SOFI'S BRIDGE - Christine Lindsay - One Free Book

Welcome back, Christine. Tell us about your salvation experience.

My great aunt Wilma told me about the Lord when I was about 8 or 9, and when I was 13, I attended a youth convention and heard again that Jesus died to wash away my sins. At 13, I had begun to realize that I was a sinner, so I believed in Christ that night as my savior. But it wasn’t until after I’d backslidden a number of years later, when I became pregnant with a child out of wedlock, that I realized I had to stop sitting on the fence. I either went all the way with Christ, or continue to mess up my life with poor decisions. From that point on I chose to obey Christ as my Savior and my Lord. 

You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?

Since this is fictional I’d like to invite an author that has already gone to heaven. But the first author I’d invite is my critique partner Rachel Phifer since she and I not only work together on all our books but also have our own writing blog Novel Renaissance. If we’re going to sit down with some great authors then I’d want to share that moment with not only a phenomenal writer but my dearest writing friend.

Next on my guest list would be Oswald Chambers. I find such depth in Chambers’ devotional book My Utmost for His Highest, and many of his thoughts have inspired my strongest greatest Christian characters. I’m thinking especially of Eshana in my historical trilogy set in British India. Eshana’s experience of being forced to wear the funeral clothes of a Hindu widow when she wants to live her life as a joyful Christian was inspired by Chambers’ thought that we all must wear funeral clothes when we “die” to our own desires and ambitions to allow Christ full reign in our lives.

Guest # 3 would be Linda Nicols. She hasn’t written much lately and I can’t find much about her one the web, but I LOVE her contemporary novels. She had such a way with language and stories that gripped my heart. I would love to learn from her.

And lastly but certainly not least, Dale Cramer, who is also an expert with elegant prose and characters of great depth.

Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.

My speaking ministry began over 10 years ago, shortly after the reunion with my birth daughter Sarah. She is the baby girl I gave birth too out of wedlock. Giving my baby up for adoption was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, and that heartache shaped me in so many ways. Our reunion 20 years later broke my heart again as it brought back all the original loss of her as my child. My speaking and my writing are shaped by the fact that God can truly turn our broken hearts into our greatest joys. My life verse is Isaiah 49:15,16a, “Can a woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you (says the Lord). See…I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

I love that scripture. That the God of the universe has each of us engraved on the palms of His hands blew me away a few years ago. What a concept to hold close in troubled times. What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?

Lots of embarrassing things happen to me all the time especially when I’m speaking. One that comes to mind is, when I was at a ladies’ church event my high heel stuck in a crack on the stage and I couldn’t move. I did what I usually do in that sort of goofy situation, I laughed at myself and said something to the audience like, “Well, if there’s a hole anywhere an Irishman (meaning me) is likely to fall into it.” I got a good laugh while I extricated my heel and carried on with my speech.

People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you, too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?

Aspiring writers need encouragement, so I often share that the most important thing they need is PERSEVERANCE. The writing apprenticeship is not a quick and easy thing. It took 9 years of writing before my debut novel was released in 2009. Don’t skip the training, take the courses, join a professional writers’ association like ACFW or RWA or Canada’s The Word Guild. Work at it, and give your dream over to God, let Him be your agent, your muse, your editor.

Tell us about the featured book.

Sofi’s Bridge is my latest release, a historical romance.

Seattle Debutant Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from delayed shock over their father’s drowning. Charles the family busy-body threatens to place her sister in a sanatorium, a whitewashed term for an insane asylum.

Like she has always done, Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson, a handsome immigrant from Ireland, to protect them.

But in a hidden cabin high in the Cascades, just as Sofi has her secrets, she recognizes her gardener does too. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister, and such tumult to her own emotions?

And can their gardener, Neil, continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, wanted for murder and on the run from the British police?

Wow. I’m eager for my copy to arrive. Please give us the first page of the book.

Seattle Washington, June 1913

A blur of white raced along the grounds to the beach. Sofi froze at the second story window. Set against the tattered sky of an incoming squall, her sister’s nightgown billowed in the dark. For the past six weeksTrina kept as much distance as she could from the sight and sound of the surf. Sofi raised a shaking hand to her throat, turned and tore along the upper hall. “Mattie, she’s outside.”

China shattered as Matilda, their housekeeper, dropped a supper tray. At the staircase, Sofi hiked up her black silk skirts and pounded downwards. Matilda followed close behind.

Ten minutes ago, Trina had been in the nursery, huddling on the window seat. Though nearly grown she was always in the nursery since that night when. . .Trina even slept in the nursery instead of her bedroom, crying for Papa, with Sofi holding her close.

Matilda huffed. “I only left Trina to collect her supper.”

A yelping Odin found Sofi at the kitchen hallway. The Springer Spaniel bounded, his cold nose nudging her hand. Thank goodness one thing in this house had stayed the same. With Odin barking, she pushed through the green baize door. The dog darted past her. Inga, their cook, swung around to face her. Frida, the housemaid, dropped whatever she held in her hand. A man Sofi could swear she’d never seen before sat at the table and shot to his feet as she hurtled through the kitchen.

She reached the outer door when the man—the gardener, she remembered now—pushed past her and flung the door wide. He charged across the lawn. The dog yowled and leapt after him. With Inga, Frida, and Matilda running behind, Sofi fled in the wake of the gardener down the trail to the beach.

Now I know it will go to the top of my to-be-read pile when it arrives. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Please drop by Christine’s website www.ChristineLindsay.org or follow her on Amazon on Twitter. Subscribe to her quarterly newsletter, and be her friend on Pinterest , Facebook, and Goodreads

Thank you, Christine, for sharing this new book with my readers and me. It's always a pleasure to host you.

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Sofi's Bridge - Paperback
Sofi's Bridge - Kindle

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