Dear Readers, today is release day for Love Is Patient, a novella collection from Barbour publishing. I'm one of the authors, and there are seven more authors. I'm featuring a few of them today.
Enjoy the slow dance through the courtship of nine historical couples in the American west, including the territories of Arizona and Wyoming. Just at a time in life when they have nearly given up on finding love, romance enters their lives. But will it be true love, and will it be worth the wait? Find out in this delightful collection written by eight bestselling authors of inspirational romances.
Bio: Bestselling
author Vickie McDonough grew up wanting to marry a rancher, but instead married
a computer geek who is scared of horses. She now lives out her dreams penning
romance stories about ranchers, cowboys, lawmen, and others living in the Old
West. Vickie is an award-winning author of 40 published books and novellas. Her
novels include the fun and feisty Texas Boardinghouse Brides series, and End of
the Trail, which was the OWFI 2013 Best Fiction Novel winner. Whispers on the
Prairie was a Romantic Times Recommended Inspirational Book for July 2013. Song
of the Prairie won the 2015 Inspirational Readers Choice Award. Her latest series,
Land Rush Dreams, focuses on the Oklahoma
land runs.
Blurb The Spinster and the Tycoon: Jody McMillan is determined to raise enough
money to expand Cactus Corner’s overcrowded orphanage, but before she does a
wealthy stranger buys the property she wants. Jody stages a strike on the land
where Aaron Garrett plans to build a hotel, and she won’t listen to reason. Can
they come to an agreement? Or will Jody and the orphans lose out to the wealthy
businessman?
Here's a link to the book:
Love Is Patient Romance Collection: True Love Takes Time in Nine Historical Novellas
Bio: Best-selling
author Darlene Franklin’s greatest claim to fame is that she writes full-time
from a nursing home. She is an active member of Oklahoma City Christian Fiction
Writers, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Christian Authors Network.
She has written over fifty books and more than 250 devotionals.
Blurb A Birthday Wish:
Gladys Polson is determined to help a crotchety widower who is wealthy in
material things but poor in spirit. When Haydn, the man’s grandson, appears, an
heir-raising adventure begins.
First
page:
Gladys
checked the baskets on her kitchen table. Red calico bows she’d festooned with
small white flowers peeked out between juniper branches. Such cheerful
decorations should improve even crotchety widower Norman Keller’s spirits in
the middle of the miserable Kansas
winter.
Ma carried a couple of baskets to
the family wagon, together with garlands of fragrant juniper branches. “Maybe
it would be good if I came with you.”
Gladys
came close to agreeing when she remembered the last time she had knocked on Mr.
Keller’s door. The growl with which he had greeted carolers could have passed
for Ebenezer Scrooge’s. “I’ll see how it goes today. I’d like to do this on my
own, if I can. I’ll be back in time to help with supper.”
Grateful for the January thaw
weather which made an outdoor project possible, Gladys buttoned up her winter
coat and drew on her mittens. When she’d decided to reach out to Norman Keller,
she hadn’t considered how to keep her activities a secret. To avoid attention,
she kept her wagon off of Main
Street.
A few minutes later she came to a
stop in front of the imposing three-story structure that Norman Keller called
home. As far as Gladys knew, only one man lived there. His wife had died and
his children, if he had any, never visited. Rather than knocking on the front
door and risking Mr. Keller’s rejection before she even started, Gladys
approached the house from the back. She tied the horse to the railing and
carried the baskets to the wrap-around porch. A closer inspection of the
once-magnificent structure revealed sagging boards and peeling paint. Such neglect
by the richest man in town befuddled her. She hoped he would feel better after
she’d hung enough baskets for him to see one no matter which window he looked
through.
As she walked down the porch, she
realized she had miscalculated the number of baskets needed to adorn the
rafters. She’d start from the front and work her way back. Grabbing a basket in
each hand, she tiptoed to the corner and left them there. She returned for her
stepladder, and as she carried it to the front, it bumped along the floorboards.
She froze, expecting Mr. Keller to shuffle out the door to check on the noise.
When he didn’t appear, she continued until she had unloaded everything in the
wagon.
From the
corner, she studied the overhang. With a hammer in one hand and two nails in
the other, she climbed the stepstool reached high overhead, and tapped a nail
into the roof. A thin crack appeared. Would a section of the overhang split and
fall? Mr. Keller wouldn’t appreciate it if she destroyed his property in the
process of decorating it.
