THE RINGMASTER'S WIFE - Kristy Cambron - One Free Book

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

Our family actually has some exciting things on the horizon! As soon as I’m able to share with everyone, I will. I can’t wait to talk about what I’m planning to work on next. J

Tell us a little about your family.

Three words: messy, awkward, love.

That’s our family. My husband and I are next year moving into a 20-year anniversary as a couple. I can’t even believe time has flown by so fast. But now we have three young sons and with that comes sports schedules, school events, and one harried momma who sometimes has to write chapters while sitting in the bleachers at a basketball game. We make it all fun though!

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how?

I love this question, because I think my reading habits have changed and I hadn’t even realized it! My sister is a teacher so she’s always sharing the best of Young Adult (YA) fiction with me. I find that because I research and write in this structured world of historical fiction, I like to fall into fantasy or dystopian novels almost as an escape. (Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles are absolute favorites.)

What are you working on right now?

I’m actively editing my fourth novel with HarperCollins Christian Publishing: The Illusionist’s Apprentice (releasing March 2017). It’s really a departure me and I confess that as a writer, I enjoy trying new things. This novel is still a non-linear narrative of historical fiction, but there’s the mystery (and a bit of suspense) of the 1920s vaudeville world mixed in. Toss the world famous Harry Houdini into the story and I’ve got some fun editing days ahead of me!

What outside interests do you have?

I love watching classic films, spending time outdoors with my family, and I really enjoy traveling for onsite book research. I also like to cook, but now that I’m gluten-free, it’s a new set of challenges that I’m not convinced I’m ready to tackle in the kitchen! J

How do you choose your settings for each book?

It’s all about the inspiration.

My current novel, The Ringmaster’s Wife, was an idea that my publishing team actually brought to me. The world of vintage circus was always something I’d had interest in, so I jumped at the opportunity. But most of my settings and storylines include things and places I love: Europe, art history, travel, and vintage themes. I hope they always color any story I write.

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

I’m selecting someone from my history – my Dad. He passed from aggressive leukemia in late 2013 and I miss him every day. What hope I have that if there are evenings in eternity, I think I’d like to spend each one with him.

I lost my mother, who was in her early thirties, when I was seven years old. I look forward to really getting to know her in heaven. What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels?

That we can write, but it doesn’t always mean that we write well. There’s a big difference. I learned very quickly in this industry just how much I don’t know, and how much I have yet to learn about the mechanics of writing, and writing well. I’m still a student.

All authors are still students, whether they admit it or not. I’m always learning, even after all these years. What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now?

It sounds simple, but it’s more complex that I’d ever imagined: trust God. Our family has been on this journey of trust for the last couple of years. While it’s a critical piece of my own spiritual development, this daily dying to myself and trusting everything to Him is truly more difficult than it sounds. It’s daily faith-walking.

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

1.) Own it. It doesn’t matter if you’re published yet or not – you’re an author because that calling has already been placed on your heart. In order to make it in this industry, own your calling and refer to yourself as what you are: an AUTHOR.

2.) Seek Him. Whatever your daily communion looks like, whether it’s prayer, devotions, Bible study or listening to sermons online, spend time with Christ before you write. He’s the leader in everything we do and He can’t be left out of the writing process.

3.) Have fun. This is a business, so it’s important to be professional. But… don’t get so wrapped up in the demands of this author life that you forget to have fun with your writing. It’s work, but it’s work that you ardently love. It should be fun too.

Very well said. Tell us about the featured book.

The Ringmaster’s Wife is my first work of semi-biographical fiction – on the life of Mable Ringling. It’s a novel set in the midst of the Roaring Twenties, centering around Mable (the circus queen), and a new recruit to the Ringling Bros. circus world – a bareback rider from England by the name of Rosamund Easling. Readers will get to see behind the curtain of circus life during the golden age of traveling entertainment, but they’ll also have an opportunity to meet two strong female characters who have more in common than they might have thought possible. It’s a book about dream chasing, being brave, and risking everything to follow the call God’s placed on your heart.

SUMMARY:

An ounce of courage.

A leap of faith.

Together, they propel two young women to chase a new life—one that’s reimagined from what they might have become.

In turn-of-the-century America, a young girl dreams of a world that stretches beyond the confines of a quiet life on the family farm. With little more than her wit and a cigar box of treasures, Mable steps away from all she knows, seeking the limitless marvels of the Chicago World’s Fair. There, a chance encounter triggers her destiny—a life with a famed showman by the name of John Ringling.

A quarter of a century later, Lady Rosamund Easling boards a ship to America as a last adventure before her arranged marriage. There, the twenties are roaring, and the rich and famous gather at opulent, Gatsby-esque parties. The Jazz Age has arrived, and with it, the golden era of the American circus, whose queen is none other than the enigmatic Mable Ringling.

When Rosamund’s path crosses with Mable’s and the Ringlings’ glittering world, she makes the life-altering decision to leave behind a comfortable future of estates and propriety, choosing instead the nomadic life of a trick rider in the Ringling Brothers’ circus.

A novel that is at once captivating, deeply poignant, and swirling with exquisite historical details of a bygone world, The Ringmaster’s Wife will escort readers into the center ring, with its bright lights, exotic animals, and a dazzling performance that can only be described as the Greatest Show on Earth!

I’m already hooked. Please give us the first page of the book.

Prologue

1929 Louisville, KY

We only see what we want to see— in people, in love, and in life.

What we see is a choice, as is what we offer the world in return. And it’s only behind the costumes and the masks that we can be who we truly are.

The words echoed in Rosamund’s mind, in a tangle of memories collected over the past three years. She waited at the performers’ entrance at the back of the enormous Big Top, trying to ease the racing of her heart before show time.

Waves of riotous applause ebbed and flowed with the breathtaking thrills of the trapeze act. It was a “straw house” tonight— sold out, the bleacher seats packed and the overflow of children lining the edges of the rings on piles of laid- out straw. Rosamund could hear the children now through the call of horns and pops of confetti bursts, squealing in delight at the antics of the clowns. It wouldn’t be long now— the ringmaster’s signal for the horse troop to march in was just moments away.

A breeze caught Rosamund’s attention, perfuming the air around her with the richness of caramel, mixed with the salty scent of popcorn and sweet apples from a wagonette nearby. It was a welcome contrast to the usual smell of animals and churned- up earth in their field lot. All the familiar sounds and smells, the excitement that hung on the air before a performance . . . they reminded her how the three- ring canvas castle had become her home.

How can readers find you on the Internet? 

You can connect with me at:

Facebook: Kristy Cambron | Twitter: @KCambronAuthor  | Instagram: kristycambron 

Pinterest: KCambronAuthor | Web:  KristyCambron.com | TheGROVEstory.com

Thank you, Kristy, for sharing this book with us. I’m eager for my copy to arrive.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
The Ringmaster's Wife - Christianbook.com
The Ringmaster's Wife - Amazon, paperback
The Ringmaster's Wife - Kindle
The Ringmaster's Wife - Amazon, audible

Comment question: Have you ever been to the circus? If so, what did you like the most?

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