EVERY PERFECT GIFT - Dorothy Love - One Free Book

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

He has! I’ve been so blessed with this series, and blessed to have three new standalone historicals to write. God’s word to me this year was “Watch.” And I have watched as He has brought wonderful new people into my life, who have blessed my work in unbelievable ways.

Tell us a little about your family.

I’ve been married for 38 years to the man I first met in church shortly after graduating from college and beginning my career. Ron has spent his career in commercial insurance, and his work has allowed us to live all over the country, including several years in San Diego and in Austin…my favorite Texas city. We share our house with two golden retrievers, Major and Jake. We’re each from large extended families. We have dozens of cousins, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles. We get together with his side of the clan on Christmas Eve every year. It’s always such fun catching up with everyone. My mom turned 81 years old this year. She is the spark plug on my side of the family. We lost my younger brother to cancer in April. We treasure the children and grandchildren he left behind. I have an older brother in Tennessee, a brother and sister in Texas. Ron’s only sister lives here, too. They were both born in September, and we plan a joint birthday event every  year. Usually a trip to Rangers stadium to see a baseball game and a birthday dinner. Last September we spent a day in the museum district in Ft. Worth before the game, which was loads of fun.

I didn’t realize we lived in the same state. Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

I notice things in books that I would not have noticed if I weren’t a writer. Just recently I reread a book that was published in 1989 by a favorite author of mine, now deceased. And I noticed certain habits of hers that I mentally corrected as I read.

That happened to me with a favorite author whose book released at the same time as my Golden, New Mexico one. What are you working on right now?

In November I turned in the manuscript for CAROLINA GOLD, a standalone historical novel set on a rice plantation in the South Carolina lowcountry. Now I’m working on a historical suspense called THE BRACELET which is due to my publisher this coming November. It’s set in Savannah, one of my favorite Southern cities.

What outside interests do you have?

Ron and I love history, and we seek it out when we travel. We both love to read, and we enjoy hiking. For a long time I collected teapots, particularly those made by the Shawnee Pottery company but I’ve run out of room. We have a collection of antique maps dating back to the mid-1800’s. I used to do a lot of needlework, mostly counted cross-stitch, but now my eyes are too weak to do much of that. I’ve been a member of several book clubs, but lately I’ve had to drop out in order to meet my publishing deadlines.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

This is an easy question. I’m a Southern girl, and I set all of my books in the South. I’ve traveled to South Carolina for years and always wanted to write a book set there—hence, CAROLINA GOLD. I was born in Tennessee and set my first series for Thomas Nelson in the Cade’s Cove area of the state.

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

General Robert E Lee. I have admired him since I first read the letters he wrote to his wife and daughters during the war. The public knows him as a gentleman soldier, the man who made a bad decision at Gettysburg, but in private he was a loving husband, a doting father with a great sense of humor, a man of faith in God, humble in both victory and defeat. His final General Order to his troops at the surrender still makes me blubber like a baby. In his thirties, he was dubbed “the handsomest man in the army.” He loved to dance. I would have loved knowing him.

I did a lot of research on him when I wrote for a curriculum publishing company. I’ve long admired him. What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

Staying published is harder than getting published.

What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

The things that sometimes appear as trials, defeats,  and setbacks return to us as blessings if we wait on Him.

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

Learn to write well.

Be persistent in seeking a publisher.

Learn to market your work.

Tell us about the featured book.

EVERY PERFECT GIFT wraps up the Hickory Ridge trilogy that includes BEYOND ALL MEASURE and BEAUTY FOR ASHES. My main character, Sophie Caldwell, was adopted as a ten year old by Ada and Wyatt Caldwelll, the main characters in BEYOND ALL MEASURE. After growing up on Wyatt’s ranch in Texas, Sophie went away to school, and then worked for a newspaper in Dallas. But now she feels called to return to Hickory Ridge to revive the local newspaper, the Gazette. Because she is of mixed parentage, she has always felt a need to prove herself, and she hopes that by making a success of the paper, she can finally be accepted.  In Hickory Ridge, she meets Ethan Heyward, the architect who designed and built Blue Smoke, a luxury resort in the mountains above town. Sophie and Ethan are drawn to each other, but each carries an explosive secret that could tear them apart.

Please give us the first page of the book.

The orphanage seemed so much smaller than she remembered.

Sophie Robillard Caldwell peered through the bars of the rusty gate, taking in the boarded up windows, the weed-choked yard, the frayed remnants of a rope swing shivering in a sharp wind that seemed to whisper long-ago taunts. Mutt. Muddlebones. Mongrel.

And worse.

Holding her hat in place with one hand she looked up at the second-floor window of the room where she’d spent a lonely childhood daydreaming and spinning stories. She’d expected to feel a sense of familiarity upon returning here, a kind of homecoming. But the moment she stepped off the train, she realized everything had changed.

True, Jasper Pruitt still ran the mercantile, and his wife still owned the dress shop that had once belonged to Norah Dudley. The bakery and Mr. Gilman’s bank were thriving. The Hickory Ridge Inn, where she was currently staying was full to overflowing every night. Miss Hattie’s restaurant had reopened. Even now the smells of frying chicken drifted on the wind.

I loved reading all three of these books, and this one was a fitting ending for the series. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Readers are welcome to my home on the web: www.DorothyLoveBooks.com and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/dorothylovebooks

Thank you, Dorothy, for sharing this book with us today.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

Every Perfect Gift (A Hickory Ridge Romance) - paperback
Every Perfect Gift (A Hickory Ridge Romance) - Kindle


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