MONTANA ROSE - Mary Connealy - Free Book

Today, I'm welcoming back one of my favorite authors, Mary Connealy, who is at ICRS right now. Mary, tell us about your salvation experience.

I accepted the Lord publicly at a Lowell Lundstrom Concert when I was about 16. But I remember sincerely believing the truth about Jesus Christ at a much younger age. I was raised in a wonderful Christian home and we were really raised up in the way we should go.
　
How did you and your husband meet?

My husband, Ivan and I were high school sweethearts. Our first date was a few weeks after my sixteenth birthday. We dated for nearly four years and married about six weeks after I graduated from college. The only reason I hesitated to go out with him was because he was one of my best friends and I was afraid dating wouldn’t work out and I’d lose my best friend.

Thirty-two years and four children later, I’d say I made the right choice by saying I’d go out on that first date.
　
You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?

You are such a brat, Lena. I’ve got about twenty friends I’d like at this retreat, and forty more acquaintances I’d love to have. And sixty more people I’d love to meet.

So how am I supposed to pick four?

I’ve got my Seeker buddies that I love and miss desperately. I’ve seen some of them just recently so maybe I should go for some of the ones I haven’t seen.

Ruthy Logan Herne, Cara Slaughter, Tina Russo, Sandra Leesmith, Glynna Kaye and Audra Harder. I know, that’s six, shut up!

I know you have a speaking ministry. Tell us about that.

Yes, I suppose you could say I have a speaking ministry. Despite my desperate attempts to avoid one. Public speaking is soooooo not my thing. But I’ve been trying to be brave in my attempts to market my book, so I’ve done a little speaking. Yeesh.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?

Oh, for heaven’s sake, Lena. Are you even going to use this on your blog? Or are you just looking for blackmail material? I once started laughing in front of the camera when I was doing the news during a college television broadcast. This was live. I couldn’t stop. The teacher went to a commercial and came and threw me off the set. Which I suspect he was right to do, but I still hated him for it. Awful experience.
　
People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you, too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?

I tell them to write. Don’t even think about being a writer until you’ve written one whole book. Then get back to me. We’ll work on revisions.

Good advice. Tell us about the featured book.

Montana Rose is something kind of different for me. I’ve had a grand old time writing heroines that are so strong they’d almost dangerous. So I wanted to go the other way, just to see if I could.

Montana Rose’s heroine is a damsel in distress. Cassie is a pregnant widow on the western frontier. At her tyrannical husband’s funeral every man (or so it seems to her) in Montana Territory shows up to try and marry her.

She finally says yes to one man just to escape from all the pressure. Expecting her new husband to be like her old, she quietly waits to obey his orders. Red married her to save her. He couldn’t stand by and let her be dragged off by any one of the men who wanted her. Now he’s married, and because he’s never seen Cassie or her husband darken the doorstep of his church (he fills in when the circuit rider is gone) he suspects he’s married an unbeliever. A terrible sin to his way of thinking.

Red soon learns that he can’t believe anything Cassie says, because she will only say what she thinks he wants to hear. Cassie needs to grow up and learn to respect herself and her opinions. Red needs to teach her how to be a western wife before she destroys his whole ranch.

They both need to believe that this sudden, ill-advised marriage, is all part of God’s plan.

Sounds wonderful. I just received my copy this week. I'm anxious to read it. How can readers find you on the Internet?

http://www.maryconnealy.com/
http://mconnealy.blogspot.com/
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/
http://petticoatsandpistols.com/

Thank you, Mary, for spending this time with us.

Readers, here's a link where you can order a copy of Montana Rose:

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