THE CONVENIENT BRIDE COLLECTION - Andrea Boeshaar - One Free Book

Dear Readers, Andrea is a long-time writing friend. We started our writing careers at the same publisher. I’m extremely pleased to introduce her to you with this new novella collection.

Welcome back, Andrea. Why did you become an author?

When my three sons were young, I began gobbling up secular romances. I read one or two novels a week. I always enjoyed writing. In fact, I wrote my first “novel” when I was in 3rd grade; it was called Little Miss Mouse. Anyway, I decided to try my hand at penning a romance, and began learning all the various innuendos involved with novel writing. I even took a couple of creative writing classes at the local university. Then in 1991, I was spiritually reborn. The desire to write books that honored Jesus Christ and offered my readers hope burned deep within my soul. That’s when I began writing for the Christian market. My first book was published in 1994 by Barbour Publishing’s Heartsong Presents book club.

If you weren’t an author, what would be your dream job?

I would be an adjunct professor, teaching literature, creative writing, and history classes – in fact, I’m back in school, earning my bachelors degree and then possibly going on for a masters.

Way to go! I have most of my work done for a masters, and when I was in graduate school, I was one of the older students there. If you could have lived at another time in history, what would it be and why?

I’d bounce back and forth in my time machine between the American Revolutionary War Era (approximately 1770-1800) and the Civil War times (1850-1870) Note: Those aren’t the dates in which the wars were fought, but there were years leading up to the wars and then, of course, there were the years of adjustment and adventure afterwards. Not that I enjoy war at all—in fact, I’m the mom who wouldn’t allow her sons to play with guns! What I like most about those times in history (and, granted, I look upon them more romantically then realistically, perhaps) was the love of country, the honor and valor, the bravery and daring of both men and women alike. Of course, it would be difficult to give up my microwave oven and indoor plumbing. J

I was glad I had daughters, because I wouldn’t have let boys play with guns either. What place in the United States have you not visited that you would like to?

New Mexico. I would love to attend the Hot Air Balloon Festival there some year. Also, a church I attended years ago supported missionaries to the Navajo and Native American people have always been near and dear to my heart for a great many reasons. I would also enjoy visiting New York City so I could tour the 9-11 Museum.

How about a foreign country you hope to visit?

I would like to visit England, both the rural areas and then London.

What lesson has the Lord taught you recently?

The Lord is teaching me that often the words I speak, the actions I do, don’t always accomplish God’s will no matter how well intended they are. Sometimes I need to be still and know that God is God. He is sovereign—I am not.

God is also teaching me about overcoming pain and becoming more self-disciplined. What’s a-whole-nother blog post.

Tell us about the featured book.

The Convenient Bride Collection features 10 authors and 9 stories, all centered around marriages of convenience. The novella I wrote, One Way to the Altar, was a collaborative effort with debut author Christina Linstrot Miller.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Montana, 1902

A bath. A refreshingly cool bath. That would lift her wilted spirits after this horrid journey. Please, Lord. . .

Leah Hermaning whispered the prayer. Six days on the train in a hot, stuffy passenger car, three hours in a rickety stagecoach that bounced her like a child’s rubber ball—and now she was finally here.

In the middle of nowhere.

           

The stage pulled to a bone-jarring halt, and Leah climbed out unassisted. The driver and his helper tossed down her trunk as if it didn’t contain everything precious left to her. “Here ya go, lady.”

Such rudeness! Uncle Robert would have had something to say about that. She glanced around. Now. . .where was he?

She searched the dusty street for a sign of him or Aunt Estelle. Horses tethered to hitching rails in front of water troughs, wagons clattering by on the dirt road—she was in another world, far from the comforts of Newport, Rhode Island. But somehow she’d adapt. . .

Wouldn’t she?

Now where could her aunt and uncle be?

Amid laughter and loud voices, a half dozen men burst out of the freight office and headed toward her on the boardwalk, their clothing and faces as dirty as the language spewing from their mouths.

No, Leah was certainly not in her refined Newport neighborhood anymore.

She pressed herself up against the unfinished outer wall just in time to dodge the men. No doubt she’d blend into the background as usual, despite her lavender dress and leaf-green vest. God had given her brains, not beauty, and nothing could enhance her drab-brown hair and the plainness of her face. And those men, who looked right through her as they passed, gave testimony to that fact.

Of course, she’d expected nothing more. Twenty-six years was time enough for Leah to accept her less-than-lovely looks along with the fact that she would always be a spinster. But she was in a new place now, with a new teaching position waiting, and she’d make the best of her God-given days.

And she’d do that if Uncle Robert and Aunt Estelle showed up. . . 

           

Love that opening. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Log onto my website: www.andreaboeshaar.com

Facebook: Andrea Boeshaar Author (send a friend request)

Twitter: @AndreaBoeshaar

Thank you, Andrea, for sharing this new book with us. I can hardly wait to read it. The long novel I just finished is a marriage-of-convenience story, too.

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

The Convenient Bride Collection - Christianbook.com
The Convenient Bride Collection: 9 Romances Grow from Marriage Partnerships Formed Out of Necessity - Amazon
The Convenient Bride Collection: 9 Romances Grow from Marriage Partnerships Formed Out of Necessity - Kindle

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