Do you have a home away from home? What makes a place feel like home for you? Guest Author Kimberly Banet is talking about a place that felt so much like home to her she set her new book there. And hey! It's not too far from where I live. ;) Read on. My book, Just Another Home, was released two months ago. It’s about a teen in the foster care system, Sam, who goes to live with a couple in their fifties, John and Abbie, whose biological kids have grown up and moved out of the house.
Something most people don’t know about the book is that the setting of the story, Franklin, Tennessee, was not just some random town I chose for the backdrop of Sam’s story. Franklin is a place that I’ve visited many times and is near and dear to my heart.
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Do you read with your children? My husband and I have always read books to our kids, but the books have become more mature as the children have. I've mentioned several times that we've been reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books together adn we're almost finished with that series. We're hoping to start in on Narnia soon.
But we're also sharing a love of reading another way. I've shared quite a few of my favorite books from growing up years with my daughter. She's read quite a few of the Oz books by Baum, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Anne of Green Gables, among others. I love seeing her fall in love with characters I've loved for so long. My daughter is nine and very much not in the "boys are cute" stage yet. Which I'm totally fine with. She thinks they're good friends and sometimes funny, but she doesn't want a boyfriend. Honestly, until this year, she didn't really want to read any books with that stuff in it either.
But, in the last year or so, she's read a few of my favorite stories, like Anne of Green Gables (and most of the rest of the series) because she absolutely loved Anne and wanted to know when she was going to marry Gilbert. And, as we've been reading through the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, she's watched Laura be courted by Almanzo. And y'all, the giggles! Today, I am very happy to introduce a fellow author I met through Anaiah Press, Laura Thomas. She writes fiction that sounds fascinating and I hope you enjoy getting to know more about her and her books through this interview! I know you write across several genres and age-groups, but your adult fiction is romantic suspense. What made you choose that genre to write?
Christian romantic suspense was a favorite genre for me as a reader—back in the day I devoured everything by authors such as Colleen Coble, Terri Blackstock, and Dee Henderson. I loved how they blended clean romance with spine-chilling suspense and a message of hope, but at the time I was writing Christian teen fiction and had intended to only write for children and teens. However, as I penned my third Christian teen fiction (Tears, Fears, and Fame), I realized the story was heading in a suspenseful direction with an air of mystery—and I loved it! Then whilst on vacation in Jamaica, I had sudden inspiration for my own Christian romantic suspense story and came home to start writing The Glass Bottom Boat. It seems I found my true love in this genre as that was the first of six published romantic suspense books with more to come! This post was originally on InspyRomance in 2023. Now that InspyRomance has shut down, I thought it would be fun to revisit it here. Hello, and thanks for visiting. Have you been to Sassafras, Arkansas before? Well, it’s not terribly easy to get to. Basically, it’s only found in a few books by Amy R Anguish. But we’re fairly proud of our little town. Where exactly are we located? Well, you know. About an hour north-east-ish of Little Rock. But not too far east, mind you. A bit closer to the foothills of the Ozarks, but not quite. Still in the land of rice and cotton. Anyway, that gives you a pretty good idea. Sassafras isn’t huge. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if they include the livestock when they put the population number on the sign. But we’re big enough to have two grocery stores and a hospital. And just the other day, I heard they’re talking about bringing in a Walmart. Yep. We’re moving up in the world. What can you expect find here? Well, if you visit in An Unexpected Legacy, you’re going to find the church building, of course. And one of our lovely parks. The courthouse down in the center of downtown. And a few little antique shops, as well as a tearoom. Quite nice. Nice enough you want to visit again? Well, No Place Like Home allows you a peek into our hospital (sad situation, that) as well as into the preacher’s house. James Stewart is his name. He’s a great guy, but one of his daughters … well, that book tells her story better than I can. Of course, if quilting is more up your alley, we’ve got a nice little shop down a few blocks from the courthouse. It’s called The Missing Piece. You can visit it along with our annual Watermelon Festival in Love in Any Season. The Nortons run the shop and are sweet ladies, though I think Tommy London is stepping in to take his Mom’s