A BRIDE SEWS WITH LOVE IN NEEDLES, CALIFORNIA - Erica Vetsch - One Free Book

Welcome back, Erica. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon?

I’ve got two releases coming out in back-to-back months, but beyond that, I’m waiting on God to see what He has in store for my writing. I’ve got a proposal circulating, and I’m hoping it finds favor with someone.

Tell us a little about your family.

I have a wonderful husband of almost 23 years (In December.) Peter is so supportive of my writing and pretty much any other passion I decide to pursue. He’s gentle and quiet and a perfect balance to my talkative self. I also have a 20 year old daughter who is currently a senior at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN. She’s studying Early Childhood Education, and she’s looking forward to being a preschool teacher when she graduates next Christmas. My son James is 16, loves reading and playing basketball for the Rochester Defenders homeschool team. Our cat Pookie rounds out the family and pretty much runs things the way she sees fit.

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

It’s certainly cut down on the time I have to read. I read a book per week when I used to read two or three. My reading has picked up a little bit since I got my Kindle, because I can read more easily in bed at night without waking my husband.

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on the first of what I hope will become a three-book series set in 1860’s Kansas at Fort Larned on the Santa Fe Trail. The first book is called The Major’s Minors, about the post surgeon who inherits a pair of twins and the commander’s daughter who arrives at the fort under protest and can’t wait to return East as soon as possible. It’s the story about how each of the main players learns the true definitions of home and family. Home isn’t a house, and family is more than blood ties.

What outside interests do you have?

Reading, family, church, cross-stitch, now quilting. I love connecting with folks through blogging and facebook, and I love to travel.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

Many of my settings have been places I’ve visited. When I can’t visit a place, I read everything I can about the place and try to talk to someone who has been there. My current release is set in the inhospitable desert of southeast California, a place I’ve never been. Several people questioned the location, saying it was a horrible, hot, barren place, but it’s what I needed for the story, so the location actually becomes a character, forcing the character to make decisions based upon where she lives.

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why?

I’ve always been intrigued by Winston Churchill. I’d love to have dinner with him and listen to him tell stories about his amazing life and all the historical events he not only witnessed but was a part of.

What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

How all-consuming it can be. It takes time, imagination, money, patience, support, and so much more. I thought it would be easier, but it’s hard work.

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

Patience and trust. I’ve been under contract non-stop for the past three+ years, having thirteen books published in that time. But at the moment, I’m not under contract, so I’m waiting and working and trusting that God has something in store for me.

What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful?

Persevere – keep writing, keep learning, keep networking and finding out how this publishing business works.

Cherish the friendships this journey will bring to you. Nobody ‘gets’ writers like other writers.

Find ways to give back. Judge contests, mentor writers, be a critique partner. 

Tell us about the featured book.

About The Book: (From the back cover)

A Bride Sews With Love in Needles, CA

A Harvey Girl waits on True Love.

With her brother already on the front lines in France, Meghan Thorson becomes a Harvey Girl in Needles, California. Ready and willing to wait on the hundreds of doughboys heading for Europe, Meghan deems this service her way of contributing to the war effort. When a Red Cross representative breezes through town, Meghan embraces the challenge to do even more, committing to completing a Red Cross signature quilt and canvassing the town for donations to the cause.

Horseman Caleb McBride makes his living by training stock for the US Cavalry and keeps his pride by remaining a loner. When Meghan meets Caleb, she senses something mysterious and wounded about him, piquing her curiosity. But after the townsfolk scorn him as a coward and a profiteer, Caleb feels her pity and becomes even more guarded.

When Needles is hit by an influenza epidemic and the Harvey hotel is made into a temporary hospital, Meghan discovers Caleb’s shameful secret.

Will both Caleb and Meghan find a way to kill their pride before their chance of love rips them apart at the seams?

Please give us the first page of the book.

“There is nothing so stubborn and exasperating as a headstrong Irish daughter.”

