BEFORE WE WERE YOURS - Lisa Wingate - One Free Book

Dear Readers, I’m always glad to host Lisa Wingate on this blog. There’s a kind of funny story about how we first met. A number of years ago, I can’t remember how many, I had acquired a Lisa Wingate book. She is a fellow Texas author, and I really enjoyed the book, because I’d been to some of the places she used as her setting. Her characters leapt off the page right into my heart. When I finished, I found out she had a book with the title Never Say Never. I had a book with that title, too. They were vastly different books, but they led to me contacting Lisa. I’ve featured many of her books on my blog, and they are so different from mine. I haven’t read one that I didn’t love. Her stories stay with the reader a long time.

Welcome back, Lisa. How did this book come about?

For me, every piece of fiction begins with a spark. From there, the story travels on the winds of research and imagination. Before We Were Yours had the most unexpected kind of beginning.

I was up late one night working on materials for a different story and had the TV playing in the background for company. A rerun of the Investigation Discovery: Dangerous Women cycled through at about two in the morning. I looked up and saw images of an old mansion. The front room was filled with bassinettes and babies. There were crying babies, laughing babies, babies who were red-cheeked and sweaty-faced and sickly looking. I tuned in and immediately became fascinated by the bizarre, tragic, and startling history of Georgia Tann and her Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. One of the most shocking things about the story was how recent it was. Georgia Tann and her children’s home operated from the 1920s through 1950. After watching the segment, I literally could not clear the images from my mind. I couldn't stop wondering about the thousands of children who had been victimized by Georgia’s system, who had been brokered in adoptions for profit.

What became of them? Where were they now?

I couldn’t help but dig into the story. I was shocked by the scope of Georgia’s network, the fact that she affected so many children, and the tragic consequences of her cruelty and greed.

Wow, you’ve caught my attention. Tell us about the book’s cover and what makes it unique.

The cover actually went through many iterations before we landed on a combination that seemed just perfect for the story. I have to say, of all of my book covers on over thirty novels now, this one is my favorite. There’s just something about the posture of these two little girls that speaks to me. They represent twelve-year-old Rill, a little girl growing up on her parents’ Mississippi river shantyboat and her young sister, Fern. When they and their five siblings are taken from their parents one stormy night and placed in one of Georgia Tann’s orphan houses, Rill struggles not only to protect herself, but to keep her siblings together. That battle, to me is what this picture represents—the uncertainty of their situation, the strength of their sibling bond, and Rill’s determination to return to her free floating life on the river.

Please explain and differentiate between what’s fact and fiction in the book.

Rill and her siblings in the novel and their shantyboat life on the Mississippi river  are fiction. Avery, the thirty-year-old senator’s daughter in the modern-day portion of the novel is fictional as well.

The Foss children and Avery Stafford began taking shape as I combed through accounts of birth parents who’d searched for their stolen children for decades and adoptees who’d searched for their birth families. Survivors of TCHS care, desperately seeking their true identities, were confronted with systematic legislative roadblocks, altered paperwork, and closely held secrets. Because powerful families and Hollywood celebrities were involved in TCHS adoptions, and because many people felt that the children should be left where they were, there was pressure to legalize even the most irregular of Tann’s adoptions and seal the records, which was exactly what happened.

As with most stories that are true or partially true, the dividing line between good and evil is murky in the case of Georgia Tann and her Memphis Tennessee Children’s Home Society. The journey of the Foss children in the novel reflects this. Certainly, TCHS removed some children from unfit birth families and facilitated adoptions into safe, loving homes that provided great opportunity. Sadly, thousands of others were left with lasting damage and questions that would never be answered.

I hope Before We Were Yours, in some way, tells their stories. Yes, it’s fiction. Rill and her four siblings, growing up on their family’s shantyboat in the Mississippi River were figments of my imagination. But in a way, they existed. In a way, they are any one and every one of these children, taken from their families, torn from their lives with no explanation or understanding of what was happening, and deposited into an unregulated, unfit, and politically corrupt system that operated not based on child welfare, but on profit. Those were the stories I wanted to tell––the stories told in the smallest voices or never told at all.

I’m glad you wrote this story. I had been aware of this situation, but I didn’t know how long it went on or how horrible some of the cases were. How much research did you have to do for this book?

The book was research-intensive. I took in nearly everything I could find about the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis and Georgia Tann. In large part, I found bits of the story here and bits there. The Discovery Channel’s Deadly Women and 60 Minutes provided helpful information and visuals. Several books, including, Babies For Sale by Linda Austin and The Baby Thief by Barbara Raymond were particularly helpful in researching the adoption scandal. Harlan Hubbard’s Shantyboat Journal is a beautiful account of shantyboat life on the river. I also spent time in Memphis, researching locations, combing through the river museum, visiting the library and the university’s photo archives, and talking to people who remembered the scandal.

What are some of the most interesting things you found about this subject that you weren’t able to use in the story?

Because Before We Were Yours is fiction, I was able to thread in what I felt were the most interesting pieces of the true-life history of Georgia Tann and her Memphis branch of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society. One interesting aspect of the true story that isn’t in the novel is the special investigation that was conducted as Georgia Tann’s operation was finally shut down in 1950. The original report to Governor Browning was filled with information about Tann’s nefarious methods, the deaths of children in her system of unregulated boarding homes, and the sheer panic of adoptive families who were terrified that the children they’d raised for years would be taken away. There were also some wonderful newspaper stories written years later, telling of birth families finally reunited.

What inspired and surprised you while you were writing the book?

The resilience of the children who had survived stints in TCHS care (and in the care of other orphans’ homes) and their determination to regain their identities, to resist being defined by the circumstances they’d been delivered into through no fault of their own.

What do you hope the reader takes away from the story?

