LOVE'S ENDURING FLAME - Ruth Axtell - One Free Ebook

Welcome back, Ruth. Tell us about your salvation experience.

I was twenty-three and searching. After four years of college and some dead-end jobs, I had a sense of hopelessness in me. I had seen both my grandmother and great-aunt decline and eventually pass on. It showed me the futility of life if, after all the striving, we had to let go of everything and face death. What was the purpose of it all? Thankfully, both my mother and older brother had recently accepted Jesus, and they witnessed to me. At first I wanted to have nothing to do with this, but eventually, I did respond. I had a dramatic encounter with Jesus at the altar. For a detailed testimony, you can visit my website at http://ruthaxtell.com under “About Ruth,” then “My Christian Testimony.”

You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?

Laura Frantz and Sarah Sundin are two Christian of my favorite Christian authors. I think we might connect because their writing speaks to me. Also, Julie Lessman and Melanie Dickerson, because I also really love their stories, and we have met and connected!

Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.

I have spoken in the past in churches, but I haven’t recently, so I wouldn’t say I have a speaking ministry per se.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it?

When I was about sixteen, I “cold-called” a boy. We were in a church youth group together. I was very shy, and we had barely exchanged two words together. He must have wondered why I had called him out of the blue. When I saw him next, I acted as if nothing had happened, but I was mortified!

People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you, too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that?

I would tell them how much work it is and how difficult it is to make a living writing these days, since the Internet has so dramatically changed publishing. But if they still want to do it, then to do it for the love of it.

Tell us about the featured book.

Love’s Enduring Flame is the first novel I ever wrote. It never found a home, because of its more “exotic” setting and time period (Warsaw, Poland in 1830). I loved War and Peace, so I found the idea of an uprising for independence in this Eastern European nation an intriguing setting for a love story. It is a very dramatic love story, which I originally wrote for a secular market. When I reread and edited it, I toned down a lot of the romance that might seem too sensual for a Christian audience, but some readers might find it too descriptive, although there is nothing graphic in it. If you like Julie Lessman’s writing, you will like Love’s EnduringFlame. There are a lot of sparks between the hero and heroine, because as one reader told me, they have great chemistry yet have lots of reason for conflict.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Countryside south of Lublin

Eastern Poland

August 1830

There is was again! That flash of blue through the trees.

Captain Casimir Zalenski stood at the edge of the forest, his eyes straining to see through the crowded stands of birch, beech, and oak trees in the waning light.

Ignoring the commotion in the road behind him, he kept his focus on the blue blur in the distance.

Someone was making a clean getaway.

Restless after a full day of monotonous travel, Casimir longed to mount back up on his gray stallion and give chase, but he kept his arms at his sides and his expression neutral as he returned his attention to the scene in the road.

The Russian prince, Orlovsky, had descended from his ornate carriage and was pacing before the crude road block while the coachmen worked to calm the anxious team of horses.

“Who is responsible for this?” Orlovsky slashed a pale hand toward the obstacle in the road, his words as sharp as shrapnel.

A freshly felled tree lay across the narrow dirt road in that forested stretch. Hidden within the tree’s branches, a length of rope stretched taut from one side of the road to the other, exactly at horses’ shoulder height.

“I don’t know, my lord.” Casimir resisted the urge to glance back into the woods for another glimpse of blue. Better the Russian not know what he’d seen. “Whoever it was is far from here by now.”

Orlovsky turned to the groom and coach driver. “See that this impediment is removed at once.”

“Yes, my lord.”

As the men left the nervous horses to settle themselves and went to work to dismantle the barricade, Orlovsky stepped toward Casimir. “What do you think? Highwaymen? Or subversives?”

Casimir rubbed his jaw. “It’s hard to say.”

But he could guess. Highwaymen would have come forth by now to rob them. Whoever did this clearly had harassment in mind for this Russian nobleman. The “Congress Kingdom” it might be called, but this was Poland, and the proud locals could not have been happy under present circumstances.

A Polish nobleman and his entire family had been exiled to Siberia. Count Orlovsky was taking over the estate. Casimir had been ordered to escort the man to his new castle. A distasteful business. The sooner done with, the better.

To escape the count’s scrutiny, lest his disdain for this assignment show upon his face, Casimir paced to where the groom had severed the rope from the tree, and looked it over, running his fingers across the rough fibers.

He scanned the woods again but everything was still. He turned back to the road, unwilling to risk letting the Russian know he’d seen anything—anyone. If Casimir wanted to discover who’d laid the road block, it was to satisfy his own curiosity.

Interesting. I can’t wait to read it. How can readers find you on the Internet?

On my website: http://ruthaxtell.com or by Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruth.axtell1

Thank you, Ruth, for sharing this book with us. I know my blog readers will be interested in it.

Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.
Love's Enduring Flame

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.