Tucking
her tongue behind her teeth, Gladys waited and the nail held. Next she centered
the basket handle on the nail. She stepped back to study the effect. Good. Setting
another arrangement on the railing, she climbed the stepstool to hammer the
second set of nails in place.
As she
adjusted a couple of ribbons around the ferns, she wondered what else she could
do for Mr. Keller. Fashioning a few bows hardly qualified as a mission project.
She tapped the nail in and reached for the basket.
Behind
her, the front door banged. “What are you doing?”
The edge of the door caught the
stepstool, throwing Gladys off balance. Her arms windmilled, her feet slipped,
and she fell backward.
Into two strong arms.
“Oomph.”
The arms lifted her and held her
steady while she regained her footing. The basket had fallen, crushing the bows
and scattering the juniper branches across the floor.
Falling into Mr. Keller’s arms
wasn’t the introduction Gladys had hoped for.
Slowly she turned around to meet the
man she wanted to help. And looked up. . . .and up. . .and up. Long legs,
straight limbs, strong arms . . . Brown hair.
Definitely
not Norman Keller.
Bio: Jill Stengl is the author of numerous romance
novels including Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award- and Carol Award-winning Faithful Traitor. She lives with her
husband in the beautiful Northwoods of Wisconsin, where she enjoys spoiling her
three cats, teaching high school literature classes, playing keyboard for her
church family, and sipping coffee on the deck as she brainstorms for her next
novel.
Blurb: The Spinster’s Beau
One summer
night in 1823, Jane Douglas, a spinster midwife who keeps house for her officer
brother at the American fort on Mackinac Island,
receives a summons from the military surgeon Dr. Beaumont: “Come quickly!”
Instead of an expectant mother, her patient is a trapper who was gravely
injured in a knife fight. Jane’s prayers for “Mad” August Durant begin amazing
changes in his life and hers. But Jane requires security as well as love. Will
August’s transformation last, or should Jane guard her heart and choose a more
dependable man?
First page:
The Spinster’s Beau
Mackinac Island, July 1823
Thump-thump-thump!
The insistent noise roused Jane from her sleep. Blinking in darkness, she sat
up. Someone pounded at the front door. Her brother stirred in the next room,
grumbling to himself as his feet hit the floorboards.
As her
mind cleared, she remembered—Mrs. Pennyfeather must be in labor! Jane flung on
a wrap and poked her head into the hall just in time to hear Jordan say, “At
this hour, Sergeant? The good doctor must be losing his sanity. Miss Douglas
certainly will not—”
“Jordan, I told
you about this days ago,” Jane interrupted from her doorway. “I promised Mrs.
Pennyfeather and Dr. Beaumont that I would assist with her delivery.”
Candlelight
flickered on Jordan’s
frowning features as he turned, but before he could speak, Jane called, “I’ll
be out in a moment!”
A voice
answered faintly. “Doc says to bring bandages.”
Jane
agreed and closed her door. In the square of moonlight on her bedroom floor,
she changed into an old work gown. Bandages? She wound her hair into a tight
knot and secured it with five perfectly placed pins. Why bandages? An old sheet
from the linen press could be torn into strips when needed. She added it to her
basket of supplies.
Jordan waited in the entry,
lips tight and eyes cool. Even in his nightshirt and bed shoes, Lieutenant
Jordan Douglas was an imposing figure.
“Jane, I
strongly disapprove. Midwifery is a job for old women, not young ladies, and
you have no need of employment—”
“Dr.
Beaumont says I’m an excellent midwife. Granny trained me well, and I want to
use my skills to help people.”
“Dr.
Beaumont.” He snorted.
She
hitched her chin higher. “You shouldn’t snort. It’s undignified.”
He growled
something incoherent. “At least make an attempt to observe proprieties, Jane.”
“Always I
observe proprieties, little brother. In this line of work, I seldom even speak
with men. Please don’t worry. I imagine I’ll return home tomorrow.”
The moon
cast black shadows across Fort
Mackinac’s parade
grounds, but its light glowed on the mane and rump of the doctor’s sturdy
gelding. Jane climbed up to the carriage seat without help. Sergeant Fallon,
Dr. Beaumont’s orderly, snapped the horse into a trot, and the little trap’s
wheels crunched on gravel.
Bio: Award-winning
author Lena Nelson Dooley has had more than 850,000 copies of her books sold.
She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and the local chapter,
ACFW - DFW. She’s a member of Christian Authors’ Network and Gateway Church
in Southlake, Texas.
