RESTORING MISS HASTINGS - Edwina Kiernan - One Free Book

Welcome, Edwina. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters. I’m not too sure! I have definitely drawn on some things I’ve experienced for a few of the situations my characters have been in, but I don’t feel that it’s something I’m even aware of until I’m reading through the story afterward.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done? I worked for a while as a media photographer, taking pictures of music bands and movie press junkets.

When did you first discover that you were a writer? Since I was little, I was always writing stories on whatever scraps of paper I could find. As I grew older, I continued to write poems and short stories, attempting a novel in my early teens, too. Always, I was writing something. For a while, I wrote devotionals and had some published. Then, I wrote Christian living blog posts. The whole time, fiction was my deepest writing love. After a serious case of pneumonia in early 2020, I dedicated my love for writing Christian fiction to the Lord and got moving with it. I believe that’s what He created me to do, and the seriousness of the illness was a wake-up call to actually go and do it properly, not just dabbling or hiding my words away, but pouring them out in praise to Him and in order to stir people’s hearts to want to get closer to Him.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading. The books I most love to read are the Classics. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte is my all-time favorite. I also love reading Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen, Anthony Hope, Anthony Trollope and Wilkie Collins. In terms of contemporary books, I enjoy reading Christian historical romance and Christian suspense. My favorite present-day authors are Steven James and Christy Barritt.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world? By setting aside one day every week to rest and rejuvenate with my husband and son. No writing, no admin - nothing work-related. Just a blissful day of playing games, enjoying tasty meals and a sweet treat or two, and just spending time in an atmosphere of contentment and calm, giving thanks to God for blessing us with Himself and with one another.

How do you choose your characters’ names? First, I’ll look at which names were used as names in the time period I’m writing in. Secondly, I’ll look at the meaning of the name and try to assign names to each character based on their personalities. Sometimes, for minor characters, I’ll include a name as a kind of nod to a writer or book that I love. For example, in my novel Pearl’s Promise, Pearl’s last name is Acton. This is a nod to Acton Bell, the pen name used by my favorite writer, Anne Bronte.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of? In the two years that I have been a published author, I am honored to have won two book awards - one for my debut novel, Ruby’s Redemption, and the other for my second novel, Pearl’s Promise (two of the Gems of Grace series, set in the Regency era). My third novel in that series, Beryl’s Blessing, was also an Amazon bestseller.

That’s wonderful. If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why? Most people tell me I’m quite like a cat. I think it’s because I’m rather quiet, and I can move quite stealthily, which is always amusing when people don’t hear me approaching and then jump when they turn around and notice me.

What is your favorite food? Risotto. I’m a huge rice fan, and I love how versatile risotto can be. My favorite combination is turkey and leek risotto with lashings of cheese... Yum.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it? I think the biggest roadblock was listening to other people saying that it wasn’t a worthwhile career, or a wise way to spend one’s time. Those people were wrong. It’s a very worthwhile career when done for the Lord. He helped me to see that creativity is a gift from Him - the Creator of all things. And He showed me that this is what He created me for - to create characters and stories that help others see the truth of God’s word lived out on the page, and that praise and glorify Jesus.

I praise Him for creating me to be a writer. Tell us about the featured book. It’s part of a multi-author series that I teamed up with two of my writing buddies to create. We each have favorite eras in which we write, so we thought it would be interesting to do a series that spans each of them. We settled on a country house named Duriel Hall as the location where each story will take place. The first book, Finding Miss Giles, is set in the Georgian era and written by Philippa Jane Keyworth. The second, Engaging Miss Shaw, is set in the Regency era and written by Rachel Knowles. And mine, Restoring Miss Hastings, is set in the Victorian era. The hero in Rachel’s book is the son of the couple in Philippa’s book, and the hero in my book is the son of the couple in Rachel’s book, so there’s a really fun thread of continuity running through the series even though each book can be read as a stand-alone.

Here’s a little more information about Restoring Miss Hastings:

Devastated by loss… a stranger takes her in. But will her presence ruin his chance at restoring all he’s lost?

Harriet Hastings has nowhere left to turn: after losing both her parents within a few months of each other, she is penniless and alone. So when a distant relative makes arrangements for her future, Harriet faces another loss — leaving the place she calls home to go and live with strangers.

Edmund Derringer’s on a mission: to restore the family heirlooms he pawned to cover the debts of his failed speculation. The last thing he needs is to be saddled with his cousin’s ward — a friendly chatterbox who intrudes on his time, distracting him from the task at hand.

But when outside forces threaten their burgeoning fondness, each will be compelled to re-examine what they really believe about one another, and what their most important goal for the future truly is…

Please give us the first page of the book.

Harriet Hastings pushed open the door to her family’s little cottage and stepped inside, grievously aware how empty it was.

How permanently empty it would be from now on.

Moving as slowly as a figure in a dream, she closed the door against the evening chill and untied her black bonnet with shaky fingers.

It was just her now.

She alone was all that remained of the happy little Hastings family.

The thought would have been enough to make her cry, if she’d had any tears left. But all the weeping of the past few days had wrung her heart dry. As she slumped down onto her father’s fireside armchair, her mother’s vacant rocking chair loomed in front of her.

Harriet leaned her head back, wishing the fabric of the chair’s headrest was still imbued with her father’s comforting scent. But four months of living had removed every trace. Only in her memory did it — and his image — remain.

Her lower lip trembled as she remembered staring through misty eyes at the pale wooden box heaped over with crumbled dirt. As she’d stood beside her mother in the cold, gloomy cemetery, each fresh sifting of earth scattered atop the coffin had reinforced the divide that’d ruptured their family — Harriet and her mother on one side, her now-deceased father on the other.

It had happened so suddenly. Had taken Harriet so unawares.

Her chest tightened as she remembered the neighbours and strangers from their little market town huddled mournfully around the graveside, their sobs and caresses of sympathy surrounding Harriet and her mother.

Nothing else bad will happen — that’s what Mamma had said.

Had promised.

We’ll make it somehow.

And, for a while, they did, scraping together just enough money to survive.

The cottage was never the same, though. It hadn’t seemed like home without her father there.

Instead of housing a small family of humble means, it contained only two penniless ladies, shuffling through the days with weary muscles and enervated hearts.

As the weeks passed, Harriet and her mother did what they could to carry on, but the affectionate conversation and gentle laughter that’d once filled their home had been all but silenced. The only sounds echoing against the cottage walls had been their many sighs.

Then, the coughs.

It’d been clear that her mother was tired — they both were. But as the colour in her cheeks had grown paler each passing day, and as her coughing kept Harriet awake longer each night, Harriet had known.

Mamma couldn’t keep her promise.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

If readers want to know when I have a new book coming out, they can follow me on Amazon here https://amazon.com/author/edwinakiernan; if they want to know when I have a book on sale, they can follow me on BookBub here https://bookbub.com/profile/edwina-kiernan, and if they want to know about new books, books on sale, plus exclusive giveaways, freebies and peeks behind the scenes of my life as an author, the best place to find me is inside my weekly newsletter, which you can sign up for here: EdwinaKiernan.com/subscribe 

Thank you, Edwina, 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/dp/B0BCSPFXDJ

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