I was about nine years old and had been listening to my Sunday school teacher talk about having Jesus in our hearts. During church, I told my mother I wanted to have Jesus in my heart. She said I had to wait. I wasn’t old enough. That did it. I pushed her aside and walked down that aisle and told the preacher I wanted Jesus to live in my heart. I was baptized several weeks later.
Oh, Martha, I had the same thing happen to me, but I was six years old when they told me I was too young. You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why?
Janice Thompson, Kathleen Y’Barbo, DiAnn Mills, and Linda Kozar. They have been my inspiration and encouragement through these past few years and even before.
Do you have a speaking ministry? If so, tell us about that.
I really enjoy speaking to writing groups and have done that in Texas and Oklahoma
I have a fun booking this month—a book club in east Texas
I’ve forgotten about most of them and only one really stands out in my mind and it happened when I was sixteen. I’d just had my sixteenth birthday and my dad arranged tickets to a musical at the summer musical theater at Dallas ’ Fair Park
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?
Don’t just say you are, do it. Then I’d give them a list of things to help them like joining writers’ groups and going to conferences.
Summer Dream came about when I read about a great blizzard in 1888. It was called “The Great White Hurricane” and shut down New England . That fascinated me and I decided I had to incorporate it into one of my books.
Please give us the first page of the book.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Chapter One
February 5, 1888
Why did Papa have to be so stubborn? Rachel Winston stared at the gray clouds outside her window and fought the urge to stomp her foot like a spoiled child. However, young women of twenty years must behave as befitting their age, as Mama so often reminded her. Perhaps she should have shown the letter to her mother first. Too late for that now; Papa would tell Mama as soon as he had the opportunity.
The back door closed with a thud, and Rachel shuddered. Papa had left for the church. His departing meant she needed to finish dressing or she’d be late, and then Papa would be even more upset with her. It wouldn’t do for the preacher’s family to be late for the services.
The paper in her pocket crackled when she moved toward the bed to retrieve her boots. Rachel fingered the crumpled edges of Aunt Mabel’s letter. No need to read it, for she knew the words by heart. Her aunt’s invitation to come to Boston
A metallic taste soured her mouth, and she swallowed hard in an attempt to squelch it. Papa argued that the unpredictable weather of February made travel from Connecticut to Boston Boston Hartford or Manchester Hartford
How can readers find you on the Internet?
I loved having you with us again, Martha.
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