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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Sometime last year I stopped scrolling. Time truly flies. My growing up years were completely free of devices. Reading took up all my free time. That’s a sort of freedom many have never experienced nor ever will. I remember asking my teens what an app & text was. When publishing began for me in 2009, I invested in my novels which came with the expectation I would build a social media platform. Since then socials have fallen in & out of favor w/ me & me them. I used to love posting on IG until reels & algorithms. FB is where I spend most of my time w/ my readers but now it’s said to be pointless or ineffective. I never used Twitter until it became X though it has real news. In a word, social media is fickle. Once I had half a million followers on Pinterest in its heyday & then I woke up one morning to find I had half that. Now I’m down to less than 50k. Numbers & followers & posts aren’t real life.

Time is a gift. I will be held accountable for how I use my hours/minutes/seconds. And I don’t want it spent scrolling social media. I remain active on my own socials with my readers, posting when I have something to share, & answering comments & messages & emails. Readers are the reason I write. That and to honor God & the gift of writing God graciously gave.

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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I’m honored to learn that The Belle of Chatham has been chosen for the KSDAR or Kentucky Society Daughters of the American Revolution’s reading list for my beautiful home state.

Thank you, thank you!

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I was very close to my granny as a child, my mom’s mom. We spent a lot of time together and she taught me how to cook. I was said to be her favorite, probably because I’m a foodie:) Cooking was her love language. Family dinners, especially on holidays, are among my favorite memories. Her gift to me each birthday & holiday was a 3 layered German Chocolate Cake. I still remember my delight in going to the back closet on her rear porch which was actually a pantry that held cakes, pies, cookies, soaking/brining hams & turkeys, fudge & sugar cookies & all manner of Granny’s most delectable things.

This year for an April birthday I’m making her German Chocolate Cake. I’m sure it won’t taste the same without her. What I’d give to sit down with her at her round table on the back porch for coffee & cake & tell her how much she means to me. There are so many questions I wish I’d asked her that I never thought of till I grew up & realized what truly matters. Maybe that conversation will be held in heaven instead.

I just know there will be cake!

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 package German’s Sweet Chocolate from Baker’s Chocolate

1/2 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2-1/2 cups Swans Down Cake Flour

1 cup buttermilk

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites, swiftly beaten

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray three 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Melt chocolate in boiling water, then cool. Cream butter & sugar together in a bowl till fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, & beat well after each. Add melted chocolate & vanilla & mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together salt, baking soda, & flour. Add alternately with buttermilk to chocolate & butter mixture, beating well till smooth. Beat egg whites till soft peaks form & fold into batter. Divide mixture between cake pans & bake each at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

COCONUT PECAN FROSTING

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1/4 pound margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups coconut

1 cup pecans

DIRECTIONS:

Combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, oleo & vanilla in a saucepan & cook over medium heat till thickened. Stir frequently. Remove from heat, add coconut & pecans & beat till thick enough to spread. Frosting should make approximately 2 cups. Spread between cooled cake layers & on top of the assembled cake.

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Publishing milestones are fun things!

I’m so happy to share that Revell kept my working title for this next release once again. Titling a book can be tricky & many of my novels have simple names starting with my debut, The Frontiersman’s Daughter.

This portrait-like image above hints of the setting & shows the two character templates I had in mind while writing it. The letters of their first names are entwined in the wax seal at bottom right. But no spoilers for you!

Please watch for a cover reveal this summer, likely June, and details as to what this story of my heart is about…

The post My next Revell novel has a name! appeared first on Laura Frantz.

Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

• The hunt BEGINS on 3/19 at noon Mountain with Stop #1 at LisaBergren.com.
• Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
• There’s NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/22 at midnight Mountain)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
• Submit you entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the entry form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

Laura Frantz is an author. Wife. Empty nester. Proud mom of an American soldier & a career firefighter. Though I will always call Kentucky home I live in Washington State.

You can learn more about me and all my books here on my site and on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

The call for liberty creates a divide between family and country, desire and duty, love and loyalty.

In 1777, caught in the crossroads of the American Revolution, sisters Maebel and Coralie Bohannon’s quaint New Jersey village becomes a battleground as they house American officers. Rebellion ripples through their family as members take opposing sides—Patriots and Loyalists—causing a deep chasm that fractures their once-unbreakable bond.

As Mae’s friendship grows with the American general Rhys Harlow, Coralie continues her liaison with her childhood sweetheart, a British officer stationed in New York. Mae, torn between her deepening love for the general and suspicion that her sister is a British spy, leaves the only home she’s ever known for the New York frontier. When betrayal strikes in the heart of the wilderness, she’s forced to take a perilous journey that tests her very survival and those she loves, all in the name of liberty.

It’s been said you can’t judge a book by its cover & that’s so true! A great cover opens the door to an entire universe or story world. The cover is a promise. A silent salesman. The right cover finds the right reader. A cover is the window into the soul of a story. I’ve heard them all! And out of my almost 20 published novels, I’ve had some cover hits & some cover misses. Here’s a look at cover art for my latest release, The Belle of Chatham. 

Publishing is especially thrilling when your novel gets a face. In this case, 3 of them! Revell’s art director sent me these comps to choose from. Easy, right? Not when you like ALL of them for different reasons! #1 pops with floral trim & a landscape & period-appropriate dress. Cover 2 has a to-die-for flag & balcony even if the heroine isn’t dressed for 18th-century success. And #3 is a win because of the hair & gown & jewelry though I’m not a fan of that wood wall behind her. Plus, our heroine’s hair is blonde & this belle’s is dark. Still, I had to choose so…

Voila! Once again, there were elements that I like but hoped to change. Since one of my former novel’s, A Heart Adrift, had a square frame around it, I decided to go with the scrap of paper & asked if more of the flag could be shown. Also, her hair needed lightening though to be honest, the dark hair is more striking…

So, now that we’ve narrowed it down to a single design, we still have to work out the placement of the title & author name…

After a bit of back & forth, this final design was landed on. I love it, thanks to Revell’s art team & the very gifted designer, Laura Klynstra. She’s done my covers since A Heart Adrift which is one of my favorites along with The Rose & the Thistle & The Indigo Heiress. 

Cover love is a splendid thing!

Here’s the Stop #15 Basics:

If you’re interested, you can order The Belle of Chatham on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook or your local bookstore. 

Clue to Write Down: or if a

Link to Stop #16 HERE, the next Stop on the Loop: Creston Mape’s site!

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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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Book clubs are dear to my heart! Here’s a succinct guide for reading friends wanting to read & discuss The Belle of Chatham.

Of course, no book club would be fun without dessert, so why not try an authentic 18th-century recipe?

And last but not least, basic questions for discussion, though I’ve found book clubs are very good at coming up with their own!

Happy reading & meeting!

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