I hope readers take away the message that we need not be defined by our pasts. I hope Rill’s experience resonates with readers who have in some way surrendered to the wounds of painful past experiences. Rill faces that battle as she matures. As an old woman, she advises thirty-year-old Avery, “A woman’s past need not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses. Her own music. To hear it, she must only stop talking. To herself, I mean. We’re always trying to persuade ourselves of things.” Living in a defensive posture is another form of allowing other people to dictate who we are and what we believe about ourselves. Letting go, dancing to our own music is a risk, but on the other side of that process lays light, freedom, and fulfillment. That’s what I hope people take away from Before We Were Yours. Our lives have purpose, but to fulfill that purpose we must first claim ourselves.

           

I also hope that, in a broader sense, the story of Rill and the Foss children serves to document the lives of all the children who disappeared into Georgia Tann’s unregulated system. Only by remembering history are we reminded not to let it repeat itself. It’s important that we, ordinary people busy with the rush of everyday life, remember that children are vulnerable, that on any given day, thousands of children live the uncertainty of Rill’s journey. We have to be aware. We must be kind neighbors, determined protectors, willing encouragers, wise teachers, and strong advocates, not just for the children who are ours by birth, but for all children.

What is the next project you’re working on?

I can’t imagine not being at work on a new story, and yes, of course I am at work on another novel now. I think this will be novel number thirty-one. As always, this new story began with a piece of history that was huge in its day. Just a little over a century ago, anyone, anywhere would have recognized the names. Today, hardly anyone would. Through fiction, I have the chance to resurrect these people whose lives have gone into quiet slumber. I learn about their world and slip into their lives. As always, the experience is both challenging and wonderful. I’ve finished the first draft, which is always the hard part. The first draft, for me, is about figuring out the story, sifting through loads of raw ore and finding the gold nuggets. It’s hard work and heavy lifting, backbreaking in a way. The second draft is about getting the story into shape for other people to read–shining up the gold nuggets and hanging them on a string. That’s the fun part.

What do you do when you have to get away from the story for a while?

Photography! I love it and anyone who follows my Facebook page will find tons of photos, from the vast mountain vistas to little wonders that could easily go unnoticed underfoot. I love looking at life through the lens of a camera.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Baltimore, Maryland

A U G U S T  3, 1939

My story begins on a sweltering August night in a place I will never set eyes upon. The room takes life only in my imaginings. It is large most days when I conjure it. The walls are white and clean, the bed linens crisp as a fallen leaf. The private suite has the very finest of everything. Outside, the breeze is weary, and the cicadas throb in the tall trees, their verdant hiding places just below the window frames. The screens sway inward as the attic fan rattles overhead, pulling at wet air that has no desire to be moved.

The scent of pine wafts in, and the woman’s screams press out as the nurses hold her fast to the bed. Sweat pools on her skin and rushes down her face and arms and legs, She’d be horrified if she were aware of this.

She is pretty. A gentle, fragile soul. Not the sort who would intentionally bring about the catastrophic unraveling that is only, this moment, beginning. In my multifold years of life, I have learned that most people get along as best they can. They don’t intend to hurt anyone. It is merely a terrible by-product of surviving.

It isn’t her fault, all that comes to pass after that one final, merciless push. She produces the very last thing she could possibly want. Silent flesh comes forth—a tiny, fair-haired girl as pretty as a doll, yet blue and still.

The woman has no way of knowing her child’s fate, or if she does know, the medications will cause the memory of it to be nothing but a blur by tomorrow. She ceases her thrashing and surrenders to the twilight sleep, lulled by the doses of morphine and scopolamine administered to help her defeat the pain.

To help her release everything, and she will.

Sympathetic conversation takes place as doctors stitch and nurses clean up what is left.

“So sad when it happens this way. So out of order when a life has not even one breath in this world.”

“You have to wonder sometimes…why…when a child is so very wanted….”

I am eager to read the book. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Lisa’s website: www.Lisawingate.com

Lisa’s newsletter signup: http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0018GC6MpVjY0TpvP16_2KxSyrRJByqJCRpyYmRWXZCW3i5gO4vpFWzOU5TC0yqiiw8ZFUeQazAAms%3D

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/#!/lisawingate

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/LisaWingateAuthorPage?ref=br_tf

Pinterest:  https://pinterest.com/lisawingatebook/

Lisa’s blog: http://theuntoldstory.guru

Where can I read and excerpt of Before We Were Yours?

On my website, of course. Sign up for my newsletter while you are there, if you wish.

Here is the direct link to the excerpt:

http://www.lisawingate.com/BeforeWeWereYoursFreePreview.pdf

Thank you, Lisa, for sharing this book with us. I eagerly await the release date in June. And they are available by pre-order on Christianbook.com and Amazon.com.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

Before We Were Yours - Christianbook.com (best pre-order price Hardback)
Before We Were Yours: A Novel - Kindle
Before We Were Yours: A Novel - Amazon Hardback

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, Google+, 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

THE SEAKEEPER'S DAUGHTERS - Lisa Wingate - One Free Book

Dear Readers, if you haven’t read any of Lisa Wingate’s books, try one. You’ll be hooked for life.

Welcome back, Lisa. Since you’re being published regularly, what new avenues will your future books take?

My last few books have been dual time frame novels. The historical threads were created from fictionalized historical events. I love doing the research, finding little-known events and building on those. I imagine the people who were involved, what issues they may have faced, how they might have learned from their challenges.

I love having present day characters discover some historical mystery and telling a time-slip story allows the modern characters to learn life lessons from the past. I have at least one more book coming up along those lines. My lips are sealed at this point about the topic, title, and theme, but it’ll be hitting shelves sometime in 2016.

And I hope it hits my blog soon after. What conferences will you be attending this year? Will you be a speaker at any of them?

I’ll be attending several book festivals in the South while on Tour in September, including the Decatur Book Festival, SIBA Conference, and a bit later the Lousiana Book Festival. In the spring, I’m scheduled to attend a wonderful book festival in Panama City Florida. I’m looking forward to the books and the scenery.

I’ll be speaking at all of these book festivals, in one capacity or another. Typically, I’ll be sharing a panel spot with other authors, which allows us to bounce ideas and thoughts around. I’ll also be speaking at various luncheons and venues during The Sea Keeper’s Daughters book tour in September. For more about that, friends can check out the Appearances page on my website.

http://lisawingate.com/blog3/appearances/

And, I’ll be teaching a fiction track at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference in March in Felton, CA.

