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Tuesday, February 27, 2024

A SUMMER ON BELLEVUE AVENUE - Lorri Dudley - One Free Book

Welcome back, Lorri. Since you’re being published regularly, what new avenues will your future books take? There are still two more books to be released in my Agents of Espionage Series: Redeeming the Rake, where a vicar’s daughter saves a spy’s life, but his rogue tactics may destroy everything she values and steal her heart, and Relinquishing the Agent, about a gentleman spy on a mission to arrest a ring of resurrection men, must protect a beautiful bluestocking when women start disappearing.

After the series releases, I’m looking to pitch Wild Heart Books on an adventure-competition series resembling a Regency version of The Apprentice, The Amazing Race, and Wife Swap (but more like a life swap to keep it Christian-based). Otherwise, I’m entertaining a British deportation series where wrongfully charged heroes are transported to Australia and find redemption within a penal colony, or a Windward Island Series to match my prior Leeward Island Series. My creative juices are flowing! I love writing and am so blessed to have the opportunity. God is good.

Yes, He is. What conferences will you be attending this year? Will you be a speaker at any of them? I’m looking to attend ACFW’s conference in New Orleans and the Just Read Rendezvous conference, where readers meet writers in St. Louis. I don’t plan to speak, but I hope to either moderate or be on a panel at the Just Read Rendezvous conference as I did last year.

If you were in charge of planning the panel discussion at a writing conference, what topic would the panel cover, and who would you ask to be on the panel, and why? With my psychology background, I love characterization. I would hold a panel on how authors determine their character’s personality and use the traits to develop and push the plot, especially when the characteristics may be opposite their own (i.e., an introverted, detail-oriented author who writes about a flighty, extroverted heroine). Also, I’d ask them how birth order plays a role in the characters’ personalities and interactions, especially in sibling series and romantic relationships. Some authors who have done this well that I would love to interview on the panel would be Kristi Ann Hunter, Blossom Turner, Misty Beller, and Robin Patchen.

How important is it to you to be active in writing organizations? Connections are vital to being an author. We are an isolated bunch who sit alone in front of a computer. It’s essential to be part of writing organizations and critique groups. I’ve been a member of ACFW for ten years, and the people I’ve met through their conferences and the Northeast Chapter are why I’m published today. Friendships and networking have been invaluable. In the beginning, I soaked up how to improve my writing, but now I lean on my writer friends for encouragement, strategy, marketing tips, and when I get stuck in a plot hole. Writing is an “always be learning” process.            

That is so true. After 40 years in the business, I’m still learning. Where in the community or your church do you volunteer? I’ve been a greeter at church for twenty years and ran the team for five years. Even though I’m introverted, I believe my unease in new situations allowed God to instill in me a heart to want new guests to feel welcome and at ease. I tell my team you never know how long a mother has prayed for her child to walk through these church doors, and we get to be like the prodigal son’s father waiting with wide-open arms to welcome them home.

I have also been an active member and leader of small groups for over twenty years. My husband and I currently help co-lead a marriage group where we’re the advanced couple (a nice way of saying we’re comparatively old), having now been married twenty-four years. We have a passion for helping couples succeed in marriage.

Who are the five people who have made the most impact on your life, and how? 

My husband, John, has loved me through my faults, drawn me out of my shell, talked me off cliffs, and given me three wonderful boys.

My parents, who have also been my biggest cheerleaders, have taught me to work hard and be independent.

My friend and spiritual mother, Lynn Jamros, took my husband and me under her wing when we were baby Christians. She encouraged, challenged, and loved on me as a Jesus with skin on.

Pastor and Stacy Frye are my pastors, leaders, and friends. They’ve taught, inspired, and believed in me.

If you could write the inscription on your tombstone, what would it be?

Servant of Jesus

Devoted wife

Mother of Christ-following men

who carry on the charge.       

Tell us about the featured book. A Summer on Bellevue Avenue is the sixth installment of the Romance in the Gilded Age Resorts Series written by various Wild Heart Books authors. It was my first dive into America’s Gilded Age, and I loved it.

Wealthy heiress Amanda Mae Klein is set to marry the man she loves, Wesley Jansen—the only person she trusts to help ease her anxiety among the social climbers of high society. Then the daughter of a union boss falls down a flight of stairs at Wesley’s oil company’s office in the middle of the night…and the woman claims Wesley pushed her.
Seeking solace from the growing scandal, Amanda flees to the mansion-dotted seaside of Newport. Wesley follows and sets about disproving the rumors while winning back Amanda’s trust. But soon, Amanda finds not only her social status but her life at risk. As grievous events pit the two against each other, will their love find a way to survive?

Please share the first page with us.

New York, New York

June 7, 1895

A scream and tumbling sound woke Wesley Astor Jansen. He jolted upright from his desk and swiped at the paper that stuck to his cheek.

Had he dreamed the noise? Who else was here?  

He tilted his ear up and listened, but in the office of Jansen and Sons Oil and Energy Engineering, not even the janitorial staff stirred. The oil lamp on the corner of his desk burned low. He flicked open his gold pocket watch and held it near the sputtering light.

Quarter after three in the morning. He snapped the lid shut and tucked the timepiece back into his suit pocket.

His copy of the signed marriage agreement he’d struggled for the better part of an hour to read though lay scattered across his desk. He gathered the pages into a pile and turned to file them in his side drawer.

Odd. The drawer stood open. Had he left it that way?

He slid the papers into the first folder, then closed and locked the compartment. It was late. He should head home. Light sparkled off the remaining bubbles still bursting in his half-finished champagne glass. He brought the glass over to the sideboard for the staff to clear.

It had been a solitary victory celebration after obtaining Mr. Klein’s blessing to marry his daughter—a hard-won feat. Mr. Klein’s ruthless business and social dealings sought one-sided advantages, but Wesley, too, could be relentless. A financial investment closed the deal with Klein & Co. manufacturing their line of motor cars with Jansen and Sons’ unique grade of gasoline. They both signed, and the only stipulation was for Wesley’s money to be returned if Amanda declined his offer of marriage.

Paying for his bride didn’t sit well with Wesley. If Amanda discovered what her father asked of him and the dollar amount, she’d be horrified. In the end, he’d have paid even more because he loved Amanda, and a Jansen-Klein business alliance would profit them both.

Grander festivities would take place tomorrow evening after he proposed and Amanda accepted.

Wesley yawned and ran his hand down his face. He’d been having some dream.   

Where can my readers find you on the Internet?

LorriDudley.com

https://www.wildheartbooks.org/lorri-dudley.html

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lorri-dudley

Goodreads

Amazon

Thank you for sharing A Summer on Bellevue Avenue with my blog readers and me. I’ve always loved reading your books.

Readers, here’s a link to the book.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=A+Summer+on+Bellevue+Avenue&i=stripbooks&crid=51GFE7IEC8SE&sprefix=a+summer+on+bellevue+avenue+%2Cstripbooks%2C100&ref=nb_sb_noss

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.)

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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 2 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

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6 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great story! Cherie J from Florida.

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  2. A novel that sounds captivating and set during The Gilded Age which interests me greatly. anne in NM.

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  3. Sounds so good!
    Abigail in VA

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  4. Anonymous3:09 PM

    Lorri Dudley is a great author! I'm excited to read this new book! It sounds very intriguing!

    Alison from MI

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  5. Sharon Bryant7:42 PM

    Enter me in your awesome giveaway!!
    Nichols SC.

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  6. Those first page blurbs get me every time! Would love to read this!

    Pam in OH

    ReplyDelete