I wish someone had told my seven year old self when I started writing stories that someday my words would travel around the world & I’d be a “paper missionary” as Janette Oke said of Christian writers not long ago. Now, grown up me is absolutely amazed & delighted when foreign language editions of my novels come into being. Aren’t these covers incredible?

Thank you to my Dutch & German publishers! Thank you to the ultimate Author of the writing gift!

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It’s not till next year but we’re SO excited to bring this tour to history-loving friends! To learn more, visit this site & sign up to hold your place. Details & link are also on my homepage. Or call the #800 number to talk w/ a tour company/ACTs representative.

More details to come…!

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A beloved Bible passage is 1 Thessalonians 4

“… to aspire to live quietly, & to mind your own affairs, & to work with your hands …”

Recently I came across this devotional from one of my favorite authors, Paul David Tripp. I highly recommend his devotional books. This is from Everyday Gospel: 

“For many of us, social media dictates how we spend our time, & it dominates how we act, react, & respond to others. Social media is the place where you go not to live quietly. The power of social media is that it gives you a voice-& it rewards loud voices. It encourages you to weigh in & to make your presence & opinion known. Social media encourages you to live loudly, & it rewards you if you do.

You do not go to social media to mind your own affairs. No, social media encourages you to to mind other people’s business. It rewards you for sticking your nose into things that have nothing to do with you … It gives you the false impression that you are a part of something, when in reality your involvement is just a bunch of keyboard clicks.

Two things result when we fail to live quietly & to stay out of others’ affairs. First, if your attention is dominated by the business of others, then you are not investing time in examining your own heart & life, in confessing what has been revealed, in seeking God’s forgiveness, & in surrendering yourself once more to him. This harms your spiritual growth & worship. Second, the time you invest in social media takes you away from developing & using the gifts God has given you, & employing them in the work he has given you.

Paul David Tripp

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March is nearly here along with a spring forward adjustment to the clock which steals an hour of reading away! I’m dreaming of planting a little colonial garden but it’s too soon here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ve experienced one of the mildest winters on record. Rhododendron bushes were actually blooming in December! I missed our usual, beautiful snow, since we got a scant half inch this winter. But you need only look up from our foothills to see the Olympic Mountains dressed in white.

I made sure to put a snowstorm in my Christmas novella I told you about last post. I’m finishing the first draft now & adding historic quotes at the beginning of each chapter. To say I’m smitten with this story is truly an understatement. It highlights history at one of my favorite historic sites in the most festive way. But for now, back to spring & dreaming of new story ideas. If you have something in mind you’d like for me to write in future please let me know!

And please return to to this journal page for a title reveal soon for my next full-length historical romance with Revell releasing in January 2027! Cover reveal coming after that…

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Creativity is such a fascinating thing. One idea or research trail leads to another. Often novels birth more novels. As I wrote The Belle of Chatham, our hero’s sister, Bronwyn Harlow, materialized in my mind. Often these characters are unbidden & unplanned. They just appear in a scene & start talking or doing, especially if you’re not a novel planner but more of a wing-it-and-watch-what-happens like me. I found Bronwyn Harlow to be the most deserving of characters in the novel. She’d also suffered a grievous loss in the Battle of Great Bridge, December 1775, before the American Revolution officially began.

I’d written about that particular Virginia battle in The Lacemaker. I revisited it & remembered no Patriots died in that conflict. Only one was injured in the hand. The British had a death toll of one hundred or more in what was touted as a victory for the Americans, ridding Virginia of their last royal governor, Lord Dunmore, forever. So, Bronwyn’s loss may have not been as she’d been told yet she continued to mourn, thinking him gone, but there had been no body, no burial. This isn’t or wasn’t uncommon at that time. Truth really is stranger than fiction. I asked readers on my social media what they envision for Bronwyn. So many inspiring possibilities!

So, look for Bronwyn’s story down the road. It’s a bumpy one but has a hope-filled, happy ending!

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I love Decembers & here are a few delights the month brought:

Bread Maker

Anne Perry novels 

Colonial Williamsburg candle 

Devotional 

Corduroy tote 

Wish I could list all the priceless things that can’t be bought as I’m far more grateful for those!

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I’ve been inspired to share & count my joys by author friend, Stacey Thacker. If you’ve not met Stacey, please visit her website & sign up for her newsletter. You don’t want to miss her insightful spiritual posts, the list of things she’s loving month by month, her edifying books, & so much more! She’s an inspiration to many, me included. Hence, this post. If you’re Christmas shopping, hope this gives you fresh ideas…

OCTOBER JOYS!

Distilled Genius – A Collection of Life-Changing Quotations

Barefoot Dreams Socks

Candlelighter

Everyday Prayers for Christmas

Yardley Royal Red Roses Powder

Kindle case

Christmas for the Heart

See you in November!

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Time is truly flying & somehow writing happens in the midst of it all. I wish I could slow time down & am often glad eternity has no clock. I can’t imagine it but I think it will mean we enjoy these fleeting joys forever! Every summer does have its own story & the blessings are many. American flags. Fresh strawberries. Book stuff. Sunshine. Long walks. Lake days. Good meals. The pool. Our garden. Trips to our unfinished little house down south near our boys. I could write a book about the blessings. There’s always a down side but it’s better not to dwell on it as Philippians 4:8 says.  And then there’s Paul’s words in James … Count it all JOY! And so I am. Hope you are, too.

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Ever so often you meet a secondary character in a novel that steals your heart & you need to write a novella to give him his own happy ending. I have a special love for Bleu Galant from The Seamstress of Acadie & this new title reflects the gist of his 220 plus page story. I always wondered who would steal Bleu’s heart. Here’s hoping A Fierce Devotion wins yours!

Available on Amazon

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We’re now well into 2025 & this is my busiest – & hopefully best – writing year yet. Not much time for relaxing though I’m dreaming of a bookish picnic reminiscent of my childhood Kentucky days. My current chilly, damp Pacific Northwest life keeps me near the fireplace till June. Such is the fate of a sun-loving, southern expat!

Since I’m often asked during podcasts & at book events what I’m working on next, here’s a brief update…

Novel 18 has a name! But you’ll have to wait till this summer’s cover reveal to discover it:) Revell kept my working title which I love & I’m in an entirely new setting. Releasing January 2026 to coincide with our nation’s 250th anniversary of independence.

Novella 2 appears in July of this year – Bleu Galant’s happy ending from The Seamstress of Acadie. Watch for a cover reveal soon. Newsletter subscribers see it first!

I’m currently switching gears & writing a novel set in 1798 Georgian London, the very end of my beloved 18th-century, but what I’m discovering through research is fascinating. I’d originally based the story on pirates & smugglers along the Thames but am now going another direction with all those who shaped history for the better during that time period. Quite a bit of mystery & suspense in this one. I hope you find it fascinating, too!

My publisher, Revell, has asked me to write a Christmas novella which will release in September 2027. I’ll follow that up with a full-length novel in February 2028. Thank you all for making that possible!

So, for future reading think the American Revolution, late Georgian-era London, a colonial American Christmas, & the founding of Savannah, Georgia, etc. 

HAPPY READING!

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