ELINOR - Shannon McNear - One Free Book

Welcome, Shannon. God has really been moving in your writing life. What do you see on the horizon? Thank you—it’s been amazing to watch His hand and to see the doors He’s opened! I have books 2 and 3 of Daughters of the Lost Colony to complete (#2 will release Oct 2022 and we’re working on details for #3), and then I’m hoping to see a follow-through on previous interest in my Revolutionary War novel, Loyalty’s Cadence.

Tell us a little about your family. My husband and I are the parents of eight—four boys and four girls, plus one boy in heaven. The three oldest are married, with another getting married in April, and we have four grandbabies so far between them all. My youngest daughter is 17 and in her last year of high school (anyone remember the toddler wandering around during ACFW 2005, in Nashville? She’s now taller than me!). Two of her older sisters are in college, with one of those graduated as of December. The youngest daughter and son still live at home, with the son working full time. Oh, and we also have two German Shepherds, a bunny, two cats, and chickens and guinea fowl.

My husband is a 31-year veteran of the military and just a few years away from retirement—at which point we hope to travel more.

Has your writing changed your reading habits? If so, how? Oh yes! My reading now is more intentional, less because I’m bored or have time on my hands. Which is great if I’m reading for the sheer love of story (because authors need that, to help fill their own creative tanks) but not so much if it’s research or for contest judging (which I continue to do as a way to give back to the writing community—and also to discover authors I might not otherwise get to read).

It’s also had the effect of making me more critical of what I read, but we won’t talk about that …

What are you working on right now? Book 2 of Daughters of the Lost Colony, titled Mary. It’s both a parallel story and sequel to Elinor.

What outside interests do you have? Cooking, sewing, herbal and alternative medicine, music. I play guitar and sometimes lead worship, but mostly Music Is Life.

How do you choose your settings for each book? I don’t choose them; they choose me. Seriously, though, it usually starts with a character or event, and then the setting just naturally follows.

If you could spend an evening with one historical person, who would it be and why? I think I’d have to pick Corrie Ten Boom. It would be amazing just to hear her stories from her own lips.

I love Corrie Ten Boom, too. What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started writing novels? That it’s more about the journey than any perceived destination (i.e., getting published).

That is so true. What new lessons is the Lord teaching you right now? I can’t think of anything particularly new, just more layers and facets of old lessons. Redemption itself just becomes dearer to me the older I get, and grace and mercy, even more incredible.

I know what you mean by that. What are the three best things you can tell other authors to do to be successful? Read a ton! Write a ton. And attend writer’s conferences and be humble about learning the craft. Realize that nobody is a guaranteed success right out of the gate, but it takes hard work, time, and patience.

Tell us about the featured book. Elinor is a “what-if” historical centering on the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island—the first English attempt at settlement in the New World, 20 years before Jamestown: The daughter of a renowned English artist and explorer, Elinor White Dare journeys to the New World seeking a fresh start and a place to put down roots. What she finds will shake the very foundations of her faith and yet rebuild what she knows of God’s goodness and mercy, even in loss.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Prologue

August 1590

Three years.

Three long years. But soon, please God, he would hold his daughter and granddaughter again.

This close, it seemed impossible to contain either longing or hope. Yet he must. He knew, with every shred of his being, how unlikely it was that the colonists had stayed on Roanoac Island beyond that first autumn. But the anticipation of stepping upon this shore once more—of gaining at least a hint of what had become of them—

He could hardly breathe.

Green and grey and blue were the waters around and behind him, but he had no eye for the dancing splendor of the waves. Only for the blinding brightness of the strand before him, the dunes clothed with grasses bending in the unrelenting sea winds, and the smudgy dark green of the forest rising beyond.

God had, despite much peril and many months of privateering, brought them safe through the storm. Would that He’d now hold back the tides long enough for him to find them.

Days of longing. Days of hope. He was near to exhausted with it. In their slow sail past the islands to the south, he’d expected some sign of life, of habitation, but—nothing. Not even a signal fire.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

shannonmcnear.com

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Thank you, Shannon, for sharing this book with my blog readers and me. I’m eager to read it.

Readers, here’s a link to the book.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Elinor&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

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