Writer's Life: Patricia Johns

Welcome to another edition of Writer's Life, my interview series with authors of inspirational romance. Today, I'm hosting the lovely and super-talented Patricia Johns!! Patricia and I are Facebook buddies, and I'm thrilled to be her Love Inspired buddy now too! Her new book, The Rancher's City Girl, released January 1! Congratulations, Patricia!

Let's get to it!

1. What about writing makes your heart sing?

I love spinning tales! I'm the kind of person who can make a story out of a trip to the grocery store, so storytelling has always been a part of my makeup. But sitting down and writing a story from scratch, that's pure bliss!

2. What is the biggest hurdle you're facing right now as a writer?

Right now, my biggest hurdle is keeping myself to a daily schedule. I promised my family that I would write during my business hours, and then be there for them during evenings and weekends. I've been very good about it, and my family loves it, but it's not easy. It's hard to be disciplined in NOT writing during down time.

3. What do you do to fill your creative well?

I read. It's a treat to sit down with a murder mystery or a historical novel about the Tudors.

4. What are you working on now?

Right now, I'm plotting a historical series that I'd like to pitch to my editor next. It's taking a lot of research and thought, but I think this one is going to be my best so far!

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The schedule is always a problem, isn't it, Patricia? I made the same promise to my family. It's difficult to keep sometimes...unless I'm writing the first fifty pages of a new book--those are really challenging for me. Then I'm glad to have the no-nights-or-weekends rule! Haha! Murder mysteries? Perfect! I started reading Agatha Christie novels last year, and I am hooked. They're a fun escape from my daily romance fix. Speaking of fixes...ooh-la-la, love your cover!

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The Rancher's City Girl ~

When Cory Stone discovers the father he never met is gravely ill, he brings the ornery man to his Montana ranch, along with his round-the-clock nurse. Once again Cory finds himself falling for the wrong woman—a city slicker, like the ex-fiancée who broke his heart. But in Eloise LeBlanc, Cory also finds a kindred spirit. The caring beauty knows firsthand about love and loss. Neither of them is looking for a new romance, and Cory certainly isn't searching for love. But can the independent city girl heal the heart of a broken cowboy?

Purchase The Rancher's City Girl here!

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About Patricia ~

Patricia Johns began her writing career with a degree in English Literature and a tiny apartment in a bad part of town. She took her starving artist days seriously and quit her sensible full time job in favor of part time gigs, much to her parents' horror. It paid off, however, with her first published novel. That was more than ten years ago, and in the meantime, she has written several novels in other genres, but has always longed to write Harlequin romance. Her dream came true with her first release in July, 2013. This is her second Love Inspired release, with a third scheduled to come out in May 2015.

You can find her on Facebook, where she's always thrilled to meet up with other book lovers. You can also find her on her blog, where she posts about her life and the romances she concocts: http://patriciajohnsromance.com.

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Thank you so much for being my guest today, Patricia!

Since it's the first week of January and we're talking about the woes of the daily schedule, please share your best tip for time management!

Have a great day!

Be sure to sign up for Jill Kemerer's newsletter HERE! All my latest news will come to your inbox several times a year. Your privacy is important to me. I never share your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Keep It Sincerely Simple: Guest Davalynn Spencer

I'm excited to be hosting special guests for the next several Wednesdays! Please join me in welcoming Davalynn Spencer!

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Do you ever wish you could banish the blitz of Christmas? The gotta-have-it, get-it-here marketing onslaught is enough to make a Scrooge of nearly anyone. What happened to the Christmas KISS?

Keep It Sincerely Simple 

Families today have come so far from more humble times when Christmas giving might have meant an orange and peppermint candy in a youngster’s stocking, a special dinner with roasted game, or songs led by a brave soul with a fiddle and the Christmas story read by candle light.

Sometimes I think I’d like to pool all our money earmarked for presents and spend it on a mountain hide-away in the luxury of simplicity. Another option could be giving it all to a local charity—as I was privileged to witness one year at our church. A family with four grown children brought in bulging envelopes stuffed with money they’d saved and gave it to the church’s water-well project. Their faces reflected a wealth of return from their giving.

Over the last several years, our eight-member family (not counting kiddos) has put a price limit on gifts and exchanged names. Rather than buying gifts for everyone, we each buy one. It has become quite a tradition, and as the official name exchanger, I receive phone calls and texts from family members starting in November asking whose name they have! Guess you know what I’m busy doing while stuffing turkey and baking pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving dinner.

When I recall my best Christmas memories, they never involve the gifts I received, though I garnered just as many as most children. The treasures I hold in my heart include the year my mother nailed our tree to the floor because she couldn’t get it to stand up straight. Or the year our Jack Russell terrier “anointed” the tree before we brought it inside. The smell of clove-studded oranges and the way cloud-like divinity candy melted on my tongue. My husband reading the second chapter of Luke to our children, and the year I gave a secret gift to a needy family.

As an author who loves Christmas stories, I took literary license and dispensed with all but the essentials of the season in my upcoming Christmas novella.