Busy lady. 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?       

I love speaking with other writers about their writing processes – what works for them and what doesn’t. I think we can all gain tips from one another to improve our productivity both in writing and in publicity. I think if I were planning a panel, it would be a combination of talking about writing process and tips to optimize the writing life. I’m not sure who I’d ask. I think we can learn from other writers of all types.

How important is it to you to be active in writing organizations?        

Working with other authors is very important to me. I have friends I meet with regularly and typically I attend and/or speak at several writing conferences each year. Some of my best opportunities have happened because I’ve come to know other writers. As writers we need support, advice, and help with everything from publicity to plotlines. Many brains are better than one.

Where in the community or your church do you volunteer?

For years my, husband and I taught Sunday school for high school seniors, which we loved. It’s hard to believe, but we continued so many years, that eventually our Sunday school kids were coming to visit with their own children. It has been such a joy to keep in touch with them and watch them grow into Godly adults with families and adult lives of their own.

I started the children’s choirs with another lady at the church we attended for 30 years. The Lord led us to another church about 12 years ago. Now some of my boys and girls are on the praise teams for this new church. It’s such a blessing seeing them up on stage. Tell us about the featured book.

From modern-day Roanoke Island to the sweeping backdrop of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains and Roosevelt’s WPA folklore writers of the Federal Writers’ Project, past and present intertwine to create an unexpected destiny….

Restaurant owner, Whitney Monroe, is desperate to save her business from a hostile takeover. The inheritance of a decaying Gilded Age hotel on North Carolina’s Outer Banks may provide just the ray of hope she needs. But things at The Excelsior are more complicated than they seem. Whitney’s estranged stepfather is entrenched on the third floor, and the downstairs tenants are determined to save the historic building. Searching through years of stored family heirlooms may be Whitney’s only hope of quick cash, but will the discovery of an old necklace and a depression-era love story change everything?

Tell the inspiration for the book

I never know where my stories will come from. While working on my first Carolina book, set on the Outer Banks, I became fascinated with the mystery of the Lost Colonists of Roanoke Island. You can’t spend time on the Carolina Coast without realizing that theories abound as to the fate of the 117 people who vanished from Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill-fated colony over thirty years before the Pilgrims would land on Plymouth Rock. While writing my second Carolina book, The Story Keeper, I delved into the mystery of what early explorers deemed to be Appalachia’s “blue-eyed Indians,” who were found to have been living in the mountains decades before other Europeans pressed in. I knew that the third Carolina book would somehow bring these two fascinating bits of history together.

While researching the previous books, I came across life history interviews written by participants in a little-known Depression-era program called the Federal Writers’ Project. The Project was championed by Eleanor Roosevelt and was a WPA program designed to hire impoverished writers, academics, housewives, and reporters. They became Field Interviewers, tasked to travel the hidden corners of America and record the stories of the common man. The adventures of these Federal Writers were equally as fascinating as the narratives and stories they discovered during their travels.

What might a modern woman discover, I wondered, if she were to happen to find the long-hidden missives of a relative who had left behind her wealthy family to become a Federal Writer? Could she possibly discover, among mountain stories handed down by oral tradition, not only her own family history, but a clue to one of America’s oldest mysteries?

Sounds so interesting. Please share the first page with us.         

Perhaps denial is the mind’s way of protecting the heart from a sucker punch it can’t handle. Or maybe it’s simpler than that. Maybe denial in the face of overwhelming evidence is a mere byproduct of stubbornness.

Whatever the reason, all I could think standing in the doorway, one hand on the latch and the other trembling on the keys, was, This can’t be happening. This can’t be how it ends. It’s so . . . quiet. A dream should make noise when it’s dying. It deserves to go out in a tragic blaze of glory. There should be a dramatic death scene, a gasping for breath . . . something.

Denise laid a hand on my shoulder, whispered, “Are you all right?” Her voice faded at the end, cracking into jagged pieces.

“No.” A hard, bitter tone sharpened the cutting edge on the word. It wasn’t aimed at Denise. She knew that. “Nothing about this is all right. Not one single thing.”

“Yeah.” Resting against the doorframe, she let her neck go slack until her cheek touched the wood. “I’m not sure if it’s better or worse to stand here looking at it, though. For the last time, I mean.”

“We’ve put our hearts into this place. . . .” Denial reared its unreasonable head again. I would’ve called it hope, but if it was hope, it was the false and paper-thin kind. The kind that only teases you.

Denise’s hair fell like a pale, silky curtain, dividing the two of us. We’d always been at opposite ends of the cousin spectrum—Denise strawberry blonde, pale, and freckled, me dark-haired, blue-eyed, and olive-skinned. Denise a homebody and me a wanderer.

“Whitney, we have to let it go. If we don’t, we’ll end up losing both places.”

For the complete excerpt, go here…

http://lisawingate.com/seakeepersdaughtersexcerpt.pdf

Where can my readers find you on the Internet?

My website: www.Lisawingate.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/lisawingate

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

Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/lisawingatebook/

Youtube: http://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/http://www.youtube.com/lisawingate

Blogging Mondays at: www.SouthernBelleViewDaily.com

The Untold Story Guru: http://theuntoldstory.guru

The Sisterhood Of the Traveling Books: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SisterhoodOfTheTravelingBooks/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/178832.Lisa_Wingate

Tyndale Media Center Link http://mediacenter.tyndale.com/1_products/details.asp?isbn=978-1-4143-8827-4

Thank you, Lisa, for sharing this new book with me and my blog readers.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

The Seakeeper's Daughters - Christianbook.com
The Sea Keeper's Daughters (A Carolina Heirlooms Novel) - Amazon
The Sea Keeper's Daughters (A Carolina Chronicles) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (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, Google+, 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

THE STORY KEEPER - Lisa Wingate - One Free Book

Dear Readers, I’m thrilled to be sharing Lisa Wingate’s new book with you.

