COLLEEN'S CONFESSION - Susan G Mathis - One Free Book

Bio: Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands, her childhood stomping ground in upstate New York. Susan has been published more than twenty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books.

Her first two books of The Thousand Islands Gilded Age series, Devyn’s Dilemma, and Katelyn’s Choice have each won multiple awards, and book three, Peyton’s Promise, comes out May 2022. Rachel’s Reunion is coming soon. The Fabric of Hope: An Irish Family Legacy, Christmas Charity, and Sara’s Surprise, and Reagan’s Reward, are award winners, too. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, two children’s picture books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. Susan makes her home in Colorado Springs and enjoys traveling around the world. Visit www.SusanGMathis.com for more.

Welcome back, Susan. Tell us about your salvation experience. I became a Christian when I was twenty after a long and challenging bout of rejecting the faith I was raised in. In the first year of my faith walk, I devoured the Bible from cover to cover three times—first just reading it like a book. Then I went through it again with The Daily Walk. Then someone gave me Halley’s Bible Commentary, and I plowed through it again. I couldn’t get enough of God’s word, His people, and His promises.

You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why? Actually, I am planning a retreat with a few of my Beta readers who are also authors. We’ve shared the joys and challenges of our writing careers and just want to love and encourage one another.

Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that. I’ve had a busy speaking ministry in the past, but I’ve let is slow down quite a bit. Now, I basically speak at my ACFW and other groups, and I enjoy books talks in person and on Zoom.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?

Goodness…just one? I often have embarrassing moments, but I chalk it up to being human, grin, blush, and move on.

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? I have people saying that very thing on a regular basis. I’ll listen to why they want to write a book and what the book would be about. Then I guide them to the appropriate place to begin the journey—educating themselves in the craft with conferences, books, seminars, etc. After all, it is a journey, and I love encouraging new writers to start the journey right!

Tell us about the featured book.

About Colleen’s Confession:

Summer 1914

Colleen Sullivan conceals secrets when she joins her aunt on Comfort Island to work in the laundry and await her betrothed’s arrival. She loves to draw and dreams of growing in the craft. But tragedy strikes when her fiancé perishes in the sinking of the ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland on his way to meet her. With her orphan dreams of finally belonging and becoming a wife and an artist gone, what will her future hold?

Austrian immigrant, Jack Weiss, enjoys being the island’s groundskeeper and is smitten by the lovely Irish lass. But Colleen dismisses him at every turn, no matter how much he admires her art, tries to keep her safe, and waters the blossoms of love. Perhaps introducing her to the famous impressionist, Alson Skinner Clark, will brighten her opinion of him. But rumors of war in Europe means Jack must choose between joining his homeland’s army or staying safe in the Thousand Islands as he makes a life with Colleen. If she will have him.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Colleen Sullivan gazed at the rainbow of colors filtering through the bedsheet billowing in the river’s breeze. The setting sun’s rich yellows, oranges, and reds melded together to produce the prettiest piece of cloth she’d ever seen.

“If only I could paint it one day.” She moaned as she pulled the clothespins from the nearby pantaloons and placed it in the laundry basket. She huffed her angst. “Inconceivable.”

She shielded her eyes from the source of the sunset’s beauty, the enormous yellow orb casting a rippling path upon the St. Lawrence River. She viewed the Comfort Island cottage aglow in the sunset’s brilliance, then peeked back at the sheet. It, too, glowed, a yellow puddle trailing down the white cotton fabric.

What a joy if it would be if she could capture such wonder. She had tried her hand at painting in the orphanage, plucking a few hairs from the old mare, Milly, and tying them together on a stick to make a crude paintbrush. She attempted to create her own paints, too, crushing dandelions, blueberries, strawberries, and the like. But the process never really worked, and she finally gave up, settling for hoarding the nubs of pencils the other children discarded and saving every scrap of paper she could to sketch on when no one was looking.

As a child, she happily volunteered for trash duty, for she sometimes found several sheets of barely used paper, especially in the nuns’ bins, which she squirreled away. There were few secrets at the institute, so scrounging a few sheets here or there became a challenge of sorts. To create a genuine artist’s sketchpad like she’d seen when a man passed through to sketch something he called waif scenes—although none of the children she knew would be considered such—now, that would be a coup. But the result for her attempt? A shoddy replica of a sketchpad tied with a string and hidden under her mattress for safe keeping—still proved a prize worth risking a beating for.

“Colleen? Are you there?”

I already love the story. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Website: www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusanGMathis

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@SusanGMathis

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/susangmathis

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

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6044608.Susan_G_Mathis

Amazon: Susan G Mathis author

Thank you, Susan, for sharing this book with my blog readers and me. I love reading books with Irish characters in them. I’m eager to read it.

Readers, here’s a link to the book.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09K4XKQXS?pf_rd_r=W0J9J71XNQJ6EJM6YNX4&pf_rd_p=1ab92b69-98d7-4842-a89b-ad387c54783f&pd_rd_r=019d729e-0f4c-41be-a47f-0f134310a9bc&pd_rd_w=vlibK&pd_rd_wg=7IL2j&ref_=pd_gw_unk

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory or country if outside North America. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link: Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com