LOVE IS IN THE AIR - Kathleen Rouser - One Free Book

Bio: Kathleen Rouser is the award-winning author of Rumors and Promises, and a multi-published author of historical Christian romance. She is a longtime member in good standing of American Christian Fiction Writers. 

Kathleen has loved making up stories since she was a little girl and wanted to be a writer before she could even read. She’s in the grip of God’s grace and is a fan of the three Cs—cats, coffee, and chocolate.

The mother of three, who is a former homeschool instructor, mild-mannered dental assistant, and current Community Bible Study kids’ teacher, lives in Michigan with her hero and husband of thirty-some years, and two sweet cats who found a home in their empty nest.

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

Sometimes they are the deeper things, such as learning how to trust God in the difficult places and other times there are the quirks. For example, my heroine in Flying into Love, Talia Sampson, refers to having a “grim reaper thumb and killing houseplants for miles around.” I’m rubbish with growing things inside other than an occasional succulent plant like the Christmas cactus on my windowsill.

I also have a black thumb instead of a green thumb. James always took care of the house plants, because I killed them. What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

Good question. Not sure how quirky this is, but I am a very slow coffee drinker. I can reheat the same cup several times and make it last all day. Usually I wind up throwing it out at some point and make a second one in the afternoon. So I actually drink two half cups in a day. I like to sip and enjoy my coffee.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

My mother read stories to me every day when I was a little girl and I wanted to write books before I could even read—when I was four years old. Then I had a teacher in third grade who told me I was a good writer and my brother, John, who was old enough to be my dad, always encouraged me to write. It was something I wanted to be most of my life but didn’t get serious about until my kids got older. Then I finally felt like a writer.

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

I enjoy so many kinds of books, from Regency to YA, to speculative and Amish. I enjoy historical and contemporary romance too.

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

Holding onto to my Savior, Jesus. I belong to Community Bible Study which I attend locally. This helps keep me grounded in God’s word. I also receive prayer and support from the other ladies I serve with there. And knowing I can talk to Him in prayer anytime is reassuring.

I’ve also been trying to genuinely rest and refuel on Saturday or Sunday.

It is such a comfort and blessing to know He is right beside us and we can talk to Him anytime we want to. How do you choose your characters’ names?

It depends. If I’m writing an historical, I will look up the most popular names of the time. I will find one I like and look up the meaning to see if it fits. For a more contemporary story, I will often take a name that I like and check the meaning of that to see if it fits. Occasionally, I will name a character after someone. Dr. Moore in my Stone Creek books is named after my friend, Barb Moore, as she has been a wise mentor and friend. Little six-year-old Lily in The Last Memory is named after my first cat, Lilybits. A nice memorial since we had to put Lilybits down last May.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Raising and homeschooling three sons.

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

A cat—in a loving home, that is. My cats are so spoiled and live quite the life of leisure and fun. It seems like they can rest anywhere. And they are beautiful animals. The grace, regal bearing, and hunting instincts of big cats like lions, tigers, and pumas, are wrapped nicely into the sweet little package of domestic cats. Just watch them walk and stalk with that rolling shoulder gait. And somehow, they have us trained to take care of them!

What is your favorite food?

It’s a tie between spaghetti with my mom’s meat sauce recipe and good dark chocolate.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Again and again it’s fear of not writing well enough, which is silly in itself, because you can’t get better at it if you don’t write. I’m finding that reminding myself of truth in scripture is a good way to overcome the fear when it creeps in. For example, when I feel it welling up, I tell myself Joshua 1:9 - This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (NLT) Then I find it’s easier to face the blank computer screen.

Tell us about the featured book.

Flying Into Love by Kathleen Rouser:

Unable to say no when others need her, Talia Sampson took on her deceased aunt’s advice column and the care of her special needs niece. Then new veteran, Ben Tanner, shows up unexpected on her doorstep. Hurt many times, he wonders where home is. Talia isn’t happy finding a hot-air balloon with him, but she treasures the old journal with it. Ben hopes restoring her family’s antique will please her, until he discovers a secret that shatters his trust. And Talia hates flying. 

Will she trust God—and Ben—enough to go airborne?

That is the blurb, but Flying Into Love also has a split time subplot which takes place around the time of World War I. Talia learns in a journal she finds that her great-grandmother, Dottie Washington, was swept away in a hot-air balloon with a handsome friend, Earl Sampson, the brother of the man she loves, quite by accident. What happens to them changes the course of both their lives.

(Flying Into Love will be released on May 10 as part of the boxed set, Love is in the Air, which contains five brand-new contemporary Christian romances. Other authors in this collection include Candee Fick, Tanya Eavenson, Laura V. Hilton, and Kathleen Friessen)

Please give us the first page of the book.

How had she gotten herself into this? Talia Sampson shut the laptop amid the piles on her desk, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. When she’d come to take care of Aunt Violet a little over eight months ago Talia didn’t expect to inherit her aunt’s Victorian mansion or take over an advice column nearly seven months later. She should have practiced saying the word no before her aunt asked her. 

She opened her eyes and picked up the gilt-framed photo of her adventurous aunt, with her ash-blond pixie haircut, wearing a parka and standing on a mountain somewhere. “I miss you, Aunt Vi. You left us far too soon. This should still be your column.” She rested her chin in her hand. Dust danced on the light coming through the window next to her. She pushed her finger through a layer of it on the antique mahogany desk.  

The back door slammed. “I’m here!”  

Ten o’clock already? Greeting Janine, the housekeeper she inherited along with the house, gave her a perfect excuse to take a break.

Talia stood and smoothed her favorite mint green tunic over her hips and sidestepped boxes of Aunt Vi’s papers. She did her best to ignore dusty overflowing bookcases, and

padded downstairs over the worn carpeting in her fuzzy pink bedroom slippers to find Janine in the bright kitchen. “Hi! Glad you’re here to keep house. If you weren’t so indispensable, I’d be better off doing the housework than staring at a computer screen.” 

Janine Fellow’s left hand was on her hip, and her right hand already held a dust cloth. “Nonsense. Besides, your plants would die if I didn’t come to water them.” She winked. Lines gently etched her face and crinkled around her eyes as she smiled.

“Ah, yes, we can’t forget my Grim Reaper thumb.” Talia held up the left one. “It’s known to kill houseplants for miles around.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Website: http://kathleenrouser.com

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/kathleenerouser/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KathleenRouser

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/kerouser/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kathleen-rouser

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7427871.Kathleen_Rouser

Buy link for Flying Into Love:

https://books2read.com/u/3LDxaD?fbclid=IwAR1yIyEtlq9uvkMQaCBBxL0u5Eaz18XvDtmFSGMrDgOsFjpaeTCkLlvwUik

My Amazon page with links to all my books: https://www.amazon.com/Kathleen-Rouser/e/B00P3BR662?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1587786152&sr=8-1

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing your book and the collection it’s in with my blog readers and me. I’m eager to find out what happens to Talia.

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