Welcome back, Lisa. As an author, I know it takes a lot of people to birth each book. Who were the people involved in the birthing of this book, and what were their contributions?

It really does take a village to raise a book. My mother and my Aunt Sandy edit for me. My husband and sons help with travel and shuffling book boxes around. Author-friend, Julie Cantrell, gave the book an early read, and we talked about potential tweaks.

The greatest contributor to The Story Keeper, by far, was my Carolina friend, Ed. I’ll talk more about him when in a later question about The Story Keeper. Without Ed and his memories of growing up in Clemson, South Carolina, The Story Keeper, in its present form, would never have come to be.

If you teach or speak, what’s coming up on your calendar?

A book tour! Beginning the first of September, I’ll be heading out on The Untold Story Tour 2. Last year’s tour was busy and fun and exciting. I met so many wonderful people. I’m looking forward to again traveling several states, beginning with a big Journeys event in Memphis with author-friends, Lynne Gentry, Kellie Coates Gilbert, Julie Cantrell, and Elizabeth Ludwig. After that, I’ll travel to North Carolina and several surrounding states. Readers can find out more about the tour here: http://www.lisawingate.com/appearances.htm

Oh, my goodness. I know three of those women very well and love them. Wish I could tag along with y’all. If you had to completely start over in another place, where would you move, and why?

Someplace where there’s wilderness and mountains. I’ve always loved the mountains. I feel at home there. While I love the Texas Hill Country, there’s just something about life in the mountains that is earthy and real. The seasons change in splendor, the sights are awe-inspiring, and the fingertip of God is so clearly visible.

Then again, I feel the same way about the ocean. Maybe I’d settle in by the coast somewhere, in a little cottage by the sea ;)

If you could only tell aspiring novelists one thing, what would it be?

Enjoy the time of writing “just for you.” There’s something magical about the purity of writing just because you have a story inside you and you want to put it on paper. The story and the characters are the only things in your head as you work. After you sell your first book, that state of being alone with your story doesn’t exist anymore. Along with the story in your head, there are editors, deadlines, book reviewers, readers, financial considerations, agents, contracts, and so forth. All of those are wonderful things. They’re part of our end goal of being published and sharing our stories with the world, but it’s so worthwhile to be cognizant of the gifts of each part of the journey and the purity of its beginning.

You’ve been asked to be in charge of a celebrity cruise. Who would you ask to take part, and why? (As in what program, singers, etc. [it doesn’t have to be writing related])

I think my cruise would be a “storytellers” cruise. I am a lover of stories told the old-fashioned way, between a listener and a teller. I love them so much, in fact, that I’ve been quietly hatching a new gathering site at TheUntoldStory.Guru to catch and preserve fascinating stories that might otherwise fade from our culture.

My storytelling cruise wouldn’t necessarily be filled with national celebrities, but the sort of tellers who gather crowds in their hometowns or at family gatherings. Hollywood celebrities could come along if they were good storytellers, but my cruisers would be the waitresses from small-town cafes, the men who sit on pickup tailgates outside local Dairy Queens, the older folks who can tell you about driving on three-and-a-half bald tires during the rationing years of World War II. The ship would be so filled with stories, you’d see them floating on the air like a fog as we passed by. We’d breathe in their sweet scents, and remember every tale, and when we all went our separate ways at the end of the cruise, we’d tell those stories in new places.

Lisa, I’d have to hang with you on that one, too. Now tell us about the featured book.

After turning in the first draft of The Prayer Box, I literally dreamed a story about a young New York editor who finds a forgotten manuscript partial on an old slush pile. She’s captivated by the tale of Sarra, a young Melungeon girl, trapped by dangerous men in turn-of-the-century Appalachia. Sarra’s circumstances in some ways mirror the editor’s painful childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In my dream, the search for the manuscript’s author took her back home after many years away, leading her to a place called Mirror Lake, deep in the mountains.

When I woke, I poured the story concept onto paper, all at once, complete. Over the course of twenty-three novels, I’ve never done that before, and I knew that this story was something special. I was scheduled to meet with my editor the next week, so I took the synopsis along and told her about the dream and the story concept. We agreed to substitute it for the book that was to follow The Prayer Box.

When I contacted my friend and long-time mentor, Ed, to tell him I was writing another Carolina-based book, and so I had another project for the two of us. He was elated.  I described the location as I’d dreamed it, and gave him the name of the place in the dream – Mirror Lake. Imagine my surprise when Ed wrote back, “The name Mirror Lake really brings back wonderful memories that span time from the sixties to the present. When I was at Clemson, sometimes during the winter, when one of my friends could get a car, we would go to Highlands to ice skate on Mirror Lake. If we could get some dates to go with us, that was all the better. While I didn't own ice skates nor could I skate, I loved to watch others skate. Mirror Lake and the Highlands area were beautiful places. Those were some great times.”

When that email arrived, I became fully convicted that this story was meant to be. During last year’s book tour, Ed and I took time to drive through the Blue Ridge together, visit Pisgah, Mirror Lake, Stumphouse Tunnel, and many of the old places Ed remembered. We hiked, talked, photographed, and finished up our trip by passing through Clemson, where the editor character in the story was given a life-changing scholarship that frees her from a family pattern limited by poverty, geographic isolation, and the control of the Church Of the Brethren Saints.

Please give us the first page of the book.

This is the glory hour. This is the place the magic happens.

The thought fell quietly into place, like a photographer’s backdrop unfurling behind the subject of a portrait. Its shimmering folds caught my attention, bringing to mind a bit of advice from Wilda Culp, the person without whom I would’ve ended up somewhere completely different. Someplace tragic.

It’s strange how one person and a handful of stories can alter a life.

The trick, Jennia Beth Gibbs, is to turn your face to the glory hours as they come. I heard it again, her deep-raspy Carolina drawl playing the unexpected music of a bygone day. The saddest thing in life is to see them only as they flit away.

They’re always a passing thing. . . .