My heroine faces the holiday with no money to buy presents for the very important people in her life. No malls, internet, or last minute shopping in 1885 on a snowbound ranch in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. But oh, how I loved the feel of a home-made Christmas that wrapped around me while I wrote the story.

Options for Christmas giving are endless, and more meaningful, I believe, if we can avoid modern commercialism. After all, God nestled His gift in a feed trough, not a palace garden or courtyard.

This year as you give, open your heart to hear from the Giver of every good and perfect gift. Maybe He has a surprise in store, a lovely Christmas kiss He’d like you to help Him deliver.

***

What a beautiful post, Davalynn! I grew up reading the Little House books and The Bobbsey Twins. Both series featured homespun Christmases, and they had a big effect on my attitude. Simpler Christmases are special! Thank you so much for sharing the joy of Christmas with us today!

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About Davalyn ~

Davalynn Spencer writes cowboy romance, a skill she’s honed since marrying a professional rodeo bullfighter and raising another. Her most recent title is “The Snowbound Bride,” one of twelve historical novellas in Barbour’s collection, The 12 Brides of Christmas. She is represented by Linda S. Glaz of Hartline Literary Agency and makes her home on Colorado’s Front Range with her handsome cowboy and their Queensland heeler named Blue. Connect with Davalynn on her website, Facebook page, Goodreads, and Twitter.

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The Snowbound Bride ~

On the run from a heartless uncle, Arabella Taube hides in Nate Horne’s buckboard just as a blizzard sweeps into Colorado. Can she find her way out of the storm—physically and emotionally—or will the handsome mountain horseman steal her heart?

Purchase The Snowbound Bride from Amazon, Christianbooks, or Barnes & Noble!

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Do you keep Christmas simple? What is your favorite tradition?

Have a wonderful day!!

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Tomorrow Is Thanksgiving: Guest Elizabeth Maddrey

I'm excited to be hosting special guests for the next several Wednesdays! Please join me in welcoming Elizabeth Perry Maddrey!

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment, because if you’re like me, that totally snuck up on you. Every year, I have these great plans about how I’m going to plan my menu at the start of the month and I’m going to shop early so I’m not stuck deciding between a thirty-four pound turkey or two six-pound turkeys to feed the twelve people that generally make up our family Thanksgiving dinner. Every year…I fail. Miserably.

And so, it’s good that Jill asked me to write this ahead of time, because chances are, right now? I’m standing in the grocery store along with nineteen million men (it’s always men. I guess most of the women had their act together and just had to send their hubby out for one or two items.) trying to pick through the emaciated sweet potatoes that no one wanted, hoping to find one or two that are actually worth eating. You’ll know it’s me because I have the two screaming children in the cart, both incredibly unhappy about being at the grocery store when they should be at home eating dinner. And I’d have happily left them there, except my own husband is stuck in the insane traffic that plagues the DC area on any kind of day ending in ‘y’, but especially on holiday weekends.

This has become my Thanksgiving tradition. I’m not sure it’s a good one to have, but I’ll admit that, to me at least, it still kind of beats the one my mom tried so hard to instill when we were kids (everyone got kernels of corn at their dinner seat, then we had to say one thankful thing for each kernel. Nice idea. Crazy cheesy to the two sarcastic teens that she birthed.)

But even with the craziness that has come to define my shopping (and it usually trickles into the cooking and serving portion of the meal, if we’re honest), I have to say I love Thanksgiving. I love that there’s a whole day set aside to encourage us to be thankful – and the older I get, I begin to understand Mom and her corn kernels a bit better. Because in addition to reminding myself to be thankful (something that’s so easy to forget to do when you’re wrapped up in the day-to-day of life), I love hearing other people talk about the things they’re thankful for. Inevitably, that reminds me of even more that I appreciate. And so on, and so forth.

And then, let’s be honest, there’s pie. I’m very thankful that someone invented pie.

So tomorrow, I’ll be sitting down with my husband and our kids, my parents, my sister and her husband, my husband’s parents, and his two sisters. And we’ll have lots of (hopefully) delicious food that I’ve made and, more likely than not, we’ll spend a few minutes talking about the last year and the specific things we’re thankful for. For me, that will include gratitude for my second year as a published author with two more full-length novels and a novella already released and my third novel for the year coming out next week. I still have to stop and pinch myself when I think about the fact that I have seven—almost eight—books out there in the world for other people to read. (And I’m even more grateful that people do read them and, beyond that, enjoy them!)

I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow, full of turkey and pie and family and, above all, thankfulness. And if, like me, you’re facing down a trip to the store today…I hope you find everything you need so you don’t have to try and substitute parsnips for potatoes.

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About Elizabeth Maddrey ~

Elizabeth Maddrey began writing stories as soon as she could form the letters properly and has never looked back. Though her practical nature and love of math and organization steered her into computer science for college and graduate school, she has always had one or more stories in progress to occupy her free time. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books and has mastered the art of reading while undertaking just about any other activity. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace.

Elizabeth lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. with her husband and their two incredibly active little boys. She invites you to interact with her at her website www.ElizabethMaddrey.com, or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+. 

