A SIDE OF FAITH - Krista Phillips - One Free Book

Welcome back, Krista. It’s been a while since you were here. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

I've always been a romantic at heart. As a little girl, I dreamed of my prince charming.

And now that I'm married with 4 silly little girls, we have a pretty playful household.

So romance with a touch of humor fits me and my voice to a T!

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

WOW this is a hard question. There are so many. The day I gave birth to each of my four girls, the day I got married.... but I think I'll have to say, the day I brought my 4th daughter home from the hospital.

She was born with half of a heart and spent over 10 months in the hospital. She was born July 20, 2010, and she came home for the first time on May 24, 2011. It was the answer to every prayer I, along with thousands of others, had prayed for 10 very, very long months.

To have our whole family together, in the same house, at home, was wonderful beyond description.

I can’t even imagine going through something like that. How has being published changed your life?

Being published is this amazing yet humbling experience. To have the words, the stories, that God has given me "out" for others to read is amazing. It is my calling come to fruition. But it's also humbling, because we all have different tastes in what we read and what we like in our fiction. So it has been humbling to go through edits and have work critiqued, and then to experience feedback from readers that is sometimes uplifting and other times bubble-bursting.

Being published has reminded me that while I ache for my readers to enjoy the stories I've been given, Jesus is my primary audience. My heart is to make Jesus smile with the stories I tell. As long as I'm doing that, the rest are sprinkles on top!

That’s so true. What are you reading right now?

I'm in between books, just finished Denise Hunter's Dancing with Fireflies and loved it!

What is your current work in progress?

I'm actually working on a few projects right now. A Side of Hope is the second Sandwich Novella, due out in December hopefully, so I'm finishing up that project at the moment. And I'm currently editing another book (tentatively titled The Price of Love) that is a full-length novel. Soon it will be in my agent's hands and the rest... God knows!

What would be your dream vacation?

Hawaii!!! I LOVE the beach and have never been to Hawaii, so that's my current bucket list vacation!

How do you choose your settings for each book?

It varies for each book. I've lived in quite a few places in my life, so I like to place them around one of the areas I've lived.

My first two published books (and the rest on the Sandwich series) they are set in Sandwich, IL, which, YES, is a real town. I was born there and still have family in the area. Since I write romance with a bit of humor, I thought... what better place to set a romantic comedy than in the town whose name makes people giggle?

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

Goodness, this is hard. I'm not a really big "oh-ma-goodness-its-a-celebrity" type of person. Would it be dumb to say my hubby? I love spending time with him, and since we have 4 kids... sometimes those date nights are slim-pickin's and consist of exciting events like grocery shopping! So a whole evening, kid free, that we could do whatever we wanted with no worry about budgets or being practical would be nice! LOL!

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I don't have many other hobbies. I know that makes me sound boring. But I have four kiddos and they take up a LOT of my time. I squeeze writing and reading in whereever I can!

OH! I do LOVE to play card games. I'm a big Euchre player! And really, I love all games in general :-)

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Descriptions. I'm a huge fan of dialogue and action, and tend to focus on that when I write. A large part of my editing is going back and describing settings and character features, because I get so caught up in what's going on as I write, I forget that the descriptions are in my head but not on the paper!

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Take your writing, go before the throne of God, and lay it at his feet. We dedicate your children to Jesus... and we need to dedicate our writing to him as well. "Not my will, but THY will, be done, Jesus."

Tell us about the featured book.

A Side of Faith is a novella based in Sandwich, IL.

He is everything she never wanted...

Rachel Carter is on top of the world. A new job in a new town, friends, and a house to call her own. Men? Eh, someday. And when the time comes, she’ll go for a nice safe geek or something. She will NOT be repeating the mistakes of her youth.

But then Cameron Foster comes knocking on her door, reminding her of the man she vows never to think of again.

God wouldn’t send her a man who reminds her of everything she is trying to put behind her...would He?

Please give us the first page of the book.

Darn those Property Brothers.

They made the whole remodel thing look so easy on HGTV.

Rachel Carter blew a curl of dark hair out of her face as she surveyed the blank canvas of wall. She'd spent the past week coating it with nasty goo and scraping away at heinous “welcome to the '80s" wallpaper.

Two weeks ago, while signing the closing papers on the little house in Sandwich, Illinois, she’d been giddy with excitement to start the reno.

That was before she realized simple wallpaper removal was akin to torture.

Her back ached.

Her arms screamed in agony.

One would have thought she was pushing Medicare age instead of a whopping thirty-three years old.

She hadn't done her Jillian Michaels workout in almost two months because of the move and job change, and wow, it showed.

A date with Jillian and her DVD player was definitely going to happen soon.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

I love to connect with readers!

I blog twice a week on my website at http://www.kristaphillips.com/.

You can also connect with me on—

Facebook – www.facebook.com/authorkristaphillips

Twitter – www.twitter.com/kristaphillips

Thank you, Krista, for sharing this new novella with us.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
A Side of Faith (A Sandwich Novella) (Volume 1) - Paperback
A Side of Faith (A Sandwich Novella Book 1) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com