My first afternoon in the war room at Vida House Publishing was a glory hour. I felt it, had an inexplicable knowing of it, even before George Vida shuffled in the door and took his place at the head of the table to begin the weekly pub board meeting—my first at Vida House. This meeting would be different from all other such gatherings I’d attended over the past ten years at a half-dozen companies, in a half-dozen skyscrapers, in and about Manhattan.

There was magic in the air here.

George Vida braced his hands on the table before taking his seat, his gaze strafing the room with the discernment of a leathery old goat sniffing for something to nibble on. His survey paused momentarily on the pile of aging envelopes, manuscript boxes, and rubber-band-wrapped papers at the far end of the conference room. The odd conglomeration, among so many other things, was Vida House’s claim to fame—a curiosity I’d only heard about until today. One of the few remaining actual slush piles in all of New York City, perhaps in all of publishing. In the age of e-mail communication, paper-and-print slush piles had quietly gone the way of the dinosaurs. Digital slush is smaller, 

Wow. This book just went to the top of my to-be-read pile. Now let’s tell my readers where we can find you on the Internet, Lisa?

My website: www.Lisawingate.com

Twitter:   http://twitter.com/#!/lisawingate

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

Pinterest:  https://pinterest.com/lisawingatebook/

Youtube: http://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/http://www.youtube.com/lisawingate

Blogging Mondays at: www.SouthernBelleViewDaily.com

The Untold Story Guru: http://theuntoldstory.guru

The Story Keeper Pinterest Page: http://www.pinterest.com/lisawingatebook/the-story-keeper-a-novel-by-lisa-wingate/

The Sisterhood Of the Traveling Books: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SisterhoodOfTheTravelingBooks/

Thank you so much, Lisa, for sharing this new book with us. I'm excited about it.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
The Story Keeper - Christianbook.com
The Story Keeper - Amazon
The Story Keeper - Kindle

Christian Book Store

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (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, Google+, 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

THE PRAYER BOX - Lisa Wingate - One Free Book

Readers, when I first heard of Lisa Wingate, and that she was a fellow Texas author, I decided to read something of hers. Of course, I was in the middle of several deadlines at the time. Finally, I read a book of hers and loved it. Then I saw that she had written a book titled Never Say Never. Since I've also had a novel titled Never Say Never, I had to read that one, too. Since then I've read a number of Lisa Wingate novels. When I received my advance copy of The Prayer Box, it went to the top of my reading pile.

I believe this is the best book Lisa has written. The story has a lot of raw emotions that drew me deep inside the characters. The interesting concept of a story within a story took me to different times and places, but always returned to the Outer Banks. The characters wouldn't let me go after the book was finished, so soon I downloaded the Kindle book The Sea Glass Sisters. Both of these books are wonderful. You really won't want to miss either one of them.

Welcome, Lisa. Did you always know you wanted to be a writer or did you want to be something else?

I’ve wanted to be a writer for almost as long as I can remember. A special first grade teacher, Mrs. Krackhardt, put that idea into my head when she found me writing a story during indoor recess one day and told me I was a wonderful writer. When we moved away from the school, she wrote on my report card that she expected to see my name in a magazine one day. It’s funny how you have little defining moments in your life, but that was one of mine. I never forgot that my first grade teacher believed I could be a writer.

I didn’t get serious about freelance writing and selling until after I’d graduated from college, married, and started a family. I knew I wanted to write novels, books that meant something, that explore relationships and the human soul.

How long does it take you to write a book from start to finish?  

It takes about two or three months for me to complete a rough draft. I’ll usually spend about a month on the second pass. Then it takes a couple weeks for the beta readers to make it through the draft, editing, and commenting. Cleaning up the rough draft may take from one to three weeks and then it’s ready for the editor. Usually the whole writing process takes about six months, although I might have been thinking through the story for months or even years in advance. Some stories are like Jiffy Pop and some stories are like a slow-boiling pot of gumbo. I never know, but the actual writing is always an adventure of discovery.

How do you come up with themes for your stories?

I keep a tablet by my bed for middle of the night story inspirations. And, these days, my iPhone is always handy to take a note for me. Siri and I have become close friends. I do a great deal of work by dictation.

There are so many more ideas in my “scrap drawer” than I will ever have time to write. Some languish, waiting for the right time, and some keep nagging me until I decide to pull them out and work on them. And sometimes, right when it’s time to start a new book, a moment of serendipity happens. Such was the case with The Prayer Box.

The book came to be by accident, if you believe in accidents. I glanced across the room, saw the small prayer box that had been given to me as a gift, and a story began to spin through my mind. What if that box contained many prayers accumulated over time? What if there were dozens of boxes? What if they contained the prayers of a lifetime? What could more fully tell the truth about a person than words written to God in solitude? That question was the genesis of The Prayer Box. For me, so many stories begin with one great question and the process of seeking an answer.

Do you have a schedule of when you write?

Not so much a schedule as a goal. I write ten pages a day. I stick to my writing schedule unless I’m volunteering or off speaking somewhere. Typically, I start around eight in the morning and there is hope that I can finish mid-afternoon and move on to Facebooking, TV, phone calls, exercising, hobbies, and so forth. But, if there are many interruptions, I may be working late at night to meet the goal.

How are you able to balance other aspects of your life with your writing?

There was a time when I’d write on my laptop while my oldest played with his toys. Friends would ask, “How can you get all this writing done with having a little one?” I’d say things like, “Well, you put out toys and teach him to entertain himself while you’re working.” That was a naïve oversimplification of incredible magnitude, and I’d eat those words with son number two. There was no writing while he was awake – he liked people waaaay better than he liked toys. I’d write when he went down for a nap and as soon as he was in bed at night … and not much in between.

After the boys grew a bit, I wrote amid the chaos of a busy family. With kids and husband in and out constantly, phone calls, and activities, I stole bits of time here and there, and even in the car, waiting in the carpool line or on the way to someplace.

Now that the boys are grown and the house is often quiet, I’m redefining the writing routine again. Just as in books, life is a series of scenes and sequels, beginnings and endings, and new discoveries.

What elements do you think make a great story line?