She has had books on ECPA and CBA Bestseller lists and several Amazon
Bestseller lists. Her 2010 release Love
Finds You in Golden, New Mexico won the 2011 Will Rogers Medallion Award
for excellence in publishing Western Fiction. Her next series, McKenna’s
Daughters: Maggie’s Journey appeared on a reviewers Top Ten Books of
2011 list. It also won the 2012 Selah award for Historical Novel. The second, Mary’s Blessing, was a Selah Award
finalist for Romance novel. Catherine’s
Pursuit released in 2013. It was the winner of the NTRWA Carolyn
Reader’s Choice contest, took second place in the CAN Golden Scroll Novel of
the Year award, and won the Will Rogers Medallion bronze medallion. Her blog, A Christian Writer’s World, received the
Readers Choice Blog of the Year Award from the Book Club Network.
In addition to her writing, Lena is a frequent
speaker at women’s groups, writers groups, and at both regional and national
conferences. She has spoken in six states and internationally. She is also one
of the co-hosts of the Along Came a
Writer blog radio show. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Higher
Films, where she is also a screenwriter.
Lena has an active web presence on Facebook,
Twitter, Goodreads, Linkedin and with her internationally connected blog where
she interviews other authors and promotes their books.
Blurb: The Spinster and the Cowboy
India Cunningham is happy running the ranch her father left her when a man she doesn't remember from her childhood arrives to help her. Can she trust Joshua Dillinger or is he there to steal her blind?
Prologue
San
Francisco,
Spring 1894
When
the sharp rap on his closed office door roused him, Joshua Dillinger raised his
gaze from the legal document he had been studying with intense concentration.
He hated distractions, and Charles Ross, his secretary, knew it. Only something
of great urgency would cause this interruption.
“Enter.”
Joshua realized that his command sounded abrupt, but he wanted to get this
interruption over with so he could discern any flaws in the contract that had
to be ready for signatures in less than an hour.
Brandishing
an envelope, the thin man walked briskly across the rug that swallowed the
sound of his footsteps. “This was just delivered by messenger, Sir. I have a
feeling it’s important.”
He
handed the missive to Joshua and hurried out of the room, pulling the door
closed behind him. Joshua studied his father’s scratchy scrawl on the front of
the letter. He wondered how the post office even knew where to send it. The
older Father became, the worse his handwriting grew. If Joshua hadn’t been used
to deciphering the letter he received from his dad, he wouldn’t have been able
to tell what the address was.
Joshua
placed the packet on top of the stack of documents that needed his attention
today and went back to his contract. He returned to the place where he held his
finger on the paper. Moving to the beginning of the sentence, he and started
over. For the next forty-five minutes, he had a hard time keeping his mind on
his task. Every few moments, his eyes strayed to the slightly wrinkled
envelope. Joshua wondered what it contained, but he had to finish with the
contract and send Charles over to the client’s office with it before he had
time to peruse its contents.
After
his secretary left with the completed document, Joshua stood and stretched.
While he concentrated on a hard task, his muscles became more and more knotted.
He rubbed his neck with both hands and rotated his shoulders, trying to loosen
them, as he stared out across the bay from his perch most of the way up one of San Francisco’s many
hills. Joshua chose this office because of its view of the water. Not only
could he keep up with the comings and goings of ships, but watching the bay in
all kinds of weather proved soothing to him. He loved this city and once again
thanked the Lord for the opportunities that led him here.
Finally,
Joshua turned around and picked up the letter from his father. He hoped it
wasn’t bad news. Using the opener with the beautifully carved scrimshaw handle
his grandfather gave him when he first opened the law office, he slit the paper
and removed the contents–a sheet of paper and an already opened envelope with
papers inside. Father had forwarded a letter he received from his best friend
Fred Cunningham. In the included note, his father added his own request that
Joshua do what Fred asked of him.
Now
curious, Joshua pulled out the other papers. Before he read the words, his
memory revisited a time when he was twelve and his family traveled by coach
from Texas to Arizona to visit the Cunninghams. Their
ranch spread for hundreds of acres from the base of the Rincon Mountains
toward a tiny town, really not much more than a few huddled buildings
surrounded by tall cacti with arms that spread toward the sky. What was the
name of those plants? Something that started with an s and sounded
foreign to his young ears.
Other novellas in the collection:
Lady-in-Waiting by Erika Vetch
Shining Armor by Erika Vetch
The Spinster and the Doctor by Frances Devine
Harvest of Love by Janet Lee Barton
Hope's Dwelling Place by Connie Stevens
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