STONES FOR BREAD - Christa Parrish - One Free Book

Bio: Christa Parrish is the award-winning author of three novels, including the 2009 ECPA Fiction Book of the Year Watch Over Me. When she’s not writing, she's a homeschool mother of three wonderful children. Married to author and pastor Chris Coppernoll, Christa serves with him as co-leader of their church's youth ministry as well as serving as a facilitator for a divorce recovery ministry. She is now also slightly obsessed with the art of baking bread.

Welcome, Christa. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

I suppose all of them have some of my DNA since they are birthed from my imagination. But I don’t purposely take parts of me and say, “This will make a good character trait.”

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

I don’t know. I keep most of my quirks well hidden.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

I don’t remember ever not composing scenes in my head. Very few of them made it onto paper, and no story was completed until I had contracted with my agent and was “forced” to finish my first novel. Internal motivation is still something I struggle with today.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

Literary fiction, mostly ABA. Middle grade fiction.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

I take a very long shower, like until the hot water runs out.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

Most of them appear in my mind with names attached.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Nothing, yet.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

I’m not sure.

What is your favorite food?

Lately, peaches.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Time and motivation. I haven’t overcome either of them, but having a publishing contract deadline certainly helps.

I understand. I write really well under deadlines. Tell us about the featured book.

Stones for Bread is part protagonist memoir, part history lesson, part cookbook, and part contemporary journey from isolation to healing from the past.

A solitary artisan. A legacy of bread-baking. And one secret that could collapse her entire identity.

Liesl McNamara's life can be described in one word: bread. From her earliest memory, her mother and grandmother passed down the mystery of baking and the importance of this deceptively simple food. And now, as the owner of Wild Rise bake house, Liesl spends every day up to her elbows in dough, nourishing and perfecting her craft.

But the simple life she has cultivated is becoming quite complicated. Her head baker brings his troubled grandson into the bakeshop as an apprentice. Her waitress submits her recipes to a popular cable cooking show. And the man who delivers her flour—a single father with strange culinary habits—seems determined to win Liesl's affection.

When Wild Rise is featured on television, her quiet existence appears a thing of the past. And then a phone call from a woman claiming to be her half-sister forces Liesl to confront long-hidden secrets in her family’s past. With her precious heritage crumbling around her, the baker must make a choice: allow herself to be buried in detachment and remorse, or take a leap of faith into a new life.

Please give us the first page of the book.

I’m young, four, home from nursery school because of snow.

Young enough to think my mother is most beautiful when she wears her apron; the pink and brown flowered cotton flares at the waist and ruffles around the shoulders. I wish I had an apron, but instead she ties a tea towel around my neck. The knot captures a strand of my hair, pinching my scalp. I scratch until the captive hair breaks in half. Mother pushes a chair to the counter and I stand on it, sturdy pine, rubbed shiny with age.

Our home is wood—floors, furniture, spoons, bowls, boards, frames—some painted, some naked, every piece protective around us. Wood is warm, my mother says, because it once was living. I feel nothing but coolness in the paneling, the top of the long farm table, the rolling pin, all soaked in January.

At the counter, the smooth butcher block edge meets my abdomen, still a pot-bellied preschooler’s stomach, though my limbs are sticks. Mother adds flour and yeast to the antique dough trough. Salt. Water. Stirs with a wooden spoon.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

www.christaparrish.com - there they can find ways to connect with me via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Thanks you, Christa, for sharing this new book with us today.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Stones for Bread - Christianbook.com
Stones for Bread - Amazon.com
Stones for Bread - Kindle

Christian Book Store

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