Releasing December 2, 2014 – Love Defined, Book 3 in the Remnants Series

Dreams Change. Plans Fail.

July and Gareth have reached the end of their infertility treatment options.  With conflicting feelings on adoption, they struggle to discover common ground in their marriage.

Meanwhile, July's twin sister, June, and her husband, Toby, are navigating the uncertainties of adoption and the challenges of new parenthood.

How much stretching can their relationships endure before they snap?

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Elizabeth, I can completely relate to the last minute store runs. I'm lucky to stay on top of the kids' homework. Forget the turkeys and potatoes! And I'm giggling at the corn kernel concept. It's such a "mom" thing to do. I hope you enjoy today and avoid those stores!! Thank you so much for sharing with us.

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Okay, what's your most embarrassing moment when it comes to cooking?

When I was a newlywed, I knew nothing about cooking. I once made a stew with Kielbasa sausage and A1 sauce. Yeah, we ordered pizza that night!

Have a wonderful and very blessed Thanksgiving!! 

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My Sad Current Reading Habit

My whining about our fall schedule comes as no shock to you since I've been vocal about it in previous posts, but the real casualty? (Besides my needy mini-doxie who could use a lot more attention?) My reading. Yeah, it's in a sad, sad state.

Here's an example. For a few weeks, I've looked forward to reading Rescuing the Texan's Heart by Mindy Obenhaus. One afternoon last week, I had ten minutes before football let out, so I started reading it. A chapter later, I didn't want to quit, but duty called and I had to drive home. The night was particularly jam-packed with homework and such, so I was unable to return to this delightful story.

Cover copyright Harlequin Love Inspired

Two days later, I had another short window of time, so I continued learning about the Texan's heart. And I found I loved it, and the story, and I laughed, and I wanted to just read the whole thing through! But no...once again on mom-taxi duty. And dinner had to be made. Ugh.

My mom came to visit over the weekend, which made me very, very happy. Monday was nuts, but the book kept calling me, so I trotted over to the end table I'd set it on. 

It wasn't there!!

I looked all over for this book. Checked my bedroom, closet, purse, even the couch cushions. I had a feeling Sophie attacked the book. She has a distinct dislike for my tiny word search books and has eaten more than one. But hours later my husband told me, "By the way, your book is still in my car," and I mentally rejoiced. I'd left it in his car! Phew! Now I could finish it.

Yeah, no. Nothing is that easy for me right now.

The book I'd left in his car was a non-fiction book I've been reading--which I love too!--not the one by Ms. Obenhaus. Back to square one. 

Then it hit me. The dog. Maybe my earlier hunch was right? Could my dog have gotten jealous? Did she somehow know I would rather read the book than play fetch with her?

I knelt down and looked under the couches. Sure enough, the book was wedged under one. Doggie teeth marks were all over the bottom cover. Grr... 

I will finish this book!! But not tonight. My to-do list is calling.

I LOVE reading a book in one sitting, but I rarely can do that anymore. Do you have to snatch reading time here and there? Or do you read a book all the way through? 

Have a terrific weekend!!

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Karaoke with High School Friends

After getting cozy on our deck chair Saturday evening, I checked my cell phone. A friend from high school I'd recently reconnected with asked if I wanted to sing karaoke.

Did I?

I think we all know the answer to that. Yes!!

Now, I know many of you enjoy rich relationships with high school, or even grade school, friends. You've kept in touch, held each other's hands through tough times, stood up in each other's weddings, planned weekends together, and generally grown closer through the years.

Not me. My circumstances were a little different. I have very few friends from way back when. But my life experience has allowed me to befriend just about anyone, which is always a good thing! Let me explain.

I switched schools almost every year through eighth grade. Our family moved from the country to a city when I was twelve, but the high school I attended consisted mostly of out-of-town students who dormed. My best friend and I had different interests after high school, and we grew apart. In college I was the only girl in most of my classes due to my major. There wasn't much opportunity to find new girlfriends. Within a few years, my husband and I were relocating often for his job.

A part of me has always yearned for the group of long-term girlfriends so many women have.

Fast forward to Saturday. Meeting up with five high school friends was a real treat for me. This is a group who has stayed in touch with each other. Supported each other. Made time to be together. And I admire them for it.

The Karaoke joint was really loud, making it difficult to catch up. It's funny, though. I haven't seen a few of the girls in fifteen years, and it didn't matter. I knew them. Could see they've become exactly who they're supposed to be. Business owners, moms, teachers, wives, spiritual leaders. Did I mention we attended a Christian high school? One where learning about the Bible took top priority? Many of my old classmates have embraced their roles to be God's light in the world. It's impressive.

You're wondering if I actually sang a song. Yes, I got up on the stage and sang. My nerves were jangly. This voice has scared small animals before. But who cares? It was fun!

For one night, I got to see how it feels to have that group of high school friends. Got to spend time with people who knew me way back when my maiden name was my last name. And I'm thankful for the opportunity. It's funny how God blesses us in the most unexpected ways.

Do you have friends from way back? If not, do you sometimes yearn for them the way I do?

Have a terrific day!

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