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SHE SHALL BE PRAISED - Ruth Axtell - One Free Book

Welcome back, Ruth. What are some of the spiritual themes you like to write about?

Salvation! That always makes for a great theme. I also like to write about a character deepening his or her walk with God. This usually involves facing some internal battle, whether it is forgiveness, bitterness, or some other stronghold or weakness in one’s makeup.

What other books of yours are coming out soon?

I have another historical romance coming out later this spring, tentatively titled Freedom’s Enduring Flame.

If you could spend an evening with one contemporary person (not a family member of yours), who would it be and why?

K.P. Yohannan, the founder of Gospel for Asia. I’ve read a couple of his books and admire his steadfast mission to reach the “unreached” people of Asia, primarily in India.

What historical person would you like to meet (besides Jesus) and why?

Some of the great evangelists of the 19th/early 20th century like Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, and Smith Wigglesworth. I’d love to hear about their conversion experiences and about their walk with God.

How can you encourage authors who have been receiving only rejections from publishers? 

Get some tough critiquers—people who read in the genre you write in and are willing to read your manuscript and give you their honest feedback. You may not like it, but if you get enough people with a similar reaction, you’ll have an idea of what might be lacking in your writing.

Tell us about the featured book.

I first had the idea for She Shall Be Praised from a dream some years ago (so I can’t recall the dream). As I mulled over the initial idea, somehow it evolved into a sequel to The Rogue’s Redemption. She Shall Be Praised is the story of one of the heroine’s younger sisters from that book.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Paris, France

May 1817

Ordinary Katie Leighton stood on the Quai d’Orsay looking out toward the River Seine. Halfway across the world from her rugged home in Bangor, Maine, she could scarcely believe she was in Paris, the most romantic city on earth.

Arched stone bridges bisected the wide river at even intervals all along its curved length. If she looked eastward to her right, she saw the Pont Royal and just made out the delicate spire of the Sainte Chapelle and, looming behind it, the square towers of the massive Notre Dame cathedral.

These churches—so different from her customary places of worship back home—had withstood the vicissitudes of man and the ravages of nature since the Middle Ages. Most recently, they had barely escaped the fury of the revolutionaries.

If she turned to look across the bridge in front of her, she saw the wide Place Louis XV. It was hard to believe just over twenty years ago, it had run with the blood of the hundreds beheaded upon the guillotine.

A tug on the leash broke Katie’s somber contemplation. Her newly acquired dog broke free of her loose hold and dashed off down the quay, fleeing toward the Esplanade of Les Invalides, his brand new leash trailing after him.

“Come back here, Brioche, you naughty dog!” With an exasperated sigh, Katie lifted her skirts and broke into a run after the scruffy-haired mutt, whose white fur still looked dingy, no matter how many times she bathed him.

Panting more heavily than her dog, she ran under the leafy chestnut trees on either side of one of the avenues of the spacious, grassy esplanade which sloped towards the river, her feet feeling every tiny stone through her thin leather soles. Brioche showed no signs of slowing down, when abruptly, he veered to the left under some trees.

Oh, dear, no! He was heading straight for one of the poor veterans from the old soldiers’ home out to take the sun! Katie’s hand flew to her mouth in horror, and she stepped up her pace despite the stitch in her side. Surely Brioche wouldn’t knock the old man’s wheeled chair over!

But Brioche seemed intent on something else. He stopped right before the soldier and began sniffing the grass at his feet.

Katie arrived at the spot thoroughly winded. She could hardly get the words out, “Oh, par—don—nez-moi, m—mon—sieur. Je suis desolée—” The apology in French was hardly intelligible even to her own ears.

The man was not listening and continued leaning forward in his chair, groping the grass before him.

Katie gasped. The man was blind! Her heart contracted in immediate pity, for he was no old veteran. Under a shock of untidy black hair, a young, unlined face swung toward her—deep-set dark eyes fixed unseeing in her direction, black eyebrows drawn together in a scowl.

He must have been wounded in the recent war. Poor, poor dear!

“Qui est là?” came the sharp, peremptory words.

“Pardonnez, monsieur,” she repeated, fumbling for the proper words in French. “It was only my dog. He got away from me—”

Reminded of Brioche’s presence, the soldier thrust out his hand. “Va-t’en, mauvais chien!”

“He’s not a bad dog,” she hastened to reassure him as she grasped Brioche’s collar and pulled her pet out of the way. The dog, his attention still on the grass, whined.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

At my website: http://ruthaxtell.com or through Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruth.axtell1

Thank you, Ruth, for sharing this new book with us. I can hardly wait for my copy to arrive.

Readers, here is a link to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
She Shall Be Praised: A Leighton Sisters Novel (The Leighton Sisters Book 2)

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book, paperback or ebook, your choice. 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