I think every story must seek to look at the larger questions of life. Why am I here? What matters? What am I meant to do with my life? To some degree, every story is about a character answering these questions.

In terms of structure, I am a very organic sort of writer, but I do work within a standard Three Act Structure. Understanding classic story structure gives me just enough bones on which to hang the meat of the story. It’s not too restrictive or prescriptive, but it helps me to make sure I end up with a story that works.

What was the hardest thing about writing a book?

Finishing that first book is the hardest thing for most people, and that was definitely a difficulty for me. I think the hardest thing at this point is really just time management. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with everything else that’s happening and not give adequate time to the writing itself.

How many books have you written so far? Do you have a favorite?

Since the publication of my first novel, Tending Roses, there have been twenty little book babies over the course of a dozen years. It’s hard to believe how quickly that time has flown by!

My sentimental favorite will probably always be Tending Roses, a novel that includes my real life grandmother’s stories. In the book, Grandma Rose leaves her life-lesson stories in a notebook for Kate to find. In reality, my grandmother told me the stories when she visited after the birth of my first son, her first great-grandson. Her words helped me to sort out the things that really matter in a life, when you’re looking back at it. She is, in some ways, the inspiration for the older characters in my books. I like to combine generations. Older folks have much to teach us, but we don't always value that like we should in our culture.

Do you have a favorite character?

Aside from Grandma Rose, maybe my second favorite character is probably J.Norman from Dandelion Summer. He was spunky, and fun, and inspired by a special reader friend of mine. My books are more often considered women’s fiction, but I get letters from male readers. Several years ago, I received an e-mail from Ed Stevens. He was a retired engineer and said he would be happy to assist with technical projects to help spread word of my books on the Internet. As we worked on creating YouTube channels and speeding up my hamster-wheel Internet service, he shared some of his work history as well as his thoughts on fatherhood and the significant moments in life. He had amazing stories to tell.

J. Norman’s history as a character mirrors that of my friend, Ed, who worked with the Howard Hughes team that designed America’s first moon lander, Surveyor 1. The name Norman is borrowed from my grandfather and J. Norm’s feisty personal is truly my own grandfather’s.

As much as I love Grandma Rose and J. Norm, I’d also have to say that one of my new favorite characters is Sandy of Sandy’s Seashell Shop in The Prayer Box and The Sea Glass Sisters. She’s spunky, too, but Sandy is a pure force of nature. She and her shop play a significant role in both stories, and who wouldn’t love to own a shop by the sea?

Where do you write?

That has changed a lot over the years. I’ve always favored a laptop so I wasn’t tied to the desk. For many years I wrote in the middle hectic family activity. The boys have memories of saying, “Mom, Mom ... Mom!” to bring me out of my imaginary world and into their world. In recent years, I often grab my first cup of coffee and return to bed, prop up the laptop and write those first few pages right there, sometimes listening to the repertoire of the mockingbird in the crepe myrtle. Later in the day, I might be on the porch, enjoying the breeze and watching the hummingbirds come and go. In reality, when my mind is in a story, I can write anytime, anywhere, and with any amount of chaos around me. I even write on my iPhone via dictation while I’m working out. Sometimes when I’m “stuck” it helps if I get up and do something physically active. I love the portability that dictation allows.

When deciding on how to publish, what directed you to the route you took?

When I started with Penguin (around 2000), there weren’t nearly as many publishing options. Very few people self -published then and there was no e-publishing. It’s amazing how much the world has changed. Basically, the path I took at the time was the one everyone took. I found an agent, the agent submitted the book around, and we sold a two-book deal to Penguin.

Have you gotten feedback from family about your book(s)? What do they think?

Have I ever! My mother reads everything first and some of my beta readers are family. Relatives far and near send me comments about the books or talk about them when we get together. Some are more intimately involved. Aunt Sandy (of Sandy’s Seashell Shop in The Sea Glass Sisters and The Prayer Box) is my mom’s sister, and while she and my mom (who is Sharon in the story) wish I had made them a bit younger in the books, they were great character inspirations. My aunt designed her character and everything about the Seashell Shop she owns in the book. It was fun, working together to create Sandy’s Seashell Shop. The Prayer Box became a “girlfriend project” of sorts, with little contributions from many family members and friends.

What kinds of things do you like to do outside of writing?

Walk by the creek, watch the birds, bake bread, Facebook, make prayer boxes and other crafts, talk to gal pals on the phone, hang out with family, gather at the holidays, just have a cookout for no good reason, travel, meet readers at speaking events, teach Sunday School to teens… And read! With my writing schedule and reading books to endorse and keeping up on my author friends’ books, I always have a To-Be-Read stack and never enough time to do all the reading I want to do.

What kinds of advice would you give to someone who wants to start writing?

Set a goal and stick to it. Commit to a certain number of pages or words each day or each week. Keep yourself in the chair until you reach your goal. If you reach a sticking point, just put words on the paper and come back to them later. It’s easier to make something out of something than something out of nothing. You can always come back and edit, and it’s easier to relax and do that once you have an entire rough draft on paper.

Finish and edit the manuscript. Have several people read it, and not just cheerleaders. Ask some hard questions of them. What did they like or dislike about the main characters. Were the secondary characters believable? What part of the story seemed the best? What parts bogged them down or was difficult to understand?

Rewrite, perfect, make sure it is your best work. Then send it off, go to a conference, and pitch it to editors and agents. No one will come looking in your desk drawer or on your computer hard drive. You have to put it out there to sell it. Don’t take a singular rejection, or a comment from one editor or agent too seriously, unless there’s a deal on the line. Editors and agents are individuals, and they have their own opinions. If you start seeing a consensus of opinions on some issue, consider revising your work.

What is your favorite book? Favorite author? Do you have an author that inspired/inspires you to write?

In terms of classics, I love Eudora Welty, Zora Neale Hurston, and anything by Twain. I’m a huge fan of Will Rogers wit and wisdom because it still applies today. In terms of contemporary stories, there are so many authors who inspire me, I couldn’t even begin to choose.

Where did you get the idea for The Prayer Box?

