Author Naomi Rawlings--Mixing Adolescent Dreams with a Dose of Reality and a Foot of Snow

Once upon a time, I was a short, scrawny junior higher named Naomi who wanted to be an archeologist . . .

 

And a magazine editor who wore high heels and lived in New York city. . .

 

I didn’t really consider that excavating ruins in terrorist riddled countries and being a NYC editor might conflict a little when taking into account time obligations and geography. Unfortunately, when I got older and went off to college, everyone kept asking me what my major was. And wouldn’t you know it, the small college I’d decided to attend didn’t offer degrees in archeology or magazine editing.

So I settled for a degree in English education. After all, I liked to read. Regrettably, reading classics for literature classes didn’t turn out to be nearly as fun as reading romance novels. But that was okay, because by then I wasn’t going to be an archeologist and magazine editor anymore. I was going to be a serious teacher who changed the world by impacting my students lives . . . and I was sure this impact would come. Eventually. After the students from my student teaching classes tired of shooting spit wads behind my back and starting water fights.


Desiring a little break from the spit wads and water fights after I graduated, I married my college sweetheart, Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome, and had a baby. My life was suddenly perfect.

Except my husband had to go to work every day, and my baby took lots of naps. What was I to do with all that time?

Read. Not the classics from college. Oh no. The good guys almost always die at the end of those classics, and who wants to read a story about people who get killed? (Well, besides my stuffy old literature professors.) So I set off on a search for books that ended with “Happily ever after.”

Half a year later, after exhausting all my friends’ romance supplies and throwing a couple books across the room that I didn’t much care for, I looked at my old college laptop and said, “I have an English degree. Why don’t I write one of these?”

And so I did.

Interestingly enough, I find writing historical romances to be a lot like archeology—minus the dirt and bones and worldwide travels—because I still gets to play around with history. And I now work for that editor (book editor, not magazine editor) who lives in New York City and wears high heels.  So my crazy adolescent dreams didn’t turn out to be too far from reality.

My husband, two boys, and I live in Northern Michigan, along the shore of Lake Superior, which consequently means we get buried in 200 inches of snow every winter. We enjoy all kinds of outdoor fun, like snowshoeing and ice fishing in winter, swimming and hiking in summer. And we share our ten wooded acres with a host of woodsy creatures such as deer, wolves, coyotes, black bears, bald eagles, racoons, and fox, to name a few. In the midst of all of exploring nature's grandeur and raising two active boys, I still endeavors to write books. Life couldn't be any better.

 *****

About My Books

Running to freedom, she found love . . .

The injured young woman that Michel Belanger finds in the woods is certainly an aristocrat, and in the midst of France’s bloody revolution, sheltering nobility merits a trip to the guillotine. Yet despite the risk, Michel knows he must bring the wounded girl to his cottage to heal.
  
Attacked by soldiers and left for dead, Isabelle de La Rouchecauld has lost everything. A duke’s daughter cannot hope for mercy in France, so escaping to England is her best chance of survival. The only thing more dangerous than staying would be falling in love with this gruff yet tender man of the land. Even if she sees, for the first time, how truly noble a heart can be . . .

Sanctuary for a Lady released in April of 2012. I am currently working on two sequels to this story, which should both be available in mid to late 2014. In the meantime, I have a cowboy novel coming out in January 2014.

I'm looking forward to blogging with the Christian Fiction Historical Society and getting to know all of you better. For more information about me or my novels, visit www.NaomiRawlings.com

Meet Crit Partners and Best Friends Kathleen L. Maher and Debbie Lynne Costello

Colliding with Destiny by Kathleen L. Maher

Sometimes people find their calling, and sometimes their calling finds them. I think I am among the latter category. 

My husband and me dancing at our son's wedding Aug 18, 2012

I grew up in a little town called Elmira, NY, a stone's throw from Corning where they make the cook wear with the little blue flowers and the gorilla glass. Elmira has a few distinctions of its own. It is the county seat for rural Chemung County. It is where Mark Twain wrote much of Huck Finn, and it simmers with Civil- and Revolutionary War history. So in my hometown, history and writing collide, and so did I--with my destiny.

