IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING (A Bouquet of Brides Collection) - Pegg Thomas - One Free Print or Ebook, plus More

Dear Readers, this is a new author to this blog. I’m thrilled to introduce you to Pegg, and later in the year, we’ll have stories in the same novella collection Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides.

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

Quite a bit with this story. In Sheep’s Clothing in A Bouquet of Brides Collection is about a spinner and weaver who lives in Milford, Connecticut, in 1702. I’m a spinner and although I’m primarily a knitter, I have done some weaving too. There are also sheep in my story. I’ve been raising sheep since 1993. I chose Milford to set the story in because I discovered the town while researching my family tree. My family has roots there in the 1700s.

What fun. What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

Golly. How to judge which thing is quirkier than all the others?! I recently bought an antique spinning wheel. I’ve restored it to working condition and in my research have established that it is around 200 years old.

Cool. I love authentic antiques that work. When did you first discover that you were a writer?

My grandma told me many, many years ago that I should write a book. This was back when a long-distance phone call wasn’t in the budget. I guess my letters were a bit … um … lengthy. It was always in the back of my mind to do it, but I didn’t get started in earnest until the dreaded empty nest, when I needed something to do.

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

Historical fiction is my first love, hands down. I also read a lot of historical romance but I enjoy an occasional fantasy, a western or two, and I still enjoy an engaging biography.

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

I refuse to run, run, run. I prefer to saunter through life. My husband and I are happy to scale back and keep things simple. Our idea of a good time is camping—preferably some place without wifi or cell phones. We live on a small hobby farm, growing much of what we eat. We’re not off the grid, but we could slide off pretty easily.

Sounds wonderful to me. How do you choose your characters’ names?

I don’t have set formula for that, but since I write historical stories, I like to check the census for the closest year and place to where I set my story. I’ll pick a last name from there and look to see what first names were popular. Sometimes I just mix and match what I find in the census, sometimes I only use the last name.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Being a wife and mother.

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

Oh, probably a grizzly bear. I’d rather be at the top of the food chain.

What is your favorite food?

Bread. Pretty much any type at all. So as you can rightly guess, I’m not a gluten-free gal.

People shouldn’t eat gluten-free unless they have a real physical problem with gluten. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Fear of failure. I’m not sure I’ve totally overcome it yet. Writers conferences helped the most. Without attending those, I don’t think I would have achieved my goal of being traditionally published.

Tell us about the featured book.

A Bouquet of Brides is a collection of seven historical romance stories with heroines who have a flower for their first name. My story, In Sheep’s Clothing, is the very last. It could be an alphabetical thing … but I like to think they just saved the best for last. My story is about a woman who has been jilted and left a spinster—in more ways than one—and a handsome young journeyman fuller who moves to town. Both have something to hide and both need to let it go, but it’s an orphan lamb that brings them together.

Sounds wonderful. Please give us the first page of the book.

April 10, 1702—Milford, Connecticut

With a final snip, another layer of guilt fell into Yarrow Fenn’s lap. It landed amid the soft folds of wool from her loom. This cloth was quite possibly the best she’d ever made. She ran her fingers over the loosely woven threads. Once finished at the fulling mill, it would make a splendid gown. But not for her. The guilt pressed against her chest, tightening her shoulders. The traveling peddler would buy this bolt of cloth when he arrived in a few weeks. He’d sell it in Boston—in direct conflict with the king’s law.

She cast a glance out the window, the sun already well above the horizon. Pushing aside the guilt, she folded her cloth into a flat bolt. After several futile attempts to tame her wayward hair under its linen cap, she pinned her straw hat over the top and slipped on her shawl before gathering the newly woven cloth into her arms.

Her room on the back of the saltbox-style house had its own entrance. She nudged the door shut behind her with her foot, then hurried around the front of the house. She was neither quick nor quiet enough.

“Where are you going?” Pennyroyal, Yarrow’s younger sister, stood in the front doorway with her hands on her eighteen-year-old hips, her belly straining against the pleats of her apron.

“’Tis the opening day of Tucker’s Fulling Mill.” That Penny could forget the main topic of conversation after church yesterday, the opening of the mill and the impending arrival of the new journeyman fuller, testified to her preoccupation with the coming babe.

“I had quite forgotten.” Penny pressed the back of her wrist to her forehead. “Hurry back. I feel poorly again today. You shall need to start supper.” She shut the door.

Pray the babe would come soon. Penny, ever the spoiled youngest of the three sisters, had bordered on tyrannical these past few weeks. But one must make allowances at a time like this. Yarrow shrugged and walked on.

Their house rested on the northern edge of Milford. Yarrow followed the road toward town. When she turned onto the main road, the steeply pitched roof of the new fulling mill on Beaver Creek was just visible. Excitement bubbled and eclipsed, for the moment, her guilt.

 

How can readers find you on the Internet?

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PeggThomas.com

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Readers, Pegg has a special giveaway:

To celebrate the release of In Sheep’s Clothing, I’m giving away one of my signature wool shawls. My shawls are made of wool from my sheep. I shear the sheep, wash, dye, card, spin, and knit them. They are 100% hand made in the U.S.A. To enter the drawing, simply sign up for my newsletter.

Thank you, Pegg, for sharing this new book with us. I’m eager to read it, and I know my readers are, too.

Readers, here are links to the book.

A Bouquet of Brides - Christianbook.com
A Bouquet of Brides Romance Collection: For Seven Bachelors, This Bouquet of Brides Means a Happily Ever After -  Amazon paperback
A Bouquet of Brides Romance Collection: For Seven Bachelors, This Bouquet of Brides Means a Happily Ever After - Kindle

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