The idea for The Prayer Box came as I was sketching out some short novel pitches at a publisher’s request. I literally looked across the room, and saw a prayer box that had been given to me at a speaking event, and thought, What if the prayers of a person's entire lifetime were recorded in prayer boxes? What would you learn about that person if you opened those boxes, and how might it change you?

From idea to final revision, how long did it take to write?

The writing and revision of The Prayer Box took about six months, although the back and fourth with various publishers was longer than that. There was a great deal of interest in the concept, both on the ABA and CBA sides of the market.

I had originally set the book on the Texas coast. I knew it would be a story about a life in ruins being slowly resurrected through the discovery of prayer boxes left behind by the owner of a house. I knew the story would be set in a small seaside community that was struggling to recover from a hurricane, and that the main character would be an outsider who comes there seeking refuge. I knew that there would be connections between the life of the woman who created the prayer boxes and filled them with letters, and the life of the woman who finds the boxes.

What I didn’t know was that a longtime reader-friend of mine, Ed Stevens (whose personal history inspired my earlier novel, Dandelion Summer), would suggest that the Outer Banks of North Carolina needed some attention after hurricane Irene, and that I should set a book there. At first I just filed the information away with my “someday” ideas, but Ed was determined. Not too long after that, he offered my research crew and me a stay in his daughter’s beach house there, which was all the convincing I needed. Setting The Prayer Box in the Outer Banks did add some time to the writing, but also added a wonderful new dimension to the book. The Outer Banks became a character in itself. It’s an area rife with history and legend and that played an important part in the story.

Are you working on anything now?

I’m actually working on the follow-up to The Prayer Box, which will be released in September 2014. The story is set in North Carolina, but in the Appalachians, rather than on the Outer Banks where The Prayer Box is set. The stories share a special connection that I hope readers will enjoy discovering, but each book stands alone.

Thank you, Lisa, for sharing this book with us.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
The Prayer Box - Christianbook.com
The Prayer Box - Kindle
The Prayer Box: A Novel - Audio

Christian Book Store

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (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 Google +, Feedblitz, Facebook, 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

FIREFLY ISLAND - Lisa Wingate - One Free Book on This Blog - Plus Much More

Bio: Lisa Wingate is a magazine columnist, inspirational speaker, and the author of eighteen mainstream fiction novels, including the national bestseller, Tending Roses, now in its seventeenth printing. She is a seven-time ACFW Carol award nominee, a Christy Award nominee, and a two-time Carol Award winner. She has found success in both the Christian and general fiction markets, writing mainstream fiction for Penguin Putnam and Bethany House. Recently, the group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Lisa along with Bill Ford, Camille Cosby, and six others, as recipients of the National Civies Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. More information about Lisa’s novels can be found at www.Lisawingate.com

How did you come up with the idea for this story?

Firefly Island, like all of my stories, is a combination of real life and fiction. In the story, Mallory’s life in Washington D.C. takes a sudden right turn when her love-at-first sight flame, Daniel Everson, is offered a job on a remote ranch in far-away Texas. Some years ago, my life took a similar turn when, through a series of family connections, my husband was offered the chance to leave his corporate job and operate a ten thousand acre ranch in the Texas Hill Country. Like Daniel in the story, he really did walk out of the bedroom after a phone call (looking quite peaked and somewhat terrified) and say, “I … ummm … think I’ve just been offered a … ummm… job in… Texas.”

That was the beginning of wild adventure that would last several years. We knew we’d never get the chance to do something like this again, so we sold our home and went for it. We were scared to death. We had a three and a half year old son at the time (the age of Daniel’s son Nick in the story). Like Mallory, we worried about what the schools would be like that far out in the country, how we would find playmates for our son, and whether he would be lonely, living miles from other families. It never occurred to me to wonder whether I would be lonely. I figured that part out after we started our new life ;o)

The political scandal that eventually threatens Mallory’s new life on the ranch was largely a product of serendipity and timing. As I was writing the book, a local political controversy was brewing in Central Texas. I learned about it when I happened to attend an event in my hometown and sit next to someone who’d been fighting a David-and-Goliath style battle against political powerbrokers. While the events in the story were only partially inspired by the ugly reality brewing, that little nugget of local controversy generated the perfect challenge to Mallory’s newfound life – a battle that she, with her political experience, is uniquely suited to fight.

If you were planning a party with Christian authors of contemporary fiction, what six people would you invite and why?

Any party of mine would probably include far more than six Christian authors of contemporary fiction, because I know so many wonderful people who fit that bill. I’ll struggle with the number, but I would definitely include my fellow blogging gal-pals on www.SouthernBelleViewDaily.com , Beth Webb Hart, Julie Cantrell, Rachel Hauck, and Shellie Rushing Tomlinson. Shellie isn’t technically a fiction author, but she’s the Queen of All Things Southern, and we all write Southern stories, so she would be there even if it is a fiction authors party. I think we’d all just sit out on the porch with a big pitcher of sweet tea and see who shows up. Maybe Susan May Warren or Jenny B. Jones or Judy Christie would liven up the party? If Debbie Macomber happened to wander up the street, we wouldn’t kick her off the porch, either. Debbie is one-hundred percent delightful!

Now let’s do that for a party for Christian authors of historical fiction, what six people would you invite and why

I’d invite Julie Klassen, because she was my editor at Bethany House and I love her books. I’d invite Carla Stewart because Carla’s delightful personality is an asset at any party. I’d invite Francine Rivers because she’s a fascinating person and has enjoyed such long-standing success in the industry. A historical party wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without Dee Gist (dressed in historical costume of course). Then, I think we’d just see who else wanders by, looking to hang out. Maybe Tamara Alexander or Elizabeth Ludwig would happen by… or… who knows? Lena, you could join us and share a story or two. How about it?

Since I’m a Texan, too, I’d love to drop by. Besides, I love those authors, too. Many times, people (and other authors) think you have it made with so many books published. What is your most difficult problem with writing at this time in your career?