As a teen, I fell in love with the local fabric and legends. It intrigued me that so many of the soldiers who fought and died in both wars were my age then. I realized that like me, they probably didn't even know what they wanted to be when they grew up. Maybe they dreamed of working a farmstead, having a family, experiencing the love of a soul mate. Their stories came alive in my head and heart. I had to tell them.

I became a lifelong student of history and of the writing craft. It has been a very long journey. I've written and dreamed through many seasons of life--high school, college, rebellion, single motherhood, redemption, even marriage to a kind, nurturing soul mate. A sense of destiny and faith has carried me through it all--an unyielding hope that I will one day share my stories with people who need an encouraging word, a sense of commiseration, a good laugh or a good cry. To share the love of a gracious Heavenly Father with a broken, fatherless world. 

And so now, all these years later, my lifelong dream stands at the threshold of realization. I have just signed with a wonderful agent--Terry Burns of Hartline Literary Agency. And maybe, just maybe, there is a publishing house who shares my passion and who will help me fulfill my destiny to share the stories I have written as well as those that I have yet to write. Stories of the brave men and women from history who sacrificed, bled, loved, and lived inspiring lives. I may not be Elmira's next Mark Twain, but I would sure love to leave a mark on the city's history in my own unique way. 

I would be honored if you would take this journey to publication with me, and maybe even cheer and pray for me along the way. I am surrounded my a company of greatness here on this blog, and it is my earnest hope that they rub off on me and we all compel one another to good works. All I can say is it is an honor to be part of this group. And I look forward to interacting with all of you who visit.

My question for you: What do you feel is your God-given destiny? Have you found it yet or are you still searching?

To thank you for your time and connection, I am offering a gift to one lucky commenter (selected by random.org.) Please leave your email address below with your answer to my question, and I will send one of you this lovely print of an old farmstead as a token of my appreciation. I can't be sure where it was painted, but it looks very much like my region of upstate NY, sans the pretty dusting of snow we currently have.

 

Making God Chuckle by Debbie Lynne Costello

Sheriff at Virginia City, Nevada

“You have a twisted mind.” My husband’s famous words. A person can hear something only so much before they begin to believe it. He claimed only twisted minds could know the ending of a story. He did find it extremely annoying that half way through every movie we watched I ruined the end for him. Of course after the movie was over I always had to make suggestions on how it could have been better.  

I guess I’ve always loved writing and making up stories so naturally I had to give my input whether asked for or not. Life takes so many turns you never know where you will end up. And writing was one of those plans I had made. Which makes me think of a joke I just heard. 'If you want to make God laugh, tell Him you've made plans.' So where was I? Oh, yes, always liked making up stories of course my parents called them lies. LOL. Just kidding folks. But my mom surprised me with a packet full of stories I wrote from the age of seven and up. And I took every creative writing class I could in High School and then went on to journalism in college. But life has a way of taking sharp turns. I married my childhood sweetheart, had children and my writing ended…temporarily.

Best Friends

But let me just say that I was always looking for some hair brain idea to make money from home. With four kids it had to be something I could work in between school, meals, practices, sewing, and my duties at church. Funny thing is I think most  of my ideas cost us money, but my hubby was forever supportive.

Charleston, SC

The years went on and I started homeschooling I found adult companionship in books. Between ruining movies for hubby and all the reading I was doing when the boys were working and didn’t need my help (any homeschool mom knows you can’t leave your kids alone for five minutes if you want them to keep working so I read) Joe looked at me one day and said why don’t you write a book.  Four months later I had finished an 110,000 word manuscript.

My Arabian

Today I have five manuscripts finished.  Four of which are 19^th century stories set in the beautiful Charleston, SC area. I am represented by a wonderful agent, Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. 

I love horses, antiques, Shetland sheepdogs, my cowboy boots, collecting antique bibles, starting new things (ask my crit partner, Kathleen Maher about that), my country, and a book I can’t guess the ending to. 
 
  

I hope that in a small way you are blessed by this new blog and that you find new friends here that make you feel at home. Thanks to all of my co-authors of this blog and to you for stopping by.

Hangs over the door of my son's ship, the USS Bataan

 March is our giveaway month to thank you for coming by. On the 7th day of March I am offering a hand made bracelet from antique silver spoons with a dangle that can be added to the bracelet to one winner and I'm also giving awat a bath gift basket to another lucky winner.