“You only bring up my Irish half when I’m suggesting something you don’t like. If I please you, you claim my Norwegian side.” Meghan set her jaw, determined to stand up to Papa.

“How do I know this isn’t just another one of your wild schemes? Like the mail order candy or the door-to-door sewing notions? Remember how those ended? Flying high only to fall to earth with a thud after only a few weeks.” His huge boots clomped as he passed the sitting room floor, drowning out the sound of rain pattering against the windowpane as a late spring storm blew through. “You always start out with the best of intentions, child, but you don’t think things through. Always you think you can whip the world, but you take on too much and come crashing down.”

“It won’t be like that. I was a child then. I didn’t know what I was doing.” Meghan Thorson poked the logs in the fireplace, sending up a shower of sparks that raced up the flue. “I won’t be trying to start my own business. I’ll be working for one of the most reputable companies in the country. And it’s only for six months, not forever. If I don’t like it, I can come home then. But I will like it. You’ll see. You’re the one who has been saying I need to find something to occupy my time, something that would help the war effort and keep me out of your hair. This job will definitely keep me out of your way. Needles is more than fifteen hundred miles from here.”

Papa stopped pacing, stroked his reddish-blond beard, and studied her with somber blue eyes. “And how long will it be before I get a letter saying you hate it out there and you’re coming home?”

“You won’t get such a letter from me.”

“Couldn’t you find something closer to home? I thought you would get a job here in Mantorville, or even over in Rochester. California is too far away.”

Mama’s knitting needles clicked, a sound as familiar to Meghan as her own breathing. “You hoped it would be in Rochester so you could have an excuse to drive your new motorcar over there.” She barely looked up from the sock she knitted. Socks, socks, and more socks. American soldiers in the trenches in France needed socks, and Mama’s knitting needles never stopped.

I pray over every pair as if they were going to Lars himself. They are all my sons in that way, all those soldiers. And I know their mamas are praying for them as well. Mamas of soldiers knit and pray.

“I don’t want a job close to home. I want to stand on my own two feet, do something bigger, travel, and—” she spread her hands “I don’t know how to explain it. I just know I need to do this. I knew it as soon as I saw the advertisement in the Tribune.”

Mama sighed. “She needs to go. She’s gone in her heart already.” Click, click, click. “I’m surprised we were able to keep our little sparrow in the nest this long. She’s always desired to fly. This is her chance.” A faraway look invaded Mama’s expression, softening her face in the firelight.

But Papa was not softened. “Mary Kate, I thought you would have agreed with me that Meghan should stay here. With us. She’s too young to leave home.” He thrust his hands into his pockets and stood square before Mama’s chair. “She is barely more than a child. Not old enough to go so far away from home.”

Mama’s red lashes flicked upward from her yarn, showing eyes so green they seemed to glitter—the same eyes she’d passed onto Meghan, along with her red hair and freckles—and according to Papa her Irish stubbornness.

“Look at her. She’s twenty years old. When I was eighteen, I set out on a wonderful adventure. I sailed away from Ireland to America. And I met a handsome Norseman on the boat who swept me off my feet and carried me away to his new home in Minnesota.” She grinned. “By the time I was twenty, I was already a mama to Lars.”

Papa’s brow scrunched. “That’s different.”

“Is it? I think it is very much the same. Let her have her adventure, Per. She’s young, and there is so much strife in the world right now, so little for a young woman to be excited about. Who knows, perhaps she’ll find a strapping, brave young man to call her own like I did.”

I love the sound of this book. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Author Bio: Erica Vetsch is a transplanted Kansan now residing in Minnesota. She loves history and reading, and is blessed to be able to combine the two by writing historical fiction set in the American West. Whenever she’s not following flights of fancy in her fictional world, she’s the company bookkeeper for the family lumber business, mother of two terrific teens, wife to a man who is her total opposite and soul-mate, and avid museum patron.

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Thank you, Erica, for sharing this story with us.

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A Bride Sews with Love in Needles, California


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