spies betrayed her ancestors? Perhaps letters from long ago will reveal the truth.

Award winning author Elaine Marie Cooper is the author of Saratoga Letters, Fields of the Fatherless, Bethany’s Calendar, and the historical trilogy called the Deer Run Saga. She has been captivated by the history of the American Revolution since she was young. She grew up in Massachusetts, the setting for many of her historical novels.

Her upcoming release is Legacy of Deer Run (CrossRiver Media, Dec, 2016), Book 3 in the Deer Run Saga.

Cooper has been writing since she penned her first short story at age eleven. She began researching for her first novel in 2007. Her writing has also appeared in Fighting Fear, Winning the War at Home by Edie Melson and the romance anthology, I Choose You. She has also written articles for Prayer Connect Magazine, Splickety Prime Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, and Life: Beautiful Magazine. She began her professional writing career as a newspaper freelancer.

You can read more at her website/blog, www.elainemariecooper.com

CSPA 2016 Book of the Year Award

Valley of the Shadow, Book 5 of my American Patriot Series, is nominated for the 2016 CSPA BOTY Award! Voting ends March 31^st, and I’d sure appreciate your support! To vote, click here, scroll down to the historical fiction entries, select the button beside Valley of the Shadow, and then submit. 

This is what Jocelyn Green, author of Yankee in Atlanta, has to say about the series: “The American Patriot books are the most complete, complex, and textured retelling of the Revolutionary War I’ve found in historical fiction. Hochstetler is not only a masterful storyteller, but a genuine historian. These are timeless classics, destined to be read—and relished—more than once.”