SAFE HAVEN RANCH - Louise M Gouge - One Free Book

Bio: South Carolina author, Louise M. Gouge, writes contemporary and historical romance fiction, winning the prestigious IRCA in 2006 and placing as a finalist in 2011, 2015, 2016, and 2017. She was also a finalist in the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Awards in 2005, 2007, and 2008, and placed in the Laurel Wreath contest in 2012. Most recently, she was a finalist in the 2023 Selah Awards and is a current finalist for the 2024 Selah Awards. A former college English and humanities professor, Louise is a member of the Christian PEN and has been copyediting for well-known authors for fifteen years. Married for fifty-four happy years to her husband, David, Louise is now widowed and spends her days researching and writing her next novel.

Welcome back to my bog, Louise. Since you’re being published regularly, what new avenues will your future books take? After publishing about thirty historical Christian romances with various publishers, I am now moving into contemporary Christian romance. My current release, Safe Haven Ranch, is contemporary.

What conferences will you be attending this year? Will you be a speaker at any of them? Although I loved to attend conferences in the past, I’m not able to travel anymore. I would be delighted if a conference were held within driving distance of my new home in Columbia, South Carolina.

I understand that. I’m not traveling anymore either. 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? Because I have a copyediting business in addition to my writing, I would plan a panel discussion about the importance of writers honing their grammar, punctuation, and usage skills. I would invite Kathy Ide and Jeanne Marie Leach to be on the panel. Kathy began the Christian PEN, of which I am a member, and she has written numerous books to help authors write well. Jeanne Marie wrote Christian romance novels before discovering her special gift for editing, which she now does full time. Both of these women have a lot to offer both new and experienced authors.

How important is it to you to be active in writing organizations? I love being a part of ACFW. In fact, I think my membership number is something like 90 or 190, so I’ve been around since close to the beginning. I am published because of connections I made through ACFW. I’m also a member of FHLCW, and the same goes for this group. I love the online fellowship in both groups and continue to learn from my fellow authors.

My ACFW membership number is 45. Where in the community or your church do you volunteer? Physical limitations prevent me from volunteering other than online prayer ministries.

I’m a part of the prayer ministry at my church, too. Who are the five people who have made the most impact on your life, and how? My maternal grandmother often quoted scripture to me and helped ground my faith when I was quite small. My late husband was a constant source of encouragement to me in my writing, and I miss his input in my stories. My oldest daughter became a widow shortly after her second child was born, and her courage and resilience have been an example to me. My mother was a wonderful mom to her four children, and I tried to model my own mothering after hers. My father’s patriotism and courage in fighting in both world wars makes me proud to be an American.

I became a widow last October after 59 years with my husband. If you could write the inscription on your tombstone, what would it be? Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.

Please tell us about the featured book. As mentioned before, Safe Haven Ranch is my first contemporary for Love Inspired. A special note about this book is that it’s a sequel to my historical series, Finding Her Frontier Family and Finding Her Frontier Home. It was so much fun to write about later generations of the fictional Mattson family of ranchers in New Mexico.

Here’s the back cover copy:

Can two little children help turn a feud into a family? It should be easy for widow Olivia Ortiz to despise Will Mattson, the man keeping her from buying the ranchland she needs for herself and her daughter, Emily. But when Emily becomes instant friends with Will’s nephew, Jemmy, Olivia and Will find themselves growing closer as well. And as Olivia’s feelings for the handsome cowboy shift, competing for the property could be the start of something more…

Please share the first page with us.

Outside Riverton, New Mexico

“You what?”

Olivia Ortiz stared at her elderly neighbor, barely sparing a glance at his too-handsome companion. “But, Albert, you promised to sell your land to me.” She was standing in her own driveway, hands fisted at her waist in a defensive posture.

“I know, I know.” Albert Winslow shrugged his bony shoulders and gave her an apologetic smile. “But wait ’til you hear what he has planned, and I think you’ll like it. Will, how about you tell Miss Olivia what you have planned.” As usual, the almost ninety-year-old gentleman repeated himself. He looked up at his much taller companion. “I think she’ll like it.”

“Um…” The younger man, who fit the very definition of a tall, dark and handsome cowboy—with curly black hair thrown in for good measure—grinned, and his blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight, causing a silly hiccup in Olivia’s chest. “Don’t you think you should introduce us first?”

“Oh.” Albert blinked and looked from him to Olivia and back again. “Sure thing. Miss Olivia, this is Will Mattson. Known this boy all his life. He’s the grandson of my old friend Andy Mattson, Lord rest his soul. Will, this is Olivia Ortiz. She and her father own this property.” He waved a hand around to include the fifteen acres that comprised her land, just over a quarter the size of his own fifty acres. Centered by matching pink adobe houses, the two properties were separated by a four-foot fieldstone fence, with a single flimsy, never-locked, much-used gate between them.

Will reached out a hand. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.” He gave her a wide smile, revealing perfect white teeth set off by his perfectly tanned complexion, which caused another hiccup near her heart.

What was wrong with her? She wasn’t about to let herself fall for this man…or any man. No one could ever replace Sancho. Still, she briefly shook his hand as his name registered in her brain.

“Mattson? Are you…?” Annoyance replaced the shock that Albert’s devastating news had delivered.

“Yes, ma’am.” There went that cowboy “ma’am” thing again, punctuated by a boyish shuffling of his western boots on the dusty ground. “Can’t escape it around here.”

“Well, if you’re a Mattson, why do you need this small property to add to the…what is it? Eight or ten thousand acres your family owns?” She didn’t mean to sound so confrontational, but Albert had just crashed her desperately held dreams, so her social filters were crashing, too. “You plan to buy the whole county?”

Where can my readers find you on the Internet?

Web site at https://louisemgougeauthor.blogspot.com/ 

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

Follow me on BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/louise-m-gouge

Thank you, Louise, for sharing this new book with my blog readers and me. You know how much I love your books.

Readers, here’s a link to the book.

Safe Haven Ranch

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