Other than just the highs and lows of the business – one day, you’re on top of the world at an awards ceremony, and the next day someone is panning your book in a review, and you can’t imagine why anyone would be that mean to something you care deeply about – I think the toughest thing is time management. The more your world and your writing expands, the more people and activities you’re connected to. It’s easy to get so busy with your work life that you let work chip little pieces from the rest of your life. Finding balance is important and not always easy, at any stage in your career.

I so agree. Tell us about the featured book.

Mallory Hale’s life veers unexpectedly off course when she falls hopelessly in love. After a whirlwind romance, Mallory finds herself leaving the bustle of Capitol Hill for the remote town of Moses Lake, Texas—with husband, stepson, and a U-Haul in tow.

A sweet, mishap-filled journey into marriage, motherhood, and ranch living ensues. But despite the adventure of her rosy new life, she soon discovers that even small towns have secrets.

When hints of a scandal emerge, Mallory comes to realize that this middle-of-nowhere home—the one she wasn’t sure she wanted—is the very place she’ll risk everything to save.

Mallory, in many ways experiences the life of a mail-order bride. Because she and Daniel have only known each other a short time when the job move forces a huge leap of faith in their relationship, she finds herself married to a man she adores, but barely knows. Like any newly-married couple, they have much to learn about each other, but Mallory is also facing sudden step-parenthood and the trials of leaving behind her family, her career, her friends, her identity, and all that is familiar. The challenges of life on a ranch are completely foreign to her.

In days of old, mail-order brides faced many of the same challenges. Our great-great grandmothers attempted to solve the problem by writing letters home, joining in sewing circles and ladies’ societies in their new locations, and sometimes by documenting their experiences in journals. Mallory finds herself unwillingly drawn into the tradition of journaling, but in a much more modern way, when she stumbles into the blogging life. As the blog draws fans, she becomes The Frontier Woman, and her world expands more than she could have ever dreamed.

At its heart, even with the larger issues of political scandal and local challenges, Firefly Island is a story about families, friendships, about community--how it develops and why we need it. Human beings are, at the most basic level, communal creatures. There’s so much evidence that people are happier and healthier, that we’re more generous and open with one another, that families are stronger and children achieve more when strong ties of friendship and community are there. These days, technology, busy schedules, and an on-the-go lifestyle compete with relationship-building activities, chipping away at the very thing we need the most. So often, our society tells people, especially young people like Mallory, that success is in not having to rely on anyone, but we were created to give and take, to need each other. I hope that Firefly Island provides a challenge to all of us, to see what we can contribute and what we can gain from the people we cross paths with in our neighborhoods and communities.

I’ve read this book and had a hard time putting it down when I needed to do something else. Please give us the first page of the book for my readers.

Chapter 1

When we no longer know which way to go,

We have begun our real journey – Wendell Berry

(Written on the Wall of Wisdom,Waterbird Bait and Grocery, Moses Lake, Texas)

There are those times when life is a cursor on a blank page, blinking in a rhythm a bit like an electronic heartbeat, tapping out a question in three little words.

What.  Comes.  Next?

Time and space and life wait for an answer. A blank page is an ocean of possibilities. The producer from CNN wants to know how I ended up here. Did I realize, when I started this thing, where it would lead?

The cursor would like an answer to that question. Or maybe it is challenging me. A wink instead of a heartbeat. A wink and a little chuckle that says, Go ahead and try. It’s like one of those bad jokes told by lonely traveling salesmen in hotel lounges, What do a milk cow, An Irish love legend, and a political scandal have in common…

But I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried, much less explain it. It’s easier to just look out the window, scan a DC skyline that seems out of place now, and let it fool me as it whispers, It’s summertime, Mallory. It’s balmy out here—can you feel it? Don’t you hear the crickets chirring and the hens plucking June bugs off the porch? 

I let myself sink into the fantasy, let it wrap around me like a comfortable old shirt—the oversized sort with the neck torn out and the fabric washed so many times that the tag is bleached bare and the logo is only a smattering of color clinging to individual threads.

I imagine that I am home, not here in DC. I hear the waters of Moses Lake lapping at the shore, feel the rhythm of it beneath my feet. My eyes fall closed, and I drink in the water-scented Texas air, the oleander blooming, the sound of small, bare feet tramping up the hallway, a favorite blanket dragging behind. The honey-sweet tastes of a summer morning.

I’m ready to cuddle a knobby-legged little body in my lap, snuggle a case of bed head under my chin, feel the soft, downy hairs tickle my neck, hear the first snuffly breaths of morning before there’s any need to talk, or ask questions, or face the rest of the world. I’m aching for all the things I never thought I’d want, for the place that has wound its way over me like the silk of a web, soft yet strong. I am a prisoner of it, content in ways I could never have imagined. It’s strange how quickly a life can become your life, and how hard you’ll fight for it when someone tries to take it away…

I absolutely love that first page. How can readers find you on the Internet?

I love getting to know readers and new friends across the miles. People can find me on:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/lisawingate

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Wingate-Readers-Circle/132187520154779

Blogging Mondays at: www.SouthernBelleView.com

My website: www.Lisawingate.com

Lisa Wingate is celebrating the release of Firefly Island with an iPad Mini giveaway and a fun Facebook Author Chat Party (March 19th).  

  One fortunate winner will receive:

• An iPad Mini
• The Moses Lake series (Firefly Island, Blue Moon Bay and Larkspur Cove)

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on March 18th. Winner will be announced at the "Firefly Island Author Chat Party on March 19th. Connect with Lisa, get a sneak peek of her next book, try your hand at the trivia contest, and chat with readers just like you. There will also be many fun giveaways -- gift certificates, books, and more!

So grab your copy of Firefly Island and join Lisa on the evening of the March 19th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven't read the book, don't let that stop you from coming!)

Don't miss a moment of the fun, RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 19th!

Thank you, Lisa, for visiting with us again. Your interviews are always interesting.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Firefly Island Firefly Island (The Shores of Moses Lake Book #3) -  paperback

Firefly Island (The Shores of Moses Lake Book #3) - Kindle


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (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 Google +, Feedblitz, Facebook, 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