place in the business too. About time he came back home. Those people tend to visit the local deli, run by Dawn Smith. She has some of the yummiest sandwiches around. In case you need groceries while you’re here, we have two options. Foodland is on the North side of town. More of a chain store, but it has pretty much everything you need. I prefer to go to McDonald’s Grocery, though. It’s run by Mack McDonald, the third generation to bless our town with plenty of local produce. He’s a bit stuck in his ways sometimes, but I think Kaitlyn Daniels is loosening him up. She was able to get that new app Grocerease in town, and she scurries all over delivering groceries when she’s not subbing at the elementary school. More about Mack and Kaitlyn in Love Delivered. Of course, there are other amenities around. We’re not too far from some good fishing and hunting spots. And if you need something you can’t find here, Little Rock’s an hour away. All in all, I think Sassafras is about the best place to be. So, y’all come stay awhile, you hear? So, what do you think? Do you want to visit Sassafras? Do you like revisiting a fictional town in different stories? What are some other spots you’d like to see more of in this little town? I’m sure we’ll visit it again in the future. ;)
Do you ever pay attention to reviews others have left for books you read? Authors tend to watch them more carefully than we sometimes should, but they can be such a help to letting other readers know what to expect from our story. Author Shannon Dunlap is here today to talk about one review that caught her off-guard. See what you think. “Hilarious Story!”
“LOL a minute” “a complete HOOT!” “HYSTERICALLY FANTASTIC” Love Overboard began with a television feature I saw about a woman in her eighties who skipped the retirement home to live on a cruise ship. The idea captivated me. What if there wasn’t just one? What if a group of them spent their later years sailing the Caribbean? And what if they spent their days matchmaking the young people? The story experienced the growing pains of cuts, edits, pitches, and acceptance before it finally released in May. It's hard to believe it's been two decades since the picture above was taken. That was at our wedding rehearsal and we were giggly and excited to finally be where we'd been longing to be for years. Getting married!
The vows we exchanged with each other are the same vows that appear in my book, For Better or For Granted. Those vows were some I heard my dad use in someone else's wedding, and when it was my turn, I asked him if we could use them too. he looked through his files and printed them out for us. My father-in-law performed our ceremony (nice having two preachers in the family so you have options). You can see him in the background of this photo. Are you confused about the title of this post? I mean, wouldn't an author want people to read more than not? And yet, even I, who loves to read, has to get up and do other things sometimes. Like go out and work in my garden or sew or ... sigh ... do the dishes.
This summer, my children are reading a lot. My daughter informed me she read over five hours in one day. And while I love that she reads so much, sometimes I need her to do other things. Like clean her room. Ha! But also, they're kids. They need to get up and move around sometimes. Go play and run and be silly. Or, if you're like my son, you could just do both at the same time. Feeling mysterious today? Well, we have another mystery author joining us today. Sandra Kay Vosburgh is here, chatting about parts of her life that sneak into her books and why she loves mysteries. She's offering her first two books to a lucky reader, so be sure to leave a comment at the end! What first led you to want to write mysteries? Why that genre?
I was introduced to Agatha Christie when I found my mother’s copy of Halloween Party. I love the mental challenge a mystery presents, and Christie’s plotting was so complex, I rarely picked the right suspect. I attribute my suspicious nature to her. Does your life as a pastor's wife incorporate itself into any of your writings? Working in women’s ministry had a great impact on my current novel, which is a women’s contemporary with a bit of mystery. The theme is the effect of negative fathering on the soul of a little girl—how a father’s failure to affirm and value his daughter impacts her adulthood. I’ve seen women well into their later years weep when they spoke of their father’s absence or indifference. This moved me to write The Girl in Her. If you've been following me, you know I've been aiming to write my novella due to release next February. Well, I got it written! It definitely needs a polish, but it feels so good to have those 20k words down on "paper." Since you all helped me name my hamster in this story, I thought you might like a sneak peek at how it starts. See what you think.
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This is a place for me to tell you about what I'm writing, talk about the process or where some of my ideas came from, or even have other authors come